Free Hero Rising by H.T. Night Page B

these banks and take out all but a thousand dollars from each of them.”
    “And just how do you expect me to do that?” I answered. I was confused. “I’m not Hector, and I can’t just walk into a bank pretending to be him and clear out all of his accounts. Moreover, hello, I don’t go out in the daytime. It’s bad for my delicate complexion.”
    “You were always on his bank accounts. He said he put you on there years ago. If he is telling us the truth, all you need to do is go in and get the money. Then bring that money to me.”
    “What makes you think I just won’t go to the police?”
    “We know what you are. You don’t deal with the police. You live under a different code.”
    “Why do you say that?” I asked.
    “It’s why you haven’t shown the world you are a vampire when you do your superhero tricks. Any footage of you has you saving Tandra or fighting clean. You leave before you’re questioned by authorities. You’re keeping things close to the vest and private.”
    I was shocked that he knew so much. Tommy and I looked at each other, worried. I knew he could hear every word with his super-acute werewolf hearing.
    Now the caller told me a second thing. No one, other than Mani or Carni, referred to humans as Tandra. Now I knew I was dealing with a vampire or a werewolf. Nothing about this smelled like a werewolf. All of my instincts were telling me that I was dealing with vampires.
    I wondered if Hector did put my name on all of his accounts or if he said that, Maybe he just wanted to get me out here. He knew I was his best bet at being saved. Either way, he’d stalled for time and that was what we needed.
    “You obviously know key information about me. You might even know my name,” I said.
    “We don’t care who you are,” he said, cutting me off. “We aren’t the paparazzi; we’re out for a bigger score here. You’re just a means to an end. Once we heard Hector had a co-person in charge of his accounts, for all we care, you could have been an 18-year-old Brazilian prostitute and we would have called you to come out here.”
    “If you know who I am, then obviously, you are aware of what I can do.”
    “What? You fly and can fight. Big freaking deal. You’re only one man. If my boys can’t stop one man then they don’t deserve to live either. I’m not worried about one person.”
    One person? Well, that is where he would be wrong. I had my golden boy Tommy with me and he loved pounding Mani. This guy had no idea who I was or what I was capable of. Truth of the matter was, it didn’t matter to me if he and his crew didn’t know who I was. In all actuality, the less they knew, the more it benefited me.
    “Okay,” I said. “I’ll do it.” They had everything planned and the only thing I had going for me was that I knew where Hector was being held. I needed to talk to the old man I paid to stay there before I went any further, but they didn’t know that. At least, I hoped they didn’t.
    “We calculate that you can do this within six hours. If you don’t call us back, with the money, he’s dead. You understand?”
    I was thinking fast now. “You might not care who I am. Do you know what I am?” I asked.
    “We understand you can’t go out in daylight. This means you have to wait. We know. All of Hector’s banks are open after dark. We’re not rookies, dipshit. I will text you the banks and their addresses.”
    “I don’t have any ATM cards or pin numbers!” I said.
    “You’re a legal signatory on the account. You can go in with your driver’s license and work it from there.”
    Then the phone went dead.
    Now, my blood was boiling.

 
    Chapter Fifteen
     
     
    Whoever these people were, they wouldn’t be able to touch any of my money. All of my own money was stashed in cash in my castle, and like I said, anyone who dared to come to the island of Helena would have to be prepared to fight a shitload of Mani to remove so much even a seashell from the island.
    These