Page 34 of France Face-Off
“What if it’s a cure for some horrible disease that the Russians have been holding out on?” Dane shook his head. “Think about it. I can get my boss to check with the CIA for a contact if you want to hand it off to them.”
Alex didn’t know what she wanted to do with the flash drive that she’d carried for the past two years. It was the last thing she possessed that had belonged to her parents, besides the passports that had been in the safe.
“You don’t have to decide now.” Dane took her hand in his and pulled her into his arms. “It’s enough to think about for a while.” He held her close without making her feel trapped. Instead, she felt warm, safe and…cherished. She hadn’t felt any of those things since her parents had passed. She stood in the circle of his arms for a long moment, inhaling his scent and savoring his strength. On her own for two years, she hadn’t had anyone she could lean on.
After a while, he tipped her chin up. “As much as I like holding you, I need a shower and we both need rest.” He brushed his lips across hers as he had earlier that day.
Alex’s pulse quickened. She lifted her chin and rose up on her toes, pressing her lips to his. “Thank you.”
He chuckled. “I’ve never had a woman thank me for kissing her.”
Her cheeks heated. “Thank you for making me feel safe.”
He brushed a strand of her hair back behind her ear. “I’m here for you, and I want to help. I can’t promise to help you kill the person who put the hit on your parents, but I’ll do my best to keep you safe as long as I’m here.”
She hugged him around his waist and then stood back. “You’d better get that shower. I want one after you.”
“You’re welcome to go first,” he said.
“No. I want to try one more time to get into that file. There has to be a password I haven’t considered.”
He waved a hand toward the laptop. “Have at it.” Then he disappeared into the bathroom. Shortly after he left her, Alex could hear the sound of the shower turning on.
Alex closed her eyes and inhaled the lingering scent of his cologne. Her pulse still hammered through her veins, and warmth coiled low in her belly. Dane stirred something inside her she hadn’t felt in a very long time.
Desire.
She drew in a deep breath, willing her heartbeat to return to normal. Why did the man have such a strong effect on her? They barely knew each other, and they would be parting ways once the Energy Summit concluded. Unless she agreed to hand over the flash drive to the CIA. In that case, Dane might be her escort and protector until that task was complete. She might even insist they make the transfer in the States.
Whatever happened, her identity was known by someone who wanted something from her or wanted her dead before she could pass on the drive. For the past two years, she’d more or less played dead. Now that she was known to be alive and well, she was vulnerable.
Her first instinct was to disappear, fade into the dark and not come up until she knew for certain who had hired the mercenaries to kill her parents. She’d surface long enough to take him out and then start over somewhere else.
Maybe she’d move to Montana or Colorado. Or live in an expat community in Costa Rica or Guatemala. She’d dreamed of doing that once she’d completed her mission. She’d set up a house…alone. Before she’d met Dane, that dream had sounded idyllic.
Now? Not so much.
She’d put her life on hold, gotten blood on her hands and done things that would put her in jail in the States, if anyone could tie the actions back to her. She had no room in her life for anyone else. She’d have to be in hiding for a very long time, no matter where she ended up.
A man like Dane would want to have the perfect home, wife and children. He was a Navy SEAL, an honorable man who’d given his loyalty to his country.
And for what? To be kicked out of the career he’d trained so hard to master?
Alex shook the idea of a happily-ever-after with Dane from her thoughts. It would never happen. It couldn’t.
She sat at the desk, inserted the flash drive into the side of the computer and clicked on the icon that popped up. As usual, she had no problem getting into the personal information her parents had stored there. The bank accounts they’d set up with cash she’d ultimately moved to other accounts in the Cayman Islands. The file she couldn’t get to was labeled PAV. She’d thought for the longest that it was her father’s name abbreviated. Now, she wasn’t so sure.
When she clicked on the file, she didn’t get the usual error. The file didn’t come up, but the computer’s cursor spun as if working, churning on something. The built-in camera light flashed on then off.
Her pulse picked up. Was the computer safe to use? Did someone have remote access to it? Had they just taken her picture?
The churning cursor blinked out, disappearing from the screen.
Alex moved her finger across the touchpad, trying to find the cursor.
The screen filled with what appeared to be a document. The words on the page didn’t make sense. Some were English, intermingled with letters and numbers.
The door to the bathroom opened behind her, and Dane walked out wearing shorts with a towel draped around his neck.
