Betrayed

Chapter 25

Shane waited with his heart pounding to hear her response. Once he’d been sure he would never trust Elena or any other woman. She’d changed that. Now he’d worked up the guts to tell Elena how he felt about her, and she didn’t seem to return his feelings.

Finally, she broke the silence. “I want to say the same thing.”

He swallowed hard. “But you can’t?”

“I want to,” she said again. “I mean, it’s what I feel.”

He released the breath he’d been holding. “Thank God.”

Her face reflected a host of conflicting emotions. “But I can’t do it yet. First I have to get you out of the mess I got you into.”

He bit back a sharp comment. But this was the wrong time to let his emotions take control—not when she didn’t need any more stress. The irony of their relationship wasn’t lost on him. He’d wanted her from the beginning, but he’d told himself he was simply trying to find out if she was the one stealing information from S&D. He’d practically stalked her, using surveillance as an excuse to stay close to her.

On the boat, she’d reached for him, giving him a gift that she’d given to no other man. At the time, he hadn’t been sure how he’d felt about that. Today he was perfectly sure of his feelings, but he couldn’t do anything about them until she returned from her self-imposed mission. And he was going to make damn sure she returned.

He leaned to tenderly stroke his lips against her cheek. “Then I guess I’ll have to wait until you come back safe and sound,” he said, hearing the roughness in his own voice.

A shadow crossed her face, and he pulled her into his arms.

“It’s okay to be scared,” he said.

“I know. But that doesn’t change anything.”

He wanted to argue with her. More than that, he wanted to tie her up and keep her in this bed. But he wouldn’t do either one of those things. Instead he said, “The guys will be back in a while. We should get up and get dressed.”

She gave him a flustered look. “Are you saying they left so we could…have some time alone together?”

“Yeah, that was part of it, but they really did need to pick up the equipment we’re going to need.”

The information spurred her to action. “I’m not going to look like I spent the past hour making love.”

She started to get up, realized she was naked, and stopped short. Reaching over the side of the bed, she picked up her blouse and pulled it on before heading toward the bathroom.

He watched her go, enjoying the view because the blouse didn’t hide much.

She closed the bathroom door, and when he heard the shower running, he got up. Without bothering to put anything on, he strode to the bathroom and stepped inside. The shower and toilet were in their own separate room. When he crossed the tile floor, opened the shower door, and stepped inside, she made a startled noise.

He grinned. “We both need to get ready.”

“And you think this is going to save time?” she asked.

“Not really. But it’s going to be more fun,” he answered as he pulled her into his arms, reached for the bar of soap in the wall niche, and soaped his hands before starting to run them down her back and over her ass.

Forty very pleasant minutes later, they were both dried off, and she was using the hair dryer.

He stepped into the bedroom, pulled on clean clothes, and brought her bag to the bathroom.

By the time he’d left the bedroom, Jack and Max were back with some additional bags.

“I’ve thought about how we should work it,” Max said.

“Me, too,” Shane answered. “But let’s wait for Elena before we start discussing strategies.”

She came out of the bedroom trying to look nonchalant, and she was all business when she walked over to the bags they’d brought.

“What do you have for me?”

“A lot of good stuff,” Max answered as he began taking out equipment. “I’ll explain what we’ve got, and then we should talk about what you’re going to say to the contact person.”

She answered with a tight nod as he began showing her what he’d brought.

Shane paced nervously around as Max displayed his wares. His partner finally gave him a direct look. “Could you cut that out?”

“Sorry.” He stopped, then cleared his throat. “I think there’s something we need to do.”

“Which is?” Jack asked.

“I was going to keep Lincoln Kinkead out of the loop, but I don’t think I can. I want him to give me something that looks like the stolen material, in case Mr. Big wants to test it before he turns over Elena’s brother.”

“You think Kinkead will be glad to hear from you?” Max asked.

“I don’t give a flying fig one way or the other. I just want him to cooperate.” He turned to Elena. “I’m going to talk to him.”

When she looked like she was going to object, he said, “Let’s see what happens.” He turned to Max. “Give me one of the burner phones you bought.”

Max opened the plastic shopping bag and poured several phones onto the coffee table.

Shane picked up one and put it in his pocket. He was walking toward the door, when he turned and looked at his partners. “Car keys.”

Jack handed over a set.

“Okay, thanks. Call down to the valet service and tell them I want the car.”

Max reached for the phone.

“Be good while I’m gone,” Shane tossed out.

Elena made a strangled sound. The two men simply watched him leave.

Once outside the room, he took the elevator to the lobby, then stepped into the courtyard to wait for the car.

Meanwhile, he called Kinkead’s private office line.

The phone rang four times before the S&D executive picked up.

“Who is this?” he demanded. “I don’t recognize this number.”

“This is Shane Gallagher.”

“You son of a bitch. Where are you?”

“I want to meet with you.”

“I fired your ass while you were gone.”

“And I’ve still been working on the case.”

“And do you have the stolen information?”

“As a matter of fact, I do.”

“Then bring it in.”

“Not yet.”

“What—are you blackmailing me or something?”

“The night the shit hit the fan, Elena Reyes came into the office to retrieve what Arnold Blake stole from you.”

“Jesus.”

“Yeah. We suspected Blake but we didn’t know anything for sure.”

Kinkead made a rough sound.

“Elena found the info and took it because the men who wanted it were holding her brother. They still are. We’re going to exchange the program for him.”

“Listen to me, Gallagher, you can’t do that.”

“I could, but I’m willing to do it another way. I want you to download some of that code onto a phone SIM card.”

“Why?”

“That’s where Blake hid it. He left the phone in his desk drawer. It was there all the time, but only Elena was smart enough to figure it out.”

“Son of a bitch,” Kinkead answered.

“Yeah. You could have found it and saved yourself a lot of trouble. Don’t put everything on it, just enough to look real, because they may check it out before they turn over the brother. And if they think Elena’s scamming them, they’ll shoot her.”

Kinkead winced.

“When you’ve got something plausible, meet me outside that restaurant where you took me after I accepted your job offer.”

“You mean…”

“Don’t say it,” Shane cautioned, cutting him off.

“Then you’re back in the area,” Kinkead said.

“Yeah. How soon can you be there?”

“Forty minutes.”

“It will take me a little longer. Wait in your car at the edge of the parking lot.”

Shane hung up, wondering if the guy would show up—or if he was going to pull some kind of scam. Because as the S&D saga had unfolded, Shane had started thinking that Kinkead wasn’t exactly playing straight with him—or anybody else.

But when Shane showed up at the parking lot outside the Mykonos Grill on Congressional Lane, he recognized Kinkead’s Mercedes in the corner of the lot.

He checked out the area, then parked beside the other car.

“Thanks for coming,” he said as he slipped into the passenger seat.

“I should have you arrested.”

“For what?”

“Taking ten years off my life.”

Shane ignored the comment.

“Why didn’t you contact me?” Kinkead snapped.

“Because I was busy trying to save my life—and Elena’s. We were shot at in my apartment garage. We were shot at in the Rockfort Eastern Shore safe house. And then where we were hiding out after that.”

“You got Bert Iverson killed.”

Shane made a dismissive noise. “What the hell do you think he was doing down there?”

“Coming to bring you in.”

“Did you tell him to do that?”

“No,” Kinkead conceded.

“Well, he wasn’t doing it for you. He was working for your opposition. He shot me.”

Kinkead gaped at him.

Shane pulled up his knit shirt and showed him the healing wound.

“Jesus!” He gave Shane a direct look. “Who was Iverson working for?”

“I don’t know yet. We hope we’ll find out tonight. Give me the SIM card.”

Kinkead got the little drive out of his pocket but held it in his hand. “And the real goods are safe?”

“Yes.”

“And you won’t tell me where the card is?”

“Nobody’s going to find it,” Shane said.

Kinkead sighed and handed over the SIM card.

“This will fool them?”

“Hopefully,” Kinkead said.

Lincoln Kinkead watched Shane Gallagher return to his car and drive away.

He’d given him a smidgen of the good stuff that had been stolen by Arnold Blake.

He made an angry sound. He’d come here thinking that he didn’t owe Gallagher or Reyes anything and what happened to them was their fault, not his. Reyes had as good as stolen from the company. Gallagher had gone rogue. But now he was wondering if he was going to get one or both of them killed with what he’d put on the SIM drive. It was a very small part of Falcon’s Flight. Maybe it would fool someone for five minutes. Maybe not.