Read Online Now You See It by Cáit Donnelly - Free Book Online

“Puh-leeze” look from under heavy red eyebrows.
    “That’s what I thought.”
    * * *
    Oh, terrific , Gemma thought as she inched her way across Mike’s kitchen toward the coffee pot on the far counter. What’s he doing here again? She so didn’t want him to see her looking like this. Her swollen eyes felt like lead, and she had seen her face in the bathroom mirror, pale and puffy. A cool washcloth and an extra minute with the toothbrush had helped, but she knew she needed about a quart of strong coffee and another four hours of sleep to feel fully human.
    Well, coffee would have to do. And she would try to be polite to Brady, no matter how irritating it was to have to deal with a sexy almost-stranger in jogging clothes at 7 a.m. Maybe he could just jog right on out. He’d been in her face since yesterday. Okay. That wasn’t fair. He did leave. But even when he was gone, she couldn’t get him out of her head. And it was wearing really thin, dammit. She braced herself as an aftershock from last night’s dream rippled through her. She could admit he was distracting. Or rather, it was distracting, having him there. How was she supposed to think? Her brains felt scrambled whenever she got within a few feet of him—and it would be a little obvious to drag a chair across to the far side of the room when he and Mike were sitting at the kitchen table, cozy as kittens in a basket.
    He was turned away, but he must have heard her coming down the hall, because he stiffened a little and stopped talking.
    Mike cleared his throat and looked apologetic. “I asked Brady to stay until you woke up. I hope you don’t mind having him here, Gemma. He’s had more experience with the other side of the law than I have.”
    Gemma lifted an inquisitive eyebrow and helped herself to coffee. “Other side? You’re a criminal?”
    Brady laughed. “Cop,” he said, still grinning.
    She felt the blood rise in her cheeks as she met his eyes, and hoped it would pass for embarrassment at her blunder.
    Mike looked from one to the other and pursed his lips.
    “I’ve got to get rolling, Mike.” Brady pushed his coffee cup away. “Tran’s taking me back to my car.”
    “Tran’s here in Seattle?”
    Brady gave him a straight look. “Yeah. I’ll see about those threads you want me to pull.”
    “Tell him I said hi. You’ll be around later?”
    Brady’s dark eyes flicked toward Gemma. “Yeah,” he said again. He nodded to Gemma and strode to the door.
    The room felt different when he was gone. Emptier. Gemma hated to admit it, even to herself. Damn . “I like him.”
    “I noticed.”
    “You can stop grinning,” she said. “Just what does he do, exactly?”
    “Internet security for law firms, some large corporations.”
    “That doesn’t fit him.”
    “I didn’t phrase that right. He’s a penetration tester-cum-security consultant. He hacks their systems—under contract. They know it’s coming—and then he shows them how to make their data safer. Back in the day, he was with the SEAL teams, and later he worked a couple of years for one of the alphabet agencies as a consultant.” Mike put just enough emphasis on the last word to let her know there was more to it than sitting behind a desk.
    “I thought he said he was a cop.”
    “Yeah. Sort of.”
    “Oh.” That meant classified . Terrific. A spook? Just peachy.
    “This is his latest gig,” Mike said. “I’m glad it seems to be working for him. He was in pretty bad shape when he left the Team.”
    She wanted badly to know more about Mike’s taciturn friend, but she needed to change the subject. It was too easy to go on talking about him and she wasn’t sure she could deal with anything more, right now. “What time is our interview with the guys from Pierce County?” she said as she walked over to the fridge for another sploosh of milk.
    “Ten thirty. And it’s going to be in Seattle. I’m not sure why the Seattle P.D. is involved. Yet. Brady’s checking on