to convince you?”
“Of what?” she said.
“I’m not going to back down,” he said. “You can’t scare me off. Just give in.”
She shook her head with a helpless sigh. “I appreciate the sentiment, but damn. This is the thing. I like you, Nate. I really do. I mean, intensely.”
“That’s good news. What’s the big qualifier that I feel coming up?”
“I do not want to see you killed!” she snapped. “How’s that for a fucking qualifier? Every time I close my eyes, I see Willis being zipped into a body bag! He was engaged to be married, you know? His girlfriend was pregnant. Now he’s dead, and Greta’s kid has no father, because I was an asshole, dragging him into things that were bigger than I understood. I learned my lesson! I don’t want you hurt just because you have to be a fucking hero! Just because it’s your nature!”
Nate pondered that for a moment. “I’m hard to kill,” he said calmly. “Besides, we can’t walk this back now. If Clemens has done his homework, and he seems like the methodical type, then he knows my name already. So don’t worry about it. Just grit your teeth and buckle up. We’ll ride this thing together. To the very end.”
She pressed her hands against her eyes. “Shit,” she whispered. “I am so screwed.”
“No,” he said gently. “Just tired. Go lie down for a while.”
“We need to get back to work,” she said.
“I’ve got plenty to work on without you,” he assured her. “Take a nap. We’ll look at it all again with fresh eyes afterward. Go on. You’re swaying on your feet.”
Elisa reached over to grab her red nylon jacket from where she’d tossed it across one of the dining table chairs. She pulled the Hello Kitty padlock off the zipper, and pried out the flash drive. “You say Eric and his team could decrypt this?”
“If anyone could,” he told her. “Him and those Erebus types are wizards.”
She held it in her hand for a while, shook her head, and held it out. “Will you take charge of this while I sleep?”
“I got it.” He took it from her as she shuffled unsteadily into the bedroom.
Nate stared down at the little padlock, moved that she trusted him that much.
He slid it into the inside pocket of his leather coat. It belonged to a later phase of the plan to utterly destroy Gil Clemens. There were preliminary steps to take first.
Like letting Elisa sleep for a few hours, while he worked like a bastard to get up to speed. He’d have to scramble to live up to all his bold claims, and solve this clusterfuck before they all got killed. No one was ever going to let her down again.
He’d see to it.
12
Elisa opened her eyes to darkness. She was sunk deep in a deliciously soft bed, covered by a fluffy blanket she did not remember putting over herself.
It was a while before she could place herself at all. The big, luxurious room, the cloud-soft white mohair blanket, the four-poster king-sized bed, which seemed like something from the baroque bedchamber of a Renaissance-era queen.
Then it rushed back. The fancy hotel. Nate, pampering her, protecting her.
Insisting on helping her.
She sat up, amazed at how much better she felt. She’d actually slept. Deeply.
She heard faint sounds, a bluish light flickering from the sitting room, through an open door. Nate was in the living room, still working. The thought of Nate made emotion twist in her chest, hot and soft.
She had fallen asleep so deeply because finally, someone else was thinking about her problem. Someone else was applying energy and attention to it.
Finally, she could close her eyes without feeling like she was abandoning Joshie. She wasn’t the only one who knew, or cared. Oh, the sweet relief.
She sat up. She was still wearing her jeans and sweatshirt.
“There’s a T-shirt on the bed for you, if you want to change,” Nate called from the other room.
“Thanks,” she said. “So you always have your clothes with you?”
“I keep a go-bag in my car,” he called. “I just moved it into the rental car, along with my coat. I have an extra toothbrush in the bathroom for you. It’s on the shelf over the sink, still in the packaging. Feel free to use my other stuff.”
“Thanks,” she said. “I appreciate that.”
“Why not try out that tub? Be a shame not to make use of it.”
“It’s a little much for me right now,” she admitted. “I’ll grab a quick shower.”
A