44. Chapter Forty-Four | Theo
Chapter forty-four
“Where the hell is it?” I pick up another picture frame off a dresser and examine it closely, but even with my reading glasses on, I can’t see a place where a camera could be hidden.
Finn is setting up a ladder to search an air vent in the corner of Savannah’s bedroom while Liam uses some device he has to check her room again for a recording device.
Two hours ago, Savannah received an anonymous email that included four photos attached.
The body of the email was only two words: You’re mine.
The attached photos included one of Savannah and me cuddling in our sleep together, a photo of us kissing with her naked back to the camera and my arms wrapped around her waist as I carried her to the bed after we showered in her bathroom, and two photos of her naked riding me.
They were somehow taken when I spent the night two nights ago and the threat will not go unanswered.
“Explain it to me again like I’m five why this wasn’t caught the first time you checked her room for bugs?” Ryan asks as he puts a framed photo back on the far wall of her bedroom.
“The only explanation is that the device either wasn’t installed when I checked the room, or it has a remote power activation, so it wasn’t sending any signals when I scanned the room.”
“That’s possible?” Finn asks as he removes the cover of the air vent.
“Brother, you have no idea the things that are possible, and even though I know a lot, there’s probably things that even I don’t know out there,” Liam answers .
“That’s a disturbing thought,” Jack says as he pushes the bed frame back in place.
“Is this what we’re looking for?” Finn opens his hand to show a small, maybe one inch in diameter, device in his palm. “It was attached to the inside of the return air vent.”
“Abso-fucking-lutely.” Liam all but jumps up to snatch it out of his hand. He’s taking this personal that he didn’t prevent this, but like he already said, we don’t know when the device was installed.
“If y’all are good in here, I’m going to check every other air vent in the house.” Finn starts picking up his ladder to check the air vents in the bathroom.
“Do you have an extra ladder in your truck?” Ryan asks.
Finn nods. “Yeah, and I keep one in Savannah’s garage too.”
“I’ll go grab them with you, Ryan.” I need to be able to do something physically because wanting to punch an unknown person isn’t helpful right now.
The glaring fact that six months ago, Shane threatened Savannah with revenge porn and now private images were sent to her in an anonymous email is not lost on me, and I don’t believe in coincidences.
“Keep your cool, man. You know losing it isn’t going to help in the big picture,” Ryan tells me as we pull the ladder down from the storage area in Savannah’s garage.
“Yeah, but punching the asshole in the jaw would make me feel better for about thirty-two seconds,” I reply.
“I get that, but we aren’t going to let him get away with this. I promise you; he doesn’t get to do this to my sister and get away with it.” Ryan is always cool, calm, and collected.
Or so I assumed.
As the Chief Financial Officer at the local hospital, I always assumed Ryan was the logical and practical brother, but the more I get to know him, the more I see he and Liam have more similarities than I initially noticed.
Whether it’s in regard to something in his own life or about situations that are affecting the people in his life, he craves control, and his composure is closely related to the amount of it he has at any given time.
But every person has a breaking point and the throbbing vein in his neck is the only physical sign that he is really fucking pissed off.
We discover two other cameras in the air vents of the house.
One was in the kitchen and the other, unfortunately, was in the primary bathroom.
Liam confirmed the recording devices can be remotely turned off and on, so it’s unknown if they even have any footage of anyone in the bathroom, but the fact that it was there is enough to make me see red.
“I’m not saying we lie to Savannah,” Liam quietly explains to me and her brothers as we stand in her bedroom after searching the house.
Savannah is in the theater room in the basement with Murphy, Vivian, and the girls, hopefully fully distracted from what’s going on, but knowing my girl, she is still freaking out about the email.
“I think we just summarize it. We tell her we located the device and searched each room to make sure there are no recording devices in her house. I’m also going to call a favor and have a friend fly in that can do a more thorough search of her entire house, because this fucker, whoever it is, is not getting away with this.
Everyone on the same page?” he asks us and we all nod.
“Where are the devices now?” I ask, unsure of what Liam’s plan is.
“I put them in a military-grade faraday bag,” Liam replies like any of us know what the hell that means.
“Gippity glop gloop. Can you translate for us non-spy guys in the room?” Finn asks.
“A faraday bag blocks all electronic communication for devices placed inside, both outgoing and incoming communication or surveillance. Think of it like a portable dead zone. While whoever planted these devices could in theory also have trackers on them, they won’t get anything from them when they are in the bag,” Liam explains.
“And when you open the bag for your tech guy to check them out?” Ryan asks.
“When my tech contact, who’s a woman by the way, opens them, she will do so in a room that’s been equipped to basically be a large-scale version of a faraday bag.
” Liam looks around as we all stare back with skeptical looks.
He shakes his head and looks up at the ceiling.
“If Walker were here, he’d know what I was talking about.
” He is in DC for work but is well aware of the recording device and threats.
I get that he’s a federal agent, but he also views Savannah as his own sister and is livid like the rest of us.
“Does anyone else think it sounds like Liam made that word up?” Finn asks.
“I assume half of what Liam says could be made up but how the hell would we know?” Jack chimes in.
“I mean, you’re not wrong, it could be, but unfortunately, the shit I know is not made up,” Liam tells his brother with a grim look on his face as he claps him on the back.
I still don’t know what Liam does, but I don’t know that I want to know all the details anyway.
“My friend Sophia is the best at what she does, and if there are any other electronics planted in this house, she will find them.”
“It mostly goes over my head, but I can loop in my brother if we need another tech expert,” I offer.
“Who’s your brother?” Ryan asks.
“Most people refer to him as Sullivan Smith-Harrington but he’s just Van to our family.
I would’ve assumed the last name would have made the connection obvious.
” The men in the room look surprised—except for Liam.
I suspect he knows everything about my family and possibly even more about my own brother than I do.
“Why am I just now making that connection? His company has some really unique and impressive capabilities. I was planning on meeting with one of their developers next time I’m in London,” Jack says. That makes sense for Jack’s streaming company and Van’s tech company to overlap in some capacity.
Van may be considered the black sheep in our family because he didn’t pursue law, but our parents only ever encouraged us to chase our passions.
Since he was a child, Van has been exceptionally curious about how things work and how to make them work better.
It also means he broke almost every piece of electronic equipment in our house growing up, but eventually, he found his groove and he hasn’t stopped.
He filed his first technology patent at sixteen—well, our parent’s firm filed it—and sold his first company before he turned twenty-one.
“So, can we tell Savannah she’s allowed to leave the theater room yet?” I ask her brothers.
“Yeah, she can leave, she was never a prisoner there. I just thought it was better to keep the girls and kids all out of the way to avoid explaining what we were searching for,” Jack explains.
“Liam, do I need to like throw more money at this or what? How do we figure out who the fuck is messing with our little sister? And if it turns out to be Shane, we are going to have a conversation that Walker is not allowed to be present for, and maybe not you either, Theo.”
My head shakes in a firm refusal of that suggestion. “Yeah, that’s not an option. If it involves my girl, it involves me.”
“You’re really all in with her, aren’t you?” Jack asks with an assessing eye.
“Absolutely. What is that y’all say … I’m all in without question or hesitation.” I look each of her brothers in the eyes to express my sincerity and they each nod in response to me using their motto for The Cavalry.
“I’m good with that,” Jack says, extending his hand for me to shake as Liam hums and nods in agreement.
“For sure,” Ryan adds.
“Same,” Finn chimes in.
“Glad to hear it because I’m not going anywhere.” Unless it’s to pay a visit to whomever is behind these threats to my girl, then I’m going after them and will not stop until they’re completely ruined.