Page 105 of Antihero

“So just online?” A shaky exhalation of relief. “Not in real life?”

Slowly, Evan turned his head. “Would you like me to start terrorizing you? Just online?”

The father didn’t shake his head so much as let it shudder.

Evan looked at the wartime tableau he’d created—military-aged male injured on the ground, mother and sister weeping over him. The mother lifted her face, flushed with fear, anger creeping in. On his side, Tyler curled into her, head in her lap, knees drawn in to his chest. She put her arm around her daughter’s shoulders and hugged her in tightly.

Evan exited through the house, retracing the trail of wreckage he’d made with her son’s body.

41Can’t Handle This

Once Evan reached Beverly Hills, he pulled over at a meter to make the call from the side of the road. Kenzie wept silently, not fully believing that the threat was over.

“How do I know for sure?”

“I took his phone,” Evan said.

“What if he uploaded it?”

“As soon as I get home, I’ll hack into his system and wipe all his photos from the cloud. Obliterate his entire digital identity.”

“What if he has it somewhere else?”

“Kenzie,” Evan said softly, “he’s too scared to ever bother you again.”

“What did you do?”

“Nothing he didn’t deserve.”

A stunned silence. A motorcycle whipped by, the sound rising to a high-pitched roar and then fading.

“You didn’t…” Her voice, hushed with horror. He realized that she was terrified. “You didn’t kill him, did you?”

“No. He’s fine. No permanent injuries.”

She wept some more. It sounded like relief. It was confusing. Females were often confusing to him.

When she caught her breath, she said, “Thank God. Thank you. I don’t know … I don’t know what to say.”

“I have one thing to ask of you. One thing only. That you find someone else who needs help. Someone in a terrible situation, like you were. Someone being terrorized with nowhere else to turn.”

“Why do you want me to do it?”

“Because you’ll see what I can’t see. You’ll notice what I don’t notice.”

And, he thought, because it will help you to help someone else.

“Okay,” she said. “And I give them your number?”

“Yes.”

“1–855–2-NOWHERE?”

“Yes.”

“And you’ll help them like you helped me?”

“Yes.”