Remember Jamie Baker by Kelly Oram Page A

down and relax for a while.”
    He patted the spot next to him, inviting me to join him again, and when I narrowed my eyes, his smile turned wicked. “Wanna get reacquainted?”
    Unbelievable. “Are you seriously asking me to make out with you for a hour?”
    “What?” His brows rose in surprise, but his face was too innocent. “You thought I was—no, of course not.” He couldn’t keep up the ruse and cracked a smile. “I was just teasing.”
    Yeah, sure, he was teasing. Big, fat liar. Big, fat, charming, incredibly sexy liar. With an irresistible smile.
    “Unless you want to…?”
    I so didn’t want him to see my amusement, but how could I not laugh at that? When my lips quirked up, Ryan’s grin turned movie worthy. “Pass,” I told him.
    Ryan’s smile never faltered. “Another time, then.”
    I rolled my eyes and crossed the room to the wall safe Tony and I kept hidden behind a bookshelf. “What are you doing?” Ryan came to stand behind me as I held my eye up to the retinal scanner. “That is so cool.”
    Guys and gadgets. I personally didn’t get it, but Tony loved his tech equipment, too. “I have something that I think might help find Donovan.” I opened the safe and pulled out a small bag. Inside were a couple of different alias passports, driver’s licenses, banking information for Tony and myself, and some emergency cash. I took all those, but what I was really interested in was the tiny pouch that contained a handful of microchips. “Tony has some encrypted information on Donovan and Visticorp. He backed up Visticorp’s entire mainframe before the explosion, when he was preparing to escape. He used to call it his insurance policy. If we could figure out a way to crack it—and that’s a very big if—this could give us clues to where he would go to disappear, or the people he might be working with now.”
    Ryan nodded. “We have a guy that could probably do it.”
    I had my doubts. “I hope he’s good. Tony is a straight-up supergenius when it comes to computers. But it’s worth a shot anyway.”
    I shouldered the bag and looked to Ryan. “So where are we supposed to meet them?”
    Ryan chuckled. “Seriously, Sunshine. Relax. We’ve got time. Go soak in a bath or something. You took on three superthugs today. You’ve earned a rest.”
    He had a point. The Magic Tea had done wonders, but I’d still taken a severe physical beating today. Letting my sore muscles and pounding head loosen up in the hot water sounded like heaven. “Yeah, okay, you’re right. A hot shower and a change of clothes does sound nice.”
    As I shut the safe and made my way to the stairs, Ryan followed me up and said, “Hey, just in case you didn’t already pack it in your other suitcase and you can’t decide what to wear, I really love the jeans skirt with the sparkly things on the back pockets, and your tall black boots.”
    My jaw fell open, and he winked before laughing his way out into the living room to wait for me.
    After my shower, I searched through what was left of my wardrobe and kept thinking about the skirt Ryan mentioned. I knew which one he meant, and for some reason it irked me that I’d already packed it. It was one of my favorites, but it was short. Very short. Of course he liked it. Rolling my eyes, I dressed in a pair of jeans and a Punisher T-shirt. Not exactly flirty, but most of my cute clothes were in the truck with the ACEs.
    And why was I worried about looking flirty, anyway? How was this Ryan guy already getting under my skin? Super annoying.
    Once I was finally ready to leave, I found Ryan outside. My couch was still out in front of the house from where I assume Tony had thrown it trying to fight off the supersoldiers. Ryan had flipped it back upright and was lying on it, staring up at the sky. The sun had just sunk below the horizon, but the sky was still full of color. It made me smile that Ryan had come outside to watch the sun go down. There was nothing greater than a desert