Page 30 of Midnight Torment

“I’m going to swing past our office and get you a new laptop. We have them all set up with the latest security settings. It sounds like you got a virus from somewhere.”

“Really?” She turned in her seat to watch me. “I’m normally so careful, but I’ve been downloading a lot of files from the office since I’ve been working from home.”

I shrugged. “It happens to the best of us.”

My head of security brain ticked in the background. It would make sense to send spyware remotely, but all it would have taken was her laptop to be sitting unsupervised and someone to put a zip drive into it to make a connection.

“How’s Horatio?” Megan asked, settling back in her seat.

“The doctor said he can go home in a few days. He’s driving poor Emma insane because he doesn’t like hospital food. She’s trying to take meals to him three times a day. I told her to let him eat jelly and ice cream.”

Megan stared out the window of the car. “I used to love the ice cream from Covent Garden. I haven’t had it in years.”

She’d brought me ice cream from there the night I lost control. It had been the last night I ate ice cream as well. “Maybe we can go and get some while we’re out,” I suggested, keeping my eyes on the road because I didn’t want her to know that I knew she was stuck in a memory from that night.

“That would be nice. I would love a waffle cone with a chocolate Flake in it.”

We were close to one of our storage facilities when I spotted a car in my rear view mirror. He stayed back, but he was going just a little too slow along the inside lane, and two cars had overtaken him.

I pressed the button on the side of my steering wheel to access my phonebook. Xavier would be driving, so I hit Ash’s number.

“Hey, what’s up?” Ash asked in greeting.

“Heading eastbound and there’s someone on my shoulder.”

“Give me a sec to access your location.” Megan turned wide eyes to me, sensing there was a threat. “We’re a few minutes behind you. Zee is driving like a maniac, so we should be on your six shortly.”

“Roger that.”

“Drive safely,” Ash replied before hanging up.

I knew exactly what he meant. “There is a second seatbelt to the other side of that seat, Megan, and a restraint to go over your legs.”

“You’re scaring me, Jay. What’s going on?”

I never wanted Megan to find herself in the middle of this mess, but they knew who she was and what she meant to me, so the biggest target in the world was firmly painted on her back.

“You know I’m not a good man, Megan. This is the hazard of loving someone like me. I’m pretty sure your laptop has been hacked. Our home is like a massive Faraday cage, which is why they weren’t able to locate you, but as soon as we stepped out of it, we have a tail. I put your laptop in a security bag, so it shouldn’t be transmitting, which means there’s a bug somewhere else.”

Damn it all to hell and back. I was so worried about getting her home the other day, I didn’t think to scan all her stuff for bugs as I normally did when she wasn’t looking. This was why I shouldn’t be allowed to have a relationship. Once again I’d dropped the fucking ball, and now it was about to explode because it was a bomb in disguise.

She fiddled about with the straps on the seat of the car, clipping them into position. “Why don’t you have extra seatbelts on your side of the car?”

“Because I need to be able to get out and shoot the bad guys,” I replied, once again checking my rear view mirror. The black Mercedes was in the same position on my shoulder.

There was a small arsenal under my seat, and some spare ammunition in the door panel beside me.

Her hand sought mine on the gear stick, her fingers wrapping around mine. I wanted to tell her that it would be okay, but right now I didn’t know how this was going to play out. Our tail had probably requested backup or something worse. All I could do was maintain my speed to reach our destination without alerting them to the fact I’d noticed them.

I grabbed Megan’s hand and squeezed. “This car has added protection. No matter what happens, don’t leave it unless I tell you to.”

I heard her sucking in a breath and lifted her hand toward my lips to kiss her wrist. “I won’t let anyone harm you.” That was the truth. I didn’t care if I had to die to keep her safe.

“You promised me ice cream,” Megan replied in a low voice. “I expect extra sprinkles for this.”

“Or two Flakes?” I countered.

She nodded thoughtfully. “It could be a two Flakes sort of a day.”

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