Do You Trust Me? by Desconhecido(a) Page B

in
front of her, holding a glass.
    McCall looked at her,
feeling her desolation. She was a mess, and he didn’t think one juice glass of
brandy was a cure-all, but at least it would steady her system. He handed her
the glass.
    “Here. Drink it all,”
he ordered. “Every bit, even if you have to sip. Your system needs it.”
    She took the glass
with hands trembling so badly she nearly spilled the liquid. He closed a hand over
hers and guided the glass to her lips. She took too big a swallow, choked,
coughed, then sipped a little bit.
    When he saw color
begin to come into her face again and her hands stop shaking, McCall removed
his hand but didn’t move away from her. “Gage and Les are still going ahead
with the security stuff,” he told her. “At least it will discourage further
intrusion.”
    He raked his gaze
over her. She looked so defeated, sitting on the loveseat, hair disheveled,
cheeks lined with tear tracks, eyes with a bruised look. He fought an unwanted
urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her, kiss the tears away. Shit. Jesus.
That wasn’t him at all. He was just sinking in deeper and deeper. Unbelievably,
he felt his cock harden.
    Great, asshole. Think
about fucking her when her world is falling apart.
    If he didn’t watch
it, he’d screw up a critical situation just like he’d done once before and a
lot of people might get killed. The past had a rotten way of repeating itself.
He sensed a presence in the doorway, just a slight disturbance in the air, and
looked up. “Rina.”
    She raised her head.
    He nodded in the direction
of the doorway. “This is Les Burkell. He’s going to be working here with Gage.”
    Les dipped his head. “Miss
Devargas. Sorry we had to meet under such circumstances. We’ll do our best to
see there isn’t a repeat. McCall, can we talk for a minute?”
    When McCall walked
out of the room, Rina gathered up the spilled papers and computer disks and
piled them on her desk. Her work, her personal papers, everything was damaged
or destroyed. The thought that these people, the ones who’d possibly killed
John, had been pawing through her things made her nauseous.
    Suddenly, the locket
felt like a living thing against her skin. McCall hadn’t paid attention to it,
and she didn’t think anyone else would either, but she had to keep herself from
constantly touching it. She was dying for another look inside, but not where
anyone could walk in on her and see what she was doing. Her head was starting
to ache again. She was just about to go find some aspirin when McCall reappeared
in the doorway. “How are you coming along?”
    “Okay, I guess.” She
waved her hand distractedly at the clutter on her desk. “I like to think I’m a
little smarter than the average bear.”
    “What do you mean?”
    She opened a section
of the bookcase, pressed a spot in the backing and a panel slid sideways to
reveal a small wall safe. Dialing in the combination, she opened the door and took
out a small file box.
    “I mean this.” She
took off the lid to show him a pile of tiny instruments that looked like
harmonicas. “My flash drives. I back everything up to both disk and memory
sticks. I lock the sticks in the safe, just so I don’t have to worry about
recreating any of my manuscripts. They got the CDs, but I still have all my
documents.”
    He almost grinned. “Smart
lady.”
    “Thank you.” She gave
him a shaky smile. “Also, my laptop’s in my car, so they didn’t get that. Do
you really think they’ll come back?”
    “They might when they
discover the things they took give them nothing.”
    The thought pierced
her mind like a spear of ice. “Oh, God.” She couldn’t seem to find anything
else to say.
    “I’m through taking
pictures.” Gage joined them in the den. He saw the look on Rina’s face and
glanced at McCall. “Do you think...”
    McCall shook his
head. “Sully’s department.”
    Gage shrugged. “Whatever.
Les and I need to do some cleanup before we get