Chapter 8
Ryker
It’s dead silent in the car. When my father calls the three of us over, it never means anything good. It means we’re being summoned as members of the Pact, not as sons of the highest authorities.
Each of us—Eli, Theo, and I—has a fucked-up life in our own way. Each of us is messed up in the head in our own way. I accepted that a long time ago.
Not that our parents were normal.
My father, as head of the Pact, is a master of games, an incredible strategist, and a ruthless piece of shit. What does that make me?
Just getting a message with instructions to show up at his house ruined my mood. The high I got from Shadow flew out the window, wiping out any thoughts of her.
Lately, she has been consuming my thoughts. Of course, I have a plan in mind to get to Charles Baker, but she’s distracting me more and more. The attraction between us is obvious and almost tangible. Obsessive.
That’s how I’m feeling. Obsessively addicted to thoughts of her, to fantasies about her. To her.
It’s new to me. I’m not an introvert like Theo, nor a womanizer like Eli, but I have my fair share of fun with women. There was a time when a different woman warmed my bed every night of the week. Over time, I grew bored with it. Not the sex itself, but…
I don’t know. Maybe I’m acting like a spoiled brat.
Maybe my father was right about me all along.
When Shadow and I are in the same room, like in that warehouse, I can feel her in the air like an aphrodisiac. Even more; we’re like two elements connected by an invisible magnetic force.
It’s hard to explain and unusual at the same time.
The guys can make fun of me all they want. My fascination with Shadow and what connects us is stronger than me. And they’ll eventually understand what I mean. We’ll come back to this one day.
The cool, detached me is suddenly confronted by a woman dismantling my defenses. With her, I forget about them and forget that they’re there for a reason. It’s dangerous.
I shake my head as we arrive at my father’s estate.
The icy armor slips back into place, hatred and indifference like swords in my eyes. I become who I was before Shadow again. I can’t wait for the day when I’ll slit his throat with a smile on my face.
Eli parks the car too fast, and we arrive at the devil’s headquarters too quickly. This time, before I can grab the door handle, one of my father’s thugs opens it for us. The bull-like bodyguard nods in greeting, knowing who we are. It’s not like I know him, but that doesn’t matter at all.
Unlike on our previous visit, Theo passes me in the hallway leading to my father’s office and knocks. The gesture makes me grimace. He means well, but it still pisses me off. He’s playing a long game, and right now, pissing off my father can’t do us any good.
After unpleasant order to enter, we walk in as one.
My father’s judgmental gaze moves over each of us as we sit down in front of his desk.
“Good morning, boys.”
My eyebrows shoot up, and before I can stop myself, I blurt out, “We’re not yours, and we’re certainly not boys. Get to the point, old man.”
Eli discreetly kicks me in the ankle. Shut up, he’s telling me.
“Don’t push it, Ryker. God only knows I should have taught you humility a long time ago.” Father rolls his eyes.
My nostrils flare.
Staring at him, I bite my cheek. The pain helps me focus on something other than wringing his neck. It distracts me from the monster he created, molded to his own needs and vision.
Eli’s the first to break the silence. “We’re here, Mr. Elliot, as you requested. What’s the reason for our visit?”
Father glances at him briefly. “Someone had the nerve to threaten the entire organization. The nerve to threaten me!” His anger rises to the surface like oil. A clenched fist lands on the desktop.
“Could you be more specific?” I ask.
“Oh, sure! The security system on our computers is shitty. Someone hacked into my computer and got their hands on some very dangerous files!” My father’s face reddens, and that gives me a lot of satisfaction.
Impossible.
Eli’s one of the best experts in the country. This guy breathes computers; he has the internet running through his veins instead of blood, and a damn hard drive instead of a brain. He has been trying to beat my father’s security for years. And yet…
It’s impossible for anyone to beat him in this race.
Theo remains unfazed, probably thinking the same thing. Eli’s leg bounces.
“I want to know who’s stupid enough to do this, and I want their head on a silver platter. And it better be soon, because I can’t fucking take it anymore, and I’m going to burn this fucking city to the ground.” James’s low voice heralds the apocalypse.
“With all due respect, it doesn’t have to be anyone from this city,” suggests Eli, whose ego has apparently been hurt.
“Don’t be a smartass, boy! I don’t give a shit where the person responsible is. If I have to, I’ll burn the entire world down!”
“How do you know someone hacked into that computer?” I ask.
“Someone sent the data to the FBI, and Martin called to say it had landed on his desk.”
“How much did it cost you to make all the traces disappear?”
“A favor.” My displeased father finds this worse than if he’d splashed out with dollars. Despite his efforts, he cannot hide the disgust on his face.
“Favors cost more than cash. What was in those files?”
If my father’s gaze could kill, I would drop dead right now. To my delight, he turns even redder. With a little luck, he might have a stroke or a heart attack.
But I’m not that lucky. Because, damn it, nothing is happening.
“Plans for the next shipment from Ismael.”
I don’t even blink. Working with Ismael and smuggling drugs from Mexico are my father’s Achilles heel. No wonder, since they bring him a fortune and fuel his power in the Pact.
“I don’t need to tell you how much blood would be spilled in the streets if those millions were intercepted,” he adds after a moment.
He doesn’t have to say it. The deal with Ismael is lucrative for both sides and secures my father one of the top two spots among the most dangerous cartels distributing drugs in the United States. Ismael himself is damn hot-headed, and when he goes off, blood is shed.
What am I thinking? Blood flows even if someone looks at that son of a bitch the wrong way.
“Find me the person responsible for this. And bring me the best security genius in the world so that this never happens again. Understood?”
“Yes, sir,” I answer and get up.
I want to thank him and shake his hand for opening a window to his kingdom for us, when until now the doors had been closed. He has no fucking idea how much he’s making life easier for all of us right now.
Of course, I don’t do any of those things.
Like last time, the drive to Feather passes in complete silence. And like last time, we sit down on the couches with drinks in our hands.
Every visit to my father involves tension that is difficult to shake off afterward.
I rub my face with my hands. “What do you think about all this?”
“What the fuck I think? It’s ridiculous.” Eli downs his glass in one go and pours himself another. “I’m good, Ryker—”
“I know.”
“Really good—”
“I know.”
“I’m the fucking best!”
“Your ego is talking. Someone’s better than you, though,” Theo chimes in.
“I have to check if he exploited a zero-day VPN gap or spear-phished the admin—”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” I admit.
Eli takes a deep breath. I suspect his teeth are going to crack from clenching his jaw so hard. “Unbelievable. I can’t believe someone did it. I worked so damn long and hard to make this happen!”
“But someone got around his security. There are a lot of fanatics and hackers in the world. Maybe it was just luck, or maybe it was a fresh take on the challenge. It doesn’t matter now.”
“I’ll find him. I’ll find him and strangle the bastard myself. I’m fascinated by how he did it, but not enough to spare his life.” Eli’s dark and dangerous side speaks through him. “I’ll break all his bones, shove a keyboard up his ass, and slit his throat.”
Theo shrugs, unaffected. “Let’s burn him at the stake afterward. Victory by slaughtering our enemies. That’s fine with me.”
“Let’s focus before the bloodshed overshadows everything else. Eli, are you able to find this hacker?”
He nods. “There’s no other option.”
“My father wants this guy’s head, but—but it actually gives us a chance to get into the vault. Everything is in those systems, on his computer. We’ll set up security measures that will give us full control, leaving no traces. At least until I find Aisling and can kill that motherfucker.”
For a moment, I see my sister’s little girl face in my mind, and a wave of guilt washes over me.
It’s my fault she’s not here with me today.
“I’ll take care of it,” Eli promises. “And while I’m at it, I’ll destroy one more life. Someone’s trying to piss me off. Someone’s snooping around about me online, trying to find out stuff, trying to get into my accounts.”
“You have an admirer,” Theo jokes darkly.
“An admirer who wants me dead,” he sneers.
“It’s nothing new that we’re being targeted. Because of who we are, there will always be some cop who wants to be a star, or someone from a rival cartel, or some lost soul.” Theo is right. Our lives have been bound up with risk since the moment we were conceived.
“I have a feeling it’s something else, something more. I don’t like it.” Eli says.
“Just flush him out of his own den, lure him into your trap,” I suggest.
“How are things going with the senator and Shadow?” Theo suddenly changes the subject. “I learned nothing in the underground that we didn’t already know. She’s elusive; no one knows who she is. You’re really the only person who’s seen her alive and real. To everyone else, she’s like a legend.”
The thought of Shadow brings a wave of calm. How is that even possible?
“That’s another thing.” Eli frowns. “Shadow is heavily protected at all levels of the web. Someone is standing behind her, making sure nothing happens to her.”