It might be nothing. It might be something, but unrelated to what was happening to Ivy now. Either way, Preston was now at the top of Gil’s list of suspects. Which meant he needed to get Ivy out the door so he could find out the truth about Preston. “I hate to ruin our tranquil morning, but we both need to get to work.”
Ivy sighed. “True. My team will want the scoop on how things went yesterday.” She stood. “Is it crazy that with the huge exception of finding you, I miss the way my life was this time last week?”
“It’s normal to crave normal. Our brains want it. They don’t have to work hard when they already know what to expect. When every day is new and different, and in your case, dangerous, it’s stressful for the brain and the body.”
Ivy grinned. “I didn’t know you were an expert in neuroscience.”
“I’m not, Ms. I-Have-So-Many-Degrees-I-Don’t-Have-Enough-Wall-Space-to-Hold-Them-All.”
She laughed at his joke, but she didn’t move toward the bedroom.
“Did any of your classes cover the fact that we can’t alter the time-space continuum and therefore should have left ten minutes ago?”
She scrunched her face at him, but there was nothing but humor in her eyes. “Fine. I’ll be ready in five minutes.”
Was it the way the skin wrinkled over her nose or the way her eyes squinted or maybe the way she tilted her head as she attempted to glare at him? Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, Gil wasn’t in a hurry anymore. “Ivy.”
She turned around but kept walking, backward, toward his room. “What? You rush me, now you’re holding me up.”
He came around the counter, and she must have seen his intention because she spun and ran toward his room.
He caught her left wrist and twirled her into his arms. Her hands landed on his chest, and she was laughing. “This is not helping us get to work on time, Special Agent Dixon.”
No. It wasn’t. And he was fine with that. “You forgot something this morning.”
Her laughter died, replaced with wide-eyed anticipation. “What did I forget?”
“This.”
He leaned toward her, and she met him halfway. Their first good-morning kiss was soft and sweet and held the hope of thousands of future mornings spent together.
GIL WASSTILL THINKINGabout that kiss when he settled behind his desk an hour later. He opened the file he’d started on Preston. Then opened a search on his computer. Time to find out why Preston had lied to his wife about his bankruptcy.
Sylvester Electronics had made a variety of products used in industrial processes all over the world. Had there been a big advance in technology they’d failed to capitalize on?
He kept digging. Ten minutes later, he stared long and hard at his screen.
He’d gone as far as he could with the searches available to him. But he would need more before he jumped to conclusions.
He picked up the phone and waited for it to connect. “Sabrina. I need some help.”
31
EVEN IF SHE’D HAD AN INFINITE NUMBER of choices, Ivy never would have imagined that “look at a photo of a dead redhead” would be on her agenda for the day.
But that’s what she was doing.
Gil had driven to her office because he didn’t want her to be alone when she saw the photo, which was sweet and so like Gil. Especially because she could tell he was crazy busy and needed to be back at work.
She stared at the man’s face, paying close attention to his, thankfully, closed eyes.
“It could be him. The lashes match.” She handed the first photo back to Gil and picked up the second, which showed nothing but what seemed to her to be a very random section of the dead man’s arms.
She closed her eyes and forced herself to remember every detail she could about the man who had participated in her capture. He’d been covered from head to toe, but once he scratched at a spot on his left wrist. She refocused on the left wrist. “This also could be him. He had a scab—a thin, straight one above his watchband. There’s a fine white line in this photo, and that could be from thescab coming off.” She handed it to Gil. “I don’t imagine that would stand up in court, but that’s the best I can do.”
“It’s great.” Gil squeezed her left elbow. “We aren’t going to assume it’s him, but we’ll keep it as a possibility.”
“That’s not much.”
