Breach Of Trust

Meghan stood guard at the top of the steps. What should she do? Throw her arms around him and welcome him to the land of the living? Or punch him one more good time? The war between relief and anger centered right in her stomach, twisting into a knot so tight it might never unravel.

Tate stopped at the bottom step, almost as though he could hear the swords clashing. He was taller than her memories gave him credit for. His shoulders broader, his stance speaking of an inner strength different from the one she remembered. No longer a barely leashed weapon, this strength ran deeper, steadier, more solid. Powerful enough to handle whatever life threw at him. Even death, apparently.

He looked up, face an interplay of shadow and light. His hair was still dark, though some very premature gray had shot through a few places. His jaw was still strong. But it was the eyes. It had always been the eyes, a clear sea green contrasted with his dark hair... In a rush, they brought back all the reasons she’d fallen in love with him in the first place.

And those same eyes reminded her how they’d haunted her after he supposedly died, begging her to save him.

Her grief had been for nothing. Meghan balled her fists. “I don’t know whether to hug you or shoot you.” She let the anger drip off her greeting. He deserved to hear it.

Tate took another step but stopped before he got too close, respectful of the new chaos in her life. “I hope you don’t opt for shooting. It’s been a rough day already.” He tilted his head and surveyed the front of the house. “What is this place? I thought you had an apartment near the school.”

“It’s not mine. Not exactly.” She was the one with questions, but she couldn’t make herself stop answering his. She’d spent four years thinking he was dead. Something inside still couldn’t process his seeming immortality and kept on operating as if this was all normal. “I’ve been hired by the Snyder Foundation. It’s going to be a group foster home when we finish renovating. The foundation bought this farm, so tracking me to it would be tough going.” Tough but not impossible, especially if the anonymous blackmailer from her past was a bigger deal than she’d thought. If her former unit was involved, things were much uglier than a simple kidnapping. They tracked cyberterrorists on the highest levels. Small-time gangsters didn’t even cross their radar.

“Really.” Tate wore the ghost of a smile. “A foster home. Your dream come true. I’m proud of you, McGuire.”

In spite of everything, the praise settled into the hollow places behind her rib cage. He’d remembered what was important to her, what she’d wanted to do from the time she was a little girl, shuttling to yet another foster home. It really was her dream coming true. One of them, anyway.

The pleasure chilled, wrapping her heart in ice. She’d scuttled an entirely different, softer dream for her future when she’d walked away from the army and Tate Walker four years ago. Walked away without leaving him any clue that her side of their friendship had grown into something so much more.

She was still staring at Tate, trying to reconcile his reality when he tipped his chin, his eyes catching hers and holding fast. It was the same jolt she’d felt when she saw him a few hours ago and realized Tate was alive. After years of grieving, he was alive. “Why aren’t you dead?”

He blinked, then gave her a rueful smile. “You want me to be?”

Never. The knowledge he was there in front of her wrapped around something inside and freed emotions long locked away. But the freedom brought confusion, anger and something she didn’t dare try to define.

When she didn’t answer, he sat on the step at her feet, patting the wide wooden porch boards beside him. “Might as well have a seat, and we can both start explaining.”

Both? As far as she was concerned, this story was all his. She might be in some unknown danger, but Tate’s continued existence trumped everything. His story came first.

Staring at him made her head swim, made the past fold onto the present and shower her anew with grief she would never let him see. “This show’s all yours, Walker.” She settled beside him, keeping a fair space between them, sweeping her arm out to encompass the small clearing around the house. “I’ve got nowhere to be. You can talk all night.”

“No. You can talk.” The friendly Tate vanished into investigative mode, his tone hard and matter-of-fact. “Explain to me why my undercover persona was tasked to seize an asset, and, when I made the grab, it was you.”

Shouldn’t he already know? He was the one undercover doing the investigating. She was the victim. And he didn’t get to interrogate her. “I have no idea. Why don’t you explain to me why you were trying to kidnap me in the first place? Or better yet, why you let me believe you were dead for four years?”

Tate drummed his thumbs on his blue-jeaned thighs. “Do you get that your life’s in danger?”

“And do you get that I don’t trust you?” It would wound him, but Meghan really didn’t care right now. He’d been a part of a team trying to kidnap her today. He’d lied. He’d let her grieve. And she had grieved for every single moment they could have had if she hadn’t been too scared to face her feelings. It had been pain the likes of which she’d never known before, and the healing had never fully come. Now he was back? There was no way she was letting him off easy.

He winced and stared across the yard. After a minute, he pinched the bridge of his nose, then glanced at his watch. “Long story.” The deep pain in the lines around his mouth made Meghan want to find a way to make it better, to take away the hurt.

Fine. She’d let him off the hook...for now. “Then explain why you tried to kidnap me. You’re the one who started this mess.”

“Believe me—I was as surprised to see you as you were to see me.”

“Doubtful. I’ve never been dead.”

“Fair enough.” Tate pushed himself up from his perch on the stairs and walked to his pickup; the distance between them opened like a canyon. “I can tell you it’s a cyberterror threat. And why you? No idea. I’ve been on this op a long time, and the threat’s not from anyone we’ve dealt with in the past.”

Had someone found out who she was, her talent for hacking systems and ferreting out information necessary to eliminate the bad guys? Had they found out she hadn’t always used her talent for good—something Tate wouldn’t know?

She followed close at his heels, needing to know what was happening. Needing to know if her past was bleeding into Tate’s present. “I need more.”

“You won’t get it. You left the unit. When you did, you let go of the right to be involved in an active investigation.” His demeanor was cold business, his voice tight. “Aside from Isaac’s crew, you’re the sole link I have to a hacker with an endgame your worst nightmares can’t fathom. You’re an asset, not my partner. Get used to it.”

* * *

He’d gone too far. Tate saw it as her jaw tightened and her eyes took on a different sheen, as though she’d drawn the curtains so he couldn’t see in. Maybe it was the wrong thing to say, but nothing had been right since he’d come face-to-face with her earlier in the afternoon.

No, it had been wrong for a whole lot longer than that. When she left the army and dissolved their team without explanation, she cut him clean through, marked him in a way his physical scars never had. After the way his mouth had just gotten away from him, there was obviously some latent anger stirring inside. He reached for Meghan but hesitated before he touched her, wanting to force her to look at him, but he knew better. She’d take a long time to thaw now that he’d wounded her.

Still, he had to try. “That came out harsh, but you have to understand. Information’s classified unless I can prove you need to know. This mission has been ongoing, but the whole game changed when you got involved. Now I have to find a way to protect you while maintaining my cover. Chances are high you’ve seen the hacker we’re after, and you might even know him. You’re a more valuable asset than you realize, and I have to—”

“How would I have seen whoever it is you’re after?” She squared her shoulders, ready to fight. Ready to fight him. But something besides anger lurked in her posture. If it had been anyone but Meghan, Tate would have called it fear. “I can take care of myself. I have the same training as you. All I need to know is who’s after me and why.”

How had it come to this? He’d taught her nearly everything he knew about defending oneself, while she’d taught him how to locate a hack buried in a system. They’d worked well, had been a team others envied. Now here they stood, toe-to-toe and worlds apart. Everything about it felt wrong.

“I don’t know why. I was hoping you did. And you have no idea what you’re dealing with.” Tate dragged his hand down his face, scraping against a full day’s worth of stubble. “This is not some ordinary hacker. This guy—” He stared at the trees weaving gently in the light breeze, his jaw working back and forth as he chewed on his next words. So much was classified, and he wasn’t used to having to censor himself around Meghan.

She eased closer to the truck, keeping the dented red hood between them. “What?”

He drummed the chipped metal hood, weighing how much he could trust her. Old habits and their former closeness pushed the whole story forward, but there he couldn’t overstep forces above his pay grade and beyond his control. “This is potentially the biggest threat to national security we’ve encountered since the unit was put together.” He dropped his gaze to her, bracing for the anger about to be unleashed in his direction. “I can’t tell you more, not without authorization.”

Sure enough, Meghan drew away, her face tightening. She smacked the truck’s hood, the dull metallic echo bouncing off the trees. “There’s an order out on me, and you don’t want to tell me why?”

Her voice was shrill, but she had to know this wasn’t personal. National security trumped all. When ops were classified, “trust no one” kicked in.

Still it had to hurt to be on the outside of this. It hurt him to be the one to shut the door on her. His former partner...his former best friend.

Tate pinched his lips together, the action radiating pain into his jaw. If he wasn’t careful, she might throw a punch of her own volition. He focused on the woods behind her, trying to distance himself. She wasn’t his partner. She was an asset. A woman with a secret he needed to uncover if he wanted to apprehend a hacker who had twice come close to causing mass chaos. Working this op meant keeping Meghan at a distance, no matter how much it hurt. “I need my phone. And my gun.”

She flinched, the action so quick only someone who knew her would notice. Pulling the phone from her pocket, Meghan slid it across the hood with a little too much force, then pivoted on one heel and stalked up the porch steps, shaking the entire structure with the force of her anger.

Tate watched her go, thoughts too spun around to do much else. Captain Meghan McGuire. He’d been dead certain he’d never see his former partner again. When he’d hauled her to her feet today and caught sight of those brown eyes the color of Turkish coffee, he’d nearly dropped his cover story in shock.

For four long years, he’d let her believe the story the army had told her. That he was dead, killed in the attack that actually had nearly put him in the grave. Playing dead allowed him to do his job, working in the shadows for an elite military unit tasked with shutting down cyberthreats to the United States and its allies. Still, somewhere in the intervening years, he’d lost count of the number of times he’d wanted to reconnect with her, to find the easy camaraderie that had gotten him through many hard times in the past.

She didn’t know he’d missed her, and if what he knew of Meghan’s less-than-carefree childhood was any indication, she probably viewed his faked death and years of silence as the ultimate betrayal. If she’d done the same to him, he’d be the one demanding answers and working to douse anger. He owed her the real story. Soon. But not until he figured out why she was in danger.

Tate stretched his neck and unlocked his phone, forcing his thoughts into the game. He’d lost ground today, “letting” Meghan get away.

The growing bruise spreading across his cheek had bought him some sympathy...and some nasty ribbing from a bunch of punks who couldn’t believe he’d let a girl get the best of him. At least they’d bought it.

Isaac had been red-faced, screaming furious when he’d discovered Meghan had eluded them, but after a phone call to report Tate’s failure to “the boss,” he’d given the group a knowing look and said it wasn’t his place to deal with the problem.

Which meant it was going over Isaac’s head. Whoever this hacker was, he wanted Meghan, and Tate had lost her. If he was angry enough to deal with Tate himself, then they would finally see face-to-face one of the most dangerous cyberterrorists in the world. It was possible his “mistake” would bring an end to the chase they’d been on for two years and an op that had forced Tate undercover, infiltrating the small band of street thugs who did the dirty work of the mysterious hacker in this area of the country. It was easier to get into Isaac’s good graces as muscle-for-hire in his low-level gang than to go straight for an audience with the king.

He could almost taste the end of a reign of terror for the unnamed criminal who had stolen lives, financed terror attacks and infiltrated the US military. Bringing him to justice would be a pleasure.

Isaac and his crew thought Tate was off somewhere licking his wounds, that he was doing things even his imagination refused to think. He’d make his way to Isaac’s in the morning, probably to find a drug-fueled party in full swing.

He could worry about Isaac later. Right now, he had to call in and report. And, if he could convince his team leader, perhaps he’d get permission to fill Meghan in on the op. Maybe together they could find out why she was targeted and why an international terrorist had hacked something as low level as a Christian school in central Michigan. Tapping into the school’s unsecured network had been the mistake that had allowed Tate’s team to zero in on him. It could all be another elaborate trap, like their last mission. Or it could be a fatal mistake on their target’s part.

He dialed Captain Ethan Kincaid’s number, and the team leader answered on the first ring. “You safe? From our end, it seemed your phone took a joyride.”

“I am, but we’ve got a wrinkle.”

“Not a big one, I hope.” Ethan was never going to be patient with anything that held them back. The hacker they were chasing had nearly killed Ethan’s now-wife and his best friend, Sean Turner. This was personal for Tate’s team leader.

“Meghan McGuire.”

The silence from Ethan’s end of the phone was telling. It was long seconds before he said anything. “Captain Meghan McGuire? Your partner?”

“The same.”

“How did you come across her?”

Tate thumbed his cheek, where a dull ache persisted in the spot Meghan’s fist had met. He needed sleep. Soon. But it probably wasn’t coming. “I wish I knew. Our hacker sent word two days ago for us to grab an asset. No name, just a description and a location to be determined. We were to sit on go until he knew there was an opportunity. This afternoon we got a location and a time. When we went in, it was her.”

“Our hacker wants her bad enough to pull her right off the street? Why?”

“No idea.” Tate gave a quick rundown of the events leading to Meghan’s staged escape. “But I want Ashley to dig into everything Meghan’s done since she left the army.” The request made his muscles tighten. Checking on his former partner was a necessary precaution, though not an easy one. At least Ashley could handle it, and it wouldn’t have to go through any channels that might raise red flags elsewhere.

Ethan’s wife, Ashley, ran Colson Solutions, a high-level technology consultant firm that also employed former team member Sean Turner. Ashley and Sean could do nearly anything with tech, stuff Tate would never understand. They’d been outmatched once, by the very hacker they were currently pursuing. The hacker Ashley had nicknamed Phoenix, like the mythological bird. Every time they thought they’d destroyed him, he showed up again.

And he was somehow always watching, always two steps ahead of them.

“You don’t think she’s working for Phoenix?” Ethan’s voice held skepticism. Back in the day, they’d all worked together in one form or another; the bond formed by their small unit was a strong one.

Tate prayed hard Meghan was still the woman he’d once known, prayed she hadn’t somehow flipped to the dark side. After all, she’d been his partner, the person he’d trusted with his life, the woman who he’d once counted as his best friend. “It’s been over four years since I last saw her but...no.”

“Probably we both need to step back and let a third party evaluate this one.” Ethan’s unspoken suspicions came through loud and clear.

“I’m not too close to her.” Tate could hear the fight in his own voice. “Unless Ashley unearths something shocking, I’m not going to treat Meghan as though she’s a suspect. If I got tangled in something, you’d come to me before you sent in the hounds, and I’m doing the same for her. I need permission to fill her in so we can get some answers.”

Ethan blew out a loud breath. He knew he’d lost this round to Tate and to all of their shared histories. “Fine, but use your judgment. Four years is a long time and people change. You should know better than anybody.”

THREE

How dare he speak to her as if he had some kind of authority? It was her life in danger, her past popping up all over the place. Meghan stopped at the window by the front door, holding Tate’s pistol tightly. She struggled to grab on to sanity, because it was rapidly slipping, muddying reality with dreams and nightmares.

She couldn’t lose her grip now. She had to face reality. Tate couldn’t tell her anything because she was nobody. It was true. When she’d walked away, she had relinquished the right to know. Having him stand before her and stonewall her hurt more than she cared to admit.

Meghan lifted the edge of the blinds and peeked through, needing another minute, but Tate wasn’t standing where she’d left him. She clenched her jaw, the tension in her head throbbing. It shouldn’t have been this way. Finding out he was alive should have been joyful, the promise of a new chance, not conflicting and angry and confusing.

Meghan dropped the blinds with a clatter and squared her shoulders. Confusing was the key word. Nothing about this day made sense, and the one person who could answer her questions stood somewhere in the shadows, where he’d apparently been living for years.

Putting on her game face, Meghan stepped onto the porch, determined to get the information she wanted.

Tate stood at the edge of the wood line, barely visible in the moonlight. His voice drifted to Meghan, words indistinguishable, although it sounded as if he was arguing with someone on the other end of a phone call. After a moment, he pulled the phone from his ear. The screen illuminated the hard set of his jaw as he stared at the device; then he shoved it in his pocket as she drew closer.

He took the offered gun, studied it, then held it out to her. “Trade me for yours.”

Without a word, Meghan unclipped her holster from her belt. He was right. If he appeared with the weapon she’d supposedly stolen from him, Isaac would know in an instant something was off.

She held the gun low and behind her, out of his reach. “Information first.” From the little bit she’d been able to figure out from watching his posture, it was clear the phone call had been to someone above his pay grade, likely determining what he could safely say to the outsider.

Tate didn’t hesitate. He’d surely been anticipating her move. “A couple of years ago, we set on a terror cell using a legitimate government contractor as a front. Their hacker would gain access to the network, tweak the payout amount and collect several times what was due. We put the brakes on the physical side of the cell and took the contractor into custody, thinking we’d managed to cut off the entire operation, but a few months later, the hacker surfaced again. We’ve been calling him Phoenix.”

“Because he keeps coming back.” She should know.

“Worse every time. He aided another cell, one murdering young soldiers without close relatives to ask any questions, then stealing their identities in order to set terrorists into their places. They planned random attacks within the ranks, making it seem as though soldiers were behind them. The kind of fear and distrust those plants would breed could rip our entire military apart.”

Meghan gasped as the depth of her former blackmailer’s treachery came into focus. Phoenix had targeted soldiers like her, young men and women with nowhere else to turn. She’d been in college when he’d had her hop to his bidding, had blackmailed her into stealing personal data from high-dollar donors. Anger at the terrorists caught a backdraft and engulfed any hostility she’d felt toward Tate. “Tell me you stopped whoever was behind it.”

“We did.” There was pride in Tate’s voice, but it didn’t last. “Problem is, Phoenix was still out there. He has a distinct signature, and he’s fond of taunting us. That last little operation was led by the son of the contractor we took out of commission in the first op. The kid was out for vengeance, and he targeted our team, drew us in and led us right by the nose. When we caught him, he tried to convince us he was the hacker, but it became evident pretty quickly he didn’t have the skills. Phoenix watched us the entire time we were working the mission. He was always a step ahead, as though he had an ear to our plans, and, in the end, the cell nearly took out a soldier and one of our men in Kentucky. He went underground for a few months, then popped up in a hack at your school about a year ago.”

“Wait.” Surely she’d heard him wrong. She’d had no idea the system was hacked until two days ago. How long had her past been biting her heels? “A year ago? You’re sure?” How hadn’t she spotted him? She was the best. If he was poking around in the system she’d built and strengthened herself, then he was better. Pride, fear and anger spun in a combustible mix.

“He’d been snooping in your system for months before we found him. We’d been scouring networks, and one of our trackers pinged him about six months ago. We traced him to some planted files on your network and had another operative dig into it. He didn’t find anything suspicious on your end. The guys we sent in to do a cursory search never knew you, and you don’t show up on any of the school’s public sites.”

“I stay out of the limelight.” It was necessary with the work she’d once done. Plenty of terrorists would love nothing more than to take out a member of their unit. For four years, she’d done her job as tech director and teacher, trying to keep her past where it belonged.

“Naturally. Problem is, it seems as if our hacker found you and has been gathering intel on you, waiting for his moment. You’re the only one who can tell me why.”

Meghan stepped closer and pressed her palms against the worn metal of the truck hood. How long had he been watching, waiting to strike? “Why not let us know we were hacked?”

“We didn’t want you to do something to tip him off.” Tate didn’t appear to notice her discomfort. “Intel from some other sources point to an impending attack on the power grid, and one of the few hackers in play who can handle such a play right now is Phoenix. We have to take him out now, while we have an in, or we could be facing a serious disaster.”

The weight of the situation tore Meghan’s focus from herself. This was what she’d fought against when she was beside Tate in the military. “How’s the operation?”

“At the moment, slow. We were able to figure out who’s doing his grunt work. It’s a small street gang, the kind that will do anything to prove themselves. Isaac Koffman has insecurity issues, and he’ll do whatever it takes to bolster his street cred. He wants to move his crew into the big time, be a national syndicate, but he hasn’t got the brains to pull off the types of crimes he’d need to do in order to make a name. He’s got delusions of grandeur and no way to propel himself into the big time. Isaac’s prime material for manipulation, willing to drag his crew into things others wouldn’t touch for fear of getting caught. Made it easy for our hacker to use him and easy for me to get inside.”