Chapter 8
Zen
I freeze in place with my phone in front of my face, and then slowly lower it. Kayla said ChaosCrone. My head snaps around to Lexi as she responds to her friend.
“Yeah, I’m good at building and upgrading computers. My hacking skills are top tier, but Zen has a history of actually finding missing people.”
Evan chimes in, “Yeah, he found me and helped bring my abductor to justice.”
Kayla absentmindedly reaches out to pat him on the chest. “I remember you telling me about that, babe.”
I ask, trying to keep the shock out of my voice, “You’re ChaosCrone?”
Her brows furrow. “Yes. Is that a problem?”
I push up from the table and grab Lexi by the arm.
She tries to pull away, but I refuse to let go. Furious, I start walking her towards my office. Kayla grabs my free arm in an attempt to stop me from taking her.
All it takes is me barking one word over my shoulder. “Evan!” He immediately steps forward and wraps both arms around his girl, gently pulling her back. “It’s okay. Zen’s just gonna take her somewhere private to talk. Right, Zen?”
I turn again and jerk my chin towards the door, “When we’re finished talking both of them are banned until further notice.”
Kayla gasps, “That’s not fair. I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You brought a fucking thief to our clubhouse and I’m not gonna let that go unpunished.”
Lexi makes an angry sound in the back of her throat before snarling, “I’m no thief, you asshole.”
Normally, insulting a club brother is a bannable offense in and of itself. I don’t say that though. In fact, I don’t respond to her at all until I have her safely ensconced in my office with the door locked behind us. I fire up my bank of computers for light and toss her down onto the rolling stool. Settling myself down in my chair, I glare at her.
She’s absolutely defiant. “I’m no thief. Whatever you have rolling around in that head of yours is way off base.”
“It’s not,” I tell her. “Wanna know how I’m so certain that you’re a thief?”
“Enlighten me,” she shoots back, scooting her stool back a few inches.
I let her put some distance between us because my emotions are a jumble. I want to jerk a knot in her ass for stealing that five grand because it means she’s likely the one who took my sister’s money too. I also have all this pent-up sexual frustration and attraction that’s telling me throw her over my lap and spank her naked ass. I shove the images of a nice hate fuck away, ashamed that I even thought something like that.
“You stole five grand in crypto from me just last week.”
Instead of denying it, her whole demeanor flips in an instant and she laughs. “You’re that newbie who left his seed code visible? Call yourself WiseInvestor? You deserve to have your crypto stolen. All you have to do to get it back is take a digital security training course.”
I say nothing but continue watching her.
She leans forward and adds, “Wow, this means you’re not a super-skilled computer genius, right? Were you lying to impress me? If you’re hoping to get into my pants, it’s totally not happening now.”
I reach out and jerk her stool closer. “Don’t play fucking games with me. I dangled that crypto out in the open in the same chatroom my sister visited when her crypto wallet got wiped clean of a hundred grand. That was her fucking life savings and guess who prime suspect number one is?”
She reaches out and pushes against my chest with one hand until I let go of her stool. “I’m not sure I believe anything you have to say at this point. Take the digital security training and I’ll give you your five grand back. Then I don’t want to see or talk to you ever again. Am I making myself clear?”
Giving her a stern look, I growl, “You must think I’m stupid if you think I’m gonna be happy getting my five grand back and just forget about the crypto you stole from my sister.”
“I didn’t steal anything from your sister,” she flings back. Pressing her finger to the side of her head, she says, “Think about it, Zen. You’re accusing me based on the fact that I tried to save some poor newbie from getting his crypto account wiped out. That’s like someone getting murdered in a room full of a thousand people and you randomly picking one person to focus on simply because they were present.”
“I’m accusing you, because you stole crypto from me.”
“No, I protected your crypto from getting stolen by a real thief. If I had planned to keep it, I wouldn’t have admitted to having it, nor would I have offered to give it back if you took a training course in digital security. Does that sound like something a criminal would do?”
I’m still furious and don’t believe Lexi is innocent by any stretch of the imagination. This is all too much of a coincidence. I just have to figure out what her angle is. I heave out a sigh, I guess the easiest thing to do is to take that damn training and see what happens, I pull up a free training course and go straight to the test. It takes me less than five minutes to complete it, and I forward the certificate to her phone.
Before I can even speak, my phone buzzes. When I look, the money has been returned to my crypto wallet.
“Be sure your seed code isn’t showing next time.”
“I told you, I left it there deliberately, I’m not a fucking idiot.”
“Yeah, whatever. I gave you your damn money back,” she spits out.
“Are we finished here?” Lexi’s tone of voice is cold and emotionless. If she’s waiting for me to apologize, she’ll die of old age before that happens.
“We’re not finished until I find out where my sister’s crypto went.”
“And I told you, I know nothing about it.”
“I’m not letting you off that easy, sure you gave me back my five grand, but that’s pocket change compared to a hundred grand.”
She gets to her feet. “How many times can I say this so you understand, I didn’t take your sister’s damn money! Good luck finding the real culprit. With your skill level you’re going to need it.” She’s on her way to the door before I can come up with a good reply.
She opens the door and turns to look at me. “You’re an attractive, engaging man. You don’t need to lie about being a computer genius to impress women. We prefer honesty over lies meant to lure us into believing you’re something you’re not. Remember that.”
I leap to my feet, angry that she’s still doubting me. But by the time I get to the door of my office, she’s halfway through the bar. I watch as she grabs Kayla’s hand and pulls her towards the front door. If I’m being honest, her friend isn’t struggling to stay. Evan just stands there watching his girl leave. Then he turns to look at me with a scowl on his face.
I’m not surprised when he heads straight for me. I head back to my office and wait for him. Evan’s always been respectful. He closes the door before asking, “What was that all about? Is Kayla’s friend really a thief?”
I rub my chin, realizing I’m not so sure about that anymore. “Yes. She stole five grand in crypto from me, though she gave it back.”
He sits on the stool looking all kinds of confused. “Really? She doesn’t look like the type.”
I give him the short version of the story. “My sister came to me a couple of weeks ago saying she got her life savings, all her college money stolen. She had it in a crypto wallet that someone hacked. I went to the only crypto forum she spent any time in and pretended to be a stupid beginner with the passcode to my wallet visible. Lexi swiped the money and told me I couldn’t have it back without completing training on digital security. I guess she thought she was doing a newbie a favor by getting to the crypto before someone with bad intentions took it.”
Understanding clicks into place on his face. “She wasn’t gonna keep it, right?”
“I did her stupid little digital security training, and she gave it back. Now, she thinks I was lying about my computer skills to impress her because she’s into the same kinds of things I am.”
Evan is mature for his age. I can tell by how he handles tough situations, like the one I currently find myself in. “It hurts when the girl you like doesn’t respect you. I know that feeling firsthand.”
“Lexi isn’t my girl. She’s way too young for me. The problem is, I still think she might be involved in stealing my sister’s money. Lexi frequents that same chatroom, took crypto from me without a second thought, and it’s possible she only gave it back because I confronted her about my sister’s missing crypto. I mean, any sane person who was confronted about stealing in a biker clubhouse would do anything to get out in one piece, right?”
Evan sighs, “I don’t know much about solving digital crimes. But as you already know, my parents spent a lot of time looking for missing kids. I remember them talking about how hard it is not to get misdirected by things that seem to be clues but turn out to be unrelated to the case.”
I grab my chin, rubbing both sides of my jaw at the same time. “Yeah, she might not be involved in my sister’s case at all. But I need to rule her out all the same.”
“Maybe using crypto for bait wasn’t such a hot idea. I think a lot of people in that group who had nothing to do with your sister’s case would have taken the money. You had your passcode visible, and it must have felt like walking down the sidewalk and seeing a pile of money lying there.”
“Maybe, I was just offering low hanging fruit and hoping it would yield results? I guess I got the wrong results.”
“Looks like you need a new plan,” Evan says with another sigh.
“Yeah. At least now I know who ChaosCrone is, I can do a deep dive on her, so ruling Lexi out should be easy. But then I need to find out who really took my sister’s crypto.”
Evan pushes up from the stool to leave. “Good luck with that impossible quest. If you need anything from me, just let me know.”
“I will. Thanks for not being pissed about your girl having to leave tonight.”
“That kind of sucked. I understand she can’t be here if she’s bringing thieves and grifters into the clubhouse. Am I allowed to talk to her about this or should I tell her it’s club business?”
My crafty mind shifts into high gear. “No, by all means, talk to her about it. If she mentions anything that might have a bearing on the case let me know. Like if she mentions that Lexi has stolen before or if she bought a new sports car or something relevant, you know?”
“Sure, as long as you understand that Kayla isn’t into anything illegal. She’s not like that.”
“I don’t have any reason to suspect she is. If anything, maybe she’s too trusting of her friends.”
“I’ll be sure to warn her about that. Good luck again. I’ll catch you later.”
When Evan leaves and shuts the door behind him, I look down at my cellphone resting on the desk. It occurs to me that I have an advantage over the woman who may or may not have stolen a large chunk of crypto from my sister and now thinks I’m a braggart with no digital skills. That advantage is I have the file she sent with all the information on her father’s murder. That will include her full name, address, and other identifying information. I also know her screen name, ChaosCrone. She doesn’t know much about me—not my real name or anything that hints to my online identity. I can continue using the screenname Architect to engage with her and get to know her.
A little voice in the back of my head whispers one very dirty word, stalking . It’s not stalking if it’s for the greater good. It’s investigating. I’m not a festering turd, so I realize that some small part of me doesn’t want to give her up. On the off chance that she’s innocent, I want to get to know her personally. I know that I told Evan that Lexi’s too young for me and that’s partially true—I’m almost ten years older. But at the same time, Lexi comes closer than anyone I’ve ever met to fitting into my life and really understanding me because we have this huge, shared interest. It’s hard to resist the idea of seeing how compatible we are for a romantic relationship.
If I’m being honest with myself, either way, I want to prove myself to her. Like Evan said it sucks when the woman you’re kind of interested in doesn’t respect you. When he said that, I felt it in my soul.
As I open up the file she sent, I decide that finding my sister’s crypto will be priority number one, and finding the person who killed Lexi’s father will be priority number two. Almost as soon as the thought fully forms in my mind, images of the crime scene come up on my phone. It’s a gruesome scene, one that sends a chill down my spine.
I remember what Lexi told me about the killer wanting her. Panic immediately rises in my gut as I keep flipping through the crime scene images. What if he comes back? I can’t deprioritize her safety in favor of searching for my sister’s stolen crypto. If I did and something happened to her, I’d never forgive myself.
I grab my cell and send a text to our club officers, informing them of what’s going on and asking for round-the-clock protection for Lexi. I know she won’t like my club brothers hanging around her house, but she needs the protection. I make it clear that this isn’t a job for prospects because it involves a vicious killer circling back around for a second victim. Of course they leap into action. Siege sets up a meeting for the morning, and arranges for three of my club brothers to keep watch on her house tonight. I pull her address out of the police file and send it to my club president.
Then I text Evan to come back.
When he pops his head in the door, I motion him in.
“I knew you would eventually need me, ‘cause everyone always does,” he teases. “I just didn’t think it would be so soon.”
“This is serious. I just opened the police file on Lexi’s father’s murder.”
“Shit. That is serious,” Evan says as he plops down on the stool again.
“I wanted to warn you because your girl is a close associate of Lexi.”
“That all happened almost a year ago.”
“Yeah, but here’s the thing. The killer found a picture of Lexi and her dad. Lexi said the system her dad set up had visuals but no audio. She could see him pointing to her in the picture and asking her dad questions. When her dad glanced at one of the security cameras, the intruder realized she was watching. He walked up to the camera and gestured that he wanted to trade her for her father.”
“Oh shit. I’m glad she didn’t come out.”
“She tried to, but her old man locked her in the safe room.”
All the color drains from Evan’s face. “Are you saying that she watched the intruder kill her father?”
I nod grimly. “Yeah, she saw the whole thing. It’s really messed her up.”
“I know. Kayla says she hardly leaves her house and has all her shit delivered.”
“I’m reversing my ban decision. Since I never notified our club officers it never really went into effect anyway.”
Evan frowns, “I don’t understand. What are you trying to tell me?”
“Look, I know you’re only eighteen, but I think you should know that Siege and your dad are arranging round-the-clock protection for Lexi. She’d probably throw a fit, but she reported a couple of weird things going on with delivery drivers and such. We just want to make sure she’s safe until we find the killer.”
“What does that have to do with Kayla?”
“Does she live with her parents?”
“No, her older sister, their parents live in Arizona.”
“I’m suggesting that bringing your girl to the clubhouse might be advisable. I don’t think she’s in actual danger, but I’d hate to think that if the killer circles back around for Lexi and she’s too heavily guarded for him to get to, he might try to get his hands on an easier target—or even grab your girl or her sister and try to get Lexi to trade herself for one of them.”
“Oh hell no, that is not going to happen, not on my watch.”
It’s cute how Evan talks like a brother—his dad to be exact. “I don’t want to panic you. Like I said, there’s probably no direct danger to them. But maybe you can sweet-talk them into visiting the clubhouse for a week or two just to be on the safe side?”
Evan’s expression turns shifty, “You mean, don’t tell them they’re in danger.”
“Well, we don’t know that they are, right? Why panic them unnecessarily? Tell them that since things are getting more serious between you, that you want her to experience club culture so she knows what she’s getting herself into.”
“I don’t like keeping stuff from her. My dad always says hiding stuff from your woman only leads to trouble. But then again, you’re right about not panicking them without cause. Damn, this is a tough one.”
“Prospecting is full of hard choices. Maybe, call your dad and see what he says? All the brothers go to Rigs for advice.”
“Yeah, I think I’ll do that.”
I watch Evan leave, wishing he wasn’t involved in this situation. Then again if he hadn’t been dating Kayla, I never would have met Lexi and known she might be in danger. Maybe this was all meant to be?