Page 9 of How to Hack a Hellhound (Hellhounds of Paradise Falls #2)

Chapter 9

Quinton

H ellhounds were fucking weird. I mean, I knew that Dexter and Toby were batshit, even though I still wasn’t sure what Toby was. The way that Liam had mentioned that he, Corbin, Jude, and Dexter would watch over us made me think they were all hellhounds. I hadn’t really met Jude or Corbin, but if Liam and Dexter were any indication, hellhounds were not the best at people skills.

It made me wonder if all the awkward people I’d met over the years were actually supernatural beings. It made so much sense, when you thought about it. I mean, if I could burn shit down with my mind and see evil people and do who knew what else, I’d probably be pretty unique. Plus, I guessed they might not have had conventional upbringings.

After Liam left, I relaxed on the couch, watching random shit on tv and waiting for Aiden to get home. I must have dozed off, because next thing I knew, the door opened and the daylight coming in the windows had faded quite a bit.

“It’s just me,” Aiden called out, even though he was probably five feet away. I sat up on the couch as he shut and locked the door. “Jude told me you were still here and brought me over. Are you ok?”

“Yeah, I’m ok. A little groggy, but the headache is better,” I answered.

Aiden came and sat next to me. I put my arm around him, and he snuggled into me. I figured it was best to just spit it out, so I got right to the point. “I did something stupid yesterday, and I’ll explain everything, but the guys want us to move in here.”

Rather than being shocked, Aiden just nodded his head. When I looked at him, he said, “Yeah, Jude was sort of hinting at how nice it would be for us to live here and how they had all this space and everything. He also talked about how it’s got alarms and is safer than the apartment. I kind of figured we were gonna be relocated.”

“Listen, we aren’t being relocated. We can do whatever the fuck we want to, ok? No one has a say in what happens to us but us , alright?” I insisted.

I didn’t want Aiden to think someone was controlling him. He’d had enough of that shit with his captor. He had choices, and I’d make sure he knew it.

“It’s ok, Q. I’m not upset. Jude and Corbin… they’re safe. They rescued me. I know they wouldn’t force me to do something I didn’t want to.”

We just sat for a minute, Aiden warm against my side. I was usually prickly and never hugged people, but with Aiden, I didn’t mind him in my personal space. He was like a kid brother, although he might have been older than me. Still, I felt protective of him, and I hated the fact that I’d unwittingly put him in danger. I sighed.

“What is it?” he asked. “Do you not want to stay here? I’ll do whatever you want, Q.”

“It isn’t that. It’s just… complicated. I made a mistake by going out last night, and now people may be looking for me. I hate that I may have compromised your safety.”

“You were drugged. Someone tried to kidnap you. Thank goodness Dexter was there to save you. If staying here is safer, then we should stay. I don’t want anything happening to you. These people wouldn’t be looking for me. They’d be looking for you. They already tried to hurt you once,” Aiden said, and I could hear the concern in his voice.

“It wasn’t Dexter who saved me, which brings me to the complicated part,” I said.

I wasn’t sure how Aiden was going to take being watched. He’d been held captive for a year, and I had no idea if he’d had cameras on him during that time. I didn’t want to inadvertently trigger some kind of trauma. Fuck.

I gave him a squeeze with the arm that was around him. “So, it’s actually a guy named Liam who rescued me. He’s… friends, I guess, with Dexter, Jude, and Corbin.” I paused there, unsure how to go on. Did Aiden know that they weren’t quite human? He’d never talked about his rescue, and I’d never really talked about mine.

“Is he… the same as them?” Aiden asked.

“I don’t know how your rescue went, but Dexter set the mansion that I was held captive in on fire. Only he didn’t have matches,” I said, watching for a reaction.

Aiden nodded. “They’re all a bit… different.”

“Yeah, that’s an understatement,” I snorted. “They’re not human, I think. I think they’re dangerous, but not to us. I think they’re only dangerous to certain types of people.”

Aiden seemed to mull that over, and he nodded again. “I’m ok with Jude and Corbin, and once I get to know Dexter and Liam, I think I’ll be ok with them too. I wouldn’t want to ride alone with them to the coffee shop for a while, though. But if you’re in the car, I’d be ok. Is that what you’re worried about? How we’ll get to and from work? Jude already said he’d always be available to drive us.”

“How would you feel about living in close proximity to them, and to Toby? Toby will inevitably try to be your best friend, but you just let me know if he comes on too strong. He’s a little awkward and clumsy, but he means well,” I said.

“Did you know the guy who kept me was going after Toby?” Aiden asked quietly. I gave him a reassuring squeeze, because I knew this was hard for him to talk about. “It had been a long time by then, and I knew what it meant. I knew when he captured Toby, he’d kill me. Sometimes that made me mad, but mostly, I kind of felt relieved. And then I felt really guilty, because I didn’t want anyone else to go through what I went through. I tried to convince him that I would be a better boyfriend and that we didn’t need to ‘break up,’ as he called it, but he said he and Toby were soulmates.” Aiden sort of shrugged.

“Whatever you felt was valid, Aiden. You were in a totally fucked up situation, and anything, any emotion, is ok. You were traumatized, and your brain coped however it could. Don’t ever feel guilty about that,” I insisted.

Aiden pulled away and sat cross-legged on the couch facing me, and I turned to face him too. The corners of his mouth were tilted into an almost smile.

“You sound like my therapist,” he joked.

“Well, obviously she knows what she’s talking about, then,” I said.

“She could help you, too, Q.”

I gave a shrug. He was probably right, but I figured working with Liam and hunting down the fuckers who were responsible would help me just as much. I didn’t want to talk things through. I didn’t have a year of trauma to work around. Yeah, it had been scary and fucked up, but I hadn’t been in that basement for more than a day or two.

Aiden seemed to know not to press, because he asked, “So, what’s the complicated part? It seems like you trust them, and I don’t mind living here and getting rides if it’ll keep us both safer. It seems like a really nice place. Jude even said there’s trails in the woods that are totally safe and protected. I used to hike and do yoga and stuff, and my therapist keeps trying to talk me into doing that stuff again.”

“Yoga?” I asked, looking at him. He was pretty flexible, and I guess I could see Aiden doing yoga. “You should do yoga again. It’s supposed to be, like, good for spiritual shit or something.”

He laughed. “Yeah, not sure I’m up for a class full of people I don’t know.”

“I’d go with you. We could find a class that doesn’t have too many people.” I would hate it, but I would do it for Aiden.

“Really?” he asked.

I nodded. I’d definitely look into it. I couldn’t stall any longer, though.

“So, the thing about Liam… he’s kind of a computer hacker or something. He hacked my laptop and was keeping an eye on me through my camera,” I said.

Aiden tilted his head and then asked me, “And how do you feel about that?”

“Now you sound just like a therapist,” I laughed. “I guess it’s weird, but he saved me last night because he was keeping tabs on me, and that’s kind of reassuring.”

Aiden nodded.

I blew a breath out. “So, this place… it has cameras.”

Aiden nodded again. “Yeah, I noticed them outside on the trees and stuff. Honestly, it was reassuring, like you said.”

“Yeah, but they’re also inside. Like, in the living room. And kitchen. And my room. But they’re not in the bedroom that would be yours, and Liam has promised to take out the one in the bathroom.”

Aiden looked at me, cocking his head. “There’s a camera in the bathroom?”

“Yeah, but Liam assured me it didn’t point at the toilet,” I added. I wasn’t sure that made it much better, but I suddenly really wanted Aiden to be ok with this.

“So…” Aiden paused, obviously thinking. “All the common living areas have cameras, along with your bedroom. But the bathroom and my room have no cameras. Who watches them?”

“Just Liam, I think.” I wasn’t totally sure, and I’d have to double check that with him.

Aiden cocked his head at me. “And how do you feel about that ?” he asked.

I laughed, glad he wasn’t freaking out, at least. He seemed totally calm and not triggered in any way. “I’m more worried about how you feel about it.”

“I mean… I guess it would sort of be like having him as a roommate. He’d be in the common areas but not in my personal spaces. And I want you safe, Q. I can’t have something happen to you. I’ve lost enough already. Losing you… I just want you safe,” he reiterated.

I blew out a breath. “Ok, then. And you know we can always change our minds. Nothing is set in stone. If we hate it, we can totally move back into the apartment. You always have choices, Aiden, and I want you to know that.”

Aiden smiled at me, and he turned toward the tv. “Great British Baking Show?” he asked.

It was totally his comfort watch, and I was down with that. It put me to sleep half the time, and I was still feeling groggy. I was sure we’d get ourselves together to cook some dinner, since I knew the fridge was stocked, and at some point we’d need to go over and get our stuff from the apartment, but there wasn’t any rush, and I honestly still felt like shit.

Aiden and I both got comfy and watched some British people make biscuits, which are weirdly not actually biscuits, they’re cookies—who knew? Tomorrow would be soon enough to deal with the logistics of moving and everything else.

It was probably around two in the morning when Aiden came into my room to sleep. I was pretty sure I hadn’t been having a nightmare, so it must have been him. He didn’t come in every night, but I expected with the new place it might be more frequent for a few days. He fell back asleep pretty quickly, but I was wide awake. Too much sleeping during the day, probably.

Still, I didn’t mind that he woke me. It was kind of nice to know someone was next to me in bed, and that way I knew Aiden was here and safe.

Yeah, so, we were both a little fucked up in worrying about each other. We might have been slightly codependent (I almost snorted, because it was probably more than slightly), but we’d been stuck together after we’d both undergone trauma. I thought it was pretty natural to become a little attached. Sometimes I woke up in the night and I had to go check on him.

I knew the guy who kidnapped him was dead, but in the middle of the night, you could have all sorts of crazy thoughts. I worried that somehow maybe he wasn’t dead, and at three in the morning that seemed possible. Scary shit was always possible in the dead hours of the night. Like, what if he hadn’t been human, either, and couldn’t die? Crazy thoughts, but no crazier than my life actually was.

I also knew that the people who had taken me would just love to get their hands on someone like Aiden. He would’ve been perfect for them—no one had missed him for a year, and he was off the radar even now. He was cute and had this air of innocence about him, even after what he’d gone through.

And I’d brought trouble right to our door by going back to the club.

I resisted the urge to get up and research—I didn’t want to wake Aiden—but I started cataloguing all the bouncers and bartenders at the club, thinking about who was most friendly with James. It was sort of like counting sheep, apparently, because before I knew it, daylight was streaming in through a crack in the curtains, and Aiden was missing from bed.

And I smelled coffee. Thank god.

I got out of bed and felt a soft, plush carpet under my feet. Huh. That was new. How had Aiden gotten it in here when I was sleeping? And where did he get it from? I grabbed my phone from the nightstand to check the time, but it was only nine in the morning. I didn’t think he would’ve had time to go shopping this morning already.

Yes, he got up early as hell most days for the coffee shop, but from the noises in the kitchen, it sounded like he was still here.

I groggily made my way out into the living space, phone in hand, and then I stopped short. Aiden was sitting on a stool at the kitchen island eating some breakfast and drinking coffee, which was fine and normal.

What wasn’t normal were all the boxes in the living room. I walked over, flipped one open, and saw… my clothes?

I turned to look at Aiden, who just shrugged at me.

“Did you—” I started, but he was already shaking his head.

“Nope. I woke up and it was all here. And there’s throw rugs on the hardwood floor, too, which is actually nice, but I gotta admit it’s a little creepy that there was one in your room and neither of us woke up,” he said.

He didn’t look panicked, but I was still bewildered. “They just… In the night…” I couldn’t seem to get my brain to function, and I stumbled my way over to the coffee maker.

Perhaps caffeine would make it all make sense.

Aiden just watched me. I had no idea what he was thinking.

“You ok?” I asked.

He shrugged, which I took to mean he mostly was.

“Cassius called, too,” he added. “He was pissed.” Aiden smiled at that, so I took it to mean he wasn’t pissed at us. No one wanted Cass mad at them. Still, he wasn’t at work…

“He didn’t, like, fire us or anything, did he?” I asked. I had some money saved, and we would get by without the jobs, but it was reassuring and gave us a level of stability I think we both needed in life.

“Nah. He did tell us to take the day off, though, in order to get settled. He was super mad that we’d been ‘rehomed,’ which I guess is what Dexter told him.” He chuckled. “I would have loved to have heard that conversation. Cass had just gotten off the phone with him and was ranting about how Dexter couldn’t just give him people to adopt and then steal them back, and how we were his and Kushiel’s now, and we didn’t have to go anywhere we didn’t want to. It was like they were fighting over who got to keep us. Cass did make a point of saying all decisions were totally ours, and he didn’t mean it to sound like anyone owned us or anything, but I let him know it was actually kinda sweet that people cared about us and our well-being.”

I had poured myself a cup of coffee and was leaning against the counter, listening and sipping the caffeinated goodness. “I guess it is kind of sweet. We have people who care about us. I didn’t really have that before. I mean, I had friends, I guess, but… I don’t know. They were party friends. I was kind of lost after my parents died, and I didn’t make a lot of connections.” I just shrugged, and Aiden nodded.

He knew my parents had died a couple years ago and that it had thrown me for a loop. We’d talked briefly about our families, although all I knew about his was that they were no contact because they were toxic assholes, apparently.

I’d always been a snarky asshole, but I was close to my folks as an only child, and I hadn’t made a lot of real connections after they died. I’d puttered around with college classes and worked and gone out partying, but I hadn’t let anyone in.

“Yeah, we have people now, Q. We have each other, and we have people who will miss us if we’re gone. People who care about us,” Aiden said.

We both let that sink in, drinking our coffee. It was really an overwhelming thought, and I almost got a little teary about it. Nope, not doing heavy feelings this early in the morning. As I always told Aiden, mornings were for caffeine and sass (and sex, if you had a cute guy in your bed).

At least I had two out of the three, which, yeah, made me think of Liam. He was a very sexy guy. But that also made me think of the boxes in our living room. I walked back over, poking around some more. Everything looked meticulously labeled—kitchen items, Aiden’s room, Quinton’s room, bathroom…

“So, apparently the supernatural crew packed up our apartment for us and brought it over. I’m surprised they didn’t unpack it, too, while we were sleeping. They’re like fucking house elves or something,” I grouched to Aiden.

My phone dinged at that moment. Aiden and I both looked at it suspiciously. I motioned him to go ahead and read it. He had my passcode to get into it.

“It’s from an unknown number. It says, ‘It was almost time for Aiden to get up, and we didn’t want to alarm him with our presence in your home. We’ll unpack later.’” Aiden looked up at me. “Umm, I’m not sure whether that’s sweet or creepy.”

“Welcome to the club. Everything they do seems to toe the line between the two,” I answered.

The phone dinged again. I walked over to read it with Aiden.

It’s sweet.

I snorted. Another text came through.

I also removed the camera from the bathroom, as requested, although I am concerned about accidents in the shower. Humans die from those.

Aiden snorted that time. “Does he not realize it’s odd to call us ‘humans,’ like he isn’t one? And I guess the cameras in here have sound as well, huh.”

I blushed. “Sorry.” I directed my next words out into the room. “I’m sure we could have Liam turn the sound off if we wanted him to. For privacy. Because surely he would respect our privacy and do as we asked.”

Aiden and I then both looked as three little dots appeared on my phone, then disappeared, then appeared, then disappeared. We looked at each other, and I swear we were both trying not to laugh. Finally a text came through.

Yes.

We both giggled a little at that. All that typing for one word.

“How many times do you think he deleted and rewrote the answer?” Aiden whispered.

I chuckled again, because I was sure Liam didn’t want to turn off the sound, but I didn’t think he wanted to make us uncomfortable either. A message dinged again.

If it reassures you, I very rarely have the sound on.

Aiden shrugged, which I took to mean he didn’t care too strongly about it.

“The rugs weren’t ours, though,” I said to the living room, and the text chime went off a second later.

You walk around barefoot. Hardwood floors are cold.

“OMG, Q, that’s actually sort of sweet. Still creepy, but definitely sweet,” Aiden laughed. He then turned toward the living room, like there was actually someone in there. “Hi. I’m Aiden, which you know, but I don’t know you, so you’re going to have to come over and introduce yourself and stuff, because otherwise it is kind of creepy. Maybe later after breakfast, ok? And for now, you can stop listening in. Ok?”

We both watched as the phone lit up with an immediate response.

Ok.

“A man of few words,” Aiden chuckled.

I looked at him. “Are you seriously ok with this? I know this is… weird, at best.”

“Q, it’s freaking insane. But you know what, that matches with the last year of my life. At least this type of insanity makes me feel safe and, in a weird way, cared for. That’s probably my trauma talking, and it’s probably fucked up, but I’m going with what makes me feel good. I don’t think my therapist had quite this in mind when she told me to do whatever I needed to in order to find peace and happiness, but…” He just shrugged.

I gave him a pat on the shoulder, and he got up to start cooking breakfast. He hated someone in his kitchen space, so I sat down at the island, watching him cook and looking over the one-sided text conversation.

No doubt about it, hellhounds were fucking weird. And apparently we were living with them now.