A Highland Heist A Contemporary Highland Romance Book Three (7 page)

“Ye need to calm yerself, love. We’re nearly there, aye?” Under normal circumstances he’d be annoyed, but humor tugged at his lips. “Are ye always this impatient?”

“What if I am? No point in wasting time when it could be better spent doing other things. This wasn’t in my plans for the evening.” She looked over at him through her thick lashes, the corners of her mouth teasing into a smile. “So don’t hold it against me if I’d like to wrap things up and get back to what we were doing.”

“Ye’ll hear no complaints from me, lass.” He looked over at her with a grin tugging at his lips while his gaze drank her in, and left him wondering if he’d ever get his fill. Bloody hell, she was something. An athletic build with just enough curves, thick gorgeous hair, lips that made you want to bite them and those eyes-eyes that reached his very soul and left him unable to look away.

“Ye’ve got a great smile, Conall. It’s a pity it doesn’t come out to play more often.”

Another smile sprung to his lips. “Maybe you can change that for me.”

Chapter Seven

Maggie walked towards Andrew, who was standing by her bus, the tension between him and Conall palpable. “What happened? Did ye see?”

“Unfortunately not. The alarm sounded as I was wrapping up my own work, so I came out to investigate. Didn’t see anything out of the ordinary, though.” He stuffed his hands in his jean pockets and shrugged. “Wish I could be of more help. Anything I can do?”

“I can manage, but appreciate the offer.” She gave him a small smile and then moved to the door of her bus to take a closer look.

At first glance all seemed normal, except for the red light blinking above the lock, keypad, and biometric scanner. Needing to make sure there wasn’t any other area breached, she slowly wandered around the vehicle, checking the windows and the lower compartments before circling to the front. “Someone tried to get in here at the door-the light would be green otherwise-but I don’t think they disturbed any other area. I’ll need to check the surveillance feed, though.”

She pulled out her keys, found the one she needed, inserted and turned it, before putting her hand on the scanner. A beam of white light ran the length of her hand and then turned green. Lastly, she put in the override code that was needed due to the tripped alarm, though she took care to block the numbers from view. It wasn’t that she didn’t trust Conall, but one could never be too safe, and more so, Andrew had yet to leave.

With the alarm off, she opened the door and climbed onto the first step. Conall followed behind her, but she didn’t want Andrew joining them. “Thanks, Andrew. We can take care of it from here.”

He nodded. “Let me know if there’s an issue. If someone’s snooping around, I need to know.”

“Will do.” Maggie waited for him to go, let Conall pass, and then locked the door behind them.

Space was tight with her equipment and tools stacked floor to ceiling within their customized compartments. A desk with her computer systems was nestled in one of the corners; four touch screen monitors splayed out in front of her. She wheeled a chair over to Conall, and grabbed the one already tucked in at the desk. With a few taps of the keys, she had the video surveillance files pulled up.

She plugged in the approximate time of the disturbance and focused on the view surrounding her bus, taken from multiple angles with enough overlap to avoid blind spots. There was no one around, so she slowly sped through the recording. Once they got close to the time they were looking for, she slowed the speed. Not long after, the screens turned to snow, the image on each of the multiple cameras gone.

She cursed. Repeatedly. And every way she knew how. “This was no accident. Someone sent an electrical pulse through to the cameras. I don’t know how they managed it, but they did.”

He ran a hand across his heavily stubbled jaw. “Or it could be a surge, and that’s what triggered the alarm. No?”

“Maybe, though there are safeguards in place to keep that from happening-surge protectors, back-up batteries and generators.” Yet she knew nothing was foolproof, and power could easily surge this far out in the woods, especially when the wiring that’d been run in from the road was still new. “I guess there could be glitches in the new wiring that still need to be worked out, but I don’t like it.”

They continued to watch as the images came back, an alarm now sounding. Before long, Andrew showed up on the screen and checked on the disturbance. There was nothing else. “We should probably call Iain.”

“Aye. He should know. It could be nothing, but I like to keep him informed.” Conall pulled out his phone and left Iain a message. “What would ye like to do?”

That was a good question. The alarm going off left her uneasy enough to not want to leave things unguarded. “Would ye hate me if I told ye I’d need to cancel our date for the evening? I think I’m going to spend the night here. I don’t want to leave this place unattended.”

“Or we could just drive it to my house. It’s got wheels, aye?” The corners of his mouth turned up in another one of those once-thought-elusive smiles.

“Ye know, I like ye more and more with each passing moment.” Though she’d only been looking for a way to keep herself from getting bored while working the job, Conall had turned out to be a pleasant surprise.

“If ye like me now, just wait until I’m through with ye later tonight.” His eyes sparkled, alight as if they were a glass of whisky caught in the glow of a fire.

She ran a hand over his thick stubble, loving his scruffy good looks and his intensity-from his sharp gaze to his stern demeanor even. She leaned in and kissed him. “Ye know…ye look more like a fisherman-or even a highwayman of old-rather than a computer genius.”

“Do I, now?” He tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear as his touch lingered and his eyes met hers, making her want to kiss him again.

“Yeah…Far too rugged and fit for that sort of thing. So, how the hell is it that ye’re single?” Good looking, smart, well off, and successful-granted he lived out in the middle of nowhere, but still.

“I like it that way, lass.” He let out a weary sigh, his smile fading like a dream vanishing upon awaking.

There was more he wasn’t telling her. The slump in his shoulders, the way his eyes clouded over…he might be single, but there was a reason for it. He’d been burned-bad enough to have him rethinking relationships altogether. She could certainly relate. There was a reason she refused to let life pass her by, and that was because she’d done just that for far too long.

She’d given her all to Oliver, only to find she was the only one trying, the only one giving her love fully. It’d left her hurt, heartbroken, depressed and cynical-until she woke up one morning and decided she’d wasted enough of her life in a bad relationship and pining over a man who wasn’t worthy of her. From that day forward, she decided she wouldn’t squander a single moment. She was happy to have fun until she found someone worthy of her love, but once she found that person, she needed to know they wouldn’t be loving her in half-measures. She deserved better than that.

Good thing Conall was just a bit of fun. Not that he couldn’t easily be more if circumstances were different. But she’d be gone before long-and that was probably for the best since he clearly didn’t want anything more serious. In a few months, she’d be off to the job she had booked in London.

She managed a smile, pushing her thoughts to the side. “Are ye still ready to pick up where we left off?”

“Aye, lass. I am if you are.”

She was-wasn’t she? A nagging feeling told her she might be playing a dangerous game. Conall was rugged, brilliant, and gilded as if touched by the gods. With his amber eyes and honey hair, she could easily fall for him-hard.

“Yeah, I think I am. I won’t be too far behind ye with the bus. Just need to switch over to the generator and disconnect my power supply.” She stood and pushed aside her doubts. She needed fun and distraction in the form of sex. It was nothing more than that.

“I can wait for ye.” He got to his feet but his brow furrowed as he pursed his lips. Brushing her cheek, his hand warm and just a little rough, his eyes locked on hers. “Listen, love, if ye’re not up for tonight, we can leave it for another time, aye? There’s no point in doing this if ye’re distracted with work. It can wait. I’m patient enough.”

She reached up and linked her hand around his arm as he cupped the back of her neck. Her cursed thoughts were still nagging at her. Between worrying about the alarm and whether or not she was falling for Conall too hard and too fast, going home with him might not be the smartest move.

“I’m sorry. My head’s just in a weird place. Doubt I’d be much fun.” When he brushed a thumb across her cheek, she leaned against his hand, her eyes closing for a moment.

He frowned, his eyes searching her face. “Let me stay with ye. Here. Just as a friend-a coworker. Can’t say why, but ye have me worried, love.”

She wanted to tell him to stay, especially when her mind had already drifted to thoughts of what it would be like to have him wrapped around her body, holding her tightly. But she knew it would do nothing but leave her wanting him even more-and not just for a bit of a fling. It may have started that way-hell, just a few hours ago, she’d have said that was all she wanted-but she had realized somewhere along the way that she was starting to fall for him, and it would be one hell of a slippery slope, her demise quick, especially when he’d made it clear he was interested in nothing serious.

“I really appreciate it, Conall. I do. But…” Was she being stupid? Paranoid? It’d be so damn easy to just lean forward and kiss him. Long. Hard. And even easier to drag him to the back of the bus and the bed. Damn. She bit her lip to keep from kissing him.

“But…ye’ll see me in the morning.” He leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. “No worries, aye? Just keep my number handy. If the alarm trips again, I don’t want ye heading to check it out on yer own. Ye call me, and I’ll be over in a matter of minutes.”

“I promise.”

***

After seeing Conall off, Maggie decided to recheck her systems to try to figure out what set off the alarms and why her cameras shorted. It didn’t make sense that a power surge would knock them out when she had two back-up power supplies. Something else must have happened, but what? She started up some scans of the system, and while those were running, got herself a Guinness with a shot of black currant syrup.

There was a knock at the door, and she half hoped Conall had come back to keep her company, despite the fact that she’d been the one to send him away. Of course she couldn’t possibly be that lucky. She let out a sigh when she pulled up the view of the security camera and found Andrew at her door. It’d be easy enough to ignore him since the windows were tinted and he couldn’t see in, except for the small fact that he’d seen her go in and would know she was ignoring him.

Damn. She opened the door and managed a smile. “Hey.”

“Saw Conall leave and wanted to make sure you were all set with the alarm. Anything I can do to help?” He shifted his weight and looked up at her while she stood on the steps of the bus, his brown eyes nearly black in the dim of dusk.

Maggie shrugged. “I’m not quite sure what happened. Probably a power surge that managed to short out the entire system. It’s unusual but not completely out of the question, I suppose.”

“You’ve got my number if you need it, right?” Indeed, she had numbers to almost everyone working the job. He gave her a crooked smile. “And don’t worry-I won’t ask you out again for a drink. I get that you’re not interested.”

“Andrew…” She felt guilty.

He looked down at his feet before glancing up at her out of the corner of his eye. “You’re with Conall, right? I get it. Not like I haven’t had girls turn me down before-though they’re not usually as pretty as you.”

More guilt. “Look…I don’t know what to tell ye. I don’t want things to be awkward when we’re stuck working together for the next few months. And yes-I’m with Conall.”

“I know-and I promise not to be a pain again. It’s just that I’ve sort of been on my own up here. My boss doesn’t say much, and the crew we’ve hired is fairly local, so they head home. Really…I didn’t mean to go bugging you, and I can’t apologize enough for grabbing your arm. I’m mortified.” With his eyes on the ground, he shook his head, his shoulders slumped. “I’ve just been lonely.”

All she wanted was for him to go, yet she now found herself feeling sorry for the guy. She let out a weary sigh, hoping she wouldn’t regret being friendly. “I just poured myself a pint. Could scavenge another glass if ye’re interested-though it’s nothing more than just a drink between colleagues.”

His smile widened, his eyebrows flicking up for a second. “Never been one to turn down a drink-especially when it’s between colleagues.”

Stepping to the side to let him pass, his body brushed against hers in the confines of the tight space. She locked the door and secured the systems before following Andrew into the main galley. “I’ve got Guinness, Boddington’s, hard cider, and Jameson.”

“Boddington’s, if you don’t mind.” He looked around and let out a whistle. “Bloody hell, this is a lot of equipment.”

“Yeah. Goes with the job.” She reached over and flicked off the monitors before grabbing him his beer. “Here ye go.”

“It’s a pretty nice setup, though. Better than some of the places I’ve been forced to sleep in when on a job.” He leaned against the bank of seats, his long legs crossed out in front of him. “Iain’s been nice enough to set us up in one of the cottages not far from here. Share the space with a few of the other guys on the nights they stick around-which has its moments.”