ONE

BETRAYED

Cassie Easton yelped as the rope she was climbing came loose, and she dropped like a stone. She threw herself at the windowsill beside her and clung to it, clawing at the smooth ledge with her heart pounding in her chest.

She released the still falling rope and glanced up.

Gasping, she quickly swung sideways as the large metal hook dropped by her, just an inch from her face, taking the rope with it.

Hanging by one arm as she watched the hook and the rope fall to the ground, she caught sight of the sidewalk two stories below her. Her stomach flipped over as a wave of dizziness hit her, causing her vision to blur. Turning back to face the closed window, she clung to the ledge, closing her eyes for a moment to shake off the feeling of vertigo.

Once her dizziness had abated, she considered her predicament as she hung from a window ledge two stories above a concrete sidewalk. She peered around her. The walls were smooth stone. There were no handholds in reaching distance other than the windowsill.

Great, I’m going to die from falling two stories off a skyscraper.She peered up at the fifty floors of building towering above her.

Her arms ached, and the muscles in them trembled. She wasn’t going to be able to hold on for very long. Her hands stung against the stone due to the grazes she’d acquired from clawing at it.

I bet this embarrassing shit never happens to John McClane.

Determined not to go out known as the ‘two floor wonder’, she gritted her teeth and then used one hand to feel under the window frame. There was a tiny gap in it. She wedged her fingers into the gap, trying to push the pane up to create an opening.

Come on, you bastard!

Sweat beaded her brow as she forced the window to groan open an inch at a time. By the time she’d opened it enough to make a gap big enough for her to wriggle through, the muscles in her arms had turned to jelly.

Narrowing her eyes, she let out a growl that would do justice to a she-wolverine when she boosted herself up through the open window, using the last of her energy to get herself into the building.

Her heart skipped a beat as lights illuminated the corridor ahead of her.

She froze and stared through her fringe of dark red hair at the lights on the walls of the corporate corridors inside EMD, trying to come up with an explanation for why she was hanging from a window of a massive software company’s headquarters.

I don’t suppose they’ll believe that I’m a desperate intern.

She silently swallowed a dry laugh as she eyed her fingerless gloves and shoddy, torn jacket sleeve.

More like a desperate street urchin.

She held her breath until the lights faded, her pulse racing and the windowsill cutting into her midriff. Once the lights went out, she gripped the frame, hanging half in and half out of the window.

After waiting a beat for the torch-bearer to be gone, she struggled to pull herself through the window of the software company’s head office.

Where the hell is Damien?

She flopped onto the floor, trying to catch her breath as she scanned the area. The corridor was dark and empty. When she peered up at the small window that she’d crawled through, she noticed a red light flashing above it. She frowned up at it.

Shaking her head with a shrug, she tried to calm her rattled nerves. Her muscles were shaking from exertion.

When her boyfriend had convinced her to help him break into EMD to steal some new software for one of his buyers, she hadn’t thought twice about it. Stealing from the rich and giving to herself had been her motto for as long as she could remember. Growing up on the streets hadn’t caused her to develop too many ethics. Money meant a roof over her head, and she’d do whatever was necessary to get it. However, in retrospect, this was possibly the most stupid venture she’d ever taken on.

She narrowed her eyes at the corridor.

Yeah, but I didn’t get into stupidville by myself. Where the fuck is he?

Damien had told her which window to get in through, but he was supposed to be here to help her though it. She glanced down at the new rip in the knee of her old jeans, shaking her head. Something must have gone wrong. Damien was an asshole, but she was almost certain that he wouldn’t leave her to die—almost.

Her heart pounded when she heard footsteps down the hall.

Oh god. I’m too young for prison.

She hadn’t led the first eighteen years of her life in a particularly honest and law-abiding way, but she didn’t plan to retire in prison just yet.

She jumped to her feet, brandishing her torch like a weapon.

This is what you get for dating a dick like Damien.

She covered her eyes as a bright torch beam blinded her. Before the bright lights, she caught a glimpse of a man stepping out of the shadows. Wincing at him, she tried to make out who was blinding her.

She braced herself, her own torch unlit and trembling in her hand.

I’m gonna fucking kill Damien for this.

There was soft laugh, and the torch lowered to reveal Damien lounging against the wall. He looked badass in his black biker jacket as he stared at her with hooded eyes, which lit up with amusement. “You look hot when you’re scared.”

“Fuck you. Where were you? I nearly fell to my death getting through that window!” She glared at him. Badass or not, he was still an asshole.

He stepped closer to her, pressing a finger to her lips. “Shh. You’re making too much noise.”

She brushed his hand away, shaking her head. “I thought there weren’t supposed to be any security guards here?” she whispered, listening for sounds of them.

He ran his fingers through his spiky dark hair. “Yeah, about that…”

She narrowed her eyes. “Oh, fuck this. If we get caught, we’re screwed.” She turned back to face the window, contemplating how hard it would be to climb back out of it. Damien’s schemes always landed her in some kind of trouble, and this one was more illegal than most.

He wrapped his arms around her waist and hugged her back against him, resting his head on her shoulder. “It’ll be fine. I need your help on this, baby. Come on. It’s just a quick hack, and then we’re outta here.”

She sighed. There was no way to get out the way she had come in unless she wanted to kiss the sidewalk two stories below her. “I can’t believe you’re getting me caught up in your shit again.”

His hot breath warmed her skin. “It’ll be worth it. I promise.” He kissed her neck.

She brushed him away, too angry for his touch to have any effect on her. Turning to face him, she studied him for a moment.

Dangerous Damien, my fuckwit boyfriend. Why am I still with you?

“Fine. Let’s just get it over with.”

His lips curved up into a smile. “Atta girl. I knew I could count on you.”

“Yeah, that’ll make one of us,” she muttered under her breath as he turned on his heel, and she followed him down the hall.

“Do you at least know where we’re going?” she asked him.

“R and D.” He glanced back over his shoulder. “Jimmy told me we’d find the software there. All you need to do is hack into the computer. Then we can copy the files and get outta here. After that, it’s payday, baby. We can quit this shithole and move to Hawaii.”

“Do you know what kind of computer it is?” She frowned. Damien had been promising her a happy ever after in Hawaii since she was sixteen. So far, all he’d delivered was a life on the run because his schemes were always stupid bullshit.

He waved his hand in the air, dismissing the question. “You’ll be able to hack it, baby. You can get into anything.”

Great, he doesn’t even know what I’m hacking. It’s probably a toaster.

She clenched her hands into fists. The longer she knew Damien, the less she liked him. It seemed insane that she was in love with someone that she didn’t really like. She couldn’t understand why she stuck with him, but he’d become part of her life. The idea of not having him in her life seemed like an alien concept.

As she followed him down the staircase, she frowned again. “Why did I climb two fucking stories if we’re going back to the ground floor?”

He glanced back. “Oh yeah, I got the window wrong. The one with the disabled alarm was on the ground floor. You didn’t have to climb anything.”

“So, you’re telling me that I nearly fell to a painful death because you forgot which window I was supposed to climb though?” She stared at the back of his head, wishing she could shoot bullets out of her eyes.

He laughed. “Chill, babe. You’re still alive.”

“Oh, that makes me feel much bette—” She froze and then widened her eyes in horror. “Wait a minute. What do you mean by the alarms were disabled?”

He stepped into the foyer, turning to face her with a frown on his face. “Jimmy cut the alarm on the ground floor window.”

She swallowed, feeling sick as her stomach flipped over. “So, there were alarms on the window that I climbed through?” She thought about the red light that had been flashing on the window.

He scratched his head for moment. “I don’t hear any. I guess we’re okay.”

She shook her head, brushing past him and hurrying toward the nearby fire exit.

“Hey, where are you going?” He hurried after her, grabbing her arm and spinning her around to face him.

“I’m so outta here, man. They might have silent fucking alarms. I’m not sticking around to get busted for some bullshit deal you have with Jimmy.”

“Come on, babe. I need you.” He rubbed her arms, staring down at her with pleading dark eyes.

“No, I’m not falling for i—”

“Freeze!” A deep male voice bellowed.

Damien spun around to face the guard behind him.

Cassie stared at the gun that was pointing at her and Damien. She froze in terror. Oh god.

“Hey man, we’re not here for any trouble,” Damien said to the guard.

The guard narrowed his eyes as three more guards appeared behind him, also leveling their weapons at her and Damien. “Put your hands in the air, and come here.”

“Sure thing.” Damien nodded.

She frowned down at his hands on her shoulders as he tightened his grip on her.

“Sorry babe,” he muttered before he swung her around and shoved her into the guards before turning on his heel and escaping through the fire escape.

Cassie cried out as the guards grabbed her. She tried to fight them off. She wasn’t trying to escape. She just wanted to go after Damien and kill him.

They must have misunderstood her intentions because they pinned her to the ground, cuffing her arms behind her back.

“Let me go. I’ll come back after I’ve fucking killed him for this,” she cried.

“Sure you will,” the nearest guard muttered. “Why don’t you speak to the police about it first? You can explain why you broke in here.” He patted her down, pulling a piece of paper out of her jeans pocket.

She groaned, fully aware that it was a list of the files that she had been told to steal.

“You can explain what you’re doing with this while you’re at it.”

She slumped on the floor, resting her head on the cold tile of the foyer.

Fuck my life!

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