Castle Investigations Box Set

by Dee Bridgnorth

  When she was done, she faced her reflection.

  "Well, here goes nothing…"

  Chapter 6

  Zach shook Manny's hand, pulling him into one of those manly bear hugs.

  "Thanks, man."

  "Anytime."

  Manny wrapped his huge arms around Quita. It seemed they'd forged a bond during the short hours they'd been in Manny's home. Zach tried to tamp down the jealousy he felt. She wasn't his. Nothing could ever be between them. Not with his past. But damn if he didn't want something. And he certainly didn't want Manny to have her—as irrational as that sounded.

  "Take care of my girl," Quita said softly.

  "My pleasure," Manny replied, his voice thick with innuendo.

  "I'm serious." Quita pulled away and playfully swatted his arm.

  "I am, too." Manny's voice had grown solemn. "I'll take care of her. She needs someone to give a damn."

  "She does." With a final squeeze of his enormous biceps, Quita walked to the door as Zach followed closely behind.

  They'd called an Uber to get back to his car. Zach prayed that his computer equipment had remained unharmed. He had a hidden compartment in his trunk that concealed the equipment. He knew the neighborhood they'd parked in and had taken precautions. But if the car had been stolen, or if someone were diligent enough, it could be found. It wouldn’t be the end of the world—the equipment could be replaced. He had insurance on it, and everything was so well-encrypted that even the NSA would have a hard time cracking it. But it was an inconvenience that Zach despised.

  They exited the Uber, and Zach checked their surroundings for any thugs that might be there to greet them. He guessed the light of day had run them off. No one was around that he could see. He ushered Quita into his car, his gun drawn and ready, just in case. When she was safely ensconced in the passenger seat, he ducked into the driver's side and took off.

  Fortunately, the car was still in good shape, but it had obviously been tampered with. There were scratch marks on the top of the door, and Zach guessed that he'd find similar ones around the trunk. When they were out of the city, Zach pulled over at a gas station.

  "Do you need gas?" Quita asked.

  "No. Just stay here. I'm going to check and see if my computer equipment is still in the trunk."

  Rounding the car, he popped open the trunk, seeing the scratch marks he'd known he'd find, and felt for the hidden button that would open the compartment. He pressed the button, and the lid slid back, revealing that his computer was still there. He sighed in relief. One less problem he'd have to deal with.

  He closed everything back up and got back in the car.

  "Everything ok?" Quita asked.

  "Yep. It's all there."

  Zach glanced over and noticed that Quita looked very nervous. She wrung her hands together in her lap, and her leg bounced up and down. Gently, he reached out his hand to still her knee.

  Her gaze jerked up to his.

  "Everything ok?" he asked.

  "Fine," she said unconvincingly.

  "Sure. Ok. But for real, want to tell me what's going on?"

  Quita smiled and then blew out a breath. "Fine. I’m nervous. Your friends…Sully…they're all going to be super pissed at me for stealing the files and running off like that."

  "They weren't happy about it. But no one will treat you unkindly."

  "Maybe not. But I know what they'll be thinking. I just hate that they’ll have lost respect for me. That I’ll have lost their trust."

  "Trust is a funny thing. Easy to lose, hard to regain. But it will come. Your reasons behind it will go a long way toward smoothing things over."

  The statement didn't seem to put Quita any more at ease.

  "Want to share with me what exactly those were?" he tried. Maybe she'd come clean.

  "I told you already. I was trying to protect you."

  Zach believed that that was part of it. But there was something else there. Something that was driving her. Something that she wasn't willing to share with him.

  "And how did running off to New York City, and almost getting killed, protect me?"

  "I thought that if I disappeared with the files, Tobias would let it go. He'd direct his attention on me and not on you guys. I thought I'd be able to hide. Apparently, I overestimated my abilities."

  "No, your abilities are spot-on. You said you thought they tracked your phone?"

  "It's the only thing I can think of that I used, that I also had while I was in Vegas," she said. "But no one had that number. And it wasn't listed under my name. I used a fake ID to get it."

  "Who did you call?"

  "None of your business."

  "Quita, I can't help you if you don't tell me what's going on."

  "I've told you everything you need to know."

  "I don't believe that for a second. Fine, keep your secrets for now. I'm just trying to get to the bottom of this." Zach thought for a moment. "It had to be someone they knew you'd call. Could be that they traced the call from that end."

  "They couldn't have traced the call, though. I kept it to under two minutes. It takes two minutes to trace a call, right?"

  Zach raised both brows at her. "Seriously? That's the information you've been operating with? Quita, it takes like two seconds to trace a call these days. It's not the eighties, you know."

  Her face fell, tears welling in her eyes. Great. Now he felt like a total ass.

  "I'm sorry," she whispered. "I didn't know. I thought that as long as I kept the call short, I'd be safe."

  Reaching over, Zach took her hand in his. "It's ok. Lots of people make that mistake."

  Quita met his gaze, the tears making her eyes shimmer. "That's just it, though—I can't afford to make any more mistakes."

  "I'll help you. I wish you'd be honest with me and tell me what else is going on, but I trust you."

  "But how can you? I deceived you. I stole from you. I disappeared without a trace."

  "And yet when you needed help, you called me. That tells me that you meant no ill will by what you did. I just wish you'd trust me with whatever it is that you're hiding."

  "I can't, Zach."

  "Who are you protecting?"

  "Please. Just drop it. I can't risk it."

  It stung that she didn't trust him to keep her secrets. She trusted him with her life, but not with this secret. Why? What was it that kept her from confiding in him?

  "Ok. Keep your secrets," he said, and pulled her hand up to his lips, where he brushed a kiss across her knuckles.

  She relaxed, closing her eyes and resting her head against the window. Within moments, she was asleep.

  Zach envied her the ability to sleep soundly like that. To sleep without being awoken by terrorizing nightmares. To feel safe when she closed her eyes. He used to sleep that way. But no more.

  It was a few hours later, amid some of the worst traffic on the East Coast, when Zach entered the District. The sun was starting to set, casting a pink glow over the Washington Monument. This was his favorite time of day in the city. It never got old, seeing the landmarks of his adopted home.

  He missed the West Coast on a daily basis. Missed his time surfing. East Coast surfing just didn't compare. But he'd been here since he was fifteen and now called Washington, D.C., home.

  It had been tough at first, losing his mom and having to come and live with his aunt. She'd died so young and so unexpectedly. They hadn't made a lot of money, but they'd gotten by. He'd never met his aunt before he'd come to live with her. She and his mom had had a falling out years before, but her unexpected death had left him with no living relatives besides his aunt. His choice had been to live with her, or to go into the foster care system for three years until he could age out. Sometimes he wondered if he would have had more luck with the system.

  It wasn't that his aunt was a bad person. She'd just been selfish. His mom had left him a small insurance policy, but his aunt had drained it dry within the first year, claiming he needed clothes and sc
hool supplies and food. He'd never seen any of those things. She fed him only when she remembered.

  Zach had always been good with computers. When he came to live with his aunt, he'd had nothing better to do. His mom had bought him a new one for Christmas right before she died, and he'd kept it out of his aunt's hands after she'd threatened to sell it to pay for his expenses.

  So he'd turned to hacking. He had become so good at it that he’d been able to charge large sums of money to do it for other people. That was, until he'd been caught. Coincidentally, it was the same year that Sully, Gabriel, and Lucas had all been charged with crimes as well. They'd all been given the same deal: time in prison or military service. Each of them had been sent to a different branch, and each of them had excelled far above what they should have been able to do in such a short time. There were rules that the military followed. But when it came to them, it seemed that the rules didn't apply.

  Zach now knew that The General had had something to do with that. He just hadn't figured out what his end game was in all of it.

  The parking garage to the warehouse was quiet, and Zach noticed that everyone was there. Good. They needed to figure out what to do with this situation, and he needed to get in front of his bank of computers and decrypt the information on the drive. His fingers itched to begin.

  He'd tried last night at Manny's, using the equipment there, but Manny hadn't had all the tools Zach needed. It had been a good refresher on what he was dealing with, though. Not a total loss, at least.

  When Zach stopped the car, Quita finally roused herself from her nap.

  "Did I sleep the whole way?" she asked, yawning and stretching her arms above her head. When she did, her shirt rode up, revealing a tantalizing bit of skin above her waistband. Zach cleared his throat, trying to get control of his wayward thoughts.

  "Yeah. You must have been tired."

  Quita nodded, straightening up in her seat. "I was. I didn't sleep well last night."

  "Hopefully, you'll sleep better here. At least you'll know you're safe."

  She gave him a sad smile and reached for the door handle. Zach retrieved his computer equipment from the trunk of his Mercedes and put his hand at the small of Quita's back as they walked into the warehouse on the office level.

  Sully would have been alerted by the security cameras when Zach pulled into the garage, so he wasn't surprised to see his friend standing at his office door, his arms crossed over his chest. He was definitely an intimidating presence. He felt Quita stiffen next to him.

  She lifted her chin, her determination clear in her stance.

  "Hello, Sully," she said, sticking out her hand to shake his.

  Sully eyed her hand as if she had a bomb attached to it. Zach rolled his eyes. Sully could be a bit of a drama king when he wanted to be. Understated, yes. But it was there all the same. Usually just in his intimidation tactics. Zach lifted his brows at Sully, but Sully ignored him.

  Finally, after an impolite amount of time, Sully shook Quita's hand. Zach felt her exhale the breath she'd been holding.

  "Hello, Quita. Glad you could make it."

  There was a loaded statement if Zach had ever heard one.

  "I’m sorry," Quita said softly.

  "And why is that, exactly? Because you got caught?"

  "No. Because I lost your trust. I can't tell you everything, Sully. But you have to believe me when I say I didn't think I had a choice. I was just trying to protect you all."

  "See, that's the thing. I don't actually have to believe anything you say. And when you tell me that you can't tell me everything but that you're just trying to protect us—none of that makes sense to me."

  "I know. I'm sorry. Again. I will just have to prove to you that I'm trustworthy. I know that that will take some time."

  Sully nodded. "Well, until then, we've got an encryption to break and some criminals to take down, so let's get started."

  Sully turned his back on them and strode towards the conference room. A few minutes later, the room filled with Castle Investigations team members. Isabel and Ethan came in arm in arm. Isabel was giggling at something Ethan had whispered in her ear. Lucas and Gabriel came in together. Zach tried not to feel like a sixth wheel, but it certainly felt that way sometimes.

  Lucas and Scarlett were happily married. Gabriel and Cate were as well. All four of them were living outside the city now. They'd each overcome major obstacles to be together. Then, Ethan and Isabel, who had been circling each other for months, had finally tied the knot in a drunken blur in Las Vegas a couple of months ago. They'd done it again properly a few weeks ago, and Zach had never felt so alone. Sully wasn't connected to anyone, but at least he had family with Isabel here.

  Zach had no one.

  As if pulled by some invisible thread, Zach lifted his gaze to meet Quita's.

  Hope flared under the surface. He knew he didn't have anything to offer her. He couldn't even promise not to try to kill her if he was sleeping in the same bed with her. But he knew they had a connection, and it wasn't one-sided. She felt it, too.

  If only things were different. If only he were different. She deserved more than half a man.

  Sully cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, and the chatter died down.

  "Quita, welcome to Castle Investigations." Quita inclined her head at his greeting, and Sully continued. "We have the files now. Zach, I expect you'll begin working on cracking the decryption?"

  "Yes. I'm itching to get my hands on it." Already, he felt naked. Rarely did he attend these meetings without his computer in hand. Rarely did he go two days without touching a computer at all. He was long overdue.

  "Good. Once we've opened the files, we'll need to decide what to do with the information that is there. Quita, anything specific you know that we should know?"

  For a moment, Quita looked guilty. Then, as quickly as the look had appeared, it went away. She sat up straighter in her seat.

  "There are details about the human trafficking that Bruno was involved in. It also details how Tobias fits into the picture."

  "And it's Tobias that you feel is after you?"

  "Who else would it be?" she asked, almost cryptically.

  "That's what I’m asking you," Sully said, not playing games.

  She sighed. "Yes, I believe that it's Tobias who sent those men after me."

  "Have you determined how he found her?" Sully directed the question to Zach.

  "We think he traced her phone. The thing that confuses me is the fact that the phone isn't registered to her. It's an alias. One that she says no one knows. So the only way he could have traced it is if he knew who she might be calling."

  "So, who did you call?" Sully asked Quita.

  "She won't tell us."

  "See now, Quita? It's this kind of thing that makes us not trust you. You say you want to rebuild the trust, and yet when asked a simple question, you won't answer it."

  "It's not a simple question. The answer to that question could be detrimental to someone else. I won't risk it. I’m sorry."

  Zach felt jealousy rise in his chest. Whom was she protecting? A husband? Boyfriend? Lover?

  Whoever it was, it made Zach want to stomp around, pounding his chest, while he dragged Quita into his cave by the hair. Ok, that was a little overkill, but he did wish he could stake his claim. Make her his.

  "Well, if you won't tell us, then I'm assuming that you at least ditched the phone?"

  "I did. Before I called Zach. I got a burner phone from a gas station to call him."

  "Have you used the burner phone to call the other person?"

  Quita shook her head. "No."

  "Good. Quita, you'll stay here with us."

  "What? No. I mean, I can't. I won't endanger you further."

  "Don’t be ridiculous," Zach said.

  "I mean it, Zach. I'm not staying here. I'll stay in a hostel or something. I can't risk someone finding me again. If anything happened to any of you…" Her voice trailed off as tears thic
kened around her vocal cords.

  "You're not staying in a hostel. I can't protect you there. Sully, tell her," Zach said, looking at him with pleading in his eyes. There was no love lost between Sully and Quita. Sully didn't trust her, and Quita was leery of him. But he knew that Sully wouldn't put her in danger.

  "He's right, Quita."

  "He's not right. Listen to me, Sully. The men that are after this file—it could ruin them. For some, it could mean death. They will stop at nothing to get it back. And I won't risk Isabel, or you—or any of you—getting hurt."

  Sully paused, and Zach knew he was considering her words.

  "Sully, you can't possibly be thinking—"

  Sully lifted his hand to stop him. "She's right."

  Zach opened his mouth to protest, but Sully lifted his hand once more. "No, she is. But you're also right, Zach. She can't stay unprotected at a hostel. We'll find her a place."

  "But where? She can't stay with Lucas or Gabriel or Isabel and Ethan. So who else is there?"

  "Maggie," Sully said, his face registering resignation.

  "Maggie Fox?"

  "Yes. It's the only place that I know that's close by but has no connection to us."

  "That's a great idea," Isabel said. She was the first of the group to say anything since the meeting had started. In their defense, there hadn't been much for them to add until this point. "Maggie would love it. You'll call and set that up?" Her question seemed innocent enough, but there was something in the gleam in Isabel's eyes that said there was more to her question than met the eye.

  "I'll call her," Sully answered gruffly, and stepped outside the conference room with his cell phone.

  "Who's Maggie?" Quita asked.

  "A good friend of my wife's," Lucas piped up. "She has a small house outside the city. It's in a relatively safe neighborhood, and, most importantly, there is no connection to us for anyone to trace."

  Quita seemed unsure of the situation, and Zach grabbed her hand to reassure her. She smiled sweetly up at him, and he felt something catch in his chest at the trust in her eyes. He'd keep her safe. If it was the last thing he did on this planet, he'd keep her safe.