Secrets of the Fall Page 7

  “Drew…” I said, as he kissed my stomach and made his way up. “I can’t be with Nat anymore. We can’t be together even if he comes back tonight or tomorrow. All these years I’ve been…”

  “Hush,” Drew said, taking my mouth with his. “You. Have. Me.” He kissed me hard each time to emphasize those words. “And…I want it all. I want all of you, Summer.” He pushed down my pants along with my panties, and shoved his fingers into me, making me jump nearly out of my skin with pleasure.

  “Drew…oh my God, Drew,” I moaned as he worked me to such heights, I felt my entire body give into the pleasure. “I’m going to…”

  “Let it happen, baby,” Drew coaxed. “Let go, just let go of all that tension, those feelings of anger, jealousy, pent up fucking desire.” He unbuckled and unbutton his pants with one hand, and pulled it down. “All those emotions of anger, frustration, shock, jealousy, and even hate. Let me have it. I want them. Give them to me. Give me all that you have, and take it out on me now!” He entered me deeply, and I felt all of my frustrations and feelings as intense as they were before centered in on my lust for Drew. I moved with him, hard and as passionately as I could, taking it all out on him, driving both of us to the climax of pure pleasure and nothing else.

  By the time the shudders between us stopped, we were sweaty and spent. I had my arms around Drew’s neck, and he had his arms around my waist. We stared at each other for minutes drinking in each other as though we never wanted to break this connection this touch between us.

  “Gosh, Summer,” Drew sighed. “That was the most mind-blowing experience I’ve ever had. Nothing compares to that.” He shuddered just thinking about it. “I’m sorry about ignoring you like that earlier. I knew I shouldn’t, but I wanted to get you riled up. I want to make you desire me with a passion as intense or more than your hatred for me at that moment. I have eyes only for you, Summer. No one else. Believe me, it was the hardest thing for me to act interested in a girl I have no ounce of interest in, when all I wanted was to grab you and make love to you all day.”

  “Had me fooled,” I whispered, looking up at him.

  “I know,” Drew said. “I’m so sorry. But I really wanted to break through to you, make you act on how you feel instead of holding everything inside…all those feelings. Like Nat did. It’s not healthy, Summer, to bottle all those feelings inside. It can make people do crazy things when they have too much pressure from that. I know, which was one reason why I was such a whore in school. It was a release. But you, you have no release like that, and with Nat gone, and you moving on…I want to be that release for you. I want you to use me, use my body for that, Summer. Because, Summer, you are definitely mine.”

  He kissed me long and hard until my toes were curling before pulling away and opening the door for me to get in.

  I sat in my seat, and he reached over with the seat belt and sensually pulled it across me, brushing against my nipples and my thighs several times until they were sensitive to the touch. “Drew,” I swatted his arm away after about the fifth time he readjusted the belt. “We have to get going.” I laughed, and it felt good to laugh.

  Drew smiled an innocent but wicked smile. “You totally get me, Summer,” he said happily. Then he leaned into my ear to whisper. “You have me if you want me.”

  I felt a rush of heat soar through me and said huskily. “We really have to get going or we will have a repeat performance we don’t have the time to do right now.”

  “Oh, Summer,” Drew sighed, playfully. “You balance me. My total equal. What would I do without you?”

  “Drive,” I said. “Oh, I know what you could do without me, but it’s more fun with me there.” I smirked, and he laughed.

  It was the first time in weeks we’ve been able to laugh. I thought I had forgotten how to, but now it was back.

  Chapter 8

  Nat

  Sometimes to show love, to be loving, is to be able to walk away from that person you love. The hardest thing in life to this date is not dealing with my parents’ divorce, my mother’s mental illness, or college; it was walking away from love, from the woman I loved with all of my heart.

  Again, it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I didn’t think I would; I never thought that I could. But there were legitimate reasons why. And in the end when I made this decision to do what I did, I did it with the best intentions for her, for my family, for Drew, myself, and our country. It wasn’t about me…and that was how I was able to walk away.

  *****

  I was dressed just like everyone else on the team…in camouflage so none of us stood out as we headed over to the headquarters. For weeks, they’ve prepped me on how to fight, how to use weapons, how to pass lie detector tests, and how to act if caught and tortured. For weeks, I’ve stayed in camps with these larger than life ex-marines, ex-army, purple-heart-decorated veterans and even heroes, who now worked privately as an army or Special Forces for hire. And for this mission, I had hired them through Donovan Dynamics. These men were part of my army. Being the youngest, the one without any military experience, and the smallest in build although I was as muscular and fit as any athlete; I stood out. I was the liability, but since I was the one with the intelligence and key information needed for this mission, I had to be trained to infiltrate just like one of them.

  “Donovan,” Tito Reed, a brawny tattooed ex-marine who stood 6 feet 5 inches of pure muscles including a head, bald, tough, and with a neck as thick as my torso; gestured for me to come up to join him in front. I moved my way up to the front, having been pushed back out of the way so the Special Forces could scope out the location while protecting me…the holder of the key.

  “You see that?” Tito pointed, handing me his binocular. “That’s the entrance we are entering through. There are two guards who rotate standing guard every four hours. They’re small guys, but they’re armed. If you get close enough to them in a fighting situation, the first thing you do is remove their weapon, then you have a fighting chance to take them down. If not,” Tito handed me a large serated knife in a leather sheath. “Here are some back up.” Then he reached into his leather vest, packed with weapons of all kinds. “You know what this is…” he took out a MK3 revolver. “We’ve practiced for weeks on this. You a damn fine shot now, too. It’s yours. Take it.”

  I stared at the revolver before taking it and stuffing it into my own leather vest. The MK3 was the revolver of choice used by and specially made for the Special Forces, known as the SOCOM pistol, it was praise for its accuracy. Having it on me, I felt like I was one of the guys now. I felt a little more secure knowing that if I had to protect myself, I at least had something to protect myself with…and gave me a good fighting chance to survive. I was going into this mission fully equipped and prepared. There was no cutting corners for this. If this mission failed, we would not be going home.

  “Ok, Tito,” I said. “I’ve studied the layout inside, know which room to search, and even know what to say if questioned. Are we ready to do this?”

  Tito looked over at the other four guys in the group. They were silent but ready, each nodding their heads. “Ready,” he said. “You stay behind me and Colby there. The other two, Hugh and Gao, come in from the rear.”

  “Gotcha,” the men said.

  Tito looked at me, and said, “Let’s make this quick and painless. The faster we get in there and out, the safer it is for everyone.”

  My heart was beating so fast, and my hands were already beginning to sweat. I couldn’t even answer back to Tito because I was just hoping I could remember everything I was to do. My dad’s life depended on it, as did a few other military personnel, whom he was working with before the operations went down. No one knew what I was doing, that I was here, that I was even alive. It was important for them to think that. Even my mother, Rachel, and Summer.

  Summer…how I wish I could see her one last time, how I could tell her the truth. I would be lying if I said I didn’t care what she would think about me lying to h
er, but for now, this was what I had to do. Sometimes you have to make choices that will hurt someone you care about deeply in order to help them in the long run. Summer, if you know what I’m about to do, you would be proud of who I’ve become…for you. I’ve become a man who had to make those tough choices in life, for you.

  “Let’s go!” Tito said, and like stealth ninjas, we moved as one unit hidden in the dark, blending into the background, through the forest and onto the heavily-guarded fortress.

  Tito stepped to the side as we came up to the entrance, while Hugh distracted and took down the lone guard at the entrance. Quietly and efficiently. These guys meant business alright.

  Tito led the way in the dark hallway in a maze of hallways, obviously designed to confuse and disorient intruders who weren’t supposed to be there. Tito knew the way, and having prepped for this moment for weeks, I did, too.

  We came to a section that split into three hallways, and Tito turned to go into the one closest to our right. I had to stop him, and point out that I thought it was the one straight ahead. He looked at me frowning for a second before he pulled out his tablet…a small one that fit into his large pocket on his vest. He nodded. I was right. He got in front of me and quickly led the way.

  It was unusually quiet for what I imagined would be a busy headquarter for one of the largest cyber-crime rings in the world. That was how Donovan Dynamics got involved in the first place, hired on as an expert of security and cyber intelligence to aid the U.S. government and a couple of other countries who banded together globally to discretely find and dismantle cyber rings like these. It was such a top secret project, my father was personally involved in the operations.

  It was so top secret, just a handful of executives at Donovan Dynamics knew about this contract. In fact, I was the only one who knew in detail what it was. Despite my age, I have already had years of experience being privy to Donovan Dynamics’ operations and most confidential projects.

  In fact, and this was another secret I withheld from Summer, because if she knew, it would put her in danger, she would look at me differently and not in a good way, and she would never forgive me for never contacting her or seeing her for those three years straight after we moved from Malibu to San Francisco.

  When I turned thirteen, my world changed. Not only did I discovered how attracted I was to Summer as a girlfriend and had even gotten almost close to intimacy with her; but I got sucked into a world that was dangerous and even criminal. I was a computer geek, nerd, genius-what-you-will; and had a knack for breaking through security walls and systems. I saw things that would blow anyone’s minds. I saw the good and the ugly. Unfortunately mostly the ugly since people tend to use the computer and the internet for anonymous things they were too ashamed to do in public.

  I got into the world of hackers, saw that they were able to infiltrate into people’s personal computers, able to point people’s own webcams at themselves while the hackers laughed and made fun of the people they labeled, their “slaves” or “minions”. It was like the Sims Game to the hackers, being able to manipulate people by playing with them.

  It was an ugly subculture, which I was ashamed to have fallen into when I was a young teenager. I didn’t have any friends, had moved to a new city with a new school, and all this pressure to succeed. I was like these boys who wasted hours playing these hacking games. That was why I was too ashamed of telling Summer why I didn’t see or try to keep in touch with her right after my family moved. It wasn’t her at all. It was because I did some stupid things, got involved in some stupid idiotic groups, and was too ashamed of it all. Summer was pristine, good, pure…she would not look at me again if she knew.

  But my dad knew, and it turned out, it was the kind of talent he needed to help grow Donovan Dynamics into a worldwide security firm. The cyber-security and intelligence division of it grew in leaps and bounds because Dad had put me in charge. At thirteen years old, being a former hacker, I was already running a major division in a fast-growing company.

  But no one knew this, except for Dad and myself…and maybe Drew, who suspected I had more to do with Dad’s company than just some kind of internship. It was inconceivable and even somewhat illegal that I would be doing all of these hacking activities in the line of work. Although it was for good intentions and good reasons, hacking for Donovan Dynamics, was still hacking. Illegally or legally, it was still, to me, an invasion of privacy.

  But as much as I was ashamed of it, I was proud to be able to use my talent toward helping solve cyber-crimes for corporations, for the government, and respectable organizations. Using my talents, I was also able to keep tabs on Summer when she was younger. After we moved to San Francisco, I couldn’t help it, but I hacked into her computer once or twice, just so I could see her face when she looked at her screen. It was a way for me to keep in touch with her (although she never knew). Like I said, it was wrong, and I felt horrible for even trying. Soon after hacking twice into her computer, I stopped.

  I even tried to stop working for Dad. But he needed me, and eventually, he ended up hiring more people, and I was able to slowly pull away from Donovan Dynamics while getting more into school, football, and making friends.

  But here we are now…in the middle of enemy territory, smack in the center of cyber-crimes central. With me getting ready to do the biggest hacking or computer infiltration I’ve ever done…with so much riding on it.

  The Ex-Special Forces team and I continued down the hallway into an area that looked a break room with tables, a small kitchen, some sofa. Who knew organized cyber-criminals had a need for a breakroom and coffee, too.

  We went pass a large room that had a window from the outside of the hallway looking in. The room was dark, but I could see the outline of old-fashioned desktop computer monitors on top of the rectangular tables lining the room. It looked like it could fill up to hundreds of people at a time, working on the computers. It was evening, and the workers had gone home.

  I gestured to Tito about going in, but he stopped me and pointed to another room tucked away in the back of the main computer mill room. He pointed to that room.

  The team made its way into the room, half of us inside, while the other half outside, as Tito led the way into the office. It looked like any typical office of any corporate building. There was a desk, a computer, stuff on the wall… I immediately put on my gloves, went to the computer, which was left on, and quickly got through the security wall. Next I went into the files, searching for the one that held information that was vital to international security.

  It was under some obscure name, but I found it, and went deep enough to obtain what I needed.

  I turned to Tito with a thumbs up, and was about to erase all tracks and put the computer to sleep when I noticed a small red light on the computer turn on with a click. Shit, it was the monitor. I gestured for everyone to get out of the view of the computer monitor, ducking down myself so I was completely out of the view.

  Being the ex-hacker that I was, I knew a hacker had gone into that computer, turned on the camera, and was checking out the room.

  Smart. These cyber-criminals knew how to keep their information safe and how to secure themselves. They didn’t need heavily-armed guards standing watch everywhere. All they needed were monitors in each room, capable of checking on everything.

  After about five excruciating minutes of the monitor being on, the red light went off. I finished everything up, and stood up, along with the other men.

  Tito stepped outside first with me following and the rest. It looked like a smooth, quick mission with no hassles as we neared the exit. But that was short-lived. One of the monitors near the exit turned on, and caught us about to storm the door leading outside.

  We opened the door. Tito knocked out the guard standing next to the door, and Gao broke the neck of another guard who saw what happened and had ran up. Hugh stopped another guard as Tito grabbed me and pushed me forward with him towards the fence. “Run and don’t stop!” he yelled,
shoving me through the fence while trying to follow me through.

  I looked back, and saw that Tito was too big to go through the fence and had taken off his vest and weapons. He was half way through when one of the guards grabbed him from behind. Tito turned back and punched him in the face so hard the guard’s nose broke and blood spilled everywhere as he fell backwards.

  Tito saw me standing there, and he barked, “Follow the plan. Go!”

  I wanted to go back to help Tito through the fence, but he was right, now that the cyber-criminals know about us, they could very easily go in and change everything in their system, rendering everything I’ve just accomplished, useless.

  I only had a few minutes to get to the next step or everything, including, and I’m hoping it was not the case, giving up the Special Force’s lives for this mission would be in vain.

  Chapter 9

  Nat

  It took me less than five minutes to weave my way to the van hidden in the forest and covered up by bushes as camouflage. The van had served for our headquarters for the past week, and held our computer equipment, satellite, and everything we needed. I opened the door, jumped in, and went straight to the computer, typing as fast as I can through the security and then to another hidden wall.

  It was the special private space set up for Donovan Dynamics Elite. I typed in the information I saw at the criminal headquarter, downloaded it, and immediately got an answer.

  “Well done,” the message said. “Now let’s go home.”