Page 21 of Hacked For Love
I suddenly find myself silently blinking backtears.
“Hey,” he says, worry crossing his face as he straightens again and moves toward me, gently raising a hand. His voice is soft. “I didn’t mean to make youcry.”
I sniffle and hold up my hands, mortified. “Look, I…you’re attractive, and if you’re really the kind of guy you seem to be now that I’m getting to know you, I could learn to trust you. But I’m just not thereyet.”
My voice cracks. I look away, totally humiliated. Staring out at the city, I mutter almost angrily. “Guys like you don’t understand what it’s like to go through what I have. You live in a palace. You fly a helicopter. You spend the kind of money I took from you on a weekend shoppingspree.”
“Guys like me?” He scoffs and drags over a chair to sit down beside me as I settle back into his desk chair. “You have no idea what I’m like, except for what I have let yousee.”
“And yet you expect me to trust you,” Iretort.
He sits back…and then smiles wryly. “You know what? You’re right. Ask me whatever you want toknow.”
I relax, starting to feel a little intrigued myself. “Fine.Uh…”
I open my mouth to ask him who he used to launder money for, when suddenly an alarm shrills somewhere deep in the building. Drake’s phone rings at the sametime.
He stiffens, a hard, wary gleam coming into his eyes as he pulls out his phone. “Hold thatthought.”
Chapter10
Drake
I’m finally getting somewhere with both the Marcone problem and Robin’s trust issues when all hell breaks loose. “What is it?” I snap as I answer myphone.
I already know. Just not thespecifics.
“Drake, they busted through the bollards and armored glass with a tractor trailer. They’re inside.” I hear John shouting over the shrilling alarm. “Twelve men that we knowof!”
Fuck.“Marcone’smen?”
“Safe bet, though they’re in ski masks. Yourorders?”
In the back of my head I start swearing in Russian and making plans. Nasty plans. “Condition Omega. Scatter into three-man teams, pick them off using guerrilla tactics, track them constantly on the security cameras to stay agile. Do not get close to them. I can’t afford to have anyone takenhostage.
“Do not make a stand at the penthouse. If they get up this far, lock them in, put the elevator out of service and call the police to pick them up. Let my panic doors do their job. If they somehow find a way through, the helicopter isprepped.”
My voice has gone cold, and I hear the faintest return of my accent. It happens when I’m under enough stress, and right now I want to kick ass and don’t have a deserving target nearby. “I want updates every minute. Text if you can’t talk.” I hangup.
“Oh God.” Robin is shivering next to me, her lovely face showing the terror of a trappedanimal.
One glance at the haunted, familiar look of despair in her eyes, and my rage gets shoved aside by something far more urgent. I can’t stand seeing it. It stuns me that she’s gotten under my skin this much already, but I go withit.
I turn to her and hug her gently, cradling her head in my palm as I draw her against my chest. “It’s okay. Stay calm. I’ve prepared forthis.”
She stiffens in my grip. Then a long shudder goes through her as she digs her fingers into my shirtfront and buries her face in my chest. “What do wedo?”
I pet her hair gently until she calms down enough to look up at me. “Building’s going on lock-down, and I’m armed. Do you know how to use apistol?”
She shakes her head, lookingembarrassed.
“All right then, here’s the deal. They are not breaking in here. The only way that we can possibly come in contact with them is if they intercept us on the way out.” I want to hold her again, comfort her more, but she’s nodding, snapping out of it already—and there’s notime.
“Should we just fly out and leave them trying to get into an empty penthouse?” she asks, and I stop to consider. She isn’t handling the prospect of waiting out a siege well. If I give a damn, I shouldn’t ask her to stay, even if I’m fine withit.
“Get your coat on. The temperature’s dropping pretty fast.” Past the polarized windows, I can see the rain turning into thin swirls of snow. “I’ve got a safe house in the Hamptons. I’ll fly us over there and let the police and security mop uphere.”
She nods and goes to take her coat out of the closet by the entry door, moving shakily. I already miss her warm, slight body against me. But once we’re in the Hamptons…perhaps she’ll want to celebrate ourescape.
