Chapter Forty-Three Alejandro
Chapter Forty-Three
Alejandro
We’d been ten minutes short of finding out the truth, that Beau had been a plant in Audrey’s life.
Ten. Fucking. Minutes.
Echo Team would have arrived and stopped Beau and Rhett, taking them down. Kept Eden safe.
As Audrey talked to Trevor over the phone, I stared out the oval window at the clouds beneath us, searching for answers.
Trying to find the reason written in the sky as to why we were ten minutes too late to protect Trevor’s sister.
It didn’t make sense. I tried to rationalize it, to find a path forward, but I was coming up empty.
I lifted my eyes to the ceiling of the plane, keeping my hand on the wall by the window.
Silence. Why’d I expect to easily hear God answer me just because we were over thirty thousand feet in the sky?
I continued listening to Audrey talking, her soft voice competing with the hum of the engines and the broken chaos in my mind.
“We’ll get her back, you have my word.” Audrey’s promise had me slipping my gaze over to locate her in the cabin.
At least Trevor and Chase had made it to the base safely. And the friends Trevor had asked to watch over the sheriff station hadn’t been hurt.
Now I was really damn glad Ryder had made the decision not to give Eden any of our locations, even though we had hers.
Audrey ended the call a minute later and turned toward her brother as he asked her, “How’s he holding up?”
“He’s keeping it together for Chase.” She clutched the phone beneath her chin. Her skin was pale but her eyes dry.
I’d caught a faint whiff of alcohol on her when I’d hugged her a few minutes ago, so I had to guess that was steeling her nerves to get her through this.
“Why didn’t Beau attack us when the lodge was hit?” Audrey looked around the cabin, searching for answers the way I’d checked the sky. “He had two deputies with him. They could’ve used the element of surprise. We’d never have seen it coming.”
Ryder stood and braced his hand on one of the seats, his gaze drifting to Reed and Hollis, who were working on laptops nearby with three seats of distance between them, which was probably still not enough for Reed.
“He might have dropped one of us, but he’d have been a dead man after that. Dead for real, I mean.”
“And the deputies were more than likely unaware of who he really was,” Reed said, looking up at her from over his laptop.
“You think it was him and Rhett who broke into my place Friday? Beau was the first to arrive on scene. I bet they’d planned to ask me where the rings were, so they got ahold of them then.”
“Thankfully, Trevor showed up before they anticipated.” Now that I knew it was probably Beau or Rhett who’d hit her with the butt of their gun, I’d be returning that blow with a lot more force when I ran into them next.
“We told Beau where to find your ring.” Ryder hung his head in frustration. “We handed it right over to the fucker.”
“Not your fault.” Audrey tossed her phone aside and went over to him. “And I told Trevor the same thing when he started blaming himself for missing the truth about Beau when he ran a background check on him after he started dating his sister.”
“I take it Natasha checked him out this weekend and didn’t find any red flags?” Reed asked Gwen over the web call.
“Yeah, my stepmom is also on the same guilt train as everyone else. Beau’s cover was as bloody good as Rhett’s, and she missed it. After we learned about Rhett, I should have checked myself.”
“How about we cut the blame all around? Mitch had over a year to plan everything out, and we’re working from behind.” I lifted my brows, eyes sharp on Audrey with a silent directive I needed her to get on board with.
“As for Beau, he’s more than likely just following Mitch’s orders.
Him. Rhett. They were both Trojan horses.
Beau played the long game for him, and Rhett was brought in for the final play.
” Hollis joined in on the conversation while closing her laptop.
“What I’m still trying to understand is, why Mitch did all of this in the way he did.
Why not just give the evidence to Rhett or Beau to hang on to, come for Audrey when he was ready, then send word to Chandler that he’s actually alive and bait everyone to New Zealand?
No need for the vault. For Beau dating Eden.
The attack at the lodge. Clean. Easy. And boring, sure, but . . .”
Ryder urged Audrey to sit, and once she was safe and buckled, he answered, “Our assumption is that Mitch is a paranoid asshole who didn’t trust anyone with what he had.
We also know he thinks he loves Audrey, so he wouldn’t want to outright put a target on her head by storing the evidence in her possession.
Safer for her to have the key without knowing about it.
Or for anyone to know what the key even was—probably not until the last minute, when he needed Beau to grab it over the weekend. ”
“For that matter, something tells me Mitch would rather Audrey remain in our custody until the final showdown than Beau’s or Rhett’s.
Maybe he was worried if they had both her and the key, they’d cut him out.
Or, well, worse.” Is Mitch keeping Audrey safe from two men who might want more than just money from her?
Was his twisted obsession, in some weird way, protecting her?
“I guess that makes sense.” Hollis’s hesitant tone wasn’t all that inspiring as to whether she believed our theory.
“Trust is important.” She looked away from Audrey as if pained at the memory of breaking her best friend’s trust by lying to her.
“I can see Mitch doing what he did for those reasons.”
“But you’re still having doubts?” I asked her.
“Just trying to wrap my head around Beau, or whatever his real name is . . . moving to Colorado to embed himself in Audrey’s life in preparation for this moment,” she replied. “There had to have been an easier way to be a Trojan horse.”
“Trevor,” I reminded her. “They knew the kind of man they were up against. The security he’d have.
Probably caught wind he was suspicious of Mitch and had poked around about it.
They had to be careful. Play their cards right to earn his trust so they could walk right into his own house without Trevor realizing he’d invited the enemy to the dinner table. ”
Hollis nodded, but there was something in her eyes that still told me she wasn’t convinced.
“Where are you in determining who’s been helping Mitch out? Hacker or insider?” Ryder turned his focus on Gwen. “Someone had to have given Beau a heads-up that Echo Team was en route.”
“It was Trevor,” Audrey whispered. “Another reason why he blames himself. He told Eden they were being relocated to the base and SEALs were on their way to get them.”
“Trevor also let Beau know we were Delta,” I said at the memory, thinking back to dinner on Saturday night.
Audrey shot me an apologetic look as if that were her fault. No, not even close. Not Trevor’s, either.
“So that’s how they knew. No one had to look into our files. We told them everything ourselves.” I cursed, tearing a hand through my hair.
“Well, this all makes a lot more sense,” Gwen said a quiet moment later.
“My grandfather personally vouched for everyone who knew Echo was on their way, so I’d assumed it’d been a cybersecurity breach.
But this is a best-worst-case scenario. Otherwise, if someone had hacked my grandfather’s servers, then we’d be dealing with a much bigger problem. ”
“Mitch still has to have someone highly skilled helping him with everything, right?” I asked Gwen.
“Anyone capable of creating Beau and Rhett’s new identities while also scrubbing CCTV evidence from existence the way they did are pros.
But at least we have the original Stratos files and all the operatives’ names.
” Beth saving our asses with that was another curveball I’d yet to wrap my head around.
“Were the new identities provided to Beau and Rhett when they were placed into retirement different—”
“Different from now, yes,” Gwen confirmed.
“Which makes things a little tricky in trying to find if any other ghost operatives in these files are assisting Mitch. A simple search of the covers the government provided them in 2013 won’t turn up anything useful if their names were changed again by this hacker. ”
“Need some help from my brother on that?” Hollis offered. “Two of the best cyber minds coming together should be able to easily handle one hacker, right?”
“Any chance I can get a name and face to go with this brother of yours who seems to be my rival?” Gwen smirked.
“Maybe one day.” Hollis winked. “For now, you can get his help, though. Nothing breeds success more than healthy competition.”
Before Gwen could respond, Audrey raised her hand. “I have a question unrelated to cyber stuff. But I’m confused. If Mitch prepared everything down to the last detail, including trading me for Eden once we arrive, then doesn’t that mean he has a contingency plan if that doesn’t work out?”
I hung my head, not wanting to be the one to answer that.
Because yeah, he would.
The man had gone to major lengths to set these domino pieces up as he did, ensuring that when he knocked the first one over, they’d all fall how he wanted them to and we’d end up in the mousetrap, while he’d walk away with Helix destroyed, rich, and worst of all . . . with Audrey.
“He’s the backup plan,” Ryder said, when clearly no one else wanted to be the one.
“I don’t get it,” Audrey whispered.
“If his plan with Eden fails, he has one more trick up his sleeve,” I remarked in a low voice. “And that’s to leverage himself if he has to.”
“Because Chandler still needs what’s in that vault,” Audrey said in understanding. “And it takes both of us—and both rings—to open the safe before it expires and someone gets their hands on it either way.”
Ryder nodded. “Mitch knows we need him alive, and the US government will do just about anything to contain this.”
“They’ll even cut Mitch a deal to make it happen?” Audrey unbuckled her seat belt and stood. “Would your grandfather really pay him off and then just let Mitch walk away scot-free?”
“He wouldn’t pay him nearly as much as Mitch could get at the auction, but up to 10 million? Probably.” From the sounds of it, Gwen had already discussed this with the secretary. “But Mitch would have to sacrifice taking you with him as part of the deal.”
“Mitch wants you and a higher payout, though,” Ryder reminded her. “So he’ll do everything in his power not to rely on his backup plan.”
“I . . . need a minute.” Audrey walked around her brother and went down the aisle, not making eye contact with any of us as she started for one of the five suites in the middle of the plane.
Hollis stood as if preparing to go after her, but Ryder called out, “No, you lost the best-friend privileges for the moment, remember?”
Hollis’s shoulders fell, but she pivoted to the side and nodded her okay to stand down.
“Keep working. Get me more intel to go on so we can get ahead of these bastards once and for all,” Ryder ordered, sweeping his gaze around the room. “And I’ll go, um . . . be who she needs right now. Her brother.”