Out of the Shadows (Hudson Security #1)

Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

“ C ameras will go dark for three minutes. Acknowledge,” Sabrina “Bean” Ventura said into her headset, voice sure and steady. While she received confirmation from each team member, her finger hovered over the Enter key. “On my mark: five, four, three, two, one, mark.”

As she pressed Enter, her gaze swung to her top left monitor. The three video feeds she’d overridden were playing the prerecorded material she’d programmed. A glance at the center monitor showed her team was on the move. Swift and silent. And most importantly, undetected.

Leaning back in her chair, she tried not to stare at the timer counting down on one of the screens, but it was impossible. No matter how many times she’d done this—and she’d done this countless times—her heart still hammered in her chest. She never took for granted the lives that were relying on her to keep them safe. She checked the two live drone feeds and their thermal sensors to ensure there weren’t any unexpected visitors approaching the old warehouse. Orange-and-red figures indicated her team of six, plus the one they were there for .

So far, so good.

“Confirming the package is still in the warehouse’s southwest corner by the west exit,” Bean said. The four Hudson Security members on the team were elite, and the two FBI agents joining them tonight were skilled. However, they had just over two minutes left to retrieve the package, plant the fake, and then get the hell out of there.

“Copy, B,” a familiar voice replied as the six heat signatures converged on the lone, motionless one in the corner. Gavin Frazier, head of Hudson Security and her boss, was the acting team leader: Alpha One.

Bean’s head was on a constant swivel between all seven of her monitors. Her eyes narrowed on a slight movement off to the side of the building. Zooming in, she bit back a curse. Her fingers flew over the keyboard as she pulled up the warehouse’s floor plan. “West exit is no longer viable. Repeat, west exit is no longer viable. Two bogies approaching.”

“Copy. Package retrieved by Alpha Six,” Gavin said. “Switch to Plan Bravo?”

A glance at the countdown timer had her grimacing. “Negative. Plan Charlie. North exit, then circle to the east. River evac.” Her heart thumped hard in her chest. “You have sixty seconds until the cameras are back online. Get the hell out of there.”

“Copy.”

Bean’s pulse was loud in her ears as she watched the team rush toward the north exit as the two unknowns entered the building. The team cleared the warehouse, and the drone feed showed them sprinting for the nearby forest. The two unknowns were still standing just inside the warehouse door. They hadn’t moved toward where the fake package had been planted, and it seemed that so far, they hadn’t noticed that anything was amiss.

However, the team wasn’t yet in the clear. Between them and the forest was a clearing the size of a football field with three cameras that would be coming back online in under fifteen seconds. They were running in a pack with Alpha Two and Four leading the way. Alpha Six was in the middle carrying the package, with Three and Five flanking them. Alpha One took up the rear. They were nearing the edge of the surveillance cameras’ range, but not quite close enough to be out of range. She willed them to move faster.

Bean eyed the timer again, and her knee bounced beneath her desk uncontrollably. “Ten seconds. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Move your ass, Alpha One. Three. Two. One.” She sucked in a breath as the cameras went live. She waited a heartbeat for the alarms to sound.

Nothing.

Letting out a loud sigh, she slumped into her office chair. “You’re clear, Alpha Team.”

“Thank fuck,” Gavin murmured. “That was close.”

Too close. Blowing out another breath, she relaxed her shoulders and rolled her neck. She took a swig of her fluorescent-green energy drink and grimaced when her stomach churned. Too much caffeine today.

Pulling up the map of the area on her screen, she refocused. “Once you hit the river, head downstream. Bravo Team is about a klick away and will meet you.” She tapped her headset, opening up the comms. “Confirm, Bravo Team.”

“Copy, B,” a deep voice replied. “Alpha Team, this is Bravo One. Status of the package?”

“Package is secure.” Gavin paused. “Alpha Three is tending to the package right now, but we’re going to want medical ASAP.”

“Confirmed,” Bean said as Bravo One muttered a curse. “There are EMTs standing by at the boat launch. Hustle, boys.”

The next few minutes ticked by ever so slowly. There were still no alarms going off at the warehouse, nor any communications or signals coming from the two unknowns signifying they’d realized anything was wrong. They hadn’t bothered checking on the package—thank God, seeing as it was a fake—before they began patrolling the perimeter of the property. But Bean wouldn’t breathe easy until both teams were back at the boat launch.

A full eleven minutes later, Gavin spoke the sweetest words into her headset. “Bravo Team, we see you. Signaling.”

“Copy that, Alpha One,” Bravo One said. “We see your signal. Coming in.”

Bean listened to the teams’ low murmurs. As usual, there was no idle chitchat. It was all business. “Alpha Team and the package are secure,” Bravo One said. “We’re hauling ass back, B.”

With three clicks of her mouse, Bean redirected one of the drones—which were still monitoring the warehouse—and spotted the teams’ Zodiacs. Another click had the drone scanning the length of the river with its thermal detector. “Looks like you’re in the clear. Only wildlife detected along the river.” The screen with the feed of the drone that had remained at the warehouse showed only two heat signatures. “The warehouse is still quiet.”

“Any ID on the two bogies?” Gavin asked.

She shook her head even though he couldn’t see her. “Negative. I can’t get the drones any lower or they’ll be detected.”

“Continue to monitor until we get back to the launch. Our part is done. And, Bean, everything you have on these fuckers—and I mean everything —gets sent to the feds. These assholes are going down.”

Bean’s eyebrows rose in surprise. She’d worked closely with Gavin for just over eight years. The man was the epitome of calm. Missions could get completely screwed up, but he always remained steady. Intense as hell, but steady. It was because she’d worked closely with him for so many years that she heard the tension and fury in his words now. And that was unlike him.

The package had been their mission. The rest of it—the red tape and legalities—were the responsibility of the various agencies they worked with. Gavin was a strong proponent of need-to-know. Of all the intel Hudson Security gathered—and there was always a lot of damning information—only the necessary items were shared. But Bean also knew that this package, this mission had hit her boss harder than usual. “Copy, Alpha One. Comms will remain open until you dock.”

Two hours later, Bean dumped her headset onto her desk and stretched. Her lower back protested each and every movement. After a loud groan, she took a swig of her energy drink and wrinkled her nose. She looked longingly at the opposite side of her living area, knowing that her bed was just down the short hallway from her home office setup. She was closing in on forty hours awake—the three catnaps she’d snuck in were long forgotten—and knew she was about to crash. Hard. She was familiar with the signs: trembling hands, jittery vision, and the damn brain fog. But it didn’t matter, because they’d completed the mission.

The package was safe.

No.

As much as she tried to distance herself, after the last couple of hours, she no longer could. Her stomach rolled. The “package” was a three-year-old little boy. Thankfully, he was safe and had been reunited with his family. But he’d incurred substantial injuries that made her vomit. Literally.

The Hudson Security members of the Alpha and Bravo teams were on their way back home to Hudson Island via helicopter. They were forty minutes out. They generally did a debrief immediately post-mission, but the way her insides were shaking, she wasn’t sure she’d make it.

Just a couple more hours, dammit. Cringing, she chugged the remainder of her energy drink as her computer dinged an incoming video call.

Stifling a groan, she accepted the call. “What’s up, MacKay?”

Oliver MacKay, boss number two and Hudson Security’s second-in-command, was based in London.

“Hello, B— Whoa. You look like hell.”

She glared at him. “You want to try that again, MacKay?” She tried to put effort into always looking professional, but she’d been awake for way too long, not only because of the mission that had just wrapped, but also because of a bunch of research crap she’d done for MacKay. So he could shove it.

“Shit. Sorry. No. I meant, um, I’m just not used to seeing you all...” He waved his hand at the screen.

She rolled her eyes. Yeah, her hair was piled on top of her head, and instead of her usual blouse-and-blazer combo, she was wearing a ratty, oversized sweatshirt. Still, she leveled her best glare at him.

“Sorry, B. You look fine. Tired but fine.”

Shaking her head, she held up her hand. “Stop talking, MacKay. Seriously.”

“Yeah. Sorry, again.”

“What’s up?”

He cleared his throat. “How’d the mission go?”

“Good. We’ll be debriefing in about forty-five. You want me to patch you in?”

“Please. But that’s not why I’m calling.”

“Oh, goody.”

One of his dark-brown eyebrows arched, and she bit back a curse .

“Sorry. I wasn’t supposed to say that part out loud,” she muttered, flashing him a toothy grin. “As you so eloquently mentioned, I’m tired.”

“We’re even, then.”

“Not even close, MacKay.” Letting out a sigh, she leaned back in her chair. “What can I do for you?”

“I wanted to thank you again for recommending Tiny. Do you think he’d be interested in joining full-time? Better yet, would you trust him to join the fold?”

Bean frowned. Alexi “Tiny” Kirilov stood at a whopping six-eight and looked more like a gym bro than a freelance hacker. She’d worked with him numerous times before she’d joined Hudson Security, and she’d occasionally pulled him in on an as-needed basis—more so over the last year as her workload had increased tenfold. He was a talented hacker, though she was better. But did she trust him trust him?

“I take it by your silence that the answer is no.” MacKay’s British accent sounded extra snooty.

“I wouldn’t exactly say that,” she hedged.

“Let me rephrase. When you work together, do you block his access to some things and spy on his shit?”

She scoffed. “Of course. It would be completely stupid not to.” When MacKay groaned, she hurried to add, “But I do that for everyone who’s not already in. And even some of those who are but don’t have high enough clearance. You and I both agree that people only need to know what they need to know. And even then, I like to know what they do with whatever info they’ve been given access to.”

“B, I’d like to offer Tiny something more permanent. He’s been reliable, and his intel’s been accurate. Besides, it will take some of the pressure off you.”

A wave of exhaustion washed over her, and she scrubbed her hands over her face. “Fine. I’m more than happy to pass off some projects to him.” Lower-end projects that were beneath his skills. Call her a control freak, but she wasn’t willing to give him more. Not just yet anyway. At least, not until she had to.

“Thanks, B.”

“That doesn’t mean I’m not going to monitor his ass, though.”

MacKay chuckled as she stood. Her vision flickered and then tilted violently to the side. She toppled to her right but caught herself on the edge of her desk.

“Bean!”

Blinking furiously, she willed her vision to clear, willed the fog that had overtaken her senses to lift. With a deep breath, she lowered herself back into her chair. Her hands shook and she shoved them under her thighs. “I’m fine, MacKay,” she said, glancing at the man on her monitor.

Holy crap, was that trembling voice hers ? She tried again. “I’m fine.”

“Bullshit, B. What’s going on over there?” The concern on his face was palpable.

“Everything’s fine, MacKay. I gotta go, but I’ll patch you in for the debrief. Talk soon.”

Before he could comment, she cut off their connection. He immediately called back, but she declined the call and silenced her ring notification.

With a loud groan, she sank deeper into her chair. It was no secret she’d been burning the candle at both ends. She’d fainted earlier in the week, but thankfully, she’d been home alone. This time, she’d almost face-planted in front of one of her bosses. Not okay. As much as she hated to admit it, maybe bringing on Tiny wasn’t a bad idea.