by Lauren Dane
They’d see us.
I freaked.
Chapter Five
“We have to hide,” I whispered, instinctively taking his arm.
“Where?” he asked. “I can’t blow my cover with Briggs.”
I saw the supply room door open halfway. “In here.”
We barely had time to squeeze inside the dark room and close the door when Mr. Briggs and Ms. Sims swept past our hiding place. A whiff of her tart perfume sent a wave of nausea through me. Yuk. I cracked open the door and heard my ex-boss ordering her to check her computer files. The overhead light went on, and a familiar whir filled the silence. The cascade of blue windows coming up on the monitor cast an eerie glow on their faces.
Zombies best described them.
I cringed. What if they saw us?
Could Mr. Briggs fire me twice?
I pulled back out of sight, the sound of my breathing loud in my ears. Or was that Steve breathing down my neck? Nice. I couldn’t stop a shiver wiggling down my spine. Damn, this was no time to rev up my libido. We had to bail out of here and slip through the hidden entrance unseen.
Still, I wasn’t complaining about the delay in our getaway. What girl would? Crushed up against his hard body in the small dark room, I couldn’t get enough of him pressed up against me, his hands caressing my back. Up and down. Slowly. His lips brushing the bare skin on my neck. Every nerve alert.
I rubbed that special spot between my legs where my jeans cut into me. Damn, it burned. I wouldn’t be able to control my pent-up passion much longer. Not when it felt this good. A slow fire simmered in my belly, evoking a pleasant ache that set me on edge.
Until I heard Mr. Briggs say, “I thought you erased that girl from your computer.”
“I’m sure I deleted her,” said Ms. Sims, tapping her long black nails on her keyboard like a freak show organist. “Yes, her files are gone.”
“I still can’t figure out how she knew I was going to be at that sushi restaurant.”
The office manager stopped typing on her keyboard. The silence was so acute it made me want to grind my teeth to assure myself time hadn’t stopped. “I can,” she said.
“What do you mean?” Mr. Briggs asked, clearing his throat.
“She’s been poking around in here.”
“What?”
“See for yourself. I entered the luncheon information on your calendar. She must have hacked in here and found it.” She raked her nails across the wooden desk, straining my nerves even further. “I told you she was too smart for her jeans.”
I let out my breath, pleasantly surprised. A compliment from this woman was akin to scoring a date with a Cosmo hottie.
Mr. Briggs snorted loudly. “Then she had access to all my files, the little bitch.”
Ouch! That hurt, Mr. Briggs, I wanted to shout. I saved this company from going into the toilet when a rival software firm tried to steal our code. I stayed up two days straight patching up the holes. And this was the thanks I got?
I exhaled. Loudly. I was ready to bust outta there and tell him to go fuck himself when Steve pulled me back. His hands gripped my butt. Hard.
“Cool it, Pepper.”
“I’m not going to let him get away with calling me names,” I whispered, squirming. I opened the door wider and saw my ex-boss pacing up and down and wiping his sweaty face with a paper towel.
“This isn’t the time to get personal.” Steve held me in a tight grip. I couldn’t move. “There’s more at stake here than your pride. A good agent wouldn’t let that bother her.”
“What are you saying?” I asked.
“Think about it, Pepper” was all he said.
I let it go, seeing how Mr. Briggs was fit to be tied. Smacking his palms on the desk like a hungry walrus. “I want you to back up everything on that computer,” he told his office manager, “and then erase it.”
Ms. Sims lifted her crooked brow. “That could take hours.”
“I don’t care. Do it.”
“This wouldn’t have happened if you hadn’t insisted on hiring her,” she mumbled, rubbing it in. Mr. Briggs ignored her and left.
His footsteps faded away and then the elevator bell dinged as the door closed. The upstairs was quiet again except for the office manager tapping away like the Mad Hatter on speed.
“What are we going to do?” I whispered to Steve, leaning my head back against his shoulder. The air in the small room was stuffy and made me sweat. “We can’t leave without her seeing us.”
“Looks like we’re stuck in here for the rest of the night,” he said in a low, dreamy voice that turned my legs into warm, gooey caramel.
“You don’t sound disappointed.”
“Are you?”
I heard an excited murmur from him as he pushed his groin into my ass, asserting his maleness with an undeniable show of power. I couldn’t deny I loved it. His unrelenting bulge pushing into my butt crack made me hover on the verge of a climax. Feeling all hot and sticky, I contracted my pubes just a little. Okay, more than a little. I enjoyed the surge of pleasure racing through me.
Yes, yes.
“I’m sure that’s hard on you,” I said, reaching behind me and grabbing the bulge in his pants to demonstrate my point.
He stifled a groan. “I know how to fix that.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah,” he said in a low, sexy voice.
My nipples tightened and a flutter of anticipation settled low in my belly. He lifted up my T-shirt and unhooked my bra. I nudged up against him and closed my eyes. I was just settling into the heat of the moment when—
“Me-ow.”
“What the hell is that?” Steve asked in a loud whisper.
“It sounded like a cat.” I felt something furry crawl up my jeans leg, tickling me. A shudder went through me.
What if it wasn’t a cat—
Gathering up my courage, I bent down and wrapped my hands around a wiggling creature, then a second one. I held the tiny bundles of fur up to the light peeking through the door.
I smiled.
“Kittens. So that’s why the cat was fat and sassy,” I said, hugging the little creatures with the Hello Kitty cuteness. “She must have followed me inside the house and then sneaked in here to have her babies.”
“They’ll be safe here,” Steve said, opening the door wider. “But we have to make a run for it.”
“We can’t leave the mother and her kittens,” I protested, holding two in my hand and putting a third one into my shirt pocket.
“We have to, Pepper. It’s against Bureau policy to put witnesses in the line of fire,” Steve said, wearing his FBI hat, “including furry ones.”
“So was making love to me,” I reminded him, both of us keeping our voices to a whisper. “But that didn’t stop you.”
His eyes focused on me for a minute and then he grabbed the mother cat. “Let’s go.”
Hugging the wall, we slipped out of the room without the office manager spotting us and made our way down the hallway. I swore my shoes squeaked. We were nearly at the stairway when a milk-hungry kitten scratched my hand.
“Ye-ow!” I cried out and bumped my hip against the railing. I lost my balance and—
“Oh, shit!” I said under my breath. The room whirled around me and I saw the marble entryway looming in my face. I was dizzy, but all I could think about were the kittens. I’d never forgive myself if—
“Steve, the kittens!” I called out in a harsh whisper.
“It’s you I’m worried about, Pepper,” Steve said, hauling my ass up by my jeans waistband before I went over the railing. “The kittens have nine lives. You don’t.”
I fell into his arms, still hugging the tiny felines. I couldn’t help but stifle a cry. No one ever wo
rried about me before.
God, it felt good.
I didn’t have time to enjoy the moment. Ms. Sims was acting like a diva behaving badly.
“Who’s there?” yelled the office manager.
She rushed out of the office and scanned the hallway but didn’t see us. She looked disheveled and bleary-eyed, every hair out of place. Catching my breath, I could see her black pencil-slim pants and high-heeled pointy shoes, her skinny butt swaying back and forth like two pomegranates.
“Be ready to move out,” Steve said, holding the wriggling mother cat. He let her go and, with a loud me-ow, she scampered across the polished floor, sending the office manager into a tirade of expletives. Who knew the woman had such a sexist vocabulary? She slammed the office door shut and went back to erasing the files from her computer.
“Go!” Steve whispered, grabbing the feline. We left the same way we came in. No guard in sight. Ms. Sims must have sent him on an errand to keep him out of her way. She didn’t trust anybody, even her own nephew. It wasn’t until we were speeding away in Steve’s old Buick, the mother cat and her kittens snuggled in my lap, that I could breathe again.
“Thanks for not abandoning them,” I told him, hugging the little furry angels close to my heart and cuddling them. Their tiny tongues licked my fingers. I closed my eyes and leaned back against the seat. I couldn’t believe my maternal instinct was so strong. And this from a girl who never knew her own mother. That thought tugged at my heart.
“All in the line of duty.” Steve squeezed my knee. “Don’t worry, Pepper,” he said, grinning. “They’ll be put into witness protection with plenty of milk and cat food.”
I put my hand on top of his and squeezed back. Nothing more needed to be said. I knew he’d find them a good home. Though Steve tried to play hardball with me, I saw the look in his eyes when he spied the defenseless cat and her brood. Tender, caring. Here was a man who’d never turn his back on the underdog.
I never doubted he’d save the mother cat and her kittens.
Not once.
What surprised me more was that he’d let it slip that he was worried about me. This coming from a street-tough, straight-talking G-man.
Oh, my.
Be still, my heart.
He didn’t mean it.
Really.
Did he?
* * *
“You and your damn doughnuts are ruining my figure, Steven.” Jordan grabbed a glazed special out of the box on his desk and bit into it.
Nice and slow.
Teasing him. A trait of hers with her male agents when they were on her “naughty boy” list. Steve had worked with her long enough to know she had something on her mind and it wasn’t doughnuts.
Or sex.
“What do you want, Jordan?” he asked, putting down his cell. He had a man keeping the eyeball on Pepper. He’d been so tied down with the Briggs case, he couldn’t do the job himself. He was worried about her. The field agent had just called in to tell him she was headed out this morning in a hurry. What she was up to now, he could only guess. She jumped into situations faster than a bunny banging on his drum. Steve ordered him not to lose her.
“Nothing except a sugar high,” she said between bites.
“Don’t tell me you’re PMS-ing,” he said, knowing she hated that. She’d been on him for days to file his report on Briggs. He couldn’t. The file was still wide-open, like a pole dancer’s legs doing a split. “This has to do with Pepper, doesn’t it?”
She paced up and down, her smart, metal-gray stilettos tapping on the warped wooden floor. Gray slacks. Black turtleneck. She maintained a professional image at all times. At least, on the surface. Underneath she simmered with a slow burn and, man, could she kick ass.
“I see you’re on a first-name basis with the mark,” Jordan said. “How’d you manage that?”
“Tradecraft.”
“Don’t lie to me, Steven. I didn’t need to see her polygraph exam to know the girl was lying to us.” She slam-dunked the half-eaten doughnut into the trash can by his desk. “You made quite an impression on her, didn’t you? Enough for her to jeopardize her freedom by hacking into her ex-company’s computer.”
“I insisted.”
“That I don’t doubt.”
“You have to admit, Jordan, the girl is a whiz kid with computers. She can decode anything and get into the most sophisticated software.” Steve explained how she’d cracked the password on the office manager’s computer. “I’ve never seen anyone with such a knack for bypassing antivirus software and finding the holes in the system.”
“Isn’t finding holes your job?” Jordan smirked. She poured herself a cup of coffee. Into his cup. Black.
He ignored her barb. “Pepper knows her way around a hard drive better than the most seasoned spymaster. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
“You wouldn’t be trying to recruit her, Steven, would you?”
“Why not?” Steve said. “The Bureau could use her talents. We’re dragging our asses when it comes to corporate security. You know as well as I do, Jordan, the hackers are beating us.”
“Same old Steven. Always thinking of the Bureau first.”
She squeezed his balls through his jeans. He gritted his teeth, but he didn’t flinch. Pepper would be a good fit for the FBI if she could just get past her fears. Not let them cripple her mind. He’d seen that happen to his brother. Never felt good about himself, always had to prove something. Tom fell into a rabbit hole and never climbed out.
He didn’t want to see Pepper take her smart skills down the wrong road and end up lost and abandoned.
“You succeeded in a man’s world, Jordan,” Steve said, complimenting her. The Princeton grad had overcome a childhood with an alcoholic parent and a house with little to eat but stale cereal.
She exhaled. “It’s not easy being a female in this business. You have to work ten times harder than the men, and when you do, they call you a troublemaking bitch.” She leaned back against the doorjamb and licked her lips. “But I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Where else would I find myself surrounded by handsome men like you?”
“So why not add a little sugar to your coffee?” Steve said, sliding his chair across the floor and taking his cup back.
“I admit Pepper O’Malley fits the profile of a good agent. She’s smart, creative, adventurous. But that’s not everything, Steven. Under pressure, even the best candidate can crack.” Jordan shoved the metal trash can across the floor with the heel of her stiletto. “What makes you think she’s got what it takes?”
“Pepper is that good, Jordan. Let me prove it to you.”
“No can do. You compromised yourself by fucking her. You’re off the case.” She leaned over him so he could get an eyeful of her full breasts, her nipples pointing through her tight sweater. Her way of keeping her power secure in her empire. “Agent Barker will take over.”
He cocked a brow. “I’ve never seen you this jealous before, Jordan.”
“I’ve never seen you take such an interest in a material witness before.” She crossed her arms over her chest in a show of authority. “The higher-ups are on my ass to wrap up this case before someone blows the whistle and the media get wind of it. I’ve got a team sitting on Briggs day and night. He’s bound to slip up.”
His cell chimed—a text. His Japanese contact. Briggs wanted to take a meeting. That gave him an idea.
“What if I promise you I can get a taped confession from Briggs that will stand up in court?” Steve said. “Will you put me back on the case?”
Jordan smirked. “Does it involve you getting into that girl’s pants?”
Steve grinned and then stuck his middle finger through the hole of a crispy, glazed, sugary, doughy delight. “Care for another doughnut?”
* * *
>
“You want me to do what?” I asked, adrenaline racing through me like popcorn popping outta control. I turned down a rainbow-painted path and headed toward Bongo’s Pizza Playland.
“Wear a wire,” Steve said, not missing a beat. “It’s the only way we can nail Briggs.” He was hot on my tail. I wasn’t a happy camper. I hadn’t heard from him since our Breakfast at Tiffany’s rendezvous, complete with the rescue of the cat, like in the film.
And now this?
“You’ve got to be crazy.” I didn’t care how good-looking Special Agent Steve Raines was. I was not going to jeopardize what little future I had left by letting the FBI hot-wire my bod so they could listen to everything I said. What if I said something stupid? Like how I hacked into the company computer?
Or, worse yet, admitted I’d gone all Bruce Lee and zonked a federal agent? I’d be sent to a planet far, far away faster than you could send R2-D2 to a recycling bin. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a job interview and I’m late.”
I rushed through the bright red double doors into the pizza parlor and put on my best cheesy-clown smile. I prayed Steve wouldn’t follow me. Why bother? He knew my routine. He’d had a tail on my ass all week. I wasn’t so dumb that I didn’t notice a guy with tattoos following me. Guys with tattoos never followed me.
So I wasn’t surprised when Steve showed up with his scary request. It wasn’t enough the FBI had seen me half-naked and put me through an interrogation like I’d tried to get past airport security with a double latte. Now he wanted me to play Mata Hari. I knew what happened to her, and it wasn’t pretty.
“Hi, I’m Pepper O’Malley,” I choked out, handing the balding manager my résumé. He smelled like garlic and had pepperoni stuck in his teeth. I held my breath. “I’m here for the ball-pit job.”
“You got any experience?” he asked, and then sneezed on my resume.
“Yeah, sure,” I said, unnerved. “I play with balls all the time.”
He snickered. Too late I realized what I’d said. Then he explained to me that all I had to do was keep the kids’ ball pond filled with red, blue, yellow and green hollow plastic balls. Hey, a job is a job. And you get free pizza, a programmer’s main food staple. So what if being trapped with a bunch of screaming kids in a padded cage wasn’t my dream job? A girl had to eat.
