Page 26 of The Playboy Meets His Match
“One more—”
“You promised,” he snapped, looking over his shoulder.
She clicked on another file from Eric Chambers to Dorian, hit Save and watched, standing while her pulse raced.
“Merry!”
She yanked out the disk and hit the close button.
“Stop what you’re doing. I hear footsteps. Come on!” Jason urged, motioning to her. She dashed across the office.
“It isn’t shut down.”
“Don’t care. Run!” Jason grabbed her hand and raced down the hall, still keeping sound to a minimum until they yanked open the door to the stairs and stepped inside. Jason closed the door silently behind him, and gasped, “We’ve got to get out of here.”
While she clutched the floppy disk, they raced down the stairs. By the fourth floor the alarm had gone off, a high, ear-splitting shriek that turned her blood to ice.
“They know someone’s in the building,” Jason said. His hand tightened on hers and they moved even faster until Merry felt as though her feet weren’t touching anything solid. The stairs seemed interminable, but finally they reached ground level. Releasing her hand, he sprinted ahead. They raced through the building, bursting through a back door. Now Jason wasn’t making any effort to keep quiet. Alarms were blaring, all the lights on the grounds were on and she could hear sirens approaching.
“Suppose they shoot? We’ll be easy targets.”
He caught her hand. “If it’s the Royal police, they’ll fire a warning shot first. Then you stop running. Let’s go.”
She ran, aware that Jason was behind her. Was he trying to shield her in case anyone did open fire? she wondered.
They raced across the open parking lot, expecting at any moment to hear the guard charging after them, but they reached the gate without incident.
Gasping for breath, she yanked off the lock and rushed through to the truck, looking back to see Jason grab the padlock.
He stretched out his long legs, running to the truck to slide behind the wheel and they were off, spinning around a corner. In minutes they moved into traffic along Main Street. Jason had slowed to a sedate speed and her pounding heart was beginning to return to normal.
“We got away,” he said at last. “Was it worth the risk?”
“I think it was,” she said, holding up the disk. “There are things on here that I think incriminate him, but I’m not certain. I looked at everything so fast, it was almost a blur. I’m not certain I got the computer turned off. If I didn’t, when Dorian comes to work later today, he’ll know someone was in his office and into his computer.”
“He’ll know now. He was the one who came in.”
“How on earth do you know that?”
“I heard him talking to the security guard as they were coming down the hall.”
“Now Dorian will know someone was trying to get into his computer files,” she said, chilled by the realization. “I backed out of his files. I just didn’t get the computer off. He won’t know for certain that someone got into them.”
“He’ll guess it was you.”
“I suppose he will,” she agreed.
“Don’t try to get away from me now,” Jason warned. “You may be in a lot of danger.”
She shivered and locked her fingers together. “Now I’m glad Holly didn’t marry him. When I can, I want to tell her all I’ve learned about him.”
“Don’t tell her yet because we don’t know for certain. He knows you’re at my ranch, but as long as I’m there with you, I don’t think you’re in danger.”
“I could go back to Dallas.”
“You stay right where you are,” he said in a no-nonsense tone. He had been calm and in control through the entire episode while she was still shaking from their close call with security and with Dorian Brady. She took a few deep breaths and looked at the houses they were passing. She realized the foray was over. They had gotten into Wescott Oil, she had looked at Dorian’s files, and she and Jason had escaped unscathed.
Fear changed to relief that was touched with jubilation. They had succeeded!
