“Yeah, I know that now. But back then? I couldn’t figure out if I should be pissed at you, or worried. What could’ve happened that would prevent you from contacting me? Then I felt guilty because I didn’t try and stop you from doing that last hack. It was crazy of either of us to try to screw with the government, no matter how exciting it was. I thought maybe that was the reason you were ignoring me. I knew you cared about me.”
Her voice began to waver towards the end of her statement, and she paused to suck in a quick breath. Glitch noticed the moisture pooling in her eyes as she tried to look away from him. Grasping her chin gently, her turned her face back to his.
“Araceli. Don’t,” his words were halted as she put up a hand to stop him.
“No. Let me finish. I felt robbed, Zero. All that time we spent talking and doing hacks together meant so much to me, but I didn’t realize it until you were gone. I hated that I never got a chance to tell you how I felt. Hated the thought that you might be out there somewhere hating me for what happened. So I had to find you.”
By now tears were spilling down her cheeks. Glitch was simultaneously confused, in awe, and falling for the enigma that was Araceli. Not only was she smart and feisty, but she was also soft and tender. Her pull on him was too strong for him to resist anymore. Using his thumb, he swiped her tears away. He gazed into her eyes intently, drunk on the emotion and sincerity he saw in their depths.
Her warmth seeped into his skin as she nuzzled her cheek into his palm. Just that one action, the small show of her affection twisted him up inside until he couldn’t think straight.
“Zero,” she sighed as he gently caressed her skin.
“Liam,” he whispered as he placed his lips to hers. She ceased to move, and he ceased to breathe. With a tentative thrust, his tongue worked to deepen the contact and he tasted the sweetness of alcohol and sugar on her lips and the salt of her tears. Araceli whimpered and opened to his quiet passion, darting her tongue out to meet his. Glitch slid his hand towards the back of her head, gripping her hair tightly as he pulled her closer until her body was pressed up against his. Their kiss grew heated, two people starved for each other, now hungrily seeking to ease the hurt of being apart for so long.
Glitch grabbed her drink, never taking his lips off of her as he placed their glasses on the nearby dining table. Then he wrapped both arms around the curves of her waist, sliding his arms down until he was able to cup the softness of her asscheeks in each hand. Araceli threw her arms around his neck and purred like a cat as she molded her softness to his lean muscular frame. The heat between them was building, the reality of their current situation fading away. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this euphoric before.
A loud bang startled them both, causing them to break away from each other.
Scratch stood just inside the entrance of the front door, hand poised to bang again.
“I’m sorry. Am I interrupting something?”
Chapter 7
“Scratch, I should rip your damn head off,” Glitch growled. “It’s Saturday, shouldn’t you be doing something or someone, somewhere?”
“We’ve got business to handle,” Scratch tossed back with a laugh.
“No, I think ripping your head off is in order,” Araceli said.
“She’s got bite, under different circumstances I’d like her,” Scratch said, but his smile slowly disappeared. “No past, no present, only the job, Glitch. You had last night to do this. It’s time to get back to what’s going on. I need to hear about Eagle, and you’ve got a meeting to get to.”
“We need to make adjustments to the plan, Scratch.”
“Not now,” Scratch said, cutting a glance Araceli’s way.
“She brought the info in, she’s not going to skate now,” Glitch argued.
“Are you sure about that?” Glitch didn’t answer immediately. He understood where Scratch was coming from. The three of them had gone through hell and high water with each other and it would be difficult for them to accept Araceli. Hell, it might be his dick and confused emotions talking for him most of the time. But she did have information, she could lend a hand, and something about her he was drawn to. Maybe he should leave his assessment until later when his head cooled. He simply shrugged in response.
“Well, I’m not,” Scratch returned out loud. “Sorry, sweet lips, but you haven’t paid your dues with me. You’re alive because Glitch vouched for you and your information was solid. As far as the rest, we take it a step at a time.”
‘We need to hit him where it hurts. He’s betraying us, Scratch. That much is clear,” Glitch said before Scratch could continue.
“And I could help. If nothing else we could take every last dime he’s sitting on just for giggles. Either way, he needs to learn a lesson,” Araceli added. Scratch stared hard at her.
“You can do that? And be careful how you answer. I don’t do second chances.”
“I can, and with Liam, I could make it seamless,” Araceli stated. Scratch’s eyebrows disappeared into his hairline at her use of Glitch’s name, but he didn’t say anything about it.
“You do that and we’re golden, but not before then. The rest we talk about in the car, Glitch, you know Eagle doesn’t like to be kept waiting.” Glitch didn’t say anything more. He grabbed his black blazer and tossed it on. He glanced back at Araceli.
“I’ll be fine. I need to remote access into my gear anyway and get it ready to move. We are going to need it.”
Scratch didn’t make it with him to the car before speaking.
“You looked hot and heavy back there. Never seen you like that.”
“She wasn’t around,” Glitch returned.
“Be careful, Glitch. We’ve been down some pretty fucked up roads together. I wouldn’t want to do a number on a pretty girl for hurting you, but I will.”
“That’s the sweetest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Glitch joked.
“And I’m dead serious. Jack will even help me hide the body.”
“Where is he anyway?”
“Keeping eye on your girl. Humor him. He needs to make sure we’re safe. We’re family,” Scratch said while nodding towards the parked car where Jack sat watching the exit of their building. Of course, there was more than one way out, but the other door required one of their thumbprints.
Glitch didn’t argue as Scratch drove him to the meeting with Eagle at Hawk Global and talked with Jack about his thoughts on Eagle’s betrayal. Scratch didn’t have to explain what family meant to Jack. He was fanatical and yet cold about the subject. Glitch couldn’t blame him. Not too many people came home on break from college and find their whole family tortured and murdered. Victor Kyang disappeared that day, and in his place was created a cold, raging killer who would stop at nothing to get revenge on those that took his family away. Glitch didn’t know everything that happened in those years before Jack ended up in the pen, but he knew that Jack was messed up. Seriously messed up. And if he felt like Glitch and Scratch were his family, then he’d move heaven and earth to keep them safe.
“We need to do something, Scratch.”
“Agreed. Eagle is waiting. I expected him to call me in for this meeting. It’s the only reason I thought to drive you here in the first place. Apparently that’s not the case.”
“A lot of what’s going on around us doesn’t make shit sense, Scratch, and that’s the problem. It’s logical for you to be in this meeting, and yet it’s illogical that we are having this meeting in the first place when he hasn’t received notes from me on this mission in the first place.”
“Then I’ll stay around and keep a look out. Better safe than sorry. Got your watch?”
“Affirmative,” Glitch answered, lifting his arm.
“Get inside. We’ll talk about this later.”
Glitch got out the car in the lower rear garage they all used when meeting at Hawk Global. Sort of felt like a scary movie scene back there with the dark shadows and flickering lights. Glitch ignored it, though. He
hasn’t been afraid in a long time. He may not be the stone cold killer Jack was, or the berserker Scratch could be if someone pushed him too far, but he could hold his own. He had to, working with them. Even Scratch thought twice when Glitch was holding a gun in his hand. The same gun he’d had to leave behind because Eagle didn’t like them coming to meetings armed. Well, unless you were Jack, because no one told that man to leave his weapons at home.
Glitch found his way to the basement elevator and got on. Scratch took up position at the elevator door to wait until Glitch came back down. The panic button on the inside of Glitch’s watch would alert Scratch if he needed back up. It pulsed out a short airwave, much like broadcasting on the air, and was untraceable. The flaring sound on Scratches receiver would let him know to come up. It was low-tech and old-school, but it worked for them in hairy situations.
And damned if this wasn’t one.
Hawk Global, for all its nefarious dealings, had the face of a cutting edge firm of technology, helping to propel the world of science into a new frontier. As such, they carried contracts with various government entities, school endowments, and under the table deals. It was a place of steel and glass, yet so damn murky it made Glitch sick to his stomach just to be inside it. The elevator, surrounded in double-paned one-way and soundproof glass seamlessly ate the floors of the over fifty-floor building. At floor forty-nine the elevator stopped and Glitch got off. The empty reception area covered in all white, from the desk, furnishings, and walls, greeted him.
I’m the darkness, Glitch thought of his black attire. The stain of a criminal on an otherwise pristine world. Bullshit. If working for Hawk hadn’t taught him anything else, the world was a disgusting, dark, and dangerous place, and Glitch loved every minute of it. He’d probably be bored out of his mind if it were any other way. But he was not in the mood to be played with. He needed to find out just how far this shit was going with Eagle. And if it was as bad as Araceli mentioned, and he had a hunch about, then they needed to make an escape plan. And quick.
On the other side of the reception desk, behind the large Monet, there was another door, to another elevator. This one would take him to floor fifty, to the office of Eagle. The real one. Not the one on forty-nine where he met business executives and played golf with a glass. No, to the one where Jack could play dirty with a mission, if Eagle wanted to see it. Where people could come in whole and leave out in pieces. And where Glitch, Scratch, and Jack kept coming back to get their hands dirtier. A slim key inserted, and turned, and he was on his way.
The doors slid open without a sound and Eagle was standing there, in front of the large one-way window looking out at the city. Tall with salt-n-pepper hair, classic features, and dark eyes, Eagle was a man of importance, with a confident carriage. And why not? He had nothing to fear. With just a snap of his fingers, he could make whole governments topple. If Glitch didn’t think he could outsmart the man he may have been afraid. For now, he was just irritated and wanted this meeting over. Eagle took his time turning around with a glass of some sort of amber liquid sloshing around round ice. He sipped it slowly, watching Glitch through his silver-rimmed glasses.
“You have forty-eight hours, Glitch, to finish what you started with Amsterix. You haven’t failed me before. I trust this won’t become a habit?”
“And who said I failed?” Glitch asked, taking a nonchalant stance in the face of his enemy. Screw him if he thought he was going to make Glitch sweat.
“Come now. Let’s not play games with one another. I asked for their company to lose more than a billion dollars over a week’s time, and I’ve seen nothing but those funds fluctuate.”
“And how, pray tell, would you know that without me sending you a report?” Glitch asked. Eagle always got a report after a job. Until then, he knew nothing about how it went, or so he said.
“Do you think I have to answer you?”
“No. But, how about I tell you what I think? My equipment is key-logged or tracked by screening software. From there, you found a hacker, or IT specialist with minimal skill, apparently, to try to watch my program, formula, and data outputs to monitor my progress. What you didn’t explain to the asinine busybody is that an effective program, designed to move money, will do one or two things: move it in small increments that are barely traceable, or, two, do a gamble roll where the funds fluctuate through different amounts, to mimic stocks; for example, to make the losses and gains appear as though a very poor decision was made on behalf of the accounting department. I did option three: both,” Glitch said, making a plausible reason for the program that Araceli had run to take back some of the gains he’d taken daily.
“I thought you said there were only one or two ways, Glitch,” Eagle asked with a cold smile.
“And I thought you realized that I’m smart enough to do what I want. That’s why I’m here, right? As of now, if I send you the files, six million will be available, washed, and moved within your twenty-four hour deadline. I didn’t fail. I don’t fail.”
Glitch did the numbers quickly in his head. He wasn’t lying, exactly. By stopping Araceli from running her program, he had been able to move the amount of money that he had been expected to. Enough to put a large dent in Amsterix’s standings. He just would have to make some adjustments to the “nest egg for convicts” fund he’d also been supplying. Either way, Eagle’s non-argument over what he said about the equipment told him that he was right. Eagle was watching them through the programs, as best he could. And they were probably being set up for a fall. The problem was figuring out when, where, and how. There were a million possibilities and thousands of jobs, some small, some huge, that could put them away for life, if not find them on tables for lethal injection.
“Then there should be no reason that I can’t have what I want on time. I have some other jobs I’m going to need you all in on.”
“Will do,” Glitch answered, gritting his teeth as Eagle turned around, dismissing him without a word.
Rarely were they put on jobs together, but when they were, it was usually nasty. The sort where Jack made a mess, Scratch took what he could from that mess and made it look clean, and Glitch made it appear as if none of it ever happened. The type of jobs that made Glitch realize he didn’t mind the smell of blood anymore, and screams all started sounding the same when someone was in pain. Jobs that made Jack go into a dark place for days after it was done and them all wondering if any of this shit was worth it.
Yeah, that’s what Eagle was talking about. And those jobs carried death sentences with them if they ever got caught. And one of them was probably the exact job that he would betray them on. Glitch didn’t rush down to the garage. He went down in the same easy pace he’d come up. But when the doors slid open in the garage and Scratch saw his face, he knew, by Scratch’s harsh curse, that he was wearing his mask.
“That bad?” Scratch asked as they got in the car. Glitch stayed mute until Scratch opened his scrambler and started the car for the extra noise. As they pulled out the garage Glitch cleared his throat.
“We have further proof that he intends to set me up. Come on, Amsterix is a subsidiary of Hawk, and he never mentioned it once.”
“He has us stealing money from himself, no loss for him, and dangerous for you,” Scratch said with a curse.
“That’s not it. I don’t know how, or when, but he’s going to fuck us forty going north, and he’s going to use me to do it.”
“Come again?”
“My equipment has his stamp, Scratch. The only gear that’s safe is my personal stuff I’ve accumulated and he knows nothing about. But I can’t use that on jobs with him, he’ll flag it and see our other stuff. So, I’m going to be the Trojan horse.”
“No fucking way, Glitch.”
“Yes, Scratch. And if we don’t find a way to get out of this shit, I don’t think I can stop it. He’ll have everything he needs to rip us a new one. I’m your leak.”
Chapter 8
They drove back to Glitch’s place w
ithout much conversation. Scratch was in a foul mood after having heard the results from Glitch’s meeting with Eagle, and Glitch was usually grumpy after their meetings because he hated not being able to pop off at the mouth as per his normal habit. Eagle was not one for pleasantries or niceties. He gave orders and then he dismissed you. You did what he said, you spoke when he told you to speak, and you left when he said so.
In the beginning, Glitch found the whole routine rather comical. Wondering if Eagle understood that his military like leadership was a cakewalk compared to dealing with a simple prison guard. No, people who have never been incarcerated will never fully understand what it means to truly not have any control over yourself or your own time. Being ordered to do jobs that he could complete in his sleep, and getting paid a king’s ransom made it easy for Glitch to overlook the older man’s lack of finesse.
Glitch Page 5