by J. S. Scott
“So where is your partner?” Charlie asked. “Does he know you’re trying to save a damsel in distress?”
I was happy there was some levity in her voice. “He’s on his honeymoon. He just got married. We’re kind of between important projects at the moment.”
That wasn’t exactly true, but we weren’t working on anything enormous. I had trials to do for a big company, but Kane wasn’t as involved in testing as I was, and he deserved a damn honeymoon.
“So that’s why you were playing on the dark web?” Charlie asked curiously.
“I want to dismantle as much of the dark web as possible,” I explained. “If I could do it singlehandedly, I would. It’s an interest of mine.”
“An interest or an obsession?”
“Maybe a little of both,” I admitted. “I fucking hate the shit that goes on there. Sex trafficking. Prostitution. Underground gambling. Hits on really nice female scientists.”
She laughed, just like I’d hoped.
“I’m not much good on a computer,” she explained. “I don’t exactly hang out online and do the whole social media thing.”
“You’re not missing out on much—and the dark web is far different to anything most people would come across,” I cautioned. “It’s pure evil most of the time.”
Nothing good ever happened on the dark web. Taking it down piece by piece was my personal mission.
“So you were cruising around on the dark web when you saw my hit?”
I flinched. “I saw it as I was looking around, yes.” I hated the fact that I’d almost convinced myself not to get involved. So much bad shit happened there that I sometimes just focused on how I could abolish the whole thing rather than help one single person.
But somehow, Charlie’s situation hadn’t let me stay away.
“Thank you for stepping into this,” she said quietly. “You certainly didn’t have to. You may have saved my life.”
As I pulled into my driveway, I acknowledged to myself that I was glad I had decided to take action. Just the thought of anything happening to Charlie made my whole body tense, and my protective instincts spring into action.
“It’s not over yet,” I warned her.
No, the situation was far from resolved, but I swore right then and there that nothing would ever happen to Charlie unless I was dead and helpless to protect her.
The bastards would have to go through me first.
CHAPTER 10
Charlie
The dogs ran around in an endless display of bliss as Gavin and I arrived back at his home. After they’d assured themselves that we weren’t leaving again, they ran outside willingly, ready to play.
“I should check the net again,” Gavin said calmly.
Personally, I was still freaked out over whether or not my boss had put the hit on me back up again.
I followed him to his office, and sat down on a small sofa to wait for him to investigate.
My body was tense as his fingers flew over his keyboard. And yet, despite it all, I couldn’t help but admire Gavin, loving the intense concentration on his face as he looked for answers.
Gavin was absolutely brilliant. To have risen to the position he was in with his life right now, he had to be. The fact that he looked hotter than Hades when he was hell bent on doing something made him all the more attractive.
What would it be like to have that laser-sharp focus all on me?
Did Gavin even give his women the same attention that he gave his work?
If he was anything like me, he didn’t, since I hadn’t paid any guy any attention in ages.
Except when it came to Gavin. I’d happily focus on him.
“I’m surprised it’s not back up, but I don’t see it,” Gavin observed.
“Thank God.” My body shivered in relief.
“It could be that he already found his man,” he explained. “I don’t want to scare you by saying that, Charlie. I just don’t want to give you a false sense of security. What the assholes are doing is extremely profitable, and they are playing for high stakes. This isn’t just going to go away.”
“I think I know that now,” I acknowledged.
I might be naïve, but I wasn’t stupid. I knew well enough the sort of prices our enemies would pay to have a biological weapon. When that large a sum of money was on the line, they wouldn’t think twice about murdering someone standing in their way.
“You have to be careful,” Gavin said in a concerned voice.
I sighed. “All of this over biological weapons. Why? That’s one thing I just can’t understand. As scientists, we work to find cures, so we can make the world a better place. Yes, we need to study dangerous diseases, but what American would sell out their country for money?”
“It’s a lot of money,” he said cynically. “Some people would sell their own family or they’re fucking soul for that matter.”
“I wouldn’t,” I answered. “We’ve seen pandemics, and studied the history of severe outbreaks. The Black Plague wiped out millions—half of the population of Europe. Even if somebody had money, what kind of world would they have to live in?”
Gavin shrugged. “Even knowing that, some people don’t care. Money is king.”
“Is that how you feel?” I asked curiously, pretty sure I knew the answer.
“Hell, no. Getting rich was never my objective, even if it was pretty important to my partner, Kane. But it wasn’t just the money for him, either. He had something to prove. Maybe we both did.”
“I’d hate to see a world where we couldn’t contain another pandemic of epic proportions. Science has come way too far for that to happen. That’s why we study. We’re supposed to be looking for a cure, not killing people.”
“I think almost every form of work can be studied for bad things,” Gavin observed.
He was probably right. Even in the computer world, skills could be easily used for financial gain.
“We really need to end this, Gavin. We have to find a way to take these people down. The consequences of not getting biological weapons out of enemy hands could be catastrophic.”
“I know,” he replied. “We’ll do everything we can. I’ll use all the connections I’ve gotten over the years.”
“What can I do?”
Before he could answer, a buzzing sound filled the room.
“Shit! Someone’s at my gate, and I don’t normally get visitors, especially when my partner is away, and I sent my sister and brother a note that I’d be out of town just so they didn’t drop over.” Instead of heading to answer the door, he tapped away on his keyboard, and just a moment later, he had the live feed from his front gate security camera up on his screen. “What the hell is he doing here? It’s my contact at the FBI.”
He tapped away again, remotely opening the gate, and then waiting to make sure the place was secure once again as the gate shut behind the agent. Gavin got to his feet, and grabbed my hand, leading the way to the front door, pulling it open and stepping aside so the agent could enter. “Lou… what the hell’s going on? I hadn’t expected you to come knocking,” he said roughly. “This is Charlie. Charlie, this is special agent Louis Green.”
“Our scientist.” The FBI agent was a kind-looking African-American gentleman in his mid-fifties, who gave me a kind smile, and held out his hand. “Call me Louis or Lou.”
I shook his hand, wondering why he was here. “If you’re trying to help me, thank you,” I rushed to tell him.
“You have my word, I’m doing all I can to put an end to the threat you’re dealing with.” Lou shifted his attention between me and Gavin. “Have you seen the news?”
“No. I’ve been too busy keeping Charlie safe,” Gavin answered. “What’s going on?”
“This is an ugly situation, and it just keeps getting worse,” Louis told me.
“What did you
find out?” Gavin asked.
“We’ve got trouble,” the agent answered in a serious tone. “We aren’t certain where this ends, yet, but we know it wasn’t just some project being worked on by the lab supervisor.”
“How do you know that?” I asked anxiously.
“Is your boss’s name Doug Whitman?” Agent Green asked stoically.
“Yes. Dr. Whitman. He’s been my superior as long as I’ve been at the lab,” I confirmed.
“Was he supposed to be working today?” Louis asked.
“No. We run a really small crew on the weekends. No one in management comes in,” I explained. I didn’t even work weekends. It was a time when most of the mundane catchup was done by lab techs.
“He was there today,” Louis commented. “Apparently he got there very early.”
“Are you watching him? How did you know?” I was wondering why in the hell my boss was working in the early morning hours on a Sunday. That just never happened.
“Because the first one to come into the lab this morning found his body in his office. He was shot with a double-tap to the head. Dr. Whitman is dead.”
CHAPTER 11
Gavin
This was not good news. Not at all. Because if Charlie’s boss was dead, then it meant that whoever he was working for had decided that things had taken a turn they didn’t like, and they were now looking to tie up loose ends.
And Charlie was one big ole loose end, and I had no doubt they were going to do all they could to make sure she didn’t become an even bigger problem than she was now.
“Lou, above all, I need to keep Charlie safe. She’s all that matters in this mess, especially when she hadn’t realized what she was walking into.” She’d been completely innocent—probably never did anything illegal in all her life—and now she had criminals hunting her down and wanting her dead. But there was no fucking way I was going to let that happen. “I can try to keep her safe on my own, but if the FBI can help in any way, I’ll sure as hell be able to do a better job of it.”
“We’ll have to bring her in for questioning if we have any hope of keeping her out of harm’s way. We need to figure out who’s behind this, so we can try to put a stop to it at the source. And eventually, we’ll also need her to testify if we have any hope of putting an end to this.” Lou knew damn well that having her be a witness in this case, if it went to trial, would put a bull’s eye on Charlie’s back, and was already putting his hands up to try and calm me down. “I know you don’t like the idea—and believe me, I get it. But the only way to make sure Charlie stays safe is to put these guys away for a very long time. And in order to do that, we need her help, though we’ll do our best to work other angles.”
I didn’t just “not like” the idea — I fucking hated it. Yet I knew that Charlie’s options were few, short of being on the run the rest of her life. And that just wasn’t any way to live. “I want your word that if there’s a way around getting her to testify, if there’s someone else who can testify in her place, especially when she only stumbled upon this by accident, then you’ll go that route first.”
“You have my word. But we’re going to have to move quickly on this, and get her someplace safe. One person’s already dead, and we still don’t have any indication as to who’s behind it. Though with Whitman’s murder, we now have access to all his files and his home, even if there’s a good chance that if the hit was done by a pro, they may have wiped Whitman’s drives clean, and destroyed any evidence that would lead back to them.” Lou shook his head, looking distracted with his thoughts. “Our teams are still trying to figure out whether or not they actually got their hands on the weaponized virus. If they did, it could be disastrous.”
He was right. Depending on how they altered the virus, there may be no easy way to combat it, and it may have already fallen into the wrong hands. God only knew what they wanted it for or where they would use it, but the results would be the same.
People would die.
“They may have wiped his hard drives, but there’s still a good chance that the data can be recovered. If you need my help in any way, just let me know. I want this over with as soon as possible.” The faster we can get this over with, the safer Charlie would be. I reached over and gave her hand a squeeze, needing her to know that she wasn’t alone in all this. “How are you holding up? Do you have any questions for Lou?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never been in this kind of trouble before, and I honestly don’t even know where to start. I’m in way over my head—if it weren’t for you, I don’t know what I’d do.” She then turned her attention to Lou, looking visibly shaken up—and with her boss now dead, who could blame her? “I can’t thank you enough for helping to keep me safe, and I don’t want to sound ungrateful, but I can only go into hiding if I can bring my dog—and Gavin’s dog too. After Ripley’s time at the shelter, putting her in a kennel, no matter how nice, is just going to stress her out. I can’t do that to her.”
Lou’s eyes flicked over to me in question, as if asking if she was actually serious. I put my arm around her shoulders in response. If that’s what it took to get Charlie to agree to all this, then the dogs were coming with us—which suited me just fine. Though I could usually drop off Thor at my brother’s place with no worries, given that my brother had no qualms about feeding Thor a steady diet of pizza crusts, steak grizzle, and any other table scraps that happen to be around, I liked that Charlie had immediately thought of the dogs. “You can’t blame the girl for wanting to take care of her dog, now can you?”
Lou just shook his head, and gave us an easy smile. “No, I certainly can’t. You know what my wife is like with our three dogs. Those pups are more spoiled than our kids are.”
“I guess we should start packing.” We’d only grab the essentials. Though I didn’t know how long we would be gone for, we’d make do, or pick up what we needed once we got to wherever the hell we were going.
“I have men stationed outside your home. They’ll take you to one of our safe houses when you’re ready. Here’s their number. Just let them know, and if you need anything at all, they can get in touch with me.” Lou turned his attention back to Charlie. “I appreciate your help with this matter, Charlie. You have my word—we’ll do all we can to keep you safe.”
I saw Lou to the door, noting that there weren’t just two men stationed by my door, despite all my security, but that there were likely several more agents stationed around the perimeter of my property. Despite my past run-ins with the law, I had a good working relationship with the FBI, and given my hacking skills and my willingness to work with them, I knew they considered me an asset.
Did that mean they wouldn’t have gone to all this trouble for Charlie alone? I didn’t know, and frankly I didn’t really care. All that mattered was that they’d go above and beyond to keep Charlie safe. She was my one and only concern in this mess, and I’d do whatever it took to make sure she got through it safely.
I resisted the urge to pull her into my arms again, knowing that I was already getting far too attached to her, and she deserved a hell of a lot better than anything I could offer her, given my past. “How are you holding up, love?”
“Honestly? I’m feeling rattled. My boss is dead. And though I know he was up to no good—and I haven’t forgotten that he also put a hit out on me—it’s still kind of hard to deal with the fact that someone who was in my life practically every day was violently murdered.” She wrapped her arms around herself, as if warding off the chill, despite the comfortable temperatures.
Again, I had to fight the urge to cross to her side and pull her into my arms. I wanted to comfort her, and yet each touch, each moment spent in her company, took me down the path I wouldn’t be able to return from, and I shouldn’t be wandering down it in the first place. “I wish I could be more sympathetic towards him, but he tried to have you murdered, and he was weaponizing a virus that will likely go
on to kill thousands of people if it ends up in the wrong hands.”
She let out a ragged breath, looking shaken up. “I guess you never really know what people might be hiding. I couldn’t have never imagined any of this.”
Her words were like a knife to my heart. But they were exactly the reminder that I needed to keep my distance. I wasn’t the man she thought I was. She may think I was some sort of knight in shining armor just because I’d managed to temporarily keep her from harm, but what would she think of me if she actually found out I’d raped my best friend while in prison? Hell, I was pretty sure just knowing I’d spent time in jail might possibly make her see me in a whole new light. The things I’d done that I wasn’t proud of made up one hell of a long list, and I had no doubt she’d be appalled at the violence I’d committed.
I wasn’t worthy of her. I just had to keep reminding myself of that.
“Come on. We should get packing. The sooner we can get you to a safe house, the better.” I tried to put some distance between us, tried to put up some walls, but as smart as Charlie was, she immediately picked up on the change.
“I’m really sorry to be dragging you away from your life. You don’t have to come with me, you know. I can manage on my own now that I have the FBI watching out for me. Not to say that I’m not grateful for everything you’ve done.” Her words tumbled out in a hurry as her cheeks flushed red, her eyes refusing to meet mine. “I have no doubt I’d be dead right now if it weren’t for you. But… I’ve already messed up your schedule and barged into your life. I’m sure you have work to do… things you’d like to get back to.”
I fucking hated this. I needed to keep my distance, but pushing her away was only upsetting her, and making her think that she wasn’t welcome here, that she was being a nuisance, when nothing could be further from the truth. For the first time since I could remember, I felt like I had finally found a bit of happiness… found someone who could chase away my demons. Except that I wasn’t worthy of her. I’d never be.
Yet I couldn’t have her thinking that I didn’t want her. So, despite everything I’d already told myself, I closed the distance between us and tipped her chin up so that she’d be forced to look at me. “The only thing that matters at the moment is you. Nothing else. There’s nothing in my life that’s more important than you and keeping you safe, and you have my word, I’ll do whatever it takes to see you through this.”