Wyatt barely looks at Gage. His eyes are glued to Alec’s gun. “What are you going to do to me? If I talk?”
Alec lowers his weapon slightly. “I won’t shoot you, to start.”
One of the other men snaps, “You don’t have to say anything, Wyatt. He’s all talk.”
“We don’t have much time,” Knox interjects. “I’m sure someone heard the gunshot outside. It’s only a matter of time before the police start canvassing the area.”
Alec lifts his chin at Knox. Then he turns to the man who told Wyatt not to talk. “Let me lay it out for you. In words you can understand. The woman you came after? She’s my girlfriend. So I’m pretty fucking pissed. Pissed enough to shoot all three of you and take my chances with the cops.”
“Self defense,” Ronan adds helpfully. “I’m sure we could come up with a story that fits.”
“Also,” Alec continues, “I already know one of your names. Once the police arrest you, I’ll find out the others. And you know what I’ll do with that information?”
Wyatt sniffs hard. Then he turns his head and spits a large glob of blood onto my nice hardwood floor. “What?”
Alec narrows his eyes at him. “I’m good with computers. Really good. Good enough to fuck up your life if I want to. I can clean out your bank accounts. Make sure every person you’ve ever met knows what kind of garbage you are.” He pauses before adding ominously, “I can make sure your families suffer for what you did.”
The third man, who’s been silent until now, blurts out, “I’ll talk. Shit. I’ll talk.”
Alec spins towards him. “Talk, then.”
The man gulps. “And you’ll leave my family alone?”
“Yes.”
And from there, he tells us everything.
First, he confirms that yes; they did come to my house with the intention of killing me. Which isn’t a surprise, given what’s happened already, but it’s still shocking to hear him come right out and say it.
Cringing away from a furious-looking Alec, the man admits, “We needed to make sure she died thistime. That’s why all three of us came instead of just sending one person, like we did before.”
With a dangerous chill to his tone, Alec asks, “What about the man who broke in before? Was that one of you? Or did you hire him, like you did the man who showed up at the bar?”
The man—who confessed his name was Owen—replies, “We hired him. We thought it would be better if we didn’t get our hands dirty. Tampering with the brakes was one thing. That was easy since Kyle’s good with cars?—”
“What the fuck!” the previously unidentified third attacker snaps. “Don’t tell him my name, Owen. Just because you can’t keep your damn mouth shut?—”
Owen angles his head to glare at Kyle. “Are you an idiot? Once the police arrest us, they’ll know our names, anyway. All they have to do is run your prints and they’ll pull up that arrest from two years ago.”
“Shut up, you two,” Wyatt barks. “You’re just making things worse.”
Alec cocks the trigger of his gun, the soft sound more deafening than any shout. “Stop. Arguing.” As all three men go silent, Alec focuses on Owen again. Coldly, he continues, “Keep talking. I want to know about the man you hired. Was he the only one? Or did you pay someone else to try to finish the job?”
“We realized we needed to do it ourselves,” Owen answers. “Since the guy we hired screwed it up both times.” He pauses. “After he got caught at the bar, wewere afraid it would come back on us. We couldn’t risk hiring an outsider again.”
“But you couldn’t get to her, could you?” Alec asks. His narrowed gaze sweeps across the three criminals. “So you tried to scare her into exposing herself. By threatening her friend.”
“That was my idea,” Wyatt volunteers. A beat later, he pales. Swallowing hard, his throat makes a dry, clicking sound. Weakly, he adds, “I mean, it wasn’t exactly my idea…”
Alec advances on Wyatt. Fury burns in his eyes. “Are you the one who hacked into the game servers?”
Wyatt flinches as Alec’s gun drifts towards him. He looks visibly conflicted. Finally, Wyatt admits, “Yes. I accessed the subscription data.”
“So that’s how you found Hazel,” Alec says, “and her friend. Right?”
“It wasn’t just my idea,” Wyatt whines. “Owen and Kyle told me to do it.”
“Shut up!” Kyle flashes an angry look at Wyatt. “Why don’t you just confess everything?”
