Page 18 of Between a Rock and a Hard Cowboy

“How’s your WiFi?” she asked as she planted herself in a chair.

“Fine. Why?”

“I have to work.”

“If you had to work, why did you come over? I can handle this alone.”

“I have to be here to make sure you don’t screw up the decorations.”

He scowled. “Thanks.”

Apparently sarcasm was becoming his go-to. At least as far as Eva was concerned. Unfortunately, it seemed she was immune to it.

Eva didn’t flinch at his comment. But she did ask, “What’s your WiFi password?”

She was really going to sit there on her computer while he did all the work. Fine. Better, actually. Maybe she’d be so transfixed by the screen she wouldn’t try to micromanage him.

“Wilder with a capital W,” he told her.

“Oh, that’s secure. No one will ever crack that.” She rolled her eyes and typed it in.

“Whatever,” he said, borrowing her favorite escape from conversations she didn’t want to have. “I’m going outside to get the ladder.”

When she didn’t respond, he glanced back and found her already deep into her work.

No doubt a bomb could go off and it wouldn’t disturb her when she was in this state. His squad could have used someone like her in the Tactical Operations Center. It might have saved lives…

And just when he thought she wasn’t even aware he was still there, she said, “The ornaments are in the back seat of my car. Door’s open.”

“You got them already?” he asked, but she was gone again. Lost in the internet.

He sighed. This was going to be an interesting partnership. He’d have to remember to thank his father… and there was that sarcasm again.

ChapterNine

The information she sought was buried deep and scattered wide. But Eva scraped together enough random, seemingly disconnected details to begin to form a picture. No surprise, it all pointed a finger at the Wagner Group—Putin’s hired goon squad.

Riding a high that only solving a puzzle could create, Eva loaded all the information into the share drive that only Grozev had access too. She left him a cryptic message to let him know the information was there waiting for him, then flipped the laptop closed.

Between the adrenaline coursing through her veins and the fact she hadn’t stood in what had to be hours, she felt the need to move. Standing, she stretched and glanced around her.

Linc was nowhere in sight but evidence of his having been there was everywhere.

The staircase was bedecked in greenery, as was the near comically massive doorway. Turning she saw he’d found the white drape that she’d purchased and had laid it out along the ten-foot-wide fireplace mantle.

She smiled when she saw he’d gathered the various small-scale dead things from around the lodge, dressed them in the tiny Santa hats she’d ordered and placed them in a procession on the snowy cloth.

“You’ve returned to the land of the living, I see.”

She turned at the sound of Linc’s voice to see him carrying two bowls and spoons. “You didn’t get to the ornaments, I see,” she countered.

His brows rose as he stopped in front of her. The scent of whatever was in those bowls had her stomach growling. His lips twitched as he handed her one. “Sit. Eat.”

“What is it?” She glanced down at the lumpy contents.

“Beef stew.”

“Olivia’s?” she asked hopefully.

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