Code Name - Hacker (Jameson Force Security 4)

“Stop.” Bebe’s voice is gentle but commanding, causing my mouth to snap shut. Though not needed, she even places her fingertips against my mouth while giving me an empathetic look. “I’m sorry you had to hear about it that way. Bogachev didn’t bring that up for my benefit, but to taunt you. He was making you suffer. It was a punishment for you, and I’m sorry you had to go through that.”

My hand locks around her wrist, and I pull her fingers off my lips. I can’t hide the small quiver of anger in my tone. “You’re sorry? Why the fuck are you apologizing for that douchebag?”

“I’m apologizing for myself,” she clarifies. “I should have told you. I shouldn’t have let you find out that way, and I should have told you because I care for you deeply. I trust you with my life, so I should have trusted that secret with you as well. The only reason I didn’t was because it honestly didn’t seem important in the grand scheme of things. I’d dealt with it, Griff. It was behind me.”

“Truly?” It doesn’t quite seem plausible to me, but, then again, Bebe Grimshaw is without a doubt the strongest, most resilient woman I’ve ever known.

“Yes, truly,” she assures me. “I mean… I struggled with it for a long, long time. Went through a phase where I thought I’d deserved it—you know, as a punishment for my crimes. But I dealt with it. I talked to a lot of other women in prison who were victims of sexual crimes. I learned how to heal and forgive myself. Granted, Bogachev coming back into my life sort of dredged things up again, but God help me, Griff… I’m glad he’s dead. I don’t want to be that type of person, but I’m happy he’s dead rather than facing justice in the courts. Because right now, knowing he can’t hurt another person or terrorize another woman, I’ve never been more peaceful with my past than I am right now.”

And it’s peace that suffuses me as I take in her confident expression and the earnest gleam in her eyes. She’s truly okay, and I’m totally all right with the fact Bogachev’s death is part of the reason.

I know I’m glad he’s dead. Glad Kynan burst through those doors and popped him with a few bullets.

Speaking of which… a thought strikes me. “Hey, how in the hell did Kynan know where we were?”

Bebe’s eyes actually sparkle with mischief, and she laughs. “Well, you know he was worried about me coming to New York and he wasn’t pleased the FBI wouldn’t let Jameson be involved in the actual takedown, so he took it upon himself to stalk us.”

I frown. “Come again?”

“They were parked down the next block from us, watching our van,” she says, and my jaw drops in astonishment. “Of course, the explosion was between us and them, so there was no way they could just follow our van once Karl kidnapped us. But Kynan’s always thinking a few steps ahead.”

Then Bebe taps her fingertip against one of her earrings. Can’t say as I paid them much attention before. They’re silver Celtic knots about the size of a dime with a black stone in the center.

“Pretty earrings,” I mutter.

“Thanks,” she says, beaming back. “Kynan gave them to me as a present the morning we left. He said they were an apology gift for the fight we’d gotten into when I wanted to come to New York and he wouldn’t let me.”

“Okay,” I drawl, clearly not understanding a damn thing.

She taps the earring again. “The stone is a GPS locator.”

My eyes flare with respect. “No shit?”

“No shit,” she replies with a laugh. “I should have known, too, because I created similar earrings for Joslyn when Jameson was protecting her from a stalker. She was wearing my earrings when she was taken, and it’s how we located her. And I never even considered Kynan was doing the same to me. He must have had Dozer whip them up the night before we left.”

“So they were able to track us,” I murmur in amazement.

“Well, not very easily,” she replies with a shake of her head. “It was chaos from the bomb going off. By the time they’d navigated around a few blocks, Karl had a good head start. They had to do a lot of guessing and driving in the general direction we went before they picked up the signal. Luckily, Dozer was able to boost the reception and pick up our trail. They were outside practically the entire time though, listening in with sound amplifiers and recording for evidence. It was when Bogachev brought up the rape that they started to mobilize. They figured things were going to go south at that point. Kynan said he knew you’d never take that sitting down.”