by Wylder Stone
There was no telling what this Watson guy – or Benson, rather – was up to. Ruby had said it was just him, and he was really angry, yelling at Genevieve. He sounded desperate. Their tactics to tick him off and bring him out of hiding had worked, but now he was pissed off and had Genevieve. That left an uneasy feeling that James wasn’t willing to face, not until he had her back, and this was all over.
Jackson stopped, putting up a fist to signal them to do the same. He gestured for two to go right and two to go left and flank the target because there it was. The cabin.
24
James watched as Aaron and Owen went one way, Troy and Derek the other, and he stayed with Jackson who’d always had his back more than anyone else had.
A loud crash came from the cabin, followed by a guttural scream – a man’s scream. James’s stomach sank. Was she in there? Was she the reason he was screaming? Had she not cooperated and now he didn’t have a way out or a way to get what he thought she could get her hands on? Push it down, James told himself. Don’t go there.
With their weapons drawn, Jackson and James moved in, aiming for the front entrance. The curtains were drawn, and only shadows could be seen moving about. Perhaps those were the same person, but it was hard to tell. The light from inside flushed through a gap around the door. It was open.
When Jackson took the first wooden step to the door, it creaked beneath his foot. He paused, standing statue-still, waiting to see if whoever was inside had been alerted to their presence. The movement within matched that of Jackson’s – stone quiet. Jackson looked over his engaged weapon and nodded at James. He knew where this was going.
When the movement inside merged to a full-speed bolt out the back door, Jackson and James engaged in a chase. Through the cabin, then the back door, he was only a handful of yards ahead of them when Troy stepped out of the shadows and clotheslined the guy, knocking him to the ground with a mighty force. So mighty, the guy couldn’t breathe.
“Get up, asshole,” Troy said, weapon aimed on him.
The man gasped for air and didn’t move, so the brothers each grabbed an arm and dragged his ass inside the cabin, where Troy kicked a sideways chair to upright and tossed him in it. Benson. Beat to hell, Benson.
“Where is she?” James asked.
“I-I don’t know,” he said, still gasping. “It’s not what you think.”
“Oh, it’s exactly what we think. Kidnapping – it’s on camera and eyewitness testimony. Care to rephrase your piss-poor answer?”
Benson put his hands up in surrender, his eyes widening in panic as the barrel of James’s gun fell inches from his face. “Please. Listen. I was there, okay? I took Genevieve and the girl, but it isn’t what you think. I can explain – swear it.”
James looked at his watch, then grabbed a nearby wooden chair, turning it so he could straddle it in front of Benson. His arms were crossed over the back, his weapon still in hand, resting sideways, aimed at Benson. “It’s getting late, and I want to tuck my little girl in tonight, but I’m not leaving without my lady. Start talking, and you better fucking impress me because I’m in a really pissed-off mood, and I get a little trigger twitchy when I’m in a mood.”
The brothers looked at each other with ornery smirks, impressed with James’s intimidating interrogation tactics. They’d never seen him this way. It was funny but also had them concerned. They nodded to each other in understanding. They needed to keep a close eye on twitchy fingers. He was losing his shit.
“Genevieve is Watson,” Benson said. “She’s always been Watson.”
James’s head tilted quickly. “What did you say?” He stood, kicking his chair away. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
When James raised his gun to Benson again, Jackson stepped in, placing a hand on his brother’s extended arm. “Let me do this, brother. Take a breather.”
James stared at Benson, his expression full of hate and menace. He’d been triggered. Somehow, this took him to an ugly place where his emotions were controlling his every action. He bit his bottom lip, nostrils flaring he was breathing so hard, and his eyes glazed over with a venomous look.
As he looked at Jackson out of the corner of his eye, the standoff broke, and he stepped back, his body slumping in defeat. Aaron placed a hand on James’s shoulder and squeezed in a silent message of support. James nodded and turned to lean against the cabin wall, watching his brothers take the lead.
He was a mess, and it was all catching up with him. Genevieve was still missing, and this asshole said she was the villain in this game? He’d lost enough in his life and had only begun to live again. This wasn’t where it all ended for them, not today. He wouldn’t believe that.
“Care to elaborate on that?” Jackson stepped in. “You better talk fast, or I’ll let ole twitchy fingers over there take the reins again.”
“You…he… He didn’t let me finish.” Benson was frazzled and clearly intimidated. “She’s always been Watson to me. Don’t you get it? It was a part of the game. We were pit against each other.”
He went on. “When everything went down all those years ago, I took off. I was always moving, never in the same place more than a handful of weeks, doing odd jobs just to keep moving.”
“Hacking…” Jackson clarified.
“When I didn’t have a choice – plane tickets, train tickets, rental cars. Then she found me – Tasha – and told me everything. The missing money, that Genevieve was Watson, everything. She needed my help because the feds were after her too. We needed to find the money, then find Genevieve because she wasn’t dead. We were supposed to turn her over so our names would be cleared.”
“So Tasha was a part of this?” James stepped forward, trying to piece it all together.
“Yes and no. She doesn’t know the first thing about computers, but she knew all the right people through Genevieve. We’ve been looking for her for the past year.”
“You and Tasha, you’re a couple?” James asked.
“It didn’t start that way, but yes. We finally found Watson, here, well, in Santa Marina, and when she knew we were here, all hell broke loose on the city. We were running from her again but never too far because we were determined to take her down.”
“But you’re Watson,” James said.
“I’m no more Watson than Genevieve is. I know that now. We were all played. While you were hunting me, I was hunting her, and Watson was getting what he wanted.”
“Genevieve,” James deadpanned. “You were after her for justice but really just delivering her to the real Watson. Watson needed her to get the money that she funneled out of his accounts all those years ago, thought she’d know how to get it.”
Benson nodded, relief washing over him. “I only figured out after we grabbed her and the kid and brought them back to your place. When I brought up the money and faking her death, she had no idea what I was talking about, and I knew she wasn’t lying. She’d been fed the same story about me as I was fed about her.”
“Son of a bitch. Why didn’t you just try to get the money back? Why Genevieve?” James asked.
“Because I can’t hack like that. I can empty an account and get into people’s shit, but I can’t break through the kind of shit she can – never could. I didn’t think there was anyone as good until we came across you,” he said to James.
“So you didn’t do all that shit around town? The bridge, the hijacked cars?” James paced, anxious to get the piece of the puzzle he was missing so he could get what he needed. Genevieve.
“No, I thought she was doing it, coming for us.”
“You shot me.” James stood arms semi-crossed, weapon relaxed across his chest. “You were aiming at her.”
“With all due respect, a dozen of you were chasing after us. I thought you were her goons, and we were done.”
“There were only seven of us,” James corrected.
Benson cocked his head with a furrowed brow. “I’d run from one of you, especially that one.” He pointed at Troy.
“You guys aren’t exactly…small and inviting.”
Each of the brothers shrugged. They’d give him that.
“Aaron Markus, US Attorney.”
“Oh, shit.” Benson tossed his head back in defeat.
“Chill out. I want Watson, not you,” Aaron went on. “You help us grab Watson right now and put all this in writing, and I can help you out of the mess you’ve gotten yourself into.”
“I’d help you even without a deal. Watson needs to go down. I can’t get back what’s been taken from me – all those years…running. But I can make sure this doesn’t happen to anyone else. I owe Genevieve that much.”
“Where?” James interrupted, looking around the sparse cabin. “There’s obviously no hacking going on around here. So where, where is she?”
“Watson knew you were coming. They’re taking off. Genevieve couldn’t get into whatever she was supposed to, so now, Watson is holding her until…” Benson hesitated. The fury in James’s voice had him recoiling.
James grabbed the guy by the throat, and through gritted teeth, he questioned, “Until what, Benson?”
Benson’s face turned crimson, and he was choking on his words, gasping between them. “Until… Until you get the money back. Watson is taking off. The money is her ransom.”
James ran his hands through his hair, trying to wrap his mind around the bomb Benson just dropped while Jackson asked, “Who did that to your face?”
Benson snorted. “Genevieve. She never used to do that. Guessing I have you to thank.”
The brothers smiled with pride and nodded. At least she’d fought.
“Taking off?” James began to pace, smacking the palm of his hand to his forehead while those words danced around in his head, nagging for his attention. “Taking off?” It was all coming back to him. Watson had been right under their noses, probably laughing the entire time they were there. “Taking off! The plane! The signal wasn’t coming from here. The hacking didn’t happen here. It happened from the fucking plane! That was Watson’s plane! Let’s go!”
25
James led the men to the grassy knoll where he and Genevieve had caught up with Big Vic. While they were talking, James tended to the dog and took in the surroundings. He recalled a private airfield in the distance and a private jet parked in front of its hangar. When he pointed it out, Big Vic said it belonged to some rich dude or something. It was a travesty to have such an eyesore blemishing what was once such magnificent beauty.
“I can’t get in. Shit.” James was frustrated. He just didn’t have the equipment he needed to get into the plane sitting only yards away, readying for takeoff. “I can grab the signal, but that’s it. Hacking a plane is a totally different ball game.”
“You need to be at the conference room,” Jackson said.
“No time for that. They’re leaving,” James said. “I can’t see what’s going on, but somebody is working in there.”
“Last attempt to grab money from the ground?” Jackson asked.
“Maybe? More likely trying to cover some tracks? Once they’re in the air, it’s all about complying with the FAA or finding a fighter jet on your wing. My guess? Filing fake flight plans, securing more than one airfield to land in, making it look like that plane is supposed to be wherever it’s going while leaving a dozen trails in its wake.”
“How do we get in if you can’t get in through that?” Aaron asked.
“Manually. The old-fashioned way. There’s a control panel on the back of the plane. Typically, it’s in the belly where the cargo is held, but that one is too small, no belly.” James was looking at the jet, then a screen, trying to pull up a schematic that would tell him where he needed to go on that plane.
“You need to be on the plane to get to it?” Derek asked.
“Yep. I need to be at the tail end. There’s a panel behind that room.” He turned the laptop to show the schematic.
“Are you just going to knock on the door or…” Jackson didn’t like the idea, not one bit.
“Nope. Climbing in.” James smiled, packing his stuff away. “I get to that panel, and I can dump the fuel, keep the landing gear down, and do all sorts of other shit.”
“Wow. That sounds really…technical,” Troy added.
“You can’t climb up there. You don’t know what you’re fucking doing,” Jackson scolded.
“It’s right up that rear wheel through the hatch. How hard can it be? If the plane starts moving, I need you to blow out the tires, keep them grounded.”
“Why can’t we just take out the tires now? Jesus, James, you’ve lost your fucking mind,” Jackson said, grabbing him by the shoulders. “We’re getting her out of there, but not like this.”
“Do you have a better plan?”
Jackson looked at the plane. “Windows, blow out the windows.”
“I may as well just knock and let ’em know I’m outside. Genevieve is on that plane, so we can’t risk hitting her. Unless you have a better view inside than I do or a hidden monster computer, I’m going in.”
Jackson stood in silence, unable to find a reason to stop James because it was the best plan they had. If they had more time, they would find another way. But there wasn’t a minute to spare. Jackson dropped his head and nodded in the direction of the plane. “We’ll cover you. Don’t do anything stupid.”
“I’m armed. What can go wrong?”
Before anyone could answer, James was gone, using the night sky to light his way as he ducked behind the trees and hid in the shadows until he made it to the plane, climbed up the landing gear, and disappeared into the undercarriage.
Aaron, Owen, and Derek moved in, each positioning themselves strategically with their own wheel target should the plane start to move. Troy watched for movement in the fuselage while offering Jackson cover. He was at the door, wiring explosives that would take the door off in a second should James get himself in a jam. One way or another, they were going to need to get in, and this was their plan B should James not have time to accomplish what he set out to do.
James quickly found what he was looking for, but the panel had been tampered with. It was blocked. A steel plate over the panel was riveted to the wall, making it completely inaccessible. He could toy with Jackson’s favorite little micro explosives, but not only would it potentially damage the panel behind it but it would also let everyone on board know he was there.
The jet’s engine started to cycle, readying for takeoff, and James was no closer to grounding the plane than he was from the grassy knoll.
“Brother, tell me that’s you fucking with the engine from some flashing buttons in the back of the plane,” Jackson said through James’s earpiece.
“I can’t play with the engines back here. That’s not how it works,” James replied.
“I know, dammit. Tell me you found what you were looking for. You’re about to take off to parts unknown.”
“I found it, just can’t get to it. If we take off, at least I’m on board. I have a gun, and…”
“You can’t fire the weapon in flight, asshole. You’ve gone rogue, so get it together and do what you need to do or…” The wheels started to turn, cutting Jackson off. “Dammit! Get off that plane.”
“I’m not going to be this close to her and not do a damn thing to save her. I’m armed too. I’ll take out Watson, the pilot, and whoever else I need to, but she is not leaving me. I’m not doing this again. She isn’t leaving me.”
Static interference came through the earpieces for a moment, then silence. “James? James, do you copy? Goddammit, do you copy?”
“He turned it off,” Derek said. “We need to create a diversion out here. It’s the only way we can help him.”
Jackson leaned his head against the plane and said a quick prayer. “Fire on three, and don’t fucking miss…”
When Jackson called out the final count, three shots rang out in unison like the well-trained machine Elite Force was, taking out all three tires. Only moments passed before the engines cut,
and someone started shooting out each window from inside the plane. It was clear their positions were safe, or whoever was shooting was a really bad shot because none of the attempts came anywhere near the team.
Jackson ducked behind the rear wheel, under the belly of the plane, and hit his watch, detonating a charge of explosives on the door. Chaos within trailed outside, alerting the brothers to the fight in progress. James found his mark. With each blast of a gun came haunting screams full of fear. Were they hurt? Were they just scared? Had Genevieve just witnessed James being shot? Every scenario ran through the brothers’ minds as they raced to get to their brother.
They gathered at the wrecked door, easily pushing it open. Jackson handed Benson a gun. “Shoot one of us, and the rest of us will kill you, got it? Stay out here and protect yourself.”
Benson nodded, taking point outside the plane as each Force filed in, followed by Aaron. The scene they happened upon was surreal, something they never thought they’d witness – James with a gun to a man’s head.
James wasn’t foreign to battle. He’d been trained and involved in gunfights and hand-to-hand combat but only to serve justice and self-defense. His eyes were wild, fear consumed him, and the hate in his eyes took them aback. James had never claimed a life, never had to. It wasn’t in him to do so. His brothers were highly trained experts who fought with multiple branches of the military and took on many humanitarian cases that occasionally left blood on their hands.
James never fought on those missions. He was the brains of the operation and fought from behind a screen. He was their eyes and ears to everything. Shooting someone? Sure, he’d done that. It didn’t sit well, but it was always a justified fire. This was different. This was willing and methodical murder. When the proverbial dust settled, James would regret it. He wouldn’t be able to live with himself.