31. Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-One
Griffin’s Beach Brock
T he two nights later, Brock sits in a small room without any windows or cameras. The nerves begin to take over, and he’s beginning to worry about Beckett. It’s been a week now since he last saw him, and he kicks himself for not asking Tony while they were in the infirmary about him.
Tony walks into the room with Lily behind him, a worried look on her face. “But he’s okay?” she asks.
“Yeah, he’s back in his cell. I have no idea what happened, but I found him unconscious in solitary,” Tony says, answering Brock’s unspoken question.
“Is he sick?”
The head shake makes Brock tense. “Bill?” he asks.
“Probably. How’s it going, Hankinson?”
She shoots him a look, and if Brock didn’t know they’ve seen each other naked already, he’d know by that look alone. “Tony. I’m fine. You?”
“Oh, you know, living the dream. Tongue fucking cranky nurses to get justice served.”
Snorting, Brock takes the laptop Lily hands him and connects it to her cell phone’s hotspot.
“I don’t even want to know,” Lily says.
“I didn’t, either, trust me,” Brock says and clicks around, opening everything he needs.
“How’d you arrange this?” she asks Tony.
He smirks when Brock glances up. “You don’t want to know.”
“You’re disgusting.”
“Well, I don’t exactly have a hot little number with curves like yours to go home to. I gotta offer up my services to those who actually appreciate them.”
He clearly doesn’t care that Brock knows anymore, but he chooses not to engage. Instead, he focuses on the screen in front of him.
“Explain this to me,” Tony says. “What the fuck did you do, and what are you doing now?”
Lily looks nervous across the desk from them, and he understands. At this point, it’s not just his life at stake. If Brock fucks this up, it puts her in the crosshairs as his lawyer, not to mention her family. Ramsey will no doubt go after the club if he’s caught.
“Where’s your poker face, Lil?” Brock asks, hoping to reduce some of the tension. It’s throwing him off his game a bit.
“It went out the window when the judicial system I could always fall back on disappeared. I don’t know what else to do if this doesn’t work, Brock.”
No, it’s not nervousness that has Lily fidgeting like she is.
It’s fear. Seeing it written on her face freaks him out as much as it would if he saw fear on Lex’s face.
They’re two of the toughest people he knows, and it really drives the point home that failure is not an option here.
Not if he hopes to ever see his family again.
“Did Summer say anything?”
“No, she just got the information you wrote down to her dad, and then what you sent the other day. Talk to us, Brock. What’s the plan? What are you doing?”
Sighing, he looks up at them. The one thing he dislikes is having to explain something technical to non-technical people. And this outs him a bit.
“About a decade ago, I created the program I had Sebastian buy and implement to track money movement within his company. I sold it for some extra cash. The other day, I duplicated it to create a phishing link I’m going to send that looks identical.
Because it was implemented weeks ago, it’s less likely Ramsey will see it as suspicious. ”
Tony leans over and looks at his screen. “Wait, so you can do shit like this that actually makes you money? Like, legit money?”
“If I didn’t like to see action every once in a while, I could’ve probably built an empire. Or been flagged by the FBI. If I’m not already.”
“Might’ve been safer,” Lily says. “And what does this link do?”
“If it goes according to plan, it’ll give me access to all of his stuff. I just sent the approval request. Now, all I have left to do is send an email from Sebastian making sure he saw it.”
“What if he’s at work?” Tony asks. “Don’t you need to get into his home network? Or is there a link you can get into somehow?”
Lily shakes her head. “He’s at home. I have someone watching him. If he leaves his house, I’ll get a text.”
The phone rings, making all three of them jump, and Lily puts it on speaker. “Lily Hankinson.”
“Are you with Brock?” Sebastian says, his voice a whisper.
“I’m here,” Brock says. “What’s up?”
“Ramsey’s messaging me. What do I say?”
“Hold on for a second. I’m going to get into your computer. Click the link I just sent you, and I’ll take it from there.”
The instant message appears, and Brock smirks.
DONALD RAMSEY: Did you request a move of funds? I just got an approval request.
SEBASTIAN GRIFFIN: Sorry, just got off the phone with the bank and was about to call you. They think there’s a fraudulent charge, and if we don’t approve or deny it in an hour, the account will be frozen until later next week while they determine the origins. Wednesday at the earliest.
DONALD RAMSEY: We have payments going out Monday. If the account is frozen, every one of our clients will have a fee charged to them. Plus, we have payment delay penalties in our contracts, right?
SEBASTIAN GRIFFIN: That’s right. Can you log in and decline the charge? Unless it’s supposed to go. I didn’t initiate anything, and I doubt you meant to send ten grand to Nigeria.
DONALD RAMSEY: Why didn’t Bob call me?
SEBASTIAN GRIFFIN: He said he tried but got no answer. My number’s listed on other documents.
DONALD RAMSEY: Can you deny it? I’m not at work.
SEBASTIAN GRIFFIN: I don’t have access to that. Only you do.
“I feel like I’m in a James Bond movie or something,” Sebastian says. “I’m not sure the excitement is good for my heart, but damn if this isn’t exhilarating.”
DONALD RAMSEY: Yeah, I’ll log in and decline it. Do we need to investigate where the charge originated from?
SEBASTIAN GRIFFING: Bob said the bank will take care of that, but I can call him back just to verify. He did suggest changing the banking password just in case.
DONALD RAMSEY: Of course he did. The passwords are already a pain in the ass to deal with. I’m declining now. May be out on Monday. Think I’m coming down with something.
“Has anyone found Shannon yet?” Brock asks, but he can’t stop the smile. “He clicked the link.”
“No, we haven’t,” Lily says.
“What does this mean?” Sebastian asks.
“It means I’m in. Thanks, Sebastian.” Hanging up the call, he looks at Lily. “Any chance your follower can ring his doorbell? I need him to step away from his computer.”
Shrugging, she sends a text. “I just told Grayson to go and question him about whether or not he’s seen Shannon. And to keep him busy.”
Ramsey changes the banking password, and he shakes his head. No password list gets updated, which doesn’t surprise him, but it’s another way for the man to control the funds.
The movement stops, and Lily’s phone vibrates. “He’s got him.”
“Okay, here goes nothing,” Brock says and quickly gets to work. “First thing I’m doing is blocking him from being able to stop any of this if he happens to catch me. The only option he’ll have is to unplug everything.”
“Then we’re screwed?” she asks.
Shaking his head, he smiles. “No, he is. With the way his system is set up—now that I’ve made a few changes—it’ll corrupt all of his files. He thinks he’s smart, but I’m smarter. Should’ve just figured this out from the get-go.”
He continues clicking and pulling up all of the files, easily decrypting the hidden ones. For someone who believes himself to be a smart Jack Bauer, he really just spent a lot of money on equipment to make everything seem intimidating. It’s surprisingly simple to access everything.
“Did you bring the external hard drive I asked for?”
“This thing?”
Reaching into her bag, she pulls out exactly what he wanted. “Perfect,” he says and plugs it into the laptop.
File after file transfers, and his smile continues to grow. This looks like it might just work.
“What’s the judge’s name on the case?”
“Nance,” Lily says. “John Nance.”
Finding the files, he attaches them to the email and sends it to her. “What Ramsey had on him is now in your inbox.”
A relief sigh sounds, and she slumps down in her seat. “We did it?”
“I think he did it,” Tony says. “This is like watching a movie where I understand nothing you just fucking did.”
He laughs. “I have everything he did, and it’s all gone from his network. He won’t know until he tries to open a file only to corrupt his entire system. If you show the judge that you have what he did, and that Ramsey no longer does, I’m guessing he’ll play ball.”
“Thank God.”
“Lily?”
“Yeah?”
Looking at the table, he strums his fingers on the table. “How pissed off is Colt?”
“Fucking livid, but he wants you and Beckett out of here almost as much as Summer does. But don’t be surprised if you’re taking over the Prospects’ shit work.”
“How’s she holding up?”
“She’s scared. To be honest, I think all of us are. Not knowing what he had on us while knowing he had something was terrifying. What are you going to do with what you took?”
He smirks. “We’re going to hold onto it somewhere safe just in case we ever need it for anything.”
“Brock, we should get rid of it. If no one has it, we have a better chance.”
“I’m going to protect the club at all costs. It’ll be safe, and I got rid of all of our files. Everything else will be at our disposal if and when we need it.”
And Brock plans to only use it if absolutely necessary. It’s clear by the look she gives him that she disagrees, but it doesn’t matter. He’ll never put himself or the club in his position again. Not if he can help it.
“How long until they’re released?” Tony asks.
Lily packs up her bag. “I’m waking the judge up when I leave here. Hopefully, they’ll be out by tomorrow at the latest.”
“We still got a deal, Bradshaw?”
He nods. “As soon as we take care of Ramsey and get Beckett’s girl back safe, I’ll make it happen. Any requests?”
Standing, he leads Brock out and back to his cell. “Just to make it hurt.”
“Gladly.”