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Remy listened with a growing sense of panic gnawing at her belly. “How are we supposed to open it if it needs a fingerprint and a retinal scan?” That seemed impossible to her.
Dani piped up. “It’s not a retinal scanner. It’s an iris scanner, which is completely different. If it was a retinal scanner, we’d have to carve out his eyeball to open the wallet, and the eyeball would have to be fresh. Anything more than about five hours, and the scanner would be able to tell it was dead.”
“Oh, well, so glad we don’t have to do that,” Remy said with a snort. “Seriously? Carve out an eyeball?”
Dani grinned. “No eyeball carving necessary. An iris scanner uses mathematical pattern recognition techniques to identify and verify the patterns of the user’s eye. So, all we needed was the data of the patterns in Najeddine’s eyes.”
“How in the hell did you get that?” Remy asked. This was seriously fucked up. Way more intense than she thought possible. Iris scanners?
“I borrowed them from the TSA.” Dani grinned again.
“You hacked transportation security? For real?” Remy demanded.
Dani nodded.
Remy put a hand to her belly. “I’m going to be ill.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s not as hard as it sounds, and they had no idea I was even in their system.”
Sweat broke out across Remy’s body, and she swiped a hand across her forehead.This just couldn’t be happening.
Gage confirmed, “So, now all we have to do is get the biometric wallet and his fingerprints, and we’re good to go.”
“Is that all?” Remy murmured. This was getting too dangerous. Too crazy.
Alex asked, “You couldn’t get the fingerprints from the TSA?”
“Well, I could’ve, but I tried to minimize my time in the system. I don’t want to go back in because it could trigger their security, and then they’ll take a deeper look around and possibly see my intrusion. No need to take the risk. Fingerprints are easy.”
“True, they shouldn’t be too difficult,” Alex agreed.
Remy’s head was starting to spin. “How will you get his fingerprints? You’re not going to cut off his fingers, are you?”
“Nah. We’ll get his champagne glass. It’s a social event. They’ll serve drinks. We’ll just get his glass and then lift the print,” Alex said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I bought a biometric wallet and have been practicing with it all day. The fingerprint will be easy. Once we have the iris scan uploaded on something with a great quality screen, we should be fine.”
“The hardest part of this is going to be stealing the biometric wallet from Najeddine,” Mitch said and then popped the last bit of cookie into his mouth.
“Agreed.” Alex frowned. “It’s going to require a couple of different distractions because he’s going to be prepared for people to try and steal it.”
Remy’s stomach rolled, and her heart rate kicked up. Even her palms were sweating now. “I—I don’t think we should do this.”
“You don’t want the key back?” Dani asked.
“I… I do, but—” Her voice faltered, and she found herself sucking in oxygen. She was starting to hyperventilate.
Hawk got up, crossed in front of the fireplace, and pushed Remy’s head between her knees. “Just breathe. You’re going to be fine.”
She sat like that for a moment and then, magically, the world stopped swirling. “I’m okay,” she mumbled. Other than being completely mortified. As she straightened, Hawk studied her for a moment. He must have thought she was fine because he returned to his side of the room and sat down. She was anything but fine.
Logan appeared at her elbow with a mug of tea. “Careful,” he said. It’s got a bit of a kick,” and he winked at her.
She took a sip of tea. It was laced with rum, and it immediately warmed her belly. Her body started to relax. “Sorry,” she croaked.
“You don’t have to apologize.” Lacy reached out and touched her friend’s arm once again. “It’s a lot to take in. You’ve been through the ringer in the last week. And we sometimes forget that not everyone is used to bending the rules a little bit when necessary.” She winked. “You should have seen Logan hyperventilate in the beginning. He was always running around in a panic. Now he’s just used to it. He cooks a lot to get rid of his stress. It’s been hard on my waistline but my tastebuds enjoy it immensely.”
Remy appreciated her friend’s attempt to keep it light but she needed to own up to her mistake. These people were sticking their necks out for her and she had been stupid. “It’s just…I was an idiot today and took a risk that I shouldn’t have. I guess I didn’t really care about the danger to myself. I’m so used to not relying on anyone but myself. It’s always been only me so, in a sense, it doesn’t matter if something happens to me.”
She quickly held up her hand. “Not that I want something bad to happen, just that…it’s only me that it affects. But…” She glanced over and met Hawk’s gaze for the first time since the whole mess that afternoon. “I put Hawk’s life in danger. That was truly selfish and stupid of me. Unforgiveable.” She looked away. “And now you all are talking about getting iris scans and fingerprints… It’s all so dangerous. I can’t ask you to do any of this. I couldn’t stand it if something happened to any of you. It would break me. I just can’t have you risking yourselves for me.”
