Chapter 2 #2
She slid back into her seat, and he settled behind the wheel and drove. “So tell me about this code.”
“Not much I can tell you. Experts can’t crack it. They thought if they could create a key, they could translate the symbols. But no one can figure out the key.”
Silver bracelets jangled on her wrist as she ran her fingers through her hair. “Well, ancient languages are what I do best.”
“Exactly what I’ve heard.”
“Show me what you have and I’ll take my best shot.”
“Great.”
They arrived at Ranger headquarters minutes later and Marisa followed Lucas past security.
He led her to his locked office, flipped on the lights, and moved to a small conference table where a stack of papers rested.
“These are the coded messages we have. Feel free to have a look. If you don’t mind, I’m going to order pizza. Haven’t eaten much today.”
Her stomach grumbled. “I’ll go halves with you on the pizza. I’m starving.”
His powerful gaze reflected a mixture of humor and deadly intent. “You crack that code, and I will buy you all the pizza you can eat.”
“Deal.”
Her mind shifting from him to the papers, she quickly found herself pulled into the documents and the swirl of symbols. To the untrained eye it was chaos. To her, it was heaven.
Lucas met the pizza delivery guy at the front desk, and when he returned to his office he found Marisa exactly where he’d left her, frowning over the ciphers, oblivious to him and the world around her.
A fellow Ranger, Brody Winchester, had a smart wife, Dr. Jo Granger, who’d put Lucas on to Dr. M.
E. Thompson a couple of months ago when the first coded messages had appeared.
Lucas considered Jo one hell of a smart woman, and when she’d commented that Dr. Thompson was another level of smart, he’d known she was in the big leagues.
After learning Dr. Thompson was in Mexico on a dig, he’d gone to Merida, Mexico, to ask around the university.
He had learned she was a bookish, odd woman who lived for her dead languages.
A dull sort, one professor had said, but the best in her field.
She was expected in town to replenish supplies, but no one knew exactly when she’d appear.
When he’d arrived at that sidewalk café, he’d been looking for good grub, a cold beer, and a chance to recharge after forty-seven hours of nonstop work while he waited for Dr. M. E. Thompson.
When he’d spotted the woman in the white dress, rational thought vanished, and when she’d smiled at him and teased him about the Texas seeping through his Spanish, he’d been lost. The ensuing conversation, dinner, drinks, and sex had momentarily banished thoughts of work.
That night had been all about the woman in the white dress. And then she’d vanished.
He’d asked around and discovered the woman in the white dress was Dr. Thompson. He’d called himself every form of dumbass before deciding that finding her would be easy. However, he’d not counted on the jungle or that it would swallow her trail so completely.
Hours ago, when he’d received word she’d returned to Austin from her jungle dig, he’d dropped what he was doing and come straight to the university. There was a code still to be cracked and if he were honest, one night with Marisa had not been quite enough.
How many times since had he dreamed about her in that white dress? Hell, even now he thought her glasses accentuated rather than hid bright green expressive eyes and a high slash of cheekbones. And the frown grooved in her forehead added to her allure.
“Pizza,” he said.
She glanced up from the pages, her eyes a bit vacant and lost. He could almost hear the gears in her brain shifting and grinding as she refocused on the world outside her scroll. “Great. I’m starving.”
As she cleared away her papers and stacked them neatly, he set the pizza box on the table along with a bag stuffed with napkins and drinks. “I wasn’t sure if you liked soda. There’s water in the cooler if that’s what you prefer.”
“Soda’s great.” She rolled up her sleeves and placed napkins in front of him and herself. He flipped open the box and the scents of pepperoni, mushroom, and onion drifted around them. She took a piece of pizza and laid it on her napkin. “I haven’t had pizza in ages.”
He sat and rolled up his sleeves, exposing forearms dusted with dark hair. “It’s a mainstay for me.”
She took a bite and glanced toward the papers to her right. “It’s an ancient language. I’m fairly sure it’s Mayan. It might take me a couple of days, but I can figure it out.”
“A couple of days?” No hiding his surprise.
“Shouldn’t be that hard.”
He laughed. “Don’t tell the forensics team.”
“They shouldn’t feel bad. Unless you study this all the time, you wouldn’t have a clue.”
“I’ll be sure to pass it on.” Already, he pictured the team’s frustration when he told them Marisa had dubbed the task easy. They’d endured many sleepless nights trying to figure out what the dealers were communicating to each other.
“So what exactly am I looking for?”
“There is word of a major shipment arriving from Mexico into the area. It’s a new supplier trying to make a name for himself, and we want to stop him before he gets established.”
“When’s it expected?”
“We’ve heard around Christmas Day but don’t know exactly where or when.”
“Time is running out.” She plucked the cheese off the pizza and ate it. “I’ll work fast.”
“Thanks.” He sipped his soda, unable to rein in his curiosity.
“So you dated that Bradley?” She looked up at him as he paused, pizza inches from his mouth.
She picked a piece of pepperoni off her pizza and then set it aside. “Ours was a fairly classic tale. We dated. We broke up.”
“Been reading body language for a long time, ma’am. More to that story than meets the eye.”
“You read body language?”
“As well, if not better, than you read those dead languages.”
She shrugged. “People are a mystery to me. Must be why I like my dead languages. They may take years to figure out, but there’s always a pattern, clues to lead you to the message. That’s not so true when it comes to people.”
“Meaning you didn’t read Bradley well?”
She straightened. “That doesn’t really matter.”
“Then there’s no harm answering the question.”
She nibbled an edge of pepperoni. “I thought he was the one. When I received a grant to travel and study, he asked me not to take the trip though I’d been dreaming of going for years. I refused to give it up. He was angry and annoyed. A week before I left, Kyle told me Bradley was dating Jennifer.”
“Ouch.”
“Long story made short, I broke it off.”
A slight wavering in her voice and wrinkling in her forehead betrayed her feelings. Bradley had hurt her badly. Lucas did not fully understand why this mattered to him, but it did. “He’s a chickenshit.”
A flicker of amusement fired in her eyes. “Not an exact translation of what I said but the connotation is a match.”
“Why’s he hanging around?”
“He wants access to my research material. I think he’s realized that I might soon eclipse him in reputation.”
“He’ll live.”
She plucked a pepperoni from the pizza. “My thoughts exactly.”
Curiosity nudged him to ask, “Big plans for the holidays?”
“My mother passed away seven years ago, so other than an appearance at my father and stepmother’s house tomorrow, where I deliver my presents to my brothers, no.” She plucked off another pepperoni.
“You don’t like Christmas.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“Ninety-three percent of communication is nonverbal. Your nonverbal cues scream humbug.”
She laughed. “I’m not quite a Scrooge. I just don’t love all the fuss and the work for one day. Far too much work for so little return.”
“Little return?”
“It’s not super fun for me.” She lifted her pizza. “So what about you? I’m sensing you like Christmas.”
He nodded, no hint of hesitation in his voice.
“My folks always made a big deal of the day. They’re gone now, so my sister carries on the tradition.
We always do up a big dinner, and she makes a point to work around my crazy schedule.
One year we didn’t eat the turkey and trimmings until January 1.
But it didn’t matter. Felt like Christmas. ”
“That’s nice.”
“So why do you hate Christmas, Dr. Scrooge?”
She laid down her pizza, suddenly not hungry. “My father left my mother on Christmas Eve.” She sighed. “He didn’t mean for it to happen that way. But they’d fought and he blurted out he was leaving. He moved out that night.”
“I’m sorry.”
“It is what it is. He’s done his best to make it up to me over the years. He and his wife go all-out for the holidays.”
She’d been left twice, and now she did the leaving. “Sorry to hear that.”
He realized she’d not eaten much. He’d expected talk of Christmas would have been positive neutral territory, but instead it robbed her of her appetite.
“Don’t be. We all have to deal. That’s life.” She sighed. “Could I take copies of this code home? I’ve got a few days off, and I’ll have better luck with all my books to reference.”
“Sure. But do me a favor and keep the work a secret. No sense letting anyone know about this.”
“Sure.”
He picked up a manila envelope from his desk and handed it to her. “Copies for you.”
A delicate brow arched. “You were that sure I’d come and help you.”
“I’m mighty persistent.”
“You haven’t met stubborn until now.”
A smile curved the edges of his lips. “You keep telling yourself that.”