“Libby?” Jared sounded more awake than he should for a man who’d been asleep only moments ago, but he sat up and put an arm around her. “What’s wrong?”
Her voice wouldn’t come at first. Everything was about to change.
“I remember.”
He hugged her to him without hesitation, his warm body strong and comforting as he leaned them back against the headboard. “Tell me.”
She put her arm across his waist, clutching him for strength.
“There’s so much. So much.” She swallowed. There was so much about herself she had to come to grips with, but the important stuff to him had to do with how she’d ended up on the mountain in the snow, injured and scared. “There’s a software engineer—Paul Hicks—he’s older, about sixty or so, sweet and quiet, and he talked to me a lot. He never talked to anyone, not really, but he would stop at my desk and talk. I don’t know why.”
“Of course you do. You made him comfortable.”
She swallowed. “Yes. He said I was easy to talk to. Some of the other girls thought he was creepy. I just thought he was lonely. He never said or did anything wrong, I swear. But I—”
“What is it, Libby?” he asked when she didn’t continue.
“He said it doesn’t work,” she whispered, her mind churning over the facts. “That’s what it’s all about!”
She shoved up and out of bed, grabbing her clothes so she could pull them on. She had to get home, and then she had to get to the office first thing in the morning. Jared was beside her in a flash, gripping her shoulders and forcing her to look at him.
“Calm down, honey. Tell me what this is about.”
Libby was trembling. “RIM doesn’t work the way it’s supposed to. The AI can’t distinguish real threats from friendlies one-hundred percent of the time. It’s more like fifty-percent, but Daniel falsified the results to make it look like the suit works as advertised. I mean it does work—but not accurately. Paul was the chief software engineer and he had evidence. He wrote the code for the suit—though Daniel claims in all the literature that he did. Paul said it wasn’t right, though. He didn’t want to let it go out that way, but Daniel told him the DoD would do their own tests. They’d figure it out themselves, but the company would make millions selling the technology first. Paul disagreed and intended to take the information to the Army.”
“Is there proof?”
She nodded, her heart hammering in her chest. “Yes. Paul gave me a memory card. He said it had everything on it. The software program he’d written for the AI, the real test results, recordings of the conversations he’d had with Daniel about it. He said it was a backup copy and asked me to hold onto it for him. Just in case.” Her breath hitched. “And then he didn’t come back to work. Oh crap, do you think they hurt him too?”
Jared swore. “I don’t know, honey. But we’ll find out. Can you tell me what you did with the memory card?”
“It’s at work. I didn’t know what to do with it, but I promised I’d keep it safe for him. It’s in the plant on my desk. I wrapped it in plastic and shoved it into the dirt. That was a stupid move, wasn’t it? I should have taken it home or mailed it to a reporter the minute Paul didn’t return to work.”
Jared gave her shoulders a squeeze. “Actually, what you did was a smart move, babe. If you’d had it on you, or in your apartment, those guys might have found it. We wouldn’t be having this conversation right now. As for mailing it to a reporter, you’d have lost control of the information and had no way of knowing if it’d get to the right person or if they’d even take it seriously.”
Libby shivered at the truth in his assessment. “Paul didn’t come to work Wednesday, and a rumor went around the office that said he’d quit. I thought that was weird so I tried to call him, but he didn’t answer. I was still trying to decide what to do when I went out for my morning run on Thursday. But then an SUV pulled up and a man got out and grabbed me. He shoved me into the car, put a hood over my head, and then we drove for what seemed like hours before they threw me into a room and left me there. When they came back, they wanted to know where the card was.”
Jared palmed his phone off the side table and she knew he was sending a text to one of the men on his team. She liked those men. Every one of them was tough and professional, and while she knew they were capable of violence, she also knew they wouldn’t use their strength against people who didn’t deserve it. They were protectors. Unlike the men who’d grabbed her.
She remembered one of the men shoving her into the wall and threatening her with a knife—he had a beard and squinty eyes—and she remembered waking up in the dark, terrified and feeling like she was hungover. She’d climbed out the narrow second story window and onto the porch roof. She hadn’t known how big the drop was because it’d been dark, but she’d seen the snow below and had thought maybe it was close enough to cushion her fall.
“Libby,” Jared said softly, and she jerked at the sound of his voice.
Her limbs were shaking. “I’m okay.”
He wrapped his arms around her and took them down to the bed, holding her close. “You aren’t.”
“I was thinking about jumping off the roof.”
His arms tightened. “Better tell me about it.”
“There was a window in the room where they’d put me. It was small so maybe they thought I couldn’t get out of it. Or maybe they figured I wouldn’t try because the room was on the second floor—plus there was nowhere to go and it was dark. B-but I did. The man with the beard—he threatened to cut out my tongue if I didn’t tell him everything. I think I passed out. I remember him injecting me with something when I came to. I felt like I’d drank a fifth of whiskey and all I wanted to do was sleep. He yelled at me, but I couldn’t help it. When I woke up the next time, I was alone. I could hear them downstairs though. They were laughing and shouting. There was loud music and cigarette smoke. I was scared they’d come back and hurt me again.”
Libby shuddered. She’d felt sick and scared, but she remembered she’d also been determined. She’d known she had to get out of that room or things would’ve gotten worse.
Jared’s grip on her didn’t change. He held her close and she took comfort in the solid warmth of him. He was a rock. Her rock at the moment.
“It’s okay, honey. You don’t have to tell me about it if you’re afraid.”
“No.” She said it firmly. “No, I want to.” She sucked in a breath. “I knew I had to get away. So I went out the window. There was a roof there, and I tried to be quiet as I crawled across it. Every creak of the tin made my heart pound. I still felt kind of drunk, but it was getting better. I moved away from the music and shouting, toward the back of the cabin. The porch went all the way around, and I tried to find a place I could get down. But there wasn’t anything obvious, and I started to worry they’d discover I was gone. I couldn’t tell how far the drop was, but I had to make a decision. So I tried to let myself over the edge as far as I could before I let go. It was still a longer drop than I expected.”
“The snow probably cushioned your fall. You’re lucky you didn’t break anything.” His voice was gruff.
“I know. I think I hit my head or something because I don’t remember how I got to where you found me. Or maybe it was whatever he injected me with that made me forget.” She shrugged helplessly. “That’s what I know.”
“Shit, baby,” Jared said, pulling her against his body as he lay back on the pillows. “That’s a lot.”
She liked the way he cradled her. The warmth of his naked body beside hers. She’d found something precious through this ordeal, but she didn’t think it would last. That was the sad truth about her life—nothing lasted.
Her parents, her brother and sisters. Her mother died, and her father gave her an ultimatum. Marry Seb Wilcox or leave. Her siblings didn’t stick up for her. She could still see Glory and Charity, their faces stern. They’d married young too, and they had twelve kids between them. They were tired women, and they had
no sympathy for her since they’d done what they were told.
But neither of them had been forced to marry an older man who looked at them with ice in his expression. Maybe she could have borne it if not for that.
No, she was kidding herself. She’d have never borne it. She’d always wanted more. Always wanted to see the world and be independent. She’d wanted to go to college, but her father had told her that wasn’t her path. She’d chafed at farm life, chafed at her parents strict beliefs and upbringing. She’d wanted to soar, but they’d been determined to clip her wings.
She remembered her mother getting sick, remembered the endless chores as she’d had to take over the cooking and cleaning. Remembered resenting her mother for it, and hating herself for feeling that way. After her mother died, she’d been devastated. She’d only been seventeen then, and she’d missed her mother with every fiber of her being. Still did.
Libby squeezed her eyes shut and a tear escaped to roll down her cheek. Jared’s hand came up to stroke her hair, and she burrowed against him, trying to lose herself in his warmth.
“Talk to me,” he said.
Libby tried to laugh, but it didn’t sound very happy. Still, she was determined to brazen her way through it. “Since when do you want me to talk?”
“Since right now. You’re processing a lot of memories. I want to know what you’re thinking.”
“So many things. Who did you text?”
He twirled a lock of her hair around his finger. “Ian.”
“I thought he was in Rome or something.”
“He might be, but that won’t stop him from doing what needs done.” He rubbed his hand up and down her arm.
“What happens now? I should probably go back to work and see if the card is still there.”
He snorted. “No, honey. You aren’t going back there. It’s too dangerous.”
“Somebody has to. And shouldn’t I be at work anyway? Monday, right? I was supposed to be off for a week. Which I did not ask for, by the way.”
“That right there tells you that you shouldn’t walk back into Ninja Solutions like nothing happened. It’s an inside job, Libby. Someone in the office knew what happened to you and filled out the vacation request. We know Weir is involved based on what Paul told you, but we don’t know if he has any accomplices.”
She hated to think there were others involved, but of course it was possible. There were other people working on the RIM project besides Daniel and Paul. Any of them could have helped Daniel, especially considering the financial incentive once the Army ordered the suits. Everyone in the company had been promised big bonuses. Even her.
“What about Paul? I don’t think he really quit. That isn’t like him. He loved his job and believed in what he was doing. He thought they needed another couple of years to perfect the AI technology first. I think someone kidnapped him and threatened him like they did me. That’s how they found out I had a copy.”
“Ian will check into it, but yeah, I think you’re right.”
Her eyes filled with tears. “What if they killed him, Jared?” she whispered.
He hugged her tight. “We don’t know that they did.”
She pushed back and frowned at him. His eyes were carefully blank, and her heart fell. “Stop trying to protect me. You know it’s likely.”
He nodded. “Yes, it’s likely. But not certain. They might have kept him alive until they had what they wanted. In case he was lying. They’d want to make sure he hadn’t stashed other copies with other people.”
She hadn’t thought of that, but it gave her hope. Paul was a nice man. Nerdy, goofy, and shy, he didn’t exude confidence with women. But somehow he’d found the strength to talk to her. She didn’t think it had been easy at first, but she’d never been rude or short with him. She’d listened to his stories, asked questions, and laughed at his jokes. Kristin said he was flirting with her, but Libby didn’t believe it. She thought he just wanted someone to talk to, and she was an easy person to talk to because she liked people. He was lonely and brilliant, and even if she didn’t understand brilliant, she definitely understood lonely. She definitely understood that sense of not belonging, and being desperate to belong for a change.
She thought of her friends, the men and women she often hung out with, and she knew those relationships were mostly superficial. It was her fault, because she had trouble letting anyone in. They were people she hung out with at clubs, coworkers who went for drinks together, but there were only a couple she’d call friends. Kristin, who’d gotten her the job at Ninja Solutions. And her cousin, Merry, who’d called her up and told her to move to DC two years ago. Merry had needed a roommate, and Libby had needed a change from the office supply company so she’d thought why not?
She didn’t regret it, either, even if Merry had moved out a couple of months ago to live with her boyfriend. Making the rent on her salary from Ninja Solutions wasn’t difficult, but now she faced the prospect of having to find another job when this was over. The company wasn’t going to survive the scandal when the truth came out. Not that she wanted to keep working there anyway. Not after this.
“I don’t think I can go back to sleep,” she said as her mind continued whirling.
“No, of course not. Get dressed. We’ll fix some coffee and wait to hear from Ian.”
“What do you think will happen now?”
“We need to get the memory card and find out what’s on it. If it’s as bad as Paul told you, we’ll have to find out how deep it goes.”
“And you’ll find Paul, right?”
He hesitated for an instant. “We’ll find him, honey. But I can’t guarantee it’ll be good when we do.”
Her heart thumped. “I know.” She reached for his hand. Squeezed. It felt odd to do that now that she knew who she was—her fears and foibles, her insecurities—and yet it felt right too. “Thank you.”
He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed it. “You’re welcome, babe.”
Warmth flooded her. And fear too. This wasn’t going to last. She knew it in her bones.
Nothing good ever did. Not for her.
Chapter Twenty-Two
“The quickest way to get the card is to send her back there,” Colt said. “She’s got a badge and she can get past security. It’ll take us too long to fake the credentials needed.”
Jared wanted to growl. And yet he knew Colt wasn’t wrong. “I don’t like it. Besides, we don’t know that her badge hasn’t been inactivated.”
“We’ll know quickly enough. If it doesn’t work, we’ll extract her.”
“We’ll be watching all the exits,” Brett said. “And she’ll be wearing a wire, so we’ll know everything that happens and everyone she talks to. We can breach if we have to get her out.”
“We still don’t know if someone in the Gemini Syndicate is involved,” Jared said. “And we have no fucking clue what happened to Paul Hicks. I don’t like the risk.”
They’d been looking for information on Hicks, but so far they’d come up with nothing. He’d last been seen getting into his car at his home in Manassas on Tuesday evening by a neighbor. He hadn’t returned, and the next day the HR department at Ninja Solutions said he’d quit.
“If Gemini is involved, they haven’t sent Calypso to deal with the situation,” Ian said from the screen hanging at one end of the conference room.
“You know that for certain?” Jace asked, his eyes narrowing on the projection. Ian was transmitting from a secure area of BDI’s Rome operations. There was a backdrop of the Roman skyline behind him, but it was a static background. He wasn’t really sitting on a rooftop terrace, discussing classified information.
“Yes.”
“How?”
“She made contact. She doesn’t know who Paul Hicks or Libby King are, and she’s not involved in any mission pertaining to Ninja Solutions.”
Jared frowned. Jace frowned harder.
“She told you that?” Jace asked. “And you trust her?”
�
�I don’t trust her, but I believe she’s telling the truth on this one. Besides, if she’d been sent to bring Libby in—or kill her—why is she in Rome?”
Jace seemed flabbergasted. “She’s in Rome?”
“She was as of three hours ago. She’s probably gone now.”
Jared had sympathy for Jace, who was Calypso’s brother but seemed not to have any contact with her, yet that wasn’t his primary concern at the moment. “Can we turn this back to the matter at hand?” he said. “Like who the hell cleaned up the bodies on the mountain and left no trace? I don’t think that’s Daniel Weir’s doing.”
“No,” Ian said. “I don’t either. Gemini could still be involved somehow, but I don’t think they’re operating on the micro level. They’d be buyers so long as they don’t know the suit doesn’t work, but I doubt they’d have incentive to keep Paul Hicks or Libby from exposing the truth the way someone closer to the project would.”
“We need to find out who the investors are,” Jared said. “That’s who’d have the most incentive to keep the test results secret. Someone who’d put in a lot of money and expected a lot in return. It isn’t just Daniel Weir who stands to make millions from the RIM sale. Anyone who’s worried about their big payday would have motive to eliminate Hicks and anyone he shared the information with.”
“I’m working on it,” Ian said. “But we’re going to need that memory card. Sooner rather than later. It’s the only way we can end the threat to Libby. We have to expose the truth and stop the deal with the Army from going through. Sending her in to retrieve the card is the best way to do it.”
Dull anger flared in Jared’s gut, but he wasn’t going to argue. They needed that card, and Libby knew where it was. She’d have the least trouble getting it. It would be risky, but not overtly dangerous. No one was going to hurt her in front of witnesses. Besides, they’d learn a lot from the reactions of those around her when she walked back in like nothing had ever happened. Most people expected her to return. Someone—maybe more than one—didn’t, and they were likely to be shocked when she did.
Black Knight (A Black's Bandits Novel): HOT Heroes for Hire: Mercenaries Page 18