She was busted.
Slinking back out, she mustered the most sheepish look she could manage. Maybe there was a way to spin this so he wouldn’t be too upset with her. Then again, he was supersexy when he was angry. Maybe she could get him madder instead.
Rome had barely stepped out of the car before he went on the offensive. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
“I needed some air.” She gave him a half grin. Well, it was the truth.
“How?” He stiffly gestured toward the sliding door with a wave of his hand. His kissable lips were tight with frustration.
“I altered the code.” She held up a placating palm. “Don’t worry. I’ll reset it.”
“Altered the code?” His anger turned to intrigue.
“I told you, I’m a programmer. It’s what I do.”
Rome didn’t really have anything to say to that, but his gorgeous face, bathed in the fading daylight, cracked the most admiring and alluring smile she’d ever seen.
He walked over to her, stopping just inches away. She flushed. She could see every blue swirl in the eddy of his eyes. Smell every spice of his lingering soap. Feel every breath that brushed her face.
“Show me,” Rome whispered as he leaned in. His mouth was so very close to hers. He licked his lips. She wetted her own. Harper almost closed her eyes, just waiting, desperately wanting the touch of those lips against hers once again.
Then she was flat on her back on the ground.
Well, that was fast.
“Somebody’s here.” Rome’s whisper was nearly silent, just a tickling breath away from her ear.
Rome covered her body with his as he frantically searched the area. His intense blue eyes at such close range were a sight to behold.
Stay here,
he mouthed, rolling off her body easily and moving into a crouch, gun drawn. Wow, she hadn’t known he was even carrying one.
Creeping around the dented front bumper of the Bug, Rome disappeared from her sight. She sat upright and tried to listen for whatever had startled him. And stopped their imminent kiss. Darn it. Her lack of trust in him hadn’t diminished his allure. Double darn it.
After counting to sixty without hearing a sound, Harper decided to check things out herself. Rome should know by now that she was no good at waiting. She used the car for cover and took a quick peek out toward where Rome had vanished. She felt a little strange with all this creeping around, hunkering down like a spy or something.
Another minute went by with no sign of danger. What could he have heard?
Then she saw him walking her way. His shoulders were stiff and he kept looking around as though ghosts swirled around him, prickling every one of his senses.
“They’re gone. We’d better discuss our next move,” he said without preamble. “I’m not sure we have much more time here.”
“Okay.” Harper caught his grave tone and altered her mood. Kicking herself, she realized she had to remember this wasn’t some weekend fling with a hot guy. This was her messed-up life that she needed to right somehow, and he was the only person who could help her. “Did you get the flash drive?”
“Yeah, it’s in the car,” he answered, moving to the driver’s side. He opened the door and popped the hood.
Harper moved to the front of the Bug. Inside was a black duffel bag. She reached in, unzipped the bag, and pulled out a slim laptop. She shoved it under her arm and poked around inside for the small drive. Rome must have brought extra clothes, because she had to fish around for the drive through layers of soft fabric. When she found it, she quickly checked to make sure it was indeed the flash drive she’d asked for.
“Why that?” His close voice made her jump. She hadn’t seen or heard him step beside her.
“C’mon, I’ll show you.” Harper reached to close the hood, then had to slam it a couple times before it latched. She turned around and sat on the concrete with her back resting against the front bumper, then booted up the computer. Rome joined her on the ground with a grunt, their thighs lightly touching.
“We should go inside,” he said as he turned his head, alternately looking at her and their surroundings.
“I need some air,” she countered, shifting the screen slightly to lessen the angling sun’s glare. A password request popped up once the computer finished booting.
“By the way, how did you alter the code and get out without setting off the alarm?” Rome asked, peering at the laptop screen while she typed in a few commands.
“Kind of like this,” she answered absently while she hacked into his computer, bypassing his imposing password protection schemes in under a minute.
Giving him a sideways glance, she noticed his slackjawed expression. His mouth moved, but no words came forth. Smiling, Harper patted his rough cheek and continued to peck at the flat keyboard.
Once she was in, she plugged the drive into the USB port and waited.
“What are you doing?” Rome finally found his voice.
“That’s a blank drive.” He leaned closer so that their shoulders brushed. She noticed that his astonished look had morphed into one of confusion.
“It’s not blank,” she had to admit quietly, relishing the warmth where their bodies touched.
“I don’t understand.” He covered her hands with his own to still her fingers. He sounded outraged, perplexed, and fascinated all at once. “What aren’t you telling me, Harper?”
She closed her eyes.
Here it goes.
The one secret she had kept from him. Here was where he got furious with her. Lost his trust in her. Maybe even took her back to the bad facility.
No, he wouldn’t do that. But she needed to tell him the truth. Harper took a deep breath and let it out slowly. She opened her eyes and squarely met his gaze.
“Before Bobby died, he hid a flash drive for me,” she began, watching for a reaction from him. There was none. Yet. “I found it, but I had to break it apart, so that it wasn’t taken from me by the people who are after me. They thought it was destroyed, but I kept the data chip. When I was at your condo, I found your flash drive and replaced the chip inside with mine.”
Rome blinked and looked away. After a few moments, he shook his head slightly, and then returned to meet her gaze.
“Impressive,” he said with a wry grin. His blue eyes softened. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“If I had, we probably wouldn’t have it anymore,” she replied seriously. Most likely Rome would’ve handed it over to his boss when he dropped her off. And they both knew it. “I wanted your help. But I wasn’t sure I could trust you.” Pain flashed in his eyes for a split second, and then it was gone.
“I guess I can’t blame you for that.” His quiet tone scraped at her heart.
Harper was silent. She had no idea what to say. She couldn’t trust him. Yes, he was helping her, but she wasn’t about to put her life in his hands again. She couldn’t chance that he’d take care of it this time.
“So what’s on this thing?” he asked a little louder, probably trying to break the heavy tension. Trying to brush over her silence.
“I have no idea,” she answered with a lopsided smile. “But it’s time to find out.”
Harper opened a code-authoring application and quickly wrote a scanning program for the flash drive to make sure it was intact. Pressing the Enter key, she watched the program read the little drive and caught Rome squinting at the screen while he did the same. She quickly explained what she’d done.
“Damn, if you’re half as good a swimmer as you are hacker, I’d be surprised if you didn’t win every medal at the Olympics,” he said offhandedly.
Her breath caught. The Olympics. She should be getting home to train, not sitting here trying to figure out how to stay alive. A strong hand rubbed her tense shoulder warmly as if reading her thoughts.
“Don’t worry, Harper.” His voice was soothing as he continued his reassuring strokes. “You’ll get that chance. I’ll make sure you do.”
If only he knew what that meant to her to hear that. Even though she knew she wouldn’t get the chance. Heck, she’d already had her chance at the Olympics, and she’d blown it. She’d been looking forward to a second chance for four long years.
Because Bobby had been the one to convince her not
to give up swimming and take another shot, it had become his dream as much as hers. And now? Well, now that dream was all but over.
A soft beep from the computer snapped her out of her leaden thoughts. She read the results of her program with an incredulous shake of her head.
“Oh, for crying out loud.” She sighed and ran her fingers through her hair in frustration.
“What? The data’s gone?” Rome asked, looking at the screen along with her, a tad frantic. She was grateful he was still rubbing her shoulder, albeit a pinch faster now. The touch was sending nice little beads of sensation floating through her body.
“No, the data is intact.” She turned to look at him and let out a big sigh. My goodness, his lips were so close. “It’s just buried under layers and layers of jumbled code.” He blinked away his apprehension.
“Can you decode it?” Rome laughed as he said it. “Wait, of course you can.”
“Yes, I can,” she confirmed with another long exhale, smiling at his belief in her. “In fact, I think I’m the only one who can.” His brows furrowed, so she explained further. “Bobby knew what he was doing. There are so many levels of convoluted code here, yet it’s a specific pattern. Something only I would know to look for. Kind of like his personal signature in the code itself.”
“He wanted to make sure that you, and only you, would be able to decipher it,” Rome translated. “Wow. Genius.”
“He was.” Harper fondly thought of how smart her brother was. And knew that he’d been smart enough to put the answers under all those layers of protection. For her eyes only. She just had to dig around for them. But it was going to take some time.
“So how long do you need?” Rome asked. She loved his absolute confidence in her. There was no doubt in his question that she could decode it, just how long it would take.
“I’m not sure.” She thought hard. “Three, four hours, maybe. I won’t know until I get in there and start poking around. And even then, things may be, probably are, embedded.”
“Okay, well, get to it, then.” Rome squeezed her shoulder and stood. “Inside, Harper.” And then he held his hand down to her with a supportive smile.
She secured and closed the laptop after pulling out the flash drive. She stuck it in her front pocket and hauled herself up with the help of his strong hand. Brushing off her rear, she started toward the door, following Rome through the trickling sunlight, her hand still secure in his.
Shots rang out.
Bullets pelted the warehouse door just above their heads with a startling crack. Crouching to the ground, they looked at each other, bewildered. Rome had been right. Somebody was out there.
“Damn it.” Rome seethed. She watched him pull out his gun and prepare it.
The gunfire ceased. Were they repositioning? Reloading? Not for the first time, she realized just how inept she was at these spy-game situations. And how grateful she was that Rome was with her.
“Shouldn’t we go inside?” Harper whispered as Rome looked everywhere. She set down the laptop.
“No, we’ll be trapped inside,” he answered with a quick shake of his head. “We need to be mobile.”
“Where are they?” she asked, glancing around the area through the dusky sunlight.
“My guess is they’re surrounding us.” He grimaced. She noticed his fingers flex on the handle of his gun. Their gazes locked and she saw the troubled intensity in his eyes. It mirrored her own.
It was Bobby’s house all over again. Besieged. No way out. Images of the video game she’d just played flashed through her mind. Her virtual warrior. Lifting her digital hand. Commanding her power to save herself from her enemies. Living to fight another day.
Did she dare? Would Rome think her an abomination once again?
No, he believed in her, didn’t he? So she decided to do it.
“Let me try something.” Resting her hand against his stubbled cheek, she implored him with her steely gaze and her tender touch.
He looked away for an instant and then turned back, giving her a confirming nod. In return for his confidence, she surprised both of them with a brief yet intense kiss.
Harper stood to face their hidden attackers, completely exposed in the fading rays of the sun. It was very surreal to be standing there, just her against these unknown enemies like some superhero. Curiously, she kind of liked it. As though it were her own personal video game.
Several large men moved out of their shadowy hiding places. Slowly, three of them approached, monstrous rifles drawn.
Three thin red laser beams pierced the sun’s rays from their scopes to rest in a triangle on her chest, directly over her heart. She sucked in a quick breath as spikes of panic prickled under her skin, spreading like a wildfire until she burned with fear.
Wait a second. This
wasn’t
her own personal video game. There was no Restart button. This was true life. And these large men had every intention of killing her for real.
It seemed as though time slowed and she could see every millimeter of their fingers squeezing the triggers. She willed her chaotic nerves to settle as she’d done countless times before a race. Cold, then hot flashed through her body. She brought up her hand, palm out; just a sharp crack of gunfire echoed in her head. She shoved all fear aside, inviting the energy and focusing on the incoming ammunition.
The rain of bullets halted mere inches away from her hand, frozen in midair.
It worked. It actually worked. What next?
Calling upon the power again, she tested her mind’s fortitude. Her body felt none of the draining effects she’d experienced before. With a concentrated effort, she summoned another swell of energy and directed it at the threatening shells that hovered at the edge of her shield of energy.
A fresh burst flowed through her arm and prickled into her hand, propelling the bullets back toward the three men at lightning speed. Their eyes filled with shock and then pain as they all staggered backward, crumpling to the ground, lifeless.
Harper lowered her hand and gulped a lungful of cool air.
Holy cow!
Not only had she controlled the power, but she’d been able to direct it, too. What else could it do?