Hit and Run: A Thrilling Novel of Romantic Suspense (Callahan Security series Book 3)

by Lori Matthews

  He gave her a nod. “Just remember the doors will open tomorrow morning at six. Be there at about 5:30 so you can be in the front. It will help get you off the ship quickly.”

  Dani and Gage both nodded.

  Jeremy waved, did an about-face, and then was gone in seconds.

  “Maybe we shouldn’t stick so close together. They’re looking for a couple. Be better if we split up,” Dani suggested.

  “No,” Gage growled. He wanted to yell, “Oh, hell no,” but didn’t think she’d respond well. “That’s not an option. We stick together. It’s my job to protect you and the software. You will not be alone.”

  She sighed before lifting her shoulders and dropping them swiftly. “Fine. Let’s go.”

  Gage spent the rest of the day moving them from spot to spot all over the ship. He tried to stay with the crowds and keep them out of direct line of site of the cameras.

  Dani was getting more and more agitated as the day progressed. He noticed her try to connect to the system and make a video call a few times, but it wasn’t going through. She wouldn’t say much, but her hands were curled into fists and she constantly gnawed her lip.

  He managed to get an email out to his brothers with the shots of the guys that were after them. He was hopeful they would have them identified by the time they arrived in Vancouver in—he glanced at his watch—a little more than six hours. He yawned again. It was just before midnight.

  “You want to see if we can find a place to crash for the night?” Gage looked over at Dani. She was sitting with her eyes glued to her screen. The library was going to close shortly. They had to move.

  “Sure,” she mumbled. She closed her laptop and slid it back into her bag. She stood up and took off for the door.

  Gage got to his feet and followed her. He stifled another yawn and stretched his arms above his head. She’d stopped talking to him hours ago. Asking about her future had been a mistake. He was pushing her. He really wanted her to stop hacking, but what he wanted wasn’t what she wanted. Another reason they weren’t meant to be. No matter how much he loved her spunk and her smile.

  He opened and closed his fists and rolled his shoulders. He tried to make his body relax, but he wasn’t having much luck. This cold shoulder thing was really pissing him off and she knew it, but he wasn’t going to give in to her game. He could be silent, too.

  They walked down the main hallway with the promenade one floor below. Gage glanced over the rail and saw security doing a sweep. Then he looked up and saw more security guards on the walkway like theirs but on the other side of the ship. They were moving away from the bow of the ship.

  Gage grabbed Dani’s arm and kept them moving past the elevators and toward the bow. He turned her away from the promenade and down the hallway. She glanced up at him and pulled her arm out of his hand.

  He stopped her and pointed to a door on her left. Captain’s lounge was written in bold letters. “We can hide out in here.” He tried the door, and it was open. He walked in and then signaled Dani to follow.

  It wasn’t a huge room, but it was created to give people the best view. Two floor-to-ceiling glass walls met in the far corner of the room. One wall looked out over the ocean and the other looked out over the top deck of the ship. It had a view of the deck below with the pool and the bars all lit up.

  “Fuck,” Gage growled. He’d been looking for a quiet space to hide in, but this was like being in a fishbowl.

  Dani climbed onto a stool that faced the bar that was along the nearest wall. No one was behind it thankfully.

  “Are you sure we can stay here for the night? Not exactly low-key.” She didn’t bother to turn around when she spoke.

  Gage ground his teeth and counted to ten. “No, it’s not the best, but if you have any other ideas, I’m all ears.”

  Silence. He closed his eyes and regretted being snarky. The situation and Dani’s attitude were getting to him.

  He sighed. “It stands to reason they’ve already searched here since they came from this direction. Not to say they won’t come back, but hopefully we’ll have a few hours, I’m sure. We only have to stay hidden for five hours. Jeremy said to be the first ones at the exit,” he reminded her.

  He checked out the furniture. Overstuffed couches in shades of brown with navy throw pillows were strategically placed around the room to provide the best views. Gage swung one around until it faced away from the windows. “Here,” he said. “You can sleep on this one.”

  Dani shot a quick glance over her shoulder. “I’m fine where I am. I need to work.” She opened up her laptop.

  “Then work here so you can be comfortable and maybe catch some shut-eye.” Gage shoved another couch that had been against the inside wall, turning it to face Dani’s couch. This set up gave him a good view of Dani and the door.

  “I’m fine thanks,” she replied.

  Gage ran a hand through his hair. Exhaustion was wrapped around his shoulders like a blanket. “Dani, I need you to work on the couch so I can see you and the door at the same time.” He was taking great pains to be polite but it was costing him dearly. “Please, take a seat on the couch,” he said through clenched teeth.

  Dani slammed her laptop lid and slid off the barstool. Keeping her gaze glued to the carpeting, she hurried to the couch, sat down, and curled her legs up. She opened her laptop with a little more force than necessary.

  He was driving her crazy. She’d been doing her best to push him away all day when all she really wanted to do was crawl into his lap and have him hold her. She’d never ever wanted that before in her life. It just added to her general sense of all-out panic.

  She looked up. “You know, this room doesn’t seem like a great idea. There’s only one door.” She started typing.

  Gage rolled his shoulders trying to get them down off his ears. This woman was so damn frustrating. “I’m aware, but it’s raining again so we can’t sleep on the deck. Most areas are starting to empty out of travelers and close up. We don’t have a room to go to that won’t get us killed, and we need to avoid security. You’ve played with the ship’s systems too much, so if you play with the cameras again, we’re bound to get caught. If you have any other suggestions, I’m happy to hear them, but I think we’re stuck with here for now.”

  Dani rolled her eyes. “You don’t have to get testy. And I didn’t play with the ship’s cameras. I did what was necessary to save your ass. Besides, they aren’t good enough to catch me.”

  “Really? My ass.” He’d had it with her attitude. “Who is it they’re trying to find? The only reason the guy in the ice rink didn’t see us is because he was lazy. You are not beyond being caught. No one is.

  “Eventually, even if the ship’s crew doesn’t figure out what’s going on, the men chasing you will. I suggest you do not access the system again with that thing.” He pointed to her laptop. “You’ll just be asking to be caught. We only have a few hours left on this ship, and I would like to survive, so why don’t you grab some shut-eye instead of playing with your laptop?”

  Playing? Is that what he thought she was doing. She imagined steam coming out of her ears. “I am trying to fix the software,” she said through clenched teeth.

  Gage cracked his knuckles. “Software you stole, which is why we’re in this situation to begin with. If you’d built it from scratch like a normal person, then everything would be fine. No one would even know about you or the software. Stealing part of it from the Chinese government, of all places, wasn’t the smartest move. It was lazy. But I forgot. You’re a hacker. That’s what you do. Hack things. The hell with the consequences.”

  “What would you have me do? Start from day one? Work on a team in a lab? That would take years, and I don’t have years. Carly doesn’t have years!”

  Gage sat down on the couch. “But don’t you want more than this? What are you going to do after you’re finished with this job?

  “Go back to what I do best. Hacking. This was only a contract job. I don’t do nine to
five. Like ever. So not my scene.” She shook her head but kept her face averted toward the screen.

  “You never want more? You could put your talents to good use. I’m sure—”

  “I am putting my talents to good use.” Her fingers stopped moving and she started hitting the backspace key with serious ferocity. Damn him. He was distracting her and she was making mistakes.

  “I know you have money, but wouldn’t you like to do something more? You could work for the government. With your talent, you could really help. Cyber security—”

  “Let’s just get this straight right now. I have made all of my money, including the money I gave to Jeremy, legitimately. I do not steal money. And I will not be working for any government. I do not want to specialize in cyber security. I am perfectly content doing what I do on my own terms, in my own time.”

  Gage’s shoulders stiffened. “But you could make a difference.”

  Why couldn’t he understand? “I do make a difference. In my own way. I’m not interested in working for a government that wants me to ‘make a difference’ in their way.” Her fingers were flying now.

  “Wiki Leaks for example, or the group Anonymous. It’s a bunch of hackers who pick a wrong in the world that they want to right, and they work on it. Doing what they can to make it better. Or at least it used to be. Now it’s different.”

  She stopped typing and looked up. “Now it’s all state sponsored. A government decides who they want to target, and the hackers go after them on social media etcetera, or they do a deep dive and bring out personal stuff about a politician in hopes of influencing elections. Wiki Leaks is a whole different animal now than when it first started. So is Anonymous.”

  She closed her laptop lid with a distinct click. “I have no interest in being a tool for the government to use whenever they feel like it, for whatever project they deem necessary, only to have it all go to hell when the next government comes in and decides that project isn’t valid anymore.”

  She lifted her laptop and uncurled her legs. “I choose my own work, like this contract with Drake. I still make lots of money, and I’m not hurting anyone.”

  Gage pushed to his feet. “You don’t think this software can hurt people?”

  “I am creating a software to help Drake find his sister and help me find Carly’s mom or another relative. Anything that happens with it after that is up to Drake and his conscience. I’m not responsible for what happens in perpetuity.”

  Gage snorted. “Passing the buck. Nice.”

  Dani’s eyes narrowed. “Not passing the buck. Being realistic. Is Henry Ford responsible for all the accidents that have happened in a Ford vehicle? Are the Wright Brothers responsible every time an airplane crashes? No. They came up with the idea and made the first one of the items, but what happened to cars and airplanes after that is not up to them. I am making a tool. How the owner of that tool uses it is beyond my scope.”

  Gage crossed his arms over his chest and grimaced. He sat back down on the arm of the sofa.

  Guilt washed over her. It was her fault he was in pain. If he didn’t have to protect her, he wouldn’t be in this mess. She didn’t want him to be hurt. She’d do almost anything to stop that from happening. Almost anything. Abandoning the project that she’d worked so hard on, it was out of the question. Carly needed her and she had to come first.

  “Still seems like a cop-out to me,” Gage growled.

  Dani raised an eyebrow. “But if I said I would give it to the FBI, you’d be all for it. Then it would be okay.”

  “Well, that’s different. They are law enforcement. They should have a tool like this.”

  Dani snorted. “Because, God knows, the government has never misused a tool ever.” Dani rolled her eyes. “You think in black and white, but really the world is a bunch of shades of gray. Not every soldier is a good person just because they’re a soldier.”

  She jumped to her feet. “You know one of the biggest problems the army has at the moment? Gang infiltration. They get trained in combat and take that training back to the gang. Does that mean everyone with combat training is bad?” Dani locked gazes with Gage. “Is that the army’s fault?”

  Gage ran his hand over his face and then through his hair. “I get what you’re saying, but it’s hard to reconcile that idea with hackers. If they hadn’t broken into the system, Cutter would still be alive. If you or your kind worked for the military and were there when the hack happened, Cutter wouldn’t be six feet under.

  “Instead, it was me racing against the clock to get there, to warn Cutter, and I failed. Cutter died. Other people died as well. Not to mention all kinds of ops were blown because we didn’t know how much they knew about the informant.

  People like you, hackers, need to step up and do the right thing!” Gage was on his feet now, too. “I know you were in the foster system, so maybe the government is not your favorite thing, but you have the kind of talent that could help stop other governments from influencing our elections and from crashing our systems.”

  Dani shook her head. “Do I strike you as the type of person that’s going to sit in an office and have some boss tell me what I can and can’t do? Do you see me dressing in business suits and punching a clock? Does any of this seem like something I would remotely want to be a part of? I’m sorry, have we met?”

  “You’re wasting your talents.” He fisted his hands again. “You could be more than just some hacker. You could be better than—”

  Dani’s eyes narrowed. “You better be very careful what you say. Better than what? Better than just some no-good black hat? Better than just some two-bit hacker? You still don’t get it. I don’t want to be ‘better.’ I’m completely happy the way I am. I don’t need your approval or anyone else’s. I like who I am, and I live by my own code. I don’t need to conform to your rules just to make you feel good.”

  Dani’s body was shaking. She was pushing back hard. Way too hard. She knew he was trying to look out for her in his own way, but it wasn’t her way. She had lived by another person’s rules before, and she’d vowed never to do that again.

  Gage just wasn’t getting it. Maybe he never would. She had to do what worked for her no matter how much it cost her. No matter how much she cared about him. If he cared about her, he should understand that.

  Gage growled. “Conform to my rules? How about the law? How about conforming to that?” He pointed at her. “You could actually save people’s lives by keeping important information safe. Instead, you choose to subvert the law. Why?” He raised his palms upward. “What does it give you other than money? You don’t have a code. If you did, you wouldn’t be a hacker. You could be doing good on a daily basis.”

  He was back to pointing again. “You could be shoring up our system, making sure intelligence stays out of our enemy’s hands, but instead you tear it down. It’s not sustainable. You can’t always live like this. You must see that.”

  “You know what I see?” She was done trying to convince him. Dani moved to stand directly in front of Gage. “I see a man who is lost. Who felt cheated by the system and feels he let down his friend and then got kicked out because he couldn’t handle it. You lost your friend, and that sucks. But I’m trying not to lose mine. I won’t work in the system because it always lets you down. Suck it up, buttercup! Get over it.”

  She was pushing him to the breaking point. He would either see it her way and accept her for who she really was, or he would walk away.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  A mask came down over his face. She might as well be yelling at a wall. He wasn’t listening. His hands kept fisting and opening again. His shoulders were rigid. He didn’t want to hear it. Well, tough shit. The truth sucks sometimes.

  “You want everyone to do things your way because you think it’s better. Safer. Well, here’s reality. It’s not better. You’re an asshat just like everybody else. Get over yourself. Who died and made you God? You don’t get to call the shots.”

  She could hear his r
agged breathing now, but she didn’t care. Someone had to tell him the truth, and it might as well be her.

  “I absolutely love how you think that if, in your mind, it’s all justified, then it’s okay. It was okay for me to be a hacker when we needed to hide from the cameras or needed a room to stay in, but it’s not okay that I’m a hacker when it comes to stealing the software.

  “Your ego is out of control. I’m not some problem that needs fixing. I’m a woman who needs loving, and you obviously are not the man to do that. Too bad because I thought you were different. Stronger.” She squared her shoulders. “I’m done here. You can take your sanctimonious crap and shove it. I can take care of myself.”

  He stared stonily at her, his blue eyes icy. Like what runs in his veins. His whole body seemed to be made out of a slab of cold marble.

  “Dani,” his voice was soft, too soft. She’d expected him to yell at her. It scared her how quiet he was. “You’re just another wannabe badass who makes excuses for committing crimes when you really just get off on the thrill of it. You’re no different from any other harlot getting paid for services rendered. To hell with the consequences.”

  Pain filled her chest until drawing a breath was impossible. She’d finally fallen in love, and it was with the worst man for her. It shouldn’t have surprised her, but it did. She’d been so careful until now. She swallowed hard. No way was she going to cry in front of the bastard.

  “Fuck you, asshole!” She whirled around, grabbed her laptop and jammed it into her backpack. Then she ran out the door. She moved quickly down the hallway, determined to get away from Gage. Not that it mattered, she realized a few steps later. He hadn’t bothered to follow her.

  Searing pain radiated out across her body, and she gasped. The hallway spun as she stumbled out into the area in front of the elevators. She put her hand out and reached for the wall. She staggered and crashed down, leaning on the wall. Her breathing was labored, and her chest was on fire.