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the e-mails? The text messages?”
    Tweeter looked somewhat insulted. “Damn, Earl, dontcha know? Nothing’s ever gone gone, especially for someone like me or Keely. If there’s someone cyberstalking Tessa, I’ll find evidence of it.”
    “Don’t need to know. Got you to do the geek work. I’ll meet you back here as soon as I get sleeping beauty put to bed.”
    Earl leaned over and easily picked up Tessa. She was lighter than many of the packs he used to carry in the Army, but what weight she did have was in all the right places. She muttered something, but snuggled into him and sighed without waking up.
    He carried her out of the kitchen and took the back stairs to the second level. Her room was two doors away from his. He nudged her door farther open with his foot.
    Once in the room, he carried her to the bed. The bed was undisturbed. Just as he’d thought, she’d never gone to bed last night. He glanced at the desk in the room and found the task light on and her laptop open.
    “Little fool,” he muttered against her sweet-smelling hair. “What are you trying to do? Work yourself to death?”
    Holding her, he bent and hooked the quilt in his fingers, dragged back the comforter, and placed her on the sheets. He removed her slippers and pulled the cover over her.
    Tessa immediately turned onto her side and curled into a fetal position. Her ponytail tempted him, and he gently removed the torture device holding her hair up and stroked his fingers through the long, silky tresses. She moaned low in her throat, but didn’t wake. He wondered if she moaned the same way when a man stroked her during foreplay.
    The thought of another man making love to her, making her utter sexy little sounds, had him snarling. No other man would ever touch her again if he had anything to say about it.
    Earl stopped stroking his fingers through her hair. He moved away and stood for several seconds, staring at her as she slept and fighting the urge to strip to his skin and crawl in next to her. He forced himself to turn his back on the temptation Tessa presented and stalked to the desk. He unplugged the laptop. It now ran on battery, but in sleep mode. He took the cord with him in case they needed it.
    He’d let Tweeter do his magic. Earl, while not cyber-savvy, did recognize people like Tweeter, Keely, and Callie could do amazing things. If some fucker was stalking and terrorizing Tessa over the Internet or the phone, the bastard was as good as caught and in jail—after Earl paid a visit to the asshole first, of course.

Chapter 3
    10:00 a.m.
    Leaving Tessa sound asleep, Earl left the room and shut her door. Retracing his steps, he entered the kitchen to find Tweeter waiting on him, along with Evan and his lover, Chad. Evan looked better than he had last night when he’d retreated to his room with symptoms of altitude sickness. Chad looked tired and hungry. Must have been a rough night for both of the men.
    “Hey, Evan. Chad. Do you want something to eat? Lunch won’t be served for another two hours or so. I can make oatmeal, homemade, not instant. Or maybe toast and tea?” Earl placed Tessa’s computer and its cord in front of Tweeter, who already had Tessa’s phone in front of him. “Here, do your thing.”
    Evan frowned at the sight of the laptop, while Chad answered Earl’s questions. “We’ll take the oatmeal and some juice. Evan also could use some more acetaminophen. We ran out.”
    “That’s Tessa’s laptop and cell.” Evan looked at Earl and then Tweeter, accusation in his voice and gaze. “Why do you have her laptop, and where’s my girl?”
    Logical questions, but Tessa was now Earl’s. Probably not the time to make that claim, though. He needed her to accept the new reality first.
    “Tessa told Callie, who told Keely, she’s having some trouble with a cyberstalker,” Earl explained as he put water on to boil and pulled out the steel-cut oats to make the oatmeal. “Tessa’s upstairs sleeping. She’s