This day was getting to me. I had been taken into custody, forced into a job I didn’t want, and had run from the Director of the CIA. Now, we were under attack.

“I absolutely hate being stuck in these rooms. I miss the days of taking down the bad guy,” Zack grumbled. He was pacing back and forth, which was ridiculous since the room was four feet by four feet. He only took two strides before he hit the wall.

I had no clue what to talk about with the president. I gazed around the room for any form of computer or security system. I needed to see what was happening outside the panic room. The room had enough food for days. One side of the room was all shelf space lined with water bottles and canned food. I twisted to see what was behind me and saw a laptop.

Not wasting any time, I booted it up. A couple minutes later, I bypassed the password, and the welcome display flashed.

“Did you hack my brother's computer?”

“Yes”

“Hmmm.”

I didn’t have time to figure out what “hmmm” meant. I needed to see if everyone was okay. Antonio had become like an older brother who doesn’t talk much, and Jessica would kill me if anything happened to Brock. It only took a couple minutes to get video of Brock watching from his computer. Zane had his gun pulled and was standing next to the front door. Antonio was by the back door with his weapon drawn.

The outside video showed the helicopter landing. Then a small figure stepped out. The sun was shining into the camera, so it was hard to see the person’s face. When another little figure stepped out, I looked back at the other feed to see Brock running for the door with a panic-stricken look.

“What’s going on? Who is that?” Zack demanded.

“I can’t tell. The… oh, fuck.”

The two shadowy figures came into full view. When I saw their faces, I immediately knew why Brock was panicking. It was his fiancée, Jessica, and my boss, Bridget. Then three beefy men stepped off the helicopter—Alex, Bridget's husband; Asher, Antonio's twin brother; and CJ. CJ and Asher had been dating for the past year and a half. I panned back to the cameras to make sure Antonio and Zane had lowered their guns. They had, but they looked angry.

I jumped up and headed for the door.

“We have to wait for them to release us from the outside. Zane has never given me the code.”

Zane was probably worried Zack would leave after being placed in a safe house. “Well, I’m getting out of here. You can stay if you want.” It took a couple seconds to retype the code I saw Zane type earlier. The light turned green. When the door swept open, Zane was there, reaching to put in the code. The look on his face said he was not happy.

“You want to tell me why you opened this door without waiting for us to clear the area?” Zane pointed at Zack. “How could you put yourself in danger like that?”

Zane needed to understand who was in charge. It sure as hell wasn’t him. “I pulled up the video surveillance cameras, and we saw who was in the helicopter. Put your ego back in check.” I dipped under his arm and headed toward the voices.

I could hear laughter in the kitchen. When I rounded the corner, Bridget saw me and ran over to wrap her arms around me. “I was so worried we wouldn’t be able to get you back. Alex said he knew Agent Asshole and you would be okay. I couldn’t handle losing you, so I had Jessica help me.”

I heard Brock grunt from the other side of the room. “Jessica, why you are here? I told you we had everything under control.”

Jessica’s face turned a light shade of pink.

Alex pointed at Bridget. “I bet my wife is the one behind this. When I got word from my secretary that Bridget was taking my helicopter, Asher and CJ were in my office. So, we raced to the airport and boarded before they took off.”

All eyes turned to Bridget. “I traced the IP back when you contacted Jessica.” Bridget shrugged like it was no big deal.

Zane cleared his throat. “There is no way you traced the IP back to here. I have it looped around the world, and it would take even the best hacker a day to narrow down where we are.”

For the first time in my life, I saw Bridget pale and look scared. She turned toward me. “You have to understand that I think of you like family.”

I knew I wouldn’t like the next words that came out of her mouth.

“When you said people would come after you because of the information you pulled on Jessica’s family, I wanted to make sure you were okay. The necklace I gave you for your birthday has a tracker in it.”

Before I had time to process her statement, Zack walked around the corner with his Secret Service agents.

Bridget elbowed me in the side. “Sophie, why is the President of the United States here?”

“Zack is Agent Asshole’s brother.”

“Well, I guess the plot to digitally destroy Agent Asshole should be postponed.” Bridget seemed disappointed at not being able to destroy Zane.

Alex stepped forward and one-arm hugged the president. “It’s been too long. Bridget, come here and meet Zack, a family friend.”

Bridget went to the impressive men standing next to each other. “So, you are the lovely Bridget I’ve heard so much about.”

Bridget gave her husband a questioning look. “Sorry, I can't say the same. Alex never mentioned knowing you before.”

Zack let out a deep chuckle. “That’s because it was Martha talking about her new daughter in-law and grandbaby.” Zack stepped back, walked over to Asher, and gave him a hug. Then he reached out his hand toward CJ. “And you must be CJ. About time someone tamed Asher.”

The next half hour was spent getting caught up.

“Well, I think it’s time for me to head back to DC. Zane, stay safe, and take him down. I’m counting on you.” With a wave of his hand, Zack left followed by his agents.

Everyone had migrated toward the living room. Somehow, I ended up sitting next to Zane on the couch. Bridget was sitting on Alex’s lap in the chair next to the sofa.

“You finally going to tell me what the fuck is going on?” Bridget demanded.

How was I going to tell my two best friends that I had kept something so big from them? Zane must have noticed I was having issues. He reached over and squeezed my leg.

“I don’t even know where to start.”

“How about the beginning?” CJ replied.

I spent the next hour going over how my parents were killed and my sister kidnapped and how the Director of the CIA recruited me a few years later, saying he’d help me find my sister.

Bridget couldn’t believe I had been working for the director all these years without telling her. I could tell she was hurt that I’d hid it from her. But, I had never trusted Director Sanchez and didn’t want to bring Bridget or CJ into the mess. I had dreamed that, one day, they would get to meet my sister. But from the info I saw earlier, I didn’t know who my sister had turned into.

“Zane is going to help me find my sister.”

“I will, Sophie, but I think Antonio needs to tell everyone how he is also tied into the mess.”

Antonio looked pissed. If Zane hadn’t called him out, he probably would have kept his secret with him until the day he died or had to tell everyone.

“Sophie’s sister is my dead wife.”

Alex had just taken a drink of beer and spit it out in surprise. Asher started laughing so hard that he had to grab his side in pain.

“I’m sorry. I could have sworn you said you had a wife, and she is dead. You better explain, or I will send a text to Dad, and then you will really need to explain what the fuck is going on.” Alex looked hurt by the information.

“Kat and I married when we were on an assignment together. Right when we were heading home, she was killed in a café shooting. I didn’t want to talk about it.”

“Not even to me? How could you not tell me this? We tell each other everything,” Asher said.

“Really? You want to go there? About telling each other everything?” Antonio didn’t wait for a response. He got up and headed toward the kitchen. Asher hadn’t told the family he was gay until he had started to date CJ.

The silence was thick in the room. So many secrets were coming to the surface, secrets that were put in place to keep people safe. Now that they were out, they seemed to hurt people, anyway.

“Sophie and I will head to another safe house.” He pointed to the necklace around my neck. “Someone can take that with them until this case is over. I don’t want any trackers on us. This time, we are going somewhere my brother doesn’t even know about. Once we make it to the safe house, we will look into Yermushin and prepare ourselves for the fundraiser.”

“You are not going anywhere without me.” I hadn’t even see Antonio reenter the room.

Zane ran his hand through his hair and let out a sigh. It had been a long day, and I could tell it was getting to him. It seemed like he was close to losing his temper. Not even realizing what I was doing, I reached over and squeezed his hand.

“Antonio, when we head to New York, we will contact you. We’ll work with your office. You, Asher, and Brock, pull all the information you can, and we will contact you tomorrow. We have little time. I have a feeling Director Sanchez already has people heading this way. Sophie and I are leaving in ten minutes.”

Alex nodded. “I have to agree with Zane. You need to come with us. You were the last one to have contact with Kat. You can help us pull as much information as possible, so we can give it to Sophie and Zane. I also think we have something to talk about.”

Jessica was the first to wrap me in a hug before they left. “I owe you my life. If there is anything, you need, let me know. Look on the positive side—seventy-five percent of kidnapping victims are killed within three hours. Your sister is still alive, and you will get her back.”

Once everyone had left and it was only me and Zane, the house seemed to shrink.