Page 67 of Her Honorable Hero

“You can’t,” Griff said. “It’s foolproof.”

Dex and Clint laughed.

“Give me your passcode,” Clint said. “Dex, is all the info I have on your phone still the same?”

“Fuck no, I change that shit daily.”

“Sorry, stupid question. I’ll pull it off of our encrypted site.”

“How long is this going to take?” Griff asked.

“I’ll have this app up on Clint’s phone in seven minutes. We’ll have visuals in every room you have a camera.”

Griff would get upset about the invasion of privacy and the fact that he was sold a shitty system, some other time. Right now, he’d promise to wash Clint’s truck in a bikini if he could pull this off. He looked up and realized they were about to cross the Coronado bridge. After they crossed, it would be twenty to forty-five minutes to get home, depending on traffic and speed.

Please, God.

Please, God.

As soon as they hit The Five, Dalton put on the gas, and they were going forty over the speed limit, where everyone else was going twenty over.

His hand hit the dash as Dalton veered around a cement mixer. The seatbelt cut in hard on his ribs. The pain only made his focus clearer.

“Dalton, I need to stay alive to save my wife and kid, you got it?” he yelled.

Dalton’s only response was to go faster.

* * *

He had a gun.It was Glock thirty-six, must be department issued. It was pointed down, not at her baby.

“Let’s go inside.”

“I’m not going anywhere when you have a gun near my child.” She slumped against her car. It was negotiation one-oh-one. She needed to start exerting power from the get go.

“Move now. I’m not kidding.”

“What aren’t you kidding about, Heinrich? Isn’t it about time you told me what you want? You certainly aren’t here at my house with a gun because you want some father/daughter bonding time. Now spill it.” She pretended he was an employee that she was getting ready to fire.

“I heard you were a ball-buster. Not at all like your mother. However, you’re stupid. Apparently you didn’t inherit my brains.”

“I just want to hear you spell it out. I’m not going to assume a damn thing where you’re concerned.”

“Smores,” Livvie kicked out.

“In just a moment, Baby.” Miranda cradled her little girl’s head. “You’ll get smores in just a minute.”

“No she won’t, because you’re going to be busy uploading all of the files for Pegasus to my virtual private server.”

Miranda snorted. She’d thought as much. “You’re delusional.”

“No, I’m not. Many children take care of their parents in their old age. You’re just taking care of me when I’m in my prime, and I appreciate it. I really do.” His smile made her skin crawl.

“Not going to happen. Hell, even if I wanted to. Even if you put that gun to my head and threatened to blow my brains out, I couldn’t do it. I don’t have access to the files at the house, and the encrypted files are of the type that they can’t be copied. My God, how stupid are you?”

He lifted the gun and took five swift steps toward her, aiming at Livvie, Miranda twirled around and hunched over, sheltering her baby against the safety of her SUV and her body. He wormed the gun between them, pressing it against Livvie’s squirming body as the little girl screamed.

“Just try me. I’ll kill her. You don’t give me what I want, I’ll kill your brat.”