A Steel Town (A Gateway to Love #3)

by Chloe Barlow

  “Does that mean you can give me a taste of the more easygoing Trey?”

  “I’m happy to give you plenty more tastes of me, Claudia.”

  “Um,” she muttered dumbly, leaning toward him again. He rested his fingertips on her waist gently, though the pressure still seared her skin, even through her jacket. She licked her lips and he groaned slightly, bending forward to press his mouth on hers. Her arms wrapped around his body eagerly, but he eased away from her before she could trap him in her clutches.

  With his face still close to hers, he whispered, “The rest of the world gets a very different man. Everything that man does is light. But I can’t pretend to be him with you, Claudia. You’re far too special to me. So you’re just going to have to accept the heavy.” Stepping away from her, he softened the blow of disappointment, which always came when he wasn’t plastered against her by taking her hand in his. “Come on, we’ve got a lot to do. I was up all night updating my work with your research. I really like the database you built on newly minted Chinese billionaires who might want to pay top dollar for the robotics information David was trying to steal.”

  “Thank you. But why do you need it here?”

  “This is where I do all my analyses.”

  “Why not at the Bureau? I mean, you have an office and everything.”

  “I do. It’s nice. I sit in there and read sometimes, I even use the computer, but not for anything sensitive. I’ve never felt comfortable sharing my work with the government.”

  “What about me?”

  “You’re different. Which is why I want you to be just as careful as I am. Trusting the wrong people can get you seriously hurt, and I won’t let that happen.”

  “Don’t you think you’re being a little paranoid?”

  “It’s not paranoid if you’re right. Come on. I want to show you something.”

  Her mouth was working its way around a sensible rejoinder, but when he opened the door to his study, any intelligent thoughts left her brain. What little she’d seen of his place was beautiful and chic — clearly expensive, but it all paled in comparison to this one room.

  It was spacious and he’d tricked it out like some kind of outlaw version of NORAD. Multiple monitors and processors curved into a horseshoe around two chairs. Much of the technology was military grade, and not all American. Part of her wanted to scold him for clearly having contraband equipment in his home, but the rest of her was itching to touch it.

  “You like it?” he asked, rubbing the back of his neck and avoiding her eyes. He seemed oddly eager for her approval all of a sudden, and it made her descend even more into a pit of madness over him.

  “Like it? Hell, I love it, Trey. Seriously, this setup is incredible.”

  “Good. Then have a seat.” He smiled with pride and the innocent cuteness of it all made her heart feel like it might burst.

  She stumbled into the chair he rolled behind her and gaped some more at the electronic possibilities laid before her. She eventually stated inelegantly, “Thanks. This must be how normal girls feel when they walk into Tiffany’s.”

  He chuckled, answering, “I’ve met more than my share of normal girls. Trust me, I find you much more interesting.”

  Claudia had to stifle a silly giggle, but she couldn’t hide the blush rushing up from her neck to her cheeks at his sweet sentiment. Luckily he hadn’t looked away from his screens as he continued to speak.

  “This is nothing,” he boasted as he entered passwords into the various units in front of him. “You should see my war room in New York. I have two of them. One I share with people like Griffen, while the other is behind several levels of security systems.”

  Claudia realized she’d been so caught up in her own career struggles, she’d completely forgotten Trey was displaced, too.

  “You just left it all there?”

  “Nothing sensitive. All that is here with me. The equipment is a lot more secure than it would be in your house, or even in the Bureau, I’ll tell you that.”

  “I’d love to see it.”

  “Maybe I’ll take you there someday. I’ll make you get all dressed up and we’ll go to the 21 Club. I’ll show you off. You can be my own miniature Latina Grace Kelly.”

  “Don’t tease. Now all I can think about is acting out Rear Window with you.”

  “I’m not teasing, just motivating. How do you know Rear Window?”

  “I love old movies! I had to spend a lot of time recovering in bed when I was little, and they kept me occupied. That and commercials of Wilford Brimley talking about ‘Di-a-bee-tus.’”

  “So, you and the Quaker Oats guy have something in common. I bet that made you feel good,” Trey added with a laugh.

  “Like a princess,” she said slowly, throwing Trey a roll of her eyes before turning back to the computer screens.

  “I can make you really feel like one, and I’ll keep you company better than an old movie. Let’s wrap up this Taylor case and then we’ll see. Want to be a New York tourist while we’re there, too? Have you ever been?”

  “A few times when Wyatt played in New York… I didn’t really get to experience it. I saw enough to know I can picture you there.”

  Trey laughed. “Why’s that?”

  “Because it’s larger than life…like you.”

  “I love how you’re still too young to know you shouldn’t think so highly of me.”

  “Hey! You only think I’m young because you’re so ancient.” She laughed and punched his arm, probably harder than necessary, but it was fun to see him jostle back and forth in response.

  “Right, because thirty-years-old is ancient,” he groused.

  “Okay, enough about your old age… Do you miss it?”

  “What?”

  “New York?” she clarified.

  He shrugged, focusing instead on the screens in front of him, “I guess.”

  “Isn’t it your home?” she asked.

  “Home?”

  He stared intently at one monitor, but she could see his jaw twitch repeatedly, even though his cool gray eyes never wavered.

  “You know what I mean.”

  “New York is where I live most of the time. I’ve been there for a while now. I suppose it’s as good a place as any.” He turned to her for a moment, and his silver gaze was such a combination of warning and internal hurt, it was almost painful to behold. “I haven’t had a real home for a long time. It doesn’t help to love a place. Everything changes. And the things, which stay the same, are never as good as you remember. It’s a waste of time to worry about shit like that. I’ve done better to just be.”

  “Well, now you’re being silly. Home doesn’t have to be a certain place. It’s just what you can always go back to when you don’t have anything else in the world,” Claudia responded, her back stiff with determination.

  “Little one, I hope you never see how fucked up the world can get when you believe you have a home to go to, only to realize there’s nothing really there.”

  She leaned over and hugged him awkwardly, their seated positions impeding their connection.

  Claudia moved away from him quickly, but she spied a small half smile creasing his face.

  “You’ll work here…at least for the time being. It’s the only place you can make real headway,” he instructed, clearly eager to talk about something less emotional.

  “What about the Bureau? Won’t Assistant Director Jacobs be wondering why I’m not showing up every day?”

  “Don’t worry about it. I told him you have field investigations and other offsite work to do for me, so he won’t be looking for you. We can swing by every once in a while if it makes you feel better.”

  Trey fell silent, pulling up various folders on Jack Taylor and potential criminal hacker groups. Some names she recognized, others were completely new to her.

  One grabbed her eye because it was the only one on the desktop of the far left monitor, yet he didn’t open it. The title was simply — “Operation Lexis.”
>
  “What’s that one?” she asked, pointing to the screen, while trying to keep her voice even.

  “Nothing. Just one of my side projects…something else I need to wrap up before I can deliver on all your Manhattan fantasies.”

  “Maybe I can help. Let me see.”

  “No,” he answered gruffly.

  “What’s the big deal?”

  “I…said…no.”

  “Don’t you trust me?”

  “It’s not about that.”

  “Then what is it about? Because it feels like you don’t trust me.”

  “This isn’t about feelings. It’s something else I’m messing around with, which is none of your business.”

  “Fine, but you’re being such a butthead.”

  “Right, and that’s why I’m ancient and you’re a kid.”

  “Move over, Grandpa, and let me get to work on the case I’m allowed to know about. I’m sure my young eyes will catch something you missed, you know, in case you forgot your bifocals.”

  Despite her lighthearted teasing, suspicion was gnawing at the edges of her brain like a bored dog with nothing but an old rawhide to keep it company. She ran her tongue across the backs of her teeth as they clenched in her mouth. She’d felt a lot of emotions since she met Trey, but this one was the most upsetting — disappointment.

  “Do you hate me now?” Trey probed roughly.

  “Of course not. You have boundaries, and I crossed one of them.”

  “The Taylor case is plenty to keep you occupied. Operation Lexis is just…my own personal battle. I wouldn’t wish that case on my own worst enemy. So please forget about it, okay?”

  “Forgotten.”

  “Still a shitty liar, but I’ll take it. I’m not picky… Tell me what happened with David. What did he say when you were in there?”

  “You’re ready to talk about it? You aren’t going to get all worked up again, are you?”

  “I thought you liked me when I got worked up?”

  “True,” she laughed lightly, already feeling the hurt his stern denial had caused begin to disintegrate.

  “David still swears he never got any names associated with the group who hired him, but I did get him to admit it seemed to be a solo operating faction, not a governmental unit. All phone communications he had were from locations he couldn’t determine, but his contacts were all speaking in American English. They used voice distortion technology, but he did feel it was a woman on some calls, and she was pulling the strings.”

  “Why?”

  “He said it was just a feeling at first, but in one call, the contact referred to a ‘she.’ Said ‘she was getting impatient,’ that ‘she was happy to eliminate any dead weight, and he was getting pretty heavy.’ This was right before Jack revealed to David his suspicion the robotics department had been compromised, and…”

  “Then he killed Jack.”

  “He still didn’t go so far as to admit to murder, but it sure felt like he was getting close.”

  “It’s still a hell of a lot more than I ever pulled out of David. Good work.”

  “Why thanks, boss,” she joked. “What really had me interested was when I asked him why he thinks they contacted him instead of going for the big guns. I mean CMU actually has a whole division, which works specifically for the Department of Defense. He assumed it was because the robotics department was a softer target, but he agreed it didn’t explain why they specifically reached out to him. It was apparently very calculated.”

  “He had a painkiller addiction after his car accident. He was desperate.”

  “But he insisted he’d kept it secret, and all our records support that. It had to take some serious legwork and psychological focus to uncover so much about him — not the kind of thing you see from your run-of-the-mill ‘smash, grab, and sell’ we see committed by hackers operating out of a dirty Moscow basement. This group is sophisticated, and ruthless. That’s the thread I want to pull. We figure out how they found their mark, then maybe we can finally get somewhere.”

  “That’s my girl. I have a lot of data for you to sort through, including internal discussions from the CMU IT department. I may hate the government, but there’s something to be said for a search warrant broad enough to really let me loose. I’ve managed to get a lot of data beyond the warrant recently, too”

  “How?”

  “I used your Tongue Louse virus. It’s honestly pretty cool, especially how you came up with it when you were so young. It just lies there and absorbs everything, without the messy warning signals of a more aggressive worm. Pretty badass ninja shit.”

  “Holy hell, Trey, that’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me.”

  “Your standards are either very low, or pretty odd.”

  “Maybe they’re both. I don’t care. You believed in me, Trey, which is all I ever want from people — to understand I can actually do something.”

  “Of course I do. Are you ready to get cracking?”

  “But I’ve never worked with any gear like this before… It’s not exactly FBI issue.”

  “You’ll get used to it. If I’m really going to take you deep into this investigation, you’re going to need more than the crap the FBI provides you.”

  Trey stood and moved behind Claudia’s chair, deftly rolling it and repositioning her directly in the middle of the monitors. She felt like a queen at her throne, ruling over an electronic kingdom full of endless possibilities.

  “I built this one directly in front of you by myself. Reverse engineered the software from something I…borrowed… from the CIA.”

  “Is this one of those things you tell people they don’t want to know?”

  “You and I are way past that. Which means you’re going to have to let your white hacker hat get a lot more fucking gray.”

  “I’m not afraid to get my hands a bit dirty,” she answered, not hiding the strident confidence from her tone as she reached for the keyboard directly in front of her. Trey stopped her, placing his hands on her shoulders before sliding them inward to her bare neck. His fingers rested against the top of her chest, as he stroked his thumbs slowly over the sides of her throat.

  She could practically feel the little baby hairs at the base of her ponytail standing on end in response to his strong fingers. Claudia never knew when he would touch her or how long it would last, but it drove her freaking crazy every time. Her breath stalled and she froze in her seat, willing him not to stop — not this time.

  He bent over her, kissing her neck, before nibbling at the flesh gently. It elicited a deep groan from the deepest recesses of her core, which echoed against the plaster walls around her.

  “I need you to understand… You spend this much time with me, little one, it’ll be more than your hands that will get dirty…and it won’t be just a bit.”

  “All right. I’m back. That means it’s time to take a break,” Trey bellowed, barreling into his own study, which Claudia had been occupying almost exclusively since he’d shown it to her.

  “Just fifteen more minutes,” she muttered, squinting intently at the phone records of calls to David during the period when he was attempting to sell information.

  “You pulled the same line before I left two hours ago. I’ll bet good money you haven’t moved since.” Trey began to rub her shoulders, and she purred in response, bending her head forward.

  “No fair,” she muttered, allowing her head to flop forward, giving his fingers access to her long, slender neck.

  “Who ever said I play fair?” Trey removed his hands and stepped away from her, before his self-control got away from him. “Come to the kitchen. You need to be fed and watered. I have your blood sugar testing materials in there, too.”

  “Wow. You can’t be serious? I’ll take your silence to mean you are. Trey, you’ve got problems.”

  “Not denying that.”

  “I have my glucose monitor on, it’s really not necessary.”

  “Humor me?” he asked, meeting he
r gaze and throwing her his most effective smile.

  “Fine. Must say, you really know how to pamper a girl…glucose test and dinner. All this luxury could go to my head.”

  “Stop being such a smart-ass,” he answered, though his voice was light. “Look, I know what it’s like to get sucked into something, and there’s no way I’m letting the work I give you translate into hypoglycemia on my watch. Plus, I have some new information for you.”

  “What? That’s great. Tell me!” she exclaimed, jumping out of her seat with a spry jubilance, which always made him smile.

  “I knew that would get your attention. Get moving. I’m not giving up the goods unless you get out of here.”

  “Okay. I guess this will be here when I get back.”

  “There you go,” he said.

  She moved toward him, sneaking a glance backward toward her work longingly and sucking on the plump curve of her lower lip in thought.

  It still struck him how she always happened somehow to look so naturally beautiful. She didn’t bother herself with flash or high-maintenance crap. Even today, her loveliness was packaged simply, with no makeup slowing down her eager need to get back to her mission.

  No matter how effortless her appearance may be, it was still devastating to him, which was why he’d indulged in frequent bouts of brief, yet ardent, kissing since she’d begun spending the bulk of her time in his inner world. He longed to taste more of her — a yearning, which only increased in intensity by the day.

  That afternoon, her diminutive, but curvaceous body was showcased in tight jeans and a cocoa-colored sweater, which accented her large, dark eyes. It was fitted enough to show off her pert breasts, though he sensed the looseness at the waist was part of her insistence on hiding her pump from anyone’s view.

  Regardless of her intent, the entire effect was a welcome departure from the nondescript pantsuits she wore when working at the Bureau. Her unknowingly sexy displays of her perfect body were reason enough to keep her all to himself at his place, even without all of the progress she was making when allowed to work outside the restrictive bubble of official FBI procedure.

  Trey couldn’t help but wonder of what she’d be capable if she freed her abilities from the chains of rules — of right and wrong — and unleashed all her penned-in brainpower.