Mastered By The Mavericks(16)

The third monitor displayed a blue screen of death, until Rhett jiggled  the joystick in the box he'd just grabbed. After a few blinks, the  screen "woke up" to relay a high-def feed from a mobile camera.

He grinned and swiveled the control stick.

Fewer things were more fun to a gadget geek than showing off new toys.

Brynna leaned forward, tilting her head as if to make sense of the image. "Is that … grass? And the underside of a bush?"

He pushed the stick forward and shifted his thumb over one of the two  buttons on the pad, swiveling the camera around. "Ding ding. Prize for  the beautiful lady."

"Wasn't hard," she replied. "The image quality is exceptional. But  unless they've started making GoPros for mice-whoa." She cried out as a  structure appeared in the picture. "Isn't that … this house?"

Rebel supplied the answer to that. "Looks like it." He peered behind them. "That patio right there, as a matter of fact."

Brynn rose. Peered at the monitor, the patio sliders, then back  again-before gasping as she appeared on the monitor. Her legs, at least.

"What the-"

The "mouse cam" appeared to roll over the threshold, into the office.  Rhett chuckled softly as Rebel joined his perplexity with Brynn's,  surging to his feet and staring at the floor-right where he should've  been looking into the lens of a little rolling camera.

Reb shot him a frown.

Rhett bounced back a wicked grin. Maneuvered the camera until it practically crawled up Moonstormer's leg.

"Fucker." Reb jumped. The pound of his landing was joined by a metallic  sound, as if an erector set had been tossed. The camera feed confirmed  it, the image going nuts, showing the room's walls and ceiling before  balancing again-with a close-up of Reb's boots. "What the hell,  Double-Oh?'

The late morning sun cast a strawberry halo over Brynn's hair as her  head tick-tocked between the monitor and the floor. "Exactly what he  said." Her gaze was huge with curiosity. "What's going on?"

He couldn't resist letting the mystery stretch for another moment.  "Well … dielectrics have come a long way in the last few years. Let's say  that much."

Brynn cocked her head, unwittingly becoming the world's most adorable kitten. "Huh?"

Rebel pushed out a dazed snort. "Shit. Of course. But the metasurface  advances … they can conceal all the nooks and crannies of a camera?"

"When it's really the size of a mouse-and they've successfully tested a spray-on version of the stuff? Yes."

"Helllooo?" Brynn swept a hand in a wide arc. "Somebody want to break  this down for the girl who barely understands the buttons on the TV  remote?"

Rebel gave her an indulgent grin. "The camera's still there, minette. It's just invisible."

Minette?

Thank fuck Brynn kept stealing Reb's attention, her jaw dropping into an  adorable gawk. "Serious?" she blurted, giving Rhett time to neutralize  his features again.

"The technology's been in development for years." He rushed it out too  fast, but would be damned to let Reb grandstand through the subject of  his expertise. "Using ceramic beads embedded into a thin layer of  poly­tetra­fluoro­ethyl­ene."

Brynn blinked. "The girl who can't get to CNN without a guide, remember?"

"Teflon." He flashed an indulgent smirk with the clarification.

Rebel approached the camera again. "They had a lot of early success with  it, but only with two-dimensional scenarios." Using the monitor as his  guide, he stepped all the way around the device this time. "Never  something like this. A moving object, in all dimensions, able to  manipulate light waves on all sides." He pushed a fist against his chin  then shook his head. "This is a huge slice of awesome, Double-Oh."                       
       
           



       

Somehow, Rhett couldn't revel in his friend's praise. The verbal  applause from Reb felt as it always did, generous and warm-but there was  a difference to it now.

Because of what was added to the air now.

The palpable connection established between Brynn and him.

Rhett grunted against the knot in his throat. He wanted to think he was  imagining things-but was punched by glaring evidence otherwise. Brynn  stepped over, moving up aside Reb. Screw that. "Aside" didn't begin to  describe it. The woman turned into female plaster, hooking her arm  around Reb's elbow then pulling herself close, wrapping at least one  whole side of her body against his.

And the fucker didn't flinch one inch from it.

The knot tightened in Rhett's throat. Squeezed liquid fire down into his  stomach. Didn't take a goddamn rocket scientist to burn off a  conclusion from there-or to wonder where they'd both stashed their Mile  High Club membership cards.

"This is perfect." Oh, yeah. All the signs were evident in Rebel's tone,  too. The silk of contentment. The thrum of confidence. The boost of his  Creole drawl. All bore evidence to the obvious now. That asshole had  recently gotten laid.

"For what?" Brynna prompted him.

"This is the mouse that's going to gather our cheese," Reb explained.  "Our way inside the building, to gather initial intel. If Adler's goons  can't see this thing, it'll have free reign of the whole building."

The acid eased by a few drops as Brynna jerked in surprise, the action  peeling her back from Reb a couple of inches. Rhett would've been  ecstatic with at least a couple more but it was a start.

"Really?" When she directed the question his way, his tension softened again. "That's possible?"

He held up the box. "World's most fun RC car. It has a range of five hundred miles."

Her eyes warmed as her smile widened-and just like that, his muscles  became taut rope again. Why'd she have to look that beautiful while  feeling up the middle of Reb's rib cage? "Special Forces. One of the  best places to be a tech geek," she cracked.

And Goddammit, why'd she have to call his ball with such accuracy?

"Okay, who's been feeding you our deep, dark secrets?"

He managed enough of a grin to turn it casual.

Hers faded, in the shadow of her total sincerity.

"I don't know a remote from a radio wave, but I sure as hell honor those who do."

He had nothing for that. How could he, when she spoke with such a  magical, heartfelt husk? When the sheer spell of her voice filled his  brain with only one obsession now: the image of her "honoring" him in  other ways? On her knees. Those huge eyes turning up to him. That  strawberry sweetness of a mouth, opening to take his cock inside …

His spun back toward the desk, concealing his hard-on by pretending to check the monitor.

Was that what enticed Reb to the about-face on his hostility toward her?  Had it been the magic of her voice, even just asking him for something  simple like a bottle of water? If they'd started talking and she started  in on other subjects … hotter subjects … no wonder Rebel had been a goner.

Not the Zen candle of thought he needed right now.

"Of course, one of us will need to get in at first, to plant the  camera." Rebel turned to pace toward the patio, though threaded his  fingers through Brynn's first, conveying he did so reluctantly. "It's a  little less than an hour into Austin. I'll leave around eleven, get  there about midnight, be in position to move on things about thirty  mikes after that."

Well, that did wonders for dampening the boner. Setting down the  controller with a definitive thunk, Rhett pushed off from the desk and  paced outside, too. "Who the hell says you get to have the fun?"

The sun bore down on the lake, casting Rebel's forceful features into  silhouette as he looked out on it. "Because if I'm caught or killed, at  least the camera's inside and you can drive it. If you're eliminated,  mouse cam is dead and useless."

"Stop." Brynn stomped out now, hands flying to hips, hair fanning in the  wind. "Nobody's getting caught, killed, eliminated, or dead." She  exhaled with definition. "The three of us will go together."

Rebel angled a sharp stare back at her. Rhett clenched back a growl-and  then a grimace. Growling wasn't usually his style-and if he indulged, it  was motivated by specific circumstances. Watching Reb get his Dom face  on was definitely not one of them. But never had he seen that look  outside a kink dungeon before. Never did he think Reb would meet a woman  who inspired it like that.                       
       
           



       

Or anticipated that he'd get so furious about such a connection.

"No." Well, that made it easier to bite out the word. "Moon's … right. He  knows the skins and skeletons of buildings better than me." The  concession tasted like sour milk in his mouth. "And it's best if he goes  streamlined. We'll only bog him down."