Chapter 46
Chapter Forty-Six
FINN
Ren calls me around midnight to get an update on my plans.
“Time is running out,” he warns. “I do not know how much longer we can keep this a secret.”
I eye the bags of cash lying on the living room floor. “I’m putting some things in place. I’ll be there soon.”
“Hai.” Ren hangs up.
Zane gets up and stretches his back. “If we’re going to do this more often, we should probably invest in a money counter.”
I tilt my head. “You mean those automatic counting machines from the movies?”
“Those are just to double check. A human being still has to count the money,” Sol mutters, wiping his eyes. “Gangs have accountants too.”
“How do you know so much about street gangs?” Zane yawns.
“I almost joined one.” Sol shrugs.
Zane and I freeze.
Sol laughs at our faces. “Don’t worry. I didn’t get too deep. My abuela would chop my head off with her chanclas if I ever did something that stupid.” He smirks. “Have you seen her slippers? They’re made of leather and they’re hefty, man. I don’t play those games.”
I file that information about Sol away for later.
Dutch enters the room. His jaw tightens when he sees the bags of cash. “This seems familiar. Why do I feel like I’ve done something like this before?”
“We paid off that security guard so we could sneak in when Sol was locked up last year,” Zane explains.
Sol starts scratching the mauled skin at his wrist.
Footsteps patter upstairs, and we all look up as J scrambles into sight.
“I did it! I’m ready!” She waves a hand in the air. She’s still wearing the hospital gown from last night, and her hair is in a messy bun, piled up on top of her head. The bun flops forward and backward as she dashes to the stairs.
“Slow down,” I bark at her.
She skids to a stop, her eyes narrowing on me. However, she listens and changes her frantic pace.
I notice Zane and Dutch exchanging looks.
“It’s done,” J announces.
“What’s done?” I ask, approaching the foot of the stairs.
J grabs the railing and steps down. She’s breathing hard from fast-walking the short distance between my bedroom and the banister.
“The connection is in place. Once I have the phones, I can mirror them to the cloud.”
“How?” I saw what she was working on just a few short hours ago. The infrastructure was unique, but it was also half-baked and riddled with holes. There’s no way she could have solved all the variables on her own in such a short time.
“I used AI.”
That throws up a million other questions for me, but my brothers start mumbling amongst themselves.
“Is AI that evolved?” Zane asks.
Sol grunts. “Zane, come on. AI can write a song in seconds.”
“AI can’t replace a human soul,” Dutch says. “No matter how much it tries.”
I tune my brothers out and focus on J. By this time, a normal person would have descended the stairs already, but she’s not even halfway down.
My boots thud as I stomp up the stairs to her.
Eyes widening, she waves her hand. “Finn, I’ve got it. I don’t neeeeed—” Her words end up in a squeal as I scoop her into my arms and carry her down the stairs.
After I set her down in front of my brothers, J ducks her head and takes a giant step away from me.
The living room descends into silence.
Sol’s jaw is on the floor.
What exactly does everyone find so shocking?
J gasps loudly, snapping everyone’s attention back to her. “Where did you get all this money?”
“None of your business.”
“We signed a contract with Bex Dane,” Zane offers at the same time.
Their words overlap and the twins glare at one another.
I pick up one of the bags. “This is Plan B.”
“You’re going to pay Ace and his crew off? What if they take the money and still come after you?”
“That’s what I said!” Sol points at me. “But this guy wouldn’t budge.”
“We don’t have any more options and we’re out of time.”
“We do have another option.” J strides confidently to me, her eyes tired but determined. “Finn, the infrastructure’s in place. It’ll work. I swear.”
Dutch steps forward. “If she’s wrong, and we go out there with nothing to offer them before we let them go, then this is going to blow up in our faces.”
“But if we throw money at them, they might give it to their gang and use it against you anyway,” J argues.
“That’s why we shouldn’t let them walk out of there tonight,” Sol advises. “If we keep them around, they’ll always be a liability. None of us will be able to rest easy.”
My throat moves in a slow swallow.
Time is ticking.
A bomb waiting to explode.
I can’t think of what Sensei would advise.
J’s watch beeps, and I know she’s going to speak up before she opens her mouth.
“How can you say that? You’re advocating for murder,” J hisses.
“Everybody who’s ever signed up to join a gang knows what the consequences are. It’s not like they’re innocent.”
“Who gave you the right to decide who’s innocent and who’s guilty?”
“Look,” Dutch breaks in. “We already decided to give them money. So, let’s just do that.”
I look between Sol, J, and Dutch. Rather than Sensei’s voice, it’s Kurosaki’s that I hear.
Leaders have to make hard choices. When that moment comes, and it will, you will understand me.
I lift my hand to gain some quiet.
Everyone looks to me, waiting for instruction.
“Pack up the money,” I growl.
Dutch smiles.
Sol puts his lighter away and grabs a bag. Zane smiles uneasily, but he grabs one of the bags too.
I start walking to the kitchen.
“Finn.” J scrambles behind me. “I tested it. The mirroring architecture works. Look, at least let me come with you and give it a shot—”
I turn and put a hand on her shoulder. “I’ll let you come along.”
She grins. I don’t know why she’s so excited. This is extremely dangerous.
“I need you to scrape their phones for data, the same way you did with Ace. And then…” I look over her shoulder to check that my brothers and Sol are occupied. In a lower tone, I confide, “You’re going to sync those phones to the server. Get my laptop from upstairs.”
J’s blue-green eyes turn dewy and soft.
I haven’t seen anyone look at me with that expression before, so I’m not sure what it means.
But I like it.
“Keep it quiet,” I warn her.
She pulls her lips into her mouth, makes a zipping motion, and hurries to the stairs. There, she grabs the railing and does the fastest grandma-crab-walk I’ve ever seen.
My lips tremble, fighting to curl up. But I can’t let the warmth spread through my chest.
I have to focus.
If things go south tonight, if I make the wrong decision, Ace and his crew will come back for J and for my entire family.
I can’t be the reason my unborn nieces or nephews grow up without their fathers.