Chapter 18
EIGHTEEN
ANDREAS
Our first plan didn’t work, but as the saying went, if at first you don’t succeed, shoot ‘em a few more times and then weigh ‘em down so they don’t float. I just had to kill the plan like the professional that I was. I didn’t want Regan .
. . I needed her. She was the knockout punch I never saw coming.
So here I was trying to come up with the best way to win her over.
She’d changed my mind about the Virtues with a single scorching kiss.
I was addicted to her, and after an eternity without her, I’d be damned if I spent one more moment that way again.
“You sure about this plan?” Kaso quickened his pace to keep up with me.
I turned down another street and beelined for the tech shop that didn’t look like a shop at all.
It looked more like a shitty abandoned house with chunks of weeds shooting up between the gaps in the sidewalk.
The siding was a bland brown color, and the windows hadn’t been cleaned in ages.
There was a small sign on the wooden door that read ‘Tech Time’.
I paused just outside of it. “I mean, it’s sound logic here. We may not be criminals anymore, but we’re still on the inside loop. We know everything that’s going on, everything seedy and shady. If it’s happening in our city, we know about it.”
Kaso nodded. “And we ought to use that knowledge for good. More than we have been.”
I lowered my voice. “That was more in the defense of saving victims. Now we’re trying to prevent them. I call that character development.”
He pointed toward the door and arched his eyebrows at me. “But this target isn’t hurtin’ anybody.”
“Some may beg to differ. Besides, they can’t get mad at us for putting an innocent human in danger if there isn’t one involved. And this guy has done a lot of damage. He’s just sneaky as hell about it. My guy shouldn’t be allowed anywhere near a computer.” I put my hand on the doorknob.
Kaso took up a stance just behind me. “True. And they’re so busy with all the violent crimes that they don’t have enough time to clear out the other small-time ones.”
“Exactly, we’re just helping them clear off their plate a little.” I twisted the knob and shoved the door wide open.
Silence.
“Andreas, what the hell is all this?” Kaso stepped in beside me and wrinkled his nose.
The room was the size of our closets but was full of rickety old metal shelves stacked with all kinds of tech crap.
Pieces of disemboweled computers, old VCRs, and boxes of cracked cellphones were everywhere.
A thick layer of dust covered the shelves and gave the room a stale stagnant odor.
A shabby desk sat empty in the middle of it all with a ripped brown chair that tilted to one side behind it.
The sound of scraps hitting the ground drew my attention to the back of the room. A small man scurried between the shelves. I ducked my head and caught sight of him. His skin held a sheen of nervous sweat as his dark eyes darted around the room.
His breaths came in quick puffs. “Wha—what are you going here, Andreas?”
I tapped the back of my finger against a calendar hanging on the wall with Frosty the Snowman on it.
Someone had even been marking off the days of the month as they went.
According to this, it was already December 18th.
I hadn’t realized I lost track of the days.
“What? A guy can’t come say hello for Christmas? Where’s your cheery spirit?”
His gaze darted to Kaso, then back to me. He shook his head. “You don’t just say hello.”
“Sure we do.” I made my voice calm and smooth. “Come on out here. We just gotta talk to ya for a sec—”
“I heard you were with one of the Virtues now.”
My brow furrowed. “And where’d ya hear that?”
“You think I don’t have a live feed of all the cameras around the city with . . . with supernatural detection capabilities?” His footsteps hurried in one direction through the shelves.
I motioned for Kaso to walk toward one side of the room while I took the other. “Oh, come on, Ferguson—”
“You know I hate that name!”
I tiptoed over a broken TV. “Fergie, come on man. We just need to talk to ya for a second.”
“No.” He shoved one of the shelves stacked with junk toward us. It lurched forward, dumping crap and dust everywhere, then he took off running toward the back of the house.
“Kaso, get him.” I stepped onto the pile of junk and kicked at wires that were wrapped around my legs.
Kaso punted at the garbage and ran toward the hall at the back of the house. I followed him down a long hallway with a single door at the end of it. Fergie stood just within the doorway with a shit-eating grin on his face.
He waved his hand. “Bye, Andreas.”
The door was pocket-style but made of thick metal. It slid shut between us and a series of locks slid into place. Kaso kicked the door, and a loud bang vibrated the wall. I took a step back, looking up at it.
A small microphone clicked on above our heads. “You might as well leave, Andreas. I got enough food in here to last me years.”
Just to rub it in, he crunched into the microphone. Kaso kicked the door again, and the wall vibrated harder. I smirked at that door, knowing it was standing between me and the means to get Regan back. There was no other choice. That damn door had to come down.
I took a few steps back. “Kaso, why don’t ya join me over here.”
Fergie’s voice clicked over the speaker above our heads once more. “That is a triple-thick steel door. There is no breaking it down.”
I nodded my head toward it. “On the count of three, Brother?”
“Triple-thick steel door?” Kaso arched his eyebrows at me.
“But the wall isn’t.” I chuckled.
Kaso followed my gaze and then his face lit with realization. That door might’ve been triple-thick steel, but the wall was as old as this house, and the place was shitty at best. We had millennia old vampire strength. That damn thing would not be an issue.
I chuckled. “One.”
“Two.” Kaso squared his shoulders toward the door.
“Three!” Together we charged at it at full speed. I put my shoulder down and slammed into the door.
The wall around the door cracked from the impact. Wooden studs cracked in the wall as the frame groaned and fell into Fergie’s safe room with an echoing slam. Dust puffed out in a thick white cloud. Kaso and I were sprawled out on the floor on top of the door.
Fergie stood over us with his jaw dropped and a bag of chips in one hand. “You broke my house.”
“You ran away.” I popped to my feet and froze.
We were in the middle of a pristine white room with a wall of screens behind Ferguson.
A constant run of numbers scrolled across most screens like a ticker tape.
On other screens there were views of the city, inside and outside the house, and of other locations around the world.
Boxes of hot Cheetos were stacked against another wall.
Fergie’s face turned a deep shade of red, and he held a bright-yellow pistol in his hand that was covered in hot Cheetos’ dust, as was his dingy white shirt.
“What are ya gonna do with that? Shoot me?” I narrowed my eyes at him.
“Yes.” He pulled the trigger and two metal strings shot from the tip of the gun, striking me in the chest. A jolt of electricity vibrated through my body, and my muscles locked in place as I toppled sideways.
Kaso jumped to his feet and yanked the stun gun from Fergie’s hand. He curled his fingers into the front of his shirt and yanked him off his feet. “You shot my brother.”
I ripped the prongs from my chest and sucked in a sharp breath. “That wasn’t very nice, Fergie. You’re gonna pay for that.”
Kaso shook him back and forth. “Ya, Fergie. You’re gonna pay.”
“I-I can pay. Name your price and it’s yours.” Fergie’s eyes darted from me to Kaso and back again. “Just don’t let them exile me! They don’t even have Wi-Fi in Third Realm!”
I staggered to my feet, my muscles still a bit tingly. “That’s the problem, Fergie. Your little penny scheme has ripped off millions of people and made you a very rich fae, so you don’t deserve Wi-Fi.”
“Pennies? Are you for real? We knocked down a wall for pennies?” Kaso threw Fergie into a chair and jabbed his finger in his face.
“You move and imma make it hurt real bad. You get me?” When Fergie didn’t respond, Kaso bent down low and got right in his face.
He extended his fangs. “I said, you get me?”
Fergie’s eyes widened as he nodded. “I get you.”
“Good.” Kaso grabbed a roll of duct tape from the table and shoved a piece of it over Fergie’s mouth, effectively shutting him the hell up.
I moved to stand beside Kaso. “And it’s not just pennies. He steals pennies with his computer virus. But if you steal pennies from millions and millions of people and companies, it adds up quickly. Our boy Ferguson here has committed years of theft.”
A smile spread across Kaso’s face. “Now you’re talkin’.”
“We need to tie him up.” I walked over to a pile of wires looped into a neat pile in the corner of the room and started to pick them up when my gaze landed on a spool of dusty Christmas lights. With a grin, I tossed them to Kaso. “Ho, ho, ho.”
Kaso cackled as he made quick work of wrapping the lighted cords tight to keep Fergie trapped in that chair.
Though he was fae, he likely lacked the strength to break the hold of the cords and the pissed off vampires determined to keep him here.
Kaso wagged his eyebrows as he plugged the lights in and our dear old pal Fergie went aglow from the multicolor lights.
I tilted my head to the side, staring down at Fergie. “He needs something else.”
“Nasty ass hot Cheetos’ dust loving shithead.
” Kaso wiped his hand down the front of his shirt, leaving streaks of red-orange down the front.
But he grabbed another set of cords and twisted them until they were in the shape of a bow on the top of his head.
“There. Simple but to the point. Like a present.”