Dyrk huffed. “Don’t be a wise-ass. I know he did it. I can feel it in my damn bones, Ragan.”
“But Xavier Manchester is Stark’s money manager, not a thief. What proof do you have he stole all of Stark’s money?”
“I don’t. I just know he did it.”
“But how?” Ragan pressed.
Dyrk’s lips, the ones she’d spent the night dreaming about kissing, turned into a hard, thin line. “I…don’t know.”
Excitement flooded Tessa. “I know! It must have been the crystal treatment from last night.”
Ragan’s eyebrows shot up as his gaze bounced between her and Dyrk. “Excuse me?”
Tessa smiled happily at him. “I taught Dyrk some yoga last night and performed a special crystal treatment designed specifically for dragons. It’s meant to provide clarity when done correctly, which, not to toot my own horn, it was.”
Tessa braced herself for Dyrk’s patented eye roll, but instead he surprised her with a small, shy smile instead. Her heart performed a backflip in her chest, and she scooted a little closer to him so they could booth peer over Ragan’s shoulder as he pulled up Stark’s file in Xavier’s now-hacked system. Endless tables of numbers filled the screen, making her vision swim. Spreadsheets were so not her jam, but she was willing to play along if it meant getting to stand next to Dyrk and soak up his presence.
“Correct me if I’m wrong,” she said, leaning in a bit closer, “but it looks like he has more than enough in his accounts to finance ten trips around the world, much less a family vakay to Oz.”
“That’s what it looks like to me too,” Ragan admitted, giving Dyrk a pitying look.
“Seriously?” Dyrk grumbled. He heaved a sigh and raked his fingers back through his hair with frustration.
“Looks like nobody’s touched Stark’s piles of cash,” Ragan said.
“It doesn’t make any sense,” Dyrk said and slammed a fist on the cubicle’s partition. “I really thought I could follow my gut on this one. This so-called case should be simple. Why do I keep hitting dead ends?”
“You’re telling me.” Ragan sighed.
Tessa wasn’t sure what to do. It wasn’t as though she had a secret degree in accounting and could offer some insight. She was lucky to balance her own accounts on a monthly basis, if not yearly. But Dyrk was so frustrated it made her heart hurt. She had to do something.
So, she did the only thing she knew would help. Slipping behind him, she began massaging his shoulders. At first, he tensed, but quickly relaxed under her touch as she worked her fingertips into his knotted muscles. For almost a full minute, he melted into her, his body giving in to what he needed so badly. Then, almost as if electricity zapped through him, Dyrk jerked away, his cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
Tessa gave him a sympathetic smile. “Stress is a killer, you know. Meditation would definitely help, if you gave it a chance. Would you like to meditate with me at lunch?”
She held her breath, waiting for his answer, though she had a feeling she knew what it would be. He didn’t disappoint.
“I can’t. Since this was another dead end, I need to work through lunch.”
Well, that was that. At least he made an effort to let her down easy, but clearly he wasn’t interested in what she had to offer. A bit of a bummer, to be sure, but c’est la vie.
“How about after work?” he asked quietly.
Tessa would have easily been knocked over by a feather after that, and it took a minute for her to believe she’d heard right. When she was sure, she broke into a megawatt grin.
“It’s a date!”
Chapter Four
Why did he agree?
He’d been asking himself that very question every hour on the hour since Tessa’s offer to teach him meditation. Try as he might, he couldn’t bring himself to dread their appointment. In fact, every time he tried to ask himself why, he found himself thinking, Why not?
Of course, the answer was probably somewhere in that tight bunch of muscles between his shoulders. The knot was just out of his reach and he desperately wished Tessa had massaged the spot. He hadn’t wanted her to stop, not really, and the fact that he knew she’d be all too delighted if he asked her to continue only made it worse. This was getting out of hand.
It was a little after five, and he was still locked down in his cubicle. People had started going home, and he was getting nowhere with his own assignment. That drove him up the wall more than anything else.
He itched to get back to the task force where he could do some real good. This kind of pressure usually helped him work harder and smarter, but this time, it was only slowing things down. He was wasting his time on a fool’s errand, and if he didn’t know better, he’d wonder if Charlie had something out for him.
“Any luck before I take Alice out for dinner?” Charlie asked from the entrance to his work space, snapping Dyrk out of his trance.
“Depends on your definition.” He twirled a pen in his fingers as he leaned back and crossed his legs. “Xavier Manchester is nowhere to be found. His answering service has absolutely no clue where he is, and every cell phone number Ragan was able to dig up for me has been disconnected. So, if I were trying to make sure someone’s disappearing act was working well, I’d say I’ve had plenty of luck!”
Charlie gave him an unamused look. “I suppose I’ll take that over empty assurances. Always have appreciated that about you, Dyrk. You don’t beat around the bush.”
Dyrk had a few thoughts about that, but before he could answer, his cell phone lit up, and Charlie gave him a wave as he hurried to meet Alice at the front door. He still couldn’t believe the two were now a couple. But stranger things had happened. Still, he couldn’t take his eyes off them as he swiped at his phone without looking.
“Dyrk Fortis.”
“Awww, so nice to hear from you too!” Wyntir’s voice came through the receiver, a bit fuzzy but otherwise clear. Dyrk’s heart nearly jumped out of his chest.
“Wyntir!” he hastily pulled out a notepad. “Thank god, what’s going on?”
“I was about to ask you the same thing. We’re back in Hobart for a few hours to refuel and stock up on food, and I couldn’t help but notice the deluge of emails and voicemails. I thought you might appreciate a check-in. We’re about to sail back to Melbourne, and then we’re flying straight back home to Los Angeles from there.”
Unsurprisingly, there was a testy edge to her voice. Wyntir had always valued her vacation time jealously, and now, she had an even bigger incentive to stay away in the form of Stark Bradford’s loving embrace.
“Now, what have you found out about Stark’s cards?”
“I can’t get into anything without his permission, and I can’t get a hold of his financial advisor, Xavier.”
“Hold on. You’d better talk to Stark.”
When he came on the line, Dyrk launched right into the crux of the issue, not wanting to risk the call dropping again. “Listen carefully, because this is going to sound bizarre, but I need you to hang on the line for a few minutes and give me some info you won’t like giving away.”