Charming But Reckless (NightShade Security #5)

Chapter 18

CHAPTER 18

ORION

Olivia was able to convince her father to have dinner with her at his home about a week after we met her in the park. It was just enough time for Memphis to get a plan in place for everything.

Because by having them over for dinner, what Jackie Varr meant was to host a dinner party and to have his daughter and grandchildren be the pawns in his politically charged business.

At first, Olivia was hesitant because the idea of her father's business partners possibly being involved in the trafficking made her sick to her stomach. Knowing her children would be in the same space was enough to have her wanting to back out.

The plan was saved when Archie agreed to go as a pretend nanny for the children so he could keep an eye on them, and Takeshi would be a security member. Olivia once again agreed.

Takeshi's role was simple because he was replacing someone that Varr had hired. Of course the asshole wasn't under NightShade's client list. He had chosen a competitor. Since Memphis had control over said competitors' computer system, it was easy to switch out details and give Takeshi a fake name for the gig.

The night of the dinner party, Olivia stood in the NightShade offices wringing her hands. “I'm not sure if this is still a good idea. What if I get caught? I'm not a spy. I'm not good at this.”

The kids were in the other room playing with Sol and Arick, thankfully. They wouldn't hear anything that was said.

Archie came forward and took Olivia's hands, pulling them apart. “I'm sure it’ll be fine. I will be right there with you. Takeshi is playing security guard. I'm sure that he’ll be sneaky and come help us if there is a need.”

“Is he a computer genius too? Can’t he just get the stuff done?” she asked, looking between the man in front of her and his husband across the room.

Archie snorted. “Not necessarily, but he knows enough. You won’t need him though. This is all straightforward, right Memphis?”

Memphis came around his desk. “Exactly. All this is plug and play. You will put it into his computer, a pop-up will appear, and we'll begin running the script. All you have to do is wait for the countdown to finish. Once it's at 100%, we're good to go. You pull it out, and you're free.”

“And this will find you everything you need?”

He gave her a cocky grin in reply. “It's pretty foolproof. I know your father is hiding things on his personal computer because I'd already hacked his computers related to the business. Whatever vile things he's keeping will be enough to get the DA to charge him, I'm sure.”

Olivia pulled her hands from Archie's and shook them out as she shimmied her shoulders. She looked like someone who was preparing to go on stage for a performance.

Which I guess she kind of was. She would have to pretend to still be the loving daughter while secretly knowing just how vile her father was.

“Okay, I'm ready,” she said. “Let's get this show on the road. The sooner we can be done, the better. Besides, he hates it when I'm late, even when it's for a good reason.”

Archie held out his arm for her to take. Takeshi smiled at his husband. There was no jealousy there, only amusement at the regal and formal gesture.

Olivia giggled and took his arm, then held her hand out to Takeshi. “You're coming too. If I'm going to do this, I get to have two hands on the men on my arms.”

“And your husband? “I asked. “How would he feel about this?”

Her eyes went cold. “I have a feeling my husband might be involved. I didn't want to say anything before now, but he has been acting oddly. And he's gotten closer to my father in recent years. I didn't bring him here tonight because I gave him the excuse that we needed to swing by the school. He'll meet us there though. This little charade is just for the officers. I'll take all the attention I can since I'll probably be a single woman in the near future.”

I gaped at her, unable to hide my reaction. This woman had brass balls. She was ready to take down her father, who was connected to a syndicate of really rough fuckers, AND she was going to be a single mom because she knew her husband either knew about her father's proclivities or was involved.

Maybe both.

Sick people tended to attract other sick people, especially when that sickness was something like child pornography or abuse. I didn't know how the assholes did it, but they moved in tribes and kept each other's secrets.

I watched the three of them head off, then turned to Memphis with a raised brow. “You think this will go smoothly?”

Before he could answer, Ronan spoke up. "Did you see the way she looked? That woman is ready to set that man's empire on fire, even if it means she'll never inherit a dime of his fortune."

He had Damari tucked into his side. The young man was out cold. He had been having nightmares again, which frustrated Ronan to no end. He wanted to vanquish every beast his boyfriend encountered.

Memphis clicked his hands and made pretend guns at Ronan. “That's exactly right, partner.”

Sinclair happened to walk in at that exact moment, two trays of coffees in his hands. "Please stop watching westerns when I go to sleep, sweetheart. It's not good for you."

Memphis threw up his hands. "I need something to entertain me, and you don't like it when I watch you all night."

I choked on a laugh and then covered it with a cough. Memphis glared at me, though he didn't say anything else because Sinclair was setting the coffees down and walking into his partner's arms.

"If it means you'll stop quoting these cheesy movies, you can watch me all you want."

Memphis smiled, then stole a kiss.

He pulled Sinclair behind the wall of his cubicle, and then I heard the sound of them dropping into the chair. The two would be cuddled up together, kissing and researching whatever Memphis was working on next.

Meanwhile, Ronan and Damari were in their own little world. Godric and Cohen hadn't shown up yet, though I suspected they would be in soon. No one missed a mission, even if we weren't directly involved. Not when it came to the Gilded Ones. It was all hands on deck.

Sometimes one of us would see something the others hadn't, or we would hear things that clued us in to something else. There was a reason we were a team instead of running missions solo.

As the night went on, Arick and Sol came into the war room. Sol had an iPad and headphones on. He was watching one of his favorite cartoons. He tucked himself in the corner on a giant bean bag chair that looked kind of like a dog bed, though I would not say that out loud.

Damari loved that little space if he couldn't be with Ronan. Since he had offered it to Sol when we arrived tonight, I no longer felt the need to tease him about it.

Especially since Sol wiggled his little body inside like he was the most comfortable he'd ever been in his life.

Arick sat down beside me and placed his hand on my thigh. “Catch me up. What have I missed?”

I smiled at him and pressed a kiss to the side of his head. “Not much. Olivia has been at the party for only half an hour. Archie is keeping an eye on the kids, no one will get to them. And Takeshi is playing bodyguard. Though he is a bodyguard, so technically he's not playing one.”

Arick motioned to his throat. “Is not talking going to be an issue for the mission?”

I shook my head. “Not likely. At the rate he's been learning ASL, he’s almost fluent in it. He also has a look that tells people to fuck off. Because he doesn't want to talk to them anyway. It's a win-win for him.”

I heard Ronan chuckle. Likely because he agreed with me. It's muffled since I'm sure he didn't want to wake Damari.

As Arick sat back in his chair, leaning beside me, I embraced the comforts that came from doing this with him. I didn't know what to think about him working for NightShade. It puts us in a precarious position since the job could be dangerous at times.

At the same time, it offered us something different from what the others had.

Because while Ronan and Memphis had their guys coming in and out of the office, and Cohen and Godric both worked here, what Arick and I had spanned decades. Our friendship was rooted so deep in the past that being with him and working with him made sense to me.

Plus, he had made Memphis very happy so far.

They had been working together every day, putting more and more intel to use in our search for the final Gilded Ones member. Every crumb of information that could be scraped off the internet was gathered. We needed to know what was coming, what we were up against.

Were they building an army?

Were they trying to find cracks in our armor?

Would they attack us before we got the chance to come after them?

It was a lot to try to understand. A lot to try to beat.

My gaze was drawn to the video screens. Olivia had been worried about her father being too close to her, so she wasn't wearing an earpiece. She did have a small camera fixed to the necklace she wore, which gave us the ability to see who she was with and where she was going. It also had a microphone to pick up information, though we could not transmit anything back to her.

Archie and Takeshi did have earpieces though. They needed to be able to have a heads up should anything arise.

As we listened to the conversation going on around them, Memphis chimed in here and there with details that would help them along — people to avoid and places to steer away from.

Archie had it pretty easy since the kids all wanted to huddle together and have a snack in one specific area. He kept his eyes peeled, though, ever the protector of the children. The man was built for the social services life.

When dinner finally came, we watched as they went through a boring conversation about business and the political climate. Olivia nodded along and agreed as she could to keep the gig going.

Her father appeared unaware of anything else, and he drank heavily that night. He was joyous and excited.

My skin iced over as realization set in.

“He's bought another child,” I said to the quiet room. “That's why he's so fucking happy. We have to find out who.”

Arick tensed, his hand gripping my leg tightly. “You have to find out whoever it is and save them.”

Tank, who had come into the room at some point during the dinner, nodded. “We'll find whoever it is and return them home safely. Don't worry about that. Right now we just need to get the information. I'm sure the fuckface has it on his computer.”

Memphis clicked away at the keys, then spoke into the microphone so Archie and Takeshi could hear. “Olivia needs to get to the computer as soon as possible. We suspect her father has bought another child."

We watched how Archie whipped his head up to look at his husband. The other man was already on the move.

There was a tense moment where the two of them stared at one another. Then Archie turned back to the children. He knew that whatever happened, he couldn't leave them.

Memphis decided to tap Olivia into the conversation. He called her cell phone. She looked down at the phone when it rang loudly in the space.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," she said dramatically. "I need to take this. Just a moment, Father."

He smiled at her, then turned back to his conversation. She rushed from the room as if it was really an urgent call. Her husband watched curiously, though he didn't move. He was too engrossed in whatever his father-in-law was saying.

We kept our eyes peeled for her path out of the room, while also watching the cameras Memphis had been able to hack that lined the hall. Everything in the Varr home was linked to one system. Everything except his computer. It’s how Memphis knew he had to be hiding something there.

As Olivia moved towards the office, Memphis covered her tracks to make it look as if she had stopped to take the call.

Olivia's voice echoed around the room as Memphis put her on speaker. "What's going on? Is everything okay?"

Memphis grunted. "We think your father has already purchased his next victim. We need you to get to the computer and get that program running now. I need remote access. I can't do that without you, Olivia."

We didn't see her, but from the intake of air we heard, I had no doubt the woman was gearing herself up for the next step. She moved into his office, which unfortunately had no cameras, so we couldn't watch.

We could hear her shuffling around and then the click of a keyboard.

“I plugged it in. There's a screen. It's loading."

"All right, good job, Olivia. You just wait right there. I've got eyes on the hallway. No one's going to get to you without you having a heads up."

We waited for the longest ninety seconds of my life. I swear it felt like days by the time she spoke again.

"It's done," Olivia said.

Then there was another clicking noise, I imagine from the device being removed.

“I'm going to head back.” Her heels softly clicked as she moved down the hall. The phone was still to her ear and on the screen, we saw her husband coming down the hallway towards her.

She was far enough away from the office that it didn't look suspicious, but from the way his face looked angry, I was worried about Olivia's safety. If this man was involved, she could be in danger.

Memphis muted the call and then spoke into the other mic. “Takeshi, get to Olivia. She's in the hall, and her husband looks fuming.”

Takeshi left his post quickly. Archie kept his cool, though even I could see the tiny movements that made me believe he was truly worried about his husband. Thankfully, he could hear the comms and knew exactly why he had left.

Olivia's husband grabbed her arm and pulled her phone out of her hand. He put it to his ear. "Who the fuck is this talking to my wife?"

Memphis, deciding to play the part, said, "I was simply talking to her about her health care coverage plan. It's lapsed, and we'll need to renew it."

The husband's face screwed up. "Health care coverage? She's got that through me. Why would you be calling her?"

"Well, I see here she's listed as the primary contact for your three children. Would you be able to assist me today? I would love to talk with you. It will only take about forty-five minutes."

"Get fucked," the guy said and ended the call.

Memphis growled, then focused the camera on what was going down between Olivia and her husband. To her part, Olivia didn't appear scared. If anything, she wore a bored expression.

It was nothing like the loving look we had seen from her and her family before. How quickly lies could destroy people.

“You need to be in there right now. Lots of my business associates are at that table. And if they think my wife is off doing some stupid bullshit like talking to an insurance agent, they'll think that I'm incompetent.”

Olivia tried to tug her arm free, but he wouldn't let go. “If they think that, they're incompetent. I took a call that I thought was an emergency. It's no big deal.”

She held her hand out for her phone. He placed it in her hand, though he didn't let go at first.

It was then that Takeshi appeared, his body a formidable presence. Her husband startled at his arrival.

Takeshi said nothing, though he extended his arm towards the dining room as if they were being summoned back. The husband dropped his hold on Olivia, likely from not wanting anyone else to see how big of an ass he was.

He led the way, his gait clipped. Olivia approached Takeshi and nodded gently at him.

"Thank you," she whispered, then slid him the drive so that she would have nothing on her person that would make her seem guilty.

They went back to the dining room and finished dinner like normal. Meanwhile, Memphis and Arick had begun to try and decipher the files on Varr's computer.

"It's a fucking mess," Memphis groaned as he worked. "The guy has so much dirty laundry, I don't even know what to dig into first."

Arick gave a broken sort of laugh. "Yeah, same here. I don't know how he's managed to stay in business this long."

"Money," all of us said at once.

I added, "Money is a powerful motive for people. A lot of them will look the other way."

Arick simply nodded and went back to work. It wasn't until Olivia and her children, along with Archie and Takeshi, were long gone from the massive mansion that Memphis found what he was looking for.

"Fuck," he bellowed loudly.

Several people startled, having fallen asleep, myself included. I looked at the time, then looked at Memphis.

Tank stood slowly. "Show us what you found.”

The large screen where we had been watching everything go down earlier shifted. A communication between Varr and someone else appeared. The further Memphis scrolled down the conversation, the angrier we all got.

Varr had purchased another child, and they were set to be delivered to him the next day.

"Do we go to the authorities with this?" Sinclair asked.

Tank pulled out his phone. “Sadly, we have to. He's not on our list to take out, and I don't want to go around becoming some vigilante for every single asshole there is. It would be too much work.”

Ronan added in, “Besides, he deserves prison time. Let all those charges become public so people don't think he was some type of victim himself. They need to see beneath his mask.”

Sinclair nodded, and Damari perked up. “They should all know that he's bad. Everyone should know when someone is bad.”

He snuggled back into Ronan's side, and the other man kissed the top of his head.

I watched the pair, wishing I had Arick in my arms. I knew he was doing good work for the team, and he loved his new role. There was no chance I would take that from him, no matter how badly I ached to keep him close.

This family worked because we all knew each other's strengths and weaknesses. It worked because we were all able to take care of one another.

For Arick, taking care of him sometimes looked like letting him dig deeper into this case. It looked like letting him go to the park to help convince a woman to take down her father's evil plans. It looked like helping him get revenge on the man who tried to buy his son.

Sometimes it looked like lying, because no matter what Tank said, I knew that Jackie Varr was a dead man. No one got to live after hurting my family.