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“Uh…” Daire started, lifting her hand to kiss her fingertips, using them to hide his mouth. “I used a different code at the gate. It’s on an isolated system.” Her jaw loosened. “Yeah, sorry about that. There are a bunch of codes for the gate. We have a guest code and our individual codes, if we want to alert Minotaur that we’re coming… I used a guest code… If you put in the wrong code, underground explosives take you off the board.”
Underground explosives, unhackable systems, failsafes, and auxiliary systems, her head was spinning. Just going to that building had meant taking her life into her hands. Maybe that was why she’d been reluctant as soon as she saw it. Although Tess didn’t know it at the time, Daire had actually kept her safe there. He hadn’t been obliged to, but he had.
“How did Harry know we were there?”
“You see that little black thing he’s always looking at?” he asked, flattening her hand on his chest. “It’s his base unit. All the principals have one… it’s keyed to their specific genetic makeup. Only they can use it… As soon as the code is entered, they get a notification. It’s supposed to be a call home, to let the others know we’ve regained control and it’s safe to come back.”
“Wouldn’t have been that while everyone was against each other. How did you know Zeus or Poseidon wouldn’t show up?”
“It was a gamble. I bet that Zeus wouldn’t come back to what could be a trap. Wandering up to a place rigged with all sorts of protective measures, in the middle of nowhere, with the potential to be an ambush? I knew he wouldn’t be that close.”
“And if he had?”
“One or all of us would be dead.”
That wasn’t a great shock, Daire’s assertion when they got to the control room was that he was ready to die if he had to. Seemed to be something he’d made his peace with long ago.
“And Poseidon?” she asked.
“Garrick wouldn’t have taken the risk. He doesn’t care enough about getting the drop on anyone.”
“But Harry wanted to get the drop on Zeus, who he probably guessed was sneaking back to get something or take the advantageous position.”
“That’s what I bet on… Garrick wouldn’t have killed us anyway. We’d have come up with some deal to wait on Harry together… I figured he had the Trident. So worst came to worst, at least I’d be home with Minotaur back online… Some chance of normality.”
His normality anyway.
“You know so much,” Tess said, peering into him. “How did I ever believe you were nothing but a grease monkey?”
“I was what you wanted me to be,” he said, sliding her hand lower. “Didn’t bank on you turning out to be everything I wanted… You played me good, Temptress. Wound me around that little finger without ever being anything but yourself.”
Relishing his view and the gift of being so close to him, she twisted around to slide a leg over his lap.
Straddling him, she pushed her hips closer to his. “What if we never leave here? What if we just stay right here forever?”
“I think Harry would notice.”
Stroking her hands up and down his tee-shirt, she wanted all of him, always. “Are you telling me all this because you want to… or because you think it will make me feel better to know you trust me with it?”
“Both.”
Licking her lips, she peeked up at him. “You said you never slip up with intelligence.”
“I don’t. Every word I’m saying is deliberate. I know how dangerous it is to share information like this. I know how dangerous it would be if it got into enemy hands.”
“But you’re telling me anyway?”
Gripping her hips, he forced her closer. “I love you and there’s nothing in the world more precious, more sacred, than trust. I know it. I was raised that way. It’s like my religion… I broke your trust, betrayed it. I know you say you’ve forgiven it, that you understand… But it keeps me up at night. I don’t want any hint of duplicity between us. I can’t give you the future. I can’t give you the house and the kids… This is the only way I know how to show you that what I feel for you is deep and true.”
Her hands went from his chest to his shoulders to the sides of his neck to guide him until their foreheads touched. “I know it, my Heart.”
Just as they both began to tilt and their breath merged, there was a loud bang. Something, or rather someone, had hit the side of the trailer.
“Time to sweat!”
It wasn’t Harry, which was at least something. He’d have tried the door. Although Tess didn’t know it for sure, she guessed that it being locked wasn’t normal for that time of day.
She sat up. They couldn’t really say anything else. If one of the guys was out there, all of them might be. Daire had listened in to her conversation with Harry, she didn’t know how, but that proved voices could pass through the trailer walls.
