me to leave so you three can talk all the supersecret stuff you do so well?”
Nicole glanced from Thomas to Emma and back to Thomas.
“We can trust her,” Creed said.
“And Molly,” Valdez confirmed.
“I’m just a mere mortal small-town cop, maybe Kayla and I should bug out.” Gabe McGregor glanced at his watch. “Dakota should be ready to climb the walls babysitting Tonya.”
“He’s so good with her, I know I take advantage of him,” Kayla said softly, pushing a strand of her curls behind her ear. “We can leave.”
“No.” Nicole put out her hand and touched Kayla’s arm as she and Gabe turned to leave. “Now that you know I’m here, you need to know what I’m up against.” She glanced at Dave. “You, too.”
Dave snorted. “No, thanks. I have to secure the boat for the night.”
“Yeah, right,” Emma said. “Stay and hear what Tazer has to say.”
“Could we take it inside?” Nicole asked, glancing over her shoulder again as if she expected the boogeyman to pop out of the shadows.
Not really wanting to be dragged into the drama of special agents, Dave motioned toward the dilapidated yacht. “Take her inside. There should be enough room for all of us below.”
They followed him aboard his yacht fixer-upper and descended the steps into the living area, crowding around the tiny dining table. Dave had been in the process of repairing the teak wood paneling. Some of the doors were missing and the cushions had seen better days.
“If someone’s following you, perhaps we should take you directly to the police,” Kayla said as they settled on the worn cushions.
“No.” Nicole held up her hand. “I don’t know who to trust. I barely got away from L.A. and though I might have lost my tail, something tells me they’ll find me soon enough.”
“Tazer, slow down. Who’s following you? And why?” Valdez reached out and gripped her hands. “Good God, woman, you’re shaking.”
Dave stared at the beautiful blonde. “You’ve been on the road for more than two days straight? On that motorcycle?”
She nodded, the shadows beneath her eyes appearing even darker in the cabin’s limited lighting.
“Have you eaten?” he asked.
She shook her head. “I had a couple candy bars from rest-area vending machines. I didn’t want to stop long enough for anyone to catch up to me.”
Dave reached into the fridge and pulled out sandwich meat and cheese slices. In less than a minute he’d slapped them on bread and handed it to her. “Eat this.”
Nicole took it, glancing up at him with a tired smile. “Thanks.”
“Start from the beginning,” Creed Thomas said. “Don’t leave anything out.”
* * *
Dave hated to admit it, but he was glad they hadn’t excluded him from Tazer’s story. He hadn’t heard a story that good since the last action movie he’d seen at the theater in Portland.
He glanced at the model-thin woman with the glorious mane of blond hair and shook his head. He found it hard to believe she was some undercover secret agent. Not when she looked weak enough to be broken in two with his bare hands. After she’d thrown him, however, he’d known how deceiving her looks could be.
When she finished her story, he was even more amazed. “So what you’re telling us is that you have some data someone’s willing to move heaven and earth to retrieve?”
“Looks that way.” She shoved a hand through her hair, her face pale with exhaustion.
“I’d call that breaking and entering, which constitutes a felony.” Dave shook his head. “Which means I’m harboring a felon. Nice.”
Nicole stared at him with narrowed eyes. “We do what has to be done to protect our country from criminals.”
“By becoming criminals yourselves?” Dave snorted. “I’m sure cults and fundamental extremists believe the same. What makes you any different?”
She gave him a cold, hard stare. “We aren’t out for ourselves.”
“Dave, we’re the good guys, even if we’re breaking and entering. The guy she went after could be selling weapons to our military and our enemies. Guns for the people killing our troops.” Thomas tapped his fingers on the table. “And it sounds like he’s in bed with someone in D.C., especially considering they’ve taken hostage Royce, Geek and our entire operating system, probably holding them until Tazer gives back what she’s taken.”
Nicole swore softly. “We can’t let them get away with it.”
Valdez’s leg bounced with nervous energy. “Sam said it was the FBI and CIA that stormed headquarters.”
Thomas picked up from there. “Which means someone with clout in the government has a stake in that data and probably doesn’t want it exposed.”
“So we can’t just turn it over,” Nicole concluded.
“We have to decrypt the data.” Thomas glanced across at Valdez then back at Steele. “I’m not an IT guy.”
Valdez held up his hands in surrender. “I know my way around hardware, but Geek’s the one I go to for software. The guy’s a wizard at hacking passwords, data encryption and decryption.”
Nicole sighed. “That leaves it to me. I had some training in military intel, but it’s been a while. So many things have changed, gotten more complicated and semifoolproof.”
“If you can break the code, it might reveal who in the government is determined to see the data deep-sixed.”
Nicole pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’ll take time.”
“You’ll need a place to hide out,” Valdez said.
Her hand dropped to her lap and she gave a wan smile. “That’s why I’m here. Cape Churn is like falling off the map.”
Kayla McGregor laughed softly. “Then why do we manage to attract serial killers, terrorists and relatives of drug lords?”
“I don’t know. It seems like such a nice little town,” Emma added.
Valdez squeezed Nicole’s hand reassuringly. “The main thing is to lie low while you’re working the data.”
“First things first.” Nicole ran a hand through her hair. “I could use a shower and a bed. If I could, I’d sleep until the problem went away.”
“Sorry, we need you on it.” Thomas glanced across at Valdez then back at the woman they called Tazer. “We’ll run interference the best we can, but you’ll have to break the code so that we can take the information to the right people and possibly get Royce and
