Page 11 of Hacker Betrayed

"I think we should start with your real name," Brock began.

I winced at the coldness in his words. "Brock—"

"Don't you think she's been through enough?" Paxton rested his arms on the table and clenched his fists. I couldn't remember the last time a guy stuck up for me. Donovan had at times, but in the end, he was loyal to his father. The men and women I worked with protected each other in the field. This was different. I doubted anyone at Blackwood Mercenary would speak to me after today, and I wouldn't blame them.

"Everyone at Blackwood has a past. Even some with hidden identities, but we are family. You should know things are never buried deep enough." Brock leaned back in the chair and narrowed his eyes. "I'm the best hacker in the world, and I've known you for eighteen years."

He'd known the real Mia eighteen years ago, but I wasn't her.

"Were all those talks we had years ago about our future real?" Eric had spent summers in the United Kingdom with his grandparents. His British accent came out whenever he got mad or angry.

"Eric, I don't know what to say."

So much of this was a mess. Years ago, the job offer to work at Blackwood Mercenary came from Sam Blackwood. We'd worked a few cases together when I'd spent some time in the CIA. I was shocked when I arrived at Blackwood Mercenary for my first day and Brock and Eric were at the door waiting to greet me. They were both ecstatic, and I worried that if I hurried back out the door, they would hunt my ass down. For years, I kept up the Mia persona she helped me perfect.

Brock pinched the bridge of his nose. "You have no hidden identity. No paper trail leading to another life. Your identity tracks from when you were a kid to when you joined the Navy to the accident where you were discharged and picked up by the CIA. The Clark family has three daughters. One died, let's see, about twelve years ago. At the time, we were with you. So does this family have another daughter, or are you not Mia?"

"Did you kill her?" Eric reached for his gun and placed his weapon on the conference room table.

"No." I wasn't sure if they would believe me.

Paxton shot up from his chair. "Mia could have died yesterday. I brought you guys in here because I assumed you would help her. Instead, this has turned into an interrogation. You can get the fuck out of my building."

I reached out and touched Paxton's forearm. "They have the right to be mad and want answers. I'm just not sure where I should start."

He didn't move for a second, then grudgingly sat back down.

Brock threw a picture of Mia's from when she graduated from basic training on the table. Tabitha and I were in the picture. Dalia's hair was bleach-blonde, which Cyrus preferred, but I had large sunglasses to cover the purple bruise eyes which made it almost impossible to identify me as Armando Clark’s eldest daughter. I had to blink back the tears. Both of my best friends were dead, and they sacrificed for me.

Eric threw more pictures on the table, and some of them were even of me. "How is this possible? You could be Mia's twin.”

Paxton shifted in his seat. "Plastic surgery. If I had to guess, you’ve had your nose, brows, cheeks, and chin done. Whoever did your surgery was skilled, but I can spot signs of the surgery. Last night I didn't spend time looking at your body, but I wouldn’t be surprised if you changed a few more characteristics."

He was spot on. I went through months of plastic surgery to change my features. Wes had stopped thumbing through the photos and stared at my face. Brock's fingers hovered over the keyboard. "So, you’re Dalia Clark? Then where the hell is Mia?"

I rolled my neck to the side. "I really don't have time to explain. How about we have a meeting after I pick Lucas up and put him somewhere safe? Because he's not safe in that house."

"I have three men posted outside. We've hacked the security system of your family's estate, and we are watching your son." Brock turned the screen and revealed Lucas at the kitchen counter eating what resembled chocolate chip pancakes. Sebastian sat next to him, and my mom was at the stove.

"You don't need to do all of this," I said. "I appreciate everything you've done, but this is my mess."

"I haven't decided if I will let you walk out the door yet. I owe Mia so much, and if that means I have to take you down, I will."

Paxton growled next to me, but I ignored the man.

"I won't give names of the people who helped me," I waited until Brock nodded. "Yes, I'm the daughter of Armando Clark." I tapped on the photo from Mia's basic training graduation. "This right here is me next to Mia. The three of us met in elementary school. Tabitha is the other woman in the picture. She is Mia's sister and the person Lucas lived with for the past twelve years."

The door to the conference room opened. Kat wandered in with Jessica. Jessica and my boss were married, but Kat was the wife of Antonio Ross, who owned another security company Blackwood worked closely with. I'd become close friends with both women and hoped they didn't hate me by the end of the meeting. Jessica slid into a seat next to Brock and grabbed a stick of licorice from the bag.

Kat sat down next to Eric and tapped on her phone before she propped it up on the table with a little stand. Patty, another one of my friends, appeared on the screen. She'd moved back to Shailia a few years ago to run the country. "Okay, you can start," Patty announced from the phone.

"Patty, you and Sam no longer own or work for Blackwood Mercenary. Kat, I offered you a job a few times, but you refused to work for me. This is a private meeting." Brock sounded annoyed. Kat didn't budge from her spot. "I swear I sometimes feel like nobody listens to me."

"I listen," Wes announced.

"Teacher's pet," I mumbled under my breath.

"Hey, guys, can we get on with the meeting?" Patty's voice came from the phone. "I have to be on the phone with the prime minister of France in an hour, and I don't want to miss how Mia covered her identity."

---