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His words lit touch paper he hadn’t even guessed was there. Rhianne was on her feet in a second, like a rocket about to go off.
“How the hell can you say that?” she spat. “Youdon’t know the first thing about me or my family!”
There was something almost scornful in her voice, as if he wasn’t even capable of understanding what family meant to her—and in spite of himself, it touched one of his own sore spots. It made him want to snap back…so he did. “I understand you want to see you sister safe again, but it’s not like your mother is here with you, sharing the same concern, is she?” he asked.
Rhianne gasped.
“I mean, she left you to deal with it on your own, right? So what does that say about howshefeels about Robyn disappearing?” Eric continued.
Rhianne sagged a little, as if from a physical blow, and grabbed at the edge of the desk, her knuckles white from the force. When she let go and pulled herself upright, Eric half thought she was going to take a swing at him. But instead, Rhianne turned on her heel and marched out of his office.
Stormedout, Eric mentally amended, when she wrenched his door open so hard that it hit the wall behind it. He stared at the open doorway, not knowing what to do.
“Hey.” Ian Campbell, the third former SEAL member of the team, poked his head around the door, then his hand…which was holding a blank sheet of paper that he waved like a white flag.
“Ass,” Eric commented, suppressing a grin.
“Is it hurricane season?” Ian looked down the corridor. “Ah, no, just Eric proving he wasn’t listening in the Customer Is Always Right seminar Charlie sent us on.”
“Asshole.” Eric upgraded his assessment of Ian.
“Can I make a suggestion?” Ian took a step back. “Maybedon’tpiss off paying clients?”
Giving up on adjectives for his asshat of a coworker, Eric flipped Ian’s retreating back the bird…just as Charlie walked Rhianne back in, her face still thunderous.
“Eric.”
Eric was on his feet and fighting the urge to snap out a “Sir, yes, sir,” at his boss’s tone.
“I’ve persuaded Rhianne to give you another chance.” Charlie gave him the longest, coolest look he’d had in a while. “With the understanding that you are to stop antagonizing her.”
“Of course.” Eric meant it, although he didn’t think what he’d said was so shocking or provocative. He knew that she usually liked things logical and straightforward. Apparently, that didn’t apply when it came to her family. Duly noted.
Charlie cleared his throat in a fake cough, and Eric understood.
“I’m sorry I was so blunt,” he apologized to Rhianne. “How about we move on?”
“Apology accepted.” Rhianne didn’t seem exactly calm, but at least she didn’t sound as though she was spitting out quite as many nails as she had been a minute ago. “And yes, I want to get on with this.”
“Thank you.” Eric pulled the visitor’s chair around to his side of the desk to bring her closer. “To start with, let’s get into Robyn’s laptop, okay?”
Rhianne sat next to him as he restarted her sister’s computer and pressed F8 until a menu appeared, then chose Safe Mode from it.
“Ah.” Eric clicked his tongue. “Of course that would be too easy. There’s no Administrator account. It’s usually disabled, by default.”
“Oh. So what can we do?” Rhianne asked when he turned off the laptop again.
“Boot from this USB flash drive that has a Reset Password utility on it.” Eric slotted the drive into the side of Robyn’s laptop. “It loads a mini operating system that opens this”—he pointed to the window that sprang to life on the laptop screen —“from which we choose the correct user account…”
“That one,” Rhianne exclaimed, her finger brushing his as she pointed at Robyn’s name.
Strange—he’d expected her to feel cool, if not icy—they’d nicknamed her the Icy Blonde in the Coast Guard, he recalled—but instead heat flared where her skin touched his. He clicked on the Reset Password button. “The program removes the password and unlocks this user account,” he continued, rubbing his finger where Rhianne had touched him.
They waited while he restarted Robyn’s computer, pulled out the flash drive…and logged on without being asked to type a password. Rhianne glanced at him.
“It’s not that impressive,” Eric confessed as he clicked on her email shortcut.
“I didn’t say it was,” Rhianne replied. “Here, let me…”
