Nerds in Force

by D. R. Grady

  Keith inspected Harlow. “You’re still smarting from this woman ‘stealing’ your family home.”

  “She did steal it. With the help of her grandfather. He died a few years back, and her husband only lived there for a year or two. I think he felt bad, because her method of obtaining the house was simply calling in the mortgage my dad and grandfather had taken out for a business loan.”

  “Wait, they called in the loan within the first year?” Keith held up his hand in a stop gesture.

  “Oh yes. Within the first two months, I think. Dad and my grandfather were hesitant to take out a mortgage on the family home but Nesla’s grandfather, Old Man Nunes talked them into it. They did so with reservations. Then Nunes called in the mortgage, but the money was locked up in a business deal that wouldn’t come to fruition that fast.” Harlow’s hand fisted.

  “Of course not. I think it’s illegal to call in a loan that soon.” Gage stared at the ceiling.

  “At least not without good reason.”

  “Dimon was the judge back then.”

  More than a few people wrinkled their noses. “That was a long, hard struggle to get him out of office. For more than the crime against your family, Harlow. But that one is bad.” Talia’s reaction reassured Harlow.

  Distaste permeated throughout the room as everyone from the island thought about the corrupt judge who pocketed money to turn a blind eye to crimes. That the Nunes family had been one of those willing to pay off a judge was something he stored away for the future.

  Harlow clearly still bore anger against the family. That meant she might not be as impartial as she should be.

  “Your father bought the house next door after the Nunes’ stole your family estate?” Savannah ventured.

  “Yes. None of us liked the new house, but we needed a place to live and the Rembrandts lived next door so Dad bought it.”

  “Having them next door was great for us.” Finn sat up. He looked easy going but Keith knew that to be deceptive.

  “It’s the main reason why we ended up there. None of us liked the house, it’s never felt like home, but it did give us access to this place.”

  “Essentially, the Horgates lived here,” Gage inserted.

  “I still miss our real house though.” Harlow must have tamped her emotions because barely even a trace of wistfulness permeated.

  “Your great-grandparents built that house, didn’t they? After the company they founded proved successful,” Finn directed this to Harlow.

  “Yes. They saw that the people of Toliliel needed jobs. Good jobs so that our young people would remain here. They looked around and noticed there were plenty of opportunities and jobs but someone needed to step up. My grandmother had an inheritance they decided to funnel into the company.”

  “It sure paid off.” DuBois looked impressed.

  “It did. My family have been looking out for the people on this island for decades. We are not killing employees.” Fierce energy surged from Harlow into the room.

  “My mother had fond memories of Horgate.” Savannah sent a troubled look to Trace

  “She spoke highly of the company. Didn’t she once mention she’d met the owner?” Trace’s eyebrows met over his nose.

  Savannah nodded slowly. “Now that you say that, yes. But I assumed it was after she started working there.”

  “I assumed that as well. I’m wondering now if she meant as a child?”

  “My great-grandfather loved kids. He carried candy in his pockets at all times to give to the kids he met along the way.” Harlow’s smile turned melancholy.

  “I remember him. He always had the best candy.” Finn shook his head. “But he was pretty old by then, wasn’t he?”

  “He died when I was sixteen maybe?” Harlow stumbled on that timeline event. So her memory wasn’t infallible.

  “Didn’t he die under mysterious circumstances as well? Like he all of a sudden developed dementia?” Finn asked randomly.

  Chapter 9

  Harlow felt as though all of the air in the room suddenly got sucked out. Her lungs reacted as though trying to breathe through gel. Little black dots appeared before her eyes.

  Chad showed up at her side all of a sudden, in a rush from the basement. Verity and Cian hovered nearby.

  Her brother answered Finn’s question. “Great-Granddad did develop sudden dementia. That’s what killed him. Just like our grandfather.” He kept stroking her arm and his own, a sure sign of his own agitation.

  Harlow forced herself to pull it together. She didn’t have the luxury of falling apart at the present. Maybe later. She inhaled deeply, released all of the air in her lungs and the spots cleared.

  Her lungs functioned properly again. At least she hoped so. She took Chad’s hand and his clung for a moment, then he continued stroking his own leg.

  “Your grandfather is doing much better now that he’s with our parents.” Gage reassured them. “But Finn is correct. I remember your great-grandfather suddenly getting sick and he died soon after.” His jaw hardened in an identical manner to Finn. And she realized that she tended to do the same. Guess where she had gotten that trait?

  Keith stirred beside her. “You believe whoever started poisoning your grandfather did manage to kill your great-grandfather.”

  “It certainly appears that way.” She opened her hand forcibly, but it immediately clenched again.

  Finn focused on Chad. “You need to move into this house again.”

  Chad offered a jerky nod. While he didn’t always pick up on social clues, his danger instincts were as good as anyone’s, and it was very evident that someone wanted them dead.

  “What’s to stop whoever bombed the house next door from bombing this one?” Harlow slapped her hair over her shoulder. She should have put it up. Now it was going to annoy her.

  “We’ve at least tripled security. And there are sensors on the entire lower level of the house. Anyone who attempts to bomb us will endure a really nasty jolt that will render them unconscious.” Gage’s eyebrows rose.

  “Why didn’t you put that technology on your own house? Since you and Chad dreamed up said product.” Finn’s eyebrows mimicked Gage’s, but he looked directly at her.

  “There were sensors on the house.”

  “But they were the earliest version.” Chad’s strokes increased.

  Harlow bent to retrieve his weighted blanket and tucked it around him where he sat on the floor by her chair. The floor also eased him, where he wasn’t in people’s line of sight so she didn’t encourage him to move.

  Keith leaned forward. “Can the newer sensors be rendered inactive?”

  “Of course.” Chad stopped the agitated stroking under the comforting weight of the blanket. “But it’d be hard to do so for all of them. We figured out a configuration that makes it extra challenging.”

  Verity weighed in. “A tech savvy person could do it, but they’d have to really savvy?”

  “Correct.” Chad didn’t meet her eyes but he appeared more settled.

  “The sensors on this house were still working this morning when I checked them.” Keith offered this info as though admiring the blue sky outside.

  “You knew about them?” She directed her attention to him. A silly thing to think because she remained aware of the man at all times.

  “I recognized what they were. And I checked to make certain they were active. I replaced a few that had been damaged.” Keith shrugged. Or offered the equivalent. The muscles in his shoulders rippled and she lost her train of thought.

  “Cian and I also noticed them and we plugged those sensors into our security monitoring equipment,” Verity added.

  “Wait, how many of you recognized those sensors?” Chad started to rock.

  Harlow placed a heavy hand on his shoulder. “They’re all in this business, Chad. They are a select few who would know what those are.”

  “The people who set bombs might recognize them but the sheer number will dissuade most bomb starters, and none of the
glass will shatter in this house, so they can’t wing a few through the windows.” Gage further reassured Chad.

  “We’re as safe as we can be in this house. That’s why we want you here.” Finn leaned down so he was more on Chad’s level.

  Chad stopped rocking. “Okay.”

  “I’m going to have someone pack up your things for you and bring them here.” Harlow mentioned this casually. Chad’s caregiver, a man who had been with him a long time and understood Chad’s needs and limitations, would gladly pack up the essentials and bring them here.

  She would also encourage him to visit his daughter—a nice little break for him. There didn’t seem to be any reason to have the man stay with them when things could get ugly. Despite the reassurances, no one was guaranteed they wouldn’t all die tomorrow.

  Restless energy undulated through her. She quelled the urge to pace and hoped after this impromptu meeting that she might be able to spend some time in the fitness room downstairs. A run on the beach would be nice but after getting shot at she kept those runs to a minimum and usually at night. Now that her father’s house lay in still glowing embers she had best curtail that activity until further notice.

  She needed to think about someone deliberately killing her great-grandfather and her father as well. And someone had tried for her grandfather. What did the two late men in her life have in common?

  She looked to Finn and Gage. “Did my grandfather say anything about discovering information or learning something that might have put him at risk?”

  “He didn’t, but then he wasn’t coherent when he first arrived at Mom and Dad’s place. He did recognize them and the apartment. And he settled in fast.” Finn shoved a hand over his hair.

  “What are you thinking, Harlow?” Gage inspected her face.

  “If someone killed Great-Granddad and my father, what did whoever killed them fear they knew?”

  “That’s what we’re trying to figure out on our end.” Verity gestured vaguely in Beau and Savannah’s direction. “We believe their parents knew something that got them killed.”

  “Someone has now tried to kill your grandfather and you. But you don’t know anything thus far.” Keith tapped a steady beat on the arm of his chair as he gazed at her. “Or was this an attempt to take out the very top of Horgate Industries?”

  No one answered. Perhaps because this might be one of those frustrating questions where there was no immediate answer.

  Harlow made a vow to herself. They would discover these answers, and bring to light all the secrets of whoever had snatched loved ones from their grasp.

  Or she’d die trying.

  §

  Keith observed the others in the room, taking in details and sorting through the vast information. He came to the determination that Chad needed some alone time. Verity and Cian kept glancing toward the basement, the twins probably had work to do, the others might want to finish breakfast, and Harlow needed to burn off some of the wild energy jittering her foot.

  He stood.

  Those nearest him started but he was used to that. “Harlow and I have an appointment at the fitness center.”

  Air gusted out of her lungs as she surged to her feet. “Yes, we do.” Relief flowed across her face. Not much, but he had experience reading stoic people, so he caught them.

  Eric took his cue. “I’m going to finish breakfast.” The rest of his family followed him, including Molly and DuBois. The twins quickly excused themselves to head to the study across the house, Verity and Hunter disappeared into the basement and he and Harlow followed.

  Chad breathed a sigh of relief as he hunkered under his blanket.

  “Will your brother be okay?”

  “Yes. Now that we’ve all dispersed he’ll probably head for his niche upstairs. The Rembrandts had it made especially for him.”

  “Niche?”

  “It’s a lower cupboard upstairs under the eaves. It’s not tall enough to stand in, but is the perfect place for kids or someone with autism. They added padding and soundproofing to the walls and the lighting is really dim. He has a little white noise machine with the sounds of nature that he can turn on when he needs to regroup.”

  “That was thoughtful.”

  “Yes. We never made one for him at our house, because he loves the one here. He does have a similar space in his condo.” Harlow pelted down the stairs with barely any sound and he took a moment to appreciate that skill.

  He followed and admired her form. This woman moved in such a way that mesmerized him. It couldn’t be good for him.

  “He does remarkably well for someone who is clearly as autistic as he is.”

  “Yes. He has Asperger’s Syndrome and he’s very high functioning, obviously. We all, meaning my family and the Rembrandts, who are also family, have made a lot of effort to teach him emotional cues and how to react to them. He’s better for it.”

  “You’ve had a lot of responsibility from a young age.”

  Her shoulders sagged only for a moment. “Yes. But I’m fine. I’ve had the twins.”

  He enjoyed the dynamic she had with them. “Why haven’t I met you or heard about you through the years?”

  “I’m guessing because I was off at boarding school. I hated it, but it’s what my mother wanted. She wanted me to attend her alma mater.”

  “You met the twins there?”

  “No. Our families have known each other since I was born, at least. We’re family somehow and they made school easier.”

  “You did grow up on the island?”

  “Kind of.” She led the way to the fitness room. “My mom liked to travel, so in my earlier years, we did that.”

  “Your dad indulged your mother?”

  “Oh yes. They were so in love it could be sickening. She’s spent the time since his death trying to find what she had with him but it’s not working.”

  He didn’t know what to make of that. He shut up instead. They arrived at the fitness room and she headed immediately to the treadmills. In the usual manner of the twins, multiple of each machine resided in the room. At least two of everything, but in the case of the treadmills, he counted four.

  Harlow wasted no time climbing on and after punching a few buttons, she started at a brisk pace.

  “Did you warm up?”

  “This is my warm up.” He nodded but turned his machine to a more sensible rate. After a minute and a half, Harlow picked up the speed and ran hard for the next twenty minutes. He kept his more reasonable, but then he’d already had some workout time this morning.

  “You already ran this morning.”

  “I did. Eric and I set out early.”

  “I slept.” She grimaced.

  “You needed the sleep. It’s not a bad thing to do what your body needs. You slept and now you’re taking the time to workout.” He set his treadmill for the cool down.

  Harlow followed suit. She then moved on to the next piece of equipment until she’d spent time on each one. By the time she finished her skin glowed in a way most females might consider unbecoming but he found her more attractive than ever. Her chest rose and fell in time with her increased breathing and he enjoyed that too.

  “Why are you looking at me like that?”

  He ignored that question on the grounds it might incriminate him. “Feel better now?”

  “Yes. Much. Thank you for springing us.” She used a white towel to mop sweat from her neck. “I needed to move.”

  “I’m usually up for activity. Glad to have a companion.”

  She tossed the towel into a basket that must be there especially for used gym towels. “You said you went running with Eric this morning.”

  “I did. He’s also usually up for activity and while I’m taller, he’s got impressive stamina, so we run well together.”

  Amusement lit her eyes. “What you’re saying is that your longer legs mean you don’t have to work as hard.”

  “Correct. I like it that way.”

  Chapter 10

  Friday
morning Harlow glanced at the fitness tracker on her wrist. The charger for it had burned in the fire. She’d remembered to grab her laptop charger, and a universal charger for her phone, but she didn’t have the charger for her tracker or the main one for her phone.

  She also needed more clothing and shoes.

  After dressing, she headed downstairs to an empty kitchen. As she thought that, Keith entered through the back door. She had spent time in the fitness center early this morning but he hadn’t come.

  “Were you checking things out?” He wasn’t wearing fitness clothes.

  “Yeah. Some of the guys are sick right now, so I took a shift.” He rotated his shoulders. “Keeps up the skills.”

  “I can take one too.” Harlow headed for the coffee machine.

  She made a cup of the brew and helped herself to a breakfast bar. Keith’s mama enjoyed cooking for them, but her stomach’s protests had progressively grown louder, so she gave it what it demanded.

  “I’ll let Montgomery know.” Keith made a cup after her.

  “I have to go into town today.” She looked down at her attire. “There are things I need that have made themselves known.”

  “Right.” Keith tugged out his phone. “I’ll take you.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of driving myself.”

  “Your car was totaled by fire and bombing, remember?”

  “All too well.” It required a lot of energy to not wince. Replacing the vehicle would come, but not right now. Her insurance company knew about it. “However, there are several vehicles in the garage here that I can use.”

  “I have to head into town for supplies anyway so you might as well go with me.”

  He didn’t force his views on her or assert his will so she agreed. It would be nice to let someone else do the driving. She possessed all the offensive and defensive driving tactics required by someone with her skill set but she didn’t mind riding shotgun.

  A suspicion arose. “Let me guess, you enjoy driving.”