Page 64 of Hard Wired

She could restart the loader right now, but the more she screwed around with this, the more likely the people monitoring Dominic’s network would notice some anomaly.

Yet even as these thoughts spun through her mind, she knew that she wasn’t going to try again.

Many times, Sylvie had hacked her way into places she wasn’t supposed to go. But the rules she broke, the privacy she violated—the people affected—had always been anonymous, and she’d known her activities wouldn’t cause them any irreparable harm. In fact, she’d been convinced she was serving the greater good.

But she couldn’t use Dominic this way. He trusted her, and she couldn’t violate that. Even though she knew she was making the wrong choice, and people might get hurt because of it.

Somehow, the idea that she’d hurt Dominic was worse. She was choosing him over her friends. Over Bennett Security. What kind of person did that make her?

A tear ran down her cheek, and she swiped it away.

She had to go tell Max she’d fucked up. They’d come up with some other plan to go after the Syndicate. At least, she prayed they would.

Sylvie pulled her sleeve over her hand and wiped off the laptop and its keyboard, just in case. The flash drive returned to her back pocket.

She rushed back out into the hallway. There was no way she could sleep tonight, but at least she could spend the hours until daylight brainstorming how she was going to make up for this.

But halfway back to her room, she collided with something solid in the dark.

“Sylvie? What are you doing out here?”

It was Dominic.

Shit.

More lies and excuses flew to her lips, but she wouldn’t let them out. She couldn’t bear it, not anymore. “I thought I had to do something. But I changed my mind. What are you doing?”

“The same.”

He reached over and switched on the light. His sharp gaze studied her. Dominic looked past her shoulder, as if trying to puzzle out where she’d just been.

“Were you in my office?” A quirk of his mouth suggested he was kidding, but his eyes said otherwise. “Were you spying on me, Sylvie?”

She took a step back. Then another. If she yelled for Tanner, how fast could he get here?

Was she honestly worrying about whether she needed her bodyguard right now?

“What’s wrong?” His eyebrows drew down. “Jesus. Are you afraid of me?”

“Should I be?”

He drew his hand across his eyes and leaned into the wall. “God, no. I’d never want you to be afraid of me. I don’t care what you were doing.”

She pushed out a guilty breath. “You sure about that?” Sylvie wasn’t afraid of him. But maybe she did want his anger. She deserved it.

Her fingers went to her back pocket and took out the flash drive. She held it up.

Dominic stared at the piece of plastic. But he didn’t do any of the things she’d expected. He didn’t grab it away from her, didn’t demand to know what it was. Instead, a look of profound sadness passed across his face.

Then he laughed.

Dominic stuck a hand in his own pocket and pulled out another USB flash drive.

Her stomach flipped. “What the hell is that?”

“Show me yours, I’ll show you mine?”

---