Page 6 of Sam's Salvation
The valet opened the driver’s door on her black BMW Roadster and Audra slid behind the wheel with a quick smile and a murmured word of thanks. The engine purred softly. She would be sad to give up this car when her op was over. She loved this little thing.
Buckling up, she put the car in gear and headed for the high-end condo her alter ego lived in. The trendy neighborhood was nice, but Audra missed her flat back home. Her building was ancient and had the old-world charm she loved. Soon, she hoped to be back in it.
The miles whizzed by in relative quiet. At this hour, traffic was light. Fifteen minutes after she left Liam’s, she pulled into her garage. Exhausted, she climbed out of her car and went inside. She desperately wanted to go to bed, but she needed to get a message to Theo that she had a copy of Liam’s laptop first. She’d copied it twice before. Once when she first arrived, then again a few months later. She honestly hadn’t expected much on it after the last two times of getting nothing. The pictures of her were a surprise.
Audra entered the small mudroom off the garage and kicked off her heels. “Oh, that’s better,” she sighed. She didn’t care that they cost more than her rent; they were killing her feet.
The marble tile was cool underfoot as she crossed the threshold to the kitchen. She stopped for a bottle of water from the fridge, then headed upstairs. The third step creaked as it always did. It was the only spot in her flooring that did. It was a great reminder that even things wrapped in the shiniest packages weren’t perfect.
She stripped out of her clothes and unfastened the strap around her thigh, letting it all fall to the floor. She’d take a quick shower, then contact Theo. She could still smell Liam on her; it was making her queasy. The longer this op went on, the lower her tolerance for him became. It took a superhuman effort anymore not to stab him in the eye.
The rain head shower shot to life as she twisted the knob. When the water warmed, she dipped her head in the spray with a sigh. She spent fifteen minutes standing under the steaming torrent, scrubbing herself down with her honey and jasmine-scented body wash until her skin was red. The hot water relaxed her muscles and helped ease her headache. Reluctantly, she shut off the water. She couldn’t stay in the shower all night.
After wrapping her hair in a towel and donning some underwear and a heather gray t-shirt, she scooped the pouch containing the USB drive off the floor, picked up her phone, and went downstairs.
Audra caught sight of her reflection in the living room window. She marched over and pulled the cord for the blinds, then twisted them shut. No one would be peeking in on her through the curtains tonight. With the room secure, she picked up her laptop from the table and sat down on the sofa. She logged in, then inserted the USB drive into the port and hit download. She wasn’t supposed to make copies of the information she gathered, but there was absolutely no way she was turning over the drive without making a backup. Not with what she found on it. She’d always been a bit of a rule breaker, anyway. She looked at the backups she’d made throughout this mission as insurance. A lot could go wrong on an op of this magnitude.
A gray box popped up; the blue bar at the bottom slowly crept toward the opposite side. When it was done, she saved it to a private server that only she had the password to, then deleted the file from her computer. Connecting her phone, she copied all the pictures she’d taken of the ledger and loaded those to her private server as well before she copied them to the USB stick and deleted them off her hard drive and her phone. With that finished, she logged into her agency’s server and sent a message to her handler, asking to meet in the morning.
Blowing out a breath, Audra ejected the drive and shut off the computer. She set it on the table and stood. Her bed beckoned her.
A soft trill came from upstairs. Audra groaned as she recognized the ringtone. It was Theo on her burner phone. “Dammit.” Why couldn’t he wait until morning? She just wanted to go to sleep.
Audra dashed upstairs and dug the phone out of the shoebox in her closet. “Are you aware of what time it is? When I said in the morning, I didn’t mean right now.”
“You’re still awake, so what does it matter? Put some pants on and meet me at the park.”
A frown creased her brow. “How do you know I’m not wearing pants?” Her mind flashed to the images on the drive.
“I’ve been sitting in your neighbor’s bloody hedge for the last two hours. You gave me a full show when you snapped the blinds closed. Blue’s your color.”
“Oh, sod off, arsehole.” She hung up on him with a huff. Putting the phone back, she grabbed a pair of black leggings off a shelf and slid them on. After thrusting her arms into a matching black zip-up hoodie, she stuffed her feet into a pair of plimsolls and headed outside with the USB drive in her pocket.
She stuck to the shadows as she walked. This time of night, someone would notice her just strutting down the street. With her head on a swivel, she quickened her pace.
It only took her about five minutes to reach the park. She cursed Theo the entire way. Even in the more comfortable canvas shoes, her feet still hurt. And she could hear her bed calling for her, still. The only good thing about meeting tonight was that she could now sleep in tomorrow. She didn’t need to be anywhere until lunchtime. Liam’s sister wanted to go over the seating for the wedding. Audra needed plenty of sleep to pretend she cared.
A soft coo drew her attention. She walked toward it, recognizing Theo’s signal. The shadows shifted, and he stepped out of the darkness he’d been melded to. Palmetto fronds fluttered as he moved through the plants that filled a landscaping bed. His black long-sleeve shirt, black pants, and black running shoes had made him nearly invisible.
“Don’t scowl, Aud. It’s not a good look.”
“Again, sod off. You look like a burglar, so you’ve little room to talk. Here.” She took the thumb drive from her pocket and thrust it at him. “Take this so I can go home and sleep.”
He took the drive and slipped it into his pocket. “It’s not that late. You’ve partied harder in the last year.”
“Yes, well, he was particularly handsy tonight. And several people wore clashing perfumes. I have a raging headache and a low tolerance for people now.”
“Well, hopefully the drive will have what we need on it, and you can get out of there.”
“I hope so too. Speaking of its contents, he’s been keeping tabs on me. I found a file folder full of pictures.”
Theo’s gaze sharpened. “Of you doing what? He didn’t catch us meeting, did he?”
“No. It’s mostly of me running errands or lounging around at home. I was careful coming here too. If someone followed me, they’re far better at this spy thing than me.”
Theo’s mouth flattened. “Okay. We shouldn’t linger, then. Go home. I’ll be in touch.”
“Find something, Theo, and get me the hell out of here.” With a hard look at him, she turned and jogged away.