Opposing Forces

by Adrienne Giordano

  Jillian rolled her lips in. Hiding a smile. Terrific. In addition to being an irresponsible addict, now he was a head case. He wouldn’t blame her if she set the floor ablaze trying to get the hell out. “You can laugh. Trust me. It’s the only thing to do. I make myself insane.”

  “You think too much.”

  This was news? “Of course I think too much. It’s part of my DNA. I’ve always been a planner. I like details and order and goals.”

  “Which is all good.”

  “Except when it whacks me out.”

  “Well, yes.”

  “Like now.”

  She laughed. So did he. “What the hell am I even talking about?”

  Jillian swung around the table to stand next to him. “Why are you so brutal to yourself? You’re human. You’re allowed to have setbacks. And I’m not talking about going AWOL on recovery. Not every plan will work. It doesn’t mean it’s a bad plan. It doesn’t mean you’ll fall off the wagon.”

  “But I’m so close to hitting that one-year mark and I’m determined to make it. That’s the plan and I’ll see it through.” He grinned. “Even if you try sticking your tongue in my mouth again.”

  “I rather enjoyed sticking my tongue in your mouth.”

  “I’m sure you did. Plenty more where that came from. You just need to wait seven more days.”

  “I’ll wait.”

  He tilted his head, took a chance on wrecking his mind by running his finger down the side of her cheek. Damn, he loved touching her. “I’m hoping so.”

  He stood, smacked her on the hip with the back of his hand and headed to the kitchen where he’d mark an X on his calendar.

  Another day down.

  Barely.

  Chapter Eight

  The following evening, Lynx had just hit send on an email when Jillian walked into his office with a black leather briefcase slung over her shoulder. She wore gray slacks, a pair of spike heels and a silky black button-down blouse with the top few buttons undone. Damned shame about the tank under the blouse, but he supposed walking around with her blouse half unbuttoned wouldn’t make the HR people happy.

  Not that anyone in her office seemed happy with her anyway.

  “Hey,” he said, still staring at the buttons on that blouse.

  Six more days.

  “Hey, yourself.” She set the briefcase on one of the chairs in front of his desk and propped her hands on her hips. “You’re thinking about my tongue in your mouth again, aren’t you?”

  “Now you’re psychic too?”

  Swinging around the desk to where he sat, she propped a hip on the edge. “You had a look about you.”

  “What look is that?”

  “The one that screams you need a boinking.”

  He burst out laughing. “I’m a guy. Every look screams that.”

  “Good point.” She motioned to his laptop. “Tell me about your senator friend.”

  Lynx had called her cell earlier in the day to let her know he’d received more information on their “project” and could she stop by his office after work. Her home being bugged left it off-limits. Unless they planned on feeding information to whomever was listening.

  Lynx pulled up the password-protected files Watkins had sent him. “He emailed me some files.” He glanced back at her. “We’re not supposed to have these. It’ll seriously screw me up if anyone outside of us knows about them.”

  Her right hand went up. “Swear.”

  Someone knocked and in walked Janet Fink, all five feet and barely a hundred pounds of her. Accompanying her was Gavin Sheppard, the former FBI hostage negotiator who now ran Taylor Security’s hostage negotiation division. The large number of expatriates overseas lent itself to kidnap and ransom cases, and Mike Taylor, being the sharp businessman he was, had seen an opportunity to grow his business by luring Gavin to the private sector.

  For the purposes of this meeting, they’d be utilizing Gavin’s FBI knowledge.

  “Good timing,” Lynx said. “Thanks for staying late. Jillian, meet Janet and Gavin.”

  Hellos and handshakes were exchanged and they all sat at the small conference table in the corner.

  Janet slid into the chair by the window. “Gavin’s sugar is crashing. He’s crabby.”

  The look Gavin gave her, that maybe-I’ll-kill-you-now glare, could have cracked cement. “I’m not crabby. I’m hungry.”

  She rolled her eyes. “It all equals the same thing.”

  On an assignment last summer involving the kidnap and ransom of Mike’s pregnant wife, Janet and Gavin decided to explore the chemistry firing between them. At least that’s how Vic had put it. By the time Lynx had come to Taylor Security, it was common knowledge that Janet and Gavin were a couple.

  Lynx didn’t much care that Gavin was an executive and Janet wasn’t. As long as they kept their relationship private and didn’t bring it to the office, he couldn’t give a crap.

  Lynx turned to Jillian. “I forgot to ask if you like Thai. I bribed them with dinner.”

  “It’s fine,” she said, but if he’d learned anything about woman-speak, that meant she hated Thai. He filed it away.

  “I’ll get you something else when we’re done.”

  She aimed those doe eyes at him and her amazing lips—just a little puffy, but not too much—slid into a half smile. Oh, yeah, the things he’d like to do to make that smile a little bigger.

  All he could hope was that she’d been helmet shopping.

  Gavin cleared not only his throat but the fog of lust distracting Lynx, and he straightened up. “I’ve briefed Janet and Gavin. Gavin worked for the FBI and still has friends there. Janet is our resident computer geek.”

  “I’ve only found one system I can’t hack,” Janet said, “but I’ll get it.”

  Jillian stuck out her bottom lip. “That’s handy.”

  “Understatement of the year,” Gavin said.

  Lynx glanced at Janet then Gavin. “I heard from Senator Watkins today. He’s on Oversight. This conversation stays in the room.”

  “I love the cone of silence,” Janet cracked.

  “I know you do. Here’s what we’ve got. Stennar Pharm is not actively being investigated, but they’re on the government’s radar.”

  Jillian’s eyebrows went up. “And I thought I’d checked them out.”

  “You did. There’s no way the average person would know this. A group of hospitals contacted the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee regarding price gouging on a blood pressure medication.”

  Jillian inched closer to the table and folded her hands. “Unfortunately, this is not uncommon. Distributors buy mass quantities of drugs and when there’s a shortage, they jack up the price. It drives hospital pharmacists crazy because surgeons don’t like being told they can’t have a certain drug. Then the pharmacy has to figure out how to get it. Sometimes that means going to gray market distributors, where the pedigree of a drug might be questionable.”

  Janet raised her hand, a habit Lynx found undeniably adorable considering her diminutive stature. “Pedigree? As in the origin?”

  “Yes. The pedigree documents the drug’s trail from the time it leaves the manufacturer to when it gets to the pharmacy. Without it, the drug could have come from anywhere. Sometimes shipments pass through several distributors before reaching its destination. It could even be stolen and then sold back into legitimate distribution channels.”

  Gavin nodded. “The Bureau has a task force assigned to pharma thefts. It’s a problem that runs into the billions.”

  “Hang on,” Lynx said to Jillian. “How the hell does it get back into the legitimate market?”

  She gave him a look like he was the poor naïve idealist in the room. “It’s not difficult. A w
arehouse could get robbed or maybe a truck is hijacked. The thieves sell the stolen drugs at a severely reduced price to a distributor. That distributor forges pedigree documents and the drug is then sold back to a legitimate distributor.”

  Lynx thought about that a sec. “What about the manufacturer? Don’t they have to recall the stolen drugs?”

  Gavin shrugged. “Some of them don’t.”

  “Why?” Janet asked.

  “Because,” Jillian said, “the expenses surrounding recalls—and don’t forget the public’s confidence in the manufacturer—threatens the bottom line. Entire lots are rarely stolen and there’s no way to figure out which pills in the lot are the bad ones. Manufacturers can only hope if the stolen drugs enter the supply chain, someone will catch it.”

  Given his intimate relationship with prescription drugs, Lynx could see how profitable the illegitimate drug market would be. The people in his meetings spoke all the time about backdoor pharmacies and how they never had a shortage of drugs. “That’s disturbing.”

  “Welcome to the pharmaceutical world,” Jillian said.

  Gavin made a note then slapped his pen down. “What else have you got?”

  Lynx sat back. “Outside of the complaint from the hospital group, there’s nothing to prove any illegal activity. Yet.”

  “Does Oversight think the blood pressure drugs are stolen?” Gavin asked.

  “They don’t know. Think about this.” Lynx pointed to Jillian. “She saw a delivery at a weird time last week. Since then, her house has been broken into, Stennar Pharm has isolated her and asked her to sign a confidentiality agreement—by the way, our lawyers said you shouldn’t sign that. No kidding there.” He went back to Gavin. “And we think they were the ones who bugged her house.”

  Gavin’s head dropped forward. “Jesus. Who found the bugs?”

  “I did.”

  “Did you get rid of them?”

  “No,” Jillian said. “We agreed I should leave them. Someone at my company is listening. I think it’s my boss. His secretary knew I took a photography class this past weekend. She said our boss told her.”

  Janet smacked her hand on the table. “And you didn’t tell your boss.”

  “Nope.”

  “She told another guy that might be involved, though. We’re not sure.”

  Gavin made another note on the pad in front of him. “Let me talk to my buddy at the Bureau. He’s worked with the pharma task force. Maybe he can get us some intel. He’ll be quiet about it.”

  “Thank you,” Jillian said.

  She turned to Lynx and the light hit her face, revealing the shadows under her eyes. He inched closer and squeezed her hand. “You look tired.”

  Her eyes glistened and, hell, if she cried, he’d...he didn’t know what he’d do, but he’d find a way to fix it. That was a definite. He squeezed her hand again. “It’s okay.”

  Throwing her shoulders back, she nodded. “I know. It’s just been a hell of a week.”

  He pulled his hand back before she construed it as pity. The woman in front of him didn’t want his or anyone else’s pity. “Sure has.”

  Janet raised her hand. “What can I do?”

  She craved getting in on the action. If hacking into someone’s system meant working toward the greater good, she did it without compunction. She got shit done and Lynx loved it.

  “Can you get into Stennar Pharm’s network? See what’s sitting out there?”

  Jillian tore a corner of paper from his notepad. “I snagged my boss’s secretary’s password. I can give you that.”

  Janet smiled. “A girl after my own heart. I probably won’t need the password, but you can leave it with me, just in case. What am I looking for?”

  * * *

  Jillian stared at Janet while absorbing the idea that a week ago, she’d been a career woman, doggedly chasing her future. Now she was running from whatever insanity existed within the confines of Stennar Pharm. What if she just walked away? Turned her back on the whole thing and forgot about it.

  No harm, no foul.

  Why bother amusing herself with that thought? She’d never be able to do it. Not after her bosses had come after her this way. Stealing her hard-earned possessions, listening in on her private conversations, screwing with her ability to perform her job. All of it added up to one pissed-off career girl.

  “We’re looking for any shipments that look odd. Weird delivery times, funky payments, inflated sales numbers, anything.”

  “Any particular directories I should look under?”

  “Start with Ned Dillard’s files. He’s my boss. There are databases only he has access to. I’ve been told those directories contain payroll information, but it could be anything.”

  Janet nodded. “I can do that.”

  “Most of the software is company developed. I don’t know if that matters.”

  She only smiled. Right. Silly me.

  Jack touched Jillian’s arm to get her attention. “Are you okay with this?”

  “I have to be. These people are screwing with me and I can’t let that happen.”

  Janet’s cell phone buzzed and she checked it, her body moving in a swift, compact efficiency that seemed to define her. “It’s security. Our dinner is here.”

  “I think we’re done here. You guys eat. I need to get Jillian food she actually likes.” Jack turned to her. “My bad.”

  “You didn’t know.”

  Gavin stood. “I’m beat anyway. Let’s take the food home with us.”

  Janet grinned at Jillian. “He just wants to get naked with me.”

  “Do I need to hear this?” Jack asked.

  Gavin let out a huff. “How about we not do this in the office?”

  “It’s Lynx. He doesn’t care.”

  “Trust me, I care.”

  Janet rolled her eyes and smacked Gavin on the ass. “Blah, blah. Let’s go, Sexy Galore. I’ll make it up to you.”

  “And it gets worse,” Jack said.

  Finally, Gavin gave up the fight and laughed. Fascinated, Jillian watched them go, their banter echoing in the hall. “Funny couple.”

  “I can’t figure it out. I always think their relationship shouldn’t work, but there’s a weird balance with them.”

  “Your boss doesn’t care that they’re a couple?”

  “No. Janet works for me. Gavin isn’t her superior.”

  “And you won’t get in trouble for having her help me?”

  He studied her a moment, his blue eyes so focused that it rattled her, caused a little zip in her spine. “The hacking you mean?”

  “Yes.”

  “No. As long as it’s not done on company time, I’m not worried about it. Besides, she won’t get caught. Mike stole her from the CIA. She knows how to fly under the radar.”

  The CIA. Who the hell were these people? And how did Jillian wind up lucky enough to have met all of them? “Thank you. For this. All of it.”

  He held her gaze and even if she wanted to turn away, to ignore the tension buzzing between them, she chose not to.

  “You’re welcome,” he said. “I couldn’t leave you on your own with this. Something isn’t right.”

  “You’re a good man, Jack Lynx.”

  Too good. Frighteningly good. A recovering drug addict with a big heart. In her normal way of thinking, these concepts, the drug addict and big heart, were in direct opposition. Given her experience with her father, addiction represented selfishness. An unwillingness to self-heal and protect loved ones from destruction.

  And yet. Here was Jack. A man who continually put others ahead of himself.

  “I don’t understand,” she said.

  “What?”

  “How you became an addict.”

  His
head snapped back. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because you’re so giving.”

  “And that means I can’t suffer from a disease?”

  She was screwing this up. Quickly, she shook her head. “Not what I meant.”

  Tell him. This was her opportunity to come clean about her family. After all he’d done for her, he deserved the truth.

  “Then what did you mean?”

  Telling him required opening up. Allowing him into the twisted world she came from. Something she rarely did. She’d refused to let people into her barricaded life. A certain vulnerability came with such an admission and right now, she was vulnerable enough. A basket case, she would not be. Not in his eyes.

  She dug her fingers into her forehead. Anything to stop thinking about all the things she should and shouldn’t do. “I don’t know what I meant. I’m sorry. I’m not judging, though.”

  He leaned back in his chair, feigning relaxation, but his shoulders inched up. “I didn’t think you were judging.”

  “Good. I respect what you’re doing. You’ll never know how I admire it. I’m just trying to understand how a man like you, a responsible, dedicated guy who has it all together, falls into addiction.”

  He stood. “First, I didn’t fall. I walked. At the time, all I knew was I liked how it felt. I’ve always been the overachiever and when I was stoned, I didn’t feel pressure.”

  “And why is that? That you feel so much pressure?”

  “I was raised by good parents. My father has built a career in law enforcement. He’s the chief of police in my hometown and my mother is a schoolteacher. They’ve spent their lives serving. I decided to do the same.”

  Freaking Mayberry. Just what she needed. His parents would tsk-tsk the dysfunctional catastrophe that was her childhood.

  “I see why you like wearing the superhero cape.”

  He laughed. “I totally like wearing the cape. Unfortunately, the cape comes with asphyxiating responsibility. It’s like an elephant sitting on my chest. After my knee surgery, the drugs took away the elephant. For the first time, I didn’t feel the pressure. There was freedom in that.”