Page 55 of Havoc

“Can’t help but think what would’ve happened to Riley if I wasn’t here to stop him.”

Mace stood and shut off the RF detector. He was one of our most reliable brothers. Always up for helping a brother out, and today I was especially grateful for him and his wolf dog.

“You saved my ass today, Mace. I owe you one. And I’m the kind of man who always pays his debts.”

“I was happy to help. That’s what being part of a brotherhood is all about.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t mean I’ll ever take you—or the other brothers—for granted.”

We went back inside, where Riley had all her stuff laid out neatly on the kitchen table for us to inspect.

She shrugged at me. “I looked over everything and didn’t notice anything unusual. But I honestly wouldn’t even know what to look for. You might want to double-check everything yourself.”

I added the items I brought with me to the pile, and we watched as Mace began meticulously running the RF detector over each individual piece.

Riley waited anxiously. I put my arm around her and pulled her close to my side. “Don’t worry, we’ll figure this out. It’ll just take time and patience.”

After going over everything, Mace said, “Sorry, no physical trackers showed up.”

He shook his head again. “No trackers. Not physical ones.”

I made a sound of irritation and started pacing again. Then it dawned on me what Mace had said—no physical trackers showed up. Our search hadn’t included virtual trackers.

“What about Riley’s phone?”

Riley seemed annoyed by the suggestion. “How the hell would Slater have gotten ahold of my phone? I keep it on me at all times.”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, “but it pays to at least rule out that possibility, right?”

She nodded, looking bewildered. She pulled her phone out of her back pocket and handed it to me. “You think he somehow got access to my phone?”

“I honestly don’t know. What I do know is that he’s extremely sneaky. I wouldn’t put it past him to have cloned it or added a tracking app.”

“It wouldn’t have been all that hard for a tech-savvy person to do something like that,” Mace explained. “Clone apps. Tracking apps. If he had it even for a few minutes, it’s possible.”

Riley swallowed hard. “I did forget the phone at the table that night at Neon Vibes. But my girlfriends were at the table the whole time. I never even suspected anything like this was possible.”

I opened her phone and started looking for recently uploaded apps. I was kicking myself for being so damn old school. Common sense should’ve told me to start with tracking programs on her phone, rather than a litter bug type listening device.

Riley spoke up. “Maybe we’re onto something here. Would a tracking app use more power? I only ask because my battery has been depleting faster than usual. I thought maybe it was because my phone is several years old. I’ve been thinking about getting a new one.”

Mace nodded, stroking Nine like he was a puppy rather than a gigantic, ferocious wolfdog. “Yes, any tracking app is gonna drain your battery faster.”

Riley looked at me, clearly interested in my opinion. “I’m no expert on electronics, but what Mace said sounds right to me. If it’s always active in order to track you, then naturally it will require more energy.”

Riley glanced away, with her lips pressed into a frown. “I guess that makes sense. I should have put two and two together. It would have saved you from getting beat up on my account.”

Mace chuffed out a laugh. “Those are fighting words around these parts.”

Riley’s mouth fell open, so I explained before she could ask. “Again, I didn’t get beat up. Like I said before, he walked away with broken ribs. I fuckin’ heard them crunch with my own ears. Me? I just ended up with a few scratches. I’ve taken a worse beating at bare-knuckle boxing matches.”

Riley glanced from one of us to the other. “This is some kind of male ego thing, right?”

I didn’t dignify that question with an answer. Instead, I kept searching for the tracking app and came up empty-handed. Something about this situation seemed off. Something was draining her battery, and Slater finding our remote location wasn’t some kind of coincidence. The two were linked. I’d seen shit like this before. Small things that didn’t seem like much on their own, but put together, they were an indication of a bigger issue.

Mace made an exasperated sound in the back of his throat. “Look, if we can’t find anything, maybe it’s time to loop Hacker in remotely.”

My head jerked up to stare at him, shocked. “It’s possible for Hacker to access Riley’s phone remotely?”

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