"I just went into his file. When he hacked in he left a trail. It was good, but I know we have people on the job who could've spotted that as easily as I did. If he's as good as he seems, why did he let them catch him?" I let them mull that over. "I think someone knew or had eyes on him. They may not have known that he was part of this Anonymous group, but I think he went digging and someone had a bead on him or was watching him for whatever reason." "Kinda like while he was watching them they were watching him?" Ty looked confused. "Or they knew who his dad was and was watching him. Whatever the reason, I don't like it. He was just there a few days ago. I don't like it." "Khalil!" Con offered. "Yeah, and whoever he has on the inside. My money's on the general. The kid's good but I don't know if he's that good. But that's not the problem. The question still remains, why did he want in?" That was the one piece of the puzzle I couldn't quite put
We were already here; there was no time to learn anything new. It's not like we've never gone in with less information than we had now. But this shit had too many tentacles, and too many unknowns for us to slip up. If Kelly hadn't overheard those men we wouldn't have known to look here and we might've been too late. I don't think any of us would've thought his life was in danger, since it was only females being targeted. We've only had this info for less than twenty-four hours and there was no time to dig deeper than we already had. My gut told me we were missing something but there was no way we were leaving this kid out in the cold. "We're going in. We'll figure shit out after we get the kid outta there." I answered Mancini just as we turned the corner and the house came into view up ahead. The place was almost completely dark with nothing but the stars and the sliver of moon for light. The house was set apart from its neighbors by
There was another shift in the room as everyone went on alert and all eyes turned in the direction of the footsteps. "Track, dad, what's going on?" Shit, that voice sent chills down my spine. It was one of those distinct voices that do shit to your insides and I wondered if the others felt it too. Not good! It's just a voice Devon for fuck sake chill. But I knew, even before I laid eyes on her, I knew that something was going to change for me in the next few seconds. Maybe Quinn's woo-hoo shit was rubbing off. I flicked my eyes up and over towards the stairs and she was just there. Her eyes flew open in surprise and there was a hint of fear in them when she saw us. I sensed more than saw her body tense up and had the strong urge to go to her. She stared back at me and the lightest of smiles crossed her lips before she looked at her family. Her eyes went around the room before coming back to me. I felt the attraction in my gut even as I told myself it
There was still one glaring question hanging in the air. How come she didn't show up on the radar. "And you are?" I reached out my hand for hers and she finally focused on me up close and personal. My gut went into a spin and I nose dived right into the abyss. She was fucking gorgeous. The tears in her eyes made them shine like some otherworldly creature. There was a look in them that made my heart melt in my chest. Sadness, fear, confusion. I drew her towards me before I could help myself. "Ariel!" She said her name like a whisper on the wind and I heard chiming bells and waterfalls. "Ariel!" I didn't realize I'd said it out loud until I heard it come back to me on a whisper. Behind me the others were putting her name into one of our little toys to look her up. I only heard Mancini say one thing, "nothing", which was all the answer I needed. She wasn't in anyone's database. I looked back at the others again as my mind tried to process. I don't think
I honest to fuck had no idea what was happening to me. I tried recalling all the shit my brothers had griped about in the beginning of their relationships, but nothing would come. I was on my own with this one and it scared the shit out of me. I focused instead on the here and now. On keeping her safe. I'll deal with whatever else comes next when my mind wasn't pulling me in a hundred directions at once. *** When the plane landed I waited for the others to file off leaving just Quinn in the cabin with us. "I'll carry her don't wake her up." He smirked and held his hands up in surrender as he backed away. Ass! I carried her from the plane to the waiting car and she still didn't wake up. I caught myself before I buried my nose in her hair as I held her close to my chest. My brothers kept giving me questioning looks which I ignored, I had some of my own. But they'll have to wait. Right now I was more interested in her story and why she didn't seem
"Hello boys, It looks like I left you in a bit of a quandary didn't I? I guess you can look at it as our last Op together." He grinned that infectious grin that only a few ever had the pleasure of seeing. It was a jolt to the system seeing him like this, almost as if he were here with us. "I have a lot to tell you, but not a lot of time so why don't we start at the beginning. If you're seeing this I guess you know about the general and the fuck up by now." "I bet you didn't know I knew you called him that huh. Fucking hemorrhoid should've never seen the inside of the white house, asshole." The anger was plain to read. "Don't be too hard on my old friends, they had no idea what they were getting into when they agreed to help me all those years ago and now they're paying for it." He took a deep breath and looked away before facing the camera again. "Alright let's get down to it shall we. This is about Khalil. I took something from him, or at least somet
"As you know I've had my foot in Khalil's ass forever, not only because I didn't want him to get the girl, but because he is a genuine first grade asshole." "I never found out how his father knew about my part in taking the baby, and it really doesn't matter. All that matters is that he never gets his hands on her." "I'm depending on you to make sure she stays safe. It's obvious that they caught up with me if you're seeing this. It's my fault, I lost my head and confronted the general. Asshole!" "I'm pretty sure I didn't die of natural causes so if that's the shit they're selling don't buy it. The general's specialty is heart attacks, if that's what you were told, don't believe it; and don't trust the general whatever you do." Mancini and the others were taking it all in and I personally was trying not to lose my shit. I didn't know which I wanted to do first. Go find the general and put one in his head. Or go find this girl wherever she was. "Now for
We were at that shit for hours. Piecing shit together, moving things around to come up with the answers. Once we found the right thread and begun to tug, it became easier to connect the dots and the picture that was painted was not a pretty one. "So here, twenty years ago, Khalil was still a kid, but his old man started the search for the girl. It looks like they didn't know who exactly had taken her, so it took them some time to whittle it down to the commander." We'd only got this far because of Mancini and his connections who he'd called for some information going back all those years. It was tedious work because we had to follow the general going back twenty years and then moving forward again to see when exactly his path had crossed with Khalil's. Once we found the connection it wasn't hard to pull in the politicians and see their part in the whole filthy mess. "It was all about money for them. I wonder, did they know who the fuck this guy