Page 10 of How to Hack a Hellhound (Hellhounds of Paradise Falls #2)

Chapter 10

Liam

I watched Aiden and Quinton eat breakfast through the cameras, but I had turned the sound off at Aiden’s request. I was nothing if not respectful of privacy.

“They’re pack now?” Corbin asked as he walked into my office and saw the guys on my screen. He sat next to me at the second chair I’d brought in for Quinton to use when he came over. A crow perched on Corbin’s shoulder, but at my look, it flew off and… I don’t really know where it went. Probably Corbin’s room, where he left a window open for them. Hopefully it hadn’t gone to shit on my stuff. I hadn’t offended the crows that I knew of, and I really wanted to keep it that way.

They were vengeful fuckers, which is why I respected them.

“Quinton and Aiden?” I asked, although that was obviously who he was talking about.

“Yes. Quinton is yours, I think, but Aiden isn’t,” he stated. “But they both feel like pack. I can sense the bonds there, ready to form.”

Corbin was the very unique mixture of being part witch along with being a hellhound. He often knew strange shit, and we knew to trust him on it. He was connected to things that the rest of us weren’t.

“If they feel like pack, then we’ll treat them like pack. It’s good they’ve agreed to move in here with us,” I answered. I thought for a moment, then I added, “My hellhound thinks Quinton is mine.”

Corbin just nodded his head, as if that was perfectly normal. After a pause he said, “Atlas is around. He dealt with some difficult humans, and he’ll be in hellhound form for a while. He’ll join us if necessary.”

I looked at him, wondering if Atlas needed assistance from us. I doubt he had spoken to Corbin, but sometimes he would speak to the crows, and they would tell Corbin. If he was staying in hellhound form, he was feeling a bit feral. I raised my eyebrows in question.

“He’ll be ok, I think. Just wanted to let you know,” Corbin said. “Also, we’ll need to build another structure—a cabin I think. Jude, Dexter, and I will get started on it. Back behind one of the houses, but a decent distance away.”

“Now?” I asked. It was a good idea, but there were some logistical issues associated with it. Technically, each house sat on a few acres, and there was plenty of space behind them and next to them to build more. The pool house was evidence of that. Still, getting more property would be a good idea, but most of it was tied up in an open space preserve.

“Jude is good with people. He can find out about acquiring more land, and we can pick a spot and build,” he said, almost like he knew exactly what I was thinking. He probably did.

“Ok. Let me know if I need to fix some things. I might be able to change the acreage and property lines in the human computer systems, but they tend to have a lot of paper documents for that sort of stuff as well, and if we can acquire it the old-fashioned way that would be best,” I said.

With that, Corbin got up and left.

I looked back at my computer screens, but my eyes were continuously drawn away from my research and towards Aiden and Quinton. They had finished eating breakfast. Perhaps now was a good time to go and introduce myself to Aiden. I couldn’t seem to concentrate on work, anyway. Plus, I had already spent some time following the money trail and was delving into individuals now, and I thought Quinton might like to be a part of that.

With that, I got up and headed into the bathroom to check myself. I wanted to make a good impression, after all. Satisfied that every hair was in place and my outfit was unwrinkled from sitting at the computer, I headed over to the pool house.

I was about to walk in when I hesitated. Perhaps I should knock? Quinton had seemed surprised to find me in his living room when he came out of the shower, and I didn’t want to upset Aiden. He was the timid mouse to Quinton’s little hellcat, and I didn’t want to get off to a bad start with him.

This whole thing with humans and privacy was all a little ridiculous. We’d never had to worry about such things before.

Of course, we’d never actually kept any humans before, either. We were used to just appearing in a human’s house whenever we wanted. Although those were all humans we were planning to kill, so maybe the rules were a little different when it came to ones you were going to keep.

I should’ve asked Jude. Or even Toby, although he was always saying he was “quirky,” so I wasn’t sure if he was an accurate indicator for human actions either.

I was about to pull out my phone to text Jude when the door opened. Quinton was standing in front of it, smirking.

“You know we can see you lurking out here behind the curtain. You gonna knock or just stand there being a creepy stalker?” he snarked.

I heard Aiden gasp a bit from behind him. The open floor plan did allow them to see the door from the living room and kitchen area. I wondered if we ought to have the door replaced with something that didn’t have windows. It was good for them to be able to see out, but windows were breakable.

“Well?” he snapped, raising an eyebrow. Oh, my little hellcat’s claws were out. I smiled at him, which only seemed to confuse him.

“I wasn’t sure if I should knock or just enter,” I admitted. “Also, I was wondering if you should have a solid front door with no windows.”

He looked at me, then looked back at Aiden, who I could see sitting on a stool in the kitchen, looking surprised at Quinton’s snarky attitude. I wasn’t sure why that would be the case, though, since he lived and worked with Quinton, so surely he was used to it by now.

Aiden sighed at him, then came over and pushed him gently out of the way. “Come on in. Don’t mind crankypants, here. It’s still technically morning, and apparently mornings are only for caffeine and sass.”

“And don’t forget sex,” Quinton muttered under his breath.

I raised my eyebrows at him, giving him an up and down look. Did he want morning sex? He hadn’t been having any, but maybe he wanted it now? I would be happy to provide for him if that was what he needed. He blushed at my perusal, which was rather adorable.

Aiden was amused. “Did you break him? I don’t think I’ve ever seen Quinton blush, and you should have heard how that one guy propositioned him at the coffee shop. He didn’t even bat an eyelash before he told the guy what he could do instead. I think everyone else in the vicinity blushed, but not Quinton.”

Quinton was frozen in place, but Aiden seemed ok. He motioned me in and went to sit down on the couch, and I followed him into the living room. I heard Quinton start to move after me and smiled again. Aiden saw it, and looked between us assessingly.

He patted the seat next to him, saying, “Q?”

Quinton sat next to him, and I sat in the armchair catty corner to the couch. Aiden watched me as he snuggled up next to Quinton, who automatically put an arm around him. He laid his head on Quinton’s shoulder, still staring at me. I wasn’t sure why.

“So, you’ll be our new sort-of roommate,” Aiden said.

“Yes, if that’s how you’d like to think of it. Everyone here will protect you both, though,” I added.

Aiden gave Quinton a kiss on the cheek, which made Quinton look vaguely confused. He really was adorable. His hair was still a bit mussed, and although he was beautiful when he put on eyeliner, he looked softer with a fresh face. I knew he had claws, though, and I thought again of his comment about sex. I’d love to have his claws on my back or my thighs. He was incredibly sexy sitting there in pajama pants and a t-shirt, slightly mussed. It made me want to muss him up even more, which was kind of funny, considering I tended to hate things messy.

Aiden snorted to himself, and I looked back at him. He gently smacked Quinton in the arm. “I see how it is,” he murmured.

“What?” Quinton asked.

Aiden snorted again. “I’m going outside to take a walk. It isn’t that cold out today, and Jude said the property is protected. How far does that reach?” he asked me.

“Hmm,” I said thoughtfully. I did have cameras and trackers set up on much of the protected land and on all of our land, plus Atlas was apparently out there. “I would say the woods are safe. I wouldn’t go beyond them, though, although I doubt you’d walk that far anyway.”

Aiden smiled. “No. There’s, like, acres and acres back there. I’m just gonna explore a bit and leave you two to chat.” He went and grabbed a coat and hat, and on his way out, he added, “You need to announce your presence when you come in so we know who’s here. We both do that. I’ll be sure to do that as well. Announce my return. Loudly. But I’ll probably be gone for a bit. I feel like a nice long walk.”

I was unsure why Aiden gave us so much information, but he just smirked at Quinton as he went out the door, which made Quinton blush again.

I wondered if he would blush like that if I kissed him.

He looked back at me, then he rolled his eyes and seemed to find his claws again. “You can’t just keep looking at me like that!” he demanded.

“Like what?” I asked.

He rolled his eyes at me. “Like you want to rip my clothes off.”

“I would never rip your clothes. Unless that’s something you’d like, that is,” I answered. I realized after I said it that the phrase was probably not literal, but Dexter and Toby had ripped some clothes during sex, so I wasn’t really sure.

He smiled at me, and I swear it was a little fond. “Alright, Creepy Stalker, if there’s no morning sex going on, let’s start digging into Marcus and his cronies.”

“Is morning sex something you would like to happen first?” I asked.

This entire visit was rather confusing. We’d gotten onto the topic of sex, and Aiden, who I was supposed to be here to meet, had left, and I wasn’t really sure what was expected of me. I would love to have sex with Quinton, but Jude had given me a lecture about how I couldn’t jump into sex with human packmates like they were some ‘randos’ we were getting off with for ‘funsies.’ Still, surely a little interaction wouldn’t be bad manners. After all, if Quinton was in need…

“I would be glad to provide you with a release, if you’d like one,” I said.

Quinton smiled, all teeth, and got up from the couch, stalking toward me. I had the distinct feeling that my little hellcat was on the hunt, and somehow I had turned into the prey. I sat very still, waiting to see what he would do.

He climbed onto my lap, his legs on either side of mine. My hands came up automatically to hold his back, and he lifted himself onto his knees so my hands were on his ass and he was looking down at me.

He was so fucking beautiful. It took my breath away. His spirit was a flame, burning into my very core. I felt my hellhound stirring, and I was sure my eyes were flames, but I couldn’t help it. I stayed very still, not wanting to startle Quinton. He just put his hands on both sides of my face, though.

“Look at you. You’re so put together in your slacks and dress shirts, every hair in place”—he ran his hands through my hair at that, purposely mussing it—“but there’s fire. I didn’t know you wanted me.”

I stared at him. He looked predatory, but also somehow vulnerable. This sex kitten was not the Quinton I knew. Yes, this was the Quinton from his social media pages. This was probably the Quinton who went clubbing, but this wasn’t the Quinton I watched every day.

He was staring at me, waiting. I didn’t move a muscle.

“Are you going to take what’s being offered, Liam?” he asked, leaning down but not quite meeting my lips.

All I had to do was lean up and I’d be kissing him. I would be able to taste him, feel his body against mine. But it was… wrong, somehow. He didn’t usually call me Liam; I was his creepy stalker, and I liked when he called me that.

“You’re very good at being a sex kitten, but I prefer my hellcat with teeth and claws,” I said, looking into his eyes. “I won’t take anything from you, Quinton. I’ll give you whatever you want, though.”

He dropped the smirking, sexy face, and searched my eyes. I’m sure they were still burning, but I couldn’t help that. Usually I could, but he was so close, and so warm, and he smelled so good—like dark chocolate or a fancy cup of coffee, sweet and bitter—and my hellhound wanted to roll in the scent of him.

He leaned down and pressed his lips to mine. I let him take the lead, our mouths pressing together lightly. He licked against my lips, and I opened for him. His tongue darted out to meet mine, but he kept the touches gentle, little teasing touches that made me ache for more, yet I followed his lead.

I was hard and aching from the taste of him. He was divine.

He eased up and pressed his forehead to mine. I breathed in deep, basking in his scent. It was a little sweeter now, but that hint of dark chocolate bitterness was still there. It was lovely. I liked my sweetness with a bit of bitter in it.

He leaned back, smiling at me. This wasn’t the sex kitten smirk or the hellcat with claws, though. He looked fond.

“Did you just sniff me?” he asked.

I shrugged. “You smell good.”

He laughed at that, a real, genuine, laugh, and got up off my lap. “Ok, Creepy Stalker, let’s go do some research about the bad guys.”

Having Quinton in my office was satisfying. I’d even offered him food and drink, and I never ate or drank in my office. I would have let Quinton, though.

He had texted Aiden to let him know where we were going, and he’d responded with a selfie in the woods on a trail. I’d probably need to talk to Aiden about his personal situation at some point, but I was monitoring things, and I didn’t think there was any cause for concern there yet.

“So you can’t just, like, track them down through their address or whatever?” Quinton was asking, watching as one program ran through emails on one screen and another program ran through social media on another screen.

“Their IP address? Most humans are just a little tech savvy, and they conduct their business through online chat rooms, or even in chats on games. The human police catch a decent number of them, and they’re constantly setting traps up for people who do that,” I answered.

“But our guys are more than a little tech savvy?” Quinton asked. “Do they use, like, the darknet or whatever?”

I smiled. “The dark web is really just overlay networks. That means you need authorization or specific software or configurations to access it. Yes, illegal activity occurs on it, but lots of companies use overlay networks as well. It’s all a part of the deep web, which just means it isn’t searchable with something like Google. Your online banking is technically the deep web.”

“I’m on the ‘deep web,’ huh? Cool,” he laughed. “So somehow shit is harder to trace on the deep web?”

“People who are really good at illegal online activity use something like Tor, which is an onion router.” He looked confused, so I explained, “It encrypts user data and sends it onto another relay, or node. So basically, it’s like layers in an onion, and each layer encrypts the data and sends it on. Although not totally impossible to track, it’s extremely time consuming and difficult. Then there’s the fact that people use VPNs to mask their IP addresses. Smart people are very hard to track, and this organization is an established ring that probably has someone giving them directions on what to do, so their people are not doing stupid shit.”

“Unfortunately for us,” Quinton groused.

“Yes, but fortunately for us, individual people are stupid, and they do things which inevitably leave a trail,” I said, pointing to a picture of James currently on the one screen. “They use social media, they take pictures with people who suddenly no longer go to the club after a few months. Are some of them legitimately just not out clubbing? Sure. Are some of them victims of human trafficking? Unfortunately.”

“Wow. So, you’re like, what, checking all his socials for people who are missing?” Quinton asked.

“Yes. I’m also using facial recognition software to cross reference the camera feeds for the club with missing persons and people who default on their rent and are served eviction notices. Plus I’m cross referencing social media that has gone dark with people who are friends online with anyone from the club.”

“Holy shit. This really is the batcave. You’re totally like Morgan Freeman. Or maybe I’m Morgan Freeman?” he asked.

I had no clue what he was talking about, and I looked at him, raising an eyebrow.

“We’re totally watching The Dark Knight ,” he told me.

I smiled. “I would enjoy watching a movie with you.”

“You’re such a dork, Creepy Stalker,” he laughed.

I wasn’t sure why I was a dork, but the affectionate way he said it made it more like a compliment than an insult. I turned back to the computer, which was starting to give us matches of possibly suspicious people.

Quinton and I spent most of the afternoon going through them, listing them and recording his impression as well as the feeling I got from their internet footprint. Quinton was completely impressed with my “technology superpower,” as he called it, although I did explain that it was difficult to judge much without doing a deepdive into their online presence. We had a lot of people to go through, though, so it was surface checks for now. Which meant if they pinged my radar, they could be involved in human trafficking, or they could just be mildly shitty human beings.

Unfortunately, there were a lot of mildly shitty human beings in the world. We still ruled out quite a few, though, and we broke for lunch before going back to it. By the time Quinton’s phone rang, it was dark out, and I was sad to think of our day ending.

“You coming home for dinner?” I heard Aiden ask.

“Yup. I was just doing research with Liam,” he said. He looked at the clock. “Holy shit, Aiden, sorry—I didn’t even realize what time it was.”

“It’s ok. I knew where you were if I needed you. I did cook, though.” There was a pause, then Aiden added, “Bring your creepy stalker over.”

Quinton lowered his voice, asking, “Are you sure?”

“Yeah,” Aiden said. “We didn’t really get to know each other this morning, because you two were making eyes at each other, so bring him over for dinner.”

They said their goodbyes, and Quinton hung up, looking at me. I knew I was smiling, and he just huffed. “Alright then, come meet Aiden again, and be nice to him, got it?”

“Of course,” I said. “I’m always polite.”

“If you say so, Creepy Stalker,” he chuckled.

“I do, little hellcat,” I replied back. I glanced at my computer before I got up and followed Quinton out. Usually nothing would drag me away from the middle of research, but Quinton… he was definitely something.