Page 75 of Unexpectedly Wanted
That was going to be me. I just knew it. As soon as he got what he wanted out of me, I was going to be a corpse they would have to dump somewhere.
“It wasn’t a suggestion,” the Boss Guy said.
I moved to the chair, feeling like there wasn’t any other choice.
Big Paws cut my restraints, slicing my wrist in the process. I tried not to think of what else was on that knife. All the DNA that might be there from others. Possibly dead others. Or how my DNA was now on it and that I could be one of those possibly dead others soon.
My body was telling me I was about to puke again.
I did my best to swallow it down.
I lowered myself into the chair, trying my best to avoid the blood. The sticky, dark blood. That had come from the inside of someone else. Someone else that was dead.
Dead.
Because of me.
There was no other way to look at it. If I hadn’t tried and succeeded at getting into their system, that person would still be alive. They would need him because I wouldn’t be here. I wouldn’t have pointed out a problem in their security. I wouldn’t have been kidnapped and brought here to fix that problem.
Things would have been fine.
Except I knew they wouldn’t have been. Even if I knew all of this, I probably wouldn’t go back and change anything. It wasn’t in me to stop. To let them continue to hurt people.Killpeople.
Which left me with only one thing to say to him.
“I won’t do it.” My voice cracked at the end. I’d like to say it didn’t happen, but there was no denying how scared I was.
“It sounds like you think you have a choice here, Milo Reins,” he came back with, a sinister smile on his face.
“You can kill me. I won’t help you. Ever.”
He started laughing at me again, and it was just as sinister as his smile. Big Paws stayed silent, and I resisted the urge to turn my head so I could take in his expression.
“See the thing with you people is…” He waved a hand in my direction. I wasn’t sure what he meant by that. Ones that stood up to the bad guys? Hackers— as I assumed he called us in his head? Or something else? “There’s always more where you came from. Always someone else right behind you, trying to match what you do or better. And lucky me, I get to have all sorts of resources at my fingertips to help me find a replacement for one ofyou.”
“How?” I asked before I thought better of it. I mean, it was good that I did, I guess. Otherwise, I would have spent far too long wondering the answer to that. Then again, that was still a possibility if he didn’t tell me.
Big Paws snorted behind me.
“Because I work for the FBI. And we have files on hackers. Files on their background. Theirfamilies.Friends. I knew who you were before we even came to get you. How else do you think I was able to track you down? Ken said every hacker has a code, a special mark, and he was right. I just hadn’t cared enough before to know this sort of thing. So, once Ken showed me yours, it was simply a matter of finding the right person to help me sort it out. And wouldn’t you know, you’ve been on the FBI’s radar before.”
I swallowed hard.
His phone beeped, taking his attention off of me for a moment.
“I have a meeting I must get to,” he said, pocketing his phone. “You have an hour to decide. If you haven’t started by the time I get back… well, I’ll see who else I can bring in to take your place while I’m out. And you’ll leave here the same way Ken did.”
He pointedly looked at the blood splattered over the keyboard. I had replaced Ken. Ken was now dead.
So, yeah, I got it.
Then he left, stepping carelessly over the trail of blood that led out of the room. My eyes stayed on the door for a long moment after it had closed.
“Does it hurt?” I asked. I wasn’t really sure I was asking anyone in particular, but since it was just me and Big Paws left in the room, he was the only one that could answer.
“What hurt?” he asked back. His voice was deep, and if it wasn’t for this heinous situation, I might have found it soothing.
“Getting shot?”
