Page 20 of Fox in Plain Sight

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Nick felt the flash drive burn a hole in his pants pocket during the entire dinner at the cozy Italian neighborhood restaurant he’d taken Michelle to. Somehow he had to find a way to look at the contents of the flash drive, copy them, and put the memory stick back onto Michelle’s key ring before she noticed it missing. Which meant that he had to continue being his charming self so Michelle would invite him back to her place after dinner.

It wasn’t a hardship at all. Michelle was fun to be around. She had a quick wit and a sharp tongue, a wicked sense of humor, and an infectious laugh. Yet with every laugh they shared, with every eye contact they made, his guilty conscience grew. However, he had no choice but to continue his deception. Michelle could be the key to the information he needed, information that might save not only him and his fellow Stargate agents, but maybe thousands—if not millions—of people. He couldn’t let his own feelings get in the way of the greater good.

If Michelle was the person who was trying to prevent him from accessing the CIA’s secret servers, then she knew something and would be able to lead him to the person who’d destroyed the Stargate program and killed Henry Sheppard.

“Dessert?” Nick now asked, looking across the table at Michelle.

She shook her dark blond locks. “I’m too full.”

“You sure?”

“Absolutely. How about we get out of here?”

He leaned over the table, lowering his voice to a seductive murmur. “I don’t want the evening to end yet.”

Her eyelashes fluttered. “It doesn’t have to.”

Her words sent a thrill through his core, and he snapped his head to the side, catching the waiter’s eye. “Check, please.”

When the waiter placed the tab in front of him, Nick pulled several bills from his wallet and placed them on the little tray.

“Do you always pay cash?” Michelle asked.

“My credit card got stolen last week. I’m waiting for the bank to send me a replacement,” he lied.

In reality, he didn’t use credit cards when he could avoid it. Cash was much harder to trace and safer if one wanted to stay off the grid.

“Ready?” he prompted Michelle and stood, offering her his hand to help her up.

“Ready.”

As they walked to the exit, Nick eyed the signs to the restrooms. Now was the time, or things could get dicey for him later. He stopped.

“Sorry, do you mind if I stop at the restroom?”

“No, go ahead. Actually, I’ll go, too.”

Nick headed for the men’s room and dove into the first stall. He sat down on the toilet, pulled his laptop from the bag and booted it up, while he pulled the flash drive from his pocket. The moment his computer started up, he unlocked it with his password, shoved the memory stick into the port, and copied the entire contents onto his hard drive. He had no time to look at what he’d copied, didn’t even bother to shut down the computer properly or eject the stick safely, just slapped the lid shut and pulled the flash drive from the port.

A few seconds later, he left the stall and walked out of the restroom.

Michelle was already waiting for him. She smiled. “Beat you to it.”

Nick shook his head in disbelief. “You can give a guy complexes, you know that?” He put his arm around her waist and guided her to the door of the restaurant.

The hostess opened it for them. “Thank you for your visit.”

“Good night,” Nick responded and walked out the moment a lightning bolt split the sky. Only a second later, thunder sounded above him, and the clouds opened up, unloading raindrops as thick as peas.

“Damn!” Michelle cursed, stopping under the awning in front of the restaurant.

Nick looked at her thin summer dress, which would most likely become transparent once soaked. And while he wouldn’t mind that particular kind of view, he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate it.

“I think we’d better try to get a cab.”

“You’ve obviously never tried to get a cab during a D.C. downpour.” She shook her head. “We’ll be standing here all night. I say we make a run for it.”