Ella hoped she wasn’t playing into Diavolos’s hands as she logged onto her blog and started typing up a post. Usually she and Bri communicated in public on one of her social media platforms. When Kaylee had sent the server location she’d hacked into to Ella for safekeeping, she’d done as she’d promised her friend and kept them safe until Kaylee could turn the information over to her bosses at Grimaldi Global.

The international security company was a private firm that stepped in when there were too many countries involved in a situation for one to take the lead. Ella knew from talking to Kaylee that the board of directors were made up of former military and government officials from counties in the G9.

She and Bri had found a way to keep their communications private over the years. Today Ella’s post focused on some new legislation for regulating underaged computer usage, and a device that had been developed by a private tech group. After the post went up she waited, and five minutes later there was a response, thanking her for bringing this information to the public.

Ella left her apartment, carefully checking to make sure that she wasn’t followed, and went to an internet café where she logged onto a voice-over IP sever and put on her headphones. A minute later she was dialing Bri’s number.

“What’s up?”

“The demon from our past has surfaced. Diavolos aka Reece Hammond. I…I have a chance to help catch him, but I need to know that you’re staying hidden.”

“We knew he’d show up sooner or later,” Bri said. “I saw on the news that Diavolos is Reece, but he doesn’t look like the man I remember.”

Bri’s voice drifted off and Ella’s heart hurt for her sister. “Did you ever see him clearly?”

“No. He liked to keep me blindfolded,” Bri said.

She knew that. He was creepy that way. He’d blindfolded Ella as well, whenever she was being used.

“Do you think you’d recognize his voice?” Ella asked. “If you could, they might be able to use it as evidence.”

“Why do they need more evidence?” Bri asked. “Don’t they have enough to prosecute him?”

Ella took a deep breath. “They don’t. Everything they have is computer-based and they want to catch him actually committing a crime.”

“You’re not getting involved in this,” Bri said. It was a statement, not a question.

“I am. Bri, he has a list of women he wants, and you and I are on it.”

“I’m not going back,” Bri said.

“You’re not,” Ella agreed. “I am going to do this. I just wanted to give you a head’s up so you’re on your guard. I’m not sure if he knows where you are, but they have a current picture of you.”

There was silence on the line, but in the background Ella heard the sound of water lapping on the dock. She knew Bri would be sitting outside, her sister couldn’t stand being in a room. Her fears were deeply rooted in childhood and different from Ella’s.

“I don’t think you should do this,” Bri said. “Let’s leave the US. We should have years ago.”

“I…I can’t,” Ella said.

“Why not?”

“I gave my word,” Ella said. “And it’s the only way I can protect you.”

“You don’t have to protect me,” Bri said.

“I do. I’m older than you, and I should have done better.”

Bri cursed. “Can I talk you out of this?”

“You know you can’t,” Ella said. “I want him in jail.”

“I want him dead,” Bri said. “Are you sure it’s Diavolos?”

“I think so,” Ella admitted. “I saw some of the files that Kaylee got off his private server and there was one of us…the one that I couldn’t find when I erased all of the others.”

“It has to be him,” Bri said. “No one else would keep that.”

“That’s what I thought too,” she said. “It made my skin crawl to see it. To know that he’d had it all this time.”

She didn’t say it to her sister, but the file data showed that he’d watched the film recently. It had sickened her to think that a man who was in the public eye, someone she’d been in the same room with, was the man who was responsible for capturing, raping and selling her and her sister. She might be afraid of what was to come, but she knew she had to go through with it. She was determined to keep him away from Bri, but she’d seen other files with other sets of twins who had been treated the same way she and her sister were.

And Ella couldn’t allow that to continue.

“How will I know if you’re safe?” Bri asked.

“Kaylee will post on my blog, and I’ve also asked her to call the deep-sea fishing ad in for me. If it’s not there, you need to bug out. Stay completely off the grid and when it’s safe I’ll find you.”

“If I’m off the grid, how can you find me?” Bri asked.

“Meet me in the place only we know,” Ella said.

“That place?” Bri asked.

“Yes.” Their childhood home in rural Georgia had been nothing more than a shack—they’d lived there until they were six and their granny had died. It was the one place they’d never gone back to. After her death, the twins had been placed in foster care where they’d caught the eye of a man who’d kidnapped them and auctioned them off on the dark web.

“Do you really have to do this?” Bri asked.

“If I don’t, I’m afraid he’s going to come after you,” Ella said. “And I will not let that happen.”

“I’m stronger now,” Bri said.

“I’ve got this,” Ella said.

She hung up and walked out of the café, knowing that there wasn’t any turning back now.

* * *

Linc’s father ran a successful multi-national conglomerate that had been started generations ago, with its roots in shipping. They were descended from a legendary pirate and original sea dog who’d come to the new world with Walter Raleigh back in the 1600s. The Garrisons had always found a way to work the law to their advantage, which was why his father spent a good deal of time in D.C., talking to lobbyists and meeting with politicians on both sides of the aisle.

Skimming the crowd at the Capital Lounge, it wasn’t that hard to find his father. Malcolm Garrison was tall, and though he was pushing sixty, he still had a full head of hair that he kept neatly styled. His father believed that whiskers were a sign of laziness and always had a clean-shaven face, employing a valet to take care of that task twice a day. His father was one of the strongest and toughest men he knew. And that was saying something, given the company he kept with Ares Team.

His father caught his eye and gave him a hand signal that told him to wait until he was done with his conversation before he came over. Linc went to the bar instead. The conversation flowed around him. A lot of speculation over the revelation of Reece Hammond as Diavolos, but more about the impact having a tech giant as one of America’s Most Wanted could have on the economy.

“What are you having?” the bartender asked.

“Scotch. Neat,” Linc said. He wasn’t in the mood to drink, but his father thought real men drank scotch, and if he showed up with anything else it wouldn’t be…well, what his image demanded.

His father and he had grown closer the older that Linc got. Malcolm was aware of Linc’s job at Grimaldi and could be counted on to provide cover for Linc if he needed it. Linc had been surprised to learn that the director and his father had once been in the Marines together.

Turning to rest an elbow on the bar, Linc took a sip of his scotch. It burned a little bit going down, and he used the bite to focus his mind. Earlier, when he’d made the connection between that girl he’d failed and Ella, he’d been shocked, letting anger at the past drive him to the gym. But he was in control now. Planning had always done that for him. Given him the tools he needed to marshal his thoughts and his emotions back into line.

The man his father was talking to got up to leave, and Linc watched him carefully. Unless he was mistaken, that was one of the executives at ConnectU.

What was Malcolm up to?

He stood and moved to slip into the booth across from his father. “Who was that?”

“Jasper Collins. I think he’s fishing for investors. Right now the company is standing behind Reece, but if the allegations prove true they’re going to want someone to put up money to float the company until the storm passes.”

“And he came to you?”

“Among others. I was the third table he stopped by this evening,” Malcolm said. “I’m glad you could get down here tonight.”

“Me too. I’m going to Ibiza in the morning with some friends.”

“You know, I am more than ready for you to settle down,” Malcolm said. “It’s time you stopped frittering your life away and took your place in the boardroom.”

There was concern in his father’s eyes.

“I’m not ready yet. There are still some thrills I haven’t experienced.”

“I can’t imagine there are that many left,” his father said wryly as he signaled the waiter to bring them both another drink. “I had an interesting conversation earlier with our IT department. It seems that there was a cyber-attack attempted on our servers.”

“Doesn’t that happen all the time?” Linc asked.

“Yes. But today while the team was working on blocking it someone slipped past the protocols, and they were interested in you and your brother. Luckily, they were only able to get to the surface files—it just took our team five minutes or so to figure out what was going on. Normally, I wouldn’t bring this up, but given that you were just in Spain and that led to the unmasking of ConnectU…”

Linc’s corporate profile at Garrison Manufacturing was his public face. The one he used to cover his real work with Grimaldi. His father wouldn’t be mentioning this if he wasn’t concerned. “Thanks for the head’s up. I’ll have our team look into it, I’m sure they’ll find out who it was.”

“We can only hope. One of the files that was copied lists all of our family-owned property around the world.”

Linc took a deep swallow of the scotch. He had used one of his properties in Madrid as a base of operations to rescue Kaylee and her team when they were attacked. “That tracks that it would be paparazzi or their ilk. Probably trying to guess where I’ll turn up next.”

“Just be careful,” his father said.

“I always am,” Linc reminded his father.

He nodded. The conversation turned to plans for the family’s annual charity Christmas Ball, and Linc tried to relax, but he couldn’t stop his mind from racing. Had Reece’s operation uncovered his link to Grimaldi? He’d used his own property as cover a number of times on different missions.

He’d talk to the Director when he got back to headquarters. Maybe it was time to disappear from public life completely. He loved his father and brother and had spent the better part of the last ten years doing what he wanted and enjoying the best that both of his worlds had to offer, but if it was time for him to cut ties with his public persona, he would do it.

Losing his mom had been the motivation for him to get into this world, he couldn’t sacrifice his father and brother to it.