Chapter 13 #2
“She’s gonna get herself killed.” Wyatt went to the window and brought his balled fists to the glass. “We need to follow this lead and head to Montreal.”
“And that’s exactly what he wants,” Asher said, and Wyatt didn’t want to hear it right now.
“Asher’s right. We need to get more information before we send a team straight into the guy’s trap.” Jessica kept her voice calm.
“This hacker might be doing things differently now.” Wyatt bowed his forehead to the glass. “Having Roland Nilsson kidnapped, that’s a change from The Knight’s MO, right?”
“And what is his MO?” Roman asked.
Wyatt slowly turned around to face the team. Arms drawn across his chest, his heartbeat steady like a drum, but the beats were slowly intensifying the longer he thought about Natasha in Canada. And since she was there on vacation, she was without the Agency backing her up.
“I didn’t work the case, but from what I remember, his MO had always been to try to one-up himself.
In the past, he grew gutsier with each hack.
It was a game of escalation,” Harper explained, taking the reins since she was the only one active during the height of The Knight’s so-called career of hacking.
“He’d steal intelligence, or help terrorists breach secure sites to obtain weapons.
And when the CIA was getting close to figuring him out in twenty-eighteen,” she said while reaching for the gold chain around her neck and rubbing the cross between her fingers, “he hacked the Agency. Leaked the identities of several officers and foreign agents involved in his case, hired an assassin on the Dark Net, and had them murdered.”
The Knight had kept Natasha alive, but why? What sick game was he playing? Or worse, still playing?
“Then somehow Chandler,” Jessica added after clearing her throat, “tracked him to Romania, and you guys were sent in.”
“And everything went FUBAR,” Chris commented.
Jessica’s blue eyes connected with Wyatt. “If it’s really him, and he’s behind all of this, we’ll get him this time.”
“But we need more intel before we go jumping into the deep end without knowing how to swim, brother.” Since when was A.J. the voice of reason?
“We’re SEALs, remember? We’re fucking great swimmers.” Chris lifted his chin Wyatt’s way, letting him know he was on his side no matter what he decided to do, and of course, Chris would be game. He lived for this shit.
“Although, I wouldn’t mind if you all have a chat with Felix Ward, seeing he’s sponsoring the hacking competition, and it was Nilsson who worked for him,” Jessica said, and Wyatt agreed, especially if it meant he could go to Canada and ensure Natasha was safe.
Luke opened the door and entered the office a moment later.
“Sorry I’m late. President needs our ear.
He’s calling the secure line in a few.” He looked back at the guys in the room.
“Looks like you filled them in based on the sour looks on their faces.” Luke shut the door behind him and leaned against it.
“Before we get back into the gloomy stuff, is there anything you want to tell us?” Jessica’s lip caught between her teeth as she eyed her brother, and Asher stood next to her and looped an arm around her waist, holding her tight to his side.
Harper gave them some space and crossed the room to stand with the rest of the guys, eyes directed on Luke while they waited for news, and based on the starry look in Jessica’s gaze, it’d be some good news, thank God.
Luke hooked his thumbs in his front belt loops. “I, um.” He cleared his throat, and a touch of red crawled up his neck and to his cheeks. “Looks like Eva is pregnant.”
“Another baby? Hot damn!” A.J. cut through the room to get to him, and Luke grinned. “I’m gonna start calling you all the Bravo Baby Factory.” He hugged him and slapped him hard on the back, so loud you could hear the sting.
Everyone on Bravo but Knox, who’d only recently married, either had children or were about to.
Emily, Bravo Four’s wife, was expecting. They’d also adopted a daughter in 2019.
And Owen already had a little guy not too long ago.
Jessica was due with twins.
And now Luke was having another baby.
A.J. was right. The men of Bravo were racking up the baby-making mileage.
“Congratulations, brother,” Wyatt said. “I didn’t know you were even trying.”
“Neither did I,” Luke answered with a laugh. “But hey, Eva will want to wait on an official announcement, so—”
“No baby talk until then. Mum’s the word,” A.J. said with a nod and zippered his lips shut. “Okay,” A.J. began while reaching into his pocket and pulling out a twenty. “We placing bets on what POTUS has to say?”
The guys dug into their pockets and whipped out a few bucks to place bets. Typical.
But Wyatt couldn’t think about anything right now but the fact Natasha could possibly be in danger. He once made her a promise he’d always have her back, and he wasn’t about to leave her hanging now.
“Guys,” Jessica said a minute later, “we’ve got incoming from President Bennett.”
After a moment, the president’s face filled the screen on the wall. “Gentlemen, ladies. As you may have heard the rumors, I’ll be announcing the new Secretary of Defense soon—Admiral Warren Chandler.”
Natasha Chandler, the admiral’s daughter. The woman on his mind right now. Did her father know she was in trouble?
The president shifted his screen to showcase Admiral Chandler sitting next to him in the Situation Room. The last time the guys had been in that room was when they’d learned an assassin had taken aim at Isaiah Bennett last year during the election season. A swing and a miss.
“President Bennett filled me in on what you all do for him, for the country. I can’t say I’m surprised given your involvement in rescuing my daughter in Algeria, though.”
“In case you’re wondering, he’s on board,” Bennett added as if there’d be any doubt. “Actually, that’s why we’re talking to you today.”
Wyatt took a step closer to the screen on the wall, his curiosity piqued.
“Luke filled me in on what happened in Pyramiden,” Bennett began. “Thank you for not starting a war with Russia, by the way,” he said with a small smile. “He also informed me the hacker responsible appears to be the man supposedly taken out by your men in Romania.”
“Technically, we didn’t kill him,” Luke noted. “The house was rigged, and it was command-detonated to explode.”
The president nodded. “The Agency strongly believes this is a copycat and not the real deal. Either way, he, or she, needs to be found, but CIA Director Spenser is obviously cautious about assuming the hacker is in Montreal.”
The team had yet to meet the new CIA director in person, but from their interactions on the phone with Director Spenser, he seemed to be less of a dick than the last guy they’d had to work with.
“Or he is there and wants the Agency there, too. Payback for Romania? Maybe even to finish the game he started,” Jessica interjected.
“Or looking to set up someone in Montreal since the world’s best hackers are there,” Luke noted. “Either way, it’d be a safe location to work from given the Bug Bounty Competition starts Friday. The place is literally crawling with hackers. No pun intended.”
“I honestly don’t know,” the admiral began, “but my daughter was just sent back to Headquarters. Fortunately, the Agency was able to complete the op and prevent the weapons sale, but because Natasha disobeyed orders so she could verify whether or not The Knight was the hacker involved, she was put on a desk. She’s currently using vacation time.
Although, if you remember her back in Ibiza, she’s not a fan of being pulled away from a case.
So, I have a hard time believing this vacation to Montreal is to sit back and relax. ”
“What are you asking of us, Admiral Chandler?” Luke cut to the point.
“We’re giving you operational authority over this matter,” the president stated. “If we send anyone with the Agency to Canada, someone in Montreal—in the hacker community—is sure to get wind of it. It’d be better for your people to head up there and take a look. Keep this mission off-the-books.”
“And your daughter, sir?” Wyatt swallowed.
“I’d like to keep her alive and out of a Canadian jail if possible.”
“We can do that,” Luke answered before Wyatt could get the words out.
“Keep us informed. I want regular updates,” the admiral added. “Due to the personal nature of this operation, I’ll be holding off on announcing my new position until this situation is resolved.”
“Understood.” Luke exchanged a few more words with the president and admiral before the call ended.
Wyatt tore his fingers through his hair. No way in hell would he try to convince Natasha to back down from this case. They’d need to work together, which meant she’d find out soon enough he wasn’t really a private contractor for hire, but at the moment, that was the least of his worries.
“We can get a list of hackers who signed up for the competition and are at the conference. Narrow down the list of suspects in case the hacker we’re looking for is one of them,” Harper said, and she was already on her laptop working before she’d finished her line of thought.
Wyatt continued to watch Harper work, doing his best not to let his mind race, to wander to thoughts of Natasha. To her sun-kissed blonde hair and her killer green eyes.
“That’s a lot of names to go through,” Finn said when Harper brought the list onto the screen.
Wyatt moved closer and began reading through them to see if anyone stood out. When he spotted a familiar name near the end of the list, his eyes widened. “Shit, it can’t be her.”
“Can’t be who?” Asher asked, coming up behind him.
“Can you pull up what you can find on Gwen Montgomery?” Wyatt pointed to the name on the screen. Charlotte had mentioned her daughter was in school in Canada and studying computer programming, but would she really compete in a hacker competition? Her mum would have a bloody heart attack.
“Here you go,” Jessica said, and when the girl’s face filled the screen, Wyatt stumbled back, and his stomach muscles tightened.
Fuck. Me.
“She’s gorgeous,” Chris said. “Too young for me, but hot.”
“Full name is Gwyneth Diana Montgomery, but she goes by Gwen. She’s twenty. Well, twenty-one in March. She attends a school in Toronto. Daughter to Charlotte Montgomery and the late Arthur Montgomery. Nobility, too.” Jessica rattled off a few more details.
“You know her or something?” Luke asked.
Wyatt had never gotten a close look at her at Arthur’s wake but . . .
“I need a minute.” Wyatt grabbed his mobile and rushed out of the office and to a private conference room down the hall.
He dialed his mum, had her give him Charlotte’s number without explaining why, then phoned Charlotte before he lost his nerve.
“Charlotte,” he rasped when he recognized her voice upon answer.
“It’s Wyatt Pier—” He stopped himself from finishing his name.
“It’s me. Sorry it took me over a year to actually call you, but fuck, Charlotte.
She has my eyes.” He brought his palm to the desk as his stomach tucked in, and his chest constricted.
“Hell, she has a lot more than my eyes.”
Every fiber of his being burned. It stretched. He was going to break with every moment of painstaking silence as he waited for her to speak.
“Is she mine?” He paused. “Is Gwen my daughter?”