The B-Team (Benson Security)

Chapter 14

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“When this is all over,” Ryan said as he watched everyone else watch Julia go through her emails, “it might be a good idea to limit how many emails Elle can send.”

“Aye.” Isobel was curled up in an armchair, scouring the internet for any glimmer of information that might help Julia remember what she was looking for. Every now and then, she’d mention an article she’d found, but so far, nothing had helped. “You can add her text messages, group chats, social media messages, phone calls, and voicemails to that list too. For somebody we see every day, she sure is fond of piling on the virtual communication. From now on, I say she has to pass on all information in person. That might slow her down some.” She scowled at her phone.

“Here.” Ryan tossed a cold sausage roll at her. “Eat. You’re hangry.”

Isobel snatched it midair and, without missing a beat, tossed it straight back at him. It hit him square in the middle of his forehead. “Women don’t get hangry. We don’t have time for that crap. We’re too busy feeding everybody around us to remember that we need to eat too. So take your sausage roll and shove?—”

“Chocolate isn’t food.” Claire thrust some into Isobel’s hand. “It’s basically brown, sugary Prozac. Or, as I like to call it, Mummy’s best friend.”

“I don’t agree with eating to stifle your emotions,” Isobel said around a mouthful of chocolate.

“Think of it as keeping up your energy for the fight.”

Isobel nodded. “I can do that.”

As he watched the two Scottish women, Ryan thanked God yet again that he’d married a nice, sane English girl.

Claire’s phone pinged. “Got another update from Katy.” She sighed as she read it. “Same stuff we’ve already found, but she says she’s using a rotating IP address to quote—dip her toe—unquote in the dark web. She’s hoping to find something there.”

Ryan groaned. “She can’t go on the dark web. It’s full of sex offenders, drug dealers, and hit men. Tell her to stick to the public web.”

Claire snorted. “I thought you said you knew Katy. If you really did, you’d know she doesn’t do what anybody tells her to do.” She tossed her blonde hair. “She’s a force of nature.”

“More like a jail sentence waiting to happen.” Ryan shook his head. “And if her dad finds out she’s wandering around on the dark web, he’ll lose his mind. Which means the whole family will follow, and you’ll end up facing off against all of them. I wonder who your brother will toss in jail this time.”

“You weren’t this mean before you were shot in the head,” Claire said with a sniff.

“Perhaps I’m maturing.” Ryan folded his arms and refused to break the staring contest they had going on. “Tell Katy no more dark web.”

“I’m with Ryan,” Sarah backed him up, sounding a whole lot gentler and more reasonable. “You don’t want to put her in any danger. She’s only sixteen.”

“Fine.” Claire sighed. “I’ll warn her off.”

Of course she listened to Sarah and not to him.

The doorbell rang, and Belinda checked the camera. “It’s Rachel and Harvard. I’ll let them in.” She jogged from the room, followed closely by Beast, who never, ever let her out of his sight unless it was absolutely necessary.

Ryan was beginning to appreciate the way Beast thought. The more pregnant Sarah became, the more his need to protect her grew.

Beside him, Sarah yawned loudly. “Sorry,” she said. “I think the baby wants to nap.”

“Then go lie down in one of the guest rooms. Julia won’t mind. Will you, Jules?”

There was silence from the bed as Julia focused on her emails.

Sarah yawned again.

“Please,” Isobel said. “Go sleep before we all doze off from listening to you.”

“Okay.” Sarah got to her feet, and Ryan followed. He pressed a light kiss to her lips.

“Call out if you need anything,” he told her.

“I will.” Then, still yawning, she left the room.

Ryan heard Sarah greet Rachel before the woman stalked into the room. She wasn’t happy. “Minister Fitzwater is an odious little twat,” she announced before doing something that shocked everyone. She kicked off her stiletto heels and sighed deeply.

Ryan stared at her feet. “I’ve never seen your toes before.”

“I thought those shoes were superglued to your feet,” Isobel agreed.

“Oh, for the love of Gucci,” Rachel snarled. “Can’t a pregnant woman have sore feet?”

Ryan held up his hands. “It’s just weird, that’s all. It’s kind of like seeing Batman without his mask.” She glared at him, making him hurry on. “Not that he isn’t still Batman without the mask. He’s always Batman. And you’re always Rachel. See?”

“No.” She tossed her handbag onto a chair, draped her coat on top, and started pacing. Something else she never did.

“Are you okay?” Ryan asked, risking life and limb.

“Do I look okay?” she snapped.

Ryan wasn’t sure how to answer that, so he looked to her husband for guidance. “Hey, Harvard, you want to help us out here? We need a Rachel wrangler.”

Rachel made an irritated huffing sound as Harvard headed for the chair next to the one loaded with her discarded belongings.

“Give her a minute to de-stress; it didn’t go well,” he said. “So, what’s happening on your end?”

“Well,” Ryan said, “Julia’s looking for a message Elle sent her about something relevant to the current situation. Unfortunately, she can’t remember what the message is about, so she’s going through all of them.” He gestured to Claire, who was quietly arguing with the person on the other end of the phone. “We heard back from Claire’s brother, and he doesn’t have any information on the Metropolitan Police. He says he’s a country bumpkin cop, not a big city connected cop. Meanwhile, Claire’s sixteen-year-old niece is trying to access the dark web to find dirt on Fitzwater, and we’re trying to stop her from doing that. From the looks of things, our efforts are going great guns.”

Claire’s voice grew louder. “Katy Boyle, you either help me the way I want, or I’m talking to your father. Is that clear?”

There was a pause before Claire said, “Good. I’ll talk to you later.” She hung up and looked around the room. “Teenagers are a nightmare.”

“Aren’t you going to have like a million of them soon?” Ryan asked.

“Don’t remind me.” She sank back into her chair.

Ryan turned back to Harvard and continued his debrief. “Rochelle’s gone to the American Embassy for help, and the lawyer thinks Joe will get out sometime today, which is good because Julia needs him. Like a lot.” He cast a nervous glance in the direction of the heavily pregnant Julia, but she was engrossed in her iPad and wasn’t listening to anything he said, so he carried on. “The lawyer says that the commander’s more interested in Lake, Callum, Elle, and Evan than anyone else, and he’s considering pressing terrorism charges against all four of them. Whether or not they’ll charge the rest of us with aiding and abetting their acts of terrorism is anyone’s guess.”

“Absolute load of rubbish,” Rachel exploded.

She was pacing the room, her hands on the small of her back, belly sticking out, and a waddle in her walk. She looked like a really angry duck. Not a common duck. One of those posh ones you saw at Buckingham Palace.

“You know,” Claire said, “everybody keeps talking about Joe and Lake and all the rest, but nobody mentions my Samuel. It seems to me that he’s just been swept up in this mess. It’s clear the police are out to get Lake, and the London office in particular, so why even arrest someone who only works out of the Scottish office? What’s the point?”

“I’m sure Grunt will be back soon,” Ryan said, using his most soothing tone. “If they release Joe, they’ll probably release him too. They’re kind of like a set, right?”

“I hope so,” Claire said. “Because if he doesn’t call the kids tonight, there’s going to be a riot in Invertary, and my family will never babysit for us again.” She held up her phone. “I’m already getting messages from Flynn, complaining that my kids keep trying to ride his alpacas. Seriously? What does he expect? Those animals are literally built like walking armchairs.”

“Okaaaaay,” Ryan said, unsure what else to add.

Thankfully, Rachel saved him from saying something dumb by deciding to continue her rant: “The police have nothing to back up their terrorism charges. Honestly, they’ve got barely anything at all. It’s as though their only motivation is to ruin the good name of Benson Security. Fitzwater must realize he can’t make anything stick, yet he carries on regardless. I assume the goal of his petty revenge isn’t to put Lake in jail but rather to ruin his reputation.” She stopped and glared at everyone. “I abhor small-minded people.”

“Good to know,” Ryan muttered.

Rachel started pacing again.

“As I was saying,” Harvard said, “things didn’t go well with the uncle. Rach asked the minister to call his nephew and put a stop to this crap, but we don’t think he’s too eager to help us out.”

“Ha!” Rachel scoffed. “All he did was tell us to exercise patience, that the team will be released if there isn’t enough evidence to bring charges. He doesn’t care one bit about the time they’ll spend in cells waiting for that to happen or the damage this whole situation will cause to our reputations. I’ll tell you one thing for certain—I will not be attending his son’s wedding, nor will any other member of my family.”

“That’ll show them,” Isobel said drolly.

“I found it!” Julia exclaimed.

Everyone turned toward her. Rachel stopped pacing.

Julia beamed at them all. “I found the email Elle sent, and I think I know what’s going on.”

“Well,” Ryan said slowly. “Are you going to share with the group?”

“Yes, yes, I am.” Her cheeks turned pink. “But first, I really need to use the bathroom.”

There was a round of frustrated groans as Belinda rushed to the bed to help her sister.

“Back off,” Belinda ordered in a fierce voice. “Julia’s doing the best she can, considering she’s on bed rest. You can wait another five minutes to find out what she knows. Be nice.”

“Wow,” Isobel said. “She sounds just like that sergeant major she played in the movie about the submarine. I forget its name. Do it again,” she called to Belinda, who shook her head in exasperation.

“You know”—Claire adjusted her headband, sweeping her blonde hair farther off her face—“once this is all over, we should have a party where Belinda plays all her parts for us. Not the whole thing, just a taster.”

“Oh!” Isobel bounced in her seat, looking like a kid who’d just realized Christmas was coming. “Maybe we can rope in the whole family. Get her mum and brother too.”

“Her brother was sooooooo hot in that last action movie.” Claire fanned herself.

“Will somebody please gag the peanut gallery?” Rachel called, still pacing the room.

“Megan would love it if we got Belinda’s brother to put on his superhero costume for the party,” Claire said gleefully. “That character’s one of her fantasy men. In fact, sometimes she gets Dimitri to dress up as him.”

Ryan groaned loudly. “Rachel, I’m letting you off the leash. It’s bad enough listening to Megan talk about her sex life. I don’t need to hear it from her sister.” He pointed at Claire. “Attack!”