Hacker Salvation: White Hat Security, Book 7

by Baxter, Linzi

  “She ran to the bathroom, but she’s been gone six minutes.”

  “Maybe she went to another one. Are you positive she went to the one over there?” He pointed in the direction Annabella had gone.

  “Yes.” I jumped out of my chair and ran toward the ladies’ room. I could hear Gabriel behind me. I threw the door to the women’s room open and pushed open each stall door. She wasn’t there. “Fuck.”

  I grabbed the phone out of my pocket and called Brock. He answered on the first ring. “Hey, John.”

  “Can you hack the cameras at Annabella’s work?”

  I could already hear his fingers hitting the keyboard. “You want me to hack Universal Studios’ cameras?”

  “Yes. Is that possible?” I started to walk back toward the director’s chair. He would need to know what was going on.

  The director was in a conversation with Annabella’s manager.

  “Annabella is missing,” I said. “We need to lock down the area.”

  The manager started to puff out his chest. “You can’t just go around demanding things of the director. Annabella is a diva. Are you sure she didn’t just get sick of you and go home for the day?” I couldn’t believe she paid this douchebag a dime.

  The director turned from Annabella’s manager to me. “She wouldn’t just disappear, and I don’t know why you think she’s a diva. You’ve been trying to get me to drop her from the film since she got arrested for murder. You’re supposed to work for your client, not against them.”

  “Thanks, Director Paterson,” I said. “I’ve got someone looking at the camera feed right now.”

  “I’m not going to even ask how that’s possible,” Director Paterson said.

  Marcus became pale. “You can’t do that.”

  I raised an eyebrow, and my phone rang a second later. “Hey,” I answered.

  “You might want to find Annabella’s manager.” I looked around the room and saw the fucker heading for the door. “Gabriel, grab him.”

  Gabriel took off at a full sprint toward the man.

  “What did you see, Brock?” I could hear someone else in the room with Brock. It sounded like his wife, Jessica.

  “She talked to her agent for a few seconds before a man in a black mask came up behind her and put a gun to her back. They took her outside and pushed her into the trunk of her manager’s car.”

  My stomach dropped. How far could they have gotten? Who the hell was after her?

  Gabriel walked back in with Annabella’s manager. Her manager was threatening to sue Gabriel for manhandling him. I didn’t care what Gabriel did as long as we could figure out who the fuck was after Annabella. Gabriel pushed the pudgy guy into the director’s chair. When he tried to stand, Gabriel pushed him back down.

  “Sit,” Gabriel demanded.

  “I have a video of you helping a man kidnap Annabella,” I said. “Who has her, and why?”

  “I can’t tell you.” Her manager was a short, fat guy. He started to cry when I leaned in farther. “She has so much power. She said she would ruin me if I didn’t help her.”

  “If I leak that video to the press, your career is over. How do you think it looks to let your biggest client get kidnapped?” I paced in front of the director’s chair. “If you don’t give me a name within the next few minutes, I’m sending the video to the press and making sure you’re never hired by anyone else, you sniveling piece of shit.”

  I wanted this man to pay for the pain I knew Annabella was going through. Even if he gave me the info I needed, I planned to leak the video to the press. He was supposed to look out for his clients, not help someone kidnap them.

  “The governor’s wife wanted a meeting with her.”

  Gabriel picked up his phone and made a call. He would get as much information from Brock as we needed. “Why would the governor’s wife want a meeting? And there’s a difference between requesting a meeting and kidnapping someone from work.”

  “It has something to do with the 23andMe DNA test she took.”

  I grabbed Annabella’s purse and headed for the exit. Gabriel was on my heels, talking to Brock. We needed to get to a computer or a conference room. We decided to head back to the hotel and figure out our next plan.

  Gabriel called Neal and had him meet us at the hotel. The drive was quick. I couldn’t stop thinking about what could be happening to her or why it had happened in the first place.

  * * *

  “Why can’t anyone get me a conversation with the governor?” I glanced up at the wall clock. Annabella was taken an hour ago. Time seemed to be going at the speed of light.

  Neal shifted in his chair. “Nate has ties to the governor. Maybe try him.”

  I couldn’t help but grind my teeth. I was still pissed at what he’d put her through. But I needed to find out where they’d taken her.

  Nate answered the phone on the first ring. “Annabella?”

  “No, this is John. Someone took Annabella, and we need your help.”

  “Anything.”

  I ran my hand through my hair. “What can you tell me about the 23andMe test you and she took?”

  “Not much. Our results came in. I had one of the secretaries print them, and I took them home. I hadn’t looked at them yet. We’d planned to do it together, and then everything happened.”

  “Do you have access to the test right now?”

  I heard him typing on the keyboard. “This can’t be right.”

  “That she’s the governor’s daughter?” I paced back and forth inside the hotel room. It felt like the walls were closing in around me. What if I was too late? “If I had gone to the restroom with her, this wouldn’t have happened.”

  Gabriel rested his hand on my shoulder. “Stop that train of thought, man. We will get her back.”

  “Nate, do you have an address or number for the governor?”

  “Hold on a second.” Nate placed the phone on hold. It felt like an eternity before he clicked back over. “The governor agreed to meet you at his house.” Nate rattled off the address to the governor’s house.

  “This is dangerous. They kidnapped Annabella. I’m not waiting for the governor to show up. I’m going into the house no matter if he’s there or not.”

  “Get her back. Please make sure she’s okay.,” Nate said. “I will meet you there.” The line went dead.

  “Hang on, Beautiful. I’m coming for ya,” I whispered as I ran through the parking lot to our rented SUV.

  * * *

  Annabella

  The sound of two people screaming started to clear the fog in my head. I tried to move my hands, but they were still tied down to a chair. I wasn’t dead yet. The screaming became louder as I opened my one good eye. The other one was completely swollen shut. The room came into focus, and I noticed a new man in the room. The governor had shown up. Would he kill his own flesh and blood?

  I was still in shock at finding out my mother had slept with the governor. How could she have kept my father’s identity from me? It wasn’t that I cared about him being the governor. I’d thought my father was dead all of these years. I had used the test to see if I could find his family and find out information about who he was.

  “How could you do this, Isabella?”

  “She will ruin everything. You had a daughter with that tramp back in school. I did this for us. You were never supposed to know.”

  The governor pounded his fist against the desk. “No. You did this for you. I’m not the one pushing to be in the White House. You are. This girl might be my daughter. How could you do this?”

  “Water,” I choked out. I had caked blood on my mouth, and the inside felt like sandpaper.

  The man who was supposed to be my dad turned and walked toward me. He leaned down to untie my hands, when the crazy lady grabbed a pair of scissors from the desk and charged at him. I screamed, but my voice came out more like a whisper. He turned a second to late, and she stabbed him in the arm. My hands were still tied to the chair. I was helpless. I
couldn’t do anything to help him as blood ran down his arm.

  “You’ve lost your mind, Isabella. What do you think is going to happen next?” He gripped his arm, trying to stop the bleeding.

  The crazy lady started to pace back and forth. She kept mumbling to herself and running her hand through her hair. “I can make it look like she attacked you. When she found out you were her father and wouldn’t pay, she came after you.”

  Governor Jackson sat in the office chair next to me. “It won’t work. You know who she is. She doesn’t need money.”

  “Why are you defending her? You’re my husband.”

  The governor slowly pulled his phone out of his pocket. He didn’t look down as he pressed a couple buttons. “Yes, I’m your husband. But if that test is right, she is my daughter. There is nothing you can do about this.”

  She stopped pacing, grabbed her glass off the desk, and threw it across the room. It shattered when it hit the wall. “When I proved to Trina you cheated on her, I never thought I would have to deal with the bitch again. Now I have to deal with her daughter.”

  “I never cheated on Trina.”

  The dumb bitch rolled her eyes. “You were always too stupid. I knew you wanted to get into politics. She wouldn’t have been right for you, so I made her go away.”

  “Who else have you made go away?” His voice turned hard. “My mother didn’t die in an accident, did she?”

  “The stupid old lady found out I had an abortion and was going to tell you. I had to take care of her. You never saw what I had to sacrifice for us to get here.”

  The governor’s arm was still bleeding, and his face was becoming ashen. I kept working at the ropes around my hands. I could feel the blood trickle down my wrist. But I needed to do something quickly, or we both might die.

  I worked the rope back and forth, trying not to move too much. My dad’s head started to bob.

  “I can’t go to jail,” the crazy lady stated to the room.

  I needed to keep her talking so I could buy us some more time. I needed to save us. There was no way John would figure out where I was.

  My hand slipped a little through the ropes. I was getting close to getting them loose. “Isabella, you have to do something, or he’s going to die. He’s lost too much blood.”

  Her hair was no longer perfect. Strands stuck everywhere. She looked to where my dad was slumped over in the chair. Instead of coming over and trying to help him, she yanked the top desk drawer open and pulled out a gun.

  “Killing us will not save you. My friends will know I didn’t come here to kill him. I was taken off the set of a movie. They will search until they find answers.”

  “I will kill everyone who comes after me. I will not go to prison for that ungrateful bastard. He’s in office because of me.” She waved the gun around the room as she spoke.

  My right hand came free. Isabella wasn’t paying attention to me as I reached across and untied my other hand. My fingers tingled from finally getting circulation back into them. I had to fight through the pain. I didn’t know if my dad was going to make it.

  Isabella turned from looking out the window to see my hands untied. “No,” she screamed, aiming the gun at my dad. “I will be the poor widow. I will make it look like you committed suicide. I will not go down for murder. I always win.” Her finger went to the trigger.

  I lurched my body from the chair to cover my father’s. He couldn’t die. I heard my name screamed from the doorway at the same time I felt the searing pain in my side. Chaos broke out. I heard two more gunshots. I waited for the pain to register, but nothing happened.

  Someone grabbed me and tried to drag me off my dad. I hugged him tighter and screamed for the person to let me go.

  “Beautiful, it’s me. I need to look at you.”

  At the sound of John’s voice, I let go, and Gabriel rushed to my dad’s side.

  John held me in his arms and pressed his hand to my wound. I screamed in pain. “I need to keep pressure on it. The doctor will be here in a second.”

  “Save my dad,” I whispered before the room went dark.

  18

  John

  “Any changes?” Governor Paul Jackson asked. He had demanded to see his daughter the second he’d woken up in the ER. Instead of trying to argue with him, they’d let him up to her room. The hospital had wanted to run a couple of tests before they would release him, and he’d just finished his last test.

  “No change,” I said. “Has the doctor agreed to release you?”

  He sat down in the chair next to Annabella’s bed. His arm was in a sling from where he’d been stabbed. Annabella looked like she had gone ten rounds in a boxing match. Her right eye was swollen shut. Her pretty pink lips were puffy and swollen.

  The governor reached over and grasped Annabella’s hand. “I can go. I still can’t believe she didn’t tell me we had a daughter back in college. Annabella’s mother was the love of my life. One day, she dumped me and said it was over.” The older man glanced out the window and wiped his eyes.

  No matter what Annabella tried to tell me, I would never leave her. I didn’t care if it had only been a week. I knew she was the one. I’d already called Brock to tell him I planned to move to California. When he asked me to run a division of Blackwood Security out in California, I’d said yes immediately. Running one of the divisions would make it so I wouldn’t have to go overseas as much.

  The governor leaned back in his chair. “When are you going back to Florida?”

  My mouth twitched. “I don’t plan to leave Annabella. I will get an apartment out here and do whatever it takes to win her heart.”

  “I still can’t believe she’s my daughter. I missed all this time getting to know her.”

  Annabella’s finger moved for a second, and I waited for her to open her pretty green eyes. “You need to stop thinking about the time you lost. There’s no way to get it back. The only thing you can do is move forward and spend time with her.”

  Paul ran his good hand through his hair. “You know, when I was waiting to get my test done, my security came back and told me you work for Blackwood Security.”

  “I was in the same squad as the current owner.”

  “I’ve never heard anything bad about the mercenary company. They only hire the best. I know I just found out I had a daughter, but I’m glad she’s with you. I know she’s protected.”

  “Are you planning on keeping her a secret?” When or if they decided to announce their relationship to the public, it would be on the cover of every magazine.

  Paul shook his head. “No. I never wanted to run for president. That was Isabella’s dream, not mine. Zack Turner does a good job.”

  I let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good because Zeke Turner, the president’s brother, works with us back in Ft. Lauderdale and is a close friend of the family.”

  “I have no doubt you will take good care of my daughter. I’m just hoping she will forgive me for what happened.”

  Annabella’s eyes slowly opened. “I forgive you,” she whispered. I reached over and grabbed her hand. She gave me a weak smile. “You don’t need an apartment. You can stay with me.”

  The governor started to get up. “Annabella, your mom should be here with you. I’ll leave until we have time to talk this out.”

  Annabella reached for her dad’s hand. “Mom passed away seventeen years ago from cancer.”

  Paul sat back down in the chair. “I can’t believe she didn’t tell me about you. Your mother was the most amazing person in the world. You look so much like her.”

  “She was an amazing mom. I’m sorry I caused so much of an issue with Isabella. I really didn’t know about the test. I promise I’m not after your money. Nate wanted to help me find out if I had any family on my dad’s side still alive.”

  The governor scooted the chair up next to Annabella’s bed. “You never have to apologize for doing that test. You made me the happiest man in the world. I can’t believe I have a daughter.
If you want, I would love to spend more time getting to know you. As for Isabella, we won’t have to worry about her anymore. When you’re ready, I’m here for you.” Paul handed me his business card. “Call me when you want to meet for lunch.” He leaned over and kissed Annabella on the forehead. “Get better, daughter. I can’t wait to spend time with you.” He quickly wiped his eyes and headed for the door. He stopped before he left. “I will take care of the media around Isabella. I don’t want your name dragged through the press because of my crazy wife. Don’t get me wrong—we will go to the press and let them know I have a daughter, but on our time, not theirs.” The governor walked out the door and closed it behind him.

  “Hey, Beautiful. I’m glad you’re awake.”

  Tears streamed from her eyes. “You came for me.”

  I gently wiped her tears away. “I will always come for you, but you need to stop getting yourself almost killed.”

  “I’ll try. Are you really thinking about moving here? When you were talking to my dad, the words seemed so far away. Can you believe that the governor is my father? What about your job?”

  I gripped her hand. “Brock offered me a job running a division of Blackwood Security out here in California, and I told him I would. We discussed that maybe the division should be more bodyguards for the rich and less jetting off to other countries to deal with pirates and terrorist organizations.”

  Annabella looked toward the door. “I like the idea of you taking less dangerous jobs. Did you kill Isabella?”

  “There still might be a chance that I have to help the team out of Ft. Lauderdale every so often, and no, I didn’t kill Isabella. One of the governor’s bodyguards did.” After I’d seen what she had done to Annabella, I wanted to unload a round into the bitch. “Gabriel called and told me they caught the other two men who kidnapped you. They were taken to jail. You never have to worry about them again, and now we know why someone was after you. We also have video footage of your manager helping. I sent it over to the sheriff.”