Read Online Child of Recklessness (Trials of Strength Book 2) by Matthew R. Bell - Free Book Online

are you?’ he shot.
    I
laughed, and Anna joined in.
    ‘ Nowhere near you,’ I said. ‘The best thing I can do is open up
Internet Explorer and Google.’
    ‘ Oh, segue,’ Anna said. ‘We know you’re good Brian, but how the
hell did you get all this money?’
    Brian’s
eyes crinkled as he smiled.
    ‘ The hacking part is easy for me, but I don’t take a lot of
money from one single account,’ he explained. ‘A few pounds here
from one account, a few there from another, only from thousands of
accounts. Just little amounts that people won’t realise are
gone.’
    ‘ Cool,’ I said, unable to keep the awe out of my
voice.
    I was
about to ask how he had become so good with computers when Chris
and Paul erupted in laughter, both guffawing over something Chris
had said, and the question was lost. Anna shook her head with a
spreading grin on her face.
    ‘ What about buddies?’ Brian interrogated. ‘Did any of your
friends make it out?’
    ‘ No,’ I sighed. ‘I never even saw them the day everything
started. I didn’t really have many friends. A few I hung with every
now and again, but I guess I liked my own company.’
    Anna’s
forehead wrinkled in pity.
    ‘ Hey,’ I said and smiled, ‘it wasn’t a bad thing. I mean I had
tons of friends when I was younger.’
    ‘ Who?’ Anna asked.
    ‘ Well I had my best friend, Samuel,’ I said, but the memory of
the boy closed my mouth.
    ‘ Did you guys drift apart?’ Brian pushed.
    ‘ Uh, no, um, he died not long after he turned eleven,’ I
replied and dropped my gaze.
    ‘ What happened?’ Brian said and Anna shot him a look. ‘Sorry, I
don’t mean to push.’
    I
shrugged and tried a smile, a smile that no doubt looked like a
grimace.
    ‘ He was run over, an accident,’ I said. ‘At the time Greystone
didn’t have much of a hospital, you know, being the tiny town it
was. No college either. There was a building off the doctors’
surgery that was a makeshift sort of hospital, where I thought my
Dad had worked, but they weren’t equipped well enough to deal with
Samuel’s injuries.’
    ‘ He died there?’ Anna whispered.
    ‘ No, he died while he was being airlifted to the city,’ I
answered. ‘After that though more money was funnelled the town’s
way; a full sized and up-to-date hospital was constructed, and a
college too. It made the town more self-sufficient.’
    ‘ I remember,’ Brian said. ‘both weren’t really finished until a
couple years ago right?’
    ‘ Yeah,’ I sighed. ‘3/4 of the hospital had been running for a
while until the rest of the place could be finished, and the
college was finished just before I was nineteen.’
    ‘ At least something good came from Samuel’s death,’ Anna
interjected.
    I
nodded.
    ‘ Yeah,’ I smiled. ‘Well after that I wasn’t much fun to be
around for a while. My Dad flipped for some reason.’
    ‘ Flipped?’ Brian said.
    ‘ Yeah, I don’t know wh-’ I started, but my mine nudged me. ‘Of
course I know why. Dear old Dad was trying to keep me as complacent
and safe as possible for his experiment, he probably thought having
friends put it in jeopardy.’
    Brian
nodded sadly and started to push the food around on his plate. Anna
sensed the dark cloud and banished it with another
smile.
    ‘ Come on,’ she said, ‘it’s gift time!’
    She got
up and grabbed the shopping bag lying on the couch, then raced back
over with the already wrapped gifts. She sat them in the middle of
the table, and handed us tightly wrapped and heavily taped
packages.
    ‘ Jesus, Anna,’ Chris slurred, ‘d’ya expect me to break into
this? This is the hardest thing I’ve ever done,
sweetheart.’
    Anna
took the package from him and laughed. Chris narrowed his eyes and
stared intently as Anna revealed his gift. It was a toy soldier, in
army clothing. A big heart was painted on its chest, and a sweet
smile separated its lips.
    ‘ For the man with a plan, and a big heart,’ Anna
smiled.
    Paul
laughed