Page 4 of How to Hack a Hellhound
“Thanks,” he said raspily.
I shut the car door and turned to walk into the apartment, keys already out. The car waited until I was inside to pull off, which I was thankful for.
I leaned against the door, staring at the steps up to our apartment. We were on the second floor with a shop underneath us, and we had another locked door and an alarm, which I think Cassius set up just to give us reassurance.
I sighed before trudging up the stairs. I think they all thought I had been stolen when I was kidnapped, and I didn’t correct anyone on that. Iwasparanoid, and the extra locks and security did make me feel better.
I hadn’t been stolen, though. Not really. But I was too ashamed to admit that I had gone off with my kidnapper of my own free will. I had known Marcus, the guy who locked me in a basement, and I hadn’t even had the excuse of being drunk when I’d gone home with him. I knew it was victim mentality, but I couldn’t help feeling like what happened was my own fault in a lot of ways.
As I opened the door, I called out to Aiden to let him know that it was me, and then I went into my room, shut the door, and sat down at my computer, ready to dive back into research.
I may have been stupid for going off with Marcus, and I blamed myself for being such a loner that no one noticed I was gone, but the guy who took me was only the tip of the iceberg. I was determined to find the rest of them. Marcus hadn’t been alone in his work, and I was going to hunt down every fucker who sold off people to make money.
I smiled, thinking of Dexter, who was apparently a hellhound. He had the right idea when he set Marcus’s mansion on fire.
I was going to burn the whole ring of human traffickers to the ground, even if it was the last thing I did.
Chapter 2
Liam
Where the fuck was Quinton going?
I stared at the video feed from the CCTV camera outside the coffee shop, watching him follow Toby to a car.
I knew Toby—he was Dex’s mate and he was basically pack, so he was trustworthy.
Still, I didn’t like the deviation from Quinton’s routine.
I double checked the phone I had cloned to his, but there were no messages indicating what was happening. Not that he messaged many people aside from Aiden and Cassius. He didn’t have much family—he was an only child, and his parents had both passed away—and it seemed that he had little desire to reconnect with any friends or acquaintances from before his kidnapping.
That was fine. I liked him in Paradise Falls, where I could easily keep an eye on him. I pulled up various street cams and watched Toby’s car start traveling.
I heard a whimper from behind me, and I turned around to look at the hellbound mortal tied to the chair.
“You’re dripping blood everywhere, you know. Are you ready to seek your placement in hell yet?” I asked.
The man frantically shook his head no, mumbling behind his gag. Mortals. The desire to live was strong. I’d also filled him in on what awaited him once he reached hell, so I supposed he wasn’t much looking forward to that either.
Still, I was getting itchy to be done with this one, especially if Toby and Quinton were heading off somewhere to get into trouble. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with Toby. I’d met him once or twice at Dex’s house, but between wrapping up the sale of my old place and securing the sale of the home next to Dexter’s, I hadn’t been around much in the last few weeks. I was finally ready to head back to Paradise Falls, since I was finishing with the last hellbound soul in a ring of evil humans I’d been tracking down and disposing of. When it was done, I would be able to focus my full attention on Quinton and the people who hurt him.
Not that I hadn’t already started digging into the human who had taken him. That guy was, fortunately for him, dead, but I would find the others who were connected. It was what I did.
I rolled up the sleeves of my black dress shirt and walked over to the man I was currently dealing with. “I don’t know what else you can give me. I think it might be time for you to move on.”
He made frantic mumbling sounds, and I removed his gag.
“Please. I can tell you more,” he whimpered.
“You have given me the name of anyone you knew personally, which was a disappointingly small number. You have given me access to all your accounts. I have erased anything you uploaded to the internet to the best of my ability, and I’ve planted tracking viruses in anything that is left. I’ve used your bank accounts to pay reparations to the victims and families of those who have been hurt by your crimes. What more can you offer me, human?” I asked.
He started mumbling about underground networks and blah blah blah, but I looked over at the CCTV cameras again. Itseemed that they were headed to Toby’s home, and I sighed in relief. At least they’d be under Dex’s supervision, although I hadn’t hacked into Toby’s computers or his home, since I generally had no interest in watching Toby or Dex. I now realized how shortsighted that was of me. From what I knew of Toby, I wasn’t surprised he would try and befriend Quinton.
“...and I didn’t even hurt any of those people. It wasn’t me who did that stuff,” the man was whimpering. “I can help you find the truly evil people who did all that. I don’t deserve to die and go to hell.”
I sighed and looked back at him. “You paid people to rape and torture others so you could watch it, get off on it, and make money from it on the internet. Your soul is black. There is no hope for you. I’ve already tracked down your associates, and they’re all dead. You’re the only one left, and I have better things to do than deal with you any further. You may plead your case to the Judge of the Damned in hell,” I stated, and then I placed my hand on his chest and engulfed him in flame.
It was quick, and the glory of hellhound flame was that it only destroyed what I wished it to. It made cleanup stress free.
