by Janie Crouch
She could feel Seth’s touch sear her skin through her thin sweater. Unlike Ryan’s deliberately intimate touch that had made her only want to move away, Seth’s almost absent gesture just made her want to move closer to him.
She introduced Seth as her friend to the faculty members and lab assistants. Obviously none of them could place him as the same man that swept the floors and emptied the trash in their building, so Rachel didn’t mention it. Neither did Lydia when she returned with the drinks.
Rachel sat next to Seth in one of the love seats and watched as he talked easily with the people around him. Even when they talked about work-related stuff he just listened and nodded. Everyone seemed to like him. When they asked what he did, he just said something about being a maintenance technician. Nobody questioned what that meant.
They did obviously question what he was doing here with someone like Rachel. She could see it in their eyes, could tell in the way that some of the women tried to shift his focus to them. Rachel had to admit, Seth never left her side, and drew her into the conversation as much as possible, but she could still see the questions everyone had about why he would be here with her.
Rachel couldn’t blame them.
CHAPTER FOUR
Seth didn’t know what the hell he was doing here with Rachel. All he knew was that he couldn’t stay away.
He’d spent most of the day looking into the elevator incident. The head of the maintenance department, Charlie Hill, worked with him before they called the official repair service. Charlie had been thoroughly vetted by Omega and was one of the very few people who knew that Seth was an undercover agent.
“Definitely not an accident,” Charlie had said in his gruff, southern accent. “No way power would’ve blown from both the primary and secondary source at the same time.”
“That’s what I had figured too.”
“Plus the emergency phone line just happened to be damaged. Not sure when that happened, but it has been since inspection three months ago.” Charlie showed the elevator phone’s cord where it was torn. It could’ve come from everyday wear, but given everything else? Seth didn’t think so.
“And the kicker,” Seth replied, “is the cell phone blocker.”
“Yep.” Charlie nodded. “Someone was deliberately doing that, for sure. Everyone freaks out around here if cell coverage goes out. We’d have heard about it.”
“Okay, so it’s definitely sabotage.”
Charlie shrugged. “Looks that way.”
“Do you think it would’ve fallen to the ground? Killed us?” They’d cleared this area before beginning their search of the elevator, but Seth lowered his voice. “Maybe my cover is blown and someone was trying to get rid of me.”
“Could be, but the back-up brakes weren’t blown, so I think the intent might have been to trap someone. Scare them.”
“But not me.”
“Did anyone know you’d be getting on this elevator at this time?” Charlie asked.
Seth sat back on his heels as he pondered that. “No, I don’t think so. I wouldn’t have been anywhere near it, normally.”
But he’d run after Rachel and was damned glad that he had. He looked at the door, taped off for safety, but still ajar. The thought of her being trapped in there alone, unable to get out… Seth felt his teeth grind.
“Then I don’t think it was meant for you,” Charlie said. “I guess it’s your job to figure out who itwas meant for.”
Seth had thought about that all afternoon. He’d been on the elevator on accident, following Rachel. He didn’t think Rachel was the intended culprit; she wasn’t involved in the investigation at all.
Maybe there was more than one bad guy. Or maybe his perp was having second thoughts about selling the microchip and the elevator situation was the buyer’s way of gently nudging him or her back on track.
Nothing helped focus people like being trapped inside a steel box that might plummet down at any moment to a painful death.
Whatever it meant, it meant that something was happeningsoon. Seth needed more information fast.
Going out with Rachel —with all the computer engineering lab colleagues there— was his best bet at gathering the intel he needed. Because he sure as hell wasn’t getting the intel on campus.
So here he was, gathering intel. Soft, sweet Rachel next to him looking bewildered.
He was treating this like a real date, which he was sure confused her even more. Fortunately none of her coworkers, except her friend Lydia, realized who he was. To keep the conversation flowing naturally, Seth pretended to be just a guy interested in Rachel.
Not that that was any hardship. Even knowing he shouldn’t, Seth couldn’t seem to keep his hands off her lush body. He’d made sure their arms and legs were touching on the couch. He’d leaned into her whenever she’d said something, which hadn’t been often, but usually what she said was funny or insightful.
There was definitely tension between Lydia and Dale Hudson, the professor directly in charge of the lab. But Seth wasn’t sure the root. Both of them had the means to steal the microchip.
Ryan Powell, his other suspect, didn’t seem to be around at all.
“Is Ryan Powell around tonight?” he whispered to Rachel.
Her face flushed. Seth had no idea what that meant. “He was here earlier but left. He was acting weird.”
“What do you mean?”
Rachel shook her head and shrugged. “He and Lydia and Dale were arguing or something. I don’t know what about. Then he left.”
Seth’s eyes narrowed. There was more to the story than what she was telling him, but Seth wouldn’t push. At least not right now.
Rachel was uncomfortable with the evening, Seth knew. But he didn’t know why. Could she tell his attention was divided? It was a fine line he was walking: needing to use her as a guise for getting information while not wanting to lead her on.
While at the same time very much wanting to lead her on. Not just lead her on, but lead her to his apartment and spend the entire night forgetting about janitors and microchips and investigations. Only thinking about her.
But that just wasn’t in the cards.
Soon everyone was getting up to leave, heading toward the exit of the restaurant. Seth stayed close to Rachel, his hand at her back. He could admit that was just as much for his enjoyment as it was for the cover.
He’d have to leave Rachel here. He wanted to follow Hudson — see if he really went home or if he was meeting up with Ryan. If a sale was going down soon, and the incident with the elevator suggestedsomething was about to happen, Seth wouldn’t be surprised if they were meeting tonight. He’d already arranged to have another Omega agent follow Lydia for the same reason.
“I guess I’ll see you around campus,” Rachel whispered, barely looking up from her shoes as they walked out the door.
Everyone else was certainly looking at them, some discreetly, others less so. Like the tall brunette —Seth thought she was from the math department— who had been trying to get his attention all evening. She had pressed a note into his hand as he’d walked by a few moments ago.
Call me later if you decide mousy bookworms aren’t your type and real women are.
He realized most of Rachel’s colleagues were attempting to ascertain the relationship between he and Rachel. To see if they were really romantically involved or if this had just been for some sort of show.
He looked at Rachel who was still studying her shoes and obviously had no idea what to do. Seth wanted to protect her from her colleagues’ prying eyes. He wanted to sweep her up in an embrace that would put to rest all questions of whether he was hers or not. A kiss that would burn to ash that note from the brunette.
Seth threw caution into oncoming traffic and did just that. Pulled Rachel against him, tilted her chin back by threading his fingers in her hair and kissed her as if he’d wanted her more than his next breath.
Which was pretty much true.
She was surprised, but didn’t pull away. After ju
st a moment her soft lips parted under his and she gave herself over to the kiss, wrapping her arms around his waist.
Mousy bookworm, his ass.
After a few heated moments Seth forced himself to pull away. Not only did they have an audience, but he was undercover. Not to mention the Bransons were going to kill him if they found out he was about to jump their cousin’s bones.
He’d seen all four Bransons in action. Cameron, Sawyer, Dylan, and even slender Juliet could kill him in ways most people didn’t even know were possible. They’d probably all be willing to do just that if they knew he was kissing Rachel in the middle of a crowded street.
But damned if he didn’t want to keep kissing her anyway.
He put his forehead against hers. “Okay, we’re obviously going to need to talk, but not here. And as much as I want to, I can’t do it right now.”
“O-okay.” He could see her bottomless brown eyes in the light given off by the street lamp.
“I’ll see you tomorrow on campus, okay? Are you safe getting home?”
She nodded. “Yes, I just live a couple of blocks from here.” She mumbled off an address.
Seth didn’t want to let her go alone. He didn’t like the thought of her walking by herself even that short distance.
“Where’s your phone?” he asked.
She dug it out of her bag and handed it to him. He programmed his number into it. “Text me as soon as you get there so I know you’re okay. If I don’t hear from you in fifteen minutes, I’m coming to search.”
“Do you have to go back to work?”
Seth looked over at Lydia and Dr. Hudson who —now that the show was over— were saying their goodbyes.
“Yeah, I’ve got to get back to work.” He knew she meant his custodial duties back on campus, but didn’t correct that.
“Thanks for coming tonight. I know you said you couldn’t, so I really appreciate that you did.” With that she turned away and began walking down the street.
Seth was torn. He wanted to go with her,stay with her, finish the agonizing heat that kiss had started. But he couldn’t. Even if this entire situation left her bewildered. Especially because of that.
Seth made his way to the parking garage, along with many of the others, now focused on the job. It was getting late —after eleven— hopefully Hudson would make a move tonight.
Ryan Powell was his number one suspect, but either Lydia or Hudson could be in on it with Powell, or perhaps be behind the elevator incident. Hudson had worked at the university for over a dozen years. Lydia was a graduate student who’d only joined the program two and a half years ago.
Things were more tricky with him tailing anybody from the department now. He’d done it before, but had been sure they wouldn’t recognize him if they saw him. He no longer had those assurances since he’d spent time with them. Someone else from Omega would have to take over all covert surveillance, but for right now he didn’t want to lose sight of Dr. Hudson.
Seth waved as he drove by Lydia and Hudson in the garage and they waved back. He watched in the rearview mirror as he made his way toward the exit.
And wasn’t that interesting. He saw Hudson pull Lydia towards him in an embrace before they both got into his car together. They were having an affair.
That could explain some of the odd behavior from both of them —calls that were suddenly disconnected when Seth had walked by in the hallway, suspicious looks over their shoulders. They were trying to hide a relationship that would be frowned-upon by the university.
Were they trying to hide more?
Seth pulled out of the parking garage and stopped his car on a curve half a block away, turning out the lights. He knew where both Hudson and Lydia lived. He would bet they were going to Hudson’s house. It was much nicer.
He hoped they would meet someone or someone would join them there. Anything that might clue him in that they were the ones trying to sell the microchip.
But nothing. Seth sat in his car most of the night watching Hudson’s home after following them there. Nobody came, nobody left. The highlight of the night was the text he received from Rachel early on letting him know she’d made it home safely.
Another day finished and Seth had nothing to show for it but gritty eyes. The sun was coming up when his phone buzzed on the seat beside him.
“Yeah, this is Seth.” Nobody but Omega would be calling on this phone.
“Hey, Sunshine, hope I didn’t wake you. This is Sawyer.”
Seth smiled. Sawyer Branson was one of Seth’s favorite people at Omega. Hell, Sawyer was one of everyone’s favorite people. He just had that charming way about him.
“Nah, Sweetheart, I’m already awake. Wishing I was in bed, but I’m camped out in front of Dale Hudson’s house.”
“Anything interesting happening there?” Sawyer asked.
“If you consider the fact that he brought his pretty young graduate assistant home with him and she hasn’t left all night interesting, then yeah.”
“That is a little interesting.”
“But not terribly helpful with the case.” Seth ran a tired hand over his eyes.
“Well, if Hudson is willing to break this rule, it may show he’s willing to break others too.”
“Maybe. But it doesn’t give us any actual direction to look for the buyers of the microchip.” Seth couldn’t hold back a yawn. It was going to be a long day after this all-nighter.
“I’ve got more interesting news that still doesn’t lead us anywhere,” Sawyer said.
That woke Seth up. “Oh yeah?”
“The other graduate assistant you’re looking into…”
“Ryan Powell. Yeah, he was at the restaurant last night, but left before I got there.”
“You went public at the restaurant?”
Crap. This was not the time to tell Sawyer about Rachel and how they’d connected. It was especially not the time to mention kissing her.
“Yeah. I got invited to go out, so thought seeing everyone in a different setting might give me a clue.”
“You don’t know what time Powell left?”
“No, had to be before nine o’clock.” Seth said. “Why?”
“We have a computer system at Omega that continuously runs local police stations and hospitals for any names we put in. Ryan Powell’s name came up a few minutes ago.”
Now Seth was wide-awake. “He’s been arrested?”
“No. He’s in the hospital. He was beaten pretty severely and is in a coma.”
Different ramifications were floating around in Seth’s mind. “There was an incident with an elevator on campus yesterday too.”
Seth told Sawyer the story, conveniently leaving out the part about Rachel being in there with him.
Sawyer whistled through his teeth. “Something’s going down, that’s for sure. I’ll have Cameron and Juliet ready in case we have to make a move quickly.”
“I’ll keep you posted if anything changes.”
“We’ll do the same,” Sawyer replied. “And Seth, be careful. It’s getting crazy around there.”
Seth thought of his scorching kiss with Rachel. Yeah, things were getting crazy.
CHAPTER FIVE
The next morning Rachel was still trying to process everything that had happened the night before. She’d been kissed. By two different men. In the same evening.
That had never happened in her entire life.
Not that Rachel had ever really been one for much dating. She’d had a couple of boyfriends in college and while she’d found the physical relationships to be… pleasant… they hadn’t been anything that had made her want to turn away from her studies.
Not like her kiss with Seth last night that had her so engrossed she had forgotten just about everything.
Like her name.
She hadn’t been expecting Seth’s kiss any more than she had expected Ryan’s. Seth seemed to have had a fine time with her university colleagues. They had certainly enjoyed having him around —especially th
e women— but it had all felt so clinical to Rachel. Like Seth was studying them all. But maybe that’s just how he behaved in social situations. It wasn’t like Rachel was an expert on social graces.
So she’d been ready to just shake his hand and tell him she’d see him around. It was obvious that the two of them were too many worlds apart to really ever be a couple. She could see that everyone around them agreed — they’d all been watching to see how the evening would end.
Was someone as masculine, as handsome, assexy, as Seth really on a date with someone as plain as Rachel?
She wouldn’t have been surprised if her colleagues were taking bets on how the evening would end. Handshake? Hug? Either of those were what would Rachel would’ve bet on.
So yeah, that kiss had surprised her. Had curled her toes and scorched through her, but had also surprised her.
And if she wasn’t mistaken, it had surprised him too. Maybe the heat between them? Seth had looked just as shaken as she’d felt.
She brought her fingers up to her lips. She wasn’t sure where thissituation —because she certainly couldn’t call it a relationship— with Seth was going. There was so much about him she didn’t know. Not that she judged career choices, after all she’d never actually had one, she’d been in one school or another since kindergarten. After graduating high school she’d gone straight on to college, then the Masters program, then the doctoral program. She was twenty-six years old and had been in school since she was five.
But there had to be a reason a man of Seth’s caliber chose to be a custodian. She was pretty certain if he put his mind to it he could be anything he wanted.
But as much as she couldn’t stop thinking about the kiss with Seth, couldn’t get him out of her mind at all, it was Ryan’s kiss that had her worried this morning.
The situation with Seth, wild and crazy as it was, would work itself out. If things went bad with him and she had to avoid him every time she saw him on campus with his cart, she would do that.
Ryan was a different story. She was not interested in him at all and whatever she had done to give him that impression needed to be fixed. She needed to let him down gently. Even though he’d been a jerk.