“Goddamn it,” he murmured.
“I did not access that device! Damen—” Nikki started to say.
The program suddenly launched. Codes and algorithms whizzed over the screen, from top to bottom, scrolling too fast for her to register anything.
Yet relief rushed through her veins.
“What is all of that?” she asked, shocked and dumbfounded.
“Part of the encrypted data. It has to be dissected, broken down, processed…”
“But Damen—”
“It’s okay, Nikki,” he said, dragging his gaze from the screen and pinning her with a look. “You didn’t breech the encryption—not the launcher and not the program. I told you, there’s only a one-time usage code.”
“Great. I’m innocent. Give me back my computer.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
“What the hell?” she raged under her breath.
He stared deep into her eyes. “Think this through.”
She gaped. Her relief instantly evaporated.
He said, “Please don’t throw your glass of merlot in my face. Let’s not draw more attention to ourselves.”
“You son of a bitch. You knew that once you launched that program, you’d have to confiscate my computer.”
“I was confiscating it either way.”
“Oh, my God.” She could barely breathe again. She set her glass on the pullout cocktail tray that was part of the large center armrest separating them. Had she been standing, Nikki suspected she would have crumpled to the floor. Anxiety and heartache vibrated through her.
“I need to analyze this data once it’s decoded,” Damen told her. “I can’t transfer it anywhere, Nikki. I’m… I’m…” He swore under his breath.
“You don’t have to fucking say you’re sorry. I know you aren’t.”
“I am,” he averred with a contrite expression.
“You tricked me.”
“I merely followed a protocol to its logical conclusion.”
She reached for her phone again and emailed Jude. Who very unfortunately confirmed Damen could seize her computer.
Still, she told Damen, “I can’t let that laptop out of my sight. If anything were to happen to it… You didn’t even let me download everything that’s on the hard drive. My own personal information and photos and—”
She ripped her gaze from his and tried to pull in a decent amount of air before she hyperventilated.
“I can’t change the fact that the device ended up attached to your computer, Nikki. I can’t—”
An insistent beeping from her computer cut him off. The echoing of the sound on his cell made Nikki’s heart jump into her throat.
“What the hell…?” she muttered.
He entered his passcode on his iPhone, then every single solid inch of him went rigid—and he appeared to resist the urge to yell a litany of obscenities as his jaw clenched.
“What, Damen?” she more fiercely asked. “What the hell just happened?”