The Obsidian Collection Read online

  Donald gave him a crooked grin. “This shit gives you a hard-on doesn’t it?”

  “In the worst way.” Trevor grinned. “This is the closest my wife will ever come to identifying anything as my mistress.”

  “Good, because she and that hellcat friend of hers would make you a eunuch if you were ever to look sideways at another woman.”

  Trevor raised eyebrows with a look of incredulity. “Did Lisa threaten you?”

  “And at your wedding reception, no less. She thinks I’m one of your criminal friends, and I’m a bad influence on you. She threatened to sic her ‘high-ranking Air Force official father’ on both of us. Shanice is his goddaughter, and she compared her father to a Corleone. That woman is fierce.”

  “And you like her.” Trevor took a seat in front of a quad of computer monitors, touched the mouse, and the powerful computer woke up.

  Agent Hemphill looked sheepish for the first time ever in their association. “After we bag your uncle Phil, I might have to reintroduce myself to Lisa Bradford, is all I’m saying.”

  Trevor laughed. Then he became immersed in the world of computer code. A world he understood better than any other, until he fell in love with one Shanice Anderson Bailey. Now it was time to protect her and her family from Philip Kyle’s threats, once and for all.

  First, Trevor pulled up the program he’d used to perpetrate his heist.

  “See this string code right here?” Trevor said. “This is what I hid in the main code, so you guys could trace the program to me.”

  Donald pulled a chair next to Trevor and sat backwards in it then draped his hands over the back. “If you hadn’t done that, we would never have caught you. Now that this is almost over, you want to tell me why?”

  “When I went away to college, I thought I was so smart. I’d finally gotten away from Phillip and acted all cocky about it. Then the Baileys were in a car accident. Someone had run their van off the road when they were coming back from church. It’s a good thing the children weren’t in the car with them. Shanice had taken them to a matinee. Isaiah suffered a concussion and Brenda a broken arm. Afterward, Phillip let it ‘slip’ he might have been involved in that, too.”

  “He was sending you a message.”

  “Yep. At that point, I no longer asked ‘how high’ when Philip said jump. I’d severed my relationship with Shanice a couple of times, but he didn’t buy it. Philip wanted me to know he wasn’t bluffing about hurting the people I cared about most. It’s the only way I agreed to do the unclaimed funds heist.”

  “Did you always have a plan to go to jail on his behalf? You could’ve rigged the code to frame him.”

  “Those goons he employed had mafia connections. His directive was if anything happened to him, they were to take out a hit on the Bailey family.”

  “So, you took the fall so he wouldn’t use you to do his dirty work anymore?”

  “Yeah, that and I knew it would take me several years to retrofit this program to catch Philip. I needed to go to jail to protect Shanice and her family and to buy the time I needed to write the new program.”

  “So, how is this going to work?”

  “It’ll go in reverse of the original program. I’ll hack into the financial institutions around the world that hold the funds the original program took. We’re talking institutions in all the places where the uber-rich hide their money, like the British Virgin Islands, the Bahamas, the Cayman Islands, Cook Islands, Belize, and Switzerland. There’s several million in each location that when aggregated, is over a billion dollars, not to mention the interest that has accumulated. Philip believes his half of the code is required for me to access the money. That’s true and not true. In six months, I was able to write a program to override his half of the code.”

  “You can do that in six months, but it took several years to override the original program?”

  “I only had clearance to work on that when you brought me other projects to work on. The prison didn’t give me carte blanche use of their computer systems.”

  “You mean you took clearance to work on it with my projects. Son of a bitch.”

  “My biological mother was sort of a bitch,” Trevor said. “So I’m not offended by the term.”

  “Smart ass,” Donald said. “So, once you come to work for us, you’re going to teach me everything you know, right.”

  “Maybe not everything.” He smirked. “It’s called job security, my man.”

  “I’ll settle for that. It’d be a far sight better than what the bureau currently has. You’re the only hacker who’s ever been able to completely cover their electronic footprint. I’d be happy to just knowhow to do that.”

  “Okay, we’ll hammer out the details later.” I’ll be right back.

  Trevor left and came back holding a toothbrush.

  “What the fuck?” Donald said. “You about to brush the hell out of some ones and zeros?”

  Trevor removed the handle of the toothbrush to reveal what looked like a USB connection. “This is how I stored the program I created while in prison. Two-hundred-sixty-four gigabytes of storage.”

  “In a goddamn toothbrush. Ingenious. The one item the prison would never have thought to take away from you or x-ray for contraband.”

  “True.”

  “But how did you get it inside?”

  “If I tell you that, I’ll have to kill ya.”

  “Funny guy.”

  Trevor took the USB and attached it to the computer. “Now, all I have to do is tweak this to send the money back to the original banks, rather than in the banks where it’s being hidden. Philip will be none the wiser. All he’ll see is that a huge sum of money has been transferred to what he believes are his off-shore accounts.”

  “Now, to go over what we’ll need for an indictment,” Donald said. “You have to get him to admit his part in the original crime.”

  “That shouldn’t be difficult, given how much of a narcissist my uncle is.”

  “So, my men tell me Philip arrived today. He expects to have to drive to the prison tomorrow morning to meet you. Tonight might be a good time to make contact. Let him know what time you plan to meet up with him.”

  “Okay, here’s hoping he has the same cell phone number.”

  “Oh, he does.”

  “I should’ve known you’d leave no stone unturned.”

  “That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”

  “Yeah, yeah.” Trevor turned his full attention back to his programming. “Now, to test this. Wouldn’t want a bug to render this code useless or send over a billion dollars to places unknown.”

  “Right. That happens, we just might have to send you back to the slammer.” Donald chuckled.

  “Not funny, Agent Hemphill.”

  “Just kidding. I know you don’t make those kinds of mistakes.”

  “Not if I can help it.”

  Before he went back to the suite to join Shanice, Trevor called a number he’d never forgotten. Despite his uncle’s penchant for dealing with him as if he hadn’t used, threatened and blackmailed him most of his teenage life, Trevor’s interactions with the man remained thinly veiled hostility. He was careful to maintain that tone when he called.

  “Just letting you know, the feds sprung me early.”

  “Well, if it isn’t my nephew the felon,” Philip said. “My, how the wunderkind has fallen.”

  “Cut the crap, Uncle Philip. I’m only calling you because you’re my next-of-kin on the books, and you need something from me.”

  “Oh yeah? Well, I’m already in Vegas. We were going to drive down tomorrow and pick you up, but since that’s not necessary, the boys and I can make a later night of it on the strip. You want to hang with us?”

  “Nah, I’m chilling with a honey I hooked up with since I’ve been out.”

  “Understandable, but you need to meet up with us first thing tomorrow. One full night of getting your dick wet for the first time in seven years should suffice.”

  “Yeah
, you’ll need to drop a bundle on some computer hardware if you want me to do that job first thing.”

  “Why can’t we go back and do it in Orlando on the equipment you already have there?”

  “That footprint has to be under surveillance, and I don’t plan on going back to prison any time soon. If you want it done, it’ll have to be done here, on a new system that I can rig so it can’t be traced.”

  Philip was quiet for almost too long. “Okay, we’ll get everything you need tomorrow, but we’re keeping all the goddamn receipts, because that shit is going back right away.”

  “Sure thing.”

  Once Trevor hung up with Philip, he dialed Hemphill. “Those mafia guys are here with him for sure. He must owe their organization a lot of money, because they’re still hanging around.”

  “I don’t like the idea of you going in alone, Trevor. You need to create a plausible reason for me to be there. If he’s entitled to two sidekicks, you should at least have one.”

  “Aw, Agent Hemphill, I didn’t know you cared so much.”

  “I’m just saying, the bureau is invested in you now. It’d be a damned shame if anything were to happen to you. You’ve convinced me that Philip, or his muscle, could put a bullet in you the moment he gets the funds transferred over? He’ll believe he has all the money. ”

  “Fine, but I’m not calling him back tonight. You’ll just go with me in the morning, and I’ll explain the situation then. He doesn’t like it, he can take a hike.”

  “Well, not really, because we still want to bag this asshole.”

  “Believe me, the element of surprise will be better. You just figure out how you’re going to conceal a weapon. You’ll be frisked.”

  “I’ll put it where no self-respecting man will feel comfortable searching for it.”

  “Enough said.”

  “You’re a wuss, Trevor. I’m going to have the bureau send you through FBI recruit training. You need to learn how to properly conceal and fire a weapon, if you’re going to work with my team.”

  “If I wanted to do that, I’d have signed up for the military.”

  “Geeks like you don’t usually like the military.”

  “That’s where you’re wrong. My Dad was a Marine and a bigger geek than I am.”

  “I stand corrected, then, but your ass is still running the obstacle course and learning to handle firearms. I insist on all my field and desk agents going through the same training.”

  “You don’t think I’ll be able to cut it, do you?”

  “We’ll certainly find out.”

  “I didn’t veg in prison, man. You know I worked out religiously, and I can bench two-fifty.”

  “We’ll see, computer geek.”

  “Goodnight, Donald. My bride is waiting on me. I don’t have time to argue with you anymore.”

  “Meet you in the lobby at 0800 hours.”

  “Sharp.” Trevor said and hung up.

  When Trevor walked into their suite, he could sense the tension in the air. Shanice seemed to be having a standoff with Lisa. “What did Mom say?” Shanice said through clenched teeth. “Why didn’t you just let the call go to voice mail? You let a little pastor’s wife squeeze you—” Then she saw Trevor. “Hey baby. How’d your business with Donald go?” She smiled and ran to him as if it had been days since she’d seen him. She threw her arms around him and kissed him like there might be something serious behind it, but that would have to wait until later.

  Trevor held her close for a few moments then looked into her eyes. “What’s up with Isaiah and Brenda?”

  Shanice’s face fell. “I just need to remember never to share any state secrets with Lisa.” Shanice stepped out of his embrace and folded her arms. She glared at her friend.

  “Oops,” Trevor said and turned to Lisa. “What did you do to piss my lovely wife off?”

  Lisa frowned. She was wringing her hands together like a naughty child. “I might have told Mom and Pops Bailey you two got married.”

  “Ugh!” Shanice said. “Mom only has to hit her with the Claire Huxtable voice, and she sings like a canary.”

  “In my defense, you two never said not to tell them,” Lisa said.

  Shanice was nonplussed. “But did it not occur to you this news might best have come from Trevor and me?”

  “Well, when you put it like that. . .”

  Trevor stepped behind Shanice and pulled her back, then rested his chin on her head. “It’ll be okay,” Trevor said. “Isaiah and Brenda have always loved me.”

  “Until you told Shanice you never wanted to see her,” Lisa said.

  It was as if she’d dropped a bomb in the room. Shanice went still in his arms, and Trevor’s mouth fell open. He turned Shanice gently to face him. “Is that true, baby?”

  “Could be,” Shanice mumbled.

  Trevor rubbed a rough hand over his face and into his hair. “Well, that complicates things. A little. But if Isaiah and Brenda are anything like the people I remember, they can be reasoned with.”

  Shanice laughed. “Yeah. When have you known Mom and Dad to hold a really long grudge?”

  “Never. We’ll just fly home like we planned and ask him to marry us at his church a few Sundays from now.”

  “And we’ll explain to him how we didn’t want to wait another minute to be married—”

  “Well, I could have waited, if you weren’t so impatient about certain things.”

  “You did not just say that?” Lisa said then sat down on the sofa and grabbed a bowl of popcorn.

  Shanice pulled away from him and held her hands up as if to warn him off. “It was your idea.”

  “It was the only way, since you were ‘about to explode.’ What was I supposed to do? I was willing to marry you the right way.”

  “Foot, meet Trevor’s mouth,” Lisa said.

  Shanice stormed out. Then the bedroom door slammed. When Trevor tried to follow, he heard the lock click into place just as he put his hand on the knob. He pushed his hair back and turned back around to look helplessly at Lisa.

  “Two days, and you’re already in the dog house, bro,” Lisa said.

  “But it’s the truth. Why is she so mad at me for speaking the truth?”

  She put the popcorn down and patted the couch cushion beside her. “Come here, Trevor.”

  He walked slowly over to the sofa and sat down.

  “You’ve lived in an unnatural environment for the past seven years, so you’ve got a little bit to learn about women, okay?”

  “Okay. I’ll do anything to make this right. Just tell me what to do.”

  Lisa turned off the muted television and picked up her wine glass then angled so she could speak directly to Trevor.

  “Number one. Never ever, ever, ever tell a woman, especially one who is your wife, that a bad decision was her idea. Once you’ve sanctioned it, it’s our decision, okay?”

  Trevor nodded.

  “Number two. Never have a discussion like that in front of friends. You guys are one now, and you need to project a united front. Got it?”

  “See? I’m not ready to be a husband. Don’t they have counseling for this sort of thing?”

  “Yeah they do, and if I were you, I’d ask Pastor Bailey to give you guys the remedial version as soon as you get home. My advice is to shut the fuck up until then.”

  “I’ll certainly try. Now, how do I get her to come out or let me in there?”

  “You’re on your own with that one.”

  “C’mon Lisa, you know Shanice better than anyone.”

  “This is true,” she said and tapped her chin thoughtfully with her forefinger. “Okay, first I’d suggest a lot of groveling. I’m saying you need to be as repentant as you can. Then you need to give her flowers, Godiva chocolates, and make sweet love to her like there’s no tomorrow.”

  “I can do all that.” He stood and pulled his wallet out of his jeans pocket. “Hey, will you get the flowers and chocolate for me while I begin the groveling?” He handed
her a hundred-dollar bill.

  Lisa put the bill in her pocket and rubbed her fingers together. “Man, you’ve been in the pen too long. I’m gonna need at least another Benjamin to get the best for my girl.”

  Trevor gave her another hundred, which Lisa slid into that same pocket as she grabbed her purse and cell. “I’m off on operation ‘get my bride back.’ See you in a half an hour.”

  Trevor waved her off then meandered over to the door and knocked. “Shanice. . .”

  Shanice popped a truffle into her mouth then sniffed the roses sitting in front of them. “They’re beautiful,” she said. She looked into his eyes. “This is like a precedent, you know. Your next grand gesture will have to top this at least three-fold.”

  “I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings by saying what I did. It was stupid of me. I’m so sorry.” Trevor leaned in and ran his lips lightly over her cheek while he took in her scent.

  They were cut from the same cloth, and feeling too exposed sometimes made them both disappear within themselves for a while. Fear of giving so much and not knowing if that person would be around when you really needed them, spooked people like them.

  Brenda once told him that the more he pulled away, the more tenacious Shanice became. It was true. And not just with Trevor but with everyone she loved. Their biological mothers had loved them, he supposed, but they loved drugs more. Shanice didn’t want to love anything more than the important people in her life, and he knew this about her. He needed to follow her lead, and as Lisa said, shut the fuck sometimes, so he wouldn’t hurt her again like he’d been doing for years.

  He looked at his beautiful wife sitting next to him, still astonished she was actually his. They’d known each other almost all their lives and were separated only by periods of time when he was too young to know how to protect her from Philip’s vile threats.

  Then she’d turned sixteen, and they’d both changed, physically and emotionally. He’d never forget the first time he saw her looking more like a woman and less like the little surrogate sister she’d always been to him. It had been six months before his graduation and seven before he was sent to prison.