Slow Burn (2 page)

Tessa rolled her yoga mat out, then sank down and moved into the cobbler's pose. As the instructor began calling positions, she let her mind drift and her body flow effortlessly from position to position. Today had been a long and very annoying day. She was more than ready to zone out and put it in the past.

Well, not everything had been annoying. She'd been a little bit surprised by the new intern. He was a giant. He even made her feel small, which, at almost six feet was difficult to do. Honestly, she couldn't remember the last time she'd felt dainty. It was kind of nice.

He had mentioned being forty-eight. He was in damned good shape for that age. For any age, really. Tessa could tell he took care of his body. She had seen his biceps straining against the fabric of his dress shirt. He had dark hair that was graying at the temples and silvery blue eyes. Yeah. There was no way around it. Rick Dante was hot.

She frowned. Not that it mattered. She needed to stay focused on work. Marty, creep of the universe, had called her into the office this afternoon because she'd been late from her afternoon break. By three minutes. He'd stated his concern over her tardiness. Then he'd tried to give her a shoulder massage because she'd seemed tense. She'd wanted to punch him in a mouth.

Not a very Zen-like thought for yoga, she realized. As she slid into the next position, she tried to empty her mind but found it difficult. Even as her muscles stretched, she could feel the rest of them tensing. Marty was a problem. Maybe Rick was right. Perhaps she should report him.

She had always been of the 'it's my problem and I'll deal with it like an adult' school of thought. This was a little much though. It wasn't an off color comment. He'd touched her. Even after her previous requests not to. She frowned as her body pulled itself into the downward facing dog position. Maybe she would report him.

At the end of her class, feeling no closer to relaxed than she'd been when she started, she swam laps. Since the yoga hadn't tapped into her frustration, then perhaps she'd just exhaust herself. Maybe she'd get some sleep tonight.

* * *

By the time she'd gotten through her laps, Tessa was exhausted. After a quick shower, she checked her messages. Two missed calls. One from her sister and the other from her brother.

Since her father had passed away last year, Tessa had become the official caretaker of all things, it seemed. She'd gone through all of the probate and estate paperwork for the family. She'd dealt with the funeral. She had sold the house on her own.

Granted, her sister had helped her sift through the house, but it had been an incredible strain on Tessa that she wasn't entirely sure she'd recovered from. When it had been time to divide her father's things, she'd taken her share of the insurance policy, her portion from the sale of the house, the photo albums, and a small glass statue her father had purchased the summer they'd vacationed in Spain.

She'd let her brother and sister battle it out over electronics and china. She hadn't wanted any of it. As it was, she had a difficult time looking at the statue without getting weepy. She couldn't imagine watching his old television or using his dinner plates.

Her father had been the glue that held the family together. Now, she was trying desperately to be that glue. It seemed like she was the only one. Sure, her brother and sister had called her. Both of them wanted something. She could almost guarantee it. With a deep sigh, she played her messages.

Her sister needed her to print some invitations out for her youngest niece's birthday party. Naturally they were color and Melinda didn't want to pay for that. Frankly, neither did she.

Tessa would just print them out at work. She'd need to do it quietly, because she was sure Marty would call her on the carpet for that too. He was such an asshole.

Her brother was a much more complicated issue. As expected, he wanted to borrow money. He was twenty-four and addicted to prescription pain killers. She'd tried talking to him. She'd tried to get him help. He would either get angry at her or laugh it off.

As she drove over to Melinda's house, she called Matthew back. While he went into a sob story over his power being cut off, Tessa listened. As much as she loved her brother, she wouldn't give him any more money. He owed her four thousand dollars already. Not that she'd ever see it. It had taken her a while, but she'd gotten wise to the way he operated.

When she told him no, he started yelling at her. Finally, when he called her a fucking bitch, she hung up on him. At the next available turn off, Tessa steered her car into a grocery store parking lot.

Tessa let herself have a good cry. She didn't allow herself do it very often. It was always difficult to stop once she started. As awful as it sounded, she found she operated better when she just bottled things up. Eventually, when her head started to pound, she wiped off her face and got back on the road.

From the center of Toronto to the outskirts was only about fifteen miles, but in rush hour traffic, it took almost an hour. By the time she got to her sister’s house, her headache had mostly calmed. She hoped she could just go in, get the invitation, and then leave. It rarely happened that way, though.

It wasn't that she didn't love her sister. It was that her sister's house was a vortex of chaos and aggravation. Between her three daughters and her husband, there was always someone yelling or fighting. She didn't know how her sister could stand it.

They didn't have a great deal in common with the exception of blood. Melinda didn't allow herself to have much of an identity. She was a mother and a wife. Therefore all of her stories were about them. Tessa was neither of those things. When she talked to her sister about work or dating, she mostly felt as though she was being examined like some sort of alien.

As it was, Tessa didn't know if she could handle a full visit. She could almost count on being roped into staying for dinner. Tonight, more than anything, she just wanted to go home and crawl into bed.

When she pulled up in her sister's drive way, she dreaded getting out of the car. However, she did. Pulling her jacket around her, she braved the night air and jogged up to her sister's door. Taking a deep breath, she rang the bell.

As usual, chaos ensued. She heard the screech of what had to be her youngest niece, Heather, followed by a loud bark from Clancy, their black lab. From the sound of it, the poor guy was relegated to the back yard again.

Her brother-in-law, Aaron, opened the door, took one look at her, and then said, “Melinda's in the kitchen.”

“Yes. I'm well, Aaron. How about you,” she muttered to his retreating form. Dick. She had no idea what Melinda saw in him.

Heather came tearing down the hall, squealing. “Aunt Tessa!”

Leaning down, Tessa picked her up and pressed sloppy kisses all over her face until Heather eventually yelled, “Ew. Gross!”

She grinned and set her down. Despite her protests, Heather followed her like a little shadow into the kitchen. She was a sweet little girl.

The moment she walked through the door, Melinda said, “Hey! You got my message. Awesome.” Directing a look at the soon birthday girl, she said, “Baby, go find Paige and Britney. Mommy needs to talk to Aunt Tessa for a minute.”

Tessa saw the mutinous look on Heather's face and thought she might be gearing up to a tantrum. Before she could speak, Melinda added, “I'll call you when we're done. Now scram.”

Heather, appeased, gave Tessa a wave and skipped toward the stairs.

“Hard to believe she's going to be six, isn't it?” Tessa asked.

“Six going on thirty. The other day we were in the car and she said, 'Mommy. You better slow down. We're going to get a ticket.' I swear to God we were only going like ten kilometers over the limit.”

“She's something else,” Tessa said, grinning.

“My little evil genius,” Melinda joked. “She's just getting so big! And, speaking of, here is the proof for the invitation. Can you print about forty or so? We're doing a big party for her at the zoo.”

“Oh, God. She'll love that!” Tessa imagined the little squeal of delight. Before her sister launched into a story, she added, “I'm beat. I'll make the copies and get them to you Wednesday. I'm gonna head home.”

“You're sure?” I've got extra.” She pointed at the corned beef she was slicing on the cutting board.

“Thanks, but I've got a hot shower and a book calling my name. Long day at work,” she said, feeling a little guilty.

“Okay,” her sister said, frowning. “You sure you're okay? You seem a little ... off.”

“Rough day at work. Marty tried to give me a back rub,” she said. “He's so gross. I think I'm going to report him. I'm sick of it.”

“Good. He's a pervert. You should report him. That's a ... what do you call it? Hostile work environment.”

“Yeah. I figured it would be frowned upon if I punched him in the face, so I'm going to go with the next best option.”

Melinda studied her and asked, “Is that it?”

“Matty asked me for money again,” she said. “I told him no and he blew up at me.”

“You did the right thing,” her sister said, rounding the kitchen counter. When she pulled her into a hug, Tessa felt a little better.

“Thanks. It still makes me feel like crap, though.”

“He stopped calling me altogether,” Melinda said, her face a mask of pain. “I hate that I'm sort of relieved. I love him, but he's a mess. He won't agree to rehab and hell if I'm going to let him around the girls in his condition.”

That was one thing she and Melinda agreed on wholeheartedly. He needed help desperately. “Now that I've brightened your day, I'm gonna get going. Can you tell the girls I said goodbye? I don't want Ms. Nosypants to see this,” Tessa said, waving the invitation.

“Smart thinking. I'll make an excuse.”

“Make it a good one, too. Like someone called my bat-phone and I had to go fight crime or something.”

Melinda laughed and agreed. “Crime fighting. That's so you.”

“Bite me,” she responded, though there was no heat in her voice.

Her sister gave her one last squeeze and then said, “Thanks for making those copies. Love you, babe.”

“Love you too,” Tessa said.

A few moments later, when she was safely ensconced in her car, she let out a sigh of relief. Quick and painless. Now, she'd grab something to eat and head home. Then start it all over again tomorrow.

By mid-morning, Rick had stapled packets, sealed envelopes, and was on his way to make fifty copies of a bunch of documents. And then, unless his powers of detection failed him, he'd be stapling these together later.

The only real information he'd been able to confirm all morning was that his boss was a little prick. When he'd handed him the papers, he'd said, “Double sided, Rick. You know how to do that right?” Like he was some kind of special case who couldn't work a copy machine.

He moved to the small supply room that held the copy machine. He'd really have to talk to Wallace Chase about all this stapling shit. Being buried in that office wasn't helping him achieve his objective. Maybe he could investigate other angles. Background checks, phone records, that sort of thing.

As he rounded the corner and walked into the supply room, he found the copy machine occupied. Tessa looked up at him and said, “Oh. Hey, Rick.”

“Hi, Tessa,” he said. “I've been upgraded to making copies today. I'll come back when you're done though.”

Her eyes widened and she said, “No. No. I'm done now. It's okay.”

Before he could reply, she snatched her original from the glass and stuffed it into a bright orange file folder along with her copies. She turned around and darted toward the door, skirting quickly around him.

Rick frowned at her odd departure, then shrugged it off and then placed the first original under the glass. He squinted down at the small touch screen. Now, how the hell did he make this thing print double sided?

After copies had been collated and then stapled, it was thankfully time for lunch. He clocked out and went downstairs to the commissary to grab himself a cup of coffee and a sandwich. He vaguely thought about checking in on Mike, but decided against it. As much as he hated the interning, it was nice to get out of the office.

As much crap as he gave Mike, he was capable. More capable than Rick had given him credit for. Last night he'd gotten a message from Dean about the fraud case they had just taken on. He had commented on Mike's professionalism.

While he ate, he tried to think of different ways to identify the leak. There weren't any security cameras in the lab, so there wasn't exactly any footage he could go over. IT had already informed him that access to the particular server that held the project files was limited to personnel working on the project only, so anyone accessing the files would appear to be doing so as part of their job.

Since all of these people worked on the project daily, there was no way to leak misinformation. He could run a background check on everyone in the lab, but that would be expensive and may not yield much of a result. The only real way this could work would be to narrow the suspect pool. But how?

As he was finishing his sandwich, he saw Tessa walk quickly through the lobby. His eyes caught a flash of the orange file folder sticking out of the top of her bag. Shit.

Was Tessa the leak? Thinking back, her surprise this morning could have easily been guilt. What had she been copying? Company files or something personal? Why was she taking it out of the building?

He had to admit, he'd been curious about her on a purely personal level. It was a little disappointing his interest had to shift to strictly professional. He'd run a background check on her tonight.

He frowned, no longer interested in finishing the sandwich. He glanced at his watch and saw he was almost out of time. What kind of company only gave half hour lunches? Jesus. He felt like a high schooler.

After refilling his coffee, he went back upstairs. It was good to have a place to start, but she really didn't fit the profile. Normally he would trust his gut instincts, but he knew his judgment was cloudy where Tessa was concerned.

He tried to look at it objectively. Aside from Marty, she seemed to like her job. If it wasn't her being a disgruntled employee then maybe she was being motivated by money. Stranger things had definitely happened. Maybe the background check would yield some sort of results.

By the time he slid into his car that afternoon, he was almost fuming. He'd been put on beaker washing duty in the lab, which was actually much better than being on stapling duty. Marty had been kind enough to give him a little break from the washing in order to go downstairs and pick up his dry cleaning from the delivery man. Oh, and he'd been able to fetch coffee too!

The only thing that stopped him from knocking the kid's teeth in was the fact that this was a fake job, anyway. No sense in getting arrested for punching a guy he'd never have to see again after this shit was over.

On impulse, he pulled into the gym on the way home. He'd hit the speed bag. Maybe then he'd be calm enough to do the rest of what he had to do tonight. He wasn't looking forward to running the check on Tessa.

Forty minutes later, he had moved from the speed bag to the heavy bag when he heard a voice say, “Rough day, Rick?”

He blinked as the object of his thoughts appeared off to his side. A smile pulled across his lips of its own volition. “Tessa,” he said in greeting. “I didn't realize you went here. And ... yeah, today was rough.”

“I'll let you get back to beating the hell out of that thing, then,” she said, holding up her hands and stepping back.

He stopped, lifting his shirt up to wipe the sweat off his face. A wry grin on his face, he said, “Nah. I've been at this for a while now. I think I'm actually done for the night.”

“I saw you got moved up to dishwasher from secretary,” she said, tongue in cheek.

“And errand boy. I was even able to fetch his dry cleaning this afternoon,” Rick said with mock excitement.

“What a dick,” she stated, bluntly.

With a nod of agreement, he said, “I just keep reminding myself how good it will look on my resume.”

“Duties Performed: dish washing, stapling, photocopying.”

“I prefer to think of it as excelling in a task oriented environment and practicing my team building skills,” he said, grinning.

“Smooth,” she said, nodding her head in approval. “Let me know if you need a reference. I'll be happy to vouch for you. The beakers are so clean I can practically see myself in them.”

Despite himself, he laughed. “I'll keep that in mind if this whole forensics thing doesn't pan out and I need a job as a dishwasher at Mr. Taco.”

“A fall back is always a good idea,” she said, laughing. Her face was more serious when she added, “Don't take it too personally, Rick. He's a giant asshole to everybody.”

He snorted and said, “I picked up on that. How can you stand to work for him? Me, I'm just temporary.”

Completely straight faced, she confessed, “Red wine.”

After a surprised laugh, he said, “Nice.”

“Not really,” she said. “I've been known to have a glass with dinner, but alcohol isn't really my thing. I just try to ignore him. Please don't mention this, but I don't think I'm going to be with the company all that much longer.”

“I won't,” he promised. “Congratulations. I mean, I assume this is a good thing, right?”

She nodded and said, “I can't really talk about it, yet. I don't want to jinx anything.”

“Understood. I'm glad. I'll miss you though,” he said. “You're the only person that talks to me, really.”

“Scientists are known for being a little squirrely and you're a giant. You intimidate them,” she said, grinning. “Since I'm part giant too, I thought it important we stick together.”

He raised an eyebrow and asked, “Giant?”

“You've gotta duck when you go through standard door frames, don't you?” she asked, answering his question with one of her own.

“Not usually, but the older places, I do,” he said. He appraised her and asked, “So you're only part giant?”

“Only part,” she said, grinning. “Still, I felt it my duty...”

He gave her a mock frown and said, “Duty, huh? That's a little disappointing, I've gotta say.” He knew his flirting was unwise.

“Not entirely duty,” she conceded, a light blush tinting her cheeks.

He studied her flushed face for a moment and then asked, “There's hope then?”

“Hope for what, exactly?”

“That if I were to ask you to have dinner with me on Saturday night, you wouldn't shoot me down,” he said, ignoring the very loud and insistent warning bells going off in his mind.

“There's hope,” she confirmed shyly.

He couldn't remember the last time he'd been so intrigued by a woman, suspect or not. He threw caution to the wind and asked, “Would you like to go out on Saturday, then?”

The flush crept back into her cheeks again as she said, “I would. I don't exactly have a pen on me at the moment, but I'll give you my number tomorrow so we can work out the details.”

“I'd like that. I'll see you tomorrow then?”

At her nod he said, “I need to go soak in the whirlpool. I might have overdone it a little.” He gestured at the punching bag.

She gave him a sympathetic wince and said, “I hope that helps. I'll see you tomorrow.”

He watched her walk away, silently thanking the inventor of yoga pants. When she was out of sight, he retreated to the whirlpool and soaked his aching back. As he rested against a jet, he tried to convince himself he hadn't just made a huge mistake.

Could he in good conscience date her even as he was investigating her? He was still far from sold on her guilt. So what if she made some copies? She was leaving Cynertex? No big deal. He probably would too if he had to work for Marty full time. Perhaps he could treat this fact finding mission as a way to eliminate her as a suspect.

Even as he thought it, he knew his logic was flimsy at best. It had been years since he'd truly wanted anyone for himself. He hadn't been a monk by any stretch of the imagination, but he hadn't pursued anyone in long time. Certainly never a suspect.

Two hours later, he as he read over the background check on Tessa, he set it down with a frown. A month after Armitage had taken their last prototype to market, Tessa had purchased a house off Roncesvalles.
It could be a coincidence, though, he reminded himself.