by Lucy Monroe
Matej pounded the top of his worktable and swore, “Sukin sin.”
“What is that? Like ‘damn it all to hell’ in Russian, or something?” asked one of his new coworkers.
His subordinate, really, but who was keeping track?
“Ukrainian. It means ‘son of a bitch.’”
“Oh. Something got your panties in a wad?”
Matej frowned at the tech who worked on several of the projects Matej was now responsible for overseeing in his new role as project manager of material recovery. “I do not wear panties.”
The other man laughed.
Matej had not been making a joke and he didn’t share the other man’s misconceived amusement. Idiot. “Did you have a question for me?”
The tech shrugged. “Just wondered why you came in here pounding on the lab table and swearing in Russian, that’s all.”
“U-krai-ni-an,” he said again, pronouncing each syllable with slow precision. If this was the kind of density Bigsley had faced on a regular basis, the man had probably dumped his job and run just to get away from it.
“Oh, sorry…” The technician winked. “Ukrainian swearwords.”
“It is nothing to concern you.” Matej stifled a sound of annoyance that would no doubt have caused only more questions from the curious staffer. It bothered him how his speech pattern slipped into that of his parents, who spoke English with a decidedly Eastern European accent, when he was angry or upset.
Right now, he was both.
It had been a hell of a couple of weeks and seeing his baby sister walking beside the second in command at Matej’s new company had only added to his stress level. He’d been hired to work on material reclamation with a brilliant scientist he’d eagerly looked forward to working with.
Only Bigsley had disappeared before Matej had finished relocating to California, leaving Matej in the position of having to take over as project leader without so much as a handshake and good luck from his predecessor. Matej had led projects before, but he wasn’t fond of being responsible for personnel and their morale. Hand-holding was not in his genetic makeup, and cheerleading others on his team was anathema to him.
From the way the team acted, Gil Bigsley had been good at both and apparently the team members expected the same from him. It was enough to cause Mat a few sleepless nights.
Not that he’d been sleeping all that great regardless. Not when he’d been working in the same building as Chantal Renaud. Their shared past was one of the few things he regretted in his life. What were the chances he’d run into her here—at his new job? Okay, considering how small the field they worked in was, maybe the chances were better than slim.
And it wasn’t as if he didn’t have plans to find her.
But now his baby sister had shown up at ETRD?
Matej couldn’t help feeling that someone upstairs had it in for him.
“Hey, I guess I’ll just make myself scarce then,” the technician said after several seconds of silence on Matej’s part.
“I’m sure you have work to do that is of more interest as well as greater importance than my personal frustrations.”
“Sure. I mean, they’re personal, huh? Don’t let it impact the job—that’s what Dr. Bigsley always said.”
“Right.” As if he needed a reminder to do his job with his utmost. He had never done less.
The other man walked away.
“Sraka,” Matej muttered, barely restraining the impulse to inform the other man that the word meant “ass” in Ukrainian.
Elle would know. And she probably would have laughed to hear him use it.
What was she doing here? When he’d heard the news that a security consultant was being brought in because of a breach on another project, it had never occurred to him that the consultant would be Elle. He knew damn well that her job as a security consultant was deep cover for her real job as a federal agent.
He didn’t know what department she worked for, and their brother Mykola, an INS agent, hadn’t been able to find out either. But Mykola had confirmed that in addition to the wages she received as a security consultant, Elle deposited a check once a month that could be traced—after concentrated effort—to the federal government.
She had all the marks of a government agent, no matter what she told their parents she did for a living.
He and his other brothers had not enlightened the older generation of Chernichenkos. Nor had they told their other baby sister, who was in her last year of college, that Elle was a black ops agent. Damn it, why had she never confided in one of them? As the oldest, Matej felt it was his right to be her confidant, but he realized the role fell more naturally to Mykola. However, the brother only a year older than Elle’s twenty-eight years had been given no more truth on the matter than any of the others.
If Elle was here in Southern California, that meant the government was interested in ETRD. The question was, why?
Matej had every intention of finding out. Right after he called their mother to inform her of Elle’s presence less than an hour from their family home.
His sister deserved a little shake-up after the one she’d given him.
Paybacks were hell. Hadn’t he always told her so?
She should have listened to her big brother.
Elle’s cell rang with the distinctive tone assigned to family. She flicked a brief glance at the phone while listening to the current head of security drone on about their state-of-the-art protection system.
It wasn’t bad, but she’d identified more than a dozen weaknesses already. Some minor…one or two potentially major.
She had a text message. From her mother. Mom never used text. Elle clicked to the message. It read 911 and that was all.
Tension ratcheting through her body, Elle said, “Excuse me, but I’ve got to check on this.”
The head of security stopped midword, looking like he’d lost his place in a book and wasn’t sure where to start again.
Beau, who had insisted on accompanying her on the tour, said, “No problem.”
She turned from them and dialed her mom’s cell phone.
“Elle, is that you?” her mother said, by way of an answer. Clearly not trusting caller ID. Nothing new in that.
“Yes, Mama. What’s wrong?”
“Wrong? You ask me what is wrong?”
“Yes, Mama. That is exactly what I’m asking.”
“Do not take that tone with me, young lady.”
“Mother, I am at work.”
“Yes, this I know. And when were you going to tell me you were in California? You leave it for me to find out from someone else that my only grown daughter is near enough to visit but has not done so.”
Matej! She was going to kill him. Slowly. Right after she finished paying penance with her mother.
“I don’t think Danusia considers herself not a grown woman. She is twenty-two, Mama.” It wasn’t a bad diversionary tactic, but she didn’t expect it to work.
And it didn’t. “We are not discussing your sister. She called me only this morning. She did not fly three thousand miles and neglect to mention the travel to me.”
Elle knew better than to mention the fact that she rarely told her family what she was up to. She went for diversion again. “I didn’t fly. I drove.”
“In that crazy insect car? Three thousand miles? It is so tiny, you cannot be safe on the freeways.”
“A Lamborghini Spider is not an insect.”
“What is a spider if it is not this?”
“Mama, this is crazy. We don’t need to talk about my car right now.”
“No. Only that you spent days driving it closer to home and did not bother to pick your phone up and call to tell us of your imminent arrival.”
“Mama, you would not want me to talk and drive. You hate that.”
Silence. Then, her mother said, “Your grandmother is heartbroken.”
“Don’t bring Baba into this.” Please.
“Why should I not? Has she not as much
a desire to see you as I? Who knows if she will live to the next visit, heh?”
Oh, great. The Queen of Guilt Trips was waving her wand and darned if Elle wasn’t going under. Death would be too good for Matej. She was going to tell Baba he broke her favorite pie plate when he was sixteen using it as a Frisbee.
“Mama, I was going to call.”
Silence met her assurance.
Crud.
“Really, Mama.”
“This is about your name, isn’t it? I wanted to name you after my dear friend, but the name made you feel less a member of our family. I will always regret this.”
“It’s not about my name. I love my name.”
“As do I, but still…it was a disservice to you. My mother always said so. She said, ‘Give the girl a good Ukrainian name, just like all the boys,’ but I did not listen to her any better than my daughters listen to me.”
Now it was “daughters,” in the plural. “What has Danusia done to upset you, Mama?”
“This is not something to talk about on one of these contraptions. You come to the house.”
“I will, Mama.”
“Tomorrow.”
“I can’t, Mama. I have to work.”
“Very well. I will tell your baba you cannot come. She has already started on the cooking, but I’m sure she will understand.”
How could an undercover agent who routinely faced down perps that were not only armed but dangerous be steamrolled by a woman who was barely five feet two with the face of a middle-aged angel? Once Elle had an answer to that question, she might just be able to stop it from happening.
Maybe.
“I’ll be there tomorrow. For dinner.”
“Early dinner. Your sister will come from the university.”
“I’ll be there by six.”
“You cannot come earlier?”
“No, Mama, I can’t.”
Her mother grunted. It was a sound only mothers could make. It meant, “Well, if that’s the best you can do, I’ll have to accept it, but you’re going to hear about this later.”
“I love you, Mama.” The words, even more than this discussion, probably destroyed a good 90 percent of her tough-image credibility, but she wasn’t so stupid she would forgo saying them. At least she’d remembered to speak in Ukrainian.
Though, somehow, she just knew Beau Ruston had guessed exactly what she had just said to her mother. His smug grin implied as much.
“I love you too, baby. You be careful driving that tiny car. Maybe if you got a more steady job you could afford something bigger.”
Before her mother could get her teeth into her second-favorite rant regarding her oldest daughter (the first being how it was time for Elle to settle down and start popping out babies), Elle told her again she loved her and cut the connection.
“Your mother?” Beau asked, not in the least embarrassed to be poking his nose in her so obviously personal business.
“What gave it away?”
“Well, you did call her Mama, but there was also the tone of voice.”
“Oh?”
“Yeah. You know the one. The ‘crap-I’m-in-trouble-how-do-I-get-out-of-this-one’ tone.”
Elle found herself smiling, even chuckling a little. “Oh, that one.”
“So, you’re in big trouble?”
“Definitely.”
“You think your brother ratted you out? It was him you saw this morning, wasn’t it?”
“Not only are you beautiful, but you’re smart too, doctor. Yes on both counts. I thought I was seeing things and then found out I wasn’t.”
He bowed, a teasing glint in his brown eyes. “Why, thank you.”
Oh, man…this guy was dangerous. And where had she heard that before? Inside her own head, right? It was probably time that she listened.
So, why did she hear her own voice saying, “You ever have a traditional Ukrainian meal?”
“No, I can’t say that I have.”
“Would you like to change that tomorrow night?”
“Are you inviting me to join you for dinner with your family?” Beau asked, sounding genuinely shocked.
“I am.”
His eyes narrowed in apparent revelation. “I get it. You want a witness, so they can’t hide the body.”
“Something like that. The drama will be contained in the presence of a stranger and you get a fabulous meal. Everybody wins.”
Beau threw his head back and laughed.
“Does that mean you’ll come?”
His grin sent a burst of warmth through her. “You bet. I’m always up for a new experience.”
“Funny, I never knew scientists were such risk takers.”
“If I wasn’t, I’d be working at the think tank we stole your brother away from. Total job security.”
“Security is often an illusion.”
“I have a feeling you’re going to teach me some more about that concept.”
“Considering that’s my specialty, I’d say that’s a given.”
“I can’t wait.”
Dangerous? Try lethal. This man was one she was going to have to watch out for. Big-time.
Chapter 3
Elle made it a point to arrive early at ETRD the next morning. She wanted a chance to walk through the facility before most of the scientists and their staff arrived. She scanned her badge into the secured entry, waited for the green light and then headed for her brother’s office.
She’d spent the previous evening studying the building schematics and memorizing the employee workstation assignments. It would have helped if she’d had access to the information before her arrival in town, but ETRD security had said they preferred to turn that sort of thing over in person.
She didn’t blame them for their caution. In fact, she lauded it even if it had been inconvenient for her.
She did a quick scan of her brother’s office, pleased to note that he had not left anything out for her to find on his current projects. There were pictures of the family on one of his bookshelves, the rest stuffed to overflowing with books on his field of applied physics and environmental science. His desk was spotlessly clean. Not only were there no stray pieces of paper, but there was no dust or personal paraphernalia either.
Other than the pictures on the bookcase, the office was almost disturbingly sterile.
Elle grabbed a piece of paper from the memo cube arranged with perfect parallel precision on the desk. She wrote a couple of lines, signed it and left it in the middle of the desk, a defiant and crooked mark on the pristine décor.
She turned to go and ran headlong into a warm wall of muscles. A wall that did not budge. Not even a little, despite her momentum. She wasn’t so lucky. She bounced back but didn’t have a chance to fall. Not only was she not that clumsy, but the wall was attached to two large hands that grasped her waist with a perfect hold. Not too tight, but not so loose she’d be at risk of falling. Or getting away.
No wonder this man had been counseled to go pro with his football career. If he caught footballs with even a tenth of this finesse, he would be a darn fine player.
He made a pretty fine wall too. A wall that smelled temptingly yummy. She was leaning forward and inhaling before she realized what she was doing.
Delicious.
She loved men’s cologne, and on this man? It smelled way better than the trial cards in her favorite department stores. It was the underlying natural male scent that had her olfactory senses so blissed out, though. It not only mixed perfectly with the cologne but was amazingly appealing all on its own. Before she could even think of stopping herself, she inhaled a second time and might have even made an embarrassing noise of appreciation.
“You like CK Man?” Beau’s dark, sexy drawl rumbled above her.
“Yes.” She took another deep breath, making no effort to hide her enjoyment. “But I think it might be the scientist under the scent that smells even better.”
“Do you flirt this hard with everyone?” His laughter went strai
ght to the place that had started pulsing between her thighs when she made her initial accidental body contact with him.
She looked up at him through her lashes—that was such a high, to be around a guy who was tall enough to make that move actually possible. “Maybe.”
His brow rose in question. She was quickly learning that this man did not waste words, using only a gesture to communicate when possible. Talk about typical alpha behavior. He expected those around him to be paying close enough attention not to miss his nonverbal clues.
Of course, this close, that would be pretty hard.
She shrugged, deciding to push a little. “Then again, maybe not. You’re pretty hot, doctor.”
He chuckled, the sound going through her like a warm caress. “I bet you say that to all the scientists.”
“I can guarantee you she does not. Elle’s got an issue with brainiacs. Just ask her.”
Embarrassed to be caught flirting by her big brother, no matter how old she was, Elle started to push away from Beau at the sound of Mat’s voice. But the muscle-bound scientist showed how good his hands were at holding on to something he wasn’t ready to let go of. She found herself not budging so much as an inch.
“What about it? You got a problem with me?” Beau asked.
“I’ve been known to get more than a little irritated by men with more book smarts than common sense,” she admitted.
Kyle hadn’t been like that. He’d been one of the few brilliant men she’d known who hadn’t used all his smarts up in academia, but had left a few over for human interaction as well. It was one of the reasons she’d fallen so hard and so fast for him.
But he was gone and she wasn’t about to fall for another brainiac. Her brother had that right at least.
Beau’s brown gaze bore into hers. “I didn’t ask what you thought of other scientists. I asked if you had a problem with me.”
