Burned: Black Cipher Files #3 (Black Cipher Files series)

by Lisa Hughey

  “I don’t know how he found us after all this time. We’ve been invisible and hidden for nine years.” Sunshine huffed out a frustrated breath. “This is pointless.”

  No. It wasn’t. “Humor me.”

  “He’s obsessed,” she whispered.

  Obsession.

  “With?” Zeke swallowed, suddenly aware of the ways in which her statement could be construed, and prayed that he was wrong.

  “My mother.”

  Thank God.

  Sunshine crossed her arms over her stomach and squeezed. The move accented her breasts and the top of her plump mounds spilled over the loose scoop neckline. Zeke cursed his hormones for even noticing even as his palms itched to touch.

  So, her stepfather was obsessed with her mother.

  “He killed them. And we ran,” she said defiantly.

  “If you saw him do it why did you run?”

  If Zeke had seen his grandfather’s killer he would have made sure the man or woman paid.

  “He’d just killed my grandparents.” Sunshine stared at the pastel watercolor of an indistinct harbor scene, the watery faded colors merely shadows and lines without any substance. “Besides the fact that I was only seven years old? I did what my mother told me. And I was terrified of him.”

  “Okay. I see your point.” He’d been thinking about it like the adult he was now rather than through the filter of a frightened child.

  So they ran. And had been running this whole time?

  “He kept finding us. Kept coming.” She seemed like she was a million miles away. “We couldn’t get away from him. In the first four years, he found us three times. But we’ve been safe for the last nine years.”

  “What did you do nine years ago?”

  “My uncle helped us.” Sunshine blinked, her gray eyes went blurry, then lasered in on Zeke. “We incorporated. Everything goes through the corporation now. Laid a false trail. And changed our names without telling anyone our new identities.”

  “No one?”

  “Except Uncle Carson. But even he didn’t know where we lived.”

  Uncle Carson? Carson Black, deputy director at the NSA, and Zeke’s mentor.

  “He isn’t really my uncle.”

  No shit. But her relationship with Carson was a discussion for another time. They’d have to return to the subject of Carson later. He needed her to concentrate on Stanley. “And now Stanley is back?”

  “I shouldn’t be talking about this with you.”

  She stood, ready to bolt. Zeke couldn’t allow her to leave, but he needed to convince her gently. He certainly couldn’t hold her here against her will.

  “Let me help you.”

  Her silver eyes were wounded. Like the morning clouds over a stormy ocean before the marine layer burned off, bruised by the events of the last few hours. Zeke could tell an adrenaline let down was going to hit her soon.

  “Let me help you,” he said again, trying to make his body language as reassuring and nonviolent as possible.

  She shook her head. “You believe he’s a sleeper assassin, not just my crazy, abusive ex-stepfather.”

  “What if he’s both?” Zeke asked desperately. And if he was both, how did Zeke keep her safe? Because, in his mind, her safety was paramount.

  If Stanley wasn’t just an obsessed husband but more, if he were also the sleeper, then Zeke couldn’t let Sunshine go. Stanley would have a level of training that she would be completely unprepared to defend against. That kind of expertise combined with his obsessive behavior made John Stanley way beyond dangerous.

  “I want to help you.”

  She scoffed. “Really?” He could practically hear the skepticism in her voice and wondered. Hadn’t she ever had help?

  “Let me dig into John Stanley.” Zeke tried to sweeten the offer. “You can stay here. Out of sight and off radar. Lie low until we figure out where he is and what he wants.”

  “You think you can find out where he is?” A tentative hope shone in her eyes, lighting her up like the full moon lit the night sky and making her glow with anticipation.

  “Yeah.” Zeke could find John Stanley. He could find anyone. And screw it, if for some reason he couldn’t find him, he would ask Jamie. Anything to keep that eager look on her face and the excitement in her eyes.

  Another thought occurred to him. John Stanley was a link to what happened to the people killed thirteen years ago.

  What if Stanley could tell Zeke who originally gave him the contract to kill Sunshine’s grandparents? If Zeke knew that maybe, even more importantly, he could determine who engineered the terminate order? Because someone, somewhere, initiated the sequence of events that resulted in twelve families being ripped apart. And Zeke would really, really like to know who was the mastermind.

  When he’d tried to hack into that information at the NSA, there hadn’t been any kind of record. The sleeper information had been buried somewhere not associated with 5491. Zeke hadn’t even found a reference to the fact that there were sleepers. The only reason he knew was because Jamie Hunt and Staci Grant had uncovered the conspiracy.

  Stanley was a new avenue to explore. And although he could find Stanley without Sunshine, but he didn’t want her out there if she was in danger. He knew it was irrational but ever since he’d awoken on the beach last night, he had this insane urge to protect her. And that internal mandate had only grown stronger with every moment spent in her presence.

  On the flip side, Zeke analyzed the data he had right now. Stanley was after Sunshine and Stella. He had been in Cambria this morning, which made Zeke consider some options. If John Stanley came after Sunshine, and Zeke could capture him, he might be able to gather serious intel. He wished he’d known who Stanley was earlier when they’d been within fifty feet of each other.

  A sudden sense of guilt assailed him. Sunshine Smith was terrified of this guy. Zeke shouldn’t be thinking about bringing him anywhere near her stratosphere. But he’d just met her and while the biological urge to shield her was strong, his need for vengeance was even stronger.

  Patterns. There was a pattern here he couldn’t discern yet.

  But information from John Stanley could possibly be the piece of the puzzle he was missing.

  He gestured to the bland room behind him. “There are two beds.”

  An unguarded disappointment flashed in her somber gray eyes before her gaze flickered to the beds then back to him.

  Smooth, Hawthorne.

  Suddenly his mind went back to last night, as he lay between her thighs, the heat of her body, the subtle welcome as her hips relaxed and cradled his, and the soft vulnerability in her eyes. And how much he’d wanted to find surcease in her arms for a few moments.

  Their attraction, the inalienable magnetic power, positive to negative, that he’d suppressed, and buried in his subconscious while he reasoned out the puzzle of John Stanley, boomeranged to the forefront of his brain.

  Sunshine blushed, a deep pink that traveled up her cheeks and brightened her eyes. “Oh, um….” She shifted her gaze away from him. A charming, entrancing innocence shone in her eyes. He was no horn dog but he was pretty sure he had far more experience than she did. Which was damn crazy since he had inherited the Hawthorne family curse. The men in his family had no luck with women.

  Heat poured off her body and the air grew heavy with the scent of cucumber and the sea. Suddenly the large hotel room shrunk to encompass just the two of them, cocooned in a cloud of lust. If he was reading the atmosphere correctly, she was as interested in him as he was in her. And the temptation to move closer, to explore the unexpected shot of desire overriding his thought processes and rendering him stupid, was like a unexpected line of new code in a tired old program.

  But he didn’t want her to feel threatened by him. Of course that was probably stupid. No one ever felt threatened by Zeke.

  He was Zeke the Geek. A genius idiot. Genius in the office, idiot with women.

  Shaped by his family. Shaped by his childhood. S
haped by his upbringing.

  She shifted just slightly, her shoulder angled so that her body was more closed off. Zeke recognized that she was shutting down, shutting him out. But even that was okay, as long as she stayed her where he could keep her safe.

  And if that sharp feeling in his gut was a stab of disappointment he’d get over it. He always did. He wasn’t important. Sunshine’s safety was paramount. He’d do almost anything to keep her safe.

  “I need to use your cell phone,” she said abruptly.

  “Sure.” Without hesitation, he handed her his iPhone.

  She punched in the numbers with her thumbs, her head bent. Little wispy curls had escaped from her braid and straggled against the tender curve of her neck. Zeke turned his back to give her privacy, but he could hear the answering service message on the other end of the line. The same one that he’d called earlier where he’d listened to the information about where she was.

  “Sunny. I’m safe. Blue’s got me.”

  Zeke moved a little further away.

  “You stay with your friend, be safe. We’ll touch base tomorrow.”

  Unlike Sunshine’s earlier message, Stella Smith didn’t tell Sunshine where she was. She offered no information on her location, only reassurance that she was secure and with Blue.

  Basically leaving Sunshine to twist in the wind.

  Dammit.

  Zeke turned around to reiterate his offer. To convince her that he could help her, but Sunshine’s shoulders were slumped and the pure dejection in her posture was so heartbreaking Zeke couldn’t help but put his palm on her shoulder to offer her comfort.

  Shit, she was freezing.

  Sunshine jerked as if she’d forgotten he was there. “Stay here with me, Sunshine.”

  Zeke was so tempted to pull her into his arms. To pull her against his body and curl himself around her to keep her safe, to protect her not just from the physical threat but the emotional rollercoaster she was on.

  But he’d been rejected enough that he kept his arms loose, down by his sides. He’d learned his lessons well. His comfort would not be well received.

  She shrugged, straightened her shoulders and lifted her head. She jutted her chin out with determination, and her body screamed resolve. She was sending a very clear message to back off. She was alone. Didn’t need his comfort or his solace. She took care of herself.

  “Only if you let me help look for him.”

  Since that meshed with his needs, he agreed. “Sure.”

  As if she could tell that he was only humoring her, Sunshine said fiercely, “This needs to end.”

  Shit, he’d promise her the moon if she’d agree to stay with him. There was no way in hell she should be looking for a sleeper assassin and obsessive stepfather.

  But unfortunately, there was no way in hell he could not look for John Stanley.

  Nineteen

  I watched Zeke Thorn, Hawthorne, I corrected, carefully.

  Even though I was pretty sure he wasn’t working with the monster, he was still spouting some crazy ass theories.

  Before I called the answering service, while he’d had his back turned, I’d surreptitiously scrolled through the list of calls received on his phone. The call he’d gotten this morning when we’d been having our tea, the one that caused his hasty exit from our ‘date’ was from a restricted number.

  Same with the phone call he’d made in the car after we’d left San Luis.

  No contact information displayed. It was extraordinarily uncommon, and most people had no idea how to block their own numbers. And it made me wonder who had been on the end of that line. Because Zeke Hawthorne had some seriously nut job ideas.

  He believed the monster was a sleeper? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it.

  I reminded myself that people who were crazy believed their crazy. But….he didn’t seem crazy.

  He seemed earnest and sweet and totally geeky.

  But not crazy.

  On the other hand, maybe that was my girl parts talking. I’d just discovered that I am a sucker for a geeky guy. He was smart. Nearly as smart as I was, it seemed, which was unusual in itself. And shockingly that was a huge turn on. His outdoorsy air and sun-tanned, hot body certainly didn’t hurt either. I’d never been so aware of another person’s skin, their movements, or even the heat from their body as I was of Zeke’s.

  This itchy, crawling out of my skin feeling was new. But I’d read enough to realize that I was horny. Making decisions based on physical attraction was never a good idea. But I really, really wanted to believe him.

  When he’d mentioned the beds, I’d been back on the beach last night, with him solid and hard and male between my thighs.

  I wanted to feel that quickening of my pulse, the tingle in my belly, and the elevated boom of my heart again. Before the water had scared me. Stupid Sunshine. One more thing to blame my stepfather for. I used to love the water but now I lived in a beach town and couldn’t tolerate the ocean.

  I could potentially write off the remembrance of last night as sheer fiction. But this morning when he’d kissed me, I’d gotten lost in the sensations he’d evoked. Gotten lost in front of my mother and Blue no less.

  Mama and Blue. A pang of despair hit me. Mama was choosing Blue. I knew that was irrational and not really true. She was trying to protect me. But all my life, I’d protected my mother. Since I was seven, it had been the two of us against the world, against him, and now suddenly that changed. I was adrift in a sea of confusing and conflicting emotions. I wanted her to be happy. Of course I did. But how could she be happy without me?

  What did I do now?

  I knew. I needed to protect Mama from him.

  I didn’t need Zeke’s help. I really didn’t. I could do this on my own. But I wanted to let him help. Did that make me weak? I didn’t know.

  “Hey,” Zeke said. “You okay in there?”

  I had been staring blindly at the plain, pastel blue bedspread while I worked through the problem in my head. I could solve complex quadratic equations in minutes but I couldn’t figure out my own conflicted emotions and come up with a plan without zoning out.

  Zeke had bent his knees so that our gazes were level. He repeated, “Everything okay in there?”

  I flushed again, this time from pure embarrassment, but didn’t answer.

  “Don’t sweat it. I get lost in my head all the time.” He grinned, his smile wide and open in his tanned face.

  He got me. How weird was that?

  “I’m…okay.”

  “Brilliant,” Zeke replied.

  “But you have to promise to show me everything you find about….” I swallowed.

  “Yes, I’ll show you. We can work together.”

  Zeke understood. Better than I would have thought.

  “His name only has power if you let it.”

  A profound rage rose up in me, but I shoved it down. Rage was fuel but it would cloud reason. And I needed reason. I was smart, smarter than the man who’d ruined my childhood, stolen my life. I had better start acting like it.

  I needed to find John Stanley and put an end to this once and for all. “So is he wanted by the NSA?”

  That must be why Zeke knew about the sleeper aspect. Knew when my grandparents were killed exactly. The NSA must want to find John Stanley too.

  “What?”

  I gritted his name out through clenched teeth determined to get over the crippling fear his name invoked. I wasn’t seven years old anymore. “John Stanley.”

  Zeke blinked. Anger swirled in his blue eyes, a tempest of emotions ebbed and flowed, before he finally answered, “I certainly would like a few minutes in an interrogation room with him.”

  And the cute, geeky Zeke was gone. The man in his place was hard, unforgiving, vengeful, and looked like he could do some damage. He was primed, the veins in his arms had popped, and his face was cast in intense angles. A tremor of fear worked its way through me. He reminded me of how John had looked when he was angry.

>   But then Zeke shook his head as if shaking off his fury. Something flashed in his gaze, too quickly for me to interpret.

  Before we could get started, I needed to take care of one more task. “I need to leave a message for my mother.”

  Zeke gestured to his phone. “Have at it.”

  I quickly punched in the answering service numbers again. “Mama. It’s me. I’m fine but I needed to let you know that he was here. In San Luis, so we were right to evacuate. I have help.” I was hesitant to mention Zeke on the line. “I don’t know how he found us, me. But I promise you, I will figure it out and end this once and for all.”

  I hit the end button on his phone and stared at the keyboard for a few moments.

  “Come on.” The affable, dorky guy was back. “Let’s see what else we can find out about this guy.”

  He pulled the desk toward the bed and situated the chair for me so we would both be able to see the screen.

  He took a moment to position the laptop just so. Then he folded and unfolded the screen and angled it at precisely ninety degrees. I watched him touch each edge of the keyboard, top, left, right, bottom, before typing in his password. Which was some ridiculously long sequence. Clearly no one would be hacking him any time soon.

  I’d spent my whole life, or at least what felt like it, running from John Stanley. And suddenly I was mad as hell. I refused to let him steal anything else from me. He’d stolen my childhood, and my teen years. I was only twenty. I had my whole life in front of me. Or at least I would when he was taken care of.

  But I would be foolish to take Zeke Hawthorne at face value. He’d said he wasn’t supposed to make contact with me. What did that mean? If what he told me was true, then he had known about John killing my grandparents, just hadn’t known John’s name.

  I thought back to when I’d revealed John’s name. I’d watched him carefully. There had been no recognition in his response, or rather non-response. He had no idea who John was. But then why would Zeke be watching me? What possible reason could he have for being here in California and watching me if he didn’t have anything to do with John?