Page 17 of Beyond the Rules
The air rushed out of my lungs and refused to come back. My pulse beat in my ears, a deafening drum. They knew. They knew! Holy hell. I’d just been slammed against the wall. And now I was completely at theirmercy.
The three SEALs studied me as if I had the potential of being the enemy. Or a freaking terrorist. Maybe they thought I was one of those hackers who hijacked companies and people’s accounts in exchange for money.Crap, crap, crap. The panic of being at the center of their crosshairs grabbed at my throat. My teeth clamped over my lips. Would these guys help me if I admitted to mycrimes?
“Easy, Nina.” Tanner’s thumb continued to circle under my wrist in a calming caress that wasn’t workingatall.
“Let’s take it from the top,” Zar said. “Did you steal thatplane?”
“Tell us the truth,” Tanner cautioned, his voice soft, his eyes pleading. “Those assholes are not playing games. Wecanhelp.”
The only person who could really help me was Ulysses. I had to get to him. But in order to do so, I had to get these guys offmyback.
“I’ll give you the basics.” I pulled my hand away from Tanner’s distracting contact and tucked it on my lap because it was too hard to think with him so near. “Then weleave.Okay?”
“Go.”
“I didn’t steal the plane,” I said. “Irentedit.”
“Did you have a license to fly?” Zarasked.
“Truth, Nina.” Tanner’s voice held awarning.
Why did I feel as if they were testing me? Oh. My. Freaking. God. Because it was true. Somehow, they already knew the answer to the question and, if I lied, they would shut me out and I wouldn’t get to Ulysses anytime soon. I was going to have to stick to thetruth.
“I didn’t have a pilot’s license,” I said. “So I gave me one. Pieceofcake.”
Tanner sighed. Relief I’d told the truth? Disappointment that I’d faked the license? I mean, I was what I was. No one would expect me to be a paragon of virtue.Right?
“Then how the hell did you fly all the way from Kalispell to here?” Zarasked.
“I’d been training myself to fly for a while,” I explained. “On my laptopsimulator.”
Zar scrubbed his hand over his face. “That’s the most reckless thing I’ve everheard.”
“I think it’s kind of awesome.” Tanner offered his warmsmile.
“Amazing.” Aiden grinned from eartoear.
Mouth straight, jaw clenched, Zar beamed his glower on Aiden and Tanner before he returned to his attention to me and proceeded with his blunt interrogation. “Are you a dark nethacker?”
“I am a hacker.” I squared my shoulder and straightened in my chair. “I’ve done work on the dark net, whohasn’t?”
“Excellent point.” Aiden’s grinwidened.
“Did you serve jail time?” Zardemanded.
It rankled me to no end to admit it. “Six months in the federalslammer.”
“Whatfor?”
“It’s not important,” I said. “I’ve been out for a yearnowand—”
“What crime did you serve time for?” Zar repeated, slowly,dangerously.
“If you have to know,” I said, annoyed by his tone but also supremely embarrassed because getting caught was an insult to my intelligence. “I broke into some federal government databases. I needed to find out some things. I was getting the run around, so I went in andgotit.”
“So thechargeswere…”
“Intentionally hacking a protected federal government computer and stealing classified information.” No point in holding back now. “My little excursion embarrassed the Feds, so when they found out, they threw the bookatme.”