Page 46 of Digital Desire

Chapter 21

“Can you believe this place?” Drew asked just over an hour later as they looked down into the valley where a sprawling hacienda-style home sat.

“It’s beautiful,” said Aubrey as she looked at the safe house surrounded by trees and greenery.

“Well yeah, it’s pretty, but as a safe house goes it’s a fucking disaster,” said Jack with a frown.

“Who in their right mind chooses a safehouse with so many attack points? It has so many weaknesses it makes me edgy,” Jace added.

Aubrey looked at the house again through a different eye, and suddenly everything they had said seemed obvious. It was overlooked by hills, it had so many places to hide. It was a security nightmare. She couldn’t help agreeing with Jack. Was this a trap?

“Come on, let’s go do some recon. We don’t want this flying in our faces and fucking up the New Year party Zack is throwing as well as Christmas,” said Jace with a sullen look which made Aubrey smile.

“You missing Lucy?” she asked curious about the dynamic between them.

“Like the air that I breathe,” he said as he glanced at her.

She loved that he was not afraid to let anyone know how much he loved Lucy. She hoped she and Will would have that one day.

“Drew, you come with me. Alex and Liam, go around the side and check out that wooded area. I don’t want any surprises. Liam, while you’re there, set up some nasty little surprises for any runners please,” Jack said interrupting her thoughts. “Jace, can you check out the ridge over there? It’s the perfect spot for an ambush, and I don’t want to get us pinned in.”

“I was thinking the same thing, I’ll check it out,” Jace said and moved away to the farthest ridge.

“Roger that, boss,” Liam said with a smile.

Jack turned to Will who had been silent while the entire discussion took place. Will was immersed in his cyber world already, trying to hack the security.

“How’s it going, Will?” Jack asked as he looked over Will’s shoulder.

Will stopped and looked up. “Flowers is definitely here or has been, the firewalls on the security are top notch.”

“Can you get past them?” Alex asked with a frown.

Jack and Will looked at him sharply, and Aubrey grinned at the identical looks of affront on their faces. She wondered if she and Madison would be able to fix their dysfunctional relationship the way Jack and Will had. She thought it would take a hell of a lot more work, but then, looking back, their relationship had never been functional in a healthy way.

Madison had been wild, and Aubrey had enabled her, her whole life by covering for her. Maybe it was time to let her sister stand on her own two feet. If only it were that simple, to just watch someone you love, someone you had protected since she was a baby, fall so they could learn.

She looked at Will, and her heart warmed, with his help she could do it. She felt like she could do anything with Will on her side.

“Of course, I can get past them!”

“Don’t be an asshat, of course, he can,” said Jack with indignation. Will turned to his brother with a huge grin. “What?” asked Jack.

“You think I’m awesome,” Will said.

“Oh, shut up,” Jack said and began to walk away as Drew followed him. “Just get us in,” he called back before the five men disappeared as if they had never been there.

“How do they do that?” Aubrey asked as she looked at Will, his handsome face in profile as his fingers moved like lightning.

“Years and years of training and a little bit of magic,” he said as he finally looked at her and winked.

Relief flooded her at the playful act. She had been worried she had messed things up between them before they had even started with her insecurities, but she should have known Will would not be one to hold a grudge. He was the most forgiving man she knew.

“Can I help at all? I feel like a spare wheel,” she replied.

She had not volunteered to go with the Eidolon team and Drew because if this trip had taught her anything, it was that she had limits and she wasn’t a fool. If she froze up again, she could get one of them killed and even in this short time, these men had endeared themselves to her.

“I could use someone to cover my back. I get kind of engrossed when I’m hacking and miss what’s going on in the outside world.”