“Then you won’t mind me taking a look around,” the man challenged.
“Nice try, asshole. Come back with a warrant. The kid’s not here. Now get out,” Cal drawled, stepping forward to crowd the man.
My heart was pounding in my chest.
Fuck… I really hope Cal didn’t beat the shit out of this guy in the front entrance…
Caleb’s dad sneered up at Cal, who was several inches taller than him. He reached into the interior pocket of his suit jacket, and I tensed, remembering how Cal had reached into his hoodie the night before only to produce a full-blown handgun.
I let out a small sigh of relief when I realized he wasn’t taking out a gun but a cell phone.
“You want a warrant? I’ll get you a warrant. You have no idea who you’re fucking with, pal.” The man snarled, but before he could put the phone to his ear, Cal snatched it out of his hand. He threw it on the ground and rammed the heel of his boot into the screen, crushing it.
My mouth fell open, and even Theo looked shocked.
Cal leaned forward and growled in the man’s ear. “Hope you have a landline,pal.Now run home and call the police like a good little bitch.”
Caleb’s dad’s face went red with fury. He sputtered before us in rage before pointing his finger in Cal’s face angrily.
“You’re going to pay for that!” he spat, and Cal sneered.
“Do you take plastic?” he cooed, pissing the guy off even more.
Caleb’s dad whirled on me and my sister next, spittle literally flying out of his mouth as he yelled at us.
“You’re done! You’ll never work in this town again! I’ll have you so fucked up on kidnapping charges you’ll never see the light of day!”
Panic coursed through me, but Cal just shoved the guy out the front door. “Yeah, yeah. Say it, don’t spray it, fuck hole,” he chided, practically tossing the guy out the front door. Theo and I rushed forward and watched as the man hopped in his Jaguar and fired up the engine. Cal turned to us with a very scary grin on his face.
“Keep Caleb safe. I’ll be back,” he ordered before jogging out of the house and climbing into a murdered-out Bentley parked across the street.
Music that sounded like robots fucking suddenly exploded from the black car as Cal peeled off down the street in the same direction the Jaguar had gone.
Theo and I watched him drive away, his weird music fading with each passing minute. We both stood in a mild state of shock for a beat before my sister turned to me, her face a stony mask.
“What the fuck just happened?” she snapped as if I had the answers.
“I think we just got roped into some really messed up shit,” I grumbled, my stomach feeling like it was full of lead.
Theo turned and slammed her fist into the door jam.
“Jesus fucking Christ, Ryan!” she cursed. “You and yourfuckingstrays!” Then, she stormed back into the house, leaving me to stare at the empty street and wonder when that murderous psychopath would be coming back to fuck up my life even more than he already had.
Alexa, play: Riot - Hollywood Undead
Buddy clearly knew I was following him. I wasn’t exactly being subtle about it, and I didn’t really care. It was past nine on a Wednesday morning in a relatively suburban area. Hopefully, most people were working. If worse came to worse, I would just retire the Bentley for a bit after I was done.
My plates were fake anyway.
Driving with my knees, I quickly pulled my skull-face bandana over my nose to hide my shit-eating grin. I needed this. I had a feeling Ryan wasn’t going to let me fuck him anytime soon, so I would need a murder moment to hold me off. This fucking asshole was the perfect snack.
His Jaguar fishtailed in front of me as he ran a stop sign. I wondered idly if he was going to be dumb enough to lead me to his house or go straight to the nearest police station. Neither option mattered. If he went to the police, I just needed to know which precinct he was filing his report with. Then I could hack their records, wipe the report, and get his name and address that way…
Well, when I saidI,I meant Vox. Don’t get me wrong, I could do the basics. Give me enough time, and I could get into most secured networks, but it definitely wasn’t my specialty. My buddy, Vox, on the other hand, was a fucking prodigy when it came to black hat hacking.
I was pretty sure Vox wasn’t his real name because… that would be fucked, right? Wholiterallynames a muteVox?
For all I know, his shit parents could have had a sick sense of humor. It wasn’t clear if Voxcouldn’tspeak or just refused to. However, I often suspected he just didn’t want to if his one-word text responses and refusal to sign with me were any indication. I usually just yammered his ear off and parroted what I assumed his responses to my antics were back to him based on his facial expressions.
