“Oh, it’s very personal. The man who sired us, raised us, and should’ve been a grandfather to our children, is a terrorist.”
“So, what’s our job?” Voodoo asked.
“I need you, Carter, and Falcon to fly to England with me and help out the team there. Ryan and Seven need to step back. I will take on the planning role, and you three will be in the capture and interrogate Clifford role. Voodoo, you will need to come prepared for a difficult task. I don’t want him dead, so you’ll have to pull back when he’s not cooperating.”
“And he’s not going to willingly cooperate,” Seven stated.
“What about me?” Byte asked. “How can I help?”
“Stay out of trouble. Chaos will handle the intel gathering.”
“What about me and Aria?” Seven asked.
“We have a different assignment for the four of us,” Ivy stated. “The mission ECP has been running with the motorcycle club finally came to a head. Several members were killed, others arrested, but we have a missing president, the enforcer, and an undercover ATF agent.”
“Wouldn’t ATF be looking for her?” Aria asked.
“They’ve written her off as damaged. They believe she warned the man she was living with and they fled the city,” Ivy said.
“And you don’t agree?” Seven asked.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to find out. I know how screwed up a person can be from being undercover, especially if the agency is expecting you to gain intel any way possible, including using your body. There’s a sense of betrayal from the same organization you promised to serve. If Skylar has flipped, then we hunt her down and turn her over to ATF. If she hasn’t… well, I’m not sure what we’re going to do. All I can tell you is, I’m not leaving an operative out there, especially a female one, without backup.”
“And what does ECP think? Bench and Archer both know her,” Byte asked.
“Archer hasn’t returned from Alabama, but he does agree with Bench that if she’s turned, it’s out of deep-seated feelings for this enforcer. And if she hasn’t turned, she’s in serious danger.”
“Byte, you and Turbo will be working together. She’s done a lot of research on the MC, and in particular Skylar Hines.”
“Gotcha covered,” Byte said. Only she wasn’t sure she’d be of much help to Turbo, not with what she needed to do… Not after the text she’d just received from Aaron earlier.
Dani, I found her, and it’s bad… It’s nothing like you thought.
Byte knew there would come a time she’d have to break free from ALIAS if she found her mother. She just hadn’t expected to discover she was the federal agent currently tracking Byte. There was no way her mother could know it was her daughter who’d blown her cover and was now being hunted for a crime she hadn’t committed. At least Byte didn’t think she’d committed money laundering.
CHAPTEREIGHT
Danielle Copeland had blocked all the memories of her mother and father away. She wasn’t sure if it was intentional or perhaps a self-preservation mechanism. It didn’t matter; either way she would never forgive her parents for never picking her up from school. When the teacher couldn’t reach them, they tried her grandparents, whom she’d never met. The number provided wasn’t a working line. Ultimately, the school had no other choice but to call the police.
Galveston, Texas was a small island, small enough for everyone to know everyone’s business. It didn’t take long before Dani and her deadbeat parents were gossip fodder. She heard some say she must have been too difficult for the young parents to handle. She’d also heard negative comments about her parents and how Danielle was better off in foster care. If only that had been the case.
Like most non-infant orphans, she stayed in a group home, until Russell and Carol Baker became her foster parents. She knew there were good foster parents out there; she just hadn’t experienced it. Russ had a hair-trigger temper that even Carol experienced. Carol wanted servants, not children. Each one in their home had chores, which she knew wasn’t uncommon; however, it was the degree of chores that tilted her foster parents toward abusive.
The only one who escaped Russell’s anger and the list of chores was Aaron. He’d come to the home broken, like most of them, but he had an expiration date. Russ and Carol knew that they had to treat him well or else he’d expose them once he left. Little did they know he had anyway. Aaron pled his case, not for himself, but for those left to live under their roof.
“Tell me about your parents,” Aaron asked her one night after Danielle had taken out the trash.
“Not much to tell. Mom was hardly ever home and when she was, she seemed lost, or maybe unhappy. I was nine. Who knows what she was feeling. My father was a drunk and drug dealer. I found out he’s pretty bad news, so maybe my teachers had been right and I was better off without them.”
“Who dropped you off that day at school?”
“My dad did. Mom was going on a job interview and had to leave early.”
“And your dad was supposed to pick you up?”
“Yep, but he never showed. Anyway, they tried to reach my father, then my mother, but neither answered their calls.”
“Maybe your mother didn’t know you were taken into child protection.”