was a different man today. It was like the previous lover she’d had back in New York had returned. She was thrilled, but also very confused.
When he opened another door, she was stunned to step into what appeared to be a black room filled with about ten or more enormous monitors. On each one, something was happening. But it wasn’t there that Tamar directed her attention. There were three men sitting at a table, each one with a computer in front of them and they were clicking through the keys.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her eyes taking in all the details. Some of the information was in English, some in other languages and even more with letters she couldn’t even identify.
“They have several leads on your brother,” Tamar explained, leaning down to survey the information already accumulated. “We found the foster home that he’d originally been placed into. But since he was a runaway, he was a risk factor so he quickly worked his way through all the possible foster homes. He was placed in a group home and had some legal problems, but someone, we’re not sure who, took care of him. He finally graduated high school with honors, then moved on to college where he graduated magna cum laude in business administration. We’ve lost him there, but there are some strong possibilities that Jeremy is following up with.”
Wyndi’s eyes were wide with amazement. “Jeremy?” she prompted.
A man sitting at one of the computers raised his hand, but quickly went back to focusing on his screen, his finger flying over the keyboard.
“I see,” she said, overwhelmed by all of this. She looked up at Tamar’s face, unable to see his eyes because they were so dark and the room was even darker. But she could feel him, feel something in his look that struck a chord deep down inside of her. “You did all this, discovered all of this information just since I told you about my brother last night?” she asked, barely speaking above a whisper.
He took her hands, needing to touch her, to feel her since he couldn’t read the expression in those gorgeous blue eyes of hers. “Are you mad at me?” he asked, not really sure.
She tried to speak, but she was just so filled with gratitude and a strange, not very comfortable emotion that she couldn’t really define. “I love you!” she gasped, then covered her mouth, shocked that those words had just burst out of her. “I mean…”
“No,” he said and pulled her closer, “I won’t let you take them back.” He pulled her away, out of the dark room and back into the sun-filled courtyard that hadn’t heated up yet as it would later in the day. “I love you too, Wyndi. I don’t understand how it happened, but you got through all of my defenses. And I treated you abominably. My only excuse is, from the first moment we met, you were different, love. I didn’t understand it, I didn’t even want to feel it. So when I found something about you that would alleviate this confusion, I grasped onto it. I called you a liar and a cheat, a criminal and all I wanted to do the whole time was to pull you into my arms and make sure you were kept safe. That’s why I brought you here instead of to Jabril once I discovered you were the one who had been hacking into government databases. I wanted to protect you but I didn’t really know how or what I was protecting you from.”
She covered her mouth as his words sunk in. “I know,” she whispered, her hand slowly moving away from her mouth. “I hated you so much for what you did, but whenever you left me, whenever you weren’t there to argue with these past few days, I felt like a part of me was missing.”
He let out a rush of air as he pulled her against his chest, his hands diving into her hair to tangle in her blond curls. “What have we done to each other?” he asked softly, kissing her head, her ears and her neck. “I promise I’ll make it up to you, love. I’ll make sure you never cry again. I’ll find your brother and, no matter what news we discover, I’ll be right there, helping you through it all.”
“I love you,” she burst out again, wrapping her arms around his lean waist, squeezing him with all of the emotions she was