Chapter 27
The Night Combat
Jack
I glance at my own smartwatch as notifications of thwarted attacks on our computers come through my texts. Distraction indeed. But they underestimated my setup. Sidney isn’t getting texts or I would be alerted.
“Are you going to explain your evil plan now?” Harper leans into Luke. “You distracted us, but something tells me you aren’t done.”
“Not my plan.” Sidney shrugs. “I’m just a willing chess piece. They’ve been watching you. They knew you’d rally to protect your little pet.”
Luke’s eyes narrow on her. “Who’s the chess master then?”
Sidney smirks. “I’m not at liberty to say.” She glances at her smartwatch. “And I’m done here. It’s been fascinating as always, boys.”
Standing, she brushes off her clothes like she’d get something on her from Harper’s furniture.
“I could still call the police.” Harper straightens.
Sidney gives her a deprecating smile. “My uncle is the chief of police. Why do you think they sent me instead of some stupid boy again?”
Again? The first or second or both times?
She stretches and reaches into her pocket. She holds up the camera we had Nat plant. “Sloppy work. You don’t think I monitor access to my bedroom to the party? Or that I didn’t change the code, but left yours active?”
She shakes her head at Luke as she tosses it onto the table. “Maybe you can use this to video your pet.”
This can’t be Zach masterminding this, can it? They drew us all out of our houses for what? To stop us from following Zach’s crew? To attack our computers when they are on and accessible because we have them linked?
“Bye, boys.” Sidney goes to the door and lets herself out.
“I hate her,” Harper whispers.
“Don’t worry, we’ve got something she’s not expecting, but right now, we need to cover our own asses.” I look around. “Who left their computers up and unlocked?”
“I shut mine down when I came over here.” Nico glances at the others. “Sidney was in the guest bedroom.”
“Your laptop?” I meet Luke’s gaze.
“Fuck.” He straightens and presses a kiss to Harper’s cheek before heading upstairs.
“Mine’s locked,” Eli says.
Caden runs his hand through his dark hair. “I left as soon as I woke up, but I didn’t disconnect.”
“Your dad is home?” I stand and look at Harper. “I’m going to use your computer.”
She nods. “Of course.”
I climb up the stairs while the others talk quietly. Before I enter Harper’s room, Luke comes out of the guest bedroom.
“Gone.” He shakes his head. “She didn’t have anything on her.”
“Maybe it wasn’t a one-person job.” I shake my head. Fuck, I need to lock down Caden’s computer and lock out and brick Luke’s laptop.
I grab Harper’s laptop and look at the feeds. Eli’s is off. Mine is off. Luke’s and Nico’s are off. Caden’s is live and there’s a light on in his room.
I bring the laptop downstairs with me and set it on the dining room table. Using my backdoor to get into everyone else’s computers, I lock Luke’s laptop down and hit the “kill” switch to erase everything.
The cloud storage we use pulls everyone’s data to it periodically so we don’t lose shit.
The sound of a car pulling into the driveway makes all of us stop and look at the door. I glance at Caden’s room and see a shadow. Before I left my house, I hit the record in case someone went into Harper’s room.
But I can’t leave it open in case they try to get in. I close out the webcam and log out of Caden’s computer before anyone else can access it.
Harper’s mom comes through the door and looks at all of us. It’s two in the morning. All of us look rumpled from sleep. Well, except me. I haven’t been to bed yet.
Her arms cross over her chest as she looks at each of us.
Harper stands, still in her sleep shorts and Luke’s hoodie. “Someone broke in.”
She looks out the windows before returning her gaze to Harper’s. “Where are the police?”
“It was a girl from school.” Harper twists her hands together. “She must have done something to the alarm system because it went offline.”
Jennifer massages the back of her neck. “It’s the middle of the night. Practically morning. And my house is full of boys.”
“Why are you home?” I ask.
“They had someone else come in so I came home early.” She watches me closely, but she’s not happy about any of this.
“We came because we wanted to find out who was in the house.” Eli rubs at the stubble on his chin.
“Instead of triggering the alarm and letting the police handle it?” Jennifer shakes her head.
“What if they’d had a gun? What if they really were breaking and entering?
What if any of you got hurt? Do you not understand the risks you took?
Isn’t that the whole reason you installed the alarm system? ”
Harper wilts under her mom’s words.
“The system failed.” I lean back in the chair and close Harper’s laptop. “The girl who broke in obviously wanted to get caught and for us to get caught by you.”
I meet Harper’s brown eyes as she puts it together.
“Someone is fucking with us all.” Luke stands behind Harper, not touching her but close enough she can feel his strength.
“You were called into work on a night you shouldn’t have and you were released early, just in time to find all of us here, because our intruder was someone we know whose uncle happens to be the chief of police. ”
Jennifer sinks into a chair at the table.
“This isn’t random.” Eli takes over. “She said they’ve been watching us. They know if Harper is in trouble, we’ll all be there for her. We’ve been trying to get ahead of the game. To be on the offense instead of always being on the defense, but it seems impossible. They never leave a trail.”
“Except this time.” Everyone turns to look at me. “I can track the attacks and there was someone in Caden’s room. Hopefully, I have video.”
“My dad is home tonight.” Caden curses silently. “He’d have access to my room.”
“So would Ava.” Nico blows out a breath. “We don’t know her motive for returning. But it seems a little too coincidental.”
“You guys shouldn’t be worried about all this.” Jennifer’s brown eyes are filled with concern. “You should all be sleeping, worrying about acne and grades and girls and boys.”
“Not with our fathers.” Caden faces Jennifer. “You of all people should know what our fathers are capable of.”
Harper’s brow furrows in confusion.
With everything we’ve had to go over, we haven’t told Harper about the yearbook Caden found of his mother’s. After Jennifer mentioned attending Sherman High, we looked into it. Though they weren’t in the same grades, Jennifer went at the same time as our fathers.
“What do you mean?” Harper asks. Luke steps up so her back touches his front, but doesn’t put his hands on her. His fingers twitch like he wants to. She reaches back to take his. Their fingers interlock.
“Your mom went to school with our dads,” I explain.
Jennifer blows out a breath. “I knew of their fathers in high school. We weren’t friends. I doubt they even knew who I was. But they were popular and ruled the school.”
That shouldn’t surprise any of us. They were on the football team as well and dominated on the field. It’s why all of us went to the same football camp from a young age.
“Is there any other crisis tonight?” Jennifer lifts her head and looks at each of us. “Do you need notes for your parents about why you were out late? I’m sure none of them would dare ground any of you.”
Caden chuckles. “No, they wouldn’t. We need to be more careful on the webcam.” He focuses in on Jennifer. “You didn’t get that laptop yet?”
Jennifer shakes her head and meets my gaze. “Instead of bringing it to you, maybe I should bring you to it.”
I nod. “If it’s been safe all this time, then yes, that makes sense.”
“All right. Back to bed.” Jennifer stands and claps her hands. “I expect you to be at school in the morning when I wake up, Harper.”
We’re all going to be dragging in the morning. When we all stand and look at Harper, Jennifer rolls her eyes.
“Good night. Make sure the alarm is set.” She walks upstairs muttering to herself.
“Your mom is the best, kitten.” Eli steps into Harper and draws her into his arms for a hug.
“You think that was part of the plan?” Harper asks as she steps back.
Caden hugs her next, while Nico runs upstairs to grab his shoes and shirt. I wouldn’t put it past Jennifer to have noticed that Nico looks like he just climbed out of bed while Luke is dressed like he’s been outside.
“To blow up your relationship with your mother?” Caden kisses her hair. “Probably. They attacked our computers, which they could get to at any time while we’re in school.”
“Not unlocked they can’t.” I step forward to take my turn hugging Harper. “They wanted us panicked. Hoping one of us would slip up.”
I draw her into my arms and she wraps her arms around my waist, holding me tight against her. Her vanilla scent is mingled with Luke’s cologne from his sweatshirt.
“And I’m the one that fucked up.” Caden’s words catch my attention.
“Maybe, but I’ll be able to tell what they were looking for.” I release Harper and she steps into Nico’s arms. “No more naked time on the webcams.”
Harper gasps and looks back at me. Her frantic gaze darting to the stairs. I shake my head.
“I wasn’t that loud, sweetheart.”
She ducks her head against Nico as he holds her tight. “I was looking forward to waking you up in the morning, sunshine.”
Her cheeks are pink when she draws back. Luke shakes his head and pulls Harper back into him, wrapping an arm around her shoulders as they both watch us. “I’ll take care of our girl.”
“Not on webcam,” I remind him. Which sucks because that would be an excellent way to start the morning, watching Luke fuck Harper.
I walk over to the coffee table and toss the webcam to Luke. He catches it and raises an eyebrow. I smirk.
“It’s tamperproof and goes to my cloud storage, which is inaccessible to anyone who isn’t me.” I wink at Harper. “Put on a good show for me.”
“Do we have all our bases covered?” Luke asks. He strokes Harper’s shoulder. Her dark eyes lift to mine and I wish I could stay and be there in the morning.
“I hope so. I’ll see what I can find tonight before the trail goes cold.” Fuck, this is going to be a long night. I’ve got an energy drink waiting for me at home.