Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (73 page)

"It's going
to be okay, Echo," Ryan said as we descended to the street.

"Stop reading
my mind," I scolded. I didn't like that he knew what I was thinking
because it meant he knew the other things I thought about as well.

"I'm just
saying, it's going to be okay," he repeated as he patted my shoulder and
then left his hand resting on it for the rest of the way down. I could feel my
breath coming more rapidly as the warmth of his hand radiated through my body,
and it was all I could do not to stop and force him to bump into me. This
promise was turning out to be way more difficult than I'd anticipated.

When we walked
into Nemo's, Cece took one look at me and raised her eyebrow. I knew what that
meant, so I fended her off with a pointed stare that clearly indicated she
should go no further. She shrugged and led us to a table in the back corner.

Ryan explained the
situation and then I explained the plan taking care to emphasize that she was
in no way obligated to participate, but when I looked up and saw Cece smiling
at me, I knew there was no way she was going to turn down this adventure.

"I'm
in," she said. "And I've got an idea how we can get in. Let me make a
call to a guy I know."

"Cece, you
can't tell anybody what we're doing," I warned.

"I'm not
gonna tell him a thing," she said. "I'm gonna borrow a cleaning van
for the night, and in return, I'll...well...I'll take care of that."

"God,
Cece," I laughed. "Don't do that!"

"What?"
she said with a surprised look. "It's not like I'm gonna have sex with the
guy. I'm gonna offer him top spot at next week's karaoke competition. You
thought I'd have sex with him?"

"No," I
said sheepishly. "I just didn't want you to compromise yourself for the
mission."

"How long
have you known me?" she asked. "Have I ever done anything to
compromise myself?"

"Okay, this
is all well and good that you're both so invested in preserving your
reputations and all, but can we please get on with the plan?" Ryan said in
an irritated voice as he tapped his fingers on the table.

"Chill out,
man," Cece said as she pulled out her phone and began rapidly tapping on
the screen. When she'd finished, she said, "I'll know in a few minutes.
What's next?"

Ryan began laying
out the plan, step by step, as we listened. There were still way too many wild
cards, but we didn't have the luxury of time now that my programs had been
discovered and disconnected.

"I'm not sure
how we're going to deal with the security cameras," Ryan was saying as I
rejoined the conversation. "I don't want to disable them and trigger an
alarm, but we can't have those things recording our every move."

"Dude, you
have got to be kidding me," Cece laughed.

"What? No, we
can't be on camera," he said. "Echo can you program something to turn
off the cameras or loop footage?"

"Good Lord,
the two of you are so technologically adept that you have no real life
skills!" Cece cried.

"Well, then
tell us, oh great one, what to do," Ryan grumbled as he took another look
at the map of the building and plotted distances yet again. "I mean, it's
not like I'm not a highly trained member of the United States military or
anything."

"With an ego
to match. Never mind, I've got this one under control," she said shaking
her head as she tapped on her phone screen. She was silent for a while before
she looked up and said, "We're good. We've got a van arriving at 10:30 tonight
and it'll be black with a generic cleaning service logo on the side. He'd bring
it earlier, but he's got a building crew using it until then."

"Perfect,"
I said as I examined the list and said, "Now, we either need to find the
keys to the lab or I need to code a program that will bypass the security on
the outer entry keypad."

"I might have
a better solution for that," Ryan said. "But keep working on it just
in case mine falls through."
  

We went to work on
our individual tasks as Cece served the lunch crowd in between offering
suggestions for how we could make things run more efficiently. Mando returned
after the lunch rush was over wanting to know what we were doing. I shot Cece a
look that told her not to tell him.

"Eh, just
trying to figure out inheritance law so that Ryan can challenge his stepmother
at the reading of the will," she said gently slugging her brother's
shoulder. "You know, how it'll be when we battle it out over dad's non-existent
estate."

"Not
funny," Mando said.

"Aw, c'mon,
none of this is funny, Bro," she teased. "It's just sad and sucky, so
I'm trying to find something light about it."

"It's okay,
Mando," Ryan said. "She's helping, seriously."

Mando skeptically
looked back and forth between the two of them before walking over to me and
resting his hands on my shoulders.

"And you,
Echo," he said. "What about you? What is your role in all of
this?"

"I'm just
doing the research and feeding them the information," I said as I clicked
around on a legal site not entirely sure I was choosing the right links.
Fortunately he didn't look close enough to notice.

"Did you
eat?" he asked as he patted my shoulder.

"Mmm, not
yet," I said focusing my attention on the computer screen and as the
coding formulas ran through my mind. I wasn't entirely sure that the key was
something tangible inside Dr. Powell's lab. There was a part of me that
wondered if it wasn't a kind of puzzle that I'd have to solve before I could
decode the files, so I was trying to plan for every eventuality. It was like
walking through a maze in the dark.

"I'll fix you
all something," Mando said before heading back to the kitchen. I shot Cece
a look and she nodded.

"Yo,
Mando!" she hollered. "Do the special with carnitas! But make sure
they're fresh! I don't want any of that stuff that's been sitting around all
day!"

"You got
it!" he yelled back.

"That'll keep
him back there for a while," she grinned as she grabbed a couple of menus
and went to take care of the new customers who'd walked in.

"Ryan?"
I said quietly.

"Yeah,"
he looked up and I felt my resolve waver.

"We can do
this right?"

"No doubt
whatsoever," he said as he held my gaze and made my heart pound for the
hundredth time in just a matter of hours. "We can do this and beat
Baines."

"All right,
if you're sure," I said returning to my program.

"It's all
going to be just fine, Echo," Ryan said as he reached across the table and
rested his hand on mine.

At that moment, I
would have followed him to the ends of the earth.

CHAPTER
TWENTY-THREE

Ryan

After
we'd eaten, I began laying out the finer points of the break in. I knew that
the likelihood of this turning violent was a remote possibility, but I didn't
want to be unprepared if that's how things went down. I needed to be able to
protect my partners if it came to that.

I also knew from
looking at the blue prints of the TriCorp labs that it was highly likely that
the labs would all have to be broken into if Echo couldn't figure out how to
bypass the security codes on the doors. If there was one thing a SEAL knew, it
was demolition, but I wasn't sure where I was going to find the explosives I
needed in order to do the job. I knew that C-4s would be perfect because I
could slip it into the small spaces under the door and do what we needed to do
to open the door without causing a fire or possibly killing us all. It would be
a controlled explosion, but I needed to get my hands on some of it without
triggering an investigation.

"Cece, this
is probably a long shot, but do you know anyone who can get their hands on some
C-4?" I asked.

"Sounds
familiar, but I'm not sure," she said as her phone buzzed. She looked at
the screen briefly then turned back to me. "What is it?"

"Explosives,"
I whispered.

"Ah, okay,
yeah, I think I know a guy," she smiled as she tapped away at her screen.

"Jesus! Don't
fucking text that shit!" I said grabbing her arm. She wrenched it away and
gave me a dirty look.

"How stupid
do you think I am?" she said impatiently. "I'm talking to my van guy
and making sure he'll be here on time. Then I'll call my other guy."

"Sorry,"
I said. "Can't be too careful, you know."

"Believe me,
I know," she said rolling her eyes making me chuckle. "Anything else
you need?"

"Firepower,"
I said quietly looking over at Echo.

"Don't look
at me, I'm not hearing any of this," she said without taking her eyes off
the screen. "My job is to program and get the key, you guys are the
demolition experts."

"Gotcha,"
I said as I turned my attention back to Cece. "Can you get me a
semi?"

"Just
one?" she said raising an eyebrow.

"Well, we're
not going to let her have one," I said tilting my head in Echo's
direction.

"Good
point," she nodded. "But you need back up just in case things go
bad."

"Then
two," I said. "And back up magazines."

"Got
it," she nodded as she quickly dialed a number and said, "Broadway
bodega. Twenty."

"Go with
you?" I asked as my phone buzzed with an incoming call. I looked at the
screen and saw it was Commander Donnelly, and remembered, too late, that I
hadn't checked in with him like I'd promised. The call went to voicemail as I
vowed to call him back after we'd finalized our plans.

"Nah, I got
it," she shook her head. "Don't want to scare the guy off by making
him think I have a boyfriend who's a badass."

"No worries
there," Echo said dryly as she continued typing.

"Hey, don't
disrespect me!" I said grudgingly causing her to look up and grin. I
inhaled sharply as she focused her laser blue eyes on me for a few moments. For
a moment, I wanted more than anything to pull her up out of her chair and kiss
her so deeply that she'd simply say yes to all the rest of what was running
around in my head.

"Wouldn't
dream of it, SEAL," she said as she tapped one key hard and fast for a few
seconds.

"Okay, I'd
love to stay and break up this lover's quarrel, but I need to get over to meet
my guy," Cece said as she grabbed her phone and stuffed it into her back
pocket. "Be back in a flash with supplies."

"Be careful,
Cece," Echo said.

"Don't
stress, chica," she grinned as she headed for the door hollering,
"Mando, running an errand, back in fifteen!"

I heard a shouted
protest come from the kitchen, but Cece was already out the door by the time I
understood what Mando had said to his sister. I looked at Echo who was frowning
at her computer screen as she typed and said, "Move back upstairs to
work?"

"No, I get
better Wi-Fi reception down here," she replied. "I'll stay."

"Okay, I need
to go up and work on mapping out the timeline so that we can go over it when
Cece gets back," I said. "When she gets back, come find me so we can
go over it and make sure we're all on the same page."

"Will do,
boss," she said giving me a half ass salute as she kept one hand on the
keyboard.

"Your salute
is the sloppiest thing I've ever seen, lady," I laughed.

"So sue me
once we're done," she grinned. "Or don't, I mean, you'll be a
billionaire after that so you won't need my unemployment checks."

"Oh, that
reminds me!" I said remembering Eva's money. I reached into my back pocket
and pulled out the envelope she'd given me. "Here, take this for
rent."

"Hey, I was
just kidding," she said shaking her head and waving the envelope away.
"I got a pretty good severance check and I'll find another job once we've
taken care of this mess."

"No,
seriously," I said. "Just do me a favor and take it."

"Why? So
you'll feel less guilty about commandeering my apartment and my friends?"
she grinned.

"Is that what
you think I'm doing?" I asked.

"Oh Ryan, I
was just teasing," she said as she reached out and took the offered
envelope. Her fingers brushed mine as she did and I felt myself growing stiff
again. It annoyed me that she had the ability to arouse me with the slightest
gesture, and that even if I wanted to do something about it, I couldn't be the
asshole who tempted her to cheat on her boyfriend.

Just then, Mando
came out of the kitchen and walked around the restaurant checking on customers
and bringing us a huge basket of fresh tortilla chips and salsa. He leaned down
and kissed Echo on the head and whispered something in her ear that made her
turn around and smack his arm.

"You're
impossible!" she laughed as she grabbed a chip and scooped up some salsa
and shoved it in her mouth. She mumbled through a mouthful of chips and salsa,
"I'm telling Cece when she gets back!"

"Go ahead and
do it, chiquita bonita!" he laughed as he headed back into the kitchen
ordering his team to get ready for the supper rush.

"Come find me
when Cece gets back," I said as I headed for the door.