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Groaning, I rubbed my hands down my face.
This was turning into a fucking nightmare.
I knew Gator. The fucker was nuttier than a fruitcake.
Cool as a cucumber, but crazy as fuck.
Sypher looked across the table quickly before returning to his computer. Seeing a slight blush run up his neck. I looked around the room at my brothers, wondering what Sypher was hiding.
When the young man stayed silent, I asked, “There are two more regulars, kid. Already know HungryMan493 is the one who did the live feed. Who is JackHammer17?”
“Me,” Enigma admitted for all to hear.
“Oh shit,” Gunner cursed, shaking his head.
Slowly turning to my brother, I stared as he continued. “The second you brought Henley here, I recognized her. I closed my account that night. I didn’t know how to tell you, so I kept it to myself.”
“He’s telling you the truth, Mr. Scribe. Mr. Enigma deactivated his account.”
“So that just leaves this other fuck?” Priest asked, turning the conversation back to the culprit. While I was thankful for that, I glared at Enigma. Oh, he and I were gonna have a long conversation soon and he fucking knew it.
“Yes, Mr. Priest. Whoever this HungryMan493 is, he’s dangerous. He’s got several other websites he belongs to, always using the same screen name.”
“Rookie mistake.” Gunner smirked, shaking his head.
“Look, gentlemen, I can’t stress this enough. Having online accounts opens you to identity theft, fraud and a slew of other crap. You may think you are safe, but you’re not. If any of you have online accounts, you need to make damn sure your logins don’t lead back to you, and choose passwords that are unbreakable. Passwords need to be at least eighteen digits long. And please don’t use the phrase password or any variation of it. That’s the first thing hackers look for to break into your accounts. And for the love of God, no pictures. With one picture, hackers can not only find out exactly where you are but create whole new identities. Just don’t do it.”
“Well, shit,” Gunner groaned. “Now I have to change my Facebook password.”
Rolling his eyes, King sat forward. “You heard Sypher. I want all of you to check your accounts and make sure they are secure. Sypher will be with us until we catch this fucker. You need help. Go see him. He will secure your shit so tight the NSA won’t be able to find you. Got me?”
Everyone nodded.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Henley
Sitting at the window, I watched as brothers moved around, going about their day as if they didn’t have a care in the world. Even the women looked happy. I wanted so much to leave this room and join them.
To be a part of their world.
To belong to something more than my drab life.
I stupidly thought when I started doing live reads on the internet that it would help me get out of my comfort zone. And it did, for a while. It was an easy way to socialize with others, without physically being in the same room with them. It dawned on me, as I sat there, that I had only addressed a small part of a much larger problem.
Instead of confronting my fears, I cowered behind them until my fear suffocated me.
After what happened, all I wanted was to crawl under a rock and hide. The shame I felt was palpable. All because I wanted to be spontaneous, a little wild, to step out of my comfort zone.
It was such a wonderful, stunning, beautiful moment between Scribe and I that, because of some fucking creep, was now something lewd, something vulgar. And while I feared I’d never be able to show my face in public again, a trickle of volatile anger slowly burned deep.
I’d never been so furious, so vehemently pissed off before.
I wasn’t so much angry about my part, but for what my actions were doing to Scribe. The kindest, most caring man I’d ever met. To do that to him, to violate his privacy and make him look like the bad guy was something I couldn’t tolerate.
Why?
Because he loved a woman who was afraid of her own shadow?
