Chapter 16 #2
Luke has his phone out and steps away from us to issue orders to one of our men.
“What the bloody hell is going on?” Owen asks as he steps into the room.
“We’re still sorting that out.”
Hunter storms into the room. “I thought you said this place would be safe.”
“It is. We’re still sorting out what’s going on. Grace has had a stalker for a few weeks, and it seems the fucker is escalating.”
“That’s the sort of shit I should have known about before I brought my fucking wife here, Thorne,” Hunter growls.
“I know, boss. But it seemed like child’s play. Mysterious flower deliveries to her apartment, that sort of thing. This is a massive escalation that we weren’t expecting.”
“Do you really think he has a bomb?”
Tyson shakes his head. “No way to tell. I’m getting Samuel on the phone now.”
Hunter nods. “He’ll have other contacts if you need them. Use whatever resources you have to.”
The next few minutes are chaos as everyone barks orders into phones and continues to peer out the front door at the car in question.
As I’m talking to our man at the gas station, I realize that I never gave Sabrina’s phone to Owen.
“She told us it was glitching when she was on her way over here. Check into it.” I pass him the phone. “And… don’t fucking blow anything up if you can help it.”
Owen chuckles, but it’s a nervous laugh. Not something I hear from him very often.
In his office, he plugs the phone into a computer, and his fingers fly across the keyboard.
“It’s definitely been tampered with. Get Tyson in here.”
When Tyson looks at Owen’s screen, he nods. “Sloppy bastards. I can disarm this.”
“So, it is connected to a bomb?”
Tyson doesn’t answer as he shoves Owen out of the way and takes over typing. I’m surprised Owen lets him get away with it. No one touches his machines without fear of losing a hand.
But the situation is exceptional, so I suppose that’s why he’s not pulling out his knife.
Tyson pulls out his own phone and dials a number. “Carter, never mind. Stay with your wife. I’ve got this. Could use a hand from Boomer, though. Tell him to call me.”
A minute later, Tyson’s phone rings. He taps a button and sets the phone on the desk next to him.
“You’re on speaker. I’ve got a piece of software on Sabrina’s phone that has some malware in it that will trigger an explosive in her car. Can I hook you in and have you help me disarm it in the next three minutes?”
“Jesus Christ, Ty. What the hell have you gotten yourself into?”
“It’s not me. It’s my friends dragging me into their shit.”
“Open a socket for me and I’ll see what I can do.”
I step closer to the phone. “Victor Serrano, try and isolate who these fuckers are if you can.”
“You can listen to him,” Tyson says when I’m met with silence.
“Serrano, as in the Serrano Cartel?” Boomer asks.
I close my eyes, kicking myself for using my last name. “Something like that. But I’m largely out of the family business.”
“I know who you are. I’ve followed you and your friends in Las Vegas for a few years. Mother fucker,” he swore, and Tyson’s fingers sped up on the keyboard.
“What’s going on?”
“They’re trying to kick us out. Whoever this is may be sloppy, but they’ve got at least some knowledge.”
I stand helpless as Tyson and Boomer mutter to themselves for the next two minutes and thirty seconds.
“Next time don’t sign your work, fuckface. But no, hackers always have to sign their work,” The man on the phone mutters.
“Did you identify them?”
“I’ve got a hacker name. And I’ve got a contact who can probably tell me their real identity in under twelve hours. More like my baby girl has a contact, but whatever.”
“Tell Lance and Marissa hi for me,” Tyson teases. “And tell Olivia we miss her.”
I’m grateful for Tyson’s contacts, but there isn’t time for all this playing around. I stalk out of the room and bump into Grace.
“You look stressed,” she says, placing a hand on my chest.
I cover her palm with mine and bend down to kiss her. “That’s an understatement. Are you OK, butterfly?”
She blows out a long breath. “I think so. Is there really a bomb in Sabrina’s car?”
I cup her cheek and drag a thumb along the rigid bone structure. “It sounds like it. But Tyson and a friend of his were able to disarm it. We’ve got people at the gas station looking for whoever this could be. They sent a second text and referred to you as Gracie.”
“That means it’s someone who knows me as Gracie, knows my favorite flowers, and has some tech skills. It can’t be that long of a list.”
I cringe inside, for keeping what I know from her. It’s a short list. One name, in fact. But I’m not ready to put this on her plate yet, so I kiss her again and change the subject. “What are you doing right now?”
“I was heading to check on Lili. The doctor says she should try and eat something if she’s awake.”
I pull her close. “You should as well. Something tells me you haven’t eaten tonight. And you should get some sleep if you can.”
“Zara fed me a couple of hours ago when she came to the house.”
I kiss the top of her head. “Good. Then feed Lili and try to get a nap. But before you do that, try to think of some names that we can start running down.”
“Will you come lie down with us if you get the chance?”
I was planning to just catch a nap in my office, but the thought of curling up with Grace and Lili is far too appealing. “If things calm down.”
“I love you, Victor.”
“I love you, Grace. And we’re going to keep you safe.
” My first order of business will be tracking down Kara Lindon.
Owen has too much on his plate, and I’m not completely useless when it comes to finding people.
Whether she has tech skills or not, we’ve already determined that Kara is pissed at Grace, and is likely sending the flowers, and her and her husband called her Gracie because everyone did back then.
Sampson even pulled out the high school bully nickname a few times and called her Spacey Gracie, which made me want to punch him.
It’s no wonder Grace rarely let me see her when she was with them.