by Paige Tyler
* * * * *
ARE YOU SURE this is the right address?” Hayley asked, looking out the side passenger window at the small building beyond the curb where they were parked. “This looks more like an office building.”
Kyla couldn’t disagree. Sandwiched between two unoccupied business available for lease, it didn’t even have a sign saying it was a restaurant. “It’s the address on the card and the one on the Internet.”
She pulled out her phone and checked Google again, but the address continued to come back in every way as a small restaurant, complete with up-to-date tax records and health code inspections. Regardless of what the Internet said, there was no way this place was a functional restaurant. The parking lot wasn’t even big enough to hold more than three or four cars and it was obvious the place was closed even though it was fast approaching lunch time.
Deciding she wasn’t going to figure anything out by sitting in her car, Kyla opened her door and stepped outside. “I’m going to check it out.”
Harley jumped out and caught up to her as she headed for the building. “Do you have a plan or are you going to do something crazy that’s going to get us arrested. Which is fine if that’s the way you want to go. I’d just like to know.”
“I’m just going look in the windows and see what we can see.”
Unfortunately, trying to peek in through the blinds covering the windows turned out to be a waste since they were heavily tinted and it was dark inside.
“Dammit.” She sighed in frustration. “I have a lock pick set in the car, but Owen and Andrew are much better at using it than I am. I guess we could always throw a rock through the window and hope no one sees us. There isn’t a lot of traffic right now.”
Kyla expected an immediate snort of derision from Hayley. Smashing in a window wasn’t the brightest idea and she couldn’t imagine actually doing it, but her friend didn’t say anything. Kyla glanced at Hayley to see her regarding the window thoughtfully. Like maybe she was evaluating the potential for that smash-and-dash idea.
“I wasn’t serious about throwing a brick through the window, you know,” Kyla said.
“Even if you were, I don’t think it’d work,” Hayley said. “Look how thick this glass it. I’m pretty sure it’s bulletproof.”
Kyla did a double take. “Seriously?”
She stepped closer to the window to see that Hayley was right. The glass was easily over half an inch thick.
“Why would a pizza place be this well protected?” she wondered out loud.
“It wouldn’t be.” Hayley folded her arms. “Unfortunately, we aren’t getting in there to see what’s really inside unless we have a key.”
“Maybe we do.”
Kyla had no idea why the hell the thought popped into her head, but she reached into her pocket and pulled out the set of keys that had been in the box she and Hayley looked through earlier. She flipped through the key chain, trying each of them to see if they fit the lock on the door. The fourth one she tried fit perfectly. Pushing open the door, she cautiously poked her head inside and saw that it definitely wasn’t a restaurant.
Stepping inside, she flicked on the lights, revealing a big room with a small bathroom off to one side. Two big desks occupied the center of the room along with several comfortable looking rolling office chairs. Kyla almost started drooling at the sight of the multiple processors and the high-definition monitors mounted around the room. Five laser printers were lined up on a table along the back wall and racks full of blank disks, external hard drives, boxes of copy paper, and printer cartridges stood to either side of the back door.
Crap.
If Kyla wanted to make the perfect hacking rig and had unlimited money, the system she’d come up with would be something like this.
She walked over to the closest desk and froze at the sight of a framed photograph sitting right there in plain view. It was the same picture of her and her mom that her father had kept in his wallet. She pulled out the leather chair and sank down into it. This was her dad’s place. He had a Bat Cave. With probably fifty-thousand dollars worth of computer equipment and bulletproof windows. In the middle of town.
Hayley was nice enough to remain quiet while Kyla had a minor meltdown, pondering the fact that there’d been parts of her father’s life she—and probably her mother—knew absolutely nothing about.
First Wes and his job, and now this.
Dammit, she hated secrets!
She gazed at the computers, surprised to see they’d started booting up the moment she’d turned on the lights. That was pretty cool considering it had been about a year since her dad had been in here. Unless someone else had access to the place.
When the desktop popped up on every screen around the room, the first thing Kyla saw was the login box. Taking a breath, she typed in the same password he’d used at home—his pet name for her as a kid and the year she was born.
Pumpkin1997
The moment she pressed the ENTER key, the monitors were filled with icons and file folders. Some were for hacking programs and subroutines she recognized. Others were for software she’d never seen in her life. She thought her dad had taught her everything he knew.
Apparently not.
She clicked on a random folder icon and found a whole screen full of files. Another click brought up a password request, indicating the file was encrypted. Clicking around a few more files proved all of them were encrypted. And no, the earlier password didn’t work.
Hayley crossed the room to stand beside her. “What is all this stuff?”
“I’m not sure about the files.” She took out the business card that’d led her here. “But the computers tell me that my dad was hacking for someone, though whether is was black hat work or white hat, I have no idea. It seems my father had a whole secret life I didn’t know anything about.”
“Any idea who he might have been working for?” Hayley asked, looking around the room at all the screens, as if something there might tell her something.
Kyla flipped the card over to look at the number on the back. On impulse, she punched it in on her phone. There was a single ring, then a click.
“You have a secure connection,” a flat, emotionless voice said.
Kyla pulled back and stared at the phone. What the hell kind of way was that to answer a call? She’d gotten more warmth from the fax machine she’d called by mistake the other day.
“My father, Malcolm Wells, had this phone number in his wallet,” she said with a bit more confidence than she felt. “I’m guessing he did hacking work for you. Could you tell me who I’ve reached?”
There was silence for a moment, then the voice was back…with a lot more emotion this time. “Who is this, how did you get this number, and where are you right now?”
“The answer to your first question isn’t important,” she said sharply, seeing the concerned look Hayley gave her. “I already answered the second one, and I can’t believe you think I’m dumb enough to answer the third.”
There was a click and the phone went dead. She quickly pressed the redial button and got a message saying the number was no longer in service, which was crazy since it had been working fine seconds ago.
“Did you just do something really stupid?” Hayley asked.
Kyla put her phone away, then gazed at the computer screens filled with files that would likely take hours to access. “Probably.”
What the hell had her dad been involved in? Maybe Nesbitt had been telling the truth about when he said someone else had hired Stavros to murder her father.
CHAPTER EIGHT
I’VE GOT DORITOS,” Wes called from the kitchen. He and Kyla had gone to dinner before seeing a movie, but the pizza they had was a while ago and he could definitely eat again. Besides, you had to have junk food if you were playing video games. “What are you in the mood to drink with them?”
“Soda is fine,” she said from the living room. “Diet if you have it.”
He grabbed the bag of chips from the
cabinet, wondering if he should go all out and put them in a bowl. Figuring it’d earn him some points in the boyfriend department if he did, he dumped them in a bowl, then went into the living room to set it on the coffee table before going back for their drinks. By the time he came out, Kyla was already sitting on the couch nibbling on a chip and staring absently across the room like she was a million miles away. He’d caught her doing the same thing several times tonight. Something was clearly on her mind. When he’d gently nudged her about at the restaurant, then in the theater before the movie started, she’d deftly steered the conversation in a different direction both times.
Part of him was worried this was about the bruises she’d seen the other night—and that he couldn’t tell her anything about how he’d gotten them.
“You okay?” he asked, sitting down beside her. “You’ve been a little quiet tonight.”
He expected her to tell him it was nothing and change the subject, but instead, she gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry. The prosecutor’s office dropped off a box full of my dad’s stuff the other day. Going through it with Hayley was tough. I ended up learning some things about my father that caught me off guard.”
The pain in her eyes made his heart hurt. “You want to talk about it?”
She shook her head. “Not right now. I think I want to spend a little time thinking through the implications on my own. But thanks for the offer. It means a lot.”
Wes smiled. “The offer is good for as long as you need it. When you’re ready to talk, I’ll be here.”
Kyla leaned in for a kiss and he met her halfway. Their lips came together a split second later, their tongues teasing and tangling. She tasted like Doritos and that subtle feminine favor that was all her. Wes slid one hand into her long hair, groaning a little as she wiggled closer, almost climbing onto his lap. His cock immediately hardened, making his jeans more than a little uncomfortable, and he reluctantly pulled away. He loved making out with her, but he didn’t want her to think the only reason he’d brought her back to his place was because he expected to jump into bed. He was more than ready to take things at her pace.
“So…” he said slowly putting a little space between them even though he was having a difficult time looking at anything but those beautiful lips. “What video game do you want to play?”
She regarded him thoughtfully, her gaze sultry, and he wondered if she’d suggest they forget about the video game and go back to what they were doing a few seconds ago. But then she grabbed a handful of chips before settling back against couch with a smile and nibbling on a Dorito.
“You play Fortnite?” she asked, licking cheese powder off her lips.
How was it possible she could look so sexy eating a Dorito chip? Would she think he was crazy if he admitted to wanting to sit there and watch her do it for the next hour or so?
“Definitely.” Dragging his gaze away from her delectable mouth, he hopped up to turn on his Play Station and get the controllers. “I’ve downloaded the split screen mode for Battle Royale. It shouldn’t take long for us to find a game to drop into at this time of night.”
“Cool.” She bit into another chip. “Was work okay this morning?”
He nodded as he sat down beside her. “Yeah.”
Without going into detail, he told her SEAL Team 5’s working relationship with another federal agency was on thin ice because of security leaks. Kyla didn’t ask for more information than he was able to provide, which he appreciated. Even if he couldn’t tell her everything, it was nice being able to talk about the situation anyway.
“Does this other agency honestly think you and your Teammates are the ones responsible for the leak?” she asked.
“Yeah.” He scooped up a handful of chips. “Though to be honest, the people I work with in SEAL Team 5 are just as sure the leak came from the other end, so it isn’t like we trust them, either.”
“But they expect you to keep working with this other team?” She sipped her drink. “That must be…difficult.”
“Yeah. It sucks not being trusted.”
Kyla opened her mouth to say something, but then the game started and the two of them were being airdropped from a Battle Bus into a world gone mad with monsters and other players all trying to kill them. The first first minutes were simply a race to find weapons and equipment necessary to survive. They were supposed to work together as a duo to make it across the ever shrinking game map, and for a while, they did, wiping out at least twenty other players. He thought they might even have a shot at winning the whole thing—right up to the point when Kyla decided she’d rather play with Wes than with her Play Station 4 controller.
“Bored with the game?” he asked as Kyla traced warm kisses along the side of his neck until her lips captured his earlobe and began to tug. Suddenly, it was very difficult to focus on killing zombie-like monsters.
“It wasn’t so much that I was bored,” she whispered, her breath warm in his ear, one hand coming up to play with his hair. “I simply like this game more.”
As she went back to nibbling, Wes had to admit he liked this game a lot more, too. Her mouth on his skin felt so good that when a truck driven by another player ran over his in-game avatar, squishing him flat as a pancake, he tossed his controller aside and urged Kyla onto his lap. Out the corner of his eye, he saw her avatar get pulled down by a mob of angry robotic zombie things. That sucked. But being able to kiss her certainly made up for it.
Kyla straddled his lap, the heat at the junction of her thighs making him ache with need to move things past the kissing stage. It only got more intense when she started grinding her hips, pressing herself against his growing hard-on like she wanted to drive him insane.
“You keep grinding like that and I’ll start getting the idea that you want this game to move somewhere else,” he murmured against her mouth. “Like my bedroom.”
She laughed, gyrating her hips in little circles. “Who says we’ll even get to the bedroom? That wall over there looks rather tempting.”
He pulled away to capture her gaze. “You sure about this? I’m fine with taking our time. We don’t have to rush into anything.”
Kyla draped her arms loosely across his shoulders and smiled at him, her expression so bright and full of life it made Wes wonder what the hell he’d done to find a woman this amazing.
“Who’s rushing?” She leaned forward until her forehead was touching his. “We might only be dating officially for a few days, but we both know this thing between us has been building for a long time. I’m ready to take the next step…unless you aren’t.”
Just a few minutes ago, he’d been thinking she might be getting ready to dump him and now she was asking him to take her to bed. It wasn’t a stretch to assume this had something to do with the box the prosecutor had dropped off. Wes could understand wanting to have a little physical contact to reaffirm she was part of the living world after dealing with whatever was in it.
“I think you already know how interested I am,” he said. “And I’m still willing to wait if that’s what you need. But if you want me to take you to bed right now, then that’s what I want, too. I’m here for you always.”
He caught a glimmer of moisture in the corners of her eyes, but then she smiled. “Take me to bed.”
* * * * *
SLIDING HIS HANDS under her butt, Wes stood and headed for the bedroom. Kyla wrapped her legs more tightly around his waist, gaze locked with his. She would have remarked on how strong he was, but the moment was too perfect to interrupt.
Wes’s bedroom was exactly the way she’d imagined, with off-white paint, mismatched furniture, and a disturbing lack of anything on the walls. But the big bed topped with blankets and pillows looked more than comfortable enough.
Kyla expected him to take her straight there, but instead he moved over to a low dresser, propping her butt on the edge.
She was about to ask him what was up with that, but he was already pulling her shirt over her head. He quickly stripped off h
is own and Kyla had only a second to get a glimpse of rippling muscles and six-pack abs before he was reaching for her bra. She moved to help him, both of them yanking at the clasp at the same time. Then Wes’s warm mouth was on her neck, working steadily downward as he put a hand on her shoulder and gently pressed her against the mirror on the back of the dresser.
Kyla buried her fingers in his silky hair as she urged him lower, but Wes continued his slow descent, taking his time to kiss, nibble, and lick ever inch of exposed skin. As if knowing her collar bone was especially sensitive, he paused there for a bit, running his tongue along it.
“Lower,” she moaned, arching her back in an attempt to get that wonderful mouth of his right where she wanted it. “Don’t tease me.”
When he finally wrapped his lips around one of her nipples and twirled his tongue around the sensitive tip, she shuddered so hard she probably would have fallen off the dresser if the legs she had wrapped around Wes’s waist weren’t keeping her safely in place.
He took his time moving from one breast to the other, caressing her with his hands when he wasn’t using his mouth. She sighed, eyes rolling back as her head lulled to the side. She’d never had a man spend so much time focusing on her pleasure like this.
Kyla was so caught up in the moment she didn’t realize Wes had unbuckled her belt and popped the buttons on her jeans until she felt him tug the tight material over her hips. She helped as much as she could, considering her legs were still wrapped around him. It took a little bit of work—and a lot of laughter—but before long, she was completely naked.
Wes stood back and regarded at her perched there on the dresser like she was a work of art. She liked him looking at her that way. Like she was the most beautiful woman in the world.
Gaze riveted on her, he kicked off his boots, then hurriedly shoved down his jeans in a way that made her think he wanted her as much as she wanted him. When she got a look at how hard he was, that only confirmed it. All graceful muscle and strength, he was perfection.
