“Let’s get these guys taken care of,” Rome said with a sigh, and broke away from her, walking to the nearest body. “Then we need to see what’s on that flash drive.”
“Good idea,” Harper agreed, walking toward the two slumped forms by the warehouse entrance.
She and Rome needed those answers now more than ever. Obviously she wasn’t alone in her powers. But she was finding out she really was different from the others and needed to find out why in order to command the power and get her revenge.
And the more she was able to control it, the more that revenge was becoming a reality. A smile broke out across her face. Harper couldn’t wait.
CHAPTER TEN
It was almost ten o’clock when Harper set down her mug of foamy hot chocolate, her gaze fixated on the bright screen of the laptop.
After taking care of their attackers’ bodies, they had collected a few necessities, laptop and flash drive included, and hit the road. They drove a few hours away from the bright lights of Portland, then circled back near the city’s suburbs to cover their tracks.
She and Rome had taken turns in getting some muchneeded sleep. They made a quick stop at a rest station for some food and to clean up a bit. But most of the drive had been silent, save for the rattling of her fingertips on the keyboard. Eventually, the battery started to run low, and they pulled over at a quaint café where she could plug it in.
Knowing how well Bobby understood her hacking capabilities, she had to be careful and meticulous when collapsing each level of convoluted code. Most likely, he had created frequent fail-safes along the way in case anyone else attempted to unravel the data. She imagined that it would automatically corrupt everything if there was any tampering other than the precise decoding executed by her own hands.
She stopped for a moment when the figures on the screen started to blur. Rubbing her eyes, she glanced away from the screen to peer around the friendly café.
The café wasn’t too crowded, being just near ten at night. A few patrons sat at their own laptops, taking advantage of the free wireless Internet while having steaming cups of coffee and home-style food.
Two other tables were pushed together, surrounded by a group of teenage girls who seemed to be gossiping their young hearts out. She overheard that Emily was going to break up with Josh because she saw him kissing Felicia.
A wistful smile broke across Harper’s face at their simple problems. No doubt the girls thought it was the most complicated thing ever. She’d trade for Emily’s boy troubles in less than a heartbeat.
Speaking of kissing boys, her tired gaze wandered over to Rome, who was standing patiently at the marbled counter while he waited for the matronly server to make another iced tea. He appeared to be mindlessly studying the chalkboard menu, but she knew he was hair-triggered for danger. She was beginning to recognize that he always had an aura of tension surrounding him.
But you wouldn’t know it unless you were looking for it. His fingers were in a half fist. Knees slightly bent. Shoulders hunched slightly. Clear eyes that saw everything.
He turned his head and locked that clear gaze with hers. The blue in his eyes sparkled as he turned one corner of his captivating mouth up in a half smile. She swore she could almost feel a current of desire radiate from him and reach out to her.
Or maybe it was her wishful thinking slapping her upside the head.
He shifted to pick up the full tray that held his glass of iced tea along with two heaping plates and a glass of ice water. It was difficult to decide which looked more appetizing: Rome’s muscular bulk or the plates of delicious-smelling food.
As he set the plates down on the table with a small clattering thud, Harper noticed the conversation at the gossip table had stopped. All the teens, gaping, were watching Rome’s every movement.
Yep, she knew exactly what they were thinking, because she was thinking it, too. Only she would bet all her gold medals that her thoughts were well past the Rrated version.
“What have we here?” she asked, shifting her glance back to their table as the clanking and shuffling sounds of the café receded with his presence.
“Club sandwiches,” he answered as he removed a plate from the tray and set it down in front of her beside the laptop.
Her stomach growled at the mouthwatering smell of toast and turkey. She pushed away the laptop and pulled the plate closer, picking up half of the sandwich. Biting into it, she closed her eyes and moaned at the luscious burst of taste filling her mouth. Swallowing, she grabbed a napkin and wiped her lips.
“Have I told you how much I love you?” Harper said absently as she took another hearty bite and looked across the table at him, moaning, savoring the sandwich. She forgot the napkin this time and just licked the crumbs off her lips.
Rome’s sandwich was frozen in midair, just in front of his mouth. He was staring at her with a peculiar look on his face and a twinkle in his eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly as she saw it.
What was that all about? Did her voracious appetite scare him, too? Maybe his usual dates were the sidesalad type and never actually ate.
“I’m glad you like it,” he said after he took a big bite of his own sandwich.
“What can I say? I like to eat.” She tried to guess what he was thinking. Impossible. He shook his head at her and went back to his sandwich.
Being an athlete for most of her life, she knew the importance of the energy food provided to keep her body healthy. Nutrition was just as important as physical training. Moderation was the key, and she had been careful not to overindulge her chocolate tooth, but she was never one for abstinence when it came to good food.
After practically inhaling her sandwich, she placed the empty plate back on the tray and dragged the laptop back in front of her as she sipped through the bendy straw in her glass of ice water. It took less than a minute for her to get back into decoding mode, her mind and body now replenished.
“How much longer?” Rome asked.
“Not much,” she answered, keeping her focus on the display. She could tell she was very close to unraveling the data by the way the level of complexity had skyrocketed with her last directive.
After ten more minutes, Harper sat back and ran her fingers through her hair. She stared at the blank screen, which was blinking a solitary cursor back at her.
One more command.
With her next move, she and Rome would know whether she’d deconstructed the code correctly. If she had, Bobby’s data would be accessible. If not, it would be gone forever.
Harper was confident in her programming and deprogramming skills, but she’d had little sleep and her stress levels were beyond measurable. She’d gotten this far, but any single wrong command along the way could still destroy it all. She knew Bobby masked lines of code and she wouldn’t know for sure whether she’d unmasked them properly until this last entry.
“All done?” Rome’s deep voice broke into her thoughts. She glanced over the laptop at him. He was watching her closely but with an encouraging smile. He scooted his chair around the table to sit right next to her and glance at the screen.
She was afraid. Afraid that she’d screwed up the decoding. Above all, she was afraid that even if she had cracked Bobby’s code correctly, it wouldn’t contain the information she desperately hoped was there. Information that could sort this all out.
But Bobby had stashed this flash drive for her. His last dying words were for her to get it. The answers had to be there.
And then there was Rome, sitting quietly next to her, his warm thigh resting snugly against hers, looking at her with all the confidence in the world. This man who’d chosen to stand by her and help her, risking his own life and career in the process. She just hoped she hadn’t let either of them down.