Breaking Conviction by Greer Rivers
Chapter Forty
“Wes, what does this button do?”
Wes reached for Thea and plopped her into his lap before she could press the button on his desk in the war room at BlackStone.
“That tells me when someone I don’t know is at the gate. I press it…” He depressed the black button and a camera angle of the empty closed gate came on the screen. “Then I can see if anyone’s there and ask them, Halt, who goes there?” He used his best medieval sentry voice into the microphone and was rewarded with lyrical giggles.
“Wes, there ain’t nobody there. See!” She pointed to the empty screen before pointing to another. “What do all those words mean?”
“Bah, you’re right. Guess we’ll have to keep waiting for someone to visit us.” He pointed to the screen with the logins to answer her question. “That tells me who all’s been in and out of here. See, that’s your mom’s name right there when she left for work this morning. From that list, I know everyone else is going about their day, and only you, me, and Phoenix are here.”
He huffed at the time beside his last teammate’s name. Typically he’d be out all night and just getting in during lunchtime. If the guy didn’t have an STD by now, he must be invincible.
Wes shook his head before leaving Thea to play a game he’d downloaded for her on his phone. They’d just finished eating upstairs, and Wes needed to return to the task he’d been working on before lunch.
He was researching and cross-referencing the list of Alea Iacta Est members that Ascot gave him along with Investigator Burgess’s notes, ADA Aguilar’s case file, the guest lists that had missing women, and any information he could find on the Rahab Foundation. It was a bear of a task, but he was working through it as painstakingly as possible. The women they’d failed deserved at least that.
Ascot had apparently had a few more members he’d “forgotten” about until Wes was out of the room to go help Naomi. They’d originally thought it was a group of rich, old white men, but after everything they’d learned, he hadn’t been too surprised to see Gail Haynesworth as one of the “members”. She’d been added to the list of monsters in this whole nightmare. Wes knew Ascot had more information in him, but the pathetic asshole was refusing to give up the one name they needed most.
Careful not to jostle Thea, Wes shook out the tension he’d had ever since Naomi called him after her meeting with Haynesworth. His queen had been on the verge of tears, and he’d wanted to burn the whole damn CTI building to the ground. The only thing that’d kept him from losing his cool was Thea’s oblivious smile at the time, and the anger and resolve that laced Naomi’s voice. It seemed like getting fired wasn’t going to keep her down, and she was refusing to let her happiness be a casualty in this battle.
His eyes drifted to another screen that displayed more possible victims. As far as innocent casualties went, all of his research that morning had shown him that over the years, there were at least three women who’d practically disappeared after attending the scholarship party. With what happened to Ellie and the most recent party, it was worrisome that he couldn’t find anything out about the women. Locating their whereabouts was now one of BlackStone’s top priorities.
And as for the Rahab Foundation... a year ago, Nora had told them that she couldn’t find any information on it and Wes chalked it up to being an organization so hidden that she couldn’t find it. The organization had been much like Sasha Saves, and he’d figured that Nora just didn’t know how to search.
But now he knew Nora and that excuse didn’t fly. The woman was nearly as proficient as him at finding out information about people. Maybe even better, although he’d never admit that to her. No doubt she’d think she’d earned another point in their silly game with each other.
With Nora’s abilities in mind, Wes had scoured his usual and even unusual channels—aka government databases—and couldn’t find any information on the organization. Now he was questioning everything.
If they weren’t saving women from human trafficking, then what the fuck had they been doing for seven years?
“What does… that button do?”
He chuckled. Of course, Thea would be interested in the proverbial ‘big red button’. “If something bad ever happens, I press that and it sends an alert to police, firemen, all of my teammates. It tells everyone we’re in trouble.”
“Police like my daddy was?” she asked with a worried look. “Will my daddy come if that button gets pressed?”
Wes gritted his teeth. “No. Your father isn’t a police officer anymore. Cops are the good guys.” Or they’re supposed to be. “But you have nothing to worry about, princess.”
A low mechanical whirring began next to him as the door to the basement lowered and moved back on its track.
Thea gasped and swiveled her head to the side, her bright red curls bouncing with the movement.
“Wes, what is that?” she whispered and Wes tensed around her until he saw the backward baseball cap.
“Bastard didn’t want to eat— Oh, hey, there kid.” Phoenix slid the full plate across the floor before continuing up the basement stepladder.
“It’s just Phoenix,” Wes answered, even though Thea obviously knew by now. “He was downstairs working on something.”
“Phoe-nik, is there a kitchen downstairs?” Thea asked with a tilt of her head.
Phoenix cringed and looked to Wes for an answer.
“No princess, there’s not a kitchen downstairs. Phoenix was just eating lunch down there, weren’t you, Phoenix?”
Phoenix rolled his eyes, at what, Wes didn’t know, but thankfully he played along.
“Yeah, just had a hankerin’ to take my lunch to the basement. I’ll go take this up right now,” he answered without looking up as he keyed in the code Wes had set up on everyone’s phone in order to shut and lock the hidden door in the floor.
“Wait, didn’t you just get here?”
Phoenix narrowed his eyes. “Yeah, dude. I’m on Ascot’s food duty.”
“No, I mean—”
“Is that a cookie? Like my mommy makes?”
Thea squealed and jumped off Wes’s lap, aiming for the plate on the ground. Thankfully, Wes pulled her back just as Phoenix snatched the plate up.
“This one ain’t for you, kid.”
Thea’s green hazel eyes shimmered with tears. “But why can’t I have one?”
“Damn, do they have a button or some sh-thing? That reaction was immediate as hell.”
Wes laughed. “Don’t worry, Princess T. I’m sure if you ask Phoenix nicely, he’ll run up and go get you one.”
“Dude, seriously?”
Wes glared at him while Thea tried to calm herself down. She hiccuped and nodded before turning on what Wes had come to realize was her “gimme” look. His niece and nephew had one, too, widening their eyes and sticking their bottom lip out. Every time they wanted something, instead of saying “Gimme that,” they just gave the look. It worked every time for Wes and from the defeat on Phoenix’s face, it seemed it worked on him too.
“Please, Phoe-nik. Can I have a cookie?”
Phoenix sighed before looking down at his phone and muttering under his breath. “Sure, kid. I’ll be right back.”
Thea squealed and hopped back into Wes’s lap. Without a thought, he wrapped his arms around her. Naomi had told him how Dean had treated Thea that last time. The thought of anyone hurting her or making her cry made his teeth ache from clenching his jaw, and he wished he could go back and give the asshole a few more knocks to the head to teach him a lesson. But it wouldn’t do any good. Men like that aren’t cured by a taste of their own medicine.
A buzzing in front of him made Wes look to his phone in Thea’s hands.
“Thea, is someone calling me?”
She stilled in his arms like she was afraid she was in trouble, but eventually turned to look at Wes with a toothy grin. “Yes sir, but can I finish first?”
Wes chuckled, shaking his head. “Sure thing, princess.”
He hugged her once with one arm. She was fiery, like her mom. Was there any doubt why he’d almost told Naomi how he felt about her the night she escaped her ex? She’d squeezed his hand three times, just like Thea had before. He had an idea of what it meant, but hadn’t wanted to confront her right then. That type of emotion could scare anyone away if it was admitted too soon.
But she had to know, right? He’d nearly gotten arrested that night for defending Naomi and Thea, and he’d do it again. With that thought, he realized he’d do anything for them.
A crash from below drew Wes’s attention to the still open trap door.
“Fucking Phoenix,” he muttered without thinking and the small gasp in front of him told him he’d been heard.
“Wes, you can’t say bad words,” the little girl admonished him like cursing was the worst thing anyone could ever do. It was refreshing. Hopefully her innocence would remain for as long as possible and her father’s actions hadn’t caused too much emotional damage.
“Sorry, princess.” He tried to lean up to get to the button near the wall to close the trap door. The last thing Thea needed was to hear Ascot downstairs. Finding an interrogation prisoner might taint that angelic naivety quicker than even anything her dad had ever done.
He lifted her from his lap to set her down. “Let me just do something—”
Thea yelped and Wes sat right back down.
“What? What’s wrong?”
Thea groaned and pulled her hand back like she was about to chuck his phone. Just as it was about to leave her small hands, Wes reached and caught it.
“What the hell, Thea? You can’t throw my phone like that.”
She crossed her arms and pouted. “Someone keeps callin’ and makin’ me lose my game.”
“Thea, you can’t just throw a tantrum—”
He’d swiped out of her game and looked at his notifications.
23 missed calls from ‘My Queen’
“What the...” Wes’s heart tightened and dropped to his stomach like lead. He opened up his voice mail and Naomi’s scared voice came over the speaker.
“Wes! Oh my god, answer the phone! You have to get out of BlackStone! Dean’s scheduled some kind of attack—”
He immediately rolled his chair up to the desk and clicked through security camera footage. It took him a minute of searching, but he finally found the edge of a black van that sure as fuck wasn’t supposed to be there. The driver had parked outside the walls of the weapons room next door and had somehow managed to position the vehicle in one of his camera’s blind spots. Wes had to switch from one camera to another in order to make out what was happening.
A man carried something from the back of the van. At the camera’s angle, Wes couldn’t tell exactly what was happening, but it seemed like the man was stacking something against the outer wall. It was too hard to see clearly until finally he got a glimpse of the last box.
Sweat pricked across his brow. He’d bet every weapon on the other side of the war room wall that the man outside was stacking explosives against the facility walls.
As he watched, his mind raced, and Wes’s hand flew to the alert button. The man wiped his palms down his pants and got into the driver’s side of the van. Something that looked like a string or a cord maybe, connected to the tow hitch and instantly Wes fully understood what was happening. He tugged Thea close to him and stood to run.
But he was too late.
A boom and a child’s scream filled his ears as he turned to shield Thea from flames and flying metal.
