Her cell pinged. An incoming text.
She swiped, read.
Where R U?
Asshole. Trying to be young and hip. Two could play at that game.
@ poster sessions
He’d want to be private. Sure enough…
Meet u @ Rose Bar in 10
The Rose Bar was the evening cocktail hour gathering hole. No one would be there this morning. Most would either be in the breakfast room or the coffee bar, chatting, networking before the sessions began.
She replied.
Gr8
Ten minutes later, she felt a tap on her shoulder, turned and smiled into the bright blue eyes of her boss, Frank Winstone.
The director of the CDC.
“Hello, Frank. Thank you for coming.”
Nick smiled in his sleep, opened his eyes a crack, then closed them again. They wouldn’t stay open.
Post-op collapse. Not to mention post-op sex. Though sex with Kay was anything but routine, he knew enough to realize that every hormone in his body was wrung dry. No matter, he could relax. His mind wasn’t functioning well but he knew he wasn’t on duty, today or tomorrow. Tomorrow was the furthest he could stretch his mind to anyway.
Lazy thoughts flitted through his mind, in no particular order. He was hungry. He wanted pancakes for breakfast and a whole pot of coffee. He really needed a shower. His dick was hard. You’d think it wouldn’t be but it was. Maybe because of the smells in the bed. The smell of Kay and sex, a unique combo he was going to relish for the rest of his life. Today at some point, they needed to get home.
He reached out his hand to pull in warm woman and found a long stretch of cool sheet instead.
Hmm.
She was in the bathroom. He needed to go, too, but it could wait. First, he wanted an early morning kiss. And, well, his dick was hard. It shouldn’t be, but it was.
Finally, his senses kicked in, one after the other. There were no sounds coming from the bathroom, none. People made sounds in the bathroom. The usual, plus water splashing, either in the sink or the shower.
He rolled time back in his head. He’d been sort of awake for about ten minutes now, and ten minutes with no sounds in the bathroom was weird.
He opened his eyes and confirmed that Kay wasn’t with him or anywhere else in the room. Dirty dishes from last night’s late meal were still on the table. He could smell the steak and potatoes and a hint of the wine. There was still a finger in both their glasses.
He was hungry but the smell of food sparked a curdle in his stomach, because he was starting to get suspicious.
Nick threw the covers off and walked naked to the only place she could possibly be if she were still in the hotel room. He rapped a knuckle against the bathroom door.
“Kay?” he called softly.
Silence.
Goddamn.
He jerked open her closet door. She’d gotten her suitcase back. She’d mentioned it last night. He had a good memory for what had been in it, and there was a suit missing. It was emerald green and it wasn’t there. It was on her, wherever the fuck she was.
Snatching his cell, he punched in Kay’s number. It went to voice mail. Then he punched Felicity’s number, on videochat. It was Sunday morning and she was pregnant.
Tough shit.
She had to know where Kay was.
The cell rang a couple of times, then he saw Metal’s sleepy mug. “Dude,” he slurred. “The fuck? It’s Sunday.”
“Ask Felicity where Kay is.”
Metal’s eyes popped open at Nick’s tone. He never allowed anyone to speak with disrespect to Felicity, not that anyone at ASI ever would. Felicity was a goddess. But right now, Nick was pissed at everyone, and that included Felicity.
Metal’s eyes narrowed when he saw Nick. “Cover up, man. You’re not talking to Felicity naked.”
Nick looked down at himself. Yeah, he was naked, not that Metal could see Nick’s good parts. He kept the cell aimed at head and shoulders. Still. He put the cell face down on the bedside table and pulled on a tee shirt and briefs. Picked the cell back up, still royally pissed.
“Kay isn’t here,” he said bluntly. “Where the fuck is she? Does Felicity know?”
Metal scowled. “Kay’s not where?”
“In the hotel room. We spent the night here and I woke up and she’s gone. She wouldn’t go somewhere without telling me, unless she was kidnapped or decided to walk into danger. So, you can see I need to talk to Felicity.”
“Yeah. You must be freaking.” Metal leaned closer to the screen. “You are freaking. Can’t say I blame you.”
Nick’s teeth ground together. “Put. Felicity. On. Please.”
“Can’t.” His face pulled into painful lines. “She’s busy projectile vomiting last night’s dinner. Maybe yesterday’s lunch, too. You have no idea—”
A slender hand appeared on his shoulder. “Give me that,” Felicity said, and her face appeared. She was paper white, including her lips.
“Felicity, I am so very sorry to bother you,” Nick said, all of a sudden feeling like a shit. “But Kay’s gone and I have no idea where to find her.”
Felicity bit her lips.
Metal’s head swiveled. “Honey?”
She sighed just before Nick would have growled at her and Metal would have challenged him to a duel. Nick was a really good shot, but so was Metal. They’d have killed each other.
“She, ah… She figured out who else was involved and emailed him to meet her this morning.”
Every single hair on Nick’s body stood up. “She what?”
Felicity nodded and swallowed heavily. “Yeah.” She checked her Green Lantern watch. “She’s meeting him right about now.”
Nick was struggling into his jeans. “Where?”
“The hotel, the conference center. But don’t worry because…God. Sorry Nick, gotta go.”
Nick jammed his sockless feet into his boots, picked up his gun and holster and ran.
“So.” Frank smiled into Kay’s eyes. “Do you have a problem I can help you with?”
Blue eyes affable. Good guy, good boss attentively listening to valued employee. And underneath, a monster.
She remembered every word of the email she’d sent him.
Frank, I have some data Priyanka left me. She was working on something before she died and was very worried. I’m going through her data now and there are some anomalies. Do you think we can talk about this tomorrow? I’ll be at the conference around ten.
Kay looked around. The Rose Bar was a good choice. It was on the north side of the building and the morning light was dim. Though she could hear the voices of hundreds of people out in the corridor, it was quiet inside the cocktail bar. They had complete privacy.
She looked into Frank’s eyes, watched them carefully. The skin around his eyes was taut and smooth. No bags under them, the sclera clear and white as a baby’s. Treason and crime on a massive scale clearly did not disturb his sleep at night.
She stepped a little closer to him, slightly inside his perimeter. In her pocket, she switched on the recording function of her cell phone.
And she knew that she had backup. He was hidden and he was an excellent shot.
“Yes, I have a problem, and yes you can help me with it. Let me tell you what Priyanka thought, and what I think. I think Bill weaponized H1N1, made it fast-acting and even more lethal. And then I think you used our CRISPR-Cas9 to splice specific DNA to the virus so it would only affect one person, or one person and his or her family. Or an ethnic group or tribe. And I think you did that as a service to be sold. For money. And I think you are despicable beyond words.”
Frank’s expression didn’t change, except for a slight narrowing of his eyes. “Well,” he said, rocking back on his heels and putting his hand in his pocket. “That’s—that’s quite a series of accusations. Do you have any proof?”
“Yes,” she said, happy to see him pale.
He’d stopped smiling. “You don’t.”
&n
bsp; “I do. On Priyanka’s data. Clear evidence of use of the CRISPR, at night. Unrecorded, unregistered, but she has proof.”
“Experiments,” he said. “Nothing wrong with that.”
She edged closer to him. “Maybe. Maybe not. But you’re going to find it hard to explain the accounts in Panama and Aruba. Worth millions of dollars. That’s impossible on a CDC salary.”
His face splintered, then rearranged itself, only this time the affable good guy was gone and Kay’s heart beat faster, because she was looking into the face of pure evil.
“You little bitch. You and that Indian whore, meddling in things that are none of your business.”
“Oh, but it is my business, and it was Priyanka’s. We didn’t dedicate ourselves to science to have scum like you spread disease and corruption. You’ve defiled everything science and the CDC stand for.”
“Spare me the sermons, you bitch. Whatever you think you have on me can’t touch me. And you won’t be alive anyway.”
He pulled his hand out of his pocket, lifted a cylinder, and sprayed her with a liquid. It coated her face, dripped down off her chin.
Kay gasped. Held out a hand to keep her protector at bay. She had this.
Frank’s eyes glittered with malice, with triumph.
Kay gasped again, stumbled, grabbed on to his shirt front. With every ounce of strength in her body, she jerked him toward her until they were nose to nose.
Snaking her hand around his neck, she brought his face closer, closer still…
And kissed him full on the lips, lingering. Rubbing her face against his.
She could feel surprise in his body. Could feel something else, too—his lungs starting to heave.
Kay pulled away just enough to be able to speak, watching him so carefully. She wanted to see every expression, every nuance. Her heart was pounding but it wasn’t with fear. Oh, no.
“The DNA was switched. The wrong DNA was flown out to you, so when you worked the CRISPR you also had flown out—you were working on your own DNA. You matched your DNA to the weaponized H1N1 virus. You’re dying, Frank.”
His eyes bulged. She was so close, she could feel his heart beating hard in his chest. Hear his lungs struggling uselessly for air. “No!” he wheezed.
It would be the last word he ever spoke.
“Yes.” Kay smiled right into his eyes, her face an inch from his. “Oh yes. It’s filling your lungs with fluid right now. You can feel it, can’t you, Frank? Such a vicious little virus you and Bill created. But effective, very effective.”
He was turning blue, choking. Kay was holding him up by his shirt front as his feet scrabbled for purchase. He was falling, but before he fell, she had something else to tell him.
“This is for Priyanka, you son of a bitch. And Mike Hammer. Die, you bastard.”
His face was below hers, now, desperation in his eyes. The choking sounds grew loud.
“Kay!”
She turned, letting go of Frank. He fell at her feet, hands desperately scrabbling at his throat.
And suddenly she was in Nick’s arms, held tightly, his head buried in her neck. “Oh God, oh God!” He pulled back, lifted a finger to her face and looked at the liquid in horror. “God no!”
Frank’s heels were drumming on the floor. Neither of them paid him any attention.
“Is this—is this the virus?” Nick asked hoarsely. She could see the whites of his eyes around his dark pupils. He looked like a madman.
“Yes,” she said, and he flinched. “But I’m not the one who will die here. He thought the virus was tailored to me, but Felicity and I switched the DNA so he designed his own death.”
Nick didn’t look any less horrified. “You—you switched?” His Adam’s apple bobbed.
She smiled, looked down. Frank’s heels had stopped drumming against the slate floor. His legs twitched once, twice, and then he was still.
“Our DNA is kept in numbered vials in a carousel, so we simply gave Frank’s computer the wrong number. So, he—”
Nick held up a big hand. “Do I want to know?” He looked down at the dead man at his feet, looked back up at her. “No,” he said decisively. “I don’t want to know. Is this the last of the bad guys?”
“The very last,” she reassured him.
“You’re not going to run off again and put your life in danger?”
“No. Definitely not. And I wasn’t in danger. I knew he didn’t have my DNA. Felicity and I tracked him giving orders for the wrong vial. And I had backup.”
From a corner, Jacko lowered his pistol and gave a salute off his forehead. Then like smoke, he disappeared.
Nick turned back to Kay and blew out a breath. Punched a number on his cell. “Yo. Mancino. Another guy down, the head honcho, I think. Yeah, deader’n dirt. No, I didn’t gun him down. Kay scienced the shit out of him.”
Kay laughed. She felt light, free.
Nick just stared at her, breathing heavily. He glanced sideways, slid a linen napkin from a crystal napkin holder on the table.
“What are you doing?”
Nick kicked Frank’s body out of the way and kneeled.
“Kay Hudson. Will you do me the honor of marrying me?” She gaped. He took her hand and slipped the crystal napkin holder on her left ring finger. It was so huge she couldn’t close her hand. “If you’re married to me, I have the right to keep you out of danger, yeah?”
“Uh, yeah.” She blinked. “I guess.”
His chest heaved. “Marry me. Please. Say yes. Before my head explodes and we have two dead bodies on the floor.”
She felt even lighter, as if she could float away.
So this was what happiness felt like.
“Yes,” she said softly.
The End
I hope you enjoyed this book. If you did, I'd appreciate a review on the Amazon page and/or on Goodreads. If you liked this book, you might also enjoy:
THE MIDNIGHT TRILOGY
1. Midnight Man
2. Midnight Run
3. Midnight Angel
The Midnight Trilogy Box Set
THE MEN OF MIDNIGHT
1. Midnight Vengeance
2. Midnight Promises
3. Midnight Secrets
4. Midnight Fire
Midnight Quest: A Men of Midnight Short Novel
MIDNIGHT NOVELLA
Midnight Shadows
Woman on the Run
Murphy's Law
A Fine Specimen
Port of Paradise
THE DANGEROUS TRILOGY
Dangerous Lover
Dangerous Secrets
Dangerous Passion
THE PROTECTORS TRILOGY
Into the Crossfire
Hotter than Wildfire
Nightfire
GHOST OPS TRILOGY
Heart of Danger
I Dream of Danger
Breaking Danger
NOVELLAS
Fatal Heat
Hot Secrets
Reckless Night
The Italian
Midnight Fever ©2017 by Lisa Marie Rice.
Published by Lisa Marie Rice
Cover Design & Formatting by Sweet 'N Spicy Designs
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, brands, media, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.
Lisa Marie Rice is eternally 30 yea
rs old and will never age. She is tall and willowy and beautiful. Men drop at her feet like ripe pears. She has won every major book prize in the world. She is a black belt with advanced degrees in archaeology, nuclear physics, and Tibetan literature. She is a concert pianist. Did I mention her Nobel Prize?
Of course, Lisa Marie Rice is a virtual woman and exists only at the keyboard when writing romance. She disappears when the monitor winks off.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Other Books by Lisa Marie Rice
Copyright
About The Author
Midnight Fever Page 22
