Page 9

Maddox

If one more person knocks on my door, I’m going to shoot them. This is why I need a secretary. Someone to threaten people for me so that I don’t need to be distracted by their incessant problems.

Like any of my brothers would let a secretary stop them.

A gun… I could get her a gun.

That would be a picture to remember… a sexy woman with long legs and a gun threatening to shoot my brothers. Maybe she’d be a dumb blonde who doesn’t understand what happens in this office but a good shot. Most of my brothers already have a few holes in them, anyway. They won’t mind getting a couple more.

Like a hot blonde would last around here. She’d be married off in a month or two.

And I don’t need any more women problems around here. Mindy is enough to keep me busy.

I’m never going to get through this paperwork if I keep dreaming about a dumb blonde. It’s better than thinking about Mindy’s smile. She is way too young for me, even if I was looking to date. Which I’m not. All I want to do is figure out her problem, and then get rid of her before she can create any more issues for me.

“Are you okay?”

Fiona’s voice startles me. “Just fine.”

“Sure, you are. I can always walk into your office and sit down in your chair without you hearing me.”

Fea knows me too well. “It’s nothing. Just a small problem on Willow Street.”

“Well then, I have another to add to your list.”

I sigh silently. “What’s wrong?”

“Someone just stole from the bakery.”

WHAT? “Next time, start with that. Was there a robbery?” How did someone get past security? Why didn’t someone on the security team alert me? I reach for the gun in my desk drawer.

“There wasn’t a robbery. Someone drained one of the petty cash accounts. There wasn’t much in it. A couple hundred dollars. But I watched the account flip to zero. And I’m the only one with access to that account.”

Impossible. I mean, it’s possible. But why would a hacker bother with such a small account? “Are you sure it wasn’t a bill you forgot about?”

She raises an eyebrow at me.

Fine, we both know she rarely forgets anything.

“See for yourself.” Fea opens a laptop that I didn’t notice before and flips it around to show me the bank account.

The electronic transfer was made to a company named Jokesonyou. “That’s definitely a hacker.” We haven’t had anyone—

My office door opens without a knock.

Pit storms in. “Someone stole from the pet shop just now.”

Another one? “Was it online?”

“Yeah? One of the petty cash accounts. I got an alert on my phone for a transaction. Get this, it’s to some company called Jokesonyou. The joke is going to be on them when I find them.”

Was the bakery just the start? “How much?”

“Not much. Like two hundred.”

Odd.

Ace walks in the open door. “Did you guys throw a party and not invite me?”

“We always invite you. You make the best food.”

Pit isn’t wrong. Fea brings the treats. Ace brings the food. “We’re just dealing with a little problem.”

“Well, I have another one. Someone robbed the restaurant.” Ace doesn’t seem at all stressed about it. But then again, it usually takes explosives to get him a little concerned.

“Don’t tell me a small amount of cash was transferred to an account named Jokesonyou.” Is this some rival playing a game with us? A warning of some sort.

A quirked eyebrow is all the response we get from Ace.

“Someone call Enzo.” He’s our resident computer geek. Enzo isn’t quite at a hacker level, but he’s trustworthy and knowledgeable.

Pit walks over to the bar and pulls out a bottle of root beer and a box of snacks. “Who wants a drink?”

“You aren’t really going to eat those?” Fea wrinkles her nose at the chips.

“Sure am.” Pit tears a bag open.

Ochs steps into the open doorway. “The gang having a meeting?”

No, but the dumb blonde with the gun is sounding better and better every second. What if I handed Mindy a gun—That would be sexy, but wrong. She’s too sweet to play with weapons.

“Like Fea would be here if we were.” Pit holds up a root beer. “Want one?”

“Nah, I gotta get back to the gym before those boys end up killing each other. Just wanted to mention we had a tiny banking issue. I already sent it to Matthew, but I thought I’d notify you.”

“I come to meetings.” Fea closes the shades covering the windows with the snakes and curls up in the corner of one of the couches.

How could I have forgotten to do that for her?

“Two a year for parties doesn’t count,” Pit parries back with a grin.

Fea is too gentle to handle what we talk about at most meetings. She comes when we need to discuss an issue with the kids or The Street’s organization. “Back to the topic at hand. Ochs, your petty theft of two hundred dollars happened to other businesses as well. Tell Matthew we’ll handle it for now and read him in if we need help.”

“Will do.” Ochs nods as he turns to walk away, almost knocking into Enzo.

“So, we’re being hacked?” Enzo strides in, carrying his blue light glasses. One of the million nutty precautions he uses to avoid eyestrain.

“Looks that way.” I push a button on my tablet, opening the doors to the computers we use as The Street’s security hub, among other things. It’s secure and invisible, which is perfect for this kind of job.

Enzo gets to work and the rest of us settle in to watch him work, which is a complete waste of time, but it’s not worth the effort to try to shoo them away.

Dyce swaggers in. “You need a lawyer yet?”

“Enzo just got here. We don’t know what body to put in the ground. Yet ” Pit pulls out some of the freshly pressed juice concoctions I keep in here for Dyce.

Dyce joins Fea on the couch and opens a brief. One of Dyce’s superpowers is tuning out the noise and working through the chaos.

“While Enzo twiddles his thumbs over there, can we talk about menu ideas?” Pit yanks open another bag of chips.

“I’ve told you three times I’m not adding blueberry lemonade and fried pattypan squash to the menu. They’re out of season.” Ace shuts him down.

“Come on. They’re for Brie. She has been craving them. I’ve tried everywhere, but they aren’t close to as good as yours.”

“Fine, I’ll see what I can do.” Ace pulls out his phone. He has culinary contacts around the globe.

None of us can handle even the idea of a pregnant woman not getting what she needs to eat. “One of the jets will be on standby if you need it.”

“That’ll make things easier. I can probably find the squash down south this time of year.” Ace walks across the room to make the call without disturbing Enzo.

Onyx walks in. “The hacker just hit the dress shop and library. Whoever this guy is, he needs to pay. He stole the money from the kids’ donation jar.”

That’s low. The kids around here love the library so much that they’ll drop change into a little jar on the checkout desk. We add to it and throw a big party at the library every quarter where the kids get to each pick out a new book to add to the collection. Only scum steals from children.

“Mrs. Wright better not hear about this. She’ll flay them alive.”

Pit isn’t wrong. Even at her age, Louisella would do that without even blinking. She taught most of us how to wield a knife. “Let’s make sure that doesn’t happen.”

Dyce snorts.

“Maybe she’ll let us have the pleasure of discussing manners with our soon-to-be-dead friend.” Hopefully, Ochs took care of that. Though he’s more likely to side with her since he works for her husband.

“I won’t be finding anyone today,” Enzo chimes in without looking away from the screen. “This hacker is way beyond my capabilities.”

Not good. That means we’re dealing with a professional. “You couldn’t get anything?”

“Not much. The only thing they don’t seem to be protecting are the IP addresses, which are probably spoofed. You’re going to need to bring someone in.”

That means asking for a favor. Something I don’t do often. This hacker is a joker. They want to play a game with us. What if the IP is a clue? “Where are the IP addresses located?”

Enzo types furiously for a few seconds. “All around Willow Street.”

Here? “They were using our internet to steal from us?”

“Maybe. Possibly.”

“Pull up the security feeds on the bakery at the exact time of the transfer on one screen. Then pull up the pet store’s feeds.” Let’s see if this jokester left us any clues.

Enzo pops up the images on two of the screens.

Everyone clusters around looking.

Both images are filled with people. A few of them are both places. “Add in the gym and library.”

“That kid. I saw him at the bakery.” Fea points to a lanky teenage boy holding an ancient-looking cell phone.

“He was in the pet store.” Pit points to where the kid is standing next to one of the recent strays a kid found behind the bakery’s dumpster but looking at his phone.

“There he is, by the library.” Ace points out. “And he was in my restaurant for a few minutes, but changed his mind and left.”

A kid did all this? Why? “Is he still around?”

Enzo pulls up our facial recognition software and sets it to find the troublemaker.

An image pops up of the kid sitting on a bench right across from this building, seemingly resting without a care in the world on his smug little face. “Pit, go get him.”

“With pleasure.”

“I’m going to head back to the bakery.” Fea walks over to me and stops silently for a second. The reminder clear on her face that he’s just a kid.

Like I could ever forget that. It wasn’t too long ago that I was a punk kid with a gun and questionable morals. The questionable morals haven’t really changed even though I outgrew being a punk.

Dyce steps away as well. “If you decide to call the police, let me know. I’ll be grabbing some lunch.”

We almost never call the police when it comes to kids, especially when it comes to petty theft. Living on the streets, you survive any way you can. I can’t fault him for being smarter than most kids who steal candy bars and beers.

Now if this isn’t about survival and he was sent as a messenger, that’s a whole different story.

The boy isn’t struggling as Pit pulls him into the room by his upper arm. His eyes briefly scan everything, stopping on the security hub which showcases him. “Nice setup.”

Enzo slides back, and I shut the panel behind him and close my office doors, locking them.

We don’t need any visitors for this.

Pit settles the kid in a chair.

Oddly, he isn’t acting afraid or even nervous. It’s like he knew this was going to happen… planned it even. “What’s your name?”

“Everett Jaymes.”

Everett Jaymes can’t be his real name. Yet this kid seems brash enough to do anything.

How does a kid have the skills to do what he just did? It makes more sense that he’s a messenger. “Who sent you?” I give him a hard look that scares most of the kids into telling me what I want to know.

“Sent me? Oh, you think I’m too young or stupid to hack your system by myself.” Everett smirks.

“Anyone smart enough to do that would be smart enough to know not to.”

“Or they aren’t afraid of you.”

“Only a foolish man underestimates his enemy.” Emilia and Louisella both taught us that lesson. My brothers step back as I walk over to lean against the desk and stare at the kid in front of me.

“Then I’m surrounded by fools.”

Pit bristles but doesn’t make a move to correct the snot-nosed punk.

“So tell us then, why did you steal from us?”

“I didn’t steal. Isn’t that money all for kids? Well, I’m a kid.”

“There was no need to steal from us. We would have given you what you needed.” Food would have been at the top of that list. “Someone with your skills could have found a job instead of taking from others.”

Enzo walks over to Everett. “There’s no way he did it himself. He would have needed something more than the obsolete phone he’s carrying around.” Enzo slides it out of Everett’s pocket.

“Maybe an old man like you would need something better than that. But that was child’s play for someone like me.”

Enzo presses a few buttons on the phone. “Liar. This phone doesn’t even work.”

“For you. It works just fine for me.”

Logic says this kid is lying, just like Enzo said. But my gut says otherwise. It’s never steered me wrong. “He did it.” All eyes turn towards me. “My only question is why?”

“There are a lot of kids around here.”

That’s not an answer, but this kid likes jokes and riddles. “There are.”

“Rumor is that this place is a safe spot for kids to land. But you guys kill a lot.”

In unison, all our bodies go tight.

“How do you know that?”

“T&T Industries sends you guys checks. They’re mercenaries for hire, not a knitting club. Unless I’m wrong and you really are a bunch of steroid-ridden grannies that get paid millions to knit and spill the tea.” Everett Jaymes folds his arms with a grin.

Ethan isn’t going to be happy to hear that this kid hacked his system.

Pit gets into Everett’s face. “Stealing from killers makes you dumb as a bag of rocks. What’s stopping us from shooting you now and taking our money back?”

“That dead phone over there.” He nods towards Enzo. “If I don’t do something in the next twenty minutes, it will send information to the cops and the bunch of you will end up in jail for the rest of your lives. Before you ask, I have backup plans for my backup plans.”

Why would Everett go to all this effort to steal almost nothing from us? Why would I do it… “You’re testing us.”

His eyes widen, but his smirk never falters. “At least one of you isn’t a moron.”

“Maybe we should just shoot him for the fun of it. A little graze or maybe take a finger or two that would discourage him from stealing things.” Pit leans against the bar and pops a chip into his mouth.

“In some countries, they take a hand when you steal to warn people that they’re a thief.” Enzo fiddles with Everett’s phone.

The kid doesn’t even flinch. He’s got nerves of steel. At this age, with some training, he would make an amazing team leader. Leader…hmmm. Let’s not get any ideas yet.

Why would a brilliant kid steal petty cash? “Enzo, how long has our guest been visiting us?”

He opens the security terminal and checks. “The first time facial recognition can find him in the system was two weeks ago. Everett Jaymes moved into an apartment in Dorm One three days later.”

Interesting. “And what has he been doing while he’s been here?”

Enzo fast-forwards through the videos. “Playing ball with the pledges, eating, and talking to everyone.”

“Should we go toss his dorm room?” Pit flips another chip into his mouth.

“Or we could just toss him about for a while.”

Axe isn’t fooling me or the kid. They’re impressed by how calm Everett is.

“Why don’t you just tell us why you’re doing this?” I lean back against my desk and push the button opening the curtains.

“They said you had a collection up here.” Everett stands up and walks over to the glass. “Has one of these ever escaped?”

“No.” Why would he ask that?

“These could kill a kid.”

They could kill everyone on The Street if they wanted to. “None of my kids will ever be hurt by one of these snakes.”

Everett turns to me. “How can you be so sure of that?”

Because that room has better security than most military bases. “Because I am.”

“I bet I could get inside there.”

And I believe you could. “But you won’t. Because breaking into a room full of venomous snakes would endanger more than just yourself.”

“So, you’ve decided I’m not a thief.” Everett casually leans back against the wall of death, folding his scrawny arms across his impossibly thin frame.

“You’re definitely a thief. But this wasn’t about stealing from us. This was a test. You wanted to see who we were and what we would do.”

“How do you know that?” Pit asks.

“Because it’s what I would have done if I had the skills. We vetted Emilia, Louisella, and Viola before we let them near the kids.” More like Emilia showed me how the world could be if I was willing to work hard.

“Louisella was crazy. I was sure she was going to kill one of us.” Pit takes a long pull on his drink.

It’s kind of surprising that she didn’t sink one of her knives into Pit or Jacko a time or two.

“Louisella? She didn’t show up in my research.” Everett’s brows wrinkle. “I checked on everyone. How did I miss her?”

And we found a weakness. He likes…No, it’s more than that…He needs to know everything. “Louisella doesn’t exist. At least not on any database you’d look in.” Her husband, Matthew, ensured that happened. “And you don’t want to meet her until you give the money back.”

“There’s no way to delete a person from everywhere.”

I raise my eyebrow at him.

“You’d need... You’d need—”

“A better hacker than you. Be assured, though you are good, you’re still a child. There’s a whole world out there that you don’t understand yet.” One that could chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful.

“Do you really help the kids?”

And that’s the first step. “Yes, we do.”

“Why?”

That answer is as simple as it is complex. “Because we were them. When I was younger than you, my shoes had holes in them, and I never had enough to eat. Even then, my brothers and I fought to protect those who had less than us.”

“But you’re rich. Stupid rich. How? How is that possible?”

“Three eccentric women and a lot of hard work.” Work that never seems to end.

“I won’t be your hacker. I don’t work for anyone but myself.”

“Fair enough. But I wasn’t going to demand you to do anything around here.” Except maybe eat.

“Really? Because with my skills, your millions could turn into billions.” Everett leans back with that confident attitude.

It’s another test. “We have more money than we’ll need. And more than enough to take care of any kids that need our help.”

“There’s never enough money.”

Pit laughs and spits chips. “Kid, you got a lot to learn about life.”

“Like you’re going to teach me anything I don’t already know.”

Punk kids… Smart punk kids seem even worse. “Pit, show him a parlor trick.”

A knife appears in Pit’s hand and then flies across the room into a scoreboard we set up years ago.

“That was so cool.”

“Your turn.” I hold out one of my own knives to the kid.

Everett stares at it.

“Don’t worry, it’s well-balanced.” And wickedly sharp.

“You’re all crazy.”

“We are.” That’s pretty much a given. “Do you want to stay, or have you heard enough?” I walk over to Enzo and bring Everett back his phone. “Your choice.”

He takes the phone and hits a few buttons.

Enzo was wrong. It wasn’t dead at all.

“I’m not heading to foreign countries to get my head blown off.”

“Noted.” And now I need to figure out what to do with a punk kid who’s smarter than I am.