The Marshal's Witness (14 page)

“That still doesn’t answer the question of why you need a computer now,” Ryan said.

“I can hack into the Justice Department’s computer system, and from there try to hack inside WitSec. I can find out who has accessed my files, who might have known where I’d been relocated. Maybe one of the names will ring a bell and we’ll know who’s behind everything.”

Ryan gave her a hard
look before turning around and staring down the highway. Jessica’s stomach dropped. Had her admission about her computer hacking undone all the strides forward she and Ryan had made over the past few days? He was her only true ally right now, the only one she could trust. What would it take for him to trust her in return?

“You really think you can figure out who accessed your WitSec files?”
Stuart asked, looking doubtful.

“I know I can.”

His brows rose. “You’re that good with a computer?”

“I’m that good.”

“Huh. Maybe you should work for me. I could use a good computer hacker.”

“That’s illegal,” Ryan replied, not looking at either of them.

Stuart shrugged. “Bad choice of words. I could use someone who’s good with a computer.” He winked and grinned at
Jessica.

She ignored him and watched Ryan. He didn’t crack a smile, didn’t even look at her.

“Cool,” Stuart said. “Problem solved, right, Ryan? I’ll leave you two at the motel, get a laptop, and have a car dropped off for you.” He glanced at the time on the dashboard. “Drive time, a few hours of sleep, waiting for the stores to open, getting another driver to drop off the other car...I
should make it back by eleven tomorrow morning, noon at the latest.”

Ryan seemed to consider that for a moment. His hand fisted on the seat beside him. He didn’t look at Jessica when he finally spoke. “Do it.”

Chapter Seventeen

Ryan was quiet as he held open the motel room door for Jessica. He hadn’t said much since her comment about hacking into the database. Although he’d grudgingly agreed to have Stuart get the laptop, he still hadn’t said whether he’d go along with Jessica’s plan.

The motel room, although small, was clean and looked like it had been renovated within the past
few years. A flicker of disappointment flared through Jessica when she noted there were two beds. Now that they didn’t need to share their body heat to keep from freezing to death, it made sense they should each have their own bed. But she’d grown used to having Ryan snuggled up behind her at night. The thought of sleeping without him had her feeling lonely already, even though he was standing next
to her.

“Something wrong?” he asked.

“No, I think I’ll grab a shower.”

He followed her to the bathroom. Their eyes met in the mirror and she raised a brow in question. He set the backpack down on the floor, reminding Jessica that Stuart had brought them new clothes and toiletries. “Thank you,” she said.

He turned and left without a word.

She had too much on her mind to
enjoy the shower like she had back in the cabin. Was she safe here? Did anyone follow them from the mountains? And the thought that shouldn’t have mattered as much as the others, but somehow did—was her relationship with Ryan over?

He’d made it quite clear before they’d first made love that they couldn’t have a future together. But she’d give anything to see him look at her with desire again,
to feel him hold her close to his heart. She could lie to herself, if only for a little while, and pretend he really cared about her.

Since she didn’t have a nightgown, and she didn’t want to waste the few clean clothes that she had, she wrapped a towel around her body and stepped out of the bathroom, intending to slide under the covers of the nearest bed.

Ryan was sitting on the bed
closest to the door reading a newspaper Stuart had gotten them from the motel lobby. His gaze shot to hers and he slowly lowered the paper. The cold indifference in his eyes was quickly replaced by a smoldering heat as his gaze flickered down her body. In spite of the thick towel, she felt totally exposed, and nervous.

She pulled up the covers and slid between the cool sheets, discarding
the towel on the floor. Burrowing beneath the comforter, she grew increasingly uneasy beneath Ryan’s unwavering stare. “There’s plenty of hot water left,” she said to break the uncomfortable silence.

He tossed the paper on the table beside his bed and crossed to the bathroom, firmly closing the door behind him.

* * *

R
YAN
LET
THE
warm water cascade over his back as he thought back
to another shower, the night of the fire. Then, as now, pictures of Jessica flitted through his mind, warming him far more than the water.

Back then he’d hated that he’d responded to her, because he’d despised her. Now, he couldn’t stand that he wanted her because he cared far too much for her. No woman had ever twisted him inside the way she did. After hearing about the struggles she’d been
through, he’d half convinced himself that maybe she wasn’t all that different from him, after all. She wasn’t the bad person he’d assumed she was. She’d gotten mixed up in the mob by accident, not by choice. And she’d done the right thing, even though it had taken her a while to gather the courage.

But then he’d seen the excitement in her eyes when she’d talked about breaking into the Justice
Department’s database. And she’d convinced him to agree to that plan. What did that say about him? His reverence for justice, for law and order, had been ingrained in him since birth. If someone like him could be talked into crossing that line, what did that mean? Jessica was blurring the lines between right and wrong, making him question everything he’d ever stood for.

He didn’t like that
one bit, and he was seriously reconsidering whether or not to let her hack into the government’s database.

Ryan slammed the flat of his palm against the tile and turned off the water. The shower had done nothing for his raging desires. In spite of everything, he still wanted Jessica more than he’d ever wanted any other woman.

She was in the next room, a thin wall separating the two of
them. And yet, right now, the distance between them seemed more insurmountable than when they’d first met.

Unsure what he would say or do when he saw her, Ryan wrapped a towel around his hips and flipped the light off. He opened the bathroom door and discovered Jessica was already asleep, snoring softly in her bed.

A mixture of relief and disappointment swept through him. He lost track
of the time as he stood beside her bed, mentally tracing the soft curve of her cheek, watching the gentle rise and fall of her shoulders as she breathed. When she turned on her side, the sheet slipped down, revealing the upper curves of her breasts.

His hand shook as he gently pulled the sheet back up to cover her. Unable to resist the impulse, he leaned down and pressed a whisper-soft kiss
on her lips. He crossed to the door and double-checked the lock. The chair he’d propped under the handle was still in position.

He placed his pistol on the table next to his bed and flipped off the light, determined not to think about the incredibly desirable woman in the other bed.

* * *

T
HE
WIND
WHIPPED
the rain in hard sheets against them as Jessica and Ryan struggled down the
courthouse steps. Thunder cracked and lightning lit up the sky, silhouetting the dark van at the curb waiting to take them to safety.

Something about that van bothered Jessica and she tried to warn Ryan, but her words were snatched away by the wind and he didn’t hear her warning.

The explosion knocked him on top of her. She tried to scream but his heavy body pushed the air from her lungs.
She twisted beneath him, struggling to knock him to the side.

“Jessica, Jessica, wake up. Everything’s okay, wake up.”

Her eyes flew open and she stared up in confusion at the man bending over her in the dark. He was lying on top of her, his fingers wrapped around her wrists.

“Jessie, it’s Ryan. Talk to me.”

“Ryan?” She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the dim light. “What are
you doing?”

He let out a pent-up breath and rested his forehead against hers. She could feel the tension draining out of him as he loosened his hold on her wrists and propped himself up on his elbows. “You were having a nightmare.”

“I was?”

“You don’t remember?”

She started to say no, but then a crack of thunder sounded outside the room and she shivered beneath him as the horror
of her dream came back to her. “The explosion at the courthouse.” She shivered again, swallowing convulsively.

He gently smoothed her hair out of her face, then rolled over on his side next to her, propping his elbow on the pillow. “Do you want to talk about it?”

She shook her head. “No.”

“Want to watch TV to take your mind off it?”

She shook her head again. “No. Just...just
don’t leave me, okay?”

He hesitated, and for a moment she thought he would refuse. But then he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss on her lips. He laid his head on the pillow next to her, his body so close she could feel the heat from him. He picked up her hand and entwined his fingers with hers.

Her pulse sped and it seemed her entire body centered and focused on the warm feel of his
hand holding hers.

The sounds of the storm gradually faded as it moved off into the distance until the only thing she could hear was the sound of Ryan’s breathing. But it wasn’t the deep, even breathing of someone who was sleeping.

“Ryan,” she whispered, “Are you awake?”

He squeezed her fingers. “You can’t sleep, either?”

“No. Too keyed up, I guess. Why can’t
you
sleep?”

He hesitated. “The storm reminded me of another storm, on my last mission.”

“One of your ranger missions?”

“Yeah.” She could hear his smile in his words. “A ranger mission.” He stroked her arm, his fingers absently caressing her skin, then his fingers stilled. “Pretty much everything that could go wrong went wrong.”

“What happened?”

His hand tensed on hers. She thought he
was going to leave, but instead he pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “I can’t give you any details. Our missions were classified.”

“How about a summary. Leave out the super-secret stuff.”

He drew a deep breath and wrapped his arm around her waist. “One of our informants, Aamir, betrayed us. I thought he was my friend. We’d worked together for years. He provided intel on
the terrorist activities in the region, and his information was always solid, until that last mission. Four men died in an ambush and I realized we had a traitor among us.”

“Go on,” she urged, when he didn’t say anything for several minutes. She rubbed her fingers on the arm wrapped around her waist, hoping he would trust her enough to continue. This was the first time he’d really opened
up to her.

“Stuart and I arranged a trap,” he finally said. “Basically, we fed Aamir bad information. Then we waited. Sure enough, there was another ambush. But this time, we were ready with an ambush of our own.”

“Your friend...did he—”

“He was mortally wounded in the crossfire. I found him, after everything was over. I tried to stop the bleeding, but there was nothing I could
do. He could barely speak, but he kept whispering that he wasn’t the traitor.”

“You didn’t believe him?”

“He was the only person we told about the patrol that day. No one else would have known where we were going to be.” He stroked her arm, his fingers feathering out across her skin, making her shiver. He grew bolder, stroking down toward her hip.

“I trusted him,” he continued,
as his fingers blazed a maddening trail across her skin. “For over two years. And with his dying breath he lied to me. I still can’t figure out how he arranged everything by himself. He had to have had help. Stuart and I have both examined the evidence, tried to figure out who was calling the shots. No luck so far, but I’m not giving up. I owe it to the men who died to find out who was responsible.
I’ve got Stuart’s company investigating it.”

The pain in his voice shot straight to her heart. She turned in his arms and wrapped him in a tight hug.

“I’m so sorry your friend betrayed you,” she whispered.

He looked deep into her eyes, and then he crushed her against him, claiming her lips with a raw, ravenous hunger that shocked her. She answered him kiss for kiss, touch for touch.
This time when the storm raged, it raged inside Ryan. Jessica soothed his wounded soul the only way she could, by loving him.

* * *

“A
RE
YOU
GOING
to sleep the whole day away?”

“Go away.” Jessica squeezed her eyes shut and swatted at Ryan’s hand, which was shaking her shoulder.

She hated morning people. How could he be so chipper after they’d kept each other awake late into
the night?

He dropped his hand and Jessica smiled with satisfaction, snuggling beneath the covers and sinking back against her soft pillow.

Ryan sighed loudly, as if he was extremely disappointed. “I guess I’ll have to eat all of this food by myself. Ham and cheese omelets, pancakes, bacon, fresh-squeezed orange juice.”

The smell of bacon wafted to Jessica and she grudgingly opened
one sleepy eye. Ryan sat on the edge of her bed waving a thick slice of bacon under her nose. He waggled his eyebrows at her. She frowned and grabbed the bacon.

“Oh, my gosh,” she groaned. “This is so good.”

He grinned. “I thought you might enjoy something besides granola bars and rabbit for a change.”

She looked up at him, and was a little disappointed that he’d shaved the stubble
from his face. The scruffy, unshaved look he’d sported back in the mountains made him look less perfect, more like an ordinary mortal instead of the devastatingly handsome man he was right now.

“I can’t believe you woke me up this early,” she said. “What time is it?”

“You weren’t nearly this grumpy sleeping on a pile of branches in a cold cave.”

“I’m tired.” She pulled herself into
a sitting position. “I didn’t get much sleep last night.” She flushed, wishing she’d chosen different words.

A slow sexy grin slid across his face, but instead of teasing her, he tucked a blanket around her. He stood and grabbed a tray of food from his bed and set it on Jessica’s lap. The plate was piled high with food.

“A real plate? A real fork and knife? I’m overwhelmed.”

“You
can thank me later.” He leered at her and she laughed out loud. She’d missed this lighter side of Ryan and was glad to see him smiling again.

She popped a forkful of eggs in her mouth, barely suppressing another moan at the flavor. “Aren’t you going to eat, too?”

“I’d rather watch you. More fun.”

“Well, don’t. You’re making me self-conscious. Eat.”

“If you insist.” He plopped
down beside her and she had to grab the tray to keep it from bouncing off her lap.

He plucked a piece of bacon off her plate and shoved it into his mouth.

“Hey, get your own plate.”

“Can’t reach it. I left it on the other bed.” He looked at her with a forlorn expression on his face and dipped his gaze toward her plate.

She rolled her eyes and speared a forkful of eggs. He opened
his mouth and she fed him. He closed his lips around the fork and watched her as she pulled it back. He swallowed, then licked his lips, all the time watching her.

Her next forkful was a little unsteady and he had to dip his mouth down to capture it. Again, his lips pulled at the fork as he let her slowly pull it back.

He swallowed and she sat there, frozen as she stared at him, watching
his tongue dart out to lick salt from his lips. She jumped, startled when his hand closed around hers and guided her fork back to the plate. He helped her spear some more eggs, but this time he guided them to her mouth.