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Bell placed his palms on the desk and leaned over towards me. "For every hour, Mr Miller loses a toe. When he has no more, we'll start on his fingers."
I looked up at him. He wasn't going to let us walk out of here alive. I knew that with absolute certainty. Hunter was right when he said Mannix's family, and the Brantleys, would pretend we didn't exist. We'd be lucky if we had something as fancy as a shallow grave.
"I've stopped the virus from doing more damage, but the time it takes to undo what it’s done is what is going to take," I said, reasonably. "Threats aren't going to make it any quicker. I'm not even sure if Icanundo it."
"Find out," he snapped. He straightened up and paced across the room, past his daughter and the twins.
I gave Hunter and Parker a dirty look. Neither asshole had the grace to look regretful or even embarrassed. If anything, all they looked was nervous. Of course, they were in the spider's web as deeply as I was.
"If Ice runs out of toes, you can always take theirs." I nodded towards them and gave them both a look of pure venom.
Lila cut me a matching look. I think she would have shot me then and there if she was allowed to. The feeling was mutual.
I smiled sarcastically at her, then turned my gaze back to the screen. She was the bitch who made this bed, she could lie in it with them. I wouldn't lose any sleep over either of the twins being tortured. In fact, the thought cheered me up.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and skimmed through a bunch of files and directories. There were a lot of them left, which contributed to the computer being slow. Or at least, slower than it could have been. If it was anyone but Bell, I'd offer to help expand its memory.
"We are just going back out to find the other two who were with her and her boyfriend," Lila said. She stepped toward the door clearly expecting to be stopped, but wanting to be gone from there as quickly as possible.
"Mannix and Ares," Parker supplied helpfully. "Leo's son and one of his friends."
I made a note that, if I survived this, I'd hack the twins’ bank accounts and send all their money to a worthy cause. Maybe a charity for homeless people.
In spite of the guys’ warning not to hack into Brutham Academy systems, I was tempted to do that too. I could give them both a failing grade and get them kicked out.
People often underestimated how much power a vengeful nerd actually had. Especially one who was good with computers. The things I could fuck with… It was a long and ugly list. Or beautiful, depending on your perspective.
"I'll send some people after them," Bell said. "You go upstairs to your room. You two, get out of my house. If I see you back here, you can join Mr. Miller downstairs. If you so much as think about my daughter again, you'll regret the day were born."
When I looked back up, the room was empty except for me, Bell and one of his men who still had a gun held in his hand.
"You know they're not going to stop seeing each other, don't you? Teenage rebellion and all that." I shrugged one shoulder. I wasn't trying to provoke him, not really. If it gave the incentive for some sort of vendetta against the twins, then I was all for fuelling that fire. I hadn't realised I had such a capacity for holding a grudge, but apparently I did. It was always good to learn these things about yourself.
Oh, he knew all right. Even though his face was as composed as ever, it was right there in his eyes. Along with the knowledge if he had the twins killed, his daughter would never speak to him again. I got that, I wouldn't speak to my mother if she had the guys killed. Although, my guys were worth a thousand of the twins.
"Can you fix it?" he snapped. His patience was becoming threadbare, but it still wouldn't get this done any faster.
I looked back down and let my fingers race across the keyboard. "I've recovered about ten percent of your files." Surprisingly, none of it seemed to be porn.
"I should be able to recover another ten to fifteen percent, but at least five to ten percent is gone permanently."
He growled under his breath. "Can you tell what's gone?"
"Only the empty directory names of one or two," I admitted. "One titledHammeris empty. Another one just calledfour-five-sevenx, is also gone. Otherwise it's just… Gone."
It could have been anything from his plan for world domination, to photos of his precious daughters. Hell, for all I knew it was a menu from his favourite restaurant. The only way to tell was if he looked for himself and remembered what he had and where he had it.
He looked pissed. More so than he already had. "Recover what you can."
My heart raced and a feeling of dread settled over me. I was sitting in the eye of the storm and whatever was coming was going to be a shit load worse than this. If I was lucky, I'd be dead in a couple of hours. If I wasn't lucky, I would wish I was dead in a couple of hours.
My hands hovered over the keys. If I was dead anyway, then shouldn't I do what I came here to do? If I didn't, then what was the point of all of this? Mannix and Ares were probably long gone by now. This way, they'd have something to show for coming here in the first place. That might be enough to make up for losing Ice and me.
My palms were sweaty and my fingers trembled. I considered negotiating but knew there was no way we'd get any concessions from Samuel Bell. Even if I threatened him, he wasn't going to let Ice leave.
Nothing and no one was going to save us.
I looked up to see Bell watching me. His otherwise smooth brow was crinkled with a tiny frown. I've never seen someone so in control of his own emotions. His control was tight, but not flawless. Not robotic. He was a guitar string drawn tight. With the right pressure he'd snap. It wouldn't be a violent snap. More like a softly spoken order to kill me. But still a snap.
