by Jaci Wheeler
The man who would order a hit on an innocent woman could do anything. I tell myself to breathe over and over again and will the tears to stay put. I refuse to jump to conclusions until I can hack into his system myself. I stay where I am for another two hours until I can no longer feel my legs and Edward finally leaves his office for lunch.
I waste no time as I jump to my feet and instantly face plant.
“Son of a-.”
Okay, Aria, take your freaking time; your legs have been asleep for hours. I bring myself into a standing position and shake out my limbs. I instantly jump into action once I am confident I won’t fall again. I’m the best hacker out there, but even I know this is going to be a challenge.
I break into the mainframe easily enough, but my father has installed several additional firewalls and secret alarms. I should know; I’m the one who developed the software for them, unknown to him of course. Back then I leaked my codes slowly to another hacker who is on my father’s payroll as insurance that he’d never be able to keep me out.
Thank God I did because I’ve never needed to get into this system more than I do now. The days of flowers and hearts are over and my life is depending on being able to figure out what he was talking about.
I look at the clock. This is taking much longer than I’d like. I continue to scan row after row of classified documents until I find it. The file marked OCS. I hurry and save everything I find and all the subfolders and erase all my digital footprints, making sure to double check my work. I grab the USB and make my way out of there like my life depends on it, and who knows…maybe it does.
And just moments ago I was bored. Be careful what you wish for I think to myself.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Aria
I throw up for the third time. I can’t believe my eyes. I just can’t. I don’t know what upsets me more, the fact that my father only had me as an experiment or that he violated my body. Why wouldn’t he, though?
He only saw me as a number. I knew I was never loved, but I hoped that somewhere deep down that he had some affection for me, if for no other reason than because I’m from his flesh. But no, I was from a tube, and I meant nothing more than a trained gun. Oh God. I barely make it to the toilet before I throw up once again.
Breathe, Ari, breathe. What now? After all, I just found out I am seriously running out of options. I need to talk this out with someone because I can’t process the best move right now. I’m hit where it hurts and I feel like I should be bleeding. The pain is so bad inside.
It surely would manifest itself into a gaping wound, right? I instantly want to run to Cam or Hayden. Between the brothers and Hope, I know I have very few people I can trust, but I can’t go to them. To assume they would run with me would be insane. Plus, if they did, who would watch out for the others?
I can’t incriminate any of them. Think, Aria, think. If you can’t go to a friend, then who do you go to? It’s like a lightbulb has just gone off. I quickly grab everything I can’t live without which is, sadly, very little and I take off.
Before I can second guess myself, I quickly knock on the door. When nobody answers, I knock again and again until a very pissed off looking Nix opens the door
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she says with a scowl. I don’t have time for niceties and I don’t want anyone to see me at her door so I charge past her and into her room.
“Well, come on in then. Geez, Aria, you may think you own the world and that we all bow down to you, but believe me, you don’t.”
Maybe this wasn’t the best decision after all. If she turns on me, I’m so freaking screwed. But I convince myself that just because she doesn’t like me doesn’t mean she can’t be trusted. She’s a very valuable member of the Elite team and besides knowing weapons she can read people better than anyone. She will see what I am saying is the truth; I have to believe that.
“I don’t have time for your crap, Nix. I’m in some serious trouble right now and I really need your help.” Her eyes narrow but I can tell she knows I’m telling the truth.
“Why come to me then? We don’t like each other. Why not go to one of your little friends, let them help you?”
“Because they are the first people that will be questioned. Like you said, you don’t like me, nobody would think I would ask you for help. I wouldn’t if it wasn’t absolutely life or death, Nix, trust me.” She doesn’t say anything for several moments and I think I might about have screwed myself over, but finally, she nods once and sits.
“You have the floor.”
Thank God for a woman who doesn’t allow drama to drown out good sense.
“Thank you. I don’t have much time and I don’t want to share too much because then you will be at risk, but I need your help getting me out of here undetected.”
She’s already shaking her head no and the small amount of hope she’d given me is now crushed.
“No.”
“Please Nix, I’m begging you.”
“I get that. I’m not saying I won’t help you. In fact, you were smart coming to me, but I won’t do a thing until I have all the facts. I also want hard proof.”
“You don’t understand what you are asking for.”
“Yet I’m asking all the same. If I’m going to put my ass on the line for you, I’m going to know why.”
I think about it for a moment and she’s right. I would do the same thing in her situation.
“Okay, but I need your word that after what I tell you, even if you won’t help me, it doesn’t leave this room, Nix. Please, it’s very important. You can send me away, but this stays here.”
“Agreed.”
“The quick version is that I overheard Edward in a confidential conversation.” She rolls her eyes at that but keeps quiet.
“After hearing the conversation, I might have stumbled upon some classified documents.”
“You just happened to stumble upon them, huh? I hate when he leaves those things just laying around,” she drolls.
“Anyway, the condensed version is that the Academy is just a front for a new project Edward and his higher ups are trying called Operation Child Solider. They use unwanted kids, and those that are abused, and take them out of their bad situations, mostly because nobody is going to care what happens to them.” She flinches at this and I inwardly berate myself for being so harsh and forgetting that she was one of those kids.
“I’m sorry. I-” She puts her hand up to stop me.
“I get it. Continue.”
“So, these kids are treated well, for the most part. Their basic needs are met and they feel beyond grateful for getting pulled out of those horrible situations so they’re loyal in return. Think about it, Nix; they make the perfect spies because you can train them from the time they can walk and they will trust you and follow you because you saved them. It’s brilliant. There is no school! I pulled everything I can find. We are off the books; this is strictly black ops. All that BS they fed us about being an elite school is crap. Plus, we aren’t on the government payroll at all. I traced origin back to a black ops group based out of Russia. Russia, Nix! We are told we are serving our country and it’s not even our country we are working for! We are just young, stupid, paid-for-hire assassins!”
She lets out a shaky breath and drops her head.
“Oh my God,” she whispers. I know this news has to be hard on her, learning that you’ve been pulled out of one horrible situation just to be used and manipulated in another.
“It gets worse…much worse.”
“How?” she asks with tears in her eyes.
“Should I stop?”
“No!” she says with fire in her voice.
I decide to lead with me now to soften the blow. She isn’t the only one who was used.
“They had a good outcome with the first batch of students, but along with loyalty, the kids brought issues, phobias. The situations most of you were in would cause anyone nightmares, but some were afraid of weapons and had other triggers th
at they were afraid could be used against them. So they decided to come up with me.”
At this, her head snaps up and she looks me straight in the eye and I nod once.
“I was a test tube baby,” I whisper.
At her look of disbelief, I add “It’s true; Edward is, in fact, my father, but my mother was a nameless surrogate. She is only known as “The Russian.” I was the perfect child soldier, trained from birth with no past issues.”
“Holy crap, Aria; this is insane!” she yells as she jumps to her feet and paces the room.
“There’s more,” I choke out, and I can’t keep the tears from flowing freely now.
“Since I was considered such a success they decided to harvest my eggs, and not just mine,” I say in a whisper. Instantly her hand goes to her stomach where we have matching scars.
“The appendix?” she says in horror.
“I didn’t have appendicitis after all. Edward poisoned me to think so, then they removed my eggs. As a backup, they thought it best to do the same to the rest of you, saying that it’s too risky to have your appendix on a mission. It was total crap, Nix! Just an excuse to harvest our eggs.”
She falls back into her chair and I see one tear slowly making its way down her cheek.
“Please tell me we don’t all have babies out there? I don’t think I can take it, Ari.”
I shake my head no and burst into tears again. This time, I’m full on sobbing.
“You don’t.”
“But you do?” she asks, moving closer and, in an unheard-of act of compassion, lays her hand on my shoulder. I can’t speak so I shake my head yes.
“More than one?”
“No. Just one boy: test subject A-1.0 He is almost a year old, Nix, and he’s been stolen from my body and housed only yards from me his whole life.
“What do you need? What are we going to do?” Just the fact that she said “we” and not “you,” gives me hope.
“I can’t stay here. I have to rescue my little boy and flee somewhere that Edward will never find me. But more than that, I have to bring him and this operation down. I can’t allow him to do this to more people.”
She’s nodding her head in agreement.
“But how?”
“Slowly. You can’t let on that you know anything, which is going to be hard. You must keep this to yourself for now. He will know that I know since I’m going to take my baby with me, and in the process, get rid of the rest of the samples. I’m not going to destroy them, just move them somewhere safe for now,” I quickly add. I’m not worried about breaking into the facility with my baby. It’s not heavily guarded, just one nurse at a time. We can break him out pretty quickly and the rest of the samples too since they are stored there as well. The problem is going to be smuggling us out.”
“No, it won’t,” she says with confidence. “We are going on a training mission overseas in three days’ time. Will that give you enough time?”
Hope is a rare and beautiful thing. I can feel it blossoming and spread through my body and gratitude is quickly on its heels.
“Yes,” I barely squeak out.
“Okay then, I’m going with you.”
“No!” I yell. And she glares at me.
“You can’t, not yet. That’s another reason I chose you and not Cam. You need to stay here and do what needs to be done. Send me the intel I need to bring Edward down. I need someone on the inside I can trust.”
“Then tell Cam because I’m going with you.”
“No. If we are both gone, he will know I told you, and the chances that I told more than you will be on the table. You’ve got to stay here. I’m going to leave some encrypted proof back with you, along with a letter for Cam and Hayden in case something happens to me. This is very important, Nix.” I plead with my eyes and follow up with what I know will seal the deal.
“I haven’t told you all of it. He used training missions as his personal assassinations, Nix. He had me ‘destroy’ a file on my first mission.” I use air quotes and she smiles because we both know nothing got destroyed. “I locked it away not thinking much of it until now. It has all of Edward’s dirty deeds in black and white. Stuff that will make your head spin. If only I looked at it earlier…”
“Okay, I’ll stay,” she finally agrees. “No use beating yourself up over something you had no idea about. It’s done. I’ll make sure to keep a close eye on him.”
“Thank you! I will contact you always through code on a burner phone, but only while you are on missions can you contact me. It’s too dangerous to do so here. Can you find a way to do that?”
“Yeah, no worries.”
“Alright. This might take years, Nix. We have to bide our time and gather as much incriminating evidence against him as possible. If you think anything is up or new, I will talk you through how to hack his computer and have you save everything.”
“What will you do once you get overseas? Do you have money?”
I can’t stop the evil smile.
“I have several offshore accounts and all of Edward’s banking info. I will be set financially.”
She laughs full on.
“Who would have thought we would be masterminds scheming together?”
“Hopefully no one, Nix, hopefully no one. Our lives depend on it.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Nix
I can finally breathe again. It’s been three of the longest days of my life, but she did it. We did it.
It is beyond easy to break Ari’s baby out of the facility with just one nurse on watch. They are holding him in an outer lab on the property. We wait until the middle of the night and break in.
I’ve never seen Aria like that before. She left her room one person and by the time she hits the threshold, she becomes someone completely different, someone cold and calculating. She becomes an assassin right before my very eyes.
I’ve seen her plenty of times on missions, so this isn’t the first time I’ve seen her work, but it is as if she is driven by the assassin, the mother, not Aria my teammate or Edward’s daughter. As soon as we hit the perimeter, before I even have a chance to take a site rep, she springs and takes out all four guards. Not even breaking a sweat, she hacks the code on the security pad and snaps the nurses neck in one go.
I look around to make sure we don’t have anyone else to contend with, but the nurse is the only one on site. She is already taken care of and I won’t lose a wink of sleep over her. She held an innocent baby captive, and there’s no excuse for that.
Aria is in beast mode until she reaches the crib and then it feels like time comes to a halting stop. Even I am holding my breath as I watch her lay eyes on her son for the first time. She just stares at him in awe for a few moments and then chokes on a sob. She looks as though she is afraid to even touch him.
Time isn’t on our side so I tell her to grab him while I go after the vials. I am as strong as they come and I almost lose it when I see all those vials, rows and rows of them all labeled with a name and number. I load them all in a cooler while Aria grabs everything she can find for the baby.
Bottles, diapers, clothes, and a small stuffed bear are all shoved in a bag. Once she has him bundled and ready to leave, and I have all the vials packed tight in the cooler, she gives me a tight embrace and I shock even myself when I hug her back.
“I can’t thank you enough, Nix; there just aren’t words,” she whispers out as she gazes at her son.
“You don’t need them. You take care of that sweet boy and I will take these somewhere safe. I know you are angry and want revenge, Ari, but remember the plan. Stick to our plan, do you hear me?”
She looks like she wants to argue, like she is ready to murder Edward herself, but then she looks down at the baby, back up at me, and nods once.
“Let’s go. Wheels are up in two hours and we can’t risk you being found. Don’t forget to give him that Benadryl as soon as you are loaded in the cargo hold.”
“I will. Between that and the bot
tles, I’m praying he stays quiet enough to take off. Then they shouldn’t be able to hear him.”
“I’m very picky about how my weapons are handled and I always load the cargo, so it won’t seem weird. I’ll pack you in good and tight and make sure you are both strapped down, but it’s going to be a hard flight.”
“Nothing will be as hard as today,” she says with tears in her eyes.
For as long as I live I will never forget the haunted look on her face. Luckily, we are scheduled for an op early that morning before Edward will know anything is up. By the time he figures it out we will be long gone. Ari sneaks off before we get the call to return home immediately.
I turn my worry for them into anger and I let the anger fuel me. I let it take over and drive me to bring him and all that he holds dear down. He made us invincible, he made us deadly, and now I’m going to make him sorry. We deplane to the sound of sirens and flashing lights all over the Academy grounds.
“Emergency, we are on lock down. Emergency, I repeat, emergency. We will remain on lock down mode until otherwise told,” comes blaring over the loud speaker.
“It has begun. Be safe, Ari,” I whisper into the night.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Cameron
“I won’t ask you again. Where is she?” Edward screams at me.
“I’ll tell you the same thing I’ve told you for the last three hours; I don’t know what the hell you are talking about but I’m sick of being accused so you need to drop the bull, Edward, and level with me. What is going on?”
I should have seen it coming. I’m a trainer for God’s sake. I teach others how to always keep their guard up, never let them catch you unaware. But when he catches me with a right hook, I’m stunned. I’ve never seen Edward get physical; he’s never had to since he has an army of thugs at his fingertips.
