A clear lance of pain crossed his expression.“I shouldn’t have let it get that far between us.Another example of letting emotions overrule logic.”
“What emotions?You just said you feel nothing.”
His mouth tightened, revealing his lie.
“Tell me, Cyn, what emotionsdoyou have as far as I’m concerned?Am I this obligation you carry because you made me an orphan?Because I’m a helpless newbie?Or were you just horny?”
“It was part Dragon.The rest… doesn’t matter.Not anymore.”
She turned and went inside, pulling out the box of pictures Mon or Brom had managed to take from the house.She dropped to the floor and dumped them out to search through them faster.Seeing those pictures of happy times tore at her heart.
“Here they are.”Ruby held up a picture of the couple who had been so close to her family.Whose house she remembered spending so much time at.Darren was a plain-looking man, wearing thick glasses and a warm smile.His wife was nicely dressed and wore lots of jewelry.Other photos showed the couples in Halloween costumes and sharing a Christmas meal.
Ruby rubbed her finger over the photograph.“I always wondered why they, of all people, didn’t come to see me after the accident.”It had made her feel as though there was something wrong with her or that maybe people blamed her.Now she knew better, but to a grieving kid who’d lost everything, it made perfect sense.
She turned the picture over, finding their names marked through in black.“Sweeney.”The name came to her, dredged from memory.“I’m pretty sure it’s Sweeney.”
“Good job,” he said, and she realized she was looking at him, sharing the triumph of remembering.
She got up and turned on her computer, staring at the screen as it booted up.Her Dragon, the traitor, pulled toward Cyn.
No.Not him,she told it.
But it purred.Purred!
Well, hadn’t Cyn said they were fueled by instinct and lust?That was for damned sure.
She clicked on several links, but they weren’t the Darren she looked for.“There’s not much on the internet about him, other than a bunch of those find-a-person sites.”
Cyn pulled out his phone and tapped in a number.He stared at the floor as he waited for someone to answer.“Hey, it’s Cyn.I need you to look up a Deuce named Darren Sweeney.Find out everything you can about him.”
While he waited for the person on the other end to retrieve the information, his gaze drifted to the pictures.One was of Ruby as a child, hugging a dog.He shifted his entire body away, and then she heard someone talking.
Cyn said, “Great.And when you get a chance, could you look up a defunct lab called SUNLAB?I need to know who owned it.Thanks.”He walked to the computer and gestured for her to move so he could sit down.
“Please, be my guest.”Damn it, he should be contrite, not silently ordering her around.Why wasn’t he trying to prove he wasn’t cold-hearted and ruthless?Or begging her forgiveness?
Would you forgive him?
Hell, no.
He went to one of the map sites and typed in an address.“Darren’s a Deuce, which fits our profile.He’s been married to Magda for thirty-two years, no children.And he’s self-employed, lists his occupation as a physics research consultant.”Cyn was zooming in on a house with the satellite view.A separate building sat several yards behind the residence.“Maybe that’s where he does his research.”
She twisted the fabric of her shirt.“It hurts my stomach to think that Darren could be behind this.”
He gave her a sympathetic look.“He’s the one person we know about who was involved in your father’s work.And who could reasonably replicate it.Before we approach him, we’re going to do a little investigating.We’ll wait for them to leave, and then we’ll find out what kind of physics research he’s doing.”
“How are we going to do that when neither of us is a physicist?”
He got to his feet.“We take pictures, and we grab anything else we can get our hands on and bring them to someone who is.”
17
Darren’s house was no mansion on the water.Still, it was nice, so his consultant services obviously earned him decent money.As with most Crescents’ homes, tall, thick hedges surrounded it.
Cyn had parked in a church lot with a view of the entrance.He’d verified their presence inside, so now it was a matter of waiting for them to leave.Which gave him too much time in this small space with Ruby.
That was the problem with getting emotionally involved.It made you do ill-advised things, like nearly making love with the woman whose parents you killed.He had been involved with women before, but he kept everything on the surface.Ruby had burrowed beneath his skin.Burrowed deeper than that, if he dared to contemplate.
