Alex parked his truck at the shadowed end of the sparsely populated USOC lot. Early evening, with half the staff already on their way to Madrid, it was a ghost town compared to usual.
Glancing right, Alex stared at his unexpected passenger and partner-in-almost-crime. Dane was typing furiously on his laptop, a crease between his brows and his too-white teeth digging into his bottom lip. Ginger nerd masquerading as poster boy jock. Alex still couldn’t wrap his brain around it.
“When did this start?” he asked.
“This?” Dane replied, not looking up.
“The hacking. I remember you gaming a lot at camp.” Almost every morning, Alex would wake up in his bed or Dane’s, and there’d be a laptop open on Dane’s chest. Alex had written it off as a rich kid with too many toys and too much free time. But this wasn’t idle time and idle games anymore. “This is more than World of Warcraft, isn’t it?”
Dane paused briefly, seemed to consider his answer, then resumed typing. “After I got home from camp. There were certain things I wanted to protect.”
“You mean a porn stash?”
“Not exactly.” Before Alex could ask what exactly had turned those freckled cheeks so red, Dane went on. “Then it continued as a sort of rebellion. It was one thing I could keep to myself. And I had to major in something in college.”
“CompSci?”
Dane nodded. “I’m glad I can put it to use, for you.”
For him. Because Dane had come to Colorado, for him.
Colossal mind-fuck, right there.
Dane had come up with this plan to clear him, convinced the team to cover for him while he snuck out, and hadn’t told his parents about any of it, if his incessantly vibrating phone was any indication. Dane had silenced it earlier, before getting to work on empanadas with his mom. The rest of Alex’s family had wandered in and out of the kitchen through the afternoon, making small talk, and Dane had followed the Spanglish exchanges with ease, deploying the genuine charisma that lay beneath the act. He’d been polite, gracious, and even a bit self-deprecating, making fun of his sunburn and his accent, which Alex noticed he wasn’t holding back as much. By the time they had finished cleaning up, he’d won them all over and promised a return visit.
Which they might be making sooner rather than later. Because as they sat in the USOC parking lot, Alex realized Dane’s plan had made a critical, possibly fatal, assumption.
“I’m not sure we can get in,” he said.
“What do you mean?”
“I’m suspended and also probably fired.” He lifted a hip, pulled out his wallet, and withdrew the key card from the outer pocket where it’d left an impression in the worn leather. “This thing may not work anymore.”
“Good thing I have one too.”
“Yours doesn’t get us into the admin offices.”
A couple more keystrokes and the flash drive lit up, whirring to life. “I didn’t mean mine. Here, hold this,” Dane said, extending the computer to Alex.
Alex took the laptop from him, and Dane retrieved his bag from behind the seats. He dug around inside and yanked out a card on a lanyard.
“Trade ya.” He took back the computer and tossed the card in Alex’s lap.
Alex flipped it over and gasped at the picture staring up at him. “How the hell did you get Coach’s card?”
“Pup’s got all kinds of skills. Filched it from Coach’s things last night.”
“No shit?”
“No shit.” Ejecting and palming the flash drive, Dane powered down the computer and shoved it in his bag. “All right, I’m good to go here.” He looked back up at Alex, blue eyes bright and eager.
Alex’s stomach flipped, and not in the good way. Was he really going to risk both their futures? The team’s? He wanted his spot back on the squad, wanted to be vindicated, but he worried they were skating the edge of breaking and entering, and worried even more so what they might find. Or might not. A wild goose chase with no bird in the end, and so much at risk in the process. “Dane, are you sure? You could get kicked off the team for this too. It’s too much to lose, for you and them.”
Dane stretched across the console, curled a hand around his neck, and hauled him into another one of those kisses like he’d given Alex in the barn. Not the second one, which was more like their kisses at the club, fueled by desire and a need to rip each other’s clothes off. No, this was like the first kiss Dane had given him, on his knees. So full of promise and all the things he hadn’t said yet. All the things he was making Alex feel in return, against his better judgment and against everything in their rocky past together.
“I know what I’m doing,” Dane said, once they parted, both of them breathing heavy. “Maybe for the first time in my life. I should be the one asking if you want to do this. This could put you in even hotter water, and I’ve already put you in enough of it. I wanted to see you first, make sure you still wanted this—” he held up the flash drive “—and me, but I can take it from here.”
“But it’s an easier job with two? I can look out while you do your hacking thing?”
Dane grinned. “Is that a yes?”
Alex nodded, and Dane didn’t give him time to take it back. He dropped another quick kiss on his lips and shoved open the truck door. They were really doing this. Excitement and anxiety battled in a race up Alex’s spine.
“Come on, Cap,” Dane said, smiling face looking out from the hoodie he’d pulled down over his head.
That smile got Alex moving. He wanted more of it, and more of Dane enthusiastically calling him Cap too. “So, that flash drive is going to do all the work?” he asked, as they crossed the lot to the side entry door.
“You have to get me in front of a computer directly wired to the mainframe, one with the data we need on it, preferably in the lab, but then yeah, the program on the drive will do the work.”
Alex palmed his own key card. He had Coach’s in his back pocket, just in case, but his card registering here would cause less of a stir. It made sense that he would be here; Coach, not so much. He held his breath and swiped his card over the reader outside the door.
The light turned green, and the lock disengaged.
Dane held the door open for him. “See, worrying for nothing.”
Oh, there was plenty to worry about, but at least the first battle was won.
Inside, Alex kept his head down and led them to the lab, careful not to look directly into any security cameras. Dressed as they were, in the track pants and hoodies they’d changed into at the house, they’d appear to the guards watching like any other athletes meandering about the facility. Being after-hours, with limited staff present, they also managed to avoid anyone in the hallways.
Once outside the main lab, Alex peeked through the glass panel in the door. “Clear here,” he whispered low.
“Here too,” Dane said from two doors down, outside the adjacent offices. “And this is where we need to be.”
He slipped inside, and Alex rushed to catch up, quietly closing the door behind him. He walked down one aisle and Dane the other, both of them checking desks and monitors. “This one’s on,” Alex said, waving Dane over to the computer with the generic screensaver running. “And it’s plugged directly in,” he added, jiggling the Ethernet cable running to the wall.
Dane nudged the mouse and the computer woke, displaying a desktop background and password log-in prompt. “Look around,” he said. “For any sort of password clues or reminders.”
Alex lifted knickknacks on the desk—mug, pen holder, picture frame, inbox—hoping maybe there was a post-it with a password on the back or bottom. He was running his hand along the bottom of the screen when the picture displayed behind the password box caught his eye.
Woman, midthirties, blonde. Robin Meyers, Alex recalled, and at her side was a giant King Shepherd. Dangling from his wide navy-and-orange Broncos collar was a shiny silver tag.
Shepherd Book.
Alex patted Dane’s shoulder.
Dane shoved closed a drawer. “What’d you find?”
Alex tapped the dog tag on the screen. “Try Shepherd Book as the password.”
“Someone’s a Firefly fan.” Smiling, Dane typed in the password.
And it didn’t work.
“Dammit,” Alex cursed. “I thought we had it.”
“Hold on a sec,” Dane said. “She’s also got a Firefly mug.” He flicked a finger against the black-and-white mug with the theme song lyrics on it. “And an eraser in the shape of the Serenity.” He toggled the gray spaceship-shaped eraser. “She’s a fangirl. Let’s try a few other references.”
Dane slid into the chair, typing, and on his third try, it worked. His fingers had moved too fast for Alex to register the winning combination.
“What was it?” he asked.
“DerrialHaven2005.”
“How did you get that?”
Dane grinned up at him. “Derrial was Shepherd Book’s first name. He was killed, at Haven, in the 2005 movie.”
Alex couldn’t help laughing or ruffling Dane’s hair. “Oh my god, you’re a total nerd.”
Blushing, Dane inserted the flash drive, and a black box appeared on screen. “I’m not nearly as social as the press makes me out to be. I give my Netflix account a workout.”
Alex leaned forward and kissed his temple, soothing any insult he might have inadvertently made. “Nerd Dane is kinda hot,” he whispered.
Dane turned his face up for a kiss, and Alex gave him one, before moving over to the door to play lookout.
“Can you tell anything yet?” he asked.
“No, I’m just copying encrypted files over. I’m downloading all the test activity from the last week onto here.” He tapped the flash drive. “I’ll decrypt it on my computer after we’re out of here.”
“How much longer?”
“Couple of minutes.”
Noise outside in the hallway tripped Alex’s ears, and he whipped his head back around, peeking out the glass pane. His breath caught. Down the hall, a group was rounding the corner, including Robin Meyers.
“Better make that thirty seconds,” Alex said. “Book’s owner is on her way back.”
“Crap. I thought they were gone.”
“Me too.” Alex rushed to his side. “Anything I can do?”
“Stop asking me questions.” Dane typed faster, and Alex ran back to the door, heart racing, watching as Robin drew closer and closer.
They were going to get caught. The Committee would think they were tampering with the results. He’d be done for. So would Dane. Then what would Dane’s parents do? To Dane, to him, maybe even to Alex’s family? Dane had said they’d made threats against him. Alex wouldn’t put it past the Ellises to exact retribution.
“Dane, we have to go, now!” he exclaimed low.
“Thirty more seconds.”
“You’ve got ten, max.” His attention lashed back and forth—to Robin getting closer, to Dane typing faster. She was two doors down, in front of the main lab. He ran back to Dane’s side, going for the flash drive. Whatever was on there would have to suffice. Dane grabbed his wrist, stopping him.
Robin laughed right outside the office door. “Babe, we have to go!”
Dane’s hand tightened around his wrist. He hit Return with his other, then a half second later, yanked the flash drive out of the computer. He hit another key, and the screen turned black. “That’s it. Let’s go!”
Alex hauled him up and through the connected doors into the main lab, just as the office door opened. They tiptoed through the dark lab, waited at the door to the hall until the coast was clear, then, hoodies up, slipped out. Trying to walk slow and appear calm was a struggle, Alex feeling anything but. Only Dane’s hand in his kept him steady.
They turned the corner, headed for the exit door to the parking lot, only to see a tall form outside the door, flashing his key card to enter. Alex veered left and ran flat out down the hall to his office, dragging Dane behind him, not giving a fuck about how they looked on camera. The chances and consequences of a probably snoozing security guard noticing them on a tiny monitor were far outweighed by the likelihood of the man at the door seeing them in person and the consequences he could bring down on them.
Alex swiped his badge, opened his office door, and shoved Dane inside. He closed the door behind them, leaving the lights off.
“Who was that?” Dane asked, back to the door.
“The Committee chairman.”
“Oh, crap!”
Alex slammed a hand over his mouth, whispering harshly, “Quiet.”
He listened as the chairman approached, Oxford heels clicking on the linoleum floor. Dane shifted out from under his hand, leaning an ear to the door, listening intently.
The chairman’s steps grew louder, then stopped, right outside Alex’s door.
They were caught, done for. His gaze locked with Dane’s, just visible in the low light. I’m sorry, he mouthed.
I’m not, Dane replied without sound, not an ounce of regret in his eyes.
And then the chairman’s steps resumed, passing the door and fading as he walked on down the hallway, away from Alex’s office.
Eyes fluttering closed, Alex fell back against the door. “Oh, thank fu—”
Dane’s tongue down his throat cut off the relieved curse and chased away the rest of Alex’s panic, stealing his breath and heart instead.
“Adrenaline junkie,” he said against Dane’s lips when they came up for air.
“You called me babe.” Dane trailed his mouth down Alex’s neck, and a shiver worked its way up from Alex’s belly.
So good, but so not the time or place.
He pushed Dane back. “Wait to start that somewhere we can finish it.” Stepping past him and over to his desk, Alex pulled out a tote bag and started gathering his personal effects.
Dane wandered to his side. “What are you doing?”
“Grabbing a few things, in case I don’t get another chance.”
“You’ll get another—” His words cut off, and Alex followed the direction of his gaze, to the Knights swim cap in Alex’s hand.
“You kept it,” Dane said, voice full of awe and something more.
Alex wanted to give him more, felt confident enough to do that now. “That was the best summer of my life.”
A finger slid under his chin, gentle and coaxing, and Dane tipped his face up, just as he’d done in the barn. His eyes were as full of hope as they had been there. No longer ice-cold. More like the clear blue sky of a warm summer day. “This will be the best summer of your life,” he vowed. “I promise.”
Alex believed him.