Dutch slapped a large file into Harlow’s waiting hands. She immediately flipped it open on the counter and started scanning the pages. “He kidnapped your kid?” Her eyes were wide. “That’s more than crazy.” She flipped to the next page. “That’s psycho.”
Bess worked Parker into the high-chair and peeled back the foil from the container of puffs, dropping a few onto the tray. “Yeah, but—”
“Holy shit.” Harlow’s head snapped up. “They tried to shoot you?”
“I’m not convinced they meant to shoot me specifically.” Bess wiped at a smear of cheese powder dusting Parker’s cheek.
Harlow was already back to scanning the pages of the file, lips pressed tightly together as she flipped one after the next. Bess tried to focus on Parker the same way she had since he’d been born. Anytime things got to be more than she could handle, she would think of him.
What she was willing to do to keep him safe.
And then she would do it.
It was the only way she could keep moving. Keep functioning.
“You thirsty?” Bess found one of his cups in the dishwasher and filled it with water. He took it as soon as she held it out and sucked down half.
“You might be right.” Harlow shoved up from her seat at the island, flipping the file closed, grabbing it with one hand and her coffee with the other. “Come on.”
Bess stared after her as Harlow rushed toward the office. She turned in the doorway. “Bring Parker. We’ll make one of the boys play with him, but I need you to fill me in.”
“Okay.” Bess lifted Parker out of his chair and snagged his container of snacks and sippy cup before following Harlow into the office. Dutch sat at the desk, staring between the screens of multiple laptops. Shawn was sitting at the large conference-style table in front of his own laptop, surrounded by papers and open files.
Harlow dropped into a chair at the opposite end where a small computer was set up with a separate, strange-looking keyboard and mouse in front of it. She pulled a chair in close and patted the seat. “Come.”
Bess lowered into the chair, watching as Harlow flipped through screens at the speed of light, her pale eyes scanning the different windows as they zipped by. Suddenly the screen went black except for a line of nonsense flashing across the very top.
“The program found where they got in.” Harlow’s fingers flew over the odd keyboard, bouncing between it and the mouse beside it. Her eyes narrowed on the screen. “That’s not good.”
Dutch was on his feet, crossing the room. “What?”
Harlow looked at him over the top of her screen. “This isn’t just a breech.”
Dutch slowed. “No.”
Her eyes narrowed and her head dropped to one side. “You didn’t think it was a good idea to tell me they also decoded your encryption?”
“You’re still on a need-to-know basis.”
Harlow’s lip curled and one finger pointed Bessie’s way. “This woman is being shot at and you have me on a need-to-know basis?” She pushed up out of her chair. “You need to pop your head out of your ass and consider maybe this isn’t something to dick around with.”
Bess stood up beside Harlow. “You didn’t tell her everything she needed to know?”
She had spent every waking minute of the past thirteen months doing whatever had to be done to keep her son safe. Did things no mother should ever have to do.
Stayed awake all night, scared out of her mind that tomorrow would be the day she failed.
And now she might, only it wouldn’t be her fault.
Bess didn’t think. Didn’t even take a breath before picking up the closest thing and chucking it at Dutch.
The sippy cup caught him right between the eyes, bouncing off his forehead before clattering to the ground.
Harlow turned to her. “You’re awesome.”
Bess nodded. “You too.”
Shawn was on his feet, grabbing the container of toddler puffs before she could. “Calm down.” He held one hand up. “I’m the one who made that call.”
Harlow had her still-full coffee cup in one hand, pulled back just as Dutch caught her wrist. “We didn’t know if we could trust you with all the information.” He worked the ceramic mug free of her clenched fingers. “We don’t take sharing our client’s information lightly.”
Harlow shook her head at him. “Don’t bullshit me, man.” She snatched her wrist free of his hold. “It was a test.” She turned to Bess. “They wanted to be sure the girl could do what she said she could.”
“We would have done the same thing to a man.” Shawn sat back in his seat, attention still on Harlow. “You get that chip off your shoulder and I might consider asking you to move to Alaska.”
Harlow scrunched her nose at him. “Lucky me.” She heaved out a loud sigh. “Anything else I need to know?” She glared at Dutch. “Or am I still outside the circle of trust?”
Dutch rubbed his forehead as he walked back to his desk of computers. “I will send you everything I have as soon as you are sure the firewall is back in place.”
“It’s already back in place.” Harlow said it like anyone with a lick of common sense would have known that already. “That was the first thing I did.”
Dutch took a long slow breath and Bess could almost hear him count to ten. “That’s great and wonderful news that would have been helpful to have had hours ago.”
Harlow smiled. “You should have been able to figure that one out yourself, boss.” She danced her fingers across the keys of her board. “I’m waiting for that information you’re supposed to be sending me.”
Bess leaned in, watching as Harlow pulled up a search bar and typed in the name to the county where she lived in Oregon, easily navigating through the tabs to find the Clerk of Courts. In seconds she was pulling up scanned copies of every document she and Chris had filed.
“This dude really wants to piss you off, doesn’t he?” Harlow held her coffee with one hand as she continued to type with the other. “He gonna lose his shit when you have proof the kid’s not his?”
“His shit was lost a long time ago.”
Harlow opened up a window and in a few clicks of her mouse, Chris’ Facebook profile opened. She tipped her head to one side, eyes narrowing on the photo of him displayed at the top of the page. “Probably happened the second he saw Parker.” She glanced down at where Parker was crawling around under the table. “Were you with him when you got pregnant?”
Bess shook her head. “I’d just told him I didn’t want to be with him anymore.”
Harlow’s head turned toward her. “Did he believe you?”
“Not really.”
“Shit.” Shawn swore under his breath, catching both women’s attention.
“Something wrong?” Harlow leaned back in her chair, coffee cup clutched in one hand.
His cheeks puffed as he blew out a breath between tight lips. Finally he looked at Bess.
“A warrant’s been issued for your arrest.”
CHAPTER 13
“WE GOT A couple problems.”
Wade squinted down at the row of boxes lining the shelf in the small pharmacy. He tucked his cell against his shoulder and reached for one, flipping it over so he could read the directions on the back. “What’s wrong?”
He’d known Dutch long enough to be able to tell when something was really wrong, and when Dutch was just blowing shit out of proportion.
“Your girl’s got a warrant.” The sound of Dutch’s fingers on the keyboard in the background was a good sign.
“I’m assuming you’re on it?”
“As on it as I can be with the other problem.”
“What’s the other problem?” Wade added the box to the basket slung over his arm then tossed in a few more options just in case.
“Your girl and Harlow are fucking best friends already.”
“That sounds like a good thing to me. Bess could use another woman around.”
Dutch didn’t respond.
Wade
straightened from where he’d been squatted in front of the children’s medication. “What’s the problem?”
When Dutch’s voice came back over the line it was muffled. “They’re just sort of a handful.”
“All the best women are.” Wade grabbed a bottle of Pedialite and added it to the growing pile of items in the red plastic basket.
“That’s easy for you to say. You’re not here trying to wrangle them.” Dutch’s keystrokes became louder. “Do you know that woman had our firewall back into place within ten minutes of getting here?”
“That sounds like a good thing too.” Wade slowly walked down the aisle of the tiny store, looking for anything he could bring back to Bess. “Isn’t that what we hired her to do?”
“But she didn’t tell anyone it was back. I could have been back online for three hours. Might have even been able to figure out who the fuck we should be looking at for breaching our system.”
“Maybe you should have been nicer to her.”
“I was nice to her. She got her panties all in a bunch over what she thought I was thinking.” Dutch got louder in his ear.
“Were you thinking that?”
It was a second before Dutch responded. “I was just surprised.”
Wade laughed. “It sounds like she called you out on your bullshit and you’re the one who’s pissed off.” His eyes caught on a box of chocolates. He snagged them. “Better watch out or you’ll fall in love.
Dutch snorted in his ear. “Wouldn’t do me any good. She’s got fuck off written all over her forehead.”
“Too bad for you then.” Wade glanced to where Brock was just finishing up his own shopping and gave him a nod. “Gotta go. We should be back in an hour.” Wade disconnected the phone and pushed it into the pocket of his white tactical pants as he met Brock at the checkout. “Dutch is scared of the new hacker.”
Brock shook his head. “She better watch out or he’ll fall in love with her.”
“Yup.” Wade unloaded his basket onto the counter and waited while the cashier scanned and bagged the assortment of baby items and candy. Once he was done paying, he collected his bags and pulled out the keys to the Rover. “I’ll go out and get our map pulled up.”
Wade started the engine and had the directions to their next stop ready by the time Brock slid into the passenger’s seat. “You think we’re going to find anything?”
“No.” Wade backed out of the lot and pulled onto the road. Snow was stacked a few feet high at each side, which wasn’t abnormal for this area, but it was a little early to have that much. Yesterday’s heavy snowfall put them well over the average for November. The weather in Alaska wasn’t for the faint of heart, and this year was a perfect example.
As the SUV made its way out of Brisbane’s limits, more snow started to fall, fast and thick, making the roadway almost impossible to see in a matter of minutes.
Wade stared out the windshield, watching the asphalt disappear, leaving little more than a shadowy drop in the snow to use as a guide.
“They’re from here. Have to be.”
Brock shoved a Twizzler into his mouth. “Who?”
“The team that breached our system. They were out during the snow yesterday. Anyone who wasn’t used to it would have waited.” Wade squeezed the wheel as his mind worked through everything that happened. “The team of two might not be from here though, and I’m almost positive they’re not working together.”
Brock slowly chewed on the candy in his mouth. “You think they even know about each other?”
Wade shook his head. “No, but it might help our cause if they did.” He held one hand out, palm up, until Brock passed over a rope of Twizzler. He bit off the end, correcting as the tires of the large vehicle skidded on the slippery surface. “Let’s hit this lead. Hopefully they’re there and we can set up a meet and greet between our new friends.”
Brock smiled wide. “Hell yes.”
Thirty minutes later they were on foot, creeping through the snow, circling where a small block house was set at the center of a grove of trees.
“See anything?” Dutch’s voice in his ear sounded calmer than it did on the phone earlier. Hopefully that meant things were going better at the cabin.
“Nothing yet. We’re still too far away.” Brock’s tone was low over the line connecting them.
They’d parked the SUV farther away than normal, wanting to be sure anyone hunkered down in the tiny building never had any clue they’d been visited.
Wade slowed his steps. “I think I hear something.” He stopped completely, barely tilting his head toward the mechanical sound. “Generator.”
“That explains why we didn’t see any smoke.” Brock’s voice was a little louder. “I think you’re right about these guys not being together.”
“You don’t think the two teams are connected?” Dutch’s voice was a little higher pitched, the way it went when he was taking a hunch and already running with it.
“If the twosome is here, they definitely aren’t as skilled as the larger team.” Wade dropped to his stomach and crawled into the brush surrounding the building they were scoping out. “No one in their fucking right mind would run a generator when they were going around pissing people like us off. They’d want to be sure they could hear us coming.”
“I know I would.” Brock’s voice was low and slow.
“You see someone?” Wade leaned into the scope of his long gun, peering through, trying to get eyes on the house.
“Matter of fact I do.” Brock had a smile in his words. “Want me to shoot him?”
“Hell yeah, I do.” Wade shifted a little, easing toward a line of sight that looked to be a little clearer. “But I’m thinking they might be more useful alive.”
“I hate when you guys do this shit.” Dutch was pounding on the keys now. “I can’t help you if you only understand each other.”
“We need to pit these guys against each other.” Wade pushed forward in the pack of snow. “We need to work up some extra prints before we go.”
“Look at you. Thinkin’ ahead.” Brock grunted a little.
“Everything okay?” Dutch’s typing stopped.
“Just took a tree branch to the dick.” Brock blew out a breath. “I think I’m as close as I can get.”
“What do you see?” Dutch went quiet, listening.
Wade waited along with him. The overgrowth on this side of the property was impossible to see through, which meant he was going to have to rely on Brock to get as much intel as possible.
“Truck and trailer are there. So’s the sled.” He was quiet for a minute before continuing. “One came out to check the generator. Got real jumpy in the cold. Haven’t set eyes on the other one.”
“Can you get me some shots of the plates on the truck?”
“Sure thing.”
The line went quiet again as Wade waited for Brock to take the pictures Dutch wanted.
“Got ‘em.”
“I think we’re done then.” Get out and get back before these girls go on a rampage again.
Wade was about to shift from his spot when the sound of footsteps froze him in place. “Don’t move, Brock.”
“Copy.”
Wade tucked his nose and mouth into the knit neckline of the heavy coat he wore, catching the fog of his breath. He waited as the steps came closer. It would only be a matter of time before whoever it was saw his tracks. Even with the still-falling snow, it would be obvious to anyone with any sort of experience that someone had been there very recently.
The steps slowed and Wade weighed his options. The amount of time he had to strike first was limited, but so was his visibility. Taking out someone uninvolved wasn’t worth the risk.
But neither was the possibility of getting taken out himself. Leaving Bess on her own. Especially considering her situation seemed to get worse by the minute.
Wade carefully worked his way onto his back and waited.
“There’s no one on my side, brother. It’s all you.�
�� Brock’s voice was barely audible in his ear. “I’m looking and I can barely see movement. Looks like there’s only one.”
Brock hadn’t had eyes on the second man in the party of two that paid them a visit two days ago. He would be the most likely to be circling the property, especially if the place didn’t have cameras. Knowing he was dealing with someone less than skilled eased his mind a little, but sometimes inexperience made men more dangerous instead of less.
The steps were almost on top of him, closing in on the spot Wade entered the trees, when another sound joined their steady pace.
The tell-tale grind and squeak of tires fighting for traction cut through the icy air, echoing through the trees from the direction of the snow-covered drive that led to the small building.
The steps stopped for a second then picked up speed, racing right past Wade’s hidden spot, toward the sound of the poorly-controlled vehicle.
“We got company.” Brock was a little louder now. “Looks like a real nice BMW.”
“Sedan or SUV?” Dutch was back in his ear, ready to tackle this new information.
“SUV.” Brock let out a low whistle. “Mr. Fancypants got real dressed up for his trip to The Last Frontier.”
“Tall. Blond. Good-looking?” Dutch tossed out descriptors like he had a mark in mind.
Which meant he did.
And Wade had a bad fucking feeling he knew exactly who Dutch believed it to be.
“You forgot stick up his ass.” Brock snorted. “He’s barking like hell at our guys.”
“How about you two get outta there while everyone’s distracted.”
“No.” Wade shifted back, trying to find a spot where he could get eyes on the piece of shit that hurt Bess.
Who took Parker.
“Don’t do this Wade. We need these guys.” Brock’s words carried a warning tone.
“No one needs that motherfucker.” Wade found a tiny gap in the jutting branches and piles of snow and peered through his scope. “The world is definitely better off without that piece of shit. Isn’t that our fucking rule?”
“You kill him then we’ve got no way to flush out the real danger to Bess. These dicks aren’t a real threat. They blew their wad already.” Brock was breathless in his ear. “Let him live at least a few more days.”
Loss Recovery (Alaskan Security: Team Rogue Book 1) Page 12