Uh oh, Ryder wasn’t much for cursing. I was genuinely scared.
Kyle’s relaxed features hardened right up, making him look less the fun-loving joker and more the scary-ass-sociopath. “Oh, don’t you worry, they will hurt, but do you think it’s a good idea to openly come at them? Last thing we need on top of our Quorum problems is the humans getting all pissy and freaking out on us.”
Good point. More enemies was not what any of us needed. As Kyle continued, some of the fun-loving was back on his face. Actually, he kind of looked like a kid in a candy shop. “Remember when Sam and I built that computer virus that took a couple cents out of a few thousand bank accounts to get us through that rough patch?”
Wait, what? How long had these guys been together? Damn. How many laws did they break? I wanted to tie Ryder up and make him tell me sexy-six stories for hours. Well, I wanted to tie Ryder up period. The stories would just be an awesome added bonus.
Ryder nodded. “But if you suggest stealing a few cents from Deliverance, I’m going to punch you. They nearly killed Markus. They did kill our ash brothers.”
Ummm, and they almost killed you! I wanted to shout, but I managed to hold it together.
Kyle’s smile was crazy big now. “Deliverance is backed by the richest church organization in the world. They have billions to fund their ash-vampire smear campaigns. I say we wipe them clean, make them hurt where they care the most.”
Ryder was smiling now too. “Bankrupt Deliverance? That’s the best thing you’ve said all day. They’ll go mental. So much of their power is in their money. It’s what allows them to develop weapons against us and recruit all of these braindead humans who are looking for some sort of purpose.”
Kyle shrugged. “It’s not going to be easy. I’m sure they have security like you wouldn’t believe, but we all know that there’s not a computer program made which Sam cannot hack.”
What, Sam was a genius hacker too? Geez, he was that kid I always hated in school, good at everything, hot as hell, and a complete enigma. Was I a little jealous? Hells yeah I was. I was the awkward girl who found most of my classes boring and had on occasion fallen asleep during math.
Markus shifted forward in his seat and I noticed he was moving gingerly, even though he looked completely healed. I guessed there was still some tenderness. “I like it. Where will we put the money?”
My hand shot up and I legit felt like I was in kindergarten. “We spread it out in even donations across the world’s ten neediest charities.”
Ryder’s eyes met mine and there was a moment—a “maybe he’s falling in love with me too” moment. I swallowed hard.
Kyle nudged me. “Aww, our little rookie unicorn is a Robin Hood.”
I rolled my eyes, but everyone nodded their agreement.
“We steal from the psycho ash murderers and give to people in need,” Ryder declared and we all did a fist bump.
“Maaaaate, Sam better get his arse back here, he’s missing all the fun,” Jared declared, drawling out the word mate, which sounded all kinds of hot in that accent. “Not to mention that we need him to double-check the virus before we send it out into the computer world.”
Ryder nodded. “He contacted me this morning. Somehow he heard about the Deliverance attack. Said he was having trouble catching fish anyway, so he’s coming back early.”
How long had he even been in Alaska? Forty-eight hours? I don’t know why, but this whole Sam thing was really on my mind. He was such a quiet guy and I felt like he was hiding something. Running off to fish in the winter … the things he said to me before he left—all of that stuff had every red flag going off in my mind. But he was part of the inner circle of the sexy six, which made me feel as if I had to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Only time would tell. For now I’d take Ryder’s lead on this.
The next few days sped by quickly, and it totally took me by surprise when Jayden mentioned it was only three days until Thanksgiving. Holy crap, I’d been in the Hive for a couple of months. It was pretty amazing how quickly one can adjust to a completely new world.