Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Stormi groaned and blinked open her eyes. Her head bobbled as she tried to focus on her surroundings. She had absolutely no idea where she was. The last thing she remembered was being surrounded by flames. Panic seized her heart. Her breath came in short, choppy pants.
“Try to relax, babe. Take long, deep breaths. In through your nose, out through your mouth,” Lincoln said.
She lifted her head. “Lincoln,” she whispered. His face was covered in bruises, blood, and dirt. He sat in a chair directly across from her, with his hands behind his back. “Where are we? Are you okay?”
“I’m no worse for the wear,” he said. “I think we’re somewhere in the Zero Gravity facilities. I woke up during the transport. It took twelve minutes after that to get here. They blindfolded us. But we went up a flight of stairs, into an elevator, and down. But honestly, I can’t be sure. I’m making an educated guess.”
“Do you think they were trying to make it look like we died in a house fire?” She swallowed. It tasted like a combination of tar and burnt toast.
“Perhaps, but it would be hard without two bodies and it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
She shivered. “Have you seen anyone since we’ve been here?”
“You certainly ask a lot of questions.” He arched a brow. “To answer what I think you want to know and that’s who our captors are, the only face I’ve seen is Samantha’s.”
The sound of a heavy metal door scraping against the floor scratched at her ears like nails against a chalkboard. God, she hated that noise.
“Oh, goodie. You’re both awake.” Samantha snagged a chair and dragged it across the tile floor. She stopped four feet in front of them, turned the chair, and straddled it.
She was a pretty woman, a little rough around the edges with her dark boots that laced up to her knee. Her jet-black hair and dark makeup reminded Stormi of the scientist on that TV show about the Navy police. It was a very different look than her own, so that comment about Lincoln having a type certainly didn’t have anything to do with a woman’s appearance.
“What the fuck are you up to, Samantha? Because I can’t figure it out. I used to think you were one of the smartest people I knew. But this just feels about as dumb as a rock.”
Samantha chuckled as she shook her head. “It was a combination of panic and scrounging for time. That fire bought us a day. Maybe two.”
“For what, exactly?”
“To form a new plan. Create a new fall guy.” Samantha waggled her finger in the direction of Stormi. “Thanks to your little girlfriend, the Feds now know that Zero Gravity fucked her father up the ass.” Samantha shrugged. “That’s really not my problem. I honestly don’t give a shit about that, except for the money.” She pursed her lips.
“What money?” Stormi asked.
“Ah, she speaks.” Samantha stood and inched closer. “I knew Lincoln would be attracted to your brain. I mean, he was already salivating over your coding. He did that three years ago when I showed it to him. It was all Twister this and Twister that. He was beyond impressed with your capabilities. And I warned Kurt you could be a problem, but Kurt figured you were so frigid and singularly focused that you wouldn’t even notice Lincoln.” Samantha ran her fingers through Stormi’s hair.
“Don’t fucking touch her,” Lincoln said behind gritted teeth.
“Oh, possessive over her already, I see.” Samantha leaned closer. Her hot breath heated Stormi’s cheek. “He falls in love so hard and fast. It’s kind of pathetic.”
“You hurt her, and I will strangle the life out of you with my bare hands,” Lincoln said, his voice more of a growl.
Samantha laughed. “Because you could ever lay a hand on a woman.” She continued to run her fingers through Stormi’s hair, petting her as if she were a puppy. “Lincoln might be full of muscles and be a badass, but he couldn’t raise a finger to a female. Goes against some gentleman honor code he has.”
“Well, you’re no fucking woman, so I’d have no problem with it at all,” he mumbled. “What the hell do you want, Samantha?”
Samantha yanked a weapon from an ankle holster. She ran it up the side of Stormi’s arm, neck, and face.
The cold metal seeped through Stormi’s skin and into her bloodstream.
“When I was a little girl, I wanted a father who loved me. But my mom couldn’t give me that. She wouldn’t tell me who he was. Not even a hint. So, when I learned he knew of me all along, but couldn’t be bothered, I wanted a piece of his action.”
“What does this have to do with your plans for us?” Stormi twisted her wrists. She winced as the plastic ties cut into her skin.
“Shut up, bitch.” The back of Samantha’s hand came across Stormi’s cheek with a crack and a thud . The taste of metal filled Stormi’s mouth.
“You’re going to pay for that.” Lincoln shifted in his chair, moving it a few inches closer.
“Do you want to know what I’ve got in store for you or not? Because I can just get on with it, or I can tell you.” Samantha pressed her gun against Stormi’s temple.
“All right. We’ll be quiet.” Lincoln nodded.
“Good.” Samantha held Stormi’s head, with the cold metal still pressed against her skin.
Stormi couldn’t take in a deep breath. Hell, she could barely suck in any oxygen at all. Panic was close to setting in. She focused on Lincoln, holding his gaze. His soft blue eyes were about the only thing keeping her from losing her damn mind.
“When I learned David Caulkin was my father and that I had a half sister, well, I wasn’t going to let that go,” Samantha said. “The first couple of meetings didn’t go well. David didn’t want to have anything to do with me.” She shrugged. “Neither did Jeannie. In some ways, they still don’t. But I showed them my value over the years, especially with that first security system.”
“You mean the one Stormi hacked into, stole documents, and leaked them,” Lincoln said, cocking his head.
“That was unfortunate, but it was the hole that allowed me to see inside and give Jeannie what she needed so she could make sure that launch failed, steal the rocker booster plans, and make them her own.” Samantha smiled triumphantly.
“David didn’t know you did that?” Stormi asked.
“Not at first. But he does now and he’s on board. He’d rather his kid get all the glory than some old fool who’s dead now anyway.” Samantha tugged at Stormi’s hair. “But you had to go steal those plans with his name on them and send them to your friend at the FBI. One of the reasons you couldn’t die in that fire. I mean, you’re already dead. We thought about leaving Lincoln there, but the fire trucks were a little too close. We figured it was possible they could save him.”
“So, what now? Make us disappear?” Stormi asked.
“Wow. She’s not as smart as I thought she’d be.” Samantha released her grip and strolled a few paces closer to Lincoln. “Actually, Lincoln here will put a bullet in you because you betrayed him. Got to love AI. We’ll get the whole thing on video for the world to see.”
“Oh really. Interesting. Now, how did she betray me?” Lincoln asked.
“Those documents will turn out to be forged. She lied to you and we all know how much you loathe a liar.” Samantha tossed her head back and laughed. “David and Jeannie are upstairs right now creating a new set of documents. Ones that will be slightly different, but ones that will be placed on our server and which we will be able to prove without a doubt are the originals. And without her father or anyone else on his team to state otherwise, she doesn’t have a leg to stand on. Not to mention, new evidence will be found regarding Kurt’s case. He’ll be exonerated, and in death, she’ll be nothing but a criminal who almost got away with it.”
“Damn, that’s quite a good piece of fiction. Too bad it’s all bullshit and we still have an ace up our sleeves.” Lincoln grinned from ear to ear. “You have always seriously underestimated me, which is fine. But now you’ve gone and underestimated my girlfriend. That just pisses me off. Especially when she’s better than you.” He leaned forward. “At everything.”
Samantha stomped across the room. She shoved her weapon into his gut.
He groaned.
“You don’t want to fuck with me, Lincoln.”
“But I already have,” he said. “Are you running the new security program? The one I wrote?”
“Tony ran a diagnostic. There is nothing in that program that can hurt me.” She leaned closer. “Besides, he’s finishing up his and that will be loaded soon enough. It’s all good.”
Stormi caught Lincoln's gaze. The Trojan horse embedded in the security system was meant as a distraction for Samantha. She was supposed to see it and spend time deleting it, giving Lincoln and Stormi a chance to search the digital halls. But that’s not what happened.
Now that the program was running at full speed, the Trojan horse had not only been activated but was seeping into the system like the Black Plague. When Lincoln first proposed the idea, they both thought all they had to do was make it look real, but Lincoln believed Samantha—if and when she saw the Trojan horse—would see right through an empty threat. So, he made it real.
And now it was slowly opening Zero Gravity to one outside threat after the other.
Lincoln had the audacity to wink the moment Samantha’s back was turned.
“I just want to make sure I have this straight,” Lincoln said. “You’re going to kill Stormi, making it look like I did it. You’re going to set her up to take the fall for things Kurt did, as if she’d been the mastermind all along, not him. But you haven’t explained what you’re going to do with me?”
Samantha tapped the weapon to her temple. “You know, we’re still exploring our options. You’re not the type of man to blow your own brains out, so I’m not sure that’s the right plan. We’re thinking perhaps a shoot-out and you get caught in the crossfire.”
“And how will you make that happen?”
“Oh, I’m thinking we’ll call the police. Report a break-in. Perhaps you fire at them and leave them no other choice but to fire back.” Samantha laughed. “Yeah. That’s the ticket.”
Stormi twisted her wrists again, but the plastic restraints were too tight. “You won’t get away with this. Your plan is utterly absurd.”
“Sometimes you need the ridiculous to make sense of those things that make no sense at all.” Samantha shrugged. “I best go check on how things are going upstairs and also with the investigation into the fire at Lincoln’s place. I suspect we only have a few more hours before we have to set this plan in motion.” Samantha turned and strolled toward the door like she didn’t have a care in the world.
Stormi opened her mouth, but Lincoln shook his head and mouthed, Don’t say a word. They’re listening.
She swallowed the bitter taste of being doomed.
Lincoln trusted three things. First and foremost, his instincts.
Second, his team.
Today, that meant Tal, his buddies at search and rescue, and Jimmy.
And finally, his abilities both in the field and behind a computer screen.
He twisted his arms. His wrists were raw and bleeding from trying to break free from his restraints. He glanced around the room. There was one exit. Above the door was a security camera. It was too high for him to take out from his chair. In the far-right corner was a small desk with a laptop.
In the center of the room were him and Stormi.
There was nothing else.
That was good and bad because he could not communicate with the outside world unless he got to that computer. But if he did that without taking out the security camera, he’d be fucked.
“You sure know how to pick them,” Stormi muttered.
“I’m not sure what you mean by that.” He let out a long breath. It had been approximately fifteen minutes since Samantha left the room. He suspected she was watching. The silence had probably frustrated the hell out of her, but so would this topic of conversation, so he might as well run with it.
“Women.” Stormi arched a brow. “Your ex is interesting. Not what I expected at all.”
He laughed. “Why? Outside of the fact she’s a total bitch and I didn’t see it for five fucking years.”
Stormi’s gaze dropped to his toes and then eased back up his body like a laser on a mission. “Look at you. You’re the poster child for the clean-cut boy next door with your short blond hair, sweet blue eyes, and basic clothes. I get you’re a badass military man, but you don’t look the part. You look like a fucking Boy Scout and she looks like a misunderstood, angry girl with daddy issues.”
“I didn’t always look like this.” He cocked his head. “When I first met Tal, I wore black eyeliner, had hair down to my shoulders, and dressed like a bum. Of course, I was living on the streets and a criminal, so there was that.”
The video light on the laptop lit up.
He narrowed his eyes and focused on the screen. There was no reason for that to happen. Not unless the security camera wasn’t working.
But then why would the laptop suddenly light up?
A pop-up menu appeared with a message.
Backup has arrived. Hang tight. Don’t do anything stupid.
Just as quickly as the message illuminated the screen, it disappeared. So did the video light.
Jimmy.
It had to have been Jimmy. He was the only one who had the capabilities to hack into the system, find the Trojan horse, and use it to weave in and out of Zero Gravity until he found Lincoln and Stormi.
Of course, he couldn’t have done it without Tal because Lincoln was sure Jimmy would have reached out after that last text. Or vice versa.
The cavalry was on the way.
They had to be.
But he couldn’t say a fucking word to Stormi. Shit. She was going to be pissed. Again.
He was fucking tired of having the woman he cared about being angry at him because he kept secrets.
“I’d love to see a picture of that,” Stormi said.
“When we get out of here, I’ll dig one up for you. But you have to promise not to laugh.”
“I will make no such promise.” A few tears dribbled down her cheeks.
God, he wished he could tell her it was going to be okay. But even knowing someone was on the way to rescue them, he couldn’t promise her anything. For all he knew, that message was a trick, something he had to consider.
Behind him, the door flung open.
He jerked his head as Jimmy raced down the ten steps.
“I’ve got the security camera going on a five-minute loop in this room. But we’ve got to hurry.” Jimmy quickly cut through Stormi’s ties.
“Who are you?” Stormi asked as she rubbed her wrists.
“Special Agent James Hallenbeck, at your service, ma’am,” Jimmy said. “I’ve been working with your father. Now, let’s move.” He cut through Lincoln’s plastic restraints. “Tal, Brayden, Blaze, Brock, and Zeke are all covering the perimeter.”
“Why aren’t we taking them out?” Stormi asked.
“A girl who wants vengeance.” Jimmy chuckled as he took her by the arm and raced up the steps. “That Trojan horse program is finding me a whole lot more than just Jeannie stealing your father’s rocket booster design and then switching it out with a faulty one, causing that explosion. But right now, all that matters is getting you to safety.”
“What’s the plan?” Lincoln took Stormi’s hand and ran down the hallway, following Jimmy.
“Everything will fall apart for them without you two and without the forged documentation. Once the Trojan horse has finished loading everything into my system, me and my team, along with the local police, will arrest David, Jeannie, Tony, and Samantha. The four of them will go away for a very long…” Jimmy skidded to a stop. “Motherfucker.”
Lincoln pushed Stormi behind him. “Samantha, put that thing down. You don’t want to do this. It’s over.”
Bang!
Stormi screamed.
Jimmy dropped to his knees, clutching his gut. Blood trickled between his fingers.
Stormi’s gaze shifted between Samantha and Jimmy.
“You didn’t have to do that.” Lincoln took Jimmy by the shoulders and eased him down to the floor. “Stormi, put as much pressure as possible on his wound.”
“Aw, look at you.” Samantha laughed. “Aren’t you cute, trying to save a dead man.”
“He’s got a wife. Kids. Let him go. It’s me you want anyway,” Lincoln said.
“And your bitch girlfriend.” Samantha cocked her head.
“I’d be careful who you call bitch,” Stormi muttered as she pressed her hands on Jimmy’s stomach.
Jimmy shifted to the side, showing off a second weapon.
Stormi swallowed. She slinked her fingers around the butt of the gun.
“You don’t want to piss me off any more than I already am. Trust me, I’ll shoot you and not bat an eyelash,” Samantha said.
“So will I.” With an unsteady hand, Stormi raised the weapon, pointed it at Samantha’s chest, and pulled the trigger.
Bang!
Samantha’s eyes grew wide. Her gun slipped from her fingertips. She glanced down at her chest, then back to Stormi. “I can’t believe you fucking shot me.” Blood trickled out of Samantha’s mouth as she gurgled and coughed, stumbling backward. “Unbelievable.” She fell to the floor, taking her last breath.
“Jimmy. Stay with us, man.” Lincoln tore off his shirt and pushed it over his bloody abdomen. “Do you have a cell?”
Jimmy nodded. “But your buddies are right behind you,” he said weakly.
“Already called it in. The ambulance should be here in less than five. Weston’s outside waiting to show them the way.” Tal rested his hand on Lincoln’s shoulder. “Damn. She’s a good shot.” Tal pushed him aside and took over attending to Jimmy’s wounds.
Stormi covered her face. A guttural sob filled her throat.
“Hey there.” Lincoln’s strong arms wrapped around her body, lifting her onto his lap. He kissed her temple. “It’s okay. Let it all out.”
“I killed her,” she whispered. “I took a life. How will I ever live with myself?”
“Oh, sweetheart.” Lincoln held her tighter. “I wish I could say you won’t have nightmares. Or that this won’t affect you, because it will. But don’t forget, she tried to kill Jimmy, and she would have killed both of us if you hadn’t pulled that trigger.”
“I know. I know, but that doesn’t take away the pain in my chest. I didn’t even think. I just did it.”
“Because you acted on instinct.” He cupped her face. “I’m not proud of the fact that I’ve taken human life. It always haunts me.”
A gentle touch squeezed her leg. “I know that this will be a struggle,” Jimmy said weakly. “Whether I make it or not, my family will be grateful to you.”
“You’ve got to make it.” Stormi swiped at her face. “You have to fight.”
“Trust me. I am.” Jimmy smiled.
The sound of boots hitting the tile floor filled the air. She glanced over Lincoln’s shoulder. The paramedics raced in their direction.
“Is this over? Can I see my father?” she asked no one in particular.
“Unfortunately, the FBI works slowly.” Weston, a local police officer, appeared behind the paramedics. “It might take a day or two. There will be questioning and lots of red tape to jump through. And there is the question of your identity and how to handle that.”
More tears flowed. She couldn’t stop them if she tried.
“Babe, I’ll be with you every step of the way,” Lincoln whispered as he helped her to a standing position.
The paramedics lifted Jimmy onto the gurney. He reached for her hand. “And remember this. You set the record straight when it came to your father. And this company. You did a good thing. Don’t forget that.”
“We’ve got to roll,” the paramedic said.
She leaned into Lincoln’s strong frame. “I kind of want to go back to being a librarian.”
Lincoln chuckled. “Come on. Unfortunately, it’s going to be a long few days of interviews.”
She glanced up, catching his soulful, loving gaze. “Thank you.”
“For what?”
“Searching for the truth. Searching for the real me, even though I didn’t make it easy.”
He kissed her temple. “Babe, from the moment I met you, I was hooked and now you’re never getting rid me.”
“I wouldn’t want to.” She patted his chest. “But if I ever catch you stealing my eyeliner, we’re going to have a problem.”