By the time Nicole had gotten the stupid coveralls off, the paper was half-shredded, and she had tweaked her ankle while hopping on one foot and yanking the leg over her dress slacks and navy blue leather Chelsea boots.
When she was free and looked up, Kingston was staring at her while listening to a tinny whisper-babble on his phone.
Nicole blew a random strand of hair out of her eyes and demanded, “Did you enjoy the striptease?”
He instantly looked away, closing his eyes and weaving a bit on his feet. “Joe, I’ll have to call you back.” To her, he said, “I was wondering if I should catch you if you tripped yourself and fell over. Also, that’s a good idea, I’m roasting in these coveralls.”
Nicole gathered her hair back into its customary ponytail while Kingston more elegantly pulled his coveralls off like he was removing a camel hair coat at a country club.
Yeah, she was a slob, but she was a darn fine engineer. “So, did Joe tell youexactlythe same thing that I told you?”
He was folding his coveralls as if they weren’t disposable. “I was hoping the previous owner had access that employees didn’t.”
Okay, that was actually logical.
“But he didn’t,” she sighed.
“No, he didn’t. I cannot believe how cavalier he was. Sidewinder’s intellectual propertyisthe company, especially with its super-elite marketing strategy. Anyone could have just broken into the building, walked out with the design specs, and started their own knock-off company with theexact same clubs.”
“Oh, no,” Nicole told him. “The computer system is locked down tight. Joe and I are pretty much the only ones with access to the specs because I don’t put them on the intranet here. I keep all the important data and specs on my hard drive. And Joe should have been locked out when he sold the company. Being onsite wouldn’t make any difference.”
“That’s reassuring,” he said, grumbling.
“But he did tell you we’re hopelessly locked in here, didn’t he?”
Kingston shook his head. “Yeah, but I’m not out of ideas yet.”
Nicole paced the length of the lobby back and forth while claustrophobic panic condensed into words and rattled around her brain.
At the far end, Kingston held up a wall with one hand and made phone calls. “Matilda? I need the name and home phone number of the CEO of Hammerhead Business Security Solutions. Their security system locked me in one of their customer’s buildings.”
Nicole tried to shove the nervous crazy into her feet as she paced. They were going to be locked in there all night. They were never going to get out. She was locked in this building with a guy she didn’t know who might be a serial killer for all she knew, and she couldn’tget out of the building.
This was a horror movie happening to her.
Kingston said into his phone, “Lisa Monro? This is Kingston Moore of Sidewinder Golf. Nice to meet you. Your company built and maintains the security system for our building here in Carlsbad. I need the back-door emergency override code for after the building locks down for the night and the location of the keypad.” He paused. “What do you meanthere isn’t one?That’s got to be an OSHA or fire code violation.”
Nicole stayed on the other side of the lobby from him, even though he hadn’t made an untoward move in the very short timeshe’d known him. Being around somebody in a crowded place of business was entirely different than being isolated and locked in with them.
Kingston dialed someone else. “Arthur, my old chum? Yes, I know it’s really late there in London. I’m really sorry to call you. I am locked in a commercial building in Carlsbad, California. Is there any way you can hack the alarm system so I can leave?” Another pause as Kingston ran his fingers through his dark hair. “No, I wasn’t doing anything like that. It’s, uh, that venture capital firm we know of, Last Chance, bought Sidewinder, and I just happened to be hired by Sidewinder right before the deal went through.” Another pause as Kingston rolled against the wall, holding his dark hair in his grip like he might be pulling it out. “All right, thanks for trying.”
“No, I assume?” she asked.
“Connections aren’t helping. Let’s try—breaking us out of here!”
Nicole sucked air to yell in horror as Kingston angled his tall body and his leg shot out in a powerful side kick to the glass of the building’s front wall.
His foot bounced off.
“Don’t!”she shouted as the ricochet force of his kick knocked him backward, and he flopped to the floor.
He rolled over on his side.“Ow.That always works in the movies.”
She ran over to him because that’s what one does when someone gets knocked down. “Are you okay?”
His scowl at the people on his phone had shifted to the vacant gaze of someone stunned. “That door should be made from shatterproof glass like a car windshield. I thought it would break up into little cubes.”
Nicole squatted down beside him. “It’s bulletproof glass.”
