by L J Branch
To my parents, LeRoy and Rochelle, thank you for supporting me in finding my passion.
To my mentors, Gil Cook and Maggie Anderson, thank you for guiding me through the long journey to follow my dreams.
To my friends Denzel and Rodney, thank you for being my own personal band of thieves joining me on our journey to chase our dreams.
To you who have decided to purchase this book, thank you for your support.
Lastly, to my fans online, both old and hopefully new, thank you for putting up with my insanity over the years and helping me improve tremendously on my craft. You’ve all earned this badge.
Acknowledgments:
Special thanks to Eddy Shinjuku for going above and beyond expectations when illustrating the cover for the book and further images to help support it. Another thank you to Jeannie Glickson for proofreading the story. Further gratitude to my aunts Yolanda and Nadine, for helping me develop the story and for acting as my practice audience for the plot. Final thanks to Lexie, Quentin Gerbault, and Will in particular, for helping me improve over the years. This adventure wouldn’t exist without you all.
Note: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
© 2019 L.J. Branch
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: Swipe Right
CHAPTER 2: The Mark
CHAPTER 3: Band Thirteen
CHAPTER 4: Grand Theft Auto
CHAPTER 5: The Magnus Financial Job
CHAPTER 6: Xavier Romero Magnus
CHAPTER 7: Pay Day
CHAPTER 8: Power Moves
CHAPTER 9: Elders
CHAPTER 10: The Gladius Gallery Job
CHAPTER 11: Lines Crossed
CHAPTER 12: Changes
CHAPTER 13: Solstice
CHAPTER 14: The Broken Doll
CHAPTER 15: Alice
CHAPTER 16: Divine Intervention
CHAPTER 17: Healing
CHAPTER 18: Spring of Rebirth
CHAPTER 19: The Prosperity Industries Job
EPILOGUE: Presence
CHAPTER 1: Swipe Right
Santa Monica, California
“According to Diamond’s manager and father, she will no longer continue her music career. In other news, we have more information about the seventh major break-in at a fortune 500 company in the last three months. With the cyber-terrorist group known as Wonderland little more than a terrible memory, authorities still are unaware of who is behind the recent crime wave…”
The sound of the news broadcast echoed throughout an old rundown apartment in the slums of Santa Monica. In her bed, one Abigail Stone stirred awake. A lot could be said about the woman but the most prominent, in her opinion anyway, was that she was definitely not a morning person. Abbie groaned when she looked at her clock and saw 6:30 a.m. flash on its screen and cursed when she saw the time. Abbie closed her eyes in frustration, a desperate attempt to calm herself, before she decided to do her best to at least get a few more minutes of sleep. However, that plan didn’t last long as someone had decided it would be a good time to call her.
“Oh my God,” Abbie complained as she blindly reached on her nightstand and knocked over a beer bottle in an attempt to grab her phone. Deep down, she was in disbelief. It was the year 2054 and apparently, people had not learned when to call at respectable hours. It took a minute, but eventually she managed to blindly grab her phone. When she opened her eyes, she couldn’t help the scowl that appeared on her face when she saw the name “Eric” appear on the screen. “This had better be good,” Abbie all but growled out, her annoyance clear. Eric of all people knew not to wake her up early, especially when he was the cause of the splitting headache she had woken up to. “What do you want?”
“Well good morning to you too, sunshine,” Eric said sarcastically.
“Eric…” Abbie began as patiently as she could, which wasn’t very patient at all at the moment. “…why did you wake me up this early, on my day off?”
“What? You’re the one who told me to wake you up, remember?” Eric pointed out and Abbie couldn’t help but look at the phone in confusion.
“Excuse me?”
“You told me to show up early so we could head down to Roy’s and check out some new gear. Come on girl, don’t tell me you forgot?” Eric questioned, and soon the memories came rushing back.
“Shit.”
He was right.
“Would you believe me if I said I didn’t?”
“Abbie…” Eric began and she could just picture him shaking his head. “…you know what? Doesn’t matter, you’re up now so hurry up! I did you a huge favor, so you owe me.”
“I owe you?” Abbie couldn’t help but ask. She had agreed to give him some pointers on choosing which tech to buy out of the kindness of her heart, not because she owed him. “Since when do I owe you? What favor did you do for me?”
“Ah, ah, ah, all will be explained later, just come down here,” Eric ordered playfully and Abbie frowned when a chill went down her spine. Favors from him always filled her with dread because she never asked for them. Eric just did things on her behalf without telling her and then claimed he helped her out, leaving her to deal with the consequences.
“Give me, ten,” Abbie eventually told him as she forced herself to sit up in her bed. It wouldn’t take her long to get ready after fixing the black mess that was her bed hair.
* * *
Santa Monica, The Mad-Hatter
When they exited their ‘cab-4-cash’, Abbie paid their fare with an app before she and Eric made their way to a small corner store. The sound of air shuttles could be heard above them which made Abbie glance up at them every now and again. Sure, they were fun to be in but, in Abbie’s opinion, that alone couldn’t justify the fare needed to ride in one. Call her old-fashioned but she’d take a regular car any day, they looked much sleeker than the shuttles and got her from point “A” to point “B” like anything else.
“What’s up, pops!?” Eric greeted loudly as they entered the shop. Roy looked up from his paper and grinned. The Mad-Hatter was an odd little store they frequented, a hidden gem in the city. It was easy to overlook due to the sheer size of the neighboring towers, how it stayed in business Abbie didn’t know. It was filled with the latest and greatest that the tech industry had to offer along with various stylish hats. It was an odd combination, but perhaps that just added to its quirkiness. The shop was a haven for hipsters, tech nerds, or both which was surprising as Roy was an older man whose gray hair was in stark contrast with his weathered dark skin. Abbie had learned fast that, despite his age, the man definitely knew his stuff. Hell, he even taught her some tricks she didn’t know which made Abbie think of him as an impromptu mentor.
“How’s it hangin’, lil’ brotha?” Roy asked with a kind smile as he placed a white straw hat on his head. Abbie watched with a smile as Roy grabbed Eric’s hand and brought him in for a quick hug before he turned to face her. “And what’s this? You even got the one and only, Abigail Stone, out and about while the sun’s still out?” Roy teased as he greeted Abbie the same way he had Eric.
“It’s Cali, Roy, the sun’s always out,” Abbie reminded him.
“Girl, you know what I meant,” Roy said with an eye roll. “So, what can I do for you?”
“Eric’s tryin’ to get into the tech scene,” Abbie told Roy as she gestured toward Eric. “I taught him what I knew, I think he’s ready for the back room,” Abbie said knowingly. Roy looked at her in surprise for a moment before a smirk graced his lips.
“The back r
oom?” Eric asked curiously.
“Come on, lil’ brotha, let me show you the real merchandise,” Roy said as he gestured for them to follow him. Roy led them behind the counter and pulled out a keycard to open the back room.
“Holy…” Eric began, his eyes wide as they stepped into the room and Abbie couldn’t blame him. The first time she ever stepped into the backroom she thought she had stepped onto an alien ship or something. That said something because she was definitely no stranger when it came to good tech.
“You say he’s ready?” Roy asked Abbie.
“He’s not as good as me, of course,” Abbie began, which made Eric roll his eyes. “But he ain’t half bad. We could have been classmates back when I was at school down south,” Abbie explained. “We can get him started so he can start makin’ some change,” Abbie said as Eric grinned. Eric was gifted, he was self-taught until Abbie helped him out. He soaked up knowledge in a way that almost made her envious. Whether it was program design, music production, or whatever, Eric could work his way around electronics like it was second nature. Recently, Eric decided he wanted to make music his full-time job so Abbie figured she’d help him with a few things.
“Well alright, I ain’t got no problem helping you out, just understand that even with a discount, this won’t be cheap,” Roy pointed out.
“Don’t worry about that, I got lucky on a scratch-off lottery ticket the other day so cash ain’t no problem now,” Eric reassured Roy. “It ain’t much but it’s enough for me to get a down payment on a place outside of the slums and allow me to invest in my future a bit, you know?”
“Do I know?” Roy asked with a laugh. “Boy you’re young, you just got here. I know all about the grind. Come on lil’ brotha, let Abbie and me hook you up. What you tryin’ to do?”
“Anything will work really, but my passion is music, making beats and all that. I wanna blow up and maybe make music for artists like Diamond or something,” Eric explained.
“Aim for the skies lil’ brotha but stay grounded. Hopefully, you’ll get to do that, but Diamond is going to have to recover first,” Roy pointed out only to frown when they looked at him in confusion. “What? You kids ain’t heard? The stress finally got to that girl and she’s taking a break from the limelight. No telling when or if she’s going to start singing again, it was on the news.”
“For real? That blows,” Eric said as he shook his head. Roy nodded in agreement but before the man could continue, he heard a bell ring from the front of the store.
“Abbie, you can help the lil’ brotha out, right? I’m gonna see what the customers need.”
“Gotcha, don’t worry, I’ll make sure he picks out the right stuff,” Abbie reassured him before she and Eric began to look around the backroom. “By the way, what was that favor you apparently did for me? I need to know how much damage control I need to run before it’s too late.”
“What? Damage control? Do you have that little faith in yo’ boy?” in response, Abbie just stared at him with the blankest expression she could muster as they both recalled times where his favors ended poorly. “Uh…anyway, just hand me your phone, I didn’t do anything drastic, trust me.”
“Those words have never ended with a result that would lead me to ever trust you again…but I do anyway…for some reason,” Abbie muttered as she tossed him her phone.
“Alright, just go to the app store, download this app…” Eric muttered as he went through her phone as a frown appeared on Abbie’s face.
“That better be free.”
“It is, don’t worry girl, I got you. It’s totally free…for the first few weeks,” Eric muttered the last part so quietly that Abbie almost didn’t hear him. Narrowing her eyes, Abbie watched as he began to sweat under her scrutiny. “…now just log in…”
“Wait, log in to what?” Abbie asked as he tossed her back her phone.
“Your ticket to happiness,” Eric said with a grin and Abbie felt the blood drain from her face as she looked at the screen.
A dating app.
He made her an account for a goddamn dating app.
“You can’t be serious,” Abbie finally said. As Abbie looked through the profile, her expression slowly shifted into one of horror. “What is this?”
“It’s the newest dating app on the market, it uses revolutionary algorithms to make your first date your last,” Eric answered proudly as Abbie looked at him, her horrified expression never changing. “You helped me so I figured I’d help you! You’re the one who told me you haven’t dated anyone in two years so I’d figured this could be your first step getting back into the dating scene,” Eric answered as Abbie looked back at her phone as if it were the first time that she had ever seen it. He even managed to make a profile pic of her by editing himself out of a selfie they had taken the previous night. “I even went out of my way to put in your interests and make a quick bio about you,” Eric said and as Abbie looked at the profile closer, she couldn’t help but shake her head at how accurate it was. In fact, not only was it accurate but he had made it in a way that if she hadn’t known better, she’d have sworn that she actually made it.
“You know me so well,” the words were not a compliment.
“Yeah, I know,” but he took them as one anyway. “All you have to do is wait for someone to take an interest in you, the app will automatically check if you’re at least a ninety-percent match and alert you. If you like what you see out of them, swipe your screen right and bam there you go. Welcome to how dating works nowadays.”
“You know, there was once a time you could just-you know-go out and meet someone right?” Abbie asked him, her sarcasm heavy.
“Yeah, but that’s too slow for people now, this gets straight to the point. I even went out of my way to filter your preferences,” Eric revealed proudly as if Abbie should have been grateful for his actions. “Give it a day or two, the ladies will be lining up.”
“Newsflash, do you know how many of these accounts could be fake?” Abbie questioned skeptically. “All these apps have had that same issue for decades now. I have no interest in being catfished.”
“Abbie, please, if anyone can weed out a fake account it’s you,” Eric stated and Abbie cursed as they both knew he was right. “Look, just humor me for a day or two alright? What happened to you and Alice was tragic, but it’s been two years and that monster who took her from you is locked up,” Eric said firmly. “I ain’t got no kind of place to say this, but you know Alice would want you to stop wasting away, right?” Eric asked an Abbie found herself speechless at his argument, knowing it to be true. “Two days, that’s all I’m asking, just make the attempt you know? Do that and I’ll never bring it up again. You don’t even have to search for anyone, let them come to you. You’re a catch, girl, I’m sure there is someone that can see that.”
“We’re supposed to be finding you the right gear, right?” Abbie responded as she desperately tried to change the subject. Though by the look on his face she might as well had gone on and agreed to his stupid deal. “Wipe that look off of your face!” Abbie snapped only this just caused Eric’s grin to widen even further. Two days, she could humor him for two days and put this behind her.
* * *
Santa Monica, Abigail’s Apartment
“Home sweet home,” Abbie said to no one as she stepped back into her apartment that evening. They had spent hours getting the appropriate equipment for Eric before they started the tedious task of moving it all into his new apartment, which looked leagues better than hers. Abbie was happy for Eric if anyone needed a break it was him. Abbie moved to her kitchen to raid her fridge, desperately needing a drink after the long day. When she closed it a picture of herself and Eric celebrating with drinks in their hands appeared on the door. It was taken the previous night and had the caption: “Happy twenty-second!” which made her smile a bit. Eric annoyed her at times but she’d be damned if she didn’t love that idiot. Abbie’s smile faded soon as the digital slideshow continued and the picture was repla
ced with one of her and Alice. In the picture, Abbie and the former love of her life smiled at the camera. A heart filter surrounded their faces. Abbie could vividly remember the day they took that picture, how the sun reflected off Alice’s golden hair as she pestered Abbie relentlessly to take the picture. Abbie closed her eyes tightly when she was overcome with a sense of loss. For a moment, she let herself go back to that day, soaking in everything she could remember from Alice’s radiant smile to her crystal blue eyes. Most of all Abbie remembered the grin she herself wore, she hadn’t smiled like that since losing Alice. Perhaps Eric was right, as much as Abbie hated to admit it. Abbie missed Alice sorely but perhaps it was time to move on. No amount of grieving would bring her back at the end of the day, and Alice would want Abbie to get out of this rut she trapped herself in. It was at that moment Abbie’s phone vibrated.
“Don’t tell me he forgot something,” Abbie muttered as she checked her phone and saw that it wasn’t a text but rather an alert from that damned app Eric had given her. Apparently, someone named Katarina Umbra had shown an interest in her. Despite herself, Abbie couldn’t help but check out her profile. From Katarina’s pictures, Abbie could tell she was an adventurous person, there were images from all over the country. Katarina had brown hair and bright green eyes, but one thing that Abbie noted fairly quickly was that she looked young. Not that Abbie was old, but Katarina just had an air of youth that seemed to radiate from her. Checking her bio, Abbie’s suspicions were proven right as she saw that Katarina was eighteen. The age gap put Abbie off a bit but before she could reject the younger woman Abbie spotted that picture of her and Alice. Abbie was younger than Alice when they dated, around four years too if she remembered correctly. Later, Abbie wouldn’t know what persuaded her to swipe right only that she had felt particularly reckless in that moment. “Well Abigail, let’s see what you’ve gotten yourself into this time.”
* * *
Santa Monica, Al’s Diner, One week later
Abbie hummed to herself as she finished washing the dishes. Abbie’s boss, Al, looked at her as if she had grown a second head and she couldn’t blame him. Abbie was not the happiest worker by far, but Al-bless his soul-had yet to fire her. Still, she couldn’t help it, the day had seemed a lot less gray than it used to be. During the past week since she made that reckless decision, Katarina, or Kat as she preferred to be called, and she had started messaging each other daily. At first, Abbie swore the app had made a mistake. Kat was a very “outdoors” person, an adventure lover that was a borderline adrenaline junkie if you asked Abbie. Abbie, on the other hand, was a total shut-in. Yet, in one conversation they stumbled across a common ground with a mutual love for cars. Though Kat’s love was geared more toward the engines and such, Abbie’s was more toward the software in recent vehicles. Despite that, Katarina’s passion was endearing, to say the least. Often, they’d lose track of time in their conversations only noticing really when one of them had to get to work. Abbie didn’t know what she did but apparently it involved a lot of traveling, in fact, Abbie was pretty sure Katarina lived at the airport by this point. Somehow, they managed to set aside a time for an actual date which was today as soon as Abbie clocked out.