Chapter 8

The next morning, after being busy on the guy’s laptop for the entire night, Uncle John knocked on my door.

“Ready to go, Tim?”

“What?” I said perplexed, rubbing my tired eyes.

“I called Bill, but he wants to meet up in his office. I figured we could just go together.”

His voice sounded hopeful, making me believe he wanted to spring something on me during the drive. I did have stuff to do in the office, but I didn’t like driving when tired. My insurance was already costing me an obscene amount each month simply for being young. If I actually had an accident because my reflexes were dulled by the lack of sleep, my premiums would go through the roof. But with John driving, that wasn’t a problem.

“Sure. But I’ll need a shower first.”

I stood up too fast, though, and immediately regretted it when I felt dizzy as the pain shot through my torso. I caught myself, refused his offer of support, and made my way to the bathroom. I was just out of the shower and back in my shorts, when someone knocked at the door.

“Honey? Are you Okay? John told me you didn’t look too well when you went in here.” I heard Claire’s concerned voice.

“Yeah. Thanks. Everything’s fine.” I replied.

Then I remembered how exhausting it was to rewrap my chest after my last shower, and how beat I was after that. I was already tired from the all-nighter, so there was no way I’d get anything done if the rewrapping went the same way as the evening before. A little help couldn’t hurt. But did I want to admit that I actually needed help? And more importantly, did I want to admit that to one of them?

I sighed as I realized that the negative effects, if I tried to just fight through this, would be far worse than showing a little weakness.

“Uh ... actually ... you still there?” I asked in a defeated tone, half hoping not to get an answer.

“Yes!” came her immediate response. Despite me thinking about this for quite a while before deciding to call out to her, she didn’t sound like she had moved even a single step away from the door. Interesting.

“Could you come in and ... help me with the Rib Brace?”

The door opened and she stepped inside.

“Sure!” She said, as she took note of the room. I removed the wet bandaids, dabbed the areas dry with a clean towel and inspected the wounds, but Claire suddenly told me to wait before rushing out of the bathroom. She came back a minute later with big adhesive gauze pads that were also waterproof.

“Huh. I didn’t even think of something like that when I was at the pharmacy.” I remarked. “Thank you!”

She leaned down, placed the pads on the wounds and made sure they sat tight. Then she took the Rib Brace from the cabinet and wrapped me back up. Instead of leaving, however, she let her hand roam over my abs, leaned further down, and placed a kiss on them.

“My pleasure, Baby.” she said with a big smile, before turning and leaving the bathroom.

I just stared at her back. That kiss on my abs, and her calling me ‘Baby’ just like Tess had always done, rocked something in my memories, bringing me back to the supposed dream I had a few days earlier. My mind was racing like on that fateful day I discovered the family orgies.

When I finally came downstairs and looked for Uncle John, I saw Claire standing in the kitchen, and used the opportunity to take a critical look at her.

Her breasts were bigger, but shaped like a teardrop, like Tess’ were. The rest of her body was remarkably similar to Tess’ as well. Same height, similar proportions. Tess had that mature voluptuousness going for her, since she knew perfectly well what she had to offer and how to use those assets, while Claire had an admittedly hot Mom-bod. Claire’s hair was blond, while Tess’ was black, but it was almost the same length as it reached just a little below their shoulders, and she often wore it in the same Ponytail Tess had preferred, especially when she did housework. Claire’s eyes were blue-green, while Tess’ were brown, but the rest of her face also showed remarkable similarities. Thinking about it, with Mom working in a law firm, and Tess being ... having been an accountant, they even utilized a similar dress code.

Tess, the only woman I had ever loved, was a lot older than me, like my mother, looked a lot like my mother, and even had the very same body type as my mother.

While I was sure Aunt Danielle would have a field day with that realization, I was occupied with a more pressing matter. Did my mother blow me while I was half asleep and doped up? Just as I was asking myself that question, Uncle John joined my side and asked if I was ready to go. Looking past him, I noticed Aunt Danielle sitting in the living room trying not to look at me.

“Sure. Let’s get moving.” I said.

After we had been on the road for a few minutes, Uncle John started talking.

“You know, Tim ... Danny is seriously hurt since yesterday.” he said before waiting for a response. When I didn’t give him any, he pushed ahead. “She thinks she screwed up with you.”

“Yes.” I just said.

“‘Yes’? That’s it?” he asked, a little upset.

“Well, she’s right. And to say it in the words of my favorite Spider Man: ‘I missed the part where that’s my problem’.” I dismissed his attempt at making me feel responsible for his wife’s wellbeing.

“I can’t believe you really mean that!” he almost shouted.

“What the fuck do you want from me, John? You think I’m happy with my life!? You think I’m glad my own family excluded and ignored me for years, to the point I just wanted out of it? Or that I enjoyed watching all of you have a merry time while I work up to forty hours a week in addition to school, just so I could pay rent and buy food!? And your wife watched it all happen and willingly ignored the signs she, of all people, should’ve noticed. I’m not gonna make shit up or put myself down even further just to make her feel better about herself.” I explained exasperatedly.

“But, Tim, she’s trying to make amends for that! She’s been showing up in your office every week for the last year, trying to explain and apologize, but you just keep blowing her off! You need to give her a chance!”

“Why do I need to?” God, that man pissed me off! At least the rising anger counteracted my fatigue. “She doesn’t need to apologize, her words mean nothing to me! It’s actions I’m hoping for. Like, instead of trying to explain her bullshit reasons to ME, she should be working on YOU to finally realize how YOU all broke this. But even if she does, what’s her sudden motivation? Because after she learned I’m fuckable when seeing me at the gym, I’m suddenly worth being part of your family, and somehow supposed to be thankful for it!? Did it ever occur to you, that that’s not what I want from my ‘family’? And don’t buy into her shit of me just being filled with anger, like she claimed in the hospital. Yes, I’m angry, but that’s not why you can all go fuck yourselves. You can all go fuck yourselves, because the last four years have proven to me who you are as a person.”

“It’s that bad between us, huh?” he asked ruefully.

“I had that conversation with your sister just yesterday. I’m not trying to hurt any of you or get back at you. It’s just ... Yes! It’s that bad between us! And it took you four damn years to notice. I really don’t know why I should even try and work on this. Whatever ‘this’ even is anymore, since I had enough time to learn how to care for myself, so I no longer feel any need or desire to have any of you in my life.”

“Not ‘your mother’, but ‘my sister’...” he sighed, “But you are helping us right now. If there is no relationship left, why would you do that?”

“I told you all yesterday. Self-preservation. I am NOT going into a Group Home for almost a year, and risk losing my job and apartment, just because they’re unable to take responsibility for literally fucking up their Golden Boy. I mean...”

I sighed as he waited for me to continue. I wanted to let him know what was going on, make him see what my problem was. Despite what I told them, and myself, I WAS hoping for this to somehow work out. Of course I wanted a family that gave a shit about me! Yes, since I was now seventeen, I could at least try to get emancipated, cut all ties and take care of myself, but why the fuck did I even have to consider that? Coming home to an empty apartment wasn’t exactly filling me with joy!

The problem was, if they still didn’t see the reason for our estrangement by now, I had little hope I could make them see it at all. And depending on what would be needed to finally open their eyes and make them question their values, I didn’t know if it was worth the effort.

But mainly, I had to stop getting my hopes up just to be fucked over by Ava presenting me another penis pump. Or Claire once again deciding it’s too much of a hassle to talk to me. Or Aaron remembering that he still has no interest in my geek stuff. Or Granny and Gramps leaving for yet another cruise after declaring how much they want us to be closer. I had to know they actually changed and weren’t just putting up an act before I could even think about risking it.

“Let me ask you a question.” I said. “And, please, think about it and try to give me an honest answer.”

“Okay?” His voice held apprehension.

“A year ago, when you found out that this family not only forgot about my sixteenth birthday, but that you all actually did get together to celebrate without me, you and Danielle put me on the spot the following Thanksgiving. Despite me asking you not to do it, you two had to try and make the rest of the family remember it. At that moment, when nothing you tried to make them come around worked, you must’ve realized how bad things had gotten. At least that was the impression I got from Danielle when she caught me by the door afterwards.”

“Yes.” he injected ruefully.

“Then how come you didn’t try for longer than one lousy dinner?” He gave me a shocked look, but quickly had to put his eyes on the road again. “Or at least change how you yourself treated me? But most important of all, after both of you realized how bad it was, and how bad it affected me, how come you simply came to terms with it as the new normal, forgot my next birthday as well, and did the exact same thing as the year before?”

The asshole had really never realized that little bit. He thought about it for a while and tried to say something a few times, but, just like with Claire so many times before, the words simply never came out of his mouth. So I kept talking, trying to point him at what was hurting me the most in all this.

“You know, last year, when Granny called me for my sixteenth to congratulate me, she was quite confused when nobody had told me about your get-togethers. I know she demanded of Claire to fix our relationship, but when that didn’t happen, what stopped you and Danielle from introducing me to the fun? Or taking me in? Or do anything else to help me? What was it that made all of you simply fucking forget about me? If you still can’t figure it out ... try to remember what you were doing on ALL of my forgotten birthdays. You might want to have a talk with your daughter about that, before she leaves for college and learns that she’s unable to keep a boyfriend who doesn’t just want to fuck her.”

The rest of the drive was quiet. The way Danielle was hounding me made me hope she may had finally understood what they all did after getting lost in their lust. What they had willingly sacrificed for their sexual satisfaction. But if she did, she should know how hard it would be, and how long it would take, to get it back. And how hard it would be for me to believe them. Though, the way John was talking about her, and how he couldn’t give me answers right away, meant that I was either wrong about Danielle’s insight, or she simply hadn’t told him.

After arriving at the firm, John went directly to Bill’s office. I went down to the basement, sat down at my computer, and spent the next four hours reviewing the new releases of wireless surveillance systems. About Twelve PM, when I was just thinking about taking a lunch break, Bill called me into his office. I didn’t expect to find not only him, but also Claire, Aaron, John, and Danielle in there.

“Aright, Kid. John filled me in this morning.” Bill said instead of a greeting.

“He did?” I asked, throwing John a surprised look. I did not think they would tell him everything. At least, I surmised, he didn’t know what exactly the videos Logan was being blackmailed with showed. I had to treat lightly.

“They also tell me you have some kind of plan? Care to share?” he asked without acknowledging my questioning look at John.

“Okay” I sighed, trying to sort through all the ideas and plans I came up with last night. “I gained full control over the laptop of the sports bar’s owner. I have complete access to all the files on it and his backup drives, and already found the videos on both. He’s one of those people who think Windows File History equals backups, and I couldn’t find any hidden drives on the computer, so I’m confident there won’t be any surprises. I’m going to spend the next week connecting to every device in their network and make sure the videos aren’t also on any phones, tablets, cloud storages or shared through other means.”

I looked around, waiting for anyone to ask questions. But none came up, yet. So, I continued.

“Yesterday, I said I’d brick every device and drive I’d find the videos on, but thinking about it, that would raise unneeded suspicions. I think it would be easier to avoid retaliation if his ‘backup’-drives and only the video files on the devices were corrupted. Looks more like a hardware failure than sabotage.”

“Sounds good so far. That’s why you intend to actually pay Logan’s debt? To make sure they have less reason to come after you all after you got rid of their kompromat?” Bill commented.

“Exactly. Claire was supposed to get the money from the bank.”

“Yes! I got it. And here’s the pouch you asked for.” she said, laying it on the small table.

“Perfect. So, next weekend I’ll place one of my actual business cards in that pouch, so he knows I work in a sizable security firm, and make the drive over to Austin in one of those nice armored SUVs. That should further deter them from trying anything stupid afterwards. Just before I’ll enter the bar, I’ll run the script on my C&C-server. It’ll send the command to the malware I have installed on their devices to replace all the copies of the videos, and a random selection of his other personal files, with corrupted files they can neither use nor restore. The copies on external drives would be replaced as soon as he connects them to any device infected with my malware.”

“Why do you have to make the drive yourself? You’re hurt!” Claire asked, her almost whining voice made sure everyone knew about her concern for my safety, and was met with general approval. I had a hard time refraining from admiring her acting skills.

“Because I’m the best suited to do it even while hurt. Who do you wanna send instead? Maybe John, who knows nothing about all this? Or your husband, who basically shut down when confronted with these guys? Your Golden Boy, who caused all this shit and will probably get a beating just for entering the place? Or would you rather send Ava or go yourself, after these guys all but dragged you two into their car when you met them in the parking lot?” I asked impatiently, earning me insulted and scared looks all around.

“Fine! Let Bill and his guys handle it!” Aaron protested.

“In case you forgot, I am one of Bill’s guys. I’ve been working and training with them for two years now. But there’s more to consider. I don’t want to give them any more reason to think of us as lucrative targets to extort. Of course, showing up with eight grand in cash in an armored car could do just that. But being able to hire people that can handle the whole thing for us would send a way worse message. Bill isn’t cheap.”

“I love you too, Kid.” Bill commented in played coyness, causing me to smirk.

“Still, I don’t like it!” Claire said, like the whole plan would fly out the window just because she didn’t approve.

“No, Mrs. Brown, your Kid is right. He knows how to handle himself and he’s the only one who knows how to look for the videos you’re worried about. Trust him, we trained him well.” Bill tried to reassure her. Then switched his attention back to me. “How do you want to make sure you got them all?” Bill finally asked.

“I think when he has the money, he’ll either talk about interest again or try to blackmail me with the videos. Either way, I’ll play dumb, laugh it off, and tell him to show me at least one of the videos. If I missed even a single copy anywhere, he’ll find it! Worst case, we’re back to where we started. If he doesn’t find any, I’ll know we’re in the clear.”

“Tim. What makes you think they won’t just beat the crap out of you when they find all the copies mysteriously corrupted? They’ll surely suspect something’s up.” John asked.

“That’s why I’m not just corrupting the videos, but also some of his other files, so it’s less targeted. But in the end, I’m kinda hoping I can just play dumb at that point and he won’t figure out that I’m actually just paying to make sure we got every copy. Like, ‘Why would I show up in person, with eight grand in cash, if I could’ve just deleted the files?’ ... something like that.”

Once again, they all thought about my explanations and most of them accepted the plan. Not all of them, though. Claire looked like she was ready to protest yet again. While I dismissed her concern as just another act in the beginning, she was so persistent that I started to actually believe her. It kind of made me happy to see her finally worry about me. But the timing was a little inconvenient in this situation, so I had to try and convince her.

“Stop worrying so much. Keep in mind, I’m the one who took on three of those guys and lived to boast about it.” I said.

“Says the guy who needed help lifting his coffee cup afterwards.” I heard Claire quietly comment with her arms crossed in front of her chest. It caused most of us to chuckle, but that didn’t seem to be the reaction she had intended.

“Seriously, though. I also think you don’t have to go alone. Take two of the boys with you.” Bill offered. “They can wait in the car and out of sight to not raise any suspicion, but if shit hits the fan, they can come running.”

“And what’s that gonna cost me?” I asked him, with a raised eyebrow.

“Oh, you’re one of us now, don’t worry about paying extra.” He smiled, and I was almost touched. “I’ll just deduct it from your next bonus.”

“Stingy old bastard.” I commented under my breath, causing him to laugh.

“So ... contingency plan. Any ideas?” Bill asked and I sighed again.

“I spent last night going through his files and found a lot of interesting stuff. Basically, I managed to compile an almost complete guide to their whole operation. There’s enough material to somewhat prove every aspect of it. I’m sure I’ll get the complete picture by the weekend. I’ll put it all on a USB-Stick and leave it in your office when I pick up the SUV for the drive. As long as I can just get rid of the videos, they...” I pointed at the family “ ... can let the police take care of those guys if anything comes up afterwards.”

“What!?” Aaron asked, shocked. “If you have something like that, why not use that from the beginning instead of going through with that dangerous plan?”

“Well, Mr. Brown,” Bill answered, “I took the liberty of asking around after John left this morning. Of course we don’t know anything for certain, otherwise those guys would already be in processing. But, as far as I can tell right now, gambling is only one of his business ventures. Smurfing dirty money through his bar seems to be his regular main business. Though he also shoots porn with ... uh ... less than voluntary women in the main role, if you understand what I’m saying. The people he cleans the cash for are way worse than him, though, so he has contacts to send after you if he doesn’t get what he wants, even from prison. Tim’s approach of getting him off your back, while offending him as little as possible, is the best approach. We should only use that evidence and the police as a last resort.”

“Is telling me just what kind of scum my son is planning to meet supposed to calm me down!?” Claire said heatedly.

“There is yet another angle to this, Mrs. Brown.” Bill continued. “Gambling is illegal in this state. That means both sides, the bookies and the gamblers, go to jail. It is highly unlikely the police wouldn’t uncover your oldest Son’s involvement with these people.”

“Oh ... Logan.” Aaron said, sinking back into the small armchair he was sitting in, while Claire let out a resigning sigh. “Yeah. I didn’t think of that.”