Always Been Mine (36 page)

“There’s nothing on that laptop,” Baxter gritted through his teeth.

“I know. You’ve stored it in a cloud somewhere on the Black Plane.”

How the fuck did he know that?

“All I need is your private key, which I know you’ve stored somewhere . . .” Porter’s voice trailed off. “Got it.” The admiral was in profile to Baxter, so he knew the man was keeping an eye on his movements. The gun was pointed unerringly at him while his other hand flew on the keyboard. “My, my, Baxter, you’ve been a busy man.”

“You’ll pay for this,” Baxter snarled.

“Am I missing something here?” Porter’s eyes met his briefly. “Am I not the one with the gun?”

As the minutes ticked by and a ghost of a smile appeared on Porter’s face, Baxter knew he had to act now, and kill the man, because getting charged with terrorism was not his end game.
 

Fuck it.

Baxter shoved the table forcefully and dove under it, praying the wire of the alarm had not been severed. He pushed it. He heard Porter curse and his footsteps retreated to the side door exit—another allowance to his paranoia that was backfiring. Shouting and footsteps rushed down the hallway, and finally, the door crashed open, but Porter was gone.

His crew found him hiding under a table. The humiliation.

“Get him! He went out the side door,” Baxter roared, brushing off his men’s help and rising to his feet. He yanked the stake from his hand. Blood gushed, but he was too furious to care and wrapped his hand in a shirt his goon handed him.

Gunfire exploded outside, but subsided quickly. His man came back with his broken laptop, looking grim. The admiral must have used it as a shield. Without his mercenary telling him, he knew Porter got away. There was only one place the admiral could go that was a mere ten minutes away.

The safe house.