get revenge for your brother. You’ll get nothing.”
Enrico said, “I’ll get the database you promised me.”
Bridget gasped. “You’ll never get our client list! Your brother was the worst excuse for a human I’ve ever met, but you don’t care who he hurt or any of the other horrors he took part in. You care about nothing but power.”
Enrico laughed.
Clarke shook Bridget. “Shut up. This isn’t your bargain.”
She shook her head, restricted in her movement by his hold on her. “Don’t tell me to shut up. I’m not part of this bargain.” She looked at Enrico. “Let Aiden go. He’s not part of this.”
Enrico shifted. “Then you won’t care if I kill him?”
Bridget’s jaw flexed. Her high cheekbones accentuated as she chewed on her response.
“That’s what I thought.”
Clarke glanced at Aiden. “You seriously care about him, Bridget?”
“Uh, yeah.”
Aiden looked at the smoke as they talked back and forth and tried not to let her words affect him. It was hardly a declaration of affection, but it still made him want to smile. Unless it put either of their lives in danger.
Aiden pressed his lips together. The information could be used against them.
No matter what arrangement they made, the fire in the server room was going to be a problem. Surely an alarm would trigger. Emergency services would come.
He spotted sprinklers in the ceiling. Why hadn’t they come on yet?
“Let them out.” Aiden turned to Enrico. Or, he tried. The other guy still squeezed his arm. He then tried unsuccessfully to yank his arm out of the guy’s grip. He didn’t budge. “It’s on fire! Let them out!”
Whatever agreement they were going to make, they could do that out here. Where Bridget didn’t have to breathe in smoke. He’d seen people die before from smoke inhalation alone. It could be deadly.
Enrico ignored him and continued his conversation with Clarke. “You want out? Get me that database.”
“She turned off the fire suppression. I should just kill her now.”
“Turn it back on and get the fire under control,” Enrico said. “Then I’ll think about not killing you.”
Enrico was on the verge of walking away with nothing. If Clarke played this right, he would be able to get out of here. Or, he’d lose everything. Enrico would kill him—and probably all of them—before he left.
Clarke shoved Bridget away and pointed the gun at her face. “Go turn the fire suppression on before we die in here.”
One way or another, Aiden figured they would likely die in there.
Everything in him revolted against the idea of her going back in, deeper into the building but, in reality, this could go wrong so many more ways than it could go right. Smoke inhalation. Enrico. Clarke.
Bridget could fall, and Aiden would have to watch her die through a window with no way to get to her.
Clarke’s arm wavered, but he held his aim steady enough. “Then we’ll see if there’s anything to be salvaged.”
Bridget eyed Clarke. Then she turned back into the room and walked down a row of servers. Aiden watched her go, moving until he could see where she was headed. To an office at the end. She stepped inside and disappeared for a moment. The longest few seconds of his life.
A phone rang. “She’s calling back again.”
Aiden held still while Enrico turned to his guy who had the phone. Millie had called every half hour since they’d left Last Chance. Now they were hundreds of miles away, and Aiden wanted to answer that phone.
Millie knew where they were. At least, he hoped so. Even if the server room blocked whatever GPS signal emanated from Bridget’s tracker, this would be her last known location. Had she called in the FBI yet?
Enrico had brought them in through a side door and, though Aiden looked, he hadn’t seen anyone watching. Surveillance was pretty easy to spot, and he knew what to look for. It made his stomach roil with nerves at the idea Enrico might get away with this.
Clarke could skate out from under the consequences of his actions the past couple of weeks.
Sydney. Aiden needed to get home to his daughter. Bridget needed to get her real life back or start a new chapter. He wanted to take Bridget out for dinner and ask her what she wanted her future to look like. Regaining what she should’ve had, or creating a gift of something new? Or both those things.
God, I want the chance to do that. Please help us. He didn’t like telling his Heavenly Father what to