Implants
Reaching the kitchen in the morning, Genesis was surprised to see Kiefer, Tadgh and Lorcan standing around the island each holding cups of coffee in their hands. Kiefer had kissed her good morning but when she’d gone to take her shower, he said he’d get himself and Egan ready for the day.
“Where is Egan?”
“He is with Jerren outside. He’s being fitted with a microchip.” Kiefer said as he took a sip of his coffee.
“I’m sorry, what?”
“We’re microchipping Egan.” Lorcan said bluntly. “Until we figure out who or why our convoy was attacked, it’s an enemy we’re unsure of, we need to ensure you’re both safe.”
“Am I microchipped?”
“Not yet.”
“Are you three microchipped?”
“Yes.” Lorcan shrugged. “We’re billionaires, love. If I go missing, all Kiefer needs to do is log into a computer system and through satellite imagery, he can pinpoint me to few feet of my location, alive or dead.”
Implants
“And you’ll be able to do the same for me and Egan?”
“Yes.”
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“Okay.”
Kiefer lifted a brow, “I thought you’d fight us on it.”
“Nope. You’re telling me if someone tries to take my kid you have an implant in him to keep him safe. Do you know how many people have children go missing who wish they could have done such a thing? I wish we’d done it ages ago.”
Lorcan laughed and rounded the table and kissed the top of her head. “Good girl.”
“You look good today, all dressed in your dark blue suit.”
“We have a funeral to attend. We can’t go in jeans or sweats.” Tadgh grunted. “Despite how much I didn’t like Astra, if I showed up to a chapel in anything other than my Sunday best, my grandmother would rise from her grave and beat me to death.”
She frowned her eyes shooting to Kiefer’s, “everyone is coming?”
“Yes.” Kiefer nodded.
“We’re a family, Genesis. While none of us really cared for Astra and didn’t agree with the way she abandoned you recently, you loved her. Today is going to hurt. We’re going to be there for you.” Lorcan tugged her until she stood between his legs as he
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leaned against a stool. He cupped her cheek, “we already have everything arranged for her funeral. We have security out the wazoo in place. We are worried about you being in the open and so you’ll be surrounded completely. When we move from the cars to the funeral home and the gravesite, you will be obligated
to wear a vest.”
“A vest?”
“Bulletproof.”
“You think someone might try to kill me today?”
“I think I don’t trust whoever it was who tortured your friend to try to get information on your whereabouts to not try to, at the very least, get sight of you.”
“Is it weak of me to admit I’m scared?” she whispered to nobody
in particular.
“No, it’s not Genesis. We’re scared.” Lorcan tilted her chin. “We’re terrified. We only got you back and we are not prepared to lose you again in this lifetime. We will be guarding you better than the secret service guards the president.”
“Okay.” She heard Egan giggling as he entered the house from wherever he was, “and him? You’ll keep him safe too?”
“Always.” Kiefer rubbed her back. “It’s your turn. You need to go.
with Jerren.”
“Why didn’t you go with Egan to get his implant?”
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“Because it hurts and I was worried I’d shoot Jerren and his IT guy in the face for hurting my kid,” Kiefer said honestly.
“Same,” Tadgh raised his hand.
Lorcan shrugged, “he’s part of you Genesis and seeing him sad
or hurt makes me think of you sad or hurt and I want to start shooting. Jerren realized we’d likely beat the fuck out of the guy who has to do the implant for hurting our boy.”
She laughed, “you’re joking right?” Looking around the room at them, their blue eyes all focused on her she realized they were quite serious. “Are you not coming with me to get my implant?”
“Do you want to see bloodshed?” Tadgh said grunting as he poured more coffee, his knuckles white around the handle of the mug. “It’s a big needle and it goes into the hip. One of our guys passed out from it.”
Egan came running in, “Mom, Mom, guess what?”
“What?”
“I’m like Iron Man. I have a computer component in my body.” He was pushing down the top of his trousers to show her where a bandage sat. “I didn’t even cry.”
“You didn’t cry?”
“Nope. Uncle Jerren told me I was braver than some of the men on the team. Also, you’re getting one too, but you can’t tell
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anyone it’s there because if bad guys capture us and they know it’s there, they can try to cut it out.”
“How interesting.”
“Don’t worry though Mom. Even though it hurts, it’s to keep us safe. Dad, Granddad and Uncle Tadgh and Jerren will keep the bad men from getting us and this is only a backup plan, just in
case.”
“I’m not worried. I know we’re safe.” She kissed the top of his head. “Did you have breakfast yet?”
“Dad said we could eat on the plane. We’re going to have a funeral for Auntie Astra, and she is going to get put into a coffin and buried in the ground. I think it’s weird her body is still on earth, but her soul is in heaven now. She is an angel. Granddad Lorcan said he believes how brave she was in her final moments helped her get special passage to heaven because she gave up
her life for us.”
She gave Lorcan a smile, “I hadn’t considered it this way.”
“I think if there is a God in heaven, and someone who judges us to proceed into the next life, then if our sins are weighed against the good, we’ve done in this world, Astra’s protection of you and Egan has to have counted for a lot.”
She kissed his cheek, and closed her eyes whispering in his ear, “thank you.”
“Aw man, Mom’s going to cry again.”
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“Your mom,” Kiefer said as he hiked Egan up on his hip, “is likely going to cry a lot today. Astra was her best friend in the entire world and while you got to see Astra one last time in your dreams, your Mom didn’t get to have such an experience. Your mom didn’t get a goodbye hug and so she’s going to miss Astra a whole lot over the next little while. We need to be strong for your Mom and make sure she gets all the hugs and kisses she needs from us to help her when she’s feeling sad.”
Jerren cleared his throat, interrupting. “Gen, if you want to come with me, we can get your implant in place and then we’ll head out to the airfield.”
“Okay.” She followed Jerren out of the house through the back garden and to one of the outbuildings on the premises. She looked at the room as they entered it, “this was the place they were going to renovate to turn into a cottage for me, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Jerren grinned. “Now it’s become a makeshift medical clinic on the estate. If you decide to dump the trio, we’ll relocate, and you can have your cottage back.”
“Are you kidding?” she hopped up on the medical bed, “have you seen the shower they put in my new bathroom? It has eight jets, Jerren. Even if I did dump the three of them, I’d stay in the main house and marry the jet which is about this high,” she raised her hand waist level.
He laughed at her words. “What you’re telling me then is, when I move my girlfriend in, if I want her to stay, she needs a shower like yours?”
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“Are you moving her in?”
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“She’ll be moving in today. I need her safe. Until we know who and what we’re facing, we’re on lockdown. To go and do this funeral is against all the commonsense Tadgh and I have but it’s non–negotiable and we know it so we’re going to do it right. However, if given our way, we would have brought her body here and buried her in the garden.”
“Despite the fact, Kiefer said I didn’t get to see her one last time, I’m quite convinced I don’t want to see her ghost and if you bring her here and bury her on land owned by Kiefer, a man she loathed with ever fiber of her being, she would not have rested well. She would have been walking the garden at all hours of the day and night haunting my ass until I buried her away from him.”
“She was jealous of him. She wanted you for herself.”
“I never suspected this but you’re probably right.” She looked up as a tall thin man stepped into the room. “I know you from somewhere.”
“I was part of your security team when you were in school in Columbus. I was reassigned back to Ireland when you all moved here. I’m back here in Boston now.” He smiled. “You and I engaged in a very long discussion one evening at dinner about cyber security.”
“I remember!” she pointed at him excitedly. “Allan, right?
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“Kiefer brought him to work here out Boston because he’s hoping to convince you to work in our cybersecurity division, Gen.” Jerren said bluntly as he watched the other man open a black suitcase and pull a needle from it.
She was surprised, “really?”
“Yes. He’ll probably bring it up once the funeral is all dealt with. Act surprised.” Jerren laughed as she snickered. “I hate to say this, but I need you to lift your skirt,” he grabbed a blanket and set it over her knees. “I need you to show us your hip. It’s going
to hurt.”
“If it’s going to hurt, how come Egan didn’t cry?”
“Oh, he cried.” Jerren laughed, “but we told him if he was brave and let us do it, we’d tell everyone he didn’t cry, and the rest of the men would think he was braver and stronger than them. We’re best friends now.”
She laughed and adjusted herself on the table, laying on her side.
“Big pinch,” Jerren said.
Genesis knew why her son cried. It hurt like a bitch. “Fuck!” she cursed and gripped the edge of the table as tears filled her eyes. “Holy fuck that hurts.”
“Almost there, Gen,” Jerren said softly. “You’re doing so good. We have to guide it to where it implants against your hip bone.”
Implants
She sucked in a shaky breath and then she whimpered as he slowly retracted the needle from her flesh.
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“Lay still for a few minutes while we make sure it’s live and in place and registering.”
She flicked her gaze to where Allan was typing away on his laptop. “This is actually really cool.”
“Isn’t it?” Allan grinned at her. “You should see what we’ve done. with biometrics on some of the weapons. It’s very supervillain like.”
Jerren put a bandage on her hip as a loud beep pinged from the computer. “And you’re live. We’re good to go. Let’s get your back to your family so we can get the hard part of your day over
with.”
Genesis stood up and felt her hip aching and yet knew, this physical pain wasn’t going to be the thing which hurt most today. The thought filled her with dread, and she took a breath and prayed she appeared braver than she felt.
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