Page 84 of Havoc

Chapter 25

Havoc

We took Devin into one of the cells we reserved in the basement for enemies of our club. Throughout the last few days, the only thing he’s been open with is talking trash about Aaron Slater. For some reason, he hated the guy. When it came to his boss, Slater’s father, his lips were fucking sealed.

We’d had to give Hacker a few days to sift through the intel we got from the servers. He’d found some juicy tidbits we could use. So now, we were ready to break through his resistance. The timing was perfect because he seemed to be going stir-crazy in our lockup.

Storm stood against the wall with his arms crossed. He could look formidable when he wanted to. And today was one of those days. Celt leaned against the door, using his pocketknife to scrape around his nails.

Me? I was frustrated as hell. I wanted nothing better than to beat the shit out of Slater, but that option was apparently off the table. Our club attorney pointed out that beating him up and then handing him over to law enforcement wouldn’t go well for the club. The plan was to keep him in our lockup until his wounds from our fight fully healed and then turn him over to our police contact along with incriminating information from his family’s servers. Riley had been happy about that plan. Me, not so fuckin’ much. In my opinion, Slater was getting off far too lightly.

Today, I was sitting across the table from Devin, trying to look as intimidating as possible. To be honest, it wasn’t that hard because part of the Dark Slayers’ job description is to look tough. Elbows planted, jaw locked. I’d been holding his gaze for three minutes without blinking. It really didn’t matter how successful I was anyway because I was supposed to flip to good cop once the interrogation got heated.

I leaned over the table and flexed my arm muscles. “Morning, Devin. Is there anything you want to tell us this morning?”

“So, this is how it’s going to be. You brought me in and threw me in a cell for days and now you’re going to threaten me,” he said, looking from one to the other of us.

“Calm the fuck down, dude. There’s no need to freak the fuck out on us.”

“You can’t hold me here. This isn’t legal.”

Storm snorted a laugh. “Neither is selling your skills to criminals. You’re not exactly a fucking paragon of virtue yourself, Devin.”

Devin shifted uncomfortably in his seat. “I don’t know why you’re treating me this way. I’m not any kind of threat to your club.”

“Then you’ve got nothing to worry about,” I said. “Take some deep breaths and calm down.”

He grabbed the bottle of coke we’d given him earlier and took a long drink. The minute he set the bottle back down, he was panicking all over again. “I just keep their computers running. That’s all. I don’t snoop into their shit, so I don’t know anything useful.”

“Don’t feckin’ insult our intelligence, Devin,” Celt bit out, frustration lacing his tone. “Some of us have wives and kids. We don’t have all day to waste with you.”

Storm added, “We pulled the data from your servers. There was lots of interesting shit in there and some of it even tracked back to you.”

Devin froze for a long minute. “Yeah, because before I was their IT guy, I was their gopher. I did what they told me to do. I wasn’t involved in decision making and didn’t particularly approve of the shit they did.”

I leaned forward, looking at him intently. “Hacker broke your encryption protocols. We know every fucking thing you’re trying to hide from the world. Not everything makes complete sense. That’s why we want you to put the pieces of the puzzle together for us. We truly want to understand, so innocent people don’t get hurt.”

“I’m just a guy who taught himself about computers,” he said. “They tell me what to do. I do the job and get paid. That’s seriously all there is to it.” When we didn’t immediately reply, he added, “These are not the kind of men you ask a bunch of questions to.”

“Why would you have had to ask questions, though?” Storm stated flatly. “You were the one who built the whole goddamn system. You could access information on pretty much everything at will.”

Devin immediately shot back. “That’s not true. They only gave me partial access. Sure, I isolated databases because I had to. I didn’t look at their communication or the…” Devin shut himself up in mid-sentence, snapping his mouth shut.

Celt strolled closer, put both hands on the table and leaned to ask, “Or the what, Devin? Finish yer feckin’ sentence. We’re all interested in what ye have to say.”

“No way. I’m not giving you any sensitive intel about their operation unless you can guarantee my safety. I open my mouth and I’m a dead man.”

Storm straightened up and came over to stand beside his cousin. “If that’s the price of your cooperation, fine. The president of an allied club called me from Arizona, asking me if I knew any hackers or IT professionals. He’s got a lot going on and his equipment is failing, and they need someone bad. If your intel proves to be good, I’ll recommend you for the job. They’ll protect you and you can fly under the radar.”

Devin hesitated. “What’s the pay?”

Storm answered truthfully, “They said the pay was negotiable, but you get a new name and paperwork.”

I added, “Their club is a safe distance from Griffinsford.”

Before he could respond, Hacker wheeled himself through the door. He jerked his chin at Storm. “Let us be. I’ll handle it from here.”

Storm glanced between Celt and Hacker before asking, “Are you being serious right now?”

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