“And how did that go over?”
“Not well.” I shrug and take another bite. “He hit me. Threatened to pimp me out to the creepy dudes who liked to look. And then these guys came banging on the door and started to beat him up pretty bad.
“I’d already packed my bag, ready to run as soon as I had the chance. And what better opportunity than when he was getting the shit kicked out of him? So, I grabbed my suitcase, the one currently in your closet, and I ran. I never saw him again.”
His eyes narrow on me as he, too, eats his breakfast. “Where did you get that?” He points at the flash drive.
“I’d forgotten that I’d hidden it a couple of weeks before I ran away. He wanted me to deliver it to one of those places, and I was just so sick of it, Shane. It was awful. So, instead, I hid it away in my mom’s suitcase. I hid it in the interior lining, you know?”
He nods, and I keep going.
“I forgot about it. For all these years. Just now, after I finished unpacking, I heard the rattle and found it.”
“What’s on it?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
With our plates empty, Shane retrieves the drive and takes my hand.
“Let’s go.”
He keys in a code on a locked door and leads me down a long stairway. When we reach the basement, he turns on the light, and all I can do is stare.
Monitors fill one wall. There are computers, printers, maps, papers…all spread out around the room. It looks like a command center, and as I stare at Shane now, as he punches at a keyboard, and some of the monitors come to life, I realize that’s exactly what it is.
A command center.
“Are you James Bond?”
His fingers stop tapping, and he turns to me with a slow smile. “I’m better than him, honey. Come here.”
I join him at the desk, leaning over his shoulder as he slips the flash drive into a slot and what looks like gibberish fills a screen.
“What is that?” I wonder aloud as I stare at it. “It looks like some kind of weird hieroglyphics.”
“Whatever’s on here is encrypted.”
He’s still typing, but even I can see that he’s going about it the wrong way.
“You’re doing it wrong.”
His sexy dark brow quirks above his eye. “Excuse me?”
“May I?”
“By all means.” He scoots the chair back and tugs me into his lap, and for half a second, I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing. Shane’s nose nuzzles my ear.
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
He chuckles. “You asked for the control, Ivie.”
I love that he calls me Ivie. That everything I told him in the kitchen doesn’t seem to bother him in the least.
I get to work, tapping keys, trying to break the fail-safe on this thing.
“I was something of a hacker in college,” I mutter as I meet a wall, curse, and then keep going. “I was already using Ivie as my name, but I had to make it legal without people asking a bunch of questions or requesting birth certificates.”
“So you learned to hack?”
“I’m a bit of a nerd.” I shrug and try to ignore his fingers doing delicious things to my back. “There. It’s searching for it now.”
I lean back into him as the computer does its thing and turn my face up to his.
“You’re the sexiest nerd I’ve ever seen in my life.”
I grin. “I’m not sexy or beautiful. I know it, and it’s okay. I’m passable at best when I’m all gussied up.”
“Who told you that?”
“No one needed to.” My father hammered home every damn day that I was a disappointment in the looks department. “I can see myself in the mirror.”
“Then you’re looking at the wrong damn thing.” He kisses my jawline while his hands roam over my ribs. “From the minute I saw you at Annika’s wedding, I couldn’t take my eyes off you. You’re addictive, Ivie.”
I want to snort. I want to laugh. This is a joke, right? Because no one’s ever called me addictive. Pretty? Sure. You look nice? Occasionally. But never this.
However, based on the way he’s touching me, I’d say he’s not joking.
He cups my face and turns me to him. His lips are gentle on mine as they linger, tasting me, teasing the corner of my mouth until my nipples stand at attention.
He takes the kiss deeper, my fingers diving into his hair, and we’re consumed by each other when the beeping starts.
“It’s done,” I whisper against his lips.
“Damn it,” he replies, making me laugh.
When I turn back to the screen, I scowl. “This is just more gibberish.”
“It’s a language,” Shane says.
“Oh, good. We can just plug it into Google Translate and call it a day.” Shane stares at me as if I just suggested we jump into shark-infested waters. “What?”
“We absolutely can not use Google for this. Whoever’s looking for this would be here in an hour. Now it’s your turn to sit back and let me work my magic.”
“Have at it.”
I watch as he taps the keys, copies and pastes, then hits enter and waits.
“Did that just happen?”
“Fuck.”
Chapter 5
~Shane~
“Did that just erase itself?” Ivie demands, panic laced through her sexy voice.
“It seems so.”
“Damn it.” She reaches out to start working on the keyboard again, but I stop her. “Maybe I can get it back.”
“If we keep trying, it’ll corrupt itself, and we won’t get anything at all.”
“Then what are we supposed to do?”
“I’m calling a friend.” I pull my phone out of my pocket, tap the screen, and then reach out and push my fingers through Ivie’s hair as I wait for him to answer.
“Cox.”
“I need your help.” I give him a brief report on what we have going on. “The sooner, the better.”
“Yeah, I can look at it. Just send it through. I’ll get to it later today.”
“No, I need you to come here. I’m not sending this out anywhere.”
There’s a brief pause. “Are you in Colorado?”
“At the ranch,” I confirm and wink at a waiting Ivie. “The sooner you can get here, the better. Wait, are you out of the country?”
“No, I’m in Seattle. I can be there later this afternoon.”
“I owe you one.”
“You owe me about a dozen.”
He clicks off, and I methodically shut down the system and pull the drive out of the slot.
“So, who is Cox?” Ivie asks.
“Cameron Cox is a friend. An old Army buddy and the best computer genius in the country—maybe in the world. I’ve been on missions with him all over the globe. I’d trust him with my life, or yours.”
“And he’s based in Seattle?”
“On an island not far from the city,” I confirm. “His family is there. He’ll be here later today.”
“And he’s just going to drop everything and come here? Just like that?”