Christmas Data Breach

by K. D. Richards

  He pressed his pelvis to her body, drawing another sexy moan from her lips. “Are you sure?”

  She tilted her head and looked into his eyes while hooking one leg around his waist. “Absolutely.”

  He trailed kisses down her neck. “I’ve missed you.” In one motion, he hooked his arm around her, lifted and dove into her.

  For one moment, everything stilled as emotion and sensations, both old and new, swept over him. Mya’s head fell back, exposing more creamy chocolate neck to be devoured.

  He started to move inside her, slowly and deliberately while suckling at her neck. Her nails dug into his back, and she wrapped her legs tighter around his waist, pulling him in deeper.

  Desire built into an inferno quickly. It took only minutes before the first spasms rolled over Mya. Every muscle in his body strained to hold back his release, but he was determined to draw the moment out as long as he could.

  “Gideon,” she cried out.

  The sound of his name entangling with her cries of ecstasy drove him into her harder and faster until he couldn’t hold back any longer. He felt her clench around him a second time, and they both fell over a precipice he wasn’t sure he could ever come back from.

  * * *

  MYA WOKE SLOWLY, the realization that she wasn’t in her own bed or in the guest room bed coming on in stages. She was in Gideon’s bed. After their explosive coupling downstairs, they’d moved to his bedroom and continued to reacquaint themselves. She remembered waking during the night and watching him sleep. It was the most relaxed she’d seen him since he’d tackled her in his backyard.

  It was still dark outside. The clock on the bedside table read 4:27 a.m.

  Mya rolled over and reached for Gideon but found the bed empty. The pillow was still dimpled, but the sheets on his side were cold to the touch, leaving her unsure how long he’d been up.

  She swung her feet over the side of the bed and grabbed a clean T-shirt from Gideon’s dresser before padding barefoot into the hall.

  The house was comfortably still. She started down the stairs at the same time Gideon emerged from the kitchen, headed toward the front door.

  “I have to say I’ve never had a man sneak out of his own house to avoid the morning after awkwardness.”

  Gideon turned toward the stairs. “I wasn’t sneaking out.”

  Whatever barriers she’d broken through the night before had been rebuilt and, it seemed, reinforced.

  Mya sighed and sank down to sit on the top step. “Then what are you doing?”

  Gideon moved to stand at the bottom of the steps. He looked up at her. “James is outside. He’s going to stay with you until I get back.”

  Cool air seeped through the light T-shirt Mya wore, raising goose bumps on her arms. She tucked her knees up under the shirt, bringing them to her chest. “Until you get back from where?”

  “I’ve just got some things to take care of at the office. I shouldn’t be too long.”

  “You’ve never been a good liar.”

  His expression hardened. “Look, I made a mistake taking you with me to Leeds’s last night. You’re safer staying put, out of sight.”

  Mya pushed to her feet. “I thought I made it clear. I am a part of this investigation. Where you go, I go.”

  He climbed the steps until they were face-to-face. “And I thought I made it clear I wouldn’t do anything that would lead to you getting hurt. I broke that promise yesterday. I won’t do it again.”

  “Are we still talking about breaking into Brian’s house or our activities after?”

  “Both.”

  She crossed her arms and watched his eyes dart to her breasts before focusing on her face again. “You know, the sexy alpha male stuff gets old real quick. I’m not some helpless damsel in distress.”

  “You came to me for help.”

  “Help!” She threw up her hands. “That implies both of our involvement, not you taking over, making all the decisions, or locking me in a tower while you go slay the dragon.”

  Gideon’s eyes softened. “I’m just trying to protect you.”

  “The best way to do that is to trust me.” She waited for a beat, hoping her words would sink in this time. “Where are you going?”

  Gideon’s jaw clenched. “To find out who lives at the address we found in Brian’s files last night.”

  Mya turned and headed for the guest bedroom. “I’ll get dressed.”

  “I’m already later than I wanted to be.”

  “Five minutes,” she said, snapping the bedroom door closed behind her.

  It took her six minutes, but when she came down the stairs, Gideon was waiting by the front door.

  “James still out there?” she asked, putting on her coat. She would have liked to grab a cup of coffee, maybe a piece of toast, but she didn’t dare mention that to Gideon.

  “No. I told him you’d be coming with me.”

  From the sour look on his face, she surmised they had said more, but again she didn’t push.

  Gideon already had the address plugged into his phone’s GPS, but Mya did an internet search for it as he drove.

  The address was for a Tudor-style home just over the county line in Westchester. Mya scrolled through the links returned by the search and discovered the home had sold to its current owner two years earlier for a little over a million dollars. Nearby homes were currently selling for nearly twenty percent more.

  “Looks like a nice house,” she said, continuing to scroll on her phone.

  “Do you recognize it at all?”

  She used two fingers to zoom in on the photo. The exterior of the home was gorgeous, but it didn’t ring any bells for her. “No, and no one I know could afford a home like this.”

  “Not even TriGen investors?”

  “Well, of course, the lab’s investors probably could, but I’ve never had the pleasure of being invited to any of their homes.” She slanted a glance across the darkened interior of the car. “You think Brian was sending my research to one of the investors too? Why? I send quarterly reports and, under the investment agreement, any of them could have demanded to see the data and research backing up those reports.”

  “Maybe they didn’t want you to know they had seen the data.”

  “Why?” Mya asked again, confusion clouding her caffeine-deprived brain. This was making about as much sense as everything else that had happened over the last three days, which was not much sense at all.

  “I don’t know. It’s all just speculation. That’s one of the reasons I want to know who lives at this address.”

  “I’m sure West employs a computer whiz or four. They couldn’t find out who lives there without us having to make a trip to Westchester at the crack of dawn?”

  Gideon cocked an eyebrow. “I wanted to leave you at home.”

  She raised her hands. “I’m not complaining, just stating a fact.”

  Gideon didn’t look convinced when he said, “The house was bought using an LLC.”

  “Very Kim and Kanye.” She noticed the ghost of a smile that ticked the edges of Gideon’s mouth. “What? I read that’s how celebrities buy houses, so they don’t have creepy stalker fans showing up in their rose bushes every day.”

  “Well, I don’t think we’ll find Kim and Kanye, but you never know.”

  “Hope springs eternal.” Mya grinned.

  That got a smile out of him.

  They made good time since it was still early.

  The Tudor was as impressive in real life as it was in the photos. All the homes in the neighborhood were. Large homes on ever-larger lots that screamed wealth and privilege, many covered with showy decorations. Mya cringed at the thought of how much electricity the block consumed each evening.

  Gideon parked several doors down from the Tudor and leaned his seat back.

  “So,
what do you do on stakeouts?”

  Gideon shook his head. “This isn’t a stakeout. We’re just observing a house.”

  “Which is the definition of a stakeout,” Mya said pointedly. “Accurate description is important in scientific research.”

  One of Gideon’s eyebrows ticked up while the other went down. “We’re not curing cancer here.”

  Mya grinned. “We kind of are, at least treating it, if the person who lives in that house has my server and we get it back.”

  Gideon leaned over the center console. His aftershave hit her, sending her stomach fluttering and a memory from the night before rippling through her. “Mya? You still with me?”

  She shook herself out of the memory. “Of course. What were you saying?”

  “I said all we’re going to do is watch. If someone comes out of the house, I’ll take a photo, and we can go from there. Neither of us is leaving this car, understand.”

  “Okay. Okay, I get it.” She leaned her seat back to match his and settled in.

  The residents in the houses began to stir and start their day. Lights came on and cars backed out of garages carrying their owners to the high-powered jobs that paid for the opulence.

  “Can I ask you a question?” Mya asked after several more minutes of boring suburban domesticity.

  Gideon slanted a glance her way. “You can ask.” He turned his gaze back to the Tudor.

  “When you said you left the military because you’d seen too much, what did you mean?”

  Gideon’s eyes stayed trained forward. She didn’t repeat the question. She hoped he’d answer, but if he didn’t, she wouldn’t push.

  “I watched five of my friends get blown to pieces by an IED.”

  Mya wasn’t totally surprised. She knew many soldiers returned to the States with scars from the war. Every fiber of her being wanted to whisk away the pain she saw in Gideon’s eyes at that moment.

  “Oh, Gideon. I’m so sorry.” She grabbed his hand and squeezed. “It happened during your second deployment, didn’t it?”

  “Yes, how did you—”

  “You weren’t the same when you came back that time. Quieter. You were always quiet, but I guess morose is the better word.”

  “I didn’t know how to handle it. I didn’t handle it well at all.”

  “I wish you would have talked to me.”

  “I’m sorry if I made you feel like there was something wrong with you or the divorce was your fault. It took me a long time to work through that. Not sure I’m done working through it, actually.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me? I would have helped you through it.”

  He shot a quick glance at her. “I didn’t want to lay that on you.”

  “I was your wife. I wanted to help you with whatever you were going through.” Her voice dropped almost to a whisper. “I still do.”

  “Mya—”

  The door to the Tudor opened, cutting off what Gideon was about to say. He lifted his phone and engaged the video.

  A woman swaddled in a pink robe and slippers walked to the end of the driveway and bent down to retrieve the morning paper.

  When she turned back toward the house, Mya got a good look at the woman’s face.

  Shock quickly gave way to anger as she stared at Shannon Travers.

  Chapter Fifteen

  “I don’t understand why we don’t confront Shannon right now. We know she’s behind all this. She has my research.” Mya slammed her palm down on the conference room table.

  Gideon fought to keep his frustration at bay. This was why he preferred to work alone.

  “We don’t know that,” Gideon snapped.

  James and Tessa pushed through the conference room doors. They steered clear of the end of the long table where he and Mya stood.

  “Of course we do. Rebecca was sending my research data to her. When she found out I was getting close to proving my treatment worked, Shannon must have decided to take matters into her own hands.”

  “All we know is that Rebecca sent something to her. It could have been love letters for all we know.”

  “Rebecca was seeing Brian.”

  Tessa pointed her finger at Mya. “That doesn’t mean she wasn’t also involved with Shannon.”

  “Let’s start with what we know about Shannon Travers,” James interjected reasonably. He sat in the chair at the head of the table. Tessa sat next to him.

  Gideon sat on the opposite side of the table next to Mya.

  “I’ve already got the basic background on Travers, but any color you can give us on her, stuff that wouldn’t come up in a background check, would be helpful.”

  Mya folded her hands atop the table. “Shannon is a self-centered, egotistical, manipulative witch.”

  “I can tell you really like her,” Tessa deadpanned.

  Mya shot a wry smile across the table. “I already told you we were both in the same PhD program. We were never friends, but Shannon somehow convinced herself that I stole the postdoc job with Irwin from her.”

  “Why would she think that?” James asked.

  Mya shrugged. “Because she’s deranged?”

  James shot a look across the table. Mya swept her arms open. “Okay, I’m sorry.” She rose and went to the mini-fridge in the corner of the room. “Both of us concentrated our studies on finding improved treatments for cancer patients, but at the time, I wasn’t focused on glioblastoma specifically. Shannon was.”

  “What made you change your mind?” Gideon asked.

  Mya carried four bottles of water back to the table and reclaimed the seat beside him.

  “Irwin. He was so passionate about the work. It inspired me.”

  Tessa grabbed one of the bottles Mya set on the table and twisted its cap off. “So, you went to work for him.”

  “Shannon and I both applied for an internship at his lab, and Irwin chose me.”

  James read from the screen of the laptop in front of him. “It doesn’t look like Shannon had a hard time finding another job. She’s worked for Nobel since getting her PhD. Promoted steadily over the last several years.” James looked at Mya.

  “What can you tell us about Nobel Pharmaceuticals?” James asked.

  Mya sighed. “They are the leading pharmaceutical company in the Northeast region. And they’re also working on a treatment for glioblastoma. That’s why I’m sure Shannon must be behind what’s been happening. We need to confront her.”

  James’s eyes narrowed. “It’s a big leap to go from a professional feud to arson and murder.”

  “You don’t understand how driven and malicious Shannon is. And you said it yourself, Gideon, people will do a lot of things for the kind of money my treatment will bring in if it’s proven to work.”

  Gideon couldn’t argue that point, but he still wasn’t ready to go in completely on the theory that Shannon Travers was behind all this. “I still think we need more before we confront her.”

  Mya’s posture stiffened, her lips angling down in a scowl.

  “You both make valid points,” Tessa offered. “We don’t have enough to accuse Travers of stealing Mya’s research, much less being involved with the deaths of her coworkers and the attack on Mya. But if Travers is involved, whether willingly or not, confronting her may push her to make a mistake that we can use against her.”

  Gideon frowned at Tessa. “Or confronting her lets her know we are on to her, and she destroys any evidence there might be that she is behind this.”

  “It’s a risk, but there are always risks,” James said. “If Shannon Travers is involved, it won’t be easy for her to get rid of all the evidence.”

  Crap. Gideon didn’t like it. They had nothing concrete, just speculation and grudges. But it wasn’t the first time he’d played a hunch, although usually, they were his hunches.

  Mya turned to h
im. “I’m going to talk to Shannon, with or without you.”

  Double crap.

  “We’ll go see if Ms. Travers will speak with us. But listen, you can’t lose your temper when we do. She’s not likely to tell us anything either way, but if we come on too aggressively, we’ll never get another shot.”

  Mya raised her right hand. “I will be on my best behavior.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Mya looked out the passenger window as Gideon navigated them through a part of Manhattan most tourists never saw. A woman in a houndstooth coat typed on her cell phone and dodged a man pushing a baby stroller. The man glared, but the woman didn’t look up from her phone. Seconds later, Gideon drove through the intersection, leaving both the man and the woman behind.

  Traffic was light, and they made it over the George Washington Bridge in good time. They were in Jersey before Gideon spoke, “What’s the deal between you and this woman?”

  Mya glanced at him from the passenger seat. “There is no deal.”

  “All this animosity developed solely over the job with Irwin.” She heard the skepticism in Gideon’s voice.

  Mya shrugged. “A very prestigious job, although Shannon didn’t have too hard a landing. I know people who’d kill to have her job.” The minute the words left her mouth, Mya wished she could take them back. The sentiment hit far too close to home under the circumstances.

  Gideon’s eyes remained trained on the road ahead. “So, she’s a genius too.”

  “I hate that term, but I’d say she’s at least as smart as I am.” She hated the begrudging way the words fell from her mouth. “Maybe more if ruthlessness counts as intelligence.”

  He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “It’s often mistaken as intelligence.”

  Mya smiled. “Have you become a philosopher in the last twelve years?”

  He shot a lopsided smile her way. “I just call it as I see it, as always.”

  For a moment, she saw the nineteen-year-old who’d gotten down on one knee at Rockaway Beach and declared his love with a ring she still treasured more than all the expensive jewelry she owned.