Cyber Illusions: Sensory Ops, Book 6

by Nikki Duncan

  The fingers on his stomach moved slowly up and across his chest, tugged occasionally at his chest hair. She only made him hunger for a repeat that didn’t call for an end.

  “You make a habit of not talking like that a lot?”

  She sounded…sated. Knowing he’d taken her there, he was filled with satisfaction. Grinning, he shook his head. “I might have to try it again later.”

  “I hope I’m in as good a mood as I was when I got home.”

  Reaching up, he wrapped a strand of her hair around his finger. “Not that I’m complaining, or asking to borrow trouble, but what did happen to change your mood so drastically?”

  “Martina, my stage assistant, and her husband have been trying for over a year to get pregnant. Now she is.”

  “Someone else’s good news makes you happy enough not to fight with me?”

  She shrugged, still exploring his chest and stomach. “I’m really happy for them, even if she is thinking about quitting.”

  “What will you do without her?”

  “Hire someone else. What did you do this morning? Other than swim?”

  Hesitant to break the mood, because he was enjoying just lying with her and listening to her talk, Tyler broached the taboo topic. “Will you come to my room with me? I want to show you something.”

  She slid her finger down and played with the waistband over his tattoo. “I’ve already seen R2D2. Remember?”

  “That’s not what I’m talking about.” Grabbing her hand to stop her from starting trouble, he got to his feet and hauled her with him. Trouble, regardless of how delectable, had to be avoided for the sake of his investigation as much as for the kids. Possibly for his heart, too.

  They didn’t speak until they were in his room and he motioned for her to sit in the desk chair. Opening his laptop and pulling up the video he hadn’t watched in its entirety, he said, “Before I show you this, I want you to know I’m not showing it to you to prove my point. I shouldn’t be showing it to you at all. The fact is, there’s not much I’d love more than to prove your innocence.”

  She narrowed her eyes, but held her arguments and questions.

  “In addition to the coin that was left at the last theft, there was a surveillance video.” He handed her the laptop. “It doesn’t look good for you, Taryn.”

  He hit Play and then stepped back to watch her as she watched what had sent him to the pool. There was no sound, but her face revealed surprise, curiosity and anger the moment she saw the long-haired figure move into the shot. She reached up and stopped the video.

  “That is not me.” Her voice shook lightly as she spoke through a clenched jaw, never actually moving her mouth. “There’s only one person who’s been with me long enough to have been in all those places with me and who looks like me. She looks so much like me, in fact, we keep her a secret.”

  “Who?”

  “Kimber. She’s my double.”

  “You have a double?”

  Taryn shrugged. “It’s not like I can beam myself across a room. I really don’t think she could have done it, though.”

  With the right motivation, the best of friends betrayed each other. Her tone kept him from saying as much. “Then help me prove it, because while a coin can be explained, I can’t make that disappear.”

  “You say that like you might actually try.”

  “I’m beginning to think I would, though I’d rather not.”

  “No worries. I’ll prove it.” Standing, she handed him the laptop and walked out. He followed her to the garage where she retrieved her purse from the floor. Pulling out her cell, she scrolled through the screen while walking back toward her office. He saw the title “Attorney” on the phone’s screen before she lifted it to her ear.

  “Daniel,” she said when a call she’d placed was clearly answered. “Can you come over? It’s about what we discussed this morning.”

  Her attorney. Great. “Taryn, I’m not looking to complicate this by pulling a lawyer into the mix.”

  “You want proof—” she ended that call and placed another, “—you’ll get proof, but I’m not doing it without representation present.”

  “Mom, have you had any luck with that project?” The pause was brief before a small smile touched her mouth. “Can you come over with what you have? Great. See you soon.”

  Hanging up and immediately placing another call, she headed down the hall. He wanted to demand answers, but instead found himself waiting to see what happened. “Madison, it’s Taryn. Can you pick the kids up for me this afternoon and take them to your house? Let them play with Addy? As soon as I take care of a few things I’ll come get them. Thank you.”

  Still not clueing him in to what she was doing, or how she was going to prove her innocence, Taryn hung up, went to her office and turned on her own computer. While it booted, she opened her filing drawer and retrieved a file.

  “What are you doing, Taryn?”

  Telling himself that anything she had planned was better than arguing with her, he told himself to stay patient and avoid an argument.

  “Proving the person in the video isn’t me.” Sitting at her desk, she quickly put her printer to work and jotted notes on a pad by her right hand. The woman worked like a whirlwind, putting things in motion faster than anyone he’d seen. And he and his team were pretty quick.

  “Are you going to tell me how you’re going to do that?” he asked.

  “As soon as Mom and Daniel get here.”

  “Daniel. You’re on a first-name basis with your attorney?” And why did she need her mom to prove her innocence?

  “He’s also an ex.”

  Jealousy had never suited Tyler. It motivated people to behave like asses, mistreating people who didn’t deserve it. When it came to Taryn he was capable of behaving poorly all on his own. Now, instead of only dealing with an attorney who would likely see any slight against her as an accusation, he had to see the kind of man she dated.

  Before he could say anything, the doorbell rang. Taryn was up and down the hall quickly. It took every ounce of control in him to stay in the chair in front of her desk and wait for her return. Hearing a man’s voice, he was glad he’d stayed put. The more casual he appeared, the less confrontational they could keep things. Hopefully.

  “I’m gathering the things we talked about this morning.”

  “Is that why you called me here, sounding panicked? You could have just emailed it over.”

  “Tyler showed me a video I think you should see. It goes along with the information I’m gathering.”

  Taryn stepped into the office an instant before Daniel. Topping six feet, broad shoulders made to look broader by the snug cut of his thousand-dollar suit, he was the expected picture of a slick attorney. Only Tyler got the impression that in this case slick meant powerful not slimy. He’d faced power before, though.

  “Daniel, Tyler.” She waved her hand between them in the way of an introduction. “Tyler, Daniel.”

  Daniel shook his hand, holding it firmer and a little longer than customary. Yeah, the guy liked to be the most powerful person in the room.

  “I hear you’re giving T a hard time.”

  Tyler pulled his hand back, refusing to rise to his feet. Power didn’t always come from being the tallest and most in-your-face person in the room. “I’m just doing my job. She’s misunderstood my intentions.”

  She settled back in her chair and resumed her work. “Taryn,” Daniel said, “you seem to have calmed down since this morning.”

  “She has.” Tyler grinned, leaving Daniel to think whatever the hell he wanted.

  After a moment of staring at Tyler, with Tyler not backing down, Daniel nodded and stepped back. Attorneys were trained to control courtrooms, but FBI agents, while they could hold their own on the witness stand, were masters of living room meetings. They might be in Taryn’s office, but it was essentially the same, and Tyler’d spent enough time there to have home court advantage.

  “There’s a folding chair in
the closet,” Taryn said to Daniel. “Tyler, can you show him the video?”

  “Sure.” Tyler already had it cued up, so as soon as Daniel got his metal chair and sat, Tyler passed the laptop over.

  He was treading a thin line of propriety, okay, not so thin really, because agents didn’t have private meetings with suspects and their attorneys to discuss evidence. Such meetings could easily backfire and cost him his job.

  He hoped Taryn was worth the risk.

  Chapter Nine

  Taryn watched the byplay between Tyler and Daniel and found herself surprised when Daniel was the more antagonistic of the two. He’d never been anything but agreeable, and Tyler had more confrontational moments than kind ones. The switch was curious.

  Steadiness and predictability, like Daniel’s, were everything she’d ever thought she wanted, so why were Tyler’s mood swings so appealing? Why was he the one, who even when pissing her off, intrigued her? Why was he the one who aroused her with a look?

  By the time Daniel had watched the video and Tyler reclaimed his laptop, Taryn’s mom had arrived and let herself into the house.

  “Tyler, you remember my mom, Liz.”

  “Good to see you again.” With a curious look between Tyler and Daniel, her mom passed a folded paper to Taryn. “It’s the best I could do in so little time.”

  Taryn flipped the paper open. Beside nearly half the dates she’d given her mom was an artist’s name and a painting title. “Daniel, were you able to get that list from the White Collar division?”

  “They’re supposed to send it.”

  “You looking for the list of pieces stolen?” Tyler asked as he stood from his chair and motioned for her mom to sit.

  “And how they correspond with my itinerary.”

  Tyler carried his laptop around the desk so he was standing beside Taryn. After a few keystrokes the list of stolen pieces, along with a picture of them, was on the screen. “Now show me yours.”

  She laid the list from her mom on top of his keyboard and then looked at the two together. They were an exact match.

  “How did you get this?” Tyler asked Mom as he went to the closet and pulled out another chair. Sitting beside Taryn, close enough that the salty smell of his swim reached her, she recalled the salty taste of his kiss.

  “Mom has contacts.”

  Pointing to three paintings on the list, her heart swelled with sadness knowing it wouldn’t have been easy for her mom to see that. She suddenly hated the thief. “She has connections in the art world.”

  “If T wanted anything I did,” Mom spoke quietly but her pain was still evident, “she’d have first crack at it with no need for theft. Her taste is more modern, though.”

  “You painted the piece over her bed.”

  Her mom raised a brow, which Taryn knew to be suspicion that more was going on between them than an investigation and the kids. Daniel perked up at the familiarity of the statement too.

  “I did,” her mom said, leaving her ideas unspoken. “As far as my contacts can find, none of the art has been offered for sale. My contacts would know.”

  With Daniel looking on, more as a witness than a needed helper, she and Tyler went through the list and compared every one to her calendar. Each time, going back four years, she accessed her archived calendar and printed the detailed report for him, showing where she was at the time of each theft.

  There were some occasions when she didn’t have an alibi other than being in her room, but she was regularly covered. Her mom had been with her some of the times. More often than not she’d been with Jenny or the kids. She would hunt Jenny down if she needed her to corroborate, but Tyler’s attitude suggested it wouldn’t be necessary. Hope surged inside that she read him accurately. Dread also surged that she read him wrong.

  Comparing the timestamp on the video to her itinerary from the past weekend, she was able to prove she’d been at the performance hall during the heist. A quick call to the event planner confirmed it for him.

  “I think you’re okay to continue without me, Taryn,” Daniel said, standing up. “Let me know if you need anything else.”

  “Thanks, Daniel,” she said without looking at her attorney.

  “I’ll walk you out,” her mom said to Daniel. “Taryn, do you want me to go get the kids? It’s almost dinnertime.”

  “That would be great. They’re at Addy’s.”

  “I guessed as much,” she said with a wink. “I’ll feed them and bring something back for you two.”

  Mom walked out with Daniel, leaving Taryn to work with Tyler. The change of pace, the being listened to instead of suspected, thrilled her. Tyler seemed to enjoy the process of unraveling the mystery as much as she enjoyed planning a new act, and he was as good without his computer as he was with it.

  “You say Kimber wouldn’t do this?”

  “I do.”

  “How do you know?”

  “How much do you trust your team?” she rebutted.

  “With my life.”

  “I trust Kimber the same way and this is my life. She wouldn’t jeopardize that.”

  He shifted on the chair, his leg brushing hers beneath her desk. She liked to think it was intentional rather than not, but he was too hard to read.

  “Then we need to figure out who has access to your schedule,” he said, not missing a beat.

  “Until San Francisco, most all of the shows have been public. Anyone with a computer and interest in magic might know my appearance schedule.”

  “Yeah, but my gut tells me this is someone close to you. They always hit the night you arrive in town. Knowing when you’re going to perform doesn’t mean they know your travel dates.”

  He made a fair point, though she didn’t like the idea that someone on her crew could be the thief. “I typically book the travel myself, though Davio has clearance to if need be. Daniel reads every contract before I sign them. Those have performance dates and he knows how I work so he’d know travel dates, but I don’t think he’s ever been to a show.”

  “Not even when you were dating?”

  She bit back the smile. It was cute that Tyler was fishing for some information. “He thinks what I do is disgraceful to myself mainly because of the costumes.”

  “He hides his opinion well. When did Davio join you?”

  “When Jenny left right around two years ago.”

  “What about your stage assistant, Martina?”

  “She’s been with me for going on three years, but she’s built nothing like me and whoever that was on the video is.”

  And the thefts went back four years, so if they were connected to her or the show it couldn’t be Davio or Martina. Thinking for a second it could be Daniel was laughable.

  “Devil’s advocate. The rest of you get recognition from the audience while Kimber is a nameless copy of the star. You have the spotlight, she lives in the shadows.”

  “You think she’s pulling these thefts to gain attention?”

  “Or maybe she really likes art? If she’s not selling them, it has to be something other than money.”

  She couldn’t believe it of Kimber, not for a moment. She’d seen the woman’s house and there was nothing extravagant about it. She lived with her dad and helped take care of him. Shaking her head, Taryn told him as much.

  “We have to check her out, Taryn. I have to turn all this over to the White Collar division.”

  “I’m telling you, she didn’t do it.”

  He turned to face her, and like he had before, he twirled a piece of her hair around his finger. “And I hope you’re right, but she’s the next logical person to look at.”

  “I can’t tell any of them about any of this, can I?”

  “You haven’t already mentioned it?”

  “As far as they’re concerned, you’re just an officer of the law who helped find Sidney and then escorted us home to make sure she was safe with me.”

  “Just an officer of the law, huh?” he asked, leaning closer.

  �
��It’s not a lie.” It wasn’t the truth, either. Breathless, she faced how much more he was becoming. “I just prefer my private life to stay private.”

  Uncertainty was all the reason she needed for keeping things to herself, even from her friends. The possibility of looking like a fool, which she was risking by allowing him to stay in the house with the kids, was never favorable.

  “I like privacy.” His voice dropped to a whisper as he pressed a kiss to the corner of her lips. “How long do you think we have before your mom and the kids get home?”

  “Not long enough for anything you’re thinking about.”

  “Maybe I was talking about a swim.” He rubbed the tips of her hair along her bottom lip.

  The tickling touch tempted her to agree to anything. She was good at resisting temptation. “I think you had something else in mind.”

  “A movie?”

  She smiled. “Is that what you’re calling earlier?”

  “Earlier was, simply put, hot.” He dropped her hair and curled a hand around her neck, pressing a kiss to the other side of her mouth. “You up for some more hot?”

  “I think we should have a few more things worked out before we do that again.” Though the longer he touched her the less she cared about working out issues and proving innocence.

  “Fine. I’ll call my team and have them point the White Collar guys in the new direction. Then, we’ll agree to keep the conversation civil and on the back burner until the kids are out of school.”

  “Why are you being so nice all of a sudden?”

  “I’m a nice guy, Taryn.” He kissed her again, undermining her need for simplicity. “It’s fun to see you riled up, though.”

  She was getting riled up, all right. If she gave in, which might not be quite as disastrous now that he believed in her innocence, he would take her flying. Trouble was, she didn’t want to be with a man who couldn’t trust her completely. If Tyler was that man, she shouldn’t have had to spend the last few hours lining up the evidence for him.

  Confused, as much by him as by her own behavior, she stared. One minute she couldn’t stand him and the next she couldn’t stand being away from him. She needed to figure herself out before she tried taking him on.