Chapter 29 #2
Listening to myself, it sounded crazy in retrospect. Hell, it had sounded crazy even in forward-spect. But this was no time to fuss about my poor choices.
“And you say he didn’t recognize you?”
“Nope. He hadn’t seen me in years. And I was dressed, ah…differently.”
“Differently how?” Ethan’s voice changed.
“What does it matter?” I snapped. “He didn’t know it was me. End of story.”
“That’s batshit, in addition to stupid,” he said.
“So let me get this straight. He starts a prison riot after getting this poor guy chopped up in the bathroom, cuts through an electric fence, and comes to your hotel to defend you from Boer’s goons.
And then he drags you off to a secluded cabin, to what purpose?
And he’s still thinking you’re an airhead piece of easy ass who gets off on felons who are doing hard time. Right?”
I was too flustered to think of a good comeback. “Ahhh…”
“What happened in the cabin, Frey? Did he fuck you?”
I hesitated for a fraction of a second too long. “I, ah…”
“Goddamn him,” he hissed. “That piece of shit. I’ll kill him. No. First, I’ll hurt him. Then I’ll kill him.”
“No,” I said sharply. “You will do no such thing. It’s not like that.”
“Yeah? How is it, then?”
“I came on to him,” I told him. “I made the moves. Not him.”
“Oh, I bet he put up a big fucking fight,” Ethan fumed. “What he did can’t be defended. But you? Damn, I know you’re stubborn and independent and wired up kind of strangely. But I really never took you for a brainless slut.”
That stung, but I pushed it away. No time to get my little feelings hurt. “It’s not like that,” I repeated, through clenched teeth. “We’re together.”
“Define together,” he said harshly. “You mean, still fucking?”
“Together forever,” I blurted out. “For real. In love.”
Ethan was silent for several horrified seconds. “Oh God,” he muttered. “This is worse than I thought. He’s brainwashed you. You’ve lost touch with reality.”
“And you’re not paying attention,” I said impatiently.
“Who I’m fucking or not fucking is irrelevant.
Jed and I are trying to pin down Boer, and I’m trying to loop you in.
Do you want to participate? Or do you want to keep rolling on the rug and throwing your tantrum?
I can just hang up right now. The only reason I haven’t is Shane. ”
Ethan was silent for a minute, and when he spoke again, his voice was softer.
“Hey,” he said. “Frey. I know how much you miss him. How badly you want to find him. And I didn’t want to tell you this, because I don’t have any hard proof yet, and I don’t want it to be true.
But there’s no reason to think Shane isn’t dead.
And there are a fuck-ton of reasons to think that he probably is. ”
That was a slam to the gut. I flopped down hard on the bed, hoping I wouldn’t have to race into the bathroom to vomit.
I finally managed to get the words out. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t know how to say it.” His voice was bleak. “I tried, but something always stopped me. I just didn’t know what to say. Not to you, or to Holly. I was waiting for more solid proof, but I guess it was just an excuse not to face up to it.”
Tears streamed out of my eyes, so I pressed my sleeve to my face. I didn’t want to burble soggily when I spoke to him. “So, how did you come to that conclusion?”
“The dummy code. Our security protocol. There’s an eight step process to find SmokeScreen on the dark web. And an alternate dummy code, just in case.”
I gave up and went looking for tissue to soak up the tears. “How does it work?”
“We hypothesized a situation in which the user is being coerced into handing over control of the algorithm,” Ethan said.
“Say, someone’s torturing a loved one right in front of you, etc.
, etc. So I wrote two different modalities.
There’s the straightforward one, where you freely use SmokeScreen’s capabilities, and the other one, which has a different but equally complex access code.
It appears to open up the algorithm, and it appears to function normally, but it also gives the prime user, in this case me, full access to the computer of whoever’s running the program. ”
“I see,” I said. “So, if Shane had been compelled to open the algorithm, you would’ve known instantly where he was, and been able to hack his computer.”
“Yes,” Ethan said. “I would’ve been crawling down those motherfuckers’ throats instantly.”
“But…he hasn’t.”
“No. I’ve been waiting, and hoping, and so far, nothing.
He hasn’t opened up that security hole for me to jump through and save him, and the two of us designed it together.
I can’t think of any reason on earth he wouldn’t reach out to contact me with the dummy code.
Except for the one, awful reason. The one I don’t want to accept. ”
I swallowed multiple times to calm down the quiver in my throat. Now was not the time to get emotional. “I wish you’d told me all of this before.”
“The less you knew, the safer you were,” he said.
“Shane got into this mess because I told him about SmokeScreen. I let him use it for Ready Line. He thought he could keep it under wraps. That it could be his and Jed’s secret weapon.
That was my big shit-for-brains moment. I should have buried it long ago.
It’s too powerful. It’s the fucking kiss of death, and it would be for you, too. ”
“You still don’t know if Shane’s dead,” I said. “Not yet.”
I heard his sigh through the phone line. “Frey. I’m sorry.” His voice was sad.
“Don’t you tell me you’re sorry,” I said sharply. “You still don’t know, not really. So until you’re sure, don’t say it. We have to keep hope alive. Also for Holly.”
Ethan didn’t answer, and the silence from the other end of the line made me incredibly anxious. And angry. “If there’s a way to launch SmokeScreen with a dummy code, you should teach it to me,” I said. “I’m safer if I know it, right?”
“Fuck, no,” Ethan said savagely. “You’ll be safer when you’re here where you belong. I’ll send Cade and Eli to come and get you, and you will stay here with Holly, under guard, until this shit is handled. So for the last time, Frey. Where are you?”
I let out a careful breath. Damn. I just loved the guy with all my heart, but he was a huge pain in my ass. “Your help would’ve been really nice to have,” I said quietly. “But not at that cost. I’ll call you later, big brother, when I have news. Bye.”
“Frey! Don’t you dare hang up on—”
I broke the connection, turned off the phone, and pried out the battery, since I didn’t want my brother to hunt me down and start throwing his weight around.
He was not beyond using physical force to compel me, as I knew already, to my cost. And I was not in the mood for any more posturing male bullshit.
Jed was enough to deal with. If I had to hear Ethan mansplain and beat his chest, my head would explode. Ethan could only be called as a desperate last resort.
Men had their uses, but sometimes they just seemed so damn limited to me. So hormonally hopped up. At least the ones in my family were, and Jed was neck and neck with Shane and Ethan when it came to being insanely protective and controlling.
I took out the smartphone I’d purchased today, to communicate with Jed, and checked it. Ping, there was his message, arriving right on time. The first message was contact info for the Drakes. The text that came after was short but sweet.
ten minutes out. love you. later.
I texted back.
love you too.
So far, so good, but damn. Pacing the floor sucked. And now I had to do it while processing this new, unwelcome information about Shane.
The dummy code, never activated. The ominous, heartbreaking silence.
Maybe I’d have been better off not knowing. Letting Ethan protect me from the truth. But that was just babying myself. Prolonging the agony. It was a bitter pill, but if my brother could swallow it, I could too.
But I would never stop looking. The Masters were stubborn as hell, even in the face of death.