Page 131 of Stolen Vows

“You were right,” she whispers. “About all of it. About them. And I—I didn’t want to believe it, but I don’t know what to do.”

Her voice wobbles on the last word, and something inside me crumbles.

I should be angry. I should still be furious over what she pulled with Graham. But none of that matters right now. She’s my sister, and she’s scared. And if I don’t help her now, then I’m no better than the rest of my family.

I swallow, forcing my voice steady. “Okay. I’ll come get you.”

Her breath stutters. “You—what?”

“You heard me,” I say, already mentally planning everything I have to do to close up the bookstore and get to Winthrop Harbor. “I’ll bring you back to Avalon Falls.”

Her lower lip trembles. She presses a hand to her mouth, blinking rapidly like she’s trying to hold it together. “You’d do that for me?”

I don’t hesitate. “You’re my sister. If you need my help, I’ll help you.”

A broken sound leaves her throat. Relief, disbelief, something else maybe.

For the first time since answering this call, I see a flicker of the Florence I used to know, before she let our mother mold her into something unrecognizable.

She inhales sharply, voice barely above a whisper. “Okay.”

I exhale slowly, already running through the logistics in my head. The bookstore, Romeo, Graham—Graham. My stomach tightens. He’s not going to like this.

But that’s a problem for later. Right now, there’s only one thing that matters.

I nod. “I’m coming.”

46

GRAHAM

“Got you, you slippery little fuckers.”

The second Blackwire Collective takes the bait, I see it. A flicker in the system, so small they think they’re moving undetected. But they aren’t. It’s a good thing I’m patient because they’ve taken their sweet time.

But now they’re on the hook, so time is irrelevant.

The corner of my mouth hooks into a grin as I watch him as easily as if it were a two-way mirror.

My fingers fly over the keyboard, tracing their movements, mapping their keystrokes. Every click is another data point, another piece of the puzzle coming together.

I’ve been chasing these guys for months, unraveling their tangled web one thread at a time. School districts all over the country hit with ransomware attacks, their systems locked down and held hostage until the ransom is paid. Millions of dollars extorted, funneled through shell companies and offshore accounts.

They don’t limit their technique to school districts though. As I dig deeper, following the digital breadcrumbs they’ve left behind, a disturbing pattern starts to emerge.

Small tech startups, biotech research labs, renewable energy firms, companies on the verge of major breakthroughs or lucrative government contracts. One by one, they all fall victim to crippling ransomware attacks. Their data encrypted, systems paralyzed, until the ransom is paid.

But that’s not the end of it. Mere days or weeks after each attack, the vulnerable companies get acquired. The pieces are falling into place, revealing a sinister pattern. These aren't just random, opportunistic attacks. This is calculated. Targeted.

Someone is crippling these companies with ransomware to drive down their value, then swooping in to acquire them for pennies on the dollar. They bleed them dry, strip them for parts, then move on to the next victim.

It’s ruthlessly efficient. And completely untraceable. Until now. Until Sentinel and Oracle do most of the heavy-lifting.

They’re good, I’ll give them that. Covering their tracks, bouncing their signal through a maze of proxy servers to obscure their trail.

If I had to guess, I’d say based on the slightly different signatures, there are ten people operating under Blackwire Collective. All muscle for hire. Sure, they’re coordinating and executing these attacks, but they’re not leading the ships. They don’t benefit outside of their fee.

And I’ve got an insider look into one of their computers.

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