Third Hour

by Lisa Phillips

  He was going to walk right by Haley.

  Talia strained against his grip, determined to break his hold. The man came into view. He’d hurt Mason. “Don’t you touch her!”

  He closed in on Haley, who braced.

  “No!”

  The man lunged, but it was only a fake. He laughed out loud while Talia screamed. The others joined in with his humor as the hacker dragged her to their van.

  “Maybe one of us should stay behind. To hurt them if she doesn’t cooperate,” one suggested.

  Talia speared him with a death glare. “That’s the only thing that will guarantee I do nothing. Try me.” She wanted to cross her arms over her chest, so they’d know she meant business, but could only do it loosely. “You hurt them, and whatever you think is going to happen will never get done.”

  The hacker winced.

  “Not that you’d understand caring about other people.” She was on a roll now, so she figured, why stop? “Because you care about nothing but yourself.”

  “Come on, now. You don’t know that’s true.”

  “Your friends here just hurt a dog.”

  “Not my friends.”

  “All of you are beyond help.” She huffed out a breath. “Hurting a dog? Not to mention whatever you did to the others? It’s unconscionable.”

  “Can you shut her up?” one of the men asked.

  She got right up in the hacker’s face. On tip toes, and everything. Just so he wouldn’t miss one word. “If any of them is hurt in a way they don’t recover, Victoria is going to kill you.”

  The blow came out of nowhere.

  Pain exploded in her head, and everything went black.

  . . .

  Mason blinked against the sky. He could hear someone—a woman—talking on a phone. Asking for help. Medical emergency.

  He sat up.

  The world swam around him, and he nearly heaved on the grass. He sucked in a few lungfuls of air and stood up. No time to feel sorry for himself. It wasn’t just that, but he had no time to even think about all his injuries either. Let alone feel them.

  Talia was gone.

  That man. The man who had sold her on the black market had her again. He’d promised her that wasn’t going to happen, as much as he would be able to prevent it.

  He’d fought, but he couldn’t stop it.

  God, help her.

  She had to be so scared. He needed to get her back in order to fix that. Standing here, wallowing in his failure, wasn’t going to help.

  Mason stopped beside Haley, the phone now discarded beside her. “Is help on the way?”

  “Yes. Can you check on Dakota and Josh? I don’t want to leave him.”

  “How bad is it?”

  “I don’t know.” Tears filled her eyes. “They hit him so hard.”

  Concussion. Traumatic brain injury maybe? Mason squeezed her shoulder. “Just hang on.” He moved around the SUV to where she’d indicated. Josh was in the process of sitting up.

  The DEA agent glanced around, like he was trying to figure out where he was.

  “Hey.”

  Josh reached for his gun.

  “Easy.” Mason knelt by the dog and laid his hand on her chest.

  “They stunned her. Like they stunned all of us.” Josh crawled to Dakota and patted his fiancé on the cheek. “Wake up sleepyhead, time to work.”

  She sucked in a breath. She sat up in one movement and almost knocked Josh aside.

  Josh lifted his hands. “Whoa.”

  “Where are they?”

  “Gone.” Mason stood. Injuries here were minimal and aid was coming for Niall.

  “Talia?”

  “I’ll find her.”

  Mason grabbed Niall’s weapon and took off in the direction the heavy traffic of boot prints led. He prayed as he sprinted along the path. That she would be okay. That Niall wouldn’t be hurt in a way he might not recover.

  That this man would be brought to justice.

  Prometheus would be found.

  If God chose to use this gun to do that, well it was fine by Mason. That was his job. If it happened another way, that was fine too.

  The trees parted, and he was at the road. No sign of a vehicle, just rutted dirt where one had peeled away quickly.

  She was gone.

  “Nothing?”

  He spun around.

  “Dude.” Dakota strode past him and looked both ways. The highway was empty. “She had her purse?”

  “Yes?”

  “That an answer, or a question?” She pulled out her phone and jabbed at the screen, then put it to her ear. After a few seconds, she said, “Code Purple.” Then paused. “Wasn’t me. Mason was the one who was with her. The one who was supposed to be protecting her.” She shot him a look. As though he hadn’t been able to tell how she felt about that.

  “Can we find her?”

  She ignored his question and pressed her lips together, then shifted and said into the phone, “Okay. Copy that.” Dakota hung up and stowed the phone before she walked past him with that long-legged stride of hers.

  Mason followed. “Victoria?”

  “Heads up.” She called back over her shoulder. “She’s pissed.”

  “She isn’t the only one.” Victoria didn’t have a monopoly on caring for Talia, even if they were close and she’d known her longer. Mason was motivated to find her. “I want to help get her back.”

  “Good.” Dakota walked at a fast clip back to the group.

  Josh stood. “Paramedics are coming in a chopper. They’re two minutes out.”

  “Good.”

  Was that all Dakota intended to say? Mason needed more than that. He needed assurances…and a working phone. But he didn’t figure they’d be too hot on him making demands all of a sudden.

  He tapped his hands against his legs. Thought. Prayed. Thought some more. His people were all looking for Yewell. If Victoria had gotten Talia back once, she could do it again. Right? Mason didn’t want to wait that long. He didn’t want to have to be here doing nothing while someone else saved her.

  That wasn’t how this was going to go down. At least not if he had anything to say about it.

  He snapped his fingers. “Give me your phone.”

  Dakota looked at him. Josh shifted. Only Haley didn’t react, aside from Niall who was still unconscious.

  “Talia has a way to locate you all, right?”

  Dakota nodded. “It’s built in, or something.”

  “Unlock it and hand it over.”

  A helicopter flew overhead, drowning out her words. But the look on her face was clear. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t get in our way.

  She thought he’d sit back, maybe take direction from their team? She didn’t know him, then. Didn’t know he was all in, not on the sidelines.

  She held out the phone. “Victoria is going to find her.”

  “Good.” Mason took it from her. “I’ll be helping.”

  He tapped the screen and moved through to one of the only apps Dakota had on her phone. Seemed like she didn’t use it all that much, which helped him narrow it down. The app kind of seemed homemade. Basic text functions. Something that acted like a walkie-talkie.

  The settings indicated Dakota shared her GPS location with the admin. Mason worked his mouth side to side. “If I can…”

  He found a way to access the admin side. Dakota’s phone flashed. The screen turned black, and green text scrolled down the screen. He waited.

  “Huh.” She looked over his shoulder. “You know how to do that stuff?”

  “Not like it’s hard.” It just needed to be going a whole lot faster for his liking.

  “My talents run in a different direction.”

  “I’m sure they do.” Mason took a few steps away from the group. Tried not to get mad that she insisted on talking to him when he was attempting to concentrate. He scrolled through the app and worked to get it to backtrack and show him the admin side.

  “Anything?”

  He ig
nored that, but glanced over at the EMTs now lifting Niall onto a stretcher. Mason turned to Haley. “You should go with him.”

  She nodded and hurried after them.

  Josh strode over. Neema looked at him as he moved, but didn’t get up from where she laid with her belly to the grass. Eyes still a little glassy from the effects of having been hit with a stun gun.

  Dakota shifted even closer. “Anything?”

  He typed on the screen and backtraced his way to Talia’s device. “I think I got it.”

  A map flashed on screen. The wide circle was centered over the highway—and several miles around it. The dot sped away from where Mason stood. Could be she was being whisked away in a vehicle, or she was in the woods. The GPS location, that thin circle, started to contract as it loaded a more precise location.

  “Is that her?”

  He didn’t answer the question. “Let’s load up and go after her.”

  “Copy that.” Dakota strode toward the SUV and pulled the door open. Josh called Neema, and the animal lumbered to the vehicle. He helped her inside.

  “She okay?” Mason’s attention was half on the phone, half on the others as he strode over and climbed in the front passenger seat.

  Josh got in the driver’s side. “She’ll be okay once she shakes it off.” He turned on the engine. “Where to?”

  Mason looked down at the phone screen.

  The circle tightened, then shifted to the east. Stopped.

  “Dude.”

  Mason shook his head. “I think they tossed her purse onto the side of the highway.” He looked back at Dakota. “She’s gone.”

  Chapter 23

  Talia was squished between the hacker and one of the gunmen in the middle row of seats. She didn’t even have room to move her elbows, but she glanced back. Tried to spot her purse on the side of the road. When she couldn’t see it, she turned around again.

  Nausea rolled through her, and she tried to pray. All she could think were broken phrases. Mixtures of pleading and scripture phrases came to mind. Pieces. Like her life, a collection of dissonant fragments she hadn’t been able to put together since her captivity in that basement.

  “Where are we going?” The question fell from her lips, despite the fact the man who sat in the front passenger seat had told her to keep quiet.

  The hacker glanced at her. “Does it matter? Do what you’re told, and you might keep this from getting even worse.”

  Like she was going to believe that? No way. The minute she was no longer useful, Talia figured, they would kill her. Toss her out on the side of the road like her purse. Discarded. Or she would be sold again.

  Who cared what they did to her? She wasn’t going to do any job.

  Questions rolled through her mind like a shopping list. Why her? What was the job? He hadn’t answered her as to where they were going. Turned out it mattered to her very much.

  “Who was that guy, the bank robber?” He’d known her name. And while in Secret Service custody, he’d killed himself.

  The hacker shrugged.

  She turned to him and hissed, “How would you feel, dying with no answers and a whole bunch of questions?”

  His gaze came to hers. “Like I said, keep your mouth shut.”

  “Or I’ll end up like that guy, dead in an interrogation room? Was he some kind of collateral damage, dying for the cause?”

  His mouth shifted. “You think I want to be here?”

  “I think you owe me an explanation. After all, you practically destroyed my life.” In some ways, he’d succeeded. It wasn’t until she’d met Mason that the idea of being safe had become a possibility again.

  Now all that had shattered. Like an illusion.

  The hacker winced. He felt bad?

  “Gonna apologize to me?” Rhetorical. It was more like a taunt. The edge of bitterness in his tone, even in just the few things he had said to her, made her want to stop, but what good would that do?

  “That wasn’t my doing.”

  “So who was behind it? You’re just the hired help and it was who…Cerium?” That had been the name on the wall at the lab, at the college where Niall’s life had been turned upside down. Niall had learned that Cerium was the money behind the research. Could the same person have hired this hacker to be part of his work? Maybe she’d gotten too close, and so they’d made her “disappear.” Or they’d tried to.

  “So you know more than I thought.” He shrugged. “Am I supposed to be impressed?”

  “Who is it?”

  He shook his head. “I don’t even know. All I know is I got orders, and then they stopped. Pretty sure I got fired, considering it seems I’ve been contracted out to this Yewell guy now.”

  “The son of the Secretary of State.”

  The gunman on her other side shifted.

  She didn’t look to see what his issue was with her knowing that, or the fact she stated it out loud. “Why target me?”

  “You can do this. It’ll take both of us.”

  “And when I’m done, they’ll kill me.”

  “Or you could make a deal,” he suggested. “Keep working.”

  “I already have a job I like. Or I did, until you ruined that as well. Now I’ve got to get my reputation back. If Stanton doesn’t make it so Victoria has to fire me. Because of you.”

  He made a face like he didn’t care either way what happened to her professionally. “I saw your work. He wanted you gone.” The hacker paused. “I didn’t want to get rid of you in that deal, but he hired those guys. I had no choice.” He swallowed. “I didn’t like it. I…have a sister. But there was nothing I could do.”

  “And the bank money transfer? That smart house setup?”

  “New boss. New job.” He lifted one shoulder, considerably less animated now. In fact, he almost looked forlorn. Because he’d been fired? Far worse than that had been done to her. Did she complain?

  Okay, yes. She had. She’d pretty much buried her face in the sand. Retreated to lick her wounds. All those expressions that meant she’d pulled away from the team to live in a place of fear. Not in the knowledge that God had held her in His hands the whole time. That He’d sent rescue.

  That He had saved her from fear and filled her with His perfect love.

  “You think I’m going to feel sorry for you?” She tried to make her tone sound hard. Inside, she was shaking. And beginning to feel the first stirrings of empathy. No. She couldn’t feel sorry for him.

  No way.

  Not after what he’d done to her.

  God, help me.

  Hearing it had been someone else’s idea didn’t make her feel better. It made her feel worse. This guy, she’d have been able to get over her fear of him. Take him down, and he would never be able to do anything else to her.

  Now there was someone else? Whoever pointed Niall toward Cerium had set them on the right track.

  Knowing that wasn’t going to help her here. It wouldn’t get her out of this, if they were “working” for Yewell now. The son of the Secretary of State had a plan. He had to. Now she was, apparently, part of that plan. Because the hacker had known she was capable? Not the kind of referral she was interested in.

  She figured that whole thing about the smart house was all to draw her out. Just like the whole bank assignment, the money transfer, and the bank robber had all been to get her to the Secret Service office. She’d been targeted. But not for any of the reasons she’d thought. All along, ever since the bank, it had been about Yewell’s plan.

  She turned to the hacker then. “What are we going to do?”

  It had to be a hack. One that would take both of their combined skills to pull off. Which didn’t give her any ideas on what it might be.

  He actually shuddered. “You don’t want to know.”

  Except that she did, which was why she’d asked. Talia wasn’t interested in being shoved aside or placated.

  Before Talia could ask again, the guy in the passenger seat twisted around. “Shut up. Both of you.
” His gaze moved to the hacker. Didn’t hold the guy in high esteem.

  The hacker shifted. It had seemed before like he called the shots here. When he’d been commanding gunmen to hold her team at bay so he could take her. Threatening their lives to force her cooperation. Not now, though. He was almost on her level at this point. Someone they needed, but who didn’t matter more than gum on the bottom of a shoe.

  And wherever they were going, the team had no way to track her.

  No way to find her.

  . . .

  Mason stood in front of Stanton’s desk. Beside him, Dakota had her arms folded. Victoria was on speaker on his boss’s phone. Josh had made the decision to get Neema checked out by a vet, just to be safe and make sure there was no lasting damage from her getting stunned.

  Sitting in the chair on the other side of Dakota was the shrink who’d met with Yewell during his “incarceration” in a Secret Service safe house. The only person still alive who’d had any contact with him recently.

  Stanton leaned back in his chair. “So it’ll be fast, then? He’s working his plan.”

  “He’s had several plans in the past. It’s just a case of which one makes the most sense now.” The woman had gray hair pulled back into a tight bun that pulled at the skin of her forehead.

  How Yewell had taken her seriously, Mason didn’t know. But evidently he had. Enough she’d gotten a handle on the man’s state of mind.

  “Great.” Mason squeezed the back of his neck, then let his hand drop to his side again. “So we have no idea what he’ll do.” He shrugged. “The President called off his visit. What if Yewell goes to ground? We’ll never find him.”

  Her gaze shifted, and she eyed him over the rims of her glasses, her pointy nose angled down. “Given how angry he is, I feel that is unlikely. He wants to make a statement. It will be both notable and the action that causes the most amount of damage.”

  “And his network of soldiers?” Stanton folded his hands on his desk.

  “Loyal subjects of their king. He has their allegiance, and they will be ready to die for him at a moment’s notice. After all, that’s what they rescued him for.”