Page 79 of Ruthless Bishop (Sinners and Saints 3)

Local students from Thorne Point Junior Academy commended for their fundraiser work, along with their advisor, Harold K. Coleman.

An icy sensation drags down my back like vicious nails. Harold. If my name was Harold, I’d go by Henry, too. I swear to god, if Coleman’s middle name is Knight…

My violent thoughts race too fast to sort out. I click on the link while my heart thuds.

An auto-download triggers.

“Shit!” I fumble with the keyboard and mouse, but I’m too slow to stop it. Within seconds, the file downloads and runs an install package. “Mother fuck—no!”

Goddamn it, I’m better than this. I know not to click on unfamiliar links or download fishy files, no matter how funny an angry desktop goose sounds. Learned that the hard way thanks to a trending TikTok video. Wasn’t worth it, twelve out of ten wouldn’t recommend.

Whoever this is, they’re good. They confused a major search engine to show their download within the results, luring anyone looking hard to find Coleman once they put together enough of the puzzle. That is top level shit. I have no idea how they pulled it off.

An 8-bit crow animation flies across my screen, the little black bird mocking me. The screen goes dark and flashes with a skull. Once the crow lands on top of the skull, the whole monitor display glitches

into pixelated distortion before returning to normal.

I’m looking around for the crow, ready to drag its ass to the trash can icon, when a chat window pops up. There’s no way anyone should have access to my system. Whatever was in that download package, it infiltrated my firewalls.

Dolos: Looking for info on Harold Coleman?

I hesitate to answer, rubbing my jaw. This whole thing feels hinky.

Dolos: Time’s ticking. Answer now.

When I don’t respond, they message again.

Dolos: Connor Alexander Bishop. Ridgeview, Colorado. Senior at Silver Lake High School. Varsity soccer captain. Son of city council chairwoman Vivian Bishop. Active social media presence. Girlfriend, Thea Kennedy. Oh, she lives next door. Cute. Should we keep going?

“Jesus.” I push back from the desk and scrub my face.

Within seconds they were able to doxx me and get a whole picture of my life. Not just mine. Thea’s, through her connection to me. This is a professional who knows what they’re doing.

If they’re on my system, they could get into my blackmail files or find the backdoor to Thea. Not happening. I drag myself back and release a ragged breath.

Connor: Enough, I get it. I’m here. Nice work on the search result embedding. You got me.

Dolos: Glad you’re paying attention.

Connor: You have details on Coleman?

Dolos: We do.

Connor: And??? Give it to me. I need it.

Dolos: That’s not how this works. First you need to do us a favor. If you’re successful, we’ll give you everything you’re searching for.

Connor: And if I refuse?

They can give it to me now or not at all. I don’t have time to play games. I’ll get it on my own.

Dolos: You can try. You’ll never find what you’re looking for. Coleman has friends in high places with deep pockets that helped him disappear the last time we had him pinned down. We’re the only ones with the info. It’s no longer public record.

Sighing, I pinch the bridge of my nose.

Connor: Who are you?

Dolos: Unimportant right now. Are you ready to make a deal?

---