Hacker Salvation: White Hat Security, Book 7

by Baxter, Linzi

  The bomb expert, Gabriel, returned with a bag. In the movie I had starred in that had the bomb under my seat, the person who’d pretended to be disarming it had worn a full-body bomb suit. Gabriel was dressed in a black T-shirt and dark jeans.

  “Shouldn’t you be in a bomb suit?” I asked as I wiped my sweaty hands down my jeans.

  “If we were back in Ft. Lauderdale, where I have my stuff, then yes. But I don’t travel with a bomb suit. Okay, let me get this diffused. We’re down to thirty minutes, and this might take me a while.”

  “Then why don’t we call the police? They should have bomb people. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

  Gabriel leaned his hip against the open door. “With what happened to John and Neal, we aren’t sure we can trust the police.”

  “Someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on. Are John and Neal okay?”

  “John will be okay. Now let me do my job so he doesn’t kick my ass for not getting this bomb diffused.” Gabriel lay down on the passenger side floor. His arm brushed against my leg, causing me to jump.

  I held my breath for a few seconds, waiting for the bomb to go off. When nothing happened, I exhaled. “How’s it going down there?” I asked while I watched Daisy pace outside the car with her phone attached to her ear.

  “I’ve seen this type of bomb before. I should have it diffused in a couple more minutes.”

  With no one telling me how John was, I slowly reached out and grabbed my phone from my purse. The screen flashed with a low battery signal when I unlocked it. The battery was at one percent when I clicked on the phone icon, and my phone died. I leaned back and closed my eyes, when I heard another car pulling up. Daisy ran to the newcomer. I couldn’t see who it was unless I twisted in my seat.

  Aaron stood next to the door.

  “Where’s John?” I asked.

  He ran his hand through his hair and ignored my question. “How are you doing, Gabriel?”

  I wanted to launch myself at him in frustration. “Hello? I asked a question.”

  “Good until a second ago when I cut the wrong wire,” Gabriel said. “Time’s going down a little faster. Might want to back up and get Daisy out of here.”

  “How much time?” I asked. When he didn’t answer, I was tempted to kick him. “Time, Gabriel.”

  Gabriel rolled out from under my seat and grabbed my hand. “We need to run now.” He yanked me out of the car, and I tried to keep up with him. He was running so fast, he was practically dragging me. Aaron and Daisy sprinted in front of us. We were twenty feet from the car when it exploded, and we flew forward. Gabriel grabbed me and tucked me under him as we hit the pavement and rolled. His back hit the asphalt with a thud. My knee skidded across the cement. Smoke billowed, and debris rained down around us.

  I rolled off of Gabriel and onto my back. “I thought you could diffuse the bomb.”

  He ran a hand over his face. “They put in a trip wire I didn’t see. When I cut the cord for the seat, the clock cut the time to one minute. It was easier to pull you out than to worry about saving the car.

  Aaron and Daisy walked over and helped us stand up. Sirens blared down the street. The police would be there soon.

  “Are you guys okay?” Aaron asked.

  “Yes,” Gabriel and I both responded.

  Aaron held Daisy close to him. “Daisy, I need you to take them to the hospital and get them both checked out. I’ll stay and wait for the police then take an Uber to the hospital. I don’t want them to know Annabella is here. Something is going on, and until we know what, I want to keep any information close to the vest.”

  10

  John

  My head pounded like a set of drums. I heard voices, but I couldn’t make anything out. Taking a couple of deep breaths, I opened my eyes. Annabella was sitting next to my bed. Fuck, I’m in the hospital. That was the last place I wanted to be. I tried to sit up when another hand pushed me back down.

  “John, you need to stay in bed,” Aaron said. “Let me get the doctor to come check you out.”

  “How long have I been out?” The accident came back in one quick flash. The brakes hadn’t worked, and the car had hit the tree head-on. I reached up and touched the side of my head, feeling a large bump where I’d hit the window.

  Neal leaned against the wall. “A couple hours. You scared the shit out of me when you wouldn’t wake up. After the crash, I called 911 and then Aaron.”

  Annabella reached over and grabbed my hand. Her hand felt so warm, but my body went cold when I saw the bandage on her forehand and the scrape along her arm. “What happened?”

  She bit her lip. The gesture stirred a desire I didn’t have time to deal with. “It was nothing.”

  Neal and Jacob coughed on the other side of the room. Daisy turned her head so I couldn’t see her face.

  “Tell me what happened.” When she tried to pull away, I gripped her hand.

  She fidgeted for a moment before she answered. “Someone planted a bomb in Daisy’s SUV.”

  I laid my head back and closed my eyes. The throbbing in my head got worse with each second. A bomb. And I wasn’t there to make sure she was okay. “I take it you weren’t able to disarm the bomb,” I said to Gabriel. I couldn’t hold back the coldness in my voice. He was one of the best bomb experts in the navy. He still went and helped teach the new cadets, and the local Ft. Lauderdale police used his expertise.

  Gabriel ran his hand across his short-cropped hair. “When I disarmed the pressure switch to the seat, the time cut to one minute. Instead of trying to disarm it, I pulled her out of the car to make sure I could get her away. My main goal was to get Annabella out of danger, man. I’d seen the bomb configuration before. It shouldn’t have done what it did. I’ve been racking my brain, trying to figure out what went wrong, and the only thing I could think of was that they messed up building it. I’m glad I got her out of there when I did. Who knows if it would’ve counted down correctly?”

  “Fuck! So someone messed with the car and put a bomb in the SUV. Was this done at Neal’s house?”

  Neal planted himself in the chair by the window. One of his arms was in a sling, and the other hand flew across the keyboard. It looked like he was working just as fast as he did with two arms. “No. I checked the video. Somehow, the video feed from the sheriff’s office is gone. There was a glitch during the time we were talking to the sheriff. The video near the convenience store had the same issue.”

  Annabella gasped next to me. When I looked over, she appeared worried. I wanted to pull her into my arms and promise her everything would be okay.

  “Who could be doing this?” she asked.

  I squeezed her hand before turning back to Gabriel. “Whose signature was on the bomb?”

  “I’ve seen it used in another mob case.”

  My jaw hardened. “So those men leaving Nate’s office are behind this?”

  Gabriel paced in front of the hospital bed. “That was my first thought, but whoever built the bomb wasn’t an expert, and when the mob tries to off someone, they do it correctly. Because if the person they hire messes up, that person is taken out. This bomb wasn’t built correctly.”

  “Do you really think the mob is trying to kill me?” Annabella’s lip started to tremble. “Maybe Nate is dead and the info we found is wrong.”

  I couldn’t hold back any longer. I tugged her from the chair onto my bed. Neal looked up from the laptop and smirked. She didn’t protest and snuggled up next to me.

  “We still need to go to Nicaragua and look into the info Neal found,” I said. “And I’m not letting you out of my sight until we figure out what is going on. So it looks like I’m not going to complain any longer about you coming with.”

  Neal tapped his fingers on the keys. “Jacob went to the private airfield to get set up. We have a four-seat cargo plane waiting to take you to Nicaragua in the morning. I picked up Annabella’s fake passport. She will need to dye her hair tonight. We don’t want any chance of her being reco
gnized. We don’t have time for you guys to sail there on a boat. The fastest way is to try to sneak you out of the country by plane.”

  Waiting until morning wouldn’t be helpful. We needed to handle the situation tonight. “Why can’t we leave now?”

  Gabriel shook his head. “Dude, you have a concussion. You can’t leave until morning.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “I can handle my concussion. And when did you go from calling me sir to dude?”

  Gabriel shrugged. “It’s been a long day. I’m going to grab something to eat then go help Jacob. If you need anything, let us know.”

  Annabella tapped me on the shoulder. “You should be nicer to him. He saved my life today.”

  The thought of Annabella almost dying had my nerves on edge. It would be hard to control myself if we find Nate. In fact, it would take everything in me not to kill the fucker. How could someone leave Annabella with all of this baggage?

  Aaron and the doctor walked in a couple of minutes after Gabriel left. They didn’t say anything about the fact that Annabella was next to me. I wasn’t about to give them a chance. She settled something inside me. Having her next to me felt perfect. We would need to discuss what was happening between us. After hearing she could have died, I had an overwhelming need to protect her. Annabella deserved to be with someone who cared about her and didn’t leave her with the possibility of being set up for murder.

  “Good evening, Mr. Waters,” the doctor said.

  Annabella tried to scoot out of bed, but I tightened my grip around her waist.

  “When can I get out of here?”

  The doctor smiled. “I can always tell when I have an ex-military man as a patient. They never even ask what’s wrong, just ‘when can I leave?’ ”

  “I feel fine,” I grumbled.

  The doctor opened the chart and glanced at it. “You have a concussion and were unconscious for a couple hours. I want to watch over you for a couple more hours. Then you can go home as long as you have someone to watch you tonight.”

  “What do I need to do?” Annabella asked.

  The doctor handed her a piece of paper with information on concussions and what to look out for. “If you need anything else, please don’t hesitate to ask.” He nodded to me. “Thank you for your service.” Then he turned and left.

  “If I’m going to be released in a couple hours, I think we should leave tonight.”

  Aaron leaned forward in his chair. “No. I already talked to Brock. They’re working on gathering more information before you head down. You will be fine going in the morning. You took a good hit to the head—you don’t need to be jetting off tonight. We want to make sure you have to even go. Brock has a contact down there who’s going to see if they can get a glimpse of Nate before you leave.”

  Annabella laid her head down on my shoulder and grabbed my hand. “I agree with Brock, let’s go tomorrow. Don’t get me wrong—I want to figure out what is going on—but your health is more important.”

  Neal cursed from the chair. “You might want to call your sister.”

  Confusion furrowed my brow. “Why?”

  Neal reached for the controller and turned on the TV. My face flashed across the screen. The news anchors were discussing whether Annabella and I were having an affair and if that might be the reason she’d killed him or had him murdered.

  “The news media is talking about you and Annabella dating. She’s probably already arranged the wedding. We all know how much Addie loves Annabella,” Neal said as a picture of me and Annabella on the sheriff’s office steps flashed across the screen. “You know the media will be hounding her for answers.”

  “I’ll call her in a few. I don’t understand why they are so adamant he’s dead.” I grumbled.

  Missing money, and no body all led me to think he was still alive. With someone trying to kill us, I believed he was running from something. I just didn’t know why they would go after Annabella. We needed to figure out what he was running from.

  “Deep down, I have this feeling he’s still alive,” Annabella said. “But when we do find him, I might kill him for leaving me with this mess. I wish he would have told me what was wrong or what was going on.”

  I didn’t plan on letting Annabella dirty her hands by killing her ex-fiancé. I would do it myself. I planned to find Nate and let Annabella call off the fake engagement before I persuaded her to be mine. Hopefully, she could overlook the scar down the side of my face.

  Daisy looked down at her phone. “John, are you going to call your sister?”

  “I don’t know where my phone is. I need it to call her.”

  “You can use mine.” Annabella started to get up to get her phone, but I pulled her back to my side.

  “Neal, can you grab Annabella’s phone?”

  Neal set his laptop to the side and tossed me the phone. “Don’t get used to this. I did that because you’re still supposed to be in bed.”

  I looked over at Annabella. “Are you sure you want me to use your phone to call my sister? She might call you once she has your number.”

  She rolled her pretty green eyes. “Call her.”

  Addie picked up on the first ring. “Hello?” Her voice sounded worried.

  “Hey, pip-squeak.”

  Addie let out a deep breath. “You know how many times I’ve tried to call you? I was about to book a flight. Do you know what that means for me to even go to the airline’s website and start looking for one? Nobody would tell me anything. All I keep seeing on the gossip rags is a picture of you being carted off, John. What the hell is going on?”

  My throat closed up. “You almost booked a flight?”

  The line was quiet for a second. “Yes.” That was all I needed to hear to know how worried she was. A flight for Addie would have been really hard for her.

  “I’m fine. A couple stitches and a concussion. Annabella is going to watch me tonight. But I might not be able to talk for a few days. We need to figure out who’s after her.”

  I heard the rustling of papers on the other end of the phone. If I were a betting man, I would bet she contacted Brock, got information on Annabella’s case, and spent the last few hours looking to see what she could find. When her anxiety increased, research helped keep her mind off the surrounding problems.

  “He didn’t leave the country,” Addie said.

  “Who?” I had a feeling I knew who she was going to say, but I wanted to hear the words from her. Neal motioned for me to put the phone on speaker, so I tapped the screen.

  “Nate,” Addie answered.

  Neal set his laptop to the side. “What have you found, pip-squeak?”

  I could almost see Addie roll her eyes. “I’m not a pip-squeak. You guys need to stop calling me that. I understand why you think he might’ve gone to Nicaragua, but I pulled security footage from the night he and Pedro left. They didn’t head towards an airport or the boat docks. When they left, they went north on the 495 towards Santa Clarita. Last year, Nate bought a house in Santa Clarita and signed it over to Pedro.”

  Annabella gasped. I pulled her in closer, and she laid her head on my chest.

  “Were you able to find any camera footage showing they’re in Santa Clarita?” I asked.

  “No.”

  Now we had two possible locations they could be, and we needed to decide which one to visit. “Thanks for the info, pip-squeak.” Addie huffed on the other end, making me smirk. “Let us know if you find anything else. Be careful.”

  “You too, big bro.” The line went dead.

  Neal had picked his laptop back up, and I used Annabella’s phone to call Brock.

  “Addie gave us another lead.”

  The sound of the keyboard clicking in the background let me know Brock was in his usual location—in front of his monitors, looking at the world. “Yeah, we talked earlier. I planned to call you when the doctor let you go. I’m doing some more research. Call me when you get back to Daisy’s house.”

  “Okay.”

>   The next couple of hours moved slow. I wanted to get out of the hospital room and figure out a plan. Neal and I had come up with an idea—I would go to Santa Clarita and see what I could find, while Gabriel and Jacob would head to Nicaragua to see if they could come up with another lead.

  Annabella had fallen asleep on my chest. I liked having her in my arms. The doctor finally walked back in to let us know a nurse would be by with the discharge papers. Annabella woke up and climbed off the bed. It felt so empty without her next to me.

  I was changing back into my regular clothes when Annabella’s phone rang. Her face went from pale to bright red as she looked at the display. She angrily swiped her finger across the screen. “Where the fuck are you?” she screamed into the phone.

  I mouthed for her to put it on speaker.

  “They’re going to kill me.”

  11

  Annabella

  I was no longer shocked that Nate had called. Anger had replaced all the feelings I had for the man. I might’ve screamed at him for a good ten minutes before I let him talk. Telling him our pretend engagement was off hadn’t needed to be said at that point, but I’d done it anyway. I had let out a week’s worth of anger, sadness, and betrayal into one conversation.

  The part that hurt the most was that Nate hadn’t called because he’d wanted to clear my name. He’d figured he would help clear my name when he was no longer running from the men after him. No, he’d called because he wanted to know if Brock could help him. His location had been found, and he and Pedro were on the run again. My jaw hurt from clenching it. John had agreed to help Nate the second he’d asked.