by Lexi Blake
Hutch chuckled and his hand disappeared inside a…was that a Star Wars cookie jar on his desk? It didn’t contain cookies. He pulled out a small packet. “Mixed berry Skittles.”
He tossed it and MaeBe reached up to catch the candy. “Thanks, boss. I love these. Y’all be good.”
She practically bounced out of the room.
Were they really staying at her place? She hadn’t woken up this morning thinking she would have two houseguests, much less two men she didn’t know. Surely this wasn’t what her dad had planned. “MaeBe seems competent. Are you sure…”
“She’s not a field agent.” Hutch sank down behind his desk. “She’s only been with the company for the last year, and she’s strictly behind a desk for now. She doesn’t have the right training.”
“And you do?” Kyle’s brows had risen.
Hutch stared back at him. “I did a year in the Army.”
Kyle snorted at that thought. “You did the bare minimum.”
“And then I did time with a CIA team,” Hutch said evenly.
“You sat behind a computer,” Kyle challenged.
Hutch was quiet for a moment, and then the room felt charged with his words. “Do you honestly believe I can’t do undercover? Because I promise you, I’ve done some of the toughest undercover work anyone has ever been through, and I knew how bad it would be when I went in. I did it for your family.”
There was a subtext between the two men that she didn’t understand. Oh, but she was curious. It was very much like what had gone on between Hutch and Taggart in the conference room.
Kyle sobered. “I know, man. I’m sorry. I’m giving you shit when I shouldn’t. I’m not used to seeing you off balance, and I’m being an asshole.” Kyle turned Noelle’s way. “I have no problem with this man watching my back. He’ll take care of you.”
“I don’t need taking care of.” She hated those words. It was silly because she took care of the people around her, but it always made her think of that time after the accident when she couldn’t walk, couldn’t make herself try. When she’d been nothing more than some wounded thing to take care of.
“I’ll watch your back, Noelle,” Hutch said, his voice soothing. “You might not need taking care of, but we can all use a team around us. I’ve learned that over the years. You don’t have to do this alone. You pick experts and you listen to them. I’m your tech guy. Kyle’s the one who throws his ass in front of you when the bullets fly. It’s okay. I’ll be behind you, so Kyle will die first no matter what.”
Kyle finally smiled. “Yeah, I get that a lot. You ready? We can get her to work and then we can pick up our stuff. Did you drive?”
Hutch sighed. “I forgot to charge my car. My battery’s probably toast. I took the train.”
“I did, too. The train runs right by my building. I don’t drive much.” She didn’t have to because DART took her most of the places she needed to go. She could drive. She just wasn’t comfortable doing it. “I don’t need an escort. Surely I’ll be fine on public transportation.”
Both men stared at her. She knew that stare. She’d been around overly protective males many times before.
“You know I only have one guest room, and it’s got a daybed in it.” She wasn’t giving up her perfectly comfy bed. She leaned on her cane because her right leg was starting to ache a bit. “And I’ve got a class I’m attending on Thursday, and I’m not canceling it. If you insist on staying close to me, you should understand that I’m not going to change my whole life because the two of you take your jobs too seriously.”
“Hopefully by Thursday we’ll know more.” Hutch closed up his laptop. “We should get going. Kyle, looks like you’re driving.”
“Uh, I don’t actually own a car right now,” Kyle explained. “I gave mine up because I didn’t want to have to store it. I haven’t replaced it since I came home. I got a ride in with Jamal.”
“So we’re three Gen Zs with a single car between us at the moment and only two beds.” Hutch sighed. “Yeah, we’re not telling Tag that.”
“Agreed.” Kyle shook his head. “I have no idea how my stepdad survived growing up with him. You want to rock-paper-scissors for the bed?”
“Is the bed in front of the door? Where the bodyguard should be?” Hutch was a wily one.
Kyle growled a little. “Fine. I need a sleeping bag.” He brightened slightly. “Hey, MaeBe’s got a car. She can drive us. I’ll go ask her.”
“He definitely has a thing for her.” She was aware she was now alone with Hutch. In his office that she’d been exploring before he’d walked back in. At that time it had seemed pretty big. Now it was way too intimate.
“Really?” Hutch stared at the door like he’d never thought about it. “He’s definitely not her usual. Her usual is all piercings and tats and shouldn’t we look up his arrest record. Kyle’s a little all-American for her. Your muffins are fantastic.”
It took a moment for her to realize he was talking about baked goods and not some body part. What would her muffins be? Boobs? She probably had a muffin top, but she wasn’t wearing jeans, so he shouldn’t be able to see that. It was the way he said it. Low and sexy, like he was thinking of something that brought him great pleasure. Yep. He was talking about the muffins she’d brought. “Thanks. I’ve been perfecting the recipe. I like to bake. But I don’t cook a lot. I usually pick up a sandwich on my way home. I’ve got some frozen dinners.”
“Aren’t you in luck then because I’m a halfway decent cook. I learned young.”
“Did your mom teach you?”
“No, my mom died, and my dad wasn’t big on doing things he considered feminine tasks. I learned to cook, or I didn’t eat.” He sat back, his chair moving with him. “I’m not a brilliant chef, but I have some skills. I’ll stop by the grocery store before Kyle and I head to your place. Anything you don’t eat?”
He slipped that tragedy in like it didn’t matter, like it was nothing more than a factoid on a report. She wasn’t sure what to say so she simply answered his question. “I eat pretty much anything.” She felt horrifically awkward. Moments before she’d been angry with him, and now she wanted to ask about his childhood. It was better to focus on the job. “Do you really think this is necessary?”
“Can you honestly tell me you weren’t going to investigate the accident in the lab?”
“I don’t like to ask for help.” She didn’t like to feel small. She’d felt it much of her life, had learned exactly how fragile it all was at a young age. She’d also learned that the minute she asked for help was the minute everyone around her started thinking she needed it all the time.
“I can understand that. I need you to understand that despite my earlier impression, I don’t tend to underestimate people. I don’t judge a book by its cover, though the cover might be awfully pretty.”
He’d obviously decided to go the charming route. It wouldn’t work on her. “Sure. The first thing anyone notices about me is that I’m pretty.”
“Well, if I’d noticed the cane first, I wouldn’t have made an ass of myself,” he pointed out. “So you need to understand that you probably manipulate a lot of men with those eyes of yours, but it won’t work on me.”
Outrage sparked through her and then she caught a ghost of a smile on his lips and realized the jerk was fucking with her.
No one fucked with her. Not like teasing. No one in her world treated her with anything but the utmost respect. Except Madison. God. Was that why she wanted to investigate? Because Madison had at least respected her enough to play rough. Madison was the kind of woman who would have ignored her utterly if she hadn’t felt threatened.
This man already zeroed in on a weakness Noelle herself hadn’t realized she had.
“I’ll remember that.” She wasn’t going to give in to the need to spar with him.
The grin disappeared. “I know you’re independent and that’s important to you, but someone absolutely is spying on you through your computer. I found some sophisti
cated software that was uploaded five days ago. What else happened that day?”
A chill crept across her skin. “Madison died. All right. I can make connections when they’re that obvious. So I’m supposed to tell my coworkers we’re high school sweethearts who reconnected and now we’re together again?”
“How close are you to your coworkers? Have you talked a lot about your past?”
She could lie and tell him this plan of his would never work. She should have told him she already had a boyfriend, but she’d lost that chance. And yet she found herself leveling with him. “I’ve got a couple of people I have lunch with at work. Sometimes we go to happy hour. I’ve spoken very little about my past. I find coming from a small town puts me in a box with a lot of people in my industry. I talk about my time in Austin. I talk about the awards I’ve won and the papers I’ve written.”
“So they don’t know much about your life,” Hutch mused. “I promise I can handle this. I can handle your friends and make them believe I’ve cared about you for a long time. I can make them comfortable, and I’ll make you comfortable, too. I’m sorry we started off the way we did.”
Something about the words put her on guard. “I’m not looking for a boyfriend.”
Hutch shrugged. “And I’m not looking for a relationship either, so we’re good.”
“But you’re flirting with me. I don’t like it.” It threw her off. No one in her life flirted with her. She got asked out from time to time, but the men who asked her always seemed serious. Hutch was different.
“It’s a part of who I am,” Hutch conceded. “I’ll try to not do it outside of our cover. I’m sorry. I think flirting is a coping mechanism. I spent a lot of years surviving by making people like me. I did some time in foster care and on the streets as a teen. I’m only telling you because you should get to know me. I’m not trying to get sympathy.”
“Yes, you are.”
The slight grin was back on his face. “Is it working?”
“Is it true?”
The smile faded again. “Oh, yes. I don’t lie about my childhood. My scars are all on the inside, but they’re there, and they affect every part of me. I’ll lay it on the line. I’m a man who’s been in therapy for a decade. I go almost every Thursday. My therapist is on vacation right now, but I have an appointment next week. Unless it’s dangerous for me to leave you, I’ll make that appointment.”
“You don’t have to justify your therapy. It’s good and healthy, and I’m happy it works for you. I’ve done some myself. After the car accident. I still struggle to drive. Anyway, your healthy attitude toward therapy is okay with me.” More than okay. He’d been vulnerable in the last couple of minutes, and she had a hard time shutting him out. They would be working together for a little while. “Do you want to start over? Like pretend the whole morning didn’t happen?”
He stood, his eyes warm as he held out a hand. “I’m Hutch. It’s nice to meet you, Noelle.”
She took his hand, and she could have sworn she felt freaking sparks. Warm and true. He enveloped her hand and she had to remember to breathe. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
“Hey, MaeBe says yes. She can take us. I call shotgun.” Kyle was smiling and looking way less broody than he had before. And younger.
She felt younger standing there looking at Hutch like he was the lead singer in a boy band. She forced herself to take her hand back. “We should go then. I’m late.”
She would focus on work and not the man waiting for her at the end of the day.
He wouldn’t be there for long. That was the truth she had to remember.
Chapter Three
Twenty minutes later she made her way to the parking garage, Hutch at her side. She’d noticed he’d matched her stride, which was much slower and shorter than his. It was only polite, she supposed, but there was something nice about it. Often she felt like she was holding people up, but Hutch seemed perfectly comfortable with the slower pace.
“Do you know what Madison was working on? And I’d love to see any kind of reports on the accident in her lab.”
While they’d waited for MaeBe and Kyle to text them that they were ready to go, they’d talked about the case. He’d gone over how a hacker could get into her system, patiently explaining the methods and answering her every question.
He’d also offered her candy. He had a surprising amount of candy on his desk.
“She was working on something top secret. I think it’s some kind of biochemical experiment,” she replied as they stopped on the ground floor of the garage. “She had every technician who worked with her under some hard-core NDAs.”
Everyone signed a nondisclosure agreement when they started work at Genedyne, but Madison had her own to cover her specific lab.
“So you work on whatever you want to?” Hutch had a bag in his hand. Apparently he kept a spare set of clothes and a toiletry bag at the office in case he got stuck working late.
“Consider Genedyne as something of a think tank combined with a university, but making money like a corporation.” It could be hard to describe the way these new firms worked. “They’re all about the patents they potentially get coming out of this.”
“So you do the work and the company gets the patent, and the patent is what makes money. Doesn’t seem fair to me, though I know it’s how the system works.”
“If I was at a university, they would own my research. I honestly wouldn’t have research if I didn’t have company money backing me up. I get a generous salary, my name on everything, and bonuses if the idea works out.” She loved her lab. “If I hadn’t been hired by Genedyne, I would probably be working in some company on someone else’s research. I’m female and young, so getting to do my own work is a miracle.”
“How did you get hired?”
“The normal way. Everyone knows once you get hired there’s the internal fight for a private lab. I liked the fact that ideas were more important than past experience at Genedyne. Not that I would have kept my lab if I screwed up. Jessica is quick to hire and even faster to fire,” Noelle explained. She didn’t talk about the fact that an employee who got fired was lucky to merely slink away. Sometimes the employee got fired or accused of trying to steal company property.
“And Jessica Layne’s reputation didn’t bother you?” Hutch asked.
“Do you know what it’s like to be a woman in a man’s world? Of course you don’t. She has to be tough or they’ll eat her alive.” She knew the rumors, but she was giving her boss a chance. “Look, I’m careful. I want to stay off her radar as much as possible, but I also recognize the amazing opportunity she’s given me. I know a lot of what she does is theatrical, but it’s how she gets attention for the company. She’s always been considered an innovator. Is she perfect? Of course not.”
“Hey, it’s not like there aren’t many controversial tech figures. They kind of try to be controversial, so I understand the marketing play,” he replied. “I work for Ian Taggart. Trust me. When I first met the man, I’d heard lots of rumors about him.”
“From the CIA?” She couldn’t help it. She was curious about Hutch. She wanted to ask him what exactly he’d done that shut down everyone the minute he mentioned his “sacrifice.” He was an incredibly handsome man, but he didn’t look like a guy who’d been in the Army and the CIA. Of course, according to most people, she didn’t look like a badass scientist, and that’s exactly what she was.
“Yes. I was working with a CIA team when I first met the Taggarts,” Hutch explained. “The first time I ever went into this building we were raiding it.”
“Raiding it?”
He nodded and pointed up to the ceiling. “We came in on a helo, landed on top of the building, and came in through the front door with flashbangs. Shock and awe did not work on McKay-Taggart.”
“Okay. The last time I checked, the CIA was concerned with foreign countries. I know Texas sometimes seems weird, but it’s still America.” She had a million questions, and there was a flutter
in her stomach because standing here with him, talking to him, felt good.
His lips had turned up in a wistful smile, the memories seemingly fond to him. “Well, my boss at the time had embedded his sister here at McKay-Taggart. She was Agency, too. Big Tag finds out he’s got a plant but doesn’t realize she’s CIA, and definitely doesn’t know she’s my boss’s sister. Big Tag wants some help figuring out what intelligence agency she’s from and mouths off about taking care of her. Hence the ex-Special Forces team raiding an American company. The worst part was they were having a baby shower that day. Our asses run in expecting to find some kind of torture going on and it’s all punch and cake and pregnant ladies.”
“What did you do? I mean everyone must have been terrified of guys with guns coming into their workplace.”
“Yeah, we had guns, but we were ordered to keep the safeties on. We were never going to shoot anyone. My boss wanted to easily extract his sister. Also, fear wasn’t the emotion I would say was riding high that day. They were pissed, and one of the pregnant ladies caught one of our guys, and she did not have the safety on her gun. We decided then and there to lay down arms and all have cake.” His eyes closed briefly. “It was this Italian Cream Cake with the best icing. Just a little granular. The texture was perfect.”
He was speaking her language. “I love that kind. I know everyone talks about creamy, but that hint of texture is my favorite. But it’s such a fine line between perfection and the icing getting lumpy. It’s usually because you start with the ingredients being too cold.”
His eyes were open again. “It’s all about the chemical reaction, right?”
Those eyes were too blue, too warm.
“That’s what baking is,” she replied. “I’m afraid you’ll find I bake a lot. I take most of it to my lab.”
“Oh, I’m not afraid of that. You should be afraid that you won’t have much to take to your lab after I steal your cookies.”
