I grab his arm and half drag him, half lead him toward the door, where he can no longer see her.
A few seconds later, the bathroom door clicks shut.
“Whatever you do, don’t say anything about this to Liam and the team,” I say, my voice is a near grunt. “Like Isabelle said, it’s not what you think.”
Okay, that isn’t true. It’s precisely what he thinks. But hell if I’m confirming that.
We’re on a job—all three of us—and right now we need to focus on the reason we’re here.
“Give her a second to get dressed, and then we can plan what to do next.” I keep my voice low. It’s too easy for anyone to accidentally overhear us while we’re standing by the door.
“How are you holding up? I know this can’t be easy.” There’s no innuendo or teasing in his tone this time.
Which means I have no idea what he’s talking about.
Realizing that, Landon says, “I understand that you want to put her in a jar to keep her safe. But you’re wrong. She’s perfectly capable of looking after herself.”
That gets another caveman grunt from me.
“I’m dressed now,” Isabelle says from the main part of the bedroom.
I flash Landon a warning look, and we join her.
She’s wearing a sundress that looks incredibly sexy on her. Although truth be told, I’m already dying to strip her out of it.
But that will have to wait until later.
We get Landon up to speed about what we know. About Caroline Bateman and her husband staying here, and about the individuals in our group sessions who also extended their stay.
The one thing we don’t elaborate on is what goes on in those sessions. I merely mention that it’s a marriage counseling course, and that seems to satisfy him. He nods at us.
“Because we don’t know the motive for the break-ins,” I say, “we don’t know if Caroline is even at risk.”
“We also don’t know if the break-ins are still an issue, or if the person of interest has moved to another location.” Isabelle is still unable to look at Landon without her face glowing like a red traffic light.
He nods. “The first thing you need to do is talk to Caroline and make her aware of the potential situation so she can take precautions. Maybe find out her link to the other politicians and political candidates who have stayed here during the past six months, as well as Tyler Mathews.” The lawyer who reported the stolen memory stick. “It’s possible there’s a connection between everyone that we don’t know about.
“And I’ll see what else I can dig up about the staff and the guests without letting anyone find out the real reason any of us are here.”
We make plans to meet later in town, and Landon goes off to unplug the toilet in crisis.
As soon as the door clicks shut behind him, Isabelle takes one look at me and covers her face with her hands. “I can’t believe he saw me naked.” She shakes her head, hands still in place.
She then uncovers her face and smacks my arm. “Why didn’t you stop him or at least warn me?”
“I tried. I didn’t realize he was going to barge into the room like that. There was no time to warn you.”
She goes back to covering her face. “Now he’s going to tell the guys, and they’ll know you and I are having a fling. While on a mission together. Which is hardly professional.”
I reach for her wrist and peel her hand from her face so I can at least see half of it. Her other hand returns to her side.
“Judging from his reaction,” I say, “it doesn’t sound like any of them will be too concerned. It seems they’ve been waiting for us to hook up for some time now.”
“Which only makes things worse. Did you even know I’ve wanted to jump your bones for a while now?”
“No more than you realized the same about me when it comes to you. I thought I was doing a good job keeping it from you and everyone else. Guess I’m not as good of an actor as I’d hoped.” I grunt at that because being good at pretending to be something you’re not is vital in this job.
“You had me fooled.” She glances toward the nightstand. “We’ve got some time before we’re expected at the cooking class. Where do you want to start when it comes to talking to Caroline Bateman?”
