Web of Shadows

by Susan Sleeman

  He dropped his bags on the table next to his state-of-the-art computer. He’d worked a few hacking jobs for his former cellmate, Rodolfo Wheeler, a.k.a. Crash, to make enough money to buy the machine and take care of other needs when he’d gotten out of prison. Another secret he kept from everyone. From the FBI. From Kip. From the hotel where he was stealing Wi-Fi and electricity.

  He clicked on the lamp he’d added. Light spilled into cobwebbed corners, illuminating the start of a long tunnel ending in a pile of rubble.

  He stepped to his table and sighed, contentment settling over him. He was alone. No one was watching. He was safe here. From everything. He’d desperately craved solitude in prison, but there was always someone there. Yapping like Kip. Demanding and bullying. But here? Here, he was the king. In his lair.

  He laughed, his voice ringing through the space not more than seven feet high with pipes and wires running through the ceiling.

  Like he needed a lair. When he sold the hack, he’d be set and he didn’t plan to inhabit an underground space for long. After years in prison, he wanted wide-open windows and light. Lots and lots of light. With walls surrounding his home. Thick, heavy walls. A fortress to keep him safe from others. That took money, and he needed to get to work.

  Before he could pull the items from his shopping bag, his burner phone rang. Only one person had this number. Crash.

  Wiley had called Crash to use his vast connections to locate a buyer for the No-Fly hack and arrange an advance, allowing Wiley to put his plan into place. Crash would take a cut of the final sale, but Wiley was willing to share for an expedited sale.

  Thankful he’d installed a signal booster so his phone worked in the tunnel, he answered it. “Tell me you have good news.”

  “The buyer’s on board. Get me the screenshots and you’ve got your fifty-grand advance.”

  Wiley smiled. It would be simple to log in to the list to take a couple screenshots proving to Crash that Wiley could access the database. “I’ll get them to you today.”

  “Then you’ll have your money in the morning.”

  “Perfect.” Wiley disconnected. He needed every penny Crash fronted to pull off this deal.

  Time to get Operation Payback underway.

  He snapped on latex gloves, then rifled through his shopping bags and dug out two prepaid phones. He worked quickly to unpackage them. Once he had access to Brandt’s and Hamid’s wireless access accounts—to leave an electronic trail from their respective homes—Wiley would register one in Hamid’s name and the other in Brandt’s. Wiley could use the phones to send texts between Hamid and Brandt, making it look like they were communicating with each other about the hack.

  When Wiley was ready for the FBI to arrest Brandt, he’d make sure they located the phones. Once the Feds had them, they’d request call logs, and GPS reports would provide the phone’s location from where the texts had originated. So Wiley had to hide one phone at Hamid’s house and the other at Brandt’s home or near her work. It meant he had to keep tabs on both of them and he would feel like a yo-yo as he went between the locations to send texts to the other person, but great victory required great sacrifice.

  He set the phones to charge, then removed a loose brick and retrieved his father’s old Colt revolver.

  A simple gun, but one that worked. Had worked. Perfectly. On the people who’d made his life miserable. It would work now if needed.

  He wasn’t going back to prison. Ever.

  QUINN CROSSED HIS arms and leaned against the column in the small coffee shop as he waited for their drinks. Despite the comforting aroma of freshly ground coffee beans, acid churned in his stomach as he kept an eye on Nina and Ty in the corner booth.

  Nina. The woman he’d loved and lost. Correction: let slip away. Chose to let slip away. To keep at a distance, and still, he couldn’t take his eyes off her. Off that fiery red hair, and the temper to go with it when she allowed it to take over her Southern upbringing. A smile no man could get enough of. The soft, sultry accent. And curves. Man, the woman had curves that didn’t end. She was the direct opposite of everything he’d ever known. Hard meets soft. And she had this way of walking. It drove him crazy just to watch her move.

  She was unique—different from other women he’d met. Women who threw themselves at SEALs. But Nina? Nah, she wasn’t impressed with his SEAL status. She’d made him work hard that first night just to get her to talk to him, hooking him on the spot. They might have parted ways, but each time he saw her, he knew he hadn’t managed to wiggle off the hook.

  “Hot chocolate, coffee black, and a chai,” the barista announced.

  Quinn shoved off the wall and grabbed their drinks. He stared at the ugly scars crisscrossing his hand like an intricate spider web. The long hours after the explosion lying in the hospital came flooding back. The pain had been excruciating as they removed the rotting, dead skin from his burns. The team had been deployed for most of his stay, leaving him alone for the first time in years and giving him hours of nothing to do but think. He’d gotten a good look at how empty his life was. Didn’t like everything he saw. Especially when it came to Nina.

  He started for their booth. She snaked her arm around Ty’s back and hugged him close. She would be such a great mother and deserved a family. It was something Quinn wanted, too. If for no other reason than to be the kind of father his dad had failed to be. But that wasn’t happening soon. The hours of inactivity in the hospital had made Quinn want to crawl out of skin. Living his life, the adrenaline, the excitement, that was the only way he could breathe. It was the very life that kept Nina and him apart. That hadn’t changed.

  By the time he reached them, they’d separated and both of them stared up at him. Ty’s eyes were terrified. Nina’s unreadable.

  He passed the hot chocolate to Ty. “Did you bring Nina up to speed on everything?”

  Ty shook his head, long bangs flopping over Ty’s eyes and making Quinn want to pull out his KA-BAR to chop it off.

  “Why not?” He tried not to sound demanding.

  Ty shrugged.

  Nina cast a pointed look at Quinn. “I thought it’d be a good idea to take a break. To give both of you a chance to calm down before things are said that can’t be taken back.”

  Quinn set the tea in front of her and slid into the booth across from them, making sure his knees didn’t connect with hers. “You think it’s a good idea to waste time on feelings with the database wide open to terrorists?”

  She arched a brow. “A few minutes for a mental health break are always in order. That was something you used to believe in. Or did you just go along with it to humor me when we were together?”

  “I still think it’s a good idea.”

  “Just not for me,” Ty mumbled.

  Quinn shot a look at Ty. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “Whatever I do, you want me to do the opposite.”

  “That’s not true.”

  Ty rolled his eyes. “Right.”

  “C’mon, Ty. I want what’s best for you. You know that, right?”

  “Then why the Dad imitation? I’m your brother, man. Not your kid.” He crossed his arms. “I get enough grief from Dad.”

  Quinn took a breath. Calmed his anger. Why couldn’t he be as good with Ty as Nina was? In the year they’d been together, she’d served as a positive force when Ty had rebelled against everyone else. He liked her and listened to her.

  Quinn couldn’t help him. He could barely keep his temper in check around the undisciplined kid, as today had proven. “You’re right, Ty. I’m coming on too strong, but I don’t want to see you make mistakes that will ruin your life.”

  Ty snorted. “Then you can relax ’cause I just did that, didn’t I? Big time.”

  Quinn might want to throttle Ty, but his stomach roiled at the angst in Ty’s expressi
on. His little brother was likely headed to jail. At the minimum, juvenile detention. And for once, Quinn couldn’t do a thing to help. Nothing. That ate him up inside.

  “Let’s change our focus to fixing this, okay?” Nina asked as she placed a hand on Ty’s. “Start by giving me all the details of this incident. Don’t leave anything out.”

  He pulled his hand free and grabbed his cup. “So like I said, Ham—”

  “Is Ham his real name?” Nina interrupted.

  “No. It’s Hamid. Hamid Ahmadi.”

  “You didn’t tell me he was of Middle Eastern descent.” Quinn’s voice exploded in an accusation.

  Ty jutted out his chin. “He was born in the U.S., so what diff does it make?”

  Quinn leaned across the table to thump Ty’s forehead. “You know, for being such a genius, you can be oblivious at times. This Ham kid’s skin color already has people looking at him funny at the airport, and you put him on a terrorist watch list? Now he might have your computer?” He shook his head and sat back. “Unbelievable, kid. Totally unbelievable.”

  “Let’s forget about that for now,” Nina said. “Tell me when the computer was stolen and how you know Hamid took it.”

  “When he got home from the airport on Saturday, he came to our house demanding to see me. He like goes ballistic on Mom, telling her he knows I’m the only one with enough skills to put him on the list.” Ty grinned.

  The smug look sent Quinn’s irritation rising. He fisted his hands to keep from slamming one on the table.

  “When I come downstairs, he says he’s gonna get back at me,” Ty continued. “’Course I had to tell Mom what I did. I mean, you met her, right? You know no one can hold up under her interrogation.”

  Nina smiled, and Quinn suspected she was remembering meeting their mom and her intense questioning about Nina’s intentions in her relationship with him.

  “Can’t say her interrogations ever made me smile,” Quinn said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

  Nina arched a brow. “Maybe we should send her to talk to Hamid about getting the computer back.”

  Ty shook his head. “Are you kidding? Not as freaked out as she was.”

  “I am kidding, Ty.” Nina flashed a quick smile. “What happened after your mother learned of your hack?”

  “She said she would call Q, like she always does.”

  “She knows I want to help you,” Quinn said, trying to make Ty see that they both loved him and wanted the best for him.

  Ty shifted into the corner of the booth, defiance building on his face. Quinn knew belligerence would soon follow.

  “What happened next?” Nina asked softly, defusing Ty’s attitude a bit.

  “Q was unavailable, but I figure he’d be hopping on a plane as soon as she got a hold of him.” Ty sat up a little taller. “I knew once he got here, that I’d be grounded for life. So, I figure, hey, I’ll get in a little fun while I can. You know, hang with the guys one last time.”

  “The guys?” Nina asked.

  “There’re three of us who work on computer stuff together. Bryce, me, and Jimmy. Kind of a club, I guess.”

  “So Hamid isn’t a part of your group?”

  “Not most of the time. If we’re in a public place, Ham cuts in sometimes, and we let him hang for a while. You know, instead of making a scene. That’s how he found out about my girl.” Ty shook his head. “Jerk.”

  “Did you see Hamid Saturday night?”

  “Yeah. We were at a diner where we like to work on our computers. Ham was there, but he didn’t try to crash the group. Just glared at us from the door. It was kinda creeping us out so we split. We left our equipment in Bryce’s car and . . .” He cut a nervous look at Quinn.

  Quinn knew the look. He’d gotten to know it intimately well this last year. Ty was about to tell them he’d done something else Quinn wouldn’t approve of.

  “We have fake IDs,” Ty blurted out. “You know. Made ’em ourselves. Ham doesn’t have one. With his Iranian heritage, his ID is scrutinized more, and he couldn’t create one that passed inspection. To ditch him, we went to a club he couldn’t get into. I had a little too much to drink, so I went to Bryce’s house to sleep it off. His parents were out of town. Instead of sleeping, we partied through the weekend until I kinda passed out. Jimmy dropped me off Sunday night, but I left my stuff in Bryce’s car. I crashed like right away and didn’t know my laptop was missing until Q woke me up.”

  Quinn shook his head. “Now I know why I had to drag your sorry butt out of bed today.”

  Ty jutted out his chin. “What? You never touched liquor at my age?”

  Quinn had, and he couldn’t deny it. “We’re talking about you.”

  “Right. Not Saint Q. The perfect son.”

  Quinn resisted letting out a sigh of frustration. “I didn’t say I was perfect.”

  “You don’t have to. Mom says it enough for everyone.”

  Quinn opened his mouth to respond, but Nina jumped in. “So when you woke up today, is that when you noticed your computer missing?”

  “No, but after I crashed, I kind of forgot about it. Then Q busts into my room and wakes me up. Throws all these questions at me about the hack. When he stopped yelling at me for screwing up, I remembered someone had busted into Bryce’s car and stole it. I figure Ham followed us to Bryce’s house and swiped it for payback.”

  “Okay, let’s say Hamid does have your machine,” Nina said. “Could he use your data to access the No-Fly List?”

  Ty tipped his head in thought. “First, he’d have to hack my password and it’s a good one.”

  “Is he a hacker?”

  “Yeah, I mean, he has skills. He’s done a few hacks that I know of. Nothing like me, but like I said, I left a clear trail to follow so I could go back into the database and take him off the list. But if he got through my password and found that stuff . . .” Ty shrugged. “He could get into the database, I suppose.”

  “Specifically what do you mean by this trail?” Quinn asked, and he could see Nina wanted the same information.

  “Two things. I kept a detailed log in Notepad of each of my steps. As a backup, I used a keystroke logger to record my moves. Not that it mattered.” He smirked. “With the big stink Ham made, I left his name on the No-Fly List.”

  Quinn remembered reading something about these logger programs that record the keys struck on a keyboard. It was often done in a covert manner to catch someone doing something illegal, like cheating on a spouse. They were also used by parents to monitor their kids’ computer use. Ty had, of course, found a very inventive use for it and could very well have created a trail that would ensure his jail time.

  “So if the computer is found, this log and document could be used as evidence against Ty?” Quinn asked.

  Nina nodded.

  “You’ll get my computer back, right Nina?” Ty’s brows furrowed. “I mean, Ham’s got to be the one who has it, right?”

  “It could have been taken in a random burglary,” Nina said. “I’ll check to see if other break-ins have been reported in the area. For now let’s assume Hamid does have it. Any thoughts on what he’d do with it?”

  “Dunno.” Ty’s eyes narrowed in contemplation. “But I’m sure he’ll use it to get me in trouble.”

  That was one of the things Quinn was concerned about. “Which could mean he’d turn it in to the police to prove you hacked the No-Fly List and make sure you’re arrested.”

  “I doubt it. There’s a code between us, ya know? We may not like each other, but we don’t rat each other out either. ’Sides, turning it in could make the cops investigate Ham, and his hacks are serious enough to get him arrested.”

  “What about the break-in?” Nina asked. “Did Bryce call the police about that?”

  “Not sure. He wouldn’t
wanna be tied to what’s on my machine either. There’s plenty on there to—”

  “Enough.” Nina held up her hands silencing Ty. “I don’t want to know about anything else on your computer unless it relates to the case, or I’ll have to report it, too.”

  Ty’s head whipped around. “You’re turning me in?

  “I’m sorry, Ty. I’m a sworn officer of the law. I have to report it.”

  “But they’ll arrest me.” His head drooped.

  “It’s okay, bud.” Quinn tried to sound positive, though the world was closing in on him. “I’ve already lined up a lawyer for you.”

  “A lawyer?” Ty’s head popped up. “You said Nina would help me. I thought that meant she’d take care of this. Man, oh man. You knew all along that she’d turn me in. How could you?”

  Quinn saw the betrayal in Ty’s expression, and his gut tightened. He wanted to drag his little brother off somewhere and hide him until all of this could be resolved without it ending in a prison sentence. But Quinn lived his SEAL oath. No matter the consequences.

  The words echoed in his head. I humbly serve as a guardian to my fellow Americans, always ready to defend those who are unable to defend themselves.

  Stopping whoever had the ability to modify the No-Fly List superseded any desire to protect Ty.

  “I had to, Ty. It’s a matter of national security.” Quinn cringed at how much he sounded like their father. Mr. General Sir. The all-American who always put country first and family last. The man with expectations so high that neither Quinn nor Ty could live up to them. The man Quinn didn’t want Ty to think he’d become. To let anyone think he’d become.

  Ty shook his head. “I can’t believe you did this to me.”

  “I’m sorry, Ty.” Quinn paused to get Ty’s attention, but he wouldn’t look at him. “We have no choice but to report this if we don’t want another catastrophic attack in our country.”

  “You had a choice. Me or your precious code of conduct.” Ty slid down in his seat and crossed his arms. “Guess I shouldn’t be surprised. Not after what you did to Nina. Bailing on her like that.”