Flying Home
In the jet, Genesis watched as Kiefer paced back and forth, his phone pressed to his ear as he talked to Allan who was back at the estate.
“I want the entire estate on lockdown. Nobody gets in. Nobody gets out. I want an army there. You get the security better than the White House, am I clear?” The edge to his voice was unmistakable. He was furious at the risk to his wife’s safety. “If anything happens to my wife, I will be ripping heads from necks.”
“Mom, I’m scared.” Egan looked at his father nervously.
“Me too, buddy.” She admitted it, “but do you know what? Those four men right there,” she pointed to Kiefer who was still barking commands into his phone, Lorcan who was plugging away on his computer, Tadgh and Jerren who were huddled at the back as they created a security plan, “they will keep us safe.”
“Why did someone want to kidnap you? It’s bad.”
“I don’t know but they,” she waved her hand at the group, “will find out.”
“Gen,” Lorcan rose from his seat and brought his laptop to her, “I need your help.”
“My help?”
Flying Home
“You’re a cybersecurity specialist, right?”
“Yes.”
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“I want a fresh set of eyes on my computer and on the security. parameters of it and the company. I want to know nobody has been in here,” he waved it at her, “or in any of the files from the company. If we have a leak reporting the convoy and our security, then I want to find out if it comes from here. Allan is working on the system for the Iron Force Gang. I need you to check my businesses. Can you do this?”
“You don’t have an IT team?”
“I do but right now, I can’t trust anyone. I’m trusting you. Someone leaked details of Laoise’s transport. Can you help?”
She took his laptop and noted the screens were wide open to her. “Lorcan, are there files here you wouldn’t want me looking at?”
“You can look at everything, Gen. I consider you my wife as much as Kiefer and Tadgh do. In fact, I consider you far better than my wife. I trust you to sleep next to me which is not anything she ever did. Now, get to work.” He winked at her.
“Are you giving me a project to distract me?”
“No. Just like taking Egan up to talk to the pilot isn’t a distraction,” he kissed her forehead his eyes twinkling with mischief. “Make sure nobody is in there,” he pointed to the
computer.
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“Yes Daddy,” she smiled at him aware he probably didn’t really need her to do this but knew she was ruminating.
He tilted her chin and then kissed her lips softly before leaning close to her ear and hotly whispering, “keep it up and while Egan is in the front with the pilot, I’ll take you to the back of this plane and distract you in the best way I know how.”
Her eyes met his and she knew she was blushing as he backed away. He held his hand out to Egan, “Egan, have you ever seen the cockpit?”
“No,” he shook his head.
“Come on then. You’ll like this.”
She watched Lorcan walk away with her son and shook her head when he looked over his shoulder at her and pointed to the back bedroom and gave her a thumbs up sign. He was clearly teasing her now and it felt a bit lighter if for no other reason than his levity.
It felt like it’d been too long since she’d been diving into work, and it didn’t take long before she was bypassing the security of the company and going through everything with a fine–toothed comb. When Lorcan sat next to her again and reached over her lap to clasp her seatbelt she looked up in alarm.
“What are you doing?”
“We’re getting ready to land, Genesis,” he smiled. “You were
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deep in your thoughts, so I didn’t want to stop you, but the flight attendant is about to rip my laptop from your hands because she’s asked three times for the devices to be put away for landing.”
“No way,” she looked around wildly, “where is Egan?”
“Sitting with Kiefer at the back. Kiefer got him set up with a movie while you were working, and we were brainstorming. about a few things.” He nodded at the laptop she closed, “find anything?”
“No. I mean there are things I would suggest improving but if someone found out about the path of the convoy it wasn’t from the legal businesses.”
“Well, we actually may have this sorted.” Lorcan held her hand in his. “If there was anything in Astra’s devices which mentioned. Kiefer at all, even if it was from when you first married him seven years ago, they would know there is a link between you and Kiefer. Laoise was collected in Tunisia and transported using Iron Force resources. We made sure we equipped a large leam. When we landed in New York, I’m sure it made waves. If Astra said she didn’t know where you were, insisted you ran away, then a large convoy suddenly shows up in New York to bring someone to Kiefer in Boston, if someone is looking for you, who do you think they presume is being shipped?”
“They thought it was me.”
“They did.”
Flying Home
“Who are they?”
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“It has to do with the Sokolov family. I’m certain of it. I have a call to connect with Nazar. I’m hoping by the time we get back, I’ll have a response to my request.”
She rested her head on his shoulder, “all of this is so insane to
me.”
“It’s certainly not anything we were anticipating, Gen.”
“Do you know I can’t stop thinking of my mom and dad? Why did they lie?”
“I don’t know but perhaps Nazar will be able to explain why his brother did what he did.”
“But” she couldn’t look at him as she voiced her fears, “what if he’s the reason my parents were hiding? What if they needed to fake my adoption because of him? You said he’s cold and cruel.”
“I can’t see it. While he’s not the warm and fuzzy type, I’ve seen him with his brothers. He loves them. The three of them were closer than close. If I’m guessing, and I’m only guessing here, Genesis, so take it as unsubstantiated thoughts,” he urged her, “I think if your adoptive parents were your biological parents, the reason they were hiding in Florida with you, was to keep hidden from the threat of Yegor. If they were contemplating how he’s picking people off one at a time, maybe hiding was to protect you. The minute your DNA was put into a database, Yegor and Oleg realized there was an heir to the family out there and are looking for you to take you out. Astra used her address as your
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physical address when she set up your account. They went there. to find you and she refused to give out details.”
“If this is the case,” she didn’t know where her thoughts were coming from, “why didn’t someone come for me before? If Nazar knew his brother had a daughter, why leave me in the foster system?”
“I don’t know.”
“It doesn’t make sense,” she sighed. “None of this makes sense.”
“I am hopeful Nazar explains.”
“What if he doesn’t know? What if he can’t explain? What if in going to him, I’m opening a can of worms? What if he hates me because his brother was in Florida because of me and it’s where he got murdered and he simply shoots me in the head to be done. with it?”
“He’ll need to get near you to shoot you, Genesis and I will end him before he could pull a weapon.”
“I know you will keep me safe, but I can’t help but be scared. I can honestly tell you, this right here, this whole thing, is scarier to me than knowing Kiefer was looking for me because I ratted
to the feds.”
“You didn’t rat to the feds. You confirmed information they already knew, and it was nothing we wouldn’t have told them ourselves. Come here,” he wrapped his arms around her. “You have nothing to fear, Gen. You keep taking care of Egan and
Flying Home
running our home and getting to work with a project Kiefer’s going to set you up with. Let us manage the rest of it.”
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“I’ve taken care of myself and Egan so long, looking over my shoulder and relying on nobody but me and Astra to keep us safe, it’s hard for me, Lorcan to simply hand over the control. I need to know what is happening all the time. I know you’re trying to protect us, but I need the details, even if you think it’ll hurt.”
“This is something Tadgh and I agree completely on.”
“But not Kiefer?”
“Kiefer is more concerned about your emotional wellbeing Genesis. If the information from Sokolov is going to hurt you, he feels strongly about ruining the good memories you have of your parents. It is clear when you talk about them, you loved them deeply and you felt loved by them. If it comes about, they were not who you think they were, or worse, they took you when they shouldn’t have, he’s worried about how it will impact your heart.”
“He thinks they might have kidnapped me. From whom,
Lorcan? I share partial DNA with their cousin and their uncle. It means I have to be related to my parents, at least my Dad, somehow.”
“It was one of the theories we floated when we were
brainstorming. The Sokolov family are very connected.”
Genesis gave a shake of her head, “no. There is nothing you can
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tell me which would make me think my parents were bad people or intending to hurt me in some fashion.”
“Why are you so sure?”
“Because if this was the case, why is he with Egan? Why stay with Egan the last six years? Why give him messages? I got to thinking about what was happening at the time he gave Egan the message of his name and I realized it was during a time when Astra and I were fighting.”
“Fighting?”
“She was dating this girl I didn’t care much for, and I didn’t want her around Egan. Astra told me it was love and she slammed out of my place, and I didn’t see her for several weeks. I was feeling really alone.”
“What was wrong with the girl?”
“Pothead.” Genesis shrugged. “I don’t care if people smoke up or whatever, but I don’t want it around my kid and the woman walked around in a green haze. Egan hadn’t been feeling good, and I asked Astra to babysit so I could go to the grocery store. and the pharmacy, pick up a few things and honestly, just get an hour to myself without a clinging kid on me. When I came back, her girlfriend was smoking up on my back porch. I was pissed. I threw them both out. A month later Astra came back crying. She realized the woman was a flake and we made up, but it was around then my Dad was telling me his name. I was overwhelmed and alone. I can’t help but think he was giving me a clue to find my family but then he stopped.” She sighed, “no
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matter what comes out of all of this, I know my Dad loved me and nothing anyone tells me will ever convince me otherwise.”
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