by Wylder Stone
He leaned in and kissed her softly, sweetly, and full of every promise he made. He tried to reassure her, but despite his efforts, a look of apprehension lingered in her expression.
“Between the school’s new top-notch security,” James added, “and a few muscle-head uncles who can man the doors, we’ll be fine.”
“Muscle heads, huh?” She laughed.
“Yeah, in case you haven’t noticed, they flex their muscles a lot.” He laughed.
Genevieve winked. “There’s only one Force who I notice.”
“Really?” he teased.
“Shhh, the movie’s starting!” she said, pulling away from his grip abruptly before she playfully tossed a small handful of popcorn at him from the bowl she’d been hugging.
James sat back with his arms out in disbelief, looking at the popcorn in his lap. “I can’t believe you just did that.”
Genevieve covered her mouth to muffle the giggle he caused. With her eyes wide, she backed away ever so slightly. “I can totally believe I just did that. It really bothers you, doesn’t it, Mr. Neat and Tidy?”
“Is that another one of those stick up my ass kind of comments?” James cocked his head and wore a mischievous smirk. “Because I can assure you there’s no stick, and this popcorn mess doesn’t bother me. At all. Like in the least. It’s great, actually.”
Laughter escaped her, and her head fell back, fully enjoying his attempt at easygoing. “Extra points for the attempt at candor, but it bothers you.” Genevieve tossed another handful of popcorn and said, “How does that feel? Is your skin itching yet?”
James grabbed his own handful of popcorn and tossed it her way. “Does that answer your question?”
“Yes. It absolutely does.” Genevieve looked around, leaning forward and scanning the floor. “It bothers you. You’re dying to vacuum it up, but you’re leaving it because I’m guessing you’ve programmed that robo-vacuum thing to come by any minute. I saw you tap your watch.”
“What if I said it comes around every night at this time?”
“I’d say, I don’t believe you. And that you’re a nerd.” She leaned forward on her hands and knees and kissed him long and hard. “I like nerds.”
“It takes one to know one,” he said between kisses.
Genevieve pulled back and snorted. “Only nerds say that.”
James was quick to grab the bowl of popcorn from her and tossed the contents, then bowl, in the air. “Happy?”
“Not yet…”
A sounding alert of the emergency broadcast system blared through the television, distracting them from their playful state. The movie they had set out to watch was no longer playing.
When the television returned to the movie now in play, Genevieve smiled. “That was odd. How did that interrupt a streaming service?”
“I’m not sure. Fluke?” he said with a shrug. “Seems to be streaming just fine now.”
James reached for her and pulled her to his side and put an arm around her. “Now be quiet. I’m really into this movie.”
“It hasn’t even started yet.” She laughed.
“Shh. It’s a good one.”
She giggled at his playfulness. “Do you even know what I put on?”
“Not a clue.”
The couple both laughed until the television briefly went to static, then returned to sound. A familiar sound. One of a child’s laughter, so recognizable it sent James to his knees.
“Ruby?” He looked around the space, but his daughter was nowhere to be found.
He stood, looking down the hall and to the entry. They were alone. When the sound flowed through the space again, it brought him right back to the living room.
“James, what the hell is happening?” Genevieve was as spooked as he was.
“I don’t know. You hear it too, though, right?” His concern increased as the sound was so intermittent – ghostly even.
“Of course, I do, but where? Where is it coming from?”
When the television screen flickered, the sound of Ruby’s laughter came through again while images of Genevieve and James having their heated exchange on the rooftop filled the screen. It flashed from the rooftop to the day Ruby and Genevieve were trapped in the market, then to James and Genevieve at Riverbend Resort – their meeting with Chuggs. As the video feeds changed, so did the sound bites, ranging from the giggling child to Chugg’s snorting laughter.
“Son of a bitch,” James yelled.
“It’s a smart TV. He’s hacked your TV. The Bluetooth, James.” Genevieve had heard of such things and knew how to do it herself, but this was the first time she’d witnessed her life as the featured film. “That’s got to be how. He’s just screen mirroring from his device to mine.”
James grabbed his phone and sent an alert to his brothers. “He’s desperate. Fucking desperate if he’s hacking a damn television.”
The sound bites changed to erotic moaning, then James’s voice.
“Oh, my God.” Genevieve’s lip quivered. “He was listening to us? That’s us.”
Genevieve covered her mouth as a sob threatened to escape her.
The moaning and intimate words they shared continued to flow through the speakers, the video finally matching what they were hearing. The two of them making love was the next scene on display.
“How the hell did he video us?” James shouted. “How is he getting all of this. It’s a video from inside our homes.”
James looked at the screen seeing the very couch they were sitting on, then to the couch, as if following a trail to the large glass door that led to the balcony. He rushed outside and looked around, leaning over the railing, looking up then down.
“Drone. We know he used one before. It’s the only way he could have been this high and got that good of a shot.”
“Good shot? I hardly call what’s on the screen a good shot,” she said. “Who else is seeing this besides him?”
“I don’t know.” He paced the floor and ran his hands through his hair, thinking his way around the hack. “If he was in here, I could follow him out and shut down any transmissions that match the pattern…”
“I know all of that, but what do I do?” She looked back at the television, watching as her intimate moment of sheer joy became her worst nightmare.
“You can’t see anything, Vivi. You’re hidden.” James tried to comfort her.
“It’s pretty obvious by the stupid look on my face and my body language what I’m doing.”
“I know. I know. I’ll fix this…” Before he could finish, the screen changed once more, this time showing a live feed. They were being watched at that very moment.
“It’s you. You’re on the balcony. It’s live, James.” Genevieve watched the screen as James on television mirrored the movements beside her. From the television, she watched James stand on the balcony again and look in the same pattern as he did before – up and down, looking for the drone. He flipped his middle finger in the air and yelled some obscenities before he raced inside and headed to his home office right off the living room.
“Stay right there. Don’t move,” he said. “I’m tracking that bastard. Keep him distracted.”
“How? This is creepy. I don’t know what to do.” She sat there as still as could be as if remaining motionless would somehow call off the drone even though she knew they needed time to find it in the sky. She watched herself live as she sat in fear, wondering what was next.
“Jackson, how well can you shoot in the dark?” She heard James say into his phone. “Get to the rooftop. I’ll have coordinates in a minute. You’re shooting blind.”
“Vivi?” he hollered. “You okay?”
“Uh, yeah.” Her voice cracked. “Just not a big fan of this.”
“You’re okay. He can’t hurt you. This is as close as he can get to you, okay?”
“The last drone was weaponized. You sure he can’t hurt me?” she hollered back.
With her response, he appeared in the living room. She was scared, a
nd he didn’t want her sitting there alone. With his laptop in one hand and phone in the other, he rattled off coordinates to Jackson.
“You’re going to hear shots fired. It’s just Jackson,” he said to her calmly, his hands dancing over the keys. “The rest of the guys have been alerted, and they’re working on it too.”
When the first shot rang out, she jumped, letting out a small yelp of a cry. James paused what he was doing, ignoring his brother on the other end of the speakerphone, and he turned to her.
“You’re okay. I promise. This is all he can do. This is it. He isn’t hurting us. He’s just pissing us off.”
She looked him in the eye and nodded. He was right. Sure, she was mortified. Seeing herself in such a vulnerable state, so personal, broadcast for God knows who, was enough to make a person a little jumpy. But she was safe because of James, and she didn’t need to be afraid. She understood that the moment he said so.
James rattled off more coordinates as Jackson fired back obscenities. He didn’t like missing a target, even if it was invisible. Jackson stalled a moment to put on night vision goggles, hoping that, combined with coordinates from James’s radar, would be the golden ticket.
“Son of a bitch. I see him,” Jackson said through the phone. “Your coordinates are spot-on, James. I got the blinking light. Just needed to zoom in to see him. It’ll be a hit this time.”
James turned to Genevieve, “He’s going to fire again in three, two…”
Something at that moment left her feeling bold and brazen. She wouldn’t accept the humiliation Watson, or whoever it was, tried to force on her. James was right. This was nothing. They couldn’t hurt any of them. She turned to the glass balcony door and flipped off the night sky just as James had moments before.
Owen walked in the front door just in time to see Genevieve on the wall-sized television, flipping the bird, right before another shot rang out, and the video feed went dead.
“Bingo!” Jackson yelled with a hoot. “Got ’em! Sending your coordinates to Derek and Troy for recovery. They’re already headed that way, then I’ll be down.”
Owen stood with his arms crossed and brow cocked. He’d seen the footage. They all most likely had. Jackson walked in at that moment and took on a similar expression to Owen’s.
“I guess it’s safe to say you two are a couple?” he asked. “I’m actually glad there was a drone to explain why you two were on my screen that way,” Owen said. “Fortunately, the kids were in the playroom with the television off.”
Genevieve buried her hands in her face. “He’s obviously been watching us that way for a while. A lot of that was old footage.”
“Old footage,” Owen said with a snicker. “Got it.”
“Hacked your TV too, huh?” Jackson decided to break the awkward silence that had followed Genevieve’s admission. “Can you do anything with that? Find those little trails or whatever you said he leaves behind?”
“No, this is a little different. He used a signal and wasn’t really hacking into the TV itself. Well, not like how he tried to get into our mainframe and crap,” James rattled on. “I might be able to trace the signal, get a general vicinity? The drone might help with that because it had to receive the same signal. I’ll look for a pattern between the two and back into the frequency he was using, map it out…”
James paused a moment. “You have no idea what I’m saying, do you?”
Derek and Troy walked in on the last part of the conversation and, just like the first two brothers, were immediately distracted by their brother’s rumpled appearance and that of his guest.
“That would be a big fat hell no, brother,” Derek chimed in. “You’re the only one who speaks that language besides Vivi. According to tonight's movie lineup, you two speak another language too.” He winked at her, indicating he was teasing. “Hey, is that, uh…your shirt she’s wearing?”
“Nice, asshole,” James said, tucking Genevieve behind him. “Set the drone on the table. I’ll take it apart in the morning. I doubt I’ll find anything, though. He had to have known we’d shoot it down. He’s not stupid. He’s just dumb.”
“Because those are different things?” Troy laughed.
“Yes. He’s still playing games. This is all he has. New trick, old tech. The question is…is this as good as he gets, or is he trying to get us to believe that?” James asked. “We can’t let our guard down or fall for whatever it is he wants us to believe.”
“I’ll help you pull it apart in the morning,” Jackson offered. “It’s weaponized, might have live ammo. I’ll drop it in the Boom Shack for now. Not a great idea to have that thing around anyone until we know what it can and can’t do still.”
“I don’t understand why he isn’t using that?” Troy questioned. “Why bring guns and not use them?”
“Because he still needs her alive, remember? If he’s going to get what he thinks she has,” James said. “He fires on any of us, then he risks hitting her.”
“Really getting sick of this hurry up and wait shit,” Derek mumbled.
“We’re going to get him. This is like any other manhunt we’ve launched. We’re just doing the chasing from a swivel chair rather than on foot.” James understood their frustration. They didn’t understand the chase like he did, not this kind of chase, so he put it in terms they might understand. “Derek has been looking for Greenly for how long now? Years, right? She’s not even trained to fall off the radar, and he can’t find her despite all our resources. He will find her, though, eventually, with the right leads and patience. Like every other case.”
“Low blow, James,” Derek said with a heavy glare for his brother. Greenly was off-limits. She was the reason he disappeared, chasing ghosts of his own.
“But you get it now, right? This guy may not be good at a lot of this shit, but he’s good at hiding – probably in plain sight like we do. We just need him to do what all of our marks do. Fuck up.”
A tear ran down Genevieve’s cheek as she listened to James describe that it could take years. “Maybe I should go. This is getting too dangerous. What if he had fired that thing at one of you tonight? I need to lure him away. Maybe if I give chase, you’ll be able to see him as he trails me. Set a trap or something, you know?”
“Not a chance in hell,” James quickly interrupted. “You’re too vulnerable out there. Easier target. Here, all he can do is taunt you.”
“But he’ll follow me…” she started.
“Exactly! Bad idea. No, you’re not going anywhere. I can’t build walls around you out there. It’ll be harder to keep him away. We might not see him coming in time, especially since we still don’t know if Watson is Benson or someone entirely different.”
“But…”
“You’re one of us, Vivi.” James had enough. He didn’t like how this was hurting his family. “We take care of our own. You’re family, understand? This isn’t your fault.”
“But I brought this here…”
“No, we brought it here,” Jackson corrected, supporting his brother’s plea to Genevieve. “We assumed he was out of the picture and trusted the confirmation without verifying ourselves. We made the mess, so we clean it up.”
James held her face in his hands and held her stare as if they were the only two in the room. “I meant what I said. Nothing happens to you. We are in this together. I’m done running from my past. You’re done running from yours. I need you. We need you. So, we fight, got it? We fight.”
Genevieve let out a small sob with a weak smile and nodded her head. James pulled her into a tight embrace and let out a relieved sigh. Each of his brothers stood by with satisfied smiles on their faces. Their brother had been lost for so long, and he was finding himself.
“Not much we can do tonight,” Owen announced. “We’ll be on our way.”
The other brothers nodded and headed for the door. Jackson turned around and said, “Everyone’s here. Cade and Connor are around, and even Aaron is headed back to Santa Marina. If something comes up
, we got your back, man. Yours too, Vivi.”
James nodded. He’d expect nothing less from his brothers. That was just who they were, and he’d gladly drop everything for any one of them just as they would for him. Family was everything to the Forces, whether it be by blood or affiliation. They loved hard. They fought hard. They took care of each other at all costs.
Troy paused before getting to the door and turned to walk back to James and Genevieve. He pulled her from James and wrapped her in his arms, where he held her tight.
He kissed her cheek. “Thank you.”
Her eyes welled with happiness as the other three brothers offered the same thanks with a sweet embrace and a kiss on the cheek. They’d always been fond of her, but that fondness was more now. She helped bring their brother back to them. Their family was healing. Their brother was healing, and it was about damn time.
James pulled the curtains closed and unplugged the television while Genevieve saw the brothers out.
“He can’t get in. I’ll add layer after layer to everything, jam frequencies so his drones can’t see or hear anything. If they’re weaponized, they won’t be able to fire.” James ran down the list of promises, reassuring Genevieve when they met in the middle of the living room. “Basically, they’ll fry if they get too close. He will run out of that small army of his. That’s the point. He’ll be left desperate and vulnerable, and I’ll take his ass down.”
Genevieve nodded, her smile convincing, which brought him relief.
“I will protect what’s mine. Protect what I love.” James spoke from his heart and didn’t expect love to come out, but it did, and it felt good to finally say. “At all costs, Vivi.”
James held her hands in his and pulled her closer. “As much as I would love to sit and watch that movie with you, I have a better idea.”
“You want me to sit next to you and write code with you?” she said with a flirty wink. When he nodded, she said, “Your office or mine?”
19
