Fascination

by Samantha Hunter

  Sarah burst out laughing and Sage just smiled and shushed her, as if they shared in the joke. Locke apparently didn’t think it was so funny.

  “Be nice, please, Locke? She’s a hacker, just like me. We’re careful because seeing her could get me thrown back in jail. She’s also the only…friend I’ve had in a long time. You deserted me, after all, and what’s a girl to do?”

  Sage held her breath, but she could see him processing what she said.

  “And the cop?”

  Sage waved her hand. “Yeah, that sucked. Sorry about that, but I did what I had to do after he got suspicious. God knows I didn’t enjoy it. You weren’t exactly subtle about dropping the disk—it put me in a tough spot.”

  Sarah played her part and cooed at Sage comfortingly.

  “So you aren’t into men anymore? That could present a problem.”

  Sage smiled. “I’m not into cops. But screwing him served a purpose—an insurance policy, so to speak. This way he won’t give me any trouble. He knows about you, but he doesn’t really care as long as I keep him happy. See what I’ve been willing to do for you?”

  She moved away from Sarah and slithered onto Locke’s lap, hooking her arm around his shoulder. “So you see, I am into Sarah. We’re into each other. But I’m into you, too. We both are. We couldn’t wait to see you. I was so disappointed when you were gone last night.”

  Sage kept her cool, staring into his eyes with what she hoped was a persuasive degree of desire considering she wanted to vomit when she felt him harden beneath her thigh.

  “I don’t like thinking of you with other men.”

  She reached up to stroke his hair. “I haven’t really been with any other men. Like I said, the cop was a necessity. But after you, I just couldn’t find anyone as…satisfying. And Sarah, well—” she turned her head and smiled suggestively at Sarah “—is obviously not a man.”

  That seemed to make Locke more relaxed. “I see that. You have good taste, LadyBug. I’ll give you that.”

  Sarah tipped her drink back, finishing it. “So now that we’re all friends, where’s the party?”

  Locke raised an inquiring eyebrow while stroking Sage’s bare back—the summer dress she’d worn didn’t leave much to the imagination—and Sarah sighed impatiently.

  “Sage, I don’t like being left over here by myself. You two look pretty cozy, but what about me?”

  Locke laughed and nuzzled Sage’s cheek while his fingers traced lightly over her hip. “You don’t like to watch? You might have to get used to it, baby.”

  Sage watched something unpleasant snap to life in Sarah’s eyes, a quick flicker of disgust that Locke would probably put down to jealousy. Sarah leaned forward, staring him in the eye, her gaze full of sensual promises, her tone sultry.

  “I’d rather play.” She looked at Sage with full-on lust in her eyes. “Or you could watch us. Fine by me.”

  Locke looked a little surprised, but he was definitely interested. Sage knew this because the heat from his body was intense and the lazy circles he drew on her back became even more suggestive, dipping lower. She wasn’t going to be able to sit there so intimately pressed up against him for much longer. Seeing an escape route, she took it, returning to Sarah.

  Pulling a chair up close, she faced Sarah, stroking her hair and leaning in to kiss her cheek. “Don’t worry, honey, we aren’t going to leave you behind. I told you this would all work out.”

  Sage met Locke’s gaze and realized he was buying it—he was getting totally turned on watching them together. Apparently EJ and Ian were right about this scenario fueling men’s fantasies.

  “So we’re cool, Locke?”

  “I’m sure we can work something out. I’d looked forward to…having you for myself, LadyBug, but three can definitely be company.”

  Sarah smiled at him and Sage sat back, the flirtation evaporating from her expression as she cut to the chase. They had him where they wanted him now, and she intended to keep him there.

  “But let’s talk business before pleasure.”

  Locke’s hard smile was sharp even in the dingy light, and Sage felt herself shiver when he reached across the table to drag the back of his fingers down the curve of her cheek, pulling the tip of his thumb over her lip.

  “You always did know what I liked, LadyBug.”

  “Not always. I thought you liked me.” Sage hoped she was injecting the right amount of hurt into her voice.

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You hung me out to dry, Locke. Taking the fall and being left to deal with it by myself. Do you have any idea what the last five years have been like? What the rest of my life is going to be like? How can I ever live a normal life again? You, you can do anything you want, but I have a record now. I was lucky not to end up in prison.” Sage’s voice hissed out, and Locke pursed his lips, looking unimpressed.

  “We all have to make sacrifices, baby girl. You made yours. But don’t worry, I’ll do right by you. The past is over, and you don’t have to worry about the future. You’ve proved yourself.”

  “Oh, really? Ever try to get a job with a felony record?”

  Locke laughed and shook his head. “Poor, sweet thing. You never did see the larger picture. Jobs are for drones. You’re better than that.”

  “Nice words, Locke, but what do they mean?”

  “It means I’ll take care of you, baby girl, but you have to take care of me, too. You and your friend.”

  “How? Did you get rich when I wasn’t looking?”

  “Don’t worry about that. Let’s just say launching this bug will be the final step in showing me that you are on my side.”

  Sage blinked. “You say that like you expect me to do it.”

  Locke smiled, sliding a zip disk across the table. “That’s exactly right.”

  IAN LISTENED QUIETLY on one set of headphones while EJ sat stoically listening on the other. Ian’s nimble fingers played over the laptop, typing in any leads he tried to pick up from Sage’s discussion with Locke. At least they were in a good spot in the bar—there wasn’t too much background noise, and their voices were coming through clear.

  Ian didn’t allow himself to think of anything else. He just monitored, disciplined in his role as a cool observer. In his job, he often had to sit back and watch, wait, difficult as it often was. But it was usually worth it once the moment came to strike.

  He didn’t think about Sage sitting there with Locke, how he was probably looking at her or touching her. No, he wouldn’t think about that.

  “Good girl. Get him to talk about that code,” Ian whispered, hearing Sage turn the conversation to the disk and the virus. Then he and EJ looked at each other as the conversation took a new turn—she was going off on him about setting her up. That wasn’t in the plan.

  “What the hell? Aw, c’mon, Sage, don’t improvise now. Dammit. She’s gonna piss him off.”

  Ian banged his head back against the headrest, and EJ placed a hand on his shoulder, looking at him soberly.

  “She’s doing it for you. She wants you to know she was telling the truth about being set up.”

  Ian blinked. Shit. What was worse was realizing he hadn’t really believed her, not completely, and he felt guilty as hell. She was taking chances to prove something to him. If this went sideways, it would be as much his fault as hers. Rubbing a hand across his face, he nodded to EJ. “Yeah, and it could screw the entire thing up if this guy gets pissed and leaves.”

  “Oh, crap,” EJ whispered to himself as he continued listening to what was being said in the bar.

  They heard Locke’s plan—he wanted Sage to be his fall guy again. Did he really think she’d be that gullible, that stupid? But maybe this was the magic carpet ride they needed to wherever he was hiding his computer.

  The voices were muffled through the headphones, a little fuzzier now as the bar became more crowded and the background noise louder. Ian hit some commands to try to block it out. He heard Sage ask incredulously if
Locke wanted her to be the one to let the virus free again and his chilling answer.

  “That’s exactly right.”

  Sage’s laugh came across so loud and sharp—she must be close to Sarah and the bug—that Ian jumped. Her voice communicated clearly what she thought of that plan.

  “Yeah, right. Fool me once…”

  “No fooling around this time, Sage. Here.” Ian heard a shuffling and assumed Locke was handing Sage something. “You take this and hit the hot button. When I can see it’s been executed, I’ll tell you where to meet me and we’ll go. No cops, no one will find us or even know until it’s much too late. We’ll be gone, living the good life.”

  “I’m supposed to believe that? How is this supposed to happen exactly? That we will all be living the good life?”

  “That’s for me to know. You just trust me, baby girl.”

  Ian heard the cynicism in Sage’s voice and knew there was no acting going on now.

  “Trust you? You cost me five years of my life! And you want me to trust you? No way, I’m out. Forget it. Sarah, we’re outta here.”

  Ian heard the chairs shuffle and panicked for a moment—was she really going to walk away? Did she at least grab the disk? Then he heard Locke calling her name, laughing. He really was a cocky bastard. There was a bit more of a scuffle and Sage’s voice clearly saying “Ow!” Ian’s hand was on the car door handle before he could take another breath, but EJ caught him by the shoulder and shook his head, holding up one finger, signaling him to wait.

  “LadyBug, it’s nice to see you aren’t as easy as you were before. I like a challenge. But don’t think you can ever just get up and walk out on me. Now sit back down and we’re going to talk.”

  There was a moment of silence and Ian held his breath, then he heard her respond.

  “Fine.” Her voice had a slight wince in it, and Ian felt his blood run cold. If that bastard hurt her…

  “Now I can see why you might not want to take this disk and walk out of here. I figured if you were working with the cops, you’d jump at the chance to get your hands on the code and take it right to them. But you didn’t. Good. Congratulations on passing the first test.”

  Ian heard nothing and assumed Sage was in as much shock as he was. It never occurred to him that Locke had been testing her. If she had taken the disk to leave, what would he have done to her? Ian’s blood ran cold at the thought.

  Whether she knew it or not, Sage had made a smart move threatening to walk out. They might have had the disk then, maybe even stopped the virus—if it actually was on the disk—but they wouldn’t have gotten Locke. And Ian wanted Locke.

  LOCKE LOOKED AT SARAH, turning on the charm.

  “Hey, sweet thing, do you think you could excuse our girl for a moment, and let us have a moment, alone?”

  Sarah looked at Sage inquiringly and shook her head in the negative.

  “I’m in this one hundred percent. You can tell me whatever you tell Sage.”

  Locke tightened his grip on Sage’s arm, and Sarah’s eyes flared. Sage saw her flex her wrists and silently begged her not to lose it.

  “You don’t call the shots. I can send your lover here back to prison in a heartbeat, so I suggest you do as I’m telling you. Now.”

  Sarah looked less than happy about leaving her “lover” with Locke but left with no choice. She walked to the far corner of the bar. She wouldn’t be able to hear them, but Sage knew she would keep them in eyesight.

  Sage met Locke’s eyes. “Why did you do that?”

  Locke shrugged. “I wanted you to myself for a moment. I don’t mind sharing you temporarily, but you know this thing you’ve got going on—” he nodded in Sarah’s direction “—will have to stop.”

  “I love her. I don’t want it to stop.”

  His smile was slick. “Love? Please. You’re just experimenting. And besides, will she be able to provide for you, to take care of you? How else do you think you are going to get along without me? I can give you the life you’ve always dreamed of, baby girl. But it’s just going to be you and me. Get any other ideas out of your head now.”

  Sage made herself appear doubtful, looking back at Sarah and then down at the table, fiddling with the colorful stick in her glass. The clinking sounds of the ice hitting the edge of the glass made her spine tingle.

  “And how exactly are you supposed to do that? How do I know you won’t just leave me to rot away in prison while you take off somewhere?”

  Locke regarded her closely. “That won’t happen.” He rose, stepping before her and pulling her up to her feet in front of him, framing her face with his wiry, cold hands. Sage felt her stomach turn and she wanted nothing more than to rip herself from his grasp and run, but she held his gaze.

  “I want you, baby girl. In my life. We can do great things together, have whatever we want, go wherever we want. Between us, with our talents, with the things I can teach you, we can rule the world. But you have to trust me.”

  He lowered his mouth to hers, and Sage sucked in a breath. She’d hoped that things wouldn’t get this close, especially with Sarah acting as buffer, but as Locke insinuated his tongue between her lips, she expelled the breath and sank against him, knowing she had to.

  Kissing him back was the hardest thing she’d ever had to do in her life, the price of all of her sins coming back to haunt her. But when he pulled back from her, she could tell by his rapid breathing that he’d been satisfied with her response. He spoke quietly by her ear.

  “I want you to meet me later tonight. You can bring your girlfriend if you want, but we’re dumping her before we leave the country.”

  Sage hesitated, then raised her eyes to his, wide as saucers, and nodded faintly.

  “When?”

  “Two o’clock at the waterfront. I’ll have a boat ready down at the end of the dock, near the tour boats. We’ll set fire to the Internet, baby, and then we’ll leave before anyone can know.”

  “But my release tomorrow…”

  “I’m releasing you. You don’t need to worry about those things anymore.”

  She nodded. “I’ll be there.”

  IAN WAS DYING A THOUSAND deaths, each of them painful and violent. How could he have sent them in there? What was that asshole doing to her? Not being able to hear or see after Sarah was sent away was driving him mad. How could she have agreed to leave Sage? They would talk about that.

  He wanted to go there and slam through the door, and if EJ hadn’t restrained him, he might have.

  “They’re doing okay, Ian. Back off. We can’t get him if we blow it now.”

  Ian’s chest was tight with tension. God, he was going to take that asshole down, and hard.

  They got back in the car and drove a little farther down the street and saw Sage and Sarah emerge a few minutes later. The women went straight to their car and drove off. Ian wanted to follow but knew he couldn’t. Locke might track them, and it had to look as though they were going back to EJ’s on their own, convincing him they had sneaked out. Ian forced himself to drive away in the opposite direction, willing the time to pass quickly until he could see Sage again.

  11

  “WHAT DID HE WANT? Why did he send Sarah away? Why did you leave her?” Ian was pacing the driveway when the women drove in an hour and a half later. He was in Sarah’s face the second she got out of the car, and she just stared at him incredulously. He was raving like a madman, he knew, and he didn’t care. Sarah was obviously far from intimidated and ready to do battle as Ian continued his rant.

  “Tell me what happened there. Now.”

  EJ quickly stepped between them. “Okay, hold on there, bubba, let’s all go inside.” EJ tried to nudge Ian in the direction of the porch, but Ian shook him off, not budging. EJ didn’t move either, showing a hard edge that he rarely revealed.

  “You’re being an asshole, Ian. They’ve had a lot tougher night than you have—Sage looks like she’s going to fall over. We’re going inside, and you can stay out here if you w
ant.”

  Ian’s held his friend’s cold glare and finally reluctantly agreed. Past EJ’s shoulder he could see that Sage looked pale, and even in the darkness he could make out large shadows under her eyes. Her arms were wrapped tightly around herself, and she didn’t meet his gaze. Shit.

  “Okay. All right.” He moved to the side. Sarah glared at him as they filed past and up to the house, and he glared back at her. As far as he was concerned, she wasn’t completely off the hook yet.

  “IT SOUNDS LIKE HE HAS some other plan or something is going on that he hasn’t told me, won’t tell me. But he’s very intent on getting me on board that boat, and taking me away with him. He kept saying he could take care of me, that we could have anything we need—like he might have some significant cash stored somewhere.”

  Sage filled in the details of the conversations Ian and EJ had been monitoring, including the conversation after Sarah had been asked to leave. She left out Locke’s kiss. She didn’t even want to think about that, and besides, it wasn’t relevant.

  “It would be interesting to know how he plans to get that much money. Maybe he’s expecting some kind of payoff for the corporate raiding he was supposedly involved in,” Sarah interjected and EJ nodded.

  “If we could nab him on that, he might be going away for longer than we intended, which would be sweet.”

  Ian listened, his mind racing as he fought the distraction of watching Sage, who was clearly exhausted. He wanted to hold her, to take back the decision to send her into that bar. And he was going to have to do it again. Shoving his fears down, he spoke, his voice cool.

  “So he expects you tonight?”

  “At the waterfront. He has a boat there.”

  “You think he’ll launch the virus from the boat?”

  “He wants me to launch it. That’s his insurance. With my freedom in his hands, he has all the power.”

  “Well, then, that’s what you’re going to do.”

  Sage stared at him in amazement. “What? Are you crazy? The virus will probably bring down major—”