The night before, Brock had called a few friends, and we were working on getting Annabella a better lawyer. She had always used Nate as her lawyer, but with everything that had gone down, we all agreed she needed to fire the lawyer her manager had recommended. Annabella ended up wanting to use Marta, Nate’s sister. I still didn’t think that was the best idea since we still didn’t know if his family was behind Nate’s disappearance. Annabella swore Marta wouldn’t do anything to hurt her.
My fingers squeezed the steering wheel. When we arrived at the sheriff’s office, most of the paparazzi were still standing on the steps, probably waiting for more information about Nate and Annabella. She was the talk of every gossip column. Even the local news had started to follow the case of the high-profile actress turned killer.
I parked the car close to the entrance and stared at the mass of photographers. “Don’t you think it’s strange that everyone is jumping to the conclusion she killed him?”
Neal glanced up from his phone. “Yes. I’ve been trying to track down the sources for their stories. They keep saying they have someone on the inside, which we know is not true. It seems all the info is coming from the same person. Someone is setting it up to look like she’s a scorned lover.”
“Nate?”
Neal shook his head. “The person isn’t that good at covering their tracks. It’s someone in Los Angeles. Brock said Jacob and Gabriel are all set to leave tonight, so he sent them to check out a lead I had. The sending IP address was a coffee shop in downtown Los Angeles. I’m waiting to hear back from them.”
I stepped out of the expensive car and walked toward the station. The paparazzi started yelling at Neal the second he stepped out, and the mass of people began to flash pictures and yell question after question. I worked my way through the crowd. When we reached the sheriff’s station, I threw open the door and let Neal in first.
“God, I hate them,” he grumbled. “I’m glad they don’t bother Aaron, Daisy, and me that much anymore. We used to be on their radar every time we went out for lunch. They were always asking questions about our life and how three people were in a relationship together.”
“I can’t wait for this case to be over.”
Neal huffed. “I think you’ll be sad when you have to leave Annabella.”
I ignored the comment and went to the reception desk. The deputy at the desk looked as though she were in her late twenties. Her eyes grew when Neal walked up next to me. She played with her hair. “Are you Neal Ross? I can’t believe you’re here in person. Can I get your autograph?” When she spoke, her high-pitched voice sounded like that of a schoolgirl.
Neal rolled his eyes and ignored her question. “We’re here to see Sheriff Clark,” I said.
“Okay.” She pouted and picked up the desk phone to let the sheriff know we were there. When she hung up, she clicked a button on the wall next to her phone. I heard a loud click come from the door to our right. The door was solid steel and creaked when I swung it open. The young girl was on the other side when we stepped through. She waved for us to follow her as she walked toward an open area lined with deputies.
Detectives and officers stared as we walked back toward the sheriff’s office. I was used to being stared at. People always wanted to know how I’d gotten the scar. Then they would get mad when I said I didn’t want to talk about it. But today, people were staring because Neal was walking through. I heard someone murmur about the software he’d created to help with facial recognition.
Sheriff Clark’s office door was open, so Neal and I walked in. The older sheriff was sitting behind his desk. I handed him Annabella’s passport before sitting down in the leather chair opposite him.
Neal took the seat next to me. “Sheriff, what have you found?”
Sheriff Clark leaned back in his chair. “No, ‘hi, how are you?’”
“I figured you have things to do, as I do,” Neal said. “It seems this department is concentrating more on just proving Annabella is the killer instead of finding the body.”
The sheriff shifted in his seat. “Evidence points to Annabella.”
Neal tapped a couple of times on his tablet then turned it so the sheriff could see. “To me, it sounds more like you’re trying to do whatever Nate’s dad says. So my question is, what does he have on you?”
An email between Nate’s dad and the sheriff was displayed on the tablet. The email wasn’t sent to the sheriff’s office work email—it was his Gmail account. Neal clicked next and went to another email. “Do you want to see more, or do you get the picture?” Neal asked the sheriff.
“How did you get those? I could have you arrested.”
“Fine. Have me arrested, and these will be put into evidence along with the other emails in that account. You’re up for election this year. I don’t think the voters will like how their sheriff is taking bribes.”
Sheriff Clark’s face took on a deep shade of red. His jaw twitched. “I can’t stop the investigation. What do you want?”
“We never said to stop the investigation. Annabella didn’t do anything. Do your job and find the person behind this.” Neal stood and walked toward the door.
I couldn’t believe the Los Angeles County Sheriff was doing what Nate’s father wanted. I leaned across his desk. “If I find out you aren’t trying to find Nate and continue down the path of Annabella, those emails will be the least of your worries.”
Neal was exiting the building when I caught up. The flashes from the paparazzi were worse the second time. More media must’ve gotten wind we’d come down to the station. Annabella had been seen with Daisy and her men many times. The reporters yelled question after question, asking if Annabella really killed her fiancé. They followed us to the car, blocking us in.
“God, I hate the paparazzi,” I growled.
“Slowly back up,” Neal said. “They’ll move.”
I shifted the car into reverse and slowly backed up. It took a few moments, but the reporters eventually moved away from the vehicle. As soon as it was clear, we sped down the road and headed back to Daisy’s house.
I shot a glance at Neal. “You didn’t think to tell me he was working with Nate’s dad?”
Neal looked up from his tablet. “I found it on our way in. I’ve been digging for it for the last twelve hours. It seemed strange that the sheriff came out saying Annabella was still under suspicion. Normally, they wouldn’t give a lead up like that. The media wasn’t even asking for a press conference, but he scheduled one and came out with the data.”
I turned down the last road toward Daisy’s. We were only a mile away from Daisy’s house. We’d just come to the top of a hill when a deer darted out from the side of the road. I slammed on the brakes, but nothing happened. I swerved to miss the deer and continued to press down on the pedal, but nothing happened.
“Slow down,” Neal barked next to me.
“Trying.” I reached for the emergency brake and pulled. The car just continued to gain speed as we drove down the hill.
“Someone cut the brakes,” I ground out.
With each second, we raced down the hill toward a sharp corner. I gripped the steering wheel, hoping we wouldn’t flip as we went around the corner.
Neal gripped the dashboard as the car screeched around the corner. I felt the side of the car lift as we went. Our speed was up to seventy-five miles an hour. In about a half mile, there was another hill. I hoped we could make it there because we would lose speed as the car tried to climb.
Just then, the gas started to accelerate even without my foot on the pedal. “Neal, please tell me you hacked the car. And if not, can you?”
Neal shook his head and reached for his tablet. “It’s not me, and it will take me a few minutes to hack into the car if they didn’t put up any block.”
We were coming close to another car in front of us. I swerved into the other lane to pass when a semi came around the corner. There wasn’t enough room to go back into my lane. I pointed the car toward the ditch.
9
Annabella
“Red or black?” Daisy asked as she held up two different boxes of hair dye.
I reached past her and grabbed the blue dye off the shelf. John would be mad when he got back to the house and found out Daisy and I had snuck out to the store. We were being careful, though. I had my hair up under a hat, and I was wearing a massive pair of sunglasses.
The convenience store was only a few miles from the house. Even though I had just been kept inside for a day, I wanted out. And I wanted to change my hair because everyone had my picture plastered across the internet.
Daisy and I figured it would be a good idea for me to dye my hair and cut it. Since she was good at hair and makeup, I planned to let her do whatever she wanted. The producer of my latest movie might be mad when I went back to work, but I didn’t know if or when that would ever happen. I made sure each of my movie contracts didn’t dictate my hair color or style. That was one of my nonnegotiables. If I wanted to change my hair, a wig or extensions could be worn on a movie set to make my hair look the same.
“I love the blue, but it might stand out too much,” Daisy said. “You’re going to another country to find the person you’re being framed for murdering.”
I placed the bright-blue hair dye back on the shelf and grabbed the brown color. If we found Nate and I was cleared for his murder, I would need to dye my hair back to blond. Red would be hard to get out.
The two of us made it in and out of the store without being seen. “See? We don’t need the men to do everything,” I said.
“Daisy’s—I mean my ass is going to be so red tonight. Aaron told me before he jumped in the shower that we were to wait for him.”
When Daisy had been held captive for so many years, she’d started to speak about herself in the third person. When she started to date Neal and Aaron, Daisy worked with her therapist to help her stop speaking in third person. She had worked hard to stop in the past three months, but every so often, she had to catch herself. I knew she belonged to the local BDSM club. I still couldn’t believe she enjoyed being a submissive after what her captor had done to her.
“Daisy, I didn’t mean to get you into trouble. I’ll talk with Aaron and Neal when we get home.”
Daisy smiled from ear to ear. “Oh, I’m looking forward to my punishment. It’s been a while since I did something this bad. Maybe Aaron will bring out the deer hide flogger.”
I pulled the passenger door open and slid into the SUV. When my ass hit the seat, I heard a click followed by a ticking noise. Daisy pulled the driver’s door open, but before she could climb behind the wheel, I yelled, “No! Stay out, Daisy. I need you to call John.”
She backed away from the car and pulled out her phone. The ticking of what I assumed was a bomb seemed to echo through the SUV. Each tick counted down the seconds until I died. Maybe Nate really was dead. Why else would someone try to kill me? I slowly turned and watched Daisy pace back and forth.
After a few seconds, she pulled her phone away and dialed another number. Finally, she started to talk to someone. Her hand went to her mouth, and tears began to stream down her face. She nodded her head and continued to chat. Her hands were flying through the air with each word she spoke as she started toward my side of the SUV and opened the door. Finally, she took the phone away from her ear and tapped the speaker icon. “Okay, what am I looking for?”
“Do you have a mirror in your purse?” Aaron asked.
Daisy stepped back and dug through her purse until she pulled out her foundation. Then she started to lean into the car.
I shook my head vehemently. “Stop, Daisy! I don’t want you to get hurt.”
She ignored me and used the mirror to look under my seat. “Okay, the bomb has a clock. We have forty-five minutes. There are a lot of wires.”
“Okay,” Aaron answered. “Step back. I’m on my way. The second we hang up, I will call Gabriel and have him meet me there. He is one of Brock’s top bomb experts. Then I will call Neal for an update. I love you, Daisy. Step back and be safe. If anything changes, call me.” The phone went dead.
“What is John doing?” I asked.
Daisy looked past me, and her eyes started to water. “He will try to make it.”
“Try to make it? I’m sitting on a fucking bomb. Tell me what’s going on.”
She still had tears running down her face. “Someone took control of the brakes and gas pedal of my car.”
“I need more than that. Are they okay?”
Daisy took a deep breath. “Neal didn’t tell me much. I called Neal first since he was supposed to be with John. Neal is going to stay with John. When I called Aaron, he was on his way to the accident.”
Two years ago, I had a role in an action-adventure movie. There was a scene at the end in which I was tied to a chair with a bomb underneath. The ticking had seemed so real when I did the scene that it was easy to put myself into a place of danger, but the real thing was ten times scarier.
My nose itched, but I was scared to make a move. I wanted John. Over the past couple of days, he had been there to answer questions and make me feel safe. He was an overprotective ass, but at that moment, I wanted his overprotective ass to come save me from being blown up. I had no clue who Gabriel was. The only thing I knew about him was that he was going to be one of the captains on our boat along with Jacob.
“Are we sure this Gabriel is any good?”
Daisy looked up from her phone. “Brock only hires the best. Gabriel was a Navy SEAL. His specialty is in bombs.”
With each tick of the bomb, my nerves frayed even more. “Daisy, you should go stand by the store. What happens if this thing goes off early or if I move and cause it to go off?”
“Not happening. When I looked, we had forty-five minutes. Now we’re down to forty-two. Gabriel will be here soon and look at the bomb. Then we’ll be on our way home.”
“Do you think you’ll get the flogger you wanted?” I needed her to keep talking to me and drown out the sound of the bomb. “I know you said earlier John went to the same club as you guys. Does that mean he’s a Dom like Aaron?”
Daisy wiped the tears from her face. “Yes. John is a Dom and has been in the lifestyle since I’ve known him.”
I was hoping for more information about the tall giant who seemed to growl at me more than smile. He didn’t like that I kept wanting to put myself in danger, and for the first time, I wished I had listened to him.
“How mad do you think he’s going to be at me for leaving?”
Daisy twisted her hair. “Oh, he’s going to be mad. John is overprotective. He talked to Brock for an hour last night about how dangerous it is to let you come along on the mission. But I think Brock is trying to play matchmaker. We all love John to death and see the way you look at each other.”
I didn’t need a mirror to know my face was bright red. “You think he likes me?”
“Yes. But you are going to make the first move.” Daisy scanned the parking lot. “How do you think they put the bomb in so fast?”
“I don’t know. It’s almost like it had to be done before we left the house. How did the bomb just now engage?”
I knew little about technology, but I knew no one had snuck into the driveway. Neal, one of Daisy’s fiancés, kept the front yard and house locked down better than most government security facilities. Hell, the government used his technology to help protect Langley. The only other option was that someone had followed us when we left the house and had planted the bomb when we went in the store.
I looked around as much as I could without moving. “Do you see any cameras?” Maybe we could catch a break and find out who was trying to kill me.
Daisy
stepped back from the car. I wanted to turn and watch, but I was too scared to move a muscle. My body ached from sitting ramrod straight in the same position. I could feel a trickle of sweat dripping down my face. More droplets fell with each second that passed. Five minutes felt like six hours.
“I didn’t see any—” Daisy’s words were cut off by the squeal of tires. “Gabriel is here.”
My body loosened a little now that someone was there who could help me. But my mind went back to John. I wanted to know if he was hurt, and if so, how bad.
I heard a car door slam followed by the sound of heavy footsteps. With each tick of the clock, I heard another step. Time crept by as I waited for the man named Gabriel to come diffuse the bomb.
A tall man stood next to me. He had to duck down to see into the car. His hair was cut in a short military style, not long like John’s. His eyes were dark brown, almost black. “Hi, Annabella. I’m Gabriel. I was hoping to meet you on better terms tonight, but let’s take a look at this bomb.”
“Oh, you mean better terms as in trying to help me flee the country to find the man I’m being accused of killing?”
The younger man let out a bark of laughter. “True. Let’s see what we’re working with.” Gabriel leaned into the SUV and looked between my legs at the bomb under my seat. Any other time, I might be excited to have a young man between my legs. But at that moment, I wanted John by my side and the bomb under my seat gone.
Gabriel stood up and ran his hand through his hair. “Okay, Annabella, I’m going to grab the tools I need from the truck and come back in a second.”
I reached out and grabbed his shirt. “Wait. Is John coming?”
He looked back toward his truck. “Let’s get this bomb taken care of.” Gabriel was jogging to his SUV before I could ask another question.
With each second that ticked by, I wondered if I would ever be able to see John again. If I made it out of this mess, I wanted to plant a big kiss on John. Even if we found Nate, I didn’t plan on marrying him. Hell, I didn’t know if I even wanted to be friends with him again. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the headrest, not understanding how we ended up this way. A few days ago, I was planning a wedding to my best friend and starring in my next blockbuster hit. Now I was wanted for murder and sitting on a bomb.
Hacker Salvation: White Hat Security, Book 7 Page 7