Owned: An Alpha Anthology (46 page)

I glare at him and wait for him to speak. If I didn’t know him, I wouldn’t have seen the slight twitch of his left eye that is his only tell when something affects him.

He returns my stare and for a moment, I wonder if he’s going to go on or just clamp up and refuse to talk after I threw the fact that I’ve moved on in his face. Finally, he takes a breath and resumes his usual cocky disposition.

"I know how this works, Trix. If I give you everything now, then I’ll get locked away somewhere and they’ll lose the key. You get the information you need
when
you need it, and I get to go back out there, resume my duties and keep this all going. I’ve built quite the name for myself among the criminal elite, and I have a long list of contacts that you’d all love to get your hands on. But to help you, I need to be out there, continuing my work so they don’t know where the information is coming from."

A laugh bursts free from my throat, and I stand up again, placing my hands on my hips as I look down at him. "You think they’re going to let you go? There is no way in hell they’re going to let you out of here. So you can talk, and maybe get some sort of leniency, or you don’t talk, and we really will find that deep dark cell to lose you in."

He laughs as well, but it’s as laced with condescension as mine is. "There are many things that are outside our control, Trix, and this deal is one of them. Close your eyes."

"Close my eyes?"

"Yes, and I suggest you close them now."

I’m stubborn. And to my own detriment, I don’t listen. Instead, I glare at him.

"Suit yourself," he says, as he sits calmly and closes his own eyes, just as a bright light explodes around us, searing itself as a blinding white image on my retinas.

I’m blinded.

"Drake!" I yell, I can’t see a thing, and I reach for my gun, holding it out in front of me in some meagre attempt at protection.

Arms wrap around me from behind, knocking the gun from my hand as a voice speaks quietly in my ear.

"Perhaps next time, you’ll listen to me," Drake says, and I wonder how he got out of his cuffs so quickly. "The blindness will pass. You’ll be fine."

"They’re going to hunt you like a dog after this, Drake."

"Good. I’m counting on it."

He spins me around, his hands roughly cupping my jaw as he presses his mouth to mine, taking me in a searing and desperate kiss. My hands grip his wrists where he holds my face, and I’m not sure if I want to fight him or if I want to fall into him.

"Now they know who’s in control. I’m the one with the information and I’ll give it when needed." "I’ll be in touch." He presses another kiss to my mouth. Then he releases me, leaving me off balance and unable to see or even hear movement from within the room.

"Drake!" I call out after him, swinging my arms out in the hopes to grab on to something. "Get back here, you arsehole!"

I stumble into a chair and almost lose my footing. Fuck! I hate this. I hate not being able to see.

I blink rapidly, rubbing my eyes with one hand as the other reaches out, and I walk carefully toward where I think the door is. I have no idea what I’m going to do if I find someone, but I have to try. Drake is escaping and I don’t have any information from him. The commander is going to kill me.

Slowly my vision begins to clear, and I realise that I’m alone. He’s gone. Of course he’s gone.

"Who the fuck set that up?" I hear Greer groan from outside the room.

I shake my head, leaning down to the floor to recover my gun. "Well, one thing’s for sure. That wasn’t one of our extraction teams."

DEEP COVER: CASE 001
BY LILLIANA ANDERSON

003

For hours, we have to go over every detail of what happened when Drake escaped our custody. The commissioner comes in, and Commander Greer is berated so loudly that I swear the concrete walls manage to vibrate around us.

He’s berated for using poor judgement by bringing me in to see Drake, even though Drake refused to speak unless he was allowed to see me. Turns out, he’d signed paperwork stating that if he could have one meeting with me, he’d go with them willingly and cooperate entirely, telling them everything they want to know about a money laundering ring, led by a man called Frederik Le Doux, that he’s been a part of for the last few years.

Frederik Le Doux, is the money behind Australia’s horse racing industry. We’ve known for some time that his business practices were less than kosher, and when an ex-employee turned whistle-blower, suddenly disappeared, the case became important enough to set up a team to do surveillance and eventually send in an undercover operative to try and get close to Le Doux and find out what was really going on. There was money pouring into his pockets but we could never find out exactly where it was coming from, although we had our suspicions.

In Drake’s early reports, he claimed that he had heard whisperings about the illegal trade in performance enhancing drugs. A winning horse is worth millions to its backers, and in a sport that is revered by the wealthy, status craving big shots of this world, there were a lot of people willing to pay out whatever it costs to have a stable full of unbeatable horses–especially if the drug being used is kept undetectable.

Despite learning what was bringing the money in, we never managed to find out how he operated, and who was helping him get the drugs into the country through customs. We were just about to start liaising with international agencies when Drake stopped checking in with his handler, Agent Eric Blackwood.

Additional reconnaissance told us that Drake had flipped and was working for Le Doux in a capacity that broke the rules of his undercover operation. Soon after, the case was taken out of our hands, and a new task force was set up, its sole purpose to capture and bring in Drake Jefferson. He was wanted alive, but when his handler turned up dead after being shot execution style and thrown into the harbour, the capture order became a kill order.

At the time, I remember feeling like my world and my soul had been destroyed. It all happened so fast and before I’d even had the chance to accept that Drake had left both our team and me in favour of a life of crime with Le Doux, it was announced that he’d been killed.

But now we find out he wasn’t killed at all. He is very much alive and from the sound of things, he is in so deep that his cooperation would have been a massive game changer. Had this worked out, it would be the case to make Commander Greer’s career.

But now, with Drake escaped, Greer’s career is in tatters. He may lose his rank and title over this and for me, well, they’re threatening to have me fired all together.

"Now, walk me through his again," Agent August Emery, the man who I briefly met earlier demands. I had wondered why he’d creeped me out so much when I saw him with Gabby. But now I remember who he is. He’s the man who assisted on Drake’s case when he was pronounced rogue. And he’s the one who headed the team, who hunted him down like an animal and supposedly killed him.

I sit across from him with untrusting eyes as I wonder why they’d claim that a man who is very much alive was dead. I decide that I’m going to call him Agent Fucktard from now on. The name seems more fitting for a man who is talking down to me as much as he is.

"You were standing across the room where Jefferson was secured. By handcuffs. To the table. The door was locked and then suddenly it got really bright and when you could see again, he was gone. Is that right?" he asks for the fiftieth time.

"You would have been watching the monitors. You know that’s exactly what happened," I state, folding my arms across my chest as I glare back at him.

"What I know, is that you were the only one in the room talking to him when the feed cut out and when it was back up, he was gone. Explain that to me."

It’s at this point that Gabby cuts in. "Get off her back, Emery. She’d never do something like that."

"I can’t believe this. You believe her? Her story is so ludicrous–a bright light. And she heard no noise. Who extracted him-God?"

I narrow my eyes. "Don’t treat me like an idiot. I’m simply telling you what happened."

He leans forward, pressing his palms into the table that stands between us as he hovers around my face, his breath smelling of stale coffee and gum that was chewed way longer than it should have been. "Don’t treat
me
like an idiot, Agent Samuels. How can you expect me to believe that the man you were once married to, demands your presence and the only thing he does, is put on a magic act for you? There’s something you aren’t telling me."

I look at him, his dark eyes and slicked black hair looking almost painted on against his pale and angular face. "I don’t know what to tell you. I got here. I saw you. I went in the room. I asked him a few questions, and then he told me to close my eyes. But I didn’t. So, I got blinded by the flash bomb, along with Commander Greer. He told me he had to go and that he’d be in touch. Then when I could see, he was gone. That’s all I have, and there’s nothing you can say or do that’s going to change my story."

His eyes narrow at me this time. He knows I’m holding something back. But I’m not admitting that I let him kiss me. It’s Gabby who asks the next question. "Are you sure there wasn’t anything else–a smell, a sound, a feeling–anything else that could tell us how they got in and out without anyone seeing."

I shake my head. "I don’t know what to tell you. They obviously exploited a weakness we don’t know about."

Our attention is directed toward the commissioner as he walks in with Greer following behind him and stops in front of Gabby, Agent Fucktard, and me before announcing his decision.

"This information isn’t to leave this room. No one is allowed to know that Jefferson is still out there. You three." He points between Gabby, Fucktard and me. "Are going to work together on this. I want Jefferson brought in quickly and quietly."

"But sir," Agent Emery, slash, fucktard-turned-my-partner objects. "How do we even know she can be trusted?" He jabs his thumb in the air at my direction. "I mean, he escaped in her custody. What’s to say she won’t let him go again?"

"You two are. You’re about to become her eyes and ears. He obviously has an interest in his wife still, or he wouldn’t have demanded she be here. And we’re going to exploit that relationship."

"I’m here. You know. I can hear everything you’re saying," I add, annoyed that they’re talking about me like I’m an asset instead of an agent.

"Samuels, I want you to go back home. We’re going to put you under constant surveillance, and if he’s watching you, we’ll find him."

"I’m really not comfortable with this. I’m not the right person to be involved in this case," I argue. As much as I hate to admit it, Agent Fucktard is right. I don’t think I can be trusted to bring Drake in. I’m too messed up just dealing with the fact he’s still alive.

"Suck it up, Samuels. You lost him. You bring him back. Make this right or you’ll no longer have a job with this, or any other law enforcement agency. Is that understood?"

I nod, my ability to pay my mortgage hanging on the line. "Yes sir."

"Good. Then I expect you to review the footage of the facility leading up to and after the escape. I want a full report on my desk by morning."

"It already is morning, sir," Agent Emery points out, and I glance at my watch, seeing that it is already 2am.

"Then I suggest you all get to work."

Exchanging glances with Gabby, I let out a slow breath, hating that I’m in this situation. This case–that case– the case that took it all, and that I thought was over, is back on. This is the last thing I wanted.

DEEP COVER: CASE 001
BY LILLIANA ANDERSON

004

After spending hours going over the security footage from around the building, we aren’t any closer to finding out who it was that helped Drake escape. So after being dragged over the coals by the commissioner again, my new team and I end up looking for some sort of digital imprint to give us a clue as to who got past our security and where they might be hiding.

Agent Emery is your typical man in the field, and he’s of no use to me while I work my fingers to the bone, chasing down every cyber avenue I can possibly think of to find a starting point for our search. Gabby’s strength is in intelligence gathering, so all she can do at this point is put out some feelers to see if there’s anyone known who’s capable of such a feat and be a good friend and bring me buckets worth of coffee to keep me from passing out.

But once again, there’s no trace of anyone in the system besides the fact that everything went dead and two minutes later, it came back, and there was no evidence that anything more than a glitch had happened.

"How can you find no trace?" Emery asks me. "I thought you were the best in the cybercrime division. They say you hack circles around the lot of them.

"And I do. But we’ve been hacked by a ghost. I can’t find a trail. I only know we were hacked because of the two minute system failure."

"A ghost?" he asks, rubbing his long fingered hand over his face as he paces the floor beside me for something to do. "So he wasn’t extracted by God. The ghosts came and got him." He throws his arms in the air and yells, "Call Mulder and Scully! We’re dealing with ghosts."

I look up at him with what I hope is my most unimpressed expression. "Mulder and Scully dealt with alien cases. I think you’re after Sam and Dean–they’re the supernatural experts."

Gabby responds by covering her mouth to stifle a giggle as Emery rolls his eyes and shakes his head, pausing his pacing so he can stand in front of me, hands on hips. "I don’t give a fuck, Samuels. All I know is that this is bullshit. You shouldn’t be on this case as an agent. You’re attachment to our target compromises us, and I don’t think you can be trusted."

"I feel exactly the same about you."

A burst of laughter erupts from his chest, causing his wiry shoulders to bounce upward, comically. "
You
don’t trust
me
? Wow, that’s almost as funny as your story about how Jefferson escaped and then the story about the ‘ghost’." He uses air quotes to emphasise how ridiculous he feels it is. "I’m not the one messing up my job here."

"I’m not messing up my job, and I’m not compromised. I want Drake back just as much as you do. I’m sorry that he got away on my watch. Perhaps I was a little shocked at seeing my dead husband alive again that I didn’t realise he was trying to escape. Yes, I was married to the man. But that was four years ago, and I’ve moved on with my life. If I weren’t a damn good agent, they wouldn’t have trusted me enough to bring me in here in the first place. And guess what? I wasn’t the only one in the building. Whoever pulled him out got past all of us. And as for this ‘ghost’ that you seem so unwilling to believe, I’ll thank you to shut your fucking mouth about things you know nothing of. A ghost is a hacker who can get in an out of systems without leaving a trace. They’re a rare breed, and as yet, we haven’t had a single capture. There are rumours in hacker communities of a handful of people who can pull off the hacks that most people can only dream about doing. But no one know who, because they never get caught–it’s why they’re ghosts."

For a moment, he just stands there, his eyes meeting mine as if we challenging each other, glaring until one of us backs down. And it isn’t going to be me. I didn’t get to where I was in an agency full of men by being a push over.

He doesn’t back down either. Greer enters the room and we break the stare as soon as he demands our attention with the clap of his hands.

"Surveillance is set up, and a team is in place in case he shows up. I suggest you all go home, get some rest and get back here in the morning, ready to move this search forward."

Emery and I acknowledge the order with a nod, and as we leave the building. I walk with Gabby, and he heads straight to his car without a word.

"He’s a delightful man," I comment, as the sound of his door slamming shut claps through the cool evening air.

"He’s all right once you get to know him," Gabby says, as his engine starts and he motors away. We reach her parked car and stop, with her leaning against it while we continue to talk. "But I’m more interested in you. How are you feeling after seeing him again?"

I shake my head and shrug my shoulders, looking up at the darkening sky before I can find the words to express the mind fuck I’m going through. "I don’t know. I’m angry. I’m shocked. I’m heartbroken. I mean, where the hell has he been? And why couldn’t he contact me somehow? I’m just… I don’t know. I feel like I’m one of those kids whose dad went to the shop for a pack of cigarettes and never came back…"

She reaches out and runs a hand up and down my arm in comfort as she presses her lips together and looks up at me from her slightly shorter five foot-seven frame, her plain brown eyes filled with sympathy and concern.

"And you’re sure he didn’t say anything, or do anything else?"

"No. Nothing. He said he’d be in touch and then he was gone. That’s all I have. I promise."

"Ok," she says, letting out a breath as she smooths her hands over her head where her brown hair is pulled back into a tight bun. "I just can’t believe he’s still alive…I mean, is this going to change things? You just started getting serious with Gavin."

"I know," I whine, pressing the pads of my finger and thumb to my eyes as I remember that Gavin is probably still waiting for me at my house. Gabby is the reason Gavin and I are together. We met him at a party, where he was there as a friend of a friend, but we hit it off, and eventually things became more intense between us when I was ready to move on, and he’s been solid in my life ever since. "How do I even do this when I can’t tell him anything? This is all so messed up."

"Well, does Drake coming back change anything?"

With a bounce of my shoulders, I shake my head. "How can it? I mean, even if I could forgive him, it’s not like we could pick up where we left off. Drake and I were over the day he decided not to come back to me."

"Then don’t do anything. Just treat this like any other case and do your best not to let it get in the way. It’ll all work out, you’ll see," she says, reaching out and hugging me. "And if he contacts you, call me
immediately,
ok? I’ll see you tomorrow."

Nodding, I release her and step away, heading over to my car and waving as she drives past me, leaving me alone for the first moment since I found out about Drake. It takes every bit of strength I have in me not to break down and cry in the parking lot.

But I don’t. Somehow, I force my breathing steady and get the key in the ignition, driving home on autopilot, as my heart aches in my chest.