I had no clue what to talk about with the president. I gazed around the room for any form of computer or security system. I needed to see what was happening outside the panic room. The room had enough food for days. One side of the room was all shelf space linedwith water bottles and canned food. I twisted to see what was behind me and saw a laptop.
Not wasting any time, I booted it up. A couple minutes later, I bypassed the password, and the welcome display flashed.
“Did you hack my brother's computer?”
“Yes”
“Hmmm.”
I didn’t have time to figure out what “hmmm” meant. I needed to see if everyone was okay. Antonio had become like an older brother who doesn’t talk much, and Jessica would kill me if anything happened to Brock. It only took a couple minutes to get video of Brock watching from his computer. Zane had his gun pulled and was standing next to the front door. Antonio was by the back door with his weapon drawn.
The outside video showed the helicopter landing. Then a small figure stepped out. The sun was shining into the camera, so it was hard to see the person’s face. When another little figure stepped out, I looked back at the other feed to see Brock running for the door with a panic-stricken look.
“What’s going on? Who is that?” Zack demanded.
“I can’t tell. The… oh, fuck.”
The two shadowy figures came into full view. When I saw their faces, I immediately knew why Brock was panicking. It was his fiancée, Jessica, and my boss, Bridget. Then three beefy men stepped off the helicopter—Alex, Bridget's husband; Asher, Antonio's twin brother; and CJ. CJ and Asher had been dating for the past year and a half. I panned back to the cameras to make sure Antonio and Zane had lowered their guns. They had, but they looked angry.
I jumped up and headed for the door.
“We have to wait for them to release us from the outside. Zane has never given me the code.”
Zane was probably worried Zack would leave after being placed in a safe house. “Well, I’m getting out of here. You can stay if you want.” It took a couple seconds to retype the code I saw Zane type earlier. The light turned green. When the door swept open, Zane was there, reaching to put in the code. The look on his face said he was not happy.
“You want to tell me why you opened this door without waiting for us to clear the area?” Zane pointed at Zack. “How could you put yourself in danger like that?”
Zane needed to understand who was in charge. It sure as hell wasn’t him. “I pulled up the video surveillance cameras, and we saw who was in the helicopter. Put your ego back in check.” I dipped under his arm and headed toward the voices.
I could hear laughter in the kitchen. When I rounded the corner, Bridget saw me and ran over to wrap her arms around me. “I was so worried we wouldn’t be able to get you back. Alex said he knew Agent Asshole and you would be okay. I couldn’t handle losing you, so I had Jessica help me.”
I heard Brock grunt from the other side of the room. “Jessica, why you are here? I told you we had everything under control.”
Jessica’s face turned a light shade of pink.
Alex pointed at Bridget. “I bet my wife is the one behind this. When I got word from my secretary that Bridget was taking my helicopter, Asher and CJ were in my office. So, we raced to the airport and boarded before they took off.”
All eyes turned to Bridget. “I traced the IP back when you contacted Jessica.” Bridget shrugged like it was no big deal.
Zane cleared his throat. “There is no way you traced the IP back to here. I have it looped around the world, and it would take even the best hacker a day to narrow down where we are.”
For the first time in my life, I saw Bridget pale and look scared. She turned toward me. “You have to understand that I think of you like family.”
I knew I wouldn’t like the next words that came out of her mouth.
“When you said people would come after you because of the information you pulled on Jessica’s family, I wanted to make sure you were okay. The necklace I gave you for your birthday has a tracker in it.”
Before I had time to process her statement, Zack walked around the corner with his Secret Service agents.
Bridget elbowed me in the side. “Sophie, why is the President of the United States here?”
“Zack is Agent Asshole’s brother.”
“Well, I guess the plot to digitally destroy Agent Asshole should be postponed.” Bridget seemed disappointed at not being able to destroy Zane.
Alex stepped forward and one-arm hugged the president. “It’s been too long. Bridget, come here and meet Zack, a family friend.”
Bridget went to the impressive men standing next to each other. “So, you are the lovely Bridget I’ve heard so much about.”