Branna's eyes narrowed at me. "So why are you here, sweetie?" The way she said "sweetie" dripped with condescension and made me want to grind my teeth.

"She's my backup," Kade answered evenly, surprising me. "And she knows which server we need to target," Kade added. "Something we haven't been able to figure out." Branna's face flushed with anger before she quickly turned away. When we were no longer being watched, Kade leaned over toward me.

"You do know which server it is, right?" he whispered in my ear, his warm breath tickling my skin. I smiled and nodded.

"Good." He settled back in his seat. I wondered what he would have done if I'd said I hadn't the faintest clue which server it was.

A few minutes later, we pulled up to a large, squat building. The lights outside shining on the sign proclaimed it to be "TecSol DataCenter Midwest." I took a deep breath.

Climbing back across the van toward us, Rusty held out the security card for Kade to take.

"It should still get you where you need to go," he said as Kade pocketed it. He handed Kade a small earpiece. "I'll guide you through the building with this for as long as I can. The shielding might be too great to receive a signal once you're underground."

"Understood," Kade said, fitting it to his ear.

"I can get you into the perimeter of the building through a side door," Rusty continued, "but you'll need to use the keycard from there." Kade checked his gun and ammunition while Rusty talked then tucked it in the small of his back.

"Give me an extra gun, Rusty," Kade said, and Rusty obediently handed him one. Kade held it out, grip first, to me. "You know how to fire a gun?" he asked.

Before I could answer, Branna burst out. "What the h.e.l.l are you doing? She's a child! Don't give her a gun! She'll likely shoot herself or you." Well, thanks for the vote of confidence, I thought grimly.

I took the gun from Kade, sliding the magazine out to make sure it was loaded before locking it back into place. I checked to make sure the safety was on and shoved it in the back of my pants. I silently thanked my dad for teaching me how to use a gun.

"Yeah, I know how to fire a gun," I said, ignoring Branna. No one said anything but I thought I saw a flicker of appreciation in Kade's eyes.

"Branna," Kade said, turning toward her and I noticed she looked furious, "keep the cameras covered and Terrance, be ready to split should it go bad. Cover your own a.s.ses." All three nodded, their expressions serious.

Kade and I exited the van and I watched as Branna climbed into the back with Rusty. Rusty checked to make sure Kade could hear him on the ear piece.

"Good luck, Kade," Branna said, her eyes glued to him. He didn't speak, merely acknowledging her with a curt nod. She completely ignored me. I knew then, by the look in her eyes, that she was in love with him. I couldn't tell if he knew or felt the same. I would have almost felt sorry for her if she hadn't been such a b.i.t.c.h to me. The van door slid shut and it slowly rolled away.

"They'll just go a few streets over and set up," Kade a.s.sured me. "Let's go."

The street was deserted and quiet. Kade took my hand in his and led me behind the building into the shadows. I stayed quiet, a.s.suming he was listening to Rusty direct him in his ear. We reached a door and, with a quiet click, it unlocked. Kade opened it and we slipped inside. The door shut behind us, the lock clicking back on, and I tried not to think of how ominous that sounded.

We were at the end of a hallway, a door to our right proclaiming an entrance to a stairwell. The building was well-lit and quiet. There was a constant thrumming of sound just below my range of hearing which I could feel nonetheless. My blood was racing and fear lapped at me. I tried to concentrate on breathing. I was Kade's backup. I couldn't, wouldn't, let anything happen to him, not least of all because he was Blane's little brother.

Dropping my hand, Kade pulled out his gun and I copied him, thumbing the safety off. Target practice was one thing but I didn't know if I'd be able to actually shoot someone, should the need arise. I hoped it wouldn't come to that.

Going into the stairwell, we quietly made our way down three flights. When we reached the bottom, Kade flashed the key card in front of the lock on the door and it clicked. Easing the door open slowly, Kade made sure the hallway was deserted before entering. I hurried after him.

"Just lost the signal," Kade muttered. "The shielding down here is thick enough to withstand explosives, bombs," he explained. "We're on our own now." I swallowed nervously. His eyes flicked to me and they were bright with excitement.

I followed him down the hallway, bypa.s.sing several locked doors on the way. Nervously, I glanced at the numerous cameras in the ceiling as we pa.s.sed.

"Are you sure Branna's going to be able to work the cameras?" I asked.

"Absolutely," he answered. "She's the best." I wondered, a little snidely, what else she was "the best" at.

"So what's the name of the server?" he asked quietly as we walked.

"EVE0928," I answered. "What are you going to do when you find it?"

"Find out who's really running this operation," he said curtly and offered nothing further.

We reached the end of the hall and a large double door barred our path. Kade looked at me.

"Beyond this is the main datacenter," he said. "There are going to be guards and workers we'll need to neutralize."

"By neutralize, I hope you don't mean what I think you mean," I said warningly. "These people aren't the ones responsible for all this. They don't deserve to die." Kade just looked at me for a moment, his expression unreadable.

"At least try to remember I'm on your side," he said finally. I flushed and nodded.

Flashing the key card in front of the lock, the door clicked open and Kade pushed through it quickly, me hot on his heels.

Surprisingly, only one man was there, sitting behind a counter in front of a bank of computer monitors. He turned to see who had entered the room. When he saw Kade pointing a gun at him, he jumped to their feet, lunging for something behind the counter.

A gunshot rang out and the man yelled in pain, clutching his arm where Kade's bullet had hit him.

"I wouldn't do that, if I were you," Kade said calmly. I watched as the man eased backward, away from what I now saw was a b.u.t.ton on the wall. His hand was now crimson with blood.

"Back away, against the wall, and toss your cell phone on the floor," Kade ordered. The man did as he was told. Kade looked at me pointedly and I scooped up the phone, my hands shaking. Glancing around, I saw a door to a restroom and hurried inside, dropping it into a toilet. When I came back out, Kade motioned me over to him.

"Keep your gun on him," he said. I obeyed, trying to steady my hand as I lifted my gun.

"What are you going to do?" I asked, watching him as he rounded to the other side of the counter and bent over a computer monitor and keyboard.

"I'm finding our server," he said, his eyes on the screen. Beyond him was a labyrinth of row upon row of server racks. Suddenly, I was really glad he was here. There was no way I could have found the server on my own.

"Got it," he said. I expected him to head towards the server racks, but he didn't.

"Well, where is it?" I asked impatiently. I didn't know what Kade was doing but I still knew what I had to do. The thumb drive was burning a hole in my pocket. I debated whether or not I should tell Kade, but opted to keep quiet.

"Rack 518," he answered distractedly. I watched as his fingers flew over the keyboard.

A click behind me made me turn, then I watched in horror as the door flew open. I dived in front of the counter just as gunshots rang out, the tile where I'd been standing chipping from the bullets. A hand clamped around my arm and I looked up. It was the guy Kade had shot and he was wrestling the gun out of my fingers. I panicked when I lost my grip on it, sure he was going to shoot me, and raised my knee with all my strength. It connected and he doubled over in pain, cupping his crotch.

Scrambling to my feet, I crouched low, running in front of the counter toward the server racks. Behind me, I heard voices shouting and more gunshots. I couldn't see Kade anywhere and I was terrified he'd been hit.

Running toward the racks, I made it into a row just as I heard more gunshots. .h.i.tting metal. The sound abruptly stopped.

"Don't shoot at the servers, you moron!" a man shouted. I kept running and now I heard footsteps following me.

Running down the row, I saw it was an even larger room than I'd thought. The racks were over six feet tall and, for once, I was glad of my short stature. Seeing an aisle to my right, I turned, running a short distance before turning down another row. I did that a few more times, then stopped to listen, my chest heaving.

I could hear running footsteps, but couldn't tell exactly how far away or from which direction they were coming. My heart was racing and blood thundered in my ears. Looking across the row, I saw the rack had a number on it. 407. With a start, I remembered the number Kade had told me. If I was lucky, I might be able to find it. I covered my mouth with my hands, trying to quiet my breathing.

The flats I was wearing had hard soles and made noise when I took a step. I pulled them off. I considered carrying them with me but knew I'd need my hands free. Cursing the fact that I'd lost my gun, I made my way down the row, the tile floor cold under my bare feet.

It had gone quiet. Gooseb.u.mps appeared on my arms and I knew what it felt like to be hunted. Coming to a break in the racks, I pressed my back up against the cold metal, taking a deep breath before I took a quick peek around the corner. Seeing no one, I quickly skittered across the open s.p.a.ce into the safety of another row, breathing a sigh of relief when no gunshots rang out.

I was in the high four hundreds now, my eyes skimming the labels on the racks as I hurried past. Not much further. Another break in the seemingly endless maze of racks made me repeat my hesitant peek and skitter. I was a step away from the safety of another row when I heard someone shout. A quick glance to my left and I saw a man barreling toward me. Throwing caution and quiet to the wind, I took off.

Fifty feet later, I was skidding to a stop in front of rack 518. I wasted precious seconds trying to get the door open, the man rapidly running down the aisle toward me. Finally, the door opened and I quickly scanned the servers inside, stopping when I saw EVE0928. I inwardly cursed when I saw it had some sort of metal cover over the outside. Fear gave me strength and I forcefully yanked it off. Groping in my pocket, I pulled out the thumb drive, sticking it in a slot on the front just as the man reached me.

He clamped down on my shoulder and spun me around. I used the momentum to bring up my hands, still grasping the long rectangular metal cover. With a sickening crunch, it hit him on the side of the head and he staggered back. His hand dove inside his coat but I pressed my advantage, adrenaline and fear spiking in my blood. I swung again and it connected with his elbow, causing him to drop the gun he'd been holding.

Dropping the metal cover, I dove for the gun, my fingers closing around it as the man turned me over. We wrestled over it in silence, only our heavy breathing and grunts of exertion could be heard. I was determined that I was not going to let go, but his hands were like vices on my arms and hands.

I was startled when the gun went off and so was he. Our eyes met for a moment and I had just a split second of realization that I hadn't been hit before the man collapsed on top of me.

Struggling under his weight, I shoved him far enough off of me to be able to crawl out the rest of the way. Blood coated my hands and I hastily wiped them off on my jeans. Tears stung my eyes but I blinked them away. No time to fall apart right now.

A touch on my back had me spinning around and I gasped when I saw it was Kade.

"Oh my G.o.d," I stammered, shaken. "Kade, I could have killed you!" He just smirked at me.

"Not a chance, princess," he said. Glancing over my shoulder, he took in the scene. The dead guy had a pool of blood slowly spreading beneath him, and the door on rack 518 stood open. When his eyes met mine again, they examined me shrewdly.

"What did you do?" he asked, his voice hard.

"I didn't mean to kill him," I hastily explained. "We were fighting and-"

"Not that," he interrupted impatiently. "Like I care if you killed him. I meant, what did you do to the server?" His hand was tightly grasping my arm now and I winced.

"I...I thought it would be best to compromise it," I said weakly.

"Did you suddenly grow more brain cells overnight?" he snapped at me. "How the h.e.l.l do you think you compromised it?" My temper flared at that.

"A friend helped," I explained curtly. "She's a computer programmer. Works for some place in j.a.pan. She wrote a worm that uploaded into the system from the thumb drive." I didn't see any harm in telling him now that the deed was done.

"And you're just telling me this now?" he said in disbelief. I looked at him for a moment, not speaking, until realization followed by bitterness crossed his face. "You didn't trust me," he said.

I felt a pang of regret that I hadn't trusted him, but it was too late now. And the look on his face said so even if I hadn't already known.

"I'm sorry," I whispered. The hardness in his eyes didn't change though I was sure he'd heard me. He glanced down at his watch then back up at me.

"That was a bad decision."

The way he said it made my blood run cold. Then everything went dark.

I gasped in surprise. It was so black, I couldn't see anything. My eyes blinked rapidly but there was no light for them to absorb. It didn't matter if they were open or closed it looked the same. Panic clawed at my throat and I reached out blindly toward Kade, praying he hadn't left me alone. My fingers touched nothing but air.

"Please, don't leave me," I said, my voice sounding strangled.

"I'm not going to leave you."

My knees nearly gave out in relief when I heard his voice.

"Though I probably should." He grabbed my arm and pulled me toward him. I stumbled, coming up hard against his chest. I felt hands on my head and suddenly I could see again. He'd put night vision goggles on me and I saw he wore an identical pair.

"You planned this?" I breathed, still shaken.

"How did you think we were going to get out of here?" Not giving me a chance to answer, he pulled me forward and we were jogging back down the rows, hopefully headed toward the exit.

I saw a couple men as we pa.s.sed, fumbling in vain in the darkness. I gave them a wide berth. We finally reached the exit and were through, moving quickly down the hall and up the stairs. I didn't breathe properly until we were outside and I was ripping the goggles off my face.

Kade had a hold of my hand and didn't release it as we ran through the adjacent parking lot to the next street over. The concrete was rough on my feet as rocks and debris cut into my skin, but I bit my lip and kept my silence.

We stopped when we reached the van, still and silently parked on the street. The side door slid open as we jogged up and climbed inside. Terrance turned from the driver's seat, a broad smile showing the vivid white of his teeth in his dark face.

"Nice work, Terrance," Kade said, and I was annoyed to realize he was barely breathing hard. I was huffing and wheezing like a water buffalo scaling Mount Everest. Kade handed Rusty the night vision goggles and I saw Branna looking Kade over as if searching for injuries.

"Yo, no problem, my man," Terrance said. "A city block power outage requested and that's what you got." He looked over at me. "And I see the girl's still alive."

"She held her own," Kade replied evenly.

Terrance grinned at me and I tentatively smiled back. He was still scary, even smiling.

Kade looked over at me as I struggled to catch my breath.

"You really need to get in better shape," he mused. I just glared at him, not wanting to waste any of my precious air on a retort.

"The money will be in your accounts by tomorrow," Kade said to them and Terrance nodded.

"Where to?" Terrance asked. Kade gave him an address. A few minutes later, we pulled up to a small, shabby motel on the outskirts of the city.

Kade reached out and grasped Terrance's hand in a firm grip. "A pleasure working with you," he said, "as always." Terrance's grin widened.

"Need transport tomorrow?" Terrance asked but Kade shook his head.

"Got it covered," he answered. "Until next time..."

Terrance grinned, giving him a two-fingered salute and Branna blew him a kiss. Rusty handed me my purse that I'd left in the van, then the door slid shut and the van rolled away into the night.

Kade started across the gravel lot toward the flashing neon sign proclaiming "Office." I hesitated, eyeing the gravel with trepidation. My feet were burning and each step was agony. The long stretch of gravel made me want to stomp my foot in frustration, except I knew it would hurt like h.e.l.l.

After a few feet, Kade seemed to realize I wasn't with him and turned around.

"Are you waiting for an engraved invitation?" he asked, sarcasm thick in his voice.

I despised the fact that I'd have to betray my weakness to him and resolved that I'd cross the gravel lot come h.e.l.l or high water. That resolve lasted two steps before I was immobilized, unable to take another step. My face was contorted in a grimace of pain.

"What's wrong?" Kade asked, walking quickly back to me. Glancing down, he noticed my feet. "Dammit, Kathleen!" he exclaimed. "Why the h.e.l.l didn't you tell me you were barefoot? What happened to your shoes?"

I was trying to ignore the pain so it took me a second to answer. "They made noise," I explained through gritted teeth. "I took them off and left them. I'm all right." I shrugged off his concern. Nothing could be done about it now. I'd worry about it later. Right now I just wanted to get across this d.a.m.n lot, find a bed and sleep for a few days, at least.

"Have I mentioned what a pain in the a.s.s you are?" Kade said, which made me want to cross my arms and stick my tongue out at him like I was twelve. "Next time, pack sensible shoes."