Chapter Twenty
“What the hell happened back there?” Selina asked, turning to take Iris’s hand. “How are you doing?”
“I’m worried about Bec,” she admitted. “I have to assume she wasn’t in the cabin.”
“She wasn’t,” Cal said tightly.
Selina dug into the bag at her feet and sat up with a bottle of water and a pill.
“What’s that?” Iris asked, her head cocked in confusion.
“Another dose of your anti-anxiety medication.”
“I don’t need it but thank you.” She did take the bottle and cracked the lid, gulping some of the water. “Thanks. I haven’t had anything since lunch.”
“You’re handling this very well. I’m proud of you.”
She held her head high and made eye contact with her friend. “Thank you,” she said.
“Was anyone in the cabin?” Selina asked, turning back in her seat.
“Walter,” Cal said with a nod. “Another person I can only assume was Zafar. Both died relatively recently, but there were no guns, so they weren’t self-inflicted or murder-suicide.
It looked like they’d been surprised and dropped where they were standing.
The door was still unlocked, which was how we got in. ”
“Anything else of interest?” Selina asked.
“You mean other than enough C-4 to blow three cabins that size?” Mack asked, to which she snorted.
“Yeah, other than that.”
“There was a computer on the desk,” Cal said. “It had the message up that Ace sent to the computers at the research facility. That confused me because how was there internet way out there?”
“There was coverage, though,” Iris said. “Mina called me as we turned down the road.”
“Maybe that’s why Walter bought that cabin,” Selina mused. “He knew they’d need to use a hotspot to send the message through.”
“The bomb is confusing,” Lucas said. “It was attached to the door, so if it was opened again, it would blow, but five minutes on a timer gives someone plenty of time to leave. Case in point, us.”
“It does,” Cal agreed, “but if the cabin and the bodies get blown sky-high, there’s no evidence to collect even if someone does report it.”
“But wait,” Iris said, her mind trying to link together everything she knew so far. “The guys who took Bec said that Walter missed their call. If he’s been dead this whole time, that means they didn’t kill him.”
“Nope,” Cal agreed.
“That means there’s a third player in the game, right?”
“Most likely,” Lucas said. “Our guess is Walter decided to double-dip.”
“Like he took the money from the employer of the guys who took Bec and then set up the ransom? But why?”
“It’s possible the employer of the guys who broke into the facility figured out he planned to double-cross him and had him killed, then sent the guys to get what he was owed,” Cal explained.
“We need to get back to the research facility and secure it. With Walter dead and Bec missing, it’s time to call someone in to take control of it. ”
“Not until we find Bec!” Iris exclaimed. Haven raised his head, and she took a deep breath before speaking again. “We need to find her, and we need to find the evidence on Walter’s computer that says she’s not behind this. We need proof of her innocence once we find her.”
Cal nodded as they neared the research center. “I’ve had Delilah tearing apart the computer while we were here. I’m hoping she has a report when we get back. If she doesn’t, it will be your job to help her while we wait to get a bead on Bec.”
Cal’s phone rang, and he hit the phone button to answer it. “Secure One, Charlie.”
“Secure Watch, Whiskey,” Mina said. “Did you find Walter?”
“We sure did,” Cal said, filling her in on their discovery. “I didn’t want to call you until we were clear of there.”
“I guess you can let the board president know the money won’t be needed when he arrives later tonight.”
“Wait, the president of the board is arriving tonight?” Iris asked from the back seat.
“Considering they currently have no one in charge of the facility under their employment, they thought it prudent to secure the viruses safely.”
“There aren’t any viruses,” Iris said. “Bec destroyed them all once she could get back into the lab.”
“Well, that’s something,” Mina said with a sigh. “All the same, it’s their right to take control of their business.”
“Did they give you an ETA?” Cal asked, checking his watch.
“His flight lands in Grand Forks at 2100 hours. It’s another hour and change to the research center.”
“That doesn’t give us much time to find Bec, but if they kick us off the property, we’ll set up a base at the motel in Sinlis Park.”
“He’s coming alone, so I doubt he’ll kick you out unless he picks up an entire security team along the way.
That said, I wouldn’t talk about anything around him that you don’t want him to know.
I sent Delilah his name and information.
It will be waiting for you to read through when you arrive.
I’m also keeping an eye on Bec’s panic button. So far, it’s still quiet.”
“Ten-four. Charlie, out.”
He hung up the phone and sighed. “Just what we need. More people to muddle the mess we already have.”
Lucas was on his phone and finally hung up as the lights of the research center came into view. “That was Zac. It’s been quiet since we left. They’re expecting us.”
Iris let out a breath to hear that news.
She didn’t want her friends to get hurt again, and the last thing they needed was another round of unnamed goons to surprise them.
Once the car was in Park, they all climbed out to stretch.
Lucas and Mack stayed to fill Zac, Declan and Efren in on what happened at the cabin while Cal and Selina ushered her into the facility and up to the lab.
With any luck, Delilah had found something on Walter’s computer that would help them sort out who might have Bec.
That low buzzing of anxiety sat in Iris’s belly as they stood in the elevator.
She didn’t know if it was because she was afraid Delilah hadn’t found anything or that she had.
Maybe her worry for Bec was catching up to her.
Once the doors opened and everyone stepped out, she held Selina back while Cal went ahead.
“I was maybe wrong to turn down that extra dose of meds.”
Selina dug in her pocket and pulled out the tablet, popping it out of the packaging into her hand.
“Right under your tongue. It’s not a big dose.
Just enough to take the edge off.” She rubbed her back several times while she waited for it to dissolve.
“It’s only been three days since you left Secure Inc.
, but I can see a fundamental shift within you. ”
“Bec has taught me a lot about myself in a short time,” Iris agreed. “Like the fact that my therapist was right all these years.”
“About what?”
“That a lot of my anxiety is based on the fear of talking about what happened to me and being judged for it. When I told Bec, and she didn’t judge me, it hit home that I’d had control all along.”
“Wait. Bec promised me she wouldn’t ask you about it.”
“She didn’t. It was my choice to tell her. She told me I didn’t have to, but I wanted to help her understand what happened to me.”
“That’s impressive, considering you’ve never told any of us,” Selina said with a head tilt.
“Let’s be honest, Selina. Mina knew what happened to me thirty seconds after running a background check. You all know.”
“Fair, but you’ve worked for Secure Watch for years and have never uttered a word to any of us about it. You’ve known Bec for three days. That’s my point.”
“When Bec trusted me with her story about leaving the Amish community so young and how difficult that was for her, it made me want to be equally honest with her about my past. My therapist told me years ago that not talking about it allowed me to stay caught up in the fear where it felt safe.”
“The fear felt safe?”
“To me, yes,” Iris admitted. “At least everything I kept around me because of the fear. Some of my compulsions and intrusive thoughts were tied to keeping everything a secret.”
“Do you know why?” she asked, and Iris nodded immediately.
“Fear of being judged. I think you can probably understand that, right?”
Selina’s chuckle filled the hallway as she nodded.
“I spent years being someone else to avoid being who I was. Granted, there was a mobster who wanted me dead, but even if that hadn’t been the case, like you, I found safety in keeping my secret safe inside.
Being honest meant running the risk of losing someone else in life when they learned the truth. ”
“Until you meet the one person who doesn’t make you feel like that would happen.”
Selina flashed her ring finger. “I married that one person.”
“If I can find her, I just might do the same,” Iris said with a grin. “I don’t know how it will work, but if I ever get to hold her in my arms again, for the first time, I want to try.”
“That’s so wonderful to hear, Iris,” Selina said. “We all deserve someone in our life who makes us feel like we can slay dragons, and if we can’t, they’ll do it for us.”
“There’s that,” Iris admitted. “Since love doesn’t cure my disabilities.”
“No, but when it’s real and true love, it doesn’t care about your disabilities.”
“And that’s what Bec has taught me,” Iris agreed.
“We both know I’ll always have anxiety and OCD.
That’s part of my brain’s pathology now, amongst other things, but what she’s shown me over the last few days is that my therapist was right.
If I work hard, I can find a way to live my life without being on edge every second of the day.
Once I put the effort in of confronting what happened to me and how it shaped me, a lot of the anxiety I carry about that event will fall away, and what I’m left with is easier to treat since my fight-or-flight response is not constantly assailing it. ”
“That’s incredibly self-aware, Iris. Everyone at Secure Inc. will be proud of you. Bec will be, too. For putting yourself in the back of an SUV just in case you’d find her in a cabin where the risk to yourself was great. She’ll be proud that you didn’t give up on her.”
“Never,” Iris said. “But I should have realized it would get the better of me eventually. It always does.”
“No,” Selina said, holding her out by her shoulders.
“The fact that you get up and fight every day to work and be part of our family says something else entirely. Baby steps, Iris. You’re stressed in a new environment and worried about someone you care about.
You’re upright and fighting through it, which is impressive.
I’m here for you, and I’ll be here for Bec when we bring her home. We will bring her home.”
Iris nodded once, the tension in her belly releasing from Selina’s encouragement.
She didn’t have to be afraid of being afraid.
That was compounding the problem. Don’t try to block the fear.
Feel it and then put it to use. She remembered the hundreds of times her therapist told her that and suddenly understood what she meant.
Blocking out half of the fear let her focus on the part she could do something about.
“Now, lift that chin, and let’s go find your girl,” Selina said with a wink as they walked into the workspace.