HUGE thanks to each and every one of you for being so kind and patient waiting for me to heal a bit more and get this chapter out. I hope that it is worth the wait! I am feeling much better than I was and am relatively recovered. I have a mess of work to catch up on and things are insane, but I a getting back into the groove and you shouldn't have to wait two weeks for the next chapter. Anyway, please read and enjoy, and remember...
Reviews are love!
The sun was beginning to peek through the bedroom window of Juice's small, brick house when Kozik finally got the drawer containing the laptop open. He took a split second to stare at his prize, all chrome and grey and sitting surrounded by cords and all manner of other electronic doo-dads.
"What is all that crap?" came Piney's gruff voice from just over his shoulder, asking a question that Kozik couldn't even begin to answer.
"I have no idea," he replied, feeling as far from confident as could be.
"Well, is that the computer?" Piney asked, his confusion nearly enough to make Kozik laugh. "What all do we need to bring?"
"This is the computer," Kozik replied, picking up the machine in the center of the drawer and handing it to Piney. "But the rest of this stuff…it just looks like junk. But I know we need the power cord. My brother uses computer for work and shit like that, and his is always plugged in. He constantly bitches about making sure nobody trips over his power cord."
"Well do you have any idea which of those things is the power cord?" Piney asked, flummoxed by the ridiculous technology. In his day, they hadn't had any of this stuff, and they had still made out just fine.
"Not even half an idea," Kozik admitted, his frustration level climbing again. It was bad enough having to break into Juice's house to find this damned thing. The latino's paranoia caused him to have no less than four locks on his door. All that work, plus the fact that he had to climb on a godforsaken ladder to reach the ceiling fan of find the key to unlock the drawer had Kozik feeling slightly less than friendly towards their technological mastermind at the moment.
"Then we bring it all," Piney ordered. "We need to get out of here, fast. It is getting light outside, and we don't need any of the neighbors calling the cops because an old man and one of the Beach Boys are breaking into Juice's house."
"Right," Kozik agreed easily. Standing up, he roughly yanked the entire drawer from the handsome wooden desk. The desk groaned with the sound of wood on wood as the drawer came free of the desk, and the knowledge that it was well and truly broken gave Kozik a bit of satisfaction. "Let's go then. Be careful you don't drop that," he nodded at the laptop. "The way our luck is going, it will be a miracle if we can get this back to the Clubhouse in one piece."
Kerrianne's teeth worked over her lower lip as she took several calming breaths, in through the nose, out through the mouth. These techniques had been well honed during her years as Jimmy's pseudo-step daughter, but they really weren't doing her much good now. She stared at the remains of what had once been a desk drawer and willed herself to be calm. All eyes in the room were on her, from her Da's kind brown ones to Kozik's manic blue one, and she had to hold herself together. Kerrianne chose to ignore the onlookers for now and get started with what she had to do.
She reached into the wooden drawer and gently withdrew the computer. This was it; Juice's pride and joy and the instrument that would hopefully help her locate a woman who was missing and most likely in danger. So, no pressure or anything, she thought wryly. She set the computer down in the desk and looked back to the drawer, which contained roughly twenty power cords. She rolled her eyes, well aware that this was probably some part of Juice's elaborate efforts to make sure nobody could access his precious laptop. She carefully examined each of the cords, noting that only two looked like they might fit into the laptop charging port. She tried the first one, and then the second before she found a match. Real effective, Juice, she thought with a tiny smile.
"So is it working?" Kozik asked, the second she plugged it in. Kerrianne knew that he was only breathing down her neck because he was worried about Tess, but that didn't make it any less grating. It also didn't make her any less nervous.
"Um, I don't really know yet," she stammered. "I, um, well, I have to wait for it to boot and run it's systems. Then I need to get through the firewall that Juice is bound to have on this thing. Then, I have to figure out his passwords for whatever programs I need to use. It...it might take awhile."
"Jesus," Kozik muttered under his breath and began pacing. This did nothing to boost her confidence.
Of course, once the laptop was booted, the very first thing she saw was a screenshot of Juice's smirking face, demanding a password. She was going to have to have a talk with him about how utterly ridiculous he was. She thought about it for a moment; she was kind of stuck in a delicate situation. With her Da's help, they might be able to guess Juice's password; they both knew him well enough. The problem was, she had no idea how many chances she would have before the hard drive automatically wiped itself, as a security measure.
She closed her eyes and thought for a moment. Her mind took her back to a conversation she and Juice had had a few months back. She had just gotten her brand new laptop and was worried about her Ma and Da snooping through it to make sure she wasn't exposed to online predators. Juice had laughed, but she had seen the look in her Ma's eye when they had bought it and been handed a pamphlet warning of such dangers. Juice had advised her to password protect it. When she had explained that she was worried about forgetting the password, he had given her very specific advice; he had said, "Hide the password inside the computer itself, where nobody would even consider looking."
Kerrianne laughed out loud as she shut the computer down. She would take pleasure in bragging to Juice about how she overcame his system. The grin was quickly wiped off her face, however.
"What the hell are you doing?" Kozik shouted at her. "You just turned it on and now you turned it off? We don't have time for this shit!"
Kerrianne froze for a moment as she struggled to find words. She hated being anywhere near conflict, and it was as if the English language had abandoned her; she literally couldn't think of a thing to say in her own defense. Luckily she wasn't on her own. In an instant, her Ma was on her feet, standing directly in front of her, her Da staring dumbfounded at how he had been beaten in coming to her defense.
"Listen, I know that you are anxious and upset, but you need to calm down. I don't think we are doing any good standing around, staring at the poor girl. Why don't we all go out and have a drink, yeah? It will make the time pass faster," Fiona calmly pointed out, but Kerrianne could see the defensive anger bubbling just below the surface.
"You think I need to calm down?" Kozik spat, only inches from Fiona, who managed to not flinch. "This, from the woman who punched some whore a matter of hours ago? Why don't you go get yourself a drink and I will do whatever the hell I damnwell please."
Faster than Kerrianne thought possible, Kozik was being yanked back and dragged from the room by her Da, Opie following in their wake. In her eyes, her Da was kind and never anything but gentle. This was not the man in front of her now. Now, he had steel in his eyes and looked as though a freight train couldn't stop him. Kerrianne was extremely glad that he was standing in between her and the other man.
Kerrianne hadn't moved a muscle, but she could see her Ma visibly relax now that the irate blonde was nowhere near her baby. After a brief moment, her Da peeked his head back in.
"Are you both okay?" he asked them.
"Fine," her Ma replied, hugging herself, and Kerrianne briefly nodded.
"Aye," he replied, looking every bit as exhausted as Kerrianne felt. "I am going to be out by the bar with the guys...talking. If you need anything at all, come get me."
"Okay, Da," she managed a tiny smile. Once the door closed behind him, all the women breathed a little easier.
"He isn't usually like that," Gemma rushed to his defense. "He is just a bit tense because of all of this."
"I know," Kerrianne nodded as her Ma ran a hand over her hair. "I am trying, I really am. It will just take a bit of time."
Gemma nodded with a tight smile. "Then it's best that you get to work." Kerrianne smiled at her and flipped the computer over, so that the underside faced up. "What are you doing, anyway?"
Kerrianne laughed as she carefully slid the battery out of its slot. "Juice once told me that the best place to store your passwords was in your computer, where nobody would look for them. It took me a while to figure out where he meant. I thought he was being ridiculous." She pulled a slip of paper, covered in Juice's messy scrawl from the battery compartment. "But I listened. And I am so glad I did."*
"What the fuck are you doing?" Kozik demanded as Opie and Chibs roughly escorted him to the main room of the Clubhouse. "We need to get back in there."
Chibs didn't speak, just gave him a menacing glare as he crossed his arms over his chest and stood in the doorway, literally blocking the way to the room. He shook his head, "No."
"Oh come on Chibs," he raged. "I didn't say a damned thing that wasn't true and you know it. Now let's get back in there. I promise, I won't say a thing about your precious princess needing to hurry the hell up."
A strong hand pressed to Chibs' chest was the only thing that kept him from tearing Kozik's head off. Opie looked over at the younger man, "You need to calm the hell down, before I let Chibs go and he kills you."
Kozik ran his hands through his hair, not at all pleased with the way this was turning out. Tess was still out there somewhere, with somebody who most definitely meant her harm, and he needed to find her, now. He hadn't meant to be harsh with Kerrianne; he appreciated the hell out of her for stepping in and trying to help when they were completely screwed. It was just that he felt absolutely useless here, doing nothing, and he just couldn't abide by that.
"Well what would you like me to do, Opie? Just go sit around, working on my knitting, while she is out there?" Kozik asked, angrily.
"I was going to suggest grabbing a beer, but if you would rather knit, that's your business," Opie replied with a shrug. "But whatever you do, leave that little girl in there alone. She is doing everything she can."
"This is bullshit!" Kozik declared. "You both know that if it was one of your families, or somebody important to you, you would move heaven and hell to get them back! But since it's not, since it's just the girl who works in the shop, who Kozik…well, we are supposed to just sit here and wait with our thumbs up our asses? I'm sorry, but that's bullshit. You guys can stay here and wait for hell to freeze over if you want, but I am going to go look for her."
It was Opie who stopped him with a solid fist across the face. Kozik hadn't been expecting it, and it threw him for a loop. He hit the ground, but didn't stay down for long. He jumped o his feet, but his efforts were short lived. Chibs, who moments ago was the one wanting to punch him, now had him wrestled to the ground, arm twisted behind his back. If he moved more than a few inches, it would likely be dislocated.
"I didn't want to do that, but you are going to need to calm the fuck down," Opie knelt and told him quietly. "If you don't, Chibs looks comfortable enough holding you here long enough for Tara to get something strong enough to knock your ass out. Now, can he let you up?"
Kozik was not used to being manhandled and told what to do, but both these guys were bigger than him, and it was two against one. Besides, he definitely wouldn't put it past Opie to actually drug him. He nodded reluctantly, and Chibs let him up instantly.
"Good," Opie managed a nearly invisible smirk. "Now, let's grab a beer. You are much better use to her conscious."
"I know," he admitted quietly. "But I can't just sit here drinking and hanging out with you guys. I can't. Do you know what they are probably doing to her right now, Op? She could be hurt, in pain. Hell, she could be…"
He couldn't finish the sentence, but there was no doubt that they understood exactly what he meant. Chibs was still too defensive to step in and comfort him, but luckily, Opie didn't let the panic swallow him.
"Kozik, it's barely dawn," he said, as lightly as he could manage. "Even Russians have to sleep, sometime. She is going to be alright, brother. We will find her, and I don't care how we have to do it."
He didn't like the answer but it was the best he was going to get right now. Instead of heading to the bar, he nodded towards the pool table. "Let's play."
"I'm in. Care to make it interesting?" Chibs was always very observant. He felt for his friend, he truly did. He and Kozik often shot pool together, and were roughly evenly matched. The younger man would have taken it as a slap in the face had Chibs not made a wager on their game.
"Against you? Hell yeah," Kozik replied, trying to imitate his own casual charm, but failing miserably. He tossed a fifty on the table. "Rack em up."
Three games later, the stack of money in front of Chibs had grown substantially, and Kozik was sure he would be eating Ramen noodles for the foreseeable future. He grit his teeth as he clenched the stick tightly, willing himself not to snap it in half in a fit of rage. With his nerves so shot right now, playing pool had probably been a bad idea.
"You're cheating," he accused, only half joking. "You've got to be. You never win; not this much."
Chibs shrugged and shook his head. He felt bad about the successive vistories, but it was not in his nature to just let somebody win. Still, he was already plotting out ways to get the money back to his opponent.
"He's not cheating," Opie came to Chibs' defense. "You just suck. I wonder why? It's not like you are stressed out or anything."
"You're hilarious," Kozik muttered. "Fuck this."
He spun sharply, pool cue still in his hand. He didn't look, and if not for the young girl's extraordinarily quick reflexes, he would have clocked Kerrianne in the head. Instead, he stood frozen, staring at the girl.
"Um, I'm….I'm sorry," she muttered, her face a cross between embarrassed and terrified. "I didn't mean to bother you...I don't want to interrupt or anything, but….well…"
"Spit it out," Kozik demanded, urgently, but not unkindly. Chibs was helping his daughter up from the floor, where she had ducked to dodge the pool cue.
"Thanks Da," she smiled, before turning to Kozik. "I thought you would want to know. I found it."
"You found it?" Opie asked quickly, as if to clarify. "Found what."
Kerrianne grinned proudly as she held up a slip of paper. "An address for Alexei Markow. I know where the bastard lives."
* Please don't actually do this. It was advice my big brother gave me about storing passwords, therefore it will probably make your computer explode.