CHAPTER EIGHT
Lexi lay on her stomach on the bed, propped up on her elbows and her ankles crossed in the air as she scanned the data coming into her computer. Her husband was seated at the desk, which he’d turned into a mobile tech lair.
As soon as the tour had ended, Parker had checked in with Titan and then they’d snagged lunch to-go at a café. They hustled to the room, and five minutes after logging in, he had gained full access to the data he needed. The Russian transactions were coming in piecemeal, and while breaking the encryption wasn’t too challenging, it was tedious.
Remaining on-site after the hack was necessary. If the code stopped working, they needed to be close by to react and adapt. Parker had even said he’d attempt to infiltrate the server room a second time if needed. But they were perfectly safe, he assured her.
They’d been at it for three long hours now, uploading packets to Titan HQ every thirty minutes, and Lexi needed a break. Her gaze wandered from the screen, drifting to the side table that held the coffee pot and mugs.
She grinned when she spotted the green bottle. “Hey. That wasn’t there this morning.”
Parker turned in his seat and looked at what she was talking about. A bottle of champagne and two glass flutes. He stood, went to the table, and picked up the note card beside it. “Congrats on a job well done,” Parker read aloud. “From Jared. P.S. This was Sugar’s lame idea.”
The corner of his mouth quirked upward.
Jared’s wife, Sugar, had become one of Lexi’s best friends. “That was nice of them,” she said. “I wouldn’t say no if you wanted to pour me a glass.”
“It’s not cold.”
“We can remedy that. Go grab some salt packets from a restaurant downstairs, and a bucket of ice from vending. We’ll have it chilled in the sink in less than thirty minutes.”
It wasn’t even four o’clock, and she typically didn’t day-drink, but didn’t they deserve it? Parker’s code was working flawlessly, and obviously they had his boss’s blessing. Another hour or so and they’d be done uploading the files. Titan had paid for two nights at the Sycamore, and the helicopter wasn’t set to pick them up until tomorrow morning. Once they landed at Titan HQ, her husband would roll right into his next job.
“I finished the Paradigm program this morning, so we have two things to celebrate,” she said.
Parker grinned. “Yeah?”
She was feeling wild and free, riding the high of his hack by proxy. “After we’re done with the uploads, I want to have a romantic dinner.” She rose onto her knees and crawled across the bed toward him, working her voice as seductive as she could get it. “Then, I want to repeat the amazing sex we had last night.” She cupped the sides of his neck and brushed her lips over his. “I was thinking we could spend a little time in the awesome walk-in shower we’ve got here.”
Because she was dying to have him under the stream of water, his gorgeously cut body slippery with soap.
Her husband’s gaze hooded and his kiss seared over her lips. His hands closed on her waist, drawing her closer, deepening the passion between them, but Lexi pulled back. It was like he wanted dessert before dinner, and although she did, too . . . “We still have work to do, Parker.”
He shot her a lopsided grin as he straightened, reached down, and shifted himself in his pants. “Damn, woman. You make it hard to want to leave this room.”
The ice bucket was snatched up off the table, but before he left, Parker gave his computer screens another look. “Is it just me, or does this data seem—”
“Off? I don’t speak Russian, but if this is their financials, where are the numbers?”
He frowned. “I ran it through a translating app, but it came back gibberish.” He shook his head. “I’ll text HQ and see what they have to say about it.” He tucked the ice bucket under his arm. “Be back in a few.”
When the door closed behind him, Lexi returned to her computer and her task, but the nagging feeling about the data intensified. While the encryption crack was running, she pulled up a side window and dumped an excerpt from the last file she’d unlocked into a simple translator.
What Parker had said was true. The text she’d copied seemed to be an assortment of random things, names, or places. It wasn’t even structured in sentences. It read more like a list than anything else, and cold shivered down her spine at the thought. Whatever this list was, it couldn’t be good.
The knock on the door startled her off the bed. She was relieved Parker was back already. She’d expected it to take him a while—
It wasn’t her husband. The man in the hallway was similar in age to her, maybe mid-thirties. His dark blond hair was longer on top than the sides, and his face was pleasant, but the build he was hiding under a sport coat seemed intimidating. He appeared just as surprised to see her as she was him. Was he lost?
He stood there for a long moment as his gaze scrutinized her, then moved beyond to peer into the room. She shifted her stance, blocking his view. “Can I help you?”
The stranger’s mouth turned up into a half-smile, and the way it didn’t reach his eyes set Lexi instantly on edge. She wasn’t one to make snap-judgements, and yet her body acted on a subconscious level. She shoved the door, trying to slam it closed in the guy’s face.
He was too fast.
He stepped into the doorway and stopped the door with his foot, and the sickening smile on his face widened as he advanced into the room. She was going to scream, but the sound choked off in her throat when he drew a gun from inside his jacket. A very black, deadly-looking gun, and she’d seen enough action movies to know the long, silver piece at the end of the barrel was a silencer.
She backed up so quickly, she slammed into the edge of the bed and fell, sitting down. The man raised one finger to his lips, gesturing for her to be quiet, and his aim didn’t waver. The threatening weapon gleamed when he kicked the door closed behind him. Every muscle in her body tightened to the point of pain, keeping her immobile on the edge of the bed.
“Quite the setup you’ve got,” he said, nodding toward Parker’s computers and secure satellite link. “That’s a lot of screens for one person. Where’s your partner?”
Her mouth was a desert and her voice sounded foreign to her when she spoke. “I don’t have one.” Thank God Parker had put their suitcase and clothes in the closet and shut the door. The bed was made. The bathroom door was closed. Other than the multiple computers and the pair of champagne flutes, it looked like Lexi was the only one staying in the room.
The man’s eyes were the same silver as the silencer, and his gaze narrowed with distrust. “I don’t believe you, and that means we’re already off to a bad start.”
She had a moment of foolish bravery. “You pulled a gun on me, so I’d say so.”
He grinned once more, like he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “Got some balls on you, huh?”
She was smart enough not to answer the gunman’s rhetorical question, and she needed to be thinking about how she was going to warn Parker.
“Look at you, girl,” he said, sauntering closer. “You’re barely shaking. Aren’t you afraid?”
She was. Terrified not just for herself, but for her husband. And Lexi hated guns, but unfortunately, “This isn’t the first time I’ve been on the business end of one of those.”
“This part usually goes quicker when people are scared. It makes them honest.”
Dread slid down her. “This part?”
“My employers need to know who you work for.”
Ah. So, it’d be interrogation before the execution, then. “I’m a freelancer,” she stalled.
He scowled, and his face became much less pleasant. “There you go again with the lies. If my gun’s not enough of a threat, believe me when I tell you I can be downright terrifying.”
She most definitely believed him. The sick gleam in his eye made her stomach roll.
“Try again,” he snapped, impatient. “Who do you work for?”
“I don’t know!” It wasn’t technically a lie. She wasn’t sure exactly where the data was ending up. Titan? The CIA?
The gunman pressed the silencer point-blank to her forehead and she squeezed her eyes shut tight. The metal was cold, yet it seared like a hot iron against her skin. “Gimme a fucking name,” he growled. “Now.”
If she didn’t give him something, she knew this was the end. A sob welled inside her at what Parker would come back to in the room. The white bedspread stained red with her blood and a hole in her forehead. Thinking about him was more gutting than her own death. She needed to keep the gunman talking until she had some sort of plan. “BlackDawn,” she whispered. “I work for whoever goes by the hacker handle BlackDawn.”
His tone was annoyed. “What?” This wasn’t an expected answer, and it wasn’t one he’d be able to easily verify, either.
The gun was gone, and it released the air stuck painfully in her lungs. When she opened her eyes, he was staring at her like she was less than dirt. A major inconvenience, who had just fucked up his whole evening.
Funny, she thought bitterly. You did the exact same to me.
His phone was in his hand, he tapped the screen, and lifted it to his ear, all while he kept his gaze and his gun leveled on her. “I have a name,” he said into the phone. “BlackDawn.”
She could only guess what the person on the other end was saying. The gunman’s expression didn’t change. It didn’t give anything away.
“Understood. Let me see what else she knows, dig deeper. I haven’t even started yet.”
Lexi swallowed so hard, it was painful. Her gaze followed the phone as he slipped it inside his jacket, and then she dragged her focus upward. His grin was all teeth and malice.
Knuckles rapped on the door, making her flinch. Shit! She still didn’t have a plan.
The gunman glared at her, but she was willing to give it the performance of her life. “Who is it?” she shouted. Could Parker hear her strained voice through the thick door?
“Ice service,” he said. His joking, amused tone broke her heart. It stopped beating all together when the gun was back, pressed against her temple.
“Make him go away,” the gunman ordered in a low, dark voice.
“No, thank you,” she cried. “I don’t want any.”
“Lex?” Parker sounded beyond confused. “Can you open the door?”
The gunman gripped a handful of hair at the top of her skull and bent down so his mouth was right by her ear. “I knew it, you lying bitch.”
She gasped as he shoved her away and marched for the door.
The plan formed in a split-second, and she went with it. She dashed around the bed, wrapped her fingers on the neck of the champagne bottle, and charged. The gunman had his back to her, probably thinking she wouldn’t dare leave the bed. He yanked the door open, and came face to face with Parker.
The man didn’t get a chance to say anything. She swung the thick bottle of champagne at his head with all the force she had in her body.