It tore at his heart.
Hooking an arm around her waist, he reeled her into his arms. She dropped her forehead to his chest. “It’s all right, honey,” he said gruffly.
“Uh…thanks?” Josiah was still on the line.
“Not you, dickhead.”
Josiah cracked up laughing.
He wanted to hang up on his brother, but he needed the information he provided too.
Smoothing his hand over Pippa’s damp hair, he said, “It’s no big deal. Just sign in and read the email.”
When she raised her eyes to his, the pain he saw reflected in the depths struck him in the gut this time.
“What if I learn someone I trust…someone I enjoy being around…wants me dead?”
He didn’t tell her that was exactly what she’d find out eventually. Someone she knew and trusted betrayed her.
“You can do this, Pippa. Come on.” He gently turned her to face the laptop. She stood still for a long moment and then jerked into action and entered her login.
“That isn’t the same passcode you entered before,” he said.
“I have a different one for emails. Lots of levels of security in this system.”
“Are you hearing this?” he asked Josiah.
“I’m seeing it. It’s state of the art, I’ll give MIZR credit for that. Has she reached her emails yet?”
“There are so many,” she said, scrolling through the inbox. “I’ll have to read them all, since I have no idea what I need to see.”
Starting at the top, she skimmed the post about a special lunch for a lab assistant’s birthday. She went to the next. This from her friend Meredith. A photo of a flower bloomed on the screen along with a GET WELL SOON beneath it. Seven heart emojis followed and then Meredith’s name.
“That was sweet of her,” Pippa said softly before moving to the next email.
A few came from people she’d never mentioned, containing in-depth science terms. Just reading it over her shoulder dulled Ross to pieces. When she hit the next email, a name flashed up that she’d mentioned. A name they were investigating.
“Josiah, is it the email from Ryan Letters?”
“That’s the one.”
She threw Ross a sideways glance. Was that a blush climbing her cheeks?
“Open it,” he commanded in a tight voice.
Together, they silently read the email, which was only partly about work. The rest seemed pretty damn personal to Ross.
She moved to the next. He stopped her with a hand on her arm.
“I don’t see anything untoward in that email. No clues that Ryan wants me dead.” Defiance lit her eyes.
“He likes you.”
“You’re insane.”
“He wants to jump you.”
“Don’t be crass. And you’re wrong.”
“Am I? ‘We can hit the research as soon as you feel better,’” he mimicked from the email.
“Yeah—he meant exactly that. We can continue work as soon as I’m back in the lab.”
“‘I missed seeing you in the lunchroom.’”
She shrugged. “So? Ryan’s got a girlfriend. He isn’t interested in me, and I only like his mind.”
Ross leveled his stare at her.
“Ross…I knew this would happen. You’re only acting this way because we slept together!”
“Hooooeeeee,” Josiah sang into Ross’s ear.
He ended the call and slammed the phone on the table. Taking a step closer to Pippa, he forced her to back up. “In five seconds, all of my brothers—probably my sister too—will know what happened between us. And no—I’m not suspicious of Ryan Letters because I had my hands and tongue all over your body.”
She shuddered.
“It’s because he’s dropping lines in that email that are red alerts to people like me and my team. If he likes you, he has a reason to stalk you. If he harbors professional jealousy of your brain and talent and your find, then he has a motive to come after you.”
She shook her head. “I don’t understand. He likes me but he’s jealous? Those ideas completely conflict with each other.”
“Not if you’ve studied criminal minds, and I have. He may have an unhealthy attraction to you.”
“You’re wrong.”
“Envy drives most people.”
“It doesn’t drive me.”
“I know, honey. Me either. But I want you to search your mind and tell me every single detail about this guy. I don’t care if it was a weird feeling you got from him or a certain look.”
She gazed at Ross for a long minute and finally nodded. “Okay. But I can’t work without food, Ross.”
His mind tripped over the off-topic statement.
“What are you getting us for dinner?” she demanded.
His lips quirked. “Of all the things I expected you to say, this was the furthest from my mind. Though I don’t know why it surprises me from a woman who would eat the last blueberry bar.”
* * * * *
“That tasted better than it actually was because I was so hungry.” Pippa sat back in the stiff chair and clasped her hands over her stomach.
Across the table, Ross stuck an entire chicken wing in his mouth, clamped his teeth and pulled the bone from his mouth clean of meat. She watched him do that three more times before he tossed the last chicken wing into the paper tray.
“Everything’s better when you haven’t eaten in a while.”
She studied him. He’d showered and changed clothes. He wore his chambray shirt open at the throat, showing off his tanned skin as well as a few hairs creeping up from his chest. Veins snaked down his forearms, visible below his rolled sleeves. Even without his hat, he still owned the cowboy look one hundred percent.
“What would you eat if you could pick the menu?” she asked.
He cut a glance at her and wiped his mouth with a paper napkin in a manly move that would leave a woman breathless.
“Ribeye and baked potato with sour cream and loads of butter. My momma’s rolls.” He groaned.
She did too. “I remember your momma’s rolls well. I helped her make them once, but I’ve never attempted it on my own. My mother made them once for Easter and they came out like stones. We still tease her about it.”
His smile popped the dimple in his cheek. “What would you eat?”
“Doritos.”
He chuckled. “You? Junk food? Doesn’t the fake cheese alter your genetic makeup or something?”
She laughed. “That’s not how it works.”
“I saw a vending machine at the end of the building. I can have Roman grab you a bag if you want.”
“No, I’m full. Thank you, though.” Their gazes caught and held. The touch of his eyes roaming over her face, hair and down to her breasts left her with a burning memory of his rough hands on her.
His tongue on her.
“We’re leaving at four a.m. Roman and I decided it’s best to travel at a quiet time of day.”
She dragged in a breath, the warm fuzzies in her stomach forgotten. “So we really are going to Seattle?”
He nodded. “The guys and I worked it out. Boone’s left his current post and is on his way there now to secure things the best he can for our arrival. The rest get into Seattle right before we do.”