by Linzi Baxter
Hacker Revelation
White Hat Security, Book 5
Linzi Baxter
Contents
Acknowledgments
AUTHOR’S NOTE
1. Antonio
2. Kat
3. Antonio
4. Kat
5. Kat
6. Antonio
7. Kat
8. Kat
9. Antonio
10. Kat
11. Kat
12. Kat
13. Kat
14. Antonio
15. Kat
16. Antonio
17. Antonio
Epilogue
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Grayson’s Angel Blurb
Grayson’s Angel - Chapter Preview
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About Author
Hacker Revelation
White Hat Security Series, Book 5
Copyright © 2018 by Linzi Baxter
Kindle Edition
Editor: Jennifer Wadsworth, Red Adept Editing
Cover Artist: Cassy Roop, Pink Ink Designs
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without permission of the author.
The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement (including infringement without monetary gain) is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.
Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
BLURB
Romance never dies...
Kat and Antonio Ross seemed to have their whole lives ahead of them. Six years ago, they married each other. But the next day turned to tragedy when Kat and Antonio were led to believe the other died in a violent shootout. Since then, they’ve led separate lives. Kat began working for her uncle, the CIA director, as an assassin. Antonio, an ex-Navy SEAL, started a well-respected mercenary company.
But when Antonio finds out Kat is alive, he brings her back home. He wants her to quit the CIA for the sake of their child. Kat agrees and starts working at a women’s shelter, where an abused woman seeks her help. Kat’s instincts kick in, and she’s back to making enemies again. And when the woman’s husband comes after her, it’s just the beginning of this heart-pounding thrill ride.
Hacker Revelation is a fast-paced and sexy novel full of romantic suspense. Kat and Antonio have the chance to live the quiet life. But life’s never been quiet for these two. And when the chips are down and their whole lives are at stake, nothing’s ever going to stop them. Because love is in the air… and so are the bullets.
Acknowledgments
I would like to express my gratitude to the many people who saw me through this book: My editor, Jennifer, who did an amazing job and worked hard to help me craft a better story. Cassy for doing an astounding job with the cover art. Michelle and Jean for taking the time to beta read for me. My husband and family for always being there to support me. This book couldn’t have happened without all of you!
Thank you to all you amazing readers who are going on this journey alongside me. I hope Hacker Revelation is all that you hoped for and more!
AUTHOR’S NOTE
White Hat Security Series
Hacker Exposed
Royal Hacker
Misunderstood Hacker
Undercover Hacker
Hacker Revelation
Montana Gold (Brotherhood Kindle World)
Grayson’s Angel
Noah - Oct 23, 2018
A Flipping Love Story (Badge of Honor World)
Unlocking Dreams - Nov 13, 2018
Unlocking Hope - 2019
Visit linzibaxter.com for more information and release dates.
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1
Antonio
“Mommy… can’t… breathe,” Antonio Jr. choked out. Kat had her arms wrapped tight around his little body, and tears streamed down her face. When Kat didn’t loosen her hold, I bent down next to her and placed my hand on her back. Her eyes shifted toward me, and she mouthed, “Thank you.”
Kat needed to learn that I would do anything for her and our son.
“Kitty Kat, can I get a hug from our son?” She nodded and slowly released him. Ant jumped into my arms, and it took everything in me to hold back my tears. When the school had called earlier to inform us that they couldn’t find Ant, fear had coursed through my body. I was feeling the effect of the unused adrenaline now that Ant had been found.
I pulled back and stared down at my son. He wore a Cars T-shirt that matched his blue shorts, and his little lip quivered. “Did I do something wrong, Daddy?”
But I couldn’t answer him. I still didn’t know why Ant had hidden in the janitor’s closet.
“Can we move this to my conference room? The afternoon bell will ring soon,” Principal Anderson said.
I nodded.
Principal Anderson was in her early thirties. Her mouse-brown hair was in a bun, and black-framed glasses sat low on her nose. Her six-inch heels added height to her small frame. She was pretty but bland compared to my firecracker of a wife.
Ant put one tiny hand in mine and grabbed Kat’s with the other. I met Kat’s eyes over Ant, and she gave me a watery smile. We followed Principal Anderson as her high heels clicked across the white floor.
A memory flashed through my brain of the last time I had been ordered to the principal’s office. I was in middle school, and Asher thought it would be funny if we replaced the science teacher’s dead frogs with live ones. When the teacher opened the pail of frogs to hand them out to students for dissection, they all escaped. We got expelled from school for a week, and Mom made us help the house cleaner the whole time.
Principal Anderson opened the door that led to her conference room. She sat down at the child-size table. I eyed the table and tried to figure out how I would fold my six-foot-three frame into a two-foot chair. Kat and Ant grabbed the two red seats and sat with ease, leaving a yellow chair for me. I decided not to burden the tiny chair and leaned against the wall instead.
In a soft voice, Principal Anderson asked, “Antonio, can you explain to your parents and me why you hid from your teachers today?”
Ant swung his eyes in my direction, seeking my okay. I nodded.
“Daddy said if I saw Uncle Juan, I was supposed to hide.” Ant picked up the crayon on the table and started to draw on the piece of paper in front of him.
Kat let out a gasp, then she pulled the piece of paper away from Ant to get his full attention. “Are you sure it was Uncle Juan? Sometimes we make mistakes and think we see something we didn’t.”
I believed Ant. I took my phone from my pocket and sent Asher a text to have someone pull all the video feed from around the school. Asher was my twin brother and co-owner of our security firm, AA Security. Earlier in the day, we had been under the impression that Juan Sanchez, Ant’s uncle, had planted a bomb in Kat’s sister’s car. SWAT had spent the morning defusing the bomb.
“Duh, Mom. I know who Uncle Juan is.”
Kat sent me a worried look.
I bent down to Ant’s level. “Can you tell me specifica
lly what happened?”
Ant let out an aggravated sigh. “Kurt and I were playing ball. When Kurt threw the ball wide, it went by the fence. Uncle Juan was at the fence, but he couldn’t get in. He told me that Aunt Sophie was in the hospital, and I needed to go with him. But I knew he was lying. If Aunt Sophie were hurt, you would come get me. So I did what you said, Dad. You told me if I ever saw Uncle Juan, I should hide, and you would find me. Did I do good?”
I scooped Ant into my arms and pressed a kiss against his head. “You did perfect.” I sat Ant back in his chair next to his mom.
“Can I have ice cream, then?”
Everyone let out a chuckle at Ant’s question. It helped relieve some of the tension in the room.
Principal Anderson cleared her throat. She had a No. 2 pencil in her hand, and she had taken notes on everything that was said. “Are the other kids in danger? This Juan character—is he bad news?”
How could I explain that the man after my family was the corrupt former director of the CIA? He was the number-one most-wanted terrorists in the world, with a $25 million reward for his capture. The number-two most-wanted terrorist was the leader of Al Qaeda.
“I think it would be better if we pull—”
Ant cut off my words with his own. “I want to stay here.” His lip quivered.
I lowered myself to Ant’s height. His steely gray eyes gazed back at me. No matter how many times I had looked at Ant in the last few weeks, it punched me in the gut every time I realized how much he looked like me.
“Buddy, I’m not saying you can’t come back, but let’s take you out for a week. I need you to stay with your grandparents.”
“Okay. Grandma Ross always has warm cookies for me.”
Cookies. Too bad adults weren’t that easy to bribe. Kat could have bribed me with sex, and I would have dropped to her feet. I shook my head to get the image of Kat’s naked body out of my mind.
She gave me a raised eyebrow in response to my far-off gaze as she rose from the child-sized chair.
I gathered Ant into my arms. “I’m sorry Ant worried you today. I hope you will allow him to come back once his uncle is behind bars.”
Principal Anderson gazed past us, lost in her own thoughts. “I understand things happen in our lives. We would love to have Ant back when his uncle is in jail.” She ruffled Ant’s hair and extended her hand. “Thank you for understanding that I need to protect all the students.”
Ant’s school had dismissed the students for the day. Only the teachers remained. Mrs. Ferguson, Ant’s teacher, gave him a hug and had tears in her eyes when we went to say good-bye.
The walk to the car was uneventful. Kat lifted Ant into his car seat and kissed him on the forehead. She mumbled something to him that I couldn’t hear. Ant leaned in and kissed his mom on the cheek before I closed his door and followed Kat around the car. It had been a difficult couple of hours, so I wrapped my arms around Kat. She automatically rested her head on my shoulder. Her eyes still had a sheen of water.
“He’s fine, Kitty Kat.”
“I’m still worried.” Her words came out muffled against my chest.
We had almost made it to the house when Ant asked the question I had hoped to avoid. “Did you track me with ESP?”
I let out a chuckle. “GPS, son. Yes. You did good. I’m so proud of you.”
Kat was deadly quiet in the passenger seat. The tension in the cab was almost suffocating.
“Do you have GPS devices on anyone else besides our son?”
Six years earlier, Kat and I had run an undercover operation for Juan Sanchez. It was the first and last case we worked together. That was when Juan was the director of the CIA. I fell for the fiery redhead the second she stormed into the briefing room and commanded everyone’s attention. By the end of the week, I had my ring on her finger. It was a whirlwind romance.
The op was informal, and we had the intel we needed by the following week, so we spent an extra day in Berlin to celebrate our wedding. The morning of our flight home, we stopped in Kat’s favorite café to have coffee. We had just sat down when someone fired on the restaurant with automatic weapons. I took three shots before I could grab my gun.
When I woke in the hospital, Juan Sanchez informed me that Kat had been shot and didn't survive surgery. I had lived the last five and a half years thinking my wife was dead. Those days were my darkest. The sun never seemed to rise. Many nights, I wished I would have died with her. She was my sunshine.
When Sophie, a close friend of my sister-in-law’s, was escorted out of White Hat Security by the CIA agent Zane, I had used my connection to find out why they had taken her. Juan, who happened to be Sophie’s uncle, had been forcing her to work for the CIA. During the briefing I barged in on, an analyst had a picture of Sophie’s sister in a case file. Juan tried to prevent Sophie from seeing it, but it didn’t work, and I saw it as well. Sophie’s sister was my dead wife, who wasn’t dead after all.
After a carefully planned mission to find and extract her, I finally held my wife in my arms for the first time in almost six years.
So yes, I had bugged her. What sane man wouldn’t have?
“Kitty K—”
“Don’t you fucking ‘Kitty Kat’ me, Antonio. Did you put a tracking device on me?”
Our little man with big ears picked up everything. “Mommy said a bad word.”
Kat rested her head in her hands. “I’m sorry, Ant. You're right. We don’t say those words.”
I had to hold back the chuckle. Kat cursed all the time, but lately, she had tried to cut back on the swear words. A few more would fly when I admitted I bugged her shoes.
“I lost you once. It will not happen again. For every one you remove, I will replace it with two. Don’t try me on this, Kat.”
“It’s okay, Mommy. We are a cool blue dot on Uncle Asher’s computer.”
Kat looked back at our son and let out an aggravated sigh. “It would’ve been nice to know. Do you have a GPS tracker in your shoes, Antonio?”
“Yes.”
Kat’s head whipped in my direction. She hadn’t expected me to say yes. Juan Sanchez wasn’t the only dangerous case we had. Every member of my team wore a GPS device. Asher and his fiancé, CJ, were the only two people who had access to the GPS information.
“Oh.”
It wasn’t often that I shocked Kat out of a lecture. I reached across the center console, grabbed her hand, brought it up to my lips, and kissed it. She didn’t fight me at all.
“Kat, everyone on my team, including me, wears GPS trackers. Our team takes on dangerous cases, so Asher and I decided to make sure each team member was protected. Many of our significant others and the people we are protecting wear them as well. I don’t want to lose anyone, especially you and Ant, again. I knew you would protest, so I put the devices in your shoes. It took me a few days, since you have close to a hundred pairs. Are you still mad at me?”
“No, but I wish you would have let me know. Can we stop and pick up dinner? I’m not in the mood to cook.”
Asher had texted me when we were at the school. He and CJ were bringing dinner over along with the video CJ pulled from the area around the school. CJ was my brother Asher’s fiancé. About a year ago, Asher had told the family he was gay. CJ was a perfect partner for my brother.
“Asher’s bringing food. Do you want to call Sophie and see if she and Zane want to come over for dinner?”
Kat tried Sophie, but she didn’t answer. I wasn’t surprised. She and Zane had finally made up after a month of putting each other through hell.
When we got home, Asher and I spent the night analyzing the video. The video confirmed Ant’s story that Juan had been at the school. We used satellite surveillance to follow his car. He had pulled into a public parking lot. I asked my newest hire, Jacob, to go to the parking garage and report back what he found.
He later sent me a text saying Juan’s car was parked in the back of the garage and wiped down. Juan had escaped our grasp a
gain, and we were back to square one.
2
Kat
For the last few weeks, I had been working on changing my life and had enjoyed every moment.
The biggest change was learning not to kill first and ask questions later. If Antonio ever found out about the alligator in our backyard to whom I’d fed a few bodies over the last few weeks, he would put me on house arrest.
Since my retirement from the CIA as their top assassin, I had volunteered at the Ross Women’s Outreach Center. The Ross Family Foundation ran the center and worked to eliminate domestic violence. It felt good to give back to society. It was also one of the hardest jobs I had ever experienced.
Each day, I saw women come in with black-and-blue eyes or cracked ribs. The women at the center dealt not only with physical abuse but mental abuse as well. Some women had lived on the streets for years, waiting for a spot to open at the center.
Each of the volunteers helped in different areas of the center. I assisted the women working on their GED. I also planned to run a self-defense class in the next few days.
Lily, one of the women I’d met, had been in and out of the center for the past two years. She still lived with her abusive husband. During the day, she came to the center to work on getting her GED. Each day, I discussed with her the options she had for leaving her abusive husband. Lily reminded me of a Victoria’s Secret model, but years of abuse had made sure she couldn’t see her own beauty or worth.