AllFreeNovel
Share Us
She hesitated, then sighed. “Because they’re vampires, and I work for them.”
I pulled the phone away from my ear, looked at the screen, then put it back to my head. “I’m sorry. I thought I just heard you say that they’re vampires and you fucking work for them.”
She was quiet and replied, “I did. They hired me to add and remove the spyware. But—”
Anger burned in my chest. “What the hell, Devon? Who are you?”
“I can explain.”
“Ya know what? It doesn’t even matter. This just goes to prove that you don’t know who you can trust. I can’t believe I trusted you.”
“Would you just listen to me for a minute? I didn’t know it was a human trafficking site, I swear. I only maintained the malware portion of it.”
I scoffed. “Sure, you didn’t. I hope they paid you well because I’m shutting that site down after I call, well, now the BSI. Goodbye, Devon, or Rocky, or whoever you are.” I ended the call and tossed the phone onto my desk.
God, I couldn’t remember the last time I was this furious. No wonder she was able to implant and debug the malware so easily—she’d probably written the code that created it. What was the purpose of her helping us then? I was so confused. I needed to clear my head and decide how I was going to proceed.
I snatched my phone from the desk and went up to my apartment. Changing into my workout clothes, I left the clubhouse without saying a word to anyone. Everyone looked at me curiously as I stormed out and slammed the door.
I’d been on this treadmill for forty-five minutes and had no plans to stop. My phone had buzzed with texts, but I refused to look at it. I needed a break and to clear my head.
I considered myself a pretty intelligent guy, but this, I just couldn’t wrap my head around. Devon helped us with the malware problem, knowing it would just come back. Right? No, that wasn’t right. She didn’t know we were visiting the trafficker website until she came to the clubhouse and saw it in my history. But she had known we were visiting it because she was in charge of the site’s security, so to speak. Did she know it was actually us? Had she hacked into my system? Yes, she had, through the use of spyware. Then when we asked her for more help because it came back, she was so easily able to remove it because it was her malware to begin with. After our conversation earlier in the diner, she went home and was magically able to let me back into the site. Because she’d removed the bugs. She had told me it wasn’t a human trafficking site. How could she not know? It was unbelievable, and I felt like such a fool for trusting her. I couldn’t believe I actually thought about trying to pursue something romantic with her.
You idiot.
I pushed myself harder, fueled by anger, and after an hour had passed, I hopped off, grabbed my phone, and sat in the locker room to cool down. I certainly wasn’t as sweaty as I should be, but I did feel a zip of energy and my body was warmer than my resting temperature—which was pretty cold.
It was at times like this I wondered how my life had ended up here. This wasn’t the plan for my future. I was supposed to become a famous actor and party my life away on yachts with beautiful people, not become a creature of the night. But I doubted any vampire had wanted this life, I and knew I certainly didn’t. However, I was partly responsible for the monster I’d become. I closed my eyes at the regret that haunted me every day.
After two years of modeling, I was making enough money to live in one of the nicest high-rise condos in LA. I was invited to parties every night and only turned them down if I had an early shoot or big job the following day. So far, the auditions I’d attended for film roles had all been busts. I had enrolled in acting classes and told myself if I didn’t get a job in the TV or movie industry in three years, I would go back to Texas and get a college degree. I was pretty good with computers and technology; it came naturally to me, and the money was good.
A nice, older gentleman, who was a known film producer, was at a party one night. My agent, Erik, introduced us.
“Parker Knight, this is Martin Russo.” Erik looked at Martin. “Parker’s a model, he’s done quite a few prints and billboards over the past two years.”
I shook his hand and he smiled wide at me. “It’s great to meet you. Love your work. Especially the billboard ad.”
The billboard I’ll never live down.
“Thanks,” I said, smiling. “That was my first modeling job.”
His eyebrows shot up. “Really? Looked like a pro to me.” Then, he winked.
Okay, that was weird, but everyone in this town was a little bit off, in my opinion. I just played the game so I could get what I wanted.
“Well, that’s very kind of you.”
We chatted for a while, and as we were parting ways, he offered me his business card. “Call me if you’re interested in auditioning for film roles. Ever done any acting?”
I shook my head. “Honestly, no. But it’s why I moved to LA.”
His face brightened, the fine wrinkles around his eyes crinkling next to the silver at his temples. “That’s great.” He smacked the side of my arm and with another wink and pointed at the card in my hand. “Hey, hit me up, all right?”
I held it up. “Will do.”
I never got the nerve to hit him up, though. Weeks later, he ended up contacting me, and it was the night my life was changed forever.
I shook my head to clear the memory.
