Carol Ericson - Code Conspiracy

Her gaze shifted to the glint of steel on the ground. At least she’d knocked the knife from his hand when she bashed her fist against his nose.

She sucked in some air, coiled her thigh muscles and kneed her attacker between the legs. She didn’t get as high or as much power as she’d wanted, but her lips twisted into a smile when he grunted.

The grunt turned into a wheeze when Gray materialized behind him and physically and forcibly removed him from her sphere.

Her assailant’s body seemed to fly through the air, and his eyes bugged out of his skull. He yelled an expletive when he landed with a sickening thud, but he had enough strength or determination to extend his fingers toward his knife.

“Gray! The knife!” She panted as she slid down the wall into a crouch, all the strength seeping from her body.

Gray whipped around and stomped on the man’s wrist with his boot.

The guy let out a howl that echoed down the alleyway and some shouting answered from the street on one end.

Gray scooped up the knife and turned his back to the broken man writhing on the ground. He kneeled in front of her. “Are you hurt? Do you need an ambulance?”

“No. No police or ambulance.” She clutched at Gray’s shirt with both hands. “He’s getting away. Don’t let him get away. He has Amit.”

He cupped her sore face with one hand. “I’m not leaving you in this alley by yourself. He might have an accomplice.”

She struggled to stand as her attacker staggered to his feet and limped off at a surprising clip, holding his arm.

“Is there a problem? What’s going on?” Two men peered over Gray’s shoulder, and he slipped the switchblade into his pocket.

“That guy was assaulting this woman.” Gray jerked his thumb over his shoulder, but her attacker had already made it out of the alley and had turned the corner. “Now get lost.”

The men immediately drew back in unison and muttered to each other as they took a hike.

Gray helped her to her feet. “Are you sure you’re okay? I can take you to the emergency room and you can tell them you had a fall. You’re good at covering up.”

She hopped up on one foot, hanging onto his shirt. “I’m not okay. You just let the guy who was following Amit and attacked me escape. He has Amit and we let him walk away.”

“He was limping away and how do you know he has Amit?” He rubbed her arms, brushing the dirt from her jacket.

“He texted me from Amit’s phone. How do you think I wound up out here?” She gestured with her arm and winced.

“What I’m wondering is why the hell you scurried out to a dark alley based on a text without telling me.” He ran his fingers through the hair hanging over her shoulder. “Dirt.”

“I did tell you I was going outside. I guess you didn’t hear me because you were so focused on ordering your chocolate croissant.” She started toward the street, pressing one hand against her midsection.

“Where are you going and where are you injured?”

She leveled a finger at the street, teeming with traffic just beyond the alley. “I’m gonna look for the guy who bruised my ribs.”

“You’re not going to find him now, Jerrica.” He patted the pocket of his shirt. “But I have his fingerprints. He wasn’t wearing gloves.”

She stopped and leaned against Gray’s shoulder. “You’re right. I’m not going to find him out there.”

His arm came around her, and she put more pressure against his body, soaking in his warmth and power.

He squeezed her and his voice roughened as he said, “He had that knife. How’d you get out of it? When I got here, you had the upper hand.”

“My senses were already on high alert. When I saw him out here instead of Amit, I knew something was wrong, so when he came at me I was ready. All those years of martial arts paid off. I gave him a quick shot to the face, and it startled him into dropping the knife.”

Gray kissed the side of her head. “Ever think of trying out for Delta Force?”

She closed her eyes for a few seconds just to inhale the scent of him, all that clean masculinity making her feel soft and protected—even though she’d just kicked some guy’s ass—almost. Feeling soft and protected was a dangerous place to be. The last time she felt soft and protected, her whole world had blown up.

She stepped back and shook her head. “They’d never have me.”

“Let’s go back inside. There’s a slice of lemon loaf in there with your name on it.”

He tugged on her arm and she went willingly, even though she couldn’t stop looking over her shoulder.

She asked, “What do you think he did with Amit and why?”

Gray opened the back door of the coffeehouse and ushered her inside, the smell of coffee replacing the stench of garbage and fear that permeated the alley.

“I don’t know. What did he want with you? Did he say anything? Was he trying to get you to go with him or was he trying to…kill you?”

“I’m not sure.” She flipped her hair over one shoulder. “I didn’t stop to ask him.”

Gray seated her at a table, and keeping one eye on her, he retrieved two plates from the counter. He slipped the piece of lemon cake in front of her. “Eat.”

She sawed off a corner. “This all has something to do with Amit looking into that arms stash in Nigeria. I’m sure of it.”

“Which means it probably has to do with Major Denver. But why come after you?”

“Maybe because Amit called me, so they had my number. Maybe Amit didn’t give them anything, and they thought they’d try me. They’d want to stop whatever hacking Amit is doing into that system.”

“Stop how?”

“Get into Dreadworm’s space and shut it all down. If the government is behind this, they’ve been wanting to shut down Dreadworm for years.” She popped the bite of cake into her mouth and the taste of the sweet, tart lemon on her tongue almost erased the ashes left there by the conversation.

Had Amit divulged Dreadworm’s location? If so, she’d have to mobilize Olaf’s army to back up all the programs and data and physically move the computers before they were destroyed.

“Why don’t you call Amit again—just for fun. Let’s see what happens.”

Jerrica caught a crumb of lemon cake from the corner of her mouth with her tongue and pulled out her phone. She scrolled to her recent calls and tapped Amit’s name. Her stomach churned as she listened to the ringing on the other end. “No voice mail coming up. They must’ve turned off his phone. Do you think…?”

“No.” Gray dabbed a flake of chocolate from his plate and sucked it off his finger. “They can’t get anything out of a dead man.”

“They can make him stop what he’s doing. If they know he hacked into this classified system, Amit’s death ensures that stops immediately.”

“But it doesn’t, does it?” Gray planted his elbows on the table on either side of his half-eaten croissant. “If he wrote a program to get into this secret database, that’s going to keep running whether or not Amit is there to monitor it. Am I wrong?”

“You surprise me, Gray Prescott.” She hunched forward and rubbed her thumb across a chocolate smudge on his chin. “You really were listening to me.”

“I always listened to what you had to say, Jerrica. You’re one of the most fascinating people I know. Why wouldn’t I?” He placed the tip of his finger against his chin where she’d just cleaned it off.

“Because you hated everything I did, everything it implied.”

“Hate?” He rubbed his knuckles against his jaw. “That’s a strong word. I didn’t believe what you were doing was right…or necessary.”

“And now?” She folded her hands, prim as a schoolgirl, waiting for her absolution.