Page 29 of Hacking His Code
“It’s going to take me a while to familiarize myself with the case. It might seem like I’m getting nothing done, but I’m just establishing the known pieces of the puzzle.”
Hunter nods. “Understood—oh, and keep the red files separate. Those are documents and items that were illegally obtained, and I want you to look at them last.”
“Got it.”
With the laptop, I recreate the timeline in corkboard fashion, every document being sorted, placed, and tagged accordingly. It feels like busywork, but I’m learning a lot as I go. Things I never realized about the case.”
Hunter plays a supporting role, answering every question, providing me the tools I request, and even going so far as to fetch me water when I’m thirsty. I like that he respects my work and treats me like a professional.
But if I’m being honest, there’s a part of me that wishes he saw me differently. The thought of what it would feel like to have his arms wrap around me as he bends to give me a kiss has played on my mind, ever distracting me, and his comment about having ‘a desperate desire to please’ hasn’t helped matters.
The only defense I have against it is getting lost in my work.
“How are you doing?” Hunter says, and I have to shake my head to vanquish him from my thoughts.
“Pretty good. Almost done with the setup.”
As much as I don’t like bragging, I have to admit, I’m pretty damn good at what I do. At the click of a button, my timeline comes to life, and with another click, I can decide how I want to view the data. It can be by way of written statements, locations, people, or any other variable I’ve input.
“You’re a lot quicker at this than I was,” Hunter says, pulling up a chair beside me, “and I wasn’t half as good at organizing.”
Him sitting so close to me sets me on edge. It’s not that he’s doing anything salacious; it’s that I want him to. His scent doesn’t help the matter any, a mixture of wood and sweat that tantalizes my senses.
Get your shit together, Ari.
The slim chance I have at remaining in school relies on me cracking this case, but how am I supposed to do that when I have a thick slice of sexy arrogance seated beside me?
Take a deep breath and show him what you got.
“Once a good base with searchable keywords is set up, everything becomes infinitely easier.” I pull up the file of the garbage man that came by the morning of Lucy’s disappearance. “Like this guy, Fred Durmont. When we pull him up, not only does it give us all his personal information, but it provides a timeline put together from the data collected, including his birth date, the year he graduated, and all the things he was doing around the time of the kidnapping. We knew all this before, but now it’s digestible and accessible at the click of a button.”
Hunter gives a slight nod. “Color me impressed.”
“I still have a few more things I need to add, but I’m almost done.”
“Don’t let me get in your way.”
Hours feel like minutes as I compile the cache of data, my fingers flying over the keyboard as I make my way through the files, and after four straight hours of nonstop work, I sit back and admire my accomplishment.
Breathing out a sigh of relief, I say, “I did it. I made a baseline database and corkboard showing all the known data surrounding Lucy’s disappearance.”
Hunter leans over me, his scent filling my nostrils and sending my mind racing. I had made so much progress in pushing him from my brain, but one single whiff sets me back.
His eyes scan the screen as he clicks through the various files. “You did good, and by that, I mean you’re exceptional.”
“I input the red files in a way that lets me hide the information with the click of a button. So we can look at them separately.”
“Good. Being able to hide it might allow us to better understand the decisions of the detectives working the case as they didn’t have access to some of the information.”
For the first time in hours, I look over at Hunter, who is stretching his arms into the air and unleashing a bear-like yawn. Sometime in the middle of my investigating, he changed into sleep pants and a white shirt.
I look down to see that I’m still in formalwear and inadvertently utter, “Oh…” as I realize the ungodly amount of boobage I’m displaying.
Hunter bursts into a fit of laughter. “Good thing you didn’t notice them earlier, or else you would have spent the whole investigation distracted by them.”
“Seriously, Hunter? You’re the one that told those three lunatics to dress me in femme fatale, you asshole. I’ve been so in the zone that I hadn’t even realized I’m still in the slut dress.”
He cocks a brow. “Slut dress?”
