Better When He's Brave

“Finish up with her while I go wake Race up and ask him how in the hell someone bypassed his security. I’ll be right back.” I knew I sounded angry and far less sympathetic than I should be but I couldn’t help it. She was lying and still making choices that put both of us in a tight spot legally. She was still walking in the gray and I hated it. It made me want to shake her when she looked like all she needed was a hug.

Turned out I didn’t need to wake Race up. Brysen answered the door with wide eyes and told me that he was with his tech guy in the security center of the building trying to figure out how Zero had gotten inside the fortress. She gave me directions to the basement and I went to find Race and his so-called security expert. The door was open when I got there and I was immediately confronted with an entire wall of live camera feeds. There was the front of the building, the garage, the hallways on each floor, the elevators, the roof, all of them showing the activity currently happening.

“What in the hell happened tonight?” I barked the question and neither Race nor the other guy jumped. The other guy looked at me over his shoulder behind the frames of his black Buddy Holly–style glasses and frowned. He should look like a computer geek the way he was pounding on the keyboard and tinkering with knobs and dials that made up the surveillance system but he didn’t. The guy was as tall as me and almost as ripped. He had tattoos over every visible inch of skin and a hard glint in his eyes that let me know he wasn’t scared of my size or my fury that was filling the room.

“What happened is someone turned everything off and then opened the front door for that fucker. He waltzed right in.”

“What?”

Race turned to look at me. He appeared as angry as I was and I realized his girls were just a few floors down from Reeve, so a stranger in the compound was as much of a violation to him as it was to me.

“Stark has this system set up so that no one can mess with it. It’s constantly recording and feeding into servers so we have a visual on everything at all times. Someone literally pulled the plug on it tonight, and once that was done they let the guy in. There is no footage of him going up the elevator to the loft, nothing. He kicked the door in and attacked Reeve, but since Booker is normally the only other person on that floor, no one heard her screaming. Someone called the cops when they heard gunshots and then all of a sudden the feed comes back to life like it got plugged back in.”

“All this fancy equipment and a single plug undid it all?” I knew I sounded incredulous but I couldn’t help it.

“It’s a computer. Computers need power to work.” The tattooed guy, Stark, snapped the reply and went back to messing around with the laptop. “There is a fail-safe that keeps everything recording to an external server after the power gets pulled, but that takes a little while to fire up. Plenty of time for someone to use the blackout to their advantage.”

“So who knows it’s here in the first place? Who would know where the plug was to pull? Not Roark, and not his minion.”

Race shoved his hands through his shaggy hair and shared a hard look with the computer guy.

“We’re playing earlier footage to find that out. Only a handful of people know where this place is located in the building and even fewer have the code to get in the door.”

Something flashed in his eyes like he already had the answer and was just waiting for confirmation. I lowered my voice and asked him, “How did Reeve get her hands on a gun?”

His green eyes went dark. “You’re a detective, Titus. Detect.”

I blew an angry breath out through my nose like a bull as a familiar face suddenly decorated the monitor at the entrance to the building. “Booker.”

“Exactly.” I realized Race was answering my question about the firearm and not seeing what I was seeing on the screen.

“No, Booker is at the front doors and fuck him if he’s the one that got her the gun. He’s out on bond; I’ll throw his ass back in jail.”

Race turned around and I saw his entire body go stiff. Booker walked through the front doors of the complex, looking right at the security cameras the entire time. He got on the elevator and I saw Race visibly flinch when he hit the button to the basement level.

“Shit.”

“I thought he was your boy.” This from Stark as Booker hit the lower level of the building and the cameras followed him right to the door of the room we were in right now. He paused and looked at the camera one more time before punching in the code. The door opened and then everything went black.

Race swore and Stark rocked back in the chair, blowing a whistle out between his teeth.

“You got a rat, boss.”

Race clenched his hands and looked back and forth between me and the computer guy. “He likes Reeve. Why would he set her up like that?”

“It was weird. The way he kept his eyes on the cameras. He knew you were going to see him doing it.”

Race shook his head. “I don’t get it.”

I grunted. “I don’t have to get it. I see him and he’s getting locked up. She was almost raped and killed tonight.”

Race lifted one of his gold eyebrows at me and asked, “Then I guess it’s a good thing someone gave her a weapon to protect herself with, isn’t it? This story could have a much sadder ending, couldn’t it, Titus?”

We glared at each other, neither willing to give an inch. The tension was broken by Stark clearing his throat.

“Guys, same team, remember? Maybe you should turn all that posturing and anger toward the dude that let the bad guys in the door.”