Parker shrugged. “Normal is overrated. I’m pretty sure a ‘normal’ engineering professor wouldn’t be moonlighting for the FBI and married to an agent she met while trying to prevent the assassination of the president of another country. But, for the record, we have another six months to think of a name.”
“I hope this morning sickness thing is over soon.” Ree rested her head on his shoulder. “It’s hell on my nerves, teaching classes when I know I might have to run out at any moment. Oh, and since I haven’t told anyone yet, I just get to be cheerful Ree instead of mom-to-be Ree who was up half the night because hormones are the literal worst. Seriously, you have no idea.”
Parker kissed her forehead. “You’re absolutely right. Still, you at 50 percent is more formidable than most people at 100 percent. So, pace yourself and let me know what I can do to help. When you’re ready, you can let people know. Matt will help when you’re ready to tell him. And we’ll lay off of you moonlighting for the FBI. Unless a problem follows you to campus again, it’d be a bad idea to send you undercover right now. Puking on suspects is frowned upon at the Bureau.” He smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. Something was off.
Ree narrowed her eyes. “There’s something you’re not telling me. What’s going on?” Ree checked her watch. “And wait a second…why did you come home early?”
Parker rubbed the back of his neck. “Alexis discovered something. And you deserve to know, but we need to think very carefully about what we do next. And I really don’t want you involved, especially considering you aren’t feeling well. I’m just not sure if that’s possible.”
“Please tell me we aren’t in danger again. We just moved. I love this house. It’s perfect. I don’t want to leave.” Ree’s stomach dropped.
“We have no reason to believe we are in danger, but there is…a complication. You need to be read in.” Parker pulled her hand into his and led her to the couch. “I called Cam on the way over. He said it’s okay if you know, but we need to keep him informed if we engage the subject involved.”
Ree put a hand to her forehead. “Okay. I promise to talk to Cam before I put my nose anywhere it doesn’t belong. Now, what’s going on and why is it about me? Is someone lurking around campus again?”
“No.”
Ree breathed out a sigh of relief. “Oh good. Then it can’t be that bad.”
Parker cleared his throat. “Um, well, the good news is, we’ve been tracking one of Dmitri’s sleeper agents and we finally have a good idea of his location. The bad news is, Alexis thinks he might be working at your sister’s new company. And that he may be more active than sleepy, if you get my drift.”
Ree leapt up from the couch and her stomach lurched. She put a hand on it, then sat back down gingerly. “Excuse me, what? My sister? Stef, the same sister who called me because she was over the moon to get her dream job after two years of applying? This was her big chance! How did we not know about this?”
“We just connected the dots. Our guy has been really good at living a double life.” Parker put a hand on top of hers. “Once Alexis told me the company name, I put two and two together. I mean, it’s a big enough company, they may not even run into each other.”
Ree studied Parker. “You don’t believe that, or you wouldn’t have told me. Stef needs to know. She’s a big girl. She can handle it. And if something happened to her when I could have prevented it, I couldn’t live with myself. I’ll go there myself to protect her if I have to.”
“I know you would.” Parker moved his hand to thread his fingers through hers. “Let’s look at this objectively. Since she nearly outshot you at the Thanksgiving target shoot, we know she can handle herself.” The Ryland family had the rather unusual tradition of going to the gun range the week of Thanksgiving for family night. Ree wasn’t the only one in her family with a big personality.
Ree eyed him skeptically. “Well, I usually do better than that. I’d had a lot of coffee that morning…” Parker’s mouth twitched. Ree, like her sister, had a competitive streak. “Not that it’s important right now.”
Parker chuckled. “Of course not. Even so, going up against Dmitri’s minions is something else entirely. Not that she should need to. We can keep her far away from any action. She can just give us periodic updates.”
“That’ll be her call, not mine. I don’t like that she’s trapped in this situation at all, but we’re well past that. And if anyone can kick ass and take names while still doing her job, it’s Stef.” Ree sighed. “We’re calling her tonight. You can tell Cam that. He can join us if he wants to tell her himself.”
“Won’t be necessary. We’ll fill him in later. I’ve already got a local FBI agent delivering a secure phone to a pickup box. We’ll just let her know we sent something. That’ll keep the call secure. We can handle this.”
Ree leaned over to kiss him on the cheek. “Thank you. I love you. But for
