The Darkness Beyond (5 page)

“Cool.”

Cody waved one last time before he disappeared into the rundown building he called home. It was clear that money was tight for him. If the kid was anything like D.J. had been in college, he put all his disposable income into his computers. Come to think of it, Cody reminded D.J. of his own younger self.

Sort of. Cody might be strapped for funds, but at least he had one trusted friend. D.J. hadn't had anyone like that in his life until the Regents found him and brought him to the Paladins, offering him the first—no, make that the only—real home he'd ever known. D.J. just hoped that he hadn't screwed that up big time by letting this mess get out of control.

He pulled back out into traffic and debated what to do next. A motel or back to Reggie's?

No contest. He circled the block in case Cody was watching to see which direction he went and then drove right back to Reggie's apartment. This was going to be fun.

When Reggie opened the door, he couldn't exactly say she looked surprised—or happy.

“Did you forget something?”

“Nope, but it's still early, and I've got a hankering for some ice cream. I spotted a place down the street and thought you might join me. I don't know anyone else in the area and hate to eat alone.”

He stepped closer, deliberately crowding her. “Or I can go pick some up and bring it back here.”

Her hesitation was only momentary. “Let me put on my shoes and grab my keys.”

She left him cooling his heels on the wrong side of her door, but he didn't complain. He'd already pushed her enough by showing up unannounced and uninvited twice in one evening. He leaned against the wall and waited, listening to Reggie moving around inside her apartment. The thickness of the door did little to muffle the soft sounds, not with his Paladin hearing.

The padding of bare feet; the soft swish they made sliding into shoes; the jangle of her keys; her pulse picking up speed as she headed for the door. When it started to open, he stepped farther back to give her all the room she needed.

She ignored him as she locked the door and then shoved her keys into her pocket. “I'm ready if you are.”

Without waiting to see if he followed, she started down the steps. Gutsy of her. Most women wouldn't trust a man they didn't know all that well at their backs. Even so, he followed at a respectful distance. When they were out on the sidewalk, she turned in the opposite direction from the place he'd had in mind.

As if sensing his curiosity, she glanced in his direction. “The ice cream is better at another place. It's only a little farther away.”

“Sounds good.” Distance translated as more time in her company.

They walked along in silence for a couple of blocks. Although the two of them had a lot to talk about, he was content to put the confrontation off as long as possible. After a bit, Reggie started playing tour guide, pointing out her favorite bookstore and several restaurants she thought he should try while he was in town. Finally, true to her promise, he spotted an ice cream shop at the end of the next block.

As they made their approach, he caught her attention. “So, Reggie, I've got a question for you.”

She gave him a suspicious look. “Doesn't mean I have an answer, but ask away.”

He pointed toward the shop. “Do you always order the same flavor or do you like to . . . experiment?”

Her fair skin flushed. Finally, she said, “Most of the time I keep things simple, boring even.”

Somehow he doubted there was anything boring about her at all. He held the door open for her and then headed toward the counter to place their order. “Two waffle cones with double scoops of whatever the lady wants.”

When she started to put some money down on the counter, he shook his head. “My treat. So, Reggie, what's it going to be? Let's see what you consider boring.”

Reggie kept her attention focused strictly on the clerk behind the counter. “Double fudge mocha pecan.”

D.J. grinned as he paid for their treats. He'd half-expected her to order plain old vanilla just to show him, but she'd been unable to resist the temptation of her favorite flavor. Good. He was having a difficult time resisting temptation himself. Rather than immediately head back out into the night, he took a seat at the one empty booth in the shop. It would be interesting to see whether Reggie sat across from him or if she was up to doing a little crowding herself.

She didn't even hesitate, sliding onto the opposite bench. Fine with him. All the better to keep an eye on her. He pretended not to notice when her legs brushed his as she scooted all the way to the far corner of the booth, but her eyes flared wide at the brief contact.

Good. He'd hate to be the only one who was almost painfully aware of their proximity. Hoping to cool off the direction his thoughts were headed, he tasted the ice cream. The rich combination of flavors exploded on his tongue. “Wow, no wonder you love this stuff.”

She merely nodded, obviously more interested in her ice cream than she was in him. It was all he could do not to groan as her pink tongue darted out to catch a drip of ice cream running down the side of her cone. How sweet would her mocha-flavored kiss taste? Sadly, all things considered, he figured that wasn't on the menu for the night.

Odd how much that realization bothered him. After all, he was there to order a fellow hacker to back off before she got in over her head, relying on the same lies he'd been telling women for years. Somehow, he just couldn't bring himself to start spouting the usual load of crap.

So rather than say anything, he ate his ice cream and ignored the double scoop of regret that had settled in his chest.

When Reggie had polished off the last bite of her ice cream, she wiped her fingers with a napkin. “We should head back.”

D.J. tossed the rest of his cone in the trash. “Sure.”

Outside it had started misting, a common enough occurrence in both Portland and Seattle. Like most natives, the two of them ignored it as they walked along. But when he noticed Reggie shiver, D.J. peeled off his jacket and wrapped it around her shoulders.

She didn't quibble, instead laughing at the way it hung down almost to her knees. She had to really work to shove the sleeves up her arms far enough for her hands to show. She did a slow pirouette to show it off.

“Quite the fashion statement, don't you think? This thing is big enough to cover three of me.”

Actually, he liked the way it looked on her, and he strongly suspected one Reggie was more than enough for him. Before he could bring himself to say so, they'd reached her building. She slipped off his jacket and held it out.

“Thanks for the ice cream.”

He accepted the jacket, but not the implied good-bye. “We need to talk, and I'm guessing you'd rather we kept the discussion private.”

She rolled her eyes and led the way up to her apartment. “Fine, but don't plan on staying long.”

“Just as long as it takes.”

Inside, she took the one easy chair, leaving D.J. the couch. He sprawled on it, automatically starting to put his feet up on the coffee table. Whoops. This wasn't his house. He froze in mid motion, lowering them back down to the floor.

Reggie shook her head. “Don't stop on my account. I do it myself all the time. That's what coffee tables are for.”

D.J. nodded and plopped his size thirteens down on a haphazard stack of magazines. She curled up in the chair, her legs tucked to the side. From where he was sitting he could see one bare foot keeping time to a beat only she could hear. Seems they had more in common than just whacked-out computer skills.

She caught him staring and frowned. “So what do you think we need to discuss?”

“Like how you found me and how you managed to break into secure files. More important, what you plan to do with that information, not to mention why you were looking for me in the first place.”

He alleviated the grim tone of his voice with a quick grin. “Although, now that I've seen you in person I can't say I'm sorry that I had to track you down.”

“What does seeing me have to do with it?”

He gave her a deliberate look, from head to toe. “To be honest, I was envisioning you as looking a lot more like your buddy Cody. Believe me, it's been a pleasant surprise.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “You thought I was a guy?”

“Most hackers are.”

“But you'd met my avatar. If Ruby looked like a guy, maybe you need your eyes checked. Not that I'm anything like her.”

There was an odd note in Reggie's voice when she said that last part. Clearly she thought he would've preferred her to be a tall, buxom redhead. That might have been true before he actually met her but not now. He suspected that underneath those baggy pants and oversize T-shirt there were some delectable curves.

She wore her dark blond hair pinned up on top of her head with a couple of chopsticks. Yeah, her expressive mouth was a little too wide, her nose a bit sharp, but it all fit together somehow. Besides, there was a great deal of intelligence shining brightly in those soft gray eyes, and smart was always a major turn-on for him.

He doubted she wanted to hear any of that from him. Not yet anyway. But, hot damn, he wanted to peel away all those layers of protective clothing to discover the secrets hidden underneath. He shifted his position on the couch, hoping she wouldn't notice what was going on south of his waistband.

“We both know things are not always as they seem in cyberspace. It doesn't pay to assume an avatar is ever an accurate representation of someone.”

She played devil's advocate. “Yet your most recent one looked just like you. Seems like a risky thing to do. What if someone had recognized you?”

She was right. It had been stupid, but he'd grown tired of hiding who and what he was. Not just in the cyberworld either. For once, just once, he wished he had what his friends had: a woman who knew the truth of what it meant to be a Paladin and loved him anyway.

Definitely time to get to the point.

“I'm not here to talk about avatars, Reggie.”

Her whole body went still. “So why are you here? Because I've got to tell you, having you hunt me down in person is veering pretty close to stalker territory.”

“Yeah, right, Reggie.” He sighed. “And leaving me cryptic messages for months doesn't fall into that category?”

A faint blush stained her cheeks. “Okay, so we're both guilty.”

“I might sound like a five-year-old, but you started it. I think I have the right to know why. We both know I'm not the only hacker out there.”

Her feet came down on the floor, propelling her up out of the chair. It was like watching a fast-paced tennis match as she paced from one end of the room to the other while he waited for her to answer.

Finally she stopped abruptly in front of the sliding door to her small balcony and stared out into the darkness. “You're a legend.”

So that was it. Her interest was part of what he and Cullen called the “Fastest Gun in the West” syndrome. She was just another in a long line of computer jockeys out to earn her stripes by taking on someone higher up the food chain. That was pretty much what he'd figured. If it had been Cody instead of Reggie, he would've kicked the kid's ass for him and gone home.

But now having met Reggie, he wasn't sure of what he was feeling. Disappointment for sure. Frustration of more than one kind. He doubted she'd want to do anything about any of it, which was a damn shame.

He stood and walked over to the counter, just to give himself something to do. What was there left to say? A couple of things.

“Well, congrats. You beat me, but don't expect a trophy.”

Funny how that didn't make Reggie look any happier. She watched him much like a mouse watched a cat. A great big cat. At least she was smart enough to be wary of D.J.'s predatory nature. If she thought he was scary, she had no idea what she'd be messing with if the Regents caught wind of her escapade.

He stared at her, memorizing her pretty face. “This ends now, Reggie. Don't contact me again. Don't try to find me.”

When her eyes immediately flicked in the direction of the kitchen counter, he picked up a scrap of paper and looked at it. His license plate number. No doubt she'd memorized it, but just in case, he wadded it up and stuffed it in his pocket.

He couldn't leave, not yet. He stalked toward her. That she stood her ground spoke to her courage, one more thing he liked about her. When they stood toe to toe, he leaned down close to her ear. The combined scents of soap and soft female skin filled his head. Damn, he was playing with fire.

“I want to leave you with two things to think about, Reggie.”

He held up one finger. “For your own safety, put whatever you know or think you know about me or the Paladins or the Regents right out of that pretty little head. Destroy the hard copies and never access that site again.”

She glared up at him. “What makes you think I made hard copies?”

He smiled down into those angry, long-lashed eyes. “Because, Reggie, that's what I would've done. Clear out the copy you made on a flash drive, too. Better yet, destroy the damn thing. Don't keep anything that can be used against you.”

For the first time she looked worried. “Seriously, D.J., you're not trying to tell me all that crap was real?”

He wished he could, but that wasn't happening. “No, I'm trying to tell you to keep that cute nose out of my business for your own good.”

She wasn't buying it, not for an instant, which was why he'd be sticking around for a while despite what he'd told her about leaving him alone. Maybe he could figure out some way to convince her. Meanwhile, he'd keep an eye on her until he knew for sure whether anyone was coming after her.

“Okay, so, that was one thing. What's the other one?”

He shouldn't do it. He really, really shouldn't. But then he'd never had much luck with impulse control.