Page 84 of Hard Wired

Chapter Twenty-Six

“What are you doing?” Maureen stood in the doorway to his bedroom, staring at him skeptically.

Dominic got up off his hands and knees. “I was cleaning. Is that a problem?”

“Not generally. But it does make me concerned about the state of your mental health. I’ve never seen you clean anything.”

“Which is a problem in itself, isn’t it?”

Usually, Maureen was the one to tidy up after him. But he didn’t like her coming into his room too often, so it tended to get cluttered. After Sylvie had arrived a couple of days ago, he’d shoved a bunch of junk under his bed. But now he was too full of nervous energy, and he needed something to do.

Plus, he liked the idea of making more room for Sylvie. As if clearing away the detritus from his regular life would give her that much more reason to feel comfortable here.

Which was stupid because he wouldn’t be here much longer anyway. He’d be leaving for the safe house before long, and he had no idea when he’d be back here.

But cleaning had made some instinctual sense in his head, so he’d decided to go with it.

He stood up from the floor. “Do you know how much longer it’ll be ’til they’re here?”

“Your answer is as good as mine. I would’ve thought Sylvie would let you know.”

He hadn’t heard back from her all day, even though he’d written. Maybe that was another source of his nervousness. He wanted to know what was going on.

He’d managed to talk briefly with Raymond, who wasn’t happy at all about the safe house idea. And he’d been outright pissed when he’d heard about the bodyguard detail. Ray had insisted Dominic call off Bennett Security before he’d even consider anything like the safe house.

Dominic didn’t understand his brother’s reticence. Maybe the kid was afraid to accept that their lives weren’t normal, wouldn’t be anything close to normal until they could both get away from the Syndicate.

Raymond was going to need more convincing. Dominic was still counting on Lana to help him there.

But at least they had some time before the move. He wanted to spend as much of that with Sylvie as possible.

By the time Sylvie and Tanner arrived, Dominic’s room was spotless. He’d showered and shaved. He met Sylvie at the door and swept her into his arms, capturing her mouth in a passionate kiss. He was putting on a show for the cameras because he knew Sandford was watching, but he didn’t have to fake his enthusiasm.

When Dominic broke off the kiss, Sylvie said, “Wow. Hello to you, too.”

“Just wanted to make sure you knew how much I missed you.”

Sylvie pulled him down again, locking their lips. Dominic knew she was playing along, but he liked to think her show of affection was mostly sincere. Their chemistry certainly felt like the real thing. His breathing was shallow, and his focus was soft. No one had ever fit so perfectly into his arms.

Maureen cleared her throat. “All right, I think that’s plenty. We’ve all got the idea. Either you two head upstairs for privacy or turn down the thermostat. I’m having a hot flash over here.”

Tanner snorted, shaking his head as he wandered toward the kitchen.

They acted normal for a while, chatting like this was just a regular visit, in case the Syndicate had binoculars trained on Dominic’s windows right now. He didn’t want to do anything that might set off their suspicions.

But there was a different kind of tension in the air this afternoon. All four of them knew they had an important objective today.

Dominic took solace in the fact that they were all finally working together toward a common goal. Every time he touched Sylvie or kissed her hair, he felt the relief of knowing they were being completely honest with one another. That he wasn’t hiding anything at all.

Maybe this was what it felt like to really be himself. Smiling and laughing easily, feeling at home in his skin. Not worrying about what anyone thought of him, despite the danger waiting just beyond their door. He wished it hadn’t taken such extreme circumstances to make him stop playing the role of “Dominic Crane” and just be Nic.

All he knew was that he wanted to feel this way all the time.

They’d choreographed the whole evening. Sylvie had already dropped off her overnight bag in Dominic’s room. When she and Maureen started making dinner, with Tanner helping out, Dominic went upstairs with the flash drive Sylvie had given him. It contained the modified code she’d created.

She’d promised all he had to do was plug it in to her laptop, just like the one Sandford had given him before. To the Russian hackers, it would be indistinguishable from the programs they’d created to infiltrate Bennett Security. Of course, this one had the secret malware Sylvie had devised.

Dominic didn’t understand how it all worked, but he could manage this part of it. He took Sylvie’s laptop out of her bag and set it on the dresser. Even pretending to violate her trust bothered him. It reminded him of how close he’d come to doing the real thing.

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