He nodded. “You rest, then.”
She took a couple bites of her banana but then set it down and reclined her seat.
“You hot?” Markus asked. “Cold?”
“I’m fine,” she mumbled, sounding like she was already half asleep.
“Let me know if you need anything.”
“Okay.” She yawned.
A baby. Viv was going to have a baby.
And the most surprising part about it was how thrilled he was. Though he’d always thought he might like to have a family one day, he’d never met a girl that he’d had an urge to make that happen with. Until Viv.
Anything she wanted, and he would give it to her. After the hell he’d already put her through, she more than deserved it.
And he’d protect her and their child no matter what. Until his dying breath, he would make sure they were safe.
“Markus?” Viv’s voice was barely there.
“Yeah?”
“I meant it,” she cooed.
“Meant what?”
“That I love you.”
His heart became so full he thought it might burst. He’d meant it, too. Everything he’d told her.
Chapter 18
Viv
Though it had initially been hard to stay awake, Viv found staying asleep even harder. She turned endlessly, but it wasn’t the seat keeping her up. Even if she’d been in the most comfortable bed, her mind would still have made true rest impossible.
After maybe the hundredth readjustment, something sharp poked her hip. Reaching into her jeans pocket, she found her HW access card.
Frowning at the piece of plastic in her hand, she tried to remember how it had gotten there. After getting off the plane the morning before, she’d felt so frazzled. Usually, the access card was clipped to her keys.
Except she’d dropped them at the airport, she finally remembered, and the access card had popped off. Instead of clipping it back onto the keys, she must have stuffed it into her pocket.
“What’s that?” Markus drained the last of his coffee. The dashboard clock read twelve after three.
“It’s my access card to HW. I was supposed to turn it in yesterday, but I forgot all about it.”
She ran her thumb down the laminated surface. “It opens any HW door in Jacksonville.” Her heart picked up speed.
“Guess you won’t be needing that again.”
“Or maybe I will.”
“What?” There was a sharpness in his voice.
Even as she’d said it, she was still formulating a plan. All she really had was an idea. No. A desire.
A desire to bring Mr. Romano/Dagger down.
“This can get me into Mr. Romano’s office.”
Markus’ jaw flexed. “And? What are you saying?”
She sat up straight, suddenly incredibly awake. “If I can get into his office, I might be able to find something incriminating.”
“No,” he said, way too fast to have properly thought about it.
“What? Why not?”
“It’s too dangerous. He could be watching HW. You’re not putting yourself at risk.”
“Oh my God,” she half laughed, half scoffed. “Are you kidding me? You can’t stop me.”
Markus’ nostrils flared, and his hands tightened around the steering wheel. “Okay. Fair enough. I can ask you, though, to consider your safety. For me. For the baby.”
A lump formed in her throat. “That’s all I’m thinking about now. The baby. My sister. Her husband and kids. You. My family. You all are why I need to do this.”
“What are you expecting to find, exactly?”
“I don’t know.” She turned toward him as much as her seatbelt would allow. “Between what you know about him and what I know about him, there must be something. At least the start of a trail, anyway.”
“So we’re going to play detective.”
She didn’t balk. “If that’s what it takes.”
Markus’ shoulders rose nearly to his ears. “I ruined your life, Viv. The least I can do is keep you safe and give you a fresh beginning.”
She placed her hand on his shoulder. “You didn’t ruin my life. You added to it. But there’s one thing I really can’t live without, and that’s my family.”
“Viv—”
“You don’t have to apologize to me again. I know you’re sorry. It’s okay. But if you really want to make things up to me, let me do this. If we go into hiding, I don’t know when I’ll see my sister and mom again. The kids…”
She got too choked up to continue.
His shoulders relaxed. “It’s hard to say no to you.” He glanced over at her. “I’m not going to try to keep you from your family. We need a plan, though.”
“Great.”
“Do you have one?”
“Well…” She dropped her hand and chewed on her bottom lip. “Other than sneaking into HW headquarters when no one else is there? No.”
“Do you know where Romano’s office is? Is it locked?”
“I know where it is. I don’t know if he locks it at night. Most people there don’t.”
“Hm.”
“Hm, what?” she pressed.
“There might be someone who can help us.” He nodded ahead. “There’s a twenty-four-hour store up here. I need to stop and get something.”
“Okay.” Viv settled back into her seat. Simply knowing that Markus was warming up to her idea made her feel better. It was only a matter of time before she won him over.
They pulled off the exit and into the nearby parking lot of a supercenter. Only a few cars littered the area. After parking up front, they walked into the store hand in hand.
“What are we getting?” Viv asked.
He grabbed a package of toothbrushes and some toothpaste.
“That’s what we stopped for?” she asked.
“No, but I don’t want to expose you to my morning breath.”
“That’s already happened, buster, and it didn’t chase me away.” She pressed her fingers to her mouth and giggled.
“This is what I needed right away.”
While talking, they’d ended up in the electronics section. Markus reached for a flip phone and a card for minutes.
“I can’t use my cell,” he said in a low voice. “But I can use this to make one call to Ryder.”
She nodded, her heart pounding in the base of her throat. “For help?”
“He’s something of a whiz when it comes to computer stuff. He’s always taking down security systems for us.” He paused and looped his arm through Viv’s. “I mean, he was.”
“I don’t want to put him in danger.”
His lips pursed. “What if you get into Romano’s office and there’s nothing in the filing cabinets, as there probably isn’t? Anything juicy would likely be on his personal computer or on the cloud. Unless you have some great hacking skills I don’t know about, we’ll need Ryder.”
She chewed over that. Ryder had already done so much for them. It didn’t feel right to drag him back out of hiding for more danger.