Wanted (FBI Heat Book 3) (13 page)

Five minutes later, wearing her “favorite sweater” and carrying a vase of flowers, Kat hurried to the truck. She climbed inside and collapsed in the seat.

“Oh my God, Dillon. You almost got caught.”

“But I didn’t. Good work, babe. Now let’s get the hell out of here.”

After they passed through the security gate, Kat breathed a sigh of relief. “Should you call Chaos and make sure he knows we’re out safely, mission accomplished?”

“I can’t.”

“Why?”

“For his protection, I can’t use my iPhone or the new burner phone I have with me. But I’m sure he saw us pass the gate and has already reactivated the cameras. I’m a little worried about Charlie though.”

“He didn’t seem suspicious after we left the administration building.”

“That’s good, but if he checks the camera feed for the time you were both standing by the door, he’s not going to see anyone there. He’ll know someone tampered with the cameras.”

“But he won’t know it was us, right?”

“He won’t know and he won’t be able to trace it to Chaos, but he’ll damn well be suspicious if he has any brains.”

Kat wanted to throw up. God, she’d been so scared for Dillon. If he’d been caught on Farook’s computer, his FBI career would’ve been finished. But he’d taken that risk anyway…for her.

By the time they reached the storage facility, she was drained and headed straight for the futon. Dillon brought her a cold bottle of water and sat down beside her.

“What’s the next step, Shadow?”

“You just rest, Scotty.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Chaos and I will put together a dossier on everything we’ve uncovered. Then we’ll send it anonymously to the FBI.”

“You know how to do that?”

“It’s what TSK does.”

Did she want to know? Hell, yes. “And TSK is…?”

He leaned forward, clasped his hands between his knees, and bowed his head in resignation. “Before I met you and before I became an agent, I ran a hacking group called The Shadow Knows.”

“Seriously? You mean like Anonymous, the hackers whose symbol is the Guy Fawkes mask?”

“No,” he snapped. “Our computer skills were just as awesome, but all our work was to benefit law enforcement, to bring justice, to help people. We weren’t subversive.”

She held up her hands in surrender. “Okay, okay, sorry I asked.”

He shrugged. “I enjoyed the hell out of it, and I was proud of what we accomplished, but I couldn’t risk doing it anymore.”

“If it was for a good purpose, why not?”

He peered at her, long and hard. “Because of you, Kat. I couldn’t risk going to jail because of you. I wanted us to have a future.”

The pain in his eyes told her how much he’d given up for them. And she’d thrown it all away without even knowing his sacrifice. Just as he had no clue what she had sacrificed so he could have the future and adopted family he’d always wanted. Ironic really.

“I’m sorry, Dillon.” She clasped her hands tightly, as if holding herself back. “I didn’t know.”

“Of course you didn’t know. I couldn’t take a chance you’d be considered an accomplice.” He shrugged again. “But it wouldn’t have made any difference. The no-babies thing ruined us anyway.”

She touched his cheek tenderly. “I wish there was a compromise, but you deserve to live your life the way you want. And I deserve the same.”

“Yeah.” He pulled away from her touch. “I should get to work.”

Without meeting her gaze, he trudged to the computer table. He plugged in his earbuds and made a call on the old burner phone. “Okay, Chaos, let’s pull this all together.”

To escape the guilt of hurting Dillon and the anxiety of what they’d done at Diablo Beach, Kat let sleep draw her into oblivion. When she woke up, she was disappointed to see it was already nine o’clock; she’d probably missed the chance to call and say good night to Skye.

Dillon was so preoccupied with the computers that he didn’t even seem to notice that she was awake. Silently, Kat found her phone in her purse and turned over so her back was to him. She texted her mother:
Sorry I’m late. Skye still up?

She waited five minutes and then sent the same text to her dad’s cell. Ten more minutes passed without a response from either one. The thought of her parents happily reading a story to Skye and rocking her to sleep brought a pinch of envy. Kat’s schedule meant she’d missed many nights of putting her baby to bed. She closed her eyes and waited another ten minutes before sending texts to both parents again. Still no response.

Concern began to nibble at the edges of her mind, but she shook it off. Too much cloak-and-dagger stuff was overshadowing her common sense. Maybe they’d put Skye to bed and turned off their phones while they watched a movie.
That makes sense.

She rolled over, sat up, and stuck her phone in her purse. “Dillon, I need to use the bathroom.”

He started like he’d forgotten she was there. “I can’t leave yet. Do you mind if I walk you to the restroom here?”

She clutched the purse to her chest. “I can find it myself.”

“I don’t want you out alone, Kat. C’mon. I need a break anyway.”

He checked outside for several minutes before he let her through the door.

Once she was locked in the bathroom, she yanked the phone from her purse. Still no responses to her texts. She dialed her mom’s cell and got voicemail. Same with her dad. She called their landline. It rang so long that the answering machine kicked on automatically. She left a message there also.

She stared at her reflection in the mirror over the sink. Fear stared back at her.

Her parents would never ignore the landline. Something was wrong. Terribly wrong.

Skye! Oh God, my baby!

Dillon paced outside the restroom door. Things had gone from bad to worse in the past couple hours. And he didn’t want to tell Kat.

When they’d returned from their trip to Diablo Beach, she’d been pale and shaky. Falling asleep had been the best thing for her. But even after her nap, she didn’t look well, worse maybe. How could he add more worry to her already strained state of mind?

He shoved his fingers through his hair and groaned. The night’s downhill spiral had begun when Charlie discovered Kat near Farook’s office. She’d done an admirable job of diverting his attention. Her ploy had allowed Dillon to confirm what he’d suspected: The computer in Farook’s office was not the one issued to him by the IT department. Someone else had that computer. Someone else wanted it to look like Asad Farook—who had the same last name as an infamous terrorist—was involved. And that someone else was letting outsiders use Farook’s computer to access the Diablo Beach system.

Where the outsiders were located was the second bombshell of the night. He’d already suspected that Pakistan wasn’t the origination point. Now he almost wished it were. As he and Chaos had been documenting their evidence, a flurry of activity in the program files had started. They’d used the significant activity to successfully trace the source to China.

Fucking China! Jesus Christ.
Having the Communists troll for personal information in the US Office of Personnel Management files in 2015 was one thing; causing a nuclear meltdown was a whole different ballgame. This discovery also meant the Chinese were after Kat. And those bastards were lethal.

He had to decide—and decide damn quickly—whether providing the information anonymously to the FBI would get the immediate attention this situation warranted. If he picked up the phone and called his boss instead, he
might
prevent a nuclear catastrophe, but he’d
likely
end up in prison and would
definitely
lose his job.

Well, hell.
He didn’t really have a choice. Lives were at stake, thousands of lives, hundreds of thousands even. As soon as he and Chaos finished the dossier of information, Dillon would call Rex with the terrifying news.

“Dillon,” Kat said as she opened the restroom door, “I need to borrow your truck.”

Her request came out of nowhere. But what worried him more than the request itself was how she looked. During five minutes in the bathroom, Kat had turned as white as the fingers of fog hanging overhead. Her eyes were wide, panicky, and filled with fear.

He frowned. “What?”

“I need to—”

“I heard that part. I should’ve said why.”

“I-I can’t tell you.”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m sorry, but I need to…run an errand…alone.”

“Under the circumstances, that’s a damn bad idea.”

“Please, Dillon, trust me on this.”

“Look, it’s not that I don’t trust you.” He sighed. “While you were sleeping, Chaos and I figured out that this Diablo Beach problem is bigger than any of us imagined.”

Her eyes widened even more. “What do you mean?”

“Let’s get back inside where you can’t be seen, and I’ll explain.”

Neither said another word while they hurried back to his unit.

As soon as he locked the door, she demanded, “Okay, tell me. But make it quick. I need to go.”

He couldn’t let her run an errand alone. He had to shock her into cooperating. “The people who’ve been attacking you are covert foreign operatives. People who will stop at nothing to get what they want. They work for the Chinese government.” He paused for effect. “
China
is planning to sabotage Diablo Beach and cause a nuclear meltdown.”

Kat felt the blood drain from her face. Black danced at the edge of her vision. Her legs were suddenly no longer solid.

Dillon caught her before she hit the concrete floor. He carried her to the futon and then ran to wet a paper towel with cold water from the fridge. While he was gone, Kat gave herself a pull-yourself-together pep talk. No time for fainting. No time for weakness. Skye and her parents needed her. They were in danger because of
her
.

“China? Oh God, Dillon,” she said, pushing his hands away and sitting up. “I-I have t-to go. Now!”

“No, Kat, for two reasons. It’s not safe, and you can’t drive. I’ll take you. Just tell me where.”

He helped her to her feet. She wobbled and latched on to his arm. Damn, he was right. She shouldn’t drive. But if Dillon went with her, he’d see…A vise clamped around her heart.
Screw it. Skye’s safety is more important.

“T-to my parents’ house.”

His eyes narrowed. “Your parents? In San Jose?”

“No. Oceanside.”

He blinked. “Maybe you should lie down, Kat.”

“They live in Oceanside now, Dillon. And they’re not answering the phone. Something’s wrong, terribly wrong.”

“Shit! Wait here.” Gently, he pushed her down on the futon again. After he stomped over to the computer table, he picked up the cheap cell and poked a button. “I’ll call you back, Chaos. Stay available.” He stuffed it and his iPhone into his pants pocket. He grabbed the shoulder holster hanging on the chair and slung it on. The second gun, he stuck in his back waistband.

The whole time she watched him, images of Skye and her parents played on her mental video screen.
Skye. Oh God, my baby.

“Ready?” Dillon asked, helping her to her feet again.

She nodded and clutched her purse to her chest.

In less than a minute, they sped out of the storage facility. Her mind was so filled with fear for her daughter that she struggled to stay focused on providing directions to her parents’ house.

Finally, he swung to the curb in front of the modest residence. Half a block away, the headlights on a parked car flashed on. The large, dark sedan made a fast U-turn with squealing tires and raced away.

“Oh God,” she gasped and pointed at the car. “That…that car’s been here before.”

Dillon leaned forward and peered after the disappearing vehicle. “When?”

She sorted her jumbled thoughts as she scrambled from the truck. “Monday. Last Monday morning. It’s a black Mercedes with really dark tinted windows.”

“Fuck. That’s what chased me from the tire shop today.”

An epiphany slammed into her. “It-it’s also the car from my accident,” she called, leaving the truck door hanging open. Fear and panic gripped her as she stumbled across the lawn. What was she going to find inside?

“Kat, wait!” Dillon hollered from behind her.

She couldn’t wait. Her baby was in danger. But he didn’t know.

Farook. Pakistan. Terrorists. China.

Large sedan. Unidentified intruder. Black Hummer. Black Mercedes.

It didn’t matter who or how or why. She couldn’t let anyone hurt her child.

Her keys were in her hand, although she couldn’t remember getting them out of her purse, but when she turned the doorknob, the door opened.

“Kat, wait!” Dillon yelled again. “Stop! Don’t—”

She barreled into the house.

“Skye! Mom! Dad!” she screamed.

No response.

She sprinted to the kitchen. Empty. The vacant highchair taunted her.

She rounded the corner into the hallway. All the doors were open except one: Skye’s room.

She heard Dillon storm into the house. “Kat?”

“Here!” she answered and slammed the bedroom door open.

She froze. Her brain floundered to accept the reality before her eyes. Her mother gagged and bound to a chair with duct tape. Her father trussed similarly, lying on the floor and bleeding. An empty crib, no sign of Skye.
Oh God! Where’s Skye?

Dillon grabbed her from behind and pushed her aside, breaking the spell. Gun aimed with both hands, arms and head swiveling in unison, he stalked into the room. Kat surged past him and dropped to her knees beside her father. Her fingers tore at the tape on his mouth. Dillon stabbed his gun into the holster and went to work on Aileen’s gag.

“Dad. Dad, can you hear me? Are you okay? Where’s Skye?” she pleaded.

He groaned.

“Call an ambulance,” she shouted to Dillon.

“N-No! They s-said we c-can’t c-call anyone,” Aileen sputtered the instant she could open her mouth.

“Who said that?” Dillon asked, working on the tape binding her hands.

Aileen glared over her shoulder at him. “What the h-hell are you doing here? Is this your fault?”

“Mom, stop it. Now’s not the time. Where’s Skye?” Her gaze darted around the room. “Where is she?” she repeated, her voice rising in panic.

“They took Skye. They took our baby.” Aileen yanked her hands free from Dillon, who was massaging blood flow back into them, and covered her face as she sobbed.

Dillon straightened and surveyed the room. Paralyzed with mounting fear, Kat watched his expression as he seemed to notice the furnishings for the first time. Crib. Changing table with diapers, wipes, and baby powder. Baby toys piled in a toy box. A rocking chair. And a dozen framed pictures of a baby girl, many with Kat holding her.

He sneezed and then his eyes zeroed in on hers. “Who’s Skye?”

His question sucked all the air from the room. Her mother stopped sobbing, and her father quit groaning.

Time stood still. Life stood still.

Dillon’s laser-like blue eyes drilled into hers. Kat couldn’t breathe. Blood roared in her ears.

“Who…is…Skye?” he repeated.

Kat swallowed hard. “She…she’s
my
daughter.”

Dillon’s head jerked back as if she’d slapped him.

“I’ll explain later, but first we have to find her.” She tore her gaze away and bent over her father. “Dad, are you okay? Do you need a doctor?”

He coughed and flinched. “We Scots…can take…a beatin’…like a man.”

“I’ll take care of him,” Aileen said.

Kat scooted over to kneel beside her. “Are you okay, Mom?”

“Yes, yes. Just shook up.”

“Tell us what happened.”

“A woman came to the door, and when Craig opened it, she and two men pushed their way inside. They had guns. The men kept hitting Craig to get him to say where you were. Your father never told them a damn thing,” she stated proudly. “Those men said you weren’t home so we actually didn’t know where you were anyway.” Aileen shot a suspicious scowl at Dillon.

“What about Skye?” Kat pressed impatiently.

“They…they took her. She was a-cryin’ and a-kickin’ and a-screamin’. Our poor baby.” Her voice cracked. “They said…” She gulped. “You can get her back if you do what you’re told.”

Her gut clenched with dread. “What am I supposed to do?”

“Go home. Wait for them to contact you. Don’t call the police or any authorities. They made a big point of that.” She glowered at Dillon again. “
He
shouldn’t be here.”

“Mom, stop. Dillon is…helping me…as a friend. They won’t know he’s FBI.”

“Helping you with what?”

Kat glanced at Dillon, but he was staring at a picture of her holding a baby girl with sapphire eyes and thick, black curly hair. She blinked back the sting of threatening tears. This was so wrong on so many levels.

“Dillon, should I tell them…more?”

He faced her with a cold, stoic expression. “No. They should get out of town immediately. Go into hiding until this is over.” He pulled a pen from his pocket and looked around for a piece of paper. He had to settle for a diaper. “If you don’t hear from us in five hours, call Rex Kelley at the San Diego FBI office. Tell him to expect a data dump from TSK. Then call this number. Say Shadow sent you and to send the data. Understand?” He sneezed.

“Yes. But what does—” Aileen began.

“Just do it. Kat, we gotta go.”

She stood up. “Are you sure you two will be okay?”

“Yes, Katie dear. Get our baby back and be careful.”

“You’ll hide?”

“Yes,” her father said, pushing himself up to lean against the wall. “I’ll take care of your mother. You take care of Skye.”

Dillon’s gut hurt like he’d been kicked by a Clydesdale. Make that a pair of Clydesdales.

Kat had a baby. A daughter. And now her daughter had been kidnapped.

Damn.
All sorts of primal emotions warred inside him. But now was not the time to face them. He needed to deal with this nasty business first. He glanced at Kat sitting rigidly in the passenger seat of his truck. “Do you want to call the police or the FBI?”

Her head whipped around, her eyes wide with alarm. “No! They said not to. They might hurt Skye.”

“Okay.” For now, at least. He’d wait to see what the kidnappers wanted before making his own decision.

Neither said a word during the rest of the ride from her parents’ house to hers. Dillon circled the neighborhood several times, but there was no sign of the Hummer or Mercedes. Didn’t mean much since he’d decided the assholes were monitoring Kat via wireless cameras.

“I need to check it out. Stay here. Keep the doors locked,” he ordered when he got out of the truck.

Searching the small yard, he discovered nothing unusual. The place looked deceptively peaceful considering the unfolding drama. He found the front door unlocked—the bastards had been inside.
Shit.
With his Glock raised and ready, he went from room to room. The Clydesdales kicked him again when he found the bedroom full of baby paraphernalia.

He sniffed and sneezed.
That smell again. Candle, my ass. That’s baby powder.

When he returned to the truck a few minutes later, he sneezed as he opened her door.

“Bless you,” she said.

He glared. “They left you a present.”

“Skye?”

The hope in her voice made him feel like a jerk. “No. A burner phone and a note.”

“Oh,” she said, blinking rapidly.

Once inside, he pointed to the cell on the coffee table. “Don’t touch it. I doubt they left prints, but we can always hope.”

The note beside the phone said they would contact her shortly after her arrival. She was not to use the phone other than to speak to them. They didn’t say who “they” were, but Dillon was confident they were Chinese spies. So much for the Cold War being over. The enemies just kept changing.

Kat dropped onto the couch, looking stressed beyond bearing. Pale. Fragile. Vulnerable. But right now, he didn’t much care. She’d lied to him. He was pissed and hurt.

He flopped down in the armchair. On the couch would be too close.

“How old was the baby in the picture?” he asked.

“Huh?”

“The baby in the picture at your folk’s place.”

“Uh…ten months.”

He did the math. Ten months plus nine months equaled way less than two years. The kid couldn’t be his. Not that he had any real reason to think it was, but her black hair and blue eyes looked…
Well, hell.
An odd stab of disappointment surprised—and puzzled—him.
It’s only primal possessiveness,
he decided. Even though he didn’t want her to have his kid, he apparently didn’t like the idea of her having anyone else’s either. His Y chromosome took over. “You sure as hell didn’t waste any time getting pregnant after you ran away,” he said snidely.

“What?” She frowned.

“Why’d you lie about not having sex since me? Did you think I’d actually care that someone else was fucking you?”

She turned a shade paler. “I didn’t lie.”

“Okay then. But we’ll rule out immaculate conception.” He sneered. “So you…what…used a sperm donor? Some guy jerked off in a cup to make your precious baby. Real romantic. True family values.”

She straightened, and color rushed back into her cheeks. “Just stop. I can’t discuss this right now. My daughter’s life is in danger. I don’t want to argue about how she was conceived.”

He shrugged. “Not my problem anyway.” Besides, talking about Kat’s kid was making him sick to his stomach. Chinese terrorists were much easier to deal with. “Let’s talk about what to expect when they call.”

In hopes of keeping her calm, Dillon ran her through as many potential scenarios as he could before the burner phone rang. Her eyes widened like a deer in the headlights at the sound. Covering his finger with his shirt to avoid leaving a print, he pushed Talk and Speaker and then nodded at her.

“H-Hello?”

“Ms. MacKenzie?”

“Yes. You assholes! I want my daughter back. If you hurt her, I swear—”

So much for practicing calm.
Quickly, Dillon sat down beside her, patted her leg, and shook his head.

Kat glared at him but softened her tone. “Please don’t hurt her. She’s just a baby.”

“Skye’s fate rests in your hands.”

The man’s voice revealed no emotion or accent. The words were distinctly enunciated. Probably not a native English speaker. Dillon frowned. How did they know the baby’s name? Maybe Aileen or Craig had said it.

“What do you want?” Kat asked.

“First, introduce me to the gentleman there with you.”

“Mr. O’Malley is…a friend.”

“Your boyfriend?”

They were looking for an emotional connection to exploit. “No,” Dillon intervened. “Just an old friend. What do you want from Ms. MacKenzie?”

“We need her help and your assurance that you won’t interfere. If you do as we instruct, Skye will be fine.”

“Why should Ms. MacKenzie trust you? You’ve already attacked her twice,” Dillon said.

The man hesitated. “Those were bad decisions that led to unfortunate actions. The person responsible has been…replaced. Regardless, I don’t think Ms. MacKenzie has any choice.”

“Only the scum of the earth would threaten an innocent baby,” Dillon spat.

Now it was Kat’s turn to pat his leg and shake her head.

“What do you want from me?” she asked in a calm voice.

“I don’t think you’ll find this as repugnant as you anticipate. We need you to stop…a disaster, one that would have global implications.”

“Global? As in World War III?” Dillon asked.

“Very astute, Mr. O’Malley. We need Ms. MacKenzie to stop the person who wants to precipitate this catastrophic event.”

“Are you talking about Asad Farook?” Kat asked.

“Stupid, stupid, stupid,” he mumbled as he typed.

Those Chinese assholes thought they were so smart, but he’d outsmarted them. They believed they could buy their way into an American nuclear power plant to learn how to sabotage one at a future time. He’d offered them Diablo Beach as their guinea pig, and they’d fallen for his scheme.

They wanted to be able to hold the United States hostage under the threat of a nuclear meltdown. They had no idea what he wanted.

He laughed.

He hated China and the US. The former for what it had done, and the latter for what it hadn’t done. Now he would get revenge on both at the same time. It wasn’t as if one country would win and the other lose. There were no winners in a nuclear war.

God, his plan had worked perfectly. Well, almost perfectly.

If Kat MacKenzie hadn’t been such a responsible, conscientious employee, the discrepancies would’ve gone unnoticed. But no. She had to act as if Diablo Beach’s operations had to run according to the book even during the excruciatingly long decommissioning process. He’d purposefully taken the job at Diablo Beach because he expected less scrutiny and lax security. He wasn’t going to let some do-gooder ruin his plans.

No way. He’d worked years to become an expert programmer. His computer skills would be classified as extraordinary. But he’d been smart enough to take a menial job at the facility so his skills wouldn’t be apparent. Yeah, working under the radar until he could develop the opportunity had been über-smart.

Unfortunately, because the Chinese had been so inept at getting rid of Kat, he now had to accelerate his plans. No matter. He was ready.

Locking the assholes out of the system tonight had made the future inevitable. It wouldn’t take them long to figure out what was happening. That meant no turning back.

He pumped his fist. Full speed ahead to Armageddon.

“No, Ms. MacKenzie. Mr. Farook is just a decoy.”

So Dillon’s suspicions were right.
“Who then?”

“Your friend, Charles Lee.”

She gasped. “Charlie’s a security guard.”

“That’s his cover. Clever, if I must say so. No one has ever suspected him of having masterful computer skills.”

Not friendly Charlie. Talkative, companionable Charlie. Brought-me-flowers Charlie.
“So Charlie’s been your inside man the whole time? The person who’s been letting you into the Diablo Beach computer system?” she asked incredulously. “Why would he do that?”

“What’s the motivation behind most criminal acts, Ms. MacKenzie? Money, of course.”