Chapter 30
CILLA
My eyes were dry as dust.
We’d been combing through every corner of the dark web. Something I never thought I’d be doing in my entire life. The things I saw would stay with me for a long time.
The corruption alone was staggering. Anything and everything was for sale at a price that was well beyond money. I couldn’t even find the moral compass for what I tripped over trying to find this man.
The monster who had changed my life’s trajectory in every way.
I put my head down on the desk for a moment to give my eyes a break. I knew all too well what overdoing it on screen time could do and I didn’t have time for a migraine.
“You don’t have to stay here.”
Locke’s voice came from my left. When I turned my head, he was crouched beside me.
“I’m okay. Just giving my eyes a break.”
“All the more reason to go back to our apartment.”
I shook my head. “Not until we find him.”
“This isn’t your—”
“If you tell me this isn’t my job or business—whatever is going on in that protective head of yours—I’m going to tape your mouth myself.”
He huffed out a hollow laugh. “I’d like to see you try, babe.”
I sat up with a frown. His clothing was different from what he’d been wearing earlier. And not in the way that said he ran and got a shower. This was all black tactical gear with a whole lot of scary weapons on his belt.
“What’s going on?”
“I’m going to check out something with my team.”
My eyes narrowed. “Your team? Since when?”
“Cilla...”
“Check out what? Wouldn’t that fall under the jurisdiction of the cops or feds?”
He looked down. “We pinpointed where the feed is being streamed.”
“You know that’s a trap.”
He nodded. “We have to try and find him.”
“It’s not your job.” I rolled my chair toward him. “You don’t have to be the one to do this.”
“I do. Because I need you safe and that means ending him.”
I shook my head. “No. Catching him isn’t your job.”
His face closed off.
There was no catching him.
Not for Locke.
My Safety Locke.
I closed my eyes. “Please don’t do this.”
“Don’t ask me not to protect you, Priscilla. You can’t ask me that.”
“Protect me here.” I could hear the panic in my voice.
A few people turned to look at us, but I didn’t care. I only cared about keeping this man safe. Period.
“You’re protected here. That’s why I can go.” He cupped my face. “I couldn’t save Milligan.” His voice was raw. “I didn’t get to him in time.”
My eyes stung. The pain was still so raw inside of him. “It wasn’t your fault.”
“I knew their wedding would trigger Alyssa’s ex-husband.
Reynolds was unstable and his threats escalated the closer it got to the day of their wedding.
Even if we were being paranoid, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Milligan didn’t listen. He only had eyes for Alyssa and wanted to make the day perfect. ”
I gripped his wrist. “Oh, God.”
“Reynolds killed her and left her for Milligan to find on their wedding night. While we were at the reception. Milligan went off in a rage. Alone.”
I covered his hand on my cheek. “I’m so sorry.”
“I couldn’t save either of them. I won’t let anyone take you from me, Cilla. I can’t find you in a pool of blood again.”
I curled my fingers around his, bringing it to my lap. “That won’t happen.”
“You’re right. It won’t happen because I’m ending this.” He stood, our fingers still joined.
I dragged him back before he could walk away from me. “Locke, please.”
“You’re safe here at the lab. Please, promise me you won’t go anywhere. Promise me you’ll stay safe.”
My eyes filled. “You come back to me, you hear me?” I stood and gripped the front of his T-shirt. “I can’t lose you. I just fucking found you.”
He grinned. The one that actually reached his eyes. “I’m not going anywhere.” He lowered his mouth to mine.
The kiss was soft, and I could taste my tears on both of our lips.
He pressed his forehead to mine. “I love you, Cil.”
Then he walked away from me.
“You can’t say that and just leave!” I shouted.
He didn’t turn around. Just kept walking resolutely toward the four men dressed just like him. I didn’t recognize them, but the way they walked together told me they were people he trusted.
A hand found mine and I turned to see Nyx at my side. “He knows what he’s doing. You know he used to be an Army Ranger right?”
I shook my head. “He’s got Milligan in his head. That worries me.”
Nyx sighed. “He’s still carrying that guilt.”
“He told me.”
Nyx’s eyebrows rose. “Finally. We all blamed ourselves. A reception full of the most badass people I know, and Alyssa’s ex still found a way inside.
Locke was the only one who was worried. We convinced him he was being paranoid.
” She sighed. “We all have to live with that. But the old Locke has been around since you brought him back to us.”
“Bringing danger to your door, great trade-off.”
“Stop it.” She gripped my hand.
“I’m just bringing more danger with me.”
She shook her head. “The moment Locke saved you on the wharf you became ours. Period. I, for one, am glad he saved you.”
My eyes stung again. “Thanks.”
“Now, can we get to work?”
I huffed out a laugh. “Yes.”
“Good.” She pulled me back to her workstation.
“I wrote a program to comb through all the shit we found on the dark web. I have a few names that overlap now that we have the network ID from Mason’s team.
The most promising one is a shell company that has more layers than an onion. I’d need a month to dissect it all.”
“We don’t have a month.”
I couldn’t live with another death on my hands, let alone a month’s worth of victims who looked just like me.
“Then we have work to do.”
“What if we pick wrong? What if this name isn’t right?”
Nyx picked up the sphere Lego that she’d been playing with all day. “Then we move onto the next, but I don’t think I’m wrong. My instincts are screaming that this means something. That network address from the dock is practically a fortress. Something is there.”
I sighed. I needed to find my hope. “Then let’s dig in.”
Bastian and I excavated deep into the owner of the network. My expertise was numbers and for the most part a shell company was used to hide money or for laundering money. I ran down rabbit hole after rabbit hole and only one company overlapped—Port Tas.
It was such a strange name, but it was so specific that it made me wonder if that was the point. The killer was so arrogant and controlling in what he did with his victims.
“What have you figured out?” Bastian leaned against my desk.
“When it comes to a shell company, money laundering is the only thing that usually makes sense. But then there’re these little six alphanumeric combinations after the names, but they’re too short to be a bank account.”
Bastian “So where does it lead to?”
“Nowhere.” I pushed away.
“It has to go somewhere.”
“The only thing I’ve figured out is the people who own the company have the same letters in their name.”
“Like an anagram?”
“I guess so, yeah.”
“I love those damn things.” Bastian rubbed his hands together. “Let me look.”
“The names are Astro Op and Port Tas.”
I kept digging and found eight alpha numeric strings. As if there was a hierarchy to the deposits.
The deeper it went into the layers of this shell company, the more complex it got.
“What if it’s a password?” I whispered.
Nyx rolled her chair over. “Could it be a key?”
“For a network?”
Nyx nodded. “The dark web works on a relay system. No one knows really what the other person is linked to. It’s why it’s so hard to trace illegal activities. That network they found the camera on bounces around.”
“Could these be keys for access?” I handed her off the compilation of things I’d found. “See how each name has a six, eight, and twelve character at the end. Like the deeper you go into the names, the more complex they become. Those aren’t for bank accounts.”
Nyx sat up and grabbed her sphere, tossing it from hand to hand.
“Passwords are used for what? To log into something, right?” She set it down hard enough that the blocks actually cracked open and a few scattered.
“Right. The dark web uses decentralized networks though. So even if one goes down, the whole network can still run. It would just reroute to another server.”
“Wait, wait.” Her fingers flew on the keyboard. “What if they’re access points to a website? I kept getting directed to video files on a server, but I couldn’t get them to play. What happens if the passwords fit there?”
It took a long slog of incorrect combinations, but because Nyx was a programming genius she was able to try every combination with the videos that she found on the same server as the cameras from the wharf.
Finally, a video file opened.
“Booyah!” Nyx stood up with her arms above her head. She hit play and my breath stalled.
It was me.
On the Knot On Your Life. Different angles of me on the upper deck, the below deck, sleeping in Locke’s bed. The video was cut up into six boxes like a security panel. Locke and I cooking together, him tending to my wounds, and more.
I shoved my seat back. Locke and I on the couch when we were first intimate.
Nyx hurriedly closed that video. “Cilla,” she said softly and covered my hand.
I pulled away. “Oh, God. He’s been watching us all along. Did he see everything?”
Another opened and this time it wasn’t me. It was on the beach. The angle was wide, but it showed a figure in all black lowering a body to the beach. Wrapping her body in the intricate ropes.
My heart rate went into high alert. Memories that I’d been able to stuff down flooded back.
I bent at the waist, trying to breathe.
“Turn it off.” Bastian’s voice as savage.
“No!” I shouted. “No, don’t.”
“You don’t need to see this, Cilla.” Bastian slammed the space bar to make the video stop.
And frozen on the screen was the hooded man with only a tiny flash of his face showing.
“Black eyes,” I said softly.
Nyx blew up the video. “It’s grainy as hell, what do you mean black eyes?”