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

Chapter 2

Liam

W here the fuck was Quinton going?

I stared at the video feed from the CCTV camera outside the coffee shop, watching him follow Toby to a car.

I knew Toby—he was Dex’s mate and he was basically pack, so he was trustworthy.

Still, I didn’t like the deviation from Quinton’s routine.

I double checked the phone I had cloned to his, but there were no messages indicating what was happening. Not that he messaged many people aside from Aiden and Cassius. He didn’t have much family—he was an only child, and his parents had both passed away—and it seemed that he had little desire to reconnect with any friends or acquaintances from before his kidnapping.

That was fine. I liked him in Paradise Falls, where I could easily keep an eye on him. I pulled up various street cams and watched Toby’s car start traveling.

I heard a whimper from behind me, and I turned around to look at the hellbound mortal tied to the chair.

“You’re dripping blood everywhere, you know. Are you ready to seek your placement in hell yet?” I asked.

The man frantically shook his head no, mumbling behind his gag. Mortals. The desire to live was strong. I’d also filled him in on what awaited him once he reached hell, so I supposed he wasn’t much looking forward to that either.

Still, I was getting itchy to be done with this one, especially if Toby and Quinton were heading off somewhere to get into trouble. I hadn’t spent a lot of time with Toby. I’d met him once or twice at Dex’s house, but between wrapping up the sale of my old place and securing the sale of the home next to Dexter’s, I hadn’t been around much in the last few weeks. I was finally ready to head back to Paradise Falls, since I was finishing with the last hellbound soul in a ring of evil humans I’d been tracking down and disposing of. When it was done, I would be able to focus my full attention on Quinton and the people who hurt him.

Not that I hadn’t already started digging into the human who had taken him. That guy was, fortunately for him, dead, but I would find the others who were connected. It was what I did.

I rolled up the sleeves of my black dress shirt and walked over to the man I was currently dealing with. “I don’t know what else you can give me. I think it might be time for you to move on.”

He made frantic mumbling sounds, and I removed his gag.

“Please. I can tell you more,” he whimpered.

“You have given me the name of anyone you knew personally, which was a disappointingly small number. You have given me access to all your accounts. I have erased anything you uploaded to the internet to the best of my ability, and I’ve planted tracking viruses in anything that is left. I’ve used your bank accounts to pay reparations to the victims and families of those who have been hurt by your crimes. What more can you offer me, human?” I asked.

He started mumbling about underground networks and blah blah blah, but I looked over at the CCTV cameras again. It seemed that they were headed to Toby’s home, and I sighed in relief. At least they’d be under Dex’s supervision, although I hadn’t hacked into Toby’s computers or his home, since I generally had no interest in watching Toby or Dex. I now realized how shortsighted that was of me. From what I knew of Toby, I wasn’t surprised he would try and befriend Quinton.

“...and I didn’t even hurt any of those people. It wasn’t me who did that stuff,” the man was whimpering. “I can help you find the truly evil people who did all that. I don’t deserve to die and go to hell.”

I sighed and looked back at him. “You paid people to rape and torture others so you could watch it, get off on it, and make money from it on the internet. Your soul is black. There is no hope for you. I’ve already tracked down your associates, and they’re all dead. You’re the only one left, and I have better things to do than deal with you any further. You may plead your case to the Judge of the Damned in hell,” I stated, and then I placed my hand on his chest and engulfed him in flame.

It was quick, and the glory of hellhound flame was that it only destroyed what I wished it to. It made cleanup stress free.

I did like things clean. And neat. And orderly.

Which is why I was not pleased about Quinton not going home.

When the mess was burned to nothing but ashes, I walked over and hit the start button on the robot vacuum I’d bought, glancing down to make sure there were no stray blood droplets on the floor. My old robot vacuum had taken it upon itself to autorun, only a hellbound mortal had still been in the room, dripping blood, and I had been out grabbing some breakfast. The results had been… unfortunate. It had dragged blood across the entire floor, including the carpet, which was of course ruined.

That robot vacuum might have accidentally met a fiery death for its poorly timed decision, but the newer upgraded model I bought didn’t make such mistakes. While it started cleaning up the ashes, I put a call in to Dexter.

“What is Toby doing?” I asked without preamble.

“Having a ‘guys night’ with his friends,” Dex answered.

“Why is he bringing Quinton?”

“Uh… I don’t know?” Dex answered.

Typical. “Watch over them,” I commanded, and Dex merely snorted before hanging up. Asshole.

Dex wasn’t the brightest flame in the house fire, especially when it came to dealing with humans, but I knew he’d protect Toby and his friends. And it wasn’t like I could really claim any expertise in the human area, either. I didn’t interact with humans much outside of the internet, aside from the usual torture and death stuff.

And watching Quinton. But that was a new hobby.

I’d managed to get ahold of the security footage from the mansion where Quinton was rescued, and of course, they’d had cameras throughout the house and the wine cellar. They all went to private servers, but that wasn’t a problem. I’d watched the footage before erasing its existence, and the minute I’d seen Dex open the door in the cellar, I’d been captivated by the short, wiry guy who had thrown himself out of the room at Dex, scratching and biting.

He was so feisty, and I was enthralled by his energy.

Then there was what I saw with my other talent. Hellhounds could sniff out evil. It’s how we worked. Or at least it was supposed to be how we worked.

When computers had first been invented, I’d taken to them immediately. I’d seen the potential for human depravity, but I’d also seen the potential for hunting down our prey. I don’t know exactly when it started, but I had feelings about those I interacted with online. I just figured it was intuition. Yes, that one seems evil, and then I’d find them in person, and I’d smell the rot.

It didn’t take long before I realized I was always right. I could tell the hellbound souls from the innocents. I thought I was just good at reading into interactions with humans, but then I started to be able to do it without interacting at all. Just watching their online footprint, reading their mundane emails, or watching them on camera gave me a sense of their souls. It was… almost like a flavor. It was like my hellhound turned into an algorithm that could trace evil.

And the moment I’d seen Quinton burst through that door, my hellhound had perked right up. He was most definitely not a hellbound soul. His flavor was exotic and alluring, though, and I wanted more.

I was used to getting what I wanted. So I watched him, and I only became more captivated by him. It wasn’t hard to clone his phone, or to hack into his laptop so I could watch him through his camera.

Not that I neglected my other duties, of course. I checked on all of Toby’s friends, but I had no desire to dig deeper into their lives. I did look a little more into Aiden, especially since he was Quinton’s roommate, and he presented his own problems. Nevertheless, I wasn’t terribly concerned about that. We could handle anything that got thrown at us.

My phone rang, and I wasn’t surprised when a blocked number showed up. I picked up without speaking.

“I see your human manners haven’t improved much,” a gruff voice chided.

“You could have been a telemarketer. No reason to say hello to the bots,” I answered.

Wilder gave a bark of laughter at that. “Boy, don’t pretend that you haven’t blocked all telemarketers from this number somehow. You always were the best with all the technology shit.”

I just smiled. Wilder was, in every way that counted, my father. He was also utterly without bullshit, so when he praised you, you damn well knew you’d earned it.

Wilder had adopted all of us when we were young hellhounds, because we all didn’t fit into our lives for one reason or another. We were now effectively a tight-knit pack, but we’d been working separately for quite awhile—humans got suspicious when you didn’t age.

“Seems like my boys have been busy from the last message you sent. Fill me in,” he said.

I had given him a rough summary in a message, but I went into detail now, telling him how we all felt good about Paradise Falls as a new home base. I also filled him in on Dexter’s human neighbor that he’d decided to keep.

Wilder grunted. “It’s not unheard of for a hellhound to mate a human. Not that Toby is exactly mortal anymore if Dex has claimed him.”

I didn’t quite know what to do with that statement, and if Wilder didn’t want to explain, he wouldn’t. I was never sure if that was because he just didn’t feel like explaining or because he just didn’t know. He was one of the original hellhounds, and he’d probably forgotten more than I’d ever know in my lifetime, no matter how many centuries long it might be.

“Will you come?” I asked instead. I knew everyone would be happy if Wilder joined us, but I also knew he often had a lot of shit going on. He had devoted decades to raising us into the hellhounds we were, and he deserved a chance to go off and do whatever he wanted.

“Of course I’ll come. You think I’m going to let my boys have all the fun without me? Someone needs to check up on you miscreants,” he joked.

And that was why Wilder was more of a father than any of our original parents. We were always his boys. Still, I let out a sigh of relief.

“How is everyone?” he asked. “I know you’ve been keeping tabs. Always the big brother of the group.”

“They’re good. Atlas has even shown up a few times in Paradise Falls. I think he’ll end up staying as well. I’ve designated a back house on the one property for him if he wants it,” I answered. “The sale has gone through on the house next to Dexter’s, so we own both properties, and Dexter’s mate owns the third. Dex has basically moved in there, so we have two houses between the rest of us, along with the smaller back house. There’s a lot of land, and we can expand if necessary.”

Wilder grunted in approval.

“There’s a decent number of angels and demons running around town, which concerned me at first, but they really seem to be flying below the radar as well. The only demon who showed up to cause trouble was actually dealt with by an angel, an oracle, and Dexter,” I added.

“An angel, an oracle, and a hellhound walk into a town…” Wilder joked. He trailed off then, and I let him have a moment to think.

I turned back to the cameras that Dexter had installed around Toby’s property. I could still see lights on inside, and no cars had come or gone, so I was sure Quinton was safely inside. I’d have to hack into his phone’s microphone. It would be so much simpler if I could hear what was going on.

“Ok. I’ll be coming, but right now I’m working on something… delicate. Tell the boys not to worry, and I’ll be in touch,” Wilder said, dragging my attention back to the call.

“I’m not there yet, either. I just finished my last bit of business here, but my place is cleaned out and I’ll be packing up the car for the road trip back to Paradise Falls in the morning,” I answered.

“Good. You boys look out for each other, and you know how to get in touch if any of you need me,” he said.

“Of course. Same for you, you know. We’ll gladly help with anything you need,” I reminded him.

He just laughed. “You boys are wrecking balls. I love you all, but this needs a finer hand than that. I’ll be in touch,” he said, and he hung up without waiting for a reply.

Wilder liked to remind us that he loved us, but he often didn’t give us the opportunity to say it back. That was ok—I think he knew what he’d done for all of us. He’d made us family.

I sighed, turning back to the computer screen. I watched the outside of Toby’s home impatiently, tapping my fingers, until eventually a message popped up on my computer. Quinton had texted Aiden to let him know he was taking an Uber home. Good boy, letting his roommate know what he was doing.

I checked the Uber driver’s background, because of course, I did, and I watched the CCTV cameras to make sure Quinton got home and into his apartment safely. Then I just waited for him to boot up his computer so I could watch him. And monitor his online activity.

Quinton was starting to dig a little too deeply into his own kidnapping, and it was only a matter of time before he caught someone’s attention. It would help flush out the ring of human traffickers, because so far they had been good at covering their tracks, but I still didn’t want him placed in any danger, which was why I watched him so closely.

Well, I wouldn’t lie to myself. It was part of the reason I watched him so closely. The other reason was because I wanted him. My hellhound wanted him. And if Dex got to keep a human, why couldn’t I?

Quinton was a flame in the darkness, and I wanted to set him free and watch him burn. I would make sure no one ever again tried to put out his fire.