CHAPTER NINE
Rory couldn’t shake the feeling he was being followed.
Jackson and his cronies had him on edge.
Then there was Sky. She’d looked upset, and it hit him hard. Guilt hammered at his back when he walked away. It’d always been that way with Sky, like there was some force urging him to sort things out—to make her smile again if she was unhappy. Whenever she’d kicked off and got angry he’d wanted to reach out and soothe her. If something upset her, he wanted to remove the cause. It was worse now though, he was sure of it. His reactions to her were even more difficult to ignore. Shouldn’t have slept with her.
He hastened through the crowded city streets, looking briefly over his shoulder when he took a side street. The building site he was headed for loomed up ahead. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his collar higher and jogged the rest of the way, wanting it done.
Glancing up, he could make out the outline of the building against the darkening night sky. There were no lights visible inside or outside the shell of a building, other than what reached it from the street lights and neighboring buildings. The hotel construction had been halted mid-build when the company went bust, which meant the partial construction stood gaunt and skeletal above the hoardings, awaiting a new investor. Meanwhile, a small, like-minded community of computer hackers had moved in and set up a hub on the second floor.
Rory had vowed he’d never set foot in this place again, but there was a purpose to the visit. He skirted the advertising hoardings surrounding the site, found the loose panel that served as an entrance. It had been marked out by a graffiti letter H inside two triangles, Jackson’s sign. He eased the panel open, dropping it back into place behind him as he stepped in. A makeshift path of plywood boards ran toward the building, sunk in the churned mud and barely visible unless you knew where they were and where they led.
Once inside it was a difficult but familiar path through dark concrete corridors littered with trip hazards, including abandoned bags of plaster, building supplies and general human detritus. Rory used his phone torch as he sought corners, flicking it off in between times. Within minutes he’d mounted the treacherous concrete stairs and was on the second floor. Wind whistled through the open corridors and when he glanced to his right he could see through torn plastic sheeting to the city beyond, alive and spreading out from this eerie and silent cement sentinel in its midst.
The abandoned building was far too familiar. He’d walked through its lonely, sorry corridors many times, but it was only one of several they used, changing from site to site on an agreed timetable to avoid being tracked down by the cyber crime division. It didn’t rest easy on him, coming back here, not since he’d broken with the pack. It’d been a big mistake, one he regretted every day since.
The three of them had hitched up with Jackson and a few other hackers shortly after they arrived in London. A couple of guys in the group were Parkour fanatics and hunted down good places to freerun. Word of mouth led them to this abandoned hotel project, where they discovered they could log into wifi sources in the surrounding streets and find hotspots. Wiring had been installed in certain areas for the builder’s use, which meant they were able to activate power for brief periods of time. They kept a calendar, staggering the days they used each site on their circuit. As long as they kept their heads down and no lights were visible from outside, they had a good base for a hub, a place where they could share ideas and pool resources. It’d been kind of fun, for a while. As yet, the cyber crime division hadn’t tracked the on-off location down. It wouldn’t be long before they did though.
The steady, upbeat thump of drum and bass music met Rory’s ears as he made his way. The gateway to the hub was up ahead, a couple of big slabs of board bolted together and pushed across the opening. They took their life in their hands every time they opened the bloody thing. Rory shoved the lump of wood to one side and climbed through the narrow gap he’d made.
Dino was there, Jackson’s main man. He hunched over a laptop set up on a makeshift table, but a glance at his screen revealed Dino was busy with a multiple player online game. A quick look around informed Rory there was six others at work. Three didn’t even lift their heads, but he recognized Jackson’s cronies. There were two girls huddled together over one laptop he didn’t recognize. People came and went here though, teens attracted to the community. Most of them went back to family homes after they’d had their adventure and trodden dangerous paths. The core people were always the same.
“Well, well…look what the cat dragged in.” Dino pushed back his battered office chair—a salvaged item from a dumpster—and spun it to face Rory. “To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?” he added, sarcastically.
Rory scanned the place again, making sure he hadn’t missed anything. “Jackson around?”
“Otherwise engaged.” Dino looked him up and down expectantly. “Thinking of coming back to the fold?”
Rory shook his head. “Nope. I’m happy fixing bikes.”
Dino shook his head and gave an exaggerated laugh. “Your loss. But you’re being sensible and you’ve brought your kit as a parting gift, right?”
Rory noticed the others in the room had sat up and were paying attention. “If you were any good as a hacker, Jackson wouldn’t even need my kit,” he replied, avoiding the question. “If you stopped gaming,” he gestured at the laptop, “and tried harder, then maybe Jackson wouldn’t miss me so badly.”
Dino narrowed his eyes. “Don’t flatter yourself. He doesn’t really need you, he just wants potential competition off the market.”
Rory let that pass. Dino aspired to be as good as Rory on a computer, they all did, but Rory had a knack. Computers had intrigued him since he was a little kid. His first PC was an abandoned Mac his uncle had chucked out into the back garden. Rory rescued it and took it apart, learning how the thing was put together. When he rebuilt it, it started working again. That was the start of it for him. Everything from then on was self taught, and passed on to Sean. He spent hours on the net learning about computers and repair and development. The next step was to learn how the software was designed, and that’s when he got really into it “Are you expecting him back soon?”
Dino shrugged, and reluctantly pushed a notepad Rory’s way. “Wanna leave a message?”
“Just tell him I was here and I’ll be back.”
One of the two new girls was on her feet and wandered over. “You’re the Rory I keep hearing about?”
“Yes, and if you’ve got any sense you’ll do as I did and get the hell out of this.” Her eyes rounded. She looked as if she were taking him seriously, so he added a bit more fuel. “Don’t get suckered in by Jackson, he claims he wants to make a community here. He just wants to make cash for his own pockets.”
With that he turned on his heel and left.
Leaving the building, unease crept up his back. He wished it’d been done. As he came out from behind the hoarding panel he glanced up and down the street, checking to see if anyone watched. That’s when he saw a slight figure standing in the doorway opposite, hands shoved in pockets, peeping out from the steps leading up to the door.
What the hell? Rory stepped back against the hoarding. It took a moment before he believed what he was seeing. Passing car headlights illuminated the watcher, assuring him he was seeing right. It was Sky standing there, collar up against the night, peeping around the corner at him as he emerged from the hoardings.
Quickly, he strode over to her, dodging the traffic as he went. “What the hell are you doing here?”
“Waiting for you. I, um, followed you.”
“Obviously.” He glanced down the street in the direction of the tube station. That was the direction Jackson would come from if he returned “What the hell for?”
“I wanted to know where you were going.”
Furious at her for taking such a risk, he found himself raising his voice. “Not clever, Sky, not clever at all!”
She shrugged, like it was nothing.
“For fuck’s sake, what the hell were you thinking of?”
“You.” She nodded her head over at the building site. “So…what’s in there? It looks deserted.”
Irritated, he moved to block her view of the site. “Nothing you need to know about.”
“Those computer guys from the tube train?”
She was like a dog with a bone. “Yeah.”
“Okay.” She stared at the ground. There was something worrying her.
He hadn’t finished warning her off, but her fretful expression mellowed his mood a bit. Instinctively he reached out for her, putting his hands on her shoulders, stepping in against her where she was sheltered in the doorway. “I told you what I’d planned.”
She snuggled in, hands on his chest, face turned sideways against his leather biker’s jacket. “I know, but I thought you might have just said that and you were really meeting a girlfriend.”
He stroked her hair. “There’s no girlfriend. You’re the only girl I’m spending time with right now.”
She looked up at him. The nearby street light illuminated her face, and he saw surprise in her expression. That surprise morphed into longing.
For a moment he forgot his plan to tear a strip off her, forgot to tell her off for daring to follow him. Instead he kissed her, and drew her in tight against him where he could hold her safe in his arms and feel her soft mouth parting under his. The sound she made when he kissed her—like a moan from deep inside of her—made him want to get her indoors and naked, hold her tighter still, tight enough so they were bonded.
She shivered in his grasp and he pulled back when he realized how cold she was. “You’re freezing.” He rubbed her bare hands inside his. “Your jacket is too thin to be any use. Why the hell didn’t you go home?”
“I missed where you went in, so I decided to wait.”
“Come on, let’s get away from here.” With one arm around her, he urged her down the steps and along the road. He held her protectively, but inside he was still stewing. He’d sit her down somewhere warm and explain things to her. It was his own fault, he realized, he shouldn’t have told her what was going on. She’d been right about the USB though. Flushing it wouldn’t get rid of Jackson. She was canny, but he didn’t need a wannabe-sidekick he had to worry about.
A nearby café bar beckoned to him. He’d been in there a couple of times. It served coffee and light meals during the day then went full bar at night.
“Let’s grab a drink. It’ll be warm inside.” He ushered her in the door. The place was busy, the crowd a mixture of business types sharing bottles of wine at the end of the day and people already out on the town for the night.
He led her over to two high stools by the window. “There’s a heater on the wall under the drinks shelf. Sit there and get warm, I’ll go get us a drink.”
He was going to get them two bottles of beer, but when he got to the bar he saw they had mulled cider on the go and decided to get Sky a mug to warm her up.
“Oh, wow, thank you.” She wrapped her hands around the warm mug, picked it up and breathed the aroma in “This smells delicious, thanks Rory.”
“Have you eaten?” He pulled a bag of peanuts from one pocket and some potato chips from the other, placing them both on the nearby shelf.
Sky smiled and tore open the snacks. “You’re such a hero.”
“That’s the last thing I am.” He grabbed a handful of the nuts and chomped his way through them. “You shouldn’t have followed me, it’s dangerous. Promise me you won’t do it again.”
She lifted her eyebrows.
“I don’t want to bring trouble to your door,” he continued, “but if you follow me and are seen—”
“No one saw me,” she interrupted.
“I did.”
She gestured at him. “You were the only person who noticed me.”
“I’m good at this stuff.”
She laughed. The sound of it warmed him, lessening the tension he felt about her being there. “Why on earth would you think I’ve got a girlfriend?”
“You’re a good looking guy.”
“I’m not going to argue.” He flashed a grin. “Seriously, did you really think I’d sleep with you if I had a girlfriend waiting at home?”
She shrugged
“I wouldn’t do that.”
She sipped at her cider, her expression thoughtful. “Rowan’s boyfriend slept with someone else while she was in the hospital, right after she had the baby.”
Rory was shocked. “Really?”
She nodded, eyeing him from under her lashes as if curious about his reaction.
“Declan was it?”
She nodded.
He knew the guy, remembered him. “Are they still together?”
“No. She wouldn’t have him back.” She went on to talk a little more about the circumstances, and Rory could see it preyed on her mind. She was worried for Rowan, upset at the betrayal. “That’s tough. I didn’t know.”
“How could you? You didn’t keep in touch with us.” The rebuke in her voice guilted him. He was pretty sure it was meant to.
“I’m sorry, really I am, but we’re in touch now.” He reached out and grasped her free hand, holding it in his. He wanted to be annoyed with her, but she looked so thoughtful while she told him about her sister. It tugged at him, making it difficult for him to be angry any more.
She squeezed his hands. It made him think of making love to her the night before, and suddenly it wasn’t enough. He drew her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers.
Sky put her mug down on the nearby drink shelf, rose to her feet and stood between his knees to kiss him. She looped her hands together around the back of his neck. He urged her closer still, his hands on her behind.
Laughing softly, she shimmied against him. “Its okay, I forgive you.”
“I’m glad, because I’d hate to think you’re going to walk off in a huff and leave me with this stonking erection you’ve caused.”
With an approving purr, she moved her hands, repositioning them around the tops of his thighs, dangerously close to his throbbing erection.
“Careful.”
She moved one hand, brushed her fingernails over his cock through his jeans, while she faked an innocent expression. “What, you mean I caused this?”
Her actions made his balls ached. “Guilty as charged.”
The skin on his back electrified, his entire body readying for her.
She rippled against him, pure feminine seduction.
A loud knock on the window shattered the moment.
When Rory refocused he cursed. Busted. He figured it was Jackson, but when Rory saw who was with Jackson he had to do a double take.
Draco, Sky’s brother, stood alongside Jackson outside the window, glaring at them.
“Oh shit!” Sky stared at her brother.
Jackson grinned. He pointed his fingers to his own eyes, then at Rory and then at Sky.
Rory gave him the finger and mouthed “fuck off” at him.
He had to get Sky out, and not at risk of being followed home.
Then there was the small matter of her brother to deal with.