Her Loyal Seal(39)

She giggle snorted. “Hand me a paper towel you fool.” Lydia blew her nose. “So now do we get to play on the computers?”



****



“How old were you when you started playing with computers?” Lydia asked. They were sitting cross legged on the floor in front of the coffee table in the den. Each of them were in front of their respective laptops. They spent a half hour arguing over the better operating systems, the better hardware, and game controllers. Now they were settling into the business of investigation. Clint liked to call it spying.

“I took apart my first motherboard when I was nine. What about you?”

“Eight.” She smirked. She glanced over at his screen and he angled his computer so she couldn’t see it.

“No cheating off of my paper.”

Lydia fought down a yawn but Clint saw it. He got up and left the room. He was soon back with pillows from a bed, and a plate of cheese, crackers, and fruit.

“Stand up.” Lydia didn’t even bother to ask why, she just stood. He pushed the table closer to the couch, then positioned the pillows so she could sit on them and rest against them while still working with her laptop. He helped her to sit back down.

“You hardly ate anything at dinner so you need to eat this. If you don’t, I’m going to say no more computer games for you tonight.” Lydia reached for a cube of cheese and saw the slight trembling in her hand. Clint didn’t say a word, he just got up and left the room. Damn, she knew he had seen that.

“Here’s a full glass of water, and another one of grape juice. You have to finish both of these as well.”

Part of her wanted to give him a bitchy comment, but he was right. She’d be all up in Beth’s business if she wasn’t taking care of herself. She leaned against the pillows and sipped the beverages and ate the food.

“So you were a computer prodigy but still feel the need to cheat off my work?”

“You’re the one who calls this spying.” She grinned. “I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t look at all the angles and information available to me.”

“So you cheated in school?”

Her hand jerked involuntarily as she was bringing the grape juice to her lips. Liquid spilled down the front of her white top. “Of course not! Cheating in school is wrong.” She saw Clint laughing at her.

“You sure are fun to tease.” He popped a cracker into his mouth.

“You’re an ass.” She grabbed the last cracker before he could get it.

“Okay, so when did you start your investigation on Guzman.”

“It’s really kind of weird. I was already investigating his organization before I knew Papa ever worked for him. It must have been serendipity.”

“Why were you investigating him?”

“It was part of my criminology course. Me and two classmates decided we could impress our professor if we did a paper on an active investigation. Manuel’s uncle worked for the coroner’s office so he got some information on a hit done in the Tepito neighborhood. It was perfect because my family used to live there when I was in grade school, so I still had friends there.”

“Isn’t that a high crime area?”

“Yes.” She looked at Clint, but didn’t see any judgment on his face.

“Mason’s fiancé, Sophia, had some problems in a bad part of San Diego. Her little brother ran away, and she was out looking for him in the middle of the night. She still does volunteer work in a mission down there, and he always worries when she’s there and he can’t be with her.”

“Many good people live in high crime areas, but they live good productive lives. Sometimes they also need help. I think it’s wonderful Sophia volunteers some of her time at this mission.”

“Did you ever run into problems there?”

She tried to push up from the pillows, but her hand hit the floor instead and she hissed in a breath.

“Are you okay?”

“It’s nothing.” Her head jerked up. “I mean I hit my hand in the same place I burned it. Look I need to go to the bathroom. I’ll be right back.” Clint lent her a hand up, and she damn near raced out of the room.

She knew she was staying in the bathroom too long, but she really didn’t want to go out there again. Her hands trembled as she wet a towel and wiped the cool cloth over her face. Clint knocked on the door.

She looked at herself in the mirror. She looked like hell. Dark circles under her eyes. Her black hair looked lifeless. Too her horror she saw tears. She squeezed her eyes shut, and then opened them. Good. They were gone.

“Lydia. Are you okay?”

She opened the door. She walked to him, and wrapped her arms around his waist and he just pulled her in.