Page 86 of Don't Let Go

Locke frowned. “You can’t just access the dark web from here?”

I shrugged. “Yes. But without the item, it won’t do us any good. You or me.”

Their questions seemed to radiate in the air around them.

“Look, it sounds complicated, because it is to someone who isn’t me. You need the physical item and the dark web address. But even if you have both, if you don’t know how to use them, you still can’t get to the data.” When Locke would have opened his mouth, I raised a hand. “No, I couldn’t tell you how to do it. I won’t know until I have both in front of me.”

McQuade frowned. “It’s a puzzle of some kind.”

“I like puzzles. I like to make it a challenge. It’s harder to hack something that changes from day to day, season to season—even month to month. Ciphers and keys are great, but you need an X factor to make something as secure as possible.”

I killed two people today. I’d never done that before. Not with my own hands. Had I participated in how I helped my contractors in the field? Yes. But that was at a distance. This was much more intimate. Much more personal.

“You okay for me to drive and McQuade to be on watch with me?” It was a fair question, after the assault on the rig, they might know about it. That could create other complications. Ideally, they hadn’t confirmed to anyone what they’d found before they began the assault.

“I can even do something to mask the transponder so if they are searching for it, we’ll transmit something different to the highway scanners.” I wiped my face again. “Give a me a couple of minutes to use the bathroom and wash my face, then we can go.”

“Hey,” McQuade said, catching my arm as I stood. “You’re not okay.”

“No,” I agreed with him. “But I will be.” Then, because I could, I put a hand to his chest and pushed up on my toes to brush his jaw with a kiss. The beard there teased me. Locke had risen to his feet and when I turned to him, he dipped his head for a kiss.

It was light, just a glide of lips to lips. When he steadied me with one hand on my hip, I curled between them and they crushed me in a gentle, all-encompassing hug.

Three deep breaths to scrub the scent of death and blood away, leaving only the hot masculine scent of them.

“Okay.” I pushed back and straightened. “Let’s get to work.”

Ten minutes later, I had my headset back on, my chair locked and a seatbelt in place as the rig began to move. Tapping two buttons, I exhaled a deep breath. “Remy—we have a plan.”

Chapter

Twenty-Nine

PATCH

Sleep was a battle. The drive to Leesburg would take a couple of days, particularly if we didn’t want to attract attention. Remy stayed on the targets for a few more hours, tagged them before they separated, then met us on the road.

I’d avoided any kind of sleep until we rendezvoused a couple of hours east of Dallas on I-30. It was after three in the morning. The roads were quiet, the rest stops were still. It took no time to find a spot and let Remy pull the SUV on board.

He’d left the vehicle and come straight to me. The grip of his hands on my elbows steadied me as much as it pulled me to him. I didn’t quite collapse into his embrace as I had with Locke.

McQuade said something and clapped Remy on the shoulder before he’d pressed a kiss to my head. Then he was gone. A few minutes later, the truck gave a little jerk as we began to move again.

Remy rocked with the motion easily, keeping both of us on our feet. “You need to see sleep, luv.” The words seemed to vibrate in his chest and I soaked up the sound of him and the comfort he offered.

“I don’t know if I can.” Although the swelling had gone down some, my eyes still hurt—a lot. They were red-rimmed and I wasn’t even sure eyedrops would help at this point.

“I’m not McQuade,” Remy said. “But I’ll stay with you while you sleep.”

I blew out a breath.

“Trust me?”

The request cut the legs out from under any objection. “I promise, this isn’t about trust. I do trust you.” I trusted all of them.

“Then let’s see if we can get you some sleep. It’ll make me feel better too.”

Frowning, I leaned back to search his face. “Did something else happen?”

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