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Regardless of there being other avenues she could have traveled to break free of him

With or without her laptop

She gnawed her lip for a brief moment, contemplatively

She wasn’t fully an innocent pawn in this game

The longer she stayed with Da participant

That was soerous—to further examine

And to acknowledge and accept

Moreover, it was time she faced why she was here, in Damen’s house, in Damen’s bedroom, in Damen’s arms

28

Her hands slid up his thick neck and cupped his face She sincerely and wholeheartedly told him, “I want to meet your family I want you to take me to the ops caht by your side when you offload the info onthe one to check my personal files There are also client suhly confidential, Damen I don’t screw around with that”

“Duly noted,” he said without hesitation or protest “When I have what I want, the laptop’s all yours again”

She eyed hi her insides seize up “You don’t think they’ll want to scrub the hard drive, do you? Just in case? As a precautionary measure to ensure there are no hidden files or offshoots or whatever?”

“They will scan for these things, of course But they’re capable of doing that without opening any files, Nik Unless they’re associated with the intel”

“And what about a virus? What if that intel comes with one to infect the host system?”

“We have experts who kno to handle things of that nature Trust h her hair He cupped the back of her head, holding her in place as he stared deep into her eyes “As long as the device didn’t wipe out your hard drive, you will get your coave—”