Page 58 of Sizzling Nights

He chuckled and shook his head. "You love cream cheese crepes and steak sandwiches. You don't like the seafood pasta. You love spaghetti, with meat sauce. You don't care for the fried fish sandwich. You love my steak, cooked medium rare. You enjoy my smoked pork chops. You dislike the eggs from the carton that we use for gluten-free foods. You do like my deviled eggs."

Her mouth dropped open as she stared at him. "You paid that much attention?"

"And so much more." He took a bite, chewed, and swallowed. "You usually wear your hair in a ponytail on the day you haven't had time to wash it. You wear it down when you come to work then put it in a ponytail before customers come on the day you wash it before work. It's so shiny and soft looking I've always wanted to dig my fingers in it and let them run through the strands."

He leaned toward her and his hand slid into her hair at her temple, then slid back. He pulled his hand away and let the silky strands slide through his fingers. "Like this."

He did it again. She stared at his eyes as he watched her hair flow from his fingers.

Her hand reached up and mimicked the same motion in his hair. He always wore it a bit longer, grazing his collar in the back. She let the strands fall from her fingers. She slid her hand into his hair again and he closed his eyes. She asked, "Do you like that?"

"Mmm."

His fingers slid into her hair again, but this time he kneaded her scalp gently. She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feeling of his fingers on her. She mimicked the motion on his scalp and received a gratuitous moan and a smile. "That feels fantastic."

"Yeah."

37

Marco sat at the dining room table next to Theresa as she finished up her writing. Today the final report would be published. She was now writing the end to that. Explaining the dead man's switch and that she was increasingly worried about being murdered by these thugs. Hopefully, this would help them understand she meant business.

She froze mid-type and whispered, "Shit."

She stood and moved toward the bedroom. He followed her to make sure she was okay and found her in the closet, on her knees, digging through her backpack.

"Is everything okay?"

She looked up at him, her brows pinched together. "I just found a note in my encrypted files from Keely. She told me she left a thumb drive for me in the bag of documents. I never read that far in the documents to see that note."

She dug through the zippered pouch. She pulled documents from inside and set them on the floor. Once the pouch was emptied, she opened it and looked inside. There wasn't anything in there. She squeezed the zippered pouch and felt something. He watched her comb through every inch of that bag with a thoroughness that was impressive.

"Oh my God. I found it."

She pulled the lining of the bag up and away from the bag itself and there was an invisible zipper sewn at the bottom. She unzipped it and pulled out a black thumb drive. She held it up between them and he saw her throat constrict as she swallowed.

He grinned and nodded his head. "You got it, baby."

He held his hand out to help her up and she rushed to her computer and inserted the thumb drive. A folder marked 4TJM was all that populated.

Marco leaned in. "What does that mean?"

She smiled. "For Theresa Jean Miklovic. That was a code we used. Though it wasn't much of a code."

"Oh. Clever. As long as you knew what it meant, it was a good code."

Theresa nodded. "If it was something about her husband the code would be SJBC. That meant Shooter John Benson Criminal. SJBL was Shooter John Benson Legal. He had some businesses that were legal, so things looked on the up and up. He never laundered through those businesses. But she watched what he did there anyway."

"She was brave."

Theresa's shoulders fell and she nodded. "She was incredible. But he treated her like shit, and she wanted him to be found out. All of them. She hated what they were doing."

"She's lucky she found you."

Theresa chuckled. "I was lucky to find her. We uncovered so many things about these assholes."

He watched her screw up the courage to open the folder. She finally took a deep breath and clicked the folder to open it. The open folder revealed a list of documents and one said Theresa.

Theresa looked into his eyes for a moment. She swallowed and clicked the folder. A document opened which was a letter to her.

---