by Susan Stoker, Cristin Harber, Cora Seton, Lynn Raye Harris, Kaylea Cross, Katie Reus, Tessa Layne
Parker thought about Lexi and how she’d disappeared. He’d even checked a few sources—not like he was trying to be an overbearing stalker asshole—but the girl hadn’t used any credit cards or her cell phone in days. Checking up didn’t make him a creep. Except it sounded like it did. Fuck. He was in way over his head and had no idea what to think about anything. “Not much.”
Jared slapped the folders against his palm. “What’s going on with that side project you picked up?”
“The Monarch security check?”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“Nothing. Dude hasn’t given me much, and what I do have isn’t turning up shit.”
“Waste of time?”
“A favor owed that will be returned.”
Jared nodded as though he appreciated the behind-the-scenes, underground world Parker utilized. “So it’s almost wrapped?”
“Almost. Shadow’s got an in-person meeting in a week or so. Wants me there as more of an extra body than anything else. But other than that, the project is done.” Not that Parker was going to blow off what Shadow was asking, especially if he could help Silver, but Silver had been MIA, likely preparing last-minute details for the auction, and Shadow was hell-bent on being vague.
Winters and Rocco walked in. Rocco had dark circles under his eyes and coffee in hand.
“Long night?” Parker asked.
Rocco scowled, and Winters laughed, slapping Rocco on the back.
“Babies are a fuckuvalot of work.” He guzzled coffee. “Cat’s got it down, but man. Not easy.”
Jared pushed the folders at Rocco. “New guys. Thumbs up or down by the end of the day. We’ll make arrangements soon as you say go.”
Both men’s eyes went wide. Rocco put his coffee on a console.
“Hey, jackass.” Parker moved the cup. “Spill that on there, and you and I are gonna have problems.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Rocco’s exhaustion was gone, replaced by curiosity as he went through the jackets. “Fuckin’ hell. These dudes are solid.”
Winters peered over Rocco’s shoulder and nodded. “I know that guy.”
“This one?” Rocco lifted a head shot.
“Yeah. Man’s good. Was deep in a weapons trafficking cartel, right?” Winters turned to Parker.
“Right,” he confirmed.
“Alright, assholes.” Boss Man headed out. “Gossip later. I’ve got to get Sugar’s sweet ass to a doctor’s appointment.”
“You going to tell us girl or boy yet?” Rocco called after him then mumbled, “Totally going to be a girl. The man is destined to be surrounded by women.”
Winters laughed. Then they both looked expectantly at Parker.
“Nope.” Parker turned around, pulling up screens of nothing to look busy.
“Do you know what the baby is?” Rocco asked.
“Have you looked?” Winters pushed. “Do some hacker magic and give us a confirmation. We’ll go paint the place camo-pink.”
Parker shook his head. “I do not have a death wish.”
Rocco shook his head too. “Nah, Boss Man’d get over it.”
“Shit, Boss Man isn’t who I’m worried about.”
Winters and Rocco both made agreeing noises. Jared was one thing. Sugar, on the other hand, was just scary when she wanted to be.
“So how’s Lexi Dare?” Winters changed the subject.
Parker glared. “If you girls are done gossiping, out.”
Rocco grabbed his coffee and perched on the edge of a table. “Must be going good?”
Winters raised an eyebrow. “Or is she still with Matt?”
“No,” Parker growled, not interested in sharing, especially since she’d disappeared and he was doing his best not to care too much. He’d had one day with her—even if he had made her come on his hand and moan his name. One single day. His gut churned that she was gone. Again. Second time she’d left him after he’d saved her. He thought she needed help with… something but had no idea what.
Parker did, however, know where Matt Pindon was almost every waking moment. If that fucker did anything that looked like coming after Lexi, Parker would kill him just for the sport of it. Shit. He rubbed a hand over his face.
“Going that well, huh?” Winters joked.
“She’s with her sister.”
“So you and her…?”
Rocco sipped his coffee. “Obviously not. Dude needs to get laid.”
Parker glared. “Would you two fucks shut it?”
Both laughed, but Winters shook his head. “No joke, girl seems like she’s a good catch.”
“That’s her, right?” Rocco nodded at the desk, where the print-out from her sister’s security footage was.
Yup, that was her. So her. Hotter and sexier than when he’d dropped her off. The shot was of her walking out only an hour later. She was on the way out the front door, with her back to the camera, but she was looking to the side. Her platinum blond hair looked nearly white in the black-and-white footage, and that wasn’t what he’d left her wearing. Because if it had been, he’d never have left. That image showed classic Lexi. The one who had all but disappeared. “Uh… yeah.”
“Not creepy at all, dude.” Rocco laughed.
Parker balled his fists. “I don’t know where she is.”
Winters stepped closer. “So use your boy genius powers and find her.”
Parker pinched his eyes closed, trying to think of any way to track her down without being a super-sketch privacy invader. “Some things you’re not supposed to do.”
Winters grabbed the paper. “Like finding her on security footage.”
“Asshole.” He reached for the print-out. Parker had stared at it forever. Even in the almost-grainy picture, she was clear. She wore a killer shirt along with tight black pants and fuck-me boots, and from the visible slice of her face, her dark eyes were made up like a rock star’s. He could describe that outfit in detail, could almost feel it against his palms he’d studied it so hard. She looked like sex and cotton had collided, making it the world’s most teasing security footage shot ever. It had to be less than fifty degrees outside, and she was dragging what looked like a leather jacket. Parker closed his eyes but could still picture her vividly.
Winters took the paper and stared. “Damn.”
Rocco nodded. “Babe’s hot.”
“That’s a Sugar lookalike,” Winters agreed. “Not the girl I met with Matt. This one is a total badass.”
“Same girl. More like who she was before that asshole got in her head. But yeah…” Parker blew out a breath. “She kinda is.” Then he dropped his head forward, trying to ignore the hurricane of emotions: anger, arousal, worry, frustration. “My problem is, she’s totally gone.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Morning light poured in from windows high in the cathedral-height ceilings. It had been two weeks since Lexi had walked out of her sister’s apartment and gone dark. Slipping from one extreme to the other, Union Station was about as public as she could get. She leaned forward, balancing on the front two legs of her café chair. Noise echoed, and people in business suits rushed around.
This wasn’t her scene. Really, Washington, DC, as a whole, wasn’t either. The people were useless. They liked to hear themselves talk too much—as evident by the several self-important types on their phones while ordering coffee, talking as though they held the keys to world peace—and they all looked the same. Dark suit, red or blue tie, cuff links, and smartphones attached to their ears.
She didn’t blend in at all in her form-fitting T-shirt, leather pants, and boots, which made the phone-stuck-on-ear folks either avoid her or stare. Clothes weren’t a cure for losing one’s self, but they’d been the catalyst. As each day passed, and with every silly self-help book she’d read, Lexi had become more confident and more her.
“Are you using this chair?” The man was already moving it, cliché phone stuck against his head.
She hooked the chair with her boot, fighting the submissive urge
to agree, and kept it close as she waited for the barista to call her second latte of the day. “I’m waiting for someone.”
The man nodded as though it wasn’t a big deal. Because it wasn’t. Only Matt would’ve thought it was. Lexi channeled one of the pages of the many books she’d read while off the grid. I deserve to feel great. I am worthy of being safe. I can say yes, no, or maybe later. My thoughts and feelings are allowed. She took a deep breath. Thinking simple, common-sense thoughts helped. Go figure…
She thought back to her time off the grid. No computer usage. No cell. Nothing to do except hit bookstores and coast by libraries. Reading and journaling passed the time. She wanted to understand herself. Like, she knew herself but didn’t get herself. If that made sense. Even now, sitting in the middle of a commuter hub, she didn’t totally understand the difference, but the weeks alone had helped. Connecting the dots from her foster home roulette to standing by Matt the abuser hadn’t taken much thought or energy; it had just taken self-reflection.
And now… she wanted to see Shadow, to show off her newfound old self. Not only would he notice, but he’d be proud. That excitement was one of the reasons she’d arrived early, just in case he did too. She also wanted to call Parker the second the auction had wrapped up. With all the time on her hands, she’d thought about him to the point of exhaustion. Or exhilaration.
The vaulted ceilings and marble floor amplified every sound. The throngs of people made her itch to get back on her bike and fly away. Just give her a laptop in the middle of nowhere. Maybe give her Parker in the middle of nowhere…
Jittery, Lexi tapped her nails on the table. Maybe she shouldn’t have ordered a second latte. Though she didn’t have to actually drink it. Okay, just calm down.
Lexi pressed her fingers onto the table. She was at the right location on the right day. It was time to come in from the dark in the electronic sense. She flipped open her laptop and logged on to the device that hadn’t been booted up in weeks. Emails, messages, and everything else had piled up. After a few seconds, she disabled her Wi-Fi and turned off anything that would track her location. As she scanned through, one codex message from BlackDawn caught her attention. What had that guy learned about her? What did he think about her sale? Did he notice she’d gone silent? She would notice if he disappeared. Watching him work had entertained her for hours. He challenged the way she thought about her job, the world. Black was by far the smartest, most talented of the elite she knew.
Knowing that his request was outdated, she opened the message anyway.
BlackDawn: Dealing w/ a salted, brute-force hash attack. Got any plain texts I can pull from?
Then in the same thread an hour later.
BlackDawn: Never mind. Got it. You alive?
Why had he asked that? Had Shadow told him that she was physically in danger? Or was that rhetorical? Of course it was. Overthinking much?
She needed to say something and probably give him a virtual fist bump because over the last two weeks, she’d used a few tricks he’d showed her over the years. Nothing too complicated, just things she never would’ve guessed she would need to know, like accessing her bank accounts without a trace and erasing records of her staying at cash-only motels. Those had been her off-the-grid tools. Funny how life went full circle.
She powered on her phone to ping Shadow while simultaneously reaching back into her memory, trying to pinpoint the moment her path had first crossed with Black’s. Sometime in her teens, when she’d been too much of a punk and trying to prove to the world that she was as good as she thought she was. Black had seemed to be doing the same—though they had distinct specialties, hence the partnership.
Bzz. Her eyes shot to the phone on the café table as if it was a lit line of dynamite. Wow. Maybe she should’ve gone with decaf. She didn’t know the number but assumed it was her broker. The guy had a new phone almost every day, which was a pain to keep up with, but she didn’t blame him.
“Shadow,” Lexi answered as her gaze darted through the crowds milling through Union Station. “I’m here super early. Are you?”
“Not yet. Just checking on you.” The apprehension in his voice made unease churn in her stomach.
“Everything still a go today?”
Shadow cleared his throat. “That buyer that I was… concerned about, they’re offering to triple, maybe even quadruple, the best offer you’ll get from any NATO country.”
What? “No. You have my list of approved bidders. Why are we even talking about this?” Last thing she wanted was her exploit to be resold to some third-world despot or terrorist leader who would do a lot worse than cyber spying.
“I just want you to think about what you’re turning down.”
This was about money? “What I’m turning down for both of us? Is that it?” She shook her head. “Since when do you care so much about your fifteen percent?”
“I don’t, Silver. But—”
“Then why are you acting so different?”
“I just want to be sure,” he mumbled.
“I care about what happens to the world. Selling Monarch willy-nilly isn’t a good thing.”
He huffed. “And I care what happens to you, Silver.”
“So this is still about the break-in?”
“Maybe. Alright, be there soon. We can talk in person.”
No, she wanted information now. “Is someone trying to stop the auction? And what did BlackDawn find?”
“Does in person mean anything? As long as the program is still saved in more than one place—your standard operating procedure—everything will be fine.”
She bit her lip. “You’ve scared me. You ask me to do what you know I will never do, and I still don’t know the details of your concerns.”
“Silver—”
“What is it?” she hissed. “Just level with me. Someone’s going to try to steal it from me physically?”
Shadow cleared his throat. “That was a concern. Which is why I asked you to go dark.”
“And you said you’d fix it.” She tried to keep her voice low, but she was exasperated—and scared.
“I did. I hired help.”
“You did what? How many more people are you going to bring into this? First, another hacker nosing into my business, and now, what, an armed guard or something?”
“It’s our mutual friend.”
She shook her head. “I don’t have a friend like that.”
“You do. Black does security in person too.”
“What?” She closed her eyes, trying to piece everything together.
“He’s a client. Just as you’re a client. He did a generic security sweep for me, and he has no problem getting physical. It all works.”
“I don’t want to meet him! No one knows Silver. I don’t want to meet anyone.”
“I know, but desperate times call for—”
“Now we’re desperate?” she snapped.
“When your safety’s an issue, yes. He’ll find you if I don’t see you first.”
BlackDawn would find her? If there was anything she knew about Black, it was likely he already had.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Parker tugged down a ball cap and held a coffee cup from the first café he saw. There were a couple of places to grab coffee in Union Station, and even though it was probably coffee blasphemy to bring a cup from Grinds into Grounded, he wasn’t going to waste time determining there was no Shadow at the first place without buying a cup of joe.
This wasn’t a typical Titan job; it was a favor. Shadow had helped him over the years, and while he didn’t need a broker on the regular, the man was a source of information and a trusted ally. As it turned out from their brief conversation, Shadow was more worried about the Monarch auction than he had initially let on.
They’d never met in person, but Parker had always felt he could pick a hacker out of a crowd. They had a look, and it wasn’t cliché flannel shirts and hipster pants. It was more a look in their eyes. As if they knew that camera
s were watching, bank accounts weren’t safe, and identities were easy enough to steal. Add on the nerves he’d picked up when Shadow reached out for security, and Parker felt positive that he could easily pick out Shadow. He’d be older, concerned about a deal, and discreetly look loaded.
There was a bonus to this job. Parker wanted to see Monarch before it was sold. Simple curiosity had made the trek into DC worth it.
Taking a pull from the coffee, he dropped into a chair along the wall and assessed the open area of the coffee shop. Suits talking business, and tourists snapping pictures, begging to get pickpocketed. None looked like he’d guess Shadow would.
“Silver. Order up.”
Like Monarch’s Silver? What were the chances…? He assumed he’d find Shadow first, but meeting Silver in person would be interesting. Parker’s eyes shot to the barista pushing a drink onto the counter.
In a split second, everything he knew about his world shifted. A chair pushed back, and a Lexi Dare lookalike stood with her back toward him. He knew that hair, that body, and the clothes similar to the security footage. What was she doing there? After she’d never responded to his text the night he dropped her off? And what was she doing… now…?
Parker watched her walk to the coffee called out for Silver.
“Round two, huh?” The barista laughed.
Parker’s eyes tracked to the small table she’d left within her reach, with another coffee cup and the laptop Lexi had been so protective of. She hadn’t seen him, and he couldn’t register the woman in front of him, with those pouty pink lips, who joked with the barista. She was sexy like he couldn’t comprehend. She wasn’t doing a damn thing other than walking back to her table, coffee in hand, but the sway of her hips, the perk of her breasts…
“Fuck me,” he whispered and stood, scraping his chair loudly enough that she looked up.
Their eyes locked. Her lips twitched. Not a smile. Nowhere close to a hello. The leather-clad rock-star lookalike apparently was as shocked as he was. Parker didn’t speak. Didn’t move. Until he did, bounding over to her and strangling the urge to grab her, kiss her, and drag her to a back room where he could have his hands and mouth all over her.
