Page 303 of Wild Mustang Security Firm

He was tired of doing Fariq’s dirty work. He’d come into this job with such high ideals and a need for revenge, but over the course of the years, all he’d done was stay in the shadows, searching for something definitive that would put Fariq in prison if not the hangman’s noose, while doing Fariq’s bidding until he had his own picture on Interpol’s Most Wanted website, right next to the man he hated more than any other human being on the planet.

The man had made him into a monster. He was irredeemable—just one more reason to keep someone as innocent as Aliya far, far away from him.

Soft footsteps from one deck below caught his attention.

Melting backward into the shadows, he trailed along the rail until he was far enough ahead to glimpse over the side and make out who it was.

Speak of the devil. Barefoot, with heels in her hand, Aliya crept along the rail, her pink sundress rippling around her hips and legs as the breeze caught the fabric. Cool as it was, she was wearing a white sweater, and her hair was pulled back in a long, thick braid.

Wherever she was going, she was sneaking to get there. Watching curiously, that put Christian flat up against the dark wall under the outer stairwell, just seconds before she came up the stairs from the floor below. She passed within feet of him, the moonlight catching the curves of her soft brown cheek as she peered down the length of the yacht behind her, then glanced up the next flight of stairs. No one was out here, and the only people scheduled on the overnight shift were the three men who handled ship security, the deck pilot, and the guards stationed directly outside her and Fariq’s bedrooms.

How had she got past them, and what was she trying to do?

Every pitying, protective feeling he’d been harboring toward the girl vanished as he watched her take the rail in her small hand. Biting her lip, she looked hesitant and more than a little nervous. If she was doing what he suspected, she was an idiot. She also wasn’t half as nervous as she ought to be.

Images of her meeting her contact, taking in her hot little hand whatever he’d handed over, was very much in the forefront of his mind as Christian watched her slip up the next flight of stairs.

Shoving off the wall before he realized what he was doing, Christian fell into silent step behind her. She paused at the top of the stairs, and he knew she was looking toward the window of the control room, where the guard was at his desk. He only had to look up to see her.

Her shoulders relaxed, and he could all but hear the shakiness of her breath as she gathered her courage, then crept from the stairwell down the hall toward Fariq’s office. Didn’t she know about the cameras?

Reaching into his pocket, he palmed the remote he’d made and clicked the button, hacking into the security recorders. Every monitor on the other side of the security glass blipped as the cameras jumped back twenty minutes and recorded the previous twenty minutes over again. It wasn’t a foolproof hack, but unless something happened tonight to give Fariq a reason to review the tape, no one would ever know it had happened, and in three days’ time, the file would be automatically deleted.

In the meantime, it gave him twenty minutes to see what she was up to, catch her, and scare the shit out of her in the hopes she might decide never to do it again.

She went straight to her brother’s office. The lights were off, but that was a trap, and he was astonished she didn’t know it. Fariq had everything wired with hidden cameras. The only other person who knew where they all were was Christian, and only because he’d hacked into the video feeds and reprogrammed them with the same wireless hack he’d just used. With the remote in his pocket, he could go anywhere on the ship and keep himself off the security recordings. It would be harder trying to keep Aliya off as well, especially if he didn’t know when she was sneaking around.

Oh, for crying out… He barely kept from clapping a hand to his head. She was using Fariq’s keycode to get in the door.As if that wouldn’t trigger another of Fariq’s security logs. Christiandisabled that, too, using his remote to bypass the code and let her in. The door clicked open, and the minute she slipped inside, he was out of the shadows and striding down the hall.

At least she was smart enough not to turn his office lights on, but by the time he reached the door, she was at Fariq’s desk, his laptop powering on, and consulting notes on a scrap of paper.

James Bond Super Spy she was not, and if he didn’t nip this in the bud right now, she was going to get them both killed. She didn’t hear him come into the room, but he made sure she heard it when he closed and locked the door behind him.

At the sharp click of the latch, she snapped around, her dark eyes huge on her guilty face.

“What do you think you’re doing?”

She jumped up from her brother’s office chair so fast, she knocked his laptop to the floor.

It broke, but she didn’t even look at what she’d done, staring at him. God knows she was right to be scared, but she was scared of the wrong thing.

“What have you done?” He came around the desk, more concerned with the laptop than her. First rule of being a spy—don’t break what you’re trying to crack into.

Aliya bolted for the door.

The inevitable consequences of the broken laptop took an abrupt backseat to what would happen if she took off running from this room in a blind panic—to both of them.

He caught her while she was fumbling to get the door unlocked.

She didn’t scream, he’d give her that, but she fought, and it was beautifully dirty. He spun her around, slamming her against the door, hoping to calm her down, but she didn’t give him the chance.

“Relax…” was all he managed before she slammed her knee up between his legs, scoring a direct hit that dropped him to thefloor. It was hard not to admire the hell out of her, but if she kept this up, he wouldn’t be able to do all the nasty, sexual things he wanted to do to her.

She tried to get the door open again, but he held onto his cock and balls with one shielding hand and her belt with his other. Refusing to let go, he kept her smashed too close to the door to get it open.

She was really starting to panic, yanking, twisting, and hitting the door. Anyone patrolling outside couldn’t help but hear it.

“Knock it off before you get us both killed!” he panted through the pain.

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