Hide and Seek - Lara Adrian Page 0,71
something permanent.” It was a lie, of course, one she’d had to tell herself for a while now. Her life was way too chaotic to be thinking of settling down anytime soon.
“Mmm.” Nick looked at her from the side.
To bridge the awkward pause that was building between them, Michelle asked casually, “So, what were you gonna tell me about yourself to break the ice?”
“What I do for a living. But if you’re not interested, we can talk about something else.”
“No, no, please. Tell me what you do.”
“It’ll probably sound boring. Maybe I should just make something up instead.”
She stopped walking and turned to face him. “No, please don’t. It can’t possibly be all that boring. Besides, you don’t have to impress me. You already got me into bed, remember?”
“How could I forget?” He winked and took her hand again to continue walking. “I work with computers.”
“Doing what?”
“I make websites for people. You know, small businesses mostly. It’s not a bad job, and I’m pretty good at it.”
“That’s great. You work for yourself, then?”
He nodded. “Independent contractor. I prefer that to being shackled to some company and having to be accountable to a boss.”
“Yeah.” Like she had to be accountable to Mr. Smith. And she hated that, hated that he was blackmailing her.
“How about you? What do you do?”
“Consulting,” she shot back. “But I’m looking to make a change.”
Like flee the country and disappear just as soon as she could set everything up and make sure Mr. Smith couldn’t track her down. Until then, she had to play by his rules and execute his orders.
10
Nick felt the flash drive burn a hole in his pants pocket during the entire dinner at the cozy Italian neighborhood restaurant he’d taken Michelle to. Somehow he had to find a way to look at the contents of the flash drive, copy them, and put the memory stick back onto Michelle’s key ring before she noticed it missing. Which meant that he had to continue being his charming self so Michelle would invite him back to her place after dinner.
It wasn’t a hardship at all. Michelle was fun to be around. She had a quick wit and a sharp tongue, a wicked sense of humor, and an infectious laugh. Yet with every laugh they shared, with every eye contact they made, his guilty conscience grew. However, he had no choice but to continue his deception. Michelle could be the key to the information he needed, information that might save not only him and his fellow Phoenix agents, but maybe thousands—if not millions—of people. He couldn’t let his own feelings get in the way of the greater good.
If Michelle was the person who was trying to prevent him from accessing the CIA’s secret servers, then she knew something and would be able to lead him to the person who’d destroyed the Phoenix program and killed Henry Sheppard.
“Dessert?” Nick now asked, looking across the table at Michelle.
She shook her dark blond locks. “I’m too full.”
“You sure?”
“Absolutely. How about we get out of here?”
He leaned over the table, lowering his voice to a seductive murmur. “I don’t want the evening to end yet.”
Her eyelashes fluttered. “It doesn’t have to.”
Her words sent a thrill through his core, and he snapped his head to the side, catching the waiter’s eye. “Check, please.”
When the waiter placed the tab in front of him, Nick pulled several bills from his wallet and placed them on the little tray.
“Do you always pay cash?” Michelle asked.
“My credit card got stolen last week. I’m waiting for the bank to send me a replacement,” he lied.
In reality, he didn’t use credit cards when he could avoid it. Cash was much harder to trace and safer if one wanted to stay off the grid.
“Ready?” he prompted Michelle and stood, offering her his hand to help her up.
“Ready.”
As they walked to the exit, Nick eyed the signs to the restrooms. Now was the time, or things could get dicey for him later. He stopped.
“Sorry, do you mind if I stop at the restroom?”
“No, go ahead. Actually, I’ll go, too.”
Nick headed for the men’s room and dove into the first stall. He sat down on the toilet, pulled his laptop from the bag and booted it up, while he pulled the flash drive from his pocket. The moment his computer started up, he unlocked it with his password, shoved the memory stick into the port, and copied the entire contents onto his hard drive. He had no time to look at