Secret Obsession (Carder Texas Connections #6)(40)

She poked at his biceps. “No way.”

“Believe me. I was the kid that got called egghead. My dad was a cop, my brothers kick-butt athletes. My sister...well, Sierra is a math whiz and a state-champion volleyball player. And then there was me. The brain. Uncoordinated, skinny. A computer geek.”

“I would never have guessed.”

“I was an enigma to my family, stayed in the basement playing with a computer my dad bought me for Christmas when that’s all I begged for. Then, in high school I got into encryption and decryption. I developed a couple of decryption programs. My math teacher talked to Dad. They got the patents. The companies were born. My career was set.”

“So, why did you enlist?”

Noah chuckled. “Man, you should have seen my dad’s face when I told him. I thought he was going to faint.”

“I’ll bet. The brains of the family choosing the Marines.” Her gaze bored into his very being. “You didn’t want to be who you were. You wanted to be more like the rest of your family. You wanted to fit in.”

Noah stilled. He said nothing. How could she know?

“You wear your masks well. Both of them. The Falcon and Noah Bradford, genius and CEO. But who’s Noah, the man?” Lyssa leaned closer, placing her hand on his leg.

He tensed under her touch, unable to move away.

“Not very many people look beneath the surface, do they?”

“Why are you? Why now?”

“Because lying alone in that bed I realized something. I’ve worked for two years to perfect my own mask. I hate that not one person I’ve met in the last two years really knows me. It’s lonely. Do you find it lonely, Noah?”

His body leaned toward her, almost as if a string tugged them ever closer. He could practically feel the heat of her body, and his own responded, surging to life, tempted beyond reason.

“I remembered what Jack said about you,” she whispered. “I compared his stories to what I’ve witnessed the last three days. I finally understood what’s been bothering me. You’re not who I expected when Reid said he’d be sending you.”

Noah sent her a wary look. “Is that good or bad?”

“Both. I thought you’d be a killing machine.”

Noah winced. She wasn’t wrong.

She clutched his hand, squeezing it hard. “Don’t pull away. I realize now Reid sent the Falcon. Someone who would help me and then disappear from my life.” She leaned into him. “That’s who I met our first few minutes together, but you’re more than the Falcon. You care. About me, about Jack, about the other victims. That, Noah Bradford, is my problem.” She took a deep breath. “Because tonight I realized I could fall in love with the man you hide behind the mask.”

His heart thudded in response to her words. He’d given away too much. He’d let those long-ago dreams of her distract him.

To save her, he needed to be the Falcon. Not Noah.

Noah had to stay buried, even if it meant losing Lyssa.

The buzzing of his phone saved him. He stood, needing to get away from Lyssa’s overwhelming presence.

Rafe and Zane appeared in the doorway, alert.

“Bradford.”

“It’s Ransom. Rich will have the plane at the airport around nine in the morning. Be ready.”

“We leave the hotel no later than seven,” Noah said. He looked at Lyssa. “Try to get some sleep. We’ll wake you in a couple of hours.”

“Don’t do this, Noah,” Lyssa pleaded.

“Call me Falcon.”

*

CTC’S PLANE ARRIVED on time.

Snow blanketed the area around the small airport. The flurries had finally stopped, and the runway had been cleared. Noah climbed the plane’s stairs, the wind whipping through his coat. The chill went straight through to his soul. Lyssa hadn’t said two words to him since she’d walked to her bedroom, head held high.

The pilot, Rich, offered Noah the captain’s chair.

“Not enough sleep last night,” he said. Rich nodded and headed out to do the final preflight check.

Noah moved into the cabin.

Lyssa had taken a seat next to Rafe. His friend lifted an eyebrow as Noah buckled in across from them.

Noah wanted to kill Archimedes. Slowly and painfully. Mostly because the guy deserved it for every life he’d taken. Noah forced himself not to look into Lyssa’s eyes. She’d reminded him of something important. Of how much he had to lose if he let his emotions take over. He’d been there and done that. The results had been disastrous.

“Do you have Archimedes’s tracking chip?” Noah asked Zane.

“Sure thing, Falcon.” Zane showed him the envelope. “Working perfectly.”

Lyssa gripped her armrests, her knuckles whitening. “He’s tracking us right now?”

“That’s the point,” Noah said. “If we block the signal—you have figured out how to do that, right?”

Zane shook his head. “Sorry. If I disrupt the signal, he’ll know we know about it.”

Noah scowled. “We’ll work with it.” He looked at Lyssa. “We want him to find us...but on our terms. Not his.”

“What’s your plan?”

“We set a trap. Somewhere he won’t be able to resist revisiting. Somewhere he missed out on the prize of a lifetime.”