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I called X, knowing my phone was likely compromised, but I was too desperate to save his men to worry about it. Swain’s men already knew where I was.
“Emilio? Is there a hold up?” X asked when he answered my call.
“You need to abort the mission. I’ve been hacked and fed misinformation. I don’t know how… I’m sorry… Swain may know your men are there.”
“What about you? Are you—”
I ended the call. I’d given him the message he needed. Now I had to get out of my apartment. I was a force to be reckoned with online, but if someone showed up at my place, I was fucked. I had a gun, but the chance of me hitting anyone with it was basically zero.
I used a dirty t-shirt to clean myself up, then pulled on jeans and a sweater before shoving a few more things into a bag. I had to get out of there. I had known this could happen, and I had some options for where I could go, but I hadn’t expected it to happen when someone else was relying on me. Did I run and not look back? My contingency plan meant breaking all my ties in Boston and starting over. Was there anyone in town who would help me?
Most of my friends were people I knew only through the computer, and the people I worked for were mostly criminals, even if some of them had a better moral code than most “good guys.”
As my mind raced through possibilities, I only came up with one answer. X, the man who had no idea how deeply I’d hacked into the life he tried to hide from all his underworld connections, the man who’d been relying on me today. I couldn’t leave him with this mess, could I? I owed him all the help I could give.
Would he accept that, or would he be too angry with me for failing him?
If he was angry, I might not fare any better with him than I would with the enemies who would come for me. Did he know how helpless I was if I wasn’t behind a computer? Surely he could guess that.
He’d seen me the few times he’d lured me into the field, insisting I needed to be on-site for a mission, so he was well aware I was scrawny, young, and nervous as hell when I had to leave the safety of my apartment. Maybe that would mean he wouldn’t count me as a threat and would help me. Or maybe, like in my fantasy, he’d…
No. X was straight. And even if he wasn’t, why the hell would he want me for anything other than my hacking skills? Now that I’d gotten myself caught, he probably wouldn’t even want that.
He wouldn’t risk working with someone who couldn’t deliver, and unless I cleared up this current problem and rose from the ashes with a new identity, I wouldn’t be hacking anymore.
But if X was willing to help me, I’d fare so much better than I could on my own. With him behind me, I could put everything back together, and my siblings wouldn’t suffer because of my mistake. His money and power were nearly limitless.
I opened my safe and pulled out a burner phone, which I used to order a car to pick me up on the next block and take me close to an address I shouldn’t know.
Even if X would forgive me for failing to evade Swain’s minions, what would he do when I showed up at his house, making it clear I knew who he really was? Thomas Elliot Xavier Carrington, rumored to be the wealthiest man in Massachusetts, brother of a senator, and internationally known philanthropist.
I erased my digital presence from the equipment I was leaving behind, then shut down my laptop and stuffed it and the cord into my bag. I was nearly in tears at the thousands of dollars’ worth of tech I had to leave behind.
I tried to tell myself I’d be able to come back for it, but someone would come for me, there was no doubt. I’d made too many enemies, and even if I survived this, the equipment in my apartment wouldn’t.
I wondered one more time if I was making the right decision, but the thought of me being responsible for the loss of X’s men was too much. I needed to go to him, and no one else had the resources to help me.
My chances of survival were shit if he turned me away. No, I couldn’t think like that. I considered calling X instead of just showing up. That would be wiser. Appearing at his house uninvited was foolish. Keeping his real-world identity separate from the work he did running a vigilante group as X was important to his survival, but getting the fuck out of my apartment before someone found me was vital to mine.
