Page 39 of Digital Desire

“Yep, that’s me,” Aubrey said taking the coffee she was handed.

“Mr Clark is very excited about it, we’ve never had a royal visit us here.”

“Yes, well, hopefully, we can get it organised. Do you have a moment now?”

“Yeah, sure,” he said taking a seat at the long bench that served as a table.

“So, tell me your name?” Aubrey said with a smile.

“Tom. Tommy Flowers,” he said with a smile.

Aubrey felt her heart beat faster at the name but kept her calm and focused on her training and everything she had learned from Fortis and Eidolon. “So, tell me about the staff here. Any new hires lately?” she asked keeping her tone neutral but friendly.

“I’m probably the newest hire.”

“How long have you been here?”

“Six months,” he said, and Aubrey surveyed him. He was probably the same age as her with dark blonde hair and blue eyes. “What do you do here?”

“Just admin stuff.”

“You don’t sound fulfilled,” Aubrey said with a tip of her head. “I guess it gets tiresome being in an office with so many women.”

He tipped his head at her, and she sensed he was becoming suspicious. Using her coffee cup as cover, she lifted her arm.

He reached out and snagged it. “You don’t want to do that, Miss Herbert. We wouldn’t want to alert the men downstairs now, would we?”

Chapter 18

Will raced for the SUV with Jace on his heels. The sense of urgency he felt to get to Aubrey was like a knife in his gut. She hadn’t answered her phone, and every time it went to voicemail, he thought he might puke.

“Let me drive,” yelled Jace pushing in front of him.

Will happily let him, knowing his strengths lay in the CCTV at the embassy and his ability to get Alex alerted. He hit call on his phone, and it rang until Alex picked up. He could hear Jace updating Jack beside him.

“Alex, Tommy Flowers is Chopper’s brother and he works on the admin floor at the embassy,” he said before he could speak.

“Fuck. On it. Let me call you back,” he replied and hung up.

Hacking into the CCTV feed, Will took over control of the cameras from the security team and quickly found Aubrey and Flowers. From this angle, he couldn’t see a lot, but her posture was stiff even though her face was relaxed. Flowers looked a lot different, more muscled, almost like a different person but it was definitely him. He was sitting with his side to the camera, but the angle of his arm made Will think that perhaps he had a gun pointed at Aubrey.

He felt fury go through him, but it was tempered by complete terror at the thought of something happening to the woman he loved, and he did love her. He had been holding back out of respect for her need to go slow, but the thing jumping at him now was that he wished he had told her. He wanted nothing ever left unsaid between them.

His phone rang, and he hit accept while trying to get different angles on the screen. “Go,” he said to Alex.

“Sorry that took so long, one of the guards was working for Flowers and tried to keep us off the floor. I can see you have control of the cameras and we have the floor secured. They aren’t going anywhere.”

“We’re ten minutes out. Has Jack made contact?”

“Yes, and he’s further out. With your permission, I’ll take the lead on this.”

“My permission?”

“You are the boss, Will.”

“Fuck that shit, I’m not, and if you ever ask me if you can take the tactical lead again when you know you’re the next person for it, I’ll fire your ass.”

“Copy that,” Alex replied.