25. Deacon
DEACON
“Found a phone behind the couch.”
“What about the projector system? You think that’s got software on it?”
“Fucking hell, why the fuck is there a goddamn laptop under the bed!?”
My heart slammed against my chest. Every rush of blood that seeped its way through my veins clouded my vision.
I never experienced anger like this before.
Blood curdling. Loud. Life threatening. Every electronic we found made my head spin.
Since when the hell did we get so fucking lazy?
Since when the hell did we get this goddamn comfortable?
How the fuck had I allowed this to happen?
“Got another one for you,” I muttered as I extended my arm toward Char.
She took the laptop with pride and held it up in front of Rat. “Pound or toss?”
Rat grinned. “Toss this one.”
“Toss?” I asked.
“Whoopsie-daisy!” Char chimed in.
She tossed the laptop into the air and with one fell swing, Rat cranked that bat through the air. He grunted as it connected, and I watched as little pieces shattered and fell to the porch. They danced off the wood, piercing the sand and leaving behind its own little puff of smoke in the process.
“Yeah! That was a good one, Rat,” Char said as she walked over and took the bat from him. “How’d that feel?”
Rat rolled his shoulders. “Better. Form’s still garbage, though.”
“Hey, Deac,” Char said as she pointed to Rat, “did you know that he played baseball growing up?”
I blinked. “No, I didn’t.”
She snickered as she turned that beaming smile back to him. “Well I’ll have you know that I tried my hand at softball there for a little while. You know, before Dad lost his shit.”
“Yeah, dads do that sometimes,” Rat said with a grunt as he perched on the edge of a chair.
“Incoming!” Plug exclaimed.
He skidded to a stop next to me and he tossed the laptop in front of Char.
I watched her raise that baseball bat over her head, and as she whipped those hips forward, she brought that damned thing down as if she were chopping wood.
Over and over, she slammed that bat against it.
Glass shattered and plastic went flying while little bits of its insides scattered along the porch.
The anger in her face was evident, too.
“Son. Of. A. Bitch,” she hissed.
As I watched her pound that useless laptop into smithereens, it gave me a second to draw in a deep breath of fresh air.
To recalculate. Every step of the way, that bitch was ahead of us.
Weaving her net of cameras and planning her moves according to all of the different ways she knew we’d react.
Every time we made a move, it played right into what she wanted.
Every time we zigged, she was there to catch our zag.
We had to get out from beneath her somehow.
We had to regain our element of surprise.
“All right, all right,” Rat said as he pushed himself up, “I think that laptop’s had enough.”
“No, no,” Char said through her panting, “just one more.”
“Char,” I said.
She whipped her head up. “Got another one for me?”
And that gave Rat just enough time to slip the bat out of her palms. “There we go.”
“Ugh,” she groaned.
“Go sit,” Rat said as he pointed toward the chair with the bat, “it’s my turn to be angry.”
“Good,” Mace said as he heaved a small television out onto the porch, “you get this one.”
“Hey, no fair,” Char said as her lower lip jutted out in a pout.
“Perfect,” Rat growled.
“Don’t worry, Char!” Plug said before grunting. “Found another smart TV just for you!”
“Hell yeah!”
I had to admit, seeing her smile, even if she was being vicious, felt like a victory in my book.
However, the search for electronics in the clubhouse wasn’t done.
As I moved back inside, I searched the dining room.
I turned over chairs and checked on the underside of the table.
I knocked my knuckles against the wall to make sure we didn’t mount anything to the inside of it.
Keeping my anger at bay was something I was never good at, but having Char there helped to keep it in check.
If anything, because I didn’t want her to see it.
“I need to tell you something,” Plug said as he came up behind me.
I sighed heavily before turning around. “What’s up?”
He took a step closer to me. “I didn’t want to say anything in front of the guys because I didn’t want to cause mass panic.”
I narrowed my eyes. “But?”
“But when I first started the facial recognition search, I didn’t start with the federal databases.”
“Does that matter?”
“Yes, it does. It makes me wonder if?—”
I tilted my head. “If, what, Plug?”
He shook his head. “I hate speaking without evidence. Without proof of any sort.”
“Right now, theories are all we’ve got. Just spit it out.”
“What if she’s some sort of priority agent? You know, undercover. Or a dirty cop. Or you know, something like that? Because that’s the only thing I can really think of that would flag a face so quickly while searching outside of federal employee databases.”
“They’d wanna protect her identity at all costs.”
He shrugged. “It’s just a theory, but?—”
I placed my hand on his shoulder. “I’ve turned it over in my head, too.”
He snickered. “You come up with anything else?”
I squeezed his shoulder. “No, but it’s good to know that someone else is thinking along the same path as I am.”
“I can’t possibly know more, or even get us information, if I can’t do what I do best, Deac. What the fuck am I supposed to do?”
I placed my other hand on his shoulder. “Get out the signal jammers.”
He blinked. “What?”
“The signal jammers. We haven’t destroyed them or anything, right?”
He shook his head. “No need to. They don’t use cameras and can’t be tracked.”
I moved my hands off his shoulders. “Good. Get them all out. Get us as tight and as secure of a perimeter as you can. We need to be able to communicate and research, and that’s about the only way we’re gonna be able to accomplish that.”
He nodded as his chest filled with purpose. “On it.”
“And while you’re doing that, think about how we can get our hands on things that we need? Yeah?”
He gave me a thumbs up as he exited the room. “I gotchu, Bossman!”
I didn’t even know if it was the right move.
I didn’t know if any of the moves that I made were the right ones.
But we were sitting ducks waiting for fucking target practice if we didn’t have information we needed to make waves.
The day crept by, with the search for electronics slowing to a smooth halt.
Rat and Char cleaned up the porch while Dallas and I chucked all of the drowned electronics into trash bags for further beatings.
Char was all too keen on taking us up on it.
“All right, Bossman,” Plug said as he found me in the kitchen, “the jammers are up and ready.”
“You got them turned on?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Figured I’d let you make that call.”
I nodded. “Go ahead.”
“Another quick question, though.”
I unplugged the sink. “What, Plug?”
“Do you remember when you told me to stock up on things?”
I paused and looked up at the ceiling. “You’re gonna have to be more specific.”
“Remember a couple of years ago, when you decided that we needed a stash of throwaway electronics for a rainy day?”
I cracked my neck. “Punchline, Plug.”
“We’ve got three laptops and a dozen or so phones that are airgapped and still in their containers. What do you want to do with them?”
I slowly turned to face him. “Get the jammers up and get them distributed. This might be the only clean way we have to communicate and research for now.”
He smiled broadly. “I hoped you’d say that. I’ll be right back!”
“Throw those jammers before you open up any of that shit!”
“Three! Two! One!”
The hair on the nape of my neck stood on end as my tongue tickled with the vibrating taste of electricity.
I drew in a shuddering breath, forcing my brain to recalibrate as the signal jammers filled the air with incessant noise.
I winced at the piercing sound. I fucking hated those things, but they were necessary evils.
And since they didn’t seem to bother anyone else but me, I kept my mouth shut when we needed to use them.
“Jesus, what is that noise?” Char asked as she came in from outside.
“What noise?” Rat asked.
I turned toward them. “Plug just turned on the signal jammers. We’re securing the house so we can still do what we need to do.”
Rat pointed at me. “Good idea. I, however, am gonna go take a hot ass shower.”
“Ugh, that sounds amazing,” Char groaned. “We got enough hot water in this place for two showers at once.”
“Most rooms have their own small hot water tank,” I said.
Char wiggled her eyebrows. “Oooooh, fancy-shmancy.”
Rat chuckled. “Hey, good swinging today. You’ve got some serious upper body strength.”
Char playfully flexed her muscles. “I do what I can, Rat. I do what I can.”
He patted her shoulder before he limped by. “Don’t wait up, you two. This Rat needs a good drowning.”
And as he lumbered his way out of the room, I watched him as the heat of Char’s stare studied me.
“Are M.J. and DeShawn safe?” she asked.
Her voice was so meek and mild, and it killed me when I turned my attention to her, only to see tears welling in her eyes.
Her eyes were much too beautiful for such a mark.
“Let me get the guys straightened out, and we’ll talk, okay?” I asked.
She wiped beneath her eyes. “Yeah, yeah. Sorry. That was selfish.”
I strode toward her, not stopping until her back fell against the glass back door.
I pinned her with a look as I placed my hand above her head, leaning in close so that nothing would distract her.
I needed her to hear my words. I needed her to heed them as law in our lands.
And as her lips fell to mine, my heart slammed against my sternum.
I’d claim those lips before the end of that night.
“There is nothing about you in this situation that is selfish. You’re worried about your friends, as any good friend should be. Understood?”
She sniffled. “Yes.”