Dillon didn't realize she'd laughed out loud until Nasa's gritty voice echoed from under the sinks.
“What's funny?”
She shook her head as she lifted the lid off the toilet tank, searching the watery depths for whatever it was they were here for. “I was thinking about public bathrooms and the convenience of hazmat suits.”
“I wouldn't call them convenient.” He grunted, boots squeaking on the tile. “They're baggy as fuck; the good ones are made of Teflon and PVC, so you’re sweating your balls off in there, and you're wearing an oxygen tank with a full face mask to be able to breathe.
“If you're really going to utilize a public toilet while wearing one, you'd have to unzip the suit, thereby breaking the sterile barrier.”
Not finding anything inside the toilet tank or taped to the non-visible areas, she moved onto the next stall. Her smile was so wide it actually hurt her face a little.
“It would probably make a lot of noise too, huh?”
“It would be impossible to sneak up on anyone while wearing one,” he told her seriously.
Good to know. “Do you think the Leviathans actually sent one of their women in here?”
Nasa shrugged, bending under the last sink. “Honestly? If I was an amoral piece of shit who wanted in here, it's what I would do. You finding anything?”
Dillon shook her head as she finished checking the fourth stall. She turned around to sit on the toilet, putting aside her desire for a quickie in the bathroom in favor of trying to imagine herself in Rachel's place.
The poor kid had three broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder that had been reset, bone-deep bruises, both eyes nearly swollen shut, and a cast around her badly broken wrist.
Stashing something under the sinks would have required Rachel to kneel, which would have caused her problems when getting up, and anyone could have walked in on her. She'd have needed a screwdriver to get the floor vent off, and the grate was an antique lattice style, which wouldn't allow for anything wider than a pencil to fit through.
“What are you thinking?” Nasa asked, and Dillon blinked to find him leaning against the open stall door with a curious frown on his face.
She shook her head, sharing with him how limiting Rachel's injuries would have been.
“From the time stamp on the security feed, Rachel was in here for almost eight minutes, and at one point, Patti poked her head in, probably to ask if Rachel was okay.
“If she'd been bent over the vent or trying to hide something under a sink, Patti would have seen her. Rachel had to be in one of the stalls, and there wasn't anything on or in the toilet themselves.
"So, I'm sitting here trying to think about how I'd untie my shoe with three broken ribs and a broken wrist and where I'd put whatever it is I needed to hide.”
Nasa nodded in agreement, his gaze roaming around the cubicle. “If it was me, I'd use my foot to work off my shoe, then pick it up off the floor with my good hand.
"Putting it back on would be easier with the laces untied, and by then I'd probably be close to passing out from the pain, so I wouldn't bother to lace my boot back up.”
“Yeah,” Dillon agreed, glancing at the toilet paper holder. No place to stash in there. The bin for tampons and sanitary napkins got emptied out daily, so any item found would be thrown away immediately. Not an ideal spot.
The only other place to put something, was the metal dispenser where the toilet seat covers hung on the back of the wall.
Feeling a rush of excitement, Dillon stood up and turned to face it, noticing the dispenser was nearly empty. “The key to open these is in the supply closet. I'll get it.”
“No need,” Nasa told her, offering her a multi-tool with a smile.
Dillon took it with a shake of her head, turning around to face the wall. It was a calculated move on her part to stay where she was with her feet on either side of the toilet, hips tilted to press back into his groin as she leaned forward.
“You're the tallest, sexiest boy scout I've ever met.”
His hands were on her waist in an instant, holding her steady against the hard bar of his cock. “As soon as we're home, expect to replay this moment in our bathroom.”
The seductive promise in his voice made her hand shake a little as she set the pronged tool to the keyhole and opened the first dispenser.
“Looking forward to it.”
In the fourth dispenser, hanging in the handicap stall, Dillon found a flash drive. With a yip of excitement, she turned around and triumphantly held it up to show Nasa. He pressed a quick, hard kiss on her and pulled a tablet from one of his many pockets.
“Yes!” he hissed, and plugged it in. A window popped up to show the download process, and Dillon found herself holding her breath as the green bar got closer to the finish line.
At ninety-two percent, Elka gave a low woof that made the hair on Dillon's arms stand up. Patti would have announced herself, called out at the very least.
When she met Nasa's gaze, her stomach gave a hard twist. She saw certainty there, a hard, glittering coldness that should have made the air fog in front of her face.
“You can come out. I know you found it,” a familiar voice said, echoing like the whisper of Death on the tiled walls. “And by the way, I didn't put tranq darts in my gun this morning, so if I have to shoot your dog, Duchess, I'm aiming to kill.”
Panic rushed over her skin like the kiss of liquid nitrogen. Dillon struggled for a full breath, trying to hold on and stay present.
It barely registered that
