by Sheri Landry
“What am I doing? What am I doing?” Rounding on her, I repeat myself incredulously, as if that will help her question make more sense. “What the hell are you thinking?”
Her round eyes well with pent-up emotion, and her chin trembles as the reality of her decision settles into her bones. She shudders as if she’s cold.
“I can’t let that be her, Michael.” The helpless waver in Dana’s whisper breaks my heart. I should have known. While Dyani was telling us about the horrors the Sparrs have inflicted, Dana was sitting quietly beside me with her guilt over Kaley slowly eating away at her.
My shoulders soften at the sight of Dana breaking down and powerless, but I don’t release the hold I have on her arm. I may never let her go.
“You can’t go making decisions like this on your own.” My chest tightens.
“Why not?”
Her question sets me off. “Because I won’t let that be you, Dana. When you make the choice to damn yourself, you choose for the both of us, because I’m not letting you go, and I’m pretty sure Jessa and most of the people in here feel the same way.” I tilt my head into the room, and she follows my eyes to everyone sitting around the table staring at us in silence.
“Oh.” She lowers her eyes to the floor as I shed light on how different her reality is from her perception.
“This was never a mission. Finding you and protecting you was never a job, not for any of us. The sacrifices you’ve made are sacrifices you make when you care about someone, when you are on their team and you’ve got their back. All of us who are here for you asked to be here. You don’t just get that kind of loyalty. You earn it. You and Jessa have proven, over and over, that you are a part of us. I know you feel like you don’t fit in, not with us and not here in this town, but no one else shares those thoughts.” I speak loud enough so everyone in our group hears me, and I tug on her arm, urging her to look up at our team.
As her eyes lift, each one of the guys nods in silence, agreeing with my words—even Logan pinches his lips together in a curt gesture.
“I—I didn’t think—”
“No. You didn’t. But now you know.”
31
Dana
Listening to Michael scold me on why I couldn’t make my own decisions stilled my soul. His words settled into a part of me I don’t think I’ve ever been familiar with. It hadn’t occurred to me that any of these guys came here to help me without having their own agenda.
Michael was shot because of me. Jack and Michael were attacked by a hitman, and everyone was taken by Mena and her team. We could all be lying dead in an abandoned mine right now, and they asked to be here—for me.
My heart sinks into my stomach as I look over at the table. Each of them looks directly at me as they nod, confirming Michael’s words.
I accepted the life I chose, probably earlier than I should have been forced to. I made peace with an abusive father and a mother who meant well but couldn’t manage to deliver.
I accepted a life in hiding if it meant I could be near the person who was closer to me than my own family. I told myself over and over that this solitary life was the price I paid to have the time I did with Jessa, and I would have never changed a thing. But, in accepting it, I made it my new normal. I was a woman on the run, a transient who didn’t fit in. I didn’t need anyone, and I was determined to keep it that way. I was so determined that I wouldn’t allow myself to see these guys as people I could rely on, because, if I did, it meant I could lose them too.
Flashes of terror hit me as I remember begging Mena to let them go. I may not have admitted to myself how important everyone here is to me, but it doesn’t change the fact that they are. And now Michael is telling me I am just as important to them.
“I—I didn’t think—” My tone reflects my shame at making such an important decision on my own, without consideration for others who literally put their lives on the line for me.
“No. You didn’t. But now you know.” Michael drops his voice. His tone is sincere.
As sobering as Michael’s words are, nothing could have prepared me for the look on his face as I meet his eyes. This is the same look he had as he told me about losing his father. This is Michael at his most vulnerable, and this is the look that has made me realize I am not alone.
The door to the kitchen opens on a creak, and the smell of grease fills my nostrils as my stomach growls at the thought of breaking our moment.
Harry sets a tray of plates down on the bar before nodding at Dale, who rises to grab them as he tells Harry to make some more and keep it coming.
“Can I have a minute?” Michael and I turn our attention behind us, and Jessa smiles before dropping her eyes to Michael’s hand around my arm. He instantly releases his grip, clearing his throat.
“Yes, um, of course.” He schools his features, and, with his walls back in place, he turns to take his seat. My heart hurts at the severed connection.
“Hey. You okay?” Jessa rubs my arm and my eyes sting.
“This is too much to handle,” I whisper as I blink rapidly, trying to stave off my tears before they form.
“Only if you try to handle it alone.” I know Jessa well enough to know she agrees with Michael. There isn’t anything I wouldn’t do for Jessa, and I should have known she felt the same. I shouldn’t have made such a rash decision without hearing more, but I worry Kaley is out there alone and hurt, and I need to help her. My mind wanders back to Jessa as she changes the subject, catching me off guard.
“You know, I never had to ask Michael if he could help me find you.”
“What do you mean?”
“I told you I was in a coma for a while after—you know.” She shrugs before continuing, “Anyway, I started looking for you as soon as they gave me access to a computer, but most of the groundwork was already done. Michael came to me with a massive folder filled with everything he could find on you before your trail went cold—which was actually quite fast. I was impressed.” She nudges my shoulder with her own and winks, trying to get me to smile. “My point is, Michael was never assigned the task of looking for you. We didn’t even know Zane’s base program was downloaded to you until months later, when Link and I were digging through the files and servers I accessed in order to seal up any potential weaknesses that could be exploited. I thought you should know that.” Jessa lets her words linger for a moment. “Speaking of people looking out for you, I noticed a certain someone tense up when Michael pulled you away from the table.”
My brows scrunch together at her words, and she tilts her head to the side. I follow her line of sight to Dale as he picks up the last two plates. His eyes meet mine as he smiles.
“You haven’t eaten yet today. Come get some. More will be up soon.” He turns and walks back to the table, stopping beside Dyani. He says something to her and hands her both plates, and she smiles before standing and walking out of the bar with them.
“We’re friends.” My cheeks warm, and I’m positive I’m blushing.
Jessa smiles, watching me with great interest. “I know. I’m saying you have earned your place here as much as you have with Michael and his team. Don’t tell yourself you haven’t.”
“Point taken.” I open my mouth to say more, but my stomach growls angrily. I grab at my midsection in embarrassment before Jessa pulls my arm, leading me back to the table.
As I pull up a seat, Dyani joins us once more and offers Dale a thanks for the food I assume she’s given to her team outside, and he nods.
Hunger takes over, and everyone around the table reaches in for a helping of the wings and onion rings. I grab a few as I scan everyone around me, taking in the bizarreness of it all.
Maxwell is dead, Jessa is alive, Kaley is missing, along with the woman who Logan blames for the death of a sister I didn’t know he had, and we are all sitting here in silence, stuffing our faces as we walk a fine line between order and anarchy.
Suddenly Dyani straightens in her seat.
“They’re bac
k. Can my team come in?” She glances at Dale, and he nods.
“No weapons.”
She speaks as though she’s talking to us. “You heard him.” I wonder if everyone around the table knows she had an earpiece in, as no one looks surprised.
The outside door opens, and one by one men and women file in, lining the wall. They look unsure of their welcome, and Dyani doesn’t motion for them to come over until the last two are in.
Dale catches my attention as he pats his hand in the air, gesturing to his guys at the back of the barn, who remain seated.
The woman who approaches our table is breathing deeply and clutching a water bottle, her olive skin turning white at her knuckles.
“Shazia is the one we were able to retrieve from the crash.” The woman looks around the table at each of us as Dyani explains there were three of them on the helicopter: Mena, Shazia, and Kaley. Shaz, she called her for short, was the pilot.
As Dyani updates us with everything she knows about the crash, I look at the woman, who seems to be settling as she tucks a stray strand of wavy hair back under her deep mauve hijab.
“Before I ask Shaz to tell us what she knows, you need to understand: whether you are with us or against us, we will be walking out of here.” There is no need for her to elaborate on her threat. Glancing around the table, I see it’s understood by all the guys that if we choose not to help them, they won’t tolerate any resistance. “Great.” She stands and steps to the side, offering the woman her seat. “Go ahead.”
“The girl—”
“Kaley,” I offer, and she nods.
“Yes. Her ankle was too bad to move her. We had no other choice. I only had one gun—we weren’t prepared.” Watching Shazia attempt to understand her own guilt at leaving Mena and Kaley behind reminds me of the shame I feel, and I want to tell her that, if she didn’t have a choice, she shouldn’t blame herself when I realize I’m doing this exact same thing to myself.
“The team checked in. They found the crash site. There’s no one there, so they must have taken both of them.” As Dyani clarifies, Shazia nods her head.
“Yeah, um—about that.” Her eyes look around at all of us before she places her elbows on the table and cradles her face in her hands. “There was no other way.” Muttering to herself, she lifts her head to continue. “She had no choice.” My stomach twists on itself, threatening to push the small dinner I ate back up at the look of horror on her face.
“Shaz,” Dyani prompts.
“I wanted to stay. I told her we could try, but she was right.”
“What did she say?” I notice a slight shake in Dyani’s hand as she asks the question.
“She asked her if—” Another pause. “Kaley—was taken for the auction.” There is some kind of heavy meaning behind the auction, and, judging by the way Dyani pales, she understands what that meaning is.
“What’s going on?” Dale is becoming impatient at the lack of information about Kaley.
“Kaley was handed over to them as a virgin.” Dyani looks as though saying the words is going to make her vomit.
“WHAT?” Dale jumps out of his seat, prompting a couple of the men at the back of the room to shuffle in their own chairs.
“She had no choice.” Dyani speaks in a low voice as she echoes what Shazia said, as if she’s just now realizing something.
“You don’t understand—” Dale looks furious, and Dyani quickly places herself in front of her team member.
“No. You don’t understand. Mena had no—other—choice. If she hadn’t done that, we would have absolutely found one dead body out there tonight. Please.” She points to Dale’s seat, asking him to give her a minute, and he does as Shazia stands, placing her hand on Dyani’s arm. She steps back to let her speak.
“If it was just me and Mena, we could have made it running at our top speeds.” She turns to Dyani. “I begged her to let me be the one to stay back, but they would have killed me on sight. We already know they want Mena alive for some reason, so that left Kaley. You have to understand—what Mena did is the only thing keeping your friend alive.”
“By selling her at an auction?” Dale asks incredulously.
“No, by giving her value. Those auctions take in an insane amount of money, and the value she placed on Kaley will keep her untouched and, more importantly, alive until we can get them back.”
“But you don’t know where they are,” Dale counters.
“Actually, we do now. And that is thanks to your friend.” All attention turns to Dyani as Shazia nods in agreement. “There are so many places to traffic these girls through, but only one handling that particular type of auction. The best part is: we are already partially set up to get in there.”
My heart thuds into my chest at the small glimmer of hope in their words. Kaley will be kept safe for— “How long?” I catch Dyani’s attention and repeat myself. “How long until she’s—”
“They’ll drive straight through and be there in a little over twenty-four hours. The auction will be set up. Then they need some time to organize and reach out to potential buyers, so from there she has no more than a couple of weeks. We’ll have to act fast though, because they probably won’t keep Mena with her for long, and if we want to get both of them out, we’ll have to—” Dyani stops mid-sentence as she looks down to where Shazia is tugging at her sleeve.
“We aren’t getting her back. She said this is it.”
Dyani looks like she’s going to faint as she squares herself on Shaz. “Did she say the words?” The slightest stutter laces Dyani’s question.
“Yes.”
“What did she say, exactly?”
“Mena said to tell you…Zero Day has begun.”
Dyani looks over Shazia’s shoulder toward everyone standing along the wall. There’s a distressed moment of silence as the guys on Michael’s team look at each other in confusion.
Shocking everyone around the table, Jessa jumps to her feet. The force tips her chair back and over.
“I need to get Zane up and running. NOW!”
32
Michael
“Whoa. Wait.” Jack is standing at Jessa’s side before she finishes speaking. “What’s going on?”
“Zero Day.” Jessa looks around at us as though she’s found the answer to all our problems. “Zero Day.” Her eyes land on Dyani, and a flicker of recognition crosses the woman’s face in a furtive smile.
“So you can help us?”
“Well, I think—”
“Hold on. No one is helping anyone until you tell us what the hell is going on.” Logan slams his open palm down on the table, then rises as he stares Jessa down.
“Zero Day is an execution program I was hired to put together about five years ago. It’s an extremely simple piece of code. Kind of like what I planted in Maxwell’s servers, but different. I can’t believe I forgot all about it. I remember I was worried I might at the time, so I coded it into Zane’s base program. That way it would just start working if it was ever tripped.”
“Mena never carried any type of tracking device. She said it would be the first thing they would look for if she was ever caught, so she had a small tracker inserted in her back.” Dyani reaches over her shoulder and taps her back to indicate the location. “She said they would most likely remove it and think they were in the clear. The only way she could get a tracker in is if she was the tracker, and she hired you.”
“How does it work?” I take the conversation from Logan. He looks like his impatience is taking over, and I don’t want anyone at the table to start taking sides now.
“All she needs is a computer. Anything that can access a cell tower or the internet. From there, she needs to key in the website address and click a small pixel at the bottom of the screen, setting off a chain of events. Everything after fires instantly. The screen receives an incomplete connection message, the device is disconnected from the server it was using, and the program is designed to destroy any evidence the connection was successful
.” Jessa’s eyes light up as she explains this secret program she created, and I realize I have never seen her like this. She’s in her element.
My eyes drop to Dana. I watch her as she takes in her best friend, and her own fire blazes across her face. This must have been what it was like when they were on their own, and I know I have a decision to make. I already know what is in Dana’s heart.
Now I need to figure out what is in mine.
“How does this help us?” It isn’t lost on me that I’ve lumped myself in with Jessa, Dana, and the rest of the strangers standing around us.
It isn’t lost on the guys either. Jack and Logan stare me down with hesitant expressions as Jessa answers.
“It pings her location. That’s all. Anything more would throw up too many flags.”
“You’re banking everything on her being able to get to a device,” Logan counters.
“She’ll do it.” Dyani answers with unwavering certainty.
“But Zane needs to be up and running when the connection happens, or it’s all for nothing,” Jessa adds before she furrows her brows in concentration.
She places her fingertips on the table and looks at the worn grain beneath them before she lifts her attention back to Dyani.
“That’s why Mena called in the anonymous tip about us, isn’t it?” She lowers her voice, and her question makes Dana lean forward in her seat.
Dyani takes a long look at Jessa, then Dana, before answering.
“Yes. Maxwell was about two days away from you. We had two choices. Take you ourselves or place you in protection to keep you—and Zero Day—safe.” Dyani’s eyes move over all of us guys around the table.
Putting the women in our custody must mean they knew enough about us and our operation to trust we would protect them.
The sound of a throat clearing from the direction of the bar catches my attention, and Dale looks up. I glance over my shoulder as one of Dale’s men stands behind a second round of food at the bar, and I decide to make this into the break we all need.