Hacker Wedding

by Baxter, Linzi

  It was my turn to glare at my beautiful wife because that sounded a little too rehearsed. She knew how to get her way.

  “How about when we get to Shialia, you buy two new alligators, and we can keep these at the house.” They wouldn’t be going back to the house, but that was an argument I would have with my son when we got back. Hopefully, he wouldn’t remember the fact that we’d raised alligators. I would need to talk to my wife about it in private, not in front of our friends.

  A smile spread across Kat’s face, and I knew I’d fallen for one of her tricks. She’d known she would get caught and that I would allow her to buy an alligator in Shialia. Dammit. My wife knows too well how to play her cards.

  “Okay, I’ll have Jared drive them back to the house,” she said.

  Jessica stepped forward with Brock by her side. “I’m not sure Patty will want alligators, to be honest. The palace doesn’t have a moat.”

  Kat turned with their youngest in her arms. “What do you mean she doesn’t have a moat? Every castle has a moat and drawbridge. How the hell do you stop attacks?”

  Jessica giggled. “The palace was upgraded over the years. Many of the medieval things were taken out of it and replaced with high-tech security. A large fence surrounds the place, along with multiple guards. The alligators won’t have anywhere to roam… well, they could go to the secondary castle.”

  Simon tugged at my shirt, tears in his eyes. “But, Dad, alligators need water and Mom’s special treats.”

  Special treats was code for the bodies Kat disposed of over the years. At least she hadn’t killed anyone in a year. Our friends joked that she still did, but the motion-sensor cameras picked everything up, and I knew she hadn’t dropped anything in the backyard for a while.

  Over the last year, Kat had worked with the local police and had helped close over a dozen cases. All the cases were linked to domestic violence. She’d taken down a biker gang who had been not only abusing women but running drugs out of a warehouse as well. So even if my wife had a tendency to go a little extreme, I still loved her for her huge heart.

  “Alligators can live off the land. They don’t need Mom’s special treats,” I said.

  Kat’s lip twitched. Then she kneeled next to Simon. “These guys will be fine, and we can take care of them when we get home.”

  “Okay, we have almost everything ready if you guys want to get on the plane.” Ryan turned and walked toward the stairs.

  In the plane were my twin, Asher, his partner CJ, Kat, Ant, and the twins as well as Brock and Jessica and their little one. The rest of the gang was heading out on another flight with Aaron, Daisy, my oldest brother, and a few more of our friends. It was a long time since everyone had been together.

  Kat curled up on the couch next to me. The kids were buckled into seats closer to the back, watching a cartoon on the large-screen TV. CJ and Asher were across from us. Jessica and Brock sat in the chairs next to the couch.

  “Are you excited to go back to Shialia, Jessica?” CJ asked.

  She looked toward the back of the plane, where the kids were playing. Until I saw her pull up to the airport with Brock, I hadn’t been sure she was going. Over the past few years, she’d said she wanted to visit Shialia and her sister, but they’d only gone there once, after Kinley was born.

  Nobody blamed Jessica for not wanting to go back. She’d been kidnapped and tortured twice because of that country. Sam and Patty had worked to get things under control, but there were still issues. Women and girls were missing, and no one was any closer to solving the case.

  I didn’t mind helping while we were there. After the wedding, I planned to take Kat on a second honeymoon without the kids. I hadn’t told my wife yet, because she had a hard time being away from them, but I wanted to spend some alone time with just her. Brock planned to keep the rug rats for us while we spent a week in Paris, where we’d first met and where I thought I lost her forever until I figured out she hadn’t really died.

  “I’m excited to see Kinley and Patty,” Jessica said. “Honestly, I could do without going to Shialia. I know I have a better chance of choking and dying than getting kidnapped, but I’ve been taken twice, so I’m not sure how much of my life I should keep relying on statistics.”

  Jessica was a mathematician and a master at figuring out tricky puzzles. She was also an encyclopedia of stupid facts. Some of them, I didn’t need to know. Like, when I stole a fruit snack from my son, she informed me that car wax was what made it shiny. Then there was the time I was starving and she told me the hamburger I was eating could be from a hundred different cows. Facts were interesting at certain times, but not when I was about to eat something I liked.

  Brock cleared his throat. “I double-checked every tracking device before we left. They’re all online. I synced the software to my phone, so if something happens, I can track everyone down. When we get to Shialia, Antonio and I are going to spend some time making sure the system is not compromised.”

  Sam had texted us, letting us know Patty was safe but he needed the security overhauled. Shialia was about to be overrun with some of the best hackers in the world. Even with how great Patty was, she didn’t have time to comb through every inch of the system.

  “Can we get back to the fact that the castle doesn’t have a moat?” Kat said.

  “You will see enough cool things around there to make up for the lack of a moat. If we have time, I can take you out to the other house. It doesn’t have a moat like in the storybooks, but it does have a drawbridge.”

  “Have you heard if your dad is going to be there?” Kat asked.

  I couldn’t help but tense next to Kat. I wasn’t sure how much Brock had said to Jessica. I’d known Sam had been talking to King Beckett off and on for the last few years. Brock and I had both assisted in helping find the lost siblings.

  Jessica glared at Brock. “Yes, he’s back. And it seems I have a few siblings. Not sure if I’m ready to meet them since the last ones weren’t very nice to me.” It was her brother who’d kidnapped and tortured her.

  My wife didn’t miss a beat. “See, if you had a moat with alligators, we could throw the ones we didn’t like in and see if they could make it.”

  Jessica laughed. “Well, there is a dungeon in the palace.”

  “Which Sam converted into a sex club.” Brock paused. “Well, I guess you could still use it to torture someone.”

  It has been too long since I’d had my wife bound in rope. I couldn’t wait to lay my hand on her ass. Kat turned to me and smiled as if she could read my thoughts. This vacation was going to be one we didn’t forget.

  9

  Sam

  Little fingers pushed against my lips and stuck, leaving a trail of sugar behind. It wasn’t often Kinley was up before Patty or me. We hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before. Neither one of us could stop worrying about the baby. When I came back to the room, the nurse was checking Patty over. She’d had a sharp pain, but the baby wasn’t in distress.

  The bed dipped as Kinley climbed up and sat on my stomach. “Are you up yet, Daddy?” she whispered, poking my face with her syrup-covered fingers again. “Uncle Brock and Aunt Jessica are going to be here soon.”

  The flight from Florida was over nineteen hours. Even when our friends arrived, they would want to spend some time sleeping and not playing.

  “Sweetie.” I grabbed her hand before she could press her sticky paws to my face again. It was dark in the room, only the light from the moon filtering in. I glanced at the clock beside the bed and groaned. “Wait, it’s four o’clock in the morning. What are you doing up?”

  I didn’t want to wake Patty since we’d only gone to bed a couple of hours before, and she needed her rest. I didn’t want her worrying about our daughter breaking out of her room in the middle of the night. What bothered me most was that the guard hadn’t stopped her.

  We had no proof that Carl was behind Patty’s kidnapping. He was still working in the palace. The working area and our residen
ce were guarded, and we had security measures in place, but I still worried. The lawyers were combing through every inch of the contract, trying to figure out a way to get rid of him.

  Kinley shrugged. “I took the slide from my room, had a snack, and thought I would check to see if Uncle Brock was here yet.”

  When we’d installed the slide in Kinley’s room, it had seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t something I thought I would need to place a guard at the end of. The slide dumped her out in the main area and was too small for a large person to sneak up.

  Patty stirred in the bed next to us, and I twined her fingers together with mine and squeezed her hand.

  “Hey, Mommy!”

  “Baby girl, it’s the middle of the night. What woke you up?”

  “The loud bang,” she said, sighing dejectedly.

  My body tensed. “I’m going to check everything out.” I moved Kinley to the center of the bed. “Stay here with Mom.”

  “Why don’t you call Tucker and have him go check it out?” Patty rubbed her eyes. “And we can all snuggle back in bed together.”

  I was torn between staying with my family and seeing what had woken my little girl. “Okay.”

  My phone lit up on the end table as I grabbed it. A text from Wes said they couldn’t find Alex, the man guarding Kinley’s room.

  I shot him a text back: Keep me posted. I have Patty and Kinley.

  Wes: 10-4

  I was across the room in an instant and had locked both entry points. “Wes is working on it. Why don’t we all go to bed as a family?”

  “But I’m not tired, Daddy.”

  Something deep inside me cracked as I worried about the danger that being in Shialia put our family in.

  Patty’s eyes glazed over. “This is all my fault.”

  Kinley bounced on the bed and turned to Patty. “I’m not up because of you, Mommy. I heard a noise and realized I was hungry, so I ate syrup with peanut butter. I couldn’t reach the bread.”

  Our little girl was so carefree, not worrying about the shit going on around her. And I wanted to keep it that way for the rest of our lives. I walked to the bed, pulled out my safe, and unlocked it before climbing in next to Patty.

  “This isn’t your fault,” I said, glancing at our daughter and choosing my words very carefully. Kinley picked up on every little thing we said. “You know, you still have time to decide. Just ’cause your dad is pushing for you to take over doesn’t mean you have to. Wes found a clause that lets you hand the crown over to someone else. Your family doesn’t even have to be in the line anymore.”

  No matter what road Patty chose to take, I would be by her side. I knew it would be easier for us to pick up our lives and walk away from everything. I also knew my wife had the biggest heart, and she wouldn’t do that to the people of Shialia.

  “The people here need us.” Patty squeezed my hand. “But am I putting our family at risk?”

  “No. Even if you hand the crown over, I’m sure our family will always have a target on it.”

  “I wish we had a normal life sometimes,” she said softly. “Like our friends.”

  I couldn’t hold back the laughter that exploded from me. None of our friends had everyday lives or even typical jobs. “You mean like working for the CIA or being one of the richest families in the world?”

  I hadn’t even mentioned the friends who were movie stars or the one whose brother was the United States president. Nobody in our circle had everyday lives. The paparazzi followed them, or they were off in other countries, working military contracts. I hadn’t even had a normal life before meeting Patty. And I wouldn’t change my experience for anything.

  “Everything has a way of working out. In time, everything will make more sense in the morning,” I said.

  “I worry about my family.” Patty pulled Kinley closer to her.

  I nodded. “No matter what you’re doing, you will always worry about your family. We’re not going to solve the world's problems in the middle of the night.”

  My phone dinged next to bed.

  Wes: King Beckett was on your side of the palace. He fell, and the guard went to help him.

  Patty looked over at my phone, and her eyes flared.

  Sam: Is he okay?

  Wes: Yes.

  “I can take Kinley back to her room,” I said, not sure if I wanted our daughter out of bed. Even with no threat, I wanted my family close.

  “How about we let her stay with us a little longer?”

  I didn’t argue. Instead, I kissed both of my girls and worried about what might happen next.

  * * *

  We finally fell asleep around six in the morning. When my alarm went off, I wanted to throw it across the room. Kinley and Patty were still asleep as I climbed out of bed. It was time to have a long conversation with Patty’s dad.

  I quickly showered and walked through the palace to the office area. Wes was already outside my office with a large coffee. I didn’t say a word as I grabbed the cup from his hands and took a large sip. The dark roast tasted perfect.

  “I don’t know how you drink that shit,” Wes grumbled as he sat down in the chair across from me.

  “Coffee?”

  He shook his head. “Coffee is good. What you have the kitchen make is not coffee. It’s grounds mixed with a little water. It’s like the shit I drank when I was on active duty and needed to stay up for three days straight.”

  “It’s perfect. And it is the same stuff you drank. I found a company run by veterans. They make a mean dark roast, and the money goes to a good cause.”

  “You could just donate to them,” Wes shot back. “You don’t actually have to drink the shit.”

  “It’s good.” I paused. “I hope you kept an eye on Beckett, because I need a long chat with him today.”

  “I did,” he said, drawing out the words. “He’s not very happy about it. Tried telling me he wanted to peek in on Kinley before he left town.”

  I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Why? He was so adamant that we needed to do this power transfer?”

  “Not sure, but I locked him in my office.”

  I barked out a laugh. “You locked the king in your office?”

  “Seemed like a good idea at the time. The room is soundproof, so all his yelling won’t get him anywhere. There are no windows or secret doors in my office. Hadn’t realized how good of a cell it was until I had to lock Patty’s dad away.”

  I nodded, going through the list of laws Wes had broken. “You deserve a raise. I guess it’s time my future father-in-law and I have a long conversation.”

  Wes and I walked down the hall to his office. I grabbed the keys from him and unlocked the door. King Beckett stood from the chair, his face bright red. “What the fuck? I’ve been in here all night.”

  I shrugged and walked across the room to the chair and sat down. “Well, you were the one who broke into our home last night and woke my daughter.”

  “I wanted to see my girls before I left town.”

  “You’re not leaving. You brought this whole thing on. If you don’t want to shift the power, fine. Have everything back. Patty and I will get married Sunday, and we will be on our way back to the states.”

  King Beckett winced. “It’s not that I don’t want to hand the power over.”

  “Then why can’t you make up your mind? You’re worse than a teenage girl trying to decide what to wear on her first date.”

  “I’m sick,” Beckett said as his shoulders slumped. “The doctor found something on my latest scan, and he wants me to come back.”

  “How long?” I asked.

  “They don’t know. Years ago, I battled with prostate cancer. A few years ago, it came back, so I’ve gone through treatments again. But they think it might be spreading. That’s why I need to head back out.”

  “You need to tell your daughters.”

  “They have enough going on.”

  “Jessica will be here”—I glanced down at my watch—“in an hour. S
it down and talk to both of your daughters. Then you can run away like you always do.”

  I was sick of the games he was playing. He acted like he cared about his kids, but it seemed as if he was only thinking about himself half the time. Yes, I wanted him to be healthy so Kinley and our little boy could know their grandfather, but I didn’t want to keep all the secrets he kept insisting on.

  “I’m not sure how to tell them.”

  “Not my problem,” I growled. “You will tell them what’s going on before you leave. Saturday, you will sign whatever needs to be signed.”

  King Beckett stood and glared at me. “I’m still the king of this country, and I’ll tell my daughters when I want, not when some hotshot tries to tell me what to do.”

  “Tell me what?” Patty asked as she stepped into Wes’s office. Patty had the best and worst timing. I hated when she did that shit to me, but it was amazing when it happened to other people.

  God, my future wife is hot. She wore a red wraparound dress that was tied to the side. I wanted to whisk her away and open the package she’d wrapped herself in. She also had on matching red lipstick she knew I loved.

  It took me a second to remember that she was supposed to be in bed. “Why aren’t you resting?”

  “The doctor came by and checked on me. He said everything is fine and to take it easy. I still can’t leave this place. I have one meeting, then I plan to head back to bed. But you didn’t answer my question, Dad. What are you keeping from me?”

  “Nothing,” her dad growled.

  I shook my head. “Your dad is sick and wants to go see his doctors.”

  For the next hour, King Beckett went over his sickness with Patty. I sat to the side and held my future wife as she cried. By the end of the conversation, Beckett agreed to wait to leave.

  I had some of the top doctors in the world flying in. Having high-profile friends helped me get answers a lot quicker. I just wished he’d told us years before. Instead, he’d waited until the diagnosis wasn’t looking good. With him being sick, someone could fight all the decisions the crown made.