Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86177 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 431(@200wpm)___ 345(@250wpm)___ 287(@300wpm)
4
SANTA BARBARA
Jamie
You have been outbid.
I lifted my MacBook Pro above the marble waterfall slab, prepared to slam it down, then stared at my Rottweiler on the ground at my side. The dog looked up at me, head tilted. “Okay. Okay. I’m not that guy anymore, Rebel. What’s the one thing I ask of you?”
Ruff.
“Don’t lose your you know what. So as a man who practices what he preaches, I won’t lose mine either.” I placed the almost $4000 laptop on the expensive stone and glanced out the floor-to-ceiling windows that lined my living room. God, why? Why taunt me with this beautiful day?
Why didn’t I have enough money to save Jordyn? And what type of name was Rocket, anyway? All the plans I’d made crumpled the moment that message appeared on the dark web. “Outbid,” I muttered beneath my breath, imbuing an expletive into palms that scrubbed over my face. “I have a backup plan. I’m good.”
Always have a backup plan. My commanding officer in the military had contingencies for everything.
As my Rottie, with her silk black coat, bounded out of the room, I opened the laptop again. Logged into that deplorable human meat factory, I tortured myself with another look.
You have been outbid.
The doorbell rang. A flash of black came from my peripheral as my Rottweiler took off like a guided missile to the front door.
Grabbing a purified water, I strolled to the entryway, where my trained dog sat on her haunches. My bare feet slapped the bamboo floors, a taunt. Too much sensory overload. With that thought, a reminder of what I saw when I opened my virtual private network on my laptop and searched Rocket flashed in my mind. My VPN encrypted my web searches and ensured Rocket didn’t track me down for trying to find him. But my search didn’t reveal anything about the buyer.
Rocket had never purchased someone before. Not in any of the other chats. I’d scrubbed the dark web. It came up with arms weapons deals for Shoulder-Launched Multipurpose Assault Weapons and the M142 HMARS I’d used in the military. The idiot’s name—Rocket—made it hard for me to distinguish a person from the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems that defended the country I loved. I needed more time to find this Rocket-person.
I punched in a code next to the massive ebony wood door, and it zipped open. Leith strolled inside, then almost jumped out of his skin. “Woah! Big dog.”
“Refrain from calling her big. Rebel’s sensitive.”
Leith snorted. As if realizing the Rottweiler didn’t see him as a threat, he glanced around like he’d entered a museum. Before I could check my older brother for snooping, the phone in my tactical pants vibrated.
“Mack,” I answered the call, eyes on Leith. I cleared my throat. Leith focused on an expensive turquoise fire-blown glass figurine that resembled an ocean wave.
“I’ve got bad news,” the caller said. “My team took another gig. I returned the down payment you wired. It shows complete on my end. We can’t meet you in Tarzana.”
“When. Did. You. Think you’d tell me?” I gritted out beneath my breath. I’d found Jordyn and all I could about the Russian who took her. Aleksandr Chelomey had his own team. At least ten men, based on a neighbor kid’s drone. I had given the kid, who lived a few miles away, two hundred bucks to fly his drone over the house, which spanned almost two acres. The kid didn’t know that I had remotely hacked his drone. He’d gone to the gate and apologized to prevent suspicion. Otherwise, Aleksandr’s men would’ve been on high alert if someone didn’t take the blame. And then, when the Bratva enforcer lied that it broke, I gave the crying kid a gift card for another drone, even though the first payment would have handled the kid’s first drone with its mid-grade components.
“I’m telling you now,” the mercenary gritted. The noise in the background resembled that of a chopper. Okay, fancy. I suspected the other assignment was to take more time than mine. More pay too. “We’re about to deploy now. Feel free to contact us in two weeks if you still—”
I thumbed the Off button and glared at my brother, who’d just set down the expensive glass art. He gave a long whistle. “Jamie, this is nice. How’d ya—”
“Yes, it’s all legit.”
“First things first, when you went MIA on us after graduating from UC Santa Barbara, we tore this beach town down looking for you. Guess we should’ve searched closer to the shore. Second, I didn’t know Marines made that much. The GI Bill?”
“Didn’t help me that much. The stock market did.”
“Oh.” Leith smiled, picking up a resin sculpture, this one of a stallion.
“Listen, I texted you this morning. Your services are no longer needed.” And my backup plan just went to hell.