43. Chapter Forty-Three | Theo
Chapter forty-three
I’m not really in the mood to play poker, but I can’t keep hovering over Savannah and I need to talk to her brothers about this week’s latest bullshit.
After everything that’s happened in the last few days, they agreed to move the game up to Saturday afternoon so Savannah and Vivian could hang out with all our girls and their dad at his place, and we would just be down the road at Ryan’s.
Murphy has been extremely welcoming to both Gigi and me, and I’m sure she will have a blast with Savannah’s daughters and niece; she always does.
We’re trying to shield the kids from the reality of what’s going on, but I also need to be able to process my rage.
Because I’m so far beyond fucking pissed off at whoever is messing with Savannah. But until we know who is behind all of this, I have to sit and pace with the rage as it boils and builds up inside me.
Three days ago was one of the best moments of my life when I told Savannah I loved her, and she also confessed she felt the same way.
I felt like I was walking on sunshine and nothing would bring my mood down.
Later that day, we made homemade pizza—and a disaster of my kitchen—with our girls and it was a glimpse of how great we could all be together.
When I took her in my office the next day, I couldn’t believe how good things were going between us.
Unfortunately, that great mood came crashing down with the force of a meteor colliding with the earth yesterday when Savannah returned home from dropping the girls off at school and going to a Pilates class.
She planned to shower and get ready for the day, but when she walked into her bedroom, those plans came to a screeching halt at the sight of her bed covered in piles of feathers.
Someone had not only broken into her bedroom, but they had used some kind of blade or knife on the feather pillows on her bed, slashing them open and leaving puffs of downy stuffing everywhere.
While the violent gesture was bad enough, my anger reached new depths when she explained in addition to someone violating her bedroom, they also left the drawers in her closet to her underwear and bras open, making it obvious they had been riffled through.
Prior to this, she hadn’t mentioned that some of her underwear had gone missing, and I wish she would have told me that sooner.
I crack my neck and try to calm down before my rage consumes me.
When Savannah called me and explained what happened, after we hung up, I was so pissed I swiped everything off my desk in a fit of rage.
I’ll have to give Cian a bonus for dealing with that mess.
Oh, and for replacing my computer monitor because after I cleared my desk, I threw a paperweight across my office and it bounced on the floor, shattering my computer screen.
It wasn’t my proudest moment, but I don’t know who to channel my anger at about this because despite the connections we have between myself and her brothers, we cannot find any evidence of who’s behind this.
My dashboard alerts me to a new text as I park in Ryan’s driveway.
Savannah
Gigi wasn’t sure if you would allow her to have an ice cream sundae, so blame me if she wasn’t supposed to have it. Sugar happens when my girls are with their Papa.
Me
If she’s with you, you’re in charge. I trust you, Sav.
Savannah
I know you do, just wanted to tell you so she didn’t have to worry about it. She’s a good kid.
Me
Thanks, baby. Let me know if you need anything.
Savannah
Will do. Have fun! xoxo
As we wait for Walker and Finn to arrive, I should just hand them my money. There’s no way I can focus on the game with everything going on. Sitting at Ryan’s kitchen island, I slowly spin the beer bottle in my hands against the counter as Liam comes down the back set of stairs off the kitchen.
“Hey man, you good?” Liam asks as he sets a tablet next to me on the counter.
“Hey, I guess as good as I can be. Did you find anything?” I ask as Liam sets his drink down on the island and pulls up some video footage on his tablet.
“I didn’t find what I should have found, but I did find what they probably didn’t expect me to find,” Liam responds.
“Translate to non-spy talk, please,” Jack chimes in.
Liam sighs, clearly also frustrated with this situation.
“When Shane and Savannah upgraded their system last year for everything that was going on with Vivian, there were specific parameters put in place that were above and beyond the typical security system. I personally referred the company that did the updates and I trust them.”
“Then why isn’t there any footage of who broke in or how they got into your sister’s house?” I ask point blank.
“Because this asshole is good. He had the same malware put on the system that he used with the auto shop incident. Basically, this code allows him to shut down the entire system, but the internal system reads it as a standard update so no alarms should go off about it.”
“Should? Does that mean one did?” I ask.
“In a way. There wasn’t an alarm at the time of the incident, but one of the extra measures we put into place last year captures any code that comes across the system, not just the outcome of the code.”
“And that’s good?” Jack asks.
“Yes, that’s very good. We aren’t sure who the hacker is, but I now have their malware program coding.
Every hacker has a signature and I just need to find it in the code.
Unfortunately for them, I have some of the best hackers in the world currently working on breaking the code to figure out who is behind the malware,” Liam explains.
“If you have some of the best hackers in the world working on this, why isn’t it solved then?” Jack asks but I was wondering the same thing.
“Unfortunately, the code on this wasn’t written by an amateur hacker. They’re really good, and it’s going to take some time. But I promise you guys, I have some of my best contacts on this and they will crack it.”
“Can the outage of the auto shop incident help somehow?” Ryan asks.
“No, they didn’t have the additional measures that I had added to Savannah’s system to record the coding in real-time in an off-sight server.
Even though I have the recording of the code, the malware itself isn’t transferred to my server, think of it like a tape recorder, it just captures the sound of the music, or in this case, the characters written in the code. ”
“And would they be aware this was happening?” I ask.
“Nope. They wouldn’t have any idea that their code was getting copied, and that may work in our advantage because they won’t know my crew will be ready for them if they try again.
If someone remotely accesses the system in the same way again to force it offline for a supposed routine update, thinking their malware is still in place, it will actually launch our own malware on their system and feed as much information back as possible before it’s discovered, if they discover it at all, but judging on the skill level involved here, they’ll know about it pretty quick.
But my contacts said they only need an open door to get what they need, so hopefully that’s enough. ”
“Doesn’t that mean we’re waiting to use Savannah as bait?” I hate that thought, and that’s not a good enough plan for me.
“I wouldn’t say we are using her as bait, I would say we’re planning for different scenarios. Which brings up another suggestion I was going to run by you, but I know it’s going to seem a little … extreme.”
“Pretty fucking sure we passed extreme when someone was breaking into her house and getting into her damn underwear drawer, Liam,” Jack says.
“Honestly, I don’t think there is much I wouldn’t do to ensure she and her daughters are safe,” I admit.
“That’s what I was hoping you would say because there was something that bothered me about the timing of the pillow incident. How did they know when Savannah and the girls would be out of the house? How did they know to get out of there before they were caught red-handed?” Liam asks the room.
“You think this person is tracking her movements,” Ryan responds.
“I think it’s possible,” Liam answers. “But I think we can use that to our advantage as well. Anything we can find out about whomever is behind this—without them knowing we’re gathering that information—could contribute to us identifying and stopping them.”
“Sorry I’m late,” Walker calls out from the foyer. Liam and Jack share a look, and Liam shakes his head slightly, to which Jack nods.
“Perfect timing man, I need help setting up the table and getting the grill going,” Jack says to Walker and all but ushers him out the back door when he walks into the kitchen.
“I’m not an idiot,” Walker calls out over his shoulder as Finn arrives, walking into the kitchen to join us .
“It’s called plausible deniability, Walker!” Liam shouts back. “Finn, go help distract our FBI Agent brother-in-law, will you?” Not missing a beat, Finn nods and heads out back. “Ryan, you can head out too if you don’t want to hear this.”
“Nope, I’m good. What’s the plan?” Ryan takes a long pull from his drink while Liam assesses his brother.
“Alright. So, if this asshole has some sort of tracking device on her, that should be easy enough to identify, and I have the necessary equipment to do a sweep of her home and car to find it.”
“That doesn’t seem sketchy. There has to be more,” Ryan says.
Liam growls. “Of course there is more.”
“No one should be following her, and if anyone should be tracking her, it should be me.” The words escape my mouth before I consider the audience, but instead of judgement or anger in their eyes, when I look to Liam and Ryan, I see … respect? Understanding?
“Hm.” Ryan nods once.
“Hm indeed.” Liam leans back and looks to make sure the rest of the guys are still out back. “I’m not worried about Jack, but I don’t want to put Walker in an uncomfortable position with his job. But I think we are all on the same page here.”
“And Finn is … well, Finn. He’s a good guy,” Ryan explains.
Does that make us not good guys? No, not necessarily.
I think we’re just men that are willing to do whatever is necessary to protect the people we care about, despite what some may consider fair or legal.
I don’t really give a shit about the method so long as it gives Savannah back control of her life.
“So tomorrow, I’m going to come over and explain most of this to Savannah,” Liam says.
“But not all of it?” I ask.
Liam slowly shakes his head. “No, not all of it. I want her to continue to act as natural as possible, and if she’s aware of what I want to do, she could subconsciously make it obvious to anyone observing her.”
“What’s the plan?” I ask.
“The reason I’m waiting until tomorrow is because I have a piece of equipment getting overnighted to me. There are actually two pieces coming. They are tiny, smaller than a fleck of salt really, but they’re high-tech trackers.”
“You want to track your sister?” I raise an eyebrow at him.
“I want to be able to have the option to track her if we need to. It’s not a scenario I like to think about, but with the way this person is escalating, I can’t trust that they won’t directly put her in danger.
And if she’s in danger? We need to be able to get to her as soon as possible, and we can’t do that if we don’t know where she is. ”
“Are you like, sticking something in her skin?” I almost expect him to say yes.
“I thought about it.” What the hell? But also …
why am I not more alarmed by that? “But there’s no way to do that without her knowing, or without putting her under, and I don’t want to go that far, not yet at least,” Liam explains conversationally, as though we’re talking about the weather, not covertly tracking his sister and the love of my life.
“So, where do the trackers go?” Ryan asks.
“One is going to go on Mama’s ring that she wears every day, and one is going on the necklace with the girls’ birthstones.”
“She also wears that necklace daily.” I realize his plan.
“Yep, and without her knowing about it, she won’t fiddle with it or look at it if someone is watching her.”
It’s not a bad plan. It’s actually a smart plan, and while I don’t like keeping it from Savannah, it’s not for long term, it’s just until we stop whoever is behind all of this.
Not that I won’t want to keep tracking her, but I would at least want her to be aware of it. Probably. More than likely. Maybe.
I don’t want to think of something happening to her, but Liam is right—if something does happen and she is put in a dangerous situation, we won’t be able to help her if we don’t know where she is.
My stomach churns at the thought. I can’t wait until we figure out who is behind this and I can get my hands on that asshole or assholes.
And if it turns out to be Shane? I hope he knows a good plastic surgeon because his face won’t be the same when I’m through with him.
I consider Liam’s plan, and really only have one question, but Ryan asks it before I can. “Who would have access to tracking her?”
“I’m thinking just Theo and me for now, but we can reassess, if necessary,” Liam answers Ryan before looking back to me.
“And for now, let’s keep this between the three of us.
We don’t need to broadcast our crazy.” Ryan and I nod in agreement.
“Does this all sound like a plan you’re comfortable with? ”
I reach over and clap him on the back. “Yeah, man. Let’s just hope this plan is overkill.” And I hope with my entire being it’s a plan we never need to use.