Chapter 31
Chapter Thirty-One
CADE
I head home, wanting to collect some of my favorite tools for a hands-on job.
If we’re going in, then just the USB won’t be enough. After talking things through with Enzo, we’re in agreement.
Get a copy of everything, yes, but also if there’s some kind if intranet link up—and there’s got to be something to link the center somehow to the world, it’s just we don’t yet know what it is—planting a couple of viruses is smart.
If the wrong or right file is opened, one could cause havoc and crash everything. The other would open up that other access point for us by leaving a trail to follow.
It’s complicated in some ways and exceptionally beautiful in its simplicity when it works.
And best of all, they’ll never know about either until too late.
So, I want my tools, and I want to tweak a virus I already have. It’s The Ghost stamped, but I can remove that particular calling card in minutes.
But first things first. Get the USB in place to operate the remote access, and if we can, find Gianna.
My place is empty when I step inside the loft.
But I can smell a hint of warm flowers still in the air, a calling card that I missed Vi.
She must have gone back out with Lia. I haven’t had time to check her whereabouts. But I do look around to see if they went shopping, hoping maybe she got something fantastically slutty to wear for me.
I’m aware I should be shamed by the thought, but I’m not. And if she didn’t, I just might buy her something for the next time we play publicly.
I still really want to play in the realm of rope play, in public—something that’s suited to a club. The thing with Vi is she opens up so many avenues in me, deep depths I want to explore with her.
But there’s more.
One other avenue I didn’t really ever give much thought to, one I didn’t think I particularly wanted.
Vanilla. Making love. Spending lazy days in bed where we lose ourselves in each other, where I can slowly worship her. I’m not talking boring vanilla. I’m talking Madagascar. Bourbon. The whole thing.
But for someone like me, that’s vanilla. It’s what regular people do.
And it has never interested me, not in how I’m starting to think of it.
Because I’m thinking of it with an open-ended future.
I’m thinking of days hanging out, her studying, me working, just being together, sharing a space like we belong together. I’m thinking of dates, real dates where I take her to see a play or a movie without fucking her in the theater. I’m thinking of romantic dinners, drinks with friends.
Picnics, fights, laughter, tears.
Knowing her like I don’t know anyone else and being utterly fascinated by her still.
Because I can feel that in my bones. I could be with her for sixty years and find her as fascinating as I do now, I could discover new things about her every day and relearn all the ones I know.
I love her. That’s no surprise.
But this is different. In love? Mature love? The forever kind?
Rings, kids, together forever love?
I stop and take a breath.
“Maybe.”
Of course, there’s nothing here, no packages, but I’m not disappointed. I’ll fucking take her shopping. Buy her kinky clothes and toys, buy her evening dresses, jewels, and flowers.
I go into our room and stop.
A bunch of clothes sit on the bed, most I haven’t seen, and I think they’re the ones she got the last time she went shopping with Lia.
I pick up a leather corset. Then a boned one with silk and lace.
Both are hot, but I think I prefer her easy access for me. Though corsets have their place. A lesson in edging. In delayed gratification. And they’re a lesson for her in a type of bondage. A subtle one.
Fuck, she could wear one under an evening dress that I’ll buy her. We can go out and have a regular evening and—
“Fuck, man. You’re losing it.” I pause. “You also have it bad.”
I drop the corsets, because I don’t have time to float off into what if world. But as I turn from the clothes, I stop. And I turn back, taking them in again.
Why the fuck are they out?
What would she be doing with them if she’s spending time with Lia?
My heart beats hard as my chest tightens.
There’s something not quite right, but I don’t have time for this. I need to get my shit and make the changes.
I turn on my computer and unlock it with the password and thumb print. Then I pull up the viruses and tweak them.
Honestly, by the time I’m finished it feels like five minutes but I’m aware it’s probably a lot longer. I open a drawer and fish out a USB in black to load them on. I check the time.
It took me about an hour and a half. Enzo will be here to get me soon.
So, I want to be ready.
Then I go to get the other USB I need.
I frown.
The top drawer of my desk might look chaotic, but there’s order. Particular order, and the USBs in there are a mess.
One is missing. One of three of the particular ones I need.
My heart thuds a little harder.
I open the next one. And the next one.
There are other things missing, too. Small tools Vi asked me about. Tools I told her I sometimes needed if I had to get into a locked room. Some of the things needed in order to hack into a security system if there’s a keypad. And one of my burners.
“Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.”
A wild, hot heat storms my veins, and I grab the things I need. A leather pouch she missed, where I keep my personal set of things I might need in any situation. I throw in the USBs, the black one and the other one which has a clear plastic case.
I didn’t pay attention to why she asked about what I’d do, or when I told her I needed to hack into the system physically in the center.
But I never went through every piece of equipment she’d need. I didn’t—
“Fucking YouTube and people posting how to do anything.”
Picking locks, using a burner right if you want to disappear. Even how to copy computer files…
I call Vi, and her phone’s off. “Fuck.”
Maybe, though, she’s got it on her, somewhere in her bag. I wouldn’t put it past her doing something like that. So, I hack the tracker app to bring up her GPS, anyway. It’s static. And it says she’s at home.
When I look at the cameras, though, her place is empty.
Maybe she’s with her friend. Maybe they’re both plotting Vi’s idiotic plan. Shit, maybe her friend’s going to go in as back up.
If things weren’t so fucking dire, I’d laugh.
I don’t need to do any fancy work to get Lia’s number. It’s on the stuff I hacked and downloaded before. And I’m not above calling the girl.
“Hello?”
“This is Cade, Lia,” I say, not even bothering with niceties. “Where’s Vi? Is she with you?”
“Oh, hi, Cade, how are you?”
The sudden ultra friendliness is suspicious and frankly odd.
“Is she with you?”
“Yes, of course she is. We’re spending the evening together. Having fun. A girl’s night, you know?” And she gives a little giggle.
“Put her on the phone.”
“She’s just popped out to get some booze. You know how—”
I hang up on her. The rudeness factor of the move only faintly registers through the haze of anger at my girl.
For a moment, I sit there, and I wipe a hand over my mouth.
Her phone’s off.
Her best friend’s lying.
Violet’s going to get herself killed with her half-baked plan and limited knowledge of how to do this shit. Watching a how to or reading up on it all is nothing like the real deal. Things go wrong, and… Shit. She doesn’t know all my plans. The viruses.
She doesn’t know what to do if the system is different to the other ones that Allistair has.
It happens.
Lots of things happen.
Including pretty girls taken as slaves by powerful men.
I’m going to have to save her.
I pack everything I need and change into black trousers and a light black long-sleeved turtleneck. Everyman’s business I call it. I can fit into anything from tech to delivery to security. Enzo’s going to be in the same outfit. I grab a suit jacket and my bag when my phone buzzes.
Enzo: Here. Get your ass moving. Black SUV.
An SUV. I shake my head, allowing a small smile in the midst of the sea of fury and fear swirling in me. Probably from one of the others in our organization.
The Syndicate has a lot of resources that we can tap. Or maybe it’s one of uncle Gino’s.
I put my glasses in a hard case in the off chance I need them, then head down to meet Enzo.
He’s parked outside the door, which is no mean feat.
I open the door, throw my bag in, and then climb into the passenger seat.
“Whoa, who crushed your happy? What’s up, man?”
I shoot him a look as he starts the engine. “Vi.”
“She leave you for me?”
“No, asshole, she’s gone all vigilante. She stole a burner and tools of the trade so she can hack into the damn fucking bullshit system at the center. Who the fuck does she think she is? Us?”
I’m fuming hard. If I were a cartoon, there’d be clouds of smoke coming from me.
Enzo laughs. “Quite the girl you stole there.”
I turn, glowering at him. “How the fuck can she even think this is a good idea? She’s meant to stay safe, not take justice into her own hands. She thinks she can do this on her own. And she—”
I stop.
Enzo glances at me, pointedly.
“Something you wanna say, motherfucker?” I ask.
He clears his throat. “Well, thing is…your Violet is basically the female version of you.”
“Bullshit. She’s no hacker.”
“Maybe she doesn’t know how to do most of this, but she’s smart, and I bet she watched something on it all. You told me what she stole. Sure sounds like a girl on a mission who learned the basics online to me.”
“Exactly my point,” I mutter. “The basics.”
He sighs. “Not what I mean. What I mean is you’re a hacker and she’s…she’s okay, not a hacker, but you both seem to bleed social justice from your fucking eyes.”
“Bullshit. She’s got a soft heart.”
He pulls up at the lights. “You hack and have a whole social justice persona going on the side of our job. The Ghost? Remember him? You want to make people who deserve it pay. And so does she. That kid wouldn’t let us leave Ivan’s place of torture until we went looking for that girl.
She made us do what we could to find out who she was.
Fuck me, Violet’s the offline Ghost, trying to find the truth and punish those at fault from the ground in real life, and you do it online. ”
I glower at him. “It’s not the same thing. We’re not alike and besides, I can handle myself. Have you seen her? She’s defenseless.”
The lights change, and Enzo laughs as we keep driving. “What? Vi can’t handle herself and is defenseless because she’s a girl?”
“Stop putting words in my mouth, dickwad.”
He raises a hand from the wheel. “Whatever, dude. Are we still raiding this place or what? Is Violet doing it on her own?”
I’m saved from very choice words when his phone rings and with a sigh, he answers,
A voice fills the car. “Enzo, it’s your uncle Gino here. I want to see you and your friend immediately.”
I reach out and hit mute.
“What the fuck?” Enzo asks.
“Stall him.”
Enzo winces. “Uncle Gino isn’t exactly known for his patience.”
“I don’t care.”
And I don’t. Right now my focus is on making sure Vi is okay.
She needs to be because once this is done, I’m killing her myself.