Chapter 1
BEX
It hadn’t taken me long to learn that working dispatch often meant hours of boredom punctuated by adrenaline spikes. This shift had been slow, which allowed me to get some extra studying in for my survey of crime and justice class, just in time for my exam next week.
The radio chirped, and I quickly set down my tablet to focus on my job.
I highlighted an important paragraph, then took a swallow of coffee that had gone bitter hours ago. Luckily, I realized at sixteen that enough cream and sugar could make my dad’s sludge drinkable. No matter how long the coffee sat in the pot at work, I could still stomach it.
I flipped to the next page on my tablet, trying to keep my focus from straying to Cipher again.
That man took up too much space in my head, but there wasn’t a woman alive who’d blame me.
Not even knowing that he’d refused to dance with me at my best friend’s wedding but still had the nerve to scare one of my dad’s deputies off from dancing with me.
And then promptly disappeared for three weeks straight.
The big jerk was too sexy for my own good, though.
With his muscular build, he didn’t look like a computer geek at all.
He was tall and broad-shouldered, with tanned skin from being out in the Southern California sun.
His black hair was thick and a little long at the top, with a lock that my fingers kept itching to push back from his forehead.
But it was his eyes that truly captured my attention.
They were deep brown with a narrow amber ring, except for when he’d stared down Paul on the dance floor and I could’ve sworn they darkened to almost black.
And he had a dense black-and-gray geometric tattoo wrapped around his left forearm that made me wonder if there were more hidden beneath his clothes.
But I had coursework to do and a job that required me to be fully present. One aggravating biker did not get to take up permanent space in my head. So I rolled my shoulders, adjusted the headset, and studied while I waited for the next call.
I had just highlighted another line on the tablet when the 911 line lit up.
“Sable Canyon 911, what is the address of your emergency?”
A woman’s voice came through the line in a shaky whisper. “He’s outside, trying to get into my bedroom through the window. It looks out at the backyard.”
I sat up straighter, one hand moving across the keyboard while I grabbed a pen with the other. “Okay, I’m here with you. Can you tell me your address?”
She rattled it off in a rush, and I added the details to the incident report while I kept her talking.
“What’s your name?”
“Nina.”
“You’re doing great, Nina.” It was a good thing I was ambidextrous because it allowed me to jot down the vital details on a pad of paper, locking them into my memory. “Do you know the intruder?”
“Yes,” she sobbed. “He’s my ex-boyfriend. I have a restraining order, and my address is protected. I don’t understand how he found me.”
Her voice had crept up to a shrill yell. “Nina, I need you to stay as quiet as you can and tell me exactly what you’re seeing.”
“I’m sorry,” she cried.
“It’s okay. I understand. You’re scared, but if he gets in before the officers I’m going to route to you, we don’t want him to be able to find you.”
“Right. Quiet,” she echoed.
“Where is your ex right now?”
“He’s still outside the window.” Her words came out soft but rushed. “He’s got something in his hand, and he’s forcing the lock. It’s going to give, and then—”
She broke off on another sob.
“I hear you. Help is coming. Are you somewhere he can’t see you right now?”
“My bedroom closet. I can see through the slats.”
I typed fast and wrote notes just as quickly. After nearly a year into my probationary period, the dual notetaking was automatic. “Does he have a weapon that you can see?”
“I…I don’t know. He’s big. And angry. His fists are bad enough.”
“You’re doing really well, Nina. Keep breathing for me,” I urged. “In through your nose, out through your mouth. I’m staying right here with you.”
I finished building the call in the computer-aided dispatch system, marked it priority, and requested the nearest unit. The system showed 2-Adam-9 only three minutes out.
Glass shattered in the background, and Nina’s breathing hitched. “The window just broke.”
“Stay silent if you need to. I’m still here. Units are rolling.”
She let out a terrified sound, and the line went dead.
“Crap.”
I had her phone number, but it wasn’t safe to call back right now because that would give her location away. All I could do was hope nothing horrible happened to her in the next four minutes. But as I stared at the screen, the incident I’d just created blinked once and vanished.
I pulled up the active screen, and it showed no live calls currently. “What the heck?”
Then I checked the CAD log, but the incident wasn’t there either.
As I blinked at the screen, 2-Adam-9’s status flipped to a rollover call six miles in the opposite direction.
I checked the active screen again, and the rollover looked like it had been there all along even when I knew darn well nothing had been there a minute ago.
It didn’t make any sense. I would’ve thought maybe there was a computer glitch, but that wouldn’t explain a new call suddenly appearing out of thin air.
Something was very wrong here.
I looked down at the legal pad. Every detail I’d written was still there in black ink. Nina was out there, waiting for help that wasn’t coming. I needed to do something for her. Now.
And I knew exactly who to call.
I snatched my personal cell out of the drawer and hit my dad’s number. He answered right away. “Bex? Everything okay?”
“No.” I kept my voice low so the other dispatcher across the room wouldn’t hear.
“I just had a 911 from a protected address. Woman named Nina, ex forcing entry through the back window. She’s in her bedroom closet.
The entire incident vanished from the system like it never existed, and the unit got flipped to a rollover six miles away that wasn’t there a minute ago. ”
“You’re sure?”
“Yes.”
He went straight into sheriff mode without second-guessing me.
I heard the click of him keying his portable radio. “2-Adam-7, clear your current and roll code to—”
I provided the address, which he relayed to the deputy before providing him with the other details I’d given. Then he instructed, “I’m en route to dispatch. Keep me updated.”
“Copy, Sheriff. Four minutes out.”
My shoulders slumped at the confirmation Nina would have help soon. Whatever was going on, it had cost her a few extra minutes. Hopefully, the delay wouldn’t come at the steep price of her life.
With that taken care of, Dad growled, “Stay off the console. I’m three minutes from the building.”
I sat frozen in my seat until the side door slammed open and my father strode in, his expression carved from stone. He came straight to my console and braced both hands on the edge of the desk. “Run through it for me again.”
He listened without interrupting, and when I finished, he scrubbed his hand down his face. “Fucking hell.”
His radio crackled, and I squeezed my eyes shut as I waited to hear Nina’s fate.
“Sheriff, 2-Adam-7. I’m on scene. Male subject was inside. Victim is alive but injured. He got to her before we made the door. Medics are rolling. Subject is in custody.”
Some of the tension in my dad’s shoulders eased, but his eyes were still furious.
He looked at me, then swept his gaze across the room. “Nobody touches another terminal. Not one keystroke until I say otherwise.”
The supervisor came out of his office at the tail end of my dad’s announcement. “You can’t just shut down 911, sir.”
“We damn well can,” Dad retorted. “Route all calls to the backup county line.”
Mr. Hendrick bristled. “We only do that in cases of extreme emergency.”
“Which is exactly what we have here.” My dad crossed his arms. “And that’s why I’m calling in Black Castle.”
“That is not the protocol.” Mr. Hendrick shook his head. “And my budget doesn’t—”
“I don’t give a damn about your budget, Hendrick,” Dad interrupted. “The only thing that matters is keeping the people of Sable Canyon safe. We can’t do that if our CAD system is being used against us. And we have no way of knowing if this was an inside job yet, so I’m bringing them in.”
I knew that tone well. My dad was going to call Black Castle…and Cipher would come.