United and Dangerous by Cherie Benjamin (the speed reading book .TXT) 📕

"Don’t worry, Peter, we will find her.  Let’s go in and see what we can do, but, before we do, I need you to remain calm and not let your temper get the best of you.  Can you do that?"

"What do you mean?"  Peter asked.

"Just tell me you will remain calm."  Sean persisted.

"Okay," Peter answered hesitantly.

He felt that Sean was hiding something.

Sean turned and walked back into the living room where everyone was gathered.  As they entered the room, he walked straight to Elizabeth; he wanted, no needed to protect her as much as he could or she would allow.

Peter walked into the room and was shocked to see the group of people there.  He recognized Kane Leone and the young woman who was holding onto him, he knew this must be his new wife and the granddaughter of Zachary Morotti.  Next to them was another couple and then his eyes focused on the young woman between them and Sean. He gasped.  It was his Elizabeth.

"Lizzy?"  Peter questioned, hoping he wasn't seeing things.

Elizabeth swayed at the sound of her father's voice, calling her his pet name for her.  He had not changed much over the years.  Although, she could see in his eyes that he looked so defeated.  However, she had a lot of hurt still inside of her from his cruel words and actions.  She couldn't go through that pain again.  Then she felt his hand on her lower back and the connection that she hated to acknowledge was there.  Elizabeth looked up into Sean’s eyes, where she found the strength she needed to confront her father.  "It’s Elizabeth.  You gave up the right to call me Lizzy a long time ago."

"Watch your tone!"  Peter barked.  "I am your father, and I will not tolerate you talking to me like that."

At that point, Sean took a step forward, putting himself in front of Elizabeth; he was not going to allow this to happen.  "Peter, I warned you.  You will not raise you voice or demand anything from her.  Do I make myself clear?"

"What the fuck?  Are you fucking him now?"  Peter barked, pointing at Sean as he looked around him to see Elizabeth.   "What about your Italian husband?  Is that how it is?  He sells you off to anything with a dick."

Sean reached into his jacket and pulled out his gun and pointed it at Peter's head, as did Kane and Anthony; even Ara had her 9mm out.  Peter looked around and saw how many guns were now pointed at him.  Fuck.  Behind him, Seth had already taken up position to subdue Peter at the slightest twitch.

Elizabeth was touched by the show of support she was getting from her family and Sean.  Drawing from them, she took a step forward and with a look that would make most men quiver with fear, she faced her father, "Not that it is any of your business, but my husband passed away a few months after you turned your back on me.  Sean is only being a good friend; I am not your daughter any more, you made that abundantly clear.  What I need from you is all the information you have obtained about Lisa, where she worked, lived, cell number, because, make no mistake, I am going to find her and I dare you to keep her from me again."

"And how are you going to do that?"  Peter asked sarcastically.

Ara had had enough.  "Because, asshole, she is the team leader for our organizational surveillance.  She is an expert in the field of intelligence collection, so give her the damn information."

Peter went to open his mouth, but, when he looked up at Kane, he knew that he better keep his mouth shut.  "Fine."

Everyone put away their guns and sat down.  Peter began to give them the information that he had about Lisa so far.  Elizabeth had pulled out her tablet.

As he was telling her the information, she was already hacking into the traffic and business security cameras in the vicinity of the club, bank, and her apartment.  She was happy to find most had simplistic security passwords, or none at all, making it easy to download the images from each location for the time period of Lisa’s disappearance.  She contacted her team that had already deployed to New York to implement the operational plan they had constructed against Sebastian.  She emailed the video footage she downloaded for them to scan through the massive amount of footage for any possible leads in Lisa’s disappearance. 

Sean sat back and watched Elizabeth work her magic and was amazed at the speed and precision with which she worked.  She was hot before, but observing her in action was exciting and erotic as the same time.  He attempted, several times, to discreetly adjust himself, hoping no one would notice how sexually aroused he was from watching her take command of the situation.

After about an hour of intelligence gathering and delegating assignments to her team, Elizabeth jumped back from her keyboard with a shocked look on her face. 

"What is it?"  Ara questioned.

"Kane, Ara come take a look."  Elizabeth wheezed.

Kane and Ara walked over to Elizabeth and looked down at the video footage she had pulled up on the screen, and both took in a deep breath.  No, this couldn't be true, they all thought.  The video footage that Elizabeth downloaded from the club on the last day Lisa came to work, captured Lisa leaving the club with none other than Sebastian Morotti. 

"FUCK!"  Kane yelled.  His response caused Sean to move closer and look down at the screen. 

"Oh, fuck no."  Sean gasped.  The look of horror on his face was mirrored by Kane, Ara, and Elizabeth.  Anthony, Monica, and Peter were looking on with concern at the responses they were witnessing.

Elizabeth instantly felt a sense of dread after viewing the footage that showed her sister leaving with Sebastian.   As scared as she was that Sebastian was now involved, she had to pull from deep inside of herself and rely on her training and to find every millisecond of footage of Sebastian and Lisa.  Grabbing the headset from her bag, she connected to her team.  "Jack, I want you to isolate all the video footage obtained from every camera within a five mile radius of 24th and Lex at Club X starting on Thursday at 2230 to present day. 

We are looking for our primary target, but also a young woman who was seen leaving the club with the target.  Her statistics are 5'6" tall, slender build, red hair, she was wearing a short black skirt and a black and silver tank top.  Once you’ve isolated the initial video captured, you are to detail a minute by minute of their whereabouts at all times until there is no longer any video footage available.  I want the exact address of the location in which they were headed.  The second unit is to immediately install a pole cam at the last location the target and female companion were spotted.  Do you understand?  Copy?"

"Yes ma'am."  Jack responded immediately.

"Get back to me as soon as you determine the target’s destination from the footage.” Elizabeth said, disconnecting the call.  She began hacking into the cameras in the area. 

Peter looked at their faces and wondered what had them so worried. "What the fuck is happening?"

Sean looked up at Peter, knowing he needed to inform him of what Elizabeth had found.  "Peter, Elizabeth was able to retrieve video footage from the outside of the club.  We saw Lisa leaving the club and she was not alone."

"Who was she with?"  Peter asked, but was not sure he wanted to know.

Sean took in a deep breath and tried to calm down.  He needed to remain in total control and be the leader that he needed to be in order to control Peter’s response.  "His name is Sebastian Morotti."

Peter thought for a moment.  Sebastian Morotti, Sebastian Morotti.  Wait that was Zachary Morotti’s son.  His eyes flashed to Ara, she was Zachary Morotti’s granddaughter, which means she was Sebastian’s daughter.  Lunging at her, he grabbed her around the neck.  "Call your father and ask him where my daughter is!"  Peter seethed, as he tightened his hands around her neck, shaking her mercilessly.

Ara was stunned at what was happening, but somewhere in the back of her head was Uriel's voice telling her to never be a victim, to always fight back.  Bringing her knee up, she hit him soundly in the balls, which caused him to loosen his grip, she took advantage of this and threw her fist into his throat.  By this time, Kane was now beside her and Sean was behind Peter with their guns drawn ready to kill him if he moved another muscle.  "Kane, baby, I got this."  Ara rasped, trying to calm him down.  Peter wasn't in the right frame of mind; he was a father worried about his daughter. Even though she had no respect for him in his treatment of Elizabeth, she understood his response, to a degree. 

"You, motherfucker, are one lucky son of a bitch, because no one, I repeat, no one, lays a hand on my wife and lives.  But, because she has a heart of gold and I would do anything for her, I will let this pass this one time, but if you ever put your fucking hands on her again, I will be putting a bullet right between your fucking eyes. Are we clear???"

Coughing and wheezing, Peter tried to catch a good breath.  He was surprised by the amount of strength she asserted.  She had definitely been taught hand-to-hand combat, fuck.  Looking up through tear filled eyes at the barrel of Kane Leone's gun, he thought for sure he was dead, but then he heard her pleas not to shoot him.  Kane signaled to Seth to resume his previous position as he concealed his weapon.  Sean, now beside Kane, reached down, and pulled Peter up to his feet.  As soon as he was stable, he reared back and laid a sound shot into his gut. 

"What the fuck were you thinking?"  Sean roared. 

"I need to know where Lisa is."  Peter cried.

"Well, fucker, you sure as hell went the wrong way about it.  Peter, we are doing everything we can."  Sean said.

"But she is Sebastian Morotti's daughter.  She must know how to get a hold of him."

"That asshole is nothing but my sperm donor.  We are here to kill the motherfucker, because he put a hit out on his parents as well as Kane and me." 

Peter was shocked to hear that she was here to kill her own father.  What kind of monster could he be and why was Lisa with him? 

"Peter, sit down and we will tell you everything we know about Sebastian."  Ara said. They sat down and informed Peter on who Sebastian was and what they knew about his past and how they were going to make him pay for it. 

When Peter heard about the sick, vile things that Sebastian had done he became sick to his stomach.  Sebastian Morotti was not a man, but a monster.  "Do you have any idea where he might be?"

"No, but we know he was spotted on the docks on Friday with a black suitcase, which we think he threw into the ocean."

'What was in the suitcase?"  Peter asked.

"We don't know, but we are looking for it.  Elizabeth's team has been studying water currents and weather patterns to see where the case may have drifted to and have a team combing the area for it."  Kane said.

Peter looked over at Elizabeth and wondered how the fuck did she become so fucking smart and where she had gotten it from, because he knew that it wasn't from his dumb ass.  He had been so stupid to have ever alienated his daughter from his life