Page 8 of Undercover Hacker

I didn’t look behind me. Sophie and Brock would come if they understood the urgency in my voice. I heard shouts coming from the kitchen area. I ran toward the noise and heard the clicking of Sophie’s shoes behind me.

Antonio had my brother pressed up against the wall, and three agents had guns pointed at him. Antonio wasn’t paying attention to what the agents were doing. He had his sights on my brother.

I felt a tap on my shoulder.

“Um, Zane, the President of the United States is in your house.”

“Older brothers are annoying like that, showing up univited.”

“Oh.”

Needing to get the situation back under control and keep Antonio from getting shot or killed, I said, “Antonio, stop killing my brother. Shouldn’t you get your answers before taking out the person with the information? Also, you know how hard it is to get a clean-up crew out here?”

Antonio slowly removed his hands from my brother. When it looked like he would let go, he suddenly pulled his arm back and punched my brother in the side. Zack dropped to the floor, and the three agents jumped on top of Antonio.

Once Zack got his bearings, he demanded that the agents let Antonio go. Slowly, they released Antonio, waiting for him to attack again. The whole day had been a cluster fuck. I walked past my brother, who was leaning over and holding his side. Antonio was peeling himself off the floor. I reached into the fridge to grab a beer.

“Sophie, want a beer?” When I looked over my shoulder, her mouth was hanging open and she had a look of shock on her face. She nodded. I grabbed two beers and headed toward the living room. The posse of people would follow or kill each other.

“You aren’t going to offer me a beer?” Zack asked.

“If you want one, grab it. I’m not your servant.”

Sophie followed me to the living room. I heard grumbling from the kitchen and, a few seconds later, footsteps coming toward the living room. Sophie and I took a seat on the couch. I liked that she chose to sit next to me.

Zack, Brock, and Antonio showed up in the living room without the secret agents. Zack sat in the recliner next to the couch, sipping on a cold beer. Antonio paced back and forth in front of the big-screen TV. Brock grabbed his laptop and sat in the last chair in the room.

“You want to tell me why you compromised my safe house?” My voice was laced with anger. Zack could have called. Anywhere he went was traceable, and his being here would lead Director Sanchez right to us.

Zack leaned back in the chair, staring down at his beer before answering. “I got a call from Director San—”

“You mean the devil,” Sophie seethed.

Zack let out a chuckle before continuing. “Okay, we have renamed my Director of the CIA, as the devil. This afternoon, I got a call from”—Zack held up his hands and made air quotes—“the devil, and he informed me that he was going after you and Antonio because you kidnapped his agent and threatened him. He also informed me that he has people that can confirm his story.”

Sophie leaped off the couch before I could stop her. “That is not true. You can't take him in. They’re my only hope at figuring out what happened to my sister. The devil has been manipulating me for ages.”

I reached up, grabbed Sophie, and dragged her into my lap. Zack gave me a questioning look. “He’s not here to take me in. Zack knows I wouldn’t do something unless I had a good reason. He’s here because he needs me to do something off the books. He also knows this place has no listening devices.”

“I have a question before he gives us a task that will get us killed. Did you know Kat was alive?” Antonio didn’t leave room for Zack to get out of the question.

The look on Zack’s face was all I needed to see. He had no clue Kat was alive. His jaw tightened, and his knuckles turned white from the grip on the beer bottle. “Antonio, if I had known Kat was alive, I would have told you. I received intel from the devil that the man you and Zane took out was the man who killed her.”

The constant tapping on the keyboard had me looking over at Brock. “You want to inform the room of what you are doing, Brock?”

Brock looked from me to Zack. For a second, he looked like he wouldn’t answer. I was friends with Sam, Brock’s old boss, and had known Sam had a well-trained hacker working for him. I could only imagine what Brock was doing.

Zack spoke up. “You won’t get in any trouble for whatever you’re doing. You want to tell us what all the typing is about?”

Brock blew out a breath of air. “Well, I hacked a reconnaissance satellite and sent the video to the laptop.”

“Wow, that took you long enough. I would have hacked it with a lot fewer keystrokes,” Sophie announced with pride.

Brock’s face flushed red. For an ex-Navy SEAL, he didn’t seem so tough at the moment.

“I might also be talking to my fiancé. I needed to let her know I was okay.”

“Pussy-whipped,” Antonio coughed out.

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