44. Riot
Riot
W hen Brennan went back to the Cyber Intelligence program, he couldn’t tell us where it was.
But the smile on his face was all I needed for reassurance.
Before he left, he winked at Nicolette and told her not to worry, he’d be back in no time so she could kick his ass again in Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots.
I had laughed but Nicolette looked perplexed. Later that night, my beautiful little bloodhound sat straight up, scaring the bejesus out of me. She didn’t even put her shoes on before running to Brennan’s house and slamming open the door.
I followed her groggily and found her tearing apart his house, room by room. She overturned pillows and shelves until she found the robot game stashed under his bed with all the other action figures he’d saved.
“Aha!” she exclaimed, flipping over the game to reveal a USB drive taped to the bottom.
“What is it?” I cleared my throat. She ignored me and started running back toward the house.
I made it back in time to find her parked at the breakfast bar, opening her laptop.
“Brennankicked my ass in Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots last time.”
“Maybe he got it wrong.” She shot me a flat look. Has Brennan ever been wrong? “Yeah, okay, fair enough.”
“I knew he was trying to tell me something.”
It was almost three in the morning. She plugged the USB drive in.
Immediately a text box popped up. The letters appeared as if someone was typing in real-time .
Greetings Earthlings, I have come with an important message… Kidding. It’s me. Brennan. This was the last thing I was able to recover before I broke Riot out of Godot jail. He tried to wipe the server. But you can’t wipe Brennan!
The text boxdisappearedand a normal file folderappearedwith one file in it.
“Maybe you shouldn’t—” But as I said the words, Nicolette was already double-clicking.
A black and white videopoppedup from a security camera. Irecognizedthe entrance to the mine immediately. At least what itusedto look like before itwasblownup by the stick of dynamite that Geoffrey Brownwaslighting.
Nicolette laughed. “He got the security footage from that night.”
It was a clear shot of Geoffrey Brown dropping a lit stick of dynamite into the mine shaft where a blonde girl peeked out from the first level.
My heartachedat the image. At theresignedexpression on her face. I neverwantedher to feel that way ever again. In that moment IknewI’ddo anything to keep her safe. From now until as long as she’d have me.
Iheldher tighter that night. Wetalkedendlessly about what we should do with the footage. Therewasno audio to the video, so his confession about my motherwasn’ttangible. Believe me, that ironywasnotloston us.
The federal marshalshadcaughtGeoffrey Browntryingto get on a boat to the Caymans.
Hewascurrentlylockedup as the SEC’s investigationswirledaround him.
Nicolettebroughtup the valid point that if weturnedthe video over, then he would befacingattemptedmurder charges and there could be a turf war.
Theattempted murder investigation could get in the way of the SEC investigation, and it could jeopardize both.
Iwantedto nail his ass. Make him pay. But ultimately, my brilliant girlfriendwonthe argument (boy, did I loveusingthat word). Shesaidwe should hold on to it. Therewasno statute of limitations onattemptedmurder in West Virginia. So, we would wait to see how hefaredduring the SEC trial.
When the SEC got to town, people were wary of them.
They didn’t understand what the SEC was, let alone what they were looking for.
Nicolette was quite helpful, however, with their investigation.
They put us under a gag order from going to the press with any of it.
Making it public before the investigation was over could jeopardize Brown’s indictment.
The lead SEC investigator, Lucas Wilder, was friendly, but in a deadly kind of way.
His smile was genuine but I could tell he had something ferocious inside of him and he reminded me of Nicolette.
He had dirty blonde hair and fierce blue eyes and I had to admit even I was jealous of his jawline.
I caught him checking her out at one point and if he wasn’t a federal agent, I might have said something.
When she turned everything she’d found over to him, he kept her aside for at least twenty minutes after the meeting was over. I started to get antsy. I peered through the small square window in the door. As he spoke, I could tell Nicolette was considering something.
They shook hands before exiting.
“What was that about?” I asked, trying to make my voice sound casual. It didn’t work. Nicolette smirked at me.
“I think he might have offered me a job…” She sounded cautiously intrigued. “Not officially or anything but he said they often take on ‘consultant contractors’ to help out with investigations. I guess he was impressed by my investigative acumen .”
“What did you say?” I looped my arms around her waist and pulled her tighter to me.
“I said I’d consider it. I told him a lot is happening in my life right now. Not sure where my next stop is.”
Her wordshitme somewhere in the chest. The last few weekshadbeensuch a whirlwind that wehadn’ttalkedabout how my parole release could impact our future. Therewasa lot to consider but as long as shewantedto do it with me at her side, I would be there.