Black Dawn (22 page)

His fingers tapped the desk as he pulled up Monarch’s social media site and dummied an account for the social network. It was like Facebook, except specifically for women, catering to military families. He opened a different browser to read Monarch’s corporate user stats. Nothing he couldn’t guess.

Now that he was logged in as a new user, it automatically prompted him to enter entirely too much information: home address, work address, family names, ages, where they worked, what they did. No wonder Monarch was such a heavy hitter. They had tons information they could sell to advertisers.

Entering his BS information, he clicked to the next screen.
Groups to join
. A cartoon caterpillar was guiding him through the process. As soon as Parker clicked one interest, another page with more groups appeared. Users looked at it as Monarch offering community support, but Parker looked at it through the deviant goggles of a malicious third party. There was far too much easily accessible information.

He shook his head, his stomach dropping at all the information a terrorist could get their hands on with one simple program. The caterpillar inched across the screen, urging him to pick a group interest to find his
home to flourish
. Shit. Automatically, he picked Military: Marines. Hundreds of Marine Wives and Family groups popped up.

The gnawing nauseated feeling he’d had before exponentially increased as he joined group after group. Within minutes, he had a social network of several thousand and a reach of hundreds of thousands, all “fellow” military wives. All posting their husband’s rank and location, the change-of-command photos, their well-wishes and concerns, the missed birthdays and postponed homecomings. There was so much emotion on the pages, so much shared with each other, that for a second, all Parker could do was feel sick over the sitting targets in front of him.

Terrorists didn’t want their fight abroad. They wanted it here in the US and in allied nations. Monarch gave them pinpoint-level accuracy on where they could show up and wreak havoc.

They were bringing the fight here…?

But it was only a theory based on instinct and assumptions on what was happening in the world and the international political climate. He had nothing hard and fast to base his theory on, but Parker had no doubt what was happening. Even though there wasn’t much in the terrorist chatter and there had been little given to soldiers’ families in terms of warnings—simple things like don’t post pictures or friend people you don’t know—truth was, no one had told people to stop posting their lives online. And it was finally going to come back and haunt them.

Parker picked up his cell and called Jared.

Jared answered on the second ring. “If this has anything to do with that Shadow security thing that you promised me was a ‘simple job,’
I’m not in the mood.”

“Think it’s bigger than that.” Parker’s eyes narrowed as he continued to add friends and expand his Monarch network. The caterpillar was gone, and a butterfly had taken its place, promising him he was ready to fly.

“Yeah, how so?”

Parker kept clicking. The butterfly sent him a notification that it was hungry. What the hell did that mean—oh, he needed to join more groups to keep his stupid butterfly happy. The site was genius if it wasn’t so damn dangerous.

“Parker,” Jared snapped. “What the fuck do you have?”

“It’s a theory, but I may’ve scratched the surface of a terrorist plot.”

He groaned and cursed. “Be there in five.”

Shit. Okay. This was what he did, what Titan handled. But he also needed to find Lexi and make sure she was safe. For the first time, the right move wasn’t analytically clear—no, wrong. It wasn’t the first time thinking about her had altered his decision-making process.

Parker rubbed his temples. He needed to see this idea through, to investigate what he thought. But at the same time, his mind searched for the woman who made him want to question his standard operating procedure.

Jared stormed into Parker’s tech-lair. “Explain.”

So he did, spending twenty minutes walking Boss Man through the site and his thoughts. Jared rubbed his face, looking over everything the screen said and analyzing the limited intelligence they had.

Finally, Jared shook his head. “Seems extraordinarily complicated for micro-targeted attacks. If the fuckers want to come over here and cause havoc, why not ping people off the street? Attack random homes.”

Parker pulled up a page of his Monarch groups, noting the obnoxious, already-hungry-again butterfly. “All military.”

“I got that.” Then Jared’s brows went up as his eyes narrowed on what Parker was certain was a list of deployed wives support groups. “Shit. Fuck.”

“Right?” Parker nodded solemnly. “Those fuckers come over here and hurt families,
kids
, while their dad and mom are overseas? If there’s no rhyme or reason to the attack—” He scrolled down the list. Young and old. Every part of the country. There were too many people to protect at once. Thousands of vulnerable possibilities. “Screw low morale—a lot of those soldiers will do what it takes to protect their families. And those who don’t do something will be distracted and dysfunctional.”

“Fuck.” Jared cracked his knuckles. “Alright, I have a couple calls to make. What’s your next move? Where are you digging on this?”

“Back hack the IP of a lead in the DC General’s server. Look at the hole in Monarch’s site and see what it really shows, then trace the security footage to follow the stolen laptop.”

“Good. Do it.”

Parker’s fingers were already flying on the keyboard. “It’ll take time.”

“If that thing is on the run to God knows where, we don’t have time.”

No time and not enough manpower. Lexi had to keep herself safe, at least until they made progress.

“And, Parker?”

He looked up, still typing, still worrying about his woman.

“If this is what you think it is, then I need to turn it over.”

Parker nodded, not feeling territorial at all. “No problem.”

Boss Man’s brow furrowed. “Why?”

“Why what?”

“You fight to keep every project under your control, and the possibility that this mother bear might be the greatest looming threat out there, you’re cool with passing it along and not asking to stay with it?”

He paused, thinking over the absurdity of what Jared had just suggested, then he nodded. “Something like that.”

“What’s going on with you?”

He took a deep breath before sharing how his personal and professional lives had crashed together. “Silver is Lexi.”

Jared’s jaw worked side to side. “I’m not exactly sure what that means.”

Parker had never not shared everything in minute detail when it came to his concerns, ideas, and solutions, and Jared always listened, even when Parker went a little too deep in the weeds. So this was different. They both seemed to feel it too.

“You have a problem with asking for help?” Jared asked.

“No.”

“Alright then. Ask when it’s needed.”

“Ten-four, Boss Man.” Maybe. She was so guarded that Titan storming after her might make her run deeper. He was at a crossroads, torn between following after a terrorist threat or chasing down his woman on the run.

Jared pulled his phone out, already dialing, when he paused and turned around. “Don’t make me pull you out of custody again.”

“No worries for that.” Parker kept his face stoic and unreadable, but on the inside, he’d already decided Lexi was his priority and changed his mental operations to focus on a missing-person job. Soon as he had anything to go on and Jared had turned over the threat concerns, he’d be out the door.

CHAPTER THIRTY

Parker pinged Lexi-slash-Silver again every way he knew how and went back to tracing her through camera footage, searching for her motorcycle. A quick blip of a reply, nothing more than a symbolic hello, came across his phone, and his chest tightened, possessive concern eating him alive. Parker studied his cell phone then replied with digits and a message that it was a secure line. Then he stared. And stared. Waiting.

The screen lit before it rang, and relief broke through him as the unknown number flashed on the phone’s console. He swiped the handset off the desk. “Where are you?”

“You should leave me alone.
You
told me to go dark,” she whispered.

“I also said I’d find you. It’d be easier if you answered when I reach out.” His fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to pinpoint her precise location. It might have been secure on his end, but she was still flailing in the wind. Time wasn’t on his side.
Eastern United States
. Alright. Getting somewhere. Lexi was at least still on his side of the country.

“Stop. I know what you’re doing, Parker.”

“Of course you know what I’m doing.” Though he could tell she’d gone through a lot of hoops to hide where she was when she called. Not that that would stop him. He hit a cyber-wall. Shit. Backing out, Parker tried another way, searching for a hole, something she wouldn’t have anticipated. He ran a hand into his hair, growling at the screen. “What I don’t get is why I have to.”

“I’ve created this mess. I don’t want you to get hurt. I don’t want you to get in trouble with the law. I don’t want you to accidentally murder someone on my behalf.”

God, she had no idea. “Don’t be like that, Lex. Where are you?”

The next line of code got past another one of her barriers. His search narrowed as he triangulated.
Virginia
. Okay, so she hadn’t gone too far.

She sucked in a breath. “Don’t use my name.”

So quiet. Too quiet. Her words stabbed in his chest, building pressure that he wasn’t used to. She was scared, and he needed to fix that.

“We’re past the point of being concerned over a name-handle connection,” he said. “You’re in trouble. I can fix this. It’s what I do.”

She remained silent.

“Goddamn it, Lexi, where are you?” He went back to the first screen that had started his initial search. Inside Union Station, she was just walking into the coffee shop. Even in that simple, grainy picture, she was so damn beautiful that he almost couldn’t take his eyes off her.

“Just let me stay dark for a while, and I’ll be back.”

“It doesn’t work like that, Lex.”

“Everything will be forgotten.”

“There’s a whole lot I have no intention of forgetting.” He’d almost pinpointed her. She was in northern Virginia.

“You can’t just beat up your way out of this. I’m causing trouble for everyone—God, were you arrested?”

“You have no idea what’s going on. You need a safe house and security.”

He should’ve told her more of who he was, what he did for a living, how he was more than a set of hands and a brain that could turn her world upside down. He should have sworn that he was her protector, and that he would kill himself to make sure he was holding her at the end of the day—God help anyone stupid enough to try to come after her again. Damn it. He should’ve said more than Titan was complicated because Titan was his authority to scorch the earth until he found her.

“I have it under control, and I’ll call you later.”

The line went dead a half second before he could pinpoint her location.

“Fuck!” He slammed his phone receiver down and pushed back from the desk.

Breathing hard and mind racing, he didn’t know the next move and couldn’t make heads or tails of what he was supposed to do. He had a decent area with multiple modes of transportation and several interstates. Not a lot, but the data was a starting point. Parker snapped out of his stupor and worked the remnants of her signal, hoping to find some regional bread crumb.

A throat cleared behind him. His head turned and took in Winters leaning against the wall, arms crossed.

Parker blew out his frustration. “Busy.”

Winters took a step forward. “What the fuck was all that about?”

Anxiety, confusion, and a thousand things in between skewered his judgment. “Nothing.”

“Parker?” he tried again.

Parker ran his hands along his desk to try to let the smooth surface calm his nerves. His work area was icy cold. They kept it that way for the electronics. The lights were dim, and the room hummed. None of it gave him direction, none of it centered him, and finding no answers, he dropped his head farther, rubbed his temples, and cursed.

His buddy laughed quietly. “You want me to guess what’s wrong with you?”

Parker shook his head. “I am fucked.”

“Nah, you’re never one to get into a position that screws you. Though you almost landed your genius ass in jail today, so what do I know?”

“A friend of mine found herself in deep and doesn’t know how to get out. She thinks she has it handled, and she doesn’t.”

“You realize you’re being vague and talking in circles?” Winters scowled.

Parker sighed. “It’s a long story.”

“Is there a short version?”

Short version… there wasn’t one. Other than the one-sentence summary he’d given Boss Man.
Lex is Silver.
Jared just walked back in, so the conversation had the potential to get much worse.