Dare Me (Take Me 2)

“For which I’m eternally grateful. And I fully concur with your strategy. I trust you, Fiora. With decisions such as this…. And with my life.”

“I’m glad to hear that. So… We’re off to Switzerland.”

They headed to security and then the gate. Fiora’s credentials were still intact, since she hadn’t actually been suspended or released, given it was the holiday and no one was currently reviewing her case, making it a bit easier for her to maneuver.

Since they had a bit of time before the plane boarded, they settled into comfortable captain’s chairs with a round table in the first-class lounge and Nikki pulled out her laptop. She got onto the wifi and uploaded all of her client files and her personal folders to the cloud environment she subscribed to, while Fiora studied up on Switzerland.

Eventually, their flight was announced and they collected their belongings.

They both stood.

But Nikki didn’t move an inch further.

Her stomach churned, and a new thought flitted through her mind.

More than that… It stuck, unrelentingly, in her head.

She let out a long sigh.

“Huge apologies,” she said as she gazed at Fiora. “There’s one more thing I have to do.”

“I’m at your disposal,” Fiora simply assured her.

“Thank you.”

They left the club. They left the boarding area. Hell, they left the terminal.

They took a cab to the nearest branch of Nikki’s bank and she secured the old computer in a safety deposit box, for posterity. Everything she needed was now accessible to her in the cloud.

That also meant…

As they hailed another cab, Nikki told Fiora, “I need to buy a new laptop.”

Mads was in the throes of ripping apart any wrapping paper that didn’t have unicorns or rainbows on it and going nuts over all the presents.

As a nine-year-old girl should.

Damen was thrilled that she could enjoy the morning, because he knew as the day wore on, she’d be missing her mom and dad. Thus… He had plenty of activities planned.

It would help him, as well. He wanted desperately to keep his mind off Nikki.

That would prove impossible, he knew. But he was willing to put in the extra effort to maybe not obsess over her every single second.

Luckily, she was with Garcia, and that helped to take a tiny bit of the edge off him. The two agents he’d assigned to Nikki had reported the women had arrived at the airport and were in the first-class club. Then they were headed to the gate. The two agents boarded the plane.

Damen breathed easier, though he knew the full tension holding him hostage wouldn’t abate in the least until the plane safely touched down.

He sipped a Bloody Mary and forced himself not to check his phone every few minutes for a status update. He had to chill or he’d have everyone else in the house unhinged.

When the last of the gifts had been opened and the mess cleared away, Mads and her grandmother moved onto their next, though new, tradition, which was baking and decorating a Christmas cake…for lunch. Something fresh and different, granted, but Damen’s mother figured dessert with lunch was perfectly acceptable on the holiday and again… It preoccupied Mads.

Damen checked the stockings to ensure Mads had collected all of the presents there, too. Empty. He snickered. He should know better. No stone would be left unturned by that girl.

As his gaze drifted to Nikki’s stocking, he frowned. It’d be the first and the last time it’d hang over his mantel. A thought that nearly gutted him.

“You forgot one.”

The voice came from behind him.