“We should probably stop,” he answered, licking the taste of her from his lips, his gaze never leaving hers. Stepping back, he moved his hand off the wall so she could escape.
She nodded and reached down, swept up her sweats and threw them on. She moved the teapot off the burner and turned off the flames as he quickly righted his pants.
“I kept my promise.” He threw her a smile and a wink.
She put on her glasses before narrowing her eyes at him. “You did not.”
“I never kissed you.”
“You just did.”
He eyed the wall where they’d just both had mind-blowing orgasms. “That didn’t count.”
“Why not?”
“It was after the fact,” he teased.
“That,” she started to argue, and then gave up. “Dirty trick.”
“Oh, I’m sure you hated it. You, my love, will have to do better than that. Next time, I get to choose where we make love. I think I have bruises from the counter.” He grinned, offered her a wink.
“No next time.” Shaking her head, she retreated a step. Her expression changed in an instant. Her pretty face pinched in pain. She turned from him when her lower lip quivered. “There shouldn’t have been a this time.”
What the fuck? His heart slowed, concern overtaking his thoughts. “Charis? Baby, did I hurt you?” He took a step toward her.
She brought up a hand and backed away from him. He was shocked to see enormous tears fill her eyes, spill over and down her pretty cheeks. “I can’t do this.”
“Sweetheart? What is it?” When a small sob escaped her brave façade, it pulled a raw grunt straight from his soul.
The front door opened just then and in walked Chris, two large pizzas in the crook of his arm. He lost his smile as he darted his gaze between the two. “What’s going on?”
She gave one look to her brother before running down the hall to her room at the end of the short corridor. David flinched when she slammed the door.
Chris’s glare was lethal as it riveted to him. Damn. Did all the McKoys have that look mastered? He threw the pizza on the counter, followed by his keys. “What did you do now?”
David ran his fingers through his hair. Good question. He glanced down the hall toward the door at the end.
What did he do now?
EIGHTEEN
What happened to the old Charis? She almost missed her. The new Charis had taken over and thrown out every bit of restraint and self-control she had. She and David were supposed to be over. So why, then, couldn’t they keep their hands off each other, or their pants on?
Giving up David was like giving up breathing. She couldn’t do it, couldn’t stand the thought of not having him as a constant presence in her life. At least there’d be some relief when the new SAC arrived.
A knock on the door broke her mental breakdown. Her tears had long been spent. Now she just felt numb. “Come in.”
Thank God it was Chris and not David. She didn’t have the strength to deal with him right now. Her brother stepped in with a plate full of pizza slices. “Figured you’d be hungry.”
“Thank you,” she sang and rose off the bed. She accepted the pizza and dug in. Chicken and garlic. Her and Chris’s favorite.
“Good thing I got two of those. Apparently, it’s Snyder’s fav, too. He and I finished one pizza before digging into the second.”
“Thank God one of you had enough sense to save me a few pieces.”
“That would be your boyfriend out there,” he answered cynically. “He’s got three more pieces for you after you finish these three. Won’t let me touch them.”
Six pieces? She wouldn’t even be able to finish two. But the thought of him saving pizza for her made her feel… Stop it! She couldn’t feel anything. She had to quit him completely, and that included thinking about him. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Want to tell me about it?”
She stared into eyes the same blue as hers. Even though they were fraternal twins, they still looked alike. But, then again, all the McKoys had the same blue eyes, the same dark chocolate brown hair.
Although she and Chris shared just about everything happening in their lives, she doubted he’d understand what she was going through, let alone sympathize. She desperately needed someone to talk to, someone other than the problem.
Still, this was her brother. Judging by his reaction to David last time sex had anything to do with his need to protect her, along with the look in his hard eyes now, he wouldn’t be the person she’d be sharing her love life with. Some things were best left up to the best friend, not the twin.
But David was her best friend. She wanted to tell him anything and everything. He’d been her best friend since she’d nursed him back to health at the hospital, he just didn’t know it. It was when she’d fallen in love with him.
“I’d rather have something to drink.”
“Unleaded or diesel?”
“Unleaded, please.” They’d referred to alcoholic drinks as diesel since forever. Unleaded meant alcohol-free. Diesel was fully loaded.
“You got it.” He smiled and left the room.
She debated her decision. If she had a drink, it would take the edge off. She just might be able to focus on something other than David Snyder. No, she could really go for diesel, like a beer. Jumping to her feet, she threw open the door. “On second thought—”
She choked on her words. David stood there, two beers in hand, his free hand bunched into a fist to knock on the door. As he rested his gaze on her face, he gave her that debilitating grin. “I found these in the fridge. Never had,” he stopped and glanced at the bottles, “Moose Drool before.”
“It’s from a local brewery in Missoula.” She thanked him for the beer and thought about inviting him in. Knowing the bed there would be far too great a temptation, she closed the door behind her and walked down her hall. She took a quick glance in her office as she passed. Her system was quiet, her monitors dark.
“Still no word from Surreal.” David read her thoughts.
Sighing, she shuffled into the living room and sank onto her couch, kicked off her slippers and tucking her feet under her. She picked at the toppings of her second piece, not sure if she wanted to dig into another one or not.
“Time to come clean,” David said after taking a seat in one of the chairs. Chris sat on the arm of the couch next to his sister, no doubt to protect her from the big bad man sitting on the other side of the room. She rolled her eyes. Inwardly. Nothing could protect her from him. Chris had a better chance at roping the wind than saving her from a man she didn’t want to be saved from. “Tell me everything you know about this asshole. And I mean everything.”
“Read the file.”
“I’ve already memorized the file,” he countered, his voice even. “I’m looking for what’s not in the file.”
“Listen, I’m not in the mood—”
“Too bad,” he snapped back and centered a serious gaze on her. Dare she say cool. This wasn’t David, her lover. This was David Snyder, TREX spec ops agent and the SAC on the mission. She didn’t like having him look at her like an agent on an op. It was exactly how they needed to be right now, and yet it hurt.
“Sorry, baby—” he caught himself and forced a smile through clenched teeth. “Sorry, Charis. We can’t wait any longer.”
Her heart skipped when he corrected himself, actually called her by her name. What happened to love? Sweetheart? Baby? Closing her eyes, she refocused. It had to be this way. They weren’t lovers. They were agents together on an op.
The time had come to, as he called it, come clean. With a preparatory breath, she began. “I met him at a job fair in Bozeman. As a recent grad from Montana State University with a degree in computer science, he was there looking for a job. I already knew who he was, having done my research on him before the job fair.”
“You were there to recruit him.” It wasn’t a question.
She nodded. “Him and three others. TR
EX has recruiters inserted into all the major universities. When they told me about him, about what a brilliant programmer he was, I knew he’d be great intel material. The others wouldn’t make it past the first screening, but Thomas Macy had talent. I saw amazing potential in him and couldn’t wait to bring him onboard, to train him personally.”
“Why you?” David’s hands clenched into fists. He didn’t seem pleased with the details. Too damn bad. He wanted them, now he got to sit there and hear them.
“Charis is the best there is,” Chris chimed in. “Not many can do what she does. Macy could.”
“Wonderful,” David muttered.
“I’ve never come across a code I couldn’t crack,” she explained. “Or a system I couldn’t hack. I knew Thomas had what it would take to be another top of the list hacker, and if he was going to be one of the best, then he needed to be trained by one of the best.”
“Did TREX also teach you humility?”
She glared at him through her lenses. “Do you want to hear this or not?”
He gave her a curt nod. “Continue.”
“After Thomas Macy came onboard, we immediately started his training. He was like a robot. I only had to show him things once and he had it. He was great.”
“So what happened?”
She sighed and shook her head. It still baffled her as to why he chose the path he had. “He started sabotaging his retrievals. I caught on, locked him out, and had him arrested. The rest you know.”
“Aren’t you going to write any of this down?” Chris asked him.
“No need,” he answered and tapped his temple. “I’ve got this thing about details. Go on.”
“Not exactly comforting,” Chris countered in a growl.
David stiffened. “You know, you’re nothing like your brother. Logan knows the chain of command. He knows how to show a little respect to a superior agent.”
Chris stood and faced him, squared his shoulders. “You aren’t my superior, Snyder. I report to SA Allen while in the field and SD Weber out of the field.”
“Call either one of them. Right the fuck now. Let’s get this settled.” David stood as well. He waited, his glare never leaving Chris. When her brother didn’t grab his phone, David went on. “If you want to stay in spec ops, you’ll learn fast that all SAs are your superior. If that’s a problem, Agent McKoy, then I won’t hesitate to kick your ass back to incident response. Is that understood?”
Charis reached for her brother and rested a hand on his arm. They didn’t need these two bumping chests right now. “Please, Chris.”
He jerked his arm away. “Fine, but don’t expect me to call you sir.”
“You’ll call me whatever the fuck I want you to call me, probie. If you want to hate me for my relationship with your sister, do it outside of the mission. I need you to have my back, just as I have yours despite your goddamn attitude. I’ve tolerated it out of respect for your sister. When Allen relieves me, you can chew his ear off and see how far that gets you.”
Chris’s face lost some of its hardness. “Allen is relieving you as SAC?”
David nodded and jumped his gaze to Charis. “Per request.”
Her heart hit the bottom of her world. She dropped her attention to her lap and twisted her hands. The guilt ate at her confidence in her decision to make the request. She didn’t need his help with that.
“So if you have a problem with the way I’m running this op,” David continued. “Take it up with Allen when he gets here. Until then, I am your SA and you will treat me as such. Are we clear?”
To Charis’s shock, Chris backed down and sat. “Yes, sir.”
David rested in the chair but didn’t remove his glare from Chris. Charis bounced her gaze between the two men. The tension thickened in the room, but for now, they seemed to settle. After an intense stare down, with Chris losing, David finally pulled his glare off her brother, softened it, and rested it on Charis. “Did he vow his revenge against you?”
“He vowed his twisted, psycho love,” Chris corrected. She punched him in the leg. “What? Don’t tell me you forgot how that little bitch kept screaming out for you as we dragged him off.” Chris turned to David. “I was one of the agents that got the pleasure to toss him out on his ass. He actually told me that we’d be family one day when he married Charis.”
David’s face grew bright red. “Did you ever give him reason to think there was more to your relationship than on a professional level?” His voice was strained and he didn’t even bother to hide how much he wanted to know the answer. He leaned forward, his gaze riveted to hers.
She shook her head. “It wasn’t like that. We had a lot in common. It was never more than that.”
Chris nudged her. “Tell him.”
She looked up at him, then at David. Her heart thudded.
“Tell me what?”
With a sigh, she conceded. It really was time to come clean. “Not that it matters, but he kissed me once.”
“Hah!” Chris shook his head. “He did more than that.”
David tensed. “How much more?”
“The son of a bitch attacked her,” Chris snapped.
“What?” The tone in David’s voice scared her. She’d never heard him sound so dangerously lethal. “Did you have him arrested?” He turned his attention to Chris. “Why didn’t you kill the bastard?”
“Believe me.” Chris shrugged. “It wasn’t for lack of wanting to. But she wouldn’t let me.”
“I would have still killed him,” he growled, his dark eyes glowering.
“Looking back, I wish I would have.”
They exchanged looks. She flipped her gaze back and forth between them. “What?”
“This guy was obviously in love with you,” David explained. “The question is, is he still in love with you? Is that why he’s doing all of this? Some sort of declaration?”
“I don’t believe that.” She grabbed her beer and took several long drinks. Her eyes watered, her throat raw from the carbonation by the time she came up for air. She set the beer on the table as she panted at the epiphany. Thomas Macy was, again, causing a commotion in order to get her attention. This time in catastrophic measures.
Who planted bombs in random server rooms across the nation, all as an act of devotion? No, not across the nation, she realized suddenly. He’d kept them all on the west side of the states.
She jumped up, her brain processing the new information. If she applied that reasoning to her algorithm, she’d seriously narrow down the probable targets.
“Where are you going?” David stood.
She practically sprinted into her office and stopped in front of the board. Scanning, she searched for the locations of each building that had been attacked. “Where are they?”
“What?” David ran into the room.
“The locations!” Damn, she knew that had to be it. If they’d only written them down as well, they might have picked up the pattern days ago.
He grabbed a pen and didn’t even question her as he wrote on the whiteboard. “Cascade Technological Advances is in Tucson, Arizona. History of Arts is in Houston, Texas. All City Technology is in Olympia, Washington. Riverside Consulting is in Modesto, California. What are you looking for?”
Tucson.
Houston.
Olympia.
Modesto.
T.H.O.M. THOM. Thomas.
She hurried to her system and added the new criteria. “He’s going to go after a building that starts with the letter ‘I’.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
Her next statement would definitely fall under that criterion. “The city will start with the letter ‘A’.”
He seemed less than impressed. “There are still a lot of possibilities, Charis.”
When would he learn to not doubt her? “Not on this side of the country. And now that I’ve applied my new layer to the existing algorithm, I’ll be able to narrow it down to a number we can work with.”
His lip t
witched. “You have one hell of a brain, Charis McKoy.”
“Hmm,” she responded and adjusted her glasses. “I bet you say that to all the girls.”
“Actually,” he countered and set the pen on the board holder. “I’ve never fallen in love with a woman’s brain before any of her other,” he paused and gave her a slow, sexy once over, “assets. Not that those were far behind.”
Her mouth went dry. Her heart refused to beat. He loved her? As she looked up at him, the debilitating smile he gave followed a wink that made her insides turn to putty. “What did you just say?”
“You heard me.”
She did hear him, but wanted to hear it again. “I—”
“Ah.” He brought up his finger to silence her. “Let’s just leave it at that for now. This is a conversation we can finish after this mission and when your brother isn’t in the next room. For now, we have a terrorist to catch.”
NINETEEN
They were back in that Montana field. This time Charis wasn’t covered head-to-toe in Kevspa. She had on that damned shirt/suit combo he’d spotted her wearing in Hawaii. She strolled slowly, swaying her hips like blades of grass in the easy breeze.
Her glasses were propped high on her nose. She adjusted them, a habit he really liked, as she spiked an eyebrow at him. As she gave him a sly grin, his heart seized in his chest. She made a motion for him to follow her. Of course he did. How could he not? He’d follow her anywhere. Through anything.
“In here,” she told him in that smooth voice that drove him wild. He followed her into Surreal’s shack and over to a set of computer monitors. “This is where he is.” She pointed to the computer’s hard drive.
He frowned. How could he be inside the hard drive? Leaning over, she placed her hands on the keyboard. The hairs on David’s neck stood on end. He reached for her. If she so much as pressed a single key, she’d detonate the device. And then she did. The explosion rocked them both. Instantly the flames engulfed them.
“I’m sorry,” she told him as her skin melted from her body. She closed her eyes and never opened them again.
Seek and Destroy (TREX, #5) Page 24