Chapter 13
WEBB
“Okay, I bypassed the building security.”
In the dark of the car, the light from Tyler’s laptop screen casts an eerie glow across his face. He shakes his head in disbelief. “Considering how much this place charges to live there, you’d think they’d have better security.”
Ace glances in the rear view mirror at Tyler. “That might have been a new record. What did it take you this time? Two minutes?”
“Two minutes?” Tyler scoffs. “More like one. And I probably could have done it faster. But someone decided he wanted to aim for every pothole in Northwest Portland. And it’s a little hard to use a laptop when the car is bouncing around every other second.”
“I wasn’t aiming for the potholes,” Ace retorts. “They’re everywhere. If I tried to veer around all of them, chances are I’d end up getting pulled over on suspicion of drunk driving. And I don’t think we want that kind of complication tonight.”
Tyler leans forward to flick the back of Ace’s head. “I heard you snickering when you hit the last one. Don’t tell me you didn’t aim for it on purpose.”
In profile, Ace’s lips twitch. “Maybe you should hack into the Bureau of Transportation’s system. Prioritize fixing the potholes in Portland if they bother you so much.”
Then Ace turns from the driver’s seat to look at me. “Can you believe this guy? Complaining about a few potholes after growing up in upstate New York. The roads are covered with potholes up there.”
“I don’t care about potholes,” I snap. “All I care about is getting this done.”
A beat later, remorse hits. I know why they’re talking about potholes, and it’s not because they have an avid interest in the quality of the Portland roads.
They know how wound up I am, and they’re trying in their own way to distract me.
It’s not their fault that all I can think about is facing that piece of shit Ken Donaldson and making him pay for what he’s done to Noelle.
No, he didn’t hurt her physically. But he assaulted her, just the same.
Recording her without permission, stealing her house key so he could sneak into her apartment and plant fucking cameras inside, harassing her, streaming that damn video of her changing at her new job, destroying her career and forcing her out of her home because she didn’t feel safe…
And really, if I’m going to get technical about it, he did hurt her. If not for the photo he sent while she was crossing the street, Noelle wouldn’t have frozen in the middle of the intersection. If not for that video at the diner, she wouldn’t have cut her hand on the broken glass.
That’s not even taking into account the emotional toll all this has taken on her.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget Noelle crying in my arms after I had to tell her about Indy’s discovery at her apartment.
Her broken sobs are etched into my memory, along with her asking me tearfully, “Will this ever end? I’m not sure how much more I can take. ”
My answer?
I’m putting a stop to this. And I don’t care what it takes.
That’s why we’re driving through Slabtown at one o’clock in the morning, only minutes away from Ken Donaldson’s apartment.
That’s why Tyler just hacked into the building security, so we can sneak inside, just like Noelle’s piece of shit boss did to her.
And that’s why I’m going to make Donaldson tell me everything, whether he wants to or not.
Is any of this legal? Of course not. But that’s the beauty of my team. When we came together, we all agreed that sometimes the law isn’t enough. That sometimes, in order to make sure justice is served, we have to work outside it.
Would I kill Donaldson if that’s what it comes to?
It’s a thought that came to me during our team meeting this morning, while we went over the logistics of our plan.
“What if he won’t give up the location of the files?
” Indy asked. “What if he threatens to distribute them? Post them on the dark web? Have you thought about that?”
I have thought about it. More often than I’d like to admit.
Before Noelle, I couldn’t have seen myself taking a life outside of my duty.
But now? I think I might, if it keeps Noelle safe.
“Sorry,” Ace says. He claps my shoulder. “I know you don’t care about potholes.” As one comes up ahead of us, he carefully steers around it.
“No, I’m sorry,” I reply. “I’m just… shit. This whole thing. I’m trying to keep my cool. But every time I think about seeing that smug fucker’s face, I just want to smash it in.”
“I get it,” Tyler says. “If anyone deserves to be knocked out, it’s him.”
Ace slows as he makes a right on 23rd, then accelerates down the mostly empty street. “You know we’ve got your six,” he says. “And if the asshole happens to trip and smash his face a few times—”
“Or break a few fingers,” Tyler adds.
Ace nods. “Toes are supposed to be particularly painful.”
The car falls into silence. Then I admit quietly, “I’ll do anything to stop him. Anything. And if it gets to the point where things are looking bad, you guys should go. No reason for you to take risks—”
This time, Tyler’s the one who hits the back of my head. “Are you shitting me?” he asks in an incredulous tone. “Do you really think I’d just leave?”
Ace glances away from the road to look at me. His expression is a mixture of surprise and hurt. “Would you leave if the positions were reversed and we were here protecting my girlfriend?”
“No,” I reply immediately. “But—”
“Think about all the shit I’ve done,” Tyler interrupts. “Not just for Noelle. But for Bea. Eden. Some of our other clients.”
“I might not be a hacker like this guy,” Ace adds, jerking his head in Tyler’s direction. “But I’ve been right there, helping. When we needed to deal with Eden’s attacker, did you see me hiding in a corner? Were you?”
“No, of course not.” While Indy was the one who ended up doling out retribution, I was there in case he needed backup. Just like Rafe, Tyler, and Ace were.
“Exactly.” Ace nods. Then he makes another right on Raleigh, the road Donaldson’s apartment building is on. “So whatever you need to do to fix this for Noelle, we’ve both got your six. Just like we have for Rafe and Indy. And just like you would for me or Tyler.”
A second later, Ace grimaces. “Sorry, Ty. I didn’t mean—”
Tyler cuts him off. “It’s fine. You can talk about relationships around me. And who knows, maybe one day I will meet someone else. Crazier things have happened.”
I’m so startled by Tyler’s statement, it breaks through my single-minded focus on Donaldson for a second. This is the first time since Tyler joined the team last year that he’s said anything about moving on after Kaia’s death.
Thinking about how much I care about Noelle, about the future I already want with her, I can’t even imagine the depth of Tyler’s loss. But now I finally know how incredible it is, having a woman who fits me like no one else. And shit, I want that for Tyler again.
I don’t say that, of course. Instead, I get back to business.
Tapping my phone to wake it, I pull up the blueprints of the building we’re about to break into.
It’s five-stories, with Donaldson’s apartment located on the first floor of the western end, right beside the mail room.
Our plan is to use the private tenant entrance there, and at this time of night, it’s highly unlikely that there’ll be anyone checking their mail.
Thanks to Tyler’s hacking skills, we’ll be able to walk right inside the building, and Donaldson’s apartment is less than twenty feet from there. I’ll pick the locks for his door—I’m the fastest of the three of us with the lockpicks—and hopefully, in under a minute, we’ll be in.
“The surveillance cameras are going to be on a loop?” I ask, even though I already know the answer. It’s just habit to go back through everything before an op, to make sure we’re all on the same page and there’s not some small detail we missed.
“Yes,” Tyler replies. “I’ve already got them running footage from an hour ago. Not that there’s a designated security guard watching. Just the nighttime doorman, and he’ll be at the other end of the building, in the lobby.”
“And if we run into someone in the hallway,” Ace recaps, “we’ll have our trusty disguises.” He taps the prosthetic chin he’s wearing. It’s significantly larger than his own, and it’s covered with a thick brown beard to match the wig he’s wearing over his dirty blonde hair.
I flip down the visor to check my own disguise, which consists of bushy brown eyebrows, a prosthetic nose with a bump on the bridge of it, and a mustache that hangs over my upper lip. My hair is covered by a Mariners baseball cap, and I’m wearing a baggy sweatshirt to match.
“Maybe I should stick with red,” Tyler muses as he adjusts his red wig. He has huge glasses that cover nearly half his face, and a scraggly red beard masks the rest of it. “It’s certainly… distinctive.”
“That’s the point,” Ace says as he parks the car in an empty spot just down the road from Donaldson’s building. “If we run into anyone, and they’re asked about it later, they’ll remember details like that. Red hair. Big nose. Bushy eyebrows.”
“I know,” Tyler replies drolly. “I am aware of how disguises work.”
Ace turns off the car. Then he turns towards me. “Okay. Since this is your op, do you want to go over it one more time?”
I allow myself one last surge of anger before shoving it down deep. Now’s not the time for emotion. It’s for focusing on the task at hand—namely, getting into Donaldson’s apartment without notice and making sure his neighbors don’t hear anything suspicious.
With a lift of my chin, I ask, “We know he’s home, right?”
Tyler nods. “According to the security footage in the building, he hasn’t left since Wednesday. He sent an email to the theater employees on Wednesday night to let them know he was sick and wouldn’t be in.”
Ace jumps in. “I tailed the guy to the drugstore on Wednesday afternoon. He didn’t look great. I’d say he’s definitely sick.”