Fortunately, Brian only had very basic security measures and nothing too crazy or complicated. That would have taken much longer to try and bypass. Cara clicked around his files trying to find anything that looked odd or out of place. Her hand gripping the mouse froze as she stopped to read one file more thoroughly. Well this was interesting, it was a database of personal information containing everything from birthdates to license and passport numbers to social security numbers. As she glanced over the list of names, she started to realize that she recognized some of them. Brian Landers, Joseph Kent, Robert Hayes, and Frank Marshall. Those were the names on the driver’s licenses that she had found in her mom’s safe. If this list was where he got information to make his fake IDs, then he had more or less an unlimited supply. Damn, there were more IDs here than one person could ever possibly use in a lifetime. And if Brian was capable of creating fake IDs then that meant she had no idea what his real name was.

  Not wanting to waste any more time than she needed to, Cara zipped the file onto her SD card and opened another one. A low whistle escaped her lips as she started to read. It was a spreadsheet containing account after account in various banks in various states, even other countries. But what was even more shocking was the balance column to the right. If this was right, he was funneling millions of dollars through his multitude of accounts. What in the hell and where in the world did all of that come from? Cara zipped that file along with everything else that she could find on his hard drive.

  Once everything had finished transferring over, she activated one last parting gift for Dickhead Brian or whatever his real name was. With a few simple keystrokes, she infected his computer with the virus that she had been working on in her spare time and hurriedly perfected last night. It would erase all of the files on his computer and then crash his system. Granted, if he had backups like any normal person, it wouldn’t put him out of commission for too long. But it would still be a major pain in the ass to deal with.

  Cara disconnected her thumb drive and pulled it from the computer. She pushed back from his desk and stood up as she slipped the stolen data into her bag. As she gave the room one last cursory glance to make sure nothing else stood out as suspicious, Cara heard masculine voices coming from the outer room. Quickly sidestepping around the desk, she darted to the door and inched it open to peek into the sanctuary. Sure enough, three men had just entered the building and were walking down the center aisle. One was Brian, the other Deputy Badass, and then a man she didn’t know but who she recognized earlier from outside. Unless they were coming up front for a men’s prayer meeting, then they were headed straight for the office.

  She pulled the door closed and then spun to look around the room. Cara darted over to the window and fumbled for the latch to unlock it. Unfortunately, try as she might, she couldn’t budge the window free. It looked like someone had nailed it shut and painted over it years ago, so she wouldn’t be able to get out that way. And there were no other exits other than the door leading to the sanctuary.

  Well this sucks, she thought to herself. There was no way she’d be able to get out of here without Brian finding out. And if he searched her bag, which he surely would, he’d get back all of the dirt she found on him. Cara reached back into her bag and pulled the micro SD card from the USB adapter. She needed to hide it. Fortunately it was small, barely larger than her thumbnail, but still, her options were limited to the room, and she didn’t have much time.

  Her eyes frantically searched around the room looking for a hiding place until they fastened on a heart-shaped silver locket that was lying off to the side of the desk. It looked like it may just be large enough. Cara snagged the necklace off the desk and flicked it open. The voices outside the room grew closer, she knew she didn’t have much time.

  Quickly using her fingernail to pop out the picture on the right side, she slipped the mini card behind it, and then snapped the picture back into place. She pressed the locket closed and set it right back where it had been near the edge of the desk. Sometimes the best hiding places were in plain sight.

  Cara forced herself to sit back down in the chair as calmly as possible and swung it to face the door, just as it creaked open. Brian entered the room first but stopped short as soon as he saw his unexpected visitor sitting in his chair. Surprise spread across his features as recognition set in.

  “Well if it isn’t my favorite stepdad,” Cara declared cheekily while pasting a fake smile on her face. She hoped her voice sounded more confident than she felt considering she was really starting to get scared. If Brian had money trails and fake IDs to hide, then he had way more to lose than she originally thought. Obviously, he wasn’t just a leech living off of her mom as she’d initially believed. He was a man full of secrets and lies, and she had no idea what he was really capable of.

  Brian stepped the rest of the way into the room, followed by the deputy and the man she didn’t know. The deputy also recognized her and cast a quick glare in her direction but stayed silent. The third man remained stoic, his facial expression never changing as he closed the door behind them and coolly assessed the situation.

  The surprise was wiped clean from Brian’s face as he took a step toward her. “Cara,” he acknowledged, “I must say, I’m surprised to see you here.”

  “Do you know her?” The deputy spoke up, his gaze glancing back and forth between the two of them.

  “Yes, she’s my stepdaughter.”

  The corners of Cara’s mouth quirked upward as she pointed out to the deputy with a smirk, “Told you.” His brows narrowed at her comment as he shot her a pissed off glare. Hashtag winning, Cara thought to herself, one point for Cara. Ok, so it was a really small win, but considering the deep shit she was in, she’d take what she could get.

  “How do you know her, Jake?” Brian demanded shooting a pointed look at the deputy.

  “She was snooping around here yesterday. I thought she was a reporter, so I put her in her car and got her out of here.” He cast a quizzical look her way, “She said she was here to see her stepdad, but she didn’t say anything about it being you, Gideon, so I didn’t believe her.”

  Brian, apparently he was called Gideon now, seemed to think over his words for a moment before turning back to her. “What are you doing here, Cara?”

  “Can’t I just want to spend time with my grieving stepdad?” came back her snarky reply. She really shouldn’t try to deliberately piss him off until she knew what she was dealing with, but somehow she just couldn’t help herself.

  Gideon stepped forward until he was completely encroaching the space where she sat. “Get up,” he demanded, cold steely eyes staring down at her from where he lorded above.

  As much as she didn’t want to give in to his intimidation, she figured she better not poke the bear more than she already had. With one last stubborn grunt of annoyance, Cara pushed up out of his chair and stepped away from the desk

  Her stepdad immediately sat in the space she just vacated, but never once broke eye contact with her. His piercing eyes were really starting to freak her out. While his facial expression was outwardly calm and assessing, his eyes blazed with barely contained fury making him look like his head was about to explode.

  “Well, I can see you’re not in the mood for a chat, so I’ll just be going then,” Cara muttered as she turned toward the door.

  “Paul,” at Gideon’s barked word, the third man in the room stepped between Cara and the door, placing his back against it, effectively cutting off her only escape.

  Well, it was worth a shot anyway. Cara slowly turned back around to face Gideon, “So I guess I’ll stay then.”

  “Gideon,” Deputy Badass, AKA Jake, stepped between them as if trying to defuse some of her stepdad’s anger, “let me take her back to her car and get her out of here. There doesn’t need to be any trouble.”

  “On the contrary,” Gideon’s voice cut in, “my nosy stepdaughter seems to have found a great deal of trouble.”

  Great, just great. She had really hoped to make it in and out of here without her stepdad being the wiser. Unfortunately, that was no longer an option and shit was about to hit the fan when he realized what she’d done to his computer. Cara forced herself to stop worrying her lip and instead raised her chin in defiance. He wasn’t going to see her fear if she could help it, even if she was really starting to freak out.

  Gideon watched her as if trying to figure out what she was up to before moving his gaze around the room trying to see if anything was out of place. When his gaze dropped down to his computer in front of him, he froze. Wide eyes jerked back to meet hers for a moment before darting back to the monitor. It was only for a second, but it was long enough for her to spot the flash of panic in his eyes. His hand reached for the computer tower and pressed the button to power it on.

  The soft hum of the computer starting up was the only sound in the awkwardly silent room. The deputy seemed to sense the foreboding of doom and moved closer to her until he was standing right next to her shoulder. Cara wasn’t sure if she should take that as a comforting gesture or as a threat. As dirty of a cop as he probably was, at least he didn’t seem like he wanted to hurt her. But of course, that could change in a few moments. Depending on how deeply he was involved in this, Badass could decide to go Batshit on her ass.

  Gideon stared intently at the screen as it started to boot up. Knowing what was coming, Cara clenched both of her fists tight. And here we go, she thought.

  A solid black screen covered his monitor with one single cursor in the top left corner. Then the virus code she had created began flashing across the screen faster than the opening to Star Wars on crack. Everything flashed, then went black just for a moment, before his screen was covered in a hot pink background with the words Keep Calm and Eat a Bag of Dicks, as tiny little dildos danced across the screen. It stayed that way just long enough to get its point across, before force shutting the computer down. Without the soft hum filling the room, it was now just an eerie foreboding silence.

  Cara couldn’t make eye contact with him. She just couldn’t. As scared as she really was right now, it was kind of funny, and if she looked at Gideon, she’d probably laugh or at least snicker and that would just make the situation so much worse.

  Instead, she just stared out the window until she heard the creak of Gideon’s chair as he slowly stood up. In her peripheral vision, she saw him approach until he stood directly in front of her, but she still wouldn’t look at him.

  Large, beefy hands shot up and grabbed hold of her chin. Gideon jerked her head to face him as he glared at her in absolute rage. Right now, in this moment, she could see all of the hate and loathing that he actually felt for her. Deep down she always knew it, but this was the first time his mask cracked enough that she was a witness to it.

  “Fix it.” His command was a low, menacing whisper and she knew he wouldn’t tolerate any disobedience.

  “I can’t. The virus crashed everything, it can’t be undone,” Cara reluctantly admitted the truth. It wouldn’t do her any good to lie at this point. There wasn’t even enough left of his computer to fake trying to repair it in an effort to stall for time. It was gone.

  A murderous look flashed across Gideon’s face just before his hand swung in a vicious slap across her cheek. The sound echoed in the silent space like a crack of thunder, the sting of pain making her gasp as she lifted one hand to cup her injured cheek.

  Jake stiffened next to her and took one step forward. He didn’t actually come between Cara and her stepdad, but he made enough of a movement to get his attention off of her. “Gideon, it’s the middle of the day, and there are a lot of people coming in and out of the sanctuary. I know you’re angry right now, but we need to step back and think this through.

  Gideon seemed to ponder his counsel even though his eyes were screaming bloody murder at her right now. Finally, after what seemed like ages, he spoke, “Take her up to the hunting cabin.” His cold, dark eyes connected with hers as a shiver ran up her spine. “There are too many eyes and ears around here. We’re going to need some privacy to question her properly.” A sinister smile spread across his lips as he looked her over one last time before turning back to the other two men, “Get her out of here. I’ll be up there shortly.” With that he turned and walked out of the room, closing the door behind him with a slam.

  Cara looked up at Jake standing next to her. Out of the two men remaining in the room, she’d have to say she felt marginally safer with the deputy. Even if he was a dirty cop, at least he stopped her stepdad from beating the crap out of her. Temporarily at least. There was no way of knowing what would happen once they got up to this cabin of theirs. Instead of focusing on the fear she was feeling, Cara tried for a more flippant attitude, “Well, it looks like we’re going for a ride in your car again.”

  Jake looked over at her with one eyebrow raised before shaking his head in disbelief. “Come on,” he sighed as he reached out and grabbed hold of her arm. “Do me a favor and don’t try to make this any more complicated than it already is, ok? Don’t try to run; you don’t know these woods. And don’t try to convince anyone we encounter on the way to my car to help you. These people don’t know you and don’t care about outsiders.”

  Refusing to agree or disagree, Cara just kept still while meeting Jake’s gaze head on. He sighed again as his grip on her arm tightened, and he pulled her towards the door. Jake yanked the door open and let her walk out first before following close behind. As she stepped onto the platform at the front of the sanctuary, Cara abruptly froze, causing Jake to bump into her from behind. He grasped her arm managing to keep her from taking a tumble down the steps to the main floor.

  “What the—” he started, but then his words cut off as he saw what caused Cara to stop. A little girl, she couldn’t be more than five was sitting on the front pew playing quietly with her little doll. When the girl’s eyes landed on Jake, they instantly lit up with happiness.

  “Coop!” she shouted his nickname as she jumped off the bench and ran up to where they were standing.

  “Hi there, Abby,” Jake smiled at the little pig-tailed cutie as he lowered himself to a crouch so she could run into his open arms for a hug. Abby threw her arms around Jake’s neck and hugged him like he was her most favorite person in the world.

  The little girl pulled back from Jake just enough to throw an inquisitive look over at Cara. “Who’s that?” she asked.

  “She’s a friend of your father’s,” Jake simply stated.

  “Oh.”

  “What are you doing in here all by yourself, Abbs?”

  “I was praying for Allie not to be sad anymore.”

  “Why’s your sister sad, sweetheart?” Jake asked.

  “I don’t know. She won’t tell me. She says it’s adult stuff.”

  “You know what?” Jake gave her a charming grin, “I’ll bet if you go home and give her one of your big bear hugs, that’ll help her not be sad anymore.”

  “Do you think so?” Abby whispered almost as if she were afraid to believe her problem could be solved that easily.

  “I sure do,” Jake replied.

  “Ok,” her little face lit up, “I’ll go do that right now. Bye Coop!” With a quick hop, she jumped off the platform to the floor below and dashed from the room.

  Cara watched the entire exchange in silence picking up on a couple of different things. First, Deputy Badass was really good with kids, which only seemed to make him hotter, damnit. And second, based off of their conversation, that adorable little girl was one of Gideon’s children. As a matter of fact, the same one she had seen him give the cold shoulder to the day before. Obviously, she got her adorable cuteness from her mother.

  “How many children does he have?” Cara asked without preamble.

  Jake stood back up to his feet as he looked over at her. His gaze just sized her up for a moment. Just when Cara thought he was going to answer, he finally replied, “Seven.”

  A snort escaped her lips before she could stop it. Cara slightly shook her head in disbelief, “Seven step-siblings. My Christmas card list just exploded.”

  Jake just grunted in reply as he once again took hold of her arm and escorted her down the steps. “Come on,” he said as they walked down the center aisle to the exit.

  While the last place she wanted to go was an unknown hunting cabin, at least this would buy her some time. And that was what she needed right now. Time to think and come up with a plan before she had to face Gideon again.

  Chapter 6

  Obviously, Gideon didn’t understand the meaning of the word shortly. Jake had driven her up to the cabin hours ago, and with nothing to do coupled with the fear of not knowing what was going to happen to her, she was slowly losing her mind. And Deputy Badass wasn’t helping the situation any. The first thing he had done when he took her to his car was take her phone away. That was followed by a quick search of her person to make sure she didn’t have anything else that would cause trouble. Which meant, unfortunately, that he found and took away her taser, pocketknife, and mace.

  Now they were settled, as much as they could be anyway, at a small rustic, one bedroom cabin in the middle of nowhere. Cara had tried to pay attention to all of the twists and turns they had taken while driving, but there were just too many to keep track of. If she managed to get away from the cop, then she feared she’d be hopelessly lost. All things considered though, her gut instinct told her that lost would still be an upgrade from her current situation.

  What she needed was her phone back. Fat chance of that though, the way Jake was pawing all over it, searching through her contacts and apps for whatever he seemed to be looking for.

  “You know it’s not nice to pry,” Cara grumbled in his direction. “A woman’s phone is like her purse—it’s practically sacred.”

  Without even stopping what he was doing, he grunted while keeping his focus on the phone in his hands, “Don’t worry, princess. I’m not trying to find all your deep, hidden secrets of the feminist agenda. I’ll settle for just anything related to Free Indeed.”

 

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