Chapter 16
Well over an hour later she lifted her head off her damp bedding and smiled at him. His arms were thrown across his forehead, his heart just starting to calm as his breathing slowed. She leaned over and kissed his chin gently. He dropped his arm to wrap around her, pulling her close. Against her ear he whispered, “Where have you been all my life?”
She snuggled in closer and replied, “Waiting for you to show up. How silly that we had to go to Canada first to meet.”
She loved the low rumble as his chuckle worked its way out of his chest. Such a lovely sound. She laid her head against his shoulder and smiled. “Now, if all that shit around us wasn’t happening, this would be perfect.”
He squeezed her gently. “It’s perfect regardless.”
She grinned. “Okay, I’ll give you that. I still would like to know they caught the asshole up north.”
“We’ll get an update when there’s one to give.”
“You’re more trusting than I am.”
“Nope,” he said casually. “But I have a long reach, and I’ll get some information soon.”
She nodded. “I’m so tired, but, at the same time, my mind is spinning.”
“That’s lack of food.”
“Did you ever order that pizza?” She pushed herself upright and stared into his face. When she realized he hadn’t yet, she groaned. “We’ll die of starvation. You know that, don’t you?”
He grinned, his gaze lowering to the lush breasts against his chest. “I can’t think of a better way to die.”
She spun, swatted his hand as it slid down to her cheek. “Oh, no you don’t. Get up and order pizza. I’ll get some clothes on, then I should take care of my camera equipment. Considering the problems I’ve had, I’d like to go through my gear to make sure it’s all here and that all my photos have been sent to cloud storage.”
“All that before bed?”
She nodded. “It won’t take long. By the time we’re eating our pizza, I should have it all done.” She bent down and gave him a long, slow kiss. “Besides, I’ll need the energy before I go to bed.”
He raised one eyebrow. “You need energy to sleep?” But his voice was teasing and warm.
She chuckled and slid off the side of the bed, her hands stroking down Easton’s massive chest to his flat hips, sliding across the inside of his thigh, teasing gently through his curly hair as she worked her way to an upright position.
Instantly his body responded.
“You might not need energy,” she said wryly, “but I got that blood sugar issue, remember?”
“Absolutely I remember.” He hopped off the bed beside her and walked into the bathroom. “You realize you completely soaked all my clothes.”
“You’re the idiot who got into the running shower fully dressed,” she called back.
She walked to her dresser and pulled out a pair of yoga pants and a camisole. She didn’t want to get dressed in anything more confining than that at this point. Besides she was hoping to be in bed right after they’d eaten. She intended to make the most of every minute she had with him. And all that time she would let him know where he belonged—with her.
She pulled her hair into a braid that draped around her shoulder and reached for a band. Secured, she took one look at him standing there, holding his soaked clothes, and the look of dismay on his face. She burst out laughing.
“I’ll put them in the dryer,” she said. “Or do you want them washed first?”
She pointed to the laundry utilities inside the closet, and he stuffed his clothes into the washing machine and turned it on. Still nude, he grabbed his bag from the front of the hall, carried it into the bedroom, where he pulled out fresh clothing.
As soon as he put on jockey shorts, she sighed sadly, turned and said, “I’ll be set up in the kitchen.”
In the living room, she went to her bags. Moving the one packed with clothing into her bedroom, she grabbed her camera gear and took it to the kitchen.
She scrounged in the cupboard to see if she had a bottle of wine. Finding one on the top shelf, she pulled it out in case he wanted some. She thought about coffee, but it was pretty late, and she didn’t want anything to keep her up. Then she realized, by staying awake, she could enjoy him more. She put on coffee.
He wandered into the kitchen, looking at all her gear. “Wow. There’s a lot of stuff here.” He picked up a camera, looking through the viewfinder. “I didn’t see these before.”
“Nope. You wouldn’t have. I keep them in the bag. It’s mostly lenses. I have one main SLR camera and a couple snap-and-shoots just for when the occasion demands a quick response. That’s my old favorite in the bag, but it’s not in the same shape anymore, not anything like the others. Once I upgrade to a new one, it’s hard to let go of an old friend, so I just pack it with me anyway.” She grinned at the look on his face. “They’re friends. You don’t just let friends go.”
A look of understanding whispered across his face, and he smiled at her gently. “I’m sure you have other friends.”
“Of course I do.”
He reached inside and pulled out a film case. “Surely you are not still using these?”
She chuckled. “No, not at all. That went out years ago.”
He popped open the lid and pulled out a USB key, holding it up. “What’s this for?”
She turned after pulling two cups from the cupboard. “That’s not mine.”
He froze. “Are you sure?”
She put the cups on the counter, walked over and picked up the USB, turned it around and looked toward the film case. “I have one like this, but I keep batteries in it.” She placed the USB key on the table and dove into her bag. Sure enough, on the bottom, she found another film case, the same as the one he’d dug out. She popped off the top and showed him the batteries she always kept as spares. “This one’s mine. I don’t know about that one.”
The two of them stared at each other, then Easton said, “I’ll grab my laptop, and we’ll see what this is.”
She stared at the duplicate film case, wondering when she could have picked it up. When he returned with the laptop, he turned it on, waiting for it to boot up.
“You know, when I first arrived on base, the pilot escorted me into one of the offices with all the military’s computer equipment. As per Canada’s standard security check protocol, I took out the equipment I brought with me. To make sure there was no problem with any of the gear I use and to claim it as all my equipment,” she said quietly. “But a lot of equipment was already on the table. When I put everything down, it’s possible that, when I collected it all again, I thought that second film case was mine and put it into the bag.”
“And it’s quite possible that everybody who’s been after you has actually been after this.” He held it up in front of her, popped it into his laptop. But it was password protected. “I have a solution for that.”
She watched as he clicked away on his keyboard, then a program opened and raced through password combinations. “You’re trying to break the password?”
“I will break the password,” he said with a smile. “The question is, just how long will it take? Do you remember what was in that room or who was in that room when you took out your gear?”
She shook her head. “No, because I had just arrived. I was tired from all the traveling. I was excited to be there and wasn’t thinking about who else was around. When I picked up one of my cameras, I did take a couple photos, just randomly clicking, and somebody yelled at me. But I told him how I was just adjusting my camera and stuffed it away again. I wasn’t taking actual photos as they wouldn’t be any good.”
He looked at her. “Can you find them? Maybe we’ll see something of interest on those earliest photos.”
She nodded and sat down to go through her cameras. She loved the snap-and-point cameras. She picked up the first one, not knowing which one she had accidentally taken those initial pictures with. But getting back by date, she swiped through several of the photos, clicking until she found the right time frame.
Easton picked up his phone. “Hey, Devlin. We got two interesting developments here.”
She listened to him explain what they’d just found and how Easton was running a password detection packet on the USB key.
“I’m on my way over,” Devlin said. “Did you guys ever order that pizza?”
Easton chuckled. “Two large pizzas are on the way.”
“Awesome. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”
He placed his phone on the table beside him. “Devlin’s coming over. He wants to see what’s on the USB key too.”
*
“How long will it take to crack the password?” she asked, standing at his side.
The warm scent of her propelled his thoughts right back to the bedroom. “Hopefully not long.”
She placed two cups of coffee on the table beside them as the doorbell rang. They walked to the door and paid the pizza delivery driver.
In the kitchen, they grabbed pieces of the hot food and ate as the program worked. An hour into the search, the program stopped, giving a check mark of success. Easton quickly opened the program to see several folders. Clicking the first folder, he opened it and saw all kinds of diagrams. Not only the design of the water system the Canadian military had but also a list of all the names of those attending the camp. “Interesting.” He leaned in to study the plans. “That looks very similar. Similar but not the same. This is the next-generation water system development. Very interesting.” He quickly scrolled down farther to find blueprints and yet another list of names and ranks. And what appeared to be contact information. He stared at the last part, seeing many international addresses. This part was seriously bad news.
“How did they get this?” She studied the information. “This is espionage stuff.”
He nodded. “When you grabbed this other film case, the owner was in that room at the same time you were.” He turned to look at her. “Did you find any of the photos you were looking for?”
“Not yet. I’ll check further when I’m done eating.”
“Good. Maybe we’ll finally catch a break.”
Easton went to the other folders, realized this information was too important to keep. He sent Mason a quick text and copied the material to his own personal cyberspace storage. Mason responded while he removed the key from the laptop. Unfortunately Tesla hadn’t found any useable information in the images Easton had sent. Figures. They had to catch a break somewhere. Someone had been stealing information from the Canadians and the American military. He didn’t want to admit it, but, chances were, it was one of his own countrymen.
“I think I might’ve found something.” She frowned and leaned closer. “It should be one of these.”
He waited for her to explain when the doorbell rang. “That will be Devlin.”
He hopped up and walked to the front door, checked through the peephole and saw Devlin, then unlocked the door. Devlin stumbled inside as if pushed. Easton went to slam the door closed, but he was too late. The gunman was already inside.
Dressed all in black, the long lean male was impossible to identify as his outfit included a black mask.
“Sorry, Easton. He caught me as I exited the car,” Devlin snapped in a hard voice, glaring at the gunman.
Easton nodded. “No problem. We were just figuring out who this is. About time we got to the bottom of this mess.”
The gunman snorted. “You have no fucking clue who I am.”
Just then from the kitchen he heard Summer call out, “Found it.” And then she gasped again. “Oh, my God, I know this man. We all know this man.”
The gunman motioned at the two men to walk into the kitchen. “Join her.”
Easton and Devlin exchanged glances, but both turned obediently and walked into the kitchen.
Summer smiled at Devlin. “I found it.” She held the camera up to show him. “See?”
He didn’t need to see the image she had in her hand—he’d already recognized the voice of the gunman. He nodded at Summer and said gently, “Yeah, it’s the pilot.”