My Stepbrother's Dirty Little Secret novel Chapter 271

Chapter 271

“Maybe your internal clock is just as broken as your personality,” she called back.

“Or maybe,” I countered, “you were so busy losing your mind that you lost track of time altogether. It’s a common side effect of actually being satisfied for once. Don’t worry, I won’t charge you for the overtime.”

Her attention shifted suddenly. In the corner of the room, standing under a bright spotlight, was the prototype 1 had been building for months. It was a sleek, silver-and-black robot, shaped roughly like a human but with smooth, high-tech plating and glowing blue sensors. Gianna stopped in her tracks, her mouth falling open.

“Oh my god, Raphael,” she whispered, her eyes shining like stars. She stepped closer, reaching out a hand but stopping just before she touched the metallic surface, “Is this it? Is this the new AI model?”

“The X-9 variant,” I said distractedly. I had already turned back to my desk, my fingers flying across the keyboard, “It’s built for high-speed pursuit in urban environments.”

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed, leaning in to look at the intricate wiring visible through the clear chest plate, “How does it move? Does it use hydraulic pumps or a new type of motor? And the sensors, are they heat-seeking or movement-based?”

“Both,” I muttered, my eyes fixed on a second monitor. My mind had already moved on to the next task. I was setting up the next hunt. I was marking exit routes, camera blind spots, and timing.

“Raphael, the joint on the elbow,” she said, her voice filled with excitement. “How did you get the rotation so smooth?”

“Carbon-fiber ball bearings,” I answered, clicking through a series of encrypted files.

Gianna’s brow furrowed. She finally noticed that I wasn’t sharing her enthusiasm for the tech. She walked over to the desk, her eyes drifting from my face to the documents spread out across the workspace.

“What are you even doing?” she asked.

“Then what is this one about?” she asked, her voice barely a breath. “What happens to them?”

I leaned back in my chair, “The Void is where I put the trash that the world forgot to take out. My targets are simple, Gianna. I hunt the people who fucked over my family, the ones who think they can steal from the Capone or snitch on us. And I hunt the ones like him.” I tapped the photo of the man in the suit, “Rapists. Especially the ones who touch kids. The ones who deserve to feel exactly what it’s like to be the prey for once,” I turned back to the screen, “I make sure they never have the chance to hurt anyone ever again.”

Gianna stared at the screen, she looked at the man in the photo and then back at me. “And now you’re going to do the same to him? To all of them on this list?”

“Yes,” I said.

I didn’t offer an excuse. It was a simple fact of my life, like breathing or coding. I wasn’t going to let this turn into a debate about my morality.

She swallowed hard, her throat moving as she tried to find her voice. She didn’t look disgusted anymore, she looked overwhelmed as if she was a bit scared of me.