CHAPTER 17
“Team two in position.” Dace’s muffled voice came over the shared com’s system. “Breach on your ready, team one.”
Luke and Wylie stood at the door of an old abandoned warehouse in the Foundry District as team one acting on one of the many leads they had generated. In full armor, they each turned away as a micro explosive, Luke’s specialty, detonated, disengaging the old rusted lock that prevented their entry. Team one quickly deployed upon access, clearing the space until they met Dace and their cousin Ryker, who had come in from different angles in similar fashion.
Declan and Ronan took point on opposing rooftops, watching for moving targets, full sniper mode. The tactical maneuvers of the O’Reillys reflected just how extensive their training was. It was also why they rarely missed a mark in any situation. They were paid well for what they did because they were recognized as the best.
This wasn’t a paid job. They were protecting their own this time. In cases such as these, the stakes were always higher. It was personal.
Unfortunately, it was the fifth empty threat that week. Wells wasn’t there – or Dunham – or Lainey. They were no closer to capturing the menace terrorizing their family. They were also no closer to determining if Dunham was indeed Wells. Sure, it made the most sense, but they were too smart to buy into the theory without concrete proof. For now, they were looking for two, maybe three threats.
They were chasing sightings picked up by the facial recognition software Liam continued to upgrade with each passing day. There were several sightings picked up by his program of Dunham and Lainey, all over the city, mostly abandoned buildings and warehouses.
This particular building was thought to be the one – increased use of utilities, based on city resources that Liam hacked. They were even picking up a strong radio frequency in the area, narrowed to that building. When Liam tried to tap into whatever was coming out of that building, he ran into a few roadblocks; he found a pattern of frequency hopping. Someone was trying to hide what they were doing and their location.
Who would go to such lengths but someone with something to hide? Whoever was in there didn’t want to be detected. Frequency hopping is used to avoid interference of any kind. They were also using multiple antennae to cover a large geographic area, bouncing around the whole city of Portland. That’s where Wells, possibly Dunham and Lainey, were wreaking non-stop havoc. Too large of a coincidence to not be them.
Liam engaged aerial recon by way of satellite and drones, using infrared, and was able to detect movement within the building – movement from multiple people. It was likely that Wells, whoever he really was, had a full team of hackers housed in there, helping him do his dirty work.
There were moving bodies inside, all right. Once they breached the building, they came across a group of squatters. They had just moved in, or were let in rather, accessing the space through the city’s underground tunnel system. A man, who was no longer among them, had led them there, promising they’d be left alone because nobody had been in that building for years. It was part of the ruse. That man had to have been Wells.
“Another false lead,” Luke said. “This guy is fucking playing us.”
“At least we know how he’s getting around – the tunnels,” Dace said. “I’ll get a team down there and seal them off.”
“This isn’t a false lead,” Liam said over the com’s system from Watermark where he was watching it all go down, supporting from a tech position. “It’s a clue. He may be manipulating my software with his own feeds so we see what he wants us to see. That means I have a break somewhere.”
“And that’s a good thing?” Declan asked. “I see that as he’s just one-upped us.”
“Not really. He hasn’t one-upped us; he’s gained nothing from this. He has shown us his hand though,” Liam offered, the sound of his clicking keyboard easily heard in the background. “If he’s getting in somewhere, it’s a good thing. He isn’t getting far, or he’d hit us hard, and he hasn’t.”
“So, he’s just distracting us. Still…” Wylie asked.
“Yes. He wants us out there looking where we won’t find him so we aren’t in here to see him sneak in.” Liam was nearly giddy with the idea that Wells tried to get in and couldn’t. “I can follow him out of the system even if he isn’t in there anymore.”
“You set one of those traps, didn’t you?” Luke shook his head at his brother’s enthusiasm. Tech talk to him was like dirty words to others.
“Bingo! It’s like a footprint or a…”
“Fingerprint…” Luke laughed.
“You’ve been paying attention, brother. We may teach you to set the clock on your microwave yet,” Liam praised. “He won’t see me coming. Let’s make him uncomfortable, screw with his shit.”
“You’ll be able to find him?” Declan asked.
“Not necessarily. Best case scenario, I find him. Worst case, I fuck with him enough to piss him off, and he makes a stupid move. In the meantime, you guys need to keep clearing whatever locations I find. The one you don’t check is the one he’ll be in,” Liam explained.
“He hasn’t been hitting any of us. It’s been too quiet,” Dace pointed out. “But the city outages – power, cell towers, cable – it has to be him.”
“What’s the end game here? Why would he do that?” Wylie was impatient and beginning to pace.”
“He’s flexing his muscles, showing me what he can do. Why do assholes usually do that?” Liam chuckled. “He is trying to intimidate us. He wants me to think he’s a big deal, but it’s just a distraction. If he was a big deal, he’d be able to get into my system and let himself take what he wanted.”
“Let me guess – you’re better than he is.” Luke rolled his eyes.
“Of course, I am. My dick is bigger too. I mean if this guy wants to turn this into a pissing match, I’ll beat him there too.” Liam was on fire, the thrill of the chase and new excitement, poured into this case, gave him a hard-on. This is what he loved, what he was good at, what he was made for.
The guys laughed at Liam’s confidence, not because it was funny but because it was true. Liam was an animal, probably the brother that should be feared the most.
Ronan laughed. “Way to be humble, man.”
“We’re at war, boys, and I’m the nuke. He wants us to think he’s untouchable, that he’s in control,” Liam said. “But for every grenade he tosses, I’ll toss three. I’ll build a wall around the city infrastructure if I have to. Battle after battle, I’ll win. This is my city, my family, and my girl.”
“Booya!” Liam shouted in their ears. “I just delivered a payload and fucked up his day. Be ready for return fire, guys.”
“His girl?” Luke questioned.
“Booya?” Wylie asked. “Is that even a thing?”
Luke looked to Wylie and shook his head. “His girl? Did you miss that?”
“Nah.” Wylie smiled. “Saw that one coming.”
Liam had been in the lair scouring intel, looking for leads and blocking anything he came across that could get in the way. Every opportunity he had, he tossed another cyber grenade at his opponent. He was determined to flush him out and win, even if the current attacks were on the city and nobody at Watermark.
It had already been a long day, and it was only early afternoon. Liam pulled away from his computer, ready for a break while he let all of his fancy programming magic work for a while. The software was adapting and learning from that which came its way and was able to regenerate itself, becoming stronger to combat all that it detected – it was almost human. Frightening to some, fascinating to Liam.
Reagan was having a birthday party at Watermark the next day, and he had promised Felicity he would help her prepare. Wells had already interrupted their lives enough, and they were all finally getting to a good place, together. Liam wasn’t letting his daughter’s birthday pass without a celebration. Watermark was the safest building in town, and their rooftop provided the perfect location.
Wells was still laying low. It had been quiet. He was likely trying to recover from all of Liam’s direct cyber hits. Liam imagined that Wells was spending all of his time protecting his location because every hit from Liam brought them that much closer to finding him.
Liam was finally finding himself, deciding who he was supposed to be as a father, a brother, a friend, a lover. This jackass didn’t get to take any more than he already had, from any of them, especially his daughter.
As Liam was about to walk out the door, Felicity entered, running right into him. In quick motion, Liam grabbed her by her arms and pinned her against the wall, trapping her between his arms, holding her there. He laid his body against hers and kissed her hard, leaving her breathless.
“I was just thinking of you,” he said.
In a breathy tone, she asked, “Good thoughts or dirty thoughts?”
“Both,” he admitted with a waggling brow, his hand creeping up her shirt to fondle her breast.
Her head tilted back and her back arched, heat pooling between her legs. She rubbed herself against him, appreciating his arousal and his hot mouth down her neck.
“Rea…” she panted. “Reagan will be staying…the night…Declan…Lydia…Jax missed her.”
He had her nearly speechless, and that pleased him. Liam smiled and said, “I owe Jax a trip to the ice-cream shop.”
Liam gave up on her breast, slipping his hand under the waistband of her shorts where he found her bare.
“No panties,” he said. “You do that for me?” When he felt how hot and wet she was for him, he asked, “Is this for me too?”
With every stroke of her sex, she moaned, speechless. She nodded her head rapidly before she buried her face in his brawny shoulder, trying to silence her pleasure. She started grinding back, riding his hand until she came apart around his fingers.
“I owe him two scoops now,” Liam teased.
When she caught her breath and was able to stand on her own, she got to the point of her visit. “I was thinking we could have a date.”
When he frowned, for obvious reasons – they weren’t making any unnecessary trips gallivanting around the city until it was safe to do so – she shook her head. “No, like a pizza, beer, and movies on the couch date.”
He dipped his head down, taking her mouth again. “One condition – you stay over.”
“I love sleepovers.” She smiled.
With a final kiss, she turned to leave but not before they gained an audience of O’Reilly men clearing their throats. Still flushed from the mind-blowing orgasm Liam had given to her, she thought to toss a distraction and smacked Liam’s ass as she left the room.
“I’ll grab Reagan off the bus and get her packed for tonight,” she said over her shoulder before disappearing down the long hall to the elevator.
“So, that’s a thing?” Declan asked.
“It’s always been a thing,” Luke answered for his brother. “Boy genius here was just too stupid to see it.”
“I wasn’t…stupid,” Liam defended. “I just didn’t know how.”
“Awww, I could’ve showed you how, buddy.” Dace taunted, patting Liam on the shoulder. “I didn’t realize a guy could forget how to use his…”
“Not…that.” Liam cut him off, not finding his poke of fun the least bit funny. “I didn’t know how to move on. Okay? I didn’t…know.”
Wylie walked over to Liam and wrapped his arms around his brother. Wylie, the biggest and most sensitive O’Reilly of all, completely engulfed him, his sentiment sincere. “Welcome back, brother. We’ve missed you.”
“Can we not do this?” Liam squirmed from his oversized brother’s embrace. “It’s fucking weird.”
“Says the guy who forgot how to use his…” Dace was cut off by a sounding alarm.
The screens on the wall automatically populated with various information as Liam’s system went to work, identifying the threat it was alarming.
“Shit,” Liam said, tapping away at his keyboard, trying to gather the information that was lagging. “Security breach.”
“Building or tech?” Declan fired back, the brothers already grabbing weapons from the cage.
“Mother F…” Liam said. “Both.”
Suddenly, the alarms stopped, and Liam pulled his hands away from his keyboard, “I-I didn’t do that.”
“Lobby,” Dace called out as the dormant screen finally came to life. “What the hell? How’d he get in?”
The security footage revealed a man standing in the middle of Watermark’s lobby, wearing a black hooded sweatshirt – holding a knife.
“City! Get City off the elevator!” Liam shouted. “I’m trying to stop it here. There’s a lag.”
Wylie ran down the long hall and hit the emergency button on the elevator, but it kept running – the emergency button failed.
“It’s not stopping,” he yelled back to the lair.
“Almost…got…it.” Liam said, his fingers flying over the keys, determined to win this round.
All at once, the power in the building went offline, security lights from a backup generator kicking on. They watched security gates come down around the doors and windows in the lobby so no one could get in, or out.
“Elevator’s dead. She’s stuck on the third floor,” Wylie said, re-entering the room.
“Is this him or you?” Luke asked, waving his hands around indicating the lack of power in the building.
“Me. I just locked down Watermark. Whole city block is down,” Liam said. “Protocol – better safe than sorry.”
“Who’s in our lobby, and how’d the bastard get in?” Declan asked.
“Wells – gotta be,” Liam offered. “The system already found how he got in and shut him out. System is secure.”
“Who’s in our fucking lobby,” Declan asked again.
“His hood’s up. Can’t get a clear shot of his face. Only thing I’m pulling up is shots of Dunham from before. Shit.” Liam paused, comparing the pics to the man in the lobby. “Black hoodie…in all the pics.”
“He just walked in our fucking door? He has some big balls.” Dace laughed. “Race you down the stairs.”