Chapter Twenty-Nine

Reed

I must've forgotten to set my alarm last night. The sun streams through the blinds when I crack my eye open, shifting my arm over my face to shield it from the light.

"Tate, are you awake?" someone calls from downstairs. It sounds like Beckham, but it could be Hayes. Hard to tell.

The front door slams shut before another voice follows. This time, I jolt upright in bed.

"Shit, Tate, baby. You need to wake up, sweetheart. Your brother is here."

She rolls away from me, lifting her arms above her to stretch before her eyes pop open wide.

"Did you say my brother's here?" she mumbles. "I thought you said he'd be here after practice?"

I nod, just as another voice echoes up the stairs. "Beckham already warned me you're in Hendrix's bed, Tate. I don't want to come up there, so you get your ass down here."

She groans and sits up, rubbing her fingers over her eyes.

Bending down to pick up my shorts and shirt, I quickly pull them on and toss Tate my T-shirt she was wearing last night. She took it off when we were crawling into bed, settling on her tank and shorts instead.

I check my phone notifications. No bites yet from Wells. If he doesn't fall for the fantasy football app, I might have to come up with a backup plan.

Shoving my phone into my pocket, Tate and I exchange a look. One that says we know what's about to follow now that the word has made its way back to Talon.

Tate goes ahead of me. As soon as we turn the corner, I spot Talon standing at the foot of the stairs. It's not the only thing that catches my attention. A petite brunette stands behind him. She seems nervous and concerned when she sees Tate.

"Wren? What are you doing here?" Tate asks when she reaches the entryway, glancing from who I now know is Wren Perry over to her brother. "You brought her with you. What for?"

"I made him," Wren speaks up, stepping out from behind him. She holds her arms out to Tate for a moment, and Tate stares at her, almost as if she's hesitant to return the greeting.

She gives in, though. Tate isn't one to be rude, and no matter what her relationship is with Wells, she wouldn't treat Wren badly unless she gave her a reason. Even I know that about her.

"You have to know, I had no idea. I would've tried to stop him if I thought I could," she whispers against Tate's ear.

She seems to relax then, glancing up to look at her brother. "I know, Wren. It's not your fault."

Wren nods and pulls away, taking a step back to give her space.

"You didn't need to come all the way here, you know?" Tate turns to Talon.

"Good to see you too, Sis." He chuckles, and Tate rolls her eyes.

As much as I know she's glad to see him, I can tell she's still put off or confused by the fact he showed up here with Wells's sister.

"I thought we agreed not to tell anyone where I'm staying?" She tilts her head to the side.

"You don't have to—" Wren interjects, and Talon lifts his hand to stop her.

"We did, and I should've told you I was bringing Wren with me. I tried calling you last night but couldn't reach you. This isn't how I wanted to tell you. Okay? It's not what you think, and if you knew everything, you'd know the two of you have a lot more in common than you realize."

Tate looks taken aback. Wren tries to brush a tear from her eye, and Tate's gaze softens.

"I understand why you don't want anyone to know where you are. I don't blame you. If I thought I could get out of Rixton like you did, hell, I would've been gone a long time ago. It's not as easy for me, though. I'd never tell anyone your secret, Tate. It's not mine to tell."

Tate stares at her for a long moment before turning to me and reaching for my hand. "I need coffee," she mumbles.

Talon doesn't say a fuckin' word as I lead her into the kitchen. The coffee pot is already brewing, probably from Colter.

She stays quiet, leaning against the counter while I pull us each out a mug and pour a cup. Tate likes hers with creamer and sugar because she's sweet, whereas I've always taken mine black.

We stand there alone for a few minutes before Talon walks in with Beckham and Wren behind him.

"Beckham was telling me that you might be able to help with making the photos and whatever he has on her disappear?" Talon asks, focusing on me.

Tate is in the middle of taking a drink when he says it, her eyes glancing at me from over her mug.

I nod. "The site he posted on is already gone. As for whatever he has stashed away, I'm working on it."

My eyes lock with Tate's. She quickly finishes her drink, hastily setting the mug down on the counter.

"Why do I feel like I'm being left out of a conversation that pertains to me?"

"I've been meaning to tell you…" I start.

"Okay, then tell me," she interrupts. "I don't do secrets, Reed. If there's something you've been hiding, just spit it out."

"Whoa, I'm not hiding anything to hurt you. I'm trying to help."

Beckham nods. "Lucy, I only came to him because I knew he could help. We weren't trying to keep you in the dark."

"All right, well, then tell me. What are you working on?"

I flick my eyes over to Beckham, leveling him with a stare that says I don't fuckin' appreciate you springing this shit on me like this.

"Maybe we should have this conversation with all four of us," I suggest, looking at Talon.

"Whatever you want to say, you can say it in front of Wren too. Just because they share the same fuckin' last name doesn't mean she's connected to him. Truth be told, I trust her a hell of a lot more than I trust you with my sister, so stop tiptoeing around this shit and say it already." Talon glares at me.

"Listen, before I say anything, let me make this clear," I grit out. "I understand you're her brother, and as her brother, it's been your role to protect her. So trust me when I say thank you for that. But I need you to back the fuck off now. There's nothing I wouldn't do to protect her, and the last person you need to worry about keeping her safe from is me. Got it?"

Talon widens his stance and crosses his arms over his chest. His jaw is set, his eyes narrow on mine, and he nods.

"I get you warned me to stay away from her. She didn't want anything serious, and I tried to respect that. But I can't deny my feelings for her, and I know she has feelings for me too. I love her, and even though neither of us planned for this, it's where we are now. You can accept it or fuck off, but I won't let you come between us."

He exhales a heavy breath, his gaze flicking from me over to Tate, who takes a step forward and links her fingers with mine.

"I love him too, Talon. So please, just stop. Okay?"

His throat bobs, and he nods. "All right then."

"All right then, what?" Tate asks.

"All right, I'll back off," he repeats.

Beckham folds his arms over his chest, running his hand over his jaw, and nods to me. "Okay, go ahead and tell him."

"Well, I'm a computer science major, so you could say I know my way around technology. I've done some work for corporations building and enhancing their security systems, so, uh…" I look over at Beckham. "I have my ways of breaking into systems when I've needed to."

"So you're a hacker?" Talon blurts out.

"You could say that, I guess." I nod.

My phone vibrates in my pocket. I pull it out, expecting a check-in from Darren. He's been following up daily on how things are going.

"What does that mean exactly? You think you have a way to hack into his phone and wipe anything he has?"

I nod. "If my plan works, not only can I take over his computer, but I can wipe every device he owns so it'll all disappear."

"You can do that?" Tate asks, her voice hopeful.

I turn to her. "I'm trying, okay? We won't know until he falls for the bait. If he doesn't, I'll have to go to plan B."

"What's plan B?"

"Plan B is to go to Rixton ourselves," I say as my phone vibrates again. "Hold on, I need to check this."

I slip my phone out of my pocket and check the notifications.

"Fuck, we're in," I say, cutting across the kitchen and making a beeline for the stairs.

Tate is hot on my heels. "What is going on?"

Judging by the stomps following me up the stairs, she's not alone.

"I think we got a bite."

Before I know it, Beckham and Talon are in my room too. Wren must've hung back since I don't see her, which is good for me. We don't need all these people in my room.

"Holy shit," Talon mutters when he sees my computer monitors.

"See, I told you," Beckham chimes in.

"If you guys are all going to distract me, go downstairs and leave us alone. I have work to do."

No one says a word. I turn to make sure Tate knows my comment wasn't meant for her, but she must've known that already. She's sitting on my bed, watching the screens intently.

The guys stay quiet.

"He downloaded the file." I clap my hands.

The malware is capturing his keystrokes. As soon as he entered his password, we were in.

"Fuck yes, it worked." I grin.

The mouse on his screen starts moving, and I chuckle. "He's starting to realize he's not in control."

"Wait, he's watching you right now?" Talon asks, surprised.

"Yep, and as soon as I finish exporting the files, I'll have everything backed up and deleted from his computer. He won't have access to it, but I'll have every file he has saved, including what he had on his phone connected to the Cloud."

"Jesus, that's straight vicious." Talon's voice is a mixture of awe and amusement. "Remind me not to ever get on your bad side."

I glance over at him and Beckham, who raises his brows and nods. "No fuckin' kidding. He's not the person I want to fuck over, that's for damn sure."

As soon as I have everything backed up, I open the notepad on his screen. Judging by the way the screen keeps flickering, he's attempting to get into his computer and stop me from what I'm doing, but there's nothing he can do now. Not even powering down the computer will prevent me from getting what I need.

When the "download complete" message appears on my screen, I change over to the notes app and type in a message for Wells.

You messed with the wrong person this time, Perry.

Game over…

With a click of a button, everything is wiped clean from his system.