Chapter 17 #2
We fell asleep like that, wrapped up in each other, and for the first time in what felt like forever, I felt content. Safe. Loved.
But the peace didn’t last.
I woke to sunlight in my eyes, my mouth dry as dust, and the familiar bony elbow of Rocket pressed to my hip through the comforter.
For a few sweet, confused seconds, I thought I was home alone and that everything from the last month—the violence, the threats, the collar of bruises—was just a dream.
Then Wrecker came out of the bathroom, towel slung low on his hips, hair wet, and I remembered who and what I was.
He glanced at me, saw I was awake, and said, “Hey beautiful. I think you need to rise and shine. Looks like you’re late.”
“Hi handsome. Late for what?”
“War,” he said, and grinned, the scar on his chin twisting with the rest of his mouth. “Get up, Wren. The bank logs are lighting up.”
He wasn’t joking. My phone on the nightstand, vibrated with a steady, epileptic pulse. I grabbed it and started scrolling before my feet hit the floor.
Dozens of alerts: pings from three separate accounts, a spike in activity in the Greenbriar ledger. The worm was working, and it looked like Silas must be checking to see how his accounts were growing. We needed to be sure everything looked normal to his eyes.
I crawled out of bed, tripped over Rocket, and headed to my office nook. Wrecker had made coffee—strong enough to kill a horse—and left the pot on the warmer. I poured a cup, burned my tongue, and dove straight into the logs.
I lost three hours that way. The outside world dissolved into screen glare and the low drone of Wrecker’s voice as he made phone calls from my living room, always short, always quiet.
When he wasn’t on the phone, he hovered over my shoulder, watching the code scroll by, eyes flicking up and down my neck like he wanted to bite me just to keep me in one place.
I ignored him. I ignored everything but the lines of code and the chase.
I switched to the camera feeds that Wrecker had given me access to. The hallways were clear. Silas’s office was dark. I didn’t see anybody around.
“Wrecker,” I called. “Do you think it’s odd that I’m not seeing any activity on any of the cameras I planted?”
He walked up behind me and frowned. “Not necessarily. They’ve been spending most of their time in their war room. Check the camera you put on Silas’s laptop.”
When I switched the feed to that camera, it came up static.
“Shit, what does that mean?”
“It means that the only problem with those micro-cams is that they are easily dislodged. He may have tossed his laptop into his bag, and the camera was knocked off and disabled.”
“Damn it. So we’ve lost that access. That sucks ass.”
He grinned at me. “It does, but there are several other cameras. Keep your eyes peeled for any little thing. But don’t just stay there. You’ll drive yourself nuts if you do.”
A cold, greasy dread uncurled in my gut. “I just have a weird feeling something is up.”
Wrecker didn’t answer. Instead, he paced to the front window and looked out, silent and predatory.
He came up behind me, set his hands on my shoulders, and squeezed until my knuckles went white on the keyboard.
“Take a break,” he said. “Eat something.”
“I’m not hungry.”
“You need to keep your head clear.” He bent down, mouth at my ear. “I’ll make lunch.”
I wanted to argue, but the caffeine and the adrenaline were making my vision double. I closed the laptop and slumped in the chair, watching him move around my kitchen with the clumsy precision of a bear pretending to be a chef.
He made eggs. Not just eggs—eggs and thick-cut bacon and toast so buttery it was almost yellow. He plated it for me, then set the plate in front of me and waited until I picked up a fork.
“You’ll make someone an outstanding wife,” I said, laughing.
“I’m gonna tan your ass as soon as I get you back in my playroom, and ‘he who must not be named’ won’t even be able to help you.”
I swallowed hard around my bite of toast. A small grin on my face.
He poured himself a glass of water, downed it in two gulps, then came back to the table and watched me.
“You always eat this fast?” he asked.
“We’re wolves. You know how we do?”
He smirked. “You ever miss it?”
“You mean eating with my family? Yeah, I suppose I do.” I wiped my mouth with a paper towel. “But I’ve always eaten alone since they died.”
He went quiet. Not the awkward kind, just the kind that said, I understand, and I’ll sit here as long as you need.
We finished in silence. Rocket snuffled at my feet, licking my toes.
When I went back to the laptop, the camera feed was still dead. I rerouted through three proxies, then finally got a ping on an external mic I’d planted in the main hallway. It was a live channel, but the only thing I could hear was a low hum. Maybe a vent, maybe a refrigerator.
“I’m getting nothing,” I muttered.
“You’ll get it,” Wrecker said. “You always do.”
He’d just hung up the phone. “That was Bronc. They moved the toy drive prep,” he said. “There were just too many toys for the basement, so they’re at the civic center now. Whole crew will be there for the next few days, packing toys.”
I loved that. “So, the clubhouse is empty?”
He nodded. “For the first time in forever.”
He looked at me, then at the clock, then back at me. “Bronc’s coming by to get me. You wanna come with? Might help you get your mind off things.”
I wanted to say yes. But the terror of missing something on the feeds had my insides twisted up like a rope.
“I’ll catch up with you later,” I said. “I want to keep an eye on the transfers and maybe catch wind of what they’re up to.”
He studied me for a long second. “Don’t go anywhere alone, Parker.”
I snorted. “I have a guard dog.”
Rocket farted, then rolled onto his back, paws in the air.
Wrecker shook his head. “Some guard dog.”
There was a knock at the door. Not the kind that asks permission, but the kind that says, I’m coming in whether you like it or not.
Wrecker tensed, then relaxed when he caught the scent through the door. He opened it and Bronc filled the frame, jacket unzipped, sunglasses pushed up on his forehead.
“Ready?” Bronc asked.
“Hey Bronc!” I hollered at him. I wasn’t going to let him step into my house without acknowledging me.
“Hey, kiddo.” He looked around Wrecker so he could see my face. The term of endearment took me back.
Wrecker turned. “Give me a second.”
He came to the table, leaned down, and kissed my forehead.
“Text me if anything changes,” he said. “I mean it.”
“I will,” I said.
He left with Bronc, and I listened to the sound of their boots on the gravel until it faded.
I lasted all of thirty seconds before the dread came back.
I reopened my laptop, eyes darting between the account logs and the dead camera feed. I tried another dozen tricks to hack the signal, but all I got was static.
“Fuck you, Silas,” I hissed at the screen.
Rocket whimpered and licked my ankle.
I checked the locks on every door and window. I closed the blinds, then reopened them just enough to let in a sliver of light. I paced the kitchen, the living room, the hallway, over and over until I was dizzy.
Every ten minutes I checked the driveway for strange cars. Every fifteen I checked my phone for missed calls, even though the ringer was turned up as high as it could go.
Nothing.
But the silence felt like the air before a tornado, thick and expectant.
By four in the afternoon, I had chewed my nails down to the quick. I reheated my coffee three times, but never finished a cup. Rocket followed me from room to room, whining softly whenever I sat too long in one spot.
When the phone rang with Wrecker’s call, I about jumped out of my skin.
“What happened?”
“How’d you know? Nevermind. Have you heard from Maddie?”
“Maddie? No. Haven’t seen or talked to her since last night. Why? What’s going on?”
Wrecker’s deep sigh told me something bad was going on.
“She left Pearl’s an hour and a half ago to grab some wrapping paper from the dollar store on her way up to the civic center. She never arrived.”
My heart sank. That’s it. That’s the dread I’d felt.
“Well, y’all need to find her!”
“What the fuck do you think we’re trying to do, Parker?”
“I’m sorry. I’m going to go back through this fucking video feed to see if I missed something while I was making my sandwich for dinner or something.”
“Okay, let me know if you find anything.”
“Of course. Eli, I love you.”
But he’d already hung up.
I started rewinding camera footage from this moment back to an hour before I’d made my dinner. I turned the volume all the way up. Suddenly, I heard faint voices. They were just close enough that I could barely make out what they were saying if I listened closely enough.
It sounded something about watching the gate for the girl and grabbing her when she comes out.
I kept running it back and re-listening.
It didn’t make sense. They said they’d drop her back at the gate after two hours to give Bronc and his boys time to come get them.
And she’d be back at the clubhouse for the ‘big boom.’
“Big boom, big boom.” I looked at Rocket. “Why would they take her and bring her back?” He just tilted his head. I grabbed my keys as I jammed my feet into my tennis shoes, heading for the door. “You stay here, boy. I’ll be back.”
I dialed Wrecker as I headed for my car. I was out the door while Wrecker’s phone went to voicemail.
It dawned on me as soon as I put my car in drive.
I understood what ‘big boom’ meant. They were going to blow up the clubhouse, and they wanted Maddie to blow up with it.
FUCK! I called Wrecker again. Again, voicemail.
“Wrecker, call me! They have Maddie, but they are bringing her back to the Iron Valor gate! They are going to blow up the clubhouse. Don’t go near it!
” I was trying to drive and look up phone numbers at the same time. I had very few saved in my phone.
I tried Juliet. Voicemail.
Pearl. Voicemail.
Bronc. Voicemail.
“WHY THE FUCK WON’T ANYONE ANSWER THEIR PHONES?”