Chapter 24
Damien
Five Days Later
‘DArkSide’ – Bring Me The Horizon
Five in the morning is too damn early. Kade better be here to say something worth our time, because if I see Ashia yawn again, we’re going back to bed.
We haven’t gotten our sleep schedules back to normal since I went back to work.
It’s gone well, though, and I’m proud of the progress I’ve made there.
We haven’t all been there at once, because we’re not leaving Victoria and Elizabeth here by themselves, but I’m sure to always have Ashia with me.
There are times when she naps in the office, but she’s been a trooper, trying to keep up with everything we’re doing.
The baby has been moving a lot at night, waking her up multiple times.
We’re just a couple days short of her twenty-eighth week, and our coconut-sized baby girl is starting to take up all of her mother’s womb.
It’s both amazing and terrifying to learn about how she’s grown each week.
Now, she can start to dream, and Ashia’s concerns about what she can hear matter even more.
My wife was ahead of the game before I even learned all of the rules, and fuck, I admire her even more.
She adjusted her pillow the other night because of her hips aching, and ever since, I haven’t been able to sleep right.
I can’t hold her like I normally do. It shouldn’t bother me so much, because I want her to be comfortable, but I just can’t sleep when I’m not curled around her.
My leg should be between hers, not some Cheeto-shaped fluff ball.
I’m wound up so tightly about it that I’ve been thinking of ways I could support her with my body instead.
I know how absolutely ridiculous that is, but I also understand what a possessive, needy prick I am.
And I need my wife at all times.
“Jesus, D. What's wrong with you?” Carter shuffles up next to me, carrying his empty coffee mug and staring at mine like if I don’t hurry up, he’ll shove me out of the way.
“I didn't sleep well last night.” I pour the bitter gold into my cup and slide the pot back a little more aggressively than I probably should. There really isn’t anything to complain about.
She’s still next to me every night, and she’s there when I open my eyes again.
My hand always manages to find a part of her to grab onto while I sleep, but agitation bubbles under my skin anyway.
I need to find a solution as quickly as possible, because I refuse to make Ashia feel bad for her comfort.
“Are you still having nightmares?”
That only makes it worse.
“No,” I snap back at him, thankful that it’s only a partial lie. I’m not having them like I was, but every now and then, they’ll sneak their way into my dreams. It’s not enough to force me awake in a panic anymore, but enough to rattle my nerves.
“Then what's wrong?” Carter scoots in closer to snatch the pot off the warmer—but also so I can whisper if needed. How do I explain to my best friend that I'm jealous of a God damn pregnancy pillow?! A literal piece of fluff!
“I said nothing, Carter. Drop it.” I sip my coffee and stomp back to the living area like a child.
Zeke’s lounging in one of the armchairs like he owns the place, and for him to be so spritely without caffeine only pisses me off more.
I know Dr. Von cleared him before she left, but I’m starting to think we shouldn’t take her word for shit.
Ashia looks up at me with tired eyes once I round the couch, but the moment she sees my mug, her eyes droop and she frowns.
“That smells so good…” She fucking pouts, and it almost does me in when she starts to tear up.
Fuck, I’m an idiot. She’s exhausted, uncomfortable, and she can’t have caffeine to battle it.
“Shit, baby. I’m sorry.” I set the mug down on the far side of the coffee table, just to get it away from her, and Zeke snatches it before I have a moment to register it.
“Thanks, boss.” He fucking winks at me and sips on it, grinning smugly as it runs down this throat.
You’re an asshole, I mouth back to him, and he just wiggles his brows before drinking even more of it.
Dick.
“No, no. I’m sorry. Go get more. It’s fine.
” Ashia shakes her head and squeezes my hand.
She blinks rapidly, clearly fighting off actual tears, and it pulls at my chest. I take a small breath, using whatever tiny instant I have to get my shit together, and then sit down beside her, pulling her close.
“I don’t need it.” I kiss the top of her head as she curls against me, and I inhale her warmth to settle my nerves.
She sinks in, resting her head on my chest and wrapping an arm around my middle.
This is exactly how I plan to spend my day once Kade leaves—keeping her in my arms and counting our baby’s kicks under my palm.
Carter and Alex finally join us as we all wait for Kade to get out of his damn car.
He pulled in about five minutes ago, but he hasn’t walked in yet.
Whatever he has to talk to us about must be big.
For him to call at four in the morning and practically demand an invitation is bold, and the worry in his tone is what made me agree in the first place.
I’ve been at the Attic every day since I went back last week, so this must be something we can’t talk about there.
As if I summon him, he pokes his head in from the garage door before stepping inside fully. Even though his hair is buzzed, it’s still in disarray. Some places are sticking up worse than others, and his tired eyes tell me that he either just woke up or didn’t sleep at all.
“Morning, everyone.” Kade’s tone is nervous, like he’s walking into a lion’s den and trying not to startle a house full of predators.
“Morning,” my wife greets him back. Her sad, tired tone brings my irritation to the surface once again, and I squeeze her a little tighter before addressing my friend.
“What’s this about, Kade? What was so important that I had to drag my wife out of bed?”
He clicks his teeth together as he moves to the center of the room with his laptop is in one hand and his phone is in the other, clearly prepared to show us something.
“We need to talk about Satori,” he reveals. Ashia perks up, lifting her head from my chest like she’s intrigued.
“What about him?” she asks.
“I was looking back at everything that’s happened this past year.
Not only to us, but you guys, too. Everything with Dust, the poisoning, our attack, and both of you being taken.
” He points to Ashia and I. “We’ve all taken serious precautions to keep this stuff from happening, right?
But nothing has worked. You’ve had to reconfigure the security for this house, what? Three times now?”
“At least,” Carter adds with an eye roll.
“Right,” Kade continues. “And I was curious as to why. You’re just as good of a hacker, if not better than me, D. And so is Carter. So why the hell was it still getting hacked? Why has all of this shit happened when we should’ve been able to prevent it?”
“I’m going to assume that you know the answer to that?” I get smart with him, not liking the runaround.
“Right, sorry. So, I dug deeper into the security at our old post, and I didn’t find anything that we didn’t know already, but here at the house?
” He pauses, looking like he’ll choke on his own words.
“It was my fucking code, D…” His hands start to visibly shake.
He practically drops his tech onto the table.
Alarms go off behind my eyes, and I tighten my grip on my wife instinctively.
“What are you talking about, Kade?”
“The hacking code that broke into your home security system? It was mine… I made it…” he admits, and I think my heart stops beating. Zeke sits forward in the chair, slowly moving his hand down to his side like he’ll pull his knife out in a split second.
“Are you saying that you—”
“No!” He throws his hands out and shakes his head erratically. “I swear! I didn’t do anything!”
“Then get to the fucking point!” Zeke yells at him, pushing Carter and Alex to protective, tense postures.
“Someone had to have used my code to hack into the system, and I think that same person is planting bits and pieces of it into the Attic’s security.”
“What’s makes you think that?” Carter asks.
"I started deciphering the code to match it to the house’s system—so I could see what you created and what was foreign. There are pieces of my code there as well, but not the whole thing.”
“The Attic’s security was built to notify us if someone was trying to embed a sleeper code,” I retort.
“Right, but only files larger than one byte—which is small as hell—but these fragments of code are only one bit a piece. That’s why no one knew it was there. It’s too small.”
“Okay, but what does this have to do with Satori?” Zeke asks as if he’s dying for the answer. Kade doesn’t look at him though; he keeps his eyes trained on me.
“Satori would’ve been the only one that had access to my systems, and no one else in our group knows how coding works…”
“Are you saying Satori hacked our security system? Because he said you did that for him when you all first arrived,” Carter insinuates.
“What do you mean?” Kade snaps his gaze in Carter’s direction.
“The day of the mass poisoning?” Carter continues. “When Satori just showed up? He got all the way to the front door without us knowing about it, and we didn’t know until he flat-out knocked on it.”
Kade looks like he dies right then. His face pales and he doesn’t breathe. He turns back to me in a slow, eerie movement with wide eyes.
“D… I’ve never hacked your system.” His face turns red in an instant, like life comes back in unfitting rage. “Never.”
“Alright, alright. Hold up.” Alex holds his hand out, like he needs to catch up. I know exactly where this is going… Fury catches in my chest, making each breath I take feel like fire. “What exactly are you saying, Kade?”
He takes a deep breath like he’s preparing himself to admit a crime.