Page 86 of Nightfire

“Can it, Barney,” Bolt said. “You’re not helping. You’re scaring the lady.” He nodded at her. “Sorry about that. Barney’s not angry at you, he’s angry at a man who could waterboard a woman. So you’ll have to excuse him, ma’am.”

Consuelo blushed. She hadn’t blushed since she was eight years old and found barefoot and hungry scrounging in a heap of garbage in Tijuana.

She kept her back straight, turned to Bolt, then to the other man, this Barney, then back to Bolt. It had been nice being called a lady and addressed as ma’am, but though it made her feel dead inside, it had to be said.

“I’m not a lady, Mr. Bolt. If you know what the Meteor is, and you know that I work—worked—there, then you know what I am.”

“A beautiful woman,” Barney growled and she turned back to him, startled. He’d had bad acne as a youngster. His sallow skin was pock-marked. His rough ugly face was flushed. “That’s what you are. Doing what my mom did, because she had three kids to feed and that was the only way to do it. There’s no shame. There’s plenty of shame for the motherfu⁠—”

“Barney!” Bolt barked.

The man’s jaws worked back and forth. “Sorry, boss,” he said finally.

Consuelo hung her head, letting her hair fall down around her face, hiding it. Hiding her. A tear dropped on her thigh, making a tiny wet spot on her jeans.

Barney’s rough bass voice became soft. “The shame is not yours. It’s all on men who would do that to a woman.”

Consuelo continued staring at her knees. She couldn’t lift her face, she couldn’t talk, she couldn’t move, she could hardly breathe.

Bolt was talking softly into an intercom system. Nobody moved until the door opened. Consuelo didn’t turn around. It was probably someone else from the company.

Maybe to throw her out because she’d brought something completely useless.

It wasn’t a man, it was a woman. An extremely beautiful woman, tall, black-haired with intense blue eyes. For a moment, Consuelo thought she’d make them a fortune at the Meteor, then was ashamed of herself.

This was a woman who was loved. She was followed by a big man, hand held to her back because she was hugely pregnant. Hovering over her, watching her like a hawk.

Girls at the Meteor didn’t get pregnant. Those that did were made unpregnant very fast. Consuelo hadn’t really ever experienced a couple that was expecting a child…together. It was a novel thought. People had kids all the time, of course. It’s just that she hadn’t seen it. Her world and children did not mix.

Harry and Barney stood as the woman moved slowly but gracefully notwithstanding that huge belly. Barney pulled a chair over next to the desk and the woman sat down in it with a huge sigh. Her man—lover? husband?—stood behind her, huge hands on her shoulders.

Harry frowned at her. “What are you doing in the office when you’re going to pop the kid any second?”

She sighed again. “Yes, but I’m just finishing up a huge job and I wanted to clear the decks so I can take a couple of weeks off after the birth.”

“Couple of months,” the man behind her growled.

It was protective, and endearing, even though he was scowling and looked quite frightening, almost as frightening as Barney, but the woman just laughed. “Weeks. I can do some work from home in the beginning, Sam.”

The man behind her—Sam?—huffed out a breath of exasperation through his nostrils, like a bull. The woman laughed again.

Sam looked at Bolt. “So, what do we have here? Why’d you call Nicole?”

Ah. The beautiful woman’s name was Nicole.

Bolt handed her the thumb drive. She looked at it curiously. “What’s on it?”

“I don’t know. It’s Russian, encrypted. And the files inside are probably Russian. You know Russian don’t you?”

“A little. Enough to get the gist of a text.”

“And you told me you have this Russian computer whiz on your list of collaborators. Does technical translations. Do you think⁠—"

“Oh yes.” Nicole smiled and Consuelo blinked. How could any woman a hundred months pregnant be so very beautiful? “Yes, indeed. I think he’s just the man for the job. Is it urgent?”

“There might be information on the drive about the men who attacked Chloe.”

There was an electric silence.