Page 33 of Hacker Revelation

“It was nice to catch up. I wish she didn’t have to hide out until we find Juan. What if it takes months for us to find him?” I wanted Sophie to come to the women’s center with me.

Patience. I needed patience to get through this. That was why I liked missions where the evidence clearly showed what the bad guy did. Then the CIA would tell me where my kill location was, and I could take my target out. I had never spent months looking for my targets. This cat-and-mouse game was getting old.

“We could skip lunch and head home,” Antonio whispered. “The past few days of not holding you at night or getting a kiss in the morning has killed me. Let’s go home, Kitty Kat, so I can make love to my wife for the rest of the day.”

Antonio captured my lips. He ran his hand through my hair, pulling me in tighter. I couldn’t get enough of him. He seemed to need to show dominance and take over the kiss. His tongue swiped across my lips, requesting entrance. When he leaned back and broke the kiss, it was too soon. I wanted to stay locked to his lips.

13

Kat

It had been a full week since the attack on Sophie and Zane. Sophie was still at the safe house. Zane worked remotely, and so did Antonio. It had been nice to have him home with me the past few days.

Ant was on spring break and had been home from school. Antonio was worried about letting us out of the house. So we played games and binge-watched movies on Netflix. On one of the days, Lily came over and brought her son to play with Ant. They spent hours in Ant’s room, where they played cops and robbers. Ant used to play assassin and bad guy, but Antonio thought we set a bad precedent with that game.

It was nice to see Ant make friends so easily. Once Lily’s husband was behind bars and Juan was dead, Ant and Tommy could play together more often. Lily looked to be doing better. She wouldn’t stop thanking us for having Jacob watch over her. Greg had tried to contact her numerous times, and Jacob stopped him each time. Alex Ross had talked with one of his friends and tried to help find Lily a job as a receptionist, but we hadn’t heard back yet.

For the past few hours, I had worked on cleaning the house. Ant’s grandparents had shown up and taken him to their house for the weekend. Antonio had been in his office for the last few hours, looking over the case files. Asher had recently gotten intel that led us to believe Juan had surfaced in Fort Lauderdale.

I was frustrated that we were always one step behind Juan. Neal had used his facial recognition software to identify three of the other men in Nebula’s unit. The men had often met at a biker bar in South Miami. Antonio had sent Asher there to scope out the place and was able to get intel that there would be a meeting in two days.

Neal and Zane had been in constant contact and had come up with a game plan to take Juan and his men down. But I couldn’t stop feeling it was going to be a diversion. Juan had been careful not to get caught for the last two months. I kept asking myself why he would make it so easy for us to discover when this meeting was going to take place.

CJ had retrieved partial video from the DVR player in the bunker. The video didn’t add anything we didn’t know. It was recorded video of inside the bunker. The video showed Juan meeting with the seven men of the military unit. We wondered if these men knew Juan had killed their friend.

I needed a distraction from my current thoughts. I grabbed a piece of paper and started to think about Ant’s sixth birthday. It would be the first party Ant would celebrate with his dad and Antonio’s family.

I glanced around the room, trying to figure out what I was going to do for a sixth birthday party. My eyes landed on Ant’s cop action figure on the end of the table. Ant loved to play detective. We could set up a whole theme with his friends and have them figure out different cases.

I heard Antonio’s feet pad across the living room carpet. Over the past couple of months, I’d gotten used to having Antonio in my life. I enjoyed my evenings cuddling up in his arms on the couch. The nights that we shared were the best memories. I would cherish them forever.

It was nice to have someone on my side who fought for me.

The more Antonio helped with parenting, the more I realized how much help I needed. And I wasn’t the only one who needed help. Ant had blossomed so much since Antonio had been around. I didn’t realize how much he’d needed a male figure in his life.

I didn’t have to turn around to know that Antonio stood behind me. I could feel his presence.

“Are you and Zane done planning for the day?” I asked while I wrote my list of things we needed for Ant’s birthday. Laser tag needed to go on the list.

Antonio took the chair next to me. “Is laser tag for the adults or the kids?”

I could only imagine the trouble Antonio and his brother’s friends would get into if we had laser tag for the adults. But I had to admit that it would have been pretty fun to pit the guys against the girls.

“They were going to be for Ant’s friends, but maybe we need to have a set for the adults as well.”

He pulled the piece of paper from my hand. “I like your idea of a detective birthday party. I’m so proud of you Kitty Kat. I thought you wanted an assassin birthday party.”

I winced at his declaration.

“You were originally going to have an assassin birthday party, right?”

“Maybe.” I pointed to the piece of paper that he stole from my hands. “But as you can see, I’m going to be mother of the year. When ‘assassin’ came to mind, I looked around the room for an idea and landed on Ant's cop figurine.”

His lips curved slightly, and in the dining room light, I could see the smile he tried to hide. “You’re the best mom there is. Maybe we could have a detective looking for the assassin.”

“I appreciate that, Antonio, but I think we’re going to do a detective looking for a bank robber.” I got up from the dining room table and headed to the fridge for a drink. Ant would be at his grandparents’ house for the weekend. We would spend the following day finalizing the plan to go after Juan. The takedown was supposed to happen Sunday night.

“Wine or beer?” I asked from the fridge. I had planned to crack open a bottle of Moscato.

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