Night Moves Read online

  “You have interesting friends.”

  “This one owes me a favor.” Liam slipped the navy long-sleeve shirt on over his tee.

  The glimpse of broad chest and long fingers gave her comfort. “You sure your man can fool the right people into thinking this call is coming from inside the building?”

  “Dummy phone and a router. We’re covered.” He buttoned up the shirt.

  “Sounds like it.”

  “We go in with the emergency responders in the late afternoon and then wait it out in the catering kitchen until after hours. Once the place clears out, we’ll have more freedom to move around.”

  “How are we going to get into the individual offices and the labs? This place seems to be in permanent lockdown.”

  “I haven’t figured that part out yet.”

  That wasn’t the response she expected. “Believe it or not, I don’t find that very comforting.”

  He grabbed the keys off the hood of the ambulance. “You really want to panic? We can talk about the problems with disabling the cameras, getting by the guards and dodging whatever other nasty security measures this Smithfield guy has in place.”

  “Almost makes me wish the explosion had worked and taken me out of this mess.”

  Liam stopped fidgeting. “Don’t joke about that.”

  The flat line of his mouth let her know how serious he was. He went from focused on the job to furious with her in two seconds.

  She held up her hands in surrender. “You’re right. Not funny.”

  Despite all the trauma and exhaustion, she had to smile at his EMT badge and official patches on his sleeves. If he ever left the security business, he could switch careers to EMT in a second. The uniform sure looked good on him. Everything did.

  “Why are you staring at me?” he asked as he fiddled with his belt buckle. Didn’t even glance up this time.

  “I bet you were a great police officer.”

  “Not really.”

  His denial killed her brief moment without panic about what was ahead of them. “What does that mean?”

  “You read the paper.”

  The media painted him as the villain, a cop out of control. She couldn’t believe he would put an innocent at risk as everyone reported, or that he picked capturing a drug dealer over protecting a victim. Careless and unfeeling? Not the man who set his entire life aside to help her and attacked a police officer just to keep her safe.

  Since she didn’t know what else to say, she said the obvious. “That wasn’t your fault.”

  “A woman died. I have to own that.”

  “You know there’s more to the story.”

  Liam walked around to the driver’s side of the truck. “We’re done with this discussion.”

  In the past, when anyone used that tone or ignored her, she retreated. The intellectual world promised an escape from everything mean and bad. Lost in her books and studies, she didn’t think about how she’d lost her parents, didn’t worry that she’d never be normal. She could look the way she wanted and limit her interaction to slides and cells and paperwork. She didn’t have to worry about being young or awkward. Her mind could race and her words could run together and no one judged.

  Being with Liam the last few days she learned something else. Sharing the burden eased her frustration.

  “It’s okay to be a hero,” she said.

  “That’s not what this is about.”

  She followed him, boxed him in when he tried to open the truck door. The move forced him to choose between shoving her away and facing her. To her relief, he went with standing there, arms hanging at his sides, an annoyed frown on his lips.

  “Tell me what really happened that day.” She stood close enough to touch him but refrained.

  He wrapped his fingers around her forearms as if he wanted to move her. The hold never tightened. “We have work to do.”

  To stop him from pushing this aside and shutting her out of whatever was happening in his head, she rested her palm against his chest. His heart thumped against her hand. “Tell me.”

  “I’d rather kiss you.”

  Tall and dark, this man screamed temptation. “You’re avoiding the conversation.”

  “Yes.”

  Her hand caressed his chest, rolling over the firm muscles and dipping into the sleek smoothness of his stomach. “Not even going to deny your subterfuge?”

  “Not my style.” He smiled then. “But if you keep doing that with your fingers I’m definitely going to follow through on that kiss.”

  Her other hand joined the first.

  Heat flared behind his green eyes. “One kiss and then back to work.”

  “I’m not stopping you.” She wanted the press of his mouth against hers more than she wanted anything in that moment.

  When his lips touched hers, all thoughts of digging into his past and picking at the psychology behind his decision to leave the police force disappeared. All that mattered was the woodsy smell of his skin and the firm grasp of his hands against the small of her back.

  His mouth moved over hers, sending a signal to her arms to wrap around his neck. His tongue slipped against her teeth as the sound of his deep breaths played in her ears. It was a slow seduction of hands and mouth. It wiped out her common sense.

  For the first time in her life, her mind shut off and her heart took over. She let the lightness pour through her without examining it. It tortured her when he broke off the kiss, but the gentle nuzzling of his nose against her cheek soothed her.

  He leaned his forehead against hers. “I’ve been wanting to do that since our last kiss.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “You weren’t into it.”

  She pulled her head back to stare up at him. “How can you say that?”

  “Ah, let’s see. I was planning on how to get under the covers with you and you were reviewing Hammer’s documents in your head and pulled out the Smithfield name instead of saying mine.”

  She didn’t know what he was talking about. “I never told you to stop.”

  At six-foot, he stood about five inches taller than her.

  The difference made her feel safe and protected. Despite all she’d accomplished, there was something comforting in knowing she didn’t need to have all the answers or do all the work. She could depend on Liam for help. Sharing the burden usually made her feel weak. This time it empowered her.

  His thumb traced the outline of her lips. “Maybe you didn’t call it off with this mouth, but you did with your eyes. With your head.”

  “I don’t know what that means.”

  “The insecurity peeks through whenever you leave the intellectual stuff and venture into emotional territory.”

  He brushed her hair back, letting his fingers linger over her cheek. “A certain sadness moves over you when you can’t rely on your smarts as a crutch.”

  If he had used anything but a soft and caring voice, she would have been offended. Would have insisted, as she always did, that she couldn’t separate the smart part of her from the rest and people just had to accept that.

  Instead, she went with the first words to strike her consciousness. “I’m most comfortable in the lab.”

  “But you’re a woman wherever you go. You have needs and desires. I know because I’ve felt them.”

  The doubt backed up on her out of nowhere. She was transported back to a time when he’d turned her away.

  She dropped her hands and stepped back. “We should get going.”

  Nice and slow he brought her body back to his, let her feel every muscle and bulge. “How long before you forgive me for the past?”

  “I did the second you tackled that guy on your deck and threatened the detective.”

  “I don’t think so.”

  But she did. The memory from all those years ago still stung. It fueled her, shaped who she was and how she structured her life to erase every ounce of the teenager inside her from there forward. As much as she wanted to blame him, those choices
were hers. She’d carried them and wallowed in them for years, but she was old enough to move on now.

  “I wouldn’t be standing with you now if I hated you for something that happened when I was a kid,” she said.

  “But you’re still hiding behind your big brain.”

  “That’s the part nobody gets. It’s a package deal.”

  “But it doesn’t have to erase the woman inside.”

  “I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Not yet, but you will.”

  She wasn’t sure how they got there or where they were. “Does this have something to do with your shooting?”

  “No.”

  “I don’t—”

  He placed a short, hard kiss on her lips. “It’s time to go.”

  Chapter Ten

  The piercing fire-truck whistle drowned out most of the shouting. Two burly security guards held open the huge glass doors leading to Smithfield Enterprises. Men in business suits scrambled out of the way as ambulance crews piled into the lobby. People pointed and questioned each other about what was happening.

  It was controlled chaos.

  The guard in the middle of the frenzy of people and drowning noise directed the emergency crews to the elevator banks. Gurneys rolled across the pristine marble floor.

  “Which floor?” a paramedic asked.

  A guard slipped an arm into the car and turned the key. “Go up to the tenth.”

  Through all the confusion, one EMT stepped up and demanded access to another elevator for faster access. The guard with the key complied. Just as he had been ordered to do.

  Rex Smithfield leaned back in his oversize leather desk chair and took in the scene on one of the six security monitors sitting in front of him. On another, he watched Dr. Hammer shuffle around his lab, oblivious to the camera aimed right at his head or the plan hatching just a few floors below him.

  The two supposed medical professionals in the second elevator matched the file photos of Dr. Lindsey and her boyfriend in body type. The way they hid their faces confirmed it. The man’s finger hovered over the button for the fifth floor until he spared a brief glance at the camera on the car’s ceiling. He hit ten instead.

  Smithfield studied the couple. They carried duffel bags and never spoke to each other. Nothing in their movements suggested desperation to get to an injured employee. The careening rush of the lobby had disappeared. They acted as though they planned to stay for a long time.

  It appeared that Maura Lindsey and Liam Anderson believed they were in control of the situation.

  They would learn.

  THE ENTRY WENT ACCORDING to plan. The execution, the hiding, all of it worked.

  Liam knew something was wrong.

  They should have met resistance, at least had to duck for cover somewhere along the line. Instead, they spent the last three hours hanging out in the abandoned catering kitchen. The room’s one camera stayed stationary. All they had to do was stay out of the center of the room and wait out the employees as they cleared out for home.

  Yeah, too damn easy.

  Maura sat on the metal prep table, swinging her legs back and forth and staring at the gun next to her. “I wish I knew how to shoot.”

  “Just aim and pull the trigger. The only rule is that you don’t shoot me.”

  “You’re on edge.”

  He was sneaking around a high-security building with a novice and a plan with a very low probability of working. He’d be happy to just be on edge. “I’m fine.”

  “You sound stressed.”

  “Only an idiot would be calm right now.”

  He weighed telling her the extent of his concern. Dressed in her fake ambulance crew uniform with her hair in a ponytail and nibbling on her bottom lip, she looked vulnerable. Then his gaze went to her eyes. Fueled with anger over her boss’s dishonesty, this woman was ready for battle. That realization cooled the flare of his protective instincts.

  He’d throw his body in front of hers, do whatever had to be done to track down the information to clear her name, but he wouldn’t get stuck calming a crying woman. She was not the type.

  Despite being at an age when most of her peers still viewed weekends as prime drinking time, Maura thrived on responsibility. Probably too much so. She didn’t whither under pressure. Didn’t dig a hole and avoid danger. She rushed in, rage burning, when something mattered to her.

  Not that she understood her strength. She measured her life only in terms of intellectual pursuits and tried to convince others to do the same. Escaping from a burning building and tracking down a rogue doctor spoke to her inner toughness. It showed him she possessed much more than a lab coat and a beautiful face. How to convince her of that was the question.

  “If you clench your hand any tighter you’re going to break a bone.”

  He followed her gaze to his hard fist. It took an effort for him to ease up on his grip. “I guess I’m not used to busting into office buildings.”

  She shrugged. “We aren’t stealing information or anything like that.”

  “We’re still committing a felony. Believe it or not, that’s not how I usually spend my evenings.”

  She burst out laughing. When the sound bounced off the shiny surfaces and grew louder, she put her hand over her mouth as if to call it back.

  He couldn’t imagine what she found funny about their current situation. Having the police and a Smithfield goon squad after them kept his heart thudding at an uncontrollable pace. “What?”

  “You look a little green, as if you just realized how far you’ve strayed from your law-enforcement ways since I dropped on your back deck.”

  “Trouble does follow you.”

  “It never did before.”

  He loaded the last of the building schematics from his small notebook computer to the two dummy phones. “Thanks to the Smithfield tech team, we’ll be able to move around with some sense of where we are. We can see a blueprint of the rooms and exits.”

  She caught the phone when he threw it. “What about the security cameras and alarmed locks on every door?”

  “You aren’t thinking positively.”

  “Sure I am or I would have mentioned the guards crawling all over this place.” She managed to smile as she said it.

  “The cameras are going to blink.”

  Her mouth went flat. “Excuse me?”

  He held up a small black box. It fit into the palm of his hand and could cause more damage than the gun tucked into his waistband. “Electromagnetic pulse.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Don’t worry. It’s the non-nuclear kind.”

  She jumped down and stood in front of him with her fingers resting on the device. “You’re going to disable the cameras with this thing?”

  “That’s the plan.”

  Her eyes brightened at the thought. Liam could see the scientist in her getting excited. Energy vibrated around her as she turned the piece over and studied it with openmouthed appreciation. “This is fascinating.”

  He felt pride surge through him. “It’s a high-intensity short burst that will knock out any electronics that are on at the time of the shot. Our phones and my computer will stay off until after we deliver the pulse. That should keep us up and running after the meltdown.”

  “But it will disable their fancy alarm and camera system.” She flashed him a wide smile. “That’s brilliant.”

  “From what I can tell, Smithfield has a backup system. We’ll only have a short window to get in and find what we need, and that’s only if Smithfield hasn’t figured out a way to make his electronics EMP resistant.”

  She smoothed her fingers over the plastic box with a reverence other people used on religious icons. “I don’t pretend to be an expert in physics, but you’d normally need a generator and an antenna for optimal coupling.”

  He knew the term had to do with transferring power but his knowledge of the specifics ended there. “Only if you intend a significant and sustained attack. I’m not talking about
launching a missile in here. This is for a much more concentrated purpose.”

  She stopped turning it over and investigating. “How did you get this? This has to be top-secret military equipment.”

  “The technology has been around for decades.”

  Her eyebrow inched up. “That’s not really an answer.”

  “I’m a security expert, remember? I have all sorts of secrets and friends in very low places.” The gadget was just one of the many he used to do his work. Every tool gave him an advantage. People hired him, trusted him, for a reason. He didn’t shrink away from doing the difficult thing, even if that meant walking right up to the line of legality.

  She nodded. “I’m ready.”

  He debated leaving her in this room for the hundredth time. She had proven she could handle a tough situation. Still, the idea of anything happening to her made his stomach spin.

  “Don’t even think about it,” she said in a deadpan voice.

  “What?”

  “This is my life. My mess. You are not tying me to a chair or whatever.”

  “That would be extreme, don’t you think?”

  “You need me for the Dr. Hammer piece. You don’t know what you’re looking for.” She held up a palm. “And before you start thinking I’m calling you dumb, all I’m saying is that I’m not sure what we’re looking for. I don’t know what my dear boss is doing or why. I probably won’t until I see him and get a look at whatever is happening here.”

  “This is dangerous.”

  “So is prison and we both know that’s where I’m heading if we fail here.” She dropped a quick kiss on Liam’s mouth before stepping back again. “We’re in this together.”

  “You’ll follow my lead?”

  “Of course.”

  Her quick answer didn’t give him any comfort. He picked up her hand and lifted it to his lips. “If you get a shot to get out of here with whatever you need to clear your name, you take it.”

  “Understood.”

  He kissed her knuckles. “Even if it means you leave me behind.”

  A shiver moved through her. He felt it under his lips. Saw her body jerk in reaction to his rough words.