In The Wee Hours of the Morning…
Taelyn slept comfortably in her bed. She had to be in the office at nine in the morning. Her condo was in Charleston, which was about thirty minutes from Washington/Smith Brokerage Firm’s downtown location. Kevin was from Charleston whereas she was from Mount Pleasant. He felt more comfortable with their condo being there because he felt like there were too many eyes in Mount Pleasant. Taelyn believed that train of thought was asinine. There were eyes everywhere, but in the beginning, it was whatever Kevin wanted.
Much had changed since her and Kevin’s relationship began. It started to go downhill about four months ago. That was when the weird behavior started after her cousin Mauri asked for Taelyn’s assistance on a big mission. Mauri knew what a lot of people didn’t. Taelyn was an expert level hacker like she was. Sure, there were hackers out there, but the number of expert levels that even the government feared were few and far between. There were several hackers in the technology security department of Christianson Enterprises, but they were not all equal.
When a mission was completed, it was not spoken to individuals that were not assigned to the mission. Kevin assumed that wouldn’t apply to them because they were together. Taelyn showed him differently the night of that assignment when she wouldn’t tell him anything about the mission no matter how much he asked. From that point on, the resentment that Kevin harbored in his gut started to surface. It was subtle things, but noticeable to Taelyn.
Before Kevin came to work for the organization, he worked as a college professor which was ironic. As immature as he could be, he was a role model for younger minds. He still taught at the College of Charleston and was deemed the cool, hip professor. He was great as a professor of economics. Kevin wanted more. He wanted to not only be the man on the missions, but he also wanted to be the man that led them. He was ready, or so he thought.
What Mont and Jacob saw in Kevin was an adrenaline junkie. He often talked about stupid shit that he claimed to have done in his past and it had gotten back to them. Mont barely liked him because of his relationship with his baby sister. Taelyn was grown. Regardless of how hard it was to remember that fact, her family had to. She wasn’t a baby anymore.
Taelyn tossed a little in her sleep. She must have slept wrong at some point during the night because she had a major crick in her neck. Her hand went behind her neck as she opened her eyes. Once her eyes focused, she was not pleased at all with the sight in front of her.
“Kevin, have you lost your entire mind? I guess you chose fuck around and die.”
Kevin stood over her with a gun in her face. She wanted to kick her own ass for being so exhausted that she didn’t set the alarm when he left. She could have changed the door code, so he wouldn’t have had access to the condo.
“Yeah, who got the one up now, bitch? Don’t think of doing shit either or my boys here are not going to think before they pop you.” Kevin decided if he couldn’t lead a mission with Christianson Enterprises, then he would create his own mission.
Taelyn’s eyes scanned her dark room to see five other figures. This shit was crazy to her. She was in a state of shock and wasn’t sure how to process everything. With all of that, her sarcasm was a tricky bitch. “Awe, you needed all of these bitches for me. Ahh!”
Kevin used the butt of the gun to smack Taelyn across the face twice. “I’m tired of your fucking mouth! Now get the fuck up, stupid bitch.”
Taelyn was terrified, but she would never let Kevin or these other stupid fucks see that. She wondered who they were because they looked young. It hit her like an eighteen-wheeler. “Wait, are these some of your students? Wow! I hope he told y’all that this was a suicide mission.”
The expression on all of their faces gave her the answer. What had he gotten these kids into? This was why certain people shouldn’t mold young minds. The economics class that Kevin taught was a freshman class. That meant more than likely these kids were in their late teens, early twenties.
“Don’t worry about who the fuck they are! Just know that they know to fuck you up if you get out of hand. Now, get the fuck up, Taelyn!”
Without any more fight or words, she got out of the bed. She waited for further instructions. When he told her to take her clothes off her face scrunched. “Why? Is this some rape shit? Is that the route you’re really going? Aah!”
This time he kicked her in her stomach, which caused her to crumple to the ground. Kevin kicked and punched her a few more times before he leaned over her body. “Bitch, ain’t nobody outcha tryin’ to rape you. Always talkin’ shit. Get the fuck up and shut the fuck up! I want you to take your fuckin’ clothes off because you smart, techy bitches think of weird shit. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was locator tags in all of your clothes.”
She pulled herself up from the ground as quickly as her aching body would allow. There was nothing for her to say about the locator tags in her clothing, because he was right. All of her clothes down to her underwear were tagged. He threw a bag on the bed before he told her to get naked, then put on the clothes in the bag. She silently followed instructions. In the bag was a jogger suit, socks, and a pair of slides.
Once she was dressed, Kevin strolled into her personal space. “Before we go, let me get this.” He snatched the locket that was around her neck and threw it on the ground. “Take off that fucking bracelet too.”
Once she took it off, he grabbed her arm. The unfortunate thing about this situation was that because Kevin worked for the organization, he knew a lot about their operations. He definitely knew that there were tags on the jewelry.
“Let’s go, bitch. Oh, I cut the camera so your bitch ass people will be none the wiser,” Kevin said with a smirk.
He was so smart, or was he? Unless he smashed the cameras, they would still catch everything, because the system had a backup. When the wires were cut or the Wi-Fi was disconnected, a backup system kicked in. As much as he knew about the operations, there was a lot more he didn’t know. The knowledge that he did have would make it harder for her to be found. She knew an army was about to be assembled to find her. As worried as she was, she wasn’t.