Page 66 of Silver Fire
“You, I want you,” she whispered.
Derek smiled down at her and started undoing her shorts, pulling them down with her panties. Then he resumed kissing her all over her body, her breasts, her shoulders, all the while letting his fingers play lightly on the trim curls of her slit. Finally he parted her.
“Damn Angel, you’re drenched,” he muttered as he slid down her body and inspected her most intimate place.
He swiped his tongue teasingly.
“Derek, please,” Her fingers dug into his hair, coaxing him to get on with it. She heard him chuckle, the vibration almost driving her to the edge.
Just then, her phone jarred her out of her sexual haze.
She shot up from the couch, almost clocking Derek with her knee.
“What the fuck?” Derek muttered.
She grabbed her phone from the coffee table. Who would be calling her at 1:00 a.m.?
“Stephen, are you alright?” Sophie said as she recognized her friend’s number.
“Sophie, we have a big problem,” Stephen replied in a grim tone that made her stomach sink.
“Tell me!”
“Someone broke into your office. They took everything that was in the safe.”
“Oh my god,” Sophie whispered, realizing the implications. The world felt like it was closing in on her.
“Angel, what is it?” Derek demanded, concern etched on his face.
Sophie glanced at Derek in a daze; Stephen’s voice receding in a vacuum. “Someone stole my father’s research. The zefinium bomb. Oh god, what have I done?”
* * *
Derek drovethrough the new checkpoint at Divergent Research Zone. He and Sophie had not wasted any time getting down there. He immediately called Viktor to inform him of the latest development. Derek wasn’t surprised to see the head of AGS already waiting for them. How he managed to gain clearance through checkpoint, he had no idea.
Sophie was inconsolable. She did not cry, but she was extremely pale and agitated. It was understandable. A weapon of mass destruction’s blueprint had just been stolen. She was its custodian, but now it was in unknown hands.
“Angel, we’ll get it back,” Derek said gently as he reached over to take her hand, grasping it firmly to give her support. And he would. He’d get that blasted research back because if that device was built and used, Sophie would be permanently broken. She would never come back from that. She was a scientist, not a killer.
“You can’t know that. You can’t promise me that, Derek,” Sophie whispered almost indistinctly.
As they got out of the car, Viktor strolled up to meet them, a couple of Guardians flanking him.
“The night security were doing their log check when they noticed their head of maintenance had returned and left within 45 minutes without notifying them. It is protocol for work done between 7:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. to be double logged. Checkpoint just waved him through.” Viktor made a sound of disgust. “These people never learn.”
“Nash Becker,” Sophie said. “Where is he now?”
“We’ve sent agents to his house.”
Derek walked cautiously beside Sophie. She had pasted a stoic expression on her face when she got out of the car, but he knew how tense she was, her hands were clenched at her sides, fingers digging into her palms. He wanted to take her hand in his, but did not want to undermine her autonomy in the lab.
Her deep intake of air when she saw the open safe renewed his desire to pull her against him. Derek reminded himself yet again that she needed to muddle through this herself.
“An experienced cat burglar,” Sophie told no one in particular. “The locks to the lab and this safe couldn’t be cracked without sophisticated equipment.”
Sophie looked at Viktor grimly. “I need to dispose of the cores.”
“Are they in this building?”