Page 32 of Rio (Redcars #3)

TWENTY-TWO

Rio

“What the fuck!” Jamie snapped from behind us, stomping into the room like a thundercloud, Killian on his heels.

“They found him,” Enzo said. “I’m taking Robbie somewhere safe. You know where.” He bro-hugged Rio, who nodded, and all too soon Enzo was gone, Robbie in tow.

Jamie didn’t even glance at us as he opened a tablet, the screen displaying lines and lines of symbols and commands—technical information I couldn’t ever hope to understand. Lyric exchanged glances with me.

He’d seen me kill a man with my bare hands—and he wasn’t turning away. He wasn’t in shock. He wasn’t disgusted. He watched me as if he understood or even approved. There wasn’t fear in his eyes, just brutal knowing, as if we were made from the same kind of violence.

Then he focused on whatever Jamie was showing him and gasped. Whatever he was staring at was bad.

“This shouldn’t exist,” Jamie said, and scrolled with one finger. “It wasn’t in the mirrored architecture we built.”

“Fuck,” Lyric cursed, and I stepped over the dead guy to stand at his side, ready to be there if he needed me. “Either the sandbox pulled it in through a buried hook… or something reached in .”

Buried hooks? Sandboxes? My brow furrowed. I might not understand the words, but the imperative was clear—everyone was in danger.

“It’s not the system, but fuck, if something in the original code is still active. This isn’t just a bot or a ghost signal, it’s intelligent routing.”

Jamie swore under his breath. “Which means the Cave could be compromised.”

“Caleb is already looped in,” Killian murmured. “We should leave.”

“What’s happening?” I asked, but everyone was focused on that screen.

Lyric grabbed it, and his fingers flew so fast it was a blur.

“I’ve got it. Isolating now. Cutting off every outbound signal.

” I couldn’t follow every word, but the tension crawling up my spine didn’t need a translation.

I understood the killing and the dead man here, but all of this was frustrating as fuck to listen to.

I watched the lines of code flash by. I must have had a thing for competence, because watching him move like that—focused and in control—was doing things to me I didn’t want to think too hard about.

So fucking sexy it almost made me forget something shitty was going down.

“What’s wrong?” I asked again, shaking my head to get back in focus.

“We need to?—”

“Jesus Christ! Will someone answer me?” I shouted, and Jamie blinked at me. “Enzo’s gone with Robbie—we have a body to get rid of, and we need to be out of here. Now.” I wanted my family to be safe.

“It’s okay, Rio,” Jamie reassured, even though it was clear that it wasn’t freaking okay.

Lyric hadn’t stopped tapping keys, talking under his breath. “This is my fault. My fault.”

I didn’t have an answer. Just a building knot of helpless rage. Because I didn’t get it. Because they were speaking in riddles. Because whatever this was—it was back, and I didn’t know how to stop it .

“Okay,” Lyric said eventually, exhaling hard. “I’ve shut it down.”

“So, now we go, right?” I asked, and my voice cracked with temper. “Are you safe, Lyric?” I motioned around me to my family. “Are any of us safe here?”

Jamie touched my arm. “There’s no contract out on us , Rio; it’s on Lyric.”

That didn’t make it better! I rounded on Jamie, gripped him, and shook him a little. “Is Lyric fucking safe?”

Lyric moved between us, easing my hands away from Jamie.

“How this guy found me, and whatever this glitch in the code is, we can handle it. The clock is pushed forward. I don’t have time to be pretty with this—I need to get inside and direct to Kessler.

” He pulled a small memory stick out of his pocket as if he was checking it, then slipped it back in.

“I’ll leave now, and no one will know I was here. ”

Not on my watch. I grabbed Lyric. “You’re not fucking leaving on your own!”

He shook me off. “I can’t do this from the outside, I need root access. I won’t stay here and put any of you in danger if someone or something is tracking me down.”

“You’re not going anywhere!” I snapped, my voice louder than I meant it to be. “You think you can just walk out of here and fix this alone? After everything? No fucking way.”

Jamie stepped forward, chin lifted. “It’s the only way, Rio. You know it. If we don’t give Lyric a way in, he’ll never get close to the core—never bring the system down.”

I rounded on him, fury boiling over. “I don’t fucking understand any of that, so don’t give me that shit.”

Jamie tried for calm. “Rio, listen, Kessler is in an impenetrable fortress protected by a rogue AI that will do anything to protect him. Once Lyric’s inside, he opens the real doors, and we get in and kill Kessler.”

I was apoplectic. My fists were clenched so tight they ached, nails biting into skin. I could feel the burn of my pulse in my jaw, my ears, my fucking teeth. “You want to set him up as bait and hope he survives? That’s your grand plan?”

“It’s the only way,” Lyric said.

“No.” I shoved a hand through my hair, pacing, feeling as if I was going to explode. My heart was racing so hard it hurt. “Fuck, Jamie. You think this is easy for him? For any of us? I want to hit something—I want to hit you . ”

“Then do it!” Jamie shouted back. “Maybe if you stop pretending you can protect everyone all the damn time, we’d actually get somewhere.”

“You don’t get it?—”

“No, you don’t get it! This isn’t about what you want. It’s about ending this thing before it ends Lyric and whoever else the fuck it wants off the planet!”

“Stop!”

Lyric’s voice cut through the chaos.

He was between us before I could blink, his hand pressing flat to my chest. Not pushing. Just there. Steady. Warm.

“Breathe, Rio,” he said, fierce and quiet. “I need you calm, not tearing this place apart.”

I looked down at him, my chest heaving. His eyes met mine without flinching. And for a second, all the noise in my head dulled to a low thrum.

“I can get to Kessler somehow,” Lyric added. “Hand myself over, and I’ll do it because it’s the only way.”

“You’re not going in alone?—”

“He won’t be going in alone,” Jamie interrupted. “Caleb came up with the idea that I take the contract on Lyric and walk him in the front door.”

My vision snapped to him, rage detonating as if a switch had been thrown. “What the fuck did you just say?”

Jamie held up both hands, calm but firm. “Fake it, Rio. Someone takes the contract, gets close, plays it out. You pretend. Head out of your ass, please.”

I was still seething, but part of my brain snagged on the idea. Not because I liked it—but because it was the kind of desperate move that might work and a plan I could be part of.

Lyric watched me, his expression unreadable. But he didn’t say no. I exhaled hard. My pulse still thundered in my ears.

Then Lyric spoke again. “He’s got a point.

A fulfilled contract would stop the AI from assessing me as a risk and bringing all of this here.

I just thought I had more time. I have to go in sooner than I planned—get closer, take the risk, pull it apart from the inside before he figures out I’m still in the game. ”

I blinked at him. “Inside where?”

He couldn’t meet my gaze. “Inside his data core. The one place he’d built to be untouchable—physically off-grid, air-gapped, and buried under layers of deception and hardware. It’s where the AI lives now, where it thinks. Learns. Evolves.”

“Lyric,” I said, still trying to catch up, still hoping I was wrong about what he was implying. But he met my eyes, steady and serious, and yeah—he was saying exactly what I thought he was saying.

“I need to get inside for a face-to-face with Kessler. Someone walks me in, makes it look real, and if they play it right, they collect the money.”

My stomach dropped. “Me. I’ll do it,” I said without hesitation.

“No,” Jamie cut in. “I’m going in.”

I didn’t even think—I shoved him, hard. “ Me. ”

Jamie stumbled, caught himself, and glared at me. “You think this is about who gets to play the fucking hero?”

“I’m not playing anything! I’m the one who brought Lyric in—I won’t let him walk in there alone.”

“And I’m the one who understands the system, the code, the security! You walking him in gets us all killed.”

I stepped up into his space, fists tight, rage on a hair trigger. “Say that again.”

“Fuck! Stop!” Lyric snapped. His voice cracked through the tension.

We both turned, breathing hard. Lyric looked between us, jaw clenched.

“He’s right,” Lyric said, quieter now, but no less firm, and I stiffened.

If he was going to stop me from being by his side, then I would fucking lose my shit right here.

He stared at Jamie, steady and focused. “Jamie, I need you with Caleb on the outside. Running the ops. This doesn’t work without you holding the failsafe.

Let Rio take me in.” I exhaled in relief as he took that drive out of his pocket and held it in his palm.

“If I could have twenty-four hours to work on this, then we’ll go in. ”

Jamie nodded. “I’ll head to the Cave. Caleb and I can run logistics from there. We’ll be ready when you move.”

“The body?” I asked.

Jamie shrugged. “We got this.”

“We do?” Killian asked, his eyes wide.

Jamie patted his lover’s chest. “Yeah, counselor, we do.”

With my help, we got the dead guy into the well of Jamie’s truck, then Jamie made Killian leave separately, walking half a block and calling a rideshare. This was so fucked up, but we were taking no chances. Then Jamie left, and it was only Lyric and me. And his computers. And fuck knows what else.

I reached for Lyric’s hand, gripping it tight. “We need to go,” I said, my gaze locked on his.

He nodded and squeezed back, a silent agreement passing between us. No more distractions. No more arguments. Just the two of us, focused on tearing down the monster before it reached anyone else we cared about.

Within ten minutes, Lyric was crouched in the footwell of my truck, his equipment packed around him with a precision that said he’d hidden like this before.

We sent a simple message to the three clients we had scheduled for tomorrow, followed by one to Logan, as manager of this place, so that he wouldn’t be involved.

He had a whole new life in San Diego as a father, a partner, and the primary caregiver for Tudor.

He didn’t need to know what was happening in detail, but he’d understand the message and know to stay away.

The official story was an electrical fault—an excuse to shut operations for the rest of the day and the next day. His response was immediate.

Logan: Okay. You need me?

Rio: No. All good, boss.

But the truth? Redcars wasn’t closed.

Redcars was going to war.