“What?”
She turned, her eyes moving over my face as though she were trying to figure out how to say something she really didn’t want to say.
“What?” I repeated.
“Robert, one of the tech guys who works for my father, traced the IP address of the origin of that email you got yesterday.”
“Good.”
“Yeah, well…”
She cocked her head, her light blue eyes shifting around the room as though she were suddenly concerned that we could be overheard.
“What is it?”
She shook her head, crossing to her suitcase and snatching a light summer dress out of it. She seemed to feel more confident once she pulled it over her head. She turned and studied me, her hands on her hips.
“Spit it out, Adrienne. Are you always this difficult, or is it just something about me?”
Anger flashed in her eyes. “The email came from a computer belonging to Jacob.”
“Well, fuck,” I muttered.
That was exactly what I’d been afraid she’d say.
Chapter 10
Adrienne
There was one thing I should have been thinking about, but I couldn’t seem to get myself to focus. My dress was too long, brushing against my ankles in a way that kept me thinking I had a bug crawling over my feet or something. And it seemed odd having so much cleavage hanging out. Where were my vintage tshirts and old sweatshirts? Why was I wearing a damn dress on the beach, anyway?
And then there was Lucien. His fingers were intertwined with mine, and I felt him tug me close to him from time to time, felt his breath against my throat whenever he spoke close to my ear. It made my nerves come alive, made me want to turn to him and welcome a kiss. What had he done to me, that I suddenly craved his touch? Two days ago I had no idea who this guy was. My dad shows me a picture and tells me I’m supposed to pretend to be this guy’s girlfriend. When did that become something more than just a show in front of his family and coworkers?
Speaking of family, his sister and brother were walking ahead of us, their arms around each other as though they were making fun of the way Lucien couldn’t seem to bear to move more than a few feet from my side.
We were walking on the boardwalk in Kemah, not far from their parents’ beach house. The town was having some sort of fair that had spilled over here. Rachel, Lucien’s sister, wanted to play the carnival games they had set up over here. Somehow we were talked into coming too. At least it meant I wouldn’t have to don the bikini Lucien had warned me to bring.
I wasn’t this girl. I didn’t go for long walks on the beach. I didn’t spend my leisure time with people who have lived in an entirely different economic bracket all their lives. I was the girl who joined the Army instead of going to college, the girl who grew up with the hardnosed robbery-detective-turned-private-investigator. I was the girl who wore jeans to work and spent her leisure time—when there was any—watching old movies on a twenty-seven-inch console television.
I was here because Lucien was a job. I was supposed to be figuring out who wanted to steal a medical device his company was trying to get patented. I wasn’t supposed to be thinking the thoughts I was thinking, or remembering how good it had felt to be with him last night. Or this morning.
What the hell was wrong with me?
“You don’t really think he’s behind all this, do you?”
I glanced at Lucien. He was watching his brother up ahead of us talking animatedly to Rachel.
“I don’t know. I find it hard to believe he’d be willing to do something to hurt his own company.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“But the email threatening you came from his computer.”
Lucien stopped walking, pulling me toward him as he did, forcing other people who were trying to get to the carnival games to move around us like a river flowing around a fallen boulder.
“I’m sure you know as well as I do that someone knowledgeable with computers can mask their IP address.”
“I know.”
“Someone could have set him up.”
“I know that, too.”
He studied me, his blue eyes, already such a deeper blue than mine were, even darker with the emotion rushing through them.
“I can’t make myself believe that Jacob would have anything to do with selling the prototype of the artificial pancreas.”
“Listen,” I said, moving closer to him so that our voices didn’t carry so much. “I know that you’re upset. But my father and our team are working on it. If it’s someone trying to set Jacob up, we’ll know pretty quick.”
“And then?”