Page 4 of Cipher

“Yes.”

He went straight into sheriff mode without second-guessing me.

I heard the click of him keying his portable radio. “2-Adam-7, clear your current and roll code to⁠—”

I provided the address, which he relayed to the deputy before providing him with the other details I’d given. Then he instructed, “I’m en route to dispatch. Keep me updated.”

“Copy, Sheriff. Four minutes out.”

My shoulders slumped at the confirmation Nina would have help soon. Whatever was going on, it had cost her a few extra minutes. Hopefully, the delay wouldn’t come at the steep price of her life.

With that taken care of, Dad growled, “Stay off the console. I’m three minutes from the building.”

I sat frozen in my seat until the side door slammed open and my father strode in, his expression carved from stone. He came straight to my console and braced both hands on the edge of the desk. “Run through it for me again.”

He listened without interrupting, and when I finished, he scrubbed his hand down his face. “Fucking hell.”

His radio crackled, and I squeezed my eyes shut as I waited to hear Nina’s fate.

“Sheriff, 2-Adam-7. I’m on scene. Male subject was inside. Victim is alive but injured. He got to her before we made the door. Medics are rolling. Subject is in custody.”

Some of the tension in my dad’s shoulders eased, but his eyes were still furious.

He looked at me, then swept his gaze across the room. “Nobody touches another terminal. Not one keystroke until I say otherwise.”

The supervisor came out of his office at the tail end of my dad’s announcement. “You can’t just shut down 911, sir.”

“We damn well can,” Dad retorted. “Route all calls to the backup county line.”

Mr. Hendrick bristled. “We only do that in cases of extreme emergency.”

“Which is exactly what we have here.” My dad crossed his arms. “And that’s why I’m calling in Black Castle.”

“That is not the protocol.” Mr. Hendrick shook his head. “And my budget doesn’t⁠—”

“I don’t give a damn about your budget, Hendrick,” Dad interrupted. “The only thing that matters is keeping the people of Sable Canyon safe. We can’t do that if our CAD system is being used against us. And we have no way of knowing if this was an inside job yet, so I’m bringing them in.”

I knew that tone well. My dad was going to call Black Castle…and Cipher would come.

2

CIPHER

The sheriff’s department’s secured rear entrance sat beneath a hard wash of white security light, the camera above the steel door following us as we crossed the service lot shortly after one in the morning. Raines had called Black Castle Security through its official emergency channel, which made the response legitimate. And defensible when his higher-ups eventually demanded to know why he had bypassed protocol. But following procedure would have sent the incident straight to the same technology personnel who maintained the system, and one of them might have been responsible for the compromise.

I’d filled in Stryker and Hawkeye on the breach while I was collecting my equipment. A compromised 911 system was not a routine technology issue that Black Castle would send a single specialist to handle. I carried a hardened company laptop beneath one arm and a compact digital forensic kit in my other hand. They followed me with the quiet readiness they brought into any building where the threat had not been identified.

The lock released with a heavy metallic click, and Raines opened the door before stepping aside to let us enter. A uniformed deputy waited nearby with one hand resting close to his holster, and I barely refrained from rolling my eyes at the idiot’s posturing.

Being here on official business didn’t erase the rocker on my cut. Even unarmed, the little shit wouldn’t know what hit him before he’d even drawn his weapon.

Raines had called Black Castle rather than contacting me as a Black Crown, and the distinction mattered, even if the same men ultimately walked through his door.

Black Castle Security was an elite, fully legitimate company owned by Stryker and the club, with independent hardware, forensic capabilities, and a reputation Raines needed to justify bringing us into a county facility.

The Black Crowns did not always follow the law, but we protected our community. If the breach had come from inside local law enforcement, we needed to understand the threat to the club and everyone who lived in our territory.

The sheriff’s gray-threaded mustache was drawn into the hard line, as his gaze moved across the three of us. “Appreciate you getting here this fast. I need dispatch functioning, but first, I need to know who the fuck I can trust near the system.”