and the shoulder harness underneath.
He slipped on the harness and then released his Glock from the spring-loaded holster. He checked it as he met Bloom’s gaze from across the room. “Let’s make no mistakes, Bloom. I want Tess back, and if your golden boy, Donovan, interferes in any way, he won’t be interfering for long.”
He slipped the gun back in its holster and exited the room.
TESS WATCHED as Ryan moved toward the security desk, his long-legged stride confident. Self-assured. He was a man who knew where he was headed and didn’t have a lot of time to waste.
She followed a few steps behind him, her shoulders slightly rounded, her steps slower. She was a nurse weary from a long shift.
She waited patiently as Ryan slid his card through the slot, watching the younger guard through a fringe of lashes as he studied the computer monitor carefully. The light flashed green and Ryan started through.
“Sorry, sir, but I need to check your bag,” the young guard said, holding out a hand. Tess felt the older guard’s eyes shift to her. She studied the floor, rubbing her lower back as if tired. He didn’t seem particularly interested in her as his attention shifted back to Ryan.
Ryan set his briefcase on the counter and snapped the locks. The young guard rifled through the contents.
Tess turned to search out the location of the man Ryan was impersonating. He was on the loading dock now, exchanging a few words with one of the workers.
The guard laughed and pulled a girlie magazine from the stack of papers inside the briefcase. “Guess I better check and make sure you didn’t hide any important top-secret documents in here.”
“Be my guest,” Ryan said, leaning an elbow on the counter.
Tess hid a grin. Ryan had shown a real touch of ingenuity including the magazine in the briefcase. Nothing like a few nude pictures to get men’s minds off the important stuff.
The guard leafed through the pages, grinning and holding up the magazine for his partner to catch a glimpse of the models. The guard winked at Ryan. “Nice research you guys are involved in down there in the lab.”
Ryan shrugged. “Just some light reading to pass the time when things get slow.”
“Get a look at page twenty-three,” Ryan urged. “She’s worth the price of admission alone.”
Both guards leaned over to get a closer look. Neither glanced at the monitor as the nurse’s face came up on the screen. The light blinked green and Tess stepped to the other side of the security gate.
Neither guard glanced at her, their attention fully focused on the magazine and the stunning beauty on page twenty-three.
Tess walked away, her shoulders braced so tight they ached. She was sure that any minute one of them would yell for her to stop. But no yell came.
Behind her, the pages of the magazine continued to rustle.
Up ahead, the lab tech waved to the worker he was talking to, and he started across the dock for the security desk.
“Okay, guys, I need to get going. My old lady is probably counting the minutes until I get home. But you two keep the magazine. My personal gift to security.”
“Hey, buddy, thanks,” the younger guard said. “It’ll make the evening pass at a faster clip.”
Tess heard the briefcase snap shut and then the sound of Ryan’s footsteps as he hurried to catch up to her. “That was close,” she said, continuing to walk toward the exit.
“It isn’t over yet. The guy arrived at the desk just as I was leaving.” He nodded toward the front of the semi parked at the loading dock. “Head for the cab. We’re going to need a ride out of here.”
She shot him a quick glance of approval. “A little oversize, but it’ll serve our purpose.”
“Not so terribly oversize when you remember that we’re going to need to get through the front gate.”
Tess quickened her step-she’d forgotten that particular fact. There were still a lot of obstacles in front of them.
Ryan swung ahead of her, headed for the driver’s side of the rig.
They were halfway down the ramp when the late-arriving technician yelled, “For crying out loud! All I did was come a few minutes late and park in the handicapped slot. Is that a reason to pull a gun on a guy?”
Tess glanced behind her. The guards had their guns drawn and trained on the technician. He was facedown on the loading dock.
Ryan yanked open the door of the cab and stepped back, allowing Tess to climb in ahead of him. As she slid past the steering wheel into the passenger’s seat, a sense of relief washed over her. The driver had been kind enough to leave the keys in the ignition.
“You know how to drive one of these things?” she asked as Ryan settled behind the wheel.
“I drove a dump truck for two summers in college, working construction. We can only hope they’re somewhat similar.” He jammed a foot on the clutch and reached down to turn the key. The big engine rumbled to life as he threw the shift into gear.
As they started rolling, Tess checked the side mirror. Two men on the loading dock were yelling and the doors to the tractor trailer swung back to hit the sides of the truck with a loud bang.
“Keep moving,” she said. “They’re not looking happy.”
Sure enough, a siren sounded as they pulled away from the dock and headed for the parking lot exit.
“Buckle your seat belt,” Ryan yelled over the roar of the engine. “By the time we reach the main gate, they’re going to be ready for us. I have a feeling they’ve figured out you’re in the cab.”
She reached over and grabbed the shoulder belt next to him, pulling it across his flat stomach. Her knuckles grazed the cloth of his shirt and as she sat back to buckle her own belt, her eyes briefly met his. The tiniest of smiles played at one corner of his lips.
She quickly glanced down, concentrating on tightening her own belt. The exchange had been brief, but it had warmed her, sending a delightful thrill of excitement surging through her. Less than two hours ago she wouldn’t have trusted Ryan Donovan to drive her to the supermarket and now she trusted him with her life.
“Get down,” he ordered, the tenseness in his voice conveying his concern.
Up ahead stood the main gate, the thick mesh locked down tight. The guards had driven two security vehicles, heavy-duty Hummers, back to back in front of the gates. Tess knew they were there to act as extra stopping power.
She shifted forward in her seat and peered through the windshield. “I see four-no make that five guards.”
“Their weapons are drawn so they’re aren’t standing out there to wave goodbye,” Ryan said over the roar of the engine.
He stomped on the clutch and shifted, hitting the gas and bringing the rig up to a teeth-rattling sixty-five miles per hour.
“If I had a ten-ton truck bearing down on me,” Tess said through clenched teeth. “I might be holding a rifle, too.”
She braced her palms against the dashboard and jammed her feet against the floorboards. Ryan’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel, but he didn’t take his foot off the gas.
The speedometer kicked up to seventy. The roar of the engine rattled inside the cab, setting off an odd buzz in Tess’s ears. As they closed in on the gate, the guards ditched the guardhouse, jumping out of the way. The truck hit the Hummers with a bone-jarring crash, and the cab shuddered as the two security vehicles hurled backward out of its path.
The front end of the truck hit the gates full on with the high, eardrum-splitting whine of metal against metal. The gate held for less than a second as the truck strained at full throttle to get through.
Finally the hinges snapped and the gates flew off their posts. They hurtled past the windows of the cab, and the truck plunged through the opening.
