“How…” She paused, not wanting to give him the wrong impression. “How you can never really know most people.”
His lips turned down. “Like me?”
Reaching over, she put her palm on the back of his neck. “You’ve shown yourself to me.”
“I hope you think that.” He gave her a wary glance. “Because I have. What you’ve seen, this heist, my work, that’s all there is to me. Or what was me.”
Tears of emotion filled Viv’s eyes. “I believe you.”
Suddenly, Markus pulled into a street-side parking spot.
“What are you doing?” They were still at least five minutes from HW.
He turned to face her and took both her hands in his. “You have no reason to put all that trust in me.”
It felt like someone was strangling her. What had happened to all the air?
“But I’m glad you have,” he added. “I swear, Viv, I won’t let you down.”
Closing her eyes, she dropped her forehead against his. One of his hands came up to twist in her hair and settle at the base of her neck. They sat there like that in silence, breathing and being together.
“I won’t let you down, either,” she whispered. “If there’s something in Mr. Romano’s office, I’ll find it.”
“Just be careful.” He drew back, wearing a grimace. “I hate that I can’t be in there with you, but someone has to be watchdog.”
“I know. I’ll be careful. Quick, too.”
They parked a street away from HW and then cut through a parking lot and a vacant area in order to reach the edge of the building. It was a formidable building, but because it contained offices and not labs, it didn’t have much security.
Viv thanked her lucky stars for that. HW’s labs, where they did testing and engineering, had a guard on-site twenty-four seven.
Ryder was already in position, crouched behind the tallest bush. “There they are. Bonnie and Clyde.”
“Who’s who?” Viv smirked at Markus, but he was the only one not smiling.
“In and out.” He looked at his wristwatch. “Can you do this in fifteen minutes?”
“It should only take a minute to get up there.” Viv looked to Ryder.
He cracked his knuckles. “Shit. I’m a professional, Markus. You know that. What’s a little hacking? Give me ten.”
“All right. Ten.” From his back pocket, he pulled the walkie-talkie he’d grabbed when they left the car. “Still have yours?”
“You know it.” Ryder opened his hoodie to reveal a matching walkie-talkie clipped to his pants.
“Okay.” Viv drew a deep breath. “Let’s go.”
It was one hour until the staff would begin to arrive, and the overnight cleaning crew should have left long ago. Unless, for some reason, someone decided to come into work early, the building should be empty.
And, if it wasn’t, Viv would claim she was picking up something from her old office and introduce Ryder as the boyfriend she never talked about. Easy as pie.
Hopefully.
“Be careful,” Markus warned.
She stopped to give him a quick peck on the lips, and then walked between a space in the bushes. With Ryder at her side, they strode across the parking lot as nonchalantly as possible.
At the side entrance, she swiped her access card. Even though it was something she’d done over a thousand times, her heart pounded so fast she thought it might explode.
A green light flashed, and she sighed in relief.
“Afraid it wouldn’t work?” Ryder murmured.
“You never know.”
She yanked the door open, and they hurried inside.
“So where’s Dagger’s office?” he asked as they strode down a side hallway.
The idea of a pharmaceutical sales manager going by Dagger actually made her smile. A little.
“Top floor.” They stopped at an elevator and she punched the call button. “But I don’t know for sure that his office is unlocked. Did Markus tell you that?”
He shrugged. “Even if it is locked, it probably won’t take much to break in.”
“Right.” She thought about that for a second. “Exactly how many places have you broken into?”
“I don’t count.”
His wicked smile said otherwise.
“Right,” she repeated.
The elevator door opened, putting an end to the conversation.
By the time they reached the fifth floor, sweat coated Viv’s hands. “It’s this way.”
The open work space they walked through smelled sharp and fresh, a sign that it had been recently cleaned. As they walked past the tiny office that has once been Viv’s, a weird sensation hit her gut.
A second later, she realized it was relief. She’d disliked HW long before she found out her manager was a crime boss, but now, she really hated the place.
Mr. Romano’s office was at the very far end of the floor, away from the elevators but with corner windows. As predicted, the door was closed.
Viv tried the handle, but it didn’t turn.
“Let me see.” Ryder bent to inspect it, then pulled a twisted metal wire from his hoodie. Stretching it out, he pushed the end of it into the doorknob’s hole.
A moment later, there was a click.
“You did it,” Viv said in amazement.
He pushed the door open. “Pretty easy, really. You can do it with a hair clip, too.”
“I’ll file that away in case of future need.” She pushed the door open and stepped into the room.
The stale smell of coffee mixed with some sort of fruity air freshener hit her nose. A white mug from another day still sat on the desk, and a tie was draped over a chair in the corner.
Being in a room so lived in by Mr. Romano sent a chill through her. Never mind she’d been in the office loads of times before. Everything was different now.
Ryder went straight to the desk and took a seat behind the computer, but Viv stalled at the filing cabinet. Like with the door, it was locked.
“Hey.” She looked up. “Think I can put that trick to the test now?”
Without looking up from the computer screen, he pulled the wire from his pocket and handed it to her.
“Thanks.” She bent down and fiddled with the top drawer. “Is the computer password protected?”
“Sure is. No big deal, though. Give me a minute, and I’m…” His brow threaded together while his hands flew on the keyboard. “Nope. Don’t need a minute. I’m in.”
“Seriously?” She shook her head in disbelief. Markus hadn’t been kidding.
“Now to get onto his email, which should be even easier.”
Viv bent the wire another way and continued to mess with the lock. Finally, there was a satisfying pop and she was able to get the drawer open.
“Yes.” She couldn’t help but grin wide. “I’m not too bad at this crime thing.”
Folders lined the drawer, and she did a quick thumb through them. Nothing out of the ordinary. Even though she hadn’t really expected to find a file labeled “Evil Plans,” she was still disappointed.
Ryder’s walkie-talkie crackled.
“You guys in?” Markus asked.
Ryder only took one hand off the keyboard to answer. “We’re here. On his desktop.”
“Good. Stay sharp. Ryder, don’t let anything happen to her.”
“Mm-hmm,” he murmured, his full attention back on the computer.
Viv smirked to herself. It didn’t seem likely that she’d ever grow tired of Markus’ attention.
Finished with the top drawer, she moved on to the one below it. As she wiggled the wire the first time, it broke, leaving a piece in the lock.
“Shoot.”
“Found something,” Ryder said.
“Huh?” She abandoned the filing cabinet and joined him at the desk. “You just got started.”
“Yeah, but I said getting into his email should be the easiest part, remember?”
She looked over his shoulder. “That’
s a personal email address, isn’t it?”
“Sure is.”
She bit her bottom lip in excitement.
“Now we need to go through the trashed trash.” He opened up another screen that she didn’t understand, one filled with code, then clicked back and forth between that and the email page a few times.
“The trashed trash? Do you mean his emails that were cleared from the trash bin? You can get to those?”
“Maaay-be.”
While Ryder kept clicking and typing, she went to the window and parted the blinds. No activity in the parking lot. They didn’t have much time, though. Not leaving the office within fifteen minutes meant really cutting it close.
“Here’s something.”
She whirled around and, in a flash, was back at his side.
“What?”
“This email.” He pointed at it, and she read over his shoulder.
Brief, it was to an email address with no name attached to it. It talked about meeting to make “a trade,” and gave an address.
“Hm.” She frowned. “That could be about anything. When was it sent?”
He pointed at the date. “A few weeks ago.”
“Wait. That address…” It hit her. “I think I know that place. It’s a little office building. When Mr. Romano and I went to a conference together recently, he stopped there.”
“Stopped and did what?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I waited in the car while he went in. He didn’t have anything, and he didn’t come back with anything.”
“Could be he was checking on something.”
The weight of that settled, and Ryder slowly grinned.
“We need to get to that building,” he said.
“Yeah.” She licked her dry lips. “Can you send that email to us both and then delete any evidence of doing that?”
“Pfft. Please. Of course I can.”
“Excellent.” She checked the window again. “We need to go soon.”
“Is someone out there?”
“No.” The anxiety in her belly grew, though. “We just don’t have much time.”
“Okay… and… done.”
“Great.”
He powered off the computer. “No one will ever know we were here.”
She felt the piece of metal in the filing cabinet lock told a different story, but they didn’t have time to worry about that. Leaving the office, they locked the door behind them and jogged toward the exit.
“Let’s take the stairs.” Viv pointed at the exit stairs. “It’ll let us out by the trash, where no one ever parks. Just in case someone shows up.”
They flew down the stairs, elation filling her heart. They’d had success! There had to be something in that nondescript office building. They might not even need to break in there to find out what it was. Could be, all that was needed was an anonymous tip sent to the cops.
“Get out here, now!” Markus shouted over the walkie-talkie.
Viv slipped on a step. Her feet started to go out under her, and she caught the railing right in time.
“What?” She turned to look at Ryder, whose face was drawn tight.
“We’re exiting through the stairs on the northwest side,” Ryder said into the walkie-talkie. “What’s up?”
“Cars. Two of them.”
“They could be employees.” Viv’s voice shook.
“Do HW employees carry assault rifles?” Markus asked.
Her blood went cold.
“No,” she whispered. “No, they don’t.”
Chapter 20
Markus
“Come on,” Markus said between tight teeth.
Crouched behind the bushes near the garbage bins, he shot a glance toward the front of the building. He couldn’t see the two cars that had pulled up containing men wearing bandanas over their faces and holding guns, but they had only pulled up thirty seconds before.
The sound of car doors slamming made him cringe. Not good.
Suddenly, the door to HW’s emergency exit staircase burst open and Viv and Ryder came running out. Standing, Markus waved an arm at them.
The second they were within reach, he grabbed Viv’s hand and started moving.
“Stay low,” he said, running at a crouch through the foliage.
“That was close,” Ryder huffed.
Markus’ hackles raised. They weren’t out of the woods yet.
“How many?” Ryder asked.
“Two cars. At least five, all armed from what I could see.” He glanced over his shoulder and clocked Viv’s pale face.
“I think I’m gonna…” Instead of finishing, she vomited onto the ground.
Markus cursed. “I’ll carry you.”
“No, I’m fine.” She wiped her mouth and signaled for them to keep moving. “Morning sickness.”
“I knew this was a bad idea,” he hissed.
“We found something,” she said.
He didn’t have time to answer. A man shouted behind them.
“Run!” Markus pushed Viv in front of him.
The three of them took off, darting behind some palm trees. Bark exploded from the force of a bullet. Markus pumped his arms, everything white noise.
He had to get Viv out of there. Even if he didn’t make it, she had to.
There was more shouting, but it sounded further away. The trio ran across the empty lot in the middle of the block.
“We need to split up,” Ryder said, sucking in air as they ran.
Not slowing the pace, Markus caught his friend’s eye and nodded. They veered off, Ryder crossing the street and Markus and Viv going down the sidewalk, in the direction of his car.
“What about Ryder?” Viv asked breathlessly.
Markus unlocked his car from a distance, and they scrambled to get into it. “Don’t worry. He’s just as capable as us, if not more so.”
He didn’t bother buckling up. The second their asses were in the seats, he tore rubber. The tires clipped the curb, and an old man walking a dog stared in shock.
“Where are we going?” Viv asked, voice trembling.
He glanced in the rearview mirror. No cars.
Not yet, anyway.
“First things first, we need to lose them. You buckled?” He cut across traffic, eliciting honks from several different drivers.
After a couple blocks on a main road, he turned into a residential neighborhood that he knew had several exits and slowed to a crawl in order to blend in.
“Did you trip an alarm?” he asked.
“No.” Though they were no longer speeding, she clutched the handlebar above her head like her life depended on it. “I’ve gone in there early before. With my access card, it shouldn’t have been a problem.”
“Dagger must have had someone watching the building.” He worked his jaw. This was all his fault. He shouldn’t have let the two of them go in there.
“Maybe.” She glanced behind them. “Do you think we lost them?”
“Hard to say. There could be scouts in other areas, too.”
“Ryder found something. An email about a trade happening at a certain office building. I know where it is, too. Mr. Romano—Dagger—and I stopped there on the way to a conference a few weeks ago. I waited in the car, though.”
“Really?” He left the neighborhood and entered another one. Good thing he knew Jacksonville like the back of his hand. It would take a while, but he could get them out of the city using only the most overlooked streets.
“Yeah. And we don’t even need to go there. We could send in a tip to the police. They have to be looking for Dagger, right?”
“I’m sure they at least have a file on him.”
The news should have brightened his mood, but it didn’t. They were still running for their lives, with no indication of when that would change.
“Markus?”
“Yeah.” He sighed. “That’s good. Are you okay? Did you get hurt at all? Do you need to throw up again?”
“I’m okay, than
ks.”
The bags under her eyes had gotten heavier. They needed to get to a safe place soon, so she could rest.
“Once we’re in the clear, we’ll send your tip to the Jacksonville police,” he promised.
“Good.”
He swallowed against the knot in his throat.
“I think I should call Veronica again,” she said. “What if Dagger has gotten to her?”
“The burner phone is in… damn.”
“What?” she asked.
He hit the gas, taking a sharp right turn. “They found us.”
Viv turned in her seat to look.
“Keep your head down.”
He ran a red light. For a second, he thought he’d lost the car tailing them, but then the SUV plowed right through the red as well. It nearly hit a van in the process, but that didn’t slow it down.
“Markus…”
A few sharp pings meant bullets had hit the car. Crouching low, he focused all of his energy on driving.
Left. Another red ignored.
The police were sure to be on them any minute, in between the crazy driving and the guns being fired. Apparently, Dagger seemed to find the risk worth it. He wanted Markus—and maybe Viv as well—dead.
He took another turn, this time down an alley that would come out in a shopping center parking lot. From there, he could reemerge into traffic and maybe finally lose the assholes.
Except…
A thick, chain fence blocked the exit.
“Hold on,” he said.
Viv made a fearful noise. He jammed the pedal to the floor and hit the fence.
An awful screeching filled the air. The whole world shook. Markus’ temple hit the window, and pain shot through his head.
“Markus.” Viv’s voice sounded so far away. “We hit a concrete pole.”
She shook his shoulder. Slowly, he blinked his eyes into focus. His head ached something awful, and the warm liquid trailing down his face could only be one thing.
His hand shaking, he drew his gun. “When you get the chance, run. Go to the police. They’re the only ones who can keep you safe now.”
Her eyes widened. “What? No! I’m not leaving you.”
“Viv.” He grabbed her shoulder and peered into her face. “You’re doing this for our baby.”
She opened her mouth, but only a strangled sob emerged. Tears ran down her cheeks. She nodded.
Sinner - A Bad Boy's Baby Romance Page 13
