Saving Hannah

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Saving Hannah Page 15

by J P Barnaby


  “No, sir. You need to reboot the router. The—yes, with the red cord. Unplug the power cord from the wall and plug it…. Wait, what? What do you mean it’s already unplugged? Sir, you can’t unplug your internet router to charge your phone.” The exasperated woman in the cubicle to his right mimed shooting herself in the head. Okay, maybe things hadn’t changed as much as he thought.

  Thomas turned left again at the copiers. The server room should be on the outer edge of the office. Everything in the center seemed to be chest-high cubicle walls. He could see clearly to the window walls of the executive offices. Then he looked away. If he saw Aleks, it might be over. One look at his husband would make Thomas turn around and go home, not put them any more at risk.

  A door opened ahead, and dozens of servers sang in their own electronic rhythm. Such a sweet sound. Now that he’d found his target, he needed to throw the alarm. He hadn’t seen a fire alarm on his way in, so he kept moving past the door he needed and watched the wall. Not twenty feet away, he spotted it tucked back on the other side of a row of filing cabinets.

  He strode to it like he had every reason to be there. It mocked him from its place on the wall—red and white against the institutionalized cream every office wall seemed to be. It dared him. It cajoled him. He merely had to reach out and pull down the bar, the one that told him to pull down. Just pull down. Nothing that couldn’t be undone had happened to that point. One pull and the chain of events would start. He just wished he knew where they would lead.

  Okay, one… two… three—and then pull.

  “Thomas?”

  He couldn’t turn around and lock eyes with his husband. If he did, it would be over. Instead, he untucked his shirt and used the bottom to cover his hand so he wouldn’t leave fingerprints. Then Thomas pulled the fire alarm.

  “What the hell—”

  “Get your people out of the building, create as much chaos as possible,” Thomas said into Aleks’s ear over the deafening alarm and kissed his cheek. Then he headed for the server room.

  To his credit, Aleks didn’t try to stop him. Instead, Thomas could hear the authority in his voice as he told people to calmly but quickly leave the building, first through the side door, and then redirecting them toward the front.

  A black-haired head poked out of the server room, glancing around to see what the commotion was all about. His shoulders didn’t quite make it out the door, only his pale bespectacled face.

  Thomas took his moment of opportunity.

  “Hey, you guys need to evacuate,” he said in his best no-nonsense executive voice. The blood pounded in his ears, but that didn’t matter since the guy didn’t say anything. He simply pulled back away from the door to close it. Thomas stepped forward and put a foot in the rapidly closing crack.

  “Initiate shutdown protocol—” The second guy in the room barked out the order, but Thomas stood as tall as he could and pointed toward the door. If they initiated a shutdown of their primary systems, the game would be over.

  “Do you hear that screeching? The building is on fire. The fire suppression will take care of this room. You need to get out, now.”

  “It’s probably a false alarm or a test,” the first guy said, but the concern in his expression belied his real feelings.

  “You can see the smoke in the windows. If we don’t get out, we could be cut off up here. Ever see those ladders the firefighters use? Want to climb down one?” He hated pulling that card, especially since there was no fire, but his family depended on it.

  “I—” The second guy looked hesitant now.

  “Get. The. Hell. Out.” Thomas lost all sense of patience. He didn’t have a lot of fucking time here.

  Whether it was the color of his shirt or the tone in his voice, they scrambled for the door. He stood back and held it for them, making it seem like he would follow. Then he slipped inside and pulled the door shut. He had maybe five minutes to get into the machine and get the data he needed. Fortunately the guys had been so freaked by the fire alarm, they hadn’t logged out. That helped.

  First, he sliced through the directory structure, navigating to the best of his memory back to the folder where the files sat. He had one shot at this, and he had to do it right. Once he found the parent directory, Thomas slid the USB drive from his pocket and popped it into the port.

  Nothing happened.

  Shit.

  He didn’t get the telltale “what do you want me to do with this” notification he’d been expecting. So he went into the drives list, and sure enough, it wasn’t there. Panic began to rise like bile in his throat. It burned the lining of his skin.

  Checking the drives again, he saw no CD burner.

  Double shit.

  Desperate, he checked the proxy. No outside internet. He’d expected that too.

  The voices outside the door began to wane as the office evacuated. He checked terminal after terminal, all to find the same result. If only he’d grabbed a laptop. Thomas searched the servers quickly to see if any other machines lived in here, ones that weren’t so tightly controlled.

  His hands shook. This couldn’t be for nothing. The mafia guys were going to find out that the office had a false fire alarm. What would they do?

  Then he saw it. A small rectangle-shaped shadow hiding behind the nearest tower cage. A computer that had no reason to be sitting on the floor behind other equipment unless it was there on purpose. The kid playing games when he and Aleks had been there. It was the gaming computer.

  He jerked the box out from behind the tower and plugged it in. It took a lifetime to boot, but finally, he got there.

  Linux. Really? Thomas sighed. Kids.

  Thomas found a crossover cable from a nearby, surprisingly well-labeled cabinet and connected the two machines. Not only did the kid’s machine have working USB ports, but he had no problem getting the computers to talk to one another. Thomas would definitely need to have a talk with Aleks about his security when this was all over.

  Heavy boots stomped by as firefighters stormed into the office. He was out of time. The bitcopy took less than a minute, and he unplugged the cable and tossed the machine into a nearby corner. He’d just initiated the shutdown sequence on the server when the door banged open.

  “Do you not hear the deafening fire alarm? You need to leave the building. Now.” The guy looked like one of those calendar models for hot firemen. Thomas blinked at him.

  “Are you deaf?” the man asked, now with uncertainty.

  “N… no,” The stammer in his response was almost real. “I had to shut down the servers.”

  “It’s not worth your life. Now go.”

  Thomas didn’t need to be told twice. He was almost out of his seat before he remembered that the USB drive was still in the machine. With a sigh, he tripped getting out of his seat and landed with his nose about six inches from the drive. He ripped it from the port and pocketed it as he turned his reddening face to the fireman. Chastised, he jogged for the stairs.

  ιθ͵

  “WHAT THE hell were you thinking?” Aleks roared from the foyer as Thomas sat on the couch. He flipped open the laptop and pulled the USB drive from his pocket.

  “I don’t know,” Thomas admitted and glanced up at Aleks. He almost looked afraid.

  “You don’t know? You could have been arrested. You could still be arrested. Faking a fire alarm, breaking and entering, stealing data. Those are crimes. Didn’t you get enough of prison?”

  “I couldn’t stand there and do nothing. Maybe I can figure out how to beat them with their own code.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I don’t know yet.”

  “Doesn’t messing with that code trigger a warning to them?” Aleks stopped dead and his mouth fell open. “Oh my God, do you think they followed you? What the fuck, Thomas?”

  “Opening the code triggered the warning, which is why I didn’t open it on the server. I just copied it. This laptop has had the network driver removed. It can’t get on the internet
. No internet, no warning. Was I followed? Maybe, but I was really careful to lose anyone before I got to the building.” He told Aleks about the restaurant.

  Aleks stood for a moment, his hands shaking as he reached out to pick at a bit of paint on the doorframe. He could feel Thomas’s eyes on him from where he stood next to the desk.

  “I was as careful as I could be.” Thomas met his gaze, and Aleks saw the fear there.

  Before he could breathe, Aleks was across the room. He threw his arms around Thomas and held tight, lips pressing against Thomas’s ear.

  “That’s what scares me the most. It’s something happening to you, or Hannah, or Wes. You’re all I have. They killed my father, Thomas. They killed him. I couldn’t take it if—”

  “Shhhhh…,” Thomas whispered against his lips.

  The kiss started slow, just a sweet meeting of featherlight touches. Aleks traced trembling fingers along Thomas’s cheek. He meant every word and held on to Thomas for dear life.

  It turned deeper, richer, the kind of decadence even Aleks might never get used to. He didn’t care. He wanted more of it. All of it. Every bit of that raw emotion spilling out of Thomas in that moment.

  Their teeth knocked together as they tried to find rhythm through the intensity of their kisses. Thomas tilted his head to the right, and they found heaven. That perfect moment of gut-tingling, moan-stifling, hand-roaming kissing found only in the grace of God. Aleks’s knees tried to buckle, but he held strong, not wanting to waste any part of this moment.

  Eventually, though, all good things stop, and Thomas pulled away. But he did so just long enough to take Aleks’s hand and pull him across the hall to their bedroom.

  “Let’s not think about it. Not tonight,” Thomas whispered against his skin as Aleks drew him back for another kiss. “Tonight can just be about us.”

  Their lips met with hesitation, asking permission from one another. Thomas broke first, opening against Aleks’s slow advance. They nipped and played, tongues dancing in a sweet rhythm as they wrapped around each other. Not even air could get between them.

  The backs of Thomas’s thighs hit the bed first, and he and Aleks paused, unsure again as they kissed slowly.

  “What do you want?” Aleks whispered against his cheek.

  “I think it’s pretty apparent what I want,” Thomas deadpanned, pressing his groin into Aleks’s leg. The tension broke and Aleks laughed in his ear.

  “I like that plan.”

  Aleks pulled at the hem of Thomas’s stolen polo, silently asking his husband to strip. They both did, side by side, until nothing stood between them but their longing looks and a pile of discarded clothes.

  Thomas climbed into the bed first, and Aleks came just behind. He nearly tackled Thomas in his eagerness and frenetic affection. Desperate, wild kisses kept them coming together again and again until Thomas slid down the bed, his lips never leaving Aleks’s skin, nuzzling his happy trail. Aleks’s breath caught when Thomas rubbed his cheek against that thick patch of hair just above his cock.

  Aleks’s soft moan seemed to excite Thomas, push him into action. His hot, soft mouth closed over Aleks’s cock, and all rational thought left him. Over the years, he’d thought about it, fantasized about it, imagined Thomas’s soft brown hair when he looked down—but he never expected it to happen.

  Thomas opened his mouth, hesitated, and then ran his tongue across the head. Aleks arched his back and Thomas did it again. And again. And then he opened his mouth wider and sucked Aleks’s dick inside.

  “Oh God, Thomas,” Aleks moaned, pushing his hips up so that Thomas would take him deeper. Thomas wrapped his fingers around the shaft and pumped as he sucked.

  “Please,” Aleks whispered as he writhed.

  Thomas pulled back, looking up. Aleks could read the questions on his face. He remembered those questions, the same ones he had asked himself the first time he let someone inside.

  Instead of dwelling on the questions, Aleks rolled to the side of the bed and opened the bottom drawer. He’d always kept it there, since the night Thomas kissed him. It was like he’d had a constant hard-on he couldn’t get away from, no matter how often he jacked off.

  Thomas didn’t say anything; he simply got up on all fours. The sight made Aleks’s cock throb a rhythm in time with his pounding heart.

  “My God,” Aleks whispered, his hand trembling on Thomas’s flank. His husband shivered when Aleks opened him and rubbed lube at his entrance.

  “Are you—”

  “Yes, I’m sure,” Thomas said over his shoulder. He couldn’t meet Aleks’s gaze. Maybe it was the vulnerability Thomas must have felt with his ass in the air. Maybe it was just fear of the unknown.

  Aleks slid a finger down his spine, hesitating. What if Thomas didn’t like it? What if he felt he had to do it because Aleks had bought the medicine for Hannah? The questions beat against the inside of his head, spinning the doubt until it made him dizzy.

  Thomas had offered himself without a question from Aleks. He must want to try.

  Before he could take another breath, he slid the blunt tip of his cock into Thomas. Aleks took things slow, and the burn consumed him. Thomas arched, moaning into the pillow.

  “Is this okay?” Aleks asked. He could hear Thomas breathing rapidly, muffled against the bed. Fear gripped him again, and he pulled back.

  “I—yeah. Keep going.” Thomas’s voice held no regret or even pain.

  So Aleks didn’t stop; he just wrapped his arm around Thomas’s waist. At first, he did it for the affection; then he started to stroke Thomas’s cock. He wanted it to feel good for him.

  Really damned good.

  Aleks stroked Thomas’s hip in tender circles while his other hand jerked his dick. It was a symphony of sensation, of sound, of smells, and it surrounded him. Aleks sped up his hips, driving a little harder, a little deeper. Thomas reached down and batted Aleks’s hand away, replacing it with his own, jerking hard.

  Aleks took both his hips in his hands and focused his thrusts.

  “You feel so good,” Aleks murmured against his back. Thomas said something, but Aleks was spiraling higher and tighter, everything in him buzzing with an electricity he’d never known. Something else bloomed in him, filling his chest, but he couldn’t define it. He’d never made love to someone, he’d only ever fucked.

  A swell of need crested in his groin and Aleks choked out a cry. He abandoned control and pressed his forehead against Thomas’s back, driving into him faster. Each thrust drove him higher, pushing his orgasm further, stronger.

  Thomas’s cry was music to him, sweet and deep as he came.

  They collapsed together on the bed, Aleks landing in their wet mess. He felt sticky all over—sticky and sore. The tension from the anxiety had finally released. He wanted to lay his head on Thomas’s chest and not think anymore. Just lay there and be.

  Thomas pressed a kiss to his shoulder before climbing off the bed. He wandered into their bathroom. Aleks heard the shower start. It niggled at him for as long as it took him to roll over and pull the blanket over his naked skin.

  He fell asleep easier than he thought possible.

  κ͵

  “DADDY, DO I have to?” Hannah’s expression betrayed the answer she already knew, but he couldn’t blame the kid for trying.

  “For a little while, baby. Until the doctors say it’s safe. But you won’t always have to wear it,” Thomas assured her, pulling the strap of the hospital mask over her short but growing hair.

  “But the new medicine—”

  “Humor me, please?” Thomas pleaded as he tried not to notice the tears welling in her young eyes. Then her expression changed.

  “What does humor me mean?” she asked, head cocked to one side like a baby bird waiting for that next worm.

  “It means do what I say, even if it doesn’t make any sense, because you love me.”

  “I do love you, Daddy.”

  Thomas melted in that moment. Just melted. He didn’t melt e
nough to chance her getting sick at the zoo, because children were germ factories, but that kid was so getting ice cream before the day was over.

  “I love you too, pumpkin. Are we ready?” Thomas glanced at Aleks over Hannah’s shoulder, and he nodded. “We’re gonna see real bears and giraffes and alligators and elephants! It’ll be so much—”

  Hannah dashed out of the suite’s living room like it was on fire.

  “What did I say?” he asked Aleks, who appeared just as flabbergasted as he was.

  “Hannah, are you okay?” he called, even as he walked toward the bedroom door.

  “I need to get Lizzy!” The small voice came from the other side. And then a crash. Thomas had a hand on the knob when the door opened. He couldn’t see her mouth, but the rest of her face looked sheepish.

  “Come on,” he laughed, and she skipped toward the door. For the first time in her young life, Thomas could imagine her skipping in that same way, toward a different front door, on her way out to a first date.

  When she was thirty or so.

  His mother grabbed his arm as he headed for the door. Thomas turned and saw the panic in her eyes.

  “Could you go ahead and put Hannah in her seat? I’ll be out in a minute,” Thomas told Aleks and kissed him lightly. Aleks took Hannah’s hand and led her toward the hall. He was asking her if she’d ever seen a hippo when the hotel room door closed behind them.

  He turned to his mother.

  “You guys seem to be getting closer,” she said and walked over to the suite’s bland couch. She patted the seat next to her, a clear invitation. She didn’t seem angry, just quiet.

  “He was my best friend for years. We… I guess we fell back into that. To be honest, I don’t know how I feel right now, except scared.” A tightness in his chest loosened at the admission. It wasn’t something he wanted to confess to Aleks, who had just as much on his mind as Thomas.

  “Have you heard from them again?”

  “No, but I’m sure Cash will be calling tomorrow,” he said with a sigh, taking her hand.

 

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