Chapter Twenty-Three
After helping her feed the kids, Tanner left, telling Bree to pack up everything for the babies. She was crying by the time she got the second armful of baby stuff into the car Noah brought over.
She knew there was every possibility she might not see them again. Despite Tanner’s assurances that they could handle the Organization, he and his federal law enforcement friends in Omega Sector who were waiting on standby really didn’t have any idea of who they were up against.
Tanner thought he could protect her, but she still knew the odds were that she would be dead or, worse, back in the Organization’s clutches by the time the symposium was done.
She couldn’t live through that again.
But she couldn’t do nothing any longer, either.
“You want help loading?” Noah asked. He was standing at the end of the porch, Corfu at his feet.
“No. It’s not heavy. I’m just an emotional basket case.”
Noah didn’t try to argue or placate her. She appreciated that. “Being close to people is hard,” he said. “The price is high.”
“Too high?” she muttered, more to herself than him.
He answered anyway. “Almost always.”
Right at this moment, she didn’t disagree with him. How much simpler her life would’ve been if she’d never opened the door to Melissa in the first place.
She placed the last load of stuff in the car. But how much emptier.
Would it be worth it in the end?
She knew when Tanner was about to show back up by the way Noah disappeared without a word. Sure enough, a car pulled up the long driveway a few moments later.
But when she saw who it was with Tanner, Bree almost burst into tears again.
Dan and Cheryl.
When they rushed out of the car and hugged her, this time, for the first time, she hugged them back.
“Oh, sweetheart! You’re okay!” Cheryl kept her arms around Bree almost in a choke hold, but Bree didn’t mind. “When Tanner told us what was going on, we came right over here to help. I’m so glad you’re safe.”
“And I’m so glad I will eventually heal from the bruises Mrs. A’s smacks gave me when she found out you were here and that I hadn’t really run you out of town,” Tanner muttered.
But he grinned and winked at Bree from where she remained trapped in Cheryl’s arms.
“Dan and Cheryl are going to take the twins and leave town,” Tanner explained.
Cheryl finally pulled back. “We’re going to go visit my son and his wife in Texas. Stay completely out of the fray. Tanner explained that you’re doing something important and dangerous.”
“Yes.”
Dan placed himself so he was between her and Tanner. “Bree, you don’t have to. You can come with us and the babies. We’ll hide out until this all blows over.”
She reached out and grabbed Dan’s hand, something she wouldn’t have been able to do a month ago. “This will never blow over. I have to make a stand here or the babies and I will never be safe.”
Once the Organization uploaded the software to the phones, they would be able to find her no matter where she hid.
“Okay,” Dan said. “I just wanted you to know you have a choice.”
She squeezed his hand. “This is my choice.”
“And I’m going to make sure she’s safe,” Tanner said. “If they want to get to her, they’re going to have to go through me.”
They all spent the next few minutes getting the babies ready for their road trip. Bree kissed them both tenderly before placing them into the car seats. Way before she was ready, they were pulling away.
Bree didn’t cry. Didn’t stare after the car. Didn’t let herself dwell on the fact that she might never see Christian and Beth again.
Instead she pulled on every bit of strength she’d developed from years of living on her own—strength her mother had instilled in Bree before her own strength disappeared—and turned to Tanner.
“It’s time to get to work.”
The Organization had stolen way too much of her life.
She wasn’t going to let them steal any more.
TANNER HAD NEVER seen someone do what Bree could do with a computer. She had been working for nearly three days straight to try to get into Communication for All’s inner computer system.
She’d tried to explain exactly what she was doing the first day, but he hadn’t understood ninety percent of what she said. So he’d just tugged on her ponytail until she’d looked up from the computer screen and kissed her to shut her up.
He was pretty sure her fingers hadn’t stopped typing the whole time.
The woman was completely focused on the task at hand.
He’d been tempted to distract her. To force her out of the emotionless bubble she’d encased herself in, because the bubble hadn’t included him.
Any other time he would. He had no plans to let Bree shut him out just because she’d always kept people shut out in the past.
But right now that bubble was what was allowing her to function. To stay firmly committed to the task at hand and take down these murderous bastards.
They’d set up Bree’s workspace in the Sunrise, since it was closed while the Andrewses were gone. She was working in the office, a space already familiar to her, which gave her access to food and a bathroom, and didn’t have any windows that would allow someone to spot her.
Plus, the Andrewses’ absence gave Tanner the excuse to look in on the diner without suspicion. Noah and some more of his former Special Forces friends from Wyoming were providing invisible around-the-clock security for Bree, since Tanner couldn’t do it.
Tanner was being watched. He had no doubt about it. The question was, by who?
Had Steele backtracked to Risk Peak, looking for Bree? Had the Organization sent someone else to see if they could find her here?
Or maybe it was just the townspeople who were still angry with him for sending Bree off on her own, and then, worse, causing the town’s favorite diner to shut down for a couple weeks because the Andrewses were so heartbroken.
Tanner could take the evil eye from the town. But he knew they were running out of time. The symposium was in just a few hours, and Bree was exhausted. She hadn’t gotten more than a couple hours’ sleep here and there since she started. Hadn’t even stopped for a full meal.
Tanner didn’t like it. Every instinct had him wanting to pamper and protect her, and teach her how to accept it.
And he would. But right now he would accept/ acknowledge she was a woman on a mission and he was backup. So he would encourage her strength.
He let himself in the back door of the Sunrise like he had each day. He walked over and kissed Bree on the top of the head before removing the plates and cups piled up by the Grand County laptop she was using.
“We’ve got a problem,” she said. Her fingers stopped typing.
That wasn’t a good sign.
“How bad?”
“The Organization knows I’m in Risk Peak. They don’t know who I am or what exactly I’m doing, but they know someone’s pushing at them.”
He muttered a curse. “We’ve got to get you out of here.”
“I can’t leave now. I’m too close to breaking through, and we’re out of time.
We need to leave for the symposium in no more than six hours in order for this to work.
” She looked up at him with those green eyes.
“Tanner, I need you to buy me some time. Make them think I’m somewhere else.
But they’re going to be monitoring every cellular transmission anywhere they can within a fifty-mile radius of here. ”
Tanner pulled out his dumb phone. “This still safe?”
She nodded. “Until tomorrow. Once the Organization’s new system goes live and they start piggybacking off the manufacturers’ systems, then no cellular phone will be safe. Every phone will broadcast data to the Organization. But I still wouldn’t use it just in case I’m wrong.”
“You keep working. I’ll buy you the time you need.”
She gave him a tired smile before her eyes and hands were back on the laptop in front of her.
Tanner turned on the back light of the diner, his signal to Noah that they needed to meet. A few minutes later, Noah showed up. Tanner led him into the kitchen so they could talk without disturbing Bree.
“Bree says the Organization is onto her. We need to set up a decoy, get her the space and time she needs. And we should deem all cell phones no longer safe.”
Noah grunted. “We can set something up at the ranch. Make them think she’s there. It would give you and me the tactical advantage since we know it so well. And my team is fully capable.”
Tanner had made the decision not to bring in law enforcement. Official channels meant too many modes of communication that could be monitored.
“Yeah, good. I’ve got my federal colleagues in Denver as soon as Bree cracks the system and we’ve got the proof we need that Communication for All is dirty.”
Noah nodded. “One way or another, it ends today. How are we going to get our bad guys out to the ranch?”
“They don’t know we’re onto them,” Tanner said. “So we use cell phones against them.”
Noah smiled. “And then we take them out of commission. My kind of plan.”
“I’m going to have to bring Ronnie in on it. I’ll leave him here as guard for Bree. She’s not going to notice if either of us are missing anyway. A bomb could go off and I’m not sure she would notice.”
“I’ll get my team out to the ranch and will be waiting for your call.”
A moment later, Noah was gone.
Tanner walked back into the office and crouched down beside Bree. She stopped what she was doing and looked at him.
“We’re leading them away,” he said. “You keep working. I’ll send Ronnie to guard but will tell him not to disturb you.”
Her lips pursed. “I know I can do it, but I don’t know if I can do it in time.”
He reached over and kissed her softly. “You can.”
This time when his lips met hers, she clung to him. He groaned against her mouth. “There’s nothing I want to do more than stay here and kiss you, but we’ve both got to get to work.”
“Be careful.” She clutched him closer to her for just a second. “The Organization is dangerous and smart.”
He smiled. “So are we. We’ll buy you the time you need.”
She straightened. “I won’t waste it.”