Chapter 6 - The One Lie She Told Him
Penelope left before dawn.
She told security she needed clothes from her apartment.
She lied.
At 6:40 a.m., she entered an abandoned rail terminal carrying Graham's flash drive.
Or what appeared to be Graham's flash drive.
The original was locked inside Larkin's safe.
Penelope had copied it.
She was frightened.
Not the elegant kind of frightened shown in movies.
Her palms sweated.
Her stomach hurt.
Her knees felt weak.
But fear and stupidity were different things.
Penelope had spent years being afraid.
She had never allowed fear to make her stupid.
Nathaniel Steves stepped from the shadows.
He looked like an older version of Larkin stripped of everything human.
"So," he said. "The secretary."
Penelope held up the drive.
"Where is Evelyn?"
Nathaniel smiled.
"Safe."
"That wasn't the agreement."
"There was no agreement."
Men emerged behind her.
Penelope counted six.
Bad odds.
Nathaniel approached.
"My son has always had a weakness for damaged things."
"I'm not damaged."
"No?"
"No. Just underpaid."
He laughed.
Penelope hated him immediately.
"Give me the drive."
She did.
Nathaniel handed it to another man.
The man inserted it into a laptop.
Files appeared.
Nathaniel smiled.
Then the files began disappearing.
His smile vanished.
"What did you do?"
Penelope looked at her watch.
"Bought time."
Across the city, an automated program transmitted Graham's archive simultaneously to Larkin, Thomas, Isabella Cruz, and three attorneys.
Nathaniel struck Penelope across the face.
She fell.
Before he could touch her again, gunfire erupted outside.
Larkin arrived like judgment.
The next thirty seconds became noise and chaos.
Penelope crawled behind a concrete pillar.
Nathaniel escaped through a service tunnel.
Larkin reached her.
His hands framed her face.
"What were you thinking?"
"I had a plan."
"You disappeared!"
"I left instructions."
"You left a spreadsheet!"
"It was color-coded."
His face was white with fury.
Then he pulled her against him.
Penelope stopped breathing.
His arms locked around her.
Not possession.
Not dominance.
Fear.
He had been afraid.
For her.
"I thought you were dead," he whispered.
Something inside Penelope broke open.
She wrapped her arms around him.
"I'm here."
He pulled back.
Their faces were inches apart.
"Don't ever do that again."
"Don't order me."
"Penelope."
"Larkin."
Then he kissed her.
It wasn't polished.
It wasn't planned.
It was the collision of weeks of fear, guilt, attraction, and everything neither had been willing to say.
Penelope kissed him back.
Then she pushed him away.
Larkin looked stunned.
"You humiliated me."
His expression changed.
"I know."
"You don't get to save me once and make that disappear."
"I know."
"You don't get to decide I'm interesting because I wore a beautiful dress."
"I know."
"And I'm still your employee."
"I know."
She stared at him.
"Stop agreeing with me."
"No."
Despite everything, she laughed.
Larkin touched the bruise forming on her cheek.
His expression darkened.
"I am sorry."
"For Nathaniel?"
"For Friday night. For inviting you as a joke. For spending three years benefiting from your intelligence without once wondering who you were outside that office."
Penelope swallowed.
That apology mattered more than she wanted it to.
But forgiveness wasn't surrender.
"Earn it."
Larkin nodded.
"I will."
Thomas approached.
"We found something."
Graham's files contained proof of Nathaniel's hidden network.
But they also contained another surprise.
Nathaniel had a mole inside Larkin's inner circle.
Someone who had supplied schedules, security codes, and banking credentials for years.
The identity was encrypted.
Only one clue remained.
May you like
The mole had attended the Solstice Gala.
And had been sitting at Larkin's table.
