CHAPTER 22
Felicity sat on her balcony, early the next morning, watching the sunrise with a cup of coffee and a soft blanket. Spring was beautiful in Portland, often bringing cool, dewy mornings, but that didn’t distract from the beauty the city boasted upon waking with the sun each morning. This morning was different than any other. It felt new, different, more promising.
Despite the odd, threatening circumstance surrounding them, plenty of good was ensuing. After so many years of waiting, hoping, and even praying, she’d finally found love. It was in the most unlikely of places, but not one she would deny. Though she promised her dear friend to look over her family in her absence, she didn’t know it would lead where it had.
Sure, there had always been something between Felicity and Liam, a shared spark of some kind, but she’d always chalked it up to being birds of a feather. They had similar interests, shared a profession, and worked closely together. She hadn’t counted on him being the one to mend her heart any more than she, his. But it happened.
If she were being honest with herself, the fondness for each other wasn’t new, rather several years old. They were each just too stubborn to acknowledge it, and Liam was too broken to act on it. As was she. They were finally in a good place – at the same time.
The walls he’d erected after his wife’s death were quickly disassembling. He was letting go of the guilt that she inspired from their single night together, years ago. His heart was finally letting him feel again – and letting him move on. That couldn’t be easy for him, but she was happy to see him, the real him, for the first time in a very long time.
Any other woman probably would have left long ago, given the rift between them, but Felicity had given Cassidy her word. She would help them through her loss, make sure Reagan was held up when Liam couldn’t and vice versa. She’d given Felicity her own letters to help her through the bad days with Reagan and Liam and how to help Liam through Reagan growing up.
In hindsight, it was as though Cassidy set this all-in motion. She knew the tumultuous journey they would face and that none of them would weather it well alone. When she thought back to the letter Cassidy had left her – her goodbye – the words would read differently now than they had upon her passing. It’s like somehow, she knew, or perhaps hoped, that they would all find each other in this way someday.
Someday was here. And when it would normally feel odd to have fallen for a man who was once married to a woman who was more of a sister than a friend – it wasn’t. It was more right than wrong. The only thing wrong about it was that it took them so long to reach the place they were at. But as Cass said, all things have purpose, and the things that matter most are the things we struggle the hardest for.
Liam and Reagan were worth the struggle. Cassidy knew that. She also must have seen something worthy of them in Felicity because where most would just say goodbye and let those left behind find their own way, Cass saw to it that their own way was right back to each other. She played with fate, made it the inevitable.
Cassidy told Felicity to love, be happy, find joy where it feels empty – to weather every storm and learn to dance in the rain. Reagan was the joy, Liam had been empty, and she was dancing in the rain because the storm was passing. Beautiful, poetic, and perfectly Cassidy.
The tears overcame her with a flood of happiness. She loved Liam and everything that he stood for. She loved his daughter like her own, and even loved the rowdy brothers that were certainly part of the package. The O’Reillys rescued her from a life she wasn’t meant to live and now she was living a life with all of them. Yet, she’d brought something ugly, and menacing with her.
Like Liam, she’d protect what and who she loved too, all of them. She brought trouble to their world, despite what they said. She would fix it. It was the least she could do. It had taken her years to rebuild her life, build a family. Felicity wasn’t about to let it all go that easily. She’d fight for what she so desperately wanted to hold onto – at all costs – she’d fight.
Liam had his hands in everything, despite her own high-tech abilities. He’d surely see her messing around through one of the many cyber file safes he had deployed. He was watching everything; they all were. Though her skills weren’t easily matched, when it came to cyber anything, she wasn’t better than Liam was, equals perhaps, and she didn’t have time to sneak around every layer of security he had in place.
Even if she could find a backdoor into Wells – or Dunham’s rather – world, it would only be a matter of time before Liam saw it and intervened. She was more than tech savvy. Her skills were what landed her with the O’Reilly clan to begin with and in the trouble she faced. She needed to pull her weight, despite Liam shutting her down every time she tried, and find a way out of the mess she brought to town. And keep those she loved safe.
The idea that Dunham was behind this made her stomach sour. How the man who once wanted to spend his life with her became her ultimate enemy was beyond her. What was worse was that he took her only family – her mom and sister – from her. Or did he?
Seeing Lainey’s pictures and video of her alive and well left her with a sense of joy that was quickly washed away with the dread that seeing her with Dunham induced. Had that been the plan all along? Had Dunham used Felicity? How did her sister play into this, and where was their mom?
Perhaps it was Lainey who was being used. She couldn’t credit her as a threat any more than she could call her a victim. There was just no telling. Dunham had pulled the proverbial wool over Felicity’s eyes in an effortless manner. He was the wolf in sheep’s clothing, from where she stood. She couldn’t subscribe to any of it. Was Dunham actually Wells? Was Lainey in on it or a victim? Was their mom alive?
Felicity helped her mom raise her sister though she had only been a handful of years older. Lainey was a young college student when Felicity had helped the O’Reillys and the Feds take Wells…err, Dunham down. There was no way Lainey was involved in the Wells-Dunham plan to rip off the world’s richest. Right?
Why did Dun ham have her now, and where had they been all those years? Lainey didn’t seem to be under duress in the video feed Felicity had watched over and over. Was she a willing participant? Was her sister now one of the world’s most wanted criminals too? There was one thing felicity was certain of. There was no such thing as coincidences. Life was intentional.
There had to be a way to resolve not only her questions where her sister was concerned but also take down the asshole behind the game that was ruling their lives, once and for all. How do you contact a ghost – a phantom in the wind who only communicates through shutting down power grids and remotely stealing cars?
As soon as she asked herself the question, the answer became clear as day. Felicity didn’t have to weave her way through the massive walls of coding and virtual gates of security that enveloped every bit of their world at the moment. Strip away the advanced technological abilities and know-how that each of them possessed, they were just regular people – hacker card revoked. How do regular people communicate? Email.
Liam had virtual watch dogs on all of their communications and social media. Those that he knew of, anyway. He wouldn’t have eyes, virtual eyes, on accounts that dated back a decade. Why would he? He probably didn’t even know about those dormant accounts. He was protecting [email protected] He had no idea who techgirl88 was. It was time to blow the dust bunnies off of her past and hope like hell that Wells, Dunham, or whoever the hell he was, was paying attention – and Liam wasn’t.
Felicity was sitting on a park bench in the park next to Watermark as instructed by the email cryptically signed as W. It wasn’t lost on her that the email that caught his attention was that which she sent to her sister’s old email account. That couldn’t be a coincidence but actually part of the game he was playing. It was also pretty incriminating for Lainey.
It suggested that perhaps Lainey was still a pawn, and he was using her for all her worth, which offered Felicity some relief. That relief was quickly dampened with the idea that maybe the reason the email came from Lainey’s account because Lainey was indeed invested in the scheme, or worse – she was the mastermind – Wells.
Either way, Felicity wouldn’t let her guard down. She knew better. Her sister had been presumed dead for a number of years and suddenly resurrected in the last handful of weeks. She wasn’t an innocent in all of this, not until Felicity could rule her out as a willing accomplice.
Her phone pinged again, alerting her to a new email – again, from Lainey. It was a video of her sister casually walking down the city street, the backdrop clearly Portland. Emotion rushed over Felicity. Seeing her alive and well again did more to her than she expected. She recognized the area. Lainey was nearby. The river was in the background. It was clearly Waterfront District, or within the general vicinity.
Felicity watched and rewatched until she put the landmarks in the background together. She was moving west. If that video was recent, perhaps her sister was still in the area. In the background, she could hear the Max Line, Portland’s mass transit line, barreling by, the clinking of the rails undeniable. The west bound line had just passed by, several blocks to Felicity’s left. Could it be the same line?
Taking to her feet, Felicity watched the video again, trying to get the possible timing down. Hopeful she would run into her sister and that this wasn’t another trick. Moving south, she stalled when another ping caught her attention. Another video.
The river was more clear, it was right behind Lainey. Felicity had been correct in determining her location. A barge sounded in the background of the video with its loud horn and bell that followed. She had heard that too. The barges always did that through the waterfront area, over and over, alerting boaters of their routes.
The barge sounded again; this was indeed, live. Felicity picked up her pace working her way south. She watched all around her, waiting to catch a glimpse of her sister. They had to be only a few blocks apart, only a couple more intersections between them.
Her pace quickened with every thought that she may get to see her sister – alive. A sense of elation filled her – her sister, after all these years. Had she been in Portland all along and they just hadn’t crossed paths? Portland is a big city, but that big? So big they could have been neighbors and not known it? Her sister was thought to be dead, so it wasn’t like she was looking for traces of her everywhere she went.
Felicity was two blocks shy of the intersection that the Max Line ran through when a petite blonde came into view, stopping on the corner, waiting to cross. Lainey. She ran toward her sister. She didn’t want to miss her. It was really her.
Felicity stopped in her tracks when a man in a black hoodie stepped up behind Lainey. The glare of something shiny had her attention. He had a gun. Despite the danger, Felicity ran toward her sister, reaching the corner across from where she stood.
Traffic was fast paced, she couldn’t cross. “Lainey!” she shouted in warning.
When Lainey looked up and finally laid eyes on Felicity, confusion marked her expression as she squinted her eyes, then widened them in surprise. “F-Felicity?”
The man in the black hoodie raised the gun to Lainey’s head, his face hidden in the shadows of the hood.
“NO!” Felicity screamed. Without concern for her own safety, she ran toward the street, toward her sister, when the gun was then turned on her.
Her feet shuffled at the edge of traffic, the gun aimed on her holding her in place. Muffled sounds of horns honking around her didn’t register. All she saw, across two lanes worth of street, was a cold steely barrel, staring her down.
The world stopped; time stood still as the events that followed happened all around her. It was if she was watching it play, a bystander at best. The man’s weapon went off. The slow muffled sound of gunfire cracked – once, twice, three times, maybe more – filling the air as a blunt force struck her to the ground with a hard thud.
Felicity heard her name called behind her – a man she thought. It was slow and had a familiar tenor, but she couldn’t take her eyes off the man in the hoodie who held her sister. The last thing she saw, across the two lanes of traffic that seemed to halt, was the man’s hood falling, revealing his identity before he grabbed Lainey by the arm and ran with a panic-stricken glare, aimed Felicity’s way. Dunham.
Then she hit the ground with such force the air was knocked from her lungs. She struggled to breathe but her chest just heaved, unable to draw in air. Flat on her back, her head turned to the side as she looked for traces of her sister. They were running. Muffled footsteps, running, got louder before finally revealing a flock of men running in the direction of the shooter. O’Reillys.
Felicity looked up, trying to center herself as she attempted to get to her knees, air slowly filling her lungs. The Max Line roared by, putting space between Lainey and the O’Reillys. Seconds felt like minutes but may as well have been hours. When the city light rail finally passed, Lainey was gone; Dunham was gone. They’d vanished without a trace.
Though some of the men proceeded to chase, Wylie and Dace doubled back toward Watermark. They each looked at Felicity as they slowed briefly but didn’t say a word to her. Hadn’t she been shot?
“You good, brother?” Wylie asked, looking past Felicity as if she weren’t there.
Brother? Confused, she looked down, searching for traces of impact, of being shot, but there were none. Following Wylie’s stare, she turned to see Liam, laying on the ground behind her. He’d been the force that knocked her to the ground. Slowly, he rose, hand across his right shoulder. He’d clearly hit the ground just as hard as she had.
Liam nodded his head at his brothers. “Go!” And they did.
In an attempt to relieve them all of danger and deal with Wells, she’d only put the very people she was trying to protect in danger. Her plan had backfired because they had come for her, he had come for her. Liam saved her from bullets that had her name on them. Or maybe they were meant for the O’Reillys so Dunham could get to her. Who really knew? What she did know was that her plan failed, and she put those she loved most in harm’s way.
“Are you hurt?” Liam broke her train of thought. Still disoriented, it took her a minute to wrap her mind around what he was asking. “City, are you hurt?”
He shuffled closer, crawling toward her to check her over.
“No. I’m fine,” she finally said. “I- I just hit the ground a little hard, but I’m fine.”
“What were you doing? Why were you out here?” Liam asked. “What were you thinking, Felicity?”
“I was trying to finish it, stop the terror so we can go on with our lives.” Her voice cracked with regret. “I was giving Wells what he wanted.” She perked up at mention of Wells name. “It’s Dunham. I saw him. Wells is Dunham. It’s Dunham, and he has my sis…”
A strained look crossed Liam’s face, distracting her before she could finish her thought. Had he been injured worse than she thought?
“Liam, what is it?” She searched his face and looked him over. “Liam?”
He pulled his hand away from his shoulder and revealed blood. A lot of blood.
“Oh my God,” she cried. “You were hit – he shot you.”
“It’s just a graze,” he said, placing his hand in hers so she could help him to his feet. “Barely a scar.”
Looking him over, she discovered a second wound on the same side as the shoulder. “You were hurt. This is all my fault. Two hits. You took two of my bullets.”
“It’s not your fault. I chose to jump in front of the bullets.” He grinned.
“It was – I looked for them. I brought them here. And now this.” Tears flooded her face, her voice nearly inaudible as the guilt consumed her.
Felicity wrapped Liam’s good arm around her neck so she could help support him as they walked the handful of blocks back to Watermark.
“What was I thinking?” she said when the hand that wrapped his waist felt the dampness of his blood and her touch made him wince. “Oh my God, what was I thinking?”
“Good question. Were you even armed?” he seethed through the pain. “What would you have done? How would you have defended yourself? You don’t know what they are capable of or what their plan was.”
She dipped her head; she hadn’t thought of any of that. She was combat trained and could handle herself, but against a gun? The heaviness of the situation was settling in, and she felt like an ass. She was an ass. “I kicked your ass?”
“I also didn’t fight back, and you have no idea what kind of trap you were walking into.”
Liam’s phone rang. Felicity grabbed it from his cargo pocket, cringing when she saw the cracked screen.
“Declan?” she answered. “Yeah, we’re almost back. He’s been shot, and there’s a lot of blood.”
“They’re barely there hits,” Liam said into the phone.
“Okay. The lair. Got it.” She slid the phone back into his pocket
They walked in silence for a moment, Liam in pain and Felicity reeling in guilt.
“How…how did you find me?” she asked, helping him climb the two steps to the lobby doors of Watermark.
“Nobody gets in or out without me knowing. I got an alarm – watched you leave on camera.”
“And came running.” She smiled.
“I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Ever.”
“How did you know I was in trouble then?”
“City, you know better than to leave for a friggin’ coke without taking one of us with you. You snuck out – red flags all over the place.”
She nodded. He didn’t miss a beat. “So, you and the cavalry came running.”
They stepped on to the waiting elevator when he leaned against the wall and said, “We always do.”
She dropped her head, trying to hide her emotion from him; the guilt and shame she felt was overwhelming. She’d put these men in the line of fire because she just couldn’t sit still or at least share her plan with them.
“We always will, City,” he said, leaning his forehead to hers. “I always will. Jesus, you scared me.”
A sob escaped her at his words. The fear in his voice – she hurt him. “I’m so sorry. I just thought… I just want all of this to go away. We are finally in a good place, all of us, and we were trapped by this…this…bullshit.”
Liam laughed out loud in a booming voice at her use of profanity. It was completely out of character but reflected her frustration.
“We’ll get through this, we will…” He kissed her softly, “We were so close today. So close. How did you get them here?”
“You mean you haven’t figured it out yet with your magic fingers?” she waggled her eyebrows at the innuendo.
“No…too busy chasing a trouble making blonde. So?”
She grinned sheepishly, and tilted her head. “Email.”
“Email? But I’m watching…”
When she bit her lip, he stopped and let her fill in the blanks. “Are you watching techgirl88?”
He grinned. “I am now.”
His words hung between them, the double meaning not lost on her.