His one curt nod was better than an argument. “I’ll
fold
with you to the hospital. You will meet with me tomorrow so we can talk about this in more detail.”
Suddenly, her older commanding brother was again in full protection mode, brooking no argument.
“Lunch?” Her voice fell off into silence as she took in the room again. She wanted to balk at Ansgar’s security measures, but he was right. The room spoke for itself. She would be wise to heed his advice and lay low. At least until this phase of the trial completed next week. “We can meet over lunch.”
The destruction was senseless, no benefit from the tossed furniture and broken items. What had this person been after? She never brought her work home, and the apartment lacked all but the barest of personal items, but the culprits wouldn’t have known in advance. Even if she had kept the blood samples here, no human could detect the DNA changes. Welson might not be happy with her persistence, but there was no reason they or anyone at the hospital would feel threatened by anything she’d done.
Had she been home, she could have fought, but so much destruction seemed unlikely for a single invader. Two at least. With that thought, the shiver previously in her hands delved deep into her bones, gripping and uncontrollable.
Ansgar’s arms closed around her, pulling her to him. She leaned into the safe haven of her brother’s chest. Her shaking lessened in his hold. The tension eased slightly from his arms, but neither of them was okay.
He must have been frantic, finding the apartment this way.
Definitely not the time to tell him about Jason.
***
The Short Stack was crowded with the lunch hour rush. Jason grabbed his coffee and sandwich, planning to head back to the office when he saw a familiar head of silky blond layers seated by the window.
His eyes narrowed as he noticed her companion. Already in motion, he was halfway to the table before his brain kicked in. Rational thought hadn’t stood a chance against the swift, unfamiliar twist of jealously spiraling in his gut.
In the three steps it took to approach her, he’d made a quick assessment of the man opposite Briet. The man’s head was only six inches from her face. The two were having an animated discussion, which seemed to require her to touch his hands. Large hands and equally large shoulders were less of a deterrent than they should have been. Jason stood before the table and waited for her to notice.
It took ten seconds. Ten seconds less would barely have satisfied him.
“Jason.”
“Briet.” Jason turned to the man openly scowling at him and held out his hand. “Jason Ballard. Don’t mean to interrupt. I was just coming to set up a time to talk to Briet later and figured better now than miss her.”
When the man didn’t immediately reach for Jason’s hand, Briet squeezed the hand she’d held and moved back from their intimate position. “This is my brother, Ansgar.”
Brother. The blood pulsing in Jason’s ears started to fade. Yes, he saw some similarity.
“Jason and I work together.”
He snapped a quick look of surprise at her and stomped down a surge of annoyance before he turned to greet the man who had unfurled from the seat.
Swallowing his reaction, he forced a detached appraisal. Now wasn’t the time to buckle under to one of the tribe—the term Briet kept using for her makeshift family. Tribe described this one well. In her discussions of her brother, Jason had pictured him as gentle and long-suffering. A man she deemed worthy of finding someone special to settle down with forever.
Better be one tough woman with a big bullwhip.
The brother had several inches over his six-foot-four inch height, taller but leaner, except for those shoulders and forearms. Then there was attitude in the dark, threatening gaze.
Ironic. The genetics were similar. Both brother and sister shared the expressive brown eyes and multi-hued blond hair, but all parallels stopped there.
Briet held warmth in her eyes and a bit of defiance in her short locks. Ansgar’s gaze was purely hostile and the long blond braid down his back hinted at a harsher level of rebellion. The look, the attempt to physically interpose himself in front of Briet, was clearly a sign of hostility, a direct contradiction to the hand he offered Jason. The posturing implied a threat. Jason didn’t move.
He held his ground, painfully aware his behavior was confrontational and defensive. He didn’t care. Some primitive part of him declared the stand was necessary.
Seeing Briet touch another man was not a circumstance he’d considered. Especially after the weekend they’d spent together. His reaction was volatile and intense, even by his own assessment. It had been more years than he could count since he’d had to rein in emotions. It felt uncomfortably like a tidal wave let loose.
Backing down now wasn’t an option. First impressions were critical and there would be no coming back from losing ground here, even as he realized his response implied a much stronger commitment with Briet than he had intended to show.
“You’re one of the doctors at the hospital?” Ansgar pressed his hand a little tighter before letting go.
“Jason runs the project for the Welson laboratories.”
Ansgar cocked a brow with a smirk. “A pencil pusher?”
Jason held back a laugh. Better to be underestimated. There would be more room to manipulate with lame assumptions. “Something like that.”
Ansgar glanced at his sister and shrugged at her frown. He seemed truly perplexed as to why she might be annoyed with him. At least he wasn’t the only one to get that look.
“I’m heading out for an exhibition game later this afternoon and wondered if you’d like to come? You’d said you’d never seen a rugby game.” He posed his question to Briet and ignored her brother’s openly hostile stance.
Ansgar hadn’t moved, legs apart, hands in pockets as if counting the minutes until Jason left.
“I thought you weren’t playing these days.” She tilted her head at him and narrowed her eyes toward her brother in a sideways warning.
She’d remembered
. “It’s a charity event. They ran short of players and at the last minute asked me to fill in. I can handle one game.”
“I would enjoy it.” She seemed to be making a point not to look at her brother.
“You’re welcome to come, too.” Jason purposefully ran his gaze over Ansgar’s physique until the brother’s eyebrows became one thick, mean line. “If you’re familiar with the game, they could use another player.”
“How hard can it be?”
With a wicked sense of satisfaction, Jason nodded. He might have to spend the night soaking in a tub of
Ben Gay
, but if Ansgar had never played rugby, the man was in for one tough workout. More than worth any amount of pain.
“Great. I can meet you both at the back entrance of the hospital at five. The facility has showers and the team provides jerseys.”
“We’ll meet you there.”
Briet gave him a bright smile. If her brother hadn’t audibly growled, Jason would have at least brushed her hand or found some way to touch her. However, the room was crowded and he didn’t want a brawl. Instead, he gave her a nod and Ansgar a glance before he left.
Briet rolled her lips and risked a look at her brother. “Are you going to sit back down or just stand there drawing attention to yourself?”
With an exaggerated exhale, he sank back in to the chair. “You can do better.”
“Thanks. I
so
need your input. For your information Jason is just as annoying about watching out for me as you are.”
Crap. She held back a sigh as Ansgar’s eyebrow shot up. She really needed to learn when to stop speaking.
“What need would he have to watch out for you?”
She took a deep breath and prepared to recount the less significant details of Sheri’s accident.
***
Jason pulled alongside the parked vehicles on the street outside the hospital’s rear exit. Ansgar stood waiting, a small duffle slung over his shoulder. To look more bored would have been difficult. Jason stifled a comment as Ansgar swung open the door and curled his body into the passenger seat of the sports car.
“Briet’s still with a patient. She said to send her the address and she’ll come later if she can.”
He certainly hoped so. Quality time with her brother wasn’t what Jason had in mind. He drove down the street, heading for the interstate exit for north of the city. “So, you’re in town visiting?”
“I’m here to put Briet’s place back into shape.”
“Back into shape from what?” Jason shifted into fourth gear and surged into the far left lane to bypass the downtown traffic.
“Her apartment was trashed this weekend.”
Jason gave Ansgar a sharp look to find the man glaring at him
“Trashed how—how did they get in? She lives in a security building with cameras everywhere.”
“You know a lot about Briet’s apartment for a co-worker.”
Not a question, more of a threat. Well, Briet wasn’t here to field this line of interrogation so his way would have to suffice. “My relationship with your sister is her business, but she’s had other close calls and I’m concerned. How about you drop the act and tell me what’s going on?”
Ansgar might have been chewing on eight inches nails, but the man nodded in concurrence.
“Forced their way in, couldn’t have been quiet. They went through her furniture and personal belongings. Destroyed things, but it looked like it covered up a search.”
“Thoughts on why?”
“I
think
it’s a big mess and too much trouble for one person to have caused. I
think
if my sister had been home this weekend she’d be dead now. I can’t figure what she has they’d be looking for.”
Jason signaled for his exit. “She doesn’t have quick-grab items. No TV. No small valuables or cash hanging around. Her place wouldn’t make a good target for drug money or a home invasion.”
“Again, you know a lot of personal shit about my sister.” The tone grew deeper and louder.
“Again, not your business. But for the record, I’m just as concerned as you are about her well being.”
“I doubt that.”
“She tell you about her car?”
Ansgar’s scowl shifted. “She said her friend was killed.”
Jason noted the change of expression from anger to exasperation as the realization hit Ansgar. “The woman was in Briet’s car?”
“She tends to leave out details.” Jason looked away and pulled into a parking spot in front of the well-manicured courtyard of a college sports center.
“The police, the people she works with, all thought Briet had been killed in the accident. No one knew she’d loaned the car to her friend. Your sister doesn’t drive much, but she’s not close enough to most people for them to know much of her personal details.”
“Points to someone she works with. I don’t get how both incidents are connected.” Ansgar looked like a pot ready to boil over. Jason made a quick decision to leave the attack at the reception out of the conversation. They were both focused enough on the issue without more over-the-top reactions.
“No clue, and I don’t buy coincidences, but I haven’t had any luck figuring this out.”
“She says you keep tabs on her.”
The expression was still a little dazed, but Ansgar’s comment sounded more like an accusation. Jason didn’t care and focused on the main point, Briet’s safety. “Every day.”
“Did you tell her what you suspect? She needs to get away from this job if she’s in danger, not spend time piddling around with hu—”
Jason waited for a minute, his hands resting on the steering wheel, curious where that thought was going but Ansgar had clammed up. “What do you suggest? Dragging a grown, professional woman away to safety, as if she were a child? If you know your sister at all, you know she’s not going to leave her patients until the trial ends. No matter what you or I think is best for her.”
Ansgar shoved open the passenger side, lunged out, and slammed the door behind him.
So much for rational thought.
With a measure of sympathy Jason watched the man stand outside the car, hands clenched at his hips. There was only so much anyone could do until more evidence pointed to the reasons for the attacks on Briet. Deep in his gut, Jason felt a tie to the blood samples she had been collecting. The same samples sucking up hours of his brainpower and sanity. He wasn’t about to discuss his strange visions and delusions with Briet’s brother. At least not without proof and a damn good reason.
Bag in hand, Jason activated the lock mechanism for the car. “There’ve been no problems at the hospital.”
“Could be just a matter of time.”
“Unless you have a better idea, we’ll take it one thing at a time.”
Ansgar glanced at the fresh, red brick façade of the center. “This a contact sport?”
Rugby? He was kidding, right? “Yeah,” Jason answered, surprised the man had acknowledged going in blind.
“Good.”
He returned a brisk nod. They were in lock step agreement on two things now, the need to exert some physical violence and Briet’s safety.
Thirty-seven to thirteen, a winning score, and significant bruises later, Jason walked out of the shower room in his sweatpants and pitched his towel into his duffel. He snagged a sweatshirt. Not quickly enough to avoid Ansgar’s fixed stare.
Jason turned uncomfortably, running a hand over the odd bruising at his hip. What had appeared a few days ago as a shadowed bruise had turned into a sequence of lines and dots running around his thigh, curving around his hipbone. It looked like a frickin’ constellation map and while he might seek medical consult if it didn’t go away soon, he firmly refused to discuss it with Briet’s brother, despite the man’s remarkable delivery as a forward in the day’s game.
“Ready?” Jason didn’t wait for an answer but grabbed his duffel and headed into the hallway.
“Jason.”
He cringed at the high lilting feminine twang. Could he not catch a break?
“Priscilla.”
He did manage to fend off the full frontal launch, keeping the thin recipient of too much makeup and too little food at arm’s length. Jason bit back a sense of physical nausea as her hand covered his. A shiver of distaste rolled through him at the contact of her lacquered nails along his cheek.