Expired Getaway (Last Chance County #7) - Lisa Phillips Page 0,102
thought it was a pretty good attempt to draw attention to herself.
What she needed was to get behind that desk and find useful supplies.
Clarke’s grip on her shifted. She took the opportunity and wrenched her arm out through the gap between his thumb and first finger.
It hurt.
She ran to the security guard and collapsed beside him. “He’s dead! You killed him!” As though she’d have even the slightest shot to save the guy after a wound like that. Even EMTs wouldn’t have been able to do anything for him. But let Clarke think she was distraught. That would slow him down.
Darn. He had nothing useful in his pockets.
Clarke grabbed her elbow. She let him pull her, then used the momentum and shoved him back. He stumbled away, and it was then she knew for sure he wasn’t planning to kill her. Clarke might threaten pain, and he’d probably follow through if it didn’t slow either of them down. But kill her? No.
She scanned the desk as quickly as possible while he scrambled to his feet. A lighter sat on top of a packet of cigarettes. Bingo.
Bridget swiped it up and pocketed it, then raised her hands. “Enough!”
“That’s my line.” Clarke closed in. Pointed the gun at her face.
“You think I can’t get that gun from you before you have time to pull the trigger?” More likely he’d fight her for it. But he wouldn’t pull the trigger while it was aimed at her forehead. She’d have precious seconds while he re-aimed for something not so lethal.
His eyes narrowed and he stepped back, out of reach. “Let’s go.”
“I can’t believe you killed that guy.”
Clarke shoved her in front of him. She moved along, not wanting the gun to go off accidentally somehow. He propelled her at a fast pace to the elevator. “Hit the down button.”
She did it, then glanced at the window out the corner of her eye. Red and blue police lights lit up one corner of the frosted pane.
Cops.
FBI, maybe.
Whichever it was, she was glad. And assumed they were here to safeguard the database and capture Clarke. Or they thought Capeira would be here and wouldn’t move in unless they saw him on the security feed. Then again, they could be responding to a call nearby, and those lights weren’t even headed here. Please let them be coming here, Lord.
The elevator doors slid open.
Bridget headed for the far corner and huddled against the wall. Out of reach—until Clarke hit the button and closed in.
She clenched her jaw and held still as he moved in. That gun remained pointed at her. Clarke’s breath on her neck. He pressed his body against hers.
Bridget grasped his wrist with her thumb and index finger and pressed on the nerve.
He yelped and dropped the gun.
“If you want to continue walking without assistance, don’t come near me again.”
He stepped back to glare fiery daggers at her with his expression.
“I’m only here because…what? You need someone to blame all this on?”
Clarke’s expression shifted to amusement.
“So bringing me here to slow you down and make things more difficult was…what? Just for fun? You’re just going to leave me and make your daring getaway.”
He flashed a smile. “Maybe you are smarter than you look.”
She didn’t like it, and he didn’t explain. He had a plan.
Bridget should’ve kneed him where it would seriously hurt and then asked the question. It didn’t matter who held the gun when Bridget had questions that needed answers.
The elevator doors opened.
Beyond them stretched a windowless hall, like a basement. At the far end was a door to a server room she could see through glass windows. Rows of server racks housed information backups. Like their database.
This whole building was supposed to be high tech and secure. “Looks like a keypad entry.” She motioned to what looked like a computer keyboard as he walked her to the end of the hall. “Got the code?”
Behind her, Clarke chuckled. Then he stopped her in front of a locked door and keypad. His pinched grip caused her to yelp. “Type this.” He rattled off a series of numbers, letters, and punctuation characters until she was dizzy.
The light turned green.
“Get in.”
“Why the hurry?” She pulled down the door handle and heard the air seal release. What she needed was static electricity. No, that wouldn’t work. There needed to be total destruction. Somehow she had to utterly damage all the server racks in the room.