Chapter 13 #2
Emmett would be at work all day, but knowing I was at his house, he might decide to leave early.
“I’ll hurry,” Hacker promised, setting Emmett’s laptops in the passenger seat. Then without another word, he reversed out of the parking lot and drove away.
I had no idea where he’d go to do whatever it was that he was going to do, but I couldn’t stand in the gas station’s parking lot all day, so I returned to Emmett’s and waited for Hacker’s call.
Work, for a change, saved my sanity. I didn’t really enjoy it but being busy was better than fretting. I sat at the kitchen island, my body jittery for hours, until finally at two o’clock, Hacker’s name flashed on my screen.
“Are you done?” I answered, already moving through the house for the door.
“Yeah.”
“Meet you at the same gas station.” I raced into town, finding Hacker parked in the same place.
The moment I approached his door, he had the laptops stuck out his window. I hauled them into my arms as he held out a simple black box. The receiver. “Put this within two hundred feet of the laptops.”
“Okay. Anything else?”
“Nope. Just wait until he logs in.”
“And when you get into the hard drive, what will that get me?”
“Emails. Files. Documents. I’ll put it on a flash drive for you. Whatever that son of a bitch saved, you’ll get.”
I tensed at him calling Emmett a son of a bitch. “He won’t know you opened these, right?”
“Probably not.”
My heart dropped to the cigarette butt he’d tossed out earlier on the ground. “ ‘Probably not.’ That’s not giving me a lot of confidence.”
“Look, like I told you before, this is mostly undetectable. But . . . there’s always a chance. If I were you, I’d be thinking about my exit strategy.”
No.
Just like that, my departure date had been set. My heart broke. Right there, in the oil-stained parking lot of a gas station, my heart broke.
Time was up.
“You’ll call me when you have the flash drive.”
He nodded. “Yeah.”
“And you’ll make one and only one copy. Understood?”
“Understood.”
I blew out a long breath, then reached into my purse for the envelope of cash I’d picked up at the bank this morning on my way home from Emmett’s. “Three thousand. Per our agreement.”
He snatched it from my hand and plucked a cigarette from its box. Then he rolled up his window and was gone.
I turned, hustling to my car. My hands were shaking as I started it up and pulled onto Central. Sweat beaded at my temples and I rolled the window down, gulping the early-October air, hoping it would cool me down before I got to Emmett’s.
Please don’t be home.
I broke every speed limit as I tore down the country road to his house. When I parked and keyed in the garage code, the door opened and the space was empty. Thank God. I ran to my car, my heels accentuating every rushed step, then swiped up the laptops and the receiver and scurried inside.
The rumble of an engine echoed from beyond the house the second I reached the office.
“Shit.” I put the laptops in their places, reconnecting power cords and aligning them as best I could with how they’d been. Then I searched the room for a place to hide the receiver.
The safe caught my eye. There looked to be enough space to hide the box between it and the wall. I doubted Emmett moved the heavy piece regularly. Flying across the room, I stretched an arm in the gap between the safe and the bookshelf beside it.
The box fit. “Thank God.”
I wedged it in as best I could, wishing for more than a minute to make sure it was secure. But the sound of Emmett’s Harley cut off and I was out of time.
There was no way I’d get to the living room before he came into the house and the closest door was to the basement, so I yanked my arm free and scrambled out of the office, bolting down the stairs. Emmett’s bootsteps sounded on the floor above me.
“Nova,” he called.
I hit the bottom step and ran for the couch, flinging myself over the back and plopping down. I whipped out my phone, holding it above my lap and doing my best to relax. “Down here!”
His footsteps grew louder as he thudded down the staircase.
My heart was pounding. I wiped at the sweat beaded at my temples. I sucked in a long breath and tried to calm my body.
Emmett rounded the corner too soon, a smile on his face. “Hey.”
“Hey.” I smiled through the sharp lance of guilt that slashed through my body. “I hope you don’t mind I decided to take my calls down here. This couch is cozy.”
“Not at all.” He rounded the edge and sat down beside me, leaning in for a kiss.
My heart was still beating too hard but he didn’t seem to notice. “Are you done working for the day?”
“Yeah. Since you were here, I left early.”
“I’m done too.” I set my phone on my lap. “I didn’t get through all of my to-do list but what I didn’t finish will have to wait until Monday.”
“I need to run a lease renewal to one of my tenants. Want to come along?”
“Sure.” I stood and started toward the stairwell, ready to get out of this basement. When we hit the main floor, I took a step toward the kitchen, but Emmett went the opposite direction, toward his office.
I held my breath, my body so still I could have given a marble statue a run for its money. Did I stay? Should I run now?
I inched toward the office door, watching as he went around his desk and took his seat. My knees buckled and I leaned on the frame to hold me up as he opened both laptops.
“I just need to print a few things off.” His fingers flew over the keyboard in front of the monitor. Then he twisted to the other laptop, typing there too.
“Okay.” Could he hear my entire body trembling? I held my breath, waiting for him to notice something wrong, but he simply printed off a document from one computer and a different document from the other.
Then he stood and swiped up the papers before striding my way. My breath exploded from my lungs as I turned, trying to hide the relief on my face as we retreated to the kitchen.
“You okay?” he asked, leading the way to the garage.
“Yeah.” I let my shoulders fall. “Just a long day. A long week.”
He threw an arm around my shoulders, hauling me close. Then he dropped a kiss to my hair. “We’ll run this errand, then come back and chill. Eat dinner. Watch a movie or something.”
“That sounds great.”
Or it would except for this gnawing shame and the fact that I had to tell him I was leaving. Tomorrow.
I pulled in a long breath of his scent, feeling his warmth. How long would it take before I forgot both?
“Bike or truck?” he asked.
“Bike.” If this was the end, I wanted one last ride.
He grinned, happy with my answer. I stole a jacket from the hooks on the wall, then we set off for town.
Never had I held him this close on a ride. Usually I’d let go and put my fingers to the wind, but not today. I hugged him tight through the whole ride, the sting of tears threatening the entire time.
We stopped in front of a charming steel-blue house with white shutters. The front door was painted a teal green. It stood out from the other homes on the street, the others a shade of taupe or gray.
“This is cute,” I said as Emmett parked his bike and killed the engine.
“My renters wanted to paint it. They’ve been such great tenants that I didn’t care what color they picked.” He held out his hand and I handed over the papers that I’d kept in between us on the ride over. “Be right back.”
I stayed in my seat, watching as he strode up the small sidewalk. Before he made it to the door, it flew open and a small boy with curly brown hair ran out, his mother close behind.
She smiled brightly at Emmett, standing on the small stoop with her hands on her pregnant belly.
He handed her the papers, spoke for just a moment, then gave the boy a high five. The kid smacked Emmett’s palm as hard as he could and Emmett pretended it hurt, shaking his hand out as the boy beamed.
I caught myself smiling at the scene.
Emmett was good with kids. It didn’t surprise me in the least, because he was a good man.
How much more proof did I need?
My smile faltered. Apparently more because at that moment, my phone vibrated in my pocket. Hacker had texted.
That was fast. Got the passwords. I’ll have the flash drive for you tomorrow.
I tucked the phone away and stared at Emmett.
How was I supposed to say goodbye? How was I supposed to look at that flash drive tomorrow? The moment I opened it, everything would change, of that I had no doubt.
Later.
It would all wait until later. If this was the last night, I wouldn’t think about the flash drive until I was gone.
Emmett laughed at something, the sound echoing across the yard. He really was a good man.
But that didn’t really matter anymore, did it?
Because my time with him was up.