My brother lives in cardboard forts, tents under bridges, and abandoned buildings with no running water.
But this room?
It’s spotless.A real bed.Multiple desks with towers of hardware.High-end monitors.Servers stacked like black bricks.Cables braided in neat coils.All of it creates a low, humming heartbeat under the floor.
“What the—?”I drop my backpack and stare with a slackened jaw.“How?”
He slides the bolt on the door and sits at the desk, fingers moving fast.
The screens bloom to life with camera feeds, street views, and angles from places I recognize.The alley we were just in.The house with the pit bull.The mechanic shop where I work.Intersections.Streetlights.
“Holy shit.”I lean against his chair, looping an arm around his neck.
“Watch your mouth.”
“You can see all that?All the time?”
“I see everything, anytime I want.”He types faster.
The feeds rewind, and he filters through different time stamps until two figures appear on the street.Me and the man walking behind me.
With a few commands, the images disappear.Frame by frame, they vanish.Erased.
“How?”I turn to him.
“I’m good at this.”His eyes finally lift to mine.“When they find the body, there won’t be a trace of us on any camera within a mile of it.”
“You can do that?”
“Just did.”He leans back, breathless from the rush of it.“I can control the investigation from here and keep our tracks clean.”
“Who was he?Why did he say I was wanted?”
“I’ll find out.”He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a wallet.
“That’s his.”My stomach knots.
“Yeah.”He tosses it onto a tray with other wallets that don’t belong to him.
“There have been others?Were they all following me?”
He nods, eyes stony.
How many times has he taken out a bad guy on my tail while I was just walking along, completely oblivious?God, I’m so stupid.
“Why is this happening?”My panic rises.“What do they want?”
“Lower your voice.”He pulls me to stand between his spread legs and studies me from head to toe, taking in the condition of my clothes, the scrapes on my arms, and the tattered ends of my hair where it hangs on my shoulders.
Then he rests his hands on my hips and stares at my stomach.“You’re in danger, Little Bird.”
“From who?”
“I have enemies.”
“Because of the computer stuff?”
“When you can do things other people can’t, dangerous people take notice.”
