"This is starting to feel incestuous."
"It is," she agreed. "According to the company's social media page, they're sponsoring a charity event today at the Sheridan Art Museum. Feel like looking at some art?"
"I can't think of anything I'd rather not do," he said dryly.
"Really? Not an art fan?"
"It all looks like kids' scribbles to me. But I haven't spent a lot of time in museums."
"You've missed out. I love museums. They're so clean, controlled, beautiful. Even the air is exactly the right temperature and level of humidity. And when you look at art that was created sometimes hundreds of years ago, it gives perspective."
He could hear the passion in her voice and was surprised. "I wouldn't have guessed you liked art so much."
"I used to take Landon to free days at museums. We'd spend hours roaming the big exhibition rooms. It was a safe place for us to go." She shrugged. "Anyway, that doesn't matter. We need to talk to Brooke, and that's where she'll be. Plus, there will be others there as well, including Jill Adler and maybe some of her relatives. I can spring for the tickets."
"I can cover that," he said. "But first, I need to change clothes and check in with my team. Do you feel comfortable staying here while I do that? Then I can come back and pick you up."
"Sure," she said, hesitation in her voice. "That makes the most sense."
"Don't leave the apartment, Haley. Don't answer the door. If anything feels off, call 911 and then call me."
"I'll be fine. But why don't you eat before you go? I've got the eggs in the oven. They're warm."
"Great. I'm starving."
As she got up and moved into the kitchen, he put on his shoes and then joined her at the table. After breakfast, he would put a little more space and time between them. He just hoped his decision to leave her alone wouldn't prove to be a bad one.
Matt had left at ten, and it was now noon. In the past two hours, Haley had cleaned the kitchen, made her bed, read through her files, and walked back and forth to the window a few dozen times to make sure there was no one in the alley, no one watching her window.
She still had an hour and a half to go before he'd be back, and she needed to find something useful to do so she could stop worrying about the danger she was in. She also needed to stop thinking random, inappropriate thoughts about Matt, who had looked less like an FBI agent sleeping on her couch and more like a very attractive man with ruggedly handsome features and a fit, powerful body that she'd found comfort and safety in after almost being run off the road.
But it wasn't so much gratitude that was dominating her thoughts; it was the feeling of attraction, chemistry…both completely inconvenient emotions, considering the man was a federal agent who could still lock her up for obstructing justice. Not that she thought he would. They'd moved beyond that. But she still couldn't allow herself to think he was anything more than an agent trying to do his job.
It wouldn't be so difficult if she hadn't gotten to know him better last night. She'd heard about his family and related to his emotions as a lonely boy caught between his divorced parents and their new families. While her childhood had been much different, she'd also felt very lonely in her role as Landon's second mother.
She'd wished a million times that her father hadn't taken the easy way out, because it had certainly seemed that way to her, even though as an adult she could logically understand he'd had mental issues and deeply painful emotions. But even knowing that, she still blamed him for leaving her alone to fix everything.
At least Matt's father had done something heroic, even if his actions had also cost the family their idyllic living situation.
Her phone rang, startling her out of her thoughts, and she was grateful to focus on someone other than Matt. "Hello, Julia?"
"Did you talk to Arjun? I thought you were going to call me last night after you spoke to him?" Julia said, with an edge to her voice.
"I'm sorry. There was a lot going on. I did speak to Arjun—AJ, as he calls himself now."
"Did he tell you anything new?"
"He said that my brother was working on a passion project, some kind of algorithm, and AJ thought the frat brothers might have been trying to get their hands on it."
"What would this algorithm do?"
"I don't know. AJ said Landon was secretive about it."
"Well, I'm not sure his frat brothers would have been smart enough to do anything with his research without him being there to explain it."
"I don't know. AJ said Landon told him the guys were pressuring him to do something he didn't want to do. He was angry and worried to the point that he was thinking about dropping out of school. Then he died a few days later. That's why AJ didn't believe it was an accident. He knew Landon didn't drink and that he didn't like those guys anymore and wasn't interested in their parties."
"So, AJ believes someone in the fraternity wanted your brother's research, his algorithm?"
