Tempted & Taken (Men of Haven #4)(11)

“They’re a distraction until you get used to them.” Knox spun his sleek black office chair around, rolled it toward a smallish collaboration table on her right and motioned to the guest chair behind it. “Have a seat.”

She did, unpacking her laptop from her briefcase as she did so and setting it on the tabletop.

Directly across from her, he leaned in, rested his forearms on the brushed chrome surface and cupped one fisted hand with the other. “So, you mentioned a business opportunity. What’s on your mind?”

So much for easing into the topic. And had she really referred to it as a business opportunity? Now he’d think she’d pulled some kind of bait and switch to earn his attention. She cleared her throat and smoothed one hand across the top of her computer. “Business opportunity might not be the right way to describe it.”

His expression blanked, the warmth and lighthearted mirth that had shone in his beautiful eyes chilling in an instant. As though she’d not only angered him, but disappointed him as well. Without the vibrancy in his gaze, his eyes looked tired. Pinched and weary around the edges as though he’d gone for far too long without rest.

She forged onward, drawing from the countless rehearsals she’d spoken out loud while pacing her apartment. “You remember when I first reached out to you—when I emailed you on my tracking services—I mentioned I’d learned your name from someone you’d mentored.”

He nodded, though the movement seemed cautious. “Jason Reynolds.”

“Yes.” She fidgeted in her seat and curled her fingers around the farthest edge of her laptop. “Jason’s told me many stories about you. About the men you call your brothers and how you’ve made a successful career for yourself. He holds you in very high regard.”

“Not sure how that plays into a business opportunity.”

This was it. In the grander scheme of things, it wasn’t nearly as big a risk as taking on JJ’s identity or fleeing Russia, but it could still catapult her future. She pulled in a slow breath and held his commanding stare. “It’s important because I want you to mentor me.”

His eyes widened, a little of the emotional barricade he’d put up easing as he spoke. “Jason’s a coder.”

“I know. He’s the one who first gave me the idea.”

“And you know him how?”

“He comes to visit his grandmother every Monday. At a retirement home. His grandmother isn’t very talkative, but he always comes and brings his computer. He told me you’ve been known to teach people with an interest and, if they do well, give them a leg up.”

“I teach people with talent. No matter how much interest a person has doesn’t mean they can be successful in the long run.”

Emboldened, she sat a little taller and leaned in. “I can’t tell you if I have talent, but I can promise you I’m tenacious. I’ve already completed two of the self-teaching courses you recommended to Jason and have started a third.”

He reclined against his chair back, one arm still draped atop the table while the other rested casually at his hip. It was a relaxed pose, but the intensity that crackled around him said she’d be a fool to assume he wasn’t assimilating each and every detail to the nth degree. “You’re looking to expand on the skip tracing?”

Always stick to the truth, JJ had coached her. Or as close to it as you can get.

“I’d like to move away from that business,” Darya answered, “to build a career that’s less reliant on companies but is still transportable.” Realizing the unintended kernel she’d left uncovered, she clarified, “So I can travel.”

For several seconds, he merely studied her, the quiet amplifying until it droned as loud as the servers in the other room.

“The skip tracing is good,” she said, needing to fill the silence. “With my contracts, I can keep a steady income, but I don’t like the feel of it. I don’t like finding people who don’t want to be found. I don’t want to worry that they’ll learn who found their information and take their anger out on me.”

Without moving so much as a muscle, his entire demeanor shifted. A shrewd observer one second and a lethal predator on alert the next. His voice was deceptively smooth. “Has that happened?”

Not exactly. Not to her anyway, but it had happened. “Once. A collection company wanted to locate a man past due on his car payments. He was living at his ex-wife’s address in a town only thirty minutes away. The company secured the car, but the collector inadvertently mentioned who had located the debtor’s new residence.”

“And?”

She shrugged, recalling the none-too-pleasant altercation that had happened only a few months after she’d gone to work for JJ. “People who lose their possessions tend to be very angry. They also want someone to blame for their misfortune, and this man in particular wanted to voice his displeasure. In person.” She paused for a minute, looking for the right words to help him understand without exposing too much of her own predicament. “I don’t want to experience that again. I want to create something. To build a career where my success will be limited only by my abilities.”

He pulled in a slow breath, sighed as though he questioned having scheduled the appointment and sat up in his chair. “You realize there’s a lot more to this than syntax and technique, right? Even with persistence, you need damned good ideas and a hell of a lot of luck if you want to be more than just a hired coder.”