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"I feel like I've entered some kind of alternate reality. Or an episode of a superhero TV show where they’re all bad guys for that forty minutes. Only, this seems to be my life."
She laughed. "None of us are bad guys. Not exactly. We just like to get what we want and, unlike the average person, we've found a way to do it. Sometimes it's slightly illegal—"
I snorted a laugh. "Sometimes?" As far as I could tell, it was more than slightly illegal a lot of the time. Bad guys was both a relative and a subjective term.
She was right about one thing, there was an awful lot of grey involved in all of this. I couldn't remember the last time I saw the world in black and white, but things were more and more complicated and convoluted the longer I was here in Dusk Bay.
"Yes, only sometimes," she agreed. "Only when it's completely necessary. Otherwise, people like Leo are nothing more than savvy business people. He sees an opportunity and he grabs it. And he has enough money to make it happen. There's nothing wrong with that."
"That depends who gets stepped on along the way." My expression was wry. "I suspect a few people wouldn't agree with that assumption."
"Of course not. You can't please everyone. At the end of the day, the best thing you can do is please yourself and those you care about. No one else really matters."
"You sound like Leo," I remarked. "Actually, you sound like Mannix and Ice. They're passionately dedicated to taking care of people they care about. Including me and each other. Maybe if you got to know them—"
"I'd still know they're trouble," she interrupted. "It's easy to get blinded by your feelings, and your hormones. I'm not denying they're good-looking boys, but mark my words. They'll lead you down a path you may not want to go on, and once you're down there, there may be no coming back from it. And if there isn't, I might not be able to save you."
I straightened up and looked her right in the eyes. "Maybe I don't want saving."
She looked at me sadly. "Then it might be too late already."
Chapter Fifteen
Kennedy
"Ice said you had an idea of how we might be able to deal with Samuel Bell." Mannix wore a pair of shorts and nothing else. His chiselled chest and stomach were slick with sweat. His hair was damp, stuck to his forehead. His face was slightly red, suggesting he'd come from the gym in the back of the house. The one in town was weeks away yet. Maybe longer.
Before I could answer, he grinned and walked over to the side of the pool. He jumped, his knees tucked up to his body, arms around his legs. He landed with a splash so big it threatened to flood over me, even though I was leaning against the far end of the pool.
He surged up to the surface, exploding out of the water like he was the son of Neptune. He shook his hair and face, sending droplets flying. Water cascaded down his chest like a stone waterfall, or something from a movie. If I had a phone in my hand, he’d be my next lockscreen.
He gave me a knowing look and slowly swam over to me, chin bobbing just above the water.
The expression on his face was going to make me flood in a whole different way. He looked like he wanted to bend me over, slam his cock into me and fuck me silly.
My tongue slid over my lips.
"Not so much him as his computer systems." I forced myself to focus in spite of the blood thundering through my brain. Not to mention the rest of my body. Meeting these guys awakened something in me I had no idea existed. I didn't care what Mum said, I couldn't stay away from them if I wanted to.
"I was thinking, I could create a virus that would corrupt all his files. Or better yet, erase them." The headache that would cause him would almost make up for wanting me dead.
Almost.
Mannix smiled and cupped my cheeks in his hands. He wore a massive watch which must have been waterproof, because water dripped off it and he didn't look concerned. If I had to guess, I'd think it was worth a shit ton of money. Probably a drop in the ocean for him, like so many other things around here.
"How long would that take?"
"That depends if you want to scramble everything or delete it altogether. A nasty virus might take me a week or two. Anything more than that will take a lot longer. And it would need a delivery system."
"What sort of delivery system?" He seemed to like the idea.
"Anything from a USB drive, to something that would connect to his systems by Bluetooth. A USB would be faster, but more dangerous because it would have to be done in person. So would Bluetooth, but you wouldn't have to touch anything. Whoever would deliver it would still have to go there in person."
I felt like a spy planning to gain information from some foreign government, not a mobster trying to bring down the enemy. I remembered what Mum said about being morally grey, but as far as I was concerned, this was justice. If we messed with his systems, no one had to die. It seemed like the perfect compromise to me.
Unless he figured out who did it. In which case, we might be slightly fucked. I trusted the guys could do this in a way that wouldn't come back on us. There was probably a long list of assholes they could blame it on.
Mannix nodded slowly. "How good are you at disabling security systems?" The question was accompanied with another knowing look.
