Page 20 of Falling Fast

There was still a chance they might find something useful to the case on Baker’s office system. Even the most careful criminals screwed up. She hoped that her little lip-gloss device would transmit something that would help the team break the case open, without her having to actually go to Baker’s house and try to access his personal laptop.

But if not, at least they’d know if it worked properly or not.

Nodding once, she reached into her hip pocket and pulled out the lip-gloss tube. Using a phone with the right program would have made things a lot easier, but Baker was obviously concerned about his system’s security if he’d had his men take her and Jamie’s phones away.

After slicking some gloss on, she subtly pressed the button to commence transmission as she slipped it back into her pocket. The device should begin transmitting files from the hard drive back to the team waiting in the mobile command center within thirty seconds.

If it worked the way it was supposed to.

Baker stayed silent as she resumed typing, pulling up page after page of code. After another twenty minutes or so, she stopped. “Ah-ha,” she murmured.

“What?” Baker sat up and leaned forward, staring at the screen, close enough for her to smell the scent of his aftershave.

“Right here.” She pointed to the section of suspicious code, began scrolling through it. “It’s in your operating system. Not surprised the other techs you hired missed it. It’s subtle. A tarantula virus. One of my personal favorites.”

“What does it do?”

She steeled herself before turning her head to meet his gaze. There was no missing the calculating light there, or the desire. He wanted her, was trying to figure out how to get her. “How technical do you want me to be?”

“I want the opposite of technical.”

“Okay, so basically a tarantula virus hijacks your operating system. It takes over the computer and writes the virus into each program, then erases itself from the coding before anyone can detect it.”

He frowned, his attention fully on the screen now. “What’s the purpose of it? Is someone trying to steal my files?”

“Maybe. Or, could be they’re just screwing with you for fun. Some people get off on that kind of thing.”

“Yeah, they do,” he said with a hard smile that sent an icy shiver up her spine.

She typed in a few more commands, hit Enter with a flourish, and sat back. “Done.”

“So, that’s it?”

“That’s it. I’ve removed the virus, and I’m running another program to make sure it’s completely wiped out from the system. It’ll take a few hours to run through everything. Should be good to go by around noon though. And if there are any further problems, you know how to contact me. For a fair price,” she added with a cocky little grin. There was no need to stay longer in an attempt to transmit more files. This was only a test, to see if the transmitter worked the way it was supposed to.

“Excellent.” Baker leaned back in his chair, a wide smile on his face, the glint in his eyes almost fascinated. “Are you by chance free tomorrow night? I’d love to take you out to dinner as a thank you. Anywhere you like, you name the place.”

Could he be any less obvious? “I don’t…” She slid a glance toward Jamie.

“He can come too, if it makes you feel better,” Baker said in a dismissive tone, a hint of annoyance coloring his voice.

Oh, it sure as hell does. “Maybe. James?”

From out in the hallway those amber eyes stared back at her, and if she wasn’t mistaken, there was a gleam of pride there that warmed her from the inside out. “Can if you want, yeah,” he answered with a half-shrug.

“Excellent.” Baker stood and offered her his hand.

She hesitated only a moment before accepting it and he helped her to her feet. His palm and fingers were soft against hers. Too soft. And his grip was just a shade too possessive.

“I’ll look forward to talking more about my collection with you,” he murmured, then finally released her hand. She barely resisted the urge to wipe her palm on her jeans. “But first, let’s take care of your payment. Believe me, you were worth every penny.”

Chapter Six

Charlie let out a sigh of sheer relief when she stepped into her apartment hours later and shut the door behind her. It had been a long day and she and Jamie had just returned from a meeting with the rest of the team.

The best part about it was getting a hug from Easton when he’d walked in. She’d rather get one from Jamie, but since that wasn’t going to happen, she’d had to settle for one from her brother.

Now that the initial op was over, she realized just how stressed she’d been all day. She rubbed the back of her neck and turned her head from side to side to ease the stiff muscles in her neck and shoulders. A headache throbbed in her temples.

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