She blinked and kept typing. He’d said “we.” The little word warmed her throughout, even though she’d wanted to sound so strong and sure of herself in this conversation. The Texan had the power to hurt her, and he was smart enough to know that fact. “Hmm.”
He chuckled low. “You didn’t think we’d live in different places, did you?”
She narrowed her gaze and ran code through her mind. Time to try something else. “Vanguard needs a medic, Tace. They need you.” So did she. Man, she needed him at her back and in her heart. It was much easier to admit that truth to herself than out loud. She’d almost lost him and frankly still could, if the enzyme wasn’t at full strength. Yet duty called her right here and right now—these computers and the information locked inside them were what she could give to Vanguard. To the people who’d taken her in and given her a home. “You and I are needed in two different places.”
“Then we’ll split our time and be useful at both places. But where you go, I go, baby.” His voice roughened. “Unless you don’t agree?”
“I agree.” Even though his tone said he would insist, she already agreed. Maybe he needed reassurance just as badly as she did. Although he was better at stating his feelings—his wants and needs—much better than she was. Finally, a bad boy who could stand on his own two feet, which was a first for her. “Just wanted to make sure.”
“Be sure, then,” Tace murmured. “This is a weird time to be discussing this, but when I told you it was you and me, I meant it.”
She couldn’t imagine her day without him, and the idea of sleeping alone for the rest of her life made her sad. Well, sleeping without Tace pricked tears to her eyes. “I don’t want to give up being one of the soldiers.” Her voice quavered.
“You don’t have to, although you’re the most valuable computer person we have. Is it that you don’t want to be out of the inner circle, or is it that you want to keep scouting?” he asked, his voice deep and so masculine.
She tried another set of codes, her mind working the problems. Tace had zeroed in on her fears with impressive accuracy. “Both, I guess.”
“Then do both. Although I think the computer aspect will take a lot of time for a while, and that still means you’re in the inner circle. Don’t worry. Vanguard is family, Sami,” Tace said.
“Yeah.” She breathed in. Jax had said the same thing. Finally, she’d found a place where she actually belonged—all of her. She wished her family could see her and meet Tace. Her dad would’ve liked Tace Justice, she was sure. The dull ache of missing all of them would never go away, but the family she had built after Scorpius offered comfort.
Her breath quickened, and she focused on the screen. Ah, there it was. She leaned forward, rewriting code and creating a back door. Should’ve known—they’d used her original security measures with slight enhancements. “I can get into anything here.” Yeah. Lazy bastards. Files began opening on-screen in rapid succession. She wanted to turn on the other screens, but conserving energy was still paramount.
Her eye caught a file, and she clicked a couple of keys.
Her fingers froze.
She blinked. Her chest seized. “Oh God.”
Tace hurried toward her, lowering his chin. “What is that?”
She leaned over and typed rapidly, bringing up schematics and finally, a graphic of a digital clock, its big red numbers counting down. “It’s a facility failsafe,” she whispered, her hands shaking even as she typed. “Get Jax. Hurry.”
Tace ran from the room.
She flipped through files and brought up a coded schematic file, taking several precious moments to go through the first back door she’d set up, almost surprised when she made it. They’d never realized she’d left herself a way back in. “Shit, shit, shit.”
Tace ran back into the room with both Jax and Greyson on his heels. “What’s up?”
She hit PRINT for one of the files, turning around. “There’s a failsafe in place that they set off before they escaped. Doctor Ramirez commanded the facility, and he used his codes to activate it.”
Tace leaned in to look at the computer. “Everything will shut down?”
She gulped and shook her head wildly. “More than that. The level below C, right under the room with the computer servers, is rigged with explosives, and in exactly fourteen minutes, the bomb will blow.”
“Will it take out the entire building?” Jax asked, his jaw clenching.
She shrugged and typed quickly, bringing up the explosives list and bomb details. “I don’t know anything about explosives.”
Jax leaned in and blew out. “Grey—shit. This is beyond bad.”
Grey leaned over her other shoulder, surrounding her with the scent of male and the sense of a whole lot of testosterone. “Holy shit,” he said.
Sami partially turned. “Jax?”
The Vanguard leader leaned back, his eyes hardening. “That’ll take out the entire city block. If we want to get clear, we have to do it right now.” He winced. “Not sure we’ll make it even if we go now. We’ll have to evacuate everyone.”
Tace reached for her shoulder.
“Wait,” Sami said, looking back at the computer. “If the bomb was activated here via computer, why can’t I deactivate it the same way?”
“No,” Tace said, pulling on her chair so she rolled away from the keyboard.
Sami struggled against the move. “There’s a chance we have a cure for Scorpius in this facility. Or a concoction so a patient’s body can make its own vitamin B, removing the need for injections. Or even a way to protect pregnant women and ensure full-term pregnancies. If there’s a possibility, we have to try, right?”
Tace shook his head, his jaw set rock-hard. “If you fail to deactivate it, there won’t be enough time to get free of the blast area. I don’t have Jax or Greyson’s experience with explosives, but even I know that. Right?”
“Yeah,” Jax said. “To get clear, we have to go now. Even then, it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
Sami dug deep and breathed out. “Get all the civilians and soldiers out that you can. I’m staying.” She jerked the chair free and rolled back to the keyboard.
Chapter Thirty-One
My daddy, his daddy, and his daddy were all Texas Rangers. That means somethin’.
—Tace Justice
“Have you fucking lost your mind?” Tace bellowed, reaching for his woman again. Here he was being all understanding and supportive of her career choices, and now she wanted to hang out where a bomb was about to go off? “We are running hard and fast for Vanguard.”
She turned and slapped his hand—actually fucking slapped him.
He lost his shit. Letting loose with a snarl that sounded too much like Marvin the lion, he reached down and yanked her ass from the chair, his temper nearly blowing off the top of his head. Which was exactly why he didn’t see her punch to the throat coming. She nailed him and hard. He dropped to his ass like a sack of bricks, still holding her against his chest. His throat seized and his eyes stung. “What?” he wheezed.
Her elbow impacted his cheekbone, and she spun around to straddle him, smacking both hands to his ears.
Pain smashed through his skull. Oh, hell no. He shot his arms up between hers, grabbed the back of her head, and turned to flatten her ass to the concrete. He’d learned his lesson well last time, so he used his groin to press her into the floor and his bigger hands to clasp her wrists above her head. She wiggled beneath him, bucking hard, using a string of swear words that had certainly never been thrown together so colorfully before. At about the third “fuck,” she lapsed into rapid Spanish.
Finally, shooting poisonous darts from her dark eyes, she subsided beneath him.
Jax leaned over one side. “You guys about done?”
“Get the fucking trucks ready,” Tace snapped. “We’re going.”
“No, we aren’t,” Sami countered, struggling again, her breasts rubbing against his chest. “I’m the only chance we have to stop the bomb, and
you’re wasting time. Get off me.”
Greyson bent down at the other side. “Not for nothin’, but if there’s a chance to diffuse the bomb, how about we try it?”
Tace looked up and pinned the Merc leader with a hard stare.
Greyson held up both hands and backed away. “Your woman, your decision. I’ll go have my men start clearing out the Bunker folks.”
“Get my brother out of here,” Jax ordered. “If you have to take that Bunker doctor, that Penelope woman, in order to motivate him, do it.”
“Copy that,” Greyson said, striding from the room.
Tace leaned down into Sami’s face. “Here’s what’s going to happen, little hacker. We’re going to get up and run like hell. Got it?”
Her bottom lip trembled. “You don’t think I can do it?”
Ah hell. “I don’t want to risk it,” he said, his voice lowering.
She blinked. “I thought you saw me. The real me.”
“I do.” Every instinct he’d ever had screeched at him to get her the hell away from a block of skyscrapers about to explode. “I can’t lose you.”
“We need the resources here,” she whispered. “The bomb was activated by computer—I can deactivate it.”
Tace shook his head. “Too risky.”
“Don’t stop me,” she said.
In that instant, that one little instant, he knew he’d lose her if he stopped her. Yet what else could he do? At least she’d be alive and hating him.
“Trust me,” she whispered.
She was killing him. “Promise me you can do it,” he said.
She blinked. Once and then twice. “I want to promise, but I said I’d never lie to you again. I can’t promise I’ll be able to turn it off, but I want to try. I need to try, Tace. Let me be who I’m supposed to be.”
Who she was supposed to be was fucking alive and in his heart. In his life. He slowly stood up and pulled her to her feet. “All right.”
Surprise and then gratitude glowed in her eyes. She ran for the chair and sat, her fingers already moving across the keyboard. “Get everyone out, and if the building doesn’t explode, you can all come back in about fifteen minutes from now.”
Tace nodded at Jax. “Go.”
Sami partially turned, her fingers still working somehow. “You too, Tace.”
“No.” He crossed his arms.
She paled. “You have to go. I can’t risk you.”
He shook his head. “It’s you and me. Remember?”
Tears filled her eyes. “Just in case this doesn’t work, one of us has to go on. To remember the other one.”
“Sorry, baby. I’m staying here with you. There’s no life for me without you.” He’d give her until five minutes left on the bomb, and then they’d try to outrun the explosion. Probably unsuccessfully, but at least they’d be together.
She looked over his shoulder. “Jax? Vanguard needs a medic. Please take Tace out of here.”
Tace partially turned to face one of the few remaining men alive he’d die for. “Jax?”
Jax breathed out. “You’re like a brother to me, Tace.” He glanced around Tace at Sami. “If he took me away from Lynne, I’d never forgive him. I love you, Sami. You’re the sister I never had. Get typing, because I ain’t losing either of you.” He clapped Tace on the arm. “I . . .”
Tace nodded. “Me too.”
Jax’s eyes darkened.
“Go, Jax. Get Marcus out of here and make sure Raze gets free. Doc Vinnie needs him, and he’ll try to stay and find the bomb to strip. Get him clear,” Tace said.
Jax took another look and then nodded, turning for the corridor.
Tace moved toward Sami, standing behind her chair and putting his hands on her shoulders. “I suggest you get typing, because you and I need to have a little discussion about you hitting me in the throat.”
She gave a half chuckle, half sob, turning back to the keyboard. “That sounds like a threat.”
“It is.” He noted the clock in the corner of the screen. Ten minutes. She had five minutes, and then he was carrying her out of there whether she liked it or not.
“You should go,” she whispered, leaning over the keyboard.
“You risked your life coming here to save mine,” he said. “How could I do any less?”
She typed faster somehow. “I had to decipher the computers.”
He nodded. “I have to reassure you that you can do this.”
“I know I can do this,” she snapped, her shoulders rigid.
Yet she didn’t—not really. The little girl who’d tried to please her father by learning to fight so well, who’d tried to please asshole boyfriends by hacking so well . . . she didn’t know she could just be. “I love you, Sami. Whether you’re fighting, hacking, or just sitting on your butt daydreaming. Everything about you, that is just you, is inside me and always will be.” He leaned down and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “I trust you.”
She shivered. “I love you, too.” She sniffed. “It was wrong of me to ask Jax to knock you out and take you away from here. You can make your own decisions just like I can.”
“We’ll discuss retaliation for that later,” he promised. Man, was she going to fight him at five minutes. Would he have to knock her out? No. This was Sami, and she was the best hacker around. “You can do it,” he said, fully meaning the words. If it were possible, which he didn’t know, then she could do it. If it could be done. He read the clock.
Nine minutes.
She started mumbling to herself, and he left her alone, just being present. Her fingers clacked keys, and she blurted out an expletive every few moments.
Eight minutes.
She kicked the drawer and dragged the keyboard closer to her chest, her gaze on the screen and not the keys.
Codes flashed across in red and blue so quickly he couldn’t read them, but Sami kept typing. “Got rid of my other back door,” she muttered. “Fucking dickhead of a bastard.”
Seven minutes.
The woman had admitted the feat might be impossible. He had absolutely no clue what she was typing or doing, so he couldn’t tell how close she was or if she was close at all. Hell. He’d had one of his sisters set up his e-mail account years ago and hadn’t changed the password since. Wasn’t sure he even knew how to do so. Not that he needed e-mail any longer. Memories of his family, of his little sisters, flashed through his mind. They would’ve loved Sami, and she would’ve enjoyed Texas and them. He focused on the screen.
Five minutes.
He stiffened. “Baby? Let’s run for it.”
“No.” She shook her head and kept typing. “I’m close. Trust me. Please, Tace.”
His eyes shut. If he dragged her out of there, he’d be saying he didn’t believe her. His woman, the only one he’d ever love, had asked for trust. When the woman you loved asked for something so important, you gave it to her. He’d learned that from his daddy, who’d learned it from his, and so on. “All right.” He grasped her shoulder to just hold on. If it was their last moment, he was going to be touching her when it all ended.
“Four minutes,” she muttered, her body hunching. “Damn it.”
He wished he’d made a move on her at the very beginning. They could’ve had a couple of months together instead of this short time. Yet he wouldn’t trade what they’d had for anything.
More memories flashed through his mind—these of Sami. The first time he’d met her, she’d shaken his hand too tightly, trying to be one of the guys. He’d disarmed her with his drawl and a joke, and in that second, he’d seen the sweet girl inside. She’d trained him to street-fight, and when he’d surpassed her in strength, she’d glowed with pride.
The first time he’d made love to her, she’d sighed his name.
That sound. That one little sweet sound would stay with him through eternity. He opened his eyes.
Two minutes.
At the sight of the two, everything in him settled. All right. It was too late to run anyway. He
wanted to hold her hand, but her fingers were flying, so he kept his grip on her shoulder. She mumbled, panic in the sound. He rubbed her, careful not to disturb her typing. Man, she was in the zone. Fast typing, rigid body, computer-term mumbling that might as well be a foreign language.
“Thank you for the last couple of weeks,” he whispered.
She stiffened. “I want more of them.” Flashes flew across the screen in different codes that made no sense.
“Me too,” he said.
One minute.
He held on to her, thanking God in this last minute for giving such an incredible woman to him. For giving him the chance to really love and be loved. They hadn’t had time to explore it, but they’d felt it.
Thirty seconds.
Would there be an afterlife? He’d always believed and he still did. He and Sami would get another chance together, and she’d meet his family. Yeah.
Twenty seconds.
She hit one more key.
The clock halted at eighteen seconds.
He stiffened. His head cocked, and his heart stopped. “Sami?”
She coughed and hesitantly lifted her fingers from the keyboard. “Um.”
“Sami?” he asked again, his voice turning rough.
She turned. “I did it. We stopped the bomb.” She lunged out of her chair and jumped.
He caught her, his mouth on hers as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She tasted of woman and something sweet—all Sami. He kissed her, going deep, putting every feeling he’d ever have into the kiss. Finally, he leaned back. “I knew you could do it.”
Jax poked his head around the corner. “Jesus. Did you have to make it so close?”
Tace stilled. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Raze leaned around him. “We’re a team. But still. Eighteen seconds? God, Sami. You gave me a heart attack.”
Sami smiled, her lips trembling and tears filling her eyes. “You guys stayed.”
“Yeah. We believe in you.” Jax breathed out heavily. “All right. Everyone get back to work. We have people to interview, and we’re all staying the night here. Then we’ll come up with a plan for the next step.” He glanced at them. “One more minute of kissing, I guess. Then back to work.” The door shut behind him.