CHAPTER 26
Liam led the men to the grassy knoll where he and Felicity had caught up with Big Johnson. While they were talking, Liam tended to the dog and took in the surroundings. He recalled a private air field in the distance and a private jet that was parked in front of its hangar. When he pointed it out, Big Johnson said it belonged to some rich dude or something. It was a travesty to have such an eyesore blemishing what was once such magnificent beauty.
“I can’t get in. Shit.” Liam was frustrated. He just didn’t have the equipment he needed to get into the plane sitting only yards away, readying for takeoff. “I can grab the signal, but that’s it. Hacking a plane is a totally different ball game.”
“You need to be at the lair,” Luke said.
“No time for that. They’re leaving,” Liam said. “I can’t see what’s going on, but somebody is working in there.”
“Last attempt to grab money from the ground?” Luke asked.
“Maybe? More likely trying to cover some tracks? Once they’re in the air, it’s all about complying with the FAA or find a fighter jet on your wing. My guess? Filing fake flight plans, securing more than one airfield to land in, making it look like that plane is supposed to be wherever it’s going while leaving a dozen trails in its wake.”
“How do we get in if you can’t get in through that?” Carter asked.
“Manually. The old fashion way. There’s a control panel at the back of the plane. Typically, in the belly where the cargo is held, but that one is too small, no belly.” Liam was looking at the jet then a screen, trying to pull up a schematic that would tell him where he needed to go on that plane.”
“You need to be on the plane to get to it?” Dace asked.
“Yep. I need to be at the tail end. There’s a panel behind that room.” He turned the laptop to show the schematic.
“Are you just going to knock on the door or…” Luke didn’t like the idea, not one bit.
“Nope Climbing in.” Liam smiled, packing his stuff away. “I get to that panel, and I can dump the fuel, keep the landing gear down, and do all sorts of other shit.”
“Wow. That sounds really…technical,” Wylie added.
“You can’t climb up there. You don’t know what you’re fucking doing,” Luke scolded.
“It’s right up that rear wheel, through the hatch. How hard can it be? If the plane starts moving, I need you to blow out the tires, keep them grounded.”
“Why can’t we just take out the tires now? Jesus, Liam, you’ve lost your fucking mind.” Luke said, grabbing him by the shoulders. “We’re getting her out of there, but not like this.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
Luke looked to the plane. “Windows, blow out the windows.”
“I may as well just knock and let’em know I’m outside. Felicity is on that plane; we can’t risk hitting her. So, unless you have a better view inside than I do or a hidden monster computer – I’m going in.”
Luke stood in silence, unable to find a reason to stop Liam because it was the best plan they had. If they had more time, they would find another way. But there wasn’t a minute to spare. Luke dropped his head and nodded the direction of the plane. “We’ll cover you. Don’t do anything stupid. I’m armed, what can go wrong?”
Before anyone could answer, Liam was gone, using the night sky to light his way as he ducked behind trees and hid in the shadows until he made it to the plane, climbed up the landing gear and disappeared into the undercarriage of the plane.
Carter, Declan and Dace moved in, each positioning themselves strategically with their own wheel target should the plane start to move. Wylie watched for movement in the fuselage while offering Luke cover. He was at the door, wiring explosives that would take the door off in a second should Liam get himself in a jam. One way or another, they were going to need to get in, and this was their plan B should Liam not have time to accomplish what he set out to do.
Liam quickly found what he was looking for, but the panel had been tampered with. It was blocked. There was a steel plate over the panel, riveted to the wall, making it completely inaccessible. He could toy with Luke’s favorite little micro explosives, but it would not only potentially damage the panel behind it, but it would let everyone on board know he was there.
The jets engine started to cycle, readying for takeoff, and Liam was no closer to grounding the plane than he was from the grassy knoll.
“Brother, tell me that’s you fucking with the engine from some flashing buttons in the back of the plane,” Luke said through Liam’s earpiece.
“I can’t play with the engines back here. That’s not how it works,” Liam replied.
“I know, dammit. Tell me you found what you were looking for. You’re about to take off to parts unknown.”
“I found it, just can’t get to it. If we take off, at least I’m on board. I have a gun and…”
“You can’t fire the weapon in flight, asshole. You’ve gone rogue, so get it together and do what you need to do or…” The wheels started to turn, cutting Luke off. “Dammit! Get off that plane.”
“I’m not going to be this close to her and not do a damn thing to save her. I’m armed too. I’ll take out Wells, the pilot, and whoever else I need to, but she is not leaving me. I’m not doing this again, she isn’t leaving me.”
Static interference came through the earpieces, for a brief moment, then silence. “Liam? Liam do you copy? God dammit, do you copy?”
“He turned it off,” Dace said. “We need to create a diversion out here. It’s the only way we can help him.”
Luke leaned his head against the plane and said a quick prayer. “Fire on three, and don’t fucking miss…”
When Luke called out the final count, three shots rang out in unison like the well-trained machine Brother’s Keeper was, taking out all three tires. Only moments passed before the engines cut, and someone started shooting out each window from inside the plane. It was clear their positions were safe, or whoever was shooting was a really bad shot because none of the attempts came anywhere near the brothers.
Luke ducked behind the rear wheel, under the belly of the plane, and hit his watch, detonating a charge of explosives on the door. Chaos within trailed outside, alerting the brothers to the fight in progress. Liam found his mark. With each blast of a gun came haunting screams full of fear. Were they hurt? Were they just scared? Had Felicity just witnessed Liam being shot? Every scenario ran through the brothers’ minds as they raced to get to their brother.
They gathered at the wrecked door, easily pushing it open. Luke handed Dunham a gun. “Shoot one of us, and the rest of us will kill you, got it? Stay out here and protect yourself.”
Dunham nodded, taking point outside the plane as each O’Reilly filed in, followed by Carter. The scene they happened upon was surreal, something they never thought they’d witness. Liam, with a gun to a man’s head.
Liam wasn’t foreign to battle. He’d been trained, involved in gun fights, hand to hand, but only to serve justice and self-defense. His eyes were wild, fear consumed him, and the hate in his eyes took them aback. Liam had never claimed a life, never had to. It wasn’t in him to do so. His brothers were highly trained experts who fought with multiple branches of the military and took on many humanitarian cases that occasionally left blood on their hands.
Liam never fought on those missions. He was the brains of the operation and fought from behind a screen. He was their eyes and ears to everything. Shooting someone? Sure he’d done that. It didn’t sit well, but it was always a justified fire. This was different; this was willing and methodical murder. When the proverbial dust settled, Liam would regret it. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.
Felicity cried for him to stop. She knew he was doing it for her and that it would one day destroy him. But he didn’t hear her. He didn’t hear Luke when he tried to reason with him, tried to take the hit for him as he often did. Liam was lost, feelings from his past colliding with his present.
“Nice to see you in clothes, Vern,” he said to the large man on his knees. “Meet my brothers. Brothers, meet...Vern Johnson. You can call him Wells.”
“Liam, don’t do this. He isn’t worth it. Please don’t do it. This isn’t you,” Felicity cried. “I know you love me. I know you think you’re doing this to save me, but I’m here. I’m safe. Now, you don’t have to do this.”
“Shoot him!” Lainey sobbed. “Shooot him. He killed our mother. He killed Dunham…shoot him. Please, make it…stop.”
Liam calmed but didn’t take his eyes off Johnson, nor did he drop his weapon. He was at war with himself, fighting what he knew he should do and what he thought he needed to do. “Dunham is alive. He’s outside.” His tone was emotionless, monotone. He was fighting it.
“Liam. Let me do this. Let me do it the right way,” Carter offered. “He’ll go away forever, never see the light of day. I can do that.”
“Yeah, until he gets five minutes of computer time for good behavior and hacks his way out.” Liam laughed, then adopted a sense of calm that was more Liam. “Don’t you see? It won’t ever end. We’ll always be looking over our shoulders, wondering what his next move is. He’ll always be there, even behind bars, watching, lurking, hiding in the shadows of the innerwebs, finding ways to get what he wants, settling for tormenting us. This doesn’t end… Ever… So long as he’s alive. I can’t live that way. I finally have my life back, a life with City and Reagan. The minute he walks out of here alive, he owns that.”
Vern smiled and let out a maniacal laugh that sent chills down everyone’s spine as he looked each of them in the eye. “He’s not wrong. Not wrong at all.”
“Oh my God. He found us all once. He’ll do it again,” Lainey cried, desperation in her voice. “Make it stop before he takes anything else away from any of us.”
“Liam?” Felicity said. “Liam look at me. Find the joy…find the joy,” she cried, her voice dropping to a whisper while her lip quivered. “Weather the storm, Liam, so we can dance in the rain.”
He whipped his head Felicity’s direction as he choked on the emotion caught in his throat. Those words – they meant everything to him. Felicity meant everything to him. He looked back at all the stares pointed at him. The shock and concern they all wore struck him. He was hurting them. This wasn’t him. This wasn’t the way, and he knew that better than anyone.
Liam took a step backward and handed the butt of his weapon to Luke before he pulled Felicity into his embrace. “Let’s go home.”
Neither Liam nor Felicity gave Vern another look as they walked toward the door, Felicity reaching her hand out to her sister as they went.
“He won’t get out. I’ll take everything away,” Carter said, landing a supportive hand on Liam’s shoulder. “You have my word. He won’t be able to hurt anyone, ever again.”
Liam nodded and continued to walk. Dunham met Lainey at the bottom of the steps and took her into his arms. They were victims like the rest of them. This was their victory too.
Safely outside of the plane, Liam pulled Felicity into him and kissed her long and hard before finally resting his forehead to hers, letting his shoulders sag, the breath he’d been holding free, and feeling all that there was to feel. It hurt, but for the first time in a very long time, he could feel joy mixed with his pain.
“I was so scared, City,” he said, eyes closed, his voice barely there. “I don’t know what I’d do if…” his words hung in the air, unspoken. “I don’t ever want to lose you. I love you.”
“I was scared too, but I knew you would come for me.” She softly kissed him, the emotions consuming her.
“I always will.”
Felicity wrapped her arms around him and sobbed into his chest, but where there was once fear, now lived joy. Those words she spoke to Liam on the plane came to her in an instant tonight and she’d forever be grateful for their timing and the person who placed them on her heart.
She nodded. “I love you too, Liam.”
“You’re the joy,” he said, “and I can’t wait to dance in the rain with you for the rest of my life.”
“Let’s go,” Luke said, to the rest of the crowd on the plane. “I got this asshole.”
One by one, everyone disembarked until it was only Luke and Vern Johnson. Luke turned to Vern and shook his head. “Not you.”
A gunshot rang out on the plane with only Luke and Vern still onboard, and everyone held their breaths as the brothers ran back. Before they got to the stairs, Luke appeared in the doorway, looking at each of them before he took to the steps. Walking straight ahead, his sights fixed on nothing in particular, he marched on.
“He grabbed my weapon, turned it on himself,” Luke said. “Weapon’s next to the body.”
Carter’s head fell back, knowing full well what happened. It wouldn’t be the first time one of them took justice for themselves. Or rather…the one’s they loved.
Luke would always protect his brothers, especially Liam. Their bond was special. They were two of the same, no matter how different they seemed from one another – twins. Luke had plenty of blood on his hands, and he’d carry it for his brother too. Now that they were truly free from their nightmare – Luke was just beginning to live his.
The End