by Wylder Stone
The man stepped away from the storefront and shouted across the street, waving his arms back and forth.
“Help! Help! Over here,” he shouted, pointing at the glass doors when he had their attention.
James locked in on them first. He saw both Genevieve and Ruby, trapped and frantic, and began to run toward them.
“Holy shit,” Jackson yelled and ran after his brother.
With the traffic lights malfunctioning, cars passed through the adjacent intersection blindly, nearly hitting one another. One vehicle almost hit James, stopping just in time as he hit the hood of their car.
“Ruby!” he yelled, running toward them. “Ruby, 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 storefront, he pushed his way past the few lingering strangers trying to lift the steel security gate unsuccessfully. Despite the near-impossible nature, James immediately began to lift on his own. With barely a budge, he continued, Jackson joining him.
“I’m getting you out, darlin’. Calm down. I’m here,” he said. “It’s going to be okay. I’ll get you out.”
Troy joined his brothers and began to lift. Even with his massive size and strength, it barely budged a few inches. Derek took in the scene, and a plan immediately came 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 gained their attention claimed it and followed Derek to the back of the car and opened the trunk at his request. When Derek pulled out the car jack and met his brothers back at the steel gate, everyone acted in sync as if each already knew the plan. Derek was the mechanic of the team, and 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 Derek needed. He slid the car jack under the edge of the gate and began to crank the lever, adding pressure to the resistant barrier. Owen 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.”
Owen 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,” Owen barked through gritted teeth, trying to crank the jack lever one more time.
“I need a hammer, Owen. Or something I can use as one,” Derek said, pulling the lever out of the jack. “You guys need to back up. Everyone back up.”
Owen quickly returned with a mallet from who knew where. People kept odd things in their vehicles and at their disposal.
Derek jammed the crowbar from the jack into the corner of the overhead portion of the gate. Using the mallet, he wedged the steel bar farther and farther 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 the pressure, allowing them to raise the steel cage door.
James was quick to wedge his hands between the two glass doors as far as he could and pry them open. Derek was right behind him, wedging the steel crowbar between them just above James’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.
Derek and Troy went inside the store to investigate, Owen right behind them once he saw that Ruby and Genevieve were safe. Jackson stood guard while James pulled Ruby into him, nearly collapsing in relief.
“Thank God,” he said as he kissed the top of her head. “Thank God.”
With Ruby’s arms wrapped tightly around his waist, he raised his eyes up to Genevieve’s with a questioning look, to which she nodded and offered a simple but forced smile before a single tear escaped her. James reached up, swiping it away with the pad of his thumb before resting his hand behind her neck.
“Let’s get them home,” Jackson interrupted. “We’ll debrief there when the boys get back.”
“Let’s go. I need to get to the conference room before every trace of what just happened disappears,” James added, looking at Genevieve, his cold stare returning. “This wasn’t a power surge or failure. Someone is attacking the Elite Building and everything around it.”
Genevieve’s eyes went wide – the Elite Building. He was trying to breach security at the Elite Building. This wasn’t an attack. He just declared war.
7
James spent all night and most of the morning backing into every system he could, looking for a trail to follow. The Elite Building was secure, despite the attempted security breach the day before. Whoever targeted Elite Force 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.
Elite Force 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. The question was, why?
Under any other circumstance, he would take the Elite Building attack personally and say someone was 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 – Genevieve. He couldn’t ignore the timing of it all. Genevieve’s odd behavior and disappearing acts reflected trouble and even danger if one analyzed the late-night alley incident.
If the attack was on Elite Force, 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. The Elite Building’s attempted breach was nothing more than a way to get the brothers off the streets and focused anywhere but at the market. The streetlights and traffic signals were just another layer of distraction.
Whoever was behind this knew the Forces, knew where they were, and knew how to keep their focus anywhere but on that market. If the Elite Building alarms didn’t hold their attention, the attack on the city and its people would have because if the Forces 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 civilians in danger bone they couldn’t 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 James’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 James at what he did. He had his system so secure that it was designed to capture images of tampering, almost like a fingerprint that he could trace. There was nothing this time. 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 Genevieve or perhaps someone close to her past. Anyone else was far too amateur when faced with The Elite Building security.
What added to the mystery was the fact that Genevieve and Ruby’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 reeked of trouble, and it had Genevieve’s name all over it. James j
ust needed to figure out the how and why of it, then he could figure out the what or who.
“Find anything?” Jackson asked as he entered the conference room.
James sat back, rocking in his chair while scratching his head. “Not a damn thing. It’s like nothing happened. They wiped everything clean.”
Derek and Troy had followed Jackson in, each dressed in black fatigues and strapped with weapons.
“Still think this is Vivi?” Troy asked.
“It has to be, right? Nothing else makes sense right now,” James said reluctantly.
“It would be a really big coincidence if it wasn’t,” Jackson admitted, disappointment in his tone. “I don’t think she’s intentionally doing anything wrong, though.”
“No. Not Vivi. She is too invested in this firm and this family. Shit, she’s practically a mother figure to Ruby. The two are inseparable,” Troy added.
That had James’s attention. “Ruby. What if she isn’t safe now? How do we even know?”
“We don’t.” Jackson’s posture stiffened, and his glare tightened. “This bastard is good, really good. Until we know who it is and what the endgame is, we need eyes on Vivi at all times…and Ru.”
“Is that really necessary?” Troy asked. “What if she notices and gets offended?”
“I think we need to play this as once a criminal, always a criminal,” James offered, “just until we know what side of this she is on.”
After a deep sigh, Derek plopped in a chair next to James. “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, but the people around her were. What if one slipped under the radar? What if there were others she wasn’t even aware of? She was blackmailed and forced to commit crimes against her will. How do we know there weren’t others just like her that we didn’t find?”
“You really don’t think it has something to do with her past, do you?” Troy asked, always reluctant to see the bad and only wanting to see the good in people.
Jackson 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.”
The men had put together a plan to keep tabs on Vivi without her knowing she was being watched. If she left the building, one of them would too. James, 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. 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 was because the government needed him on the outside. Blanket immunity in exchange for him or his services rather.
When Jackson had gone missing in action, and the government denied knowing who Jackson was or that he was even on a mission because it was so highly classified, James went looking for him. He took a virtual tour through every government server out there, looking for leads. The idea that he broke through classified barriers and uncovered 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’d found his brother. Though many attempts had been made, nobody had been able to break through every layer of security in place until James. He found his brother and got a get out of jail free card, and the United States Government got a major system upgrade out of the deal.
His work for the government, combined with the service of his brothers through various on- and off-record military branches, meant Elite Force Security was on the taxpayers’ payroll. The federal government was one of their largest contracts and afforded them a lot of favors, like when they came across Genevieve. They kept her out of jail too, and on their payroll.
As esteemed as that was, their client list also possessed less respected clients who walked the thin line between right and wrong. Power and money brought out the best and worst in people, and that was who they worked with. Narrowing the list of chipped shoulders was a tedious task. It could be anyone they contracted with or anyone they shut down and put away.
Given Genevieve’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 Genevieve was anything, it was loyal. His brothers were right. She loved their family, especially Ruby, and hurting one of them would be hurting all of them. Genevieve would never do that to Ruby.
She was one of them, and he didn’t doubt that she would do anything to protect them. And that was what he believed she was doing. It was the only thing that made sense, despite knowing she could come to them if she were in trouble. They protected their own fiercely. But if she was a target of something sinister, he could see her trying to keep it as far away from the Elite group as possible. But it seemed to have found them, nonetheless.
James was pulled from his thoughts, and his brothers took to their feet when an alarm on the system alerted them. Genevieve 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 Genevieve made her way out of the building and down the street, aiming for the boardwalk that lined the expansive beach from north to south. 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. Santa Marina was expanding its urban living neighborhoods, and this area was generally safe. However, the construction crews would be few and far between at this hour, and pedestrian traffic would be nonexistent. About the only thing this area served at this time of day was overflow parking for people who drove to the beach or pier and didn’t live in the neighborhood.
Storefronts and condos housed in the area high-rise buildings faded in the background as she made her way through similar dwellings that had yet to be finished. They would soon house another district of business and overpriced city living above. The streetlights were on, and as she’d anticipated, this neighborhood construction had clocked out for the evening, and it was just her and quiet streets lined with empty parked cars.
With stacks of building materials and piles of abandoned pallets, James could easily follow her without being detected. There were plenty of cars and machinery used by builders to put between him and her. He dodged behind scaffolding and disappeared into construction tunnels. The occasional doorway provided haven when he heard a car coming from behind that was likely to grab her attention.
When a car picked up speed just as Genevieve was about to cross the street, his instincts had him lunging her way and pulling her out of the street. The speed of the car had his attention; the fact it didn’t have a driver provoked his quick actions. It was unfathomable to see and understand, but here it was, unfolding before his very eyes. He called her name just as he grabbed her. She’d noticed the car and saw that there was no one behind the wheel and stood stunned, nearly a victim of what would inevitably be a heinous crime. James couldn’t believe what he was seeing. How could that be? He ran toward Genevieve, yelling her name as another car passed. No driver. Eyes wide, she screamed at the sight and willingly fell into James’s pull. She could have died.
A second vehicle was on the move, same scenario. It seemed to lose control, or perhaps intentionally, hit the nearby scaffolding, and it missed them by a hair as it fell to the ground.
“What are you doing here?” a shaken Genevieve asked, trying to catch her breath. “You almost got us killed running to duck under that scaffolding.”
“What?” James questioned, his tone harsh and scolding. “I pulled you to safety. There was no way for me to anticipate one driverless car, much less two. How was I supposed to know it would hit anything along the way?”
Before she could reply, James 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. James wrapped her tight in his embrace, tucking her head under his to shield her from injury.
When the dust began to settle, James 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, James?” Genevieve’s voice shook. “Oh my God! Nobody’s driving! How is that possible?”
It was at that moment all of his questions were answered. When Genevieve looked him in the eye, and he witnessed the fear resting in her gaze, he knew. She wasn’t behind any of it and wasn’t willingly involved. She was the victim. Thank God, he thought.
“What kind of trouble are you in, Genevieve?”
“What are you talking about?” Offended, she pushed him back to put distance between them. “How do you know this 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. Nobody knows me in this business.”
“The first car blew right by me, and I was the easier target. It went for you. That’s how I know.” Frustrated, James ran his hands through his hair, resting them on the back of his neck as he looked up and let out a deep sigh. “What are you hiding?”
“I’m not hiding any…”
James dropped his head, leveling his gaze with hers, willing her to be honest with him through his pointed stare. “Someone is hacking car computers, using their GPS to guide them like a friggin’ remote control toy, Genevieve. They’re like heat-seeking missiles, locked on you.” He gripped her shoulders and leaned in. “Someone just tried to kill you. Kill you! Do you hear me? What the hell is going on?”
She didn’t answer. Genevieve stood there, doe-eyed and speechless, while fear consumed her. He could tell she wanted to tell him. She was desperate for help, but she was overwhelmed. The roaring silence pulled his attention from her to the street behind them. James stepped back and turned to the crashed car, leaning over it until he could see the quiet street beyond. It was motionless but dotted with parked cars on each side.
