Page 43 of Hacker Identified

"Fiancé?" Nicole asked. "I thought Celebrity Today was making that up. Wait, does this mean you are really Watson Creed's daughter?" She lowered her voice. "The one who went missing years ago?"

I sighed and pulled out the fuzzy cuffs from my bag. "I'm here to escape the troubles in my life and hear about the protest in Virginia you guys were at a week ago."

Before Zack caught on to what I was doing, I snapped the cuff around his wrist, grabbed the chain from the ground, and locked the other side.

"What are you doing." Zack grabbed the end of the cuff. "You couldn't have grabbed a pair of normal ones. Furthermore, I thought we would negotiate with the contractors before we cuff ourselves to the tree."

Texan pulled out his phone. "I'm going to go look around. Make sure no snipers are posted somewhere in the marsh."

"Snipers." Willy gazed in my direction. "Why would snipers be after Hannah?"

"They aren't." I sighed and dropped to the ground. "Nobody is after me anymore, but they seem to think we are always in danger.”

Zack tugged at the bottom of his pants and pulled out a bobby pin. A moment later, he’d unlocked the cuff, and it dropped to the ground. He placed a quick kiss on my lips. "I'll be right back."

I watched his ass as he turned and walked a few feet away. Zack pulled out his phone and pressed it to his ear.

The warm Florida sun beat down on me as I slid to the ground and leaned against the hard oak tree. The marsh wasn't quiet at all. Frogs croaked, and the grasshoppers ground their wings together. Typically the sound of nature brought peace over me, except my anxiety bubbled and threatened to burst through my skin.

A tap on my leg pulled my attention back to the present.

"You can't bring the former president to a protest and not expect to tell us more. I don't want details we can get on Celebrity Today. I figured they had it wrong. I texted you last week and you didn't mention anything about the sexy man only a few feet away."

I glanced in Zack's direction, and he was pinching his brow. He'd opted for jeans and a black shirt. A baseball cap covered his blondish hair.

"This group is an anchor to my life. Everything with Zack will be over in a few months. Then it will be just Hannah and you guys."

Tim tilted his head to the side. "I don't think Mister President over there plans to walk away," Tim sneered.

His words stunned me for a moment. "First, his name is Zack. Secondly, I don't understand why you care."

"You turned me down three times. Yet, we have an undeniable connection. Is it because he has money?"

"You never asked me out. Hell, we barely talked at these things. As for a connection, I have no clue what you are talking about."

Nicole's eyes darted to the side, and Tim's lips went flat momentarily. I opened my mouth to ask what I’d missed when rustling in the grass caught my attention. The cattails moved, but the person was too short for us to see. I expected around six more people to show up, but the person peeking through the tall grass was not who I expected.

"Come on, Homer. I'll feed you when we get there." Kat's voice growled through the brush.

"I told you, you can't train a gator to walk on a leash," Sophie sighed.

"Watch me." Kat shot back. "Antonio said he could be a house pet if I trained him."

Kat and Sophie came out of the long grass. I was curious to know how they knew where we were. I’d meant to send Kat the location, but didn't when Zack and Texan came along.

Kat wore cameo pants and a pink shirt. On her left shoulder, she had a large black bag over her shoulder. Her red hair was up in a bun, and sure enough, a three-foot gator was beside her on a leash. Sophie wore faded jeans and a long sleeve white shirt. Her backpack was half the size of Kat's.

"Do you know them?" Nicole asked.

"Yes," I affirmed with a nod. "Everyone, this is Kat and Sophie. Willy, Sophie is the one you kept trying to dig into."

Sophie's eyes narrowed. "I know who he is. Willy ‘Wonka’ Gesner. Me and you have some things to talk about." She strolled right up to him and plopped down. Willy tried to move, but the chain stopped his escape.

"Oh shit," Kat singsonged. "You made my sister mad. Don't worry. I'm the one with guns in my backpack. All she packed was a computer and bug spray. Obviously the CIA needs to train hackers better. I have everything for five days and enough explosives to blow up the bulldozers."

Nicole laughed next to me. "I like her. She has a good sense of humor. The alligator on a leash is kind of strange, but to think we would blow something up is funny."

The gator took that moment to snap its teeth, and Kat didn't even jump. Instead, she pulled a small baggie from her backpack. Since meeting Kat, I wasn't sure she could do anything else to surprise me, but she did when she pulled out a finger and dropped it in the gator's mouth.

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