“I am.”
“Uh-huh.”
She switched camera positions and saw the security guards heading down the main corridor.
“Then you don’t need me to tell you that you’re about to have a close encounter with your hosts, right?”
Through the grainy security camera she saw Zane freeze. He glanced up and down the long hallway, then ducked into a room. Five seconds later, the security guards turned the corner and walked past the closed door.
“You’re clear,” she said when they were out of sight. “And if you have this covered, I’m going to head home.”
There was a heavy sigh that originated in the northern California storeroom and made its way to her headset in Seattle.
“What do you want from me?” he asked in resignation.
Nicki grinned at her victory. “Money, but as you’re not here to deliver, I’ll take an apology.”
Zane stepped into the hallway and faced the security camera. “You’re the best,” he said in a tone of long suffering. “I couldn’t do this without you.”
She smiled. “You left out the W word.”
“Wrong. I was wrong. Okay? Now will you get me into the research lab?”
“Of course.” She could afford to be gracious in her victory. “It’s on the second floor. Take the back stairs and wait on the landing until I give you the all clear.”
Five minutes later he was at the door to the research lab. Nicki coaxed the heavy double doors into releasing, then talked Zane through the laser sensors. The safe, hidden in the supply closet, wasn’t connected to the main computer system, so she couldn’t help with that, but she did temporarily disable the smoke detectors in the lab so the charred smell from the explosion wouldn’t set them off.
Zane ducked out of the supply closet and shut the door. Two seconds later there was a thud-bang and the door shuddered. He hurried back inside, only to reemerge with a small black box in his hand.
“Got it,” he said, slipping the unit into his backpack. “Now get me out of here.”
“I should let you get caught, just to teach you a lesson.”
He glanced at the camera and grinned. “But you won’t.”
He was right, she thought as she located the guards. “Okay. Take the north stairs to the main floor. I’ll unlock the front door before you get there. Just breeze on through.”
When he was safely speeding away from the building, she reset the security system, cleared the fire alarms and turned them back on, then disconnected from their computer. There was no way to disguise the fact that someone had broken in, but they wouldn’t trace the entry back to her. She’d made sure to cover her tracks.
Of course at about nine-fifteen the following morning Zane’s partner, Jeff Ritter, was going to review the computer logs for the previous twenty-four hours and find lots of unauthorized searches, entries and activity. To say he would be unamused was putting it mildly. Nicki wondered if there would be an actual explosion of tempers or just fireworks.
“I owe you big time.”
Zane’s voice came over her headset.
“I know,” she told him as she shut down her computer.
He chuckled. “Want me to bring in doughnuts in the morning?”
“That hardly makes up for it, but all right. Don’t eat all the glazed this time.”
“Promise.”
“Ha.”
She knew exactly what his doughnut promises meant. She would be lucky to have a glazed crumb to nibble on.
“I’m heading home,” she told him.
“Drive safely. And Nicki?”
“Yes?”
“You’re the best.”
“I know. Night, Zane.”
She smiled as she disconnected their call and dropped her headset onto her console.
“I saved you one,” Zane said the following morning as he strolled into Nicki’s office and placed a glazed doughnut on her desk.
She glanced from it to him and wondered why she’d bothered with coffee. There was no need for caffeine to get her body jump-started—not when she could watch Zane’s easy stride and casual smile. The combination always sent her pulse to racing, her blood to boiling and her heart to fluttering. Embarrassing but true.
Being around Zane was nearly as much of a workout as an aerobics class. One of these days she would actually calculate the calorie burn rate. Now if only keeping her crush a secret was a form of strength training, she would be fit enough to kayak around the world.
“What time did you get back last night?” she asked.
“The flight was about ninety minutes. I was sliding into bed shortly before one.” He settled on the chair next to her desk and grinned. “Slept like a baby.”
“What? No new chickie keeping the sheets warm?”
“Not this week. I need to catch up on my beauty sleep.”
Nicki had seen Zane on zero sleep and happened to know he was still way too pretty for her comfort zone. Tall, lean, handsome, with dark hair and deep-set eyes that held too many secrets, he could have made his fortune on the soaps as the hunk of the month.
He was one of those men women found irresistible. While she prided herself on being unique, in this case she was just one of the crowd. The only difference between her and every other woman mooning over Zane’s broad shoulders and high, tight fanny was she kept her foolish dreams to herself. He didn’t date women with an IQ larger than their bust measurement and she’d been blessed with plenty of smarts. Unfortunately all the brains in the world didn’t seem to be an antidote for his particular brand of charm.
“What about you?” he asked, snagging her cup of coffee and taking a sip. “Did Brad wait up for you?”
She grabbed her mug back. “His name is Boyd and no, I didn’t see him last night.” She hadn’t been seeing much of Boyd at all, lately, but she wasn’t going to share that with Zane.
Zane raised his eyebrows. “Why not? All that computer jargon getting boring? Seriously, Nicki, don’t you get tired of the guy talking in binary code?”
“Boyd isn’t a programmer. He’s an electrical engineer who—” She broke off in midsentence and shook her head. “Why do I bother? You make fun of the men in my life because you’re embarrassed about the women you date. I mean what about Julie?”
Zane chuckled. “Embarrassed? Julie is a former Miss Apple Festival who is studying very hard to be a dental hygienist.”
“Right. She’s in year four of a nine-month program.”
“Math isn’t her thing.”
“She’s going to clean teeth. How much math could there be? What? She can’t count high enough to know how many teeth there actually are in someone’s mouth?”
“She’s gorgeous.”
“She’s an idiot. Don’t you ever want to have a conversation with these women? I mean when the sex is over for the evening, then what?”
He winked. “I go home and sleep. Besides, when I want to have a conversation with a woman, I come see you.”
“How flattering.” The good old female