Chapter 6
LAUREL
I followed Jason into the kitchen and sat at the table where a laptop had been set up.
He showed me how to start and pause the slideshow that displayed the photos, one at a time.
After a while, the faces that flashed on screen began to take on a similar look.
They had the same amount of contempt in their eyes, and I found it difficult to stomach.
When the screen went black, he told me I was done.
“Are there more?” I asked.
“More?”
“Photos for me to look at?”
He frowned. “Yeah, but you’re allowed to get some rest.”
I was tired, but it was doubtful I’d be able to fall back asleep, and I was determined to be useful in the meantime. “I’m fine. Let me do another one.”
He pressed his lips together and typed into the search fields, queuing up a new slideshow.
I wasn’t sure how much time passed before he stood beside my chair, leaned over, and hit the spacebar to pause the video.
“I’m sure someone asked already, but do you need me to call anyone to let them know you’re all right?
” Since the FBI had taken my phone. “Family? Friends? A boyfriend, girlfriend?”
“You want to know if I have a boyfriend?” It just came out, and I struggled to hide the cringe.
His face went blank. “I want to know if someone’s going to file a missing person’s report on you if you don’t check in.”
“Oh.” I wanted to slide under the table and disappear. “No, I don’t have a boyfriend. All of my friends are in the CBC with me.” I found it difficult, if not impossible, to have a life outside of the theater.
His face remained unchanged. “Family?”
“My dad died when I was little, and I lost Mom to cancer about six years ago.” I wasn’t sure why I kept talking. “I have a sister, but we haven’t talked in a while.” Shame crept into my voice. “Not in years.”
I didn’t want to talk about that. I wanted to focus on finding Seth’s picture. If I could do that, they could catch him, and everything would go back to normal. Hopefully before I lost my hard-won principal spot. I pulled my focus away from him, put it back on the screen, and pressed the spacebar.
It only made it two more slides before he paused it again. My annoyed gaze flicked up to Jason, who had one hand on the back of my chair as he leaned over me.
“You should take a break.” It sounded more like a command than a suggestion. “You look tired.”
He probably hadn’t meant to be rude, but my face heated with irritation. I was tired, but I didn’t like him pointing that out. I arched an eyebrow and straightened in my seat. “I’m fine.”
“No, you’re not. You look like you’re going to fall asleep any minute, and you could blow right past his picture. You’re worthless right now.” He drew in a sharp breath and winced like he wished he hadn’t phrased it like that. “I didn’t mean—”
I gave him the most searing glare I possessed. “I want this over with,” I snapped. “I want to get back to my life.”
His chocolate-brown eyes softened with something like understanding, and I was completely unprepared for that. God, when he wanted to, he looked so handsome I had to remind myself to keep breathing. He loomed over me, our faces only a few inches apart, and it felt dangerous having him this close.
It’s just exhaustion, I told myself.
That was why I had no defense against the desire building in me despite my annoyance with him.
“I can understand that,” he said softly. “Get some sleep, and then you can get right back at it.”
Part of me wanted to stay glued to the chair and prove him wrong, but a larger part of me knew he might be right. When I stood, he backed away.
“Wake me up in an hour,” I said. By that time, Derrick would be back and I wouldn’t be alone with the dangerous yet appealing Jason Dunn. But that made me worry. “Is it safe here?”
“This is the safest place you can be right now.”
“I meant with Derrick out.”
“Yeah,” he said. “You’re safe here with me.”
On the outside, I hoped I looked indifferent, because his words sent an unwanted rush of heat coursing through me. I believed him, that he had the safe house secure. But who, exactly, was going to keep me safe from him?
Jason didn’t wake me like I’d asked him to, increasing my irritation, and I could tell it had been longer than an hour because the sun was low in the sky when I crawled out of the uncomfortable bed.
I made my way down the hall into the living room to give him a piece of my mind—but he wasn’t there.
Instead, Derrick sat at the table, working on his own computer.
“Feeling better?” he asked, not lifting his gaze from his screen.
“Jason was supposed to wake me up.” I sat down in front of the computer I’d used earlier. “Where is he?”
“He went to get dinner.”
Dinner? “How long have I been asleep?”
“Five hours?”
I slapped the spacebar and watched the computer wake from sleep mode as I seethed. I had newfound motivation to help identify Seth, to be done with the irritation named Jason Dunn.
When the slideshow finished, Derrick loaded a third for me. My aggravation fueled my search for the pair of intense blue eyes that had landed me in this situation.
For the next half hour, my stomach growled, and it grew loud enough that he noticed. He gave me a remorseful smile, said the lunch he had brought back for me had gotten cold and he’d tossed it a few hours ago. But he expected his partner to be back soon.
A few minutes later, a pair of headlights darted through the front window and he rose, putting a hand on the gun holstered at his hip.
The simple action knocked the air from my lungs.
I glanced out the bay window to see Jason climb out of the SUV toting a sack of fast food and a cardboard tray of drinks.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes when he came in.
He pulled a hamburger out of the bag, set it on the table, and announced it was mine.
Then he took the empty chair between me and Derrick and dug his own dinner out of the sack.
He was oblivious to the irritation seeping out of me.
He unfolded his burger’s wrapper, lifted the bun, and pulled off the tomato slice. It was discarded on the wrapper, the bun was reseated, and then he devoured a third of the sandwich in a single bite.
I simply watched him with disbelief.
“Aren’t you going to eat?” he asked, finally setting his gaze on me.
I didn’t care if I sounded judgmental. “I can’t really afford to put garbage in my body.”
He stilled, not liking my ‘garbage’ comment, but then must have decided he didn’t care. His shoulders rose with a shrug. “You might starve, then, because this is the majority of our meals.”
I stared down at the table, skeptical of the food inside the wrapper.
“Shit,” he joked. “It’s not like it’s illegal.”
I clenched my jaw and bit back what I’d like to say.
Everything about this man touched a nerve.
The wrapper tore a little under my hands as I hurried to open it.
Inside, the squished, brown circle looked completely unappetizing, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me.
It’d be a victory for him, and I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction.
Then, an even better idea took hold.
I lifted the crown of my bun, removed the unappetizing pickles and swapped them for Jason’s tomato. Both men watched as I slapped the bun down on top and took a bite. As I chewed, I knew it was childish, but I’d hoped for Jason to look defeated.
But he continued to act like he couldn’t care less. In fact, he immediately retrieved my pickles and added them to the remainder of his sandwich.
Of course.
I wished I could ignore him, but it was impossible. I was aware of him in every way, even when I didn’t want to be.
I resumed my photo search and had to play mental games to keep my attention on the screen, noting anything unusual about a picture as it flashed past. That one had a black eye; maybe he had resisted arrest. Another had a bad facial tattoo, and I wondered if he ever regretted it.
“You have to be hungry.” Jason’s voice interrupted my thoughts.
“I’m fine.” The weight of his gaze on me forced me to stop what I was doing. “What?”
“Do you want something else? If I’d known you were awake, I would have asked what you—”
“I was supposed to be awake hours ago. Remember?”
If he felt guilty, it didn’t show on his face. He continued to stare at me with his dark eyes, and it forced me into action. I picked up the burger and choked down another bite. Maybe it was good, but I couldn’t taste anything. I was too distracted by him.
My attempt to appease him worked temporarily, and I resumed my game with the photos, but I had to stop when I felt my mind wandering. It kept drifting to the man sitting beside me who hadn’t really taken his focus off me since sitting down.
“Can I help you with something?” It came out just as pointed as I wanted it to.
“Yeah.” He didn’t skip a beat. “You can finish your dinner.”
“Why do you care?”
“Because you look like you can’t afford to miss too many meals.”
His words plunged the table into horrible, awkward silence.
Once again, he looked stricken, as if he hadn’t meant to say anything, but there was no getting the words back now. Derrick mumbled that he’d forgotten something in his room and vanished down the hall, abandoning his partner.
He thinks you’re too skinny.
Why did I care what he thought about my body?
“Don’t worry about me,” I snapped. “I’m probably healthier than you.”
He said it like an apology. “You’re right.”
Yet when I looked at his broad shoulders and wide chest, I wondered how true that was. He looked like he took care of himself and visited the gym often. He probably looked amazing beneath that wrinkled shirt, all hard muscle and smooth skin and . . .
I launched to my feet to escape the thought and hurried to fold up the wrapper so I could throw the remainder of my sandwich in the garbage. But he was up on his feet too now, his broad frame blocking my path.
Breath hitched in my lungs as he reached out to take the burger from my hand, his fingers brushing against mine and sending a surge of electricity through my body. Our gazes connected for a single moment, and he looked as off balance as I felt.
Like touching me had shocked him too.
His anxious expression vanished as he carried the wrapped burger into the kitchen and deposited it in the fridge.
“In case you want to spite me and eat it later,” he said, a hint of a smile curling his lips.
The sight of it made my knees go soft.
How the hell did he do that? He pissed me off and turned me on at the same time, and it felt like I’d been dropped on stage after forgetting all the choreography.
Oh, God, I couldn’t stay here.
Not in this kitchen with this irritatingly attractive bad boy assigned to watch over me, both a badge and a gun at his hip to prove it. It left me with no choice but to run, and my heart didn’t slow its furious tempo until long after I’d made it back to the safety of my room.