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CHAPTER13
Cygny avoidedbreakfast that morning and only had a few slices of fruit that Leo forced her to eat. Her stomach just wouldn’t settle. Perhaps it was the change in the air.
A heavy snow fall coated the ground overnight. Cygny and Leo had lain awake watching it for a few minutes before falling asleep.
Mentally, she went over everything they knew about the sale.
All of the information given to them by the FBI.
And all of the information she’d gleaned from her own search on the webs. The normal internet and its darker brother.
Everything was as it should be on the surface.
Even the other buyer representatives were exactly what they’d expected.
Standing at the sink, Cygny splashed her face with cold water and stared at her face in the mirror, mentally preparing for the auction.
The shower door opened, and Leo stepped out, yanking his towel down from the hook on the wall. He made quick work of the hair on his head and then worked on his torso. Cygny's expression never changed.
“You okay?”
She grabbed a towel from the rod along the wall and dried off her face. “I think so, but there’s something… off.” Cygny lifted her face from the towel and turned to look at him. “Do you feel it too?”
He paused as he was drying off his abs and met her gaze. “I don’t feel what you are.”
She leaned back in surprise. “You don’t?”
Leo started drying off his legs, bending over so his voice was muffled a bit. “Everything seems okay to me, but this isn’t my kind of crowd.”
When Cygny remained silent, he stopped wiping and looked up.
“And criminals are my kind of crowd?”
“Not what I meant.” He stood and held up his empty hand in surrender.
Leo stepped into the bedroom and came back with her ‘little friend.’ He handed it to her and waited while she opened the battery compartment to turn on the white noise generator.
As soon as Cygny set it aside, he explained.
“What I’m saying is that this kind of situation isn’t what I’m used to dealing with. Just like you were concerned before about the kind of situational awareness that we needed in the mountains, I don’t know how to deal with people like this. That man who was trying to get in your head and figure out who you were would likely have made me sweat.
“We have different skills. That doesn’t mean that we’re not matched and good partners. Our different skills are what make us the right partners for each other.”
Cygny wasn’t sure if what he said was right, but she wanted to believe. “Okay, well, let’s operate off the thought that I’m right and there’s something strange going on today. It’s like I can feel it in the air.”
“Okay. I’m good with being more careful.”
He reached for the little device that Cygny had laid on the side of the sink and held it gently in his hand.
“But, if you’re tense,” he leaned in and whispered in her ear, “I could use this and help you relax.”
Cygny reached out her hand and took the extremely versatile massager from his hand and gave him a playful nudge back.
“You do that and we’re not leaving the room today.” She couldn’t help but laugh at his suggestion.
Leo leaned in for a quick peck that made her smile even more. “Then let’s do what we need to to get home. Soon.”
Cygny turned off the device and stepped into the shower.
* * *
Leo finished dressing first.
He didn’t like suits. That didn’t mean he didn’t know how to wear them. And the buttons up the front of the dress shirt was just another rote activity like cleaning his weapon. He let his fingers do the work so he could keep an eye on Cygny.
He might not feel the unease she felt, but he felt for her.
And it should have scared him how quickly he’d fallen back in love with her.
He’d gone back and forth on that for a bit, because part of him felt that he’d never fallen ‘out’ in the first place.
Whatever she was worried about, they’d face it together.
