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“Get what you can. We’ll sort it out later.”
I dug the thumb drive out of my pocket and popped it into the USB port. I wasn’t sure what I was grabbing, exactly, but I saved whatever I could as quickly as I could. The files were large, and I filled the drive. My heart was rabbiting in my chest, and my hands shook as I got the thumb drive ejected and back into my pocket.
“Can you wipe what you’ve done?” Adrian asked. “Will his tech guys know that someone’s been here?”
“Fire rescue has cleared the building. People are going to start coming back in,” Drake said, and my pulse pounded in my ears.
“I don’t have time,” I told Adrian. “I can make it so this person doesn’t know, but anyone who knows what they’re doing will know these files have been copied.”
It wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He swore. “It doesn’t matter,” he said. “We’ll deal with it later. We need to get out of here.”
I closed everything I’d opened and left the computer on the screen it had been on when we came into the office. Coming back around the desk, my knees felt weak. My mouth filled with saliva. Do. Not. Throw. Up. I told myself. “Adrian?—”
My voice must have given away just how much I was struggling because he bundled me into his arms. “You did amazing,” he murmured into my hair. “Just hold on a little longer, okay? We’ll get out of here.”
I nodded against his neck, breathing him in for a second. “Okay,” I said. “Get us out of here.”
“The hallway is clear for now,” Drake said. “The lobby is going to be a problem.”
“Send in Gabe and Zach,” Adrian said.
“Will do.” Drake hung up, and the silence in his wake was deafening.
“Just follow my lead, okay? That’s all you have to do.”
“But what about?—?”
“Gabe and Zach know what to do,” Adrian assured me.
Adrian opened the door, putting a little muscle into it since he’d wedged it closed, and then we were out in the hallway. He pushed me behind him, blocking me with his body. There were noises from all around, but Adrian navigated us back toward the lobby. Even with my blocked view, I could see that we wouldn’t be able to slip away unnoticed.
Panic rose in my chest. “Stay calm,” Adrian murmured to me.
After a moment of holding my breath to keep from hyperventilating, I saw Gabe and Zach rush into the building. “Someone help us!” Gabe hollered, sounding genuinely panicked.
It was enough to catch the attention of everyone in the lobby—which included the fire rescue team and some police officers along with men in suits who I had to assume were part of the building’s security. Everyone rushed to provide whatever aid Gabe and Zach concocted, and while they were distracted, Adrian led us around the crowd and out the door.
Our feet hit the sidewalk, and Adrian linked our hands, forcing me to slow down. “Don’t run,” he said. “Act like nothing happened.”
I nodded, and despite the blood rushing in my ears, I kept my step light, natural. Somehow, just walking back to the car felt like a minefield. Like any wrong move could be the last one I’d ever make. We climbed into the car, and even with the doors shut and locked, I sat ramrod straight.
Adrian pulled out of the parking spot and turned out onto the road. I knew we weren’t going back to the same motel. Instead, we were going farther into Atlanta to a hotel that was a big step up from the motel outside of the city. “I want somewhere that’s full of people,” Adrian said the night before as he’d made the reservation. “Somewhere Hayes couldn’t send a big show of force without drawing too much attention to himself.”
It was a good plan: Gabe and Zach had their own room at the same hotel, and they would be joining us as soon as they could safely. Until then, it was just me and Adrian in a room with a nice view of the city and a big bed.
A big, singular bed.
“We won’t be here too long,” Adrian reasoned as we came through the door. “Just one night.”
“Sure,” I said. The word wheezed from my throat. The single bed didn’t bother me…but everything else did. There was still that panic from before rattling through my bones, and I didn’t know what to do about it. “Is this how it feels?” I asked. “After a mission?”
“Like what?”
I turned to look at him, and there was tension written on his face, in his body, and I shivered. “Like I’m going to fall apart,” I said. “Or fly. Or…something.”
Adrian nodded. “It’s adrenaline,” he said and took a step toward me. “And yes, that’s normal after a mission. You’ll calm down soon.”
I didn’t believe him. “I don’t like it,” I said. It was like my skin was too small for my body. “I need—” My eyes caught on his, and all of that buzzing rushed south, pulling my lower stomach tight.