Cask strength, p.19
Cask Strength, page 19
That he loved him.
Had Jamie changed his mind? Was that why he was sorry?
Had Aidan read everything so wrong?
Jamie hadn’t been kidnapped. He’d left. Derrick made a final plea, and Jamie went running. Back to his ex. Back to his old life. Aidan saw this coming, yet ignored it in favor of his own skewed reality. A fantasy where Jamie loved him, gave up all this—a beautiful house, an unburdened man, and an assassin-free future coaching the sport he loved—because he was Jamie’s home.
And now Aidan had lost his.
Fantasy shattered, the hole in his chest that’d started to form that morning tore wide open and his legs gave out.
He would have hit the floor except Byrne was there, shoving his shoulder underneath his and dragging him into the study. He dumped him in the chair and sat on the ottoman across from him.
“Talley, talk to me.”
“I thought things between us had changed. I changed.”
“You’ve changed?” Byrne said, skeptical.
“How much do you know?”
Byrne crossed his arms, every bit the surly Bostonian Aidan recalled from cases pre-Jamie. “Enough to know you’ve been an ass the past five months.”
“I deserve that.” Aidan met his gaze head-on. “I’d also add ‘idiotic.’”
“Yes, you were. And you’re not now?”
Aidan pressed his hand against his aching chest, staring out the window. “I told Jamie I loved him.”
Byrne gasped in surprise. “And he said it back?”
Aidan nodded. “But with the shit I’ve put him through, it wouldn’t be a shock if he changed his mind and chose Derrick. Jamie’s been home five days; he looks comfortable in his old life. And Derrick still wants him.”
“No surprise there.”
“Derrick loves him, and he’s uncomplicated and beautiful.”
“Last I spoke to Jamie you two were off. I didn’t know things had changed.” The tension in Byrne’s shoulders eased. “He didn’t leave with Derrick.”
“How do you know that? The note—”
“Jamie’s the most loyal man I know, and he’s stupid in love with you.”
Aidan’s eyes widened. “He told you?”
Byrne smiled, something Aidan was still getting used to. “He wouldn’t risk another job he loves if he didn’t love you more. And if he knew the feelings were returned, he wouldn’t betray you by leaving with Derrick. No matter how much of an idiotic ass you’ve been.”
Aidan exhaled in relief and dragged himself up on the offered life raft. If this man, Jamie’s best friend and confidant, believed he hadn’t left with Derrick, then maybe Aidan’s reality wasn’t a fantasy after all.
“And you’re calling him Jamie.”
“It’s the cover.”
“No, it’s not.” Byrne clasped his forearm. “Coffee, then tell me who you think kidnapped our boy and why so we can get him back.”
Over two mugs each, Aidan laid out the chain of events he’d pieced together, and when he got to the end and considered the newly found note, he realized how it fit in. “They used Derrick as leverage to get him out of the house.”
“Very likely.” Byrne dug into his pocket and Aidan’s gold and emerald cufflinks spilled out of his fist onto the dining table. “He left those with the note on top of his keyboard. What’s he trying to tell us?”
Aidan picked them up, turning them over in his hand as he put himself in Jamie’s head. His mind flashed back to the first time he’d given Jamie the cufflinks, when he was about to lead a team into the field and had to leave Jamie behind.
For his safety. To run comms. To hack what they needed.
“You said you found these and the note on his computer?”
“Right on the keyboard.”
Aidan cracked his first smile of the day. “I know what he wants us to do.”
Chapter Nineteen
Aidan pushed out of his chair and ran for the study. “Jamie was kidnapped for his hacker expertise. He’s programming.”
“What are you thinking?” Byrne said.
“He’s leaving clues—” Aidan nodded at the computer “—in here?”
One corner of Byrne’s mouth hitched up. “Jamie would do that.”
“And I think I may know how.” He woke the computer, opened a web browser, and entered the address for the gambling site.
And hit a wall.
“What the hell?”
Byrne came around the desk to his side. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m blocked from the site. Why would he do that?” He pulled Ian’s phone out of his other pocket and tried getting at it that way. “I can get in here, but this isn’t what I need to see.”
“What are you looking for?”
“Whenever we tested the gambling site, Jamie had a monitoring window open that showed everything the spyware captured. Spyware for the spyware, he called it.”
Byrne pointed at the top corner of the screen. “This is his official work user, isn’t it?”
Aidan nodded.
“He’s not supposed to have that software. It’s going to be on his remote server.”
“What remote server?”
“Hit the drop-down on the user.”
Doing so, Aidan clicked on the other user, only to be hit with the black box of doom. “Fuck!” Rather than pushing the laptop off the desk, he took his frustration out on the note, tearing it in half and throwing the bits on the floor. “It’s fucking encrypted.”
“Of course it is. Fucking hackers.” Hands behind his head, Byrne took up the daily pacing. “Who do we know who can crack it?”
“Kevin, he’s a hacker contact we made last year.” Aidan reverted to his phone and dialed. “No answer,” he said, after trying twice. He shot off a text, then racked his brain for another option.
“Has anyone you know actually been in his system?” Byrne said.
When he put it that way, an option Aidan didn’t like at all came to mind. But with Kevin out of reach, he was the best and only option left. Aidan scrolled again through his contacts, found the one he was glad for the first time ever he hadn’t deleted, and dialed.
“Agent Talley,” Oscar Torres answered. “I hear your partner wised up and got out of the Bureau.”
The delight in his voice made Aidan want to reach through the phone and strangle the former agent who’d made no bones about his interest in Jamie last fall in Galveston. “It’s a cover,” he said, restraining himself.
“I should have known he’d never leave you, even if he can do better.”
Aidan ignored the too timely dig. “I need to get into Jamie’s encrypted remote server.”
“Have Jamie grant you access.”
“Jamie’s been kidnapped,” he replied, patience waning.
“Six-five, 250, that same Jamie?”
“Yes, that Jamie. Now, can you help or not?”
“Why do you need access? What’s on his hard drive?”
Frustrated, Aidan ground his teeth together and Byrne snatched the phone from his hand, putting it on speaker. “Torres, this is Agent Cameron Byrne. I’m a friend of Jamie’s and a K&R specialist. We think Jamie may be leaving clues as to his whereabouts through a spyware that’s on his remote server. We need your help to find him.”
Byrne’s agent-voice brooked no argument, and Torres wisely changed his tune. “I know the program. He keeps it off his primary mainframe since it’s not Bureau sanctioned. We used it in Galveston. If he hasn’t changed his setup, I can get in.”
The doorbell rang.
“I’ll get it,” Byrne said to Aidan. “Work with Torres.”
He disappeared down the hallway and Aidan returned his attention to the phone. “We’ve got to find him, Oscar. Tell me what to do.”
Torres fed him commands to type into the terminal box, and before Byrne was back, Torres was in Jamie’s system and driving, entering decryption commands at lightning speed.
“These boys say they’re looking for Coach Walker,” Byrne said, returning with two unexpected visitors. “Security let them through since one of them had police clearance.”
“That’s right.” Hacking in Torres’s capable hands, Aidan stepped out from behind the desk. “Riley, Press, what are you doing here?”
“Coach Walker didn’t show up at practice today,” Press said.
“What’s going on?” Riley asked.
“How much does he know?” Aidan asked Riley.
“Enough to be here with me.”
“Was there anyone else missing from practice today?”
“Marcus, Blake and Neil.”
Aidan considered for a moment whether to bring another person into this, but he didn’t have time to waste. Press had gone to Riley about the ring in the first place. He already had some knowledge of it. Right now, Aidan’s top priority was finding Jamie, in which case, four brains were better than two. “We think they’ve taken Jamie and are forcing him to tweak the system programming.”
“Any idea where?” Riley asked.
“No, we think Jamie may be leaving a trail, but we have to crack the encryption on his computer first.”
“I’ve got it,” Torres’s tinny voice called from the speaker and Aidan rushed back behind the desk. The black box had vanished, replaced by the Halloween picture Aidan remembered from yesterday morning.
“All right, we’re looking for a program he’s labeled ‘Hunt.’” Jamie and his ridiculous naming conventions. Magnum, Hunt, he was sure there was a Bourne and Bond here too. Torres directed the cursor to the D-drive directory and scrolled through the list of folders. Aidan recognized many of the case names—tagged with “Project”—except one, Project Angel. A case Jamie worked before they were partnered? But it’d been opened earlier today. By who, if Jamie was working elsewhere? He added that to the after-Jamie’s-rescued list. He moved down the list and found Project Hunt. “Got it.”
The monitoring box appeared. “That’s it,” Aidan said. “Thanks, Torres.”
“Text me when he’s safe.”
“Will do.” Aidan hung up and tossed the phone on the desk.
He opened a browser window, typed in the gambling site address, and once it loaded, logged in. The monitoring box came to life. And not just fresh log-in life. There were entries from the past hour. Changes made to the handful of bets next to familiar cartel names. And new bets made using Ian Daley’s log-in. With each one, the spyware collected more than just his information. All the contacts from Ian Daley’s phone and accounts were being copied. That was what they wanted Jamie to tweak.
He looked again at the bets Ian Daley had placed. Unlike the cartel’s bets on other teams, Ian’s were on the Ravens’ next game.
M. Smith, leading scorer.
B. Whitehead, leader in assists.
N. Cashman, leader in fouls.
Final Score 103-87.
He understood Jamie’s first two clues. Marcus Smith was the ringleader. Blake Whitehead was his number two. N. Cashman had to refer to Neil, the other assistant coach. But leader in fouls? Fouls were penalties. And Neil didn’t seem to like Jamie.
“Hey, guys.” He called over Press and Riley. “How’s Neil’s temper?”
“Short,” Riley said.
“He’s the loose cannon, then.”
“Who’s Neil?” Byrne asked.
“Neil Cashman,” Riley answered. “Another assistant coach.”
“He’s not a player?” Byrne said.
“Jamie programmed him in for a reason,” Aidan said.
“He’s also the chancellor’s grandson,” Press added.
“Her what?” Aidan was sure that hadn’t been in Neil’s file.
“Illegitimate. Her son got a girl pregnant in high school. CU lore.”
“They were at that depot,” Byrne said, and Aidan nodded. “They’ve moved.”
“Do the numbers 103 or 87 mean anything to you?” he asked Press and Riley. “An address maybe?”
“You got a pen and paper?” Press said, and Aidan handed him both. Press wrote the numbers down, first as Aidan had said them, and then, after staring at the paper a few seconds, he moved the eight over with the first three. “It’s an address. 1038 7th Street.”
“What’s at that address?”
“A factory building,” Riley said. “We had a team party there last month.”
“Who owns it?”
“The Polk family.”
Aidan’s phone vibrated, displaying Grant’s picture. “What’ve you got?”
“Ethan slipped his tail.”
Aidan’s breath hitched, fear slamming into him. “I know where he’s headed.”
* * *
Jamie entered the last lines of code on the kill switch and prepared to put the final nail in the coffin of this operation. Marcus was right to have him update it. Blake’s existing version, while adequate to shut down the program, left traces on the dark web and in users’ cache files. It wasn’t the complete wipe Marcus wanted. Neither was the kill switch Jamie programmed. His was a true self-destruct. The minute the updated spyware tried to extract additional information from anyone other than Ian Daley, the kill switch would activate and terminate both programs, wiping them completely.
He didn’t want the framework out there on the dark web and, by now, he had the evidence they needed for their case collected and copied to his remote server. Plus, he’d redirected all the cartel bets to allow enough time to brief the DEA and send units to the drop locations he’d coded.
“All done.” He pushed back from the desk. “Spyware and kill switch updated. All you have to do is hit ENTER and the new programming goes live.”
“He’s much faster than you,” Marcus said to Blake. He stepped behind the desk and stretched an index finger toward the keyboard.
Jamie slid a hand over the keys, blocking him. “Are you sure you want to do this?” He also wanted that kill switch activated, but if Marcus hit ENTER, at the first bet made and the new spyware activated, he’d double his jail time. Jamie liked the kid. He didn’t think his love of the game or his encouragement of the younger players was a front. The intimidation was all Blake. Jamie made a last-ditch effort to save Marcus’s future. “You don’t have to do this.”
“You’re a good coach, Whiskey. You can fix things on the court, like Press’s shot. But you can’t fix everything outside the arena.”
He knocked Jamie’s hand away but before he pressed ENTER, the door crashed open, blasting the knob through the sheetrock wall behind it.
“Step away from the computer.” Ethan, disheveled and drenched from the rain, stood in the doorway, holding a gun trained on Jamie.
“What the hell, man?” Blake took several steps back. “Coach made the program upgrades you wanted.”
The AD stalked into the room, his crazed eyes and gun locked on Jamie. “No, he was making a copy of everything and transmitting it to his partner.”
“His partner?” Marcus said.
“He’s still a fed. This has been a sting from the beginning.”
“Are you sure, Mr. Reynolds? He seemed like a coach to me.”
“That’s his partner.” Ethan cut his eyes to the pictures on the floor. “I planted a bug on Ian, aka Special Agent Aidan Talley, last night. Your grandmother called,” he told Neil, who’d yanked Derrick off the ground and held him by the shirt. “They raided the depot two hours ago.”
“Good thing you had us move everything here.”
Jamie guessed he’d given that order after he’d found Aidan snooping in his office the night of the party. Ethan had been the true ringleader from the start.
“That’s not the point,” he spat. “After she called, I listened to the recording from the bug. His partner didn’t buy that he left with Derrick. He called in the cavalry, some kidnap and rescue hotshot from Boston.”
Aidan had believed in him, in them, and Cam was here to assist. A smart move, especially if this situation continued to deteriorate.
“Fifteen minutes ago, they figured out this location,” Ethan ranted on. “They’re on their way.”
Marcus kicked the pictures. “I thought feds couldn’t...what’s the word...fraternize.”
“Who the fuck cares?” Ethan’s voice hit hysterical levels and his gun arm swung wildly. “This is about us, not them. You’re going to jail. I’m going to die.”
“Die?” Blake stepped back another few paces until his back hit a wall.
“Yes, die!”
Jamie had liked his odds before against three kids. He did not like his odds against a desperate adult with a gun who was running scared from the cartels. “Guys,” he said to his players. “There’s more going on here than you realize. You should get out.”
“You can hit the kill switch,” Blake said. “End it right now.”
Ethan’s attention and gun arm rotated back to Jamie. “You’ve copied everything already, haven’t you?”
“I made the adjustments Marcus requested.”
Ethan didn’t buy it. His body tensed, and Jamie prepared to lunge to disarm him, but then Ethan dove the opposite direction. He grabbed Derrick out of Neil’s hold, yanked him back-to-chest, and held the gun to Derrick’s head.
A chorus of shocked reactions rang out.
Derrick’s betrayed “Ethan” pained Jamie the most. If he got Derrick or any of these kids killed, he’d never forgive himself.
Jamie raised his hands. “Ethan, let’s calm down and talk this through.”
“Man, we didn’t sign up for this shit,” Blake said.
“Destroy the copies,” Ethan ordered. “Destroy the system. Do it now or he dies.” His finger jiggled on the trigger and he pressed the gun’s muzzle harder against Derrick’s temple. “And you’re going to put those other bets back how they were last night.” Ethan must have checked the cartel bets against his log. He wasn’t just a hapless monitor looking to turn informant or he’d have asked for witness protection instead.
