Jewell laughed. It was a light, carefree sound. "This is the twenty-first century. Shotgun weddings are out of vogue."
"Tell me you don't think they would have circled the wagons."
"Oh, they would have tried." She slipped her arm through his and led him toward Jason's office door. "But I have a secret weapon that is guaranteed to make them back up and think before they act like cavemen."
"Really, and what would that be?" Zane stopped and asked before he opened the door.
She lifted up on her toes and kissed him softly. "You."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Zane was right, she did feel more centered. The few hours of sleep she'd had last night in Zane's arms were the best she'd had in days. Knowing that she wasn't pregnant also took a weight off her shoulders, one she didn't really know had settled upon her. Did she want to have a baby? Yes, definitely—someday. Did she want a life with Zane? Absolutely. Did they have miles to go before either would happen? Probably. But those were variables she was happy to accept.
Jewell stared at the screen. Stampede had all but the last three digits of the cipher solved. Alonzo was ready to assist her and Zane was seated in his chair with his ever-present tablet. She watched as Stampede dropped another digit. Jewell added it to Lufkey's computer.Two more you bastard. Two more and she'd have access to the fucker's system. She had a plan of attack. She'd work the first five most recent programs to have been opened. Alonzo would hit the man's email before he started on his internet usage and history. Yvette, one of her best white hat hackers would work the next five programs. There was no need for any more people, the three of them would be able to dissect the system, and with Guardian's proprietary programs, they'd shred any remaining safeguards and gain access in a quick, efficient bloodletting.
Stampede dropped the last digit, and all three of them attacked their keyboards. She didn't hear or see anything but the screen in front of her. The first three programs were tracking programs, each more complex than the last. Guardian's GPS coordinates were installed in all three. There were others. Jewell copied them and dropped them into Guardian's system and threw the locations up on the theater screen. Her brothers were down at the bottom of the steps. She didn't need to hear their discussion, it wouldn't help her access the information faster, and in fact, their presence would just distract her.
She found a set of three more coordinates and drug them across the system to populate the location on the same screen for her brothers. She scoured the programs one more time and then went on to next one. Jewell looked at the program with awe. The son of a bitch had built a system to hack governmental agencies. Not just the simple ones like the Department of Energy, but he had hacked the Department of Treasury, the Department of Justice, Homeland Security to include Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. The long-line algorithm that ran the base of the program was frankly beyond Jewell's comprehension. The one thing that stood out was while Vista had been using the program, he wasn't the one who developed it. The language was too advanced and too smooth. Jewell would dig into who'd written it later. She sent the list of hacked agencies to the theater and started pulling information out of the program. She traced the hack to the files that were pulled and started sending them out. She didn't take the time to look at what she was extracting. She couldn't. File after file was sent to systems at the front of the theater. Her people would do as directed by her brothers and the brains that moved Guardian. What she was doing now was a search and recovery operation and time was of the essence. Her mantra was get the information to the people who knew what to do with it.
Time ceased to exist as she became laser focused on the fourth program. She pushed the last cache of files out, sent them down and didn't miss a beat as she opened the next program. The file was a media Metadata storage unit. Jewell searched the files. It didn't have the video or the photographs, but it had information on the media. She cleared that file quickly and then started searching the hard drive for partitioned material. Yvette was almost done with the recent files and would be jumping over to help Alonzo with tracing the man's internet history. Now that they had access to his programs they could find out what he was doing on the Dark Net and who he contacted. Anything that could help determine what Vista was doing would benefit the agencies he'd hacked.
Jewell paused when she found a photo and video cache. An eerie sense of foreboding hit her because of the way the photos had been hidden. Whatever the reason, whatever was here was important enough for Vista to strip the photos from the Meta Data pointing to them and hide them in a partitioned area of his hard drive. Jewell highlighted and grabbed all of the photos and cast them to the screen. The largest files and most obvious programs were shredded out first because they had everything. Now they needed to comb through the detritus and find out what the man had hidden.
She heard her office door open and rolled her shoulders at the interruption. She heard Zane sit down in his chair. Strange, she didn't remember him leaving. The only other sounds were of the tapping of keyboards, the clicks of their mouses and the hum of the systems that filled her office. Jewell jumped when a bottle of water appeared beside her. She glared at the offending object and then at the man who placed it there.
"You three have been at this for over five hours," Zane answered her unspoken question.
"Five hours? The deadline?" She glanced out at the theater, but the screens were dark.
"Your brothers have the information they needed." Zane's voice held that distant, polite tone he'd used when he was watching over her the first time. The sudden cessation of keystrokes made her glance over at Alonzo and Yvette. They looked at Zane with the same concern and questions she had.
"Who? Who did they target?" Jewell's stomach dropped not wanting to know the answer but needing to hear it anyway.
"Jade."
Jewell's stomach flipped, and she covered her mouth with her hand. Zane tugged her from her chair and hugged her close. Jewell pushed away to cling to a portion of her sanity not wanting to fall apart in Zane's arms with her people right there. She glanced at Alonzo and Yvette. "You've done enough for tonight. We have the information we needed. We can sift through this tomorrow. Thank you."
"I hope it was enough." Alonzo put his hand on her arm and smiled as he waited for Yvette to come out from behind the workbench.
"Thank you. I'm sure my brothers are doing everything they can do." She looked at Zane who nodded in agreement.
When the door clicked shut she buried herself into his strong chest. "Did they get to her in time?"
"Jason has alerted the Attorney General. They are waiting for their agent to make contact. He has established check-in times. If they send someone in and there hasn't been a compromise, they endanger the team. If something has happened already, the agent won't make his check in call. That will alert them to move in. Until then, we have to wait."
"How long until he checks in?" She needed to make sure Jade was alright. Her sister was one of the toughest people she knew, but she was still alone and in a dangerous situation.
Zane drew a deep breath before he answered. "Next week."
Jewell shook her head in disbelief. "Jason can't be willing to wait that long!"
"He wasn't until the DEA explained the ramifications of making contact." Zane grabbed her water bottle off the workstation and opened it handing it to her. Jewell put it back down not in the least interested in the damn water.
"What ramifications? What could be more important than the life of my sister and their agent?"
"The lives of at least thirty women and children. Jason wouldn't say more. He probably said too much, but he knew you'd have questions. He also asked me to ask you not to hack into the DEA and to wait like the rest of the family."
Jewell chuffed out a lungful of air. "He knows me."
"He does. He also asked me if I wanted to go to the ranch with you.
He assumed you would want to be with your mom and Jasmine when they found out."
Jewell moved to lean into his warmth. She could go to the ranch. Her mom would be devastated if something happened to Jade. She could monitor the section from the secure comms facility Chief had constructed. If her people needed her, she'd be available within minutes. Besides, her mom wouldn't be the only one wrecked if anything happened to Jade. No, she couldn't let herself think that way. She'd go to the ranch, because she knew it was the right thing to do, not because her brothers were forcing her. Jewell tipped her head up and nodded. "Yeah, I'll go. I can hook into the system from the comms facility at the ranch and monitor things here. When can we leave?"
"Jason put a plane on standby for us. As soon as you want." Zane bent down and kissed her softly on the lips. "You have to believe she will be alright."
"If anyone will be, it would be Jade." Jewell glanced at the computer they'd been working on.
"I've heard that about ten times now between you and your brothers. I take it she's a tough cookie?"
"The toughest." She melted against Zane and breathed in his scent.
"If she is anything like you, she'll find a way to adapt and overcome any obstacle." Zane held her hand as he walked her to her station. "Log out. We have a flight to catch."
Jewell didn't even hesitate to do as he asked. She logged out of her systems and grabbed her purse from her desk. As they left the office, she turned out the lights and looked down over the people who were working the missions, operations orders and background investigations that Guardian required. Her people helped make the organization one of the best security entities in the world. She was proud of what she'd accomplished, but it was also time for a change. She'd had an idea for a couple of weeks now, and it had firmed up over the events of the last seventy-two hours. She'd talk to Jason when she got settled at the ranch.
Jewell grabbed Zane's hand and started down the stairs. This wasn't her life anymore. It was a very important piece of it, but there was so much more now. So much more.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Zane watched out the right side of the window as the plane landed. The sky was a brilliant blue with large white clouds spotting the expanse of the horizon. They had both fallen asleep right after take-off. Turbulence over Minnesota jarred him awake. His shoulder and arm throbbed, but he'd do it all over again if it meant Jewell was safe.
The specter of Vista was still looming. Jewell's sister now bore the brunt of the bastard's venom. He put his hand on Jewell's thigh, grounding himself to the fact that she was safe. As much of a bastard as it made him, Zane was glad Jewell's destiny was no longer tied to that bastard. He hated her sister was still in jeopardy. Zane had immediately volunteered to go in and bring her out, wherever 'in' was. From what he gathered, her brothers didn't know, and the DEA wasn't sharing. He'd go in and get her if only to stop Jewell from worrying and of course to protect her sister. Jason had turned his offer down flat.
Jason King amazed him. The almost unimaginable stress that man carried on his shoulders had been amplified tenfold, specifically because he didn't have control of this mission. Zane couldn't imagine how the man felt. He must be swimming in a feeling of impotence. Speaking from experience, he didn't envy Jason.
The landing gear engaged. The flight attendant shook his head when Zane motioned to Jewell asking if he should wake her up, but the sound of the wheels lowering roused her from her sleep anyway. She rubbed her eyes and yawned before stretching like a cat and sitting up. "Are we there?"
"Landing."
"Hmmm… what time is it?" Jewell flopped onto his good shoulder and yawned again.
Zane glanced at his watch. "6:00."
Jewell jumped away from him. "Oh good. Dinner is at 6:30. My mom's cooking is the best and Aunt Betty makes the most delicious pies and cobblers." She damn near vibrated in her seat as she spoke. He hadn't seen her this animated since she'd played in the video game tournament. Zane chuckled as she described her mom's chicken and dumplings. "And she doesn't make the thin noodle-like dumplings, she makes the thick fluffy ones and oh, my God, they melt in your mouth and are heaven on earth."
The plane touched down and taxied toward a small hangar. They disembarked and walked out into what Zane would describe as the middle of a high tech western movie. He could hear cattle calling to each other and to his right, the tops of giant wind turbines could be seen over the rolling hills. There were solar panels on the roofs of the outlying buildings that were obviously part of the training complex Jewell had described to him. When he looked to the right, he was in an epic cowboy adventure, complete with animals and sound effects. If he did an about face, there was no doubt a paramilitary entity had set up a training camp. His eyes were drawn to a structure that had at least ten different antennas mounted to the roof. The comm building no doubt. It was impossible to determine the purpose of the other structures, but by the looks of things, the complex was substantial.
Two men waited at the edge of the tarmac. As they approached the men's loose stature altered. He could sense the body language change from 'welcome' to 'who the fuck are you.'
As they moved closer, Zane could see they were twins. Twins that rivaled his height and bulk and they were warriors. He could sense the battle scars even though he couldn't see them.
They glanced at him and then looked at Jewell. They moved their eyes and heads at the exact same time. Freaky as fuck but… really cool too. "Jewell." The one on the right said.
"Dixon, Drake. How have you been?" Jewell left his side and first hugged the man that spoke and then the other.
"Been better."
"Have you heard anything?" Jewell fumbled with her phone looking at the screen. The one who was speaking put his hand on hers. "Nothing yet."
The silent one swallowed hard and looked away.
"I'm Zane Reynolds." He extended his hand toward the silent one. The man measured Zane the way he'd had measured them as he approached.
Finally, he extended his hand. "Drake."
Jewell slipped her arm through Zane's and tilted her head until it lay on his bicep. "Guys, Zane's my…" She turned and looked at Zane and broke into laughter. "Hell, boyfriend is such a teenager's term."
"Try lover," Deadpanned the one that had to be Dixon.
"But I wouldn't say that in front of Frank or your mom," Drake added.
"Or any of her brothers," Zane chimed in.
Both of the twin's faces split into identical grins, and both said, "True that."
Zane chuckled to himself as they did a coordinated turn and started down a cement pathway.
Jewell leaned into his side as they walked. They stepped off the cement and followed a graveled pathway around a large rolling hill. Zane schooled his expression as he took in what he hadn't seen when they landed. They walked as a loose group toward a freaking mansion made of logs. Judging from the outside, the thing had to be at least six thousand square feet of living space. Not that Zane was an engineer, but he'd learned to understand architecture, and this building was a work of art. As they turned the corner and walked along the front of the house, a massive porch gave the imposing structure a welcoming appearance. There was a man sitting on the porch in an old-fashioned swing. Jewell made a small squealing noise and bolted up the stairs. The tall, lean, hard-looking cowboy stood and wrapped her into his arms. Zane could hear a mumbled conversation but stood back at the top of the stairs to give them their private moment.
Jewell turned toward him and extended her hand. Zane walked over. As he did the gravity of the situation hit him.Fuck, he was meeting Jewell's stepfather. That was intense on many levels. Zane extended his hand. "Sir, I'm Zane Reynolds."
The weathered face didn't change expressions. Zane felt the weight of the cowboy's stare before the man extended his hand. "Frank Marshall. I'm Jewell's stepdad."
"I'm sorry to be meet
ing you under the circumstances, sir, but I want you to know we would have met regardless. I'm in love with Jewell, and I won't hide that fact."
The old cowboy cocked his head and considered Zane. Finally, he nodded. "Fair enough." He hugged Jewell before he moved even with Zane. "Hurt her, and you'll deal with me." The words were quiet, intended for just the two of them. He clapped Zane on his injured shoulder as he walked by. Zane blanched but held firm. The old man couldn't know he'd been shot in the shoulder… or did he?
"Your mom is in the kitchen with Betty. She heard you were coming and started cooking. Get yourself settled and cleaned up. Dinner is in fifteen minutes. Don't be late." Frank Marshall nodded at the twins who fell into step after him.
Zane exhaled heavily and rolled his shoulder. Fuck, that was uncomfortable. "So, did I pass?" He turned toward Jewell who stood with a wide smile on her face.
"Oh, you passed. Frank told me that Jason, Jacob, and Jared had each called him and told him you were the right man for me."
"Oh, thank God." He mocked and received the laugh he was looking for. "Let's get cleaned up because I'm not about to piss that man off and make him wait for dinner."
Jewell laughed and took his hand leading him into the most impressive foyer he'd ever seen. The antler light fixture was easily six feet across and hung over a massive stairway. But the thing that drew his attention was the fireplace in the grand room. He could park a 4x4 truck in the fire box. Zane held Jewell's hand as he gaped at the country style opulence. "So… your mom married well."
Jewell laughed at his remark. "She married for love, but it was cool that Frank could take care of her. Let's go, we have only a few minutes to make it to dinner." She motioned toward the stairs, and Zane followed like a puppy.
Jewell (The Kings of Guardian Book 8) Page 22
