Protecting Dallas

by Krista Wolf

  “You should probably put something on,” smirked Austin.

  Forty-Seven

  DALLAS

  We left New Orleans in haste, taxiing directly to the terminal and grabbing the first available flight back to Vegas. We made the gate just as the plane was about to detach from the boarding ramp, and settled into our seats right as the aircraft began taxiing for takeoff.

  Not twenty minutes after that, both guys were sound asleep on each of my shoulders.

  I squirmed back in my seat, accepting a water from the flight attendant this time around, rather than alcohol. It had been a crazy fucking weekend. A whirlwind of sex and debauchery and weaving through crowds, of running around and laughing and fleeing, of fighting and bloodletting.

  Exactly as I always pictured Mardi Gras might be.

  “You should’ve been here Connor,” I sighed, raising my plastic cup and toasting my invisible brother. Then, after looking left and right at my two slumbering lovers: “Umm… then again maybe not.”

  The flight was smooth, and over quickly. After grabbing our bags we made our way home, the cool desert air rejuvenating our tired bodies as we pulled down our block and into the driveway.

  Kane was there to greet us, resting comfortably in one of the chairs on the front porch. A rifle rested casually across his lap, his hand stroking it absently like he was petting a cat. It made me wonder if he’d sat like this the whole time we’d been away.

  He stood only when I reached the door, scooping me into his big strong arms. Squeezing me tightly but gently against his beautiful chest, before picking up my bags and carrying them inside.

  “Coffee’s up,” he said, sliding out one of the kitchen chairs. I could see he’d already poured himself a cup.

  “You first?” Maddox asked him.

  Kane scratched at his chin, which was covered with about three days’ worth of stubble. “Sure,” he grunted eventually. “Why not?”

  We sat down and listened as he went over his weekend, which included equal time spent at home and at the base. Apparently he was ‘through running’, and that anyone and everyone wanting a piece of him could ‘come right up and get it’. Austin laughed. Maddox snickered. Yet the three of us knew, all humor aside, that he meant everything he said with deadly seriousness.

  “It was dead here,” he said, jerking his head at the nearest wall. “All weekend long. Not a peep, not a poke, not anything at all.”

  “Even during the times you were away?” asked Austin. “On base?”

  Kane nodded from his corner of the kitchen. “I checked the cameras and they all came up empty. Every feed, every angle.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in his chair. “Unless they tunneled their way over, no one came to the house.”

  The guys looked at each other. Maddox raised an eyebrow. “You know what that means.”

  Kane nodded again. But now I was confused.

  “What?” I demanded. “What does that mean?”

  “It means whoever came here,” said Austin, “lost all interest after you were gone.”

  My eyebrows came together. I still didn’t get it.

  “Why would they lose—”

  “Because they’re after you, Dallas,” said Maddox. “You’re their primary goal. They followed us to New Orleans, and they’re sure to follow us back.”

  Confusion turned to realization. I felt suddenly sick.

  You’re endangering them.

  The words were chilling, but they were also the truth. These men who I suddenly cared about so much… I was putting their lives at risk.

  Whatever these people want, it has to do with you.

  “What do they want from me?” I pleaded. “They already got Connor. Why would they keep coming after me, even after my brother was dead?”

  “Revenge?” Austin offered. But Kane shook his head.

  “It’s not revenge.”

  “How do you know?”

  “Trust me,” said my biggest protector. “I just do.”

  Austin didn’t seem convinced. He wrinkled his nose in disbelief. But it was Maddox who slid his chair over in my direction.

  “Think, Dallas,” he said, and not for the first time. “They want you… or they want something from you.”

  I was fighting hard to maintain control, to prevent the stronger feelings from taking over on either end of my emotional spectrum. I wanted to laugh. I wanted to cry. I wanted to punch a hole in every wall of the house.

  “What could you have that they might want?” Austin jumped in. “Something. Anything…”

  “I have absolutely nothing!” I shouted, breaking into tears. “Or don’t you remember?”

  The three of them went silent now, looking back at me with pity. I didn’t want their pity. I wanted to crumple their pity into a ball and shove it right back down their throats.

  “You were there, all three of you. You saw me lose everything! My house, my things, every last possession I owned!” I sniffed hard, trying to breathe. “There’s nothing left,” I went on. “I lost my phone, my computer… even my family’s photo albums.”

  That last part was like an ice pick to the heart. A searing stab of pain, reminding me of something I’d tried so hard to forget.

  “I… I don’t even have pictures of them anymore,” I cried. “My mother, my father — they’ve been gone so long they’re fading in my head. Fading in my heart.” I swallowed hard. “I don’t want that to happen with Connor! I need to remember my brother. And you guys need to help me. But I… I guess…”

  All the helplessness left abruptly. Anger flooded in. I was absolutely infuriated about everything, all at once. I stood up so fast I knocked down my chair.

  “Dallas—”

  “Don’t ‘DALLAS’ me!” I shouted at whichever one of them had said it. “You have each other, at least. You’ll always have each other. But Connor… Connor’s gone. Gone forever from my life, just like everyone else.”

  I stared back at them accusingly, their pity only magnifying my rage.

  “Dallas, listen…”

  “No, you listen!” I screamed. “You can’t even imagine what it’s like. You can’t possibly—”

  “DALLAS!” someone boomed.

  I stopped in the middle of my rant, my whole body shaking, tears streaming down both my cheeks. Two fell simultaneously from either side of my face, racing each other to the floor.

  “Dallas,” Kane said again, his voice only slightly lower this time. “You said you came here with nothing but the clothes on your back?”

  It wasn’t a statement, it was a question… and one that made little sense. I cocked my head and stared back at him icily. There was challenge in my eyes.

  “Yes,” I practically spat. “What’s your point?”

  Slowly Kane raised his arm. He extended one thick finger and pointed it directly at me.

  “So then what’s that around your neck?”

  Forty-Eight

  DALLAS

  I reached up without thinking, my hand closing reflexively over the tiny diamond-shaped pendant. My brother’s pendant.

  “Connor gave it to me,” I said defensively.

  “When?”

  I had to think for a moment. “For my birthday,” I said, remembering. “H—He sent it to me for my birthday.”

  “Sent it to you?”

  “Yes,” I said, lowering my head. The sorrow was threatening to take over again. “It… it was…”

  “The last thing he sent you before he died,” Kane finished for me.

  I nodded glumly. A few moments of silence went by, and Maddox picked up my chair. The only noise in the whole kitchen was the ticking of the cheap plastic wall clock. I really should’ve bought a better one.

  “Was there a note when he sent it?” asked Kane. “A card or something?”

  I sniffed again. The tears were still coming. “No.”

  “Bro,” Maddox stepped in. “Enough with the Connor questions, huh? She’s upset. She’s—”

  Kane hal
ted his friend’s sentence with a hard, scary look. Reluctantly but definitively, Maddox backed off.

  “No note, no card,” I answered, thinking back. “Just the pendant.”

  Come to think of it, it was something I’d thought was weird at the time. Connor always sent me birthday cards. He liked to write notes too, hinting at where he was, or what he might be doing.

  “A pendant…” Kane asked, squinting. “or a locket?”

  It took me a moment to react to what he was saying. When I realized what he was driving at, I blinked.

  “Can I see it?”

  Slowly I reached up and unclasped the thin silver chain. The pendant gleamed, dangling heavily in my hand. For the first time since I put it on, I really looked at it.

  It was never particularly pretty, but it wasn’t ugly either. It was thicker than it appeared, with edges that were sleek and rounded. And maybe it wasn’t a diamond-shape after all. Maybe it was a square on edge.

  My arm shook a little as I handed it to Kane. Everyone crept in a bit closer as he turned it over and over in his palm.

  “Look. It’s got hinges.”

  He tried prying it open, gently at first, then adding more pressure. But his fingers were just too big, too thick and calloused.

  “Here,” said Austin. “Let me try.”

  We stood there in the kitchen, waiting in silence as Austin slipped two thumbnails into an almost invisible crease opposite the concealed hinges. He pushed hard for a few seconds…

  CLICK.

  The pendant — now locket — swung open. The four of us nearly bumped heads trying to see inside.

  He shook the locket gently against his palm. On the third hit, something popped out.

  “Holy shit,” Austin swore. “It’s a chip!”

  Maddox squinted. “A what?”

  “A memory chip!” he exclaimed.

  “You mean like a SIM card?”

  “No, not at all,” said Austin. He held the chip up so that everyone could see it. “This is NOR flash memory. Military grade.”

  Kane took the pendant from him and closed it. With a gentle smile, he pressed it back into my hand.

  “What do you think is on it?”

  “Who the hell knows?” said Austin. “Something good though. Something big.”

  I cleared my throat. “Something my brother died for…”

  The kitchen went deathly silent again. I wasn’t trying to be dramatic, it just came out that way.

  “Just sayin’.”

  Everyone watched as I clasped the locket back around my neck. When they were sure I was okay, they went back to looking down at the tiny black chip.

  “Wait a minute!” Maddox cried suddenly. “That’s it!”

  My brows knitted together in confusion. “What is?”

  “That’s what Connor meant on the recording!” he blurted. “The part that gets cut out. The part where he says ‘my sister has’…”

  We all glanced at each other. One by one, our expressions crossed with the same grim realization.

  “So you’ve had it all along,” Austin swore. “All this time. That’s what your brother was trying to tell us.”

  I rubbed hard at my eyes. Everything was happening so fast.

  “Let’s put it in the computer,” said Maddox excitedly. “See what’s on it.”

  But Austin shook his head. “It doesn’t work that way.”

  “Why?” I asked, alarmed. “Can’t we see what’s on it?”

  “Not with the setup I currently have,” he said. “This is older tech. Late 80’s.” He rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. It was something he always did, whenever he was thinking. “I know a guy though…”

  “A guy?”

  “Yes. He’s old school. An ex-hacker, back from the days of modems and BBS systems and—”

  “Where is this guy?” Kane interjected. “Call him. Get him over here.”

  Austin laughed. “Oh, trust me. He doesn’t leave the house much.”

  Maddox shrugged. “Then we’ll go to him. Right now, if he’s still up.”

  “He probably is,” said Austin. “Except that he’s in Los Angeles.”

  Everyone’s shoulders slumped.

  “I’ll go tomorrow,” said Austin. “First thing in the morning.”

  “Good,” I said. “We’ll all go.”

  Austin made a face. It wasn’t a good face. It was the kind of face that always preceded bad news.

  “What?” I demanded. “Are you telling me I have to stay here?”

  “No, not just you,” he said. “Everyone.”

  “Why?” asked Maddox. “This is pretty fucking important. Now that we know what those assholes are looking for we should all go. Together we could—”

  “This guy,” Austin cut him off. “He’s easily spooked. He trusts me, but he’ll balk if I bring someone. He’s not exactly… well…”

  “Sane?” I asked.

  “That,” Austin allowed. “Plus a few other things too.”

  I let out a long, exasperated sigh. “So he’s the quintessential paranoid hacker who lives in his mom’s basement and will only talk to you, and you alone?” I asked smartly.

  “All of that except the mom’s basement part,” said Austin. “This guy has money. Lots of money.” He shook his head. “And it’s not exactly legit money either, which is why he’s so careful.”

  Maddox rubbed at his neck. “Alright, fine.”

  “Also,” Austin added, “he has a long list of reasons to be paranoid. Legitimate reasons.”

  “Enough already,” Kane said. “We get it. You go alone.”

  Austin palmed the chip and nodded. “It’s a six-hour ride. I’ll leave early, and be back by nightfall.” He shook the hand holding the chip. “Maybe the next day, depending on whether or not the data is encrypted.”

  All of this was Greek to me. And if you asked me, it would’ve been Greek to Connor too.

  Then again, there were a lot of things about my brother I still didn’t know about.

  “What if it is encrypted?” I asked.

  Austin grinned broadly. The excitement in his eyes was kind of cute.

  “Then my guy knows a guy…”

  Forty-Nine

  DALLAS

  It was just past midnight when I left my room, padding silently out into the hall. I was hopelessly restless. Not even tired. Mostly because we’d stayed up so late the last few nights, and I was getting used to a nocturnal schedule.

  But it was more than that, too.

  I wanted to see Kane.

  I was shocked to find him at the end of the hall, once again staring out through the same big window. The light was eerie tonight. More purple than blue, with less moonlight than before.

  Approaching him slowly, I wondered if I should speak out. He was shirtless again. And he seemed to be in a trance, almost even sleeping as he leaned against the old frame. But then I saw him shift, and his head turned back in my direction. I laughed silently at myself for ever thinking I could sneak up on a Navy SEAL.

  “Anything good out there tonight?”

  I stepped into him, and he slipped his arm around me. The movement was familiar, like we’d been doing it for years.

  “Dust. Dirt. Desert.”

  I looked outside with him. “Kinda boring.”

  “Yeah.”

  I wondered what it was, that kept him up at night. What kinds of demons he might be battling in his head. It could’ve been simple insomnia, of course. But it could’ve been worse.

  Either way, I wasn’t about to ask. He’d tell me if he wanted to. Instead I sighed softly, and switched gears.

  “Think we’ll get them before they get us?”

  The hulking soldier barely registered the question, other than his mouth stretching into a tight half-grin. “Oh yeah.”

  The way he said it was reassuring. With confidence, not bravado.

  “The trick is getting all of them,” said Kane. The muscles in his shoulder’s flinched a little, even as I
admired them. “One way or the other.”

  I opened my mouth and then closed it, realizing that my next question was foolish. I already knew exactly what he meant.

  “You alright with that?” he asked.

  I squeezed my body against his. “More than alright.”

  “Good girl.”

  God, he felt so amazing! So big and strong and self-assured. Physically he was a warrior. Emotionally, he and I made silent connections I couldn’t ever hope to understand.

  I felt so safe with him. Safe being around him. And he was wise, too. He talked so infrequently it made every word he did say carry that much more weight.

  You love him.

  I really did! Just as I loved the others too, but in a different way. With Kane, our bond wasn’t something that needed to be ratified or constantly reassured.

  Inside and out, he was the perfect man.

  “I’ll never forgive myself,” he said abruptly, still staring out the window. “For what happened to Connor.”

  My heart dropped into my feet. I wanted to hold him! To slide my arms tightly around him and make him realize I was there, and that nobody blamed him, and that Connor had made his own shitty choices all on his own.

  “Kane,” I said. “You can’t—”

  “I know,” he said quickly. “And I get that. Still…”

  His whole body tensed at once, every muscle drawing into itself in an frightening display of strength and power. Even his jaw went tight. The next words out of his mouth were terse and unflinching.

  “I’m going to get everyone involved in betraying him,” he growled ominously. “Every. Single. Fucking. Person.”

  I nodded into his chest, indicating I understood. That was I was behind him. Beside him. No matter what.

  I’m not sure how long we stood there. Whether it was another five minutes, or fifteen, or fifty. The important part was holding each other. Of staring out into that dark horizon of nothingness, while our souls spoke at length with each other.

  “I talked to Maddox and Austin,” he said at last. “Seems you guys had… fun this weekend.”