Page 84 of Healing Conviction
Which wassonot far enough.
She swallowed her yelp as she threw her hands in front of her as if she could catch herself before hitting the water. The chilly water stung against her hands, and she could already feel the need to seize up at the temperature. It all happened so quickly and slowly at the same time. Just as she was certain she was going to suffer a watery doom, she was snatched up and enveloped by warmth.
“Jesus, Pix. I thought I lost you. Why didn’t you reach for me? You basically dove in headfirst.”
Adrenaline spiked through her and she panted against his shirt. “I-I didn’t think of it. I was just trying to save myself.”
He shook his head above her. “You never have to do that again, as long as you trust me.”
“Trust you. Got it. I’ll add it to my list for my therapist.”
He snorted and put her down, righting her so her soggy tennis shoes were flat on the soft ground again. It was chilly but not unbearable since, thankfully, the water had only gotten up to her elbows and knees.
“Freakin’ moat. You’d think they’d at least build a pretty castle we can go save people in, butno.” She waved her hands as she whispered.
Drake shook his head before stopping her theatrical gesture by tossing her bag at her. She caught it with a huff and removed her jammer. Hoisting the backpack over her shoulders again, she followed her partner-in-crime until Drake halted in front of her. She barely stopped herself from bumping into his back and peered around to see him holding binoculars to his head.
“Doesn’t look like anyone’s outside,” he offered.
“Cool beans.” She flipped the switch on the jammer, but the frequency dial stayed with the red arrow at ‘0’. Turning it back off, she looked up with a shake of her head at Drake’s waiting face. “Not close enough yet. I’ve rigged it to work within one hundred feet for two hours. We need to get closer before I turn it on, so I don’t waste the battery.”
His lips formed a grim line as he nodded and lay on the ground.
“Smart,” she whispered and crouched low beside him, incapable of restraining her babbling. “A tree out here roaming around might cause a wee bit of trouble and we need you to walk faster than one of those slow, talking tree beings in the Lord of the Rings. What are they called? Ents? Yeah, you’re an Ent.”
He huffed a laugh. “Pix, I know this is your process, but I’m gonna need you to shut that pretty little mouth of yours. That, or else the next time you make a LOTR joke, I won’t be able to keep quiet and I might have to murder people.”
“Eep!” She slapped her hand over her mouth, hoping he was joking before she whispered through her fingers. “Sorry, it’s nerves. I forget how hilarious I am. I’ll shut up, no need to redrum anyone.”
She put on her game face, and kneeled beside him, not needing to army crawl through the tall grass thanks to her short stature. They traveled as silently as they could through the tall stalks. The slow speed drove her crazy and she tried to quiet the buzzing in her mind to stop herself from jumping out of her skin.
They made their way toward the metal fence and the light buzzing noise grew louder, until she realized it hadn’t been in her head at all.
“Is the fence electric?” she asked, nearly squeaking at the question.
“Yup,” he replied slowly. “Will your jammer work with that?”
“Hopefully, or else this is gonna be a real short mission.”
He growled and sat up a little to peek over the grass with her. “We should be close enough. Let’s try it now before we get too close and out ourselves for no reason.”
She nodded and switched the jammer box on, finally seeing the red megahertz arrow moving.
“Yes, we’re close enough.” She twisted the antenna until the frequency arrow was in the right place and switched the on button. Drake waited, looking through his binoculars. “Should be active in three… two…” Right on cue, the buzz from the electric fence silenced and she did a little mini jazz-hands dance before stuffing the jammer into her tight back pocket.
“Coast is clear on the outside. Come on, let’s go,” Drake ordered before standing up. He maintained his low position, but they moved a lot faster than the snail’s pace they had been. On the way, Drake reached into a side pocket of his bag and pulled the pair of wire cutters she’d seen him use for his traps.
By the time she got to the fence, he was already cutting a link just above his head. He then cut a link at the bottom and began to unwind a section of the fence, parting it to create a hole big enough for him, plus another half of him, to slide through. They both got on their knees and one after another entered the fenced-in area.
The area surrounded the empty distribution truck parking lot and encompassed the entire side of the building. They followed along the fence crouching down despite the fact that they were pretty much sitting ducks if anyone stepped outside.
Nora’s heart raced as they reached the point at which they had to cross the lot near the security guard building and she swallowed past the urge to vomit up all the fear swirling in her stomach. As they passed the single door to the building with its closed blinds, she was certain some large Russian dude would burst through the door and fly at them, guns blazing. Nora nervously checked Drake, relaxing at the sight of a gun already in his hand. They went by the security building without incident, though she turned around to make sure no one was following them. Everything was totally empty. Quiet.
Sweat pricked the back of her neck as she followed him to the side door. Like she expected, it had a wireless key card door lock with a backup PIN code entry pad. She removed her phone from her bag and quickly navigated through the screen to find the app that she’d created to toy with Snake’s security system. Placing the phone screen against the security box, she waited and glanced at Drake. He frowned from her to her phone and back again.
“What’re you doing?” he asked, his low voice making her clit tingle despite the fact that they were breaking into a high-tech facility in the middle of the night.
Stupid clit. Calm down girl.