Drugs And Deadmen
Vex
Listening to my gut has saved my life a dozen times, but this time it feels really wrong. Little things that Dahlia said keep playing over and over in my head. I can’t let it go. Why would someone keep doing that to her? Who hurt her?
I need to know.
And there’s only one way to find out… track it back to its source. The simplest way to do that is with a hacker.
But there’s no way I want Shock searching for that video. Not that I want anyone searching for it, but I can’t let this go. My skills aren’t up to digging deep into this.
A name is all I need. Someone to hire to get the job done. Another woman that won’t leer at Dahlia. No one in their right mind is leering at a fifteen-year-old.
Get over yourself and find the answer.
Max opens the door. “If you keep showing up like this, I’m going to start thinking we’re friends.”
Not going to happen. “You look terrible. ”
“I just flew back from Australia, and Hope decided she wanted to talk instead of sleeping. When a teenage girl decides that she wants to talk, run. Hide. Sell your soul. Do whatever it takes to get away,” he’s grinning even as he says it. “Come on in.”
I follow Max into the living room.
“You look like you’re about ready to crawl out of your skin. And for someone that two months ago I would have sworn didn’t have any emotions, it’s kind of freaky. What’s going on?”
Don’t explain. Ask for the favor and walk away. “I need the name of a hacker.”
“Did something happen to Shock?” That got Max’s attention.
“He’s fine. A pain, but fine. I need a female hacker.”
“A female hacker…” Max gets quiet.
Is he thinking of a name or trying to figure out why I need one?
“This is about Dahlia’s video.”
“You know about that?” Has he seen Dahlia? I might need to kill Max, too.
“She lives near my family.”
Makes sense. Even though I wish it didn’t. “Did you watch the video?”
“Eww. No. You’d need to be a perv to watch that. She was a kid. I got about five seconds in and turned it off. These kids nowadays are stupid. Don’t they understand these videos never go away?”
“I don’t think Dahlia was stupid. If I’m right, someone drugged her.”
“Drugged? She had a glass with a pink drink in her hand.”
“Did you check her pupils?”
“I checked nothing. Clicked on. Wanted to puke. Clicked off and deleted it.”
Max doesn’t have to die today. “I need to check her pupils. And I need to find out who took the video and kept distributing it.”
“Distributing it?”
“They followed her for years, harassing her with it until she almost killed herself. I’m not letting whoever did this get away with it.”
“You don’t need a woman hacker. I can find that out for you today. We’ll put a filter up so that all we’ll see are faces. Come with me.” Max strides upstairs without bothering to look back. He shuts his office door behind us. “This shouldn’t take long. Do you have an idea of who might have done this?”
“A feeling more than an idea. Her brother has this friend. There’s something about the way that he looks at her—”
“You hate every guy that looks at her.”
True. I want to kill every man for looking at her, but it’s not the same inherent jealousy. “This guy is different. If you met him, he’d make your skin crawl.”
“Name?”
“Montgomery. Don’t know the last. He’s her brother’s best friend.”
“That should be enough to start. We’ll just look and see if he has it saved anywhere.”
Did Max and Shock go to the same school to learn to type? Their fingers fly over the keys, but their eyes never leave the screen. “Did you really learn all this without going to school?”
Max glances up at me. “There was no one to teach you about computers when I was growing up. It was all uncharted territory. A dream became an idea that I turned into a global enterprise. Did you go to school to learn to kill people?”
“My dad would have had a doctorate if there was such a thing. But no, I have no formal education at all.” I wander around his office. It’s full of pictures of Hope and the rest of his family, kids’ drawings, and some weird handmade pottery.
“Can’t say you missed much. Except for meeting Ivy, school felt like a waste of time.”
The clickety-clack of keys being struck follows me around the room.
“You would have liked playing football, even though you would have been stuck as a lineman.”
That’s not much of a loss. “I prefer MMA.”
“Really? Me too. My mom hates it with a passion.”
No one cares if I come home battered and bruised… That’s not true. Not anymore. Dahlia cares. “I haven’t figured out how to explain it to Dahlia yet. ”
“Have fun with that.”
“Wanna join me for the next match? Payne and I have ring-side tickets.” To every big game there is.
“If I say yes, that means we’re actually friends. Can you handle that?”
“I invited you, didn’t I?”
“Sounds good. We just can’t tell Hope. She’ll want to come and then end up making it a hobby. It’s bad enough when she spars with her cousins and the Kamenev boys.”
“What’s it like having a kid?”
The clickety-clack stops. “You and Dahlia thinking about having a kid?”
“Yeah. Eventually.”
Max smiles. “It’s the best thing in the world. And the hardest thing you will ever do. My daughter never leaves the neighborhood alone. She has a huge family to protect her. I have every tool and all the money in the world, but I worry about her every second of the day. It only gets worse the older they get.”
“Noted.” Maybe I should ask Dahlia to only have boys.
“I’m happy for you two.”
“Thanks.”
“Do you know about her mom?”
Too much and not enough. “She scares me.”
“Eugenia Fleur would scare any sane man. But I’d kill to play poker with her. I tried to get in a game with her once, but she hasn’t sat at a table in years.”
“We played a couple of days ago.”
“Really? What was it like?”
“Like she saw into my soul and knew everything about me. But otherwise pretty great.”
He starts typing again. “Did she like you? Or was she concerned about your reputation?”
“She’s where Dahlia got the lack of concern for appearances, I think.” Dahlia sees the heart of people, and for that, I’m forever grateful.
“Can you arrange a game? ”
“You find out who hurt her daughter, and I’ll see what I can do.” Eugenia would do anything for her kids.
“Well then, consider it done. I’m just checking the origin of the file. Older images are surprisingly easy to find.”
“He had it.” I was right. I know it. Monty had a part in this somehow.
“More than that. It was originally taken on a phone registered to him.”
The picture on the wall switches into a screen. “One of the versions on his computer is larger than the others. I’d bet it’s the original, and he edited it.”
A younger Monty pops up on the screen with a pretty blond girl.
“How long ago did you give her the pill?” Monty asks.
“About fifteen minutes ago. Everyone else got one of my mother’s sleeping pills.”
The girl’s grin disgusts me. “Turn it off. I can’t watch them hurt her.” I turn away. Dahlia blamed herself for something this filth did. I want to kill them both.
“There’s more.”
More. “What do you mean by more?” Don’t say it. Don’t say it.
“Monty has quite the love for videos and children.”
He’s going to die today. How will Dahlia’s family handle it?
“We can take care of this problem if you would like.”
“Thank you for the offer.” There’s no way I’m not killing the man that did this to Dahlia.
“It isn’t that simple anymore.”
“Huh?” Killing has never been simple, but I’ve done it enough times that it isn’t all that complex.
“You’re part of a family now. Keeping secrets from the people you love, especially ones that affect their lives, doesn’t go over well. Ones this big…” He shakes his head.
“They don’t have to know he’s dead.”
“Like Basil isn’t going to notice his best friend, a guy he’s known for his entire life, disappeared without a word? ”
Anger flows through me. “Monty deserves to die.”
“No question about that. The only question is, do you stay rogue or become part of a family?”
Monty hurt Dahlia and her entire family. My family. Every instinct in me screams to kill him. To rid the world of him. “Are you sure about that?”
Max raises an eyebrow at me.
“I hate you.”
“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to watch MMA together soon.”
It also doesn’t mean that I won’t punch you again sometime soon. This family thing is hard.
But kissing Dahlia isn’t. Nor is watching her smile. Or listening to her laugh. Time to do something against my better judgment.
***
“Wow!” Basil gasps at my apartment as he steps off the elevator with his parents. “Sweet penthouse, Man.” He steps forward, giving me a fist bump before wandering over to the wall of windows in the living room.
Dahlia doesn’t have the patience to wait long enough for me to greet her parents. “What’s going on? Why did you invite my family over all of a sudden?”
Eugenia steps out and places a hand on Dahlia’s shoulder. “Give him a chance to explain.”
“Whatever this is, it better be good. We missed our tee time.” Basil doesn’t seem all that bothered.
Basil is starting to irritate me. How could he not see what filth his friend is? Max checked there were no signs that her brother was involved, but that doesn’t mean I’m going to take my eyes off him.
Dahlia’s dad wraps an arm around his wife and nods to me.
“I’ve never had much of a family before, but since I’m hoping to be part of yours very soon—”
“Huh? What is Maverick talking about?” Basil turns to his mother.
“You have eyes. Look at him and Dahlia,” Eugenia snaps.
I’ve wrapped Dahlia in my arms, hoping to shield her from the pain of what I’m about to say.
“Oh. Sweet. Easy money the next time we golf.”
How can someone as wonderful as Dahlia have an idiot for a brother? “—instead of taking care of a problem myself, I thought we should do it together.”
“Problem?” Dahlia looks up into my eyes.
Is this going to trigger her? This was a bad idea. I should have talked about this with her mother first. But she needs to know that none of this was her fault. She was assaulted.
“Don’t even get all overprotective now. Just tell me what’s wrong.”
Rip off the bandage. “I found out who drugged you.”
Her brow wrinkles. “But I thought that was already taken care of.”
And I’m just explaining myself so well. “The first time. When you were fifteen.”
“Excuse me.” Eugenia’s voice could slice you open. “What do you mean the first time? My daughter has never been drugged.”
Well, you just dug yourself a hole. “Dahlia thought when she was fifteen, she got drunk at a party.”
“I did get drunk.”
“You didn’t. You were drugged.”
“But that’s impossible. I was at a friend’s house.”
“Monty’s girlfriend’s house.” Anger and regret rise in me as I watch confusion and fear run across her face. This was a bad idea.
“How do you know where I was? I didn’t tell you.”
Now to dig the hole even deeper. “When you told me what happened to you, I couldn’t let it go. Something felt off about the situation. And all of you should know this right now, I won’t let anyone hurt the people I care about.”
“We can do the touchy-feely stuff later. Who drugged Prue? ”
Is this all a game, or is Basil genuinely concerned about his sister? I step away from Dahlia and get in Basil’s face. “Don’t you already know who did it?”
“Are you crazy?” Basil looks to his mother and sister for support.
Eugenia steps to my side. “Answer the question, Basil.”
“No. I don’t know who drugged Dahlia. I didn’t even know she was drugged until two seconds ago.”
I search every expression, trying to figure out if he’s lying or not.
“He’s telling the truth,” Eugenia announces.
“How could you think I wasn’t?” Basil walks away. “I love my sister. I wouldn’t let anyone hurt her.”
There’s something off about the way he said that. Before I can formulate another question, Eugenia asks, “Did you ever suspect someone?”
“Sort of. But he didn’t do it.”
Basil knows. He won’t admit it, but he knows.
“He wouldn’t do it. Montgomery is my best friend. He wouldn’t hurt Dahlia. I asked him. When it happened, I asked him, and he said no. I believe him. My best friend wouldn’t hurt my sister.”
Eugenia’s voice is soft as she asks, “Why did you ask him in the first place?”
“Montgomery’s grandfather is a big-time movie producer, and Montgomery always wanted to follow in his footsteps. When we were kids, he would record everything. He spent an hour recording a bird dying once. And in school, he’d play pranks on people to record them. His videos were never good enough for his grandfather. Bryce was the golden child, and everything Montgomery did was trash.”
“You didn’t answer my question. Why did you ask him?”
“Because I thought he might have asked his girlfriend to record the party. Stupid sorority party movies were big back then. Montgomery might have thought that would have gotten his grandfather’s attention, and then someone else leaked the video of Dahlia.”
“That’s the truth.” Eugenia turns back to me. “Did Montgomery do it?”
I nod .
“What? No. He couldn’t have. He told me he didn’t. He promised me.”
“You have proof.”
Eugenia isn’t asking a question. She knows I wouldn’t have done this without proof. I click the part of the video that they haven’t seen before.
The entire family turns towards the screen as it lowers down from the ceiling. But I watch Dahlia, who’s nestled into her father’s arms, and Basil.
“He said he didn’t do it. I promise you. He said he didn’t do it.” Basil allows his mother to hug him as he cries.
A few moments later, Dahlia’s father clears his throat. “Why did you bring us here to tell us this?”
Eugenia answers, “To give us a choice. Kill him or send him to jail.”
That woman just impressed me almost as much as she scared me. Whenever our children cause us trouble, I’m going to ship them out to her to set them straight.
“He’s here?” Basil asks.
“No.” But I have him secured. There’s no way I wanted him anywhere near Dahlia.
“I need to see him.” Dahlia’s voice is barely a whisper.
“No, you don’t.” I walk up to her, and she shifts from her father’s arms into mine. “You don’t ever have to see him again.” No one will ever see him again after I’m done.
“But I want to.” She shakes her head. “No, I ‘need’ to. I need to ask him why he did this to me.”
“Dahlia.” I brush a finger across her cheek, wiping away a tear.
“Don’t try to talk me out of this. I need to see him.”
“Then we’ll all go talk to him together.” Eugenia decides the matter.
** *
“Basil. How did you find me? A crazy man grabbed me and locked me in here. I thought I was going to die,” Monty cries as Basil steps into the room where I stashed him earlier.
I hate this. I hate everything about this. Yet, here I am with Dahlia in my arms, facing the man who almost caused her to take her life because of his twisted actions. “Are you sure you need to do this?” I whisper in her ear.
Dahlia nods.
“You lied to me.” Basil stares at Monty with Eugenia by his side.
“What are you talking about? Get me out of here. Before the crazy guy comes back.”
Monty hasn’t noticed me, it seems. Though he doesn’t seem to be handling waiting here. “Basil won’t be doing that.”
Monty’s eyes move to me. “He’s here. Why is he here with you? You need to save me. To get me out of this place.”
Dahlia shrugs my arms off and steps forward. There’s a strength in her that I’ve never seen before. “Why? Why did you do that to me?”
“What? I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Monty shifts his desperate gaze to Basil. “You need to get me out of here. They’ve all gone crazy.”
Basil stalks up to Monty, getting in his face. “Answer her. Why did you do that? Why did my best friend hurt my sister?”
“To help you… I did it to help you. Back then, you hated it that guys were looking at your sister. So I fixed it for you.”
Is Basil going to believe the stupidity that just came out of Monty’s mouth?
“Fixed it?” Basil shakes his head. “You thought sharing a video of my sister naked with the entire school would fix it?”
“It worked, didn’t it?”
“The world saw my sister naked.”
Monty looks like he’d shrug if he wasn’t tied up.
I should have just killed him. This family thing was a bad idea. “He’s lying.” All eyes turn to me. I take that opportunity to pull Dahlia back into my arms. “ Dahlia isn’t the only teenage girl he did this to. There were dozens. Ask him why his wife left him when his daughter turned thirteen.”
***
“Are you sure I can’t knock out a few of his teeth?” Basil rubs his swollen knuckles.
“No.” Dahlia chimes in for the first time in a while.
None of us saw any reason to stop Basil when he decided to beat on Monty.
“Why not? He deserves it.”
That and more. If I wasn’t holding tight on to the woman I love, I’d probably have shown Basil a few ways to hurt a man.
“Because I’m not the only one he hurt. And even though it’s tempting to tell you to have at it, they deserve to know who hurt them. They deserve the closure I got today, too.” Dahlia’s voice is strong and firm, even as she trembles slightly in my arms.
“My daughter isn’t being dragged through the judicial system and tortured by this piece of filth again.”
“I don’t mind, Daddy, if it means he goes to jail forever for what he did.”
“Sweet little Dahlia just wants to show the whole world that sexy body.”
Eugenia steps past Basil and slams a fist into Montgomery’s abdomen.
“If you aim up and to the left a bit, you’ll hit a kidney. That will hurt more,” I volunteer instead of walking over and doing what I want to the man currently hanging from the warehouse rafters.
“Thank you. Like this?” She follows my instructions.
“Exactly.”
“I vote we kill him.” Dahlia’s father says.
“I second that.” Basil glares at his once best friend.
Eugenia turns to Dahlia. “It’s your choice, jail or prison.”
“Jail.” Her sure, steady voice brooks no arguments .
Even though I want to very badly. “Jail it is.” But I’m with her father. Dahlia doesn’t need any more trauma in her life from this incident. “You don’t need to worry about Dahlia having to testify.” I move Dahlia towards her father so he can support her while I take care of business.
He nods, wrapping his arms around his daughter.
Will our children feel that safe in my arms?
Now isn’t the time to think about our future children. Take care of business. “She doesn’t have to. You’re going to confess.” I walk up and get in his face, letting all the evil my father taught me show. “Because if you don’t, I’ll find you, and when I’m done, you’ll beg to spend the rest of your life rotting in a hole far, far away from me.”
“Man, that was terrifying.” Basil reaches up to fist bump me.
“Basil,” Eugenia warns.
“What? It was. Can you teach me how to be a person’s worst nightmare?”
Dahlia’s whole family is a bit nutty.
***
A while later, we walk out of the warehouse.
Dahlia’s father makes eye contact with me, and I let the women and Basil step into the waiting car first, closing the door behind them.
“I love my daughter. And I want to respect her wishes, but all I see is her dying a little more every day in my guest house. Eugenia convinced me not to burn it to the ground.”
Completely understandable.
“But this I just can’t agree to. That filth doesn’t get to live after what he did to my daughter.” He turns to me. “I need you to promise me that he won’t survive long in that prison, or I’m going to go back in there and take care of him myself, regardless of what those two women have to say. ”
“After he enjoys a warm welcome to the prison system, I’ll ensure Monty leaves this earth painfully.” Even if it won’t be by my own hand.
“Good.” He pats me on the back. “We better feed those two women before they get hangry. One thing you need to learn about Fleur women is they’re scary when they forget to eat.”
They’re scary all the time. “Noted.”
“You’re going to fit in just fine.”
Max was right… I have a family now.