Hacking Mr. CEO (Billionaire Heists #3) by Anna Hackett

Remi sagged against Mav. They waited. They waited some more. He was tempted to stay there. How far away were the damn police?

But he and Remi couldn’t stay here. The fucker was smart, and he’d eventually double back and work out where they were hiding.

Mav peered out, then pulled Remi into the empty hallway.

They hurried back the way they’d come, and then up some stairs to the mezzanine level. There were lots of doors.

One was labeled Testing Lab.

“I hear him,” she whispered.

Sure enough, footsteps sounded below. Heading up the stairs.

Fuck.

“Hack the lock,” Mav said.

She lifted her phone and set to work.

Come on. Come on.

The door lock flashed, and they slipped inside.

“Now jam it.”

Nodding, she tapped on her phone. “Got it,” she whispered.

Seconds later, someone tried the handle from the outside, jiggling it.

Remi gasped and slapped her hand over her mouth.

Mav scanned the darkened lab. There were benches covered in various pieces of equipment, and he spied a computer. He pulled the keyboard out and logged on. He tapped.

There. He’d accessed the security system.

The assassin was in the hall, trying to hack the door lock.

Damn, they were sitting ducks.

“I have an idea.” Remi shouldered him aside.

Her fingers flew in a complicated dance. With a smile, she tapped the screens, and outside in the hall, the fire sprinklers erupted, dousing The Shadow with water.

On-screen, Mav saw the man cursing. His dark hair was plastered to his head, his clothes soaking.

Mav laughed and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Damn, I love you.”

She went still, like a woodland creature who’d spotted a predator.

“You look more scared of me than the assassin chasing us,” he said dryly.

“Mav—” A taut whisper filled with so much emotion.

He loved this woman. This smart, spunky, loyal woman.

He’d convince her of that after they got out alive.

The door shuddered.

He looked up.

The assassin had abandoned subtlety, and was now just trying to smash his way in.





Remi


There was nowhere to go.

My heart was doing a rapid dance against my ribs.

It was partly because of the assassin. And partly because Mav had just said he loved me.

I shook my head and scanned the room.

“Hey, over there.” There was a door.

We raced over. It had a tiny glass window embedded in it. I peered into it and my stomach dropped. “It is a storage room. Mav, there’s no way out of here.”

Maybe the assassin wouldn’t get in. I looked at the security feed again.

I frowned. “What’s he doing?”

Mav cursed, staring at the small objects in The Shadow’s hand. “Those are small, localized explosives.”

My heart leaped up, trying to choke me. “He’s going to blow the door down?”

Mav scanned the room again, his face hard. He looked back at the storage room.

“I need you to fry that lock.”

I frowned. “What? Why?”

“We’re going to let him think we’re in the storage room.”

“Okay,” I said slowly.

“It has a secondary lockdown door. They store dangerous chemicals in there. The secondary door slams closed if there’s a breach.”

My mind raced, then I grinned. “We can trap him in there.”

He nodded. “Do it, angel.”

I raced to the computer and accessed the storage room doors. I glanced at the feed. Crap. He was almost done.

“I’ve got control of the secondary door, and…”

Poof. The lights on the door lock died.

I spun around to see Mav on a chair. He was pushing a ceiling tile upward.

“Come on. Hurry.” He held his hand out to me.

Mouth dry, I ran over. He gripped my waist and lifted me like I weighed nothing. I grabbed the edge of the hole in the ceiling and climbed inside.

“Stay on the beams or you’ll fall through,” he warned.

Oh, great.

Mav climbed up behind me, just as I heard a muffled thump down below. Mav set the ceiling tile back in place.

I held my breath and leaned against Mav. His big presence steadied me.

I heard more sounds below, then a muttered curse and more movements. What was he doing? Was he trying to get into the store room?

Mav tapped on his phone and held it out to me.

It was a bad view, but the camera just caught the shoulder of the assassin.

He was pressing something to the storage room door.

I tried to keep my breathing calm.

God. What if he had even more of those explosives? The room wouldn’t trap him for long.

I heard the thumps of the next explosions. On the small screen, the door fell down.

The assassin spun and strode into the storage room.

“Now!” Mav ordered.

I thumbed my phone.

The secondary door clanged shut.

I sucked in a breath. “We did it!”

Mav shoved the ceiling tile across, then leaped down.

He motioned for me to follow. With no hesitation, I jumped right into his arms.

We turned.

The furious eyes of The Shadow were right in the glass window in the storage room door. I felt a skitter of dread.