The Hitman's Baby - A Bad Boy Secret Baby Romance (With extra added bonus novel for a short time only!)

by Ashley Rhodes

  Nick stopped her, and she glared up at him with genuine murder in her eyes. Gone was the sweet woman he’d seen through the scope of a sniper rifle. Maybe it was always going to happen. Maybe it was because he spared her. But the darkness had finally spread to her, infected her, and he could see the desire for blood in her face.

  “You won’t,” Nick said. “You won’t have to. It’s my job, Cassandra. It’s my history, my baggage that you’re suffering for. I’ll pull the trigger. You don’t want that inside you.”

  “I’ll be the judge of that,” Cassandra said, cold and deadly serious as she took a step back from him and then turned to walk the dock and board their boat. It was starting up by the time Nick made it on deck and took over the piloting.

  “Where do we go, Nick?” She asked.

  “We’ll start in Florida,” he said. “I need to get in touch with Alex, see what she can tell us or get us.”

  “How long will that take?”

  Nick shook his head as he pulled away from the dock and headed toward the maze that led into the open ocean. “It won’t matter,” he said. “If Lester took Ramon with him and put him in a safe house, it’s because he’s an asset. As long as that’s true, he’s safe.”

  Cassandra pursed her lips for a long moment, and finally nodded once. Nick threaded his way through the maze, and into the ocean, bound for Florida, the gears in his head turning quickly. They had time, he knew; that hadn’t been a lie.

  But not that much. If it became clear that there was simply no way to get his hands on Cassandra…

  Nick didn’t look at her when he had the thought. He was afraid she would read it in his eyes. Because the truth was that Lester was absolutely capable of killing Ramon. The only question was whether or not it became necessary.

  And whether or not Nick got to him first.

  Chapter 15

  Bleary eyed, unwashed, and nearly mad with exhaustion, Cassandra watched the blank screen of the military grade laptop Nick had purchased flicker with arcane looking strings of code while it connected to some… dark-something network she didn’t understand. Not that it mattered. She didn’t need to understand. She just needed Alex to pick up the other end of the digital call.

  They were holed up in a penthouse hotel room, something lavish and exotic at the center of Key West that she barely noticed after they arrived in it. They hadn’t spent the money for the luxury of the place; Nick had needed a clear signal, as high up as possible. The La Concha was only six stories, but it must have been high enough because something comprehensible flashed across the bottom of the laptop screen.

  Encryption successful. Line secure. Connecting feed…

  Nick had gotten another burner, contacted Alex, and been given the key to an encrypted network. That had been six hours ago. Now, her face glowed to life and she looked up at the screen, looking slightly off to the right from where the camera was. “One second,” she muttered, and looked at something else off camera as she typed.

  They waited. Cassandra tried not to tap her foot.

  “Okay,” Alex said, “we’re clear. Had a few security gaps to check, just in case. Can’t be too careful these days, big brother is—”

  “We get it,” Nick said, “thank you, Alex. Did you find anything?”

  Alex narrowed her eyes, but nodded. “Data packet incoming. There’s good news, and there’s bad news.”

  “What’s the good news?” Cassandra asked.

  “I prefer bad news first,” Nick muttered, and clicked the icon that popped up in the corner of the screen. Alex’s face disappeared behind a window as apparent nonsense flashed through the screen. A second window opened. Blue prints of some kind.

  “Fine,” Alex said. “The bad news is that you can’t do this alone. You need a tech team. A good one. I know some people in the region, but… I’m not sure how many of them are up to this kind of job. Mostly they’re low level digital thugs. Still, it’s possible I can put you in contact with a team you can… well, probably not trust personally, but who answer to money.”

  “No go,” Nick said. “Whatever we can pay them, Lester can pay them more and they’re probably on his payroll if they’re within a hundred miles of a safe house. He covers his bases. We’ll figure it out. What’s the good news?”

  “You’re looking at it,” Alex said. “I was able to locate the building code named ‘black house’. It’s not a whole building, though—it’s a floor. Two floors, at the top of the FOCSA building in Havana. The main elevator doesn’t go up there, but there is a security elevator and two stairwells behind security doors that do. In the main building, security is pretty basic. Upstairs, it’s a lot more advanced. Isolated, for one thing, so you’ll need someone to connect locally for any tech team to make a difference. No blind spots, so getting around it on foot is not an option.”

  “None of that sounds like particularly good news,” Cassandra said. She couldn’t make sense of the plans, but it sounded to her like Alex was saying the place was impenetrable.

  “It’s the less bad news, then,” Alex said. “I thought couching is as the good news would somehow… make us all more optimistic or something. Sorry.”

  “It’s fine,” Nick said, scrolling through the images. “Are these all current?”

  “As of last year,” Alex said. “If there have been further customizations, they might not be on any accessible records. I pulled these directly from the organization database. It’s worth mentioning, though, that I got kicked. A routine sweep—we’re not compromised, I’m fairly sure. But I haven’t been able to get back in just yet. I did get a bunch of data before I got kicked… but none of it is useful for this job.”

  “So, we’re blind at the moment,” Nick muttered.

  “Is this enough?” Cassandra asked. “Now that we know this, is it enough to get in? To get our son?”

  Nick shook his head. “No. Alex is right. We’ll need a tech team. The only person I might be able to pull in is in South Korea; it’ll take him days to get here.” He drummed his fingers on the table beside the laptop and cussed quietly.

  “What about you?” Cassandra asked Alex. “You’re good at this sort of thing. Can’t you help us?”

  “Oh,” Alex said, frowning. “Uh… no. I… can’t. I don’t really leave my bunker. Like… pretty much ever.”

  Nick glanced up at Cassandra, hope in his eyes, and then back at the screen. “I don’t trust anyone else. I can get you down here, pay you.”

  “It’s not the money,” Alex said, visibly uncomfortable with the suggestion, “or the flight. It’s just… I mean I have a really hard time with… the world, pretty much. All of it. The… openness of it. Look I hack satellites, security cameras, phones, laptops… I’m not joking about big brother. You’d piss yourself if you knew what I know, there is absolutely no such thing as privacy anymore and I’m not exactly popular with certain folks, like… basically any organization with a three letter acronym and—”

  “It’s my son, Alex,” Cassandra said, more than willing to beg blatantly, openly, if that’s what it took. “Ramon. Please, Alex… we can’t leave this up to chance. Please.” Her voice turned ragged, and she had to swallow past a lump. “I’ll do anything.”

  “Name your price,” Nick said. “I have an island off the coast of Cuba. Isolated. Not on any map. It’s yours, if you help us.”

  Alex opened her mouth to protest, but shut it. She stared at them, or the image of them, clearly distraught by the prospect. Her body was shaking rhythmically as she tapped her feet and fingers. The sound piped over the speakers almost like some kind of interference. “I…”

  Cassandra leaned toward the camera. “I’m begging you, Alex. Please. You have to help us get our son back. Without you… if Lester…” she bit her lip, and sank back into her chair, unable to say it.

  Nick said it for her, and she wished he hadn’t. She’d known it was possible, but didn’t want anyone to make it real. “If we don’t get him back, and Lester doesn’t get what he w
ants,” he told Alex, “he’ll kill Ramon and plan on dealing with us when he gets the chance. We can’t let that happen, Alex. I just found him. I just found my family. Please.”

  Alex stared at them, dismayed and torn, her mouth hanging open. Finally, she grimaced and rubbed her face. “Jesus… you guys… fuck. Fine. I’m so, so very screwed if the NSA gets so much as a peek at my face in public. I’ve got some prosthetics, and I can dye my hair. Shit. It’ll take me a day to get down there. Don’t move.”

  “We’re staying at the—” Nick started.

  Alex snorted, and rolled her eyes. “Jesus, Nick, I know where you’re staying. I could drop a tungsten rod on you from space from here, level key west if I needed to. Don’t worry, I won’t. But seriously, you have no idea what’s floating around up there, it would curl your—”

  “Thank you, Alex,” Nick said. “We’ll see you soon, then.”

  “You promised me an island, Nick,” Alex said. “I’ll hold you to it. I’m sending you another data packet. Run it when we’re off line, it’ll clean the laptop. God, I’m so fucked…” She continued to mutter to herself until another icon popped up. The feed when dark just before Nick clicked it. A few seconds later, the laptop shut down, and wouldn’t turn on again.

  Cassandra didn’t leave the hotel room while they waited, but Nick ventured out to get them food. She didn’t have much of an appetite, but she was thankful for it and ate what she could. Worry made her stomach sour, and she found it hard to even sit down for any length of time. Her whole body wanted to move around, pace, do something, anything, that felt like action. All of it did nothing but frustrate her, though, until she was losing her mind.

  Ramon was probably terrified. She had to force herself not to think of what Lester might to do him. Maybe nothing. After all, what purpose would it serve?

  Nick tried to comfort her, but Cassandra couldn’t even think of taking it from him. She felt bad about that, and told him repeatedly that she didn’t blame him—all of this had started with her father; she had inherited this from him. Nick might have put himself in hot water with Lester by letting Cassandra survive, but she knew the truth of it. If Papa hadn’t been who he was, none of this would be happening.

  Then again, she also wouldn’t have met Nick, and she wouldn’t have Ramon. Her mother had always said that God had a plan for everyone. It was hard, sometimes, to believe that. But now she clung to it desperately. How long had it been since she prayed? If she thought about leaving the hotel, it would have been to find a church and throw herself on the altar. Funny how crisis did that to people. Then again, Papa had been deeply religious, and it hadn’t helped him in the end.

  Alex came late the next day. She didn’t knock. When she came into the hotel, they didn’t recognize her at first and Nick pulled his gun. Alex didn’t seem to notice. She just pulled some little device out of the door’s electronic lock and then strolled in, peeling off a hat, a jacket, and a rubber prosthetic off of her nose and eyebrows that had completely changed the shape of her face and was remarkably convincing.

  “This has been the single most stressful day of my life,” she said, oblivious to the near brush with death she’d probably just had. Nick sighed, shaking his head as he tucked his gun back into its holster under his shoulder. “Never again. Once I get to that island you promised me, I’m never leaving it again.” She shuddered, and only then looked from Cassandra to Nick. “What?”

  “Nothing,” Nick said. “Just glad you made it.”

  “Don’t get all that excited,” Alex said, picking leftover glue and rubber from her face. “There’s a lot of work left to do.” She waved at a small duffel bag she’d hauled in with her. “I brought toys. I need a shower. Can I use your shower? Never mind.”

  She marched off, and stopped at the door way to the bedroom, where the bathroom was. Slowly, she turned, and looked at Cassandra. “Um… Ramon’s a good kid. I’m sorry all this is happening. We’ll get him back. Okay? Trust us,” she jerked her chin at Nick, “we’re professionals. Best in the business. No sweat.”

  Cassandra desperately wanted to believe her.

  They didn’t waste any time at the hotel. After Alex showered, she came back out, briefly introduced her toys, and then suggested that they get moving if they wanted to do this while Ramon was still in the black house. Last she was aware, he was still being held there—but it had been over a day since since had access to Lester’s networks, and nothing inside the black house itself was online.

  It wasn’t promising.

  “But,” she assured Cassandra, “there was definitely chatter about Ramon. The Colombian Package, they’re calling him.”

  “What if he’s not there?” Cassandra asked, looking from Alex to Nick.

  Nick shook his head. “Can’t think like that. We have to assume it’s a trap and act accordingly. Until I’m in there—”

  “I’m going with you,” Cassandra said.

  Alex waved her hands. “That would be a bad idea. Nick is a professional.”

  “I got him into my old—I mean, into Lester’s estate in Bogata,” Cassandra contended, hands on her hips. “And took out a guard.”

  “This is different,” Nick said gently, and put his hands on her shoulder.

  Cassandra seethed for a moment, and prepared for a fight.

  But Nick set his jaw, and squeezed her shoulders before she could launch an offensive. “You were familiar with that terrain, and you were right—I couldn’t have done it without you. This place is unfamiliar to both of us. I can’t have you slowing me down, and I can’t risk you. You’re too important to me, Cassandra. Please, trust me to get our son out of there.”

  The way he said it, the way he gazed into her eyes with pleading and confidence… Cassandra relented, slumping a little. “I feel useless,” she said. “I’m not a hacker, or an assassin. What can I do to help?”

  “You can be my reason for fighting,” Nick said. “Believe me, it’s more helpful than you know.”

  Well, that sounded like the sort of thing she would have told Ramon to convince him not to complain too much about having to go to the dentist or… eat his vegetables. But Cassandra sighed, and let Nick lean in and kiss her.

  Alex cleared her throat. “Super awkward. So, can we go now?”

  A day later, they were parked in a white van a block from the FOCSA building. Nick wore a suit, but had a briefcase full of gear, while Alex and Cassandra both were dressed in innocuous tourist clothing in the event they had to abandon the van and blend in to the crowd.

  Cassandra still hadn’t gained any peace about letting Nick go in alone, but after hearing him and Alex discuss the plan she was at least more confident that the two of them worked well enough together that he would be safe.

  Alex’s part of the plan was ingenious, and straight out of the movies. She’d held up a tiny black box. “Once you’re up there, look for a power line running up the elevator shaft. All you have to do is clamp this around a cable, make sure the teeth get through the insulation, and I’ll have hardline access to override the cameras and security alarms. That should let me locate Ramon, unless there’s a black room and, well, if there is he’s probably in it.” A black room, she explained for Cassandra’s benefit, was a room without a security feed.

  “Like Papa’s office,” Cassandra said, irritated. “I know. Go on.”

  “Right, well from there,” Alex said, shrugging, “it’s pretty much just… point, shoot, be quiet, get the package, get out.”

  “Subtle,” Nick commented.

  “I can override any electronic locks,” she went on, “they’ll all be linked to the security system for the alarms, maybe fingerprinted or, if Lester was feeling spendy, possibly retinal scans. Not that it matters; they all crack the same, and I can download all the security profiles once I’m in.”

  “You would think it would all be more… secure than this,” Cassandra said, shaking her head in amazement that it was so straightforward. Or at least that it sounded that way
.

  “Security is basically a four letter word these days,” Alex said. “Unless you custom build your own bunker like I did. My place? Genuine fortress. All the wires are embedded in the steel walls, no access ports except for my terminals—”

  “So,” Nick interrupted—if she got started, Alex would talk for days about security—and adjusted his tie, “are we ready, boss?”

  “Oh,” Alex said, “I’m not your boss anymore. I don’t work with anyone who’s seen me in person. Sorry.”

  “That’s fine, Alex,” Nick said patiently. “Are we a go?”

  “Ready when you are,” Alex said.

  Cassandra grabbed Nick’s arm as he laid a hand on the handle of the van’s cargo door, suddenly anxious. She kissed him, and rested her forehead against his. “Come back safe, okay?”

  “I promise,” he muttered, and kissed her again.

  Alex sighed.

  And then he was gone. For a long time, there was nothing to do but wait. Nick had an ear piece in but until he installed the hijacking device Alex suggested it stay powered off. “They’ll almost certainly be scanning for communication signals. I mean, unless they’re stupid. I never assume anyone is stupid until I have proof, and even then—I act stupid all the time just to throw people off, so…”

  Her degree of paranoia was frankly amazing to Cassandra. Then again, in her line of work maybe she had good reasons.

  It took almost an hour of waiting on the edge of her seat for a light to begin blinking on one of Alex’s laptops, and when it did Alex gave a little cheer of excitement and cracked her knuckles as she hunched over her computers. “Alright… let’s see what we’ve got, shall we?”

  Her fingers flew, the screens lit up, and for a few minutes it looked to Cassandra like she was just doing things at random to look busy—a pantomime of some kind maybe for her benefit. But several times Alex spat, muttered curses, and had to close windows, reopen them and soon she was growling challenges at the network security, her tongue barely poking past the corner of her mouth.