Chapter 12 Neil #3
“That’s total bullshit. Does Selene even know that you’re planning to take the Chicago internship?
And now you’ve also promised her mother you’ll dump her, and you’ve done all of this behind her back?
” he said in outrage, making me suddenly swerve.
“What is wrong with you? You are going to hurt her so bad,” he went on, and I felt a stab of pain in my heart.
Of course I knew that I was playing dirty, but I was determined to enjoy my Tinkerbell for as long as I could, even if it was selfish.
After I left New York, our paths would fork, and that was how it should be. It made me uncomfortable, thinking about how to break that news to her, because I knew that, while it was the best choice for both of us, it wasn’t going to make either of us happy.
But I was the strong one, the only one actually capable of putting a stop to our tumultuous relationship.
To avoid that discomfort, I switched off that topic and moved on to Player.
About him, I spared no detail.
I told Logan everything, particularly why I was asking for Luke’s help.
When we got to Luke’s apartment, Logan greeted the doorman politely while I ignored him. Then we got into the elevator.
“This is nuts. Player seriously hacked Selene’s computer?” Logan asked, troubled. I didn’t answer him, just stepping out onto the landing when the automatic doors opened. I walked down the long hallway, and upon reaching the correct door, I rang the bell repeatedly.
We waited a few seconds before the door opened to reveal Luke wearing a lopsided grin.
“You’re ten minutes early,” he said, looking appraisingly at Logan and me. I gave him a blank look, and he stepped aside to let us in. “Brought the kid brother along, eh?” he said sneeringly to Logan. I shot him a dirty look to shut him up and he backed off.
“We’ve been waiting for you, boss.”
I stepped into the living room to find Xavier sitting on a leather sofa with Alexia. Standing nearby with her arms folded was Jennifer. She looked bored and lost in thought. Then she spotted me, and her blue eyes lit up. She gave me a provocative smile, which I did not return.
“What are they doing here?” I asked Luke. This was supposed to be a low-key, private meeting, but now…
“We’re the Krew. You got a problem; we got a problem,” Xavier answered, resting a hand on Alexia’s bare thigh.
Apparently they had been able to mend fences after he found out I’d fucked Alexia again in an attempt to vent my emotions and shut down my thoughts.
I was different, though, and I wasn’t about to forgive Jennifer for telling Selene everything we’d done, all to win some feminine game of one-upsmanship.
She’d deliberately made Babygirl uncomfortable all to try to prove that Selene was different from the other girls I spent time with. I hated those kinds of theatrics.
Plus, Jennifer could not get it through her head that I was not hers. I wasn’t anyone’s.
“So…do you have Selene’s cell? What exactly did Player do?” Luke asked, drawing my attention. So I fished Selene’s phone out of my pocket, accessed her email on the app, and handed it to Luke.
He carefully read the incriminating email and shook his head in obvious concern.
“Selene’s account sent it to herself; did you see that?
” he asked, pointing out a detail that had completely escaped me.
I leaned over to look at the screen. Sure enough, the message had been sent from Babygirl’s email address, irrefutable proof that Player had indeed taken control of it.
I went rigid, giving Luke a speaking look.
“This kind of thing is called sextortion. The technique is always the same: The blackmailer threatens to release some private video or photos of the victim if they don’t do what he asks.
He mentions an intimate moment between you two caught by her webcam here, but since he’s not asking for money or making any demands other than not going to police, I think he’s mostly just trying to scare you,” Luke offered thoughtfully.
“Now that’s the good shit. What intimate moments were you filming?
” Xavier cut in, his eyebrows raised in surprise.
I gave him a furious look and ignored the question.
I had no intention of telling the Krew, of all people, about what Selene and I did together.
The things I shared with Babygirl belonged to us alone, though now Player could show them off to the world if he felt like it.
Just the thought of Selene’s reputation being forever ruined made me feel furious and impotent.
“How did he get control of the webcam?” I turned back to Luke, who sat down on the armrest of one of the living room couches, Selene’s phone in hand.
“It’s tricky but not impossible. Hackers often use sophisticated malware to get access to a webcam, and once they have it, they can access it whenever they like.
Sometimes all a person has to do is open an infected email, click on the wrong ad, or visit some virus-ridden site, and that’s it.
The victim doesn’t necessarily know they’re being watched because the indicator light on the camera can be turned off,” he explained with a shrug.
He was clearly a lot calmer about this than I was.
But then, no one had touched anything of his.
My hands shook with the suppressed desire to beat down whoever had been spying on Selene.
I didn’t care if I did end up in jail; I was going to give him exactly what he deserved.
“So now there’s also the risk that he might release this private video of yours or maybe pictures of the doll in her underwear if you go to the cops?” Xavier asked.
Fuck…someone had seen her in her underwear, had seen her in a way that, up until recently, only I ever had.
The idea tormented me, overwhelmed me.
Then the monster grabbed me by the neck and began throttling me, cutting off my breath.
I began to beg my rational mind to stay with me, to not abandon me.
To help me, to stay awake.
But a powerful force contracted all my muscles.
Rage put all my senses on alert.
A little voice in my head urged me to pour everything out.
It spoke to me. It was named IED.
And there was nothing I could do to keep it from slithering around inside me.
“Shit,” I blurted out, messing up my hair.
My right hand was shaking. I had started to sweat, and I could feel my heartbeat throbbing in my temples.
I was so anxious; I wanted to smash something.
Logan tried to put a comforting hand on my shoulder, but I flinched away from him because I couldn’t stand to be touched by anyone just then, not even him.
“Hey, Neil, you’ve gotta calm down,” Luke suggested. “This situation is already very delicate.”
“Agreed. Also, you keep saying ‘he’ when you’re talking about Player, but what makes you so sure it’s a guy?” Xavier asked.
“My instincts are never wrong,” I answered angrily.
I hoped to high heaven that it was a woman, some bitch who wanted to ruin me, to destroy me. I could have accepted any kind of blackmail or deal with her as long as she kept Selene and my family out of it.
“What if it’s one of your exes? Scarlett, maybe?
” Jennifer interjected, speaking for the first time since I’d gotten there.
I stopped pacing and turned to look at her.
Her blue eyes were locked on me, cool and wicked as ever.
It irritated me, being stared at in that hungry way, like she wanted me to tear off her clothes and fuck her right there in front of everyone.
I shook my head, making a face.
“No…I don’t think so. The spying, this sextortion thing… It just feels more like something a man would do,” I answered shortly. She screwed up her forehead and chewed on her lower lip, considering my words.
“Protecting you and her is the most important thing. She shouldn’t be alone in Detroit.
Whoever Player is, he knows where she lives and is blatantly targeting the two of you.
He struck out with Chloe and Logan, so…” Luke shot a glance at my brother, who had remained silent as the rest of us spoke, troubled by the insane turn things had taken.
“You should bring her back here where you can keep a closer eye on her until this is dealt with,” he finished, getting up off the couch.
He walked over to me and handed me my Babygirl’s phone, which I stared at blankly.
I stroked the dusty rose cover of it and tried to swallow the bitterness that was lodged in my throat like a handful of nails.
I felt drained.
This was why I didn’t want her becoming a part of my life.
My problems were inexorably sucking her in.
I had always meant trouble for anyone around me; now I was trouble for her as well.
“Bullshit. I think she’d be safer there than right by Neil.
He’s the one Player’s after,” Jennifer commented tartly.
I looked over at her and could clearly see how irritated she was at the idea of Selene coming back to New York.
Instead of thinking rationally about the problem, she was worrying that Babygirl was going to come and snatch her favorite toy right out of her hands.
At the end of the day, that’s what I was to her: a sex toy.
“Put aside your fucking jealousy for once. A girl’s life is at stake, Jen. Do you get that?” Luke raged at her, and she flinched.
“It was just something to consider, Parker; don’t get your panties in a wad,” she said defensively, flicking her long blond hair over her shoulder. Her high-pitched voice was bugging the hell out of me. I tucked the phone into my pocket and signaled to Logan that we were going to leave.
I didn’t have a lot of choices.
Keeping Selene far away from me didn’t seem to be the smart move.
She was now a part of the web that Player was weaving around me, and I couldn’t protect her if I wasn’t with her.
And I had to protect her from the world’s cruelty because she was more than just my Tinkerbell.
She wasn’t just a fairy who had alighted upon the undeserving hands of a man like me.
She wasn’t just my Neverland, the most beautiful refuge I had ever explored.
She was something more precious than that.
She was my Pearl.
And I was her Shell.
That’s why I had to take care of her.