Dare Me (Take Me 2)

Because if things went south after the data transfer, they were both going to take a huge hit.

And if it all went well and her computer was returned to her with no issue at all…

Damen still didn’t know where they’d stand.

Because he couldn’t just let her head off to Switzerland or the Maldives or anywhere else while she was still in danger.

Nor could he ignore his responsibility to track down the terrorists with his team.

All he knew was that—

“Damen,” said the head IT guy, John. “We have a serious problem.”

35

Nikki’s head snapped up from her phone. She’d been texting Kate when the IT technician had approached Damen.

His dire tone and his even more cryptic words not only snagged her attention, they sent fear and dread shooting through her.

“What sort of problem?” Damen carefully demanded—as though he sensed the rise in Nikki’s blood pressure and didn’t want to add to her anxiety.

That was impossible, of course. She was already on her feet, panic besieging her.

“Come look,” the tech said and turned to head back to his workstation.

Damen followed. Nikki was hot on his heels.

He didn’t bother to tell her to stay put—smart man that he was. He knew she wouldn’t obey that order. Not when she was directly involved with whatever was going down, by virtue of owning that laptop they were working on.

It sat on a tall counter and the tech spun it around for both Damen and Nikki to see the screen.

She gasped.

He groaned.

What should have been the photo of her and Conner was instead… A digitized counter.

No…

A ticking clock.

“Holy fuck, Damen,” she murmured on a fractured breath. “What does that mean?”

The tech was quick to reply, saying, “It means we triggered a bomb as soon as we started the data transfer. That device is programmed to self-destruct once all the information is removed from the host server—your computer. As in the very second the information is removed.”

“So…” Damen ventured—in an agitated tone. “There’s no way to pop it from the laptop’s port first?”

“Oh, my God!” Nikki shrieked. “Oh, my fucking God!”

She glared at the tech.

Who had no idea the level of her distress—or at least, not the true reason for it, the full extent of it.

Damen’s fingers gently curled around her wrist. He very steadily said, “Just breathe, all right?”

Her gaze flashed to him. “This is all going from bad to worse—to the ultimate in worse! I can’t fucking believe this! I trusted you to get this information off my computer—and then give me my computer back! Now, it’s going to self-destruct? Of all the insane, insidious and downright—”

“Dr. Kane, I am so sorry.”