Breaking Conviction by Greer Rivers
Chapter Nine
“Can you believe those Neanderthals? I don’t know how you can sit through meetings with all that BDE swinging around.”
Nora scoffed and perched her combat boot heels on top of Wes’s computer desk in the BlackStone facility war room. For the third time. He casually pushed them off and she dramatically allowed them to land hard onto the ground, as if they weighed a thousand pounds, but she never ceased texting.
“BDE… big dick energy?” Wes kept his eyes on the screen but raised an eyebrow.
Nora snorted. “Usually, but your crew is full of Big Dumbass Energy.”
He could tell she was determined to get on his nerves today, but he grew up with a little sister and Nora’s brand of torture was actually kind of fun. He’d be able to handle whatever the little pixie threw at him with ease and a smile. But first he needed to figure out how the fucking hell she bypassed his security... again.
“It was just Jaybird and Devil acting like cavemen,” he replied. “The rest of us were just innocent bystanders. Did you hack my phone or something? How’d you use the temp code without me giving it to you?”
She raised a freshly dyed black eyebrow. “Do you really want me to tell ya, Superman? You know if I do, we’ll be 1-0.”
Wes grumbled and settled back into his chair before scanning over his wall of computer screens, his mecca. There was nowhere else he felt more at peace.
Except when Naomi smiled at me.
Fuck, he was such a sap. He was starting to sound like the romance novels his BlackStone Security teammate, Phoenix, was obsessed with.
Ever since Wes had seen Naomi again a week ago, he’d been hooked. Naomi’s healthy, unbruised light ivory skin was flawless and highlighted by her striking eyes and dark auburn hair. When his willpower had broken and he’d stroked down her sleeved arm, it’d taken everything inside him not to continue on down to trace her curves. He’d finally been able to see the depth of her chestnut eyes, with warm orange undertones that seemed to spark every time she got sassy with him. Which was a lot. Fortunately, he liked to see her fire.
“Anywho, weren’t they the absolute worst? When Hawk asked me to come to this meeting, I didn’t know Assistant District Attorney Marco Aguilar and Officer Henry Brown were going to be invited too. That’s damn near errbody. Gods, if Ellie ever finds out she’s the only one left out because Jason and Devil don’t want her to know anything about the party, she’s gonna flip her lid.”
Stifling a smile, he responded in a bored tone. “Yeah, man. I don’t know what their problem is.”
He had an idea actually, and it had something to do with the steamy self-defense training videos he’d been deleting from the BlackStone server right and left.
The first time he’d seen Devil and Ellie in a… compromising… position, much closer than any training session Devil had ever given him, Wes had nearly spit out all of his coffee. Hawk had come in at just the wrong time, smiled, said ‘Good for Devil’ and then ordered Wes to delete all evidence. But hell, if they didn’t start using a damn bedroom, he was going to have to intervene.
“I know they’re worried about her,” he continued, keeping the gossip to himself. “But at some point, you gotta trust people to know what’s best for themselves. Taking away that agency is only gonna perpetuate the problem.” Naomi popped into his mind, reminding him that he needed to take his own damn advice. She obviously didn’t want his opinion, no matter how much he felt the need to give it.
“Couldn’t agree more… speaking of problems. Do you really think the same guys who…” Nora swallowed, “kidnapped me and Ellie are gonna try to pull the same stunt this year? Like, really really believe it?”
Wes sighed, knowing what she was getting at. Nora had been roped into being a part of their current mission to infiltrate the Ashland Elite Scholarship Fundraiser, an annual party that was always kept a secret until only a few weeks before.
“Yeah, I think they’re gonna go through with it. The bastards have been radio silent for the last year, which makes me believe they might have help in high places. I’d bet money that the traffickers are the reason why the fundraiser is Ashland County’s best-kept secret.”
Too bad for them. Not only did Wes love a challenge, he now had the master list of guests, donors, and eligible recipients, thanks to Naomi.
He winced inwardly. He’d hated lying by omission to Naomi to get the list. What he’d said hadn’t been untrue. Ellie had met people at the party the year before and because she was drugged, she had no recollection of anyone.
Nora scoffed and propped her boots up on the desk before crossing her arms and leaning back. “More like best-kept scandal. Honestly, Superman, I’m not stoked about being a makeshift agent. I’ll be Nora, Nora the Explorer in a freakin’ James Bond movie. Although, Hawk would be a sexy AF Black Bond.”
Wes didn’t knock her boots down this time. A note in her voice told him what he already knew. She was terrified. And who could blame her?
Last year, Ellie and her friend were kidnapped from the party. Her friend had been murdered, and during recon, a BlackStone team member, Draco, was shot and Nora was kidnapped too. Both Nora and Ellie were almost fucking sold.
“We have a month until the party this time. Last year, we were scrambling after the fact and had less than seventy-two hours to come to the rescue. No one should notice you since you don’t have that purple hair anymore.” He tugged at a faded black lock, like he used to do with his sister, and Nora swatted his hand while sticking out her tongue. “I miss the fun colors, by the way.”
Nora’s expression dimmed and she cleared her throat. “Yeah, well… ever since Draco…” She swallowed as she mentioned Wes’s teammate, who was still in a coma after trying to save Nora. “I just haven’t been in the mood for anything ‘fun’ lately.”
Fuck, he hated seeing that look of guilt stain her face. Desperate to get his annoying ‘kid sister’ back, Wes knocked her shoes off the table again and grinned at her scowl. “On the plus side, Agent Nora, having a woman on the team makes a group of guys look way less suspect. You’ll basically be there as Phoenix’s arm candy if that makes you feel any better.”
Nora smiled before pretending to gag. “Ga-ross. I’ve heard some… shall we say… big things about our good pal Phoenix from the strip club Jules represents. But let’s also just say I’ve heard those compliments a lot from a lot of different women. The man seems to be there all night every night, so yeah… that’ll be a big hard pass for me. Thanks.”
Wes laughed until an idea hit him. He turned toward his computer screens again and navigated the BlackStone Security program he’d created, opening files and reworking code until he finally found the answer.
“Ah-HA! You used Phoenix’s code to get in! Wait… how?”
Nora smiled her mischievous grin. “You gotta talk to your dude, Superman. Phoenix is always on his phone and lousy as balls at hiding his screen when he enters the code to get into the compound.”
“Fucking Phoenix.” He took off his glasses and massaged his eyes. “That man’s gonna be the death of me.”
When he put his glasses back on, Nora was watching him thoughtfully.
“What’s the beef with you two, anyway? Were you guys like this in MF7?”
He kept from flinching at a civilian mentioning their former paramilitary unit. Before they were the private security firm, his team at BlackStone was part of a project so classified, most of the US government didn’t even know about it. Secrecy was the only way to make sure no one infiltrated or sabotaged their mission to rescue trafficked victims and takedown rings in hot zones throughout the world.
Instead, he rolled his eyes and turned back to the computer, pulling up the guest list Naomi had given him the week before. “Who knows? I think he’s still got damage from that last mission with all of us. Somehow it was fucked from the start, and he blames me for the comms going down even though I know I triple-checked headsets, drones, and intel beforehand. They went down before the firestorm and I wasn’t able to warn them that they were walking into a trap.”
The ‘last mission’ the BlackStone men had together, nearly two years ago, was when they comprised the MF7. They’d been charged with saving trafficking victims, and their last mission in Yemen had failed miserably. No victims were saved, and they’d lost their team lead, Eagle.
Nora’s brows furrowed. “So he’s angsty about your walkie-talkies not working?”
Wes huffed out a breath. “That’s one way to put it. It’s a little more involved than that, but it works I guess.”
Nora stuck her nose back in her phone before nonchalantly balancing her boots on his desk again. “Seems petty AF if ya asked me. Sounds like all of you guys were boned. I don’t see why blaming one dude helps anyone.”
Wes tightened his lips and didn’t respond. He’d thought that a million times before himself. He sighed and shook his head before pointing to the list and various other programs on the screens.
“So you ready to do some digging and find out which assholes are dumb enough to try to pull the same stunt they did last year?”
“Uh…” Nora looked up from her phone and studied the large computer screens before smiling her evil little pixie smile. “Almost.”
Wes followed her gaze to see a gray Nissan Murano pull up to the BlackStone Security gate.
“You called Naomi?”
The request for entry alerted on the screen, but Wes was too stunned to move. He’d been pissed when her name was brought up in the meeting and didn’t agree with Hawk that she should be involved with their mission with the Ashland Elite. Wes hadn’t any intention of actually asking Naomi for her help and had instead spent the remainder of the meeting brainstorming excuses as to why they couldn’t use her.
Still frozen at his keyboard, his mind on the fritz and trying to figure out his next course of action, Nora chuckled and dropped her feet from the desk. She pushed his rolly chair out of the way to press the buttons that opened the gates and allowed Naomi inside the building before sitting back down.
“Hells yeah I called Naomi. Hawk said we needed to try to use her to go through the list.”
“Nora, she works for one of the companies that helps throw this thing!”
Nora rolled her eyes. “I know you don’t think she has anything to do with this crap. She was naïve enough to trust you with the list in the first place. I bet she’ll want to help. Color me an optimist, but she doesn’t seem the type to knowingly involve herself with a company that would harbor and support sex traffickers.”
“Nora, I don’t want her mixed up in all this shit. We can do this without her.”
Nora frowned and wagged her finger at him. “Come on, Snake, you’re sounding like Jason and Devil treating Ellie with kid gloves. Don’t let your BDE turn into Big Dumbass Energy, too. Naomi’s a grown-ass adult, dude. We’ll set up the sitch and see if she wants to help.”
“Nora, you don’t understand. We didn’t end on exactly the best note last week. I’m telling you, if I was hanging off a cliff with one hand, she’d stomp on my fingers. I doubt she’ll want to help if I’m involved. I think I’ve made her smile maybe once.”
“See! You guys are already in lurve! I knew creating those false alarm signals at Sasha Saves would do the trick.” She covered her hands with her heart and sighed like a lovesick teen. “It feels amazing to use my techno powers for good.”
Wes groaned before lifting his glasses and swiping his hands down his face. “I can’t believe it’s been you this whole time. I was seriously about to overhaul the whole system.”
Nora scoffed and propped her hands on her hips in mock disappointment. “I’m a wee bit offended you didn’t figure it out yourself, Superman. Did you really think I was too dumb to turn on a motherfluffin’ switch? I mean, come on.”
“Nope, didn’t figure it out. I guess that makes us 0-1 since you pulled a tech hack over on me.”
“Yasss! Victory!” Nora cheered before making a show of propping her legs up on the desk again and leaning back with her arms behind her head. “Don’t worry Superman, someday you’ll pull one over on me and you’ll get to be the king.”
“Hello?”
Naomi’s soft voice called down the hall and Nora winked at him.
“Oh, and look at that, my good sir, your queen has arrived.”
