Chapter One

 

 

Hutch hustled into the McKay-Taggart building on Monday morning and groaned at the security line. Someone had set up two high-tech scanners and a barrier that would keep anyone from getting to the elevators without going through the tech. The scanners would not only detect weapons, they would also send facial scans upstairs to Miles-Dean, Weston, and Murdoch, who would weed out anyone who might be coming in to blow up the building.

He got into line because something had obviously happened since this wasn’t normal security protocol.

A man stood in front of him wearing a dark collared shirt and slacks, his dark hair still cut in military style. Kyle Hawthorne had a soft leather briefcase in his hand. Hutch happened to know that particular brand was normally used to carry laptops and cell phones and tablets, but Kyle used it to carry around his personal tools of the trade.

Weapons. Lots of weapons.

“Any idea what’s going on?” Hutch asked.

Kyle turned and nodded a greeting. “I think MDWM has some big politician coming in, and they’re trying to make sure no one assassinates her on property. You should have heard the lawyers on ten arguing that they didn’t sign up for this. Someone offered to let them talk to Big Tag and they got quiet quick.”

It was good to know his boss was still feared by many. Or they knew Ian Taggart was an immovable object and they could get to work way quicker if they let security do its job. The company started by former McKay-Taggart employees was famous for working missing person cases and finding criminals on the run.

“I would bet all this security is also to protect Adam’s tech.” If someone from the government was coming in, they would be careful. The company worked with the government but hadn’t shared their wildly successful software with them.

“Good for Adam.” Kyle settled the long strap of his briefcase over his muscled shoulder. “He should protect himself because those bastards would steal anything he had and not blink an eye.”

That was Kyle. He’d come into the company paranoid, and that was usually something that happened later. But Hutch was working with the guy, and that meant trying to get along with him. Kyle was an odd duck. He didn’t spend a lot of time with the single guys, though they’d invited him to hang out plenty of times. He seemed to prefer the company of his brother and some of the guys who worked for Top, the restaurant his stepfather ran.

Something seemed to be happening up ahead in the line that had it at a standstill.

Hutch needed coffee. He’d overslept and barely managed to catch the train at the Royal Lane Station. Normally he rode in with Theo when he didn’t drive in himself, but he’d woken up and realized he hadn’t charged his freaking car. He’d let it sit for way too long, and now he was probably looking at battery damage he couldn’t afford. So he’d taken the train. And that sucker had been packed.

It had put him on edge, and he needed some coffee with cream and sugar, and he prayed someone had brought muffins or something. Otherwise he would be eating his breakfast from the vending machines, and they were mostly fruit and protein bars since Charlotte was on a health kick.

His cholesterol hadn’t come back bad. Why was he being punished for Big Tag’s LDL levels, and he kind of hated the person who’d invented at-home blood tests.

“You read through the case?” Kyle asked.

He looked back up and the line had moved a bit. Kyle was slightly ahead of him, and there was a woman in front of Kyle. A woman with a nice shape to her. That was a pretty backside, and she had a ton of dark brown hair curling down almost to her waist. He forced himself to focus. “Yeah. It seems pretty straightforward. Chick works for high-end firm. It’s a pretty impressive think tank. Her dad is a crazy, paranoid guy, and now we get to babysit.”

Kyle frowned. “You’re not taking this seriously, are you?”

“You haven’t been around long,” Hutch replied. “You don’t know the signs.”

“There are signs?”

He was going to have to explain and hope he didn’t sound like a complete asshole. Kyle should know that this was a setup going in. He still wasn’t completely sure which of them was the target. He’d had all day Sunday to wonder why Charlotte would think he needed a girlfriend—besides the obvious lack of companionship, lack of motivation, lack of dishes in his brand-new house. “This is a case Big Tag took strictly because he knows this chick’s dad. He’s some sheriff in a town where there’s more gators than people. He’s probably one of those people who thinks his baby girl will immediately be murdered when she steps foot in a city.”

“I have known the type,” Kyle allowed. “But that doesn’t necessarily rule out a serious problem. He can be both paranoid and right. I’ve known that type, too.”

Kyle kind of was that type. But he didn’t understand Charlotte Taggart’s hobbies. “Look, there’s a reason we’re on this case.”

“Yes, you’re here because it involves some high-tech stuff, and I’m good at not letting the people around me die,” Kyle replied as they moved forward again.

“We’re also single, and apparently this young lady is looking for a husband.” He wasn’t sure Noelle LaVigne knew Charlotte was setting her up, but it was smart to go into the situation thinking everyone else was in on it.

A brow rose over Kyle’s eyes. “Seriously?”

At least he now had the man’s attention. “Come on, man. You have to know Charlotte likes to play matchmaker.”

“She does that at the club,” Kyle replied. “She wouldn’t do it in her professional world.”

“Who do you think set up Michael and Tessa?”

Tessa was on the bodyguard team, so Kyle should know her pretty well. “Seriously? She thought Michael and Tess would suit each other? They’re too alike. She needs someone…I don’t know, lighter than Malone. I was actually thinking of introducing her to my brother.”

He would never in a million years have thought that Kyle freaking Hawthorne was the kind of dude who would set up his own brother. “My point is this whole case is a setup. For one of us. I’m not sure which.”

“She’s pretty and smart. I can think of worse things,” Kyle said. “Although I’m not in a good place for a relationship.”

“You and me both.” There was light at the end of the tunnel. Four more people and he could hop on that elevator and get his coffee, get to his meeting, and hopefully shut Charlotte’s plans down. “I do not need to be set up with a small-town princess who probably caused this whole problem by leaving her laptop where she shouldn’t. I do not need some paranoid sheriff begging me to date his daughter.”

“My dad doesn’t beg, I assure you,” a feminine voice said. “And I keep my laptop close. He wasn’t always a small-town sheriff. He was a detective in New Orleans. I spent most of my childhood there. But Dallas is a scary place for a hick like me.”

Hutch felt his whole body flush.

And he also saw the first genuine smile he’d ever seen on Kyle Hawthorne’s face. “Hutch, meet Noelle. She got here right as I did, so naturally I let her go ahead of me. I’m a gentleman. She brought lemon poppyseed muffins because she heard the big guy likes lemons.”

“You’re a massive asshole,” Hutch said under his breath.

“Oh, I’m not the one who looks like an ass,” Kyle shot back before focusing on Noelle, who was way prettier than her picture.

Her picture didn’t show the way her eyes sparkled or the generosity of those lips of hers. In the picture the sun wasn’t shining on her hair, bringing out the red and gold that threaded through the lush brown.

“Noelle likes to bake,” Kyle added. “What do you say?”

“Baking is just chemistry but with a sweeter product at the end,” Noelle replied. “And I did not realize everyone thought this was some kind of joke. I assure you I can handle it on my own.”

Oh, he was going to get his ass kicked. Hard. By multiple people. “I’m sorry. It was pointed out to me that my boss might be trying to set us up. Or Kyle here.”

She turned and moved forward. That was when he noticed the cane. She moved with it as she carried her tote bag that was full of what could have been his breakfast if only he’d kept his damn mouth shut. “Oh, yes, well that was part of the process. I got a big book to look through and pick my possible husband. I’ll let Charlotte know she should send psych evals with the beefcake pics.”

She smiled at the security guard and handed him her bag.

“Is she joking?” Hutch asked. “She’s joking, right?” Because he was pretty sure he hadn’t posed for pictures, but there were definitely nights that it could have happened.

Damn, but she was hot. And now angry with him. Like everyone was going to be.

“I think it’s safe to say she’s joking,” Kyle replied. “And it’s also safe to say you’re about to be off the case. I’m sure MaeBe can handle it. She can go in the field with me.”

May Beatrice Vaughn was another member of McKay-Taggart’s cybersecurity team. In the beginning it had just been Adam Miles, and then Hutch had backed him up for a couple of years. He’d moved into Adam’s old job when Adam had left, and over the years they’d hired a couple of specialists, including the perkiest of them, MaeBe Vaughn.

He and MaeBe were strictly friends. She was like a kid sister. But he also recognized that MaeBe was adorable and had a banging bod. “Did you do all of this to get MaeBe on the team instead of me?”

“Did I set up a scenario where the client showed up and you made an ass of yourself? No.” Kyle pulled his briefcase off in anticipation of the search he was about to go through. “Did I see an opportunity and take it?” He gave Hutch a predatory grin. “Oh, yes. I’ll take Ms. LaVigne upstairs. Don’t worry about her.”

But he kind of wanted to now. He glanced over and she was handing the security guard her cane. She seemed to brace herself and then walked through the scanner to the other side, where she stopped because the guard was examining her cane.

She didn’t want to walk without it. In that moment he didn’t see a potential threat to his own freaking loneliness. He saw a pretty woman who was vulnerable, who was trying hard not to show it, probably because he’d been such an asshole. A woman who’d gone through so much, who still carried the burdens of her past but could smile the way she did.

“Hey, Howard, it’s just a cane.” He knew the security guys. “She’s a client of Mr. Taggart. I don’t think she’s got a cannon in there or anything.”

Kyle was moving through the scanner. Hutch handed over his laptop bag.

“Never can tell these days.” Howard gave Noelle back her cane. “And I don’t know if we should let anyone take a bunch of baked goods up. There’s a senator coming to meet with Mr. Dean. We were told to be extra careful. Miss, I’ll keep these down here for you. If you’ll fill out a form…”

“Do you want to explain to Big Tag why he didn’t get the lemon muffins he ordered?” Hutch was not letting her bag of treats go. She’d made them and carried them all the way here. She got to keep them.

He knew he was doing an awfully fast 180, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d said things she should never have heard, and he felt like crap about it.

“He didn’t actually…” Noelle accepted her cane and seemed to figure out what he was doing. “They’re a surprise. Mrs. Taggart ordered them for her husband. Should I call her?”

Howard immediately handed over the bag. “Nope. If Mrs. Taggart wants them upstairs, then upstairs they go.” He frowned Kyle’s way. “Do you need all these guns?”

Kyle shrugged. “They’re my favorite accessory.” He grimaced when the scanner turned red. “Sorry. I forgot about the knives. Give me a second.”

He moved to the side, and Hutch hoped the man didn’t have to undress to get through security. It gave him a shot at going first since he wasn’t carrying. He stood still and let the scanner do its work. The second guard waved him on, and he grabbed his laptop and joined Noelle, who seemed to be waiting on Kyle.

“Could I carry that for you?” Maybe being a gentleman would smooth things over. “I can walk you up to the office. I’m Hutch. Sorry about the joke I was playing on my buddy over there.”

“Sure. You were joking,” she said, not moving an inch. “Mr. Hutch…”

She had the sweetest accent. It was very Southern and polite. “Just Hutch. My name is Greg Hutchins, but I was named after my dad who was an abusive asshole, so I prefer Hutch.”

“All right, Hutch,” she replied evenly. “Let’s not mince words. You don’t want to do this job, it’s fine. Kyle mentioned someone else.”

“Kyle doesn’t assign agents.” Though apparently he liked to fuck them over.

“I don’t want to cause trouble.” She leaned a bit on the cane. “I’m fairly certain we’re going to find out that this wasn’t worth all the time and effort. If you’ve got a junior team member I can work with, I’ll be happy to make the switch. I was told you’re the top computer guy.”

It was sometimes hard to believe but he’d been heading the cybersecurity unit for years now. “I’m good at what I do. I can figure out if you have a problem. So your dad did Big Tag a favor once?”

“The ties are more complex than that.” She looked him up and down. “My Aunt Lisa said you were cute. She didn’t mention how highly you thought of yourself.”

He knew that name well. The Daley family had close connections to MT. “Lisa Daley?”

Noelle nodded. “She goes by Guidry now. She’s my stepmom’s sister, but I call her aunt anyway.”

Kyle seemed to have gotten through, and he hurried over. “Yeah, it’s weird, right? Like I don’t have any blood relation to Big Tag or Charlotte, but they consider me family because Sean’s my stepdad. It can be hard to figure out what to call those relationships when you’re an adult. As a kid you call everyone aunt and uncle.”

He kind of wished Kyle had stayed on the other side because at least then he could pretend Noelle had one of those faces that always looked a little frowny. Nope. She smiled Kyle’s way and pretty much lit up the room.

“That’s a lot of knives,” she said. “I’m sure my dad would approve.”

Kyle knelt down and shoved one into his boot. “It’s only three. And I’m carrying extra guns because I borrowed a couple to try out at the shooting range. I’m trying to find a good semi. Come on and I’ll get you upstairs. I’m afraid we’re late.”

Hutch didn’t like the “we” part. He moved to the other side of Noelle. “Tag will understand. He has to know what the situation is downstairs. I’d like to talk to you a bit before we go into the meeting. I’ve read through the files but sometimes talking it through can give me a better perspective.”

“I thought it was all the overblown rantings of small-town hicks who think the big city is scary,” she replied as they made it to the elevator.

“I might have been overstating that case,” he admitted. “I’m really sorry you heard that.”

“I’m really sorry you said it,” she shot back.

So she wasn’t the woman who would let a guy get away with shit. It did something for him. He hated it when a woman felt like she had to smile and forgive simply because the man who’d hurt her apologized.

He’d dug a deep hole with this woman, and it sucked because he was a nice guy. He was the guy who made sure everyone got home and who sat with his friends when they weren’t feeling well. He was the caretaker of the group. He was the guy ladies slept with because he was safe and would be nice.

Naturally the one woman to spark his interest he’d been a jerk to.

Not that he was…

Screw that. He was interested, and there was no way Charlotte had set her up with Kyle. No way. That bit of sunshine had been meant for him. Had he been his normal, flirty, nice-guy self she might be eating out of his hand by now. And he would have her muffins halfway down his throat. Yep. It did not escape him that he wanted to taste all her sweetness.

The elevator doors came open and Kyle gallantly held it for Noelle.

He should have done that. Hutch sighed and got on the elevator. “I’m sorry I said it, too, since I know what it’s like to be stereotyped. It was a dumb thing to say and I apologize. I hope I can make you feel comfortable working with me.”

“Or you can talk to Charlotte and get another agent on the case. Hutch is not the only tech guy we have,” Kyle said helpfully. “There’s even a lady tech, if you would feel more comfortable with a woman.”

“Yes, she’s on my team.” It was time to take control. Kyle seemed more than willing to throw him under the bus. “I’m in charge of assignments when it comes to my team. Ian asked me to take this case because I’m the best.”

“I thought his wife asked you because she wants to marry you off,” Noelle quipped.

“Or it could be me,” Kyle offered. “He said he wasn’t sure. I am single, too.”

Kyle was married to his weapons. Hutch shook his head. “It’s me, and I still think Charlotte had a hand in this, but I was given the case and I’m keeping it. I’m also the senior agent. I’m in charge.”

“I’m the client,” Noelle began and then frowned. “Who isn’t actually paying anything, so I’ll take what I can get. You should know, Mr…Hutch, that I am not interested in being set up. I won’t be throwing myself at you or expecting anything beyond your help in one specific situation. You’re perfectly safe. Also, I think you’ll find your part of the job is pretty simple. I brought my laptop with me. We might be able to figure it all out this morning and go our separate ways. I do think my dad’s being paranoid. He also warned me you’re a horndog and I should stay away from you.”

“I’m a what?” He’d never heard the expression.

Kyle snorted. “From some of the stories I’ve heard, it’s a pretty accurate description.” The doors opened and there was the entrance to McKay-Taggart. “Come with me, Noelle. I’m more than happy to show you around while Hutch sets up our briefing. And those muffins smell delicious. Would you like some coffee?”

“I would love some. Thank you.” Noelle completely ignored him as she walked off with Kyle. “It’s a lovely office.”

She had a lovely backside. And muffins. And she smelled like vanilla.

That was a good thing to remember. It hadn’t worked with a vanilla woman. He could have tons of vanilla sex, but it didn’t fill his soul the way it should. He needed more control than most women were interested in handing over.

He took a deep breath and followed. Sometimes mistakes were made for reasons. He had to hope that was the case here.

And he had to figure out what a horndog was. He sighed and moved toward the office. His day was already going bad.

 

* * * *

 

Did he have to be so cute? Noelle sat across from the man her father had warned her about and wished he wasn’t pretty much her exact type. If she was going to build a guy she found attractive, Hutch checked off all her superficial needs. He was gorgeous, had that strong jawline that made her heart go all girly. From the look of his forearms, he spent a lot of time in the gym. And he had beautiful eyes. He wasn’t so big that he overwhelmed her, but he also looked solid. His emotions seemed to play across his face. In the short time since she’d met him, she’d seen what he looked like when he was frustrated, embarrassed, and angry. She’d caught sight of him grinning with some of his coworkers, and that smile of his lit up the room.

Why couldn’t she like the Kyle Hawthorne, superhot and broody type? Any one of her friends would have taken one look at him and been a puddle at his feet, but she’d merely felt an artistic appreciation for the man’s perfection.

She didn’t like perfect. She liked laid back and fun. She liked a guy she could read, who didn’t constantly hide everything he felt.

“So you work for Genedyne?” Ian Taggart’s deep voice brought her back to the reason she was here, which was absolutely not to stare at Hutch while he stared down at the screen of his cell.

Her dad had told her Taggart had recently turned fifty, but he didn’t look it. He was hot, too, though in the Kyle Hawthorne way. He looked like a man who regularly dodged bullets.

He’d asked her a question. It was a tribute to how flustered Hutch had her that she couldn’t focus. She always had to focus. She had to be the smartest person in every room because not only was she a woman in a male-dominated field, sometimes her coworkers saw her in a wheelchair.

How to explain what Genedynamic did. “Yes, I hired on straight out of college. One of my professors had worked with Jessica Layne when she first started out. It’s pretty much my dream job because Ms. Layne is known for funding some big ideas and letting her researchers kind of go wild. She’s got several labs around the country, but Dallas is her base.”

Her boss was a controversial figure in the scientific world. She was known for offering young women the kinds of jobs that tended to be reserved for mature men, but she was also known for loving publicity and suing the hell out of anyone who offended her. Oh, she called it protecting her patents, but some of those suits had little ground to stand on in Noelle’s opinion.

“And what kind of projects do you work on?” Charlotte Taggart was a gorgeous woman, light to her husband’s dark. She wore a power suit and some killer heels, her strawberry blonde hair in an elegant bun.

“I’m actually working on helium.” She totally knew what came next. If she’d concentrated on a lesser-known element, she wouldn’t always have to explain. If she told someone she was studying ways to make a stronger magnet by using neodymium, most people’s eyes glazed over and they were back to talking sports or what movies they’d seen lately pretty damn quick. But everyone knew helium.

“Like balloons?” Kyle asked, his lips quirking up.

Hutch’s eyes were suddenly on her, studying her intently. “Seriously? Are you looking for alternatives?”

“Alternatives?” Kyle asked.

“Is this about the helium shortage?” Big Tag proved he’d actually read up on her. Or he knew more about science than most people.

“Shortage is in the eye of the beholder,” she said. “Some people think it’s merely a break in the supply chain and the fact that the new big deposits have been found in countries like Qatar and Russia, and sales can be influenced by political situations. Every couple of years something goes wrong and anyone who requires helium to run their machines gets nervous. We’re in one of those times when it’s a bit of a scarce resource. The price has gone up significantly in the last few years. But the truth of the matter is helium is a nonrenewable and vital resource. You think peak oil is a problem, meet peak helium.”

Kyle frowned. “Okay, I’m going to get the award for dumbest guy in the room when I ask this, but why are we worried about something we use for kids’ birthday parties?”

Hutch shook his head. “It’s way more than balloons. Helium is a cryogenic element.”

She bit back a laugh at Kyle’s expression, which told her Hutch was talking way over his head. But not hers, and she thought it was sexy that he understood what she was working on. It made her want to talk about gas chromatography and whether or not nitrogen was the solution. They could start slow and move on to more complex scientific conversations. But she remembered where she was and what she was doing. She also remembered he was kind of an ass. “He means helium is an element we can use to cool any number of systems. Helium has a low boiling point which means we can easily turn its natural gas state into liquid. Liquid helium remains in that state all the way to absolute zero.”

Hutch sat up straighter. “That’s zero on the Kelvin scale. It’s more like negative 450 Fahrenheit. Should I explain why we would use Kelvin?”

Taggart shook his head like a father dealing with obnoxious kids. “We know you’re a smarty pants, Hutch. You don’t need to dunk on him.”

Kyle ignored them both. “Does this have something to do with quantum computing?”

So Kyle kept up with the state of technology. “Among other things. Liquid helium is used to cool magnets in machines like supercolliders and medical imaging. It’s important, and my lab is trying to refine a process that allows us to use less helium to do the same job. We’re also trying new techniques to better recycle the helium we use. It’s important to do that and to store it properly because if helium leaks out, it floats to the upper atmosphere and we have no way to recover it.”

“So what you’re saying is you’re working in a high-tech field where your research could make people a lot of money,” Kyle surmised. “Hence, you being worried someone might have accessed your laptop. You’re worried about corporate spies.”

“She should be worried about spies of all kinds. The technology she’s working on is the kind governments would be interested in obtaining for themselves,” Hutch added. “When did you first start to worry someone was messing with your computer? Is your laptop where you keep the majority of your research?”

“I have some of it on my laptop, but the majority stays on the systems in the lab. I’ve got a bunch of statistics and reports from the experiments, but they don’t include the protocols on how we ran the experiments. The company wants to keep a lockdown on employees potentially selling sensitive data,” she explained.

“I thought Ms. Layne did that by threatening to sue anyone who looks at her the wrong way.” Charlotte sat back. “She’s famous for it. Do you like working for her?”

Her boss was extremely litigious, but she also allowed a kind of freedom no one else in the business ever did. It was a bit like walking a tightrope. “I rarely see her. She’s pretty hands off at this stage. If my research pans out, that’s when I’ll have more contact with her. The truth of the matter is if rumors get out that someone’s had access outside the company to my research, it could be bad for me.”

“She’s sued former employees before.” Hutch continued her line of thinking. “Mostly over loss of income due to the former employee not following security protocols. Did you sign an employment contract?”

“Of course.”

“We should have legal take a look at it.” Hutch’s tone had changed as though he was shifting to a more…dominant role. “I’ll run a search on your laptop, and I think we should also take a look around Ms. LaVigne’s apartment and check on anyone who has significant contact with her. I’ll need a list of everyone you spend time with. Have you had any new neighbors recently?”

She wasn’t sure what her neighbors had to do with it. And he wanted a list of her friends? This wasn’t what she’d expected. “Uhm, a new couple moved in two doors down from me last month. The woman who lives next door is pretty new, too.”

Cara was a freelance journalist who’d moved in a couple of months after Noelle had. Noelle liked her and they’d become fast friends. They spent a lot of time drinking wine and bemoaning their romanceless lives. Still, she hadn’t mentioned Sanctum to the other woman. No one but Aunt Lisa knew. Well, and her stepmom, but she tried not to think about that. She wasn’t sure why, but it hadn’t seemed like something to bring up with Cara. It was also a private club, and it seemed mean to talk about something she could never take her friend to.

Kyle had a notepad in front of him. “I’ll need names, but then we should probably play it safe and run traces on anyone in the building, and also at least the employees who would come into contact with Noelle.”

“Whoa. I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t want to invade anyone’s privacy.” Somehow she’d thought they would look at her system, tell her she was being paranoid, and she would be on her way. She should never have told her dad about it. She should have sucked it up and gone to company security and taken her chances. “Look, I think I’ve made a mistake, and I am sorry for wasting your time.”

She started to stand.

“Sit down, Noelle.”

Noelle sat at the sound of that commanding voice. It did not escape her that everyone was staring, but oddly, not at her. They were staring at the man who’d ordered her to sit. She got the feeling they were all surprised those deep-toned words had come from Hutch.

“Dude, you sound serious. Good for you, man.” Taggart nodded Hutch’s way.

Why was she sitting? She forced herself to stand again and reached for her cane. “Thank you for your time. Again, I’m sorry for wasting it.”

Hutch’s eyes met hers, and she felt a bit pinned by them. “Ms. LaVigne, the only thing you’re wasting is the unique opportunity to figure out if you truly have a problem. If you thought you could fix this some other way, you wouldn’t be here. I assume you’re going to ignore the problem now that you’ve decided we’re going to be too much trouble. There’s a reason you didn’t in the first place. If you turn your laptop over to company security, what do you think is going to happen?”

“Hutch, perhaps we should…” Charlotte began.

Her husband reached out and took her hand in his. “No. I want to see how this plays out. You wanted him in the field. He’s going to need to take charge. And possibly learn how to protect his balls. She looks like she knows how to wield that cane.”

She did, actually. Her self-defense teacher had believed deeply in turning anything around him into a weapon. He’d been careful to teach her how to make that cane work for her in more ways than one. “I think it’s not any of your business.”

“Oh, but it is,” Hutch contradicted. “Ian, you don’t fully understand what’s going on here.”

Taggart’s lips were turned up in a ghost of a smile, as though he loved the drama but wasn’t going to make it too obvious. “Oh, I think I do.”

“She’s embarrassed and trying to find a way out,” Hutch said, his expression grim. “I made an ass of myself because I thought this might be a Charlotte setup, and I hadn’t gotten a good look at her, so I was an asshole.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Was he about to be an asshole again?

“It means you are the sweetest thing I’ve seen in a long time, and I regret the fact that I’m not going to get a chance to do anything but work with you. But you should understand that I believe you have a real problem.”

She was not going to think about what those words did to her. “That’s not what you said before.”

“That’s because I hadn’t looked into the fact that someone recently died at your lab.” He managed to make the words an accusation. “You didn’t bother to mention that. You said there was an accident and the lab had to be shut down to ensure it was safe. You did not mention that one Madison Wallace died in that accident.”

“I didn’t think I needed to.” She knew she should have, but the last thing she needed was her father to think she was in more danger than she was already in. He would have a bodyguard sleeping at her place, and that was not necessary.

“I think you knew exactly what you needed to say and you didn’t,” he shot back. “You don’t want to be here. You don’t want the disruption to your life. You don’t want to acknowledge the problem might be bigger than you’re willing to admit. And you’re in a bind. You know something’s going on at your office but your boss—while brilliant—is also vindictive and seems to genuinely enjoy firing people and creating as much drama as she can. No matter what they find on that system, you’ll be under close scrutiny.”

He wasn’t wrong about that. “Well, I’ve got friends who are good with computers. They can look into it.”

Did he think she wasn’t connected? She literally worked in a lab. She was surrounded by people who were obsessed with computers.

Not once had she thought about going to one of them. Not once.

His eyes narrowed slightly. “I think you don’t want to rock the boat with your father. I also think you’re the type of woman who thinks she’s smarter than everyone else.”

“Hey,” Kyle said.

Hutch held a hand out. “You are not the primary on this case.”

“Well, we’re not going to have a case at all if you keep talking,” Kyle complained.

“I definitely think I’m smarter than you.” He was starting to irritate her. And her heart was pounding because no one challenged her like this. No one. She was the sweet, innocent Noelle who couldn’t walk as well as the rest of them. She was treated with a politeness no one seemed to understand marginalized her, too, because she wasn’t allowed to be passionate. She could hurt herself. She was weak and fragile.

It felt good to snarl a little his way.

He stood, his palms flat against the desk, as though he didn’t quite trust himself if he didn’t plant them there. He stared at her, every lean line of his body predatory, and yeah, that did something for her, too. “You probably are, but I’m about to prove that I’m a better game player than you are because I’ve already hacked your system. I did it with my phone. With my phone, Noelle. That’s how easy it was. You have spyware all over it.”

She gasped at the thought. She wasn’t bad with computers herself, but she’d had no hint that there was spyware. “But I have security on it.”

“And whoever uploaded it to your system knew exactly how to get through,” Hutch explained. “Do you know what else I found on your system? Because I can let you guess or I can send it straight to your father and let him handle the problem.”

She felt her face flush because she thought she knew what he was talking about. It was habit for her to write down her thoughts. It helped her organize them. She had lists all over her system, but only one that Hutch could threaten her with. “You wouldn’t. You don’t have any reason to.”

Kyle frowned. “I seem to be lost here. What exactly are we doing?”

“She believes someone murdered Madison Wallace, and she wants to find the killer.” Hutch let the words sit there like a bomb that was definitely going to go off right in her face. “On her own. She’s got lists of suspects. She thinks someone screwed around with the chemicals Madison Wallace was using. And somehow she’s not connected the dots here.”

“There is such a thing as coincidence.” But now that he said the words out loud, she could hear how dumb she sounded. “I don’t know why anyone would hurt Madison. Not for the same reasons they would hurt me. Everyone hated her, but she was a rock star. From what I can tell, she was on the verge of a breakthrough. We didn’t work on the same projects, so I don’t think my computer problems are connected.”

“And I think they are,” Hutch countered. “Who do you think your father is going to believe?”

He had her in check, but she still had a move to make. She turned to Charlotte. “Mrs. Taggart, I will do whatever you want me to do. I’ll be a good girl and follow every protocol you think I need, but I would like another agent to work with. Kyle said there’s a woman on the team. I would feel safer with her.”

“Don’t. I haven’t done a damn thing to make you feel unsafe,” Hutch argued. “I might have hurt your feelings, but don’t push that shit on me.”

“I’m feeling a little unsafe now because you’re being very aggressive.” He wasn’t really. His words were, but she didn’t feel physically threatened. He was, however, threatening her peace of mind because her heart was pounding, and she wondered what would happen if they were alone.

“Ian, do you remember that year of my life I spent being tortured so you could get your brother back?” Hutch said the words to his boss, but his eyes were steady on her.

Tortured?

“I do,” Taggart said evenly.

Hutch’s jaw went tight, straightening to a razor’s edge. “I’m calling that in now. This op is mine. I am in charge. We do this my way or you get on the phone with Sheriff LaVigne because one way or another she’s not going home alone tonight.”

“I thought the cotton candy machine was the trade-off for a year in hell,” Taggart said.

Hutch finally turned that stare his boss’s way.

Taggart sighed and focused his attention on Noelle. “Ms. LaVigne, Hutch is the only agent available to work your case. In light of what he’s found, I’m going to assume he’ll want close cover, and he’ll probably need to get into your office at some point. You’ll have to decide how to integrate him into your life. And pretty quickly.”

What did that mean? “Kyle has to come with me to the office?”

“No. I do. Kyle is strictly muscle, but he does have to stay close.” Hutch straightened up, seeming to relax a bit. “You recently went home. Does everyone know you went home to visit your family?”

“Yes.” She wasn’t completely sure what was happening, but she was almost certain she’d lost control in a big way. “I mean they know I went home. I’ll be honest. I’ve only been there for a year. I’ve got a couple of people I consider work friends, but I don’t talk to them about my family. We talk work stuff.”

Hutch seemed to relax a bit as though he knew he had her where he wanted her. “Good, then when you came back with a boyfriend, no one will question it. We worked out our relationship and we decided I should come to Dallas with you. Kyle is my slacker brother who needs a place to stay while he’s looking for work.”

Every syllable from his mouth horrified her. “No.”

Kyle snorted. “Because I look like the slacker.”

Taggart stood, helping his wife to her feet. “Excellent. It’s all settled then. Come along, my love. It’s lunchtime. Noelle, thank you for the muffins. They were delicious. I leave you in Hutch’s surprisingly authoritative hands. Unless you’d like me to call your dad.”

She was staring at Hutch like she could move him with pure willpower. “No. That won’t be necessary.”

“Hutch, see me before you go to check out Ms. LaVigne’s apartment,” Taggart ordered.

And then she was left with the man she would have to put up with. Well, and Kyle, but he seemed incidental at this point. Hutch had every bit of her attention.

Check and mate.

But their game was far from over.