Tangled Hearts (3 page)

After purchasing the computer, Brianna headed for the campus. Fall classes had ended before the Christmas break, but there were always students wandering the campus, some working on a thesis or long-term projects, taking advantage of the Christmas break to take advantage of the enrichment part of campus. Others were just hanging around for any action they could find.

Brianna smiled as she made her way to her office. Only a few years ago, she’d been an undergraduate at a different college. How she’d loved it. So much that Jase had once accused her of wanting to become a professional student. That wasn't her goal. She liked the synergy of college students. She’d made the switch from student to instructor then assistant professor with little difficulty. And she still loved the discussions and arguments that could arise as young brains forged forward with new ideas and fascinating conjectures.

The office building echoed eerily when she entered. The usual professors, instructors and endless groups of students were missing because of the holidays. Even the administrative staff was gone until next week. Her footsteps echoed in the oddly silent building.

She hurried up the stairs to the small cubicle she called her home away from home. It had a narrow window that gave a brief glimpse of the campus. Scarcely large enough for her desk, bookshelves, large chalkboard and a couple of chairs, it still represented the first step up the ladder toward a full professorship. And she was lucky enough to have it all to herself.

Brianna opened the door and stopped dead.

“I’m trying to reach Detective Jake Morgan,” Brianna said yet again. This was the third voice to come on the phone. How hard was it to get through if someone had an emergency?

Or was he deliberately avoiding her? Was he worried she’d call him on the slightest pretext to try to insinuate herself back into his life—

“Yeah, this is Morgan.” His distinctive Western drawl was more welcome than she anticipated.

“Jake, it’s Brianna. I’m sorry to bother you at work and all, even though it is police business. Well, it’s really probably more for Officer Winston, but I don’t think his area extends over here and the campus police did say they’d handle it and contact the city police, so I—”

“Brianna
!
”

“Yes?” She took a deep breath, holding on to her nerves with a will of iron.

“Take a deep breath and slowly tell me why you’re calling. Slowly.” The order came through loud and clear.

Brianna took another deep breath. “I did. I thought I did. Jake, my office was ransacked like my house.”

“I’ll be there in ten minutes,” he said, severing the connection.

Slowly, Brianna placed the receiver carefully back on her phone. She tried a shaky smile for the elderly security guard standing beside her desk. “He’s coming over,” she said.

“Campus police won’t like it, miss. They said they’d handle it,” the man said morosely.

“Yes, well, Detective Morgan is a personal friend.”

And she was beginning to feel she needed one. It was cold in her office. The window had been cracked open. Scattered files and folders, torn papers and ripped books added to the chill. She stood and headed for the door.

“I’ll wait outside for my friend,” she said, not waiting for agreement, giving in to a need to escape.

She sat on the marble bench in front of the building, willing the rays of the bright winter sun to warm her. Cool, crisp air swirled slowly around, cold enough to keep the snow from melting, to keep the sun from offering any solace beyond an illusion of warmth. Still, she felt better sitting outside than in her office.

Who would do such a thing? The security guard had checked the other offices on the floor. None had been disturbed. It was only hers. She knew the drill from last night. Wait for the police to check it out, then ascertain if anything was missing. Then clean up everything.

Instead of working on lesson plans for the first few days, she'd spend the day putting things away and salvaging what she could.

She hoped she could find her notes for the spring classes and that her grading sheets and student files weren’t impossibly scrambled. But for the moment she just wanted to sit in the sun and forget the scenes of destruction that had met her ever since her return from Christmas vacation.

Jake careened around the corner in front of the student union. He drew to a halt before the Ross Building, against the flow of traffic, his light flashing. Climbing from the car, he left the lights on, immediately headed for her, as out of place on the college campus as a fox in a hen house. His tall frame moved easily through the scattered groups of undergraduates with a controlled motion that reminded Brianna of a wolf on the prowl. King of the wolf pack, dominant, arrogant, confident and deadly, he made the strutting college boys look like pups.

Yet he remained totally oblivious to it, his eyes already on her. All his attention focused on her.

Willing her heart rate to slow, Brianna sprang up from the bench and waited impatiently for him to reach her. She couldn’t take her eyes away from his dark gleam. For one heartbeat she felt safe. Jake would find out what was going on and make things come right. She knew it.

Then the shivers of awareness began, raking through her as he drew nearer and nearer until she could reach out and touch him. She didn’t have to.

He reached for her first, drawing her up firmly against his hard chest, holding her in his arms while she breathed out a shaky sigh of relief, resting her forehead against his shoulder.

“Oh, Jake. I know it isn’t your case and I probably should have called Officer Winston, but I wanted you. I didn’t know what else to do.”

“You’re shaking.” His arms tightened even more until she could feel the steel in him along the length of her, feel the imprint of masculine strength surround her.

“It’s the last time I take a trip, I can tell you,” she said, trying for some humor. Truth to tell, she felt just the tiniest bit scared.

“Where’s your office?” He released her, held her shoulders while he ducked his head to stare down into her blue eyes. “Do the campus police have any ideas when it happened?” he asked, ever the cop.

“They don’t know. Some time since school let out before Christmas. It’s this way.”

She felt momentarily bereft when his hands dropped from her shoulders, but one arm came around her and while she longed to leaned against him to savor his strength, she pulled away. Drawing on her own determination and courage, she led the way inside and to her office.

The elderly security man stood on duty, leaning against the hallway wall. Except for the door to Brianna’s office, all the others on the floor were closed.

“This is Detective Morgan. He wants to see my office,” Brianna said as they drew abreast of the open door.

“Now, miss, there’s no need. The campus police have been and gone. They have the case in hand,” the older man protested.

Jake smiled easily, offering his hand to the guard. “I’m not planning to run interference, just checking it out for Miss Hart. I won’t touch a thing.”

“I’m sure that won’t matter. The place has been dusted, pictures taken. She can clean it up now if she wants. I’m just waiting around until she’s ready to leave. The lock on the door's busted so I don't want her to be alone.”

“Nice of you. I can take over if you have other things to do,” Jake offered.

After a sharp look at Jake and a quick glance at Brianna, the older man nodded. “You’d probably do her a whole lot more good than me if there was a problem.” He nodded and saluted Brianna with two fingers before heading down the hall.

Jake swung back to her, the smile gone, his expression pure business. “Let’s see.”

She stood aside as he prowled her office. Since the campus police had already dusted for fingerprints, he had no hesitation in picking things up and examining them.

“Anything missing?”

She shrugged. “Not at first glance. But it will take days to get this mess cleaned up and put back into order. Much longer than it took at home if they’ve scrambled the papers.”

“Any other office hit?”

“No. The campus police checked when they were here.”

He leaned back against her desk and stared around the small room for a long moment, then snapped his gaze toward her.

“All right, let’s have it, Brie. What do you have that someone wants?”

“Nothing!”

“A break-in at home and one at your office in the same week. That stretches coincidence a bit too far. You must have something someone wants pretty badly.”

“I don’t.” She glanced at the mess again before peering thoughtfully at her computer. Unlike the one at home, this one had not been damaged. “But someone might think I do, I guess,” she said slowly.

“Like what?”

She hesitated. She knew she could trust Jake with her life, if necessary. But she wasn’t sure how much she should tell anyone until she’d spoken with her boss.

“Actually, I need to talk to someone else.”

“What the hell do you mean you need to talk to someone else? You called me the minute you ran into trouble. Now you want to talk to someone else? Who?”

“I can’t say.” She swallowed hard.

Tension grew as he stared down at her. She could feel the sparks. She should have anticipated this and, as a precaution, should have called to get clearance. At the very least, she should have notified them what had happened.

Only she’d never considered that anyone would think she had classified materials with her.

“Isn’t it a little late to be thinking about the boyfriend?” Jake snarled.

“Boyfriend?” She blinked. Was that a joke? She hadn’t had a date in over two years, and he thought she had a boyfriend?

Why would he care if she did? He’d made it abundantly clear he no longer wanted to be considered in that role. What about Diane?

He reached across and grabbed her arms, drawing her up close. His dark eyes were hard and narrowed as he leaned over until his nose almost touched hers. “I’m the one you called first, sweetheart. I’m the one who can help you, not some boyfriend you only just remember now.”

She blinked, feeling the soft kiss of his breath fan across her cheeks. Her gaze took in the deep depths of his eyes accented with the faint lines that radiated from the corners, the high bones of his cheeks, the tight control he held on his mouth.

She licked her lips, wishing he’d kiss her once more as he had long ago. If she reached up a scant four inches, she could brush her lips against his, taste him again, absorb the searing heat he generated against her skin for another second of eternity.

“It’s classified,” she squeaked, drawing on all her reserves to keep from moving that short distance.

Shimmering waves of desire swept through her. Blood heated through her veins and the roar in her ears almost deafened her. For years her brothers had tried to give her everything she wanted, but she’d never wanted anything as much as a single kiss from this one man.

Time hung suspended as the world narrowed to only Brianna and Jake, blue eyes staring deep into black ones. Their hearts pounded in sync, their breaths mingling, uniting as one.

He moved first, straightening and setting her back. Waiting only long enough to make sure she hadn’t lost her balance before releasing her, he stepped away, arching one eyebrow.

“Classified?”

She nodded. “About a year and a half ago, I was hired by the Strategic Air Command to do contract work in cryptography at Barksdale Air Force Base,” she said, referring to the air base in nearby Louisiana.

“You crack codes?”

She smiled at that. “More along the lines of encrypting than deciphering. It, uh, goes hand in hand with math.”

“And you think someone might be looking for these codes in your possession?”

“Which is really stupid. I wouldn’t take anything from the site, much less leave it carelessly around my house or office.”

“Maybe whoever is behind this doesn’t necessarily know that.”

“Then they can’t be too smart. I think it’s more likely to be your student theory. I should check in and let my boss know what’s happened.”

“How often do you work there?”

“It’s on an as-needed basis. I finished my last assignment just before Thanksgiving. They haven’t called me for the next one yet.”

“How did you find out about working for them?” he asked, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms as he stared across her office out the window.

“How? There was an invitation to alums of UT, an ad sort of. I applied and they ran a background check and then hired me.”

“When?” His gaze pierced her, his concentration formidable.

“Eighteen months ago.” Suddenly she felt as if she were being interrogated. Why? She had done nothing wrong.

“Isn’t that when you said you got your new place?”

“It was the extra money that enabled me to afford it.”

She pulled her cell from her pocket and tapped on her boss's number. Turning slightly for an illusion of privacy, Brianna went through the officer on duty and reached Colonel Shaefer. She quickly explained what had happened and offered Jake’s theory of a disgruntled student as a possible explanation.

“Well?” Jake asked when she hung up.

“He said to keep him apprised. For the time being, he’s willing to let it stay in civilian hands. Especially since he knows nothing’s been taken from the base.”

“What happened eighteen months ago that caused you to change your life, get a new home, take on additional work? Love affair gone bad?” Jake asked softly.

She glanced up, then shook her head in defense. There was no way she would give him the satisfaction of knowing how much he’d hurt her when he left. No way would she give him a clue.

“Just time to change things. I need to get some order out of this mess. I probably shouldn’t have called you. I think the security guard was correct. The campus police—”

His fingers covered her lips, stopping the flow of words. Brianna shivered, stepping back to break contact.

“I’ll see you home. The building is practically deserted and I’m not leaving you here alone. Get what you need and we’ll go. You can come back when the staff returns.”