Chapter 11

It was the next afternoon when Mrs. Janowski and her troop rode in. I’m not sure what I had been expecting, but this wasn’t quite it. I guess I expected the ladies to ride in sidecars, wearing leather aviator helmets and goggles.

No, they were on the back of bikes, leathered neck to toe, including DOT-approved helmets. Only the colors varied on the full helmets. Edna’s was pink, Sylvia’s had been black but she added cheetah-print stickers, Mrs. Janowski’s and Ida’s were black with flames on the side. Mrs. Janowski added spikes on the top of her helmet.

There were ten bikers in all. Included in the mix were Hank, Jack, Bob, and Mac. A few others I recognized from the bar, but I didn’t know their names. They all looked tired and rough. Jack, who was normally quite devilishly handsome in his carefree biker way, appeared as grizzly as the others.

I walked over to him and took his helmet as he kicked down the stand and stood. “You look a bit rough.”

He stretched, casting his arms wide. “It’s nice to see you too. What’s been going on here? Mrs. J. ordered the bikers to ride out.”

“Did she tell you why?”

Jack shook his head, his long hair escaping from his loose ponytail. With a quick hand, he removed the hairband, letting the dark hair fall to his shoulders. “Not everything. She said you were in trouble. What happened, and who’s that guy?”

I followed the trail of his eyes over to Rand. “That’s Brett’s uncle. He’s been helping me.”

“Where’s Brett?”

“I’m sure Mrs. J. will fill you in, so I’ll leave it to her. I want to know why you look like crap.”

“Thanks, you look lovely too,” he said sarcastically. “And what’s that intoxicating scent you’re wearing?”

“Very funny. I know what I look like and smell like, but I have a reason.”

“So do I.”

“And?” I questioned when he turned to dig through his pack.

He sighed. “We drove all night. We’re tired.”

Jack was evading my question. I’m sure they did drive all night and were tired, but there was something not quite right with Jack. I had seen him tired and painfully hungover before, and this wasn’t it.

Since he didn’t seem to want to talk, I let it go.

When Jack’s eyes narrowed on point behind me, I turned to find Rand taking long strides toward us.

“Already looking to replace Brett?” Rand drolled, though his sharp eyes never left Jack.

“I’m not even going to bother answering that,” I said. “This is Jack. He works at the same bar I do.”

“Used to,” Jack corrected. “It’s still shut down.”

“Temporarily. Jack, this is Rand, Brett’s uncle.”

“You’re a little young to be Brett’s uncle,” Jack said.

“I was a mistake,” Rand stated unaffectedly, as if he’d said it countless times before.

I frowned at his wording choice. He should have said happy accident. But looking at Rand, feeling his unrest, maybe that word never existed for him. I didn’t like it. It made me feel sad for him. That was one emotion he was not allowed, especially from me. Dislike, irritation, indifference . . . those I was content to bestow. But not sorrow.

“Troop, gather over here,” Mrs. Janowski called.

We all muddled over to encircle her and the other ladies. Sylvia held a tablet to her chest as if she was a model showing off a prize. Aaron was on video feed with Kym right behind him. Her pinched lips and furrowed brow did not bode well.

“I know you’re all tired from the long drive,” Mrs. J. said, looking a little weary herself. Edna even looked a little bowlegged. “After this briefing, we’ll set up camp and rest for a bit.”

Encouraged by the thought of sleep, the bikers mumbled their agreement.

“You’ve already been told some of the particulars,” she continued. “Mars, come on up so everyone knows who you are.”

I slipped through the gathering and up to Mrs. Janowski. It was hard to look at some of the men in their eyes as my gaze swept past. They were curious, and I felt a little like a dissected insect.

“Is that the uncle?” she asked, and it took me a moment to realize Rand was standing behind me.

“Yes, this is Uncle Rand,” I said.

“I’m not your uncle,” he stated, before swatting my butt again. It went undetected by almost everyone except Mrs. J. “Remember that, sweet thing.”

I turned to glare at him. “You’re doing that to piss me off, and it’s working! Take your anger out on Brett and Emily. They deserve it, not me.”

He clenched his jaw, and I realized that I had hit a mark. Maybe I was the outlet for his anger. It might not have been so bad had he not had so much of it.

Mrs. Janowski coughed beside me, turning my attention back to her. “As you can see,” she announced, “Aaron has joined us. He’s been busy at work while we were on the road. He’s been able to follow up on a few leads. Aaron, I’ll let you tell them what you found.”

Aaron scratched his head for a moment, disrupting his already-disheveled hair. “Well, the app didn’t have a backdoor, so I had to make a profile and go through the check points to be approved.”

“That sounds dangerous,” Edna said.

Aaron shook his head. “Only if I was caught. Or if my account was hacked into. There’s a pretty big penalty for that.”

Edna squeaked, and Kym looked as if she were about to faint.

“But I wasn’t,” Aaron said quickly. “And even if I was, they wouldn’t be looking for a kid, would they?” He smiled.

I had a feeling being a kid kept him out of a lot of past trouble. He only had a few more years before that excuse wore out and he’d find himself in a whole different world.

But this would be the last time we asked him for help. The risk wasn’t worth it.

“So, tell us what you found,” Ida urged.

“It was really easy to find Brett’s profile,” he said.

“They use real names?” Mrs. Janowski asked.

“Some do, but most are code names. Brett’s is ‘Viper.’”

“So then he is a hitman,” I said as my limbs faltered. A strong hand on my shoulder kept me from swaying.

These couple of nights away, I had been whispering to the darkness to make this all a mistake that Brett was the person I had thought he was and not the man I had overheard.

“According to his profile, he’s anything from muscle-for-hire to an assassin,” Aaron said. “They have a ranking system, and he’s high on the charts with one hundred percent completion. He has one accepted job that’s still pending.”

Thankfully I was wearing jeans that hid my trembling legs.

“Pending what?” Mrs. Janowski asked.

“Termination,” Aaron said, wincing. “Sorry, Mars.”

I wanted to be strong, but my knees had a different plan. Before I dropped to the ground, Rand caught me by the back of my shirt and yanked, jerking me into him. His hold on my waist was hard. Falling flat into the sand would have been more pleasant.

“Who is the person who hired Brett?” Jack asked.

“His profile is Carver,” Aaron answered. “But there’s no personal information on here.”

“Anonymity is probably what draws people,” Mrs. Janowski said. “But I’d think there’d be more information in the contract. Is that something we can get?”

Aaron bit his lip thoughtfully. “I’d need the IP address of where they’re stored. As far as I know, once you accept a job then you are redirected into an even more secure address.”

“So, we’ll have to accept a job,” Mrs. Janowski surmised.

“No!” Kym gasped. “I’m not going to allow him to accept a job. As it is there is a gatekeeper on here who monitors everything.”

Gatekeeper? That reminded me of the texts. “I think I might have a link to the contract,” I said. “I was sent a text from a five-digit number warning me about Brett. It said the gatekeeper was angry and that Brett must kill me. A link was included.”

“Are you sure that’s what the message said?” Aaron asked. “That the gatekeeper was angry?”

“Yes.”

“I’m sorry, Mars. That might have been my fault,” Aaron said.

“How would it be your fault?”

“When I hacked Brett’s phone, it must have tripped the security protocol on the app,” he explained. “When you join, you vow to protect the site, to keep it secure. There are penalties if you don’t.”

“What kind of penalties?” I asked.

“The loss of a loved one by their own hand. The gatekeeper is the one that picks the person, and it can change.”

“Change how?” Ida asked.

Aaron shrugged. “If the person just had a child, the gatekeeper could claim that the child would be the new penalty.”

“And what happens if the hitman won’t do it?”

“The entire family is wiped out. It’s either you do it or prepare to lose everything.”

“So, I was the one the gatekeeper picked,” I said. “And if I don’t die, Brett’s family will.”

“Sorry, Mars,” Aaron said, his voice trembling.

“No, this is my fault. I should’ve never asked you to hack Brett’s phone.” I should’ve never stuck my nose into it. But how could Brett join, knowing he might have to kill someone he loves? Did he think he was invincible, that he’d never have to?

“How long will the gatekeeper give Brett to carry out his penalty?” Mrs. Janowski asked.

“One week with proof of death.”

“So, we have about five days left,” Mrs. Janowski said. “We’ll need to find the gatekeeper and take him down.”

“How will we find him?” Rand asked.

“No one finds him,” Aaron said.

“Would there be anything useful on the contract that Brett was working on?” Mrs. Janowski asked.

“It’d tell us what he was up to, but probably nothing about the gatekeeper,” Aaron said.

“It’s worth a shot,” Jack said. “As of now, we don’t have any other leads, do we?”

“Nothing,” Mrs. Janowski said.

“Aaron,” I said, worried, “you didn’t use your personal information when joining, did you?”

He looked at me as if I was a birdbrain. “No. Don’t worry, I’ll be fine. They’ll never be able to track me down with all the phony trails I made. Send me the link and I’ll get the contract for you.”

“We can do it here,” I said. “I don’t want you to risk it.”

“You’ll be able to get past the security encryption?”

“No, I thought it would just open.”

He snorted. “Send me the link.”

“Right,” Mrs. Janowski said. “The kid will open the contract. Once we know what Brett was up to we can regroup and strategize. For now, get some rest because you won’t get any after this.”

A few wary eyes scanned me, and I knew what they were thinking. Was I worth the trouble? I wouldn’t be surprised if they turned tail back to Wisconsin. But for now, they scattered, searching for a comfortable place to sleep.

“Mars, go ahead and send the link,” Mrs. Janowski said.

“But it’s on my regular phone. If I turn it on, it could be tracked.” And this time it wasn’t about hiding from Brett. This time I had the gatekeeper and Annie to worry about as well.

“We have no choice,” Mrs. Janowski said. “By the time anyone gets to us, we’ll be gone. We have a little time on our side but no other options.”

She was right. “Rand, give me my phone.”

“Are you sure you want to do this?” he asked. “There’s no turning back.”

“There’d be no turning back either way. If we don’t come up with a solution in five days, your entire family will die.”

He slid the phone from his pocket, still confiscated from earlier and handed it to me.

“Try to be as quick as you can,” Mrs. Janowski said.

I nodded and turned on the phone, found the message and forwarded it to Aaron. A call came in at the very moment I pressed “send.” “It’s Brett.”

“Turn off the phone,” Rand said.

When I stalled, Rand swiped the phone and powered it down. He angrily shoved it back into his pocket. “Were you trying to let him find us?”

“I’m sorry,” I mumbled. Just that small delay could have ruined everything. I could have answered the phone. I could have demanded explanations. I could have asked why. Why me?

Pity reflected in the eyes of those standing near me, even Rand’s. I did not want their pity. I did not want to shed tears. The anger that ignited in my core was what I wanted to hold on to. That’s what would keep me going.

Pity was meant for those who had died. And that wasn’t going to be me.

“I need a few minutes. Let me know when Aaron has the contract,” I said, turning to walk to the lapping waves. But then I stopped. “Give me my phone.”

“I’ll keep it, for now,” Rand said.

“Give me my phone,” I repeated. “I won’t turn it on.”

Rand eyed me for a moment before reaching into his pocket. He handed me the phone but didn’t let go right away, still assessing me. “Be careful.”

I nodded, and he released his hold, letting me walk away. At the water’s edge, I sat down, digging my feet into the wet sand.

I didn’t know what was worse, the fact that Brett loved me enough that I became the gatekeeper’s price, or that he was a hitman with one hundred percent completion. How could a hitman fall in love knowing he killed so many, leaving ruination in his wake? How did I fall in love with such a man? How could he keep this a secret from me? And what if I had married him and had children?

I let the phone slip from my hand into the water. The waves played with it, tossing it around like a toy.

It was better this way.

I would not show weakness again.