Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 63763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
I’d filled in Stryker and Hawkeye on the breach while I was collecting my equipment. A compromised 911 system was not a routine technology issue that Black Castle would send a single specialist to handle. I carried a hardened company laptop beneath one arm and a compact digital forensic kit in my other hand. They followed me with the quiet readiness they brought into any building where the threat had not been identified.
The lock released with a heavy metallic click, and Raines opened the door before stepping aside to let us enter. A uniformed deputy waited nearby with one hand resting close to his holster, and I barely refrained from rolling my eyes at the idiot’s posturing.
Being here on official business didn’t erase the rocker on my cut. Even unarmed, the little shit wouldn’t know what hit him before he’d even drawn his weapon.
Raines had called Black Castle rather than contacting me as a Black Crown, and the distinction mattered, even if the same men ultimately walked through his door.
Black Castle Security was an elite, fully legitimate company owned by Stryker and the club, with independent hardware, forensic capabilities, and a reputation Raines needed to justify bringing us into a county facility.
The Black Crowns did not always follow the law, but we protected our community. If the breach had come from inside local law enforcement, we needed to understand the threat to the club and everyone who lived in our territory.
The sheriff’s gray-threaded mustache was drawn into the hard line, as his gaze moved across the three of us. “Appreciate you getting here this fast. I need dispatch functioning, but first, I need to know who the fuck I can trust near the system.”
In other words, he needed a cyber specialist he knew couldn’t be corrupted. As Director of Information Security and Secure Logistics, I oversaw the teams protecting Black Castle Security and the clients whose lives, companies, or reputations depended on information remaining where it belonged. I had spent twelve years as a SEAL and JSOC tactical-intelligence operator before taking the position, which meant I understood that the person behind a keyboard could become a physical threat the moment someone found the right door.
“I couldn’t take a chance contacting county IT or the contractor maintaining the dispatch network,” Raines explained as he led us deeper into the building. “Since either one could be involved, I wasn’t about to hand a possible suspect administrative access and let him clean his own fucking crime scene.”
“Made the right call,” I told him as we approached the dispatch doors. “Bringing them in first could’ve erased whatever traces are still there.”
“Exactly what I was trying to avoid.” Raines swiped his card and waited for the lock to release, anger sharpening every line of his face. “Somebody used my department to leave a woman alone with the man trying to kill her. I want to know who.”
The dispatch center sat behind another controlled entrance, its usual activity reduced to low voices and the hum of equipment no one had been permitted to touch. Two dispatchers waited near the supervisor’s office with their arms folded, one visibly irritated by the shutdown and the other frightened enough to keep glancing at every dark monitor. A deputy stood beside the routed-call terminal taking emergency information relayed from the neighboring county, while the remaining consoles had been abandoned exactly as Raines ordered.
Then I saw Bex behind the center console, and every useful thought in my head had to fight through the physical reaction she caused before it reached the surface.
A navy-blue department polo followed the soft shape of her tits before disappearing into practical black slacks, and her honey-blond hair had been pulled into a high ponytail with a few loose strands around her face. Her headset rested around her neck, exhaustion bruised the skin beneath her vivid eyes, and concern had stripped away the impish brightness she’d aimed at me three weeks ago without diminishing her beauty by a fucking inch.
My cock hardened beneath my jeans with enough force to make the reaction irritatingly difficult to ignore. One glance at her full pink mouth dragged up the same image I had spent three weeks trying to kill—Bex on her knees between my thighs, that silky hair wrapped around my fist while her clever tongue learned exactly what it took to make me lose control. I’d avoided any place Raines’s daughter might have crossed my path, yet my first sight of her again proved the distance had accomplished nothing except leave me hungrier.
Bex’s attention snapped to me before the door finished closing, as though her body had been tracking my arrival with the same unwanted accuracy as mine. Relief crossed her face first, softening the tension around her eyes, but it vanished beneath the memory of our last conversation so fast I couldn’t decide whether I’d imagined it. Her chin lifted by a fraction, and the look she gave me made it clear she remembered every word I’d said at the wedding and remained unimpressed by all of them.