CHAPTER 23
The week passed in a blur, and it was the night of the dance. The week had been quiet, no more emails and no luck tracing those that had come in. They were at a loss. Even the city had been left alone.
The O’Reillys got off a few shots in the confrontation with Dunham and Lainey. They wondered if they had hit him and he was recovering, or perhaps worse…dead. Until they had confirmation, one way or another, they were to remain on alert at all costs. They fell for his death once; they wouldn’t twice.
Liam and Felicity had met the rest of the brothers in the lair when they had returned to Watermark. He was right. Though he bled out a lot, the wounds were grazes that didn’t even need stitches. With the extensive military background and experience with receiving a few bullets themselves over the years, the brothers were able to clean Liam up. He was healing just fine.
The father daughter dance was a no brainer for Liam. He wasn’t cancelling it for anything, not even a potential cyber stalker out for blood. They were prepared – or as prepared as they could be with maximum security and muscle everywhere. Dunham would be a fool to walk in that building or come anywhere near it.
Reagan had danced with Liam more than once, but she had moved on to the social side of the event. The dance was a fundraiser for the robotics team so they could go to the state championship, something Liam could really get behind and made a mental not to make a donation to the effort.
The robotics team was responsible for running the event – food table, emptying trash cans, staying on top of the music and lighting, even decorations. There were more attendees, however, than there were kids from robotics so their coach, who also happened to be the football coach, enlisted the help of the football team.
That meant both boys from Reagan’s party were at the dance – both still clearly smitten with her. Every time football kid tried to dance or even talk to Reagan, Luke would stand in his line of sight and cross his arms. The kid didn’t have a backbone at all; he’d take off.
Robotics kid, on the other hand, interrupted Liam’s dance with Reagan with a smile, confidence, and manners.
“Hey, Mr. O! Mind if I cut in?” he’d asked, holding a single carnation for Reagan.
Liam stopped and looked between the boy and Reagan, who was smiling fondly. “What’s your name, kid?”
“Oh, my name is Chance. Chance Callaghan, sir.” Chance put his hand out to formally introduce himself though they’d already been briefly introduced at the party. “We aren’t supposed to dance. We’re supposed to work, but I promised Rea a dance, and coach allowed just one.”
“Callaghan? Irish?” Liam said with a pleased look.
“Yes, sir. Very much so.” Chance nodded.
Liam stepped aside and put a hand out offering Chance his place. “Enjoy the dance you two.”
“Did you know that kid’s Irish?” Liam asked Luke.
“Callaghan. Third generation. Family owns Magee’s. Also third generation,” Luke rattled off.
“The brewery? Really?” Liam nodded, impressed with the kid’s background and that he came from a very Irish lineage.
Luke nodded, and continued. “Dad is the CEO, mom is a Magee. Decent family. One second generation black sheep, but he’s in Dublin. Petty stuff, mostly a boozer. Chance Callaghan is a straight-A student, attends summer camp a MIT, belongs to a long list of clubs – all of which make him a geek. He’s basically the 12-year-old version of you.”
“Wow, you ran a background on the kid.” Liam laughed.
Luke side-eyed his brother. “Want to know their net worth?”
“No. I’m good. I think I liked him when I found out he made that robot that’s rolling around emptying trash.”
“He passed. He’s good enough.” Luke shrugged. “For now.”
“Well, she’s twelve, so I’m not worried about more than right now.”
Luke looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow, “Really? Because this is about the age you met Cass, and look how that turned out.”
Liam gawked at Luke, the reality in his words striking, then to his daughter who was enjoying her dance, a fully stretched arm’s length away from the boy that was making her head fall back in laughter.
When the song was over, Chance returned to his post at the punch bowl where Felicity had been manning his station.
“You seem okay with the whole dancing with boy’s thing,” Felicity said, meeting Liam in the middle of the dance floor.
“I like the kid – he’s smart, has manners.” Liam pulled her into him, and began to sway to the music.
She chuckled. “He’s just like you.”
Liam smiled with a sideways glance. “That might be it too.”
“She’s having a great time. Everyone is. I’m glad you were able to make this happen for her.”
“Me too.” Trying to avoid the emotions threatening, he was quick to change the subject. “Did you notice that robot? Chance made it.”
“So, I’ve heard.” She giggled, Liam spinning her around.
“The RX-something or other. Calls it Rex. He has a patent pending on it and another one in the works that’s supposed to be a total upgrade, dude. Told him I’m happy to help him with it – back him with funding.”
“Whoa. What happens if Reagan isn’t in to him anymore? Are you going to break up too?”
“Funny,” he said.
“Hey, Rage headed to the bathroom, just letting you know,” Dace interrupted “She didn’t want to interrupt you two. Pretty sure she’s figured out this thing between you. She had one of those dreamy looks girls get.”
“Dreamy looks?” Felicity questioned, pulling away from Liam. “I’ll go check on her – buddy system to the bathroom and all.”
Liam returned to the nearby table he and his brothers occupied most of the night. They looked like hired muscle. Oddly, nobody gave them a second look, so they must have blended in.
“Everything’s going good,” Luke said. “One more hour, and this thing’s a wrap.”
“Ronan and Ryker are headed out back after they finish rounds inside. They’ll stand post there until everyone leaves. Wylie and I got the front. You get City and Rage in your car, and Luke has your tail,” Dace rattled off.
“Jesus. A motorcade and everything.” The laugh Liam choked on was forced. He was trying to make light of a heavy situation.
“We do what we gotta do, man,” Dace said. “It’s important to Rage so it’s important to us.”
“I’ve seen you shoot men without hesitation. It’s weird to hear you talk like that,” Wylie teased while keeping a straight face. “I don’t even know what to think of that. It’s so…confusing.”
“Fuck off, Wy,” Dace shot back.
“That’s more like it.” Wylie laughed, patting his brother’s shoulder. “I was worried about you for a minute.”
“Hey, Mr. O?” Chance interrupted, trepidation in his voice.
Liam responded with, “What’s up, Chance? If you’re looking for Reagan, she’s…”
“Something might be wrong,” the kid interrupted. “Reagan. She’s in the bathroom.”
“Right. Felicity is with her,” Liam responded, his concern growing.
“No. I mean yes. She went in there, but neither of them came out.” Chance rambled, tapping at his smart watch.
“I’ll go check it out.” Wylie took off through the gym doors toward the locker-room bathrooms that were allocated for dance attendee’s.
“I saw them go in there… Well, I saw them with Rex, my robot,” he said. “I went to check for myself because I saw a man follow them in. Nobody came out.”
“A man?” Anxiety coursed through Liam. How the hell was this happening? “What did he look like?”
“It was hard to tell on the screen. I’m still trying to improve video output. He was old, dark hair, but definitely not as big as any of you,” Chance recited as if reading from a list.
“Old?” Liam questioned.
“Yeah, maybe about your age. That’s just a guess,” Chance answered, the old reference earning him a few grunts.
“Did you notice anything else?” Luke interjected. “Anything at all? Think hard kid.”
“I-I didn’t. I sorta got scared when nobody came out. A dude in the girl’s bathroom would make the girls freak out and run, right?”
“They aren’t in there,” Wylie said, bursting back into the gym. “Ronan and Ryker are searching the rest of the grounds, but so far nothing.”
“I have a video!” Chance said, tapping at his watch again. “Rex was…videoing. I’m not a weirdo, promise. And he stayed outside the bathroom the whole time. Swear. I-I had him follow her because Josh is a jerk, and he likes her too.”
“I understand. You were protecting her from Josh the ass?” Liam said with a pleased grinned, using the colorful reference he was sure Chance wanted to. “He’s the football kid? From the party?”
“Yeah. Reagan doesn’t like him though, but he doesn’t listen, so I…watched.”
“You did good kid,” Luke said. “We look after people we care about; it’s the right thing to do.”
The robot rolled up, and Chance pulled off the tablet that was attached to the front. With a couple taps to the screen, he was able to bring up the saved feed from the robot’s surveillance video. There it was. The man who walked straight from the boy’s locker room into the girls’, right beside it…after Felicity had already gone in.
“Son of a bitch. Black hoodie,” Liam said sharply. “What’s with the damn hoodie? It’s like his calling card or something. Can you get in closer, see his face?”
“It will take me a minute, but I think so. Never tried it though,” the kid replied.
“Why can’t you pull it up?” Wylie asked of Liam.
“No video feed in or at the entrance of the locker-room. Security everywhere but there, for obvious reasons.”
“Here we go. He’s a little pixelated. I need to work on that. But that’s the guy. He was in the locker-room when I went in. I thought he was a dad.” Disappointment sounded in the boy’s voice.
“It’s okay, Callaghan. You still did the right thing. We’ll figure out the rest,” Liam said.
“It’s that asshole, Dunham,” Luke said. “How the hell did he get in here?”
“No clue. I would have had an alert if one of the camera’s picked him up. It even alerts me if it can’t read a face clearly.”
“Whoa. Facial recognition technology? You guys…you guys are like…agents. Secret agents, aren’t you?” Chances eyes were big, and his voice full of awe.
“Sort of, but not really. You should keep that to yourself,” Liam replied. “I want you to forward me that video. In the meantime, we need to figure out how he got in and how he got them out.
“Boiler room,” Chance said with enthusiasm. “He avoided the cameras through the boiler room. Kids were breaking in on the weekends and messing up the school. That’s why we have all the cameras now. Kids quit breaking in because they couldn’t get past the locker-room without getting caught. No fun in that.”
“Boiler room?” Luke questioned looking around at the fairly new facilities.
“I think it’s a boiler room. That’s what we all call it. Has a long tunnel to the maintenance shed behind the track,” Chance offered.
“Show us,” Liam said.
Happy to oblige, Chance showed them to the rusted old access door that was at the back of the locker room. It led down a series of stairs to what appeared to be an old boiler room as the kids had called it. It was dark, old, and covered in cobwebs. There was garbage everywhere from the kids gathering and braving late night hangouts in the seemingly haunted space.
Chance had walked them down to the room, but that’s where the tour stopped. He directed them to the door that opened to the tunnel and then went back upstairs with Wylie and Dace so they could grab the vehicles and meet the rest of them at the maintenance shed on the other side of the school’s property.
The kid asked to help them find Reagan, to which he was turned down. He then offered to stay put – a point man – and let the O’Reillys know if he saw any sign of Reagan, Felicity, or the man in the video. They were gone, and the odds of them coming back to the school were slim to none, but the kid was worried, wanted to help, and it made him feel useful.
“You have my number, right?” Liam asked Chance.
The boy straightened and nodded with confidence. “I also synced my location into your smartwatch and vice versa. I see or hear anything, I’ll call or send…a signal! Be safe, Mr. O.”
“You’re a good man, Chance.” Luke patted the kids back. “Don’t be a hero; just call if anything comes up.”
“You got it, and I will only call if it’s a real lead. Just, find her,” The kid said, fitting right into the O’Reilly clan.
Wylie and Dace escorted Chance back upstairs while the rest of the men pushed on, looking for signs or at least clues that City and Reagan had been through there. It was the only real possibility. The rest of the grounds were secured, and they would have seen that asshole coming long before he got his hands on anyone.
“That kid has Brother’s Keeper potential,” Luke said.
“I thought the same thing. Smart. Real smart.” Liam’s voice was heavy, despite trying to suppress the anxiety he was feeling.
Luke laid a hand on his brother’s shoulder, while Declan led the way. “We’re getting her back, man. Both of them.”
Liam nodded. He knew they would get them back but at what cost? He’d lost so much already, and it nearly destroyed him. Life was finally starting to make sense again, and the rug was pulled from his feet. He couldn’t handle another loss.
Old emotions crept back in. This was why he didn’t let people in, kept them at arm’s length, and tried not to fucking care. It hurt too damn much when the proverbial shit hit the fan, and everything you gave two fucks about was on the line.
Pushing past the pain and frustration, he forged on. They all needed to keep a clear head if this was going to end with a happily ever after. Liam was smarter – they were stronger – they were faster. He silently chanted that as his inner mantra. They would overcome this. They’d all be home, together, tonight.
Up the stairs at the end of the tunnel, they found themselves in the maintenance shed, just as Chance had described. A quick search of the fairly open space revealed it was empty. There were footprints in the dirty floor, hand prints on the door, but no way to tell who they belonged to. It was a maintenance shed that also held what looked like track and field equipment. The place was well used so there was nothing that indicated anyone had just been there.
Cars pulling up out front prompted them to leave the building. And that’s where they found their sign – a clue. Reagan’s carnation that Chance had given her lay in the gravel behind a set of deep tire tracks. Between the tracks, multiple sets of footprints, one on top of the other. There had been a struggle.
“They were put in the trunk,” Liam said quietly, looking to each of his brothers. “The trunk.” His voice was full of seething anger, escaping him as a near scream.
“City is smart. She’ll keep Rage safe until we get to them.” Luke’s voice was ominous – until we get to them – if only they knew where they were.
Liam’s smartwatch began to sound – alarm after alarm. “Son of a bitch.”
He jumped into one of the nearby cars, pulled his laptop from the back, and went to work. “I’ve got alarms all of the city. Power going out, bridges blocked, accidents everywhere.”
“Grand finale – this is his firework show,” Luke said.
“The girls’ phones are on the move, one headed south, one north,” Liam said. “He wouldn’t split them up. Would he?”
“Hard call. We can tail both of them – two teams,” Luke replied.
Another alarm came from Liam’s watch, prompting him to dig into his keyboard once again. “Watermark’s been breached. Someone got in,” he called out. “Garage, black car, just pulled in. That’s all I can see. Something…something happened. I’m locking down the building.”
“Three teams – north, south, and Watermark – Watermark is probably a distraction, but we need an all clear,” Luke rambled in the background while Liam stared off in the distance trying to piece it all together.
“Wait,” Liam interrupted. “They’re all at Watermark. He’s tearing apart the city, making it hard to tell where he is and to distract us, maybe even just slow us down. The phones are a ploy. He needs them both, so he has them both. He wouldn’t separate them and risk losing a bargaining chip. It was too hard to get them in the first place, and he knows we’re better than him. They’re all he had over us.”
“So how do you know Watermark isn’t just another decoy?” Declan asked. “You need to be sure about this. Think with your head, not with your heart on this one.”
“I can’t see Watermark. That’s how I know they’re there. Who else knows me and my work well enough to shut me out? It’s a fucking clue. A message.”
“Felicity.” Luke nodded with a grin.
“And if I’m wrong, which I’m not, we hunt down the phones from the air. She’s there, and she wouldn’t do shit for that asshole unless she had Reagan in sight.”