Code conspiracy, p.6
Code Conspiracy, page 6
Gray eased Amit’s broken body to the bed and propped him up. “Try to stay alert for a while. We’ll get you cleaned up and tend to your wounds. Do you need to go to the hospital?”
“No!” Amit winced with the effort of his yell. “No hospitals. No police.”
“Then you’d better not die on us.” Gray turned from the bed and left the room.
Jerrica unbuttoned the rest of Amit’s shirt and peeled it from his shoulders. “Can you tell me what happened?”
“Like I told you on the phone, I was being followed. I sent Kelly home with friends because I didn’t want either of us to be followed to our place. I ducked into the coffeehouse because I thought I’d be safe in a crowd.” He closed his eyes. “I was wrong.”
“Did they strong-arm you out of the coffeehouse?” Gray had returned to the bedroom, carrying the first aid supplies.
Amit opened one eye and assessed Gray. “Is he...?”
“He’s safe.”
“I meant, is he the Navy SEAL?”
Gray cleared his throat. “Delta Force. What happened in the coffeehouse?”
“Ouch.” Amit jerked his head back as Jerrica pressed the ice pack against his temple. “Some guy followed me in there with a knife.”
“I wonder if he’s the same guy who attacked you in the alley, Jerrica. He must’ve figured you’d come after Amit at the coffeehouse.” Gray sat on the edge of the bed and shook a bottle of ibuprofen in the air. “Take a few of these. You’ll need them for those ribs.”
Amit’s eyes widened as much as they could. “Someone attacked you, too?”
“We went out to the coffee place, and I received a text from you. I went out to the alley to meet you and was met by a guy with a knife instead.”
“They took my phone.” Amit popped the pills and chased them down with a slug of tequila. “You actually went into the alley to meet someone? You?”
“That’s what I said.” Gray flicked a strand of Jerrica’s hair.
“Not the smartest move, but I guess I was desperate to find you, Amit.” She brushed her hand across her cheek and the growing warmth there.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t tell them anything. I didn’t lead them to Dreadworm.”
Jerrica folded her arms over her stomach. She probably deserved that. Of course, Amit would think she’d be more worried about Dreadworm than his safety. He’d be wrong. She’d learned a thing or two after Gray dumped her. Had learned she could hurt people as much as they’d hurt her. She hadn’t liked the realization.
Gray lifted one eyebrow. “How’d you get away from them? Did they let you go in exchange for leading them to more Dreadworm hackers? Leading them to Jerrica?”
“Hey, no.” Amit made a grab for the bloody towel against the back of his head as it slipped to his shoulder. “They didn’t let me go. A cop saved me.”
“You went to the police? You just said no police.” Jerrica pursed her lips.
Tapping his bruised forehead, Amit said, “You’re not thinking very clearly, Jerrica, which is a first for you. After the guy roughed me up in the alley, he started marching me at knifepoint out to the street to what I guessed was a waiting car and more torture in my future. Luckily, there was a group of unruly drunks on the sidewalk that had caught the attention of two cops. I broke away from my captor a few feet in front of the cop and fell onto the sidewalk. The guy with the knife disappeared into the crowd, taking my wallet and cell with him.”
“What did you tell the officer?” Jerrica placed a hand against her chest, trying to tame her galloping heart.
“Told him I’d had an altercation of a personal nature in the alley and didn’t want to make a report or press charges.” Amit raised one shoulder. “He was only too happy to let it go. I would never lead them here, Jerrica.”
“They made it here, anyway.” She swept a hand through the air. “In fact, they may be listening to everything we’ve been saying.”
“They broke into your place?” Amit’s gaze darted around the room. “What do you mean, listening to us?”
Gray pushed off the foot of the bed and took a turn around the room. “When we got back here, Jerrica insisted someone had broken in. Nothing was missing and she couldn’t detect any activity on her computer, though. They wouldn’t break in and leave with nothing, so I swept the place for listening devices. We found several and dispatched them. We were just turning in until...”
“Until I showed up and ruined the party.” Amit glanced at Jerrica and his gaze dropped to the towel still wrapped around her body. “Aren’t you cold?”
“Freezing.” She rubbed her bare arms.
As if noticing his own state of undress for the first time, Gray yanked his shirt off the top of the dresser and pulled it on. “Go upstairs and put on some pajamas. I’ll finish dressing Amit’s wounds.”
As Jerrica backed out of the room, she said, “Don’t get to any of the good stuff without me.”
Upstairs in the loft, Jerrica let the towel fall to her feet. She slipped into a pair of pajama bottoms and a matching top, pulling it over her head with her hands still trembling.
Both she and Amit had been attacked in one night, but their attackers hadn’t gotten what they wanted...not yet. She had a feeling they wouldn’t stop until they did.
She jogged downstairs and walked in on Gray and Amit talking about the attack. “What’s the verdict? Is he gonna live?”
“He took a beating, but he’ll be okay.” Gray stuffed the last of the bloody towels in a plastic garbage bag. “Some bruised ribs, a few cuts, and he’ll have a black eye for sure.”
“Why did he pass out?”
“In case you haven’t noticed I’m not a doctor, but I’m guessing blood loss and exhaustion. He did try to keep his abductors away from your place, so he was wandering around for a while and riding the subway.”
Amit touched the bandage on the back of his head. “For not being a doctor, you did a good job.”
“I’ve had some practice patching wounds.” Gray dropped the bag by the door. “Now, let’s figure out what these people want.”
Jerrica sat cross-legged on the foot of the bed. “The keepers of that shadow government database must’ve figured out that Dreadworm had compromised it.”
“But how do they know who we are? I’m a mild-mannered computer programmer by day. Kelly doesn’t even know what I do at night.” Amit waved his hand at Jerrica. “You’re an independent on-call computer nerd. How are they following us and breaking into our homes?”
Gray asked, “Who are the other Dreadworm people who work here?”
Amit held up two bony fingers. “Cedar and Kiera. I mean, there are others in other locations, but we’re the only four in the New York area and only Jerrica and I are in that particular office. Nobody else knows about that location—except Olaf. We don’t see much of Cedar or Kiera. If they have a location like we do, we don’t know where it is. Olaf tends to keep us separate.”
Jerrica said, “We need to send out an SOS to them. We’ve definitely been compromised. They could be in danger, too.”
“Unless they’re the ones who outed you.” Gray rubbed his chin. “Think about it. They did it or Olaf did it.”
“Wait.” Jerrica held up her hands. “Those are only the people we know of who know our identities. There could be others—you know I work for Dreadworm and you apparently told Major Denver because he knew. Who else knows? Where else is it circulating?”
“Guilty, but I know Denver didn’t ID you, and I sure as hell didn’t.”
“Did you tell your other Delta Force team members? You know how that goes. They tell someone innocent and they tell someone innocent, and eventually the intel gets to someone who’s not so innocent.”
Gray shot her a look of annoyance from beneath a set of scowling eyebrows. “Let’s start with the inner circle first.”
“For whatever it’s worth, the guy who was beating me up didn’t ask any specifics about Dreadworm. He warned me to stop meddling. Told me what we were doing was only helping the government.”
Jerrica sliced a hand through the air. “Dreadworm has never been about bringing down the government. It’s about making it better, more accountable to the people.”
“This guy seemed to think that would be a persuasive argument for me.” Amit stifled a yawn. “Did one of those happy pills contain codeine or something?”
“You needed it for the pain.” Gray nudged Jerrica in the back. “And now we all need some sleep. We can continue to untangle this in the morning.”
Amit shoved a pillow beneath his head. “Is it safe here? You said someone broke in.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle the security.”
“Kelly.” Amit’s lids drifted closed. “I need to tell Kelly.”
“Keep Kelly ignorant and safe for now, Amit. We’ll find some way to get word to her, and I’ll send out an alert to the others.” Jerrica shut off the light and pulled the door shut.
Kicked out of his bed, Gray veered toward the living room and the smallish sofa.
Jerrica grabbed his hand. “Don’t be an idiot. You can share my bed upstairs. I don’t bite...anymore.”
Gray chuckled, but a look of panic flashed across his face. Did the thought of being in bed with her make him think twice about his motive for being here?
“I don’t mind the sofa. I’ve slept on worse.”
“I’m sure you have, tough guy.” She placed her hands against his back and gave him a little shove up the stairs. “But you’re back in civilization now.”
His back and shoulders held military stiff, Gray trod up the stairs as if meeting a firing squad. Maybe she should’ve let him sleep on the couch.
In the loft, she flicked on the lamp where they’d found the bug and turned down the covers. “I did finally invest in a king-size bed, so there’s plenty of room for both of us.”
She slipped under the covers and turned off the light.
As he crawled into the bed as far away from her as he could possibly get without falling out, she cleared her throat. “I’m glad you showed up today, Gray. Both Amit and me would’ve been lost without you.”
Rolling onto this back, he pulled the covers up to his chin like a virgin on his wedding night and growled. “Like I said, I’ll take care of the security and you can do your hacking thing. We need to uncover this plot and exonerate Denver. At this point, I think you’re the only one who can do that.”
“Nice of you to think so, anyway.”
“Good night, Jerrica.”
“Good night, Gray.”
She slid a sideways glance at his profile in the darkness, noticing his wide-open eyes staring at the ceiling, his hands at his sides. Maybe he was just keeping alert for safety.
She had to know one way or the other. She wanted him. Needed the comfort of his body.
“Gray?” She stroked his corded forearm with her fingertips, and it was as if she’d brought a statue to life.
Chapter Six
Gray’s body shuddered and shifted as he answered her, his voice hoarse and gruff. “Yeah?”
A million words rushed through her brain, formed and discarded. This didn’t have to be perfect. It just had to be honest and true. She said the words that had been running through her brain all day.
“I want you.”
Gray seemed to burst from the tight cocoon he’d been inhabiting and rolled to his side, reaching for her.
She went willingly into his arms, her head fitting in the crook of his neck as if it belonged there. It did.
He stroked her hair back from her face. “Are you sure?”
“Are you? You’re the one who walked out on me.” She pressed her lips against the tight skin over his collarbone.
“Dumbest thing I ever did.” He skimmed one finger down her spine. “I thought you were using me to get information. It bruised my ego, and I couldn’t get over that.”
She snorted. “You don’t have an ego, Gray. As if any woman wouldn’t want to be with you for you—I never cared about your money, your political connections or the military intel you could provide—I knew you’d never go down that road, and I never would’ve asked you. I thought I was the paranoid one.”
“I should’ve known. I did know that.” He cupped her face with his hand and kissed her hard on the mouth.
She murmured against his lips. “Can we stop talking now?”
He answered with his touch, flattening one palm against her belly and circling up to her breast in a slow, sensuous movement that had her squirming. When he reached her nipple, he traced it with one fingertip. After one gentle pinch, he undid the top few buttons of her pajama top. He then grabbed the hem and pulled the top over her head.
She kissed the firm line of his jaw. “Keep doing what you were doing before, you tease.”
“No one’s ever accused me of being a tease before, including you.” This time he placed both of his hands on her breasts, now aching for attention, and stroked and shaped them to his pleasure...and hers.
She tugged at his T-shirt. “Why are you wearing this?”
“I was trying to be prim and proper and put as much material between me and you as possible.” He dragged the shirt from his chest, dispensing with prim and proper.
“Why? D-do you feel guilty for being here in my bed? Is it for the wrong reasons?”
“I’m not sure what the right and wrong reasons are anymore, are you? I just know I’ve never been able to stop thinking about you, but I didn’t know how you’d feel about seeing me again.”
“Excited, elated...and very, very turned on.”
She pushed away from him to drink in the sight of the hard slabs of muscle shifting across his chest. She outlined the planes with the tips of her fingers, skimming through the dusting of dark hair sprinkled over his flesh.
Brushing her nails across his flat abs, she said, “Is this a twelve-pack now?”
“It’s whatever you want it to be.” He slipped his hand beneath her pajama bottoms and underwear and smoothed it over the curve of her derriere. “All this time, I’ve been aching for your touch, and I couldn’t even muster the strength to tell you I was sorry for how things ended—for my part in it. I needed my commander to order me to contact you.”
“Umm, I don’t think I gave you much reason to believe I’d ever accept your apology or want to see you again.”
He grabbed her hands as they inched their way down to the waistband of his boxers. “I’m thinking we should’ve had this talk before we hit the sheets together.”
“It’s not like we’ve had time to discuss our relationship.” She hitched her thumbs in the elastic of her bottoms and yanked them off, along with her panties. “Besides, I can talk and play at the same time.”
“Really?” He made a mocking face. “I dare you to try.”
He cinched her around the waist and flipped her onto her back as he straddled her naked body. The kisses he rained on her face, throat, chest and belly had her gasping and arching her body for more.
As he flicked his tongue across her navel, she gritted her teeth and gasped out, “As soon as you accused me of using you for intel, I should’ve realized you were equating me with all those other women interested in your family’s money and power.”
Resting his chin on her abdomen, he glanced up at her. “That’s quite a mouthful. I’m failing you.”
He trailed his hands between her legs and nudged her thighs apart, his hot breath moist against her swollen flesh. “Care to continue your analysis of my insecurities?”
She opened her mouth, but he had moved so he could plunge his tongue inside her and the only thing coming from her throat was a squeak. She felt his smile hot against her skin.
Several words flitted across her brain, but the only one she could manage as his tongue prodded her was, “Oh.”
Her fingers curled into his thick hair and her nails dug into his scalp as he brought her closer and closer to her release. For several moments, time stood still as she hung on a precipice of desire, her breath coming out in short puffs, every nerve ending alight with fire.
Gray scooped his hands beneath her bottom, tilting her toward his greedy mouth. As he pinched and kneaded her soft flesh, her passion reached dizzying heights. Her temples throbbed with the tension until she let out a tiny breath.
That small act of submission opened the floodgates, and her orgasm swelled inside her, infusing every pore in her body with sweet release.
Gray kept his mouth locked onto her, riding every wave as it crested and then crashed, teasing her back up again and again until her body opened to him completely.
Satiated and limp, she lacked the energy to even guide his erection into her as he prodded her with its insistent head.
After a few thrusts where he filled her completely and then slid out, she returned to some semblance of sense and reason. His performance deserved an active partner, and she wrapped her legs around his hips, holding him to her. She raised one arm to brace herself against the headboard as he rode her.
He hitched up to his elbows and stared into her face as if committing it to memory. All of her memories came flooding back with the heaviness of him between her legs. She sucked his bottom lip between her teeth, nibbling at the softness.
A drop of sweat rolled down Gray’s face, and every part of his body seemed to get harder. His gaze rose to a point above her head, and she knew he was close. By the time they’d split up, she’d been able to read every nuance of his lovemaking. They’d been able to read each other, allowing them to fit together like two pieces of a puzzle.
Her other half released something between a growl and a moan as he plowed into her with quick, sure strokes. A flush rose from his chest and suffused his face as he reached the peak.
She watched the pleasure soften the features of his face, and she brushed her knuckles against the stubble on his chin. Tears pricked the back of her eyes as he lowered his body on top of hers, spent and satiated, the weight of it making her feel protected and secure.
