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Except Corbin did nothing. He looked at me as if I’d lost my mind even though I led him exactly where he asked me to. “We banked your entire life on you remembering this one bush?”
My satisfied expression fell. When he worded it that way, I could admit to a few small holes in my plan. But it worked out in the end.
“Yes, but I only had to bury the device becausesomebody,” I put emphasis on the word while staring at him, “refused to help me the first time I asked.”
I raised an eyebrow at him, remembering the way he told me I had to pay fifty thousand dollars for him to break the encryption on the thumb drive, and he wanted half of it up front.
Corbin at least had the good sense to appear guilty at my expression, but I wasn’t finished being pissy about it. First, he turned me away, and then he almost got shot in a drive-by shooting. I wasn’t exactly sure how the shooting became his fault, but with enough time, I’d come up with a way to link it back to him. And now, in the middle of the woods, he questioned my decision about a location to bury a thumb drive after he questioned whether I remembered which trail I’d hidden it on. It didn’t matter that I almost forgot; he didn’t know that part.
“No, give me the shovel,” I said, holding my hands out and waiting for him to put the small metal tool into my palm. I’d make sure and fling dirt on his precious white sneakers to make him regret questioning me.
CHAPTER10
CORBIN
It took Hazel less than three minutes to dig the oversize Ziploc baggie with the thumb drive out of the ground. She waved it triumphantly in the air and smiled as if she’d won two million dollars, but really all she did was prove me wrong.
Because I was ninety-nine percent sure she’d forgotten where she buried the drive. The whole time we marched through the forest, she stared at each tree as if it personally offended her. I envisioned having to hire Ridge’s entire crew to sweep the forest floor with metal detectors in order to find it.
She’d been ecstatic to locate the drive, even waving it in my face as we walked out of the woods. I snatched it from her and hid it in my pocket, but I couldn’t find the same exuberance. Now that we recovered the drive, our time would end. I hadn’t figured out how to let her know my true feelings yet or to keep her around.
I needed more time.
Cyrus was the twin who had a way with women. I was the bossy jerky brother who usually ended up with his castoffs—the girls who weren’t quite pretty enough for him.
I drove through Main Street, but as we passed the bakery, I pulled the Escalade into a parking spot and shut it off quickly before she complained.
“We need snacks,” I said, the familiar draw to chocolate pulling my decisions. In college, I used the sugar and caffeine to keep me up late nights while I worked on coding projects, and slowly it become a habit to always have something sweet while working.
The password cracker I developed might take a few hours to break the encryption, depending on how many digits her boss used in the password. As long as it wasn’t something like one two three four five, I assumed I’d have at least another hour with her before we had to talk next moves.
“Snacks?” she asked before we could get out of the Escalade.
Driving the huge Escalade without the sleek body and clean engine of my damaged car made me feel like a small child driving a tank through town. It was distasteful.
“Yes, snacks. I like to have chocolate while I work.”
Plus, her mouth made in amazing O face the last time we are in the bakery as she nibbled on one of Anessa’s treats. If it was anywhere close to the look she made when having an orgasm, I’d never need another piece of chocolate again. Just her body.
But I couldn’t think that way yet. I hadn’t told her she was mine. I needed to save her life before we made it to the claiming part. These things had a process. We’d just met and were already skipping precious steps. I couldn’t rush it any faster than I’d already tried.
At the present moment, she didn’t have that expression. Hers was full of questions and disbelief. “You like to snack on chocolate while hacking into software and placing yourself in dangerous situations?”
I shrugged. “Yeah.” Everyone had to have something to live for.
It wasn’t really that far off base. I got a certain thrill from doing what I did, and I liked to chase it with sugar.
Hazel laughed and opened the Escalade door. “You’re full of surprises, Corbin Kensington.”
I met her at the front of the hood, my eyes scanning the road to make sure nobody had followed us. The old classic car belonging to the shooter was nowhere nearby. Ridge tracked the car to a stolen vehicle in Bangor, but they hadn’t recovered it yet.
“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, trying to act normal while ushering her through the bakery doors as quickly as possible.
She stopped right in front of it and looked back at me as I held the door open. “No, I like it.”
Her smile coupled with that last, which was so sweet and seemed to flow on the breeze, made me want to shout. I made her laugh. I’d been the one to make her smile. It was like winning an award or waking up in the morning seeing our investments doubled overnight.
Of course, I didn’t show any outward signs of my excitement. My face was still bland as I nodded and waited for her to walk into the bakery.
