Intrusion (20 page)

What was he doing playing with her fate like this? He turned away from her laughing eyes and stared at his computer. “Maybe you should just stay here and wait for me. I can handle this—”

“What?” She rounded the table and planted her hands on the wood. “No. You need me.”

He forced himself to look at her. Her eyes were narrowed, the skin between them furrowed into a deep, argumentative frown. She was intelligent and passionate, matching both his drive and determination, and he loved that he was the only one who’d been able to tease out her softer side.

“It’s too risky. If you get caught—”

“I know what’s at stake. Just tell me what you need me to do.”

Her tight jaw and ready to do battle posture clashed with her massive baby belly. He chuckled, shaking his head. Shit, how could his heart not skip a beat when faced with a woman like her? He was in deep here, and it was too late to think about broadcasting a mayday call.

“I need to examine CI’s security system up close and personal. The easiest way for me to do that is to pose as an Ares Security employee to gain access to their control room, but I don’t want anyone to examine my credentials too closely. That’s where you come in.”

He stood and plucked a small ear bud from the table. Pushing aside her hair with one hand, he fitted it into her ear with the other.

“I need you to create a distraction to divert as much attention from me as possible.” He picked up a small gilded butterfly pin and fastened it near the collar of her dress. “A microphone, so we can communicate with each other.”

She nodded, but a shaky breath trembled past her beautiful lips. “Where did you get all this stuff?”

“I emptied my storage unit.” He ran his fingers through her hair, arranging it to cover the earpiece. Would he ever tire of touching the silky strands? “Don’t worry, you’ll do great.”

She swallowed hard. “My stomach is jumping.”

He grinned and placed his hands on her protruding belly. “That’s just junior doing the cha-cha in there.”

A faint smile edged at her mouth. “Then he must have really big feet.” She pushed her shoulders back. “Okay. So I create a distraction, and then what?”

He shrugged. “I’ll let you know when we get in there.”

“That’s not reassuring.”

He cupped her cheek. “I’m at my best when I have to create plans on the fly. It was my biggest asset to the Special Forces.”

It had also been his downfall—something he didn’t need to remind himself about when Audra’s life depended on him making the right decision.

He leaned forward and brushed a quick kiss across her mouth. “Trust me.”

Her eyes softened. “I do.”

It’s what he’d wanted. But hearing it from her lips shattered him. If he failed her, her faith in him would evaporate like the morning fog that sometimes settled over the Superstition Mountains.

***

Audra stepped into the vestibule at Coburn Industries, taking in its high ceiling and clean, modern lines that made the open area seem much larger than it really was. The chrome reception desk sat dead center, acting as a portal to either the administration offices to the left or the labs off to the right.

Clutching a large envelope heavy with blank paper, she waddled over to the directory and pretended to study it while she waited for Cam’s cue. She shifted the strap of her brown tote bag over her shoulder. Cam had insisted she fill it with meaningless objects—just in case.

She didn’t like the sound of that.

The two weighted balls suspended in the water-filled vinyl womb ‘kicked’ against her as she moved, and her bladder protested against the extra pressure. She slid a hand to her belly and tried to take a decent breath past the rib belt that constricted her lungs. Pregnant women everywhere had her sympathy, and her admiration.

Static crackled in her ear. “I’m coming in.”

She pulled in another shortened breath and slowly turned from the directory to watch Cam push through the revolving door wearing a gray shirt and jeans, a ball cap pulled down low over his eyes and a clipboard in one hand.

Her heart did a somersault as she watched him lean his strong arms against the desk. Those same arms had held her last night, gathering eighteen years of hurt and somehow absorbing it with one firm embrace. He’d overwhelmed her and made her panic over her lack of panic; and if that wasn’t neurotic, she didn’t know what was. For the first time she’d opened herself up to the heartache of her childhood and hadn’t come away worse for the wear.

She heard Cam’s voice rise above the murmurs, catching snippets of his exchange with the receptionist. “Ares Security” and “malfunction” being among them.

The woman’s sharp eyebrows dipped into a frown. She snatched up the phone. Cam’s jaw tightened, his eyes catching Audra’s for a tense fraction of a second before he turned back to the receptionist as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

That was her cue.

Audra’s stomach cramped, but she threw back her shoulders and strode up to the desk. “Excuse me? I have a delivery for Russell Coburn.”

The woman pursed her lips, the receiver pinched between her ear and shoulder. Her fingers paused mid-dial. “One moment and I’ll sign for it.”

She zeroed in on the woman’s nameplate. “I’m sorry, Sandra, but Mr. Coburn needs to personally sign for the document.”

“And I’m sorry, Miss. But he’s in a meeting and can’t be disturbed.” She finished dialing and raised the receiver to her mouth. “Yes, this is Sandra down in reception. I need to verify—”

Audra leaned over the counter and touched Sandra’s arm, briefly jostling the phone away from her ear. “Let’s not play games, here. You and I both know he’s-in-a-meeting is receptionist speak for buzz off. Now, I have an urgent document for Mr. Coburn. It won’t take but a minute to get him down here to sign for it.”

“I’ll have to call you back.” Sandra wrenched her arm out of Audra’s grasp then slammed the phone into the cradle. “Listen—”

Cam’s perfectly timed sigh cut off the woman’s tirade. He slapped his clipboard on the desk. “Look, I’m on a tight schedule here. I can come back another time, but I’m overbooked as it is. Russ said it was an emergency. Some problem with password authentication? I called this morning to let you know I was coming.”

Eyes wide, scowl in place, Sandra’s attention bobbled between the two of them until it finally settled on Cam. “Yes, of course you did. Forgive me.” She sighed and pressed her intercom. “Can I get a tech to escort Mr. Williams to the control room?” She nodded at Cam and pressed the buzzer. “Go ahead. Someone will meet you at the gate.”

“Thank you, Ma’am.” Cam tugged on the bill of his cap and disappeared behind the frosted glass partition.

Audra hesitated. Was that it? She’d done her part to make sure the receptionist didn’t question Cam’s credentials. Now what?

She took a step away from the desk, but Cam’s voice suddenly came through the earpiece. “You did great. But I’m going to need more.”

Her pulse jumped. “But—”

“No. Don’t talk. Just listen. Every floor in the lab section of CI is protected with a biometric scan and an ID card with an embedded radio frequency passkey. I need a fingerprint. Preferably Coburn’s.” Cam’s words tumbled into her ear in a rapid-fire succession.

Coburn’s fingerprint? How was she supposed to accomplish that?
Damn it, Cam. What do I do?

“There’s no way the receptionist is going to let me into Coburn’s office. She’s not naïve enough to think I need that kind of access when I have the security control room at my disposal.” Cam’s voice vibrated with tension. “I need something I can lift a print from. Something smooth and non-porous, like glass or metal. And I need you to get it for me.”

Sandra gnashed her teeth, suddenly going all pit bull on Audra. “As I said before, Mr. Coburn is not available. You can either leave the document with me and I’ll see that he gets it or come back another time.”

“I can’t!” Her cheeks flamed, she clapped a hand over her mouth. Why had she shouted that out?

The receptionist glared at her. “So you said.”

“Yes. You can.” Cam’s smooth words edged away her panic. “You trust me, I trust you. That’s how this partnership works, remember?”

A partnership. Common ground, equal trust. And yet, said in Cam’s tender voice, the word implied something much deeper. With him talking her through it, she could do this.

She braced herself with a calming breath and re-approached the reception desk. “I—”
Think, damn it.
She clutched the envelope until her knuckles went white. “—RTI Labs paid for guaranteed delivery of this material by noon today,” she stressed, blurting out the name of a well-known Phoenix chemical testing facility that Nanodyne preferred to use. With luck, CI frequented them as well. “If I don’t have Mr. Coburn’s signature by then, I could lose my job.” She pressed a hand to her belly. “I can’t afford to be fired from another job. Not now.”

Sandra’s nostrils flared. She huffed out a breath. “The best I can do is send you up to Mr. Coburn’s personal assistant.”

“That would be great. Thanks.”

“Third floor.” Sandra pressed a button and buzzed her through.

When the elevator opened on Coburn’s floor, Audra was greeted with another reception area, this one with a standard L-shaped wooden desk positioned near a bank of tall windows. She approached the woman behind the desk, noting the location of Coburn’s office.

His door was firmly closed.

Her pulse quickened. “What am I going to do?” she muttered under her breath.

“You’re going to have patience. Wait for the right moment. You’ll know it when you see it.” Cam’s calm voice came over her earpiece, surprising her. She hadn’t expected him to hear her.

She smiled when the blonde haired woman looked up from her computer.

“Can I help you?”

“I hope so. I need to get Mr. Coburn’s signature for these test results.” She flashed the envelope at the woman.

“He’s finishing up a meeting right now, but you’re welcome to wait.” The receptionist gestured to a set of chairs along the wall. “You look like you’re about to pop. Why don’t you sit down?”

“Thank you.” She lowered herself into a chair. “Junior’s been doing back-flips all day.”

“When are you due?”

“Oh, three weeks. I can’t wait to stop looking like a beached whale.”

“I think you’re hot.” Cam’s bland statement came over the earpiece.

Her body flushed. She waved a hand in front of her face. “Is it me or did it suddenly get awfully warm in here?”

The receptionist clucked. “I got horrible hot flashes with my first baby. Don’t worry, it’ll pass.”

“I’ll cool you off,” Cam said, his voice laced with wicked humor. “With my tongue.”

She shot up from her chair and stopped in front of the receptionist. “Do you have any idea how long this will take?”

“Hm. I wouldn’t make any plans for at least twenty-four hours.” Cam’s low chuckle reverberated in her ear and shivered its way down her body. “It’ll take me a while to lick my way over every inch of you.”

Before the receptionist had a chance to answer, Coburn’s door clicked open. Cam’s ‘just in case’ had arrived. Audra spun around, gripped the bottom of her unzipped tote bag, and upended the contents.

She clapped a hand over her mouth. “What in the—!” Pens, paper, binder clips, rubber bands and a large silver letter opener rained down at Coburn’s feet. “Oh, no. I’m so sorry.”

Her gazed clashed with Coburn’s amused brown eyes and then slid over his shoulder and collided with the familiar blue ones of the man standing behind him.

Jonathan?

She doubled over, pressing one hand to her protruding belly. Her heart thundered against her sternum. What was Jonathan doing here? Had he recognized her?

“Here, let me help you.” Coburn knelt down and picked up a handful of papers. He held them out to her.

She blew out a breath. Oh, Lord. What did she do? She desperately wanted to alert Cam, but anything she might say to tip him off would make either Coburn or Jonathan suspicious. An unintentional groan leaked past her lips, and she decided to take advantage of it.

“Can you just,” she waved the bag in Coburn’s direction, “put everything in here. I—oh, God.” She gasped, hunching her shoulders further, her hand still pressed to the vinyl mound beneath her dress.

Did that sound the least bit convincing? What the hell did she know about contractions and labor?

Coburn snatched the bag from her and started dumping everything back into it. “Are you all right? Should I call an ambulance?” He handed her the full bag and stood. “Janice, get on the phone and—“

“Thank you, that’s so nice of you, but I think I just needed to catch my breath.” She panted—a move she didn’t have to fake due to the annoying rib belt that really was starting to affect her breathing—and straightened, careful to keep her face partially hidden by the sweep of her hair. “All better. I think it might have been one of those false alarm contractions. You know, what are they called again?” She shook her head. “God, those buggers are killers.” She fanned her face and turned her back on Coburn and Jonathan, shooting the receptionist her best flighty smile. “Goodness that’s the strangest feeling.”

The receptionist had the phone pressed to her ear. “Are you sure you don’t need me to call someone for you?”

“I’m fine, thank you.”

“Here. You missed this one.”

Audra glanced up to find Jonathan studying her, a ball point pen in his hand. He reached out to pass it to her and his partially rolled up sleeve slid higher on his forearm, revealing a dark design inked on his skin.

A two-headed eagle tattoo?

She snatched the pen out of his grip, her heart pounding. “Thanks again.”

While the two men headed for the elevator she busied herself with shoving the pen into the bag. She could feel Jonathan’s eyes on her as he waited for it to arrive, but luckily the doors rumbled open and the men disappeared inside.

Audra’s heart slowed back to normal. Her hands started to shake and she wrapped them around the bag’s shoulder strap. She nodded at the receptionist. “Thanks again, you’ve been a great help.”

The receptionist smiled. “Take care of that baby now, okay?”