Smokescreen. Jodie Bailey
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it.”
Ethan was at her side before she even heard him move. “They took your program?” His voice drew tight, the dark magnifying the whisper until it sounded like a shout.
“No, I hid a dummy one.” She edged away, cheeks warming, even though the circumstances were wrong and history said she really shouldn’t notice. “Call it paranoia. Sean and I worked hard writing the software, and it could be worth more money than you can imagine. It’s not perfected, because we haven’t had time together to work out the bugs. Thieves want easy information they can sell. I figured if anyone ever broke into my house, they’d check obvious locations, think they’d found something important and leave. I never expected to end up needing this.”
“Still with the killer instinct. You’re something else.” The words curved on a grin Ashley could see in her mind if not in the dark. “What’d you put on it?”
It was getting hard not to tamp down the pride at his compliments. When had she gotten to the place she lit up at someone else’s approval? “Some photos my dad sent from Haiti and some medium-level encrypted files to keep anybody busy if they happen to snoop.”
“This ought to be good. What did you encrypt?”
“The stats for the postseason every year the Red Sox won the World Series.”
“Beautiful.” Ethan was all business again. “And are you sure they haven’t found the real one?”
“Not unless they moved the entertainment center.” Ashley slipped past, careful not to touch him. Something about Ethan and the dark made her want to talk, to tell him how she’d said no to Sean’s first proposal because some nagging little voice at the back of her mind whispered they were friends, not life partners. When she thought of her future, even now in the rare times she allowed herself to dream, it was Ethan in her front-porch-rocker visions.
Not that it mattered. Ethan had left her and Sean had stuck by her, his sympathy and her fear driving them into a rocky engagement that nearly ended their friendship before they realized their mistake. Even now she was growing more certain it was because Ethan had always been the one who owned her love.
This day needed to end before she capped it by opening her mouth and humiliating herself.
Stepping over scattered parts of her life as she entered the living room, Ashley scanned the area. Couch pillows and books littered the floor. Thankfully, the large wooden cabinet holding her television sat square in the wall. She’d banked on it being too heavy for anyone to move and, thankfully, she’d been right.
Tucking the screwdriver into her hip pocket, she crouched so she could move the cabinet, back braced against wood, legs providing the force. But after the rush of the day, her muscles weren’t ready to cooperate. “C’mon.” She gestured between Ethan and the cabinet. “Put your muscles into it.”
He leaned back, his shoulder brushing hers, sliding against the cabinet to get his body into position. “Can’t wait to see where this is going.”
“About six inches to the right. Now push.”
The bulk of the cabinet hesitated then slid in the dark, gaining momentum as it moved.
“Nice job.” Ashley guided Ethan out of the way and knelt in front of the wall outlet. Popping the small flashlight between her teeth, she pulled out the screwdriver and removed the outlet cover from the wall.
“You have got to be kidding me.” Ethan knelt behind her.
His breath tickled her hair. Her hands stilled, the plastic cover weightless in her fingers. For a moment she wanted to lean into him, to let him support her, to forget this whole wretched day ever happened, to pretend he was still the same Ethan and five years hadn’t changed them. The outlet cover slipped from her fingers, the motion jolting her into the moment. They didn’t have time to waste. If anyone was watching her apartment, they knew Ethan and Ashley were there and wouldn’t hesitate to return, especially if they believed she possessed Sean’s intel.
“How did you keep the electricity from wiping out the drive?” Ethan leaned closer, curiosity overtaking his sense of propriety.
“That’s a remote possibility, but it’s not in the outlet.” Ashley made quick work of two more screws and slipped the entire socket from the wall, exposing the hole where the outlet slid into place. “It’s between the walls.” She reached in with two fingers, found the duct tape attaching the small portable drive to the inside of the drywall and pulled it free. “There you have it.”
“I’ll have to remember that one.” Ethan eased to his feet and held a hand out to help her up. Ashley hesitated before she took it and then let him pull her to her feet, dropping his hand as quickly as she could steady herself. “Let’s go before they get too deep into your dummy files and figure out you’ve skunked them with your secret squirrel self, although I think it’s going to take some time for them to figure out they’re looking at Big Papi’s stellar season.”
“Here’s hoping.”
In the dim light Ethan’s gaze captured hers. “You’d have been a real asset to—” He broke the moment, stepping toward the door. “We need to get moving.”
They were mere feet from the door when a scrape and a man’s whisper leaked around the damaged frame. “Somebody’s in there.”
Ashley froze as Ethan stepped protectively in front of her, hand at his hip. “You have a balcony?”
“Off the bedroom.” With a whole other story between us and the ground. Ashley had thought many times about how she’d get out of her apartment if there was a fire, but she never dreamed she’d actually have to dangle above the bushes on the ground floor.
Ethan shoved her toward the hallway. “Think you can take the fall?”
There wasn’t one moment of hesitation. Ashley was up the hallway before Ethan could tell her to move, and he was close behind. The possibility it could simply be the police or her landlord didn’t matter. The risks were too great.
Once he stepped into the room behind her, he slipped the door shut and clicked the lock. If it was their friend from the airport, the hollow door would buy them a few seconds, but those ticks of the clock might mean all the difference.
Light flooded under the door as someone flipped a switch in the front of the apartment. “See? Nobody’s in here.”
“I heard voices.”
The French doors on the other side of the bedroom whispered open, silhouetting Ashley against the dim glow from outside. She waved him forward. “Drop’s a few feet if you can hang on to the rail and let your feet dangle.” Throwing a leg over the side, she gifted him a grim smile. “Pray my downstairs neighbors aren’t looking out the window. And be careful.”
She was scared to death if she was this calm. Her emotional defenses drove her to a place where she felt nothing just to avoid the fear. He’d seen it on the battlefield, even experienced it himself. Ethan wished there was time to make sure she landed safely, but the lock jiggled behind him and a shout followed.
Shoving his gun into its holster, he climbed the rail, ran his hands down to the bottom of the wood railing and let his feet dangle in space. The sound of splintering door covered his crouched landing in the bushes below.
Their visitor was definitely not the landlord.
He was safely around the corner before voices rained down from above. “Nobody’s here.”
“So who locked the door?”
“Maybe you did when we left? No way they jumped without breaking something.” The voice strained as though the man leaned over the railing to prove his theory.
Ethan fought his muscles aching for a quick peek around