Page 17

“Incredibly.” I don’t have much time, so I take advantage of the stolen moment. I devour her lips, trying to show her with my kiss, with every ounce of love in my body what secret is hiding in my soul. I press her against the elevator wall, desperate for her. It’s been too long since my lips touched hers. I don’t want to go a day without kissing her again. She’s everything to me. Which is why I have to pull back and allow her to walk away. But first.

“How did you find Thane?”

“Uhh…” She looks away from me and I groan.

“You texted Liam?”

“How mad will you be if I say yes?”

“I’m not mad at you. I’m mad at him.” How could Liam be stupid enough to let her go after a criminal all by herself? He should have told me.

I hit the button to restart the elevator, and it takes two seconds for us to reach her floor.

I will personally escort Amelia to her room, and then I have to get back to work.

“Which room?” I ask.

“1143.”

“What were you doing with him?” I ask, failing to keep the frustration from my voice.

“Well, first, I have a story for you. I was mistaken as a dancer, and while rocking it on stage, I saw Thane stealing someone’s purse. So like a freaking ninja, I raced after him, and then I lost him, but then I found him again breaking out of this storage place and—”

“Wait.” I grab her arm, hauling her down the hall to her door and beckoning her to open it. Thankfully, she does so without protest. When we are safely inside, I pick up the conversation. “I need you to go back. Where did you see him breaking out from?”

She waves her hand in the air and kicks a stray shoe further into the room, where she will most likely trip over it later. “Oh, it was like this storage unit with lockers, but the lockers were really big.”

“Big enough to hold luggage?” I ask.

“I guess so, yeah. The alarm was going off, and then I saw him jumping out the window through the broken glass.”

I scrub a hand down my face. This can’t be happening. Myfatherfound the Framework.

“Amelia, listen.” I grab her cheeks, hoping to portray exactly how important this is. “I need you to leave. Get out of Vegas as fast as possible.”

“But Maddie isn’t back yet.”

Maddie is here too? Great. I drop my hands, falling back a step. Not only will I have Russian arms dealers after me, I’ll have Connor too. I’m not sure which will be worse. “I’m going to request a cop to be stationed out here. You don’t open that door to anyone but Maddie and the cop, do you hear me?”

“Caleb, what’s going on? You’re scaring me.” A flash of fear crosses her face.

“I’m undercover with some bad people, and I think my father just found the drive I was supposed to find and bring back to them.” I scrape my fingernails over my scalp. How did everything get so out of hand? I don’t even want to know why my father wants it. Probably to sell to the highest bidder. Even though my name would be on there too, he would sell out his only son.

“Some bad people…like the lady you were with at the restaurant?” she asks, a hint of worry in her usually optimistic voice.

I nod. “If I don’t get that drive back, the entire country is in danger.”

She swallows. “No pressure there.”

“Did Thane tell you anything, where he was staying, what he was doing?”

She shakes her head. “I kind of did all the talking.”

Despite the situation, a smile finds me. “I’m going to have the cop escort you to your car, then you’re going to drive straight home. Promise me,” I plead, desperation in every inflection of my voice.

She nods so furiously that her short blonde hair bounces around her head. “I will, I promise.”

I press a kiss to her forehead. “I’ll come back to you.”