Chapter 3
With Merk and Rhodes both gone, Sienna found the house quiet and lonely. She and Katina naturally gravitated together. In fact, Katina came into the office to help out. She was a fast learner. And her memory was a huge help.
When Sienna got up this morning, she’d found Stone and Lissa had returned from a visit to Lissa’s parents. An olive branch of some kind was being offered in exchange. Sienna didn’t know the full story, but Lissa appeared to be a little happier about her parents. Then again, she had Stone at her side. And he’d make anybody happy. That man looked like a great big teddy bear and obviously adored Lissa. She was lucky.
It made Sienna sad in a way.
Here it was, fast becoming couples’ land. Between Levi and Ice, Stone and Lissa—and now Merk and Katina, the last pairing that had happened while she was gone tying up her former life—she was feeling a little lost and lonely. And that was stupid. The time for that was when she’d been hitchhiking her way across the country, figuring out what her purpose in life was.
Not now that she was here with a job and a beautiful place to live with a very decent paycheck. Who knew how life would end up? She had never expected to be here, particularly finding out they were friends of Jarrod’s. There was something very synchronistic about that.
In particular, seeing Rhodes.
Now that she’d handed over to Levi whatever information on the banks she had found, she returned to the basic bookkeeping and office work that in a way she loved. Although it was mundane, dull, and boring, she could blindly do it, dreaming about everything else in the world. When she heard someone at the office door, she looked up to find Katina.
“Do you realize that none of us have any hobbies?” Katina asked. “Nobody here plays music, seems to paint or draw, or do anything along those lines. I wonder why.”
Sienna smiled. “Do you have any?”
Katina slumped in her chair. “No. But I plan to. I always wanted to play the guitar and learn to paint. But it’s probably a good thing I don’t learn the guitar for your sakes, and I doubt I would do very well painting because I really can’t draw.” She laughed. “I do like to garden, but have you ever seen a place lend itself less to a garden? This is a cement compound.”
“True enough, but you can certainly do a lot with planters. Imagine great big cedar ones all over the place. It would really warm up the compound.” She nodded toward the door. “Talk to Alfred. He seems like somebody who would love to have a garden. Particularly if it was an herb one.”
Katina brightened. “That might be good for me. I never had a place where I could grow things before. I lived in a small apartment.”
“And how is it working out for you and Merk here?” Sienna asked carefully. “And if it’s too personal, I’m sorry.”
There was silence for a minute as Katina studied Sienna’s face. “Are you asking because of Rhodes?” Her tone was light, humorous.
Sienna felt the heat wash up her neck. “Is it that obvious?”
“It has been since the two of you met. Everybody’s noticed,” Katina said, her grin wide. “Sparks. But it seems like very controlled ones.”
Sienna gave her a look. “My brother and Rhodes are friends. That means I’m a no-no to him.”
At that, Katina laughed. “Well, you just have to change his mind. You’re an adult, not a little sister anymore, and Jarrod can butt right out. You get to make these choices on your own.”
“Yes, except Rhodes will never see me as anything but Jarrod’s little sister.”
Katina leaned forward and whispered, “Take him to bed. He won’t know what happened to him.”
At that Sienna snickered. The idea appealed to her. Yet she didn’t want to mess things up with Rhodes or her life here. Especially if her relationship with him wouldn’t be a long-term scenario. That would just make working together very uncomfortable.
And that was the last thing she wanted. This was his work and his home. She was the newcomer. She didn’t want to upset the apple cart just because she was attracted to him.
“I can’t do that to him. He’ll think it’s a mistake later and hate himself.”
“You worry too much. Rhodes is a big boy. Besides, once he chooses, it’d be a decision forever. His loyalty is something else. All of them together have formed a family network here that I’ve never seen anywhere else. It’s really wonderful for them.”
Katina looked out the window, seemingly someplace far off. “I had worried I wouldn’t fit in. That I would be the interloper. Or that I would in some way disrupt that sense of family.” She glanced over at Sienna and said, “You were even here before me. But what I found is that the family unit expanded. It’s elastic. It opens and closes as it needs to. And now I feel like I belong.”
“That doesn’t mean there’s anything between Rhodes and me.”
“Of course it doesn’t. But if you don’t work toward that, there never will be.” With a cheerful smile, Katina stood up and said, “I’ll head down and see if Alfred needs any help in the kitchen.” She glanced around the room and added, “You don’t need me, do you?”
Sienna shook her head. “No, I’m almost done with the paperwork. The guys should be back soon anyway. Apparently, they had quite the trip.”
“That’s true. They found dead bodies.” Katina shuddered. “Kitchen and office work is much better suited for me.” She gave Sienna a beaming smile and left.
Sienna watched her walk away. Katina was just so cheerful and upbeat. She was fun to be around. Sienna hadn’t considered herself gloomy, but she’d definitely had lost a lot of her bounce when her former job fell apart.
The phone rang. Bullard again. “Hello, Bullard. Now what?”
He laughed. “Do you think I only call you when I need some help?”
“Of course you do.” She looked around the empty room, tilted her chair back, kicking her feet up on the desk. “It is what I expect.”
“Not everybody in the world is out to use you,” he said in a cheerful tone. “Lots of good people are in the world too.”
“Those good people would use me too,” she said drily. “Back to business. What do you need?”
He laughed. “Nothing. I wanted to give you an update. The first bank found their employee—the older guy I was telling you about, the IT manager, who will be retiring soon. He started pilfering off the top. He confessed readily. Trying to save his son, who could be involved in something much darker as he’s the one who had the spreadsheets.”
“Were they working together?”
“Not according to the father. His son is completely innocent if you listened to him.”
“I doubt it.” She laughed. “But the father almost got away with it.” She stared at her desk. “I caught some account numbers on the code you sent. The transactions were all international.”
“That makes sense. I’ll let you know when any of the other banks get back to me.” His tone turned calm. “I owe you one.” And he hung up.
She was still smiling when Levi walked into the room. He raised an eyebrow and asked, “What’s up?”
She quickly brought him up to date on Bullard’s case.
“This is really good work, Sienna.”
“I didn’t do anything. It was easy stuff.” She shrugged self-consciously. “That part was just luck.”
He laughed. “Something’s only easy because you’re good at it.” He headed to his desk.
She studied him as he sat down again and asked in a low voice she hoped was calm and disinterested, “When are the guys getting back?”
“They’re on their way now.”
She nodded. “Right. Going to be late then.” She looked over at him and asked, “Do you have any other work for me right now?”
“No, you’ve done a ton already this week. It’s much appreciated.”
She shut off her computer and stood up, saying, “In that case, I’ll see if I can round up a cup of coffee.”
She wandered out of the room and headed toward the kitchen. The compound was huge, and a dozen or so people lived here. There wasn’t a whole lot of social activity in this remote area, but when she had a chance, she did take trips into town. She didn’t want to feel like she was forced to stay in the compound. Because she wasn’t. She had gone with Katina, and sometimes Ice, to watch a movie or two in town, plus lunch outings and shopping. Sometimes the guys joined them. But her needs were minimal, and it was senseless to pay for a meal when Alfred was such a good cook.
In truth, she was bored. And she hadn’t expected that. Although she’d settled in here, with her brother leaving, there was a sense of loss. It was compounded by the fact Rhodes was gone these last few days. Then again, he didn’t really see her when he was here.
She wandered through the kitchen now with a cup of coffee in hand and headed out to the garage. She didn’t know very much about electronics. Harrison was bent over a laptop, swearing. She stepped up beside him and said, “What’s going on that has you so upset?”
He looked up at her with surprise and then grinned. “I’m not upset. This is actually fun for me. I like to see what people have hidden on their laptops and what they were doing with secret files they thought were erased. People always presume that, if they delete something on their computer, or damage the hard drive, it’s gone.” He shook his head. “And it isn’t.”
She nodded. “Same thing with code.” She frowned, looked at the mess, and said, “Is there anything I can do to help?”
He looked over at her and said, “If you’re serious, yes. Try to sort through all the different cables and set up bins for each type. Sometimes I have to hook up multiple units together, and if we don’t have an orderly system, it can take time to find what I need.”
She walked over to what appeared to be a brand-new storage system and asked, “Do you need things in any particular order?”
“If you use those bins, we can move them around to suit us.”
Taking a closer look, she realized the plastic boxes detached, so as long as she stuck one thing in each, he could organize them as he wanted. She turned her attention back to the large workbench completely covered with cables.
She sorted through what she could in the stash and put the obviously distinct ones into the top three empty bins and then separated the remaining pile. She found everything from standard-issue cables to printer cables to a bunch of cut wires and big long ribbons of cloth-looking cables, plus a rat’s nest of who-knew-what. These were hubs, but she had no idea if they were to come apart or not. She set them off to one side to ask questions later and quickly delved into the big snake pile on top.
She knew software. This venture into hardware was different.
When the big double doors opened behind her, she turned in surprise. Sure enough it was Rhodes and Merk, driving the small truck. They pulled up, parked, and she just barely caught sight of Katina as she raced around to dive into Merk’s arms. As he held Katina tight, Sienna’s gaze bounced to Rhodes and off again. It was enough to see him studying her.
She quickly turned back and nudged Harrison to let him know the guys were here. And then she said, “I didn’t know what to do with the rest of the stuff.” She pointed out the items still on the desk. “I did get the others in the bins.”
“Wow, this looks great,” he said with a big smile. “What a huge help.” He glanced at the desk and said, “Okay, these guys we can do this with.” He quickly separated off the rest of the electronics, and as she watched, he tossed things into different bins.
She could have done that but not without knowing what he wanted. When she turned around, Rhodes was still glaring at her. She glared right back. “What the hell’s wrong with you?” she snapped.
“You,” he roared.
She fisted her hands on her hips and studied him. “Now what?”
“You’ve already put in a full day. What the hell are you doing out here helping Harrison?”
“Whatever I’m doing is my business,” she snapped. She glanced over at Harrison, but he had wisely stepped out of the way and was busy washing up.
She caught sight of Katina and Merk, both hiding their grins as they walked toward the door. Katina called back, “Rhodes, we held dinner for you, so it’s time to wash up and come in.”
As they disappeared, Harrison went in right after them, leaving her and Rhodes alone in the garage.
“Look at you, covered in dirt.”
She glanced down and smiled. “But it’s honest dirt. And it will wash off. Just like I will. It’s just jeans and a T-shirt. I can get changed easily enough.” She tried to brush off her clothes, but it was pretty ineffectual. She shrugged. “And it doesn’t matter. Dinners waiting, so let’s go.”
Rhodes stepped toward the main door, then turned and said, “Does that mean you haven’t eaten yet either?”
She glanced down at her watch to see it was seven o’clock. “No, I haven’t. I guess I have been out here for a few hours with Harrison.”
“So, as soon as your brother disappears, you stop taking care of yourself?” he asked.
She gasped. “That’s so unfair.” She fisted her hands on her hips again—which seemed to be the stance she preferred all too often when facing him—and said, “It doesn’t matter if he’s here or not.” She hopped onto the step in front of him so she could meet his glare head-on and said, “Just because my brother is gone doesn’t mean I need another man to step up and take his role.” She turned her back on Rhodes and stormed inside.
She headed into the kitchen to wash up. When she went to the long dining table, the only open space was near Rhodes. Like hell she wanted to sit next to him. But everybody was already in place, so she took the empty spot without being rude or causing a scene, which would draw even more attention to her and Rhodes. She sat down beside him and completely ignored him for the rest of the meal.
*
He hadn’t meant to snap at her. But they’d driven like crazy to get home when they had. And he’d been looking forward to seeing her the whole way. Only to find her with Harrison. But seeing her work herself to the bone drove him crazy. He should’ve realized she needed other interests and had likely been curious about what went on here.
Besides, Harrison would’ve accepted any help coming his way. When he got into a project that had anything to do with electronics, they lost him for hours. That was both good and bad. But Rhodes couldn’t stop wondering if something was going on between Harrison and Sienna. He gripped his fork a little too tightly and stabbed the chunk of roast beef a little too hard. Ease back, buddy. Ease back. Rhodes also really liked that she stood up to him.
Still, he was coming on a bit strong. She was right. She had older brothers, and she didn’t need Rhodes watching over her too. At least not in that role. But the only one left to him was as a friend, and he didn’t want that. He wanted so much more.
He deliberately avoided looking at all the couples at the table. It was increasingly obvious that Levi and Ice’s company had too much in common with Mason’s group. And they’d all be angry if he said something about it, but…it was pretty hard not to think about it.
Because he was one of the men without a partner.
Sighing, he finished off his plate and pushed it back. “Thanks, Alfred. As usual that was fantastic.”
Other voices joined in with their appreciation. Rhodes slipped off the bench, grabbed his plate and carried it into the kitchen. He rinsed it and loaded it in the dishwasher himself, grabbed a cup of coffee, stuck his head into the room where he had been sitting and said, “I’m done for the night. See you in the morning.” And he turned and walked to his suite.
It was early, but that wasn’t the point. He just needed time alone, away from the others. In his suite, he quickly unpacked, had a shower and set up his laptop. He had research to do to see how much the news had come up with on the nameless bodies he and Merk had found. Two dead men had put a huge damper on the trip, because no matter what one thought about criminals, they had been a father, brother, husband, and/or son to somebody. And people somewhere would be in pain right now for the loss of those men.
There was also no proof they were the bad guys either. For all Rhodes knew, they were innocent.
Very strange indeed. Unless the house was being used for drugs versus dynamite, and something went wrong. Maybe the thieves had a falling out, and those two men were left behind. They could be brothers who own the house and were taken out as a point of convenience.
Sometimes life just sucked.
He quickly checked the news media, pulling up the local newspapers, but found no mention of either man.
This was an odd case. They weren’t seeing the whole picture, and he didn’t like that. He wanted to know more, do more. He wanted closure, and how the hell would they get that when it wasn’t their case?
At a knock on the door, he stood up and opened it to find Levi.
He leaned against the doorframe and said, “We got two identifications on the men found.”
Rhodes straightened. “And?”
“They were cousins. Both with ties to the drug trade. Neither seemed to have any connection to the house or to Bullard’s bank fraud case.”
“Odd that they would’ve been found there then.” Rhodes frowned. “Obviously, there is a connection as he gave us the addresses.”
“Not if there was infighting among the thieves, and these two lost the argument.”
“Anything’s possible.” Rhodes added, “What about the raid on the house with the dynamite?”
“The police tracked down the owners, currently living on the West Coast. It was a rental unit. They have no idea what was going on there, and they don’t have any answers.”
“That wouldn’t have been a pleasant surprise for them to hear either. So, no answers there.” He studied Levi and said, “I don’t like only getting bits and pieces about this job. We got a house with explosives, a different residential address a long way away that probably housed drugs but had two dead men. What’s the connection? Is this our job, yours, or Bullard’s? And how does any of this pertain to the code that Sienna was looking at?” He threw up his hands in frustration. “At least in a normal job that’s fully ours, we have all the information. We have the targets. We know what’s going down. In this case, it feels like we’re subcontracting to Bullard.”
“And we are. It’s new. It’s different—and maybe it’s not something we want to do a lot of—but we are closer to the Dallas bank than Bullard. We’re the locals here. The same holds true vice versa. At any future point in time, when we need some information that he can access easier than we can from here, then we’ll subcontract to him.”
“I understand that in theory. It just feels … odd. Make that wrong.” He gave a Levi lopsided grin. “You know how I like to have a target.”
Levi laughed. “Sure you do. Maybe you should go to the fitness room and work out some of that frustration.”
“That’s not a bad idea actually. My own research on the men to see if the media had picked up a trail didn’t find very much on anything.”
“Several jurisdictions I know of were working on this. But nobody has any information to help.”
“What were the names of the cousins?”
“Martin and Jeremy Lewis.” Levi smacked the wall and said, “I’ll be in the office for the next hour if you want to talk.” And he turned and walked away.
Rhodes wasn’t sure what the last line meant, but figured it was probably an open-ended comment. Still, Levi’s suggestion about a workout was a good idea.
They’d put in a large fitness area soon after they got here. He quickly changed into a muscle shirt and shorts, grabbed a towel and water bottle, then headed to the lower floor. The fitness room was across from the medical center. Thankfully, that area was clean and empty. They’d christened that room already many times over.
He walked in, dropped his towel, and headed for the free weights. He did his upper body exercises for a good ten minutes, then had the feeling he wasn’t alone. When he turned, of course, it was Sienna.
She was doing floor exercises, completely ignoring him.
Well, he could do the same. He quickly did another set, put his weights down, stretched out his muscles and caught sight of her in the mirrors. She was now doing push-ups. And man, could she move. He prided himself on a perfect push-up, but when it came to a woman’s form, she was knocking it to the floor. He wanted to stand here and admire her, but that wouldn’t do his own workout any good. Besides, she was damn prickly, and he was pretty sure she didn’t like anybody watching her.
He returned to his upper body weights. By the time he focused on her again, she’d left. It had been a perfect opportunity to apologize, and he hadn’t taken it. That was the problem with apologies. They really needed to happen on the spot, before it spun into bigger arguments over nothing. Now he was frustrated again.
He walked to the floor area, dropped to the mat and did fifty push-ups. Then he added another twenty-five, just a single left-hand version and then twenty-five more on his right. Still needing more, he flipped onto his back and did one hundred crunches.
By the time he was done, he felt a little on the mellower side again. As he stood and walked back out, towel slung around his neck, he caught sight of Sienna in the medical clinic. She was wandering through the room, studying everything. He watched her for a long minute before stepping through the doorway. “Do you have any medical training?”
She shot him a look, then shook her head. “It’s really not my thing.” She waved her arms at the clean cabinets. “It’s like some kind of big mystery happens here. I’m fascinated and repelled at the same time.”
He grinned. “I don’t think you’re alone in that.”
As she walked toward him, as if intending to step past him to head to her suite, he said abruptly, “I’m sorry.”
She turned and looked at him. “What for?”
Uncomfortable already, he bristled. “For acting like your older brother.”
“Well, that’s one brotherly thing you didn’t get right. Jarrod would never apologize.” She grinned. “However, apology accepted. Just don’t do it again.”
He rolled his eyes. “You don’t make it easy.”
“And I don’t intend to either.” She walked away, then turned and continued walking backward as she asked him, “Any news on the men you found?”
“Cousins. Last name Lewis, first names Martin and Jeremy. Both with connections to the drug trade.”
She froze. Her gaze widened. “Those were two names I connected accounts to.” She frowned. “I forgot to give that to Bullard.”
“What?” He took several steps toward her.
She spun around and raced to the stairs, calling back, “I have to talk to Levi.” Then she was gone from sight.
Like hell she would keep him in the dark. He picked up the pace and raced up the stairs behind her.