Читать книгу Danger Calls - Caridad Pineiro - Страница 7

Sebastian Reyes had a problem. Or rather, his new client had one. They had gotten the SQL Slammer virus because someone in their IT department forgot to shut down Port 1434. He entered the user name and password he had been provided, cleared his client’s firewall and remotely accessed their network. With a few keystrokes, he had a patch going to fix the issue.

He grabbed three squeeze stress balls and pushed away from his desk, where his computer was monitoring the progress. He tossed the first stress ball high into the air, followed it with the others, juggling them to pass the time while his computer ground away. As he walked around, stress squeezies flying through the air, Sebastian occasionally shot a look at the monitor where a large dialogue box announced how much of the patch was finished.

Not much longer, he realized, pleased his new computer and server setup were working so well. Even though the dotcom bust had finally reached the company for which he had been working, resulting in its bankruptcy, he’d recently sold one of his computer games. And he’d turned the frequent requests from former clients—such as the frantic call regarding the virus—into a consulting business for those who needed their networks operating, and the private things on their systems remaining private. So instead of doing the nine-to-five office routine, he worked out of the apartment he shared with his FBI agent sister, Diana, writing new games and monitoring for performance and security issues. Plus he got to do other fun things, like hacking into the systems of clients and other consultants to make sure everything was in working order. Nonconformist that he was, he loved the hacking best.

All in all, he couldn’t complain. At twenty-eight, he was making a decent living with less stress, and he was his own boss. He smiled, tossed the balls around, then stopped his juggling as he noticed the patch was complete.

Sebastian laid the squeeze balls on the desktop and ended the remote session just as the doorbell rang.

He opened the door and stopped short.

Melissa Danvers.

Dr. Melissa Danvers, vampire keeper, still looking as stunning today as she had nearly three months ago when she’d first dropped that bombshell on him. He’d thought it a shame someone so very beautiful was a crackpot, until his sister confirmed that Ryder Latimer was a vampire.

“Hi. You’re the last thing I expected to see,” he said, wondering what she was doing on his doorstep, but pleased nonetheless.

She held her Coach purse before her and nervously fingered the straps, looking decidedly prim, proper and uneasy. But that uneasiness couldn’t dim her beauty. For months, he’d tried to convince himself his recollections of her had been suspect, colored by the tension and danger of the night they had shared.

They hadn’t. Wheat-blond hair framed an oval-shaped face that was classically beautiful. From the straight, slightly pug nose to a heart-shape mouth with lips…

Don’t think about those lips, he warned himself. Just keep it simple. Meet her gaze directly and firmly and…

Only the blue of her changeling eyes was a stormy gray tonight—the color of trouble. So he shouldn’t have been surprised when she said, “I have a problem.”

“A problem?” Panic raced through him. There was only one problem he could think of that would bring her to his door. They’d taken precautions when they’d made love that night, but of course, nothing was foolproof. His gut tightened with concern. He was barely capable of taking care of himself, much less a child or a wife. His father would have…

He refused to think about the chastisement that would have been sure to come from his father, if he’d still been alive. Sebastian was no longer the hesitant little boy always striving for his Papi’s acceptance. He was a grown man, and he knew what he had to do.

He motioned Melissa into the apartment, then closed the door behind her and strove for a totally-in-control kind of voice. “Wrong. No problema. Whatever you need, Melissa. Are you Catholic?”

A shocked expression crossed her patrician features. “Forthright, aren’t you? And no, I’m Episcopalian.”

He squared his shoulders and, with what he hoped seemed like bravado, nodded. “I’m a responsible kind of guy. And you’re smart. Attractive. And—”

“Healthy. See. I have all my teeth,” Melissa said with some bite and forced her mouth wide open to display her perfectly white and straight teeth.

Sebastian narrowed his eyes as he considered her carefully. “Do you always hide behind a joke?”

She shook her head, as if chastising herself, and her shoulder-length hair swayed with the movement. “We’re getting off on the wrong foot. I’m sorry. It’s not a personal kind of problem. I need your techno-knowledge.”

Sebastian released a long breath and was surprised that mixed in with the relief was a little regret. Maybe even a bit of anger. Three months of not being able to stop thinking about her and the only reason she was on his doorstep now was because she needed his expertise. “So I guess what happened between us was—”

Melissa held up her hand to silence him. “Please don’t be offended, but I thought we both knew that it was a result of the danger and—”

“The tension. Right. Nothing else.” He had known someone like Melissa would have no interest in someone like him. They were too different. It was why he hadn’t called her after their night together. It was why he shouldn’t have been thinking of her all this time. He stuffed his hands into his pockets—he was too tempted to move a stray lock of her silky blond hair from her face. That would be wrong. So totally wrong.

“What kind of computer help do you need?” He struggled for a neutral tone.

When her gaze met his, something big and dangerous flared to life inside him. She hesitated, seeming to recognize what he was feeling. “Actually, I’m rethinking this.”

Despite her statement, she took the seat Sebastian offered and settled herself on the black leather couch in the living room that doubled as his office. He sat before her on the coffee table. Leaning forward, he braced his elbows on his thighs and clasped his hands together. He was fighting a losing battle not to touch her. “Why don’t you let me be the judge of that?”

Melissa paused again, clearly troubled. With a nod of her head, she explained. Sebastian patiently listened to her description of the Danvers family journals and how one had recently been taken from her office. That didn’t give him a clue as to why his help was needed until Melissa finished by saying that Ryder and Diana thought someone should scan the remaining journals as a safeguard.

He gave a careless shrug. “Scanning is easy enough to do. But someone could still snatch the one machine with the images. Unless you encrypt the files and the database. Put the pieces at different secure locations.”

Melissa smiled. “That’s why you’re the best person for this job. You know exactly what we need to do. And you already know Ryder’s secret.”

“It would take a day or—”

Melissa quickly jumped in. “It needs to be foolproof. No one can hack into this.”

From the tone of her voice, Sebastian gathered there was something she wasn’t telling him. It bothered him that she wasn’t being totally honest. “Not giving me all the details, are you?”

She flushed and shifted nervously. “I’m not really sure—”

He moved off the table and sat down next to her. “And I’m not sure I want to be dragged into something without all the information.”

The stain of color on her cheeks deepened and she looked away. Sebastian lost the battle then. He cupped her chin and applied gentle pressure until she faced him. Her skin was smooth and warm beneath his fingers. As soft and silky as it had been the night they…He ripped himself from those thoughts. They were a dangerous distraction. “If there’s more, I need to know.”

Giving him a tight smile, Melissa shied away from his touch. “I’m not sure there’s more yet. But there are too many things that seem to connect.”

“Like?” he pressed.

“Ryder’s secret. The missing journal. The car crash that killed my parents more than a year ago. It’s just too many things happening too close together.” She looked down at her hands as she spoke. They were clasped together tightly, her knuckles nearly white from the pressure.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t know your parents were dead.” Sebastian reached out and covered her hands with one of his. “Have you talked to Diana about your suspicions?”

Again Melissa eased away from his comforting gesture. “Ryder and I told her about the crash. And the journal. She’s not sure we should be worried, but thinks it can’t hurt to get some more information. We gave her the details we had.”

Sebastian considered all that Melissa had revealed, and all that she hadn’t. She was unsure around him. That was clear from the way she withdrew every time he tried to make some overture. He knew from their night together, she wasn’t used to being close to people, not even in a friendly way. Could they work together, given what had happened between them? And she obviously believed there was a possibility the journals—and the people connected to them—were in danger.

With the exception of his sister, Sebastian kept away from emotional complications. Maybe it was selfish, but the life he had chosen spared him from dealing with the expectations of others, his father in particular. Sebastian had found his own way and was happy with it. He wasn’t sure he was prepared to be anyone’s champion.

“I need to think about this.”

Her head jerked up and her eyes widened with surprise. “You’re not sure you can do what we want?”

Sebastian rose. He rocked back and forth on his heels as he said, “Tech stuff is a slam dunk. I’m a whiz at that. But the rest—”

Melissa jumped up off the sofa. “Whatever happened before, it won’t happen again.” She stressed that promise with an emphatic slash of her hand.

He wished it were that simple. “Well, thanks for that little ego boost,” he quipped and, before she could answer, continued. “I’m not sure I want to be involved. I kinda like my solitary life. Plus, being a hero is more up Diana’s alley than mine.”

“B-but you helped before. When Ryder was hurt,” Melissa said.

Sebastian shrugged. “No choice then. You needed me—”

“We need you now. There’s no one else we can trust with Ryder’s secret.”

He wasn’t going to leap without thinking about it first. His father may have believed him to be thoughtless in his rebellion, but in fact, Sebastian’s decisions had always been studied and logical. Right now, logic was telling him that it made no sense to become more involved in Melissa’s life.

Melissa, with her by-the-book personality, was a challenge to the comfortable world he had created for himself. She was also a possible danger to his safety, if it turned out she was right and the crash that had killed her parents hadn’t been an accident. And worse, although he didn’t want to admit it, she was a real risk to his heart, regardless of everything else.

He didn’t want to seem callous, but it made no sense to carry on with the conversation until he’d had time to consider everything without the pressure of Melissa hovering nearby. She was a distraction he didn’t need. He motioned to the door and Melissa hurried to it, the lines of her body tight with anger.

As she stepped out, he gently grasped her arm. “I didn’t say no, Melissa. I just need to think about it.”

With a curt nod, she strode off. He lingered by the door, watching her go, wishing he could have immediately said yes. Despite his mixed emotions, something about Melissa Danvers intrigued him.

When Sebastian closed the door he’d intended to try out an amended version of his latest game. But as he took hold of the joystick and loaded up the program, his mind drifted back to Melissa.

Forcing himself to concentrate, he made sure the changes requested by the computer game manufacturer were working. He was just completing the first level when he heard the grate of a key in the lock. “Well look who’s finally home.”

“I have an early morning,” Diana answered as she entered the apartment.

Sebastian gave her a puzzled look.

“Ryder’s still weak. He needs to rest—”

“And he’s not about to get it with you around,” he said with a knowing grin.

Diana smiled and grabbed the squeeze balls from the desk. She juggled them at a speed well beyond what Sebastian could manage. But then again, Diana never did anything at normal levels. Including picking a boyfriend.

“Show-off,” Sebastian teased and Diana playfully tossed the balls at him in response.

Sebastian managed to catch them all as his sister peeked at the screen. “What are you working on?”

Rising, Sebastian blocked Diana’s view of the monitor, leaned on the edge of the desk and crossed his arms. “Hacking into classified FBI files to see what’s new with my sis and her furry friends.”

She crossed her arms and stood before him, impatiently tapping one sensibly-soled foot. “Ryder’s not furry.”

“Oh, yeah. That’s right. He’s just life-challenged?” He cocked an eyebrow.

Diana tried to see around him, but Sebastian dodged left and right, blocking her view. With a huff, Diana finally said, “You’re not hacking me, right? I mean, I know you could do it, but you didn’t. Right?”

He grinned and stepped aside to show her the frozen scene in the game. “I could, but I won’t because you’d have to bring me in.” He held his hands out in front of him, pretending he was about to be handcuffed.

His sister slapped his hands away. “Cut it out, hermanito. Concerned brother slash hacker extraordinaire that you are, you wouldn’t put me in that difficult a position.”

Sebastian joined her on the couch as she kicked off her shoes. He watched his sister intently as he said, “Things are tough enough, aren’t they? What with Ryder and stuff.”

Diana met his gaze squarely. “I’m assuming Melissa came by?”

“She did. Explained her problem. I’m not sure what to do,” Sebastian admitted.

“About her or the project?”

“The project and nothing but the project.”

“Funny. My radar hinted the two of you had connected.”

Sebastian tried to laugh off the suggestion. He was hesitant to admit he and Melissa had shared a night together. “Yeah, like a wrong number kind of connect.”

Diana rose from the sofa and placed her hands on her hips, drawing open her suit jacket slightly. She scrutinized him much the way she would a suspect. “Guess I was wrong.”

“Yep. Major League error.”

His sister smirked, confirming she recognized the lie for what it was. She playfully chucked him on the chin. “Little bro, you may fool some women with that pretty-boy face, but not this girl.”

Ruefully shaking his head, Sebastian said, “We’ve been through too much together, huh?”

And wasn’t that an understatement of gigantic proportions? In the year after their father’s death, Sebastian had tried to help his sister cope with the pain. His sister had always been the strong one—until their father had been killed and Diana had fallen apart.

Diana had entered a dark and dangerous world, and Sebastian had thought he could somehow keep her from totally going over the edge. So he’d gone with her to clubs for those who liked to live precariously; been by her side on many a late night. Tried to make sure that in the numbing haze created by one too many tequila shooters, Diana did nothing that would harm her.

The defiant streak inside of him had responded to the make-no-excuses, take-no-crap kind of life. In that blurry world of alcohol and angry music, he’d finally discovered peace. He’d realized there was nothing wrong in walking his own path, rather than toeing his father’s line. His dead father, who he’d never been able to please anyway.

Rebellion suited Sebastian and gave him a place where he was free of his pain. But the freedom had been an illusion, and a dangerous one at that. The partying and drinking had only numbed his guilt over never having lived up to his father’s expectations.

It had taken great strength to untangle all the conflicting emotions within himself, to deal with Diana’s pain, and his own, and find a way back to who he really was. It hadn’t been easy, but it had made him a stronger man.

Years later, he had finally accepted that he could never have been the son his father wanted. The best he could do was be his own man.

“There’s a lot going on now, and I’ve dragged you into it again, haven’t I?” There was an edge of anguish in his sister’s voice that Sebastian hated to hear.

“You love Ryder and he makes you happy. I would never wish anything different for you.”

“But you want something different for yourself?” she pressed, apparently hearing something behind his words.

“I want the Happily Ever After, but with someone simple.”

“Someone not like Melissa—is that it?”

Sebastian was finding it difficult not to confide in his sister since they’d never kept anything from each other before. He didn’t want to start now. “There was something between us,” he said, although he didn’t quite know what to call the night he and Melissa had shared.

“Something, huh? You think you can just make that something go away?”

“I’m trying, although it’s not easy,” he stated flatly. “There are other things in my life that keep me busy.”

“Like your games? And your hacking?” Sebastian flinched as he heard the echo of his father’s words lashing out at him. Like father, like daughter.

Diana must have realized she’d struck a sore point, for she apologized instantly. “I didn’t mean to condemn.”

“Didn’t you? You sounded just like him. RoboCop redux.”

Her color paled at his rebuke and her generous mouth thinned into a tight line. But she still reached out and laid a hand on Sebastian’s leg in an effort to soothe the sting of her words. “Hermanito, I’m sorry. It’s just you and I are so different that way.”

“Don’t I know it. Didn’t Dad tell me often enough that I should be more responsible? That I should care about school more.” His sister started to speak but Sebastian silenced her with an angry wave of his hand. “You know what I remember best about Dad? Besides watching him die in your arms?” He paused, although he expected no answer to his question. “I must have been thirteen or fourteen. I was playing a game up in my room and Dad came in. He sat beside me, watching the screen but not talking. I tried to explain the rules, but after a few minutes, Dad mumbled something about wasting time playing games when life was so much more important.”

“He just couldn’t understand you,” Diana said, much as Sebastian expected she would. He adored his sister and trusted her judgment, but Diana had never grown beyond her hero worship of their police-officer father. She didn’t realize that while being a champion to others, their father had often put his family second and ignored a son who was totally different in temperament and interests.

“Do you think Melissa could understand me?”

“I haven’t thought about it,” Diana admitted.

“She’s uptight and über-responsible. I’m a no-strings-attached kind of guy.” He looked away from his sister. He didn’t want her to see his confusion or his guilt. Despite his best efforts these last three months, he hadn’t been able to forget Melissa.

More than most, he knew the hardship of conforming and being bound by another’s conventions. Sebastian sensed that Melissa’s life was not her own, that she needed an escape from the burdens she bore. He wanted to ease the weight off her shoulders. He hadn’t felt that way in a long time—as if he could help someone else. Be someone worthy for her. But he’d both disappointed and angered her tonight with his hesitation.

Funny how much it was like the situation with his father all over again.

After a long silent moment he turned to face his sister, not knowing what to expect. Certainly not the little Mona Lisa-like smile on her face. “Seems to me you’ve been thinking about it way too much, hermanito.”

Sebastian stood, took a breath, about to tell her that he didn’t want to talk about it, when Diana surprised him by saying, “I’ve got to get some sleep. Hasta mañana.” She rose and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

“’Night, sis.” How could she understand him so well? Sometimes better than he understood himself.

After Diana walked into her bedroom and closed the door, it was impossible to concentrate on the mock investigations and battles of his game.

If he had any sense, he would stop wondering about Melissa. But it was difficult, given the impression she’d made. Months ago, she had been strong enough to confront his sister and convince Diana to look for a missing Ryder. When faced with Ryder’s injuries, Melissa had been capable and unafraid. But after the crisis was over, the pain hidden behind her competent façade had called out to him. He’d tried to soothe her emotional wounds, and they’d ended up making love.

Not that he considered himself shallow, but he had noticed more than her vulnerability. Melissa’s eyes—dios, but he could spend hours looking into her changeling blue eyes. A deep, dark slate-gray with worry. Bright and sparkling with bits of aquamarine when she was happy, as she had been in those unguarded moments the morning after.

She had a dimple when she smiled, and although her smile was sometimes hesitant, as if she didn’t experience it often, it lit up a face that was stunning in a healthy, blond, California-girl kind of way.

Sebastian couldn’t deny that he’d remembered on more than one occasion what she had tasted like when he kissed her. How her compact, curvy body had felt pressed to his. What she looked like without her…

He groaned as his nether regions sprang to life as they did way too often when he thought about Melissa. He heard a door opening, sat up slightly and grabbed a pillow, which he placed on his lap to hide his erection. A second later, Diana strolled into the room.

She was rubbing her hands together, as if she had just put on some lotion, and she had changed into her pajamas. “Still up?” she asked when she noticed him on the couch.

Oh, he was up, but not in a way he’d admit to his sister. “Sí, still awake. Trying to figure out a problem.”

Diana gave him a puzzled look, her brows furrowed together. “Need help?”

Sputtering, Sebastian quickly replied, “No, thanks. I think I’ve figured out what to do.” And the truth was he suddenly knew where to begin.