by Calista Fox
“It doesn’t solve our dilemma, but… I like it, too.”
She gave a slow nod. And added, “It also doesn’t help that… I’m in love with you.”
Damen’s head twitched, ever-so-slightly. Then inclined to the side as curiosity flickered in his eyes.
She rushed on, saying, “Really, how could I not be? You represent everything I’m drawn to... But it’s so much more than that. From the very beginning, there’s been a connection between us. And you are fiercely protective of me. Not to mention the chemistry is wicked-hot. We’re so good in so many ways. I never thought I’d feel like this again. I never dreamed it was possible.”
“Of course not,” he reasonably said. “You’re loyal, Nik. You’ve remained loyal, faithful, all this time—to one man. Until you met me.”
“I got lucky, to get a second chance at something so amazing.” The tears tumbled down her cheeks. “The difficulty, Damen, is that… I can’t predict how this will end. Good or bad. I don’t know how volatile my emotions will be if everything I cherish is gone. That terrifies me.”
He pulled her to him. Held her tight.
He said, “You already know we have no choice.”
“Yes.”
“So unless you can figure out how to get this laptop from me, escape this campus with it and hide out someplace where I can’t find you, or locate someplace to dump the computer where I can’t get to it… We have to do this.”
“Yes.”
Though the mere thought was now shredding her from the inside out.
“Okay,” he said, and released her. “Then come with me, Nik. Trust me to do my absolute best. For you. And for us…”
She let him guide her into the Information Technology building. Up the stairs to the second level and a secured wing he had access to.
The techs he’d personally requested were there and Damen handed over Nikki’s computer.
Then he settled her in at a table in the corner and took the chair opposite her. He requested lunch be delivered to them, not sure she’d eat anything, but she had to be starving. The campus had a gourmet restaurant onsite, in addition to an informal dining room and also a café. Damen added coffee and brandy to their order. No telling how this day was going to go. How long this day was going to be. How Nikki would look at him when it was finally over.
All he had at the moment was the hope that his techs could work some serious magic and that there was nothing in the device’s programming that would harm Nikki’s files.
All he could do was pray that when they left the campus, she felt the same way about him as she had when they’d arrived.
The waiting would be the worst part, of course.
The anxiety from both of them already permeated the vast room. There were sofas and chairs against the far wall of windows, which were tinted on the outside and bulletproof. Nikki was well-protected here, without doubt.
Damen stifled a groan.
Physically, she was well-protected.
Emotionally, however… He knew she was already ravaged on the inside. He loathed to think how much more torment his mission might inflict upon her.
Still, he latched onto what she’d said on the sidewalk, what she’d told him. Her confession would stick with him, even though it was a bittersweet one, given their precarious predicament.
She was in love with him.
That was both a blessing and a curse.
It was precisely what he wanted, naturally. And yet… He had no idea what it truly meant for them, where it might lead. If it had the potential to lead anywhere.
This was all risky business. Tricky in so many ways.
Because if things went south after the data transfer, they were both going to take a huge hit.
And if it all went well and her computer was returned to her with no issue at all…
Damen still didn’t know where they’d stand.
Because he couldn’t just let her head off to Switzerland or the Maldives or anywhere else while she was still in danger.
Nor could he ignore his responsibility to track down the terrorists with his team.
All he knew was that—
“Damen,” said the head IT guy, John. “We have a serious problem.”
35
Nikki’s head snapped up from her phone. She’d been texting Kate when the IT technician had approached Damen.
His dire tone and his even more cryptic words not only snagged her attention, they sent fear and dread shooting through her.
“What sort of problem?” Damen carefully demanded—as though he sensed the rise in Nikki’s blood pressure and didn’t want to add to her anxiety.
That was impossible, of course. She was already on her feet, panic besieging her.
“Come look,” the tech said and turned to head back to his workstation.
Damen followed. Nikki was hot on his heels.
He didn’t bother to tell her to stay put—smart man that he was. He knew she wouldn’t obey that order. Not when she was directly involved with whatever was going down, by virtue of owning that laptop they were working on.
It sat on a tall counter and the tech spun it around for both Damen and Nikki to see the screen.
She gasped.
He groaned.
What should have been the photo of her and Conner was instead… A digitized counter.
No…
A ticking clock.
“Holy fuck, Damen,” she murmured on a fractured breath. “What does that mean?”
The tech was quick to reply, saying, “It means we triggered a bomb as soon as we started the data transfer. That device is programmed to self-destruct once all the information is removed from the host server—your computer. As in the very second the information is removed.”
“So…” Damen ventured—in an agitated tone. “There’s no way to pop it from the laptop’s port first?”
“Oh, my God!” Nikki shrieked. “Oh, my fucking God!”
She glared at the tech.
Who had no idea the level of her distress—or at least, not the true reason for it, the full extent of it.
Damen’s fingers gently curled around her wrist. He very steadily said, “Just breathe, all right?”
Her gaze flashed to him. “This is all going from bad to worse—to the ultimate in worse! I can’t fucking believe this! I trusted you to get this information off my computer—and then give me my computer back! Now, it’s going to self-destruct? Of all the insane, insidious and downright—”
“Dr. Kane, I am so sorry.”
A new voice joined the group. A female voice.
Nikki whirled around. And pinned Agent Garcia with a lethal look.
“This is all my fault,” the agent hastily said. “I had no idea any of this would happen. Certainly not to this extreme. I take full responsibility.”
“That doesn’t exactly help us now,” Damen quietly contended.
“Of course not.” Garcia appeared duly stricken. That did nothing to calm Nikki. The agent explained, “I had mere minutes to get that data into someone’s hands who could safely get it out of the country. I had no idea the extensive programming inherent to the device. That it could launch tracking features and… I most definitely never would have thought it would self-destruct. Especially not in your computer, Dr. Kane. I was just trying to—”
“That’s enough,” Damen insisted.
Nikki reeled.
The other agent was sufficiently remorseful.
But that didn’t solve Nikki’s problem, now did it?
Beside her, Damen said to the tech, “What’s the course of action here?”
“I’ve already contacted Agents Brown and Hoffman.”
“From the bombs division,” Damen muttered. And let out a heavy breath.
“I know you trust them,” the tech said. “They’ll be here any minute.”
“We have several hours, according to the countdown,” Damen pointed out. “And the fact that I personally know off-loading this data takes q
uite some time.”
Nikki glanced at him. “You believe you’re going to come up with a solution in that timeframe?”
His gaze didn’t waver as he told her, “Is there any doubt in your mind that I’m going to try every viable way to keep that device from destroying your most valued possession?”
“Damen…”
Tears pooled in her eyes. She dragged her gaze from his.
Nikki was exhausted. Not just physically. And Christ, she was starving.
And her mind was just… So jumbled.
She was strong and she was a fighter. But damn it…
Nikki was feeling like a twenty-ton wrecking ball just kept taking swipes at her. Ones she’d dodged…narrowly missed.
Until now.
She was about to be decimated. Along with her laptop.
She stepped away from the group. Tried to pull in a few breaths.
Behind her, the tech said, “I can’t see a way to deactivate the implosion feature. Not right off the bat, at any rate. I’ll have to dig deeper. That’s why I need backup from Brown and Hoffman. But most likely, they’re going to want to remove the computer from these premises, if I can’t come up with a kill switch, and take it to their facilities where it’ll destruct in a contained, controlled environment.”
And there it was.
This is how this journey is going to end?
After the entire battle she’d waged with Damen from the moment he’d sat down next to her on the plane, this was the end of the line they’d reached?
A complete and utter no-win for her?
As in…she’d never even had a chance at a winning scenario. The fate of her computer, of her files, had been predetermined and sealed before she’d even boarded that plane.
Because Agent Garcia had shoved a fucking dongle into a USB port on Nikki’s computer!
She was furious. No lie.
Her rage boiled and her frustration mounted over having no say in any of this, of having no options to present, no reasonable way to approach this situation. The burning sensations within her not only warred further with her emotions, but also with her very nature. Her ability to work through problems; her training in emergency situations; her vast network of friends and colleagues… None of that—or them—could help her solve this issue or save her computer.
What the hell else was Nikki supposed to do, other than give up?
And get the hell out.
Turning back to Damen, she said, “Once my computer gets blown to bits, that’s it, right? I’m in the clear? The terrorists will know you have the data and I have absolutely nothing that will connect me to them, nothing for them to try to retrieve from me. I will literally have nothing,” she said in an edgy tone. “And I can fucking leave, right? Go do what it is that I’m supposed to do—what I should have been doing all along? Go to Switzerland.”
“Nik—”
“Just tell me I can leave the very second this is done, Damen. That’s all I fucking want to hear.”
Anything to drown out the sound of her own heart breaking.
Shattering.
Times two.
One, for everything she was about to lose on her hard drive.
And two… Because this had to be the end of her and Damen.
His jaw worked vigorously. Clearly, he knew the direction in which her thoughts ran.
And he countered in a desperate tone, saying, “Just let me—”
36
“This is it,” Nikki suddenly said. “I’m out.”
She could practically hear the camel’s back break and the straw fall to the floor.
For the love of God. Every single second she remained standing here only shredded her more, ripping her apart piece by painful piece. Until she’d reached the end of her rapidly fraying rope.
She didn’t care what age-old adage was used: She. Was. Done.
“I literally cannot take anymore,” she announced. Effectively cutting off Damen so that his mouth snapped shut.
Garcia made a move toward her, but rethought that plan and actually retreated by two steps, holding her hands up in the air. As though in surrender, as though waving a white flag. Not saying a word.
Nikki was exasperated. She was exhausted.
And she fucking gave up.
Sometimes, it was better to cut your losses and get the hell out, before you got pulled deeper into the undertow, until you were drowning and couldn’t save yourself.
This was clearly one of those times.
There were a million flashing signs telling her this—all pointing toward the exit.
Which she headed to.
“Nik,” Damen called out as she collected her purse—bypassing yet another meal she wouldn’t get to eat—and stalked toward the door. “Please, just—”
She yanked on the handle and jerked the door open. As she crossed the threshold, she said, “Keep the fucking computer, Damen. Whatever’s left of it, whether it’s intact or rubble, I officially no longer care.”
That wasn’t true, of course.
But she honestly was through with all of this.
As in, her rational brain could not overpower her irrational side a second longer and it was better to maintain whatever strand of sanity she could cling to, rather than cave to all the despair that was pressing in on her, threatening to make her implode—the way she had when Conner had died and she’d lost the baby.
No way in hell would she willingly put herself through that again.
She was so very, very DONE.
Unfortunately, as she took the stairs to the main floor, she heard footsteps behind her.
Not Damen’s heavier ones—he was smarter than that. Knew better than to pursue her at this particular moment.
No, these were lighter, feminine footsteps, with a distinct bounce to them.
Agent Garcia.
Nikki didn’t spare a glance behind her to confirm her suspicion.
She marched toward the double glass doors at the entrance of the building with her own purposeful strides.
How the fuck she was going to get off the ops campus didn’t hit her until she was on the sidewalk, on her way to the parking lot.
Maybe Damen’s driver was still there?
If not… Shit, it wasn’t as though she could Uber on out of here. No way would those guards at the gate allow an arbitrary vehicle through them.
She’d have to wait on the other side. If they’d even let her out.
“Dr. Kane,” Garcia called from behind her. “Wait, please.”
Nikki raised a hand and waved her off, without even looking back at the other woman.
“Go about your own business, Agent. I am one-hundred percent not interested in speaking with you, let alone staying here a minute longer. I just need a ride…” she added under her breath as her gaze scanned the lot where she and Damen had first arrived.
“I can help with that,” Garcia was quick to say. She hastened her pace to a jog and caught up with Nikki. Falling into step with her, Garcia said, “I have a car. I’ll take you wherever you want to go.”
Nikki was suddenly Tony Stark, craving a burger as his first meal back on American soil.
Oh, Christ…
She had to think of food, didn’t she?
Her stomach rumbled. She was famished.
Her knees almost gave out on her at the prospect of a hot, juicy cheeseburger.
Nikki drew up short, abruptly.
Garcia was in perfect sync with her.
Eerie.
Nikki told her, “I have to eat. I’m going to pass out otherwise. Where’s the café?”
“I can do you a solid on this one,” Garcia averred with a grin. She was attractive in that really badass, I’ll-seduce-you-before-I-kill-you sort of way.
Nikki gave a mental shake of her head. That might have been a bit morbid.
Still, Garcia had chestnut hair with honeyed highlights and bronze skin that set off her deep, grass-green eyes. She had sculpted facial features and a curvy body
that was so toned, it was difficult to classify her as hot…or lethal.
“Dr. Kane,” she said in an insistent tone. “I owe you big-time for all of this. I screwed you over in the absolute worst way. Not intentionally. Not on purpose. I was just…so desperate. And I’m paying the price for that. I’m going to lose my job, most likely. I can’t argue that fact. So please, just let me do something to help you. Let me get you off this campus and take you where you can put your feet up, you can eat, have a drink—or several—and I swear to you, you will be in the absolute best hands imaginable.”
Garcia sucked in a breath.
Then she quickly added, “You will be so heavily protected, you won’t even subconsciously glance over your shoulder. Castillo knows it—that’s why he let me follow you.”
“I need food,” Nikki repeated. “Low blood sugar and all that. I’m seriously about to—”
“But you won’t.” Garcia took her arm and led her to a fancy sports car.
Nikki’s brow crooked. “You stole a Lamborghini?”
“No, of course not.” Garcia laughed. “It’s mine.”
They slipped inside and Garcia revved the engine.
“Just take me to the nearest fast-food joint,” Nikki instructed. “I need a milkshake, six cheeseburgers and a few orders of fries.”
Garcia shot a look her way. “You’d put that where?”
“In my fucking stomach,” she lobbed back.
Garcia snickered, completely unfazed. “I’m just sayin’. You’re not exactly one who looks like she’s ever had a burger, let alone one with cheese on it.”
“And you look as though your mother is a terrible cook.”
It was meant as a compliment.
How it came out… Nikki couldn’t even do a mental rewind to make a determination. Or form an apology if one was warranted.
Her appetite was eating her brain.
“Just hang on a few minutes more and I will prove you wrong on that count, Dr. Kane.”
“Jesus, enough with that already,” Nikki said as she sort of sank into the rich leather seat, losing some strength in every body part. “It’s Nikki. You might have ruined my life, but you also did save it. In New York.”
“I’ll do it again.” She made a quick turn onto a side road that was all cobblestone—not exactly grand for Nikki’s half-ravaged brain, because it rattled the fuck out of it.