Page 111 of Dirty Roulette
“Then answer the question!” I fist the bag in my hand with the feral urge to bash the box of condoms on top of his head.
“That’s none of your business!”
“Itismy business! My friend is missing. That guy who came in here is her brother and he’s amess! Brody ruined our lives! So, what the hell kinda dirt does he have on you?”
Mr. Clorox huffs and wobbles back to the front counter. “I’m gonna call the cops if you don’t leave.” He grabs the corded phone on the wall with his fat fingers hovering over the numbers.
“No!” I cross the yellow tape on the floor, snatch the phone from his hands, and slam it back on the receiver. “He raped her and got away with it. Now tell me!”
“I’m not about to rot in a jail cell. I’m sorry for your friend!”
“What does he have on you that’s so bad that you’re going to rot in jail?” I ask, knowing I’m spitting in his face with my words.
“Fine, you want to know?” he asks.
“Yeah, I want to ruin him.”
“He pretended to be a seventeen-year-old hottie online. Sending me nudes. I wanted to fuck the shit out of her. Happy now? I’m a disgusting piece of shit, as you can see. He saved the entire conversation. I was drunk that night and a dumbass. I didn’t want him to release it to the public, so now Brody tells girls to flash me and steal the booze to remind me I like underaged girls. And I let them.”
A lump forms deep in my throat. “Oh shit...”
“He fucked me over good and I was a pretty damn good hacker... the whole secret clearance, save-the-world kinda of hacker.”
“Wait, what?” I take a step back, questioning if he’s being honest, or if he is just a creeper who tries to hook up with ladies on Craigslist. “If you’re a hacker, why didn’t you just go and find shit on him and expose him?”
“I’m sure he put the conversations on a flash drive or a CD. I can’t wipe that shit unless I get hold of it. I quit working my government job. Brody forced me to work at a gas station so he could get free booze. If this shit got out, I’d be in a body bag and tossed off a boat... I’m sure you’ve heard of Epstein.”
“But you could just hack his shit and expose him.”
“To who? His dad owns the police station, he has the biggest firm in the county.”
“Do you still try to hook up with underage girls?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you no, and it was a one-time thing... a stupid thing.” His lips go into a rigid line.
“I’ll expose him if you help me.”
***
The sun breaks over the horizon after five hours of being stuck at the gas station. The cat piss smell subsided after spraying Mr. Clorox down with Febreze and stuffing my nose in a bag of mints. He seemed a bit more human than just a creep living in the basement with a million forty-two-ounce plastic cups growing mold in them.
The amount of data we uncovered from Brody’s cloud was riddled with homemade porn. Hundreds of videos and photos of different girls. He had videos of beating the shit out of random guys I’ve never seen before. Don’t get me started on the videos he has of his dad sleeping with men. I spent half of my time scrolling through conversations destroying countless girls and their reputations. Even videos and conversations of Ryder continuously defending Brittni, me, and Charlie. Every girl Brody slept with had some type of sex tape with him. The psycho filmed himself with at least fifty women. My mind boggled with his thought process.
“You’ll need to find that flash drive of his.” Mr. Clorox places everything from Brody’s phone in the palm of my hand. The holy grail is on my fingertips in this tiny gadget I snagged from the impulse buy row.
“I have an idea... we’ll see how it goes,” I say.
“What’s your plan?”
“Either I convince a friend of mine to seduce him, or I do it.” I shrug and hold up the bag of condoms.
“Well, be careful. Wouldn’t want you to go missing too.” He smiles with his rotting teeth blinding my eyes.
“I don’t plan on it.”
I stumbled out of the gas station. Mr. Clorox decided to do me a favor and set up a virus that encrypts everything Brody does on his cell phone. All of it will download into a random email Mr. Clorox set up for me.
I crawl into the Jeep, and the door is heavy as I slam it shut. The engine revs to life and I can barely hear my own thoughts. I pull out of the gas station and follow other cars, leading me onto the main road and then the highway. My palms sweat the second I speed up too rapidly, and I brace against the seat when I slam on the brakes. I keepup with everyone’s speed, ensuring I stay close enough to read license plates and glue the tires to the white dotted lines.
