COUNTERPLAY (Romantic Suspense) COMPLETED

CHAPTER SIX

Keyed up after Harvard's info dump, Jack prowled the condo. He looked in the fridge for a beer. Right, he'd already looked earlier and come up empty. He needed to rectify that situation soon. There was little to nothing edible in the place unless you counted an unopened bottle of wine, coffee, and peanut butter and crackers.

He needed real food and his favorite Irish Ale to sustain him. He left the kitchen and roamed into the living room. The couch, the lounger, even the end tables were whitewashed. The lack of knick-knacks and the usual home furnishings gave him insight into how Coryn viewed her job.

She took it seriously, and he liked that about her. But he'd break down the wall she'd built around herself to get close enough for her to feel comfortable with him. Maybe then she'd slip up and reveal where the flash drive was that Ty had on his body the night he was murdered.

Braxton was convinced she'd removed it out of evidence and that it contained the data they needed to nail Marcozi. But why would she go to all the effort to continue her operation if she already had the evidence against TriGen? If she were in on the take, Jack would have pegged her to be on a beach in the Maldives somewhere instead of slogging it out and working for a boss she couldn't stand.

Jack walked back into the kitchen and entered the garage through the connecting door. If he were to hide something small and potentially incriminating, the last place he'd put it is somewhere a trained agent would look first.

He opened the passenger door of her rental and accessed the glove compartment and emptied its contents. Insurance card, manual and maintenance book along with an ice scraper and chewing gum were all he found. No hidden compartments. He put everything back, and for the next forty minutes, he searched every inch of Coryn's compact. Nothing.

Thinking he still had time to search her make-shift office before he hit the sack for a few hours of sleep, he walked back into the kitchen. There he found Coryn, hair mussed from sleep and exposing a healthy amount of thigh.

"Looking for something?" She asked.

"Yeah. I was outside checking the security set up."

She looked at him like he'd lost his mind. And all he could think of was how easy it would be to cross over to her and make her forget the reason they were having this conversation.

"At one-thirty in the morning?"

"Couldn't sleep." He shrugged.

"You ever hear of melatonin? I hear it works wonders and it's all natural."

"Hmm. Thanks. I'll have to try that next time."

They both knew he wasn't checking on the security of the condo. He marveled at the myriad of emotions playing out across her face. At any other time of day, she'd likely do a better job at schooling her features so he wouldn't have a clue what was on her mind. But in the middle of the night, with her guard down she was the perfect combination of soft and sexy. She carried herself with an air of confidence he was instinctively drawn to, but he needed to keep his emotions separate—for both their sakes.

"So, what's the verdict?"

"With what?" Had she figured out what he was really up to in the garage?

"With the security around the house. Isn't that what you said you were checking on?"

"Yeah. Right. It seems adequate unless you're an undercover FBI agent. The floodlights are fine, but you really need to upgrade the cameras." He offered her a small smile and watched as she began to fidget. She looked ready to do battle, and that was something he didn't want right now. Not if he was to build trust between them.