Page 53 of Twice the Rivalry

She spun around and glared at him. “If I knew that, do you think I would have said anything?” she snapped.

He glared at her. “Since it was you who said it, then it should be you who has a solution,” he snapped back.

“Do you even hear yourself? If I had a solution, I would already be using it. Is your brain still in your dick? Because if so, you better figure a way to get it out of there, and fast, if you want to be helpful.”

“My brain is just fine, thank you,” he snarled at her. “Now, are you going to stop trying to bait me, or is that the whole reason for this little outburst? You didn’t get enough earlier so you’re trying to goad me into fucking you again?”

Her eyes heated at his words. “I’m not baiting you,” she spat at him. “And that was a one time thing. It’s not going to happen again. Call it a lapse in judgment, whatever, but you and I need to keep things strictly professional. Sex blurs the lines, and we can’t afford that to happen right now. So if you’re hoping for a repeat, you’ll need to go and find one of the club girls to help you out, because it’s not happening.”

“Glad we finally agree on something,” he returned heatedly. They glared at each other for another long moment, and Code felt desire burning in his belly, despite his words and reminding himself it wasn’t going to happen. Instead, he arched a brow and asked, “So what are we going to do to find these guys? Because the sooner we find them, the sooner you’ll be gone and out of my space.”

She narrowed her eyes at him, but didn’t comment on the abrupt change of subject. Instead, she turned back to her computer and stared at it for a moment. Finally she sighed and said, “Short of sending a message out into the web and hoping he takes the bait, I’m not sure. He’s clearly learned to better cover his tracks since the last time I dealt with him.”

“What about the rest of his team?” he asked, trying to puzzle out any idea that might work.

“I’ve looked into all of them,” she replied with a shake of her head. “He’s covered their tracks too. And before you ask, I’ve also looked into their old handler and any contacts that I could find, but nothing. They cut off their old life completely.”

A thought suddenly occurred to him, and he straightened. “What if we’re looking in the wrong area?” he suggested slowly, making her look at him in confusion. “We’re hunting them like they’re still an active black-ops team and looking at their connections to that. But they’re not, and they’re not acting like one now. Sure, they’re a team, but they’re technically on the run, so it’s possible they’ve worked with other criminal organizations.”

“Which would mean there would be traces of their crimes with them,” Glitch finished, eyes bright as he could see her mind working. She turned back to her computer. “Damn it, why didn’t I think of that before?” she muttered. She quickly put up her hand and said, “Don’t even think about saying because I’ve been obsessed with you or your dick. It’s juvenile and not true, so we’ll dispense with it for now.”

It irritated him that she figured he was going to say that, but he took her advice and instead said, “I’ll start scouting for national crimes or events that seem to fit if you want to look international. Your system is probably better geared toward that anyway.”

“Alright,” she agreed. She stopped again, glancing at him over her shoulder. Her lips were quirked into a slight smirk as she added, “Looks like your brain finally made it back home from your dick, caveman. Let’s see if we can keep it there, shall we?” Then she turned away and got back to work.

He glared at her head for a moment before turning back to his own screen. He really was going to have to find a way to keep her smart mouth from affecting him, because now he was hard as a rock and he wanted nothing more than to grab her and prove her wrong. The only thing that kept him in his seat was that he knew it was a bad idea.

So instead, he focused on his task and tried to forget that the woman behind him was even there.

CHAPTERTWENTY-SEVEN

GLITCH

Her fingers flew over the keys as she ran search after search trying to find even the tiniest sliver that could lead her to the Ghost team. But the data that came back was massive. It seemed that international crime rates were much higher than in the States. Still, she was able to set up a filtered search to weed out the ones that she knew absolutely didn’t work.

When she finally sat back, giving herself a small break, she became aware that Code was still working away behind her, and every so often mumbling something under his breath. It was still odd to her, working in a space with someone else, but not necessarily terrible. Other than the fact that he was constantly getting on her bad side.

Except earlier when he was fucking you into oblivion, her mind taunted.

She bit back a sigh at the reminder. That had definitely been a mistake. She should have kicked his ass out of her room and just gotten off on her own. But if she was honest with herself, she knew it wouldn’t have been the same, and she could admit that sex with Code was some of the best she’d ever had. Passionate and all consuming. The moment he had put his mouth on her, any other thought she had flew out the window.

Which was exactly why she couldn’t let it happen again. She glanced over at him, allowing herself to look at him carefully. Why was she attracted so much, she wondered. She had no patience for men who didn’t take her seriously, or were assholes to her or her team. But that didn’t seem to be the case with Code. Though, to be fair, most of the reason they didn’t get along was because she had insulted him and his system the first time they met, and it had never really gotten any better. Nor had she tried to make it better. She got great satisfaction out of knowing that she had gotten under his skin and had continued to even after she left with all her pranks.

Still, there were moments in the past week that she had seen another side of him. The ones where he had apologized for making remarks about her body, and she had to admit that other than the short joke and putting her things up on the top shelf, he had mostly been trying to live up to that. That didn’t mean she was going to forgive him so easily for everything else, but she wasn’t a complete bitch.

It was also her fault for him having so much animosity toward her because of her constant meddling with his system. No one, man or woman, liked when someone was constantly throwing their faults or weaknesses in their face. Damn it, she hated feeling like a bitch, and that was kind of what she had been up until now. She and Code were going to have to deal with each other even past all this; their clubs were allies now, so that meant there was a good chance she was going to be in his space, or him in hers, again at some point.

She scowled to herself. Why the hell was she being all thoughtful and shit right now? Especially when she should be focusing on finding Slip and his merry band of douchebags. Was she normally this sappy and shit after sex? She thought about that and realized nope, she normally kicked the guy out of her bed, or if she was at their place, she got out of there pretty damn quick. No fuss, no muss. She just needed to do the same thing here. Too much thinking never led to anything good.

Instead, she focused back on Code and asked, “Anything?”

Code paused and looked over his shoulder, expression frustrated. “Nothing. The States are full of crimes that could fit them, and sorting through them is going to take a lot of damn time.”

She nodded. “I’ve run my criteria, filtering out anything that I know can’t be them. Like eliminating the years when Forrest and Hazard were in prison.”

He stared at her for a moment. “Damn it, why didn’t I think of that?” he groused, turning back and quickly typing away.

She knew she could make a pithy retort, but instead she said, “Probably because it’s the middle of the damn night and we’re both tired.”

---