Code Conspiracy

“Not quite. I just try not to think about you while I’m ripping into a juicy steak.” He snapped his mouth shut and sealed his lips. Had he just admitted to her that he thought about her? A lot?

She shifted away from him and reached for the empty bottle. “I guess I’ll have to put olive oil on my grocery list.”

He cleared his throat. “Did you get done what you needed to get done up there? Did you find the bug or the program or whatever?”

“I did not. Nothing was loaded on my computer.” She sucked in her bottom lip. “Maybe they weren’t smart enough to do something like that.”

Gray methodically surveyed the small, neat space—not a cushion was out of place. “What did they do here, then?”

Shrugging, Jerrica splayed her hands in front of her. “I don’t know. I would think they’d want to hit my laptop. They want to know what we know—or what we’re going to discover. But they couldn’t break into it and didn’t want to take it and alert me.”

A knot formed in the pit of Gray’s stomach as his eyes darted around the room. Maybe the intruder didn’t take anything. Maybe he left something behind.

“Gray.” Jerrica grabbed his arm. “What are we going to do about Amit?”

His gaze shifted to Jerrica’s face, her forehead creased and her mouth turned down. His fingers itched to smooth the lines from her face, to turn up her lips. “Unless you want to call the police, there’s not much we can do right now. Do you have his girlfriend’s number?”

Her frown deepened. “No. I wish she would call me. Maybe we could get some info out of her. Maybe she saw someone or something.”

“Would she call the police if she doesn’t hear from Amit?”

“I’m not sure. He lives…”

Gray put two fingers against her lips and shook his head.

Her eyes got round but her mouth tightened with understanding. She grabbed his hand. “It’s late and I’m tired. I’m going to soak in the tub for a bit before I go to bed. Do you want to join me?”

Even though he knew it to be a ruse, his heart thumped at the thought of sharing a tub with Jerrica. “Lead the way.”

She headed for the stairs and he followed her, his gaze dropping to her derriere outlined in a pair of tight black jeans. Jerrica didn’t follow the latest fashions, but her urban guerilla style pushed all his buttons. This time his buttons would remain pushed…no release. The sexual tension coiled in his gut until he gave himself a mental shake when Jerrica pushed open the bathroom door.

Remember why you’re here. What’s at stake.

He slammed the door behind them, and Jerrica hunched over the tub and cranked on the faucets full blast.

“You think that’s enough?” The running water almost drowned out her whisper.

“I think that’ll do it.” He lifted a framed photo of a woman in an old-time swimsuit from the wall, ran his hand along the back of it and around the edges of the frame.

As Jerrica twisted her fingers in front of her, he lifted the lid on the toilet tank and scanned the dry parts. Then he pointed to the mirrored medicine cabinet.

Jerrica swung open the door and studied the inside as if deciding which medicine to take. “I don’t see anything. You?”

“No, but we’re not talking freely outside of this room until I do a search with my cell phone.”

“Your cell phone?”

He plunged his hand into his pocket, pulled out his phone and tapped the display. “I have a program on my phone that will detect audio devices.”

“That’s handy. How come I don’t know about that?” She tipped her head back and her gaze darted to the four corners of the ceiling. “Cameras?”

“I doubt it, but I’m going to check for those, too. I’m pretty sure whoever is tracking you is more interested in what you say than what you do.”

“And who I do it with?” She pointed a finger at him.

“Me?” He swiped a hand across the back of his neck as the steam from the hot water swirled around him.

“If these people are aware that Denver’s Delta Force team members are the only ones actively working on his behalf, you can bet they know who you all are at this point.”

“You’re probably right.” He reached forward and plucked a strand of hair from Jerrica’s moist face. “Yours is exactly the kind of mind needed for this situation.”

She cocked her head. “Only for this situation?”

“Hell, I’d be happy to have you by my side in any situation, Jerrica West.” He ran his thumb along her lower lip. “I’m trying to remember if we said anything revealing out there before it dawned on me that they might have bugged the place.”

“As far as I can recall, we spent most of our time talking about olive oil.”

He snapped his fingers. “At least they’ll know they can’t get into your place again.”

“We talked about Amit, but they know more about him than we do.” She sank to the edge of the tub. “What have they done with him? If they have his phone, they must have him…or worse.”

“They’re not going to kill someone if they want to get intel from him.” He slammed a fist against his chest. “Take it from someone who knows.”

“I don’t want to hear about what you do.” She made a cross with her fingers and held it in front of her face. “But if Amit refused to give them what they wanted, refused to take them to Dreadworm, they’d have no more reason to keep him alive.”

“They would if they thought they could change his mind.” He sat down on the tub next to her and draped his arm around her shoulders as the water rose behind them. “I know it’s hard, but try not to think about Amit right now. When that guy had you cornered in the alley, he could’ve killed you with the knife, but he didn’t.”

“I should warn everyone else, send out messages. Olaf has a warning system in place and neither Amit nor I used it. We just panicked.”

“That’s understandable.” He squeezed the back of her neck, and then glanced over his shoulder. “I think we’d better turn off the water before it overflows, but until I do my search of the rest of the house, no talking about anything related to Amit or Olaf or Dreadworm.”