by Paige Tyler
“Hey, Dennis,” she said, forcing herself to return his smile. “How are you doing today?”
He glanced down at his clipboard before answering. “I’m good. What are you doing here on your day off?”
“I wanted to show off the place to a friend from out of town and figured it would be better to do it on the weekend when no one’s around.”
Dennis leaned down and glanced in the car, giving Dalton a quick scan. Kimber could almost hear the wheels in the older man’s head spinning as he looked back and forth between her and Dalton. “Sure thing. Let me open the gate for you.”
“So,” Dalton said as they drove through the gate and onto the property. “You always bring your boyfriends to JASCO for a visit?”
Pulling into her assigned space near the front of the sprawling four-story office building, she put the car in park then looked at Dalton with a sigh. “I work fifty hours a week, sometimes more. When I’m not working, I spend every hour of my life with our daughter. So, to answer your question, no, I don’t bring my boyfriends around because I don’t date. I don’t have time.”
Dalton didn’t say anything as he got out of the car, but it seemed like her answer pleased him more than it should have. Shaking her head, Kimber followed him out, catching up to lead him into the building.
As they walked past the big security desk on the far side of the marble-floored lobby, Kimber pointed out the standing banners and mounted posters that advertised some of JASCO’s most recent successes. While Dalton nodded, she could tell his attention was elsewhere. As he scanned the lobby, she was sure he was memorizing the layout of the building and everything in it.
“Do they leave all the lights on at night?” he asked quietly as she led him down the long hallway toward her office.
“No. After dark, they turn off most of the lights along the corridors. Only about every fourth one is left on to conserve power. Most of the offices have motion-activated lights that turn off completely if no one’s moving around in the room.”
Kimber showed him around the whole building like she really was giving him an innocent guided tour for the benefit of the security cameras. Even though Dalton scanned each room like a machine, he was still somehow able to engage in conversation, asking questions about how long she’d worked at the company—two years—and what had attracted her to JASCO in the first place—the creative working environment, flexible hours, amazing health care, and great pay. She even got into the kind of work she did for JASCO.
Dalton nodded as she explained how she used statistics, data mining tools, and computer-based models and algorithms to identify new technology patterns and trends for the company to explore and exploit. Within minutes, his eyes started to glaze over. That was okay. She was used to it. Most people didn’t get her job, which was a combination of heavy duty math and marketing, but she loved it.
In between the friendly questions about her job, Dalton peppered her with more urgent ones concerning how many guards roamed the building at night, what was the latest time she’d ever seen employees working, if there was a cleaning crew, what happened when power went out, and if the local cops ever did drive-by patrols of the parking lot. The questions—both the innocuous social ones and the pointed security-related ones—came so fast she was barely able to keep up.
She was leading him down the long, wide hallway toward the cafeteria and the secure side of the company’s R&D facilities beyond when two men stepped out of the main conference room. Kimber’s heart sank. Seriously? Of all the people to run into today, it had to be the distinguished-looking Jasper Cole, CEO of the company, and eagle-eyed Henry Carpenter, JASCO’s head of security. What were the odds of that?
“Kimber!” Jasper did a double take. “What the heck are you doing here on a Sunday?”
She pasted on the same fake smile she’d used on Dennis earlier and braced herself, knowing she’d have to be a bit more convincing with her boss then she’d been with the security guard. Jasper had been the first person she called when she realized she’d need time off to get her daughter back. She’d laid it on thick, talking about wanting some quality time with Emma. Fortunately, Jasper had been fine with her taking a week off. He’d hired her right out of college and was probably the best boss on the planet.
“That was the plan, but my parents had other ideas. They decided to take their granddaughter to the zoo today, so I had some free time on my hands today and decided to stop by and take care of one or two e-mails before I disappear for the week.”
Henry’s gray eyes narrowed as he eyed Dalton up and down. “And who’s this?”
Being suspicious was a permanent condition for Henry. He’d been with the company since day one, and while Kimber had never had an issue with the guy, there hadn’t been much in the way of casual chatter between them, either. Henry was all work and no play.
But just because the man was staring at Dalton like her former boyfriend was about to steal something didn’t mean anything. The big, broad-shouldered man with the poorly fitting suit looked that way at everyone. He probably went through the employees’ desks at night to see if they were taking company paper clips home with them.
“This is Dalton Jennings,” she said. “He’s a friend from San Diego.”
Dalton grinned and shook hands with the men. Jasper was all smiles, as usual. Henry on the other hand, regarded Dalton warily.
“What kind of work do you do, Dalton?” Henry asked.
“Freelance problem solving,” Dalton said smoothly.
Jasper looked at Kimber. “I certainly don’t mind you bringing people around to show off the facilities, but you’re on vacation this week, so don’t even think about opening a business-related e-mail. Enjoy your time off with your family. The job will be here when you get back.”
She nodded, assuring her boss she would, happy to have any excuse to get her and Dalton out of there. Her pulse was racing and she was sure her intention to steal from the company was written all over her face. But before she could grab Dalton’s hand and head for the exit, he gestured down the hallway toward the secure side of the facility.
“Is there a restroom I could use?” he asked.
“Keep going down the main hallway, then take a right turn toward the cafeteria,” Jasper said. “If you get to a steel door with a cypher lock on it, you’ve gone too far.”
Dalton flashed her a smile. “You want me to meet you at the car?”
Kimber didn’t have a clue how she was supposed to answer that question. What if that stuff about the car was some kind of secret Navy SEAL code that she was supposed to interpret as Run for your life. Our cover has been blown!
She nodded and turned to head toward the lobby. Jasper immediately fell into step beside her. When Henry didn’t join them, she glanced over her shoulder to see him standing there watching Dalton walk down the hallway like he was worried Dalton was going to steal a roll of toilet paper. He must have decided the toilet paper wasn’t that valuable because after another moment, JASCO’s head of security finally turned to follow her and Jasper.
CHAPTER THREE
IT’S OFFICIAL,” DALTON said as he followed Kimber into her Palo Alto apartment. “Your place is much bigger than mine. Not to mention cooler.”
Kimber’s lips curved a little as she walked over to the kitchen table and dropped off the big whiteboard and box of colored markers they’d bought from the office supply store on the way home.
“Oh, come on,” she said, turning around to face him. “Your place isn’t that bad.”
Dalton snorted. “Please. My bedroom would just about fit in your coat closet and it’s embarrassing to even compare my kitchen to yours. You have granite counter tops and an island. I have a cabinet with a microwave in it.”
Kimber seemed to consider that. “Okay, maybe you’re right. But if it makes you feel any better, I didn’t pick this place because of how nice it is. I picked it because it’s close to both my parents and JASCO, there’s a playground nearby, and the school syste
m is one of the best in state.”
He dropped his small duffel bag full of clothes on the floor by the microfiber couch and wandered around the room, taking in the painted landscapes on the walls and the photos of Kimber’s parents on the built-in bookcase. But mostly his attention was captured by the myriad pictures of his daughter. There were dozens of images of Emma from the time she was a baby all the way up to now.
Dalton picked up a framed photo of Emma sitting in a high chair, animal-shaped cookies spread out on the tray in front of her. As he gazed at her cute, little face, it suddenly felt like someone had punched him in the gut. It was obvious that Emma was the center of Kimber’s world. And yeah, that hit him hard.
Swallowing hard, he carefully set the photo down. He hated that he hadn’t been a part of his daughter’s life, hated that he hadn’t been there when she’d taken her first step or said her first word, but he couldn’t go back in time.
Five years ago, when he’d come back from deployment and discovered Kimber had left, he’d been devastated. He’d dated other girls before her, but none of them had gotten to him the way she had. He’d fallen hard for her right from the start and he’d been so damn sure she’d felt the same. After the initial shock of her leaving had worn off, he’d come to the simple and obvious conclusion that Kimber had decided being with a Navy SEAL wasn’t for her. It had been painful, but he could understand it. There weren’t many women up for dealing with that kind of stress.
Then today, she’d shown up at his door and he not only learned they had a daughter together, but that she’d walked away from him because she couldn’t imagine things working out between them. Kimber had never even given him a chance to be a husband and a father. He’d been furious when she told him. Still had been the whole time they’d been at JASCO, though he never let it show. But now, after seeing everything Kimber had done for Emma—leaving college in San Diego, moving back in with her parents, then picking this apartment based entirely on the quality of the elementary school and the playgrounds, he finally understood why she’d done what she had.
He took a deep breath, then turned to face her. “You changed your entire life forever for our daughter.”
She nodded. “The day that test strip turned positive, my priorities changed. I can’t say every decision I’ve made since then was perfect because I know they weren’t, but I can promise that every one of them was made with Emma in mind.”
Dalton looked at the most recent picture of their daughter. She was perched at the top of a plastic slide, all smiles and pigtails. Kimber had done everything for their beautiful little girl. Would he expect any less of himself in the same situation?
He wasn’t sure how long he gazed at the picture, but at some point, he realized Kimber had crossed the room and was standing beside him.
“Come on,” she said, taking his hand and motioning at the hallway leading toward the back of the apartment. “I want you to see something.”
He let her lead him that way, his head still spinning. A moment later, they were in Emma’s bedroom. He knew it was his daughter’s because there was a pink pony painted on the wall above the bed and a bench seat in the corner filled to overflowing with plush animals. He wasn’t sure about Kimber’s attraction to stuffed animals, but he was pretty certain she’d never shown any interest in tiny horses.
Dalton was slowly taking everything in around the room when a framed photo on the bedside table grabbed his attention and wouldn’t let go. Aware of Kimber’s eyes on him, he walked over and picked it up. It was a selfie he and Kimber had taken at that impromptu picnic at Bayview Park. The day Emma had been conceived.
That was when it hit him. He spun around to look at Kimber in awe. “Emma knows I’m her father? You told her about me?”
Kimber nodded, her eyes shimmering with unshed tears. “She knows. She’s always known.”
The admission rocked him to the core. He’d just assumed Kimber hadn’t mentioned him to Emma.
He opened his mouth to ask if Kimber had ever intended to let him meet their daughter, or whether she’d even thought that far, when a knock on the door interrupted him.
“That must be Holden and Wes,” Kimber said.
No doubt she was right. Dalton set the photo down on the bedside table. This was definitely a conversation he and Kimber would have to pick up later.
CHAPTER FOUR
KIMBER SAT IN in the back of Holden’s rental SUV staring at the phone in her hand, re-reading the short text message for the hundredth time, something that was much more difficult than it should have been because her hands were shaking like crazy.
Reply to this text when you have the chips. You have 30 hours.
It was the same simple message she’d gotten two other times already. The only thing that had changed with each warning was the countdown at the end, a stark reminder that the clock was ticking on her daughter’s life.
“We’re going to get those chips,” Wes murmured softly from the bench seat beside her. “Then we’re going to go save your daughter.”
She glanced at him, nodding her thanks. She was grateful Dalton had asked Wes to wait with her while he and Holden went out scouting the fence around JASCO. He’d probably known that if she’d been forced to wait there alone, she would have lost her mind.
Wes returned her nod, giving her a smile before going back to scanning the layout drawing of the main building that Dalton had created from memory. She was shocked at how detailed the floor plans were, complete right down to the position of light switches and which side of each door the hinges were located on. She’d worked at JASCO for over two years and still didn’t possess that level of detail.
As Wes ran his finger along the sketch, following the corridor that led from the main side of the facility to the secure side, Kimber noticed how much darker the bruise along his left jaw was in the dim light of the street lamp. She’d first seen it several hours ago when Holden and Wes had shown up at her apartment with four heavy black duffel bags full of gear. Holden had been scuffed up some, too, his knuckles torn and bleeding, his movements stiff, like his ribs hurt. She didn’t know much about that kind of stuff, but it seemed obvious the two men had been in a fight.
“Trouble?” Dalton had asked as he helped them unload the bags and spread the equipment out on her kitchen table. She hadn’t recognized anything beyond the handguns. Those had scared her, but not as much as the other stuff. She might not know what it was, but she knew one thing for sure. The stuff in those bags looked like something a criminal would use, not a Navy SEAL. Who had Holden and Wes gotten involved with who would have stuff like that?
Holden had merely shrugged. “It was a minor disagreement over terms. We dealt with it.”
If that wasn’t a cryptic answer, Kimber didn’t know what was. She’d thought Dalton would ask for details, but instead he grabbed a colored marker and started working up the layout of the JASCO facility, telling his teammates where the tight spots in the company’s security system might be.
She, Dalton, and the guys had ended up spending the next four hours coming up with the plan to break into the building. She hadn’t really thought much about when they’d break into her office. She knew they didn’t have much time, but she’d still been surprised when Dalton had informed her that they’d be doing it that same night at three o’clock in the morning.
“I don’t want to risk waiting until Monday night,” he told her. “Too much chance of some hard charging worker or late-night cleaning crew getting in the way of our timeline. We go in tonight.”
The sound of the SUV’s back door opening almost made Kimber jump out of her skin.
“Relax,” Wes said softly. “It’s Dalton and Holden. They’re back from their recon.”
Wes climbed out of the SUV, moving around the back to join Dalton and Holden. Kimber stayed where she was, trying to get her heart to slow down to something close to normal while attempting to convince herself that this was really going to work out okay. Dalton had told her that
rescuing people was what SEALs did for a living. She had to believe in that with all her heart.
She was still trying to convince herself of that when Dalton opened her door. He held out his hand.
“We’re ready to go.”
Kimber took his hand and climbed out, amazed by the strength his touch gave her.
Holden had parked on the backside of another tech company located adjacent to JASCO. There were several vans and a few delivery trucks in the parking lot with them and only a few lights. If the police happened to drive back there, hopefully, they wouldn’t look at the rental SUV twice.
“You good?” Dalton asked, handing her a pair of lightweight gloves that were supposed to keep her from leaving fingerprints behind. Just thinking about that possibility had her heart rate picking up all over again.
From a practical point of view, she understood why they needed her to go into the building with them. They had no idea what the chips looked like or where they were located. But the idea that someone like her was going to break into a highly secure tech lab with a team of Navy SEALs was not only insane, it was simply more than she was capable of.
But for Emma, she’d figure out a way to do it anyway.
She took the gloves. “I’m good.”
Giving her a nod, Dalton swung a backpack onto his shoulders then led the way toward the JASCO fence line. He and the other guys moved so quietly. She on the other hand, sounded like a runaway elephant in comparison. How was this ever going to work?
Halfway there, Dalton dropped back to fall into step beside her. “As I thought, all of the external cameras are either focused on the main gate or the building entrances. There are large sections of the fence line and the main facility left uncovered. Getting in shouldn’t be that hard.”
For Dalton and his friends, it probably wouldn’t be. But for her? It would likely be a nightmare.
At least getting past the fence wasn’t as bad as she thought it was going to be. Instead of having to climb over the ten-foot high monstrosity, she was able to crawl through the little hole Dalton and Holden had already made in one of the back corners. It was so dark she hadn’t seen the opening until they were right on it. Even once she was on the other side, it was hard to see where it was.
