by Wylder Stone
“No. I’m fine,” she finally said. “I just hit the ground a little hard, but I’m fine.”
“What were you doing? Why were you out here?” James asked. “What were you thinking, Genevieve?”
“I was trying to finish it, stop the terror so we can go on with our lives.” Her voice cracked with regret. “I was giving Watson what he wanted.” She perked up at the mention of Watsons’ name. “It’s Benson. I saw him. Watson is Benson. It’s Benson, and he has my sis…”
A strained look crossed James’s face, distracting her before she could finish her thought. Had he been injured worse than she thought?
“James, what is it?” She searched his face and looked him over. “James?”
He pulled his hand away from his shoulder and revealed blood. A lot of blood.
“Oh, my God,” she cried. “You were hit. He shot you.”
“It’s just a graze,” he said, placing his hand in hers so she could help him to his feet. “Barely a scar.”
Looking him over, she discovered a second wound on the same side as the shoulder. “You were hurt. This is all my fault. Two hits. You took two of my bullets.”
“It’s not your fault. I chose to jump in front of the bullets.” He grinned.
“It was… I looked for them. I brought them here. And now this.” Tears flooded her face, her voice nearly inaudible as the guilt consumed her.
Genevieve wrapped James’s good arm around her neck so she could help support him as they walked the handful of blocks back to the Elite Building.
“What was I thinking?” she said when the hand that wrapped his waist felt the dampness of his blood, and her touch made him wince. “Oh my God, what was I thinking?”
“Good question. Were you even armed?” he seethed through the pain. “What would you have done? How would you have defended yourself? You don’t know what they are capable of or what their plan was.”
She dipped her head. She hadn’t thought of any of that. She was combat trained and could handle herself, but against a gun? The heaviness of the situation was settling in, and she felt like an ass. She was an ass. “I kicked your ass?”
“I also didn’t fight back, and you have no idea what kind of trap you were walking into.”
James’s phone rang. Genevieve grabbed it from his cargo pocket, cringing when she saw the cracked screen.
“Owen?” she answered. “Yeah, we’re almost back. He’s been shot, and there’s a lot of blood.”
“They’re barely-there hits,” James said into the phone.
“Okay. The conference room. Got it.” She slid the phone back into his pocket
They walked in silence for a moment, James in pain and Genevieve reeling in guilt.
“How? How did you find me?” she asked, helping him climb the two steps to the lobby doors of the Elite Building.
“Nobody gets in or out without me knowing. I have an alarm and watched you leave on camera.”
“And came running.” She smiled.
“I told you I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Ever.”
“How did you know I was in trouble then?”
“Vivi, you know better than to leave for a damn Coke without taking one of us with you. You sneaking out sent out red flags all over the place.”
She nodded. He didn’t miss a beat. “So you and the cavalry came running.”
They stepped onto the waiting elevator when he leaned against the wall and said, “We always do.”
She dropped her head, trying to hide her emotion from him. The guilt and shame she felt were overwhelming. She’d put these men in the line of fire because she just couldn’t sit still or at least share her plan with them.
“We always will, Vivi,” he said, leaning his forehead to hers. “I always will. Jesus, you scared me.”
A sob escaped her at his words. From the fear in his voice, she knew she hurt him. “I’m so sorry. I just thought… I just want all of this to go away. We are finally in a good place, all of us, and we were trapped by this…this…bullshit.”
James laughed out loud in a booming voice at her use of profanity. It was completely out of character but reflected her frustration.
“We’ll get through this, we will…” He kissed her softly, “We were so close today. So close. How did you get them here?”
“You mean you haven’t figured it out yet with your magic fingers?” She waggled her eyebrows at the innuendo.
“No…too busy chasing a troublemaking blonde. So?”
She grinned sheepishly and tilted her head. “Email.”
“Email? But I’m watching…”
When she bit her lip, he stopped and let her fill in the blanks. “Are you watching hackjam90?”
He grinned. “I am now.”
His words hung between them, the double meaning not lost on her.
22
The week passed in a blur, and it was the night of the dance. The week had been quiet, no more emails and no luck tracing those that had come in. They were at a loss. Again. Even the city had been left alone.
The Forces got off a few shots in the confrontation with Benson and Tasha. They wondered if they had hit him and he was recovering or perhaps worse…dead. Until they had confirmation, one way or another, they were to remain on alert at all costs. They fell for his death once. They wouldn’t twice.
James and Genevieve had met the rest of the brothers in the conference room when they had returned to the Elite Building. He was right. Though he bled out a lot, the wounds were grazes that didn’t even need stitches. With the extensive military background and receiving a few bullets themselves over the years, the brothers could clean James up, and he was healing just fine.
The father-daughter dance was a no-brainer for James. He wasn’t canceling it for anything, not even a potential cyberstalker out for blood. They were prepared – or as prepared as they could be with maximum security and muscle everywhere. Benson would be a fool to walk in that building or come anywhere near it.
Ruby had danced with James more than once, but she had moved on to the social side of the event. The dance was a fundraiser for the robotics team so they could go to the state championship, something James could really get behind and made a mental note to make a donation to the effort.
The robotics team was responsible for running the event – food table, emptying trash cans, staying on top of the music and lighting, even decorations. There were more attendees, however, than there were kids from robotics, so their coach, who also happened to be the football coach, enlisted the help of the football team.
That meant both boys from Ruby’s party were at the dance – both still clearly smitten with her. Every time the football kid tried to dance or even talk to Ruby, Jackson would stand in his line of sight and cross his arms. The kid didn’t have a backbone at all, and he’d take off.
Robotics kid, on the other hand, interrupted James’s dance with Ruby with a smile, confidence, and manners.
“Hey, Mr. Force! Mind if I cut in?” he’d asked, holding a single carnation for Ruby.
James stopped and looked back and forth between the boy and Ruby, who was smiling fondly. “What’s your name, kid?”
“Oh, my name is Baron. Baron Smart, sir.” Baron put his hand out to formally introduce himself though they’d already been briefly introduced at the party. “We aren’t supposed to dance. We’re supposed to work, but I promised Ru a dance, and Coach allowed just one.”
“Smart?” James said with a pleased look.
“Yes, sir.” Baron nodded.
James stepped aside and put a hand out, offering Baron his place. “Enjoy the dance, you two.”
“Did you know that kid’s a Smart?” James asked Jackson.
“Smart. Third generation. Family owns a couple of the out-of-commission piers and all the restaurants and retail on them. Also third generation,” Jackson rattled off.
“Those Smarts? Really?” James nodded, impressed with the kid’s background and that he came from a
local family known for their work in the community and philanthropy.
Jackson nodded and continued. “Dad and mom both run the family business now. Decent family. One second-generation black sheep in the family, but he’s in Florida somewhere. Petty stuff, mostly a boozer. Baron Smart is a straight-A student, attends the youth summer camp at MIT, belongs to a long list of clubs – all of which make him a geek. He’s basically the twelve-year-old version of you.”
“Wow, you ran a background on the kid.” James laughed.
Jackson side-eyed his brother. “Want to know their net worth?”
“No. I’m good. I think I liked him when I found out he made that robot rolling around emptying the trash.”
“He passed. He’s good enough.” Jackson shrugged. “For now.”
“Well, she’s twelve, so I’m not worried about more than right now.”
Jackson looked at his brother with a raised eyebrow. “Really? Because this is about the age you met Hannah, and look how that turned out.”
James gawked at Jackson, the reality in his words striking, then at his daughter who was enjoying her dance, a fully stretched arm’s length away from the boy making her head fall back in laughter.
When the song was over, Baron returned to his post at the punch bowl where Genevieve had been manning his station.
“You seem okay with the whole dancing with boys thing,” Genevieve said, meeting James in the middle of the dance floor.
“I like the kid. He’s smart, has manners.” James pulled her into him and began to sway to the music.
She chuckled. “He’s just like you.”
James smiled with a sideways glance. “That might be it too.”
“She’s having a great time. Everyone is. I’m glad you were able to make this happen for her.”
“Me too.” Trying to avoid the emotions threatening to overcome him, he was quick to change the subject. “Did you notice that robot? Baron made it.”
“So I’ve heard.” She giggled as James spun her around.
“The TR-something or other. Calls it Thomas. He has a patent pending on it and another one in the works that’s supposed to be a total upgrade, dude. Told him I’m happy to help him with it – back him with funding.”
“Whoa. What happens if Ruby isn’t into him anymore? Are you going to break up too?”
“Funny,” he said.
“Hey, Ru headed to the bathroom, just letting you know,” Derek interrupted. “She didn’t want to interrupt you two. Pretty sure she’s figured out this thing between you. She had one of those dreamy looks girls get.”
“Dreamy looks?” Genevieve questioned, pulling away from James. “I’ll go check on her. Buddy system to the bathroom and all.”
James returned to the nearby table he and his brothers had occupied most of the night. They looked like hired muscle. Oddly, nobody gave them a second look, so they must have blended in.
“Everything’s going good,” Jackson said. “One more hour and this thing’s a wrap.”
“Cade and Connor are headed out back after they finish rounds inside. They’ll stand post there until everyone leaves. Troy and I have the front. You get Vivi and Ru in your car, and Jackson has your tail,” Derek rattled off.
“Jesus. A motorcade and everything.” The laugh James choked on was forced. He was trying to make light of a heavy situation.
“We do what we gotta do, man,” Derek said. “It’s important to Ru, so it’s important to us.”
“I’ve seen you shoot men without hesitation. It’s weird to hear you talk like that,” Troy teased while keeping a straight face. “I don’t even know what to think of that. It’s so confusing.”
“Fuck off, Troy,” Derek shot back.
“That’s more like it.” Troy laughed, patting his brother’s shoulder. “I was worried about you for a minute.”
“Hey, Mr. Force?” Baron interrupted with trepidation in his voice.
James responded with, “What’s up, Baron? If you’re looking for Ruby, she’s—”
“Something might be wrong,” the kid interrupted. “Ruby. She’s in the bathroom.”
“Right. Genevieve is with her,” James responded, his concern growing.
“No. I mean, yes. She went in there, but neither of them came out,” Baron rambled, tapping at his smartwatch.
“I’ll go check it out.” Troy took off through the gym doors toward the locker room bathrooms that were allocated for the dance attendees.
“I saw them go in there… Well, I saw them with Thomas, my robot,” he said. “I went to check for myself because I saw a man follow them in. Nobody came out.”
“A man?” Anxiety coursed through James. How the hell was this happening? “What did he look like?”
“It was hard to tell on the screen. I’m still trying to improve video output. He was old, dark hair, but definitely not as big as any of you,” Baron recited as if reading from a list.
“Old?” James questioned.
“Yeah, maybe about your age. That’s just a guess,” Baron answered, the old reference earning him a few grunts.
“Did you notice anything else?” Jackson interjected. “Anything at all? Think hard, kid.”
“I didn’t. I sorta got scared when nobody came out. A dude in the girl’s bathroom would make the girls freak out and run, right?”
“They aren’t in there,” Troy said, bursting back into the gym. “Cade and Connor are searching the rest of the grounds, but so far nothing.”
“I have a video!” Baron said, tapping at his watch again. “Thomas was…videoing. I’m not a weirdo, promise. And he stayed outside the bathroom the whole time. Swear. I had him follow her because Evan is a jerk, and he likes her too.”
“I understand. You were protecting her from Evan, the ass?” James said with a pleased grin, using the colorful reference he was sure Baron wanted to. “He’s the football kid? From the party?”
“Yeah. Ruby doesn’t like him, though, but he doesn’t listen, so I…watched.”
“You did good, kid,” Jackson said. “We look after people we care about. It’s the right thing to do.”
The robot rolled up, and Baron pulled off the tablet attached to the front. With a couple of taps to the screen, he was able to bring up the saved feed from the robot’s surveillance video. There it was. The man who walked straight from the boys’ locker room into the girls’, right beside it…after Genevieve had already gone in.
“Son of a bitch. Black hoodie,” James said sharply. “What’s with the damn hoodie? It’s like his calling card or something. Can you get in closer so we can see his face?”
“It will take me a minute, but I think so. Never tried it, though,” the kid replied.
“Why can’t you pull it up?” Troy asked of James.
“No video feed in or at the entrance of the locker room. Security everywhere but there, for obvious reasons.”
“Here we go. He’s a little pixelated. I need to work on that. But that’s the guy. He was in the locker room when I went in. I thought he was a dad.” Disappointment sounded in the boy’s voice.
“It’s okay, Smart. You still did the right thing. We’ll figure out the rest,” James said.
“It’s that asshole, Benson,” Jackson said. “How the hell did he get in here?”
“No clue. I would have had an alert if one of the cameras picked him up. It even alerts me if it can’t read a face clearly.”
“Whoa. Facial recognition technology? You guys…you guys are like…agents. Secret agents, aren’t you?” Baron’s eyes were big, and his voice full of awe.
“Sort of, but not really. You should keep that to yourself,” James replied. “I want you to forward me that video. In the meantime, we need to figure out how he got in and how he got them out.”
“Boiler room,” Baron said with enthusiasm. “He avoided the cameras through the boiler room. Kids were breaking in on the weekends and messing up the school. That’s why we have all the cameras now. Kids quit breaki
ng in because they couldn’t get past the locker room without getting caught. No fun in that.”
“Boiler room?” Jackson questioned, looking around at the fairly new facilities.
“I think it’s a boiler room. That’s what we all call it. Has a long tunnel to the maintenance shed behind the track,” Baron offered.
“Show us,” James said.
Happy to oblige, Baron showed them to the rusted old access door that was at the back of the locker room. It led down a series of stairs to what appeared to be an old boiler room, as the kids had called it. It was dark, old, and covered in cobwebs. There was garbage everywhere from the kids gathering and braving late-night hangouts in the seemingly haunted space.
Baron had walked them down to the room, but the tour had stopped there. He directed them to the door that opened to the tunnel and then went back upstairs with Troy and Derek so they could grab the vehicles and meet the rest of them at the maintenance shed on the other side of the school’s property.
The kid asked to help them find Ruby, to which he was turned down. He then offered to stay put – a point man – and let the Force’s know if he saw any sign of Ruby, Genevieve, or the man in the video. They were gone, and the odds of them coming back to the school were slim to none, but the kid was worried, wanted to help, and it made him feel useful.
“You have my number, right?” James asked Baron.
The boy straightened and nodded with confidence. “I also synced my location into your smartwatch and vice versa. If I see or hear anything, I’ll call or send…a signal! Be safe, Mr. Force.”
“You’re a good man, Baron.” Jackson patted the kid’s back. “Don’t be a hero. Just call if anything comes up.”
“You got it, and I will only call if it’s a real lead. Just find her,” the kid said, fitting right into the Force bunch.
Troy and Derek escorted Baron back upstairs while the rest of the men pushed on, looking for signs or at least clues that Vivi and Ruby had been through there. It was the only real possibility. The rest of the grounds were secured, and they would have seen that asshole coming long before he got his hands on anyone.
“That kid has Elite Force potential,” Jackson said.