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Scott raked his hands through his hair.
Maybe this gig wasn’t going to be too painful. Watching Dr. Skye Van Rijn’s wickedly sexy body, listening to that mysterious smoky voice…things could be worse.
He rested his head back on the sofa. Honey shifted again at his feet. Scott found himself smiling. He was kind of enjoying the dog’s company. He prodded Honey with a toe, scratched her belly. “Well, dog, looks like the doctor’s got something to hide. And we’re gonna find it.” He drifted off into a dream of wild spaces and liquid warmth.
Some time later, he woke with a jump.
He blinked, momentarily disoriented. Then his brain identified the sound. An engine growling. Low and throaty. Next door. His eyes flicked to his watch: 3:00 a.m.
He jerked to his feet, lunged to the window. His knee protested violently. White pain flashed through his skull. He swallowed it, forced his eyes to adjust to the dark shadows outside.
He was just in time to see the sensuous shape of Skye Van Rijn, clad in black leather and straddled over a sleek motorcycle, purr down the driveway.
Refracted yard light glinted like liquid on her black helmet. She kicked the mechanical beast into gear and growled down the pastoral street.
“Honey!” he barked as he grabbed his jacket and keys. “She’s on the move!”
Chapter 2
Scott cut the engine, crawled silently to a stop in the peripheral shadows along the outside of the compound.
He watched Skye park her gleaming bike under harsh sulphur lights that flooded the fenced parking lot of the Kepplar lab complex on the outskirts of Haven.
Honey remained motionless at his side. Scott stroked the dog’s head, watched Skye remove her helmet, shake out a wave of dark hair. Even under the flat whiteness of industrial lights, her hair shimmered, alive with burnished highlights.
He watched as she strode openly, confidently, up to the main entrance of the building, helmet tucked under her arm.
He checked the glowing digits of his watch. Three-fifteen. What in hell was she doing here at this hour?
A security guard stepped out from under the portico. Scott saw him exchange words with Skye. The guard nodded. His teeth glinted as his smile caught the lights. Skye laughed at something he said. She slotted what Scott imagined was a coded identity card into a panel. The building doors opened. They slid smoothly shut behind her. The guard retreated to his cubicle under the portico. All was still.
Scott shifted his throbbing knee into a more comfortable position and settled back in his seat to wait. This surveillance business was crap.
A movement caught his eye. He tensed. So did Honey. The dog peered intently out the window. Another vehicle. Silver Mercedes. It crawled down the road toward the fenced lab compound, turned into the gates, cruised quietly to the far end of the parking lot and came to a stop.
Then nothing.
Scott noted the plates, reached for his sat phone and punched in the code to activate the scrambler. The red LED indicator showed voice encryption had been initiated. His satellite communication was secure.
“Logan,” Scott rasped into the piece.
“Jeez, you have any idea what time it is, Agent?”
“Desk life making you soft, buddy?”
Rex ignored the gibe. “What’s up?”
“I need a plate run.”
“Couldn’t wait until morning?”
“It is morning.”
“Don’t tell me…you’re pissed with the job.”
“The plate?”
“Okay, okay,” he mumbled. “Let me find a pen here somewhere… All right, shoot. Oh, and next time, call Scooter direct.”
Scott chuckled inwardly. This would teach his boss for making him report to him direct. “Sorry. Haven’t got Scooter’s home number.” He gave Rex the plate number, flipping the phone shut as the door to the Mercedes opened.
A man stepped out. Dark, well over six feet, and tough-looking. He strode to the entrance. There was something threatening in his movements.
Scott’s knee-jerk instinct was to get out and follow the guy into the building, to make sure Skye was okay. But he forced himself back against the truck seat. His brief was to watch. And she was a suspect.
Not a victim.
Skye hadn’t been able to shake the deep sense of unease that pulsed low in her core. Sleep had remained elusive. She’d tried. Tossed and turned. But her thoughts had scrambled over each other like wild, hungry, teething puppies.
Work, she’d decided, was her only salvation. It was the only thing that kept her going forward. The only thing that made her forget the past.
The only thing that dulled her latent fear.
She placed the minute beetle carefully under the microscope, adjusted the focus. It was so tiny. So perfect. So very beautiful in its own way. If everything went according to plan, these little bugs would lead an army and conquer the enemy blight in its path. She adjusted the scope, bent closer.
A sound at the far end of the darkened lab crashed into her thoughts.
She jerked back, knocking a petri dish off the counter. It clattered to the floor, the sound disproportionately loud in the deserted laboratory.
Skye peered into the night shadows.
Her heart thumped a steady beat against her chest wall. Nothing. No movement.
She chided herself, turned back to her beetle. The Kepplar labs were perfectly safe. Even at night. Still, more than ten years down the road and she hadn’t stopped looking over her shoulder. She was still seeing ghosts in shadows. Hearing sounds in the night. Afraid he’d find her.
Then she heard it again.
She froze. “Who’s there?” She could hear the brittle edge of panic in her own voice.
Neon light flooded the lab, exploded into her brain.
She blinked against the brightness.
Jozsef stood beside the light switch, a wide grin on his face. “What you doing working in the dark at this ungodly hour, Dr. Van Rijn?”
Skye sucked her breath in slowly, trying to steady her popping nerves. “Good grief, Jozsef, you startled me. What in heaven are you doing here? When did you get back?”
He walked forward, arms behind him. “I thought I’d find you at home. I didn’t. So I came looking here.”
“You could’ve tried my cell.”
“I wanted to surprise you.” He grinned broadly. “What are you working on so late…or should I say so early?”
“My beetles,” she snapped defensively, anger edging out fear.
“The ones for the whitefly epidemic?”
“Jozsef, how did you get in?”
He laughed, held up an access card.
“That’s mine. That’s my spare.” She reached for it.
Jozsef held it playfully out of reach. “You left it at my place, sweetheart.”
“I thought I’d misplaced it. Besides, you still had to get by security.”
“When’s that ever stopped me.” He smiled warmly, slipping the card into his back pocket.
Skye frowned.
“C’mon, Skye.” He lifted a hand, brushed a tendril of hair from her cheek. “Marshall Kane gave me the all-clear with security. They know I’m with you.”
She hesitated, suddenly strangely unsure of the man in front of her. The man she was going to marry. “I bet Marshall didn’t think you’d be trying to get in here after hours.”
Jozsef shrugged. “Enough of this already. You’re way too jumpy.” He stepped closer. “Besides, I got a surprise for you. Guess.” His words were warm against her ear.
Skye forced a smile. “What?”
“I said guess.”
She sighed. “A rose?”
“Nope.”
“Chocolate?”
“Come on, Doctor, I’m a little more original than that. You got one more guess.”
“I give up. Look, we should go. You really shouldn’t be in here—”
Jozsef Danko raised a finger to her lips. “Shh.” He winked. “I won’t tell if you don’t.” With his other hand he brought a small box out from behind his back. It was a deep burgundy-red. He set it on the lab counter, a smile playing around his dark eyes. “Open it, Doctor.”
The light in the man’s eyes was infectious. Skye relented. She peeled off her latex gloves, picked up the box and lifted the lid. Nestled in shiny black satin was a tiny gold bug with glittering emerald eyes. It hung from a gold chain.
She looked up at Jozsef. “You get it in Europe?”
“It’s a little token to celebrate the completion of your big project.”
“I’m not finished yet. They’ll only be ready for release in another two weeks.”
“Yes. But the bulk of your work is done, not so?”
“I guess.” She lifted the chain and pendant from the box. “It’s so unusual. Where’d you find it?”
“I had it made. Here, I’ll put it on for you.”
Skye lifted her hair, bent her head forward as Jozsef fastened the clasp behind her neck.
She turned to face him. “What you think?”
“Take a look in the mirror.”
“There isn’t one.”
“There is, in the washroom. Go on. Humor me. I’ll wait here.”
Skye made her way to the bathroom, pushed open the door. She stared at her reflection under the harsh washroom lights. It was certainly a perfectly proportioned little bug. And knowing Jozsef, the gold of the carapace nestled at the hollow of her throat was as real as the glittering emerald eyes of the beetle. It really was perfect. But it wasn’t her. It didn’t go with her coloring. She preferred silver.
She shrugged. So what? It showed he cared. It showed he’d gone to the trouble of finding something tailored specifically for her.
When had anyone ever done that?
But a little niggle of doubt ate at her as she headed back down the empty corridor to her lab, the heels of her boots echoing in the empty gloom. It summed up her relationship. Jozsef Danko seemed so perfect, but everything about him was always just slightly off center. It hadn’t worried her before. But today it did. Maybe she was making a mistake. Maybe she just needed a holiday. The stress of this project had been getting to her.
Or maybe she’d just been unsettled by the mysterious man who’d moved in next door.
She shoved open the lab door, gasped.
Jozsef had the lid to the box of larvae open. She rushed forward. “What are you doing?”
He glanced up, smiled that nonchalant smile of his. “Just peeking at your babies.”
“You shouldn’t—”
“Oh, come on. It can’t hurt. So, do you like your pendant?”
“Yes.” She moved over to make sure the lid to the larvae was properly secured. The ugly little grubs, her pride and joy, represented a fortune to Kepplar Biological Control Systems. And there was stringent protocol on secrecy. A leak could spell the loss of millions. She couldn’t understand why Marshall would clear anyone with security. Even her fiancé. It just didn’t make sense.
“Come.” She turned to Jozsef. “Let’s get out of here before you ruin me.”
Jozsef chuckled. “Now that would be the last thing on my mind.” He lifted his hand and brushed her cheek softly with the backs of his fingers. “Come, let’s go grab some breakfast. My place or yours?”
Skye hesitated. “Actually, Jozsef, I’m really tired…and I’ve got a meeting with Marshall in a couple of hours.”
He studied her face. Then he nodded. “Sure.” He took her arm. “It’s okay, I understand.”
Skye felt everything but sure. Or okay.
