“You do that.” Although his acting sucked, so Rachel wasn’t sure he could pull it off.
“Hi, Jonathan,” Elle said as she passed him on her way into Rachel’s office. “Looking dapper today.”
Jonathan blushed and mumbled something before disappearing into the corridor.
“You do that on purpose,” Rachel accused once the door closed behind her brother.
“He’s so cute when he blushes. I can’t resist.”
“His wife thinks his blushes are cute too.”
“I’m not flirting, Rachel. I’m teasing. There’s a difference. Anyway, my heart belongs to mystery man. Even though I still can’t find him. He’s disappeared off the information grid entirely, and the last thing he did was warn me not to look for him.” She smiled evilly. “Of course, I totally listened to his warning, which means it’s just a matter of time before I pinpoint his location.”
“You don’t even know which security agency he works for,” Rachel pointed out. “It could be the Chinese or the Russians. If you keep looking for him, you’ll end up waking one day to find yourself in a Russian cell, being interrogated about a man you’ve barely even kissed. Ask yourself, is he worth it?”
“It was a spectacular kiss, Rachel. Spectacular.”
It was clear that there was no saving the woman from herself.
Elle took a small signal jammer out of the pocket of her circular skirt, which today was a shocking blue with applique images of white poodles. “Okeydokey,” she said once she’d activated it. “Ryan swept our offices this morning as usual, but I say better paranoid than sorry.”
“What’s happening with the trap? Is it set?” Rachel tapped the end of a pen on the glass top of her desk, hating the sound it made.
“We’re activating it now. Basically, we’re setting it up to look like IT is having issues. An email will go out to everyone shortly, telling them not to transfer any sensitive data between buildings or to the main backup server until the issue’s fixed. We’re letting them think the transfer system’s been compromised and isn’t as secure as it should be. We’ll tell them that we’re adjusting the download protocols to make them more secure, but over the next hour, downloading of information from any server is forbidden. It’s the perfect scenario for a thief. Anything that goes missing within the next hour would be chalked up to a security breach from outside the building.”
“And if they do, your ghost program will find them.”
Elle tapped at her keyboard and didn’t look up. “Fingers crossed. We really need a new name for the program; it sounds like we’re carrying out a paranormal investigation.” She looked at Rachel. “Do you think ghosts are real?”
“I think that if you don’t get to the point quickly, I may kill you, and we’ll find out when you haunt me.”
Elle beamed at her. “And the bitch is back.”
“She never left. Now tell me what’s happening.”
“She might not have left, but she’s been pretty distant for the past few days. Anyway, Ryan’s in security, monitoring the camera feeds from around the building. Harvard is stationed outside, so he can run for whatever building trips our alarm. And we’re in here, setting it all in motion.” She cracked her knuckles. “Ready?”
Rachel lifted her phone, her thumb poised over the ‘go’ message she’d already typed, ready to send it to Harvard and Ryan. “Ready.”
Elle hit the keys. “Then we are Go. The email has been sent.”
Rachel sent the text to tell the boys. And then…
Nothing.
“Well, that was a bit anticlimactic,” she said to Elle.
“People need time to read the email, Rach,” Elle said with a sigh.
“Still, this isn’t the most exciting of missions, is it?”
Elle’s eyebrows shot up. “Better this than people shooting at us.”
Rachel wasn’t so sure. She liked her enemies where she could see them.
Chapter Ten
One hour and forty-three minutes after the email went out, Harvard’s phone buzzed an alarm.
“West Building, second floor,” he snapped into the comm unit attached to his lapel.
“Bringing up all the cameras now,” Ryan said through Harvard’s earpiece as he ran for the building.
They were lucky. It was the closest one to the main office, where he’d been waiting.
Ryan cursed. “One of the cameras is out in that building.”
“Where?” Harvard snapped as he raced through the door.
“The connecting office to the second-floor research lab.”
What the hell? “On my way.”
“That’s my mother’s office,” Rachel’s voice bit out in his ear. “You can’t possibly think she has anything to do with this. Wait for me; I’m coming over.”
“No,” Harvard ordered. “Stay in position. Let me deal with this.”
There was no reply from Rachel.
He scanned his security pass, pushed through the doors, and sprinted up the stairs two at a time.
“Rachel and Elle are heading your way,” Ryan said. “Damn, Rachel can move in those heels.”
Harvard didn’t say anything. There was no point. He’d just have to deal with the women when they arrived, and then later, he’d go over why a member of a team never broke position. In the meantime, he tamped down his anger and focused on getting to that office.
Two more stops to scan his card and he was in the corridor outside the second-floor labs. Each door had a biometric lock that Harvard didn’t have access to, but he didn’t need it because Francesca’s office door stood wide open.
Daily training meant Harvard wasn’t even out of breath by the time he reached the doorway. He scanned the room, taking in everything within seconds—the most important part being Francesca sitting at her desk, talking to Samantha, who sat on the opposite side.
When Rachel’s mother noticed him, she beamed. “Harvard, we were just talking about you. Come in, come in.” She angled her head to look around him. “Rachel isn’t with you?”
“She’s on her way,” he said as he stepped into the room.
“Shouldn’t a bodyguard stay with his charge? Had enough of her already?” Samantha said with a wink.
“Samantha,” Francesca reprimanded, but it was filled with affection. “Not everyone knows when you’re joking, darling. You need to remember that.”
Yeah, Rachel’s mom being one of them, because Samantha had been deadly serious. He glanced around the room, but nothing jumped out at him as being out of place.
“What are you doing over here?” Francesca said, motioning for him to take a seat.
Harvard shook his head, indicating he was happy to stand. “We thought we’d take you out for lunch. I came ahead to make sure we caught you, as Rachel’s tied up in a meeting.”
“Well, you must think it’s safe at TayFor if you’re letting her wander around alone.” Samantha tossed her wavy blonde hair over her shoulder and crossed her legs, making sure Harvard got the best angle. “That’s good news for our security. I guess they’re doing their job.”