Slow Burn (4 page)

“It's barely even daylight. Did somebody die?” he asked, his voice laced with irritation.

“No. Nothing like that. The phone call is the last thing I wanna think about when I have a warm, sexy, and hard body in my bed,” she said, her voice practically dripping sex.

He fucking hated that he still wanted her, despite the fact she looked so guilty right then. Still, he rolled over, fastened his mouth to her throat, and tried not to think about it. Not yet, anyway.

Still annoyed after yesterday morning's blowout, Tessa stood on Melinda's doorstep with the invitations in hand. When her sister finally opened the door, Tessa said, “Here are the invitations. Sorry I was delayed in dropping them off. I didn't think it would be that big of a deal since her birthday is five weeks out.”

“Don't worry about it,” Melinda said in her typical unapologetic style. She opened the folder and said, “Thank you for making the copies.”

“I can't do it anymore,” Tessa said. “My boss is already on my ass enough as it is. It's going to get me in trouble.”

“Well, jeez. I didn't mean to inconvenience you.”

Tessa rolled her eyes. Now she was going to be the bad guy. She really didn't have the patience for this anymore. Between the shit her brother gave her and the way Melinda assumed everyone was at her beck and call, she'd really had enough.

“Your original is in there. I need to get back to work, okay?”

“Sure, but ... I thought these would be on thicker paper, Tessa. I can't even use these.”

Tessa blinked at her sister. “Holy shit, Melinda. I drove an hour in traffic to get the freaking invitation to make you copies so you didn't have to do it. I risked getting bitched at by my boss, then drove here on my god damned lunch break for you to tell me you can't use the fucking invitations? I don't care. I just don't even care. You're so freaking selfish. Do you even hear yourself?”

Melinda gaped at her. “Christ. Next time I'll make the copies myself. Go back to work, grump.”

“This is so not about the invitations and you know it. I bend over backwards for you all the time and you're never freaking satisfied. I went to probate court when Dad died, sold the house, and did all the fucking insurance paperwork. You came over and moved a couple of boxes when I begged you to, sure. But you were damn quick to come over and take your share when the checks showed up. You were happy to take everything that wasn't nailed down. Not once did you ask me how I felt or if you could help me with the process.”

“Tessa! That—”

“I'm not done,” Tessa said, cutting her off. “You're so fucking selfish. I don't need you to bend over backwards, but you could at least
try
. Sunday, when you woke me at the crack of dawn, I had a man sleeping in my bed. A very wonderful, sexy man. You woke both of us up to ask about photocopies of invitations to a party that was five weeks away. Do you realize how crazy that is? Dad was always the glue that held the family together, and I'm trying really hard to follow in his footsteps. Neither you or Matty give a shit about anything but yourselves. I'm so over it, Mel. I'm done.”

“Tessa. Wait!”

She turned around and marched back to her car. She was already going to be late coming back from lunch, but she really didn't care at this point. She was on a roll today anyway. Why not just tell Marty to fuck off, too. She turned on her car and deliberately ignored her sister's wave as she pulled out of the driveway.

She still hadn't heard back about the second round of interviews at Saint Marks University, but she was hopeful. If she was able to get the undergrad teaching position, she'd be able to go back to school and get her doctorate in molecular biology. Maybe she'd be able to save future families the heartache of watching a loved one die from cancer.

Tessa pulled back into traffic and headed back to the office. Luckily she was only about ten minutes late. Having the time in the car to cool down had probably been a good thing, anyway. She couldn't tell Marty to go fuck himself just yet. She really needed to get the other job first.

Rick looked up from the mail he was delivering and gave her a frown. He mouthed, “Are you okay?”

She gave him a fake smile and nodded. She would talk to him about it later tonight. Or maybe not. He'd mentioned class tonight. She wasn't sure what time it let out.

Between full time class and a full time job, she didn't know how Rick managed it. If the Saint Marks thing came through, she'd be living that reality, though. She might be able to pace herself on the class work at least, though. She'd ask him about that, too.

Eventually Rick made his way toward her desk with an interoffice memo envelope. He handed it to her and said, “Your mail. Sign here, please.”

She took the clipboard from him and perched on the edge of her desk. Biting her lip, she teased, “I've got some expense reports that need to be done when the mail is delivered.”

He shot her a sour look in response, then considered her for a moment. A smirk on his face, he lowered his voice and said, “There's definitely something on this desk that could use doing.”

“True story,” she replied, grinning. “What time are you done with class tonight?”

He opened his mouth to answer and then she heard Marty say, “Rick. Come see me when you're done delivering the mail.”

“Fucking tool,” Rick muttered. “Talk to you later, Tessa.”

She gave him a little wave and smiled as he sauntered away. God, he was built. After their time on the couch and in bed, they'd ended up together in the shower. She'd been able to thoroughly explore all of his muscles and ridges. Despite his injuries, which seemed healed except for the nasty scars, he was in fantastic shape. He was really close to perfect and that was a little scary.

Rick ran his hands through his hair. This case was going to be the death of him. He'd been sifting through phone records for hours looking for any connection to incoming or outgoing calls and Armitage. So far, zilch.

Now, more than ever, he refused to believe Tessa could be responsible for the leak. He knew the evidence suggested her, but it was entirely circumstantial. Without her admitting to any wrongdoing or catching her in the act, damned if he'd report her. Fuck.

He ran the last set of numbers through the search app Mike had developed and rubbed his eyes. He was refilling his coffee when he heard a beep. Setting the cup down he hustled back over to his laptop. A beep was different.

When a number came up as highlighted, he saw six calls in total. All outgoing, all for about five minutes or so. He cross referenced the number with the list of phone lines at Armitage and then said, “Bingo!”

Several phone calls from one line at Cynertex to Giana Valenti, VP of Development at Armitage. Now all he needed to do was to find out who's extension the number had been dialed from. It looked familiar, but he couldn't place it. He scanned the directory and breathed a sigh of relief. Not Tessa's line. She wasn't the leak. But Marty Thompson was.

He glanced at the clock. It was nearly eleven. There was no way he could call Wallace with the news right now. He'd have to let him know tomorrow. It wasn't concrete, but it was a hell of a lot more incriminating than a folder with photocopies.

He wondered if it was too late to call Tessa. Christ but he was relieved she wasn't the leak. Once the news broke, he would have to deal with telling her the truth. He imagined she would be pretty upset. Not that he could blame her. Hopefully she'd be able to get past it.

As ridiculous as it sounded so early in the game, he was really starting to have feelings for her. He hoped this wouldn't fuck things up with her. In any case, at least he would sleep easy knowing he wasn't sleeping with the corporate spy he was supposed to be catching.

For good measure, he printed out the call log, highlighting the calls and the extension that had dialed them. He printed out a background check on Marty and Giana Valenti as well. The more information he could provide, the better.

He still couldn't believe the idiot had dialed from work. Why hadn't he just gone outside to use his cell? Or waited until he got home. Yep, that was Marty's fatal flaw. He completely underestimated everyone around him. With any luck, Cynertex would be able to dig up some conclusive proof on the server now that Rick was able to point them in the right direction.

* * *

Rick made a quick call before he headed into the office to Wallace Chase and ended up in voicemail. He ran the report up to his Executive Assistant before his shift started. It would be interesting to see how this all went down. For his own personal reasons, he really hoped he got to be in the room when Marty got fired.

He had made a point to stop by Tessa's desk. She'd been on a conference so he'd written 'Lunch?' on her sticky notes. She had given him a thumbs up before she took herself off mute and started arguing about chemical bonds.

Now back at his desk, he wondered, would she still be interested in him when they didn't have this very common bond between them. He wasn't worried about the job. It was the interest and background in science that worried him. Would she think less of him for not sharing that particular passion? He was smart, but she was brilliant.

Before he could think about it much more, Marty came into his little cubicle and dropped a giant stack of papers on to his desk. He barely looked at him when he said, “Double sided and bound, please. Bring it to my office when it's done.”

“Sure thing, Marty,” he said, standing up. It always gave him a little burst of pleasure to remind Marty how small he was.

He grinned as Marty scuttled away and then looked at the papers. These weren't like the other packets he'd made before. Those had been mostly useless slide presentations and expense reports. This had specs for something that looked rectangular. He paged through the documents and read notes from testing. Nearly fire proof. Burns twenty times slower than sheet rock. He didn't need to be a genius to tell what this was. He had to stop himself from grinning gleefully.

Unless he missed his guess, he was about to photocopy proprietary information and then bind it so Marty could helpfully deliver it to Cynertex's competitor. This idiot was making it way too easy for him. He was going to enjoy the hell out of this.

He took the thick stack of paperwork into the copy room and got to work. Thirty minutes and one nasty paper cut later, he had managed to bind the documents and drop them in Marty's office. His next stop was security. He clocked out a bit early for his morning break and then made his way upstairs.

He was surprised to find Wallace there waiting for him. Apparently, his message this morning had been received. A few minutes later, a plan was in action to search Marty as he left the building.

When he got back to his desk, Marty put him on beaker washing duty. That was actually fortunate, though. He was able to keep an eye on the door. He knew security was at the exit waiting, but he didn't want to take any chances.

A few minutes before lunch, Marty called him into the office and passed him a large manila envelope. “Take these downstairs for me, would you? My wife is going to meet you at the entrance.”

At Rick's hesitant look, Marty added, “It's estate planning paperwork. Not that it's any of your business. Just do what I told you to do. And get me a coffee while you're down there.”

Rick held out his hand, waiting for Marty to fish out a few coins, then asked, “How will I know who she is though?”

“She'll find you. Go. She's out there waiting,” he said, annoyance written on his face.

“Sure thing, boss,” he said, taking the package.

Tessa caught him as he was leaving the lab and asked, “Hey. What about lunch?”

He frowned and said, “I have an errand to run. It completely slipped my mind. Can I call you later?”

Her face fell but she said, “Sure. I guess. Is everything okay?”

Rick felt a guilty pang at her concern and said, “Everything's fine, Tessa. I'll call you tonight, okay?”

“Okay,” she said, a hesitant look on her face.

He reached out, cupping her face, then brushed a thumb across her cheekbone. “I promise. Everything is fine.”

She nodded and asked, “Can you stop by my place later?”

“I will,” he promised. Then he winced and said, “I'm sorry, Tessa. I have to go now.”

Everything unfolded really quickly once he made his way to the security office. Giana Valenti was escorted off the premises when security found her lingering out front. Once someone from the lab verified the bound book contained proprietary information, Marty had been called into the office and summarily fired.

Marty had tried to lie about the whole thing. Then he'd lashed out and blamed it on Rick, not realizing he'd been planted in the department. When Rick had broken it down, step by step, Marty had crumbled, confessing everything. In a mess of tears and whimpering, he'd come clean about his gambling debts, how he'd approached Armitage, and how much he'd been paid for the information.

Rick wasn't sure this qualified as an actual crime, but he knew Marty had more than a couple civil lawsuits in his future. He would never be considered employable by any decent company ever again. If Cynertex went public with the information, Marty would be one of the most reviled men in his field. He almost felt a little sorry for him. Almost.

Instead, he'd taken the low road. Dropping the change Marty had given him for coffee on the table with a sad smile on his face, he'd said, “Here ya go, boss. I think you're going to need this much more than I will.”

It had been petty, but the look of shock on Marty's face had been completely worth it. He'd walked out of the office with one last salute and then headed upstairs to debrief Wallace. The rest of the afternoon had been devoted to generating a list of security fixes so they could avoid future leaks. He hadn't been able to get out of the building until after six-thirty.

Guilt and apprehension gnawed at his gut as he drove over to Tessa's house. He had a feeling this was going to get pretty ugly. He knew he had to come clean about all of it though. As much as he regretted the fact that she'd been a suspect, he couldn't lie. That was no way to start anything with her.