Hacker Salvation: White Hat Security, Book 7

by Baxter, Linzi

  I slowly woke up and stretched my legs out before getting out of bed. I turned to look at the clock on the end table. Five-thirty. This was my first day back on set, my first return to my normal life. I wasn’t ready to go back. I wanted to jump on a plane and go see John. We’d texted last night before I fell asleep. I reached for my phone and saw I had a missed text from John.

  John: Good luck on your first day back. Text me when you are done, Beautiful.

  I couldn’t help but scroll back over the conversation we’d had the night before. He was so sweet and considerate. He cared more about my safety and me going back to work than about meeting his mom. His flight hadn’t gotten in until well after midnight. He was going to his sister’s house this morning for breakfast and to find out what was going on. He would be heading over there soon.

  Annabella: Text me how it goes. I want to know everything.

  The three little dots came up on the screen. My heart picked up as I waited to see what he would write. I had never been with anyone that made me sit and watch the three dots, waiting to see what they would write. I had already opened my heart to him in a short time.

  John and I clicked. My fame didn’t seem to bother him. I liked how he wanted to stay in and just be with me. He didn’t care about going to the new local restaurant or hot spot to be caught on camera by the paparazzi. When I’d tried to pay for breakfast the other day, he’d almost seemed appalled. Men in my past had never tried to pay. Now I understood how Daisy felt with Neal and Aaron. John was a good guy.

  I glanced at the clock on my phone. I needed to get my ass in gear. I showered and changed into casual clothes. I would spend a few hours in hair and makeup before I was on set. Last Love only had four more days of filming before it wrapped. The director had worked on filming all the scenes without me, and all that was left were my scenes.

  I couldn’t wait for Last Love to come out. I knew it would be another blockbuster hit. My next film started filming next week. When the contracts came in, I had given myself two weeks off between films. But Last Love had started shooting late, and I’d taken a week off because of Nate. Now I only had two days off before I started the next movie. Filming for Breaking Hearts would take three months to shoot. I didn’t know when I would get to see John again.

  When I was ready, I went downstairs and grabbed a muffin from the kitchen before I headed to the studio.

  Gabriel stood at the counter, sipping from a mug of coffee. “Ready?”

  I nodded. It would be strange to bring a bodyguard along on the job. Plus Gabriel was on the quiet side. I had offered to take him out for dinner to thank him for saving me, but he’d said it was part of his job.

  We headed toward the set. My car was getting fixed, so we took the rented SUV. Now Gabriel did a sweep of the SUV before we got in each time. Nobody had tried anything since the bomb. I was hoping the person forgot about me and went away. Or it was the mob, and they no longer wanted to come after me.

  I waved hello to Jeremy, the man who worked the gates to the set. He hit the button for us to come in. Gabriel drove us to the back of the set, near the stage for Last Love.

  Three people stood next to my trailer—my manager, assistant, and producer. I hadn’t thought about how things would go today. I wasn’t sure I was ready to talk about any of it. I had talked to my manager a couple of times, but Roxy, my assistant for this movie, and I hadn’t talked much.

  Some days I wondered why I kept her on my staff. I didn’t use her—I just did things myself.

  “You sure you’re ready for this?” Gabriel asked.

  “No, but it’s my job.” I grabbed the handle to the SUV and jumped out of the car.

  Roxy ran up and gave me a hug. “We’ve missed you so much. Did someone really try to kill you with a bomb? And there’s a rumor you called off the wedding. Does that mean Nate is single? What was it like when you were taken in for questioning?”

  Her rapid-fire questions surprised me. “I don’t really want to talk about it. Can you get a hold of my realtor and have her meet me here on my lunch break?”

  “My cousin is a good realtor,” the young girl replied as she bounced on her toes.

  I hated firing people because I knew what it was like to be looking for a job and hoping food would be on the table the next day. But she was acting inappropriate. Luckily, we only had four days left on the movie. “Please call my realtor. Thank you.”

  Needing space, I turned and headed for my trailer. Marcus, my manager, and Lucas, the producer, stepped in my path. “Please let me get ready. I’m here to work not gab.”

  Marcus frowned at my comment, and Lucas nodded before he turned and walked toward the set.

  I reached for the handle on my trailer when Gabriel nudged me out of the way. “Let me look first.”

  I couldn’t help but roll my eyes. I stepped to the side and let Gabriel into my trailer. I looked down at my phone and scrolled back to the conversation with John. It was easier for me to ask questions about the BDSM lifestyle in a text rather than face-to-face. We had talked in depth about the lifestyle, and the more I researched, the more I wanted to open myself to that part of John’s world.

  The sound of Gabriel flinging the door to the trailer open startled me. He jumped out, slammed the door shut, and pressed his phone to his ear. “You can’t go in there.”

  I grabbed Gabriel’s shirt as he started to walk by me. “What happened?”

  Gabriel glanced back at the trailer. “Annabella, you don’t need to worry about it. I will take care of everything. Stay right here and don’t move. Set security is standing over there.” He pointed at the building. Two men dressed in black suits stood next to the doors. “If you see anything out of the ordinary, scream. I need to grab something out of the SUV.” Gabriel turned and jogged toward the SUV.

  What could be so bad that I couldn’t go into the trailer? Was there another dead body? I needed to see. Gabriel had his back turned to me when I opened the door and went in. I walked two feet and immediately regretted my decision. I counted six rattlesnakes spread out around the trailer. The one closest moved toward me. I scrambled for the door handle, but when I went to open it, it wouldn’t budge.

  I turned and pounded on the door. I heard Gabriel cuss on the other side. With both hands, I tugged on the door handle, but it wouldn’t move. I was trapped. I glanced back over my shoulder and saw the closest snake coiled into his attack position. His tail rattled before he lunged forward. I jumped, and he missed me by a centimeter. Before he could attack again, I climbed to the top of the kitchen counter next to the door.

  The counter was out of reach for the snakes. My only saving grace was that the snakes were babies, only a foot long. If they were full-grown, they would have been able to strike up the side of the cabinet. But I got a better look around my trailer. It wasn’t only six snakes—there were more than I could count. My phone vibrated in my hand. John’s name flashed across the screen.

  I swiped it with a shaky finger. “Hi, John.”

  His voice came through panicked. “Are you okay?”

  “Yep, just sitting on the counter in my trailer.”

  He let out a sigh. “Jesus, Annabella, there are deadly snakes in your trailer, and Gabriel can’t get back in. He went to get a crowbar. What were you thinking, going in there after he said to stay out?”

  Anger bubbled up. I didn’t like being told what to do. “Well, if he would have said ‘your trailer’s covered in snakes,’ I would’ve. But he said to stay out, and I wanted to know what happened. My first thought was that there was a dead body or Nate’s body.” I took a deep breath. “Sorry.” I couldn’t hold back the tears. I wanted John, and he was on the other side of the country.

  His voice softened. “I didn’t mean to yell. It’s hard being this far away. I’m going to try to find a flight out today.”

  The selfish side of me wanted him to come and see me. But I knew Gabriel could protect me if I listened, and John needed to spend time with his family.r />
  “No. You need to stay with your family. Talk to me until they can get me out of here.” Another snaked hissed. They were coming from every direction. Luckily, none of them seemed tempted to climb up the cabinet. I could hear the pounding outside the door as Gabriel tried to get in.

  “It’s really her,” John said.

  My heart cracked at the sadness in his voice. “Did you ask where she’s been?”

  He let out another sigh. “She said our father was too much, so she left and started over.”

  What kind of woman could leave her two kids? “I’m sorry.”

  “I’m going to catch the first flight out tomorrow and head back to you. I’ll let my mom finish telling her side of the story today. But I need time to process what she’s said so far.”

  After another pound on the door, I could see daylight through the cracks. Gabriel hit it two more times, and the door flew open. I screamed as the snake closest to the door lunged at Gabriel. He jumped to the side, and the snake slithered across the pavement outside. I heard a few screams as people rushed away.

  Gabriel reached for me. “On the count of three, jump into my arms.”

  He barely got to three before I jumped off the counter and into his arms. He yanked me outside of the trailer, and a man wearing a security T-shirt slammed the door behind us. I let out a sigh of relief. Gabriel’s lips flattened, and his eyes tightened. Extras and workers on the film stood in the distance, watching what was going on.

  “John, I’m out of the trailer and safe,” I said into the phone. “I need to head into makeup. I promise to call you at lunch.”

  “Be safe, Beautiful, and don’t let Gabriel out of your sight.”

  That morning, I would have scoffed at the demand. But I knew I needed to stay close. I hung up the phone and watched Gabriel as he worked to remove the snakes from my trailer. The director stood by the set entrance, waving me over to makeup. Gabriel was next to me as I walked toward makeup. He hadn’t said a word, but his jaw ticked. He didn’t leave my side as I sat through two hours of makeup.

  I sent John a quick text letting him know I was still okay and heading to set. By the time I was done with makeup and wardrobe, it was close to ten o’clock. We were shooting a scene in which I was running through the streets of Manhattan. It was all done in front of a green screen. Everything went as planned, and we finished up the morning shoot by one o’clock. My stomach growled.

  I sat down at a table in the dining area with a pasta salad and sandwich. Gabriel sat across from me. “Sorry,” I mumbled between bites of my turkey sandwich.

  He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Do you know how worried I was when you went in there? I didn’t say ‘stay out’ for fun, Annabella. John put his trust in me to keep you safe, and I already failed.”

  “You didn’t fail. I didn’t listen, and you got me out with no problem.” It had been stupid of me to go in there. I took a bite of my pasta salad and froze. I spit the salad out but knew it was too late. I could feel my tongue start to swell. “My purse,” I choked out.

  Gabriel sprinted back toward the SUV. I hoped he would make it back in time.

  Someone had put seafood in the salad. The set had been explicitly told no shellfish since I was allergic.

  15

  John

  When Gabriel called and told me about Annabella’s allergic reaction to seafood, I booked a flight back. Someone was trying to kill her, and I wasn’t about to stay in Boston another minute. Annabella didn’t know I was coming back. Addie understood why I was leaving.

  My mom gave me an awkward hug when I walked out the door. She had never left the house when we were growing up, yet she’d changed her name, moved to another state, and started another family. Addie’s source had found her, and our mom had come to talk before her new family found out about us.

  I called Annabella when I was on my way to the airport. I didn’t tell her I was coming. She refused to go back to Daisy’s house. She was worried she would put them in danger. So Gabriel took her to a hotel near the studio. He added me to the room so I could grab a key and head up when I got there. Addie had booked a suite, and Gabriel was staying in one of the rooms.

  It was two o’clock in the morning when I arrived. I grabbed the key from the front desk and went to the top floor of the hotel. The door opened with ease, and I set my bag on the floor. Gabriel was on the couch and nodded toward Annabella’s room.

  I walked into her room and discarded my shirt and jeans. Annabella turned over on her back. Her tight white tank top stretched across her luscious breasts. The moonlight shed enough light for me to see her nipples through the thin material.

  “John?” In two giant strides, I was next to the bed. Annabella sat up and threw herself at me. I caught her in midair. A sob broke from the back of her throat. “Someone’s trying to kill me.”

  My throat tightened at how close they had come today when she’d eaten the seafood. If Gabriel hadn’t acted as fast as he had, she would be dead, and whoever was doing this would have won.

  I pulled her in closer. Her tears dripped onto my shoulder. Annabella shook in my arms. I didn’t regret my decision to leave Boston and come back to check on her. Having her in my arms was all I needed to know that she needed me as much as I needed her. I had been in pure terror when I found out what had happened.

  Leaning back so I could see her pretty green eyes, I wiped the tears from her face. “I will make sure nothing happens to you.”

  “You can’t.” Sobs punctuated her words. “You have to go to work.”

  I gently pushed her onto her back. “Brock understands. We have other people who can go on the missions. I’m not leaving your side until we find out what is going on.”

  “But you’ll have to leave sometime.” Her lip trembled as she spoke.

  I ran my hands down her arms and gently pushed her back so she was lying down. Annabella’s blond hair covered the pillow like a halo. Her breath hitched as I ran kisses down the side of her neck. I wanted to take her mind off of what had happened the day before.

  “I need you, John,” she whispered.

  I slowly ran my finger along her tight stomach, pushing her white tank top up as I went. Her nipples poked through the thin material, begging to be touched. Gently pulling her tank top over her breasts, I leaned down and took her nipple into my mouth.

  Her breath hitched as I sucked. Her hand came up, and she ran her fingers through my hair. “More,” she moaned.

  I gently bit down on her nipple, and her hips came off the bed. She moaned louder as I switched to the other nipple.

  I let go of her nub. “I missed you so much.” I had been gone a day, but it felt like a week. I didn’t know what I would do when I had to go on week-long missions. But I couldn’t think about that now.

  “I missed you too. Please, I need you inside me.”

  I tweaked her nipple. “So demanding. I think I’m going to spend some time worshipping your body.”

  The night before, Annabella had started to ask me questions about the BDSM lifestyle. I hadn’t been able to hold back the smile when she’d asked if I would spank her when she didn’t do what I wanted. Since leaving the navy, I hadn’t had sex outside of Club Sanctorum until Annabella. If she’d asked me to walk away from the lifestyle, I would have. But after our conversation, I knew she was curious, and I planned to slowly bring BDSM aspects into our lovemaking.

  I leaned down and kissed her breast. Her breath hitched each time my lips touched her skin. “Have you come up with a safe word like we talked about?”

  Her body stilled under me. “Can we do the stop lights like you talked about? Red, green, and yellow?” Her question came out rushed.

  I rolled to the side so I could see her pretty green eyes. While I talked, I continued to run my hands over her breasts. “If you’re nervous, we don’t need to do anything.”

  “I want to. I want to be in this part of your life. I’m scared.”

  I brushed the blond lock off her foreh
ead. “If anything scares you or you want to stop and ask more questions, say ‘yellow,’ okay?” Annabella nodded. “I need to hear you say yes.”

  “Yes. I will say yellow. I have another question.” Her eyes darted around the room nervously.

  I liked her. There was no question she could ask that would change how I felt. Whenever she walked into a room, my dick got hard, and everything around us went away. “Ask any question you want.”

  “The other day when I accidentally walked in on Aaron and Daisy, she called him master. Am I supposed to be calling you master?”

  In the club, I always required the subs to call me sir. Daisy had called me master for a while, but it had never felt right to me. The other night when I made love to Annabella, I’d loved the sound of her saying my name as she went over the edge.

  “No. You can say my name.”

  Her pretty little lips turned down, and she looked away.

  “Talk to me, Annabella. I can’t read your mind.”

  “But Daisy said you would want me to call you sir or master. Does this mean you really don’t want me to be in that part of your life? Will you still go to the club and be with another woman?”

  I gently gripped her chin and turned her face toward me. “I’m with you, Annabella, no other woman. And I would hope you don’t plan on sleeping with another man. As for the master or sir, I like the way my name sounds on your lips. That isn’t saying in the future, or when we go to Club Sanctorum, I won’t ask you to call me sir or master. But this is us, and we can figure it out as we go. We don’t need to set all the rules of our relationship tonight.”