Major Crimes

by Janie Crouch

  “No. I just wanted to get them out of there.”

  Hayley’s hands clenched into fists in her lap. She couldn’t stand to have the danger so close to Mason. Cain talked a little bit more with Perowne, got his address and hung up.

  “Were they going to kill them?” Hayley asked. “Do you think that’s what the people who went to the apartment were sent to do?”

  “I doubt it. It wouldn’t help anyone’s cause to kill Mason and Ariel outright. Domestic dispute sounded like it was a setup to be able to take Mason into custody.”

  “To get me back into their hands.”

  Cain nodded. “If I had to guess, yes. You know something or can do something that someone very powerful wants eliminated.”

  Hayley nodded. “It has to do with the CET case.”

  “I figured as much.”

  “Why?”

  “Because of the twelve of you who were arrested, five are dead. None of the deaths individually are suspicious, but when you look at them as a whole...”

  Hayley felt like the air had been sucked out of her lungs. “Someone’s hunting the people involved in the case.”

  Cain glanced at her before turning his eyes back to the road. “Yes. And if I had to make a guess, it’s because they don’t know which one of you has the damaging information. But I’m assuming it’s you.”

  She didn’t know if he was going to believe her. Heck, she was the one who had discovered what was going on and still found it hard to believe.

  “I know I told you the other night that about a month before I was arrested I had decided to get out of the hacking scheme.”

  Cain nodded, but she was at least glad to see his jaw didn’t tighten the way it had all the other times they had talked about her arrest.

  “I wasn’t stupid,” she continued. “I didn’t want to go to jail, so I was going back into the CET system to cover my tracks.”

  She turned and looked out the window.

  “Vargas was the one who banded the hackers together. I didn’t know about any of the others and they didn’t know me. Basically he had the contacts to sell our results. All of us individually could’ve hacked the system, but we wouldn’t have known how to make money with what we had found.”

  “So he was the auctioneer. The middleman connecting the buyers with the sellers.”

  “Yes. The CET was pretty complicated to hack, even for us. The test is different at every testing center, and we had to crack that algorithm in order to know what set of questions would be present at any particular testing session.”

  “That’s why CET called itself unhackable.”

  Hayley shrugged. “It probably is as a whole. But we weren’t trying to hack it as a whole.”

  The CET was so popular because students could get their results immediately instead of having to wait weeks like previous college testing required. But in order to get the results so quickly, the test had to be computerized.

  Anyone who said something couldn’t be hacked was a liar. If it was on any sort of open system, it could be hacked.

  “Okay,” Cain said. “This all came out in the trial. Doesn’t seem like anything out of the ordinary.”

  “It’s not. It’s when I dug much deeper to try to hide my tracks that I discovered the real problem.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Most of the CET exams are at high schools all over the country. That’s where we concentrated almost all of our hacking. But there are American high schools on foreign soil at US military bases across the world. The CET system also does testing there. For both American and foreign kids.”

  “Okay, that seems right.”

  “I found out someone was using the tests to send information that had nothing to do with the exams themselves.”

  He glanced at her again. “What sort of information?”

  She swallowed. This was where he either believed her or called her crazy. “State secrets, Cain. To be honest, some of it I didn’t even understand. But in one transmission it was definitely weapon plans.”

  Cain’s curse was low and foul. “Someone is using the CET for espionage.”

  Hayley let out a breath she hadn’t even been aware she was holding. “Yes. I don’t know how deep it goes. I was just starting to dig into it when I was arrested.”

  “So whoever is behind it knew someone had discovered something, but didn’t know who. And is probably the one who put law enforcement on the hackers’ trail to begin with.”

  It made sense. “They needed to flush the hackers out. And once we’d been arrested—”

  “All they needed was to pick you off one by one,” Cain finished for her. “Until they either found the person who knew, or had eliminated you all.”

  He believed her. Something inside her eased. She couldn’t offer any proof yet, but he still believed her.

  “I put in an electronic trapdoor before I was arrested. Once I can get back online freely I can access that. It will point me in the direction of who’s behind the secret selling.”

  “Will it expose you?”

  Hayley nodded. “Yes. Whoever it is will definitely know it’s me who accessed the information.”

  “Then it’s a race to see if you can get the information into the right hands before they find you.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “That’s why you were saving up money to run.”

  She nodded with a shrug. “I thought I had at least two years before I could access a computer and that would make me safe.”

  “But working for me gave you access early and whoever is behind this obviously has some law enforcement in their pocket.”

  She brought a hand up to her sore cheek where Brickman had hit her. “I don’t know how high up this goes, but it has to be pretty high. They’re going to be looking for me, right? So what do we do?”

  “For now, we run.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Hayley’s story explained a lot, and Cain had no reason not to believe her, especially after the contract out on her life. Ren had dealt with the situation with Brickman—he’d be going to jail, especially since the officer he’d shot had miraculously survived and would be testifying against him. But that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be someone else after Hayley soon.

  It was time to kill two birds with one stone.

  He was taking Hayley where he could protect her and she could get the information he needed about the Omega mole: inside the Critical Response Division headquarters in Colorado Springs.

  Cain had already talked to Steve. Hayley would be working in a section of the building far from active agents, and therefore away from the mole. It would give her a chance to dig deeper into both the CET situation and the Omega traitor. Now he just needed to get them to Colorado. Flying wasn’t an option, so they would be driving.

  They hadn’t gone to her apartment after picking up Ariel and Mason; it was too risky. Until everything was cleared up, Hayley was a fugitive to all law enforcement, and a huge potential paycheck for the compromised ones.

  So, as they’d explained to little Mason, they were going on a road trip.

  He’d met his son. Cain still could barely believe it. Mason had been excited to see “Mama Hayley” when they’d arrived, rushing into her arms. She’d held him to her, hands stroking over his little head, before letting the little wiggle-worm go. Ariel and Hayley had embraced—Ariel still giving Cain the evil eye—while Cain had explained the situation as best he could to Officer Perowne, thanking him for his help.

  Then Cain had crouched down and met his son, his green eyes—a replica of his own—staring back at him.

  “Mason, this is Cain.” She hadn’t tried to offer any more details. Mason was too young to understand family dynamics anyway.

  Mason looked from Hayley to Cain. “Like candy cane?”

  Cain hadn’t been able to stop his
big grin. “Sure, buddy. You can call me Candy Cain.”

  He’d held out his hand, unsure of what exactly he expected the little boy to do. Shake it?

  Mason had slapped him five, smiled and run off, muttering about Candy Cain and road trips.

  Cain couldn’t stop looking at Mason in the rearview mirror now that they were on their way. Hayley was in the back seat of the car he’d rented, playing a color game with Mason. She’d also read him books, sung songs and played peekaboo.

  “She loves him more than anything,” Ariel muttered from the seat beside Cain when Hayley and Mason broke into another rendition of “The Wheels on the Bus.” “She’s an excellent mother. You better not do anything to take Mason away from her.”

  Cain looked over at the other woman, honestly shocked. “I would never do that. Especially not now. Not seeing how much she loves him. I want to protect them both.”

  “Good. Because Hayley deserves that. Deserves to have time with her son as just a mom. Deserves to have someone in her life who isn’t going to always lord over her the fact that she once made a mistake—”

  “Ariel,” Hayley said from the back seat. Cain realized the singing had stopped. Mason had fallen asleep. “That’s enough.”

  “Why? Someone needs to say something to him.”

  This time it was Hayley he saw when he looked in the rearview mirror. But she was staring at the back of Ariel’s head.

  “Cain isn’t the villain here.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m not sure he’s the hero, either,” Ariel snapped back.

  “We both made mistakes in the past,” Cain said. “Both have things we would take back if we could.”

  Now Hayley’s eyes met his. She nodded. “But right now the most important thing is looking forward. There’s too much at stake to bicker about the past.”

  She looked back at Mason.

  But what Ariel said had been right. If Cain ever truly wanted to be a part of Hayley’s life, he was going to have to let go of the hacking. Accept, like he’d said, that they’d both made mistakes. Not lord hers over her.

  But Hayley was even more right. If they couldn’t work out the problems of their present, the ones of the past weren’t going to matter.

  They drove as long as they could while Mason was asleep, knowing they’d have to stop and let him get some energy out once he woke up. Cain’s call to Ren assured him that things seemed quiet, or that there was at least no direct word out in what direction they were heading.

  Cain got to know his son. When Hayley had offered to drive so Cain could sit in the back seat, he’d refused at first, afraid it would be awkward. That he would scare the boy or make him uncomfortable. But after a little encouragement—and providing him with a secret weapon, a small toy fire truck that was sure to enthrall Mason—Cain agreed. He soon discovered that his son loved fire trucks, but like all toy vehicles he played with, he liked to pretend they were roller coasters.

  Both women in the front seat groaned when Mason began to make a strange noise, bringing the fire truck up as far as his little arm, restrained in the car seat, would go. Then made a soft screaming sound as he brought it back down again quickly.

  “He loves roller coasters,” Ariel explained. “He’s never been on one, but we’ve watched videos. So no matter what vehicle you give him to play with, he’s going to pretty much act like it’s a roller coaster.”

  Cain laughed. He and his brother had driven his parents crazy wanting to go to theme parks all the time as kids. “He comes by it honestly.”

  Cain played with Mason—seriously, the kid really loved to pretend his cars were on thrill rides—for hours, promising to take him to ride a roller coaster as soon as he was big enough. Cain’s parents would love it, being dragged back out to a theme park once again, this time for their grandson.

  He couldn’t wait for them to meet Mason. Cain had been around him for only twenty-four hours and was already in love with him.

  They drove through the night, taking turns. But by the second night, about eight hours outside of Colorado Springs, they decided to stop. Everyone needed to be out of the car, get a good night’s rest in a bed.

  Cain lent Ariel his burner phone for her to call and check her voice mail, since both women had ditched their cell phones so they couldn’t be tracked. Cain offered the phone to Hayley, too, but she said no one would be calling her.

  But she was wrong.

  “Hayley,” Ariel said after listening to her messages. “Some really Southern-sounding lady named Mara left you a message. Said she couldn’t reach you on your phone and was worried maybe you were more hurt from the fire than you’d let on. Also says she has another job possibility for you both and to call her ASAP.”

  They watched as Ariel listened to what must’ve been another five or six messages from Mara, each obviously longer than the last.

  “Let me just call her, okay?” Hayley finally said. “If not, she’ll just keep calling. She was always looking after me at the Bluewater. I feel bad that she’s so worried.”

  Cain nodded. “But don’t give any specifics where we are. Just tell her you’ll call her when you get back.”

  Although he had no plans to sit by and let her slave in some dead-end job where she had to work twelve hours a day washing dishes and mopping floors. He had contacts. People who would give Hayley a chance, just because he would vouch for her. Despite her past.

  And he realized that was true. He would vouch for Hayley.

  He heard her talking to Mara, remembered the older woman from the night of the fire.

  “I’ll definitely get in touch soon about the job, Mara. I’ve just got a couple of things to take care of.” Hayley laughed. “No, I haven’t been breaking my neck looking at all the papers, I promise. But thank you for checking on me.”

  He could hear Mara’s drawl on the other end of the line but couldn’t tell what she was saying.

  “Thanks, Mara. I’ll talk to you soon. Bye.”

  “Sounds like I’ve got a job at the local Waffle Hut if I want it,” she said ruefully as she handed the phone back to Cain.

  Over his dead body. “Let’s finish this first, then worry about jobs.”

  Hayley nodded. Cain checked them into a hotel as Hayley got Mason’s sleeping body out of the car. Cain had chosen a small town, well off the interstate, on purpose. The town had one main road with all the brick buildings, each two or three stories high, butting up to one another.

  In a small town like this where the crime rate was low, credit cards and IDs weren’t required for check-in. Cain paid with cash for two adjoining rooms, then parked the car a little way down the street, vehicle easily accessible from multiple directions. He didn’t expect any trouble, but he wouldn’t rest easily until they made it to the Omega Critical Response Division HQ.

  Mason woke up as they got into the rooms, his internal clock off track due to their traveling. It was close to midnight, but he was wide-awake. Cain, Ariel and Hayley took turns playing with the little boy while the others showered.

  “That’s no fair,” Cain said as Hayley sat on the floor in front of Mason and the little boy brushed her long blond hair with a hairbrush.

  Hayley laughed. “You say that until he turns the hairbrush backward accidentally and smacks my head with it.”

  Mason ran over to the bed where Cain sat, climbed up and started brushing his hair.

  Hayley was right—it wasn’t nearly as soothing as it looked.

  She laughed again at the expression on his face. “Told you.”

  Cain would suffer all sorts of hairbrush torture to hear that laugh from Hayley. It relaxed Mason, too. He jumped down from the bed and ran back to Hayley. She distracted him this time with snacks.

  Cain joined them on the floor and he and Mason pretended each cracker went over a roller coaster hill before ending up in their mouths.


  Once the little boy had his belly full, he settled down, a big yawn taking over his entire face. Hayley brushed his teeth and put him in jammies, then brought him over to the bed.

  “I’ll just sleep in the other room,” Ariel said, fresh from the shower. “You guys can stay in here.”

  Hayley looked concerned. “Are you sure?”

  It was a balancing act between the two women, Cain knew. Ariel had been the mother figure to Mason for so long. Hayley didn’t want to hurt her cousin in any way or remove her from Mason’s life.

  Ariel knew that, too. She rushed over to give Hayley a hug and Mason a kiss. She didn’t even glare at Cain, so he considered that a win.

  Mason’s eyes were already drooping.

  “Let’s get him into bed before he falls asleep all over you.” Cain pulled the bedding back so Hayley could lay Mason down from resting in her arms.

  She crawled into bed next to Mason. “I’m just going to sleep here with him.”

  She wrapped her arm protectively around her precious son.

  Cain walked over to turn off the light, leaving the bathroom light and fan on and the door cracked. He slipped off his shoes and got into the other bed. “I’ll be right here.”

  There was no place else on earth he’d rather be.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Cain’s eyes flew open and he held himself motionless in the bed. Something had woken him up. What was it?

  He could hear the even breathing of Hayley and Mason in the bed beside his. Was it Mason’s occasional restless shifting on the bed that had woken him?

  Something had him on high alert. After just a few moments he realized it was the silence that had caught his subconscious attention. The fan had cut off in the bathroom as well as the light. He looked over at the clock and it was also out. The power was out.

  Cain silently shifted his weight from the bed, getting up and looking into Ariel’s room. Power was out there, too.

  It did happen. Hotels lost power. But he wasn’t going to make the mistake of thinking it was a fluke. Not with everything that had happened in the last two days.