Avoiding his touch, she begrudgingly took the bag from him with a not so hearty thanks. Sitting on the bed, her laptop across her legs, Ruby booted it up and keyed in a password.
The beep on the computer drew his attention to the monitor.
“See.” She pointed at the screen. “These are all the emails Nico’s received.”
“There’re a lot of messages from someone named ‘Anonymous’.”
“Yeah, quite a lot and they’re all encrypted. It’ll take a little bit, but I can track the real sender and decrypt the messages.”
“You’re out of time. Your job is up. Someone else can take it from here.”
Ruby ignored him and went back to playing on her keyboard.
“Damn it, Ruby. Are you listening to me?”
“Nope. I’m opening your emails so you can see what I can do and how close we are. It would be a total waste of time and energy to bring someone else in when I’m almost done.”
“Shit.” He’d forgotten she installed that damn emailHound software on his network.
“Ruby, stay out of my email. It’s government property.”
When he reached to turn off the power, she elbowed him, knocked the air out of him. Why the hell had he shown her some of those moves?
“Your last email was from Jake. The message says, ‘I received the tracking coordinates for the necklace and as soon as the storm let’s up I’ll be there for Ruby duty.’”
The eyes that had glowed emerald in passion now smoldered in flecks of gold and bore into him. He wished he was dressed. He needed protection. In thinking it, he automatically covered Brother Jonathon with his hands.
“Were you going to tell me about this email? And the necklace?”
Was he? Probably not, but should he lie? Diversion, he needed a diversion. Yeah, resort to military tactics. Locating his pants, he tugged them on, followed by his shirt and shoes. Then he responded.
“Get dressed, we’re leaving.”
Shock and pain exploded behind her chest. She stared at him in disbelief.
“How could you?” she asked in a harsh whisper. “How could you tag me with a tracking device? You made me believe the necklace was a gift from your heart. I thought you trusted me.”
“I do,” Michael rasped. He took a step toward her, reached for her.
She shrank from him. If he trusted her, he wouldn’t have given her a fake present. He wouldn’t ask her to leave. Ask? He didn’t ask. He ordered. She wasn’t one of his military underlings. She was the woman he just made love to.
She looked at the bed, the rumpled covers a reminder of what they had shared. Squeezing her eyes closed, she tried to blink the memory and feel of his touch from her mind.
“You never loved me. You betrayed me,” she accused, fixing him with a piercing stare.
“Ruby…”
“Don’t,” she growled. “Don’t tell me lies or give me excuses. Don’t try to protect me. We didn’t just make love.” He hadn’t shown her his feelings without words. “We had sex, screwed, fucked,” she hissed. Great sex, but just sex.
She misunderstood his intentions, his meanings. Again. But no more. She’d been wrong. Again. She hated being wrong. Would she never learn?
With a calm she didn’t feel, Ruby regarded him in a cold stare. Cringing at her own stupidity, her eyes flickered open and glared at Michael. He didn’t trust her. He didn’t trust her judgment or her ability. Even though he’d just made love to her, he didn’t trust her. Without trust, he couldn’t love her.
Before it choked her, she tore the necklace from around her throat. Like the love she couldn’t hold onto, the gold slipped through her fingers. Tears slid free, so did the jewel, falling to the floor, landing at his feet. She wondered if he would step on it and crush it as he had her heart.
Angry, she turned from him, stalked toward the door that connected her bedroom to the main part of the house. Before reaching for the handle, she spun back.
The intensity of his blue gaze made her waver, but only for a moment. Arms crossed over naked breasts, heart broken, resolve steeled, Ruby faced Michael down.
“I’m not leaving.”
Sucking in a deep breath, she steadied her voice, keeping it quiet. Just because she wanted to rail at him, wasn’t a reason to get caught in this situation.
“I’m not finished with my job.”
She gave a silent whimper as he bore down on her, too quick for an escape. Looking up at the face of the man looming over her, a hawk to its prey, Ruby waited for the next intimidation tactic. He couldn’t force her to leave. Could he? No, he couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
“Pack your bare ass up and let’s go. Now.”
“You need me, Michael, and you damn well know it.”
“Need you? What do I need? Do I need to follow you and protect you from your stalking ex? Or to trail you and guard you against a known criminal while you dance the hula? Or do I need you to aim a gun at me ready to kill?”
His sarcasm bit, the cold freezing her heart.
“Get out. Get out now,” she told him through clenched teeth.
Michael started to take a step toward her. “Get out before I open this bedroom door and holler for Nicolas.”
Her threat worked.
Michael halted his advance. Annoyed at himself, he dragged his hands down his face, shut his eyes, and shook his head. He let her get too close. Too close to his work, to him, his heart.
When he looked at Ruby again, there was nothing left to say. Not now.
Turning on his heel, Michael exited the room the same way he came in, silent and scared.
* * * *
After watching Michael retreat like the dog he was, Ruby didn’t cry. Well, okay, she cried a little, but then she got angry and defiant. Determined to show him what she was made of, that she was the best at what she did, Ruby dove into her work.
She’d solve the mystery of Nicolas’s partner and his money laundering scheme. The sooner she finished, the sooner she could leave.
With a burst of energy, Ruby went back to work on her laptop.
The sender of the ‘Anonymous’ emails was no dummy. She knew this because they hadn’t put real data into the email header. That would have made her life much easier and the criminal’s a living hell.
With tweaks made to her emailHound application, she’d be able to trace the emails through the misdirections of the remailer. She could then pinpoint the originating IP address. From that IP address, she could get a physical address and a name. She would.
Just in case, Ruby needed a decryption tool like SHA or MDA so she could read the actual messages. After the download finished, she breathed an exhausted sigh.
A tired brain, fatigued body, and emotionally drained, Ruby wanted sleep. But not in the bed she’d shared with Michael. She didn’t want his smell wrapped around her like a blanket.
Taking a pillow from the bed and grabbing a quilt from the closet, she took them into the sitting room. She curled up on the velvet lounger, let nothingness wash over her, and drifted off to a restful slumber.
* * * *
Hiding in the shadows, Michael had guarded over Ruby, watched her work on that computer, clacking keys until the need for sleep won. When she took the blanket into the sitting room and curled up on the chaise, it tore him up. It was his fault she wouldn’t sleep in the bed.
In the early morning hours, Jake called Michael with good news. The storm had passed and he was in the air. In a matter of hours, he’d be there to be Ruby’s bodyguard. Relief and gratitude washed over Michael.
The weather may have cleared for Jake, but Michael’s storm roared full force inside him. All he wanted to do was protect Ruby. That was why he hadn’t told her about the necklace. She was too precious to him. It was a precaution he had to take. Why didn’t he tell her that?
He was there to do a job, would go to any extreme to do that job. He wanted Ruby on the mission because she was the best. He had faith in her to perform the task he contracted her
to do. Hell, she was doing it. It was his efforts he questioned. Was he doing everything he could for the assignment? Did he do everything he could for Ruby? He trusted her with his life. But he didn’t trust hers with him.
They hadn’t had sex. He refused to believe that’s all it was. The devastated look on her face when she tore the necklace from her throat told him that’s what she believed. Didn’t she know how he felt? Didn’t he show her? No. She needed the words. Why couldn’t he have told her? He loved her.
Knowing Jake was on his way and Ruby was asleep, Michael went to his hotel to clean up and change.
TWENTY-SIX
When Ruby awoke, she still hadn’t gotten any results. Whoever sent those messages was no hack. If he had been, the decryption tool would have succeeded within a couple of hours.
She sighed to herself, set her jaw in determination, and sent her fingers flying across the keyboard. There was a job to do and she would do it. Her lips pursed in concentration, she tapped the keys some more. She would not let a computer geek, a thief, outwit her.
“Come on, you can do it,” she murmured to herself. “I bet I can find out where you came from.”
She hit the ‘Enter’ key one last time and leaned back. “There. Now we’ll see what we get.” Satisfied, she rewarded herself with a shower.
A wave of pleasure flowed through Ruby, and a smile lifted the corners of her mouth as she entered the shower.
As she stood under the spray, savoring the hot water, she reveled as it pounded on her back and relaxed the muscles that tended to stay tight. They were stiff. All in a hard night’s work and...
Memories of Michael and their lovemaking flooded her as she luxuriated in the spray streaming over her. He never said the words, but his actions said it all. Didn’t they?
Even though he wasn’t with her, hadn’t touched her in hours, she felt him. His hands cupping her face, breasts, and butt. Warm lips trailed down her neck, belly, and lower. He’d left his mark, invisible but indelible.
Stop. Stop thinking about that, about him, she scolded herself. He hurt her. Again. Distrusted her. Betrayed her. Turning the shower to hot, she hoped the scalding water would wash away the disappointment.
Fifteen minutes later, clean and shampooed, Ruby turned the shower off and stepped out. Wrapping a towel around her hair and another around her body, she hummed. Brushing her hair, her lips hummed. She hummed when she made a decision and nothing would interfere with that decision. The fact that Michael would hate her decision, made Ruby hum even louder. Then, Luey beeped.
“Yes.” In triumph, she raised her arms in the air above her head. “Success.” She loved her computer. Well, okay, she didn’t love it, but she adored it.
Opening the door, a cool breeze assailed her, letting all the steam out. “Brrr.”
In a hurry to see the results of her work, she walked out of the bathroom, stopped and froze in her tracks.
The bedroom door was open, just a crack, but it was open. It had been shut. Glancing around the room, she looked for someone lurking in the shadows. She found no trace of anyone. She moved to her computer.
“About damned time.” The decryption tool had broken the code. She could read the messages.
She read several emails. They didn’t mean much to her. One email referred to something called green ice. What the heck was green ice? Another message was more promising. It mentioned revising some code so the transferred funds went into multiple accounts and it listed a bunch of long account numbers. The last message made her heart stop.
“His treachery will cost him his life, but before that, it will cost him hers. He took Katya from me and I’ll take Ruby from him.”
Katya.
Ruby couldn’t believe what she read, so she read it again. The identity of the emailer hit her full force. She closed her eyes, tried to control the gallop of her heart.
Michael. She had to warn Michael. It was Alex. Alex was Nicolas’s partner. She zipped up the messages and attached them to an email addressed to Michael.
“Michael,
It’s Alex. Alex is Nicolas’s partner. He wants you dead. Please read the first message in the zip file and you’ll see what I mean. I didn’t trace it back to the IP address. I’m not sure we need to. Be careful.”
She clicked the ‘Send’ button and sent the email on its way.
The truth hit her in a wave of cold air, chilled her to the bones. Or maybe it was the fact that she needed to put some clothes on. Alex was in Hawaii. Alex wanted Michael dead. He wanted her dead. She couldn’t let that happen and she wouldn’t be his bait.
Turning from the computer, Ruby saw him standing in the doorway, his figure filling the space. She swallowed in fear as she saw the gun in his hand. Her body shivered. Her mind raced.
Her mind raced with options. Maybe something had spooked him. Maybe he was checking the house and carried a weapon for protection.
His eyes told her otherwise. No longer lavender, they were cold and dark. When she looked at Nicolas, she no longer saw her friend, her mentor. The man standing there was hard, dangerous, and lethal.
Could she reach the gun in the dresser before he shot her? Would he shoot her, or could she talk her way out of this?
“Ready to go diving?”
As he stepped into the room, Ruby swallowed the knot in her throat, attempted to subdue her fear.
“Uh...not unless we’re diving in our birthday suits,” she replied, striving for calm.
A small smile quirked on his face, Nicolas crossed his arms over his chest, stood like a pillar of granite.
“Get dressed. I’ll wait.”
“Would you mind leaving so I can?”
“I’m not leaving. Get dressed.”
She would’ve argued, but he’d given her a reason to get in the dresser drawer. Her derringer was there.
Not wanting to spook him, Ruby turned toward the dresser. She slid open the underwear drawer, reached in, and felt for the gun tucked under silk. When she found the pistol missing, hope dropped like a stone.
“It’s not there.”
Her head jerked in his direction. Heart jumping in alarm, she saw him dangling her derringer between his fingers, aiming his at her chest. Staring at the barrel of the gun, mouth dry and the silent sound of her heart beat loud in her ears. Ruby wet her lips.
“I guess you’re not planning on shooting the fish with that.”
Now what? Be calm. She sent the message to Michael. He’d get it. Would he come? Was he outside? Was Jake? For once, she wanted the Neanderthal. Wished he spied on her. She wished for her bodyguard. Needed one.
“What were you planning to do with this little thing? Shoot a rabbit? Shoot me?”
“A girl’s gotta protect herself.” Lifting her left shoulder, she shrugged. “You never know what pervert, stalker, or criminal will show up on your doorstep.”
“Ruby, the boat is waiting. Get dressed. Vite.”
His curt tone and use of his native French language advised her to do what he said and do it fast. Retrieving the brown and pink bikini from the back of a chair, she stepped into the bottoms and shimmied them up her legs and over her hips under the towel. She wasn’t about to give him a peep show. The top tied in place over the towel, Ruby pulled the cloth off her body and the other from her hair, tossing them on the bed.
She couldn’t get on that boat. They’d never get to her in time. Michael, where are you? Intent on stalling, she faced him, and stiffened her spine. “Why?”
Nicolas stared at her. Her bold question had taken him by surprise. “What? You don’t think I have a right to know? You’re holding a gun on me, your friend, protégé, petit chat. Why? Do you want to kill me? Why?”
“It’s not personal, it’s business. You conspired against me, infiltrated my network, and spied on my business. It would have worked too if it weren’t for my partner. You left me no choice but to deal with you as an enemy.”
“You’re a thief, Nico, a common thief after money.”
<
br /> His features became stony, and then he barked a laugh.
“Oh, there’s nothing common about me. It’s not the money. It’s the challenge, the thrill of cracking security codes, and transferring the funds without detection. I liberate funds from those who steal it legally. Investment companies are the real thieves. They take from the hardworking, line their own pockets, and when their strategy fails to deliver the promise of fortune they walk away without remorse. The working stiff is left behind devastated, no future in sight.”
The dossier. She remembered the dossier she read. The account he described was about his father.
“Is that what happened to your father? Did your father commit suicide?”
“No,” he roared. “He was murdered.” His agony filled the room. “They may not have pulled the trigger, but they put the gun in his hand. No one hurts my family and gets away with it.”
“You made them pay. It’s time to stop. Before it’s too late. Before someone gets hurt or killed.” She didn’t want to die. And she wouldn’t be his bait.
“It’s time to go.”
“Nicolas, the guy you’re working with is a traitor. He’ll cheat you and leave you. Maybe for dead. He’s done it before.”
His ominous smile, crooked and cocky, sent shivers up her spine. He waved the gun in the direction of the door, stepped aside, granting her passage through it.
“Move.”
No choice, Ruby walked through the doors into the morning sunlight, the bright rays masking the dark nightmare in motion.
Taking in her surroundings, she stepped onto the boat, followed by Nicolas. Ruby understood now. She was bait, the lure for Michael. She looked for the hook they would use to catch him.
As he held the gun trained on her, Nico cast off the bow and aft lines. Nothing anchoring them, the boat rocked, and bounced against the dock. Or was that her heart bouncing against her chest?
“Move to the helm,” he ordered.
Nico twisted the key beside the wheel, the boat revved, the motor came to life. Feet planted, Ruby braced herself as Nicolas turned the wheel directing them away from shore. As waves slammed against the hull, her eyes were on the horizon.
It Happens in Threes Page 27