Encrypted (18 page)

“Then you should know
that
I’m not lying.”

True, but…“You lied to Julia.”

“When?”

“
Self-affirmations
?”

* * *

Zach was really, really, really, hoping that Ronnie wouldn’t bring that up, but the woman had a photographic memory that rivaled no other.

“Okay, that was to protect her feelings.”

“What if she does call Dr. Webster?” Ronnie asked
,
then waited for an answer
.
But what could he say
?
Damn
,
but the hacker was quick on the uptake
.
“No
.
You’re kidding, Zach
?
You’re
really
seeing a shrink?”

“No!”
w
as his first response, but then he had to own up to the truth
.
“Well, he’s not a shrink per se
.
He’s a licensed family counselor.”

Ronnie, of course, was all over that splitting of hairs
.
“Same diff,” she snorted,
and
then her tone transformed into true curiosity
.
“Why in the world would you go into therapy?”

There were so many answers to the question, but he couldn’t bring himself to articulate any of them fully
.
“You
know
why
.”

“To figure out why you dumped a beautiful
,
in-the-flesh woman to carry on with a hoodlum?” Ronnie teased, although he wasn’t sure how fun this was anymore
—
to either of them.

Zach sat down hard on the carpeted floor
.
This was it
.
The talk
.
The talk his therapist said he was supposed to have with her for months
.
Of course
,
poor Dr. Webster thought that Ronnie was just a shy
,
I
nternet
divorcée
.
The doctor had no idea
that
they were living a real
-
life
West Side Story
.

“You know
,
I’ve kind of adjusted to the whole hoodlum aspect
,
” Zach said. “It
’
s the lack of
the
in-the-flesh part that’s not so fun anymore.”

Mötley
Crüe
began to play as the silence stretched out
,
and
then Ronnie gave a curt
response
.
“I agree.”

He took a deep breath before he cast the die that might change his life forever
.
“The real reason I agreed to go to
Skip
’s party was
that
it would give me a good excuse to be off American soil for the weekend.”

“Your badge
is
pretty much
useless
in Mexico.”

“Yes
,
it is.”

Zach could almost hear the wheels in Ronnie’s head spinning
.
He had a lot to lose if this meet
ing
didn’t go well
.
But Ronnie
?
Her life was potentially on the line.

“Just because you don’t have official standing in Mexico doesn’t mean
that
you couldn’t coordinate with the
Federales
to have me arrested
.”

“I wouldn’t do that,” he
said,
tr
ying
to reassure her.

“You job is your life
,
and your
job
is to catch me.”

A year ago, she would have been ever so right
.
But now
?
Tonight
,
when he ached to see her lips turn up in a smile
?

“When I’m on duty, yeah it is
.
But off
duty?” He paused
.
This was so whacked out
.
Nothing about this made sense, yet somehow
,
it was about the only thing that felt right to him
.
“I think I’m proving right now that I can separate the two.”

Another long pause on her end
.
While the silence grated
, there was nothing else for him to say
.
He had made his case
.
It was up to her to believe him or not.

Finally
,
she sighed.
“Even if I believe your Kansas-honest face and we meet, what then?”
she said.

Zach relaxed against the wall
.
This might actually work
.
“We talk.”

“Okay, dude, if I’m going to risk getting executed for treason, there
had
better be more than talking involved in this rendezvous.”

He chuckled
.
If his dream last night was any indication, Ronnie didn’t need to worry about the rest
.
“Trust me, if the talking part goes well
,
there will be way more going on, but we’ve got to meet face
to
face first.”

All playfulness vanished from her voice
.
He’d never heard her tone so uncertain
.
“I don’t know…”

Hearing her sound so vulnerable made him want to be with her even more, but
that
also made him that much more impatient with this phone-pseudo-romance crap
.

“Is this really satisfying anymore?”
h
e asked
,
then
hurried on without waiting for her answer
.
“At first
,
this felt exciting and dangerous, but now…” Zach was surprised when the words came out of his mouth
.
“Now
,
it just
hurts
.” Was it time to be this honest
?
“All I want to do every night is curl up in bed with you and kiss the top of your head before we go to sleep.”

“Okay, dude, if I’m going to risk getting executed
—
”

“I meant after we do the other stuff,” Zach stated, just a little exasperated
.
Ronnie could spin a conversation about terminal cancer into a joke if she wanted to
.
But tonight
,
they needed to actually make progress
.

“So?” he asked.

Again, the quiet, concerned side of Ronnie came out
.
“What if
…Well, what if the talking doesn’t go so well?”

The answer to that question was easy
.
She might not like the answer
,
though
.
“Then I’ll get shit-faced at the party, sleep off the hangover on Sunday, and start hunting you again on Monday.”

Her response was a lighthearted, “Okay.”

Ugh
.
This had to get resolved
.
Zach pressed
,
“I mean, we’ve got to see if this connection we feel is
—
”

“I said,
okay
.”

“Damn it, Ronnie, hear me out
.
We’ve got to
—
”

* * *

“Zach!” Ronnie interrupted
.
When that boy climbed onto his high horse, he just didn’t want to come down
.
“I said
okay
,
okay
?
” I’ll meet you in Ciudad
Juarez
.”

“Oh,” he said
, and
then paused
.
“Really?”

She couldn’t help but laugh
.
Ronnie was certain that was the last thing he thought she was going to say
.
“Really.”

“Wow.”

“With a capital ‘W,’
” she replied. God
,
how she wished
that
she had a video feed. Wait. In a few hours
,
she wouldn’t need one. They would be meeting in Mexico. Her stomach
flipped
, churning up all those butterflies.

“Okay
,
then,” Zach’s drawl coming out. “Well…”

The guy was obviously still reeling
.
Good
.
S
he liked surprising him
.
“We should both get to bed
.
We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

“Yeah, right
.
O
kay.”

“Night, Zach,” Ronnie said as she turned off the connection
.
She didn’t want his freaking out to douse her buzz
.
How long had she wanted this
?
How many times, like a teenage girl swooning over a teacher, did she look at his picture and imagine kissing him
?
But just like that young girl, Ronnie never thought
that
she would live the dream.

God, did she even
remember
how to kiss
?
It had been so very long
that
she feared she’d screw it up
.
When did you part your lips
?
What in the hell did you do with your tongue
,
anyway
?
And even though she loved to tease him about his sexual hang-ups, she had a few concerns of her own
.
Not that long ago
,
he’d been with Miss-
Julia-
I’ve-Won-Every-Beauty-Contest-I’ve-Entered-And-Even-Some-I-Didn’t
.
How was she going to compare to that
?

Why in the hell hadn’t she done crunches this morning?

* * *

Amanda walked by Henderson’s office yet again
.
Ever since he
finished his teleconference with the
p
resident
, dozens of doctors had flowed through his door
—g
iving reports
and
taking orders
. S
ix people
were still
knotted around his desk
.

Even though she hadn’t been summoned, Amanda paced the hallways
.
It went against her introversion to be so bold, but she had no other option
.
She had to convince the director that she wasn’t a crackpot
.
S
he was trying to stop the worst epidemic
that
the world had ever seen
.
Unfortunately
,
it was rhetoric like that which made people skeptical.

She hovered near the director’s door as the researchers slowly melted away
.
Once the room cleared, Amanda still didn’t enter
.
Who was she to keep pestering the director
?
But Amanda had to know what transpired in that meeting
.
Had Henderson presented even a single one of her theories to the president?

“I can’t decide if you are the little chicken
who
thought the sky was falling
,
or a well-informed stalker,” the director said without even looking up from his desk
.

Amanda hadn’t even thought he knew she was there
.
“You’re not blond,” she mumbled as she worked up the courage to step forward.

“I’m sorry?”

Oh
,
G
od, had she said that out loud
?
How was she going to get out of this one?