John chuckled, opening the book and flipping through the pages. “This is absolutely amazing. I can’t believe you can remember all of these passwords. I’ll have my IT people look at the code. Even without the physical security key, they still might be able to tell me if these numbers are legit.”
“What do we do next?” she asked.
“Wedon’t do anything. You’ve done enough by giving us this code,” John said. “I’ll find a way to break into Thorn’s offices and get the security key.”
“I could do it,” she said.
John smiled. “I appreciate the offer, Dreya, but Ivy, Landon, and I went to a lot of work to keep you off Thorn’s radar, and we’d rather not put you on it. Thorn is my problem. Let me deal with him.”
She was tempted to point out that there was no one in DCO better at breaking into secure locations and stealing things, but she decided not to bother. Something told her that John wasn’t the kind of man to change his mind just because someone badgered him.
He glanced at his watch. “I have a meeting, so I’d better get going. Keep this conversation between the two of us, okay? Only a select few even know about Thorn and the storage device, so don’t tell anyone. And whatever you do, don’t ever breathe a word of this to Dick Coleman.”
Dreya frowned. How could a man that high up in the organization be excluded from something as important as this? “The deputy director of the DCO doesn’t know about it?”
John snorted derisively. “Oh, he knows. Because he’s involved with Thorn up to his eyeballs. His sole purpose at the DCO is to keep Thomas Thorn informed of every move I make.” He pocketed the notepad and took out his car keys. “I’ll see you later. And remember, not a word to anyone about this.”
Dreya was still thinking about everything she and John had talked about when Braden showed up with two bag lunches and a couple of bottles of water. He set the bags on the table beside her Glock, then glanced at the silhouette-shaped targets.
“Did you spend the whole time I was up at the cafeteria shooting?” he asked as he unwrapped a ham and turkey sandwich for her, then opened a bottle of water.
She desperately wanted to tell him about her conversation with John and what he’d said about Dick, the black storage device, and the security key, but she didn’t. John had told her not to talk to anyone about it, emphasis onanyone. Dreya felt like crap about including Braden in that group, but she supposed she was going to have to get used to keeping secrets if she was going to work for the DCO.
She shook her head and forced herself to smile. “No, not the whole time.”
As they ate lunch and talked about shooting techniques and what she could do to get better, Dreya’s mind kept going back to the conversation she had with John. If the DCO director had that security key, Thorn would probably be looking at a long prison term, maybe even life. She couldn’t help thinking Rory was laughing somewhere out there at the idea of Thorn going to prison because a thief had stolen the one thing that would put him in jail. There was something definitelyrightabout that.
She might have promised herself she wouldn’t go after powerful men with their own security forces, but she’d never promised John she’d stay away. Besides, the promise she’d made to herself was before she’d joined the DCO and realized how amazing it felt to do something for someone other than herself. This was her chance to make Thorn pay for what he did to Rory.
She wished again that she could tell Braden, but she knew he wouldn’t approve. Not only because she’d be going against what John wanted her to do, but also because he’d be worried she was getting tangled up with a man as dangerous as Thorn again. When she went into the Chadwick-Thorn headquarters to see if she could track the physical key they needed to solve this puzzle, she’d have to go in alone.
She wouldn’t be able to tell him what she was doing until after she’d done it. She only hoped he would understand.
“Can I borrow your Charger for an hour or so?” she asked when Braden came back from tossing out their garbage in the trash can.
Braden looked a little surprised but nodded. “Sure, but if you need to go somewhere, I can take you.”
“Thanks, but the thing I need to do is sort of for you.” She felt horrible lying to his face like this. “I don’t want you to know about it until I’m ready.”
Braden hesitated, and Dreya was sure he was going to call her out for lying, but then he nodded and dug his keys out of the cargo pocket on his uniform pants and handed them to her. “Text when you get back. I’ll be up at the main building with Clayne and Danica, figuring out what training we’re doing next.”
The fact that Braden didn’t give her any grief about using his car—not even a reminder to not speed or drive crazy—made her feel that much worse. She was going to have to do something special to make this up to him.
It took her a little while to get her weapon turned in to the arms room, but in thirty minutes, she was heading north on I-95 to Chadwick-Thorn’s corporate offices. It was broad daylight, so she wouldn’t be able to do anything other than case the place, but she’d never found a building she couldn’t break into, and she doubted Thorn’s office would be any different. Especially since this time, it was personal.
Chapter 16
Trevor gazed out the window of the common area, watching as the sun went down on the four Stillwater orderlies who’d been standing in the circular driveway for the past fifteen minutes, talking to Mahsood and Brand.
When the conversation was over, the group of men moved over to the large van parked near the curb. One of the men looked around as if worried there was someone watching them before opening the door. Reaching inside, he pulled out sets of night-vision goggles for him and his buddies, then short MP5 submachine guns equipped with long silencers for each of them.
Beside Trevor, Brooklyn inhaled sharply at the sight of the weapons. He didn’t blame her. Obviously, Mahsood was going with a new approach when it came to Ian. One that included heavily armed men. It probably wasn’t a coincidence that the four men gearing up for another go at the hybrid who’d been on the loose since late Thursday night were the biggest and most militant-looking members of Stillwater’s orderly staff. No doubt they were among the new employees who’d started working at Stillwater around the same time Mahsood had shown up.
Weapons in hand, the men disappeared into the thick woods. Despite the fact that Mahsood and Brand already had other orderlies out there searching for days, things were different this time. Clearly, Mahsood was cutting his losses and was more interested in killing Ian than capturing him now.
Trevor only hoped Ivy and Landon were aware the situation had changed. Without any way to call them, he couldn’t warn them that there were going to be four more people out there in those woods running around with weapons carrying bullets instead of tranquilizer darts. The possibility of this whole clusterfuck turning ugly was getting worse by the second.
“You don’t think they could hurt Ian, do you?” Brooklyn asked softly, anguish clear in her voice.
