He was about to call out to her, ask her how the hell she’d found them, but instead of knocking as he’d expected, she typed in a code on the keypad and opened the door.
CHAPTER FOUR
AFTER JASON LEFT the condo, Emma stared at the door for a full minute, her lips still tingling, her body on fire. Goddamn him. She’d already felt guilty enough—for kissing him, for enjoying it so much—and then he had the gall to try to apologize for something that really wasn’t his fault.
For more than a decade, holding him to blame for their breakup had made it easier to handle the injustice of it somehow, but being with him again in person, remembering what kind of man he was, getting a taste of how good they were together, loosened her grip on that bitterness.
It had served her for a long time, but now the entire situation made her angry. Why’d she have to meet him again like this, under circumstances where she had to play him, where there was no chance at getting to know him again honestly?
Get over it, Em. She had more important things to do than wallow in self-pity. Viktor had died for the SD card she’d filched from Jason’s pocket. Everything else was irrelevant.
Emma gave Natalie the all clear via text message and inserted the SD card into her laptop. The file window listed a handful of PDF and MP3 files.
While waiting to connect securely to the portal where she could upload files to the Foundation, she copied the files to her computer, and then opened a PDF. It appeared to be a series of emails between Renfro Warner, Viktor Schulz, and Byron Chin.
Promising.
The keypad on the door beeped. Emma stopped reading and stood to face the entrance as Nat let herself in.
“Success?” the blonde asked with a wide grin, letting the door fall shut behind her and turning the deadbolt.
“Yep.” Emma gave her friend a weak smile in return. “I just started browsing through the files.”
“How’d you get the drive?”
Emma shrugged, surprised how little she wanted to share. She waggled her fingers as if putting a spell on Nat. “I have my ways.”
“God, I still can’t believe you know Jason Chin. He’s even hotter in person! Sixteen-year-old me is green with envy right now.” Nat breezed past her and dropped her red tote on the counter, exaggeratedly fanning herself. “So is twenty-eight-year old me, if I’m honest.”
Emma frowned. “He’s a man, Nat. One who deserves to be seen as more than a hot body, and more than a means to an end.”
“Sure. Of course. Sorry.” She nodded, looking contrite as she grabbed a glass from the cupboard and filled it with tap water. “Was your breakup…amicable?”
“Not exactly.”
“Well, you both seem to be over it.” She eyed Emma speculatively. “Or is this your chance at revenge?”
“If I wanted revenge, he wouldn’t be the target. With luck, he’ll never know I used him today.”
“Yeah.” Nat pulled her hair over one shoulder and finger-combed the curls. “Sometimes our work sucks.”
Exactly.
Nat shut herself in the bathroom, and Emma returned to her computer. The portal was connected and ready for upload, so she selected all of the files and clicked Send, just as a loud knock came at the door.
“It’s me,” Jason called through the door. “I forgot to ask you something.”
Emma slammed the laptop lid closed and yanked out the SD card, stashing it in her bra as she popped to her feet.Dammit. “Hang on!” Pressing her face to the bathroom door, she spoke to Natalie in a low voice. “Stay in there. I’ll get rid of him.”
Nat tapped lightly on the wood twice in acknowledgment.
Taking a deep breath to settle her nerves, she moved the other woman’s bag to the floor on the far side of the kitchen cabinets and strode to the door, opening it just wide enough for her body.
Leaning against the jamb as if nothing was amiss, she casually crossed her arms and smiled up at him. He really was too handsome. “What’s up?”
He scanned what he could see of the room over her head. “Can I come in? I’d rather not do this in the hallway.”
Shit shit shit.
