CHAPTER 12
“Why aren’t you following them?” Felicity asked. “What if Luke needs…you.”
Liam snorted at her attempt to play on the heart strings. “Luke can take care of himself. And I’m not getting into another chase with you in the car. It isn’t safe, Felicity.”
“We’re back to Felicity.” He’d dropped the nickname already, and they were back to the brick wall that was Liam’s emotions. “I was just in the car a few minutes ago for the first round.” She sat with her arms crossed, frustrated with his bully tactics.
“No, Felicity. It’s a big ass no. Okay? It isn’t safe, and I already regret putting you in danger in the first place. That could’ve ended…” he paused, trying to maintain his composure when what he really wanted to do was lose his shit. He’d do that later when he was alone.
“Why? Why do you get to make the rules?” she fought. “My sister could be in that car! We could find out all of the who’s, what’s, and where’s.”
“No.”
“Why, because I’m a girl? Newsflash – I’m tougher than I look. I kicked your ass, remember?”
“Newsflash – no!” he fired back quickly.
Felicity huffed, turning her body toward him. “What is your problem?”
“You! Okay? You…here…in the car.” Liam’s tone was sharp and his words loaded.
Felicity fell back in her seat in disbelief. His words stung. Her voice dropped to nearly inaudible. “Do I really bother you that much? Do you despise me so much that…”
“I was scared!” he said, cutting her off before she could finish.
Felicity was speechless. Liam had her emotions all over the grid and she didn’t know where to land on his last admission. Scared? Of her? Of feeling? They sat in a long silence, each trying to decipher what his words meant.
“You were in the car, and I was…scared.” Liam finally spoke. “I was afraid for…you. I couldn’t have…if something happened…”
“Oh…” Felicity was starting to understand, or so she thought.
“It would crush Reagan,” Liam clarified.
Just when she thought they were having a break through, Liam pulled away. She shook her head in disappointment. “Reagan…right.”
“That’s…not what I meant…damn it.” Liam’s frustration was beginning to overwhelm him. He couldn’t find the right words because his head and his heart were at war with each other, one wanting her and the other wanting to push her away.
“I know what you meant. I get it, okay?” Determined not to show him just how hurtful his words were, she dug her heals in and went for a low blow. “Reagan couldn’t lose her substitute caretaker.
“What the hell, Felicity? That’s not it at all! You know you’re more than that to…”
“Forget it, Liam, okay? I think I finally know where I stand and that it will always be on the outside.”
“We’re almost back to Watermark. Let’s talk about this later.” Later because he wasn’t good at expressing emotion and feelings and needed a break so he could get it together and say what he really meant. What she really meant…to him.
“I think you said everything that needs to be said, Liam.”
He hadn’t said everything, but he would. They sat at the gates of the steel bridge that crossed the Willamette River. A barge or ship of sorts must’ve passed through as the lift was up in the middle, hence the stalled traffic. When the gate went up, Liam proceeded with a handful of other cars before he noticed the gate was back down, and traffic halted again when he referred to his rearview mirror.
“Shit,” he said, sitting forward, looking out his window.
“What, Liam?” She didn’t like how he was acting, or maybe it was his tone. She recognized it as meaning something was wrong…again.
“Do you see a barge or anything on your side of the bridge?” he asked.
When there wasn’t anything on her side either, she turned around to see what had Liam suddenly alarmed. The bridge was closed.
That all too familiar chill raced down her back. “No. There’s nothing, Liam.”
“Shit, neither do I.” When he glanced back at the gate, he saw Dace’s car pull out of line and race the other direction. He had followed them back in case they ran into their friend in the black car again. “It’s a damn trap.”
There was a violent shake as the car crossed the bridge. It was lifting. The dozen or so cars that were ahead of Liam in line had cleared the vertical lift, the last one nearly a casualty as his bumper caught briefly before moving on. But Liam, and the handful of others on the center section of the bridge that was now lifting, were trapped.
“Son of a bitch. How does he know where we are?” Liam looked at the cars around him, trying to decide if any of them were on that lift with him – for a reason. “I don’t see the black car. Why trap us up here. What’s the next move?”
Here it was, fate intervening, making him see things for what they were. The situation on the bridge was frightening, and obviously dangerous, but his concern came right back to one person. Felicity. His worry wasn’t for himself or the other people trapped on the damn bridge with them – it was her. No matter how hard he tried to deny the feelings that constantly nagged at him, they were still there, louder than ever. He needed to get her the hell out of there.
If anything was made clear at this point, it was that they wanted her and wanted her bad, and he would do anything and everything to protect her. Liam may have disabled GPS tracking to the outside world only traceable by his own system, but if Liam figured out how to chase a ghost, Wells likely did too, and Wells had the upper hand at the moment.
“What do we do?” Felicity pulled Liam from his thoughts. “He can’t keep us up here all day. Port Authority and, or the police will be here soon, and he doesn’t want that kind of attention.”
“I don’t know, but we can’t sit here.” He referred to his rearview and side mirror again as people started to exit their vehicles in panic. The person after Felicity could be among them, but he wouldn’t see them coming because they still didn’t have a face for the ghost chasing them.
Liam made eye contact with an elderly man in the car next to him and wondered if he was Wells. He could be anywhere.
“He could be in one of these cars, ready to grab you, shoot you…throw you off the damn bridge. Who knows.” Liam hadn’t meant to say any of that out loud. He didn’t want to scare her, but he knew he did. “We need to get out of here…”
When the car began to move, Felicity grabbed Liam’s arm, “What are you doing? You’re scaring me, Liam!”
“I – I’m not doing it.” Liam pulled his hands off the steering wheel and held them up in surrender as the car weaved between cars, approaching the end of the lift. “Damn it! The parking lot! He tampered with the car at the resort. He was there. The black car picked us up there. I didn’t see this coming, damn it!” He slammed his hands against the steering wheel as the car continued to pick up speed.
“What do we do? Oh my God, Liam, we aren’t going to stop. We aren’t going to stop.”
Felicity screamed as the car launched from the bridge lift and soared through the air several feet. They braced themselves for impact when the vehicle finally descended, crashing against the ground to a rolling stop. The car died on impact and they just sat there in disbelief.
Liam turned to Felicity and began to check her over, grabbing her face in his hands, looking her up and down. “Are you okay? What hurts? Talk to me, City. Tell me…”
“I’m fine…I’m okay.” Her voice shook, and she finally let out a deep sigh and relaxed in her seat. Liam following suit.
When the car started up again, Liam yelled, “Get out! Get out of the car, now!”
He ran around the back of the car and grabbed Felicity by the hand, pulling her close to him as he led them to the side of the bridge and ran up the sidewalk to the stairs that led to Waterfront Park below. Several stories down, they ducked under the bridge overpass and slowed to a walk as they disappeared into the crowd.
Liam walked up to a street vendor, dropped a couple hundred-dollar bills on the counter and grabbed what he needed.
“Here, put this on quickly,” he said, pulling an iconic Keep Portland Weird sweatshirt over Felicity’s head before putting one on himself. He handed her a drawstring backpack and hat that had a flashing marijuana leaf on it.
“Seriously?” she said, not impressed with the flashing cap.
“Seriously. We need to get out of here. He has to be using the cameras on the street, hell, maybe even satellite at this point.” Liam shook his head at the idea that Wells was a step ahead again. “Hurry up, and hold my hand. I found us a ride.”
“A ride? We’re in the park. You planning to steal some kid’s bike, or have you opted for canoes down the river?”
“Just look down – disappear with me,” he said, not realizing just how much he would love nothing more until he actually said it.
“Trust me.” Liam draped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. “Play along. Put your arm around me. Pretend like you like me; we’re a couple.”
Felicity complied, hooking her thumb in his back pocket, and rested her head on his shoulder as they walked. Liam tried to ignore how good it felt and how perfectly she fit into his side, but he couldn’t. She felt right even though he knew she wasn’t. He couldn’t give her what she deserved – his whole heart.
They wandered through the large Annual Wine and Beer Festival crowd, Liam guiding them closer to the boardwalk-like sidewalk that ran along the riverfront. Both Felicity and Liam were taking in all of the faces around them, wondering if one or more of them was there to bring them trouble.
“Hurry up – get on,” Liam said as they approached a twelve-person tour bike that was offering pub tours.
The tour bikes were a staple in Portland. If it wasn’t pub tours, it was distillery tours with the occasional food and wine tours. Genius really – get people drunk, take their money, let them exercise themselves back to sober before the next stop where they did it all over again. Today, it would be their saving grace.
“First stop…” the man at the front of the bike hollered, already three sheets to the wind with the rest of the crowd. “O’Reilly’s Pub,” he said in his best, or worst, Irish accent.
The drunken crowd cheered, as they pedaled on. It was probably a mile, maybe two before they were near the Pub and Watermark Tower. They played along, acting as their drunken fellow riders did, hiding in plain sight. Or maybe they were pedaling right into the next trap. Who really knew?
“Everyone is staring at us. Why do I feel like we are in the middle of enemy territory?” Felicity asked.
“You’re safe. You’re with me,” he reassured her. “It could just be the flashing pot leaf on your hat.”
“Touché.”
The bike came to a rough stop in front of the Pub after passing Watermark. They couldn’t very well jump off and cause a scene, so they rode the extra few blocks to their destination. The crowd cheered as they filed inside O’Reilly’s, but Liam and Felicity fell back and quickly made their way the two blocks in the opposite direction.
With Watermark in sight, time seemed to slow because every step closer felt unproductive. When they reached the side closest to them, Liam hauled them up the side, tapped his smart watch, and entered through a back-pedestrian door that lead to the parking garage rather than trek the final half block to the main entrance. He was desperate to get Felicity inside to safety, so he could finally breathe again.
Once they were safely inside the confines of Watermark, Liam spun Felicity around, holding her against the wall and said, “It would destroy me too, okay? If anything happened to you, I couldn’t deal with it. Reagan needs you…I need you.”
“Liam…”
He shook his head to quiet her. “The thought of someone coming for you, harming you… It’s almost too much to handle. I can’t lose twice what someone should never lose once. We need you, City.”
The feeling that coursed through him was almost overwhelming as he searched her eyes with every word he spoke. His voice was course and demanding like the levity of his promise pained him as he thought of the alternative to such. “It will be over my dead, cold body that this Wells or Dunham pieces of shit get their hands on you or my daughter…got it?”
Bracing himself against the wall, his body nearly resting on hers, he stroked her cheek with his free hand. Liam finally rested his forehead to hers and let out a deep sigh of relief when she nodded her head. He slid his free hand to the back of her head and leaned in to take her mouth, but the heavy, metal security door began to rise, startling a distance between them.
When Dace’s car pulled in, Liam was pulled completely away from his moment of weakness. Felicity was quick to slap the elevator call button on the wall next to where they stood, anxious to get out of there and reconcile what had just happened between her and Liam.
As soon as Dace parked, Luke pulled in after him. The mood in the space was a mixed bag of frustration, anger, and something intoxicating, depending on who you looked at.
“I lost him,” Luke said. “I kept going for another mile or two, hoping I’d find him, but then he was coming right at me. Fucker turned around on me and ran me off the road. Couldn’t pick up his scent after that. No dust trails off the road, nothing.”
“There are so many old farm access roads and forest service trails out there. It would be easy to disappear. They could have taken any one of them,” Dace offered in what felt like an odd effort to console his brother.
“What the hell happened on the bridge, man?” Dace’s attention turned to Liam. “I looped around and hit the other bridge. The bridge was back down, and your car was gone when I finally doubled back on the other side of the river.”
“I don’t know. Somehow, he got control of the car again. Took us off the bridge…while it was up.”
“What?” Luke’s eyes went wide. “How the hell did he do that? You two okay?”
The elevator door dinged, and Dick jumped out of Dace’s car and ran to the open doors, laying down on the elevator floor. “He’s had a hard-ass day. Declan is going to be pissed we ruined his dog.”
“That’s what he gets for taking a bounty case,” Luke said. “What’s next, Liam?”
“Well, they sent their message today. They mean business, and they aren’t stopping until they get what they want.” Liam looked to Felicity. “We just need to get ahead of them, keep hitting back.”
“How’d they find you?” Luke asked. “You secured the vehicles.”
Liam laughed. “The old fashion way – without technology. He followed us. It’s the only thing that makes sense. The car was parked in a secluded parking lot for quite a while. We gave him the perfect opportunity to screw with it then.”
“That’s how he gained control while you were on the bridge,” Dace said, rolling his head back with the epiphany.
“We’ve been watching him with algorithm’s and recognition programs when all we had to do was look over our shoulder.” Liam shook his head, angry with himself for not seeing it coming. “We weren’t expecting it or prepared for it. He won this round. We’ll get him next.”
With the large steel door still up, Liam’s car pulled in, stopping right in front of them before the ignition died and the horn started honking. The men each pulled their weapons on it while Liam tucked Felicity behind him and backed her into the elevator, slamming the button once she was inside. With her out of danger, he dropped the rolling door and approached the car.
“No driver. Son of a bitch,” Luke said.
Liam reached inside the driver’s side door and popped the hood after looking and feeling around under the dashboard for clues. Nothing. The brothers joined him under the hood, looking for anything that appeared out of the ordinary, mostly for support because they hadn’t a clue what they were searching for.
“Ah, he has jokes.” Liam laughed, pulling his arm out from deep in the mechanics. He pulled out a round silver disc and held it in the air, inspecting it. “He attached it to the car’s firewall between the engine and interior of the car. Get it? Firewall?”
“It looks like a LoJack,” Dace said.
“It is a LoJack. That’s how he tracked us. Old school, right?” Liam said, flipping it over. “It’s souped up though. I think this is how he controlled the car.”
Liam tossed it up and down in his hand, staring off with his brow furrowed as he thought through the technology that supported a basic LoJack and all of the ways that could be exploited.
“This is how he got around all of my shit. He was blocked from the computer. No way he could hack my firewall; I have too many traps. He’d have to take down my entire system just to get into this car. My stuff is designed to regenerate new code every few minutes, so good luck finding a backdoor to get in. You’ll be booted almost immediately.” Liam looked at the confused faces of his brothers and elaborated. “He only took over the car for a few minutes – on the bridge. He could have run us off a cliff out in the country and drowned us in the ravine…but he didn’t because he couldn’t get in yet. I’m sure he found a backdoor. He’s good, just not as good as me. He couldn’t find a way to stay in there without being kicked right back out. He designed a payload. It wasn’t ready to toss in until we got back to town.”
“Uh, Wonder Nerd? Mind Translating? Payload?” Luke questioned.
“Basically, he used this to do his dirty work because he couldn’t get around my stuff. Think of it as a small window you don’t fit through,” Liam went on. “When the window was open, he tossed in a bomb before it closed again. Once the bomb was inside, boom. He was able to disable parts of the car and regain control, just not all of them. This little LoJack held the payload. He remote detonated to save time transmitting his signal so he’d make the window.”
“But you said he didn’t have it figured out until you got to town,” Dace reasoned.
“Right. The LoJack told him where we were. It was also where he sent the payload when he had it ready. Once it was sent, he just waited to execute.”
“Like a game of relay.” Luke nodded in understanding.
“Exactly! Old school shit.” Liam laughed.
“If you say so.” Dace shook his head, overwhelmed by the information. “Why are you so excited?”
“He didn’t know how long he had to execute or even if it would work. He wasn’t confident; he was guessing at best.” Liam’s smirk was cocky and full of arrogance. “I’m still ahead of him, but he’s catching up. I have some work to do, starting with this disc. I need to take it apart and find out everything I can about him. He’s good, but I’m better.”