One Shot, One Chance

Chapter 4 (Unedited)

Lucas tossed his cards down in disgust and looked at Masters sitting comfortably in his wheelchair.

"Now I remember why I don't invite you for poker night. "

Master's smiled as he counted his money. The others around the table hurled curses at Lucas, some one threw a chip, which he caught and tossed back. "Hey! Alright! I'm calling it a night. 5 rounds of losses is all I can afford. "

(Kai) "Yeah well you owe us a round of drinks for this, and you get to restock the fridge." Standing at 6 feet he stretched and ran his hands through his hair. Before stepping away from the table.

"Here's a 50 on him" Lucas responded taking a 50 from Master's stack and handing it over to them. "Drinks on him. " he began to clean up empty bottles noting that Masters had put away his stack and was cleaning up the chips and cards.

Kai grabbed his jacket following the others out. "This is my bill from round 2, don't wait up. " he laughed shutting the door behind him as he followed the others out.

-door closes-
"As much as I love cleaning the floor with you, if Kai ever finds out my whole being here was because you forgot it was poker night. He will beat your ass with some of his Korean moves. " Masters stated a little too gleefully his arms simulating arm chops before moving away from the table to his backpack.

Lucas snorted "He can try" he replied as he moved to follow, leaving the rest of the mess for later.

"Alright I looked at the research you collected and the laptop. It's encrypted and to be honest whoever did it is good. I can break into it but If I do there is a program set up to wipe it and I am not sure that I will be able to pull any data off before the wipe. You said this was your sisters? I thought you said she was a street cop."

Lucas smiled.. "she would do something like that. She was a computer programmer, graduated from Harvard before she decided to become a cop. We still don't know why. She was being recruited by top agencies and major corporations. She got a full scholarship too. But one day something she just walked away and joined the Police Academy. We all figured she was going to go into Cyber crimes or something. There was quite the fight when she proved us wrong. " He couldn't help the grin at the memory. He was terrified for her and so proud of her.

Masters whistled at that, noting the smile. It was rare to see his friend smile like this. He looked away as Lucas turned back, the smile now gone without a trace.

"At the time I didn't understand but I think I do now." Lucas stood and grabbed a couple fresh beers and sat at the table. "She said she can go anywhere, work anywhere but what good would come out of it. Corporate or Government. She said she wanted to go where the impact would really be felt. Big Corp is about the money. And Big Gov is all about Gov. Being a cop would make the biggest impact as she would be directly helping the people around her. The community. I argued that government does the same thing on a larger scale but she didn't want to go that route. I get it now. You are always looking at the big picture you don't see the little missing or wrong colored pixels within it. "

"Big isn't always better" . Lucas nodded and took a sip. "Look, I can break in... but to be honest. I'm not sure that I can beat your sister's code, not that I will admit that to anyone else. But.. I may have an idea of someone who can. "

Lucas looked up with interest and the suddenly sly look on his friends face. "Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling about this.."

Masters didn't respond as he took another sip of his beer.
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Sweat poured out of Chloe's face as she ran in the early morning sun. Her typical run would start at Ponce Inlet and finish at the house. She'd leave her car at the house, take a cab down to the Inlet then run up the coast the 7 miles or so to the house.

Hitting her stride was easy after the first mile. She knew she could go longer but work and research this was a good run. Especially frustrating days would follow the run with a work out at the University gym. The new punching bags the martial arts team had donated were especially great. Though she made sure to practice when there wasn't anyone around. She knew the basics but she didn't want to get hit on.

Her watch beeped and she took a deep breath as she headed towards the locker rooms. She had to get to work. The dance class wouldn't hold itself. She could look forward too dealing with teens, preteens and the mothers thinking their child was gods gift to dance.

By the time she got home she was spent, to tired for dinner. She had avoided thinking about it all day but now with the moon up, and the silent house. The memories started to roll over her, they were always harder on the anniversary. Taking a bottle of tequila out of the pantry she popped the top and took a swig then another and another. Maybe it was the tequila, maybe it was the longing for all that had been taken away from her.  She turned on some music, hoping it would put her in a better mood. Sadly her dance mix didn't comply with her wishes as BTS Spring Day starts to play. Her Korean was  basic but she knew the lyrics. 

The heat and brightness infiltrated the pounding of her. She slowly rolled in what felt like the pool chair, something clattering to the ground. She winced, tried to open her eyes then closed them again and pain seared her brain before she slowly shielding her eyes managed to open one. The mostly empty bottle of tequila was on the ground, its contents drying on the pool deck. Next to it was her old phone, her heart skipped a beat as she saw it was turned on. She lunged at it, scrambling to pick it up, missing it, and scrapping her knuckles before finally picking it up. 

"Come on.. turn off.. " she chanted as she hit the power button, nothing happened as the battery was already dead. Fear and anxiety mixed with a headache made her broke out in cold sweat her stomach chose to rebel, phone forgotten as she stumbled in her dash for the bathroom.

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"Sir? I am sorry to wake you... but we got a an alert last night. It lasted until just now, we were able to get a lock on the location. But there is no guarantee that it's her sir... its been so long. "

"Send someone to check it out... if its her.. I want her home...after all. We are  family." Adrian, leaned back into his pillows, pushing down the hope that the last thing that could destroy him would finally be taken care off. 

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