25. Mason
25
MASON
W e waited inside the garage. The lights went out, and still we waited a little longer. I figured if Zeke was coming back to hack, he’d need to do some things to get situated. Food. Drinks. His favorite clothing. I didn’t know, but within ten minutes, it grew silent on the other side of the door.
I nudged the door open. People didn’t typically lock the door between their house and garage. Some did, but most didn’t. It was a calculated risk. If he came home, thought he was secure, we could sneak in.
I turned the handle, holding my breath, and it went all the way.
The door opened.
No alarm sounded.
I eased inside with Logan moving silently behind me.
We moved like breaking and entering was something we did on the daily. It wasn’t, and we were committing a crime, but my heart had no idea. My pulse was calm and steady. My mind was focused. I’d been more nervous before a professional football game.
Only a single light was on over the stove. The living room was dark. Kitchen. Dining room. We could see enough to know when to step over the kid’s toys. As we worked our way through the house, clearing the first floor before heading to the second level, I went over what I’d been told about this guy.
Fallen Crest born and bred. His dad had been on the Kade Enterprises’s board for a few years before something happened and he sold his shares. He and his wife began traveling after that. I wasn’t sure of the timing or the reason, but I wondered if something had happened with their kid? There were quite a few reports of his run-ins with Channing’s sister. He went to school in the same timeframe. Then Zeke Allen did a one-eighty. There were no notes about what happened or why, but suddenly he was considered a good guy.
What was so good about him?
There’d been no mention of his hacking skills in the file my PI had one of her colleagues send my way. None at all. He’d joined the same fraternity as Park Sebastian had, and that right there told me everything I needed to know about him.
We got through the second floor, and still nothing.
There was no third floor. I doubted he would have a computer system in the attic, so that left the basement.
Logan fell into step behind me. We moved down the stairs and circled, looking for the basement entrance.
I began to move into the kitchen, then backtracked when I noticed the door with a sliver of a light underneath it.
I tested the handle. It opened, leading to their pantry.
What the fuck?
I began to turn around again. While their pantry was big enough for three of us to comfortably stand inside, there was no point—until a light flashed from the floor.
I paused, kneeling down to inspect it. It flashed again, like a flashlight moving below. I blinked in surprise. It was a hidden door. I touched the shelf, and it moved. Logan stepped in close, looking just as perplexed.
I pushed the door open wider. It moved, revealing carpeted stairs leading into their basement.
Jackpot.
I glanced at my brother, who nodded. He stepped aside to let me lead, and as we crept down, he pulled the door shut behind us. The only light downstairs came from underneath another closed door.
When we got to the bottom, we framed the door where the light was shining. I surveyed the room behind us. There were two more doors. A larger room behind us. All the lights were off. I stepped back, wanting to clear the rest of the basement.
When Logan saw what I was doing, he went with me. We moved fast and were soon back in position. I waited, meeting his gaze. Was he ready for this?
He gave me a nod.
All right then. Here we go .
I turned the knob, letting the door swing open.
Zeke’s desk spanned the entire wall. There were multiple computer screens. A plastic mat covered the floor, and as he worked, he cursed, then wheeled his chair over to type away on a different computer screen.
I’d never witnessed hacking. I had no frame of reference, but this wasn’t what I expected to see. Zeke Allen had been a jock in high school. Baseball, I thought… He frowned in concentration. A couple of energy drinks sat next to him, along with a bowl of candy. He was shirtless with sweats. There were barbells on the floor beside the desk. A kitchenette was in the corner of the room with a microwave and a small refrigerator. He’d pulled out some water and a beer, leaving them on the counter beside the sink. A Keurig machine sat in the corner.
“Fuck…shit,” he muttered. “Not today, asshole. Not. Today.” He hit a button and froze. Then he shot out of his chair and whooped, throwing his arms in the air. “Fuck yeah! Take that. I got you, you little piece of—” He shoved the chair away and bent down to keep typing, but when he looked back to see where his chair had gone, he saw us instead.
Fear flashed. It took a second before he understood what was happening. He sprang, going for his desk. His hand reached for something under it.
We jumped first. I launched myself at him, tackling him, and I rolled him all the way away from his desk and chair. I didn’t know what he was reaching for, but I wanted to be safe in case there was a gun stashed underneath.
During the roll, he started fighting.
I kept my grip on him tight and shifted my leg to block his kicks.
He tried to get to his feet. Logan was there, but I grabbed his ankle and yanked. Hard.
He fell flat on his face.
He roared and was in the air in the next second, red in the face and swinging. The fight was quiet, but it was violent. We didn’t goad him. Instead we were silent, calm. He was desperate to get away from us, and he knew he was going to lose. His eyes were dilated, panicked. He just hit and hit and hit. For the most part, Logan and I continued to block his hits until he began to tire out. Once that began to happen, Logan raised his eyes to me.
I nodded.
We rushed him again, taking him to the ground. I reared up, coming down with one last punch to knock him out. His body slumped. He was unconscious.
We worked quickly to clean any evidence of our struggle. When we were done, the room didn’t look as if a struggle had happened. We took his phone, wallet, and keys. Everything went with us, including his truck. A note was left behind that he needed to run an errand. His computer was still unlocked so we searched for the security cameras, erasing us. Logan was still at his computer when I returned after carrying Allen to his truck and loading him in the backseat.
“Look at this.” He gestured to the computer.
I saw the file he had open, titled Bennett family . Inside there were additional folders for Kai Bennett, Tanner, Jonah, Brooke, Cord, Riley, and others. Logan looked at me. “Is that their whole family? Zeke’s looking into all of them?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know. Kai mentioned his brothers and their partners. He mentioned Tanner by name.” I motioned to Tanner’s folder. “Click on his.”
It contained a multitude of photographs taken with a long lens. In one he was walking with Cutler Ryder. Others showed him with a different guy, and in one Tanner had him backed against the wall, gripping the guy’s hair.
Logan clicked on a few other files inside of Tanner’s folder. Bank statements. Building layouts. There was too much for us to take in at this moment. I tapped his shoulder. “Make a copy.”
“I didn’t bring a USB—” He stopped talking because I had. He took it from my fingers, a wry grin on his face. “It’s like condoms. You came prepared.”
“Speak for yourself. Some of us weren’t man whores growing up.” I scoffed, heading for the door. “Hurry. I’m going to take his truck and leave.”
“Okay. Wait.”
I waited.
“Security system. We don’t know how to arm it.”
Fuck . He was right. “Finish with the copies. I’ll go upstairs and see what I can figure out.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
Studying the security panel when I got there, I realized I had no clue what I was doing. There was no button that said push me to arm . I didn’t recognize this security system, and I’d been around my fair share of security systems.
I weighed the odds.
If his wife came home and the system wasn’t on? If we weren’t done with him by then? She’d know right away something was wrong. Cops would get called.
We didn’t intend to harm Zeke, not any more than we already had, but I wanted to scare him.
The most logical person to call would be Channing, because of his profession. He might know this system or a way to get around it. But my gut wasn’t telling me to call Channing. I grimaced but called Nate.
He answered on the third ring, growling into the phone. “I’m going to murder you, Mase. You better be in the hospital or the police station or—” He cursed. “God. Sorry. I didn’t think. I’m hoping you’re not in either.”
“That’s Mason?” I could hear Quincey in the background.
There was rustling. “Yeah.” He said to me, “Hold on.”
More rustling. A door shut. He groaned. “Fuck. I’m tired. Why are you calling me at—seriously? It’s… What? That doesn’t make sense.”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re being dramatic. It’s not even midnight.”
“I’m in Pacific Standard Time.”
“We’re in the same time zone.”
“Still fucking tired,” he mumbled. “What’s up, though?” His voice grew more alert. “Please tell me you’re not in the hospital.”
“Uh, no.”
He was quiet for a beat before he cursed. “What’d you do?”
There was no way around this one. I just said it, “There wouldn’t be any reason you might know how to re-arm Zeke Allen’s security system?”
There was silence on his end.
I tucked my chin down. “You know, since you’re practically family with him.”
“I’m not family with him. And what the fuck are you talking about? ”
Yeah. He wasn’t happy about this call.
“Why the fuck are you asking how to arm his security system?”
I laughed a little. “Maybe I decided to turn the tables on him for once? See how he feels being stalked.”
“Cut the shit. What’s going on? Why can’t you ask Zeke himself?”
I sighed. “It’s better if you don’t know. I thought maybe you’d dropped by his house or something over the years and maybe he rearmed it in front of you, but I can see I was wrong—”
“No. Wait.”
He went silent again, but I waited.
I knew what he was thinking. I was in Allen’s house, and I couldn’t ask Allen himself. Everything about this call indicated I was doing something illegal. Highly illegal. I’d called him for information because I trusted him, and I was asking him to choose which side he was on.
He wasn’t like us, as I’d been reminded the other night with the bikers at the warehouse. I’d been hurt at first, thinking he was judging us. But I’d realized Sam was right. I needed Nate because he balanced out whatever was inside of us that surfaced when we were in Fallen Crest. If I didn’t have friends like Nate and Matteo, and if we stayed too long in Fallen Crest, I didn’t know who I might become.
I didn’t want to think about that.
He sighed. “Goddamn you, Mason.”
I straightened, my voice going cold. “Forget it.”
“ Wait .” He cursed again, but I heard more rustling sounds on his end. “My sister goes over there all the time.”
I closed my eyes. He was going to ask his sister how to arm the system. I knew Nate well enough to know that if she asked the reason, he would lie for us. A part of me regretted asking, but another part of me didn’t. I needed to know. That was the ruthless side of me. The same side that had chosen to call Nate, because it would put him in this exact spot.
I needed to know nothing had changed since he’d learned Logan and I still had our dark sides.
Bottom line, I liked knowing my best friend still was my best friend, and I didn’t care how I found that out. Not right now. Everything would be smoothed over later, but Nate didn’t know that.
I heard a beep, and he spoke into the phone. “She said there’s a button on the right side. A tiny button. You have to look at it squarely or you won’t see it. It’s supposed to blend in with the panel. She doesn’t know the code, but if you hit that button, you’ll have thirty seconds to get out of the house.”
His phone beeped.
He cursed, his voice tightening. “She didn’t ask why, Mason. Fuck you, man. That’s my sister. So goddamn good, and she never even questioned me why I was asking that shit from her.”
Logan was coming up the stairs. He raised his chin in question.
“It’ll be fine,” I told Nate.
“I fucking hope so. If she mentions this to Blaise, he’s going to ask why, and when he doesn’t believe my lie or when he checks out my lie, he’s going to raise hell. You don’t know that side of my brother-in-law.”
“They’re in Europe. You have time to evade.”
“You’d never lie to Logan for me—”
“I’d lie to Taylor for you.”
Logan punched my arm, glaring. I shrugged. It was true. I’d lie to her if Nate asked me to. Now, if Sam or Logan himself asked me about it, I wouldn’t lie to them. Maybe it wasn’t quite fair, but I also didn’t care.
“That’s not the same,” Nate countered.
“I have to go. We can fight about this later.” I ended the call before he could say anything more.
“You go first. I know how to arm it.”
Logan’s eyes were narrowed into slits, but he didn’t linger. I heard the garage door go up, and Allen’s truck started. He backed out. The garage door began to lower. I waited until it was on the ground before hitting the little button and taking off, leaving through the side door. That would lock behind me too.
Logan was almost to the street when I ran past him.
I crossed the street to my Escalade, climbed in and followed after him.
The first phase was complete.