27. Xander
Xander
My phone woke us the next morning. I was up instantly, despite our rough night and the fact I’d finally fallen back asleep barely an hour ago. “Yeah?”
“Hardy is missing. Military police searched his residence, office, and even friends and family’s homes.
It’s as if he simply walked away. Even his phone and wallet were at his house, and his car is in his garage.
You’re under orders to bring her to the A.T.
building, and then Lessia will escort you both to another location for an update this afternoon.
You’ll have a shadow until you get to the office today—don’t shake him. He’s a friendly.”
“Understood,” I told Grimm as Andrie stirred next to me, her nose wrinkling adorably as if rejecting the very idea of waking. She hadn’t gotten any more sleep than I had, and I imagined, if left unbothered, she quite possibly would’ve slept for several more hours.
Hating that I had to ruin what little peace she’d been able to find, I trailed a hand too calloused to have a right to touch her soft skin down her arm. “Are you awake yet or still working on it?” I asked quietly.
“Working on it,” she replied, her eyes still closed, voice rough with the dredges of sleep.
I chuckled huskily, kissing the top of her head before getting up. “I’ll get the coffee started while you ‘work on it’.”
It didn’t take long for me to get the coffee brewing.
I doctored a mug with a spoonful of brown sugar I knew Alex—Andrie—liked before pouring a mug of straight-up black for myself.
Knowing we’d both need it, I put the rest in a travel mug for myself and put another pot on so I could make Andrie a fresh one before we left.
Soft singing mixed with the running water from the shower, and she greeted me with a grateful smile when I stepped in behind her. Despite, or perhaps because of, our hellish night, we seemed closer than before. Even though we didn’t talk specifics, just knowing the other was there was enough.
I knew Andrie was curious—her natural nosiness as a young woman certainly couldn’t have changed that much, even if she hid it under the guise of professional interest—but she knew if she were to ask about my past, she’d have to reciprocate with her own nightmare reveal.
For now, at least, I was in the clear.
We took our time getting ready, Andrie humming appreciatively as she took a sip from her mug while applying her makeup.
I left her only long enough to run over to Vik’s and change, leaving him to watch over the house until I returned before ordering him to sleep.
He’d covered the perimeter while I stayed with Andrie, but I’d still done staggered patrols throughout the night.
Fortunately, I’d only needed a few hours of sleep, and with any luck, I could get in a quick power nap while Andrie was safe in the A.T.
building with Lessia and countless other former military personnel around to protect her.
I wasn’t sure what tail I was expecting, but the silver luxury sports car wasn’t it. I didn’t recognize the driver, either, but I trusted Grimm’s directive. We arrived at the Accardi Tactical office building without incident and well ahead of the normal morning office rush.
Brody and Lessia were waiting in the lobby when we walked in. We’d had to clear two separate security checkpoints to get inside. One at the parking garage and the other at the building’s entrance.
“About time y’all got here.” Lessia grabbed Andrie’s hand, practically dragging her to a corner of the luxurious entry that was blocked by construction plastic.
“Good morning,” Brody greeted me, an indulgent smile tugging on his lips as we followed the two women at a much slower pace. “Lessia’s pet project,” he explained as we slipped past the opaque barrier.
I whistled, taking stock of the small, bistro-style café. It was cozy but had the upscale feel that matched the rest of the building.
“We’ll start working on staffing and placing food orders shortly,” Lessia was saying. “But they still have a few odds and ends to finish up on the construction side of things.” She bypassed the front counter and towed Andrie down a small hallway, opening a door halfway down marked “Private.”
Andrie’s puzzled expression matched mine. The unimpressive utility room was lined with empty metal shelves. A small mop sink was behind the door. The entire space could barely contain us as we squeezed in so Brody could shut the door and carefully lock it.
Andrie’s mouth opened, likely to question why we were all there, but shut it with an audible snap when Lessia placed her palm on the underside of one of the shelves on the side of the room. There was a responding chirp of a computer a few seconds later.
The sound of a lock being released was followed by the entire back shelving unit sliding into the wall.
I’d seen enough in my transit from Europe to the United States that I hadn’t thought much—if anything—could surprise me.
But even I felt my eyes widen. If I hadn’t seen it, I wouldn’t have thought the wall was movable, let alone could slide aside that easily.
There had been absolutely no sign the room was anything other than what it appeared to be.
The space behind the wall was roughly the size of an elevator, and it matched the appearance of one. Eager now, Andrie and I stepped into this new space, waiting while the wall slid back into place.
Lessia and Brody looked at the back wall expectantly, but nothing happened. After a long few seconds, Lessia huffed and pressed a button, but the only sign something had happened was a whirling sound from the camera in the corner, which moved around until it fixated on us.
“Password?” a familiar voice asked from the intercom.
“Fuck you?” Lessia replied innocently, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow in expectation.
“Nope! Try again,” the bubbly voice said.
Andrie and I exchanged smiles, and Brody chuckled at the childish prank while Lessia cursed under her breath.
“Do you really think pissing off the person directly responsible for our new workplace and your caffeine supply is a good idea?” a distant voice asked through the intercom.
“Fine.” The pout was clear in that single, drawn-out word, but the door finally opened, revealing a hacker’s paradise.
“Hey, everyone! What do you think?” Juniper asked, spinning in her office chair. She whirled three times before Jolene grabbed her arm, stopping her momentum.
The room was easily twice as large as the one at the MC’s headquarters and twice as tall.
A theater-style screen covered the entire wall across from us, and at least fifty individual video feeds were playing.
Individual desk spaces were arranged neatly throughout the room, though most were completely bare.
Andrie smiled at the perpetually happy Juniper. “What, no supercomputer?” she asked, motioning to the sleek computer on the desk in front of her.
“Oh, don’t worry. She’s in the basement.” Juniper waved a hand in dismissal.
“Any news?” I asked before I overheard something I likely shouldn’t.
Josie, who’d been over by a small kitchenette on one side of the room, came over, setting an energy drink down by Juniper with a grimace. “Nothing. Hardy didn’t leave a single digital fingerprint anywhere after he left the Pentagon and went home.”
“And Irina?” I asked.
Josie took a sip of her own drink. “She’s in Zadar.”
“Croatia?” Lessia asked. “Why?”
Josie shrugged. “I don’t know. She flew in private a few days ago.”
“It’s a shipping port she uses for trafficking,” I explained. “But she doesn’t usually travel there herself.”
“Does she always ship her … wares … via ships?” Andrie asked quietly.
My own face went carefully blank. “Most often. It’s the easiest way to hide large amounts of cargo internationally.
Ships are massive. Even if one were searched, it would take weeks or months if someone wanted to do a proper search of all the possible nooks and crannies.
But she will occasionally take the risk of flying in a selection for a repeat, high-end buyer or use vehicles if she only needs to transport a few people across a couple hundred kilometers or over rough terrain.
Hell, for a few of the more remote orders, she actually trucked them across Russia in cages. ”
Andrie wasn’t the only one to flinch, and I immediately cut myself off and tried to switch subjects. “So, what’s the plan for today?”
“Well, I say we break in this kick-ass equipment and play some video games.”
The voice had all of us turning to the newcomer.
A man I’d seen that morning came strolling in.
He wore blue dress pants and a white button-down shirt, the matching suit jacket tossed carelessly over one shoulder.
His perfectly styled brown hair and expensive haircut reeked of money, as did his tailored suit.
His hazel eyes sparked with humor, brightening even more when Juniper squealed in delight and jumped out of her chair, throwing herself into the stranger’s arms.
He chuckled. “Hey, little bit. It’s been a long time.”
“I didn’t know you were back, Raptor,” Jolene greeted the man, and Josie tipped her chin. Lessia and Brody welcomed him as well.
“Well, that explains why we’re down here,” Andrie said, her smile friendly and easygoing. “Raptor, this is Xander. He’s a part of the MC and goes by Revenant. He’s also Vik’s brother. Xander, this is Raptor. He’s been out on assignment.”
We shook hands. “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice car,” I said.
His smile widened. “Isn’t she? I love being able to open her up a bit, so I should thank you for speeding so I could hear her purr.”
I chuckled. “Can’t have a machine that fine wasting away in the slow lane.”
Jolene shook her head as if amused at our antics. “Well, while Andrie and you debrief, Lessia, Brody, Josie, and I need to get to work.”
I looked around, confused. “Aren’t you already at work?” I asked her, noticing for the first time her office attire.
“Lessia has graciously created this new space for us, but we all have cover jobs in the building as well,” she explained.
“I’m the newest hire in Keene’s office. It’s easy enough to add coordinating A.T.
’s travel needs since logistics are my department anyway.
At least for the office staff I don’t have to worry about sneaking people in and out of countries unnoticed. ”
“I’m in IT,” Juniper explained, finally on her own two feet again. “But the rest of the department thinks I’m in charge of network security. I have my own office in their section, but I just lock it and go through the tunnel entrance to come here.”
“I’m the newest instructor, and I’ll be subbing in when needed on any of the Accardi families’ security detail,” Josie added.
“I don’t know what title they’ve chosen for me or the class, but Lessia has me teaching how to identify credible intel from cyber dives and how to integrate that information with evidence already gathered. ”
“Intel instructor,” Lessia said simply. “Anything else ended up being too much of a mouthful. And the classes will be called Intelligence, Search, and Sort—ISS for short.”
Brody, at ease in his black tactical pants and shirt, raised an eyebrow.
“Andrie and Raptor will likely be here for a while. Want to go to the shooting range? There’s one in the building if you don’t want to go far, but I was going to go out to the training grounds since I have to check on the most recent ammo order before my next class starts tomorrow. ”
The idea of blowing off some steam, not to mention seeing the training grounds, intrigued me, but I shot a glance over at Andrie to make sure. She gave me a small smile, and a pointed look at Raptor had him giving me a brief nod. He’d stay with her until I returned.
Clasping me on the back in a friendly manner, Brody smirked. “Come on, let’s go shoot shit.”