Authors: Susan Squires
“
Well, if you’re sure there’s nothing. . . .”
“
Yes. There is nothing.” That was all he said.
He left Jane standing in the kitchen, feeling helpless. Maybe tomorrow she’d be able to pry specifics out of him and make a plan. But he wasn’t going to let her do that right now.
She took a big breath and let it out. Then she looked around the kitchen. With all the tension and fear likely to be floating around in the house in the next twenty-four hours, she’d better start making some food. A cake for starters, and some dips to go with veggies for the women and chips for the men. It was a little known fact that you couldn’t be afraid while you were eating. And didn’t that explain a lot about the crisis of obesity in the developed world?
She
started for the pantry.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Kemble walked into his office at the Breakers with fear in his heart. Why on earth did his father think he could hack Knight, Inc
.’s security system? Senior hired them because they were the best in the business. And that meant not getting hacked.
Maybe Senior didn’t hold out much hope but was just trying to encourage his oldest to make
the effort. Still, the whole plan seemed to hang on him. Maggie might be able to Calm the guards, but she couldn’t take out the security long enough for them to get in and get out.
He stared at his
array of computer monitors, the various humming boxes, the keyboard, like they were the controls of an alien spaceship and he had no idea how they worked. Jesus H. Christ. Senior had better have a backup plan. Kemble had about a 99.9% chance of coming up short on this one. Maybe Tristram could just melt the onsite hardware.
Which would set off alarms and bring Knight and the co
ps down on their heads. Michael’s Finding wasn’t useful. They already knew where the Talisman was. Drew seeing the future, ditto. What did she see that frightened her?
Concentrate, he told himself. Can’t you focus even for a second?
There wasn’t any power in the family that could do what had to be done with the security system. No way around it. It had to be him.
He sat down at the keyboard. What a disaster. He was a decent hacker. Well, more than decent. He did odd jobs for the family, like tracking Tristram when his little brother didn’t want to be found that year he took to the road trying to escape his
destiny. Breaking into the Britannica building in Chicago was only a stupid pet trick, really. He hadn’t found the Cup when it was in the damned exhibit at their own museum.
Okay, okay. Time to quiet the demons. He took a deep breath and let it out. Le
t’s start with a website survey and check out their emails. Got to find a way in.
*****
“I’ve got to tell somebody, Michael.” Drew paced the bedroom that had been hers growing up. It still had the indigo satin bedspread with the moons and stars on it. “I can’t just let them all go off and do something dangerous like breaking into the museum without letting them know what I’ve seen.”
Michael came out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. Drew got distracted for a moment by the torso ribbed with muscle, the bulge of biceps as he toweled his wet hair, the flex of those hard thighs. God, but the man was hot. He always poo
h-poohed his physique, saying he was over forty now, practically decrepit. Drew knew from personal experience that wasn’t true.
“
Know what, baby?” he said, tossing the towel over a chair and running his fingers through his wet hair to smooth it. “That’s just the problem. You don’t know when the hospital bed happens, or the funeral, whether they’re connected, or who’s in trouble. Your father’s right. Why worry the family over something that may not be about this little expedition at all? You said Brina looked old in that one at the hospital.” He came and put his arms around her. Once she would have protested that he was crushing her dress. Those days were gone. She tried to breathe. It was always hard to breathe around a semi-naked Michael. His chest hair was still slightly damp against the red satin over her breasts. He smelled like soap and the coconut shampoo they shared. He’d always liked that scent on her, and frankly, she’d grown to like it on him too. It reminded her of those days in the Keys when she was falling in love with him. They seemed idyllic now, as difficult as they were at the time.
“
And I can’t even go with them,” she murmured, nuzzling his neck.
“
Just as well.” Michael squeezed her against his body.
“
Why? I want to help.”
He pulled away for a moment and put a light kiss on her forehead.
“Since Tammy and Lanyon have to stay here, I feel better knowing Kemble and Jane, and you and I, will be with them. And don’t forget Jesse. Tris and Maggie need to know his godparents are on the job.”
“
I hadn’t thought of that. Now I can worry that there will be an attack here while the family is split.” Was Michael saying he was worried Tris and Maggie would be killed? Or the Parents? The thought made her want to vomit.
“
No. You can’t worry about that.” Michael kissed her nose and started making his way around to her ear. The touch of his tongue sent shivers down her spine.
“
Mmmmmm. You have a way of distracting me,” she murmured into his damp skin. Thank God for that.
“
Want to get in the shower?” He kissed her bare shoulder above the red dress.
“
You just had a shower.” His breath on her shoulder was hot.
“
I’m feeling very, very dirty.” He reached a hand around to the back of her dress and found the tiny, invisible zipper unerringly. The hiss as it opened was like the snake of desire that was uncoiling inside her.
“
You are a very, very bad boy,” she breathed as her breasts came free of the dress.
“
Yup,” he agreed, unrepentant. “I think you should punish me by making me bring you to orgasm in the shower, and on your nice bedspread, and on that rug over there by the fireplace.”
“
I might at that. Or I might just punish you by making you come until you’re dry.”
“
Or both,” he said, hoisting her out of the dress pooled now at her feet with two of his big hands on her waist. He didn’t set her down, but swung her over his shoulder. “We’d better get started. That sounds like a full agenda.”
Dear Michael.
She couldn’t help but get the giggles as he bounced her into the bathroom.
*****
“They’ve found the Talisman,” Hardwick said, barely suppressed excitement in his dry and rumbling voice. “They’re going to get it tomorrow night.”
Morgan surged to her feet.
“Your contact came through?”
Hardwick nodded, a gleam in his eye and a sly grin turning up one side his mouth.
“There was never any doubt.”
“
Now all we need to hope is that they can break in and get it out.”
“We’ll soon know. Who do you want to take with us to L.A.?”
“Leave the newbies here. Everybody else comes with us.”
“Talismans?” Hardwick raised his brows in question.
“Hmmm.” She’d need the firepower. But she could only wield one. She had more affinity for the Wand. Did she want to give the Sword to Hardwick, or Rhiannon? “We’ll take the Wand.” Of course that left the Sword here with the newbies. Not good. Who to leave to guard it? Jason had always had designs. She didn’t want to leave Hardwick or Rhiannon behind. They were too useful. “No. We’ll bring them both.” At least the Sword would be closer at hand. She’d decide who would guard it in the hotel room later.
He nodded. “I’ll prepare.”
“How frustrating for that breeding pack,” she cackled. “To get their hands on Talisman after Talisman only to have it stolen from them every time. And how satisfying to make them do all the work for us.”
“
What about our source?”
Morgan hesitated, thinking.
“He can’t do us any harm, and he might not yet have outlived his usefulness if they don’t suspect him. And why would they?”
“
If they do. . . .”
“
He knows nothing about us that the Tremaines don’t already know, except where Phillip is at the moment. And there’s nothing they can do about that in time to stop the inevitable. No, even if they tortured him they wouldn’t get that out of him.”
“
Which they won’t anyway.”
“
Prissy little do-gooders,” Morgan spat. “Even when he’s betrayed them, they wouldn’t torture him.”
Rhiannon poked her
magenta-coiffed head in to Morgan’s bedroom. “Jason says the Tremaines have found a Talisman.”
“
We’re going to L.A.” Morgan barked. “See if you can get along with one overnight bag, will you?”
*****
Kemble was into Knight’s main servers. It hadn’t been as hard as he thought it would be. He stared at the screen, scrolling data as though it were a living creature. And in some ways it was. His eyes glazed as he took in the code. Where could he hook in that they wouldn’t see him? They mustn’t know they’d been hacked. He had to somehow conceal the damage he was doing to the security at the museum. He had to fool everyone who looked at the website, so they’d think it was still intact.
Impossible. He started to panic. What to do? His hands hovered over the keyboard. The room was dark except for the glow of the monitors. It must be just before dawn now. He’d been at this for hours. Jane had brought him sandwiches
and coffee, but otherwise everyone was leaving him alone. The door to the rest of the office wing was shut. He’d hung the “Do Not Disturb” sign he’d lifted from the Intercontinental Hotel at Hyde Park Corner in London years ago on the knob. No one could help him now. They were all in bed, asleep. It was just him and this impossible, scrolling demon code. He wanted to yell, or beat on the keyboard.
Steady. You got this far. Even that was unexpected. His brain seemed to
sputter as the code scrolled by too fast to even recognize what it might portend.
He blinked. Wait. There was something there. He wasn’t sure what. How to stop the damn scrolling? It was getting away from him. Damn, damn, damn! He hit several random keys. He was that desperate.
It was gone. What had it been? Why had he thought he could use that little section of code that wasn’t even imprinted on his brain enough to know what it was?
Ridiculous. The whole idea that he could help the family was ridiculous. Get Senior in here. He’d figure it out in nothing flat. Why the hell hadn’t he? Why did he think Kemble would be able to do anything with an impossible project like this anyway?
Kemble pounded the desk, just missing the keyboard. Even mad, he wasn’t stupid. And then that made him madder. He picked up a big green paperweight shaped like a jewel that Tamsen had given him and flung it against the wall. The point left a gash in the paint and the old plaster beneath, but the wall survived. The Breakers always survived.
But would the Tremaines? If they couldn’t keep Morgan and the Clan from getting all four Talismans, he had a feeling even Senior couldn’t keep them safe. The Talismans would magnify the Clan’s powers, and Morgan would start causing havoc with the world until it met her conditions. She’d caused the failure of Lehman Brothers, which plunged the world economy into recession, after all.
And her Weather Girl was behind many of the monster tornadoes and hurricanes that had devastated whole swaths of the country lately, he was sure. Who knew what Morgan’s conditions would be?
Kemble gazed helplessly at the scrolling screen. Just the family’s future and the world’s as well hung on his ability to do what he was obviously incapable of doing tonight. No pressure.
He thought of Jane. Her fate hung in the balance too, now that she’d made the mistake of marrying him. It occurred to him that marrying her hadn’t been a mistake for him. It might be the best thing he’d ever done. He’d vowed to stand by her no matter what in front of a judge at the courthouse just a few days ago.
And he damn well wasn’t going to let her down now.
He squinched his eyes together and rubbed the bridge of his nose. Easier said than done. But he wasn’t getting anywhere just bitching and moaning.
He took a breath, opened his eyes, and put his ha
nds gently on the keyboard. The keys felt so smooth, except for the f and the j, which had those little raised dashes on them to help you place your hands. His thumbs caressed the space bar and slid over the track pad. He’d always disdained using a mouse. Track pad was faster. Funny how the keys actually fit the shape of his fingers. They were very slightly indented in the middle. The lights behind the keyboard made them seem like a runway at night, or a highway leading him on into the dark. He closed his eyes against the scrolling, but he didn’t squinch them shut this time. The feel of the keys under his fingers was so seductive, almost like . . . like listening for something, something just out of hearing, but you knew that if you could just understand what was behind those keys, why, then you’d know everything.