Page 53 of Tempting Tessa

The air whooshed out of her lungs. She tried to roll away, but he kept his grip on the chair, pinning her in place.

His fist was a brick that smashed into her cheek. The second swing broke her nose.

He raised his fist to strike a third time. She screamed, and the room plunged into darkness.

Twenty-One

The sound of Harris striking Tessa froze Tommy’s blood.

He couldn’t wait for the signal they’d agreed on. Couldn’t stick to the timeline or trust the Trojan horse to do its job. Harris had her, and that bastard had no boundaries.

Fingers flying over the keyboard, Tommy hammered out a series of commands. The lights flickered once, twice, then went dark. The hum of the servers ground to a halt as his work took out the primary electrical grid.

The backup generator sputtered, struggling to engage. It wouldn’t succeed. Tommy’s virus had burrowed deep, ensuring there would be no power to salvage.

The darkness cloaked him as he shoved the chair aside, sprinting out of the security room and toward the stairwell, slipping on his night vision goggles.

He took the concrete steps two and three at a time, heart pounding. His legs, fueled by adrenaline and a sharp edge of panic, flew up and up, story after story. He replayed Tessa’s voice in his head, steady, even as he knew Harris had intimidated her. She had the bastard where she wanted him. The Architect was running the show, but the stakes were unbearable.

She’d warned him. Warned all of them that this would happen. No matter what they heard, they were not to charge in and stop what was happening. She had it under control.

He couldn’t follow those orders. Tessa was alone with a deranged madman.

He hit the top floor. The fire door flew open as he slammed into it. The guard outside the main door to the penthouse was jiggling the locked handle and calling to the guard on the other side. At the sound of Tommy approaching, he wheeled around, his flashlight beam catching Tommy in the face.

When he saw Tommy bearing down on him, he reached for his weapon, but Tommy was there before he could pull it out.

Two swift blows, and the man was unconscious at his feet. Tommy confiscated the gun and stuck it in the back of his waistband. At the door, he listened. The guard on the inside had gone quiet.

The voice inside his head, urging him on, mixed with the unease in his stomach. With the Glock in one hand and a Taser in the other, he fired the gun at the doorknob. It blew apart in chunks, and he kicked it open.

The security guard inside fired, and a bullet barely missed his shoulder. He zapped the giant of a man with the Taser, and the ground shook when he hit the floor.

After a quick scan, Tommy felt a new rush of panic. Light from the windows illuminated the space, so he shoved the night vision goggles up on his head. Where was Tessa? Where was Harris?

The inner sanctum. Of course. He tossed the stun gun down and was moving toward the door at the end of the room when it flew open. Tessa staggered through it, Harris behind her with a gun pointed at her head.

He had her in a choke hold, his arm around her neck. “Tommy, isn’t it?” Harris said in a mocking tone. “Playing hero, I see.”

Jessie rushed in, a flashlight in hand. The beam spotlighted Tessa and Harris. Blood trailed from Tessa’s nose and a split lip. Despite what had to be obvious pain, her eyes burned with fury. Tommy wasn’t sure if it was directed at Harris or at him and Jessie for defying her orders.

“Drop your weapon, Harris,” Tommy ordered. “Let her go. It’s game over for you.”

Jessie raised her weapon. A smile curled Harris’ lips. “The loyal brother. I know all about you, kid. You have no idea how outmatched you are right now.” He rubbed the side of his face against Tessa’s. “Tell him, little fox. Tell your plaything how outmatched he is.”

“Outmatched?” Tommy barked a laugh. “Your comms are down. Your servers are fried. Your guards? Neutralized. My team is in place, and Director Flynn—you remember him—has been recording every word you’ve said.”

Harris’ smile faltered, but his grip tightened on the gun. “You think cutting the power matters? You think this…hero move changes anything? I’ve already won, idiot. My superconductors are everywhere. I’ll bring down the energy grids, the military. Crash the stock markets. You’ve got your sister, why don’t you go play and let the big boys get back to work?”

“Tommy’s right,” Jessie said. “You’re done. Your plan failed. Let my friend go.”

“My favorite swan,” Harris mocked. “Contessa is right, you know? You’re good, Jessica, but my daughter is a genius. The missions she worked during her time with the CIA—the scheming, cunning, manipulating. Ah, yes. A thing of beauty, the way her mind works. It’s because of me, you know. I taught her how to survive. How to find her enemy’s weakness and exhort it. You and your brother are idealists. Weak and sad. I could have given you the world if you’d understood the difference between people like us and people like yourselves.”

“It’s over,” Tommy said. He tried to keep eye contact with Harris and not get distracted by Tessa’s brutalized face and the way she seemed to be drawing into herself, growing smaller right in front of his eyes. Losing that inner light that he’d come to admire and love. “Let. Her. Go. Or I’ll drop you where you stand.”

Harris sneered. “I’m the solution to the chaos in the world. The energy crisis, the wars… I can fix it all. I’ll create order out of the fall of governments and institutions. I am the ultimate black swan. Don’t you get it?”

“You’re a megalomaniac with a god complex,” Tessa whispered. She spit blood on the floor. Tommy almost whooped with joy. The woman he knew was back. “Like most megalomaniacs, you’re also delusional. You’re just another petty tyrant, tearing things down because you didn’t get hugged enough as a kid. A weak man who uses his fists to try and empower himself. There isn’t one thing that’s special about you, Harris. Men like you are a dime a dozen.”

---