Chapter Seven
Harley
FIVE MONTHS LATER
G asping, my eyes snap open, and I stare up at the dark ceiling. The only light shining into my bedroom is from the moon shining bright outside my window. A heavy arm rests over my stomach while another body lays on my other side, flopped on his stomach, snoring.
Rubbing my damp eyes, I’m reminded of why I even woke up to begin with. Another shitty dream. They come randomly. Sometimes, it’s about David and the nasty things he said to me; sometimes, it’s about almost losing Cade, the explosion, and almost losing Colton, Axe, and Ryker five months ago. And sometimes, it’s about Atlas.
Like this one. Picturing him lying there…lifeless.
Gently pulling Cade’s arm off my stomach, I crawl to the end of the bed and get up. Glancing back, I notice Grayson missing from the bed. Not that it’s surprising. He is honestly just like Nerds and spends a lot of time in the tech room.
Needing to shower off the bad dream before I head downstairs to check on Grayson, I walk into my connected bathroom. Over the last several months, we repaired all the damage in the garage from the explosion. After everything was completely safe again, we were allowed back into our bedrooms upstairs. Now, Axe is just redesigning the shop he had set up and giving it a bunch of upgrades.
After a quick shower, I braid my wet hair and throw on some leggings with the hoodie Ryker left in here yesterday. Any clothes they leave in my room are fair game–not that they seem to care. I think most of the time, they all forget clothing in here so I will wear it.
Sneaking out of my room, Ryker and Cayden still sleeping, I head downstairs and find Grayson in the tech room. “Gray, it’s four in the morning. How long have you been up?” I ask as I walk towards him where he sits at the main desk, wearing sweats and a t-shirt. His hair is ruffled from running his hand through it.
Startling, he looks at me wide eyed and then glances at the clock on the wall. “Since two. I just wanted to check a few things. I really didn’t mean to stay down here. Why are you awake?” He tilts his head at me while pushing his chair back and opening his arms.
Straddling his legs, I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face in his neck. “Bad dream. I didn’t feel like I could stay in bed any longer.”
“I’m sorry, beautiful. Another one about Atlas?” he murmurs, running his hands up and down my back.
I nod against his neck, not wanting to talk about it. “What were you working on?”
He sighs and tightens his arms around me, knowing I am avoiding talking about it. “I think I am close to getting into the Black Night Ball site. I’m just hesitant because of the trackers. If I attempt to get in and whoever runs this site sees it because I didn’t get past their security walls, I could be putting all of us in danger of another attack like the explosion.”
Raising my head so I can look at him, I ask, “What about Sebastian? Have you talked with him about it since he taught you?”
“I was thinking about that before you came down. I haven’t talked to him in a while. After he taught me everything he knew, he gave me those test sites to see how my hacking skills were, and everything went my way with no issues. I’m pretty sure he will just tell me to get out of my head, which he has said a few times, but I don't know. I’m scared.”
After Grayson and Ryker filled us in months ago about how Grayson was in contact with the Kings of Heart, we have made sure to help him keep it from Gabe. I have felt bad keeping it from him, but it is the right choice right now. I just hope if it ever does come out, Gabe will hear us out.
Before I can respond to him, the door opens again, and someone else walks in, pauses, and clears their throat. “Shit. Sorry.” He spins around to leave, and it hits me he thought we were doing other things with the way I am sitting on the Grayson.
Chuckling, I call out, “Wait, Nerds, we were just talking. You can come in.” Standing, I move to the chair next to Gray as Nerds walks back in and glances around.
“Nerds?” Grayson questions.
“Yeah, sorry. It’s just been so long since I have been in here. I finally get to come back to work.” His shoulders relax just by being back in here.
“I didn’t change anything on your desk besides updating some of your software, so it’s all yours. I’m really glad you’re back,” Grayson tells him as we both stand and move to the other desk in the room. Nerds heads over to his desk and smiles softly. “Hey, can I ask you something?”
“What’s up?” Nerds glances at Grayson.
“So Sebastian helped me a lot. I’ve improved and have become a decent—”
“Fucking amazing,” I interrupt Grayson.
His cheeks flush, and he continues like I didn’t say anything, “Hacker. I think I have found my way onto the Black Night website without whoever runs it finding out. It’s literally one click away. But if I didn’t do it right, I could put us all in more danger.”
“So you’re second guessing yourself?” Nerds asks, taking a seat at the desk. Gray nods. “There is always a risk with everything we do in life. But you know what screws us over more than if we were to just trust ourselves? Second guessing. That’s when you make your biggest mistakes.
“You trusted Bas to teach you where I had to stop. You pick up on things very quickly and can run with it. Don’t doubt yourself out of fear. Every person in this club and anyone who helped us took a risk when we took down the warehouse. All of this is one big game of risk.”
“When you were trying to get onto the site, did you feel confident?” I ask Grayson, and he nods. “You just hesitated when it was actually time to try it?”
“Yeah,” he says sullenly.
“Then do it. I trust you and your work,” I tell him, believing without a doubt he did everything right. Grayson is one of the smartest people I know, especially when it comes to tech. I sat in on some of his calls with Bas, he picked up on things instantly and always blew my mind with how much he understood.
We both stare at Grayson, and he fidgets. “Right now?”
I grin as Nerds laughs. “Here, you can use my computer since you already had everything going.”
He moves away and Grayson sits down and begins typing away. I watch the way his brows lower as he concentrates, how he chews on his bottom lip. It’s adorable, and watching him hack into something is incredibly sexy.
Pausing, Gray glances at each of us and then exhales before clicking another button.
“Holy shit,” Nerds says over his shoulder.
Grayson
Hours after I got onto the website, Nerds and I are both disgusted, but we have all the information we need, vital information that could help us put a stop to all of this.
Walking into Rage’s office, we find everyone already here–Rage, Sugar, Noah, Stone, Axe, Ryker, Cayden, and Harley. Nerds and I walk over to Rage’s desk, and he moves to the side so we can set up both our laptops.
“Normally, we would obviously hold church, but this needs to be a meeting with all of us first. Then, later tonight, I will hold church with all the members,” Rage tells all of us.
After I got onto the site, Nerds and I dove straight into analyzing everything about it. Harley brought us breakfast and made sure we ate and then went to let the others know. Everyone has basically been holding their breath, waiting on us since.
“Welcome back, Nerds,” Axe says, and the others greet him as well. Nerds stayed at Rage’s house at first, and then he left the compound completely for three months. Rage gave us updates, but none of us have his full story yet. I almost looked into him while he was out, but I didn’t want to invade his privacy that way.
He came back about a month ago and has been staying in the club in his normal room. He befriended Oakley, and she tends to go to him when she needs to talk about anything regarding her recovery, which is also going incredibly well. The girl has so much strength in her.
“I was able to get into the Black Night website, as I’m sure you are all aware.” I turn my computer around and show the main site.
“God, it looks so formal, and–and like a fancy nice ball website. Not what it actually is,” Harley comments.
I nod. “The original website leads you to just a straight legal business. You need a specific log in for it to take you to this site. Once you are on this site, you create your account. We have formed a fake one. From there, you can see the next ball date.” I point at the screen, Black Night Ball in bold gold and black letters, below it, a date.
“That’s two fucking weeks away,” Noah says.
“Yeah. It gets worse. Once you enter in all your information, it gives you an option to rent, buy, or trade. We selected buy—” Nerds says as he turns his laptop screen around to face the room so they can all see what comes next.
“What the fuck!” Ryker shouts and paces the back of the room. Everyone in the room announces how disgusted they are, and they end up looking away.
Not Harley, though. Her eyes stay glued to the screen, and she inches forward slowly, like she is afraid the screen is going to attack her. When she finally bends down in front of the laptop, she hoovers her hand over the down arrow and glances at me. I nod and watch as she starts scrolling, staring at countless terrified faces of people being trafficked.
There is a box for each person showing their picture, age, race, a number instead of a name, and then a click for more button. When you click on it, it shows more images, descriptions—things I wish I could unsee. Tears gather in the corners of my eyes, but I do my best to blink them away and focus on Harley, who is still scrolling.
Luckily, she hasn’t clicked on any of them to see more information. Rage, noticing how silent his daughter is, moves towards her and places a hand on her shoulder. “Harley, maybe you shouldn’t–”
She’s already shaking her head. “I have to. I need to see all of them.”
“What happens next?” Sugar questions in a hoarse voice, his face devoid of any emotion.
“You select your top three options, then you pay your fees on the next page. After that, it gives you a passcode. You have to come back three days prior to the ball for more information accessed by entering your given code.”
“What can we do? How can we save all these people?” Ryker asks.
Rage looks at Nerds. “I’m assuming you and Grayson have some kind of plan?”
He nods. “We have some ideas about getting a few people in as buyers. But we’d need unknown people we can trust. Without knowing who is running this whole thing or who may be there, we can’t risk any of us going in.”
“I can help,” a soft voice says from the doorway. Everyone’s heads swivel to stare at Oakley, who looks like she wants to run with all our eyes on her. “So–sorry, I didn’t mean to eavesdrop–okay, not at first. But I was coming to look for Nerds and heard you mention the ball and listened. Sorry.” She grimaces.
“It’s alright, Oakley. You can come in,” Rage tells her, and she steps into the room, her eyes immediately locking on Nerds. “How do you think you can help?”
“If you find people to go in as buyers, that helps with getting in the door. But having someone to trade as well—”
“No,” Nerds barks before she can even finish.
“Let her finish speakin’.” Sugar glares at Nerds, who clenches his fists at his side and stares down Sugar.
“I’ve been to these before. If you have someone to trade, you go in through a separate entrance. It would give us access to the whole backside of the ball. Until your trade is complete, you are responsible for your slave. But slaves aren’t allowed in the ballroom, only the auction and display rooms.”
“How many have you been to?” I ask gently, fearing the answer based on how much she seems to know.
“Four,” she tells us, keeping her composure. “It may always be in an unknown place, but it’s always set up the same way. It’s how I can remember it. I was never blindfolded or restrained because my owners would just give me my pills prior, and I would behave.” Tears gather in her eyes, and her body begins to tremble.
Nerds walks over to her and gently pulls her into his arms before glaring at Rage. “No. The answer is no. Don’t even think about getting her involved in this shit again. She has been working her ass off to heal from it. No.”
Rage stares at Oakley with the same look he has given Harley before: Fear, protectiveness, admiration, and the one thing we all know for sure. If Oakley decides she wants to be involved, there will be no stopping her.
“I don’t like it, Nerds. Not at all. It’s something that has to be decided on in church, but ultimately, it has to be her choice. If she wants to help get revenge, we will do everything in our power to make sure she is safe.”
Oakley pulls away from Nerds before she meets his furious gaze. “I can do this. I need to do this.”
Nerds narrows his eyes, and, without saying a word, he leaves the room.
“I’d say that went well,” Ryker retorts.
Harley elbows him in the gut and mutters, “Shut up.”
“Alright, Grayson, is there anything else we need to know right now?”
Thinking it over for a second, I shake my head. “No, I don’t think so. We just have to form a plan as soon as possible and prepare ourselves.”
“And then burn those fuckers to the ground,” Harley adds, causing Ryker to grin at her, but I can see the inner turmoil working behind her eyes.