Page 17 of Judas

Starting at the monitor in front of me, I’m taken back by the almost angry looking being on the other side. He practically fills the whole damn screen, like he’s sitting close to the camera to intentionally blot out the background—hiding what’s behind him. He looks familiar, just like… fuck, just like Ez but more heavily tattooed and a little thicker. Something one of the girls in Bluitt said to me one time comes racing back.‘Your eyebrows are sisters not twins.’Meaning they look so damn close but there’s just enough difference to tell them apart. No copy and pasting here.

Black tendrils of ink cradle both sides of his face, peeking out from a hairline that’s dark and buzzed short at the temples, fading to longer strands at the top with a goofy-ass vanity line. Angry brows pinch together in what looks like a semi-permanent scowl over dark eyes, and ‘Devour’ tattooed over the left one.

Everything about Ra screams ‘I’ll put you in the ground without even digging the hole.’ Biceps stretch the dark fabric of his shirt until it strains, with more ink reaching down to his fingertips. If it wasn’t dark on his side, I’d be able to tell what some of them are by how crisp the image is.

Fucking hell, he must have spent a fortune on all the tattoos.

My eyes skim every bit of him I can manage, finding myself wanting to pay attention to the dickhead. Especially the death glare he’s aiming at me through the safety of the screen. That stupid ass voice in the back of my head is ready to fight him, and though I tell her to sit the hell down, my mouth opens anyway. I’ve never been able to tell that bitch no—with the devil sitting on the other side of the screen, she is ready to screech.

Dammit.

“You couldn’t just answer my question? You had to invade the only safe space I have with that mug of yours?”

“You know, Ez might like that fucking mouth, but I’m about two seconds away from hunting you down and making you beg to lick the dirt from my boots.” His voice is dry and clipped.

“Ra, why the hell am I looking at you on this monitor? I don’t need nightmare inducing imagery when I’m already fucked in the head.”

That’s right, bitch, deflect.

I can almost hear his teeth grind together while watching his jaw flex from the pressure of trying to keep his frustration under wraps. It’s a bit amusing seeing how easy it is to get him all riled up and what not, but I’d be one hell of a liar if I said he didn’t piss me off, too. We will call this shit payback and call it even, yeah? Foolproof plan.

Ra sits back lazily in his computer chair, where his bulky arms start moving just out of view. I assume he’s manning the mouse and moving the cursor across the screen, directing it over to whatever he’s taken time out of his day to bother me with.

“Your man.”

Fuck.

“Didn't take a whole lot of digging. Once I caught a lead everything fell into place after a few clicks. I’m going to patch the info through to your phone when I’m done uploading everything to the Cloud.” Ra continues.

“What does the weather have to do with this?” I ask.

He smirks.

Embarrassment overtakes me, I don’t know Ra very well but I have a sneaking suspicion the asshole wouldn’t smirk if something didn’t actually amuse him. Which means what I said was dumb as hell. Just as I am about to lean forward and start tapping on the monitor to interrupt his feed, his tongue passes over his bottom lip and he schools his features.

“Cloud computing; it’s how we now operate computers and store large amounts of data. Which then can be accessed across the globe as long as a computer is able to connect to it. For example...”

Maybe I was wrong and Ididjust crawl out from under a rock after all. I’m so out of touch. I could have kept up with the change in technology but I chose not to, albeit the changes were much slower while in prison. The fact of the matter is, I didn’t have anyone to contact, so there was no need nor was there a desire to learn.

I was happy with writing letters to Sadie. They were keepsakes I hope she held on to as she was growing up. To have words to look back on and know that I didn’t give her up because I didn’t want her, but because I couldn’t have her. You can’t keep conversations you have over the phone and I wanted her to have my love written on paper so she knew that I’d do anything for her.

“As you drive, your phone will have continuous access to the Cloud via the Internet instead of switching servers assigned to cell towers. It allows a seamless transfer of data. Its most popular use is storage, but companies utilize it to move data faster rather than copying and pasting it into files then emailing them over. It saves time, money, and keeps the information from falling into the wrong hands,” Ra continues.

“Sounds simple enough,” I lie. I’m sure if he broke it down with crayons and coloring pages I’d understand but it’s beyond me at this point. Just load the fucking information to my phone, Einstein.

Hearing the soft clicks of a mouse, mixed with a passing semi rolling through the parking lot of the truck stop, I sit back in the too-comfortable seat of this fancy car and wait. It’s almost white noise now, which brings my anxiety level down thankfully.

“Ra?”

“Yes?” He’s quick to reply.

“This warranted a video consultation?” Honestly, I just want to be left alone right now. So much has changed in the world and it’s leaving me in a funk.

“I wanted to see what my brother saw when he looked at you.”

Well, that confirms everything up to this point. Remember what I said? Sisters and not twins?

“Blunt. I dig it.”

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