by Zoe Forward
“I’ve got more college degrees than you, remember?”
He managed a wry smile. “That’s not exactly true. I have three honorary degrees achieved in the past few years.”
“I actually graduated from undergrad. That makes me smarter. Sorry about the parent comment. That probably scared you a bit.” She granted him a goofy smile.
“I’ve never considered kids as a part of my big picture. I’m not good with them.”
“All you do is make games and things to go with the games. Toys. You’ll be a fun dad. You already have some great toys at home.” She smiled impishly. “I’d love to get my hands on one of those action figures and the Millennium Falcon for about an hour.”
Sternly, he said, “Those are not toys. Especially my ships.”
A laugh rolled out of her, which sounded good to him. “Let’s go to your place, Jake.”
“No touching my collectibles. They’re off limits. House rules.”
Her humor dissolved. “I’ll sleep on the sofa, so this doesn’t get weird. It’s just for tonight. I can bunk with Emma or someone else tomorrow.”
“Let’s get you out of here.” He pressed the elevator button again.
“What about Lisi? And Quan?”
He checked his phone, seeing a few messages. “Michael went to find Quan. He can figure it out. You’re done with everything for today. If you feel as lousy as I do after whatever the hell she shot us up with, then we both need to sleep it off.”
“Sleep sounds good.” The way she moved down the hallway, stiff and eyes glazed, said she wasn’t as all right as she claimed.
Jake’s phone rang. He answered before the elevator doors closed, “I got her, Michael. She’s coming with me. She’s fine.”
He tilted her chin to force her eyes to meet his gaze before they stepped outside. “You’re okay now. We’ll figure out everything tomorrow when we can think straight.”
She nodded and gave him a brave half-smile, which broke his heart.
28
“Want something to drink?” Jake asked, guiding her to the kitchen in his apartment.
“Water’s fine.”
He handed her a bottled water from the refrigerator.
She gazed at him while she sipped. His expression remained closed, unlike a half hour ago when he spoke of the past.
Jake’s cell phone rang. Neither of them moved.
“That ride with Noah wasn’t at all awkward,” she said sarcastically.
“My place is safer than his. If he hadn’t agreed, you’d be somewhere else.”
“If Tori wasn’t waiting for him at his place, he’d be here right now to chaperone. After today…” The numbers on the microwave clock blurred. She hated for him to see her cry again.
“Becca…” The warmth of his body surrounded hers. His arms closed around her. “You’re safe here. The lobby? Perhaps not, but up here, no one gets in unless I allow it.”
She rested her head on his chest, grateful for the security he offered. Taking a deep breath, she met his gaze. His six o’clock shadow, the straight line of his nose and the mild disarray of his hair… God, he was so beautiful. But distant.
“Come on,” he whispered. “Time to sleep. I’d pick you up, but I’m weak as hell. You’d never let me hear the end of it if I dropped you.” He took her hand and propelled her into an unfamiliar bedroom she hadn’t realized existed as a part of his apartment.
She sat on the edge of the bed, wincing at the twinge of pain along the crease of her stomach. An ugly bruise had spread over most of her skin when she’d peeked at it hours ago. The ache was dull, but she was lucky. The bullet hit the bulletproof vest, not a leg or an arm or her head.
She was lucky for so many things.
Air hitched in her throat as her heart swelled with the heightened emotions of the day and with everything she felt for Jake.
But he didn’t move toward her like she wanted. She wished to trace his lips with her fingers and kiss him. She needed him to say something. Instead, he just stood there, watching her from the doorway.
She said, “You’re not going to forgive me, are you?”
His gaze darkened.
She clenched her hands together. “Quan advised I not tell you what was going on. If I had, would you have gone through with it? Gone downstairs with me to get her to talk?”
“Probably not.”
“I did it to protect you and to catch Symphis. I didn’t know she planned to drug you.”
A long hiss of air escaped him. “But you suspected…no, you hoped she’d shoot at you. You prepared for it with an elaborate fake-death set up. You lucked out that for some bizarre reason she hit you in the chest or stomach like you hoped. I can’t believe Quan bet your life on the fact she’d go for that.” His face scrunched up. “The whole thing doesn’t add up for me, but I’m too fucking tired to process all of it right now. I can’t pretend I like how it happened.” Softly, he added, “You scared the hell out of me.”
“Jake…”
He turned to leave but paused to say over his shoulder, “Stay as long as you need.”
She had no clue where they stood nor what she wanted from him at this point. He was right. She should sleep off the drug to figure this out on a clear head.
She wanted to ask about Michael and if he’d talked to Quan but wasn’t about to bother Jake again. Attempting to sleep in the too-quiet room failed after a few minutes. Then she was using Jake’s landline. When Michael picked up, she said, “It’s Becca. Did you speak with Quan?”
“Becca? You okay?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I got spooked. That’s all.”
“This whole thing has been insane. I did talk to Quan via phone. Lisi must’ve been hiding some sort of poison, at least that’s what the NSA thinks. She was Symphis. It’s over.”
“It doesn’t feel like it’s done. I thought that woman was about to tell me something before Quan came into the room. Then they talked about games before she died.”
“Don’t worry about it tonight. Sleep on it. We can talk tomorrow.”
Becca woke up as alone in the bed as she’d been when she conked out after speaking with Michael. And still in her bra. She’d managed to get out of her jeans last night before passing out.
She stared at the ceiling for a few moments, and then yanked off the covers, missing their warmth. The bedside clock read six-fifty.
The smell of coffee beckoned. She stalked to the kitchen in her T-shirt.
Jake stood at the stove with a spatula in one hand, his other hand scrolling through screens of a document on his laptop. Multi-tasking at its finest.
She wanted to wrap her arms around his bare back, but she wasn’t welcome to do that. Instead, she leaned against the refrigerator next to him. “Good morning.”
He scooped the omelet onto a plate. “You enjoy sleeping in?”
“Seven-fifteen is hardly sleeping in.”
“I’m usually at work by seven. Hope you like omelets.” Without lifting his gaze from his laptop, he waved the spatula in the direction of the omelet.
“I’m sorry. I mean it.”
He grunted.
“I need you to look at me and understand they had a video of me using the same tech to steal information from a competing company in California. They told me it was a test run of the new program, and the company knew what I was doing. Only afterward did I find out they tricked me. I helped them steal millions of dollars in designs that GenShare sold to the Chinese.”
“Not an excuse for not telling me about that or your plans with Quan.”
She poked him. “I didn’t sleep with you because they told me to. I did it because I wanted to. I wanted to the moment I met you when I was in high school.”
“That would’ve been illegal.” He still didn’t glance her way.
She poked him again. “Regardless of the other stuff, what happened was real. I think that scares you more than anything else.”
He caught her finger on its way to poke h
im again. “Poke me again and see what happens to you.”
“What’ll you do? Huh? Kick me out? Yell at me?” She poked him hard.
Pressing his body tight with her back against the refrigerator, he lowered his mouth to hers. The kiss was angry and deep. She wound her arms around his neck as he stroked his tongue against hers.
Suddenly, his mouth wasn’t there. “We can’t do this right now…got to talk.”
“Talk?”
“I want to talk about us—about what’s going on here. Try to figure out if we’re just into the sex and nothing more, not that that’s bad. I mean, of course, the sex isn’t bad.”
“The sex is good,” she hedged, fearing more might scare him. But he’d put it out there. Didn’t that just make her jittery to her toes with hope?
He pointed at a counter height chair. “Eat.”
A plate appeared in front of her with half of the omelet. He handed her a fork. “Coffee?”
She nodded.
He added milk before he slid the mug her way.
“You know how I like coffee?”
“I’ve gotten you coffee a few times over the years.” He’d taken note. People blew him off as a player who used women, but it was a smokescreen to hide the amazing guy underneath.
He checked his phone and blew out a long breath. “Noah should be here in a sec.”
“What? Noah? It’s barely after seven. He doesn’t get out of bed before seven. I should get pants.”
Knock. Knock.
“Right on time.” Jake stalked to his bedroom, emerging seconds later in a T-shirt before he answered the door.
Noah marched into the kitchen. Her heart nearly came out of her chest. The gold band on Noah’s left hand flashed in the light, a reminder of the reception she missed and the honeymoon she forced the newlyweds to postpone.
“Good morning, Becca,” Noah said curtly.
She swallowed and fixed a bright smile on her face. “How…how are you?”
“I’ve been better.” His gaze dropped to the untouched omelet in front of her, then to her lack of pants. “And you?”
“Fine.” She gritted her molars together, refusing to allow him to intimidate her into rattling off excuses for being half undressed in Jake’s kitchen.
A muscle began to work along Noah’s jaw. “You broke into our system and stole information. In what universe could you not have told me what was going on?”
“I modified all of it. I swear. They didn’t get anything useful or authentic.”
“You think that makes me feel better?” Noah asked after a moment.
Becca met Noah’s gaze. “We both know we’d go to extremes to protect the family.”
Pound. Pound-pound. Pound.
They all glanced toward the front door.
Michael pushed in without waiting for the door to be answered. He yelled, “Jake, you dipshit, you didn’t even lock the door? That’s lax security after someone tried to kill you and my sister in this building.”
“In here,” Jake said.
Michael stormed in. His gaze narrowed on her.
Jake said, “A Harrison family convention. I’ll step out. Give you guys some privacy.”
“Oh, no, you don’t.” Michael’s words halted Jake’s skirt around the counter. “You don’t get a free pass out of this. You’re a part of this family and entrenched in this mess.” He rounded on Becca. “What the ever-loving hell were you thinking? You got yourself shot in the stomach—”
“Fake shot. Get your facts straight.”
“How’s that better?” Michael slammed his hands down on the marble countertop. “You got sucked into that underground world after they murdered Kaleb? Why didn’t you tell me?”
She hopped off the stool and stormed around to stand in front of him. “You don’t get to pull the big brother card and judge me.”
“I am your oldest brother. It’s my duty to pull that card any time I need to.” He blew out an angry sigh and glanced heavenward. “This room, all of us… The secrets stop right now. There will be absolute trust in here. Does anyone, I mean anyone, have any other Symphis secrets they have not shared? Anyone else under his or her influence?” Michael glanced at each one of them. “I’m not.”
Noah’s gaze dropped. “He…she was sending Tori messages for the past few months. Little threats. I don’t think she showed me all of them.”
“Becca?” Michael asked.
“She had a video of me stealing tech for GenShare that they then sold to the Chinese. I don’t know what will happen with it, but it could really hurt all of you if released. They killed my wedding date as a scare tactic and forced me to be close to Jake to try to get a chance at NJ Legacy’s mainframe.”
“Jake?” Michael asked.
“I don’t know any more about Symphis than what the FBI told us.” Jake’s gaze slid to hers, unsure and then glazed over into stoicism.
Got it. Not talking about them as involved with her brothers. Probably smart, although it hurt.
“Good.” Michael pulled Becca into a half hug and asked low, “You really okay, kid? That was some next level shit you pulled. Impressive tech development though. You designed whatever was used to worm into their mainframe?”
She nodded. “You find out anything new from Quan?”
Noah poured himself a cup of coffee.
Michael said, “Nothing new. He seemed apologetic about his bad judgment taking you down to the interrogation center.”
“Something wasn’t right yesterday, but I don’t know if it was me out of it from the drug or something real. I got a bad feeling everything with Lisi and Quan wasn’t what it seemed.”
“You mind?” Michael pointed at her omelet.
She shook her head.
He cut a piece for himself, but before he put it in his mouth said, “Let’s all agree to not tell our folks the whole story about Becca getting shot. And agree not to entirely trust Quan.” He waved his fork at Becca. “I trust your instincts, sis. You read people better than me and Noah most of the time.”
“Won’t tell the ’rents.” Noah took a sip of coffee and stared at Becca, contemplative. He met Jake’s gaze for a moment.
Uh-oh. Was she and Jake being involved about to come up? Part of her wanted it, and part of her dreaded it.
Noah said, “Now that you’re a free agent and proven to be good at what you do, you’re going to help us. We need to make our virtual reality goggles work for movies. In theater for the public. And you need a job. We also need to keep an eye on you.”
“What? You want me to work for NJ Legacy?” Unexpected. “I just hacked into your mainframe. Aren’t you a bit worried about my credibility?” Her gaze slid to Jake, but he’d slipped to the back of the room behind Michael where she couldn’t see him well.
“Nope. Makes you beholden to me…us,” Noah said. “You do that again, and I’ll tell Mom.”
“She scares you more than me,” Becca shot back.
Noah’s eyebrows rose.
She dropped her gaze. “Don’t tell her.”
Noah said, “My security guy was pissed, but I also think he wants to propose marriage to you over the badassery of the whole thing. We’re really in a bind, Becca. I need this done in a few weeks.”
“You’re taking the goggles into movie theaters?” She craned around Michael to look at Jake, who nodded.
“Hundreds, maybe thousands of cinemas will need to be outfitted. That requires different processing for films. Different integration. Technology to assure the goggles don’t walk out of the cinemas, which means they can only work in theaters with no possibility to retrofit them to a home system.” Jake glanced to Noah. “The team assigned to work on this has topnotch talent but is filled with egos. The person who was in charge quit. He didn’t produce much in three months. I think you can do this.”
Her cheeks heated from the compliment, but she didn’t know if she could get a team who’d consider her a green intern to function. “After everything, I’m thinking I
should walk away from programming, video games, all of it.”
“Why? That’d be letting them win.” Jake paced forward, out of the shadows, to lean onto the counter, which brought his upper chest into tight relief against his T-shirt.
“You sure, Noah? You were pretty upset yesterday at me,” she asked.
“Keep your enemies close and all that jazz.” Noah hid his gaze in his cup of coffee.
“What’s in it for me other than you keeping an eye on me?”
“I’ll have our lawyer draft the contract to hire you on a temp basis. Salary?” Jake grabbed his sticky pad off the counter and wrote down a number. He slid it across to her.
“Is that for the whole job? Until completion?” She stared at the five-figure number, her mind unable to wrap itself around the considerable amount.
“No, that’s per month, broken into bi-weekly payments.”
Holy crap. That was more money than she’d ever imagined she’d get at any job. Her internship barely paid two thousand a month after taxes. “Are you giving me some bogus big number because I’m Noah’s sister?”
Jake met Noah’s gaze. “This is pretty standard for someone to lead the team.”
Michael looked over her shoulder at the sticky note. He whispered, but not low enough the others couldn’t hear, “Push back, play hard to get. They’re in a tight spot and impressed as hell by your skills. I heard Noah shit his pants yesterday since the team is sucking ass on the movie integration project.”
“I haven’t shit my pants since I was like two, maybe younger.” Noah punched Michael in the upper arm.
“Oww.” Michael massaged the muscle.
She drew in a shaky breath and gazed at Jake. “I’m not sure that’s enough salary for this kind of stress.”
His lips compressed against a grin, no longer serious Jake. He waved Noah over, and they whispered for a few seconds before Jake announced, “We’re willing to offer a thirty thousand bonus upon completion on the condition you start now. As in today.”
Another thirty? Wowzers. “Okay. But—”
Noah held up his hands. “No buts. That’s an insane amount of money to pay someone who attempted espionage.”
