Chapter 17 Dare
SEVENTEEN
DARE
Iglanced back at Zach and wanted to pull him into a hug. Into my arms.
All this time he hadn’t told me about the messages. All this time and he’d been suffering in silence while I thought he’d been safe. He might have been physically, but mentally?
“You should have told me,” I said when we got into the house.
I tamed Lookah’s response and he turned to Zach for comfort, who sank into the couch and embraced my dog’s affection.
“I know. I know. But then again what can you do about it? Huh?” he mumbled, barely able to look at me.
He had a point. What could I do about it, barring blocking the unknown number or confiscating the phone, so he didn’t have to get retraumatized with every text message? Not that taking one more thing from him would do wonders for his mental health, but it was better than the alternative wasn’t it?
No, Zach was right.
There was nothing I could do about it. But that didn’t necessarily hold true for someone else.
I pulled my phone out and retreated into my bedroom while I waited for my call to be connected. Seconds later, Wyatt’s gruff voice came through, and it put a nasty, bitter taste on my tongue.
“Where are we with Victor Lombardi?” I asked, not bothering with pleasantries.
“Same place we were yesterday. A dead end,” Wyatt replied in a similar tone.
I huffed.
“Are you seriously telling me that man is walking free around town and you haven’t been able to locate him? How the fuck is that possible?”
“Because I don’t have the resources of the Navy, Dare. What do you want from me? What do you expect from me? Want me to hack into the surveillance system in town to find your guy?”
“He’s not my guy, and yes! Do that.”
“Well we don’t have fucking surveillance, Dare. We’re a small island. The best we can do is wait. He’ll come out of hiding at some point.”
I realized I’d been walking in circles only when I started to feel the room spinning around me and I stopped to look at the ceiling. My temples throbbed with an imminent headache. Not that unusual when talking to my ex.
“So what is Zach supposed to do? Hide out here for the rest of his life and get ambushed by sick, twisted text messages while we wait for that sick bastard to come out? Huh, Wyatt?”
“It’s not like you mind now, do you?” Wyatt scoffed on the other end, and it took me by surprise.
I’d never heard him like that before. So sarcastic and venomous before. It sounded alien coming from him. Alien and horrible.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I barked.
“As if you don’t know,” he grumbled and I took pause.
Was…was Wyatt jealous? Of Zach?
“Really, Wyatt? You’re gonna go all jealous ex-boyfriend on me? Now? Five years too late? Get out of here with that bull—”
“Hang on!” he said and I stopped.
I took a deep breath and shouted a “what?” at him.
“Did you…did you say sick, twisted messages?”
“Yeah. That asshole has been messaging Zach all kinds of stalkery, scary bullshit.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before?”
“Because you’re not my boss, Wyatt!” I snapped at him then composed myself. “I only just found out he’s been getting them.”
“That’s great!” Wyatt said.
“What about it is gr—”
“Shut up and listen. I’m sending Slade over to you. I’ll get the team together. We’re going to find this bastard. Today!” he said and hung up before I could question his statements or sanity.
I glared at my phone for a second as if it held any answers and when it clearly didn’t provide any, I returned to the living room. Zach wasn’t on the couch anymore. I turned to my left and found him in the kitchen opening a bottle of milk next to a bowl.
“What are you doing?” I asked though it was pretty obvious.
Baking was his escape. Baking was his therapy and comfort.
“Making brioche bread,” he answered and instead of questioning him or leaving him to it, I joined him.
I put on the spare apron hanging on the hook by the wall and I approached him.
“Tell me what to do?” I pressed my lips together and looked him in the eyes.
He stared back and I didn’t miss the glisten in them, which he blinked away and smiled as he took a step to the side and handed me the whisk.
I started mixing as he added honey and yeast to the bowl then got the eggs and cracked them open in a separate bowl.
I set my yeast mix aside for a few minutes and got him the sugar and flour and measured them as instructed.
Once they were combined, the yeast was ready to add into the second bowl. He left me to fold everything together as he got the butter out of the fridge.
By the time we finished the process I’d forgotten all about Victor and it seemed that Zach had too. No wonder he used baking as a distraction.
But then there was a knock on the door and reality came crashing back.
Just as Wyatt had promised, Slade was there, with a laptop bag in hand and a smirk on his face.
“I heard you needed me,” he said and I made room for him so Lookah could give him the seal of approval.
The goats bleated at him as Lookah sniffed his shoes then his pants legs before wagging his tail and trying to climb the tall, Black man.
“Apparently, but I’m still not clear on why,” I said and showed him to the kitchen island.
He took a seat opposite Zach, and he pulled his laptop out.
“You’ve been getting messages from Lombardi?” he asked Zach who glanced at me before he nodded. “Fantastic.”
Slade started typing something on the laptop and I was stumped once again. What about any of this was fantastic to these people? Had my teammates lost it since they joined Wyatt? It wouldn’t surprise me.
“Can I have your phone number?” Slade asked Zach.
Zach grimaced and answered him and when he was done, he turned to me looking for information, as if I had any.
“Want to tell us what you’re doing there, bud, or are you going to leave us in the dark?” I asked Slade.
“Oh. Didn’t Wyatt tell you?” I shook my head. “Oops. Sorry. My bad. So yeah. Basically, I’ve written a self-propagating payload that piggybacks on metadata that auto-executes at the firmware boundary and gives me full access to a person’s cell and their GPS location.”
He was still breathing normally when he finished even though it sounded like he’d done a verbal gymnastics routine that would have made me sweat.
“Uhm…what?” Zach vocalized my confusion.
Slade looked from him to me and back to Zach.
“Oh sorry. Plain English. Basically, I wrote a virus that acts like a hitchhiker. It piggybacks on a message and gives me full access to the recipient's phone and pings me their location.” Slade smiled, notably pleased with himself.
And why wouldn’t he be. That sounded ingenious.
“Is that even legal?”
He glared at me with a gaping mouth and hummed.
“Well…” he said.
“Got it,” I answered.
Slade turned to Zach.
“So you can find him?” Zach asked.
“Sure,” he replied and clicked enter on his laptop.
Zach’s phone beeped. He jumped and looked at his device full of terror.
“It’s okay. That’s just me, piggybacking onto you,” Slade said.
“Oh,” Zach said and picked up his phone. “It just says hi.”
He showed me the message and I nodded in confirmation.
Slade chuckled.
“Of course. But my little hitchhiker is there, hiding in plain sight. Well, hiding in code, but you get my point.”
Zach shrugged.
“I have no idea if I even understand that much, but okay. So now you can see everything on my phone?”
Slade smirked.
“I can, but don’t worry. I won’t snoop. Your porn search history is safe.”
Zach burst out laughing. I looked for embarrassment in his reaction or shame or anything, but there was none. That was good because I would have turned beet red if I knew Slade could look into my search history on PornHub.
“Wait a minute. Do you have access to my phone?” I asked him.
Slade frowned and shook his head.
“Of course not. I always ask before I gain access to my friend’s phones. It’s only been necessary on a couple of missions.”
I sighed internally and nodded, turning to Zach.
“Now what?” I asked.
Zach turned to Slade and asked the same thing.
“Now,” Slade said, looking back at Zach. “Now you message him back.”
“What?” Both Zach and I said at the same time.
Slade glanced at us in confusion.
“I thought I explained how this works.”
“Well, yeah but I didn’t expect you to want him to poke the hornet’s nest.”
“That’s the only way to find him.”
“Yeah, but still—” I started when Zach interrupted.
“It’s okay. I’ll do it. It’s not a problem.”
His voice came out tame, meek even. It always did when he talked about Victor.
What did he do to you?
I hadn’t asked him all this time. That was because I could imagine, but seeing him now I wondered if my imagination was wilder than reality or if finding out the truth would be worse.
“Are you sure?” I asked.
Zach nodded.
“Wh-what do I say?”
Slade pursed his lips from side to side.
“Anything. You can just say hi—”
“No. That will encourage him,” I said.
“Or you can say who dis? It doesn’t matter. Anything will work.”
Zach sighed, staring at Slade. He took a couple of moments to inhale and exhale then turned to his phone and started typing.
“Okay?” Slade asked him and glanced up from the screen.
I walked around the counter and looked at the laptop.
I could see Zach’s text messaging app with all the messages from Victor and Zach’s reply:
“Leave me alone you psycho.”
I bit my lip.
I wasn’t sure that was the best thing to send to a stalker ex, but this was his life and if that was what he needed to say to get it out of his system then so be it.
“And we’re off to the races,” Slade exclaimed.
“You got him?” I asked.
“Not yet,” he mumbled. “Just relaying to the cell tower. Hold on…”
I watched his screen. A bunch of code and numbers scrolled through, slowly first, then dizzyingly fast until it stopped and I had no idea what any of it meant. I was surprised anyone could actually read it.
“And we got him.”
“You know where he is?”
Slade turned to me and smirked.
“Oh yeah,” he answered and picked up his phone. “I’ve got a location. Are you ready?”
I touched Slade’s shoulder and made him look at me.
“I want to come,” I said.
“What?” Zach asked.
I ignored him.
“I want to join you.”
Slade nodded and gave Wyatt or whoever was on the line instructions to wait for me.
I walked into my bedroom, in the closet, opened my safe and got my handgun out then ran out but stopped at the front door when I felt Zach’s hand on mine.
“Dare,” he whispered and I turned to face him.
He looked small, so small in that moment. Small and fragile and I wanted nothing more than to stay here with him, take him in my arms, and make him feel strong and precious. To make him feel safe again.
But I wanted to get that bastard that had caused Zach so much anguish. I needed to see his face beaten to a pulp. To see him disappear from this world so that Zach, my Zach, could feel safe in his skin again.
“Yeah,” I whispered back.
“Be careful please.”
His eyes were big and needy and his lips plump, mine for the taking. I wanted to kiss him. To claim him. To make him mine. But I couldn’t. Now was not the time. It never would be. I couldn’t have him. I couldn’t have anyone ever again even if it felt like my resolve was breaking apart.
I had to be strong.
I was only just starting to pick myself off the ground again. I couldn’t risk sinking back into it.
“I will,” I told him and squeezed his hand before I opened the front door and turned to Slade. “Can you—”
“Stay here with Zach? You got it, pal. Good luck out there. Go get that son of a bitch.”
I clenched my jaw and nodded and was out the door and into my car at record speed. I drove to the Outpost where Wyatt, Joey and Ash were waiting for me, and I exchanged brief pleasantries with everyone but Wyatt before we were on the road again.
The coordinates from Slade lead us to a warehouse off Elmwood Beach.
It stood empty and ransacked in the middle of the field, haunted by rats and roaches.
I had to admit; it was a good hideout. It was inconspicuous, although I had a bad feeling about it.
I didn’t know why, but something in my gut told me this was wrong. And I always trusted my gut.
As we got out of the car, Wyatt handed me an earpiece and I glared at him.
“What?” he asked.
“We’re not back in the Navy, Wyatt. I don’t need that.” I brushed his hand away and walked ahead.
“What are you doing?” Ash asked.
“What does it look like I’m doing?”
“Don’t—” Ash tried to stop me, but it was too late already.
I kicked the front door down—which wasn’t hard considering the warehouse’s state—and marched right ahead.
The others followed me, weapons at the ready but there was no need for them. There was no need for any of this.
The warehouse was empty. Were there hiding spots? Of course. But we wouldn’t find anyone.
That was because there was a circle in the middle of the floor, drawn in red paint or blood. In the middle of the circle was a handwritten note with a knife stabbed through the paper.
I ripped the note away and showed it to the others, engaging the lock on my handgun and putting it away.
“He knew we were coming,” Joey said and I stared at the back of the note, re-reading the words in reverse.
“Do you like games?” it read.