Burned: Black Cipher Files #3 (Black Cipher Files series) (34 page)

He had stolen that from me. Stolen my childhood. My teen years. My love of water. My grandparents.

“You aren’t going to steal anything else from me.” The sand ground against my clenched fists.

If I could rip him apart with my bare hands I would do it. He’d taken everything. And now he had the audacity to think he would take Zeke away from me too?

I didn’t think so.

He raised his eyebrows. “What are you babbling about?”

Zeke lay unmoving in the surf, his position eerily similar to the night we met and I had dragged him to safety. I had to figure out how to disable Stanley and get Zeke away from the pull of the tide. My heart thundered in my chest, pounding so hard, it boomed against my ribcage.

“Where’s your mother?”

“Why’d you kill Grammy and Grampy?” I countered. No way was I giving up Mama. He was going to be pissed when he figured out that we’d lied and that she wasn’t meeting us here.

Zeke thought this man was a sleeper. Part of a larger conspiracy to eliminate survivors of World War II who had potentially posed a threat to foreign relations if it were ever revealed they were alive and well and living in the U.S.

“That’s not important.” He dismissed the most significant night of my life with a flick of his hand.

“Are you serious?” I kept my eye on the stun gun but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t use it on me until he found out where my mother was.

“It was just a job,” he said.

A preternatural calm descended over me as he casually dismissed my pain, my mother’s pain, and the last thirteen years of running, hiding.

“A job.”

Frankly, I thought he could sense that I wasn’t afraid of him anymore. I was more afraid of losing Zeke. But I processed his unemotional admission. A job. So Zeke had been right.

And somehow John Stanley was wrapped up in Zeke’s problems.

“Who hired you?”

He jerked back as if I’d shot him. “What?”

Right here, this was the information that Zeke needed. Who hired John Stanley?

“You heard me.”

He tilted his head to the right, his hair unkempt, more than a few days scraggly stubble on his face obscured his chin and heavier cheeks. The years had not been kind to him. He looked…old and slightly defeated. His bushy eyebrows lowered over his angry eyes. “What the hell difference does it make?”

I demanded flatly, “Who was the job for?”

“Classified.” He shot back.

“Huh, too bad.”

“Why do you care anyway?”

“You’re kidding. Right?” I could feel my temper beginning to boil again. “You killed my grandparents!” I shouted.

“They were a threat to national security,” he said, absolutely serious.

“Really?” I said derisively. “You never questioned that? My Grampy was an insurance salesman. My Grammy made prize winning strawberry jam for the state fair. They were hardly security threats.”

“Enough of this.” He ignored my sarcasm. “Where is your mother?”

The fear that had been part of my life for literally years melted away in a moment of extreme clarity. This was always about my mother. “You didn’t kill them because of national security. You wanted them away from her.”

He flushed. “It was a job.”

“They didn’t like you.” I twisted that knife just a little harder.

“I was never good enough in their eyes,” he snarled.

“Because you weren’t good enough,
John
.” I pulled my memories of those arguments between my mother and grandparents to the forefront, heated whispers and angry accusations. My grandparents had been against their marriage from the start. “You are never going to be as good as my father.”

He gave a bark of laughter. “Ha. But who’s in the ground and who’s standing here?” John jabbed his thumb at his barrel chest. “I’m still standing. Once he was out of the way, I was good enough for her.”

My heart stopped.

There was something there. Something in those words that made me want to turn away. Made me want to run. Because there was a sort of secret glee. As if…he’d had something to do with my father’s death.

And then he did it. He shattered what was left of my childhood memories. “Your precious father was no match for me.”

“You—”

“Opened the playing field for my seduction.”

My knees weakened. “You killed my father?”

He smirked as if pleased he could finally reveal his secret.

And my rage imploded, like well-set C4 designed to decimate a building, all the frustration over everything that had been done to my family, all the heartache we’d endured, the loss we’d suffered coalesced into an incandescent rage.

I threw the sand in his face.

He howled and dropped the Taser.

Then I launched myself at him. My arms swung and my legs kicked at any spot on his body I could reach, I angled my palm and slammed the heel toward his face. I connected with nose and heard the satisfying crunch as the cartilage broke. Blood gushed. “Ouch, you bitch.”

He curled his fingers around my shoulders so hard that his fingers dug into the soft tissue on pressure points and rendered my arms useless. I jerked my knee up into his groin, and connected hard with his balls.

He moaned and dropped to his knees, then I jammed my knee into the underside of his jaw. I must have hit the exact right spot because his eyes rolled back in his head and he toppled over onto the sand unconscious.

I needed to restrain him. We’d planned ahead for this. I dug through Zeke’s back pocket until I pulled the bungee cord out in triumph.

I shook it at the sky. Luckily John had fallen with his right arm behind him and I quickly pressed his left arm together with his right. Then I wrapped the thick elastic band tightly around his wrists in a figure eight until there was only enough give to secure the metal hooks.

I hoped his fucking hands fell off.

By the time I finished I was sweating from a combination of fear and thrill of conquering my nemesis. In my mind, John Stanley had been ten feet tall and invincible. But I had taken him down. The adrenaline that fueled my attack on him zoomed through me and my hands shook with the aftermath of the chemical dump.

My brain was working at warp speed. I couldn’t even process his confession. He’d killed my father. Targeted my mother.

I watched as the water tickled my toes. Too amped up to freak out. Right now I was superwoman. I could conquer anything.

A bigger wave rolled onto the sand, and kept coming until it covered Zeke’s calves. I had to get him away from the water.

“Zeke.” I knelt beside him and cupped his cheek in my palm. My knuckles were red and bruised from the attack. I couldn’t help but lean down and brush my lips over Zeke’s. He was cold, his lips beginning to turn blue. Another wave rolled toward me, but I was more worried about warming him up. I needed him awake so he could help me. I didn’t know Lucas Goodman’s phone number. It was embedded in Zeke’s brain. Every time he’d used his phone he’d erased the history. So I needed Zeke awake to call Lucas and Jamie to come get John.

“Wake up.”

I was also shoving some of Stanley’s revelations to the back of my mind. I needed time to process, to accept what he had done.

Then I had to decide if I was going to tell my mother. After all, she’d let this monster into our lives. I wasn’t sure I wanted her to live with the guilt.

“I need you to wake up, babe.”

I rolled him until I could get my arms underneath his armpits and partially lift him up. The water shushed in and helped me pull Zeke just a little farther away from the encroaching waves.

When the tide tugged on his feet I held strong. With a major inhale, I waited for the next incoming wave, I had to get him out of the path of the water. And I had to do it soon. With each inflow, I pulled him further up the beach.

The sand was cool against the back of my thighs and the breeze from the ocean was scented with brine. Usually that calmed me but I wanted to get Zeke out of danger. With the last tug I lost my balance and fell back on the sand. Zeke lay between my thighs, his torso spread me wide, and his head lolled against my breasts.

The position was similar to the first time we’d ended up on the sand. But then I’d only had an inkling of arousal. Now, even with John Stanley trussed up and unconscious several feet from us, my body tingled with awareness. As if I recognized him on some primordial level, my sex softened, my nipples hardened, and I had the urge to wrap him up in my arms and never let him go.

Cray-cray. I needed to get my head on straight. Zeke didn’t need me mooning over him. He needed me to wake him up and get the heck out of here.

And frankly I needed him. I couldn’t move John Stanley on my own.

Yet, I couldn’t help myself. I lifted Zeke’s head into my lap. The chill of the ocean and his wet clothes seeped into the crotch of my shorts. I brushed the miniscule fuzz of his hair, the buzz cut tickled my palm even as I mourned the loss of his beautiful curls.

The new cut emphasized his high cheekbones and the dark ocean blue of his eyes and gave him a harder, more intense look. While he was out of it, I brushed a light kiss over his lips. His mouth was cool and wet beneath mine. But his breath was warm and even. “Wake up. I need you.”

The next wave rolled up to us, slid along my calves and up to the back of my thighs. I held on tightly to him, not about to let the tide pull him back out.

“Back off, ocean. He’s mine.” I pressed my palm along the side of his face and brushed my thumb over his cheekbone. “Zeke, wake up.”

Finally, his lashes fluttered open.

***

He must be dreaming. Sunshine’s voice whispered in his ear and her lips were warm and firm against his mouth. He swore she’d just said he was hers.

Damn, he liked that.

But she’d never been that soft with him. As if she were always on guard, always one step out the door, worrying about what could happen, imagining the worst case scenario and then planning for it.

Not to mention he must have just had a superior wipeout since he could feel the cold, wet sand beneath his legs and lower back. But the rest of him was surrounded by her sensual heat and the unique scent of sand and sea and cucumber that was Sunshine.

Zeke’s eyes popped open just as she smoothed her palm over his chest. Sunshine leaned over him, her hair askew, and her eyes concerned. He swore she’d just been kissing him. As he stared up at her, he had that disorientation again. That same feeling that struck him two days ago. That moment of recognition.
Oh there you are.

A wave washed up and rolled over their legs cresting at his butt and then backing away.

Sunshine.

Shit. The last thing he remembered, they’d been standing on the sand and then he’d been hit with some serious voltage.

She was in trouble. He had to help her.

Zeke pushed up from the sand and nearly knocked his forehead on her chin. “You okay?”

She scrambled to her feet. “I’m fine.” She tucked her hands behind her back.

Zeke finally noted her shorts were wet. The waves. She hadn’t freaked. “You...the water.”

“I know. But right now we need to call Jamie and Lucas so they can get John Stanley to the authorities without outing you.” She gestured behind her and finally Zeke saw her nemesis laid out on the sand.

Even though Chen was in custody, Zeke hadn’t been cleared. He hadn’t heard a word. But he knew that Carson would want to talk to Stanley. “Okay. We follow the plan. Call Jamie and Lucas. John Stanley broke a million rules when he married your mother and then continued to chase after you for the last thirteen years.”

“We just have to make sure he stays here and unconscious until they can come and take him away.” Sunshine said, “We have to time it right so that you’re gone before they get here.”

Zeke stared at the man who’d made her life miserable. His gaze shot to hers. “You did this?”

“I did.” She had a wide, pleased smile on her face. “But I wasn’t able to get any information for you about who hired him.”

“It’s okay. Two problems down. One more to go.” Zeke smiled. “Together we’re invincible.”

He had the goofiest urge to flex his biceps like an old cartoon character.

Her answering smile was soft, triumphant.

He’d enjoy the feeling of accomplishment later, when he wasn’t still so fuzzy from the Taser. But then peripherally he noted the figure easing toward them. And suddenly everything fell into place. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t seen the pattern sooner. He was fucked.

“Sunshine,” Zeke whispered desperately. “Run.”

Thirty-Nine

Zeke wouldn’t have ever thought the traitor was someone he knew. Someone he’d put his faith in.

He tried to shove Sunshine away. “Run,” he hissed again.

“What?”

“Actually, I’ll need her to stay right there with you, Zeke.” Assistant Director Armbruster stood ten feet away, his feet and legs spread in a combative stance. “How kind of you to all gather together for me.”

Shit, shit, shit.

Sunshine’s eyes widened. Her gray gaze reflected the murky sky above as she mouthed, “A.D.A.?”

Zeke dipped his chin but tried to keep his gaze centered on the man responsible for all his problems. And Zeke finally realized, there was no way for him to get out of this intact.

No one was going to believe a disgraced NSA hacker, who had allegedly given a top secret encryption program to a threat to national security, over one of the highest ranking directors in the organization.

“Let her go.” He had to try even though he had no leverage and no weapon. It was tucked safely in Sunshine’s purse, too far away for either of them to get to it.

“You should have left it alone.” Armbruster held a weapon along the side of his leg. “If you’d just quit trying to find Chen we could have let it all go. In your own way it was your OCD that prompted this whole situation.”

Sunshine propped her hands on her hips. “So you’re the one who gave Susan Chen the encryption program?”

“Yes, my dear. Liam was an exceptional research scientist, but the man could not program to save his life. And keeping both the names and results of the experiment tightly controlled was imperative.”