Beautiful Surrender (Pride and Honor Book 4)

by Ember-Raine Winters

  “They are. Justin has been giving me hourly updates on their safety.”

  “That’s good. He has really stepped up for us in the last couple months,” Mac replied thoughtfully. Justin had been essential in helping us find Kaylee’s kids a few months back. Since then, we’d been sending him on more important assignments. I was trusting him to keep my son safe.

  Kenzie busted through the door a second later, her eyes were wild and she looked pale. “It’s bad.”

  She was breathing heavily and I had never seen her so scared. “What’s bad? What did you find out?”

  “You haven’t been watching the news?” She looked at me incredulously.

  “I have been looking for a backdoor to the patent office.” I glared back, annoyed.

  “Spit it out, Barbie,” Mac growled at her. He’d better watch his attitude around her, he’d been crossing a line of rude that was starting to piss me off.

  Kenzie acted like she didn’t hear him as she stomped over to the big screen TV that was muted and turned to the news. Pointing at the ticker at the bottom of the screen, she turned the volume up, and I watched in horror as Marcy crumpled back down into Mac, and Griffin’s face turned ashen:

  Somali pirates are now claiming responsibility for the missing plane that was taking three children and former Army Special forces officer Dylan Spaulding along with fiancé Police Detective Natasha Price and their friend Kaylee Robbins to South America earlier this month. There is no news on how they accomplished this hijacking. The White House has not yet been reached for comment, but with two public servants now being held for ransom, we are expecting a comment shortly.

  I walked over and wrapped Kenzie in my arms. She looked shell shocked. Anybody would be. The only true family she had ever known was now in the hands of some of the most ruthless criminals. Griffin walked over to the nearest wall and put his fist threw it. Marcy and Kenzie both jumped, startled at the typically in-control leader of GTT. Sitting in his chair, Mac looked like he was about to be sick, his face pale, and I got even more pissed at the situation.

  Barnes was not going to get away with this. He was going to pay. I didn’t know how, but I was going to make sure of it. He wasn’t just going down, I was going to destroy him and everything he cared about.

  CHAPTER TWO

  KENZIE

  Trey thought I was upset. In reality, I was vibrating with unadulterated rage. A red fog tinted my vision as I heard him bark out, “Get the fucking DOD on the phone, now. I wanna know how damn Somali pirates got a hold of my fucking plans and pulled this off.”

  Griffin nodded. His hand was covered in blood, but he used his other one to reach into his pocket and pull his phone out. I didn’t know how he had the Department of Defense on speed dial, but it was only a minute before he was placing it on speaker phone.

  “What the fuck? Why am I finding out on the goddamned news that pirates have my family?” He was still not in control of his rage.

  “I’m sorry, Griffin,” the voice said through the phone for us all to hear. “They posted a video on YouTube. We had no idea the Somali’s had anything to do with this.”

  “How did they get ahold of GTT’s plans for the blocker, Tom? Nobody has clearance to view those except for top level clearance at the DOD.”

  There was a pregnant pause before Griffin’s question was answered.

  “We have a leak. Someone is passing information and we haven’t figured out who or how… yet.”

  “I need information, Tom. Now. I need access to your system. I have two hackers here that can find anything.”

  “Orpheus?” he asked hopefully.

  “No, and I won’t turn Orpheus in. He’s not the bad guy, here.” Griffin managed to calm enough to wink at me, and I felt a weight lift. I could do this. These people weren’t out to get me; they weren’t going to turn me over to the Feds. I relaxed in Trey’s arms, but he was staring daggers at the phone in Griffin’s hand.

  “Let me hack into your system,” Trey growled. “I can find out who your leak is and we can get to the bottom of this.”

  “We have the best hackers in the world constantly making sure that there isn’t anyone getting in there, Trey,” Tom said in exasperation.

  “Clearly you don’t. You said yourself you have a leak. And,” I couldn’t help but taunt him. I enjoyed messing with people, a gift I’d honed over the years, “you don’t have the best… you don’t have Orpheus.”

  “Who is that speaking?” he asked suspiciously.

  Trey shot me a glare before he responded. “That’s Persephone. The best damn hacker I have ever met.”

  I smiled and winked at him. He wasn’t lying, well not really. I was damn good at what I did, and when I had a purpose, I was unstoppable. I wanted nothing more than to find out who had hacked the patent office and the DOD. That was the holy grail of hacks, and to get permission to do it would be the best.

  “Now that’s settled, what’s the ransom demand?” Griffin asked.

  “There hasn’t been a ransom demand.”

  “What?” everyone bellowed at the same time.

  “What the fuck do you mean there haven’t been any demands?” Griffin yelled.

  “The US doesn’t negotiate with terrorists,” the man said coolly.

  “I don’t give a shit. You better tell me what the fuck they want,” Trey roared while Griffin was hanging on by a thread.

  He was the methodical one of the group. He never went off half-cocked from what I could tell. I heard Mac whispering soothing words in Marcy’s ear as he rocked her back and forth in his lap. His face was a mask of rage, but the pain in his eyes was clear.

  I was done with this shit, taking my backpack off and pulling my computer out, it was time to stop dicking around and do something. I logged into Tor and looked up the YouTube video. It didn’t matter that it had been deleted, I’d find the code in the system. See? Nothing is ever completely deleted from the internet. You just have to know where to look, and I was an expert at finding things that no one wanted found.

  It only took a minute to pull up the video and I blanched. The kids were kneeling on the sand with black fabric bags over their heads. Little Lance was shaking his hands tied behind his back. A startled gasp left my throat, drawing everyone’s attention my way.

  “We’re not giving these animals a fucking penny.” I snarled. “I’ll kill every last one of them.”

  Trey paled as he looked down at the image across the screen. “What the fuck?”

  “Tom? I want a team. I want to go in and get them myself. They have my step kids and nephew terrified.”

  “Griffin, I am already assembling a team. We will get them out. No one takes an American hero and gets away with it.”

  “No, I want in. Reinstate me if you have to, but I’m going in to get my family.”

  “I have SEAL team six on standby. These are the baddest mother fuckers on the planet. If they can’t get them out, no one can. Give me some time. I promise we will do everything we can to get them out unharmed.”

  “They don’t have time,” Mac roared. “I’m watching my son, niece and nephew shaking in fear on a fucking video right now. Terrified!”

  His voice broke at the end and I didn’t know what to do. So, I did the only thing I knew how, I started typing furiously. I knew all the tricks but these guys were good at covering their tracks. They were bouncing their signals all over the planet; there was no real read on their IP address. “They’re using a cloned IP and bouncing it all over the world. They might not even be in Somalia.”

  “What?” Trey asked cautiously and stepped up behind me. “How the fuck did Somali pirates get this kind of technology?”

  “Are you seriously asking me that question?”

  “No,” he sighed in defeat. “It was rhetorical. I know exactly who did this.”

  “Who?” I heard Tom ask over speaker phone.

  I shook my head just as Griffin opened his mouth
to answer. Tom said already he had a leak; there was no way to know if the information about Barnes would be safe with him. Griffin nodded.

  “Okay Tom, you look into the Somali angle and keep me updated. I have a different lead I’m going to follow up on.”

  “Griffin? Don’t get into any trouble. Let the authorities handle this,” he said sternly, as if he had any real power over us.

  “Sorry Tom, but by the time you get through all the bureaucratic crap and red tape, our family could be gone. I’m not taking that chance.”

  Tom sighed over the phone, sounding tired and resigned. “Just don’t get caught. I don’t know if I will be able to help you if you do.”

  “Thanks Tom, but we’ll be fine. I have connections and resources. Don’t worry about me.”

  “All right Griffin. Keep me updated and if you need anything let me know. I will see what I can do to help.”

  Griffin was pacing the floor as he spoke. His hand had almost stopped bleeding, still oozing slightly and looked like it needed stitches.

  “You think the video is a fake?”

  I nodded. I wasn’t sure how good the Somali’s were at hacking, but this had US signatures all over it. Programming and coding were all the same basic language and I could see the signatures and this video was high-tech. “It’s too high-tech for some third world pirates.”

  “So, what are you thinking? Those kids looked terrified,” Trey asked angrily.

  “I think,” I started, “that the fear was real, but that the whole thing was staged to make us think they were in Somalia being held by bloodthirsty pirates when in actuality they are somewhere else. Remember when he took Johnny?”

  Everyone nodded. Johnny was kidnapped by Barnes only a few weeks ago and he made us think he was in some warehouse in DC when in actuality he was in the Governor’s Mansion in Annapolis, Maryland. We all would have been ambushed in that warehouse if I hadn’t followed them and found out where they had moved him to.

  “He’s either running out of tricks or the kids really are in Somalia being held by pirates. Neither option is comforting.” I sighed and rubbed my forehead.

  “Why?” When I heard Marcy’s soft broken voice, I nearly jumped, almost forgetting she was there.

  “Because, if he’s running out of ideas then he’s desperate. If they really are being held by pirates, we have a war on our hands. Better hope Tom comes through with the SEAL team.”

  Her broken sob made me flinch and I instantly regretted my words. It was a new feeling for me, regret. I didn’t do the whole feelings thing. Not until I met this group of friends had I found myself having all kinds of awkward feelings, and it was making me uncomfortable. It was the real reason I kept disappearing. I needed to get my head on straight and these crazy emotions in check. Emotions got you killed in my line of work.

  A ping came over my laptop and I sighed with relief when it notified me of a Skype call from Brock. Answering it, I looked into his tired eyes. “Where the hell have you been? I have been trying to get a hold of you for weeks,” I shouted at him through the computer.

  “I’m sorry I just got the mobile hot spot working. We are in a dead zone it took me awhile to set it all up.”

  “Tasha is gone,” I spoke frantically. “Her, Twitch, Kaylee and her kids. Even Johnny. We put them on a plane to South America to be safe from Barnes and now the news is saying Somali pirates have them.”

  “Somalis Pirates don’t overtake planes,” he replied slowly.

  “Exactly. I’m sending you the video for analysis. I think it’s been staged.”

  “Good, where are you now?” He was all business.

  “I’m in New Orleans with the rest of the guys trying to find a way to get everyone back.”

  “Sit tight. I’m going to get in touch with some of my contacts and see if there has been any chatter.”

  “One more thing... the compound is gone,” I said and waited.

  “What do you mean, gone?” he growled.

  “Barnes burned the house to the ground, with Marcy and me inside.”

  “That sonofabitch. Does he really think I’m stupid enough not to have back-ups of everything? The important thing is that you’re both okay.”

  “Okay is relative when our entire family is missing,” Trey growled behind me, looking at Brock over my shoulder.

  “Hello Trey,” Brock shot him a thin-lipped smile through the screen. “Sorry I know you all must be having a rough time. I will get in touch with some people and see if they can help in any way.”

  “Thank you,” Griffin replied, breaking the tension; he’d obviously gotten himself more under control.

  Trey looked as if he was about to blow a gasket, so I reached up and squeezed his hand, which was resting on my upper arm. We were all wound up tighter than a yoyo, but I could see the helplessness in Trey’s expression. All he knew was computers; he couldn’t be the action hero his brother was, and it killed him. I know it did.

  I never understood why Trey didn’t go into the military. During our many conversations, he’d let it slip that he’d idolized his brother growing up and wanted to be just like him. He told me that he pushed himself every day to be as tough as Griffin was. As I looked at him now, I could see just how hard he worked. His broad shoulders stretched his T-shirt and the corded muscles of his biceps barely fit in the sleeves. He was unlike any tech geek I had ever met.

  “Hey Barbie?” He smirked at me, as if knowing the track my mind was on.

  “What?” I balked at the ridiculous nickname they gave me when I blew some shit up at the Governor's mansion. So, what if I wanted to make Barnes pay? I found out only months ago what actually happened to my mother, and the fact that she hid her pregnancy from him for six months so he wouldn’t do anything to hurt us. I wanted to hurt him as badly as he hurt me. If I got to blow shit up in the process? Well that was just a bonus.

  “Did you find anything?” Trey asked irritably.

  “No, it’s gonna take some time to figure out the pattern. You know all about that, don’t you Trey?” I had to keep him off balance. There was no future with him and me and I needed him to realize that. When all this was over, I was going back to solitude. I didn’t do relationships, and I had no idea why they couldn’t see that I wasn’t one of them and never would be.

  CHAPTER THREE

  TREY

  I was losing it. I fell asleep at the keyboard hours later and Kenzie nudged me. “You’re drooling.”

  Wiping my face, I glared at her. “No, I wasn’t.”

  She laughed loudly and I shot her another glare. “Okay Eagle Eye, whatever you say.” I stretched my arms up over my head and rolled my neck, and heard a quiet intake of breath.

  “You stare any harder princess and I might burst into flames.” I smirked at her, which seemed to bring her out of her trance, and she stuck her tongue out at me and turned away. I filed that reaction away for later. I could tell I was getting to her; she felt something for me.

  A few minutes later, I was still trying to get into the mainframe at the patent office. I had no idea why the command wasn’t working. Slamming my fist down on the keyboard I growled in frustration.

  “What’s your problem?” Kenzie looked at me warily.

  “This damn command isn’t working.”

  “I can tell you why, idiot.”

  “Why?” I asked cautiously, not sure I wanted to hear what she had to say.

  “That stupid cast keeps hitting different keys as you’re inputting the commands.” She giggled and I laughed in spite of myself. She had a great laugh, one I could listen to every day for the rest of my life, but I had to shut that shit down. If I wasn’t careful I could ruin everything and she would slip through my fingers—again.

  “Shit,” she said suddenly. “Gotta go.”

  “Wait, what? Where the fuck are you going now?”

  “Not me. All of us. Brock just sent an encrypted email with the address of a safe h
ouse nearby with instructions to leave immediately. Apparently, Barnes is watching the hotel and waiting for an opportunity to take us out.”

  Hearing that news, I jumped from my seat, ran to the other room, and banged on Griffin’s door. “Time to go. Get your shit. I’m calling Pix.”

  Griffin threw open the door. “What’s going on?”

  “No time. We’re headed to a safe house.”

  He nodded and went back in to go pack, which was odd since I wasn’t sure why he had unpacked his stuff in the first place. I had been there a couple weeks and hadn’t unpacked anything, wanting to be ready on a second's notice in case something like this happened.

  I dialed my phone as I went into my room to grab my bags. “What’s going on, Trey?” Mac answered groggily.

  “We gotta move. There is a hoard coming. You up for a little road trip?”

  “We’ll meet you outside in ten,” he grumbled, totally alert now.

  “You got it.”

  Grabbing my bag, I loaded up all of my equipment and headed back into the living room. Kenzie was sitting there typing away at her keyboard like nothing was wrong.

  “You ready to go?” she asked not even looking up from her screen.

  “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

  Smirking, she looked me up and down. I was about to ask if she liked what she saw when Griffin came bounding through the door.

  A thought occurred to me. “Why are we running? Why not just face the goons head on?”

  “There are too many innocents around,” Griffin replied and Kenzie scoffed, as though having innocents around wasn’t a problem we needed to concern ourselves with.