Page 17 of Freeing Souls

“What are you doing?” I ask, heading over to glance at his computer screens.

Grayson jolts slightly, not having noticed I came into the room. Clearing his throat, he explains, “Rage called the rehab facility. He wanted to just see about getting her switched to outpatient care and explain the circumstances but when she ran she panicked and punched the aid that was with her.” Hegrimaces. “So they won’t let her come back at all. I’m looking into another program to see if it will work for her before giving Rage the information so he can call.”

I’m shocked that she punched someone in her panic to leave. She fought us when we found her but she was delirious and searching for drugs. This one was just out of fear. At least now we know she won’t freeze when she’s scared in certain situations. That’s a good thing, especially after everything she has been through.

Grabbing a chair from one of the other desks in the room, I pull it over to him and take a seat. He side-eyes me. “What are you doing?”

I shrug. “What can I do to help?”

“You want to help?” he questions slowly, staring at me like I have two heads.

Gesturing towards his computers, I grumble, “Tell me what I can do, or I’m going to leave. You’re making this weird.”

“Right.” He coughs and then grabs a laptop sitting off to the side of the desk. “Want to go through a bunch of cam footage? It's the entrance to the club and the building cameras. I haven’t had a chance to go through all of it yet. Rage was supposed to have someone help me, but we’ve all been so distracted and stressed, I didn’t want to pester him.”

“Hand it over.” He places the laptop in front of me and brings up the different cameras, quickly showing me how to scan through the feed the quickest. Nodding, I press fast forward on the first camera at the main gate and say to Grayson, “Next time, pester me or Harley. Or Ryker when he isn’t injured. We will always help you, even when shit’s crazy.” I don’t look at him as I say it, but I can feel his eyes burning a hole in the side of my head before he eventually gets back to work.

Grayson

A while later, I sent over the information for a new rehab place to Rage and then helped Cade go through more footage. Because of the way Nerds had the cameras angled to focus on the road and parking lot, you can’t actually see the front of the garage doors. So we can just barely see Atlas’ bike park, and then it’s a bright light and tons of smoke after the explosion

After scanning through every camera we have, we determined no one snuck on the property at any time, not unless they knew where every single camera was and how to get around them. That wouldn’t be possible, since Nerds and I are the only ones who know every single spot.

So that means there are two options: it was accidental, or it was Atlas’ bike. Which is why I have now hacked into street cameras, tracking Atlas back to where he had been coming from, which is taking forever.

The door opening causes us both to glance up as Harley walks through with Ryker next to her. He’s clutching his ribs but grinning at us.

Harley shoots him a glare and immediately pushes him over to a chair and makes him sit down. “What are you doing in here?” Cade asks, sitting back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest.

“Being a royal pain in the ass,” Harley mumbles as she goes to walk past where Cade sits at the end of my desk to grab a chair,but before she can pass him he grabs her around the waist and pulls her down onto his lap. Smiling softly at him, she tosses an arm around his neck and curls into him.

“Shouldn’t you be cuddling me and not that bastard?” Ryker pouts. “I’m injured.”

“Sure. Go get your ass to Gabe’s house and into bed and I’ll cuddle with you,” Harley tells him with a cocked brow, knowing he isn’t going to do that.

Ryker huffs and then glances at me. “What were you guys doing?”

“Going through footage from the explosion,” I tell him.

“Have you found anything?” Harley asks as she sits up straight, glancing at the screens.

“Not really. It was either accidental and Rage will have to call the fire department back out, or it was something from Atlas’ bike. We have been tracking his movements through street cameras. We just got through where he had met the realtor at her office, and no one tampered with his bike. So we have to keep tracking him wherever he was before that.” I sigh, running a hand through my hair.

“We can help you finish,” Harley says as Ryker slowly rolls his chair closer so we are all squashed on the same side of the desk. I bring up the camera feeds on Nerds’ main computer screens so we can all see easily.

I continue clicking through the street cameras, doing my best to track his bike or find it when it goes out of sight. “Okay, it looks like he went from the house they toured straight to the realtor office. Only problem is, there aren't any cameras with a view of the house they saw.”

“Are you able to see if any neighboring houses have security cameras or, like, doorbell cams you could try to hack?” Ryker asks.

“Yeah, actually, I can.” Biting the corner of my lip nervously, I attempt to push aside the secret I know I need to spill soon and bring up the new software I now have installed on this computer.

Ten minutes later, I successfully hacked into the security company for the house across the street. “Got it. The neighbors have an at home security system set up. I got into it, and now we just need to rewind back.”

As I rewind, Harley speaks up, “That’s impressive, Gray. You did it so fast.”

“Found them,” I announce instead of responding. At normal speed, we watch as Lincoln and Atlas park their bikes in the driveway next to the realtor’s car. They wander around the front before heading inside and out of view. I hit the fast forward and keep playing it until we see movement about five minutes later.

“What the fuck?” Harley growls, leaning forward on Cade’s lap to watch as someone dressed in a dark hoodie and jeans walks down the sidewalk. We can only see their side profile right now, but they don’t look familiar at all. When they get to the driveway of the house, the guy faces the bikes and glances up and down the street before stepping between them and squatting. He places something on Atlas’ bike and then turns and places something on Linc’s.

---