Page 25 of Jezebel’s Liberation (Hellfire Hackers #1)

It was a chore to complete everything in time, but I’m thrilled with how it turned out.

Monitors line all four walls, and comfortable gaming chairs surround the table.

Brand new encrypted computers with all the software I’ve developed and the programs the others designed have been installed as well.

Everything has top-notch security that no one but my hackers could possibly get into.

Not even Fort and Lock have access or have any clue on how to hack in.

Everyone starts filing in and taking their chairs, and I grin at the memory that surfaces of Possum asking why gaming chairs were necessary when the club already had enough chairs to accommodate my team.

“Have you ever watched a hacker work?” Phantom asks.

Possum nods. “Sure, I’ve seen Jez on her computer hundreds of times.”

“You’ve only ever seen the fruits of my labor, when I already have everything ready to show you,” I correct Possum. “You haven’t seen what leads up to that. Think of it like when you tattoo someone… You want to be comfortable, right?”

“Yeah,” he agrees.

“These chairs help with those fifteen to twenty-hour days,” I explain.

Possum blanches. “Fifteen to twenty hours? I thought you just whipped out your computer and typed some shit.”

Phantom smacks his back as he laughs at him. “Oh man, you have so much to learn.”

A throat clears, knocking me out of my trance. “Jez, we don’t have all day,” Soul growls.

I flip him off and move to the head of the table.

It’s the seat normally reserved for the president, but this is my kingdom for the time being.

Soul scoffed when he discovered he’d be in a chair lining the outside of the table like everyone else.

He also wanted Fort and Lock to run backgrounds on everyone which I refused.

I did that before I hired them. If I trust them enough to work for me, he needs to trust me that I’d never put anyone in the club in jeopardy.

“Keep talking, Soul,” I taunt. “You’ll find out exactly what skills I have, and I don’t mean just behind a keyboard.”

He waves me off. “Whatever, can we get to it? I have shit to do,” he says with no heat in his words.

Phantom sits on my right, and Diabla is on my left.

I lift my chin to Diabla indicating for her to bring up the intel we collected on Ted McCormick.

Every monitor lights up, and all the brothers turn to stare in awe as they take in everything we show them: Ted’s aliases, the way he’s changed his appearance through the years, the properties he’s had in his various names along the way, vehicles registered to him, and the police reports that were taken in Massachusetts and other various states before he dropped off the map.

In short, it’s a lot of fucking information.

Malice whistles. “Fuck, you did all this, Jez?”

“Not all of it,” I admit with a smirk. “My team is the best.”

“ Team? Sure,” Diabla says snidely. “Until someone decided to go vigilante and not inform the team of what the fuck she was doing.”

“Diabla, that’s enough,” I chastise.

Diabla pushes away hard from the table, jumping to her feet. “The fuck it is, Jez. You think that because we’re all here playing nice for your biker family that we’re not pissed as hell at you.”

Everyone nods at Diabla’s confession.

“Glad we’re not the only ones pissed as hell at you,” Soul mutters.

I sigh and flop into my chair. “Look, I’m fucking sorry.

I don’t know what else to say. I can’t keep apologizing over and over.

I get that you’re angry, and I deserve it, but I was doing what needed to be done.

I should’ve handled it differently, I admit that.

I swear, though, there’s no more secrets. That’s why we’re here today.”

Diabla huffs and reluctantly sits back down. The tension in the room is palpable, but soon the chatter surrounding Ted resumes.

Possum strolls over to Diabla, placing his hands on her shoulders, and she stiffens under his touch for a split-second before spinning and popping out of her chair. She moves so quickly that no one clocks the knife she’s wielding until the tip of the blade is pressed under Possum’s chin.

“Don’t touch me,” she grits out.

Grim moves quietly to disarm her, but I shake my head and sign. “She won’t hurt him.”

“You sure?” he asks.

“No,” I admit with a shrug. “But I think if she wanted to cut him, she would’ve already done it.”

Possum raises his hands in surrender and grins down at Diabla not caring about the knife digging into his skin. “You’ve got a lot of pent-up rage, don’t ya? Maybe some tattoo therapy could help with that,” he suggests, and I don’t miss his flirty tone.

Diabla slowly removes the blade, and we all take a collective breath of relief.

“You offering?” she asks, jutting her chin.

“You know how you’re the best at hacking?” he counters, and she nods. “I’m the best at tattooing, and based on the ones you have, you could use an update.”

Diabla has some beautiful ink, but Possum is right, he’s the best and would only enhance what she already has.

“Wow, conceited much?” she banters.

“It’s not conceited if it’s true,” he says.

Diabla tosses her hair over her shoulders. “I’ll think about it.”

Possum steps back. “I’m gonna hold you to that.”

Soul crosses his arms. “Now that we’ve settled that, can we get back to the real reason we’re here?”

Knuckles points to a screen behind Loki. “What’s that?”

Everyone’s attention diverts to what he’s looking at.

I zoom in on the photo. “Damn it, with everything that happened I forgot to ask Abyss,” I mutter mostly to myself. The image is a collection of photos of every girl we were able to identify that Ted came into contact with at some point. The catatonic looks are their faces stare back at us.

Abyss steps forward. “Ask me what?”

“When I went to Ted’s house, I found something.”

“What did you find?” Malice questions.

I turn to Abyss. “Hold on. Let me grab it. Better to show you.”

I reach under the table for my bag that contains the medications I found at Ted’s home.

Luckily, my backpack was with me in the trailer when I was rescued, and when he recognized it, Demon grabbed it, not wanting to leave any trace of me behind.

I pull the boxes out of my bag and hand them to Abyss.

Abyss’s expression goes from shock to rage as he looks over the contents in his hands and back at the photo on the monitor. “Son of a bitch!”

“Want to share with the rest of us?” Grim signs.

“It’s Versed and Romazicon,” he explains.

“What’re those?” Soul asks.

“Versed is used as an anesthetic by dentists and some doctors on kids. It’ll knock some kids out, but others, it just makes them lethargic.

” Abyss pulls out a lollipop and holds it up for everyone to see.

“Versed is administered in this form because it’s better than sticking kids with a needle.

They gobble these suckers up before a procedure.

Best part, they won’t remember anything.

Versed wipes your memory.” He holds up the Romazicon.

“This is the antidote, so to speak. It reverses the effects of Versed, bringing someone out of anesthesia. Romazicon has to be administered intravenously, but with the kids out of it, it’s easy to give them a quick shot in the vein to bring them back.

Was Ted a doctor or dentist?” Abyss asks.

I shake my head. “No, he was an accountant and youth pastor at numerous churches throughout the country.”

Abyss narrows his eyes. “He’s working with someone then. There’s no way he’d be able to get his hands on this easily.”

“We haven’t found a connection to anyone else,” Jinx speaks up.

“That’s true, but we also didn’t know about the medicine,” Loki says. “Now that we know, we can start digging into any doctors or dentists Ted encountered through the years.”

My team starts firing away on their computers as my brothers all stand back and watch in fascination.

“If that fucker wasn’t already dead…” Malice’s voice trails off, no doubt him recalling what Demon told him.

My eyes flicker to Demon, who’s gone pale. Phantom follows my line of sight, and we both rush to him. I place my hands on Demon’s face and gently tug so his eyes are level with mine. His breaths are ragged.

“Breathe, baby,” I coo. “In and out, like this.” I take a deep breath through my nose and exhale out of my mouth. Slowly, Demon starts to mimic me. He rests his forehead against mine. “You’re okay,” I soothe.

I can feel everyone’s eyes on us, but no one else approaches.

Demon shudders. “What about Stewart?”