The Hacker's Protector

Please note that while this book is a standalone, it will be best enjoyed by reading “Her CEO Alpha and Her Second Chance Mate” prior to reading this book. The events run side by side, but CEO is set up so all the surprises here are not spoiled, and the impact of these chapters will be felt more strongly by hating the villain through the lens of CEO.

Chapter 1

Beck

I was running out of options. I sat on my bike in an alley. Adelaide had been right; this man— who had brutally assaulted and kidnapped her—was untouchable. In the last week, I hadn’t been able to get eyes on him. I knew where he lived, every piece of real estate he owned in the guncity. The closest I had gotten to teaching him a lesson for putting his hands on her and his dick where it didn’t belong was a glimpse of his entourage in tinted luxury vehicles as they rounded the corner of Alpha Enterprises' corporate building and entered a parking garage with more security than the White House. Right now, I was checking in on her friend, making sure nobody had made the link to her, in case they thought she was hiding out with her. I knew Adelaide wanted to keep her out of this, but I was out of options. She had hinted that Misty knew her way around technology, and I was sure she wouldn’t mind putting an end to the man who almost killed her best friend.

The pictures I had found on the internet of Adelaide and Creedon Macalister together showed a very different 5-foot-4 blonde in high heels and sparkling dresses than the gothed-out black and blue riddled woman sporting combat boots that I had watched walk onto a bus headed across the country to start a new life a week ago.

Adelaide had a long road to recovery, not just her mind and body, but fighting against a broken bond she didn’t even know existed. That's what brought me here, making sure her friend Misty and her little girl were safe from the bastard that couldn’t take rejection like a man. I checked on her often and followed her to get to know her routine. At least when I wasn’t waiting for a moment, I could beat that shit of an Alpha into submission, that is.

I had seen the headlines where he pleaded for whoever took his “assistant” to return her unharmed, that any leads to her whereabouts would be handsomely rewarded. That Miss Anderson was more than just his employee. He played the part well; the nation was rooting for him to find her and bring whoever had separated the couple to justice. I knew better. The only thing waiting for Adelaide if anyone outed her was being chained to a bed until she submitted to him, only to live a life of brutality and misery, all while smiling for the camera.

The thing was, I was out of my league here. Almost two decades of doing this, and I had met my match. After my mate’s death, I blamed myself. I wasn’t there to protect her, so I vowed to spend the rest of my life keeping women out of the hands of men like Creedon Macalister. At the end of the day, I was just a stepping stone for these women. What they did with their opportunity at freedom and a new life was a harder battle than beating the daylights out of or ridding the world of the men who thought they owned these women.

I was about to call it quits for the night and walk half a block down to the dingy motel I had found a room at, when two men on bikes parked outside the building. Misty lived on the second floor above the little Mexican specialty shop owned by the woman she rented from. I strained my ears to listen. These two meant trouble. When they looked up at the lit windows of the second story. I silently kicked my bike stand down and eased off it. I waited to see what they would do.

“The bitch is home, that cunt she usually keeps around is MIA, so says that fucking rich ass Alpha on the TV. She's got nobody to witness shit tonight. They will be, all ours.” The other man laughed. “Someone finally put that feral bitch in her place? Bet they fucked the sass right out of her, too. Too bad I wanted a piece of that,” the beer-bellied biker with a long, greasy beard added. Well, he could get the first fist to his face.

I decided to stay in the shadows and see what this was about. These weren’t Creedon’s wolves, they scented as bears. The direction of the breeze was in my favor as the stink of trash unfortunately drifted my way. I watched them muscle their way into the door that led to the stairs of the apartments, and that's when my feet started moving as I pocketed the keys to my bike. I waited at the doorway to the stairwell until the door to the second floor opened and swung shut, muffling their footsteps. I eased up the steps as quietly as a man my size could. I reached the landing when the pounding started. He wasn’t even trying to be quiet. So this was going to go down right now, just not in the way they expected. I guess I could stop wondering how I was going to approach her. These pieces of shit had done it for me. Lucky me. I cracked my knuckles in anticipation of a fight.

“Open up, Misty! I know you’re in there,” the younger, thinner guy yelled. The thing was, nobody on this floor would hear him. I had witnessed the old man in one of the second-floor apartments pass out in his La-Z-Boy, watching the 6 o'clock news through the window. He was hard of hearing and liked his vodka. He bought a cheap bottle every day and was out by 5:30 with the TV blaring. The middle-aged woman who also shared the floor had gone to work at a bar down the street about the same time the old man passed out. Unless Mrs. Gonzalez, the landlord, on the floor above heard the ruckus, there was nobody to intervene. That is, except for me, but they didn't know that yet. I toed the door open a crack, listening. The soft sound of shuffling and a hushed murmur of a female voice through the walls was the only sound from the inhabitants on this floor, besides the old man’s TV. That was interrupted by the brutes' incessant pounding on the door.

“Open the fuck up, bitch! She doesn’t belong to you!” he yelled louder this time.

Soft curses followed, drowned out by the layers of walls between her and the door at the stairs where I had paused, ready to make a move. Then footsteps, she was going to the door.

“Go the fuck away, Tanner! I’m her mother, you have no right to her!”

“That's where you're wrong, and you know it! She needs the sleuth, be reasonable and we will let you come along, I’m sure there are ways you can contribute,” he said with a sneer. There was no need to guess what he meant; she would be on her back. The men in front of me were black bear shifters. I could scent it in the stairwell in their wake. Bear shifters typically kept to themselves or in small sleuths. Females were rare. If they wanted her, they wanted her for one thing and one thing only, to breed her.

The woman huffed. “Over my dead fucking body will she go anywhere near the likes of you assholes, now fuck off!” Misty’s voice snapped. I had to admire her fire, but right now, I decided after hearing that, it was time to knock some heads together.