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Bennett still refused to look up. Not that I blamed him.
“Today you were the anvil,” I said, matter-of-factly. “And someone else was the hammer.”
Adrian tossed him his car keys, but Bennett made no move to catch them. They skittered across the hood of his car, before landing in the gravel-strewn parking lot.
“You should try to be the hammer,” Jax said, rubbing salt in the wound. “I heard it’s better than being the anvil.”
“Or you could just stop ripping people off entirely,” Adrian added with a shrug. “And then nobody has to drive four-hundred fucking miles just to get their own property back.”
Bennett sank his face into his hands. Resting his elbows on his knees, he shook his head back and forth for what seemed like a long time.
“Enough,” I said finally. “Let’s go.”
We turned and left him there, alone and helpless. The man looked utterly defeated, not even interested in calling for a tow-truck, or at least an Uber so he could get back to his house and put a stop to the carnage there.
Just before we hopped into our own truck however, Jax and Adrian marched back over. I feared for the worst. Even though I hung back, I could hear every word that was said.
“Don’t ever forget that we know who you are,” Jax growled, “and we know where you are.”
Adrian nodded pointedly. “If you go a single mile north of Westchester County, we’ll already know it,” I heard him warn. “And if you come anywhere near Buffalo, ever again…”
The two of them shrugged, not-so-innocently.
“Things will end a lot differently than they did today.”
~ 47 ~
HARPER
The elevator up to the hotel suite was a butterfly-filled rocket ship. I stood there flanked by Adrian and Jax, still shaking from adrenaline levels that hadn’t subsided at all. My heart was hammering away, pumping the drug to every last corner of my trembling body.
Then the door to our room opened, and I saw Preston standing there holding one of my haptics suits.
Crying, I flung myself straight into his arms.
“Thank you!”
The tears flowed as he hugged me back. The others closed in, and soon I was hugging them all.
“Thank you all so much…”
Eventually my tears subsided, and I scanned eagerly around the hotel suite. I saw my machines, my laptops, my servers, as well as the other haptic prototype. Even the thumb drives were there, lined up neatly on one of the fancy mahogany tables.
Then I saw the air-gapped computer that had everything on it, and my tears started flowing all over again.
“How much of this asshole’s stuff did you actually sell?” Jax asked Preston.
“A lot of it,” Preston said with a whistle. “At first I thought Angel and I would only carry a few things out. You know, just to make a point. But then Angel’s friends showed up. Six of them, in fact. And then, well…” he shrugged and sighed. “It was kind of like having a moving company.”
“And you really made everything five and ten dollars?” asked Adrian.
“That was Angel’s idea,” said Preston. “But holy shit, yes. Everyone started fighting over stuff, so we made them do rock paper scissors. Cars were piling up everywhere. People drove off in pickup trucks, packed so full they were overflowing.”
“Damn,” Jax swore. “Sounds like a clusterfuck.”
Preston nodded. “Trust me, the neighbors were getting pissed.”
“You’re lucky you got out of there before the police showed up,” said Adrian.
