Page 47 of Wrecked With You

He kissed her lightly, then grinned. “Sounds uncomfortable.”

“Honestly, it’s surprisingly cozy.” She swallowed. “I don’t feel like this often. No, that’s a lie,” she corrected, and he bit back a wince, afraid she was about to tell him of a long, lost love she pined for.

Since he was distracted, it was easy for her to get the better of him, which she did by moving fast and flipping him over, causing him to both gasp and laugh as she straddled him. “The truth is, I’ve never felt like this. So don’t break my heart, ok?”

She slid her hands up so she was cupping his throat, her thumbs positioned so that it wouldn’t take much effort to crush his windpipe. “I was trained by a secret government agency, remember?” Her voice was low and teasing, but there was truth there, too. “Trust me when I say that I can think of a lot of on-theme ways to get revenge for a broken heart.”

“I’ll keep that in mind.” He bent up, ignoring the brief pressure on his throat before she moved her hands. Then he kissed her, his fingers moving to slide off her shorts.

“Ah-ah,” she chided. “If we get in that vault, get the info, and get back here in under two hours, I will fuck you so hard you’ll see stars. But right now, we have a mission.”

“Yes, we do. And,” he added setting the timer on his watch, “the clock is ticking.”

* * *

“Mario didn’t get any hits,” Emma told Tony about an hour later. They’d pulled a set of prints and sent them to the SSA tech guru. “He admits it’s hardly a full check, but without a last name, there’s not more he can do in such a short time. We know Dailey must be dirty, or else why the private vault?As for Thea…”

She trailed off with a shrug, and he nodded agreement. “She either is or she isn’t, but under the circumstances, we’re going to go with it. Stay sharp.”

“Always,” she’d said, then kissed him, her lips lingering on his even once Thea had entered the room. Then she’d pulled away and winked. “Just claiming what’s mine,” she’d said before taking his hand and nodding toward Thea. “Let’s roll.”

Now they were moving down one of the paths that led to the island’s boathouse, which was kept locked after sunset. The paths remained open for guests to stroll, however, and as the three of them did their best to look casual, they kept an eye out for anyone else who might be wandering nearby. So far, he’d seen no one.

“The vault is attached to the backside of the boathouse,” Thea told them. “It looks like an old maintenance area, but it’s a serious stronghold.”

Tony saw what she meant once they were off the main walkway and moving down a narrower path that circled around to the back. The exterior was battered and rusty corrugated metal. The concrete of the ramp into the water was cracked and buckling. As Thea had said, the area appeared to have been cast aside in favor of the shiny new maintenance dock they’d seen as they’d approached the boat house.

He met Emma’s eyes, saw her quick nod as if to say, Clever. Very clever.

Thea opened the battered, rusty door to reveal a formidable steel plate. “It slides open,” she said, then moved past Tony as she reached for the breaker box.

It wasn’t really a breaker box, of course. Instead, it had a false front that, when opened, revealed an electronic keypad. She closed her eyes, sang a few numbers under her breath, then faced him and Emma with a shrug. “I was scared to write them down. Songs trigger memory, did you know?”

“Smart,” Emma said. “Assuming you remembered the lyrics right.”

Thea grinned. “We’ll see,” she said, then tapped in the code.

Almost immediately, they heard a hydraulic hiss, then the slow slide of the door to the left. Tony nodded, impressed, and ushered Thea inside.

“Pull the metal door shut,” Thea said as Emma started in behind them. There’s a panel in here, too, but it creeps me out to have the vault door closed. But we’ll want to turn on the lights.”

“I’ll get it,” Emma said, then tugged the corrugated door shut as Thea flipped the switch to turn on the single, dim bulb that swung in a cage above them.

Even in the minimal lighting, Tony could make out the room. A desk. A pad of paper. A printer. No computer, though. He assumed anyone working in the vault was expected to bring their own laptop.

Around them, every wall was lined with metal filing cabinets, their edges starting to rust despite the sealed nature of the vault.

“Over here,” Thea said, then hurried to the middle cabinet on the far side of the room. “This is where all the independent contractors—”

She cut herself off as she pulled open a file drawer. Then she yanked open the one above and the one below, her movements becoming more and more frantic until, finally, she turned to look at Tony and Emma. “It’s empty,” she said. “There’s nothing in these drawers at all.”

“Shit.” Tony spit out the curse, even as he pulled open the file drawers closest to him. Behind him, he could hear Emma doing the same.

“They moved everything,” Thea said as she turned to look at him. “Why would they do that without telling me?”

Tony pulled the steak knife from his pocket, noticing Emma was doing the same. “Either they didn’t tell you because it didn’t matter. You weren’t coming here for work, after all. Just a vacation.”

“But—”