Saving Serena (Hawk Security #1)

Chapter 15

CHAPTER 15

Duke

I opened the door for the rest of Hawk Security. As soon as Constance was inside, I passed over Serena’s phone and my observations for another pair of eyes on the messages and emails.

“Thanks.” She poked my chest. “Next time you get the boring hospital-stakeout duty.”

“Next time,” I agreed.

Half an hour later, introductions had been made and pizza passed around, and the group had settled in the family room.

Lucas shooed Serena toward the door. “You can wait upstairs.”

Her eyes went wide with indignation. “No way. Whatever you guys have to say, I want to hear it.”

“No. It may be upsetting, and?—”

“I am not a weak wallflower. You, of all people, should know that.”

“It’s not the way we do things, and if you don’t like it, perhaps?—”

I cut him off. “I want her in. She may have an insight we’d otherwise miss.”

Lucas narrowed his eyes at me but relented.

Serena shifted close enough to me on the small loveseat that our thighs touched, and I willed my cock to ignore her—it only half listened.

The hint of a tremor in her leg told me she was nervous about this. I whispered into her ear. “You can trust them. Don’t let the hard questions scare you.”

The room hushed as Lucas spoke. “Cobra, it’s your op, so bring everybody up to speed.”

I started by explaining the morning attack on Serena, including the demand for a USB drive. I told them I’d tasked Winston with checking out her work-issued car, and I mentioned the call Serena had gotten while we drove to her office, followed by the bomb in her personal vehicle and note on the glass.

“That’s quite an escalation,” Terry noted.

Lucas took charge. “Agreed. Winston, tell us about the work car.”

“The most interesting thing,” Winston said, “was that it had a tracker on it.”

“That’s no surprise for a government vehicle,” Constance pointed out.

“But this…” Winston held up a small box. “…was a second tracker, in addition to the tracker the government installed.” He handed it to Terry.

“What else?” Lucas asked, trolling for trust-but-verify answers.

Winston offered a few hard-copy photographs. “There was damage to the rear bumper and black paint transfer consistent with the vehicle she described, and…” He added another picture to the pile. “…I found fur at the left front hood juncture from the deer she clipped.”

Lucas nodded. Trusted and now verified.

Next to me, Serena’s leg stilled. “Is the tracker how he found me in the mountains? I was sure he hadn’t seen me turn off the freeway.”

“Probably,” Winston said. “The accident report doesn’t give us anything else.”

“Serious stalker MO,” Constance said, taking the tracker from Terry.

“I emailed you the serial number,” he said. “Jordy, let’s find out who bought it.”

“I’ll try,” he said. “But that’s not so easy with these things.”

“If it were easy…” Lucas chuckled. “We wouldn’t need you, brother.”

The rest of us laughed politely, having heard Jordy’s warning and my brother’s comeback too many times to count.

Jordy started tapping on his laptop.

“What do we know about the Suburban in the abduction attempt?” Lucas asked.

“The guy’s a pro,” Winston reported. “He went into several areas with very limited cameras, but so far I’ve tracked him as far as the valley.”

Lucas nodded. “Keep on it.”

“Have you noticed anybody hanging around at work, in the parking lot, or around the house?” Terry asked.

“Let’s finish the physical evidence first.” That was Lucas, always one for logical progression.

Winston held up baggies containing the two notes. “They’re handwritten instead of printed, so likely not a professional. The writing is similar between the two. I’ll have them into forensics first thing, but I wouldn’t count on anything. I dusted the side gate on the way in. Nothing. The guy was careful, I don’t even see a partial print on the tape.”

“Constance,” I said. “What’s your feeling about the text messages on Serena’s phone?”

“I agree with you,” she said. “I’d flag a message like ‘ It would be a mistake for both of us if we didn’t get back together ’ every time as a possible stalker.”

“Who is this guy?” Lucas asked.

“George Kittleman, her ex, and he sent flowers multiple times,” I added.

“How many times?” Lucas asked.

“Three,” Serena answered. “But I always threw them out, and I never answered his calls. He’s persistent but harmless. He never gave me a USB drive, so there’s nothing to want back.”

“Serena,” Constance said kindly, “the unassuming ones can be the most unpredictable.”

“He has the means to hire muscle,” I added. Jordy looked up from his laptop and pulled a disgusted face.

“Did he ever give you anything that might have hidden a USB drive?” Winston asked.

That was an interesting angle.

Serena thought for a moment. “No. I never got anything from him except flowers.”

I controlled the urge to grit my teeth.

Lucas raised a hand. “Okay, so Kittleman goes to the top of the list. Jordy, we need a digital workup. Work with Winston on that.”

It felt good to have Lucas agree with me and Constance.

“I also like the idea that it could be one of the businesses you visited,” Terry said. “Those guys probably have money on the line. Can’t you put them out of business?”

Serena looked noncommittal.

“But how would a USB drive come into play with one of them?” Winston asked.

“How does it come into play with any of them?” Jordy pointed out.

“Maybe they know she uses a stick to store the data on their inspections, like notes and stuff,” Terry said. “Do you do that, Serena?”

“I bring a laptop with me and a notebook,” she answered. “But that’s not the point. I didn’t get any information from either of them.”

“This George guy been to your house, right?” Terry asked, shifting gears. “He could have left a USB drive here and maybe you moved it without realizing, like it was in a plant or something.”

Serena nodded. “Sure. But he took all his stuff when he left for Europe.”

I clenched my fist, but hid it. Serena was a sweet girl who didn’t deserve to have a dipshit ex pressuring her.

“I doubt he earns much working at the State Department in the passport division,” she continued. “But he has access to family money.”

Constance perked up. “Passports? Isn’t that in the same building as you?”

Serena nodded. “Different section, though.”

“You can’t go in to work then,” I blurted. I was not letting her go unprotected into the same building as a suspect.

Serena turned, fire in her eyes. “I told you upfront, I’m not stopping any of my normal activities, and that includes my job.”

“It’s not safe,” I insisted, “if that dickwad works in your building.”

“He hasn’t once come up to my floor,” she snapped. “It isn’t him.”

“If not him, then who?” I snapped back.

Lucas raised his hand, apparently amused at our argument. “Duke, you handle outside the building, and Constance will be on duty inside.” He turned to my partner. “Constance, figure out what your cover is going to be so you can stay in close proximity to Serena.”

“Sure thing,” she said, smiling.

Internally, I fumed that close proximity might not be good enough. But Lucas had made the call, and there was nothing I could do about it.

“People can’t know you’re there as protection,” Serena said. “I can’t have it getting out. That’s a dealbreaker.”

Jordy went back to staring at his laptop, but Winston and Terry looked as confused as I felt. This restriction having to do with her old man was extreme.

“No problem,” Constance assured her.

Jordy moved to sit at the other end of the room.

“Where else do we have to secure the client?” Lucas directed his question to me. “Outside of work, what else is on the schedule?”

“Lucas, don’t refer to me as the client ,” Serena said. “I’m right here.”

Lucas’s eyes went wide. “Sorry, Serena. No disrespect intended. What else do you have on your schedule that we should be aware of?”

“I have a family barbecue this weekend that I can’t miss.”

“That should be a relatively safe space,” Lucas said.

“My mom and dad have been encouraging me to get back with George. I wouldn’t put it past them to invite him,” she added.

“Constance can accompany her,” I offered quickly.

“That won’t work,” Serena insisted.

I braced for it.

“But Duke could come as my new boyfriend. That would be the best thing. It would also be a good reason to avoid my ex, just in case.”

“Good idea,” Lucas agreed before I could mount a defense. “Anything else?”

“Not at the moment,” Serena said sweetly.

Jordy shifted the angle of his laptop, still frowning.

“Okay,” Lucas said. “Duke, you and Winston stay here tonight after we bait the trap, and we’ll see if this guy was just toying with us or comes by to check the bush out front. Constance, you get some rest before you go undercover inside the federal building tomorrow.”

Constance nodded.

“Jordy, we need a spare USB drive as bait to put under the bush out front for this dirtbag.”

Jordy typed away on his computer and adjusted how it sat in his lap.

“Jordy?” Lucas prodded.

“We have a problem,” he finally said. “There’s a Wi-Fi signal coming from the front yard. My triangulation puts it by that tree next to the walk.”

“Shit,” Terry said as he fumbled through the backpack at his feet.

Lucas beat us all to the front windows, but Terry was the one with the binoculars.

Terry only searched for a second. “We’re screwed. There’s a camera in the tree pointed at the bush, and it would have caught all of us walking in. No way we catch him picking up the bait.”

“What’s this mean?” Serena asked.

“It means the asshole was a step ahead of us,” I murmured. “We have no idea how long that camera has been there.”

“Terry,” Lucas barked. “We need a full system on this house, and we needed it yesterday.”

“I brought a few cameras with me and planned on picking up the rest of the stuff tomorrow,” he said.

“Not good enough any longer,” I decided. “We need motion and door sensors tonight. The rest of the package can wait until tomorrow.”

Terry looked to Lucas.

“Do it,” he said. “Duke is right. Winston, you and Duke take shifts tonight here at the house. Leave his camera in place. Let him think he has the upper hand. Constance, no change. You get sleep for the federal building tomorrow. Good work, Jordy. As you leave, sweep each of our vehicles for a tracking signal.”

It would be a long night. And now, with the combination of danger to Serena and Winston being in the house, I wouldn’t be getting together with her this evening.