Cowboy in the Crosshairs by Nicole Helm

Author:Nicole Helm
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-10-08T01:33:00+00:00

Chapter Thirteen

Elsie had no luck convincing Nate to sleep—not even reminding him he’d been shot budged him.

She’d kept digging until her eyes had gone blurry and her head was throbbing. Vice Admiral Ray Loren had a squeaky-clean record. She’d gotten nothing interesting from his bank accounts.

The more she didn’t find, the more convinced Elsie was that he was the center of everything. But she was reaching the point she simply couldn’t get her eyes to focus.

She closed them for a second. She’d just count to one hundred and when she opened them, her eyes would be fine and she could keep digging.

But she heard the snap of her laptop clicking shut and her eyes flew open. She glared at Nate standing there with his hand on her closed laptop. She scowled up at him. “Don’t touch my equipment.”

“Then be smart. You’re not invincible. You’re wilting.”

Elsie straightened her shoulders. “I know my limits, Nate.”

“No, you don’t.”

“Are you always so arrogant and condescending and bossy?”

“Are you always so determined to take such poor care of yourself? Weren’t you just in the hospital or something? Take it easy.”

“Oh, yes. Let me take it easy right now. Sounds smart.”

“Even soldiers have to rest.”

“I’m not a soldier, Nate. I think that’s obvious. What I can do is find information, sitting here at a computer. It’s not a Navy SEAL mission or brain surgery. It’s just tapping some keys.”

“Just tapping keys.” Nate laughed bitterly. “Yeah, that’s why my life has been upended. Because you’re just tapping keys.”

Elsie felt unaccountably hurt, like he was blaming her for the twists and turns his life had taken. “I’m just the messenger.”

He dragged his hand through his hair. “I know that.” He blew out a long breath, because much as he clearly didn’t want to admit it, he was as at the end of his rope as she was. “Elsie, take a break from the computer. You said you have a team, right? Get some rest. Just a little.”

“And if I get some rest, what will you do?”

He scowled but looked at the watch on his wrist. “We’ve likely got a few before your friends get here. If you take a break for two hours, I’ll take a break for one.”

Elsie crossed her arms over her chest and gave him a disparaging look.

“Fine,” he muttered. “We’ll split the three hours in two, but only if you go first.”

“Only if you promise to wake me up fair and square under threat of...of... Something bad I’ll figure out at a later date.”

“Fine. Deal.”

She stood and held out her hand so they could shake on it.

There was something about the way he looked at her outstretched hand—like he just wasn’t so sure about touching her—that made her want to insist upon it. She jiggled her hand at him until he scowled.

He closed his much bigger, much rougher, hand over hers and shook. When he tried to release her hand, she held on. She didn’t let him pull away. It was a strange impulse.

She just.

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