POV: Emily
The room felt like it was closing in around us. The server lights flickered ominously, and the low hum of machinery suddenly seemed deafening. My heart pounded in my chest as Jake's fingers flew across the keyboard, but the system was already in shutdown mode, locking us out.
"We've got seconds before the whole thing crashes," Jake muttered, his jaw tight as he worked furiously to bypass the lockdown.
"What do we do?" I asked, panic rising in my throat. "Can we still get the data?"
"I'm trying," Jake growled, his focus locked on the screen. "But Marcus's system is more secure than we thought. He must've triggered a failsafe when he sensed the breach."
My pulse raced. This was it, everything we'd worked for was slipping through our fingers. If we lost access now, Marcus would know we were coming for him. And once he knew that, he'd be coming for us.
Hard.
I swallowed the rising fear, forcing myself to focus. "Can I help? What do you need?"
Jake glanced at me, his eyes flashing with determination. "I need you to isolate the final account. It's the one at the bottom of the file, but you'll need to bypass the secondary encryption layer."
I didn't hesitate. I rushed to the adjacent terminal, my fingers shaking slightly as I started working through the layers of encryption. The code was complicated, but not impossible. I could feel the seconds ticking by, each one faster than the last, as I dove into the system, my breath shallow with concentration.
The screen blinked as the encryption broke, and I saw it,the final account Marcus had hidden deep within the system.
"I've got it!" I shouted, my voice breathless.
Jake looked over, relief flashing in his eyes. "Send it to me. Now."
I did as he asked, transferring the data to his terminal just as the shutdown warning flashed across both our screens. Red lights started to blink, and a sharp alarm blared through the room. We had seconds, maybe less, before the entire system locked us out for good.
Jake worked faster than I'd ever seen, his hands moving like lightning as he input the final sequence to reroute the funds. My heart slammed in my chest as I watched the screen flash, the command finally going through.
"Done," Jake muttered, standing up and grabbing my arm. "We have to get out of here."
I didn't need to be told twice. We bolted for the door just as the lights in the hallway flickered, signaling that the building's security systems were coming back online. Alarms rang louder now, and I could hear the sound of footsteps guards were approaching fast.
Jake pulled me into the elevator, slamming his fist against the button to close the doors. The lights above flickered as the elevator began its descent, but I could barely breathe, my chest tight with the fear of what we'd just done.
"We did it, right?" I asked, my voice shaking. "We got everything?"
Jake exhaled, his eyes still sharp, but a small smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. "Yeah. We got it."
I let out a shaky breath, my pulse still racing. We'd done it. We'd taken Marcus's money, crippled his financial operation. But I knew this wasn't over. Far from it.
Jake was right next to me, his shoulder brushing mine, grounding me in the midst of the chaos. I wanted to ask what came next, what Marcus would do when he found out but the look in Jake's eyes told me the answer before I could even speak.
Marcus wouldn't let this go. Not now. Not ever.
Later – Carter's Safehouse
The ride back to the safehouse was tense. Jake's focus never wavered, his grip tight on the steering wheel, his eyes scanning the road ahead like he expected Marcus's men to come after us at any moment. And maybe they would.
When we finally reached the safehouse, Carter was waiting for us, his expression unreadable as we stepped inside. The room was dimly lit, shadows playing across the walls, but I felt a strange sense of relief just being out of the open.
Jake set his laptop on the table, pulling up the data we had stolen. Carter hovered over his shoulder, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the screen.
"It's all here," Jake said, his voice low. "We hit all his main accounts. Marcus will feel this."
Carter nodded, but there was no celebration, no sense of victory. He knew as well as we did that this was just the beginning.
"He's going to retaliate," Carter said, his tone grim. "This was a major hit, and Marcus isn't the type to take it lying down."
I swallowed, feeling the weight of his words settle into my bones. "So what do we do now?"
"We prepare for whatever's coming next," Jake said, his voice hardening. "And we don't give him the chance to come at us first."
Carter turned to me, his expression serious. "You did good tonight, Emily. But things are going to get worse before they get better. Marcus is going to come after you, and it's not going to be pretty."
I nodded, feeling the gravity of his words sink in. I wasn't naive. I knew what Marcus was capable of. And I knew that taking him down wasn't going to be easy.
But I was ready.
"I'm not afraid of him," I said, my voice steady. "Whatever he throws at us, we'll handle it."
Carter studied me for a moment before nodding. "Good. Because this fight is just getting started."
Later – Jake's Apartment
The adrenaline from the night's events still thrummed in my veins as I paced the living room of Jake's apartment, my mind spinning with everything that had happened. We had dealt Marcus a serious blow, but the war was far from over. The weight of that reality pressed down on me, but there was something else, something I couldn't shake.
The kiss.
The way Jake had pulled me close, the heat of his lips on mine, the way my body had responded to him without hesitation. I didn't want to admit how much it had affected me, how much it was still affecting me, even now.
I couldn't deny the pull between us anymore. But I also couldn't afford to let it distract me from the mission ahead. Marcus Hall was a threat to everything I'd built, everything I cared about, and I couldn't let emotions cloud my judgment.
But then, there was Jake. The way he had protected me, the way he had risked everything to stand by my side. He wasn't just a business partner anymore. He was something more. And that terrified me.
"Emily," Jake's voice broke through my thoughts, pulling me back to the present. I turned to see him standing in the doorway, his face shadowed, his eyes locked on mine.
"We need to talk," he said, his voice low, but there was an intensity in his gaze that made my heart skip a beat.
I nodded, swallowing hard. "I know."
He stepped closer, his presence filling the room, making it feel smaller, more intimate. The tension between us was palpable, and I could feel the pull of him, the way his proximity set every nerve in my body on edge.
"I don't want to complicate this," Jake said, his voice rough, his gaze searching mine. "But I can't pretend there isn't something between us."
My heart pounded in my chest. I had felt it too and had tried to ignore it, bury it under the chaos of everything that was happening but now it was impossible to deny.
"I don't know what this is, Jake," I admitted, my voice barely above a whisper. "But it's dangerous."
"I know," he said, his eyes darkening as he stepped closer, closing the distance between us. "But it's too late to turn back."
My breath caught in my throat as he reached out, his hand brushing lightly against my arm, sending a shiver down my spine. I knew he was right. Whatever was happening between us, it was already too far gone to stop.
"I don't want to lose you," he whispered, his voice raw with emotion.
"You won't," I whispered back, though I wasn't sure if I was making a promise to him or to myself.
The space between us disappeared as Jake closed the distance, his lips brushing against mine, soft and urgent, full of all the things we hadn't said. I kissed him back, my hands reaching up to grip the front of his shirt, pulling him closer, needing to feel him, to lose myself in him, if only for a moment.
When we finally pulled apart, both of us breathing hard, Jake rested his forehead against mine, his voice barely a whisper.
"We'll figure this out," he said, his breath warm against my skin.
I nodded, my heart still racing, my body still buzzing with the aftershocks of the kiss. "Yeah. We will."
But even as I said it, I knew that whatever came next was going to test us in ways we couldn't imagine.