Raider laughed. “I’ll bring half of the journal and one tape. Trust takes time, Eddie. In addition, I want to see your organization and make sure it’s up to the task I need.” Adrenaline ticked through his veins. They were close. He was so damn close.
“Fine,” Eddie snapped. “I work from the Deoch bar outside of Boston. I can be there by four tomorrow afternoon after I take care of some business here. Be there.” He clicked off.
Raider exhaled. “Well. There we go.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
Brigid was ready to explode by the time she and Raider reached her apartment. She’d kept her cool while saying goodbye to her father before Angus took him to a safe house. Sean hadn’t been happy with the idea until Angus had promised to keep him up-to-date on their progress, and had also given him a free pass for all the food and drink he could order.
It was better that Brigid didn’t know the location of the safe house, but still, she didn’t like it.
At the moment, however, she had a larger argument to mount. “I’m the one who needs to go into Eddie’s organization and hack a computer.” How could Raider be so stubborn that he didn’t realize that one simple fact? She unlocked her door and pushed it open.
“Wait here.” Keeping his hand on the butt of his gun, which was stuck in his waistband, Raider slid inside the apartment and checked every room. He returned to the door, his hand relaxing. “We’re clear.”
She only worried about surprise visitors at night. Sometimes the guys at the HDD were just too over-the-top. Of course, they’d all been shot and attacked more than once in their jobs. She was happy not to have any bullet holes in her, but still. Come on. She stepped inside and shut the door behind herself. “I need to go in on this one.”
“No,” Raider said, leaning against the wall and crossing his arms, as if settling in for a good fight.
Her skin pricked. Her throat heated, and her scalp tingled. Yep. Her temper was about to appear. “Listen, Raider. I’m part of this team, and I’m the computer expert. We have to gain access to Eddie’s computers, not remotely, and find where those poor girls are being brought in. There’s no other option.”
Neither his expression nor his stance changed. “The deal is with me, and Eddie knows I’d never send you in alone.”
“I don’t have to go alone. He knows we’re a team, and if you’re there to distract him, maybe I can get to a computer. In fact, he thinks I design little websites, so maybe he’ll let me do some work.” That wasn’t a bad plan.
Raider snorted. “That’s a terrible plan.” Pushing off the wall, he prowled into the kitchen and eyed the row of wine bottles set atop her cupboards. “Any of those full?”
“No.” She placed them up there after they were empty, admiring the colorful labels. Two more empty wine bottles sat over by the toaster because she hadn’t had time to climb onto the counter to place them up high.
She opened the refrigerator. “I brought some of the ones with cool labels with me when I moved here.” For goodness’ sake. She hadn’t drunk all of those bottles during the last two months. “All I have chilled is a chardonnay and a pinot grigio. Both pretty good.” Looking over her shoulder, she kept her voice level. “Or I have a cabernet in the cabinet.”
“Cab.” He turned and opened the cabinet, taking out the red wine. “Thought we should have a sip as we fight.”
She shut the door and reached for two wineglasses hanging from the nearest cupboard. “We’re not fighting. You’re going to get logical, forget we slept together, and create a plan for us to do our jobs.”
He opened the wine bottle and poured two generous glasses. “This has nothing to do with the fact that we slept together.” Handing her a glass, he brushed by her and returned to the living room, sitting on the plain leather sofa.
Okay. Hitting him would not get her anywhere. Kicking . . . maybe? Instead, she sat in the chair set kitty-corner to the sofa, extended her feet to the utilitarian coffee table, and sipped her wine. The cab was full-bodied but could’ve used an hour to breathe. “It has everything to do with us sleeping together,” she finally countered.
“It doesn’t have to,” he said, swirling the rich liquid in his glass. “Yeah, things have changed. But in this situation, even if you were Wolfe or Malcolm or even Force, I couldn’t take you in. Whoever is with me just becomes leverage.”
Was it whoever or whomever? She was feeling irritated enough to correct him, but she wasn’t sure if she was right or not. “None of them can do what I can do with a computer.” The comparison wasn’t fair.
“True. But if you and I go in there with half the evidence against Eddie, he’s going to start cutting off pieces of you until I get the other half of the evidence.” Raider took another healthy drink of the wine. “If I go in myself, there’s a better chance he’ll deal with me because we really could make some money with my so-called criminal enterprises.”
She sipped thoughtfully. All right. He was making a good point. “Then I should go in alone.” She had to get to those computers.
Raider blinked. “He’ll just torture you until I bring him everything.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I tell him I took the entire box and that I’m the person to work with. That I’m actually the one with the criminal ties. With my family history, he might buy it.”
“Not a chance,” Raider countered. “Our backstories are already created and have been investigated by him, for sure.” He looked her over. “Eddie would be suspicious. Why cut me out?”
She ran every scenario through her mind. “Well, what if I come across as a gold digger? Say I want to trade up?”
Raider’s chest moved in what seemed to be an odd cough. Was that a scoff? “Right. He’d probably want proof in the form of you naked and in bed and trying to convince him. You sure you’re up to going that much undercover?” His dark eyes glittered with challenge.
No. Not in a million years. “I’m sure I could get around that.”
