Protected Secrets

by Heather Woodhaven

  “Is he going to let you see her?”

  “I...I don’t know. I refuse to push the issue. Right now, I’m trying to be thankful that I got to see her at all—” Her throat tightened. “And she’s so wonderful. And...and...he’s such a wonderful father.”

  Bradford’s left eyebrow raised. “You’ve fallen for him.” He grinned again, and she had the irrational desire to slap it right off his face. “That’s wonderful.”

  “No, it’s not. It only complicates matters.” She took a deep breath. “I plan to turn in my two weeks’ notice at the end of the day.”

  His look of disappointment almost leveled her. “Delaney, don’t be hasty.”

  She forced a sad smile. “You have good reason to say that, given my past, but this decision is actually the opposite. I’ve always known that I would step away from law enforcement if I ever got the chance to be with my daughter. I’m going to find a job in Ames. As safe and boring as possible.”

  “A desk job.”

  “Yes. Ideally with the department, but I’ll take any job to be available in the event Bruce and Winnie need me.”

  “And if they don’t?”

  “Then I’ll be content with being available and waiting.” The phone on her belt vibrated. Delaney recognized the number. “It’s my grandma’s burner phone. She’s watching Winnie today.”

  Delaney clicked the green answer button on the flip phone but didn’t get a chance to speak.

  “He took her. I don’t know how he did it. It was as if he knew exactly where she was. One second she was running down the hallway and the next she was in his arms and he had a gun on her before we could—”

  Her veins ran cold. “Who, Grandma? Who took her?”

  “Your grandpa has an APB out. Everyone is looking.”

  “Who took her?” Delaney’s voice grew so loud it echoed in the hallway.

  “A man. He saw the two burner phones on the dining room table. I had labeled them so I wouldn’t mix them up. He took the one labeled Bruce and disappeared with her.”

  * * *

  The vibrating interrupted Bruce’s train of thought as he relived Max’s death in front of the attorney. He pulled the phone out of his pocket. It had to be about Winnie. He’d forgotten to tell Sylvia that Winnie normally got a cup of milk before working up an appetite for breakfast.

  He held up a hand. “Sorry. I have to get this.”

  The lawyer released an exasperated sigh. “Five-minute break.”

  He stepped out to the hallway and answered. “Hello?”

  “Don’t testify.”

  Bruce recognized the voice immediately. “Trevor? What’s going on?”

  “I’m doing my best to keep you and Winnie safe, but you keep getting in the way. I shouldn’t even be talking to you, so listen. Don’t mess with these people.” Trevor overenunciated each word. “Leave the trial and go home. Let me fix things and you’ll get Winnie back and your life will return to normal by tomorrow. Just trust me.”

  The words his stepbrother spewed weren’t making sense. The slap of shoes against polished stone echoed throughout the hall, and he looked up to see Delaney sprinting around the corner toward him. Bruce squeezed the phone tighter. “What do you mean ‘get Winnie back’?”

  “She’s safe with me as long as you go home right now. Don’t say another word.”

  “Trevor!” His angry cry never reached his stepbrother as the call ended.

  Delaney’s eyes widened as she stopped right in front of him. “Trevor?”

  Bruce lifted up his hand to throw the cell down the hall, but Delaney’s hand cupped over his fist. “You might be able to call him back.”

  “Doubtful.” He let her take the phone from his hand, though. Rage pumped his heart so fast his vision blurred. How could Trevor betray him like this? They were family. Maybe not by blood, but it still counted for something, didn’t it?

  Trevor couldn’t have sent those shoes for the purpose of tracking Winnie. He couldn’t have known Andy would kill Max and leave Bruce as the only witness. But he knew Winnie would love the shoes so much that a tracker planted by someone else—someone Trevor told what to do—could be used to find Winnie and, by extension, Bruce. How could his brother do this to them?

  “I can’t be a witness.” His voice croaked. “Winnie’s safety is too important.” He turned to go back into the room to tell the attorneys.

  “No. That’s the last thing you’re going to decide right now. If you declare you’re done with the case, Andy gets released and you will have nothing to offer the CryptTakers to get them to release Winnie.”

  His mind cleared. “Trevor...Trevor said he was trying to keep us safe. He said don’t mess with these people. It’s possible he’s not one of them.”

  Delaney paced in front of him. “The CryptTakers might have something hanging over him. Maybe he wanted to track you to keep you safe, but the CryptTakers found his tracker.” She spun to face him, her index finger pointing at his chest. “So that was him you spotted at the gas station.”

  “If he was stupid enough to get involved with a murderous organization then why would I trust him to keep my daughter safe? I can’t let any of them get near Winnie.” Something was gnawing at him, as if trying to connect a shorted wire in his brain. He just needed one minute of silence to grab onto the thought that seemed to have slipped away.

  If his stepbrother had gotten involved with the hacking organization, it would likely be to pay off debts or to earn a big score. But how would Trevor have known about the security guard’s death in time to plant the trackers in Winnie’s shoes?

  The puzzle pieces started snapping together at such a rapid pace, he struggled to keep up. “Hear me out and see if this makes sense. Trevor hired Andy just before he quit our business to leave for the Caribbean. I caught Andy trying to upload an update to the banks that would open up a back door for the CryptTakers. But maybe Trevor never wanted to go to the Caribbean. Maybe the only reason Trevor left the company was so there would no chance he’d be incriminated in the plan. Trevor could tell Andy how to get in the building without alerting any security.”

  “I’m following you so far.”

  His eyes widened. “Trevor said to let him fix it. He said everything would be fine by tomorrow.”

  “Because Andy will be released?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t think that’s what he meant. The CryptTakers only do things for profit, right? They take orders from equally dangerous people who demand results.” He looked directly at Delaney. “I think he’s trying again.”

  “To hack into the bank systems?”

  “It’s a little more complicated than that. While Nancy and I waited for police in the server room, I programmed security measures to make sure no one could attempt what Andy did without first going into the server room and setting up administrative protocols.”

  “Which only you can do?”

  His gut twisted. “Not just me—I wasn’t the only one set up with access. I should have shut down his credentials when I bought him out, but when Trevor left, I’d hoped he would come back. At first I was going to give him two weeks, then a month... I didn’t think the Caribbean would last. Time slipped by and I sort of forgot.”

  Delaney straightened. “You didn’t revoke his security privileges.”

  “It started as a family firm. I planned on keeping it that way.” The defensiveness rose above the shame for the briefest moment before his head cleared. “Trevor said to let him fix it. Maybe that means he’s there now—alone with Winnie.”

  “Which means we might have a chance to get to her before the CryptTakers can.” Delaney turned on her heel. “Are you coming?”

  She didn’t need to ask twice. He pumped his arms and ran alongside her to the door they’d first entered. She slowed and pointed at Bradford, who was speaking with the court security o
fficers. “I need a tactical team at Bruce’s company now. Tell them to come in silently and wait for my command when they get there.”

  “And contact the security company I contracted,” Bruce added. “They should have some guards in my building right now.”

  Bradford threw the keys up in the air. “Take my ride.”

  Delaney snagged them and ran out the door. Four court security officers jogged alongside them, guns at the ready, eyes roaming the area.

  “Which one is his car?”

  She pointed at a silver vehicle. “The brand-new Charger.”

  Adrenaline pumped through his veins. He needed to get to Winnie as fast as possible or his heart would burst out of his chest. “I’m driving.”

  “Not happening.” She threw open the driver’s-side door and met his eyes across the top of the car. “I think you want someone who can legally speed.”

  “Good point.” He jumped into the car and she threw it into gear before he’d put his seat belt on. The security guard had already opened the gate and before Bruce could regain his breath, Delaney had not only merged onto the freeway, she was swerving around vehicles while the speedometer kept rising.

  “I’m suddenly very thankful they widened this freeway.” She glanced at him. “Hold on.” They reached a stretch of road with little traffic and the car released a growl that matched the intensity of his emotions. “Let’s see how long it can stay over two hundred miles per hour.”

  “We’re going to get her back.” Bruce said it aloud. He needed to hear the words for himself.

  “There’s no doubt,” she answered.

  “If we go into WITSEC, I’ll ask to include you, if you want. For Winnie’s sake.” Winnie deserved a mother. Whatever happened between him and Delaney didn’t matter. All that mattered was the well-being of his sweet baby girl.

  She bit her lip and squeezed the wheel tighter. “No offense, Bruce, but I need every single brain cell focused on driving right now.”

  “Of course.” Though if she really wanted to be with them, why would that have taken any thought? Wouldn’t she have answered yes right away? Maybe she only wanted to be with Winnie on her terms. The negative thoughts started to spiral, and he forced his eyes closed. Help. The single-word prayer was all he needed to clear his mind.

  What was normally a forty-minute drive took a total of fifteen minutes. She pulled into the parking lot and dropped her speed down to a crawl as they drove around the office building. Three parked cars sat side by side close to the front entrance. Each one of them had the security company logo on the side. “If you’re sure those are official cars, then there’s no sign of anyone else here at all.”

  Bruce scanned the landscape. “Look.” He pointed. “The truck is hidden in the trees. Sure looks like the same one we saw at the gas station.”

  She squinted. “Let’s check it first and make sure he didn’t leave Winnie there.”

  The junker contained a car seat but no Winnie. Delaney checked the ammunition in her weapon. “You should know I gave my two weeks’ notice before we left.”

  He did a double take as they crept through the trees to approach the back door. “What? Why are you telling me this?”

  “Because you should know I will break any rules I need to get Winnie back to you safely.”

  SIXTEEN

  Delaney made sure she turned the volume on the radio attached to her waist to low. The team was five minutes out, but as Bruce had predicted, it seemed that only Trevor and Winnie were on-site.

  “While I didn’t revoke Trevor’s security privileges on the network, he isn’t listed as an acceptable visitor to the building during off hours. The security guys should’ve notified police by now if he’s inside.”

  “Except Andy was able to sneak in without alerting your guard—using Trevor’s know-how.”

  “True.”

  Bruce typed in his security clearance and the door popped open. She went through first, weapon raised. A security guard was on the ground. She bent down and felt for his pulse. Slower than she would like but strong enough to indicate that he’d been drugged.

  Bruce’s forehead tightened. “My brother did that?”

  For someone that had been so sure of what his stepbrother was and wasn’t capable of, the surprise in his voice didn’t offer comfort. To meet her daughter just to lose her again would destroy Delaney. She straightened and led Bruce down the hallway.

  Around the corner, they discovered another guard down. His vitals were almost identical to the first. “Where do we go?” she asked.

  Bruce pointed to the stairway door. “Server room. Trevor would need to gain admin access there before he could start the update process.”

  “You think he’s doing the update personally? I thought you said he wasn’t that good at hacking.”

  “He had to know this system backward and forward in order to sell it and answer questions with ease. I don’t believe he could code a malware back door himself, but he wouldn’t need to. He’d just need access to send whatever the CryptTakers gave him.”

  She kept her weapon up and her back against the stairway rail until they reached the basement floor. She reached for the door’s handle.

  “Stop.”

  She looked up the stairway in case he’d seen something. “What? What is it?”

  “Last time I was down here, the CryptTakers killed someone. I don’t want that to happen to you.”

  The concern in his voice warmed her heart. “Which is why you’re going to let me go first so it doesn’t happen to you.”

  “You don’t know what to look for—you’ve never been here before. There are places they can hide in the cubicles, and there is another door down there.”

  She nodded. “I trained for shooters in office buildings, Bruce. Stay behind me and stay down.”

  He released a giant sigh but stopped arguing as they went through the door. Delaney realized he wasn’t exaggerating. There were more hiding places in the room than any simulation she’d been in, but she didn’t see any indication of his stepbrother. “Winnie?” she whispered.

  Nothing.

  Bruce tapped her shoulder. “To the left.”

  She stood next to the door of what had to be the server room as he put his hand on the access panel. The moment it clicked open she stuck her gun inside to look for Trevor. It was empty.

  The server room reminded her of a panic room. Stepping past her, Bruce approached a keyboard that was attached to a wall of electronics that looked like blinking VCRs and DVD players to her untrained eye. She had a feeling not a single one could provide that kind of entertainment.

  He tapped at the keys rapidly while studying the monitor and groaned.

  “What’s the problem?”

  “He gained administrative access ten minutes ago. The update is halfway complete.”

  “Can you stop it?”

  He nodded and typed a series of letters that looked like nonsense. “I can do better than that,” he said. “I’m doing what I should’ve done a long time ago. I’m blocking Trevor’s credentials.” He hit Enter and gave her a side glance. “If he’s somewhere in this building, he’s going to know what happened—and he’s going to come to us.”

  Delaney’s radio crackled. She picked it up and heard the team’s call sign. Help was on the premises. With Bruce’s assistance, she provided them with the code needed to access the building. “One potentially armed man and small girl as a hostage on-site,” she said into the radio.

  “Are you good at negotiating hostage situations?” Bruce asked.

  “I’m good at bringing in armed fugitives without hurting bystanders.”

  He blew out a breath. “I guess that’s close enough.”

  It would have to be. She double-checked her weapon. “If you’re right that Trevor is on the way, I want you to stay here and I’ll wait ou
tside for him.”

  “Not a chance.”

  “Bruce—”

  “He’s my brother. I want the chance to talk to him, to look him in the eye, before you take him down.”

  The way his jaw muscles worked made her doubt that he would give her the chance to do just that. “Let me be clear. If I see him, he will be cuffed before you have your chat. Let’s go.”

  They didn’t make it down the hallway before they heard the door on the opposite end of the room smack closed. A male voice muttered a string of curses as he stomped across the commercial-grade carpet.

  Delaney crouched and aimed her weapon around the corner. “US Marshals. Hands up!”

  “You’ve got to be kidding me.” The man’s voice sounded as smooth as butter. Despite knowing that Bruce and Trevor weren’t blood relatives, she had formed a mental picture of Trevor that looked like Bruce. Instead, this man was a good five inches shorter, with thick jet-black hair that probably required an entire bottle of gel to hold it in its perfect S-shaped wave. His skin was tan and his eyes a light blue. He’d ditched the ball cap Bruce had seen the previous day and was wearing a crisp dress shirt, black dress pants and matching loafers as well as a silver watch that screamed money. “There’s obviously been a mistake. I work here. I’m an owner.”

  Trevor didn’t have a visible weapon on his person, but more important, Winnie wasn’t with him. If that scumbag had handed Winnie over to one of the CryptTakers, she’d—

  “You sold out.” Bruce stepped from behind her. Delaney tamped down her frustration at his interference. All that mattered was getting Winnie back, and in this instance, Bruce might know better how to handle his sibling. “In more ways than one.”

  Trevor’s face crumpled. “You weren’t supposed to come. Don’t you ever listen to me?”

  “Excuse me for not wanting my daughter to hang around with the CryptTakers.”

  Trevor narrowed his eyes. “Don’t be petty. It doesn’t suit you. You could’ve made real money. Everyone respects money more than ideals. You never got that, otherwise you’d still have Shannon.”

  Delaney reared back. Was he serious? Did this guy really think Bruce would want that kind of life? To essentially buy people’s love? Even she knew him better than that, and she’d only known him for a few days.