Hacking Justice (Fractured Minds Series Book 5)

by Kate Allenton

  I leaned forward. “You should have checked for backup security cameras at his place and the extra hard drive. As we speak, the announcement is being made. My boss is talking to your boss, and the news people, well…they have a copy of the video. So, I guess it’s your word against your word. The figurine will be the proof in the pudding.”

  Anger distorted Kent’s face. His nostrils flared like a bull ready to charge. The sound of sirens in the distance made me smile. “If you leave now, you’ll have a head start.”

  “Get up. You’re coming with me,” he growled.

  “No, I think I need more coffee.”

  I heard the unmistakable sound of a hammer being cocked, and I leaned over to look beneath the table. A steel barrel was pointed at me.

  “Get up, Lucy,” he growled. “Or I kill everyone in here, including you.”

  I sighed and planted my hand on the table to slide out. I didn’t even have a pencil in my hair. I’d expected lots and lots of muscle to act as bodyguards.

  “Don’t hurt anyone,” I whispered as he placed his coat over his hand to hide the gun and headed for the door.

  Three of the women were at the register paying for their tabs. Agent Kent had opened the door when the cashier called out. “Excuse me, miss. You can’t leave without paying for your coffee.”

  I grinned up at Kent. “I bet they’ve got a shotgun beneath that counter. You might want to pay for my coffee first.”

  His brows dipped, and he yanked me to the register, where the last lady was paying.

  “How much does she owe?” Kent clipped out the question.

  “Three coffees are six dollars,” the woman said, hitting the keys on the register.

  “They were worth every penny,” I said to Kent. “Be sure to leave her a tip.”

  He let go of my arm and reached for his wallet.

  The three ladies pounced at once. One shoved me away, another took him to the ground and removed his weapon, and a third held him at gunpoint while the ones from the restroom rushed forward with cuffs and extra weapons.

  “Are you okay?” one asked, moving me further out of harm’s way.

  I didn’t know how to answer. I didn’t know what I’d just witnessed.

  “I think she’s in shock,” one of the women said, slapping cuffs on Agent Kent as he struggled to buck her off him.

  “Who the hell are you guys?” I asked.

  “Oh. They didn’t tell you? We should have known they wouldn’t tell you,” one answered.

  “But Mother should have told her,” another one said.

  “Of course, Mother didn’t tell her. Dr. Bray never gave Mom any grandbabies.”

  “Sorry, it’s your penance,” another woman announced.

  The one pulling Agent Kent up from the ground finally answered. “We’re Martin’s sisters. Welcome to the family.”

  “But Martin isn’t….”

  “Alive. Yes, we know. But you were suckered into marrying him, which makes you one of us. So how about some more coffee,” the waitress behind the cash register said, pulling off the apron to reveal her own guns stashed away.

  Noah, Rowen, and the FBI guy from the motorcycle club stepped out of the kitchen. The FBI guy took Agent Kent out of the building to a patrol car pulling into the parking lot.

  Noah gave me a once-over. “You good?”

  “Yeah. You could have told me,” I scowled.

  Noah grinned in a way that I’d never seen him before. “And miss the surprise family reunion? Not on your life.” He chuckled as he headed to the door with Rowen in tow.

  Two of the sisters grabbed my arms and led me to the table where they’d been sitting. I was a hostage with no escape. I glanced once more at Noah, who was hurrying toward the door. He wiggled his fingers at me. “We leave in the morning. Now you girls have fun.”

  My eyes widened, and I’d turned to head toward him when arms caught mine again and pulled me to the table.

  “Have a seat. I’ll get us some more coffee,” my pretend waitress said as she walked off.

  “So, tell us everything. Martin came home from Vegas, and he was never the same.”

  Sloan was watching. He had one foot crossed over in front of the other with a lazy smile stretched on his lips.

  I opened my mouth to answer the girl who’d wanted to know everything when I was hit with another question.

  “Why didn’t you come to the funeral?”

  I held up my hands. “Your brother married me, stole my money, and then left me in Vegas after telling me he’d planned an annulment.”

  “Oh, he wasn’t going to divorce you. He made it a point to watch you through the years. Do you know how hard that was for him to always be so close and yet so far away?” another one asked.

  My shoulders sagged in defeat. “Ladies. I know you missed out on having a sister-in-law, and to be honest, be glad you did, because I’m a basket case, and it would have been ugly.”

  “See, he picked perfectly,” one of the girls cooed.

  “We’re basket cases too,” another one chuckled.

  “I mean, who in their right mind would marry someone and then just disappear to keep them safe? He was just as crazy.”

  “Crazy in love,” another one said, giving me whiplash.

  “The men in my life don’t tend to stick around,” I answered, not knowing what else to say. “And I have a boyfriend now.”

  “Oh, that’s right. You had another one die too, didn’t you?” one of the girls said with a sad frown.

  “How could you possibly know that?” I asked.

  “Rowen was sent to watch out after you. Had he known you were leaving town, he might have prevented the bombing. You have no idea what that did to the guy,” the woman said, patting my hand. “But don’t worry, he’s being more vigilant now that he has help.”

  “Help?” I asked.

  “Well, yeah.” One of the sisters grinned. “You are a handful.”

  Chapter 37

  Noah and I pulled our luggage through the airplane terminal. Those sisters had kept me talking till three in the morning, and I’d only gotten three hours of sleep before being rudely awoken and told we had to go as if the house was on fire.

  I would have complained had I not been told that Ford and Sam would be meeting me at the gate. That was all the incentive I needed to caffeinate myself awake.

  As promised, their smiling faces greeted me as we approached.

  Sam pulled me into his arms and whispered, “I’m so sorry, Lucy.”

  “It’s okay, kid,” I said, handing him the computer bag and stepping around him. I rested my hand on Ford’s chest. “You hit the law for me.”

  His grinned. “I’d do it again.”

  “I love you,” I whispered.

  He rested his hand in my hair and lowered his lips to mine in a kiss that told me I was home. Con, cop, whatever Ford was, I was his.

  He broke the kiss and then pressed his lips to my forehead once more before taking the luggage from my hand.

  Sloan was watching us, and I told Ford to go on ahead of me and walked into the ladies room, knowing Sloan would follow.

  “Sloan…”

  “No need to tell me, Lucy. You love him, and he obviously loves you.”

  “I never meant…”

  “Everything that happened was meant to be. You’re here by design,” Sloan said as his gaze softened. “Take care of you.”

  “Take care of you,” I called out. The heaviness in my heart lifted as Sloan vanished out of sight. It was as though a boulder had been lifted off my shoulders and I could finally breathe again.

  I let out a shaky sigh and walked out to find Ford waiting on me. “You good?”

  “I’m great.” I smiled up at him and wrapped my arm around his waist.

  We exited, and I spotted Rowen leaning against his car and one of Martin’s sisters sitting on the hood with her face lifted to the sun, as if she were tanning.

  “He’s been busy,” Ford said, tossin
g his arm over my shoulders.

  “Yeah, well, I have a feeling this won’t be the last we see of him. He has a perverse sense of loyalty to my dead husband.”

  “That sounds like an interesting story,” Ford said.

  “You can fill us all in at dinner tonight,” Sam said.

  “I’m not cooking,” I answered.

  “You don’t need to. Your sister is.” Sam chuckled.

  ****

  Smoke plumes drifted into the night sky from the grill. The scent of steaks cooking made my stomach growl and my mouth water.

  “Have they figured out if someone was pulling Kent’s strings?” I asked.

  “It may take a while to get to the truth. Kent isn’t talking, but I doubt he was the mastermind behind the hacks,” Noah said.

  “I agree. He’s not tech savvy like Sam.” I said turning my gaze to the others inside. Tension eased from my shoulders seeing them all together and I smiled.

  Ford, Sam, Grant, my sister, Rowen, and Martin’s sisters were all inside sharing stories.

  I was sitting in one of the patio chairs while Noah tended the grill.

  “They’d move mountains for you,” Noah said, following my gaze.

  “And I’d move them, too,” I answered.

  “No, you’d blow up the mountain to get to the other side. That’s what makes you special.”

  “Are you trying to say I’m special in the head?” I asked, taking another sip of my beer.

  “Listen,” he said, shutting the grill cover. “About your headaches…”

  “Oh yeah. What did you find out?”

  “Lucy, others in the program have had complications with ingesting too many blood bonds.”

  “What kind of complications?” I was almost afraid to ask.

  “Mental breaks that varied and, in some cases, death, but all of them had one thing in common. They started with headaches.”

  “How do I fix it?” I asked, taking another long pull from my beer.

  “No one has figured it out yet.”

  “But we will?” I asked.

  “We will,” he said with determination and clinked his beer against mine.

  “Good because that’s not the only problem I’ve got,” I said with a sigh.

  Noah raised his brow. “Hit me with it.”

  “One of my donors was psychic, and I’ve started seeing ghosts.”

  “Only one?” he asked.

  “Yeah, well, one of the others seems normal, but the third…he’s going to be our next case. He’s kidnapping and hunting women. I’ve seen it. Now all we have to do is prove it before he strikes again.”

  “Sounds like a perfect job for our unit.” Noah said pulling a paper out of his back pocket. He unfolded the FBI contract and placed it on the table in front of me before pulling the pen out of my hair.

  My strands cascaded down to my shoulders.

  He dropped the pen on the paper. “Sign the damn contract and make it official.”

  I picked up the pen and clicked it. It took all of five seconds to sign my life away. For better or worse, these people had me for at least the next year, if I didn’t die first from my blood bond complications. I shoved the contract back at him.

  “You’re getting damaged goods,” I said, twisting my hair and slipping the pen back into place.

  Noah grinned. “Haven’t you learned yet, Lucy? We’re all damaged in some way or another. You just have to pick your flavor of crazy and embrace it.”

  READ MORE BY KATE ALLENTON

  Or maybe you like Cozy Reads with Psychics? Check out Dead Wrong, Book 1 in the Cree Blue Psychic Eye Mystery Series.

  Feel like adding a little Highlander Romance with your Cozy Psychic Mystery? Check out DEADLY INTENT, Book 1 in the Linked Inc. Series

  Or maybe you’d like some straight up Romantic Suspense? Check out Deception, Book 1 in the Carrington-Hill Series.

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  About the Author

  Kate has lived in Florida for most of her entire life. She enjoys a quiet life with her husband, Michael and two kids.

  Kate has pulled all-nighters finishing her favorite books and also writing them. She says she'll sleep when she's dead or when her muse stops singing off key.

  She loves creating worlds full of suspense, secrets, hunky men, kick ass heroines, steamy sex and oh yeah the love of a lifetime. Not to mention an occasional ghost and other supernatural talents thrown into the mix.

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  Visit her website at www.kateallenton.com