Page 24 of Vicious Vows

“I’m sure he’s fine,” Luke growls, then turns over. He’s acting jealous, though he has no reason to be. If he took the time to ask me who Will is and why I’m thinking of him, he’d understand. I’m not planning to offer details, though. I want to be valued for who I am, not just for what I do. Luke clearly sees my value as his asset, but I don’t think he sees me as a partner yet, at least not in the marital sense.

I’m so frustrated by it that I lie wide awake long after Luke is fast asleep. I listen to his snoring fill the air and try to turn over and plug my ears, but I can’t shake the idea that something isactually wrong with Will. It’s not like him to just go completely silent. He’s never gotten so upset with me that he just stopped speaking to me, and it hurts that he has.

My mind starts to replay everything that’s happened. I’m stuck here hacking for a Mob boss, and my best friend used to help me with this sort of thing. Now he isn’t speaking to me, despite everything we’ve been through, and my new boss-slash-lover won’t let me leave our house without an escort. It doesn’t add up. If Luke’s done something to Will, I’m going to kill him myself.

Anger forces me out of bed. I slip on a pair of jeans and grab a sweater and socks and head down to my makeshift office inside Luke’s office. As long as I’ve been doing this and for how big this place is, I should have my own office by now. But I never complain because who knows what may happen to me if I do? I just take the orders in stride and do what I’m told, just like Dad told me to.

But tonight, I want to be bad. I want to break the rules and resist Luke’s leadership. I want to do what I know is the right thing, and no one is going to stop me. Yes, the cameras track my every move, but after ten weeks of being here, I know no one is watching these cameras all night long. Besides, this isn’t the first time I’ve gotten up in the middle of the night with insomnia and gotten to work.

I plop down in my chair and power my computer on as I slide my feet into my socks and shrug into my sweater. The screen flickers to life, and I enter my password. At first, I don’t really know what I’m doing or why I’m here, but it hits me that if I can hack into Luke’s casino security system and fix it, I can hack into his home security and screw it up. I’m more capable than the half-wit Luke’s enemies had tampering with the camera I fixed.

So that’s what I do. I dive into the hack with one niggling motivation. I want to go to Will’s house, and that means I have to be able to make myself vanish on this home security first, and if I can pull that off, I can disarm this ankle monitor. Then all I have to do is catch a cab across town to his house and say what I need to say. I can be back before first light, and Luke will never know. It’s not like I intend to leave for good. I just want to see my friend.

My fingers find the right combination of letters and numbers, typing in the commands and prompts that help me slip right into the weak firewall. He really should fix that, and when I’m done with what I need to do, maybe I’ll fix it for him. It’s the least I can do.

In no time, I have the entire system down then rebooted with myself in control. I order it to create a twenty-minute loop and then set it to play.

When that is functioning how it’s supposed to, I turn my attention to the ankle monitor. This one will be a bit trickier. First off, I’ve never hacked something like this, and secondly, this isn’t monitored by some third-party security company. I’ve seen the app on Luke’s phone when he disarms the thing so I can go in public. If I screw this up, it will alert him immediately at the very least, and he warned me that it will set off an alarm. How and where that alarm sounds is anybody’s guess.

But I attempt it anyway. I run into a much stronger security protocol and fail several times at breaking through the firewall. I can see why police use these things to keep track of criminals, including cyber criminals like me. There are so many layers to the security, I’m not sure I can actually hack through them all. I may be better off to take my chances cutting the damn thing offand making a run for it. But that would only make him think I’m running away.

I’m not. I don’t want to. I think I am falling in love with him. I just want him to respect that I have a life outside of him and his jobs for me that I miss and want back.

Somewhere about an hour into this hack, I make a huge mistake. I’m not even sure what it is I’ve even done wrong, but the alarm starts blaring, both in the room and on my leg. I panic, pushing buttons on the cuff to try to silence it, then turning to the computer to try to shut the thing off, but by the time I get it silenced, it’s already drawn attention.

I look up to see Vic and another man I don’t know storm in, followed by Luke who looks like he’s been drooling. I cower as Vic grabs me by the bicep and pushes the power button on my computer, glaring at me, and Luke shakes his head.

“Look, you don’t understand. It’s not what you think.” I try to get away from him, squirming and pulling my arm. His grip hurts, especially when he forces me forward toward the door, and Luke who looks so angry with me, he could kill.

“And exactly what was it, then?” he snarls, taking over where Vic leaves off as he gives me a hard shove.

“I wanted to go see if Will is alright,” I whimper, being dragged up the hallway now. My arm bends at an awkward angle, and I yelp in pain, but Luke doesn’t relent. He’s seething mad, stomping his feet and glaring. “Please, I just wanted to see him. I wasn’t trying to run away.”

Luke is silent other than heavy breathing. And when I stop and pull back, he yanks me forward, causing me to stumble and fall. After which, he picks me up and throws me over his shoulderlike a rag doll, and I kick and scream, pounding my fists into his back.

“Let me go, you barbarian. I have rights!”

“Shut up,” he orders, and I see him turn toward the old room, the one where he locks me up, not his bed. Not his warmth. Not with him.

“No, please, Luke. Please, I wasn’t leaving. I was just going to check on my friend.” Tears well up in my eyes. I don't want this. I don’t want to be alone. I want his warmth holding me. “Please, baby.”

“You disobeyed me and now you have to be punished.” Luke slams the door open and storms into the room, dropping me on the bed.

“You have to believe me. I just wanted to see my friend.”

“I’m your friend now, Micah. Me. No one else.” His nostrils flare, and he backs toward the door.

“Please. I need to find out if he’s okay. He hasn’t been speaking to me.” I slide across the bed, hoping to get to him, to reach out and touch him. “Please don’t leave me here. I want to be with you.”

Luke looks hurt now too, not just angry. The tiny lines around his eyes are different when he’s just angry. He doesn’t believe me. He thinks Will is more than a friend to me. He thinks I was running away from him or cheating on him.

“Please, I love you,” I whimper, reaching for him. But he backs out the door and slams it, and I hear the lock click into place. “No!” I cry, running to the door. I jiggle the handle and sob,leaning against the wood. “No, please,” I call out as tears sluice down my cheeks. “I wasn’t leaving. I don’t want to leave.”

My body slides down the door, and I land in a heap, curled up and crying. I don’t have my phone or my computer, no way of contacting the outside world or even Luke if I wanted to. My heart hurts, my arm hurts, and now I’m alone. This isn’t what I wanted at all, but now my heart craves home like never before.

18

LUKE

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