Smoke and Steel (Wild West MC #2)(37)

After that, there was a disconnect.

But it was good news.

The Nerd was going to do the online footwork on the Greeks.

Resurrection had other geeks they could go to for that kind of thing, but none of them were anywhere near as good as The Nerd.

Because of that, the brothers had more discussions about whether The Nerd was a one-man operation, or it was a coalition of computer geeks who worked together. Results were always thorough and swift, and when they went to one of their other assets for this kind of thing (even Brody, who was the best in Denver), they couldn’t produce those results in that short of a time.

The Nerd referred to itself as The Nerd, but Core was convinced identifying as being singular was one of many tactics they used to throw people off.

The Nerd was underground. The Nerd didn’t charge. The only thing you had to do to keep in the good graces of The Nerd was to keep your mouth shut about them, and you accepted that they worked for you when they wanted to. You told no one about them. You submitted your assignments, and they accepted them, or they didn’t, and you didn’t push it.

The Nerd had introduced itself to Resurrection when the club was working with a mom who was a friend of a friend of Rainman’s old lady.

Shit had been real with her daughter—behavior changes, mood deteriorating rapidly and alarmingly. All of this defying explanation, nurture and therapy.

Then it happened. The mom came home and found her girl in her car in the garage. The car was on. The garage door was down.

She didn’t die, but she’d been in that garage long enough with oxygen not getting where it needed to go, the mom would be taking care of her girl forever.

The dad was an asshole, checked out, no help.

And eventually, when she went through all her daughter’s stuff to try to find answers, the mom discovered her sixteen-year-old daughter was caught in a cyber-sexploitation gig. Journals she kept shared she was terrified, and so ashamed, she didn’t tell anyone, not even any of her friends, that some perverted piece of shit was making her life torture.

The cops wanted nothing to do with it. Cyber-crimes weren’t easy to solve, and the victim was as good as dead. They took it on, but their tepid attempts to make headway were not lost on the girl’s mother.

This was when she asked Resurrection to wade in.

She wanted justice and she wanted this guy stopped.

They could do both, but they didn’t have the skills to find the guy who did it.

They got their geeks on it, but the perpetrator was talented. It was taking forever, and then, somehow The Nerd learned what they were doing. They waded in, got Resurrection what they needed, all of it, which was deeper and broader than any of them knew.

In the end, The Nerd discovered it involved eleven girls.

At that point, it was Resurrection’s turn.

And now the perp would never do that again to another girl.

Core wasn’t surprised The Nerd took on the Greeks. That sitch was right up their alley.

Then again, there weren’t many Resurrection assignments The Nerd turned down.

He shoved his phone in his pocket as the back door opened and the kid came out.

He was a busboy at an expensive steak restaurant.

He hustled to Core.

“Got it?” Core asked.

The kid nodded and held out his phone.

Core took it. It had been engaged and was open to pictures on his camera.

Core slid through them.

There were five pics of Christos wining some chick. Lots of smiles. Lots of touching. A bottle of Dom in a bucket. Him using his credit card to pay the bill.

He emailed the pics to Resurrection’s account and handed the kid back his phone. He then pulled out his wallet, opened it, yanked out a C-note and gave it to the kid.

“Thanks,” he muttered, returning his wallet.

“Anytime,” the kid said, pocketing the bill.

Core jumped on his bike and rolled out.

He’d been on the case all day, and it was business as usual with the Greeks. If they were tweaked by Hellen and Marcy’s antics, they didn’t let on. Eight had been replaced by Muzzle. They were still in recon mode.

The Nerd would get them what they needed to get rolling in a serious way.

But Core wasn’t feeling those guys just getting on with it after what happened the night before. If they told Christos and described the women who showed, he’d know.

It didn’t seem like it was even a blip for him, seeing those pics with him out on the town with another chick.

So either they felt untouchable, even if they’d been made by one of their marks, or Eight’s explanation flew for the other guys, and it was just some women with a flat tire, a man was involved, so it wasn’t worth giving it any more of their time.

He had to hope one of those was the case.

But Core put it out of his mind. There was no more he could do on it that night. It was late. He was wiped.

And thinking about it meant he couldn’t escape thinking about Hellen.

Though, it didn’t much matter what he tried because Hellen was constantly on his mind.

He remembered his dad in one of his few good times saying, “You know right away. You just know. When you meet her, there’s no question.” He’d then snuggled up to Core’s mom, kissed her neck, held her close, and shot Core another smile, all appearances of a man who had everything he wanted.

But from that, what Core remembered the most was the stiff way his mom held her body and the fake smile on her face.