Sleeping With My Boss: A Standalone Novel (An Alpha Billionaire Romance Love Story) (A Dirty Office Romance) (77 page)

CHAPTER
THIRTY-ONE

Ryan

"
Oh
shit, Seal, look at this!" Cece said
urgently tugging my sleeve as she handed me her phone. On the screen was a text
message from Echo with a picture of a whole bunch of formulas laid out on a
sheet of paper in a rectangle.

"Is this all
she sent?" I asked as I stared at the photo.

"Yeah, that's
it," she nodded. "What the hell is that?"

"She's
sending us a message," I said. "But hell if I know what it is.
Forward the photo to me."

Cece quickly took
her phone back and forwarded me the picture, and the two of us sat in the
closet in my father's office staring at our screens.

"It's a
rectangle," I said. "What's rectangular?"

Cece shrugged and
turned her phone around looking at the photo from all angles. Suddenly, I had
an idea. I grabbed the laptop and typed in Echo's number again. The map still
showed her location as in the building.
 

"She's
here," I said looking up at Cece. "You were right, she's here. If she
sent the message..."

"She
did," Cece nodded. "I know it's her. Look down here in the bottom
corner under the short formula, she wrote the word chica. The kidnappers
wouldn't know that's my nickname for her. She's here."

"I'll bet
she's up on the seventeenth floor," I said staring at my phone.

"Why do you
say that?" she asked.

"Look at all
of her equations," I said pointing toward the far wall and then quickly
doing a few calculations on my phone's calculator. "The outer sides all
have seventeen as their root. Can you see that?"

"Um,
okay?" Cece said.

"I think
she's trying to tell us she's on the seventeenth floor," I said.
"Either that, or I failed basic algebra and my calculations are off."

"You're a
piece of work, Seal," Cece said shaking her head. "Fine, what's the
plan then?"

"We get
upstairs and find Echo," I said. "Then I create a diversion with the
C-4, and you hustle her out of there into the lab. Got the keys?"

"No, you have
them," she sighed. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the keys to my
father's lab and handed them to her as she smiled and said, "Okay, now the
plan has a slightly larger chance of succeeding."

"Check your
gun," I said. "Make sure the safety is off and that you're ready for
whatever happens. We have no idea how many of them there are or what kind of
weapons they have."

"Great,"
she said rolling her eyes dramatically. "Now the chance of success just
dipped again."

"Don't be a
pessimist, lady," I grinned as I checked my gun and tucked it into the
pocket of my hoodie. "Let's roll."

We exited the
office and quickly made our way to the stairs.

We climbed one
flight to the seventeenth floor as Cece hit the cameras with the paint. We made
our way to the hallway next to my father's lab.

I followed the map
I'd committed to memory and led the way down a long corridor then carefully
checked the hallway signaling to Cece to come up underneath and hit the camera
that was aimed down the hallway where the lab was located. Once she'd covered
the lens, we dropped to our knees and scooted down the hallway toward what
looked like the first of four offices. The glass panels sat on top of beech
wood partitions that gave us a place to hide as we made our way down the
hallway, but the full-length glass doors we'd have to cross in front of to get
to the next office gave us nowhere to hide.

"We're going
to have to move fast, okay?" I said as I motioned for Cece to follow me. I
could feel her right behind me as I slid over to the first office and slowly
raised my eyes just over the edge of the glass. Nothing.
 

Cece and I
carefully made our way down the hall looking in the offices and finding
nothing. It was possible that they had Echo locked in a lab, but my instincts
told me that they didn't have access to the labs, otherwise they wouldn't have
needed to kidnap Echo in the first place. I lifted my head just above the
glass, and inhaled sharply as I ducked down.

"She's in
there," I whispered.

"In that
office?" Cece asked. "You sure?"

"Positive,"
I said. Cece motioned to me to get going as I slid on my belly across the front
of the door and moved toward the far side of the hallway. There was no way we
could go in guns blazing and not wind up with someone getting seriously wounded
—or worse. I was going to set up an explosion in the area behind the office.
What we hoped would happen would be that the kidnappers would come check it out
and then we'd stand a better chance of rescuing Echo. It wasn't the best plan,
but it was the only one we could think of under pressure.

Cece watched as I
set up the explosives and then motioned me when it was safe to slide back to
where she sat waiting. I had only used 50 grams of the C-4 knowing that any
more than that would likely cause more damage than we wanted. I looked at Cece
and motioned for her to get as far away as she could, then I counted down on my
fingers before lighting the fuse. Once the fuse was lit, I ran down the hall to
join Cece around the corner. It took fifteen-seconds for the fuse to burn down
to the blasting caps and when it hit, the explosion shook our hiding spot.

"What the
fuck?" came the shout from the other end of the hallway as a guy in a dark
colored tracksuit exited the office and walked down to check out the explosion
site. Cece and I silently moved down the hallway, and in a matter of seconds I
had my arm wrapped around the guy's neck with my pistol pointed at his temple.

"Where is
she?" I growled.

"What the
fuck?" the startled man yelled.

"Where the
fuck is she?" I repeated as I pressed the metal into his head.

"Who?"

"The
girl?" I growled. "Where is she?"

"In the
office!" he shouted as I heard Echo yell, "Don't hurt him! He's just
the muscle!"

"You're one
luck son of a bitch," I said before I smashed him in the back of the head
with my pistol knocking him out cold.
 

"Ryan!"
Echo cried as I ran into the room and found Cece kneeling at her feet
frantically trying to cut the cable wound around her legs. "He's got the
keys in his pocket, and my phone!"

"Got
it," I said as I went back out and rifled through the guy's pockets
finding the lock keys and Echo's phone. I went back into the office gave the
keys to Cece and the phone to Echo before I turned and headed for the door
again. "I'm going to the lab. Hurry up and join me!"

It took me three
tries to locate the door to my father's lab, but when I tried the first of the
two keys it didn't work. I was sweating by the time I slipped the second key in
and heard the lock click. We were in — or so I thought.

The inner room was
pitch black and by now Cece and Echo had joined me, but us could find a light
switch on the wall, so Cece flipped on her cell phone and used the glow of the
screen to scan the small space. The door leading into the lab resembled that of
a large industrial refrigerator with a seal running around the outside edges.
It was silver and had a lever with a lock in the middle; I slipped the first
key into it and turned it hoping that it would be a simple solution. The lock
easily opened and I carefully pushed down on the lever, unsure of what would
happen once we broke the seal. I heard the whooshing of air and as I pulled the
door open I saw a blue light shining from somewhere toward the back of the
room.

I signaled to Cece
and Echo to follow me as I moved slowly between two lab tables that sat
parallel to one another stretching eight feet into the center of the lab. Both
were covered by glass cases and had fume hoods hanging from the ceiling. To the
left of the tables were four large boxes with blinking lights flickering on and
off in what appeared to be random patterns as they processed information and
stored it deep in the inner recesses of some technological brain.
  

"Servers,"
Echo whispered. "All of his research data is on them, but the most
important data is on the hard drive. We need to find it."

As we cleared the
lab tables I stopped abruptly whispering, "Get down!"

We all dropped to
the floor and crawled toward the two giant circular glass cases that rose up
out of the floor just as a voice filled the space.

"You are not
getting out of here alive, missy!" the goon shouted.

"Give
yourself up, Echo Frost," a second voice hissed. "You cannot beat
us."
 

"The hell I
can't!" Echo shouted before I could slap a hand over her mouth.

"Shut the
hell up!" I whispered. "They don't know who's in here with you or
that we're armed."

I looked at Cece
and nodded as I pulled my pistol out of my pocket. She was already holding
hers.

"You stupid,
stupid girl," the voice growled. "You have no idea what you've done
or how we're going to make you pay for it."

"On three,
we're going to rise up and fire at them," I said. "This is for real,
so don't hold back, okay?"

"You sure we
shouldn’t wait for the police?" Echo whispered.

"Chica, no
police are coming," Cece said patting her arm. "Me and Seal rolled
solo on this rescue mission."

"Hey, what
are you people doing in this lab?" came a voice from the hallway.
"You're not supposed to be in here."

"Butch! GET
DOWN!" Echo screamed as Cece and I rose up from behind the lab tables and
started firing. The goon and his boss returned fire and soon the room was full
of the deafening sound of guns firing and the smell of black powder. I ducked down
to eject the spent magazine from my gun and slam in a new one before emerging
from between the tables and firing at the man moving towards us. I fired and he
dropped to the floor with a thud seconds before I felt the searing pain rip
through my midsection.

"Ryan!"
I heard Echo scream as I fell backwards and everything went black.

CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO

Echo

I
heard myself
scream Ryan's name as I watched him fall to the floor. Cece grabbed me and
yanked me around the backside of the lab table, motioning to me to be quiet as
she held her gun in her shaking hands. We waited a few moments, and then
hearing nothing, she stuck her head up over the edge of the table and saw the
goon on the ground as the second captor raced toward the door. Without
hesitating, Cece raised her gun and shot the fleeing captor in the shoulder.

"You fucking
bitch!" the captor's words were garbled through the voice modulator before
dropping the gun. Cece fired again and brought him down to the ground. He
writhed on the floor as Cece stood over him and kicked his gun out of his
reach.

"Do not fuck
with me, Mister," she said as she pointed her gun at his head.

"You shot me,
you stupid bitch!" the voice screamed.

"Yeah,
because you were trying to kill my friend, you idiot," she said as she
nudged the wounded arm with her foot and listened to the painful scream that
followed. Cece looked at me as she pulled out her phone and said, "911,
dial it and tell them we have two wounded and two questionable."

"You bitch!
You can't kill me and get away with it!" came the high-pitched reply as
she nudged the arm with her foot again.

"Wouldn't
want to deny you your day in court, asshole," she said. "Don't get
your panties in a wad, I'm not going to kill you — unless you don't shut the
hell up."
 

As the second
captor went silent, I quickly moved toward Ryan and unzipped his hoodie. His
side was covered in blood, but I couldn't tell how bad it was. He groaned a
little when I tried to lift his shirt.

"Don't touch
it," he croaked. "Medic...need a medic."

"Help is on
it's way, don't give up," I said as I gripped his hand and touched his
face. My fingers were covered in his blood and left prints on his cheek.

"Hard
drive," he mumbled. "Get drive, Echo"

"Shit the
hard drive!" I yelled at Cece. "I need to find it! Where the hell is
it?"

"Calm down
and think, chica," Cece said as she aimed her gun at the man at her feet.
"Where would Dr. Powell have put it?"

"My.
Office," came a groan from the front of the room.

"Who said
that?" Cece called.

"My.
Office," came the voice again. Cece motioned for me to check it out as she
covered me with her gun.

"Butch, is
that you?" I said when I saw the security guard laying on the ground near
the front of the lab.

"Mmm
hmm," he nodded slightly as he struggled to breathe. "Drive. My
office."

"You've got
Dr. Powell's hard drive in your office?" I asked as I frantically tried to
staunch the flow of blood coming from his neck. Cece tossed me her hoodie and I
used it as a pressure dressing as I wondered what was taking the medics so
long. I shouted, "Cece! Check Ryan! Make sure he's still conscious!"

"Mmm
hmm," he said as he gasped for air.

"Hang on,
Butch," I whispered as I gripped his hand. "Help's coming."

"Drive under
desk," he grunted as his eyes fluttered closed. "Don't miss it.
Hiding."

"Butch, stay
with me," I called as I squeezed his hand. "Butch! Butch! Don't let
go!"

The next thing I
knew the paramedics were pushing me out of the way as they scooped up Butch and
Ryan. I looked around for the whining captor and realized that he'd disappeared
while Cece and I had been focused on keeping Ryan and Butch alive. The goon had
bled out making the lab floor slick and slippery.

"Where are
you taking them?" Cece asked several times. "Hey, where are you
taking these guys?"

"Probably
Bellevue, it's the closest!" one of the paramedics shouted as they pushed
the stretcher out the door and ran for the elevator.

I moved out of the
way and stood near Cece off to one side of the room and surveyed the lab.
Directly across from where we were standing were two huge glass tubes. They
were filled with some kind of smoke like gas that moved up and around as if it
were actually breathing. I thought it kind of a miracle that they hadn't been
shattered in the crossfire.

"What the
hell is that?" Cece whispered.

"Not a
clue," I replied as I stared at the tubes. They were roughly six feet
around and rose up to connect the floor to the ceiling. I couldn't see anything
but smoke inside both of them, but there was something about the smoke that
seemed alive. I grabbed Cece's arm and whispered, "We need to find the
hard drive. It's down in Butch's office under the desk."

The room was full
of movement and motion as the rescuers carted off the injured. One of the
police officers pushed us off to the side and told us to stay put while they
evaluated the scene. Cece and I took one look at each other and knew that we
were going to have to find a way to take advantage of the chaos and slip out
the lab door. We both watched as the investigating officers began sizing up the
scene, and then I asked if I could use the bathroom. The first officer said no,
but when Cece made a fuss about how I had been kidnapped and held hostage, he
gave in and told us to come right back. We nodded, headed toward the bathroom
and then took a sharp right turn at the end of the hallway and hightailed it
for the back stairway.
 

"Cece, the
second guy escaped," I said as we pushed through the door. "He's
going to come after me."

"Nah, not
after I winged him," she said in a confident tone that I knew was designed
to reassure me rather than speak the truth. She pointed out how she'd spray painted
the cameras, and I laughed when I saw that she'd used silver sparkle spray
paint to do the dirty work.

We were breathing
heavily by the time we reached the bottom floor, and pushed our way into
Butch's office. He'd left the door open when he'd come to check on the
commotion in the lab, which made me breathe a sigh of relief that we wouldn't
have to break in. We'd done enough damage already.

I searched under
the desk, pulling out boxes of old security tapes until I found one that looked
out of place. It was a new box that was marked, "SAI 001_DON_AR." I
pulled the lid off and inside found a hard drive with a handwritten note taped
to it.

Ms.
Frost,

If
you are holding this, then I am dead. Please get this to Commander Arvin
Donnelly 207 W. 24
th
 
Street. It is of the
utmost importance that he receives this ASAP. He is expecting you. Put this in
his hands only. No one else's.

Regards,

Dr.
Alan Powell

P.s.
Please tell my son I am sorry, and that I have always been proud of him.

"Oh
God," I said as I held the drive and note out for Cece to read. "We
need to get to find this Commander Donnelly. Now."

"Got
it," Cece said turning toward the back door. "Follow me, chica!"