Page 45 of Sweet Deception

He shoots me a suspicious glare, clearly measuring my sincerity.

But after a moment, he steps toward the bedroom door and pulls it open. Over his shoulder, he hooks me with a sidelong glance. “Follow me. If we’re going to do this, we’re going to do it downstairs.”

Chapter Sixteen

Darren leads me downstairs to the modest kitchen. Once he flips a switch, the room illuminates before us, the recessed lighting beneath cabinets and along the perimeter of the room giving the space a warm glow.

A meow from across the hall alerts us that Piro’s awake.

I head to the living room to scoop him up off the couch. When I return to the kitchen, Darren’s retrieved a laptop from somewhere and is seated at the island in the center of the room, balancing his forearms on the white granite countertop.

With a single glance, I can tell he’s not a tech person.

Tech people interact with phones, computers, and tablets like they’re extensions of our bodies, and non-tech people squint, hold tension in their shoulders, and give off the impression that they’re working too hard on the simplest of tasks. After a few years of freelance IT security consulting for major firms, I can navigate systems easily.

I set Piro down and glide with cautious intention to the bar stool next to Darren’s. Entering the man’s personal space, even this much, sets my nerves on edge.

Seems the closer our proximity, the more I struggle to retain my focus and composure.

This is exactly why I love computers.

At least they’re predictable. They follow rules.

People…not so much.

There’s no way to predict how other humans will impact me, and vice versa.

Sitting on Darren’s right, I find myself with a front row seat to his fumbling as he pecks away at keys to join the safe house’s encrypted network, engage the VPN…

I swallow down the tickling impulse to chuckle. This is no time to be amused by this deadly mobster.

“Let me.” I reach for the laptop gingerly. “I’m good at this kind of thing.”

Darren freezes, considering me for another endless, silent moment. “I bet you are.”

My jaw tightens at his tone. It’s the same voice he used the night of that wedding reception, when he thought I was some kind of whore. Not that I hadn’t played the part…

But still. If only he knew how many CEOs trust me to protect their most sensitive data…even with me working at home as a freelancer.

If I stick out this temporary truce with Darren and get unfettered access to that computer, this could be my best chance to learn more about Lucy and the summit. Somehow, Darren knows about the gathering, and any information I can extract from him might assist me in my search.

I trust Darren not to kill me. Yet, at any rate.

Maybe I don’t look like much, but the same skills that make me valuable to legitimate clients also enable me to help women disappear.

They’re the same skills that will lead me to Lucy, if he’d only give me the damn computer.

I talk myself down from a barbed retort, lowering my hands and relaxing my shoulders and inviting in the calm I’ve cultivated so meticulously over many years of training.

“Please believe me when I say I want to leave here as soon as possible, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to ensure that happens.”

Whatever I have to say, I’ll say. And I’ll seize any opportunity to access my online accounts and see what’s going on with all the probes I put out.

The sincerity must’ve worked, because a second later, Darren rises from his seat. “Have at it.”

Relief soars through me. I stand to take it into the living room and get comfortable on the couch, but he lays a hand on it, smiling again as he shakes his head. “You’ll sit right here where I can see you.”

With a narrowed, exasperated glance, I sit back down.