Evelyn made a sudden choking noise and Luke looked back to see her holding a hand over her mouth. “Sorry,” she choked out through her obvious laughter. “I just inhaled orange juice. You all are ridiculous.”
Luke shook his head at her and turned back to his brother. “Do what you want, but I need to be there, understand? And Emma, too. If she doesn’t kill you, she’ll sic her guard dog of a boyfriend on you.”
“Unless they’re going to get married without you too,” said Evelyn, completely unhelpfully from behind him.
Lori held up her hands. “We understand! No big decisions without you.”
“Damned right,” he muttered.
“Control freak,” said Evelyn under her breath.
Luke narrowed his eyes at her. “I heard that.”
“I meant for you to,” she said with another serene smile as she drank some more of her juice.
“Umm...” said Lori, interrupting their moment. “We should probably get headed out if you really think this guy, Longineus—”
“Longineu,” said Evelyn and Luke at the same time.
“Longineu,” clarified Lori, “is coming after us.”
Evelyn nodded. “I can’t say for sure, but better safe than sorry.”
Michael pushed away from the counter and led Lori back to the door. “I’ll call Emma and make sure she knows about the changes in the situation.”
“And I’ll update Jace,” said Evelyn.
Luke wasn’t Jace’s biggest fan, but damn if it didn’t make him feel better to know that the former SEAL was looking out for his little cousin.
He finished up good-byes with Michael and Lori, and in the next few moments, he was alone with Evelyn again. She turned back and padded to the kitchen, where she started to scoop out another serving of eggs. A rush of pride filled him. She might not like him all that much, but she liked his cooking. Ladies couldn’t resist the added cheese.
“So how exactly do you know Jace?” Luke sat on the stool next to hers.
“You read my file. Shouldn’t you know everything about me?”
“Funny thing about your file. Now, I have contacts. Lots of contacts really high up in the Department of Defense. Yet no one could get me a file that didn’t have your military record redacted.”
“At least there’s still some privacy in government.” She winked. “And I think the fact that it’s redacted and you know I worked with Jace should tell you everything you need to know about my military time.”
“Yes, but—”
“And it should tell you not to ask questions that I can’t answer.”
He nodded in defeat. “Fine. No more questions about your terrifying past.”
“Awww,” she said condescendingly as she sat down next to him. “You’re safe with me. Don’t worry.”
He rolled his eyes at her teasing. “You must be really pissed then.”
“I’m normally pissed about something. Care to be more specific?”
“The guy in your apartment last night. He got the jump on you. That’s never happened to you, has it?”
“Oh, it’s happened. Just not often. And yes, I’m pissed. The son of a bitch pepper sprayed me. I had him and he took a coward’s way out.”
“I didn’t realize pepper spray was for cowards.”
“I almost had him.”
“You’ll get him,” promised Luke. “I’ll throw all my resources behind the search. We’ll bring this guy down and Longineu in the process.”
“No. You’ll keep your head down and out of the way. You do your job of wining and dining all the big-time clients of DevX and I will do the criminal catching, okay?”
“Technically, our biggest contract is with the government. So, me helping you catch Longineu would be a good way of keeping ourselves in the FBI’s good graces.”
Evelyn rubbed her temples. “I keep forgetting how much money we throw at you. Are my tax dollars paying for this place?” She motioned around her at the lavish apartment.
“Maybe for the bathroom.” He winked. “The FBI actually doesn’t use our software. The Pentagon and a few branches of the Army do, and that’s a pretty damn big chunk of people. Keeps us on our toes.”
She tilted her orange juice glass toward him. “Well, thank you for keeping our country safe from behind a computer screen.”
“And thank you for keeping our country safe from behind a gun.” He set a hand on her knee. He didn’t know why he did it. Touching her just seemed natural. Right.
And for some reason, Evelyn didn’t remove his hand. She glanced down where he touched her bare leg exposed by the pajama shorts. His fingers weren’t too high on her thigh and there was nothing overtly sexual about the touch.