On their way back to Mia’s apartment, she called and arranged for Emily’s babysitter to meet her there as soon as she could. “I should only be gone for a couple of hours, okay, sweetie?” She knelt before Emily and took her hands. “Tomorrow, why don’t I take off early, and you and I can go do something together?”

“Yes!” Emily’s face beamed with excitement. “Can I stay home from school?”

Edward chuckled. “You can’t blame the child for trying.”

“No, Emily. You still have to go to school, but I’ll pick you up, and we’ll spend the rest of the day together, just you and I.”

“Sounds perfect, Mommy.” She jumped into her arms and squeezed her neck, swelling Mia’s heart and giving her more incentive to go after Jack.

Mia stood up, grabbing her purse and turning toward the sitter. “Make sure she’s in bed around eight if I’m not back by then? You can order a pizza for dinner. Here’s twenty for that.” She handed the girl some cash. “Keep what’s left, and I’ll pay you for your time when I get back.”

“Sounds great. Ready, Emily? What would you like on your pizza?” The sitter took Emily’s hand and led her into the dining room to look at the pizza delivery flyer as Mia and Edward walked out the door.

“What’s your plan?”

He opened the back door of his car for her and followed her into the backseat. She felt a warmth between her legs when she sat in the same place as when they’d made love in the parking lot after their very first intense meeting.

“If I can get the documents that Jack got me to sign, I can destroy them before anything’s done with them.”

She took a breath, trying to clear her head from the distraction as the car pulled away from the curb. “That was last week. I’m sure he’s filed them by now.”

“Jack might have always had the upper hand when we were growing up. I knew I could never beat him. But he couldn’t stop me from learning from him. I know Jack almost better than he knows himself. He’s a smart man. He knows what he wants, and he goes off the cliff to get it. One thing I’ve learned is that he has faults. One of them is procrastination.”

“And we are relying on this?”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“You have a point.”

“He’s never been on time for anything. He puts off things until the last minute, and even pays for extensions on projects he could have completed on time.”

“Why don’t we call the police? Tell them what happened? He drugged you and forced you to sign documents you didn’t know you were signing.”

“It’ll be my word against his. By the time it goes through trial, even if we did win, he could have already caused irreversible damage.”

“I could talk to him. I could try to convince him that I changed my mind, and it would be in my best interests to work with him, or for him. I could get him to talk.”

“No way. I don’t want you to put yourself in danger.”

“If I can convince him, I might be able to get close enough and find out if he made the paperwork legal. If we do this together, he won’t have a chance to hurt me. We can make this work if we do it right.”

Edward leaned forward and grabbed Mia’s arms, pulling her toward him. He looked directly into her eyes. “Stay away from Jack. Do you understand me? You don’t know what he’s capable of. We will figure this out another way. I just need to get the original documents first.”

“Okay. I’m sorry.”

He pulled his phone and made a call to find out where Jack was. When he hung up, he seemed deep in thought. “He is golfing today. He should be gone most of the day.” Edward had his driver take him back to his house and gave him the rest of the day off. He led Mia to the garage, where they drove themselves to Jack’s house. “It’s safer if fewer people know what we are doing.”

“You don’t even trust your own driver?”

“People aren’t loyal to their employers. They’re loyal to money. Don’t ever forget that.”

“So, Jack might have bribed him to keep an eye on you.”

“Exactly. He would have the upper hand.” They climbed into a beautiful crimson 1956 Corvette convertible and took off toward Jack’s house.

When the car stopped behind the house, Edward and Mia climbed out. She looked up at the massive house, smiling at its old-fashioned beauty. “How will we get inside?”

Edward pulled a key from his pocket. “Always be prepared against your enemy. When he is family, it’s a little easier to do.”

“And you continue to impress me.” She followed him to the back door, and within seconds, they were inside. “No alarm system?”

“It malfunctioned a few months back. He never got around to getting it fixed.”

“Procrastination.” They said in unison.

After several minutes of rifling through his office, they found nothing pertaining to what they were looking for. They checked the entire house, upstairs and downstairs and came up with nothing. “It seems like he would keep such precious documents in a safe or something.” Mia looked around the room they ended up in. “There’s no safe anywhere in here.”

“He never kept one here. But, there is one in his office at Donovan Tech.”

“He wouldn’t hide them there. That’s too risky.”

“Precisely why he would.” He sat at Jack’s desk and turned on his computer. “He knows I wouldn’t think to look there.”

“Even if they were there, how will you get into his safe? You can’t tell me you have that too.”

“Not yet.” He opened Jack’s main document file and searched until he clicked on one labeled passwords.

“Seriously?”

“I told you. He’s not that smart or meticulous.”

“I can’t believe my entire future, our entire future, is riding on your awful brother’s problem with procrastination and detail.”

“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth.” He pounded away at the keys on the keyboard. “He may be conniving, but he isn’t always the smartest about the little stuff.”

“What are you doing?”

“Causing a disturbance in DT’s network.” His fingers flew across the keys. Mia watched him work, impressed with the way his plan was unfolding. He closed it down and stood up, grabbing Mia’s hand. “Come on.” They ran out of his office and out the back door.

“I don’t understand what causing a problem in your network will do to help us.”

“I know, but trust me.” He walked to the back of the car and opened the small trunk. He pulled out two dark blue uniforms. He held one up to show the label sewn onto the front.

“Comp Tech Repair? We’re going in disguised as repair technicians? I don’t understand. Why don’t you just walk in?”

“It won’t be that easy. He’ll have a security team.”

“You own the company. Tell them they can go home early.”

“I wish it were that easy. Besides, the fewer people who know why I’m there and what I’m doing, the better.”

“Like your driver.”

“Yep.”

“Where’d you get this stuff?” She pulled a short blonde wig from a duffle bag.

“Would you believe it if I told you a Halloween store?” He seized it away from her and wiggled it on her head. He leaned back and smiled. “Maybe we can use this later.” He grabbed her and pulled her close, kissing her playfully and grabbing her butt.

She laughed and pulled the wig off her head, smacking him with it.

By the time they pulled into the parking garage at DT, they were dressed and ready to go, Edward sporting a shaggy goatee and Mia with her hair tucked in under her blonde wig. He grabbed a brown canvas bag full of tools from the back and led her in through the front doors.

Once they cleared security and convinced them the system was messed up, they weren’t long in getting to Jack’s office and getting his safe open.

“This is going so smoothly.” Mia felt an excitement building. She was almost free from Jack and his hold on her. “I can’t believe it was this easy, and sort of fun.” She picked at Edward’s uniform while he slouched over the safe. “We could do it right here on Jack’s desk. Wouldn’t that be the ultimate revenge?”

Edward opened the safe and pulled some documents out. “I don’t believe we’ll be celebrating any time soon.” He studied the documents but didn’t look happy.

“What is it?”

“These are just copies.”

“Where are the originals? They have to be in there.” She fell to her knees and started digging around inside, desperate that they had gotten so close and refusing to admit defeat. She was pulling everything out of his safe until Edward stopped her.

“Mia. Stop. They aren’t here.”

She dropped her arms to her sides and slouched down into a pile of disappointment. “We were so close.”

“And we aren’t giving up now.”

“So, now what?”