Brother's Keeper II_Liam

by Stephanie St. Klaire

  Back from the grave, her sworn enemy was back for revenge. The previous threats had been real, oh so real. When she hadn’t arrived at his request before, then finally showed up only to be interrupted by Liam, she’d crossed a line. Patience was exhausted, and he wasn’t going to stop until he got what he came for. Coming out the other end alive wasn’t an option. He said that much.

  That knowledge fueled a sense of fury and fight that had her banging on the glass doors again, yelling for help. Reagan followed suit. The store manager ran to the fire alarm and pulled it, hoping it would signal for help, but it didn’t sound. He pulled the fire extinguisher from the wall, and assaulted the glass door to no avail. It wasn’t breaking – security glass.

  Pulling the axe from the same enclosure that he broke the extinguisher from, the manager wedged it between the two sliding doors. When he attempted to pry them open, the wood axe handle broke, splinters flying everywhere.

  The yells and loud bangs across the glass gained attention of passersby, but nobody knew what to do. Strangers were grabbing their cell phones, likely calling for help, only to pull their phone away from their ear and scratch their heads. Their phones weren’t working either.

  “Uncle Luke! Daddy!” Reagan screamed.

  Luke and Liam were running down the sidewalk, on the opposite side of the street, followed by Wylie, Declan, and Dace right behind. Felicity and Reagan screamed their names and pounded the glass until a man followed their view. The stranger looked between the O’Reilly men and Felicity and Reagan trapped inside, finally putting two and two together.

  The man stepped away from the store front and shouted across the street, waving his arms back and forth.

  “Help! Help! Over here,” he shouted, finally pointing to the glass doors when he had their attention.

  Liam locked in on them first. He saw both Felicity and Reagan, trapped and frantic, and began to run toward them.

  “Holy shit,” Luke yelled, and ran after his brother.

  With the traffic lights malfunctioning, cars were passing through the adjacent intersection blindly, nearly hitting one another. One vehicle nearly hit Liam, stopping just in time as he hit the hood of their car.

  “Reagan!” he yelled, running toward them. “Reagan, I’m coming!”

  The sound in his voice was pained; it was tortured. He was a desperate man watching his child sob, trapped, and in danger. When he got to the store front, he pushed his way past the few lingering strangers trying to lift the steel security gate unsuccessfully. Despite the near impossible nature, Liam immediately began to lift on his own. With barely a budge, he continued, Luke joining him.

  “I’m getting you out, darlin’. Calm down. I’m here,” he said, though it was unclear if he was talking to Reagan or Felicity as he looked at them both. It was safe to say, it was probably both.

  Wylie joined his brothers and began to lift. Even with his massive size and strength, it barely budged but a few inches. Dace took in the scene, a plan immediately coming to mind. He stood next to a car parked along the street and called out, asking if it belonged to anyone in the gathering crowd.

  The man who had called out to them, gaining their attention, claimed it and followed him to the back of the car. When he pulled out the car jack and met his brothers back at the steel gate, everyone acted in sync. It was like they each knew what the other was thinking, seeing the plan that danced in Dace’s mind. Dace was the mechanic of the bunch. He could fix, or in this case break, anything.

  On the count of three, there was another effort to lift the steel gate, only getting six inches at best, but it was all Dace needed. He slid the car jack under the gates edge and began to crank the lever, adding pressure to the resistant barrier. Declan helped him, adding as much strength as he could offer to the effort.

  “It’s okay if it doesn’t break,” he said, “I just need as much tension and stress up there as possible.”

  Declan looked up, taking in the bulky header that housed the locking mechanism they were working against, and nodded.

  “I think this is as much tension as we are going to get,” Declan barked through gritted teeth, trying to crank the jack lever one more time.

  “I need a hammer, Dec. Or something I can use as one,” Dace said, pulling the lever out of the jack. “You guys need to back up. Everyone back-up.”

  Declan quickly returned with a mallet from who knew where – people kept odd things in their vehicles and at their disposal.

  Dace jammed the crowbar like lever from the jack into the corner of the overhead portion of the gate. Using the mallet, he wedged the steel bar further and further into the mechanism, forcing it to give. With each hit, and the added pressure from the floor jack, it began to pop and move until the entire thing broke under pressure, allowing them to raise the steel cage door.

  Liam was quick to wedge his hands between the two glass doors as far as he could and pry them open. Dace was right behind him, wedging the steel crowbar between them just above Liam’s grip, ready to add force. Before he could add any pressure, however, the doors slid open easily, the lights came on, the soft music returned, and the streets went back to normal.

  Dace and Wylie went inside the store to investigate, Declan right behind them once he saw that Reagan and Felicity were safe. Luke stood guard while Liam pulled Reagan into him, nearly collapsing in relief.

  “Thank God,” he said as he kissed the top of her head. “Thank God.”

  With Reagan’s arms wrapped tightly around his waist, he raised his eyes up to Felicity’s with a questioning look, to which she nodded and offered a simple but forced smile before a single tear escaped her. Liam reached up, swiping it away with the pad of his thumb before resting his hand behind her neck.

  “Let’s get them home,” Luke interrupted. “We’ll debrief there when the boys get back.”

  “Let’s go. I need to get to the lair. Something about this stinks to high heaven,” Liam added, looking at Felicity, his cold stare returning. “This wasn’t a power surge or failure. Someone is attacking Watermark and everything around it.”

  Felicity’s eyes went wide – Watermark. He was trying to breach security at Watermark. This wasn’t an attack. He just declared war.

  CHAPTER 7

  Liam spent all night and most of the morning backing into every system he could, looking for a trail to follow. Watermark was secure, despite the attempted security breach the day before. Whoever targeted Brother’s Keeper couldn’t get in – no one could. It wasn’t the first time someone tried to break into their system, but it was the first time they did it without leaving a trace.

  Brother’s Keeper Security didn’t dabble in small town security. They were a highly sought after, high profile, firm. They had a powerful client base that they defended, which meant they pissed off plenty of people and gathered endless enemies with every case. Even the Feds relied on the brothers at times. They were the best of the best and took down the worst of the worst. Their enemies were endless, and despite hiding in broad daylight as they did, someone found them and wanted in. Question was, why?

  In any other circumstance, he would take the Watermark attack personal – someone after him and his brothers. And though it was personal now, he suspected it was nothing more than a distraction. It was a way to pull him and his brothers into a wild goose chase of sorts while whoever was behind it went after something else. Or, someone else – Felicity. He couldn’t ignore the timing of it all. Felicity’s odd behavior and disappearing acts reflected trouble, even danger if one were to analyze the late-night alley incident.

  If the attack was on Brother’s Keeper, why create the situation at the corner market across the way and involve the city streets as well? What did one have to do with the other? Nothing he thought, not a damn thing. Watermark’s attempted breach was nothing more than a way to get the brothers off the streets and focused anywhere but across the way at the market, the street and traffic lights just another layer of distraction.

  Whoeve
r was behind this knew the O’Reillys, knew where they were and how to keep them focused anywhere but that market. If the Watermark alarms didn’t hold their attention, the attack on the city and its people would have because if the O’Reillys were anything, they were honorable, protectors, even of their city. Who knew them that well? Who knew to attack their home and business – and toss them a civilian’s in danger bone they wouldn’t be able to resist should the one not hold their attention?

  It was maliciously calculated and carefully orchestrated. Someone tried to get in and knock their systems offline, but Liam’s system couldn’t be hacked. Every attempt to knock them offline and the system would bounce right back. It was designed to do so. It was virtually incorruptible. He had more fail safes and indestructible virtual walls up than he had around himself.

  Their attacker didn’t leave a trace because they didn’t want to. There was always a trail to follow because nobody was as good as Liam at what he did. He had his system so secure; it was designed to capture images of tampering, almost like a fingerprint that he could trace. There was nothing this time. The real worry in that was that whoever did this knew how to hide from him in his own system. They anticipated his programming and traps. Nobody would know how to do that but Felicity – or someone close to her. Anyone else was far too amateur when faced head to head with Watermark security.

  What’s more was the fact that Felicity and Reagan’s trip to the market was spontaneous. It was spur of the moment; nobody could have prepared for that ahead of time. They didn’t need to if they were watching her. They saw an opportunity and took it. This entire situation wreaked of trouble, and it had Felicity’s name all over it. Liam just needed to figure out the how and why of it, then he could figure out the what or who.

  “Find anything?” Luke asked as he entered the lair.

  Liam sat back, rocking in his chair scratching his head. “Not a damn thing. It’s like nothing happened. They wiped everything clean.”

  Dace and Wylie had followed Luke in, each dressed in black fatigues and strapped with weapons.

  “Still think this is City?” Wylie asked.

  “It has to be, right? Nothing else makes sense right now,” Liam said reluctantly.

  “It would be a really big coincidence if it wasn’t,” Luke admitted, disappointment in his tone. “I don’t think she’s intentionally doing anything wrong though.”

  “No. Not City. She is too invested in this firm and this family. Shit, she’s practically a mother figure to Reagan. The two are inseparable.”

  That had Liam’s attention. “Reagan. What if…she isn’t safe now? How do we even know?”

  “We don’t.” Luke’s posture stiffened, and his glare tightened, “This bastard is good, really good. Until we know who it is and what the end game is, we need eyes on City at all times…and Rage.”

  “Is that really necessary?” Wylie asked. “What if she notices, gets offended?”

  “I think we need to play this as once a criminal, always a criminal,” Liam offered, “just until we know what side of this she is on.”

  After a deep sigh, Dace plopped in a chair next to Liam. “I hate to say it, but you’re right. We need to remember how she came to our family to begin with. She wasn’t bad; the people around her were.”

  “You don’t think it has something to do with her past, do you?” Wylie asked, always reluctant to see the bad, and only wanting to see the good in people.

  Luke crossed his arms and leaned against the conference table centered in the room. “Why not? It could be her past as much as one of ours. Maybe she’s just a pawn. Either way, eyes on, boys.”

  After a moment of silence and reflecting, the brothers put together a plan and schedule to keep City under their thumbs without her knowing it. If she left the building, one of them would too. Liam, on the other hand, mulled over the once a criminal, always a criminal statement. It was a harsh statement, pointed, but appropriate at present.

  He could say that fairly because he had unintentionally been a criminal too, and the only reason he wasn’t behind bars in a maximum security, federal prison, charged with treason, obstruction of justice, and a dozen more federal crimes while playing someone’s bitch, was because the government needed him on the outside. Blanket immunity in exchange for him or his services rather.

  When Luke had gone missing in action, and the government denied knowing who Luke was or that he was even on a mission because it was so highly classified, Liam went looking for himself. He took a virtual tour through every government server out there, looking for leads. The idea that he broke through classified barriers and was able to uncover undisclosed agencies while he scoured for information sickened him.

  It was far too easy to get in and roam around, and he was only found out weeks after he found his brother. Though many attempts had been made, nobody had been able to break through every layer of security in place until Liam. He found his brother and got a get out of jail free card, and the United States Government got a major system reboot.

  Between his work on the technical side and that of his brothers, who each served on some level from Army Ranger to branches that the government still denied existed, despite Liam finding them, the O’Reilly brothers were in with the Feds and on the taxpayers’ payroll. It also granted them favors when they needed them, like when they came across Felicity. They kept her out of jail too.

  As esteemed as that was, their client list possessed less esteemed clients who walked the thin line between right and wrong. Power and money brought out the best and worst in people – that’s who they worked with. Narrowing the list of chipped shoulders was a tedious task. It could be anyone that they contracted with or anyone they shut down and put away.

  Given Felicity’s behavior – sneaking around, going out late at night, and the incident in the corner market – he had a starting point. Was she double crossing them, or was she in trouble? It was more likely the latter because if Felicity was anything, it was loyal. She loved on that family, especially Reagan, as his brothers pointed out, and he couldn’t’ imagine her hurting a single one of them because even hurting just one of them was hurting all of them…even Reagan.

  Like an honorary O’Reilly, he didn’t doubt that she would do anything to protect all of them. Is that what she was doing? If she was in trouble, she knew she could come to them. She was like family, and they protected their own fiercely. Unless they were the target and going to them was the first nail in the proverbial coffin from whoever was behind this.

  Liam was pulled from his thoughts, and his brothers took to their feet, when an alarm on the system alerted them. Felicity was on the move. He tended to let his brothers do the stalking and surveillance, but his gut said to watch her. She might need him.

  It was late afternoon, warm and sunny, when Felicity made her way out of the building and down the street toward the waterfront. It wasn’t clear where she was going exactly, as that path could lead anywhere. Oddly, she chose to cut through the blocks of new construction. Portland was expanding its urban living neighborhoods, and this area was generally safe, however at this hour, the construction crews would be few and far between, and there wouldn’t be any pedestrian traffic at all. About the only thing this area served as, at this time of day, was overflow parking for people who drove in and didn’t live in the neighborhood.

  Store fronts and high-rise buildings that housed the areas condo’s faded into matching buildings that were yet to be finished but would soon house another district of business and overpriced city living above. It was quiet, as he anticipated. The street lights were on. This neighborhood had clocked out for the evening.

  Liam kept up with Felicity without letting on that he was behind her, ducking behind pallets of building materials and dodging backward glances by disappearing into scaffolding and construction tunnels. When a car could be heard coming from behind him, Liam ducked into a doorway just before the intersection Felicity was about to cross. He didn’t want to risk being seen.
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  As the car passed, picking up speed, he leapt out to the sidewalk and ran toward Felicity because the car…didn’t have a driver. Liam couldn’t believe what he was seeing. How could that be? He ran toward Felicity, yelling her name as another car passed. No driver. When Felicity turned to him, her eyes widened, and she screamed, jumping out of the way just before the first car would have hit her.

  Shocked, she had fallen to the ground and was trying to get up when Liam knocked her out of the way just before the second vehicle could nail her. The car clipped the corner of the scaffolding they ducked under, barely missing the pair.

  “Wh-what are you doing here?” a shaken Felicity asked, trying to catch her breath. “You almost killed me!”

  “What? I saved you – you’re welcome!” Liam scolded.

  Before she could reply, Liam pushed her as far into the deep doorway as he could, pinning her between the building and his body. A loud crash caused her to scream as the building shook, and debris began to fall around them. Liam wrapped her tight in his embrace, tucking her head under his, shielding her from injury.

  When the dust began to settle, Liam turned to the scene behind him, giving her a clear view of what just happened. A car – what was left of it anyway – had them semi-trapped after it crashed into the brick façade of the building.

  “What’s going on, Liam?” Felicity’s voice shook, “Oh my god! There’s nobody driving! How-how is that possible?”

  It was in that moment all of his questions were answered. When Felicity looked him in the eye, and he witnessed the fear resting in her gaze, he knew. She wasn’t behind any of it – wasn’t willingly involved, She was the victim. Thank God, he thought.

  “What kind of trouble are you in, Felicity?”

  “Wh-what are you talking about?” Offended, she pushed him back slightly so their bodies were no longer touching one another. “How do you know this,” she yelled, waving her hand around, indicating this was the car, “wasn’t meant for you – or a message for one of your brothers or cousins? You guys have the enemies not me. I’m behind the scenes.”