Read Online Marked (Hostage Rescue Team Series) by Kaylea Cross - Free Book Online
Authors: Kaylea Cross
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there. But he’d researched the firm and they hired the best security analysts in the world to keep everyone out, which was why he couldn’t hack it from the outside.
That also meant that the odds of him walking away from the op without getting arrested or shot were way less than that of actually retrieving the damn files he needed.
“You need to do it tonight,” his contact said. A command, no matter how quietly stated. Xang knew exactly what was happening.
They were testing him. It infuriated him. He’d already proven his loyalty and his skills—skills that included far more than being slick with a computer—more than once. If they hadn’t given him such a tight timeline he might have been able to come up with a much better plan. This felt too much like he was flailing around in the dark, like they were setting him up to fail so he could take the fall.
“You brought me on board for this as a hacker,” he reiterated, face burning with humiliation as the man forced him to point out the obvious—that he wasn’t acting as a warrior this time. He was well aware that only his reputation and freedom were on the line if he got caught, and that they didn’t give a shit about him other than his skill set and what he could do for them. Which was why he didn’t plan to stay at the bottom rung of the cell’s ladder after this op.
“Not my problem. I can’t send in more resources without risking blowing the entire op. Get me those plans, tonight.”
The threat was implicit in the man’s tone. Xang knew exactly what sort of “resources” the man had out there, including a hit team he could send out on Xang with a single phone call.
He opened his mouth to argue but the man hung up before he could respond. Rage boiled inside him. Left alone in the room with his contact and the head of the cell, he could kill them both with nothing but a single knife—something he’d already proven to them when they’d checked into his past. They thought that just because they were rich that they could control him, render him less dangerous or less of a threat by making him act only as a hacker on this job. They didn’t seem to understand that he had carried out their orders so far only because he chose to.
As he was about to put the phone down, Xang’s personal cell buzzed with an incoming call. Brandon.
“Hey,” he answered in Mandarin, playing it cool even though he was still pushing back the anger. He wasn’t worried about security because he’d added plenty of encryption to the phone previously. “What’s up?”
“Nothing. Hey, I know I asked you already, but are you sure you didn’t take anything from my sister’s place last night?”
“I told you I didn’t.” But he’d certainly left her a message today, he thought in satisfaction.
After the way she’d snubbed his attempts to win her over—like she was too good for him—and the inability to get the files he needed, scaring her had seemed like the perfect outlet for his frustration. She was just like everyone else, thinking she was better than him. Well, she wasn’t, even if she was smart and fucking hot.
Posing as a college transfer student and hanging around Brandon for the past few weeks to get to her on direct order from the cell hadn’t been that much of a hardship. When he’d checked her room this morning he’d come across her underwear, and they were every bit as sexy as she was. The idea had hit him then. Maybe they’d think he was after her and it would throw off any cops who started investigating him, at least long enough to allow him to do the rest of his job while they were distracted.
After he’d cut them up and scattered them across the bed and floor like those whacked-out stalkers did in movies, he’d stuffed one into his pocket on impulse for two reasons. To terrorize her, and to make her think this was about her personally, rather than the files he needed. With luck it would throw off any investigators long enough for him to
That also meant that the odds of him walking away from the op without getting arrested or shot were way less than that of actually retrieving the damn files he needed.
“You need to do it tonight,” his contact said. A command, no matter how quietly stated. Xang knew exactly what was happening.
They were testing him. It infuriated him. He’d already proven his loyalty and his skills—skills that included far more than being slick with a computer—more than once. If they hadn’t given him such a tight timeline he might have been able to come up with a much better plan. This felt too much like he was flailing around in the dark, like they were setting him up to fail so he could take the fall.
“You brought me on board for this as a hacker,” he reiterated, face burning with humiliation as the man forced him to point out the obvious—that he wasn’t acting as a warrior this time. He was well aware that only his reputation and freedom were on the line if he got caught, and that they didn’t give a shit about him other than his skill set and what he could do for them. Which was why he didn’t plan to stay at the bottom rung of the cell’s ladder after this op.
“Not my problem. I can’t send in more resources without risking blowing the entire op. Get me those plans, tonight.”
The threat was implicit in the man’s tone. Xang knew exactly what sort of “resources” the man had out there, including a hit team he could send out on Xang with a single phone call.
He opened his mouth to argue but the man hung up before he could respond. Rage boiled inside him. Left alone in the room with his contact and the head of the cell, he could kill them both with nothing but a single knife—something he’d already proven to them when they’d checked into his past. They thought that just because they were rich that they could control him, render him less dangerous or less of a threat by making him act only as a hacker on this job. They didn’t seem to understand that he had carried out their orders so far only because he chose to.
As he was about to put the phone down, Xang’s personal cell buzzed with an incoming call. Brandon.
“Hey,” he answered in Mandarin, playing it cool even though he was still pushing back the anger. He wasn’t worried about security because he’d added plenty of encryption to the phone previously. “What’s up?”
“Nothing. Hey, I know I asked you already, but are you sure you didn’t take anything from my sister’s place last night?”
“I told you I didn’t.” But he’d certainly left her a message today, he thought in satisfaction.
After the way she’d snubbed his attempts to win her over—like she was too good for him—and the inability to get the files he needed, scaring her had seemed like the perfect outlet for his frustration. She was just like everyone else, thinking she was better than him. Well, she wasn’t, even if she was smart and fucking hot.
Posing as a college transfer student and hanging around Brandon for the past few weeks to get to her on direct order from the cell hadn’t been that much of a hardship. When he’d checked her room this morning he’d come across her underwear, and they were every bit as sexy as she was. The idea had hit him then. Maybe they’d think he was after her and it would throw off any cops who started investigating him, at least long enough to allow him to do the rest of his job while they were distracted.
After he’d cut them up and scattered them across the bed and floor like those whacked-out stalkers did in movies, he’d stuffed one into his pocket on impulse for two reasons. To terrorize her, and to make her think this was about her personally, rather than the files he needed. With luck it would throw off any investigators long enough for him to
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