When Ruby barked as if agreeing, Max cracked, “You can say that again. Let’s go see what the upstairs looks like.”
Kaitlin had been right. There were three bedrooms, but not one of them had so much as a lightbulb inside, let alone a bed. Sensing she was genuinely going to need a whole lot of patience to survive this assignment, Max pulled out her phone and put in a call to Mykal Chandler.
After he picked up, she explained her dilemma. “I’ve seen anthills with more furniture than this place. The appliances are something out of Leave It to Beaver, and there’s no place to sleep because there are no beds.”
“The place is government-owned. Maybe he’s been waiting for them to provide furnishings. Give him the benefit of the doubt.”
She walked to the windows. With the heel of her hand she rubbed at the grime covering the glass until she could peer through. The view of the lake would be spectacular from the room once you were able to see out. “I’m giving him that and more, believe me, but I need to get some contractors up here to look at the wiring. I’m sure his lab is state of the art, but this house can’t possibly be.”
“You’ll definitely need to make sure the wiring is up to code if you’re installing cameras. As for the appliances, beds, and furniture, you’ll have to talk to him. Even though the government holds the title, he’s the tenant. If he agrees, bill me and I’ll bill DOD. If they can pay thousands of dollars for toilet seats, I don’t think they’ll mind springing for some improvements, but talk to him first.”
Max sighed. “Okay. I’ll see what he says.”
They then moved on to discuss Gary’s issues with the dogs. Max stated bluntly, “He’s just going to have to get over himself on that. According to the file, he’s not allergic, so there are no medical issues. The dogs aren’t going to be in his lab unless its absolutely necessary anyway, so…” She let her voice trail off.
“I agree, but keep me posted, okay?”
“Will do.”
She ended the call and snapped the phone back onto her belt. She wasn’t looking forward to another confrontation with the good doctor, but there was no way around it.
After leaving the dogs in the room, Max made her way back down to the cellar.
When Adam heard the knock on the door, he ignored it. He knew the sound and cadence of Kaitlin’s knock, and because it wasn’t hers, he assumed it was Max Blake’s. A second knock sounded, firmer this time, and he ignored that one as well. Then he heard her shout, “Dr. Gary!”
He studied the door, then barked back, “Go away! I’m busy!”
“We need to talk!”
“Later!”
“Now, dammit!”
In contrast to the darkness of the outer office, the walls of his lab were white as snow. Computer monitors were humming, the lights in the ceiling above were sharp, bright, and state of the art. His work was his life, but this woman seemed set on messing up both.
An unhappy Adam slid from the stool, did a quick save to his work on the computer, and with tight jaws went over and opened the door. “What do you want?”
“To have a conversation.”
Adam wasn’t accustomed to a woman tall enough to look him in the eyes, nor one fearless enough to challenge him like this. “Kaitlin can answer any—”
“Forget Kaitlin. This is between us.”
Adam’s jaw tightened. Stepping out into the gloom of the cellar, he closed the door on the lab. “What?”
“First of all, why isn’t there any furniture in this house?”
Adam studied her. “Not my job.”
“How long have you lived here? Five years?”
“Give or take a few months, yeah.”
“Have you ever had the electricity checked, or the furnace cleaned, or done anything else to maintain the house’s systems?”
“Nope. Haven’t had time.”
Max stared. “Well, before I install security cameras, this place needs to be inspected and brought up to code.”
“Fine,” and with that he turned to the door.
“We’re not done, Doc.”
He stopped.
“I’ll be replacing the appliances in your kitchen, too.”
“Why? They all work.”
“But they worked better in 1957. How do you cook in there?”
“I don’t, but Mrs. Wagner never complained.”
Max knew from the file that Mrs. Wagner was the old housekeeper. “Well, if I’m going to be doing the cooking, I’ll need something a bit more modern.”
Adam’s lips thinned. “Do whatever you think needs doing, just keep the noise down and leave me the hell alone.” He went back into the lab and slammed the door.
Max stared at the closed door and toyed with the idea of lobbing a Molotov inside, but it was just fantasy. No way would she let the fact that she couldn’t stand him impact his research, but sooner or later the two of them were going to have to talk about the security issues, otherwise she was going to run this operation the way she wanted and to hell with his input or his complaints.
Not pleased, Adam sat in the silence of his lab. The only thing he was supposed to be concentrating on was perfecting the prototype, not kidnappers, and definitely not the distracting Max Blake with her arresting green eyes and svelte curves. Just looking at her, he never would have guessed that she carried such impressive credentials. Marines. Homicide. The dogs notwithstanding, if she’d been sent by the Department of Defense, she had to be good at what she did. Which was what? Admittedly, he didn’t know a thing about security protocols. He knew computer firewalls and how to keep a lab from blowing sky high, but this was unknown territory. Myk said to let her do her job so he could do his, and in reality that was the only logical choice. Adam wasn’t stupid. The kidnapping attempt was dangerous business, and they’d try again, so just because he didn’t want Max Blake around didn’t mean he didn’t need her.
With that in mind, he knew he needed to stop grumbling and cooperate with her because the sooner he did that, the sooner he could give full attention to his work.
That decision made, Adam walked back over to the computers to resume his quest to fix the prototype, and as he settled in, there was no other place he wanted to be. For him, scientific discovery was an exciting, exhilarating love affair that had begun in the second grade when his teacher, Ms. Rogers, brought a cocoon into the classroom and placed it inside a glass aquarium. Over the course of the semester, he and his classmates were treated to the metamorphosis of a monarch butterfly. No one was more mesmerized than Adam’s eight-year-old self. From the moment the orange and black monarch came out of the chrysalis and spread its distinctive shaped wings to dry in the classroom’s warmth and light, he became hooked on science. Been that way ever since. It was an obsessive, all-consuming love that came before fiancées—he had two broken engagements as proof—before sports—although he did take a peek at the NfL and his beloved NBA every now and then—before friends—he hadn’t talked to anyone in over a year; before everything.
His mother, Lauren, to whom he did talk frequently, warned him that one day he was going to come out of his lab and find that life had passed him by. Adam imagined she was right. Over the years, he’d spent so much time in the lab that the days would pass unnoticed. Tuesdays would melt into Fridays and Fridays into Mondays, but the sleepless nights and the lack of a social life were minor prices to pay in the real scheme of things. The Black Satin Project was on the cusp of changing the world in ways more far reaching than the discoveries of radio, the combustible engine, and penicillin combined, and for Adam, being able to positively affect and impact the lives of people not only in industrialized countries but in small underdeveloped pockets of the globe was what being a scientist was all about.
He’d be the first to admit that he lived the life of a recluse, though. If he ever expected to have the family he wanted, he was going to have to live aboveground long enough to find a woman willing to marry a man who otherwise doubled as a troll. She’d have to be unique
, but not as unique as Max Blake, he mused sarcastically. He wondered if Ms. Texas was married. Any man in her life would have to be a strong one. It was also a given that a sister as fine as that didn’t sleep alone, or at least not for long.
Max and the dogs were outside enjoying the sunset. The lack of chairs meant she was sitting on the concrete, but she didn’t mind. The sun was descending into the lake in a fiery blaze of oranges and reds, and the scene was relaxing and peaceful. She was surprised to see Dr. Gary step out to join them. Even though he was not one of her favorite people, she was a Texan and raised by her mama to be polite, so she said, “Evening.”
He nodded a short silent response. She watched him checking out the dogs lying at her feet, and noted that he didn’t come any closer. Max supposed he was afraid of catching something, or scared he’d take some dreaded doggie virus back into his lab. She mentally rolled her eyes and rubbed her hand along Ossie’s muscular back.
He asked her then, “What do I need to do to make this security thing work for both of us?”
Max studied him. Was he finally surrendering? “You need to know that the dogs and I are here to keep you safe, and that all you have to do is let us do our job.” She turned her head so she could see his face. “You look tired.”
“Goes with the territory.”
For a moment Max saw him as a human being, but then he said, “I expect the dogs to stay outside at night, and that you alone will be responsible for removing any feces they leave on the grounds.”
So much for the human moment, Max noted sarcastically, before saying aloud, “I brought my scooper, but there’s no place for them to stay outside, so they’ll sleep in the room with me.”
“Get somebody to build them a pen. They can’t be running loose in the house while I’m sleep.”
Max took offense. “These dogs are government trained. They don’t ‘run loose.’”
He appeared to have more to say but instead looked out toward the lake and kept whatever it was to himself.
Max thought that wise; she’d had just about enough of him and his demands. “Friends of mine will be up to put surveillance cameras on the premises in a few days, then lay in a more secure gate down by the road.”
He didn’t respond but she saw his bearded jaw tense.
She tossed out, “For somebody who was almost kidnapped, you don’t seem too concerned about your own safety.”
“Oh, I am. I’m just not happy with the way it’s affecting my work.”
“According to my handlers, everybody and their mother wants what you’ve invented—the Russians, the Saudis, the Eastern Europeans. Big countries, little countries. If your prototype does even half the things it’s supposed to, you’re about to put OPEC and the rest of the energy cartels out of business. Do you know what that means?”
He held her eyes but didn’t respond.
“There are probably people somewhere who want you dead—yesterday, because your research is about to send them to the poor house. Think about it, who’s going to want to pay for oil or gas to heat their homes when they can use a simple device that can generate its own heat?”
“It isn’t perfected yet.”
“Doesn’t matter, Doc. The potential is there, and that’s what counts. You’re supposedly one of the biggest brains on the planet, and you’re a brother, this can’t be news to you.”
“No, it isn’t,” he admitted. “I just want to work.”
“Then how about we get on the same page so that you can do that?”
He met her eyes and said, “Fine.”
Max felt relief. Was she finally going to get some cooperation? “How long has Kaitlin worked for you?”
“About two months.”
“That long?” She found that interesting. “I’d’ve thought it was longer.”
“No.”
Max sensed there was more to the story, but apparently he wasn’t going to offer any details. So much for the cooperation. “Did you hire her personally or was she sent over by a service?”
When he didn’t respond right away, Max explained, “I’m not trying to get in your business, but I need to know who all the players are, and their roles. We can’t protect him if we don’t know the good guys from the bad, right, Ruby?” Max rubbed her behind the ear and Ruby barked.
Max smiled, but when she looked over and saw the granite set of Gary’s jaw, it faded. She said to him softly, “You know, they really are wonderful animals. They’re smart, loyal, loving.”
“They’re dogs,” he responded coldly.
“And both of them would give up their lives for you, even if you don’t deserve it.”
Having reached the end of her patience, Max stood. “You and I will talk tomorrow. The dogs need to run twice a day so we’re going to go and take care of that. When we get back, we’ll sleep in the car.”
With that said, she gave the rottweilers a hand command and they took off down the steep dune. Max had to walk by the silent scientist in order to reach the steps leading down to the beach. She passed him without a word. Even though she could feel the heat of him as she did, the steely jawed Max ignored him because she was done with Dr. Jerkyll for the day.
Adam tried to feign indifference to her declaration about the dogs being willing to die for him, but the tug on his conscience was real. The last thing he needed was a woman in green cowboy boots calling him out. Although he’d never admit it to her, the snatch attempt had scared him, otherwise he would never have agreed to security being on the premises. The memory of the Madrid incident’s outcome gave him a grim satisfaction, though. Both thugs had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance. At least they know I’m not a punk.
He turned his attention down to the beach where she was playing fetch with the dogs using pieces of driftwood. The trio was outlined against the descending sun like a shot from a movie. Her laughter and their responding barks rose clearly to his ears. They were having a good time. Her tall fit frame drew his eyes in ways no woman had done in quite some time.
“Is she really going to be the housekeeper?”
Adam turned. The irritation on Kaitlin’s face was easy to see. “Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because I hired her.”
“From where, a circus? We don’t need her here or those dogs.”
Adam ignored that and asked instead, “Isn’t it about time you went up to your room and e-mailed your father or something? I’m sure he’ll be interested in your opinion of Ms. Blake.”
Kaitlin’s chin rose. “You make me sound like some kind of spy.”
“Aren’t you?”
“Of course not,” she responded, as if offended. “You invited me here, remember?”
“No, you invited yourself.”
“Daddy said you needed a secretary.”
“Correct. Daddy said. I didn’t.” Daddy was Dr. Sylvester “Sly” Kent, an old mentor of Adam’s determined to ride to fame on the tail of his lab coat.
“But I’ve been helpful.”
“Yes, you have.” And she had, Adam admitted to himself. In addition to tackling his piles of unopened mail, she’d done up the schedules for the grad students who would be working with him this fall. She also brought him bagged breakfasts every morning, and in the evening she ordered in pizzas or subs. She was going to make some brother a great wife one day, but the brother’s name wouldn’t be Adam Gary. He might be a scientist, but he wasn’t a fool. Kaitlin had been sent to the house with two missions: One was to keep her father on top of his research, and the other to see if she could interest him in a relationship that resulted in making Sylvester Kent his proud father-in-law. Not a chance.
“Adam?”
Her voice brought him back. “Yes?”
“So, what are you going to do about her?”
Adam turned back to the beach. They were heading away from the house. The dogs were at Max’s side, pacing like sentinels. He had to admit they seemed well-trained, but his attention was trained on the fluid, mesmeriz
ing walk of their owner. “Nothing. She starts tomorrow.”
Kaitlin looked displeased, but Adam didn’t think he owed her anything other than, “See you in the morning, Kaitlin.”
He went inside and left her to fume alone.
Three
Jan Kruger was alone in a London hotel room reading over the reports sent to him by his associates. The ancillary elements of the plan were coming together, and that pleased him. The contacts he and his group needed inside the various U.S. military and intelligence agencies were on board and awaiting further instruction. In today’s corrupt world it hadn’t been difficult to find people willing to betray their country’s trust in exchange for cash. The dreams of Kruger and his associates to establish a new order had been embraced not only by people in the U.S., but in many of the European nations as well. He’d just returned from a secret meeting with some of Great Britain’s military and could now add their support to the pledges he’d extracted from others in France, the Balkans, and the Soviet Union. As far as Jan knew, the South African government didn’t have a clue as to what he and his people were embarking upon, and he planned to keep it that way.
The highlight of today’s reports had been the information on Gary. Thanks to a newly recruited woman who worked as a secretary in the Office of Homeland Security, they now knew where Dr. Gary was living and working. Although the mole hadn’t been able to find out if there were any security people on the property, Jan didn’t think finding out would be too difficult. Knowing Gary’s location had been a burning question they now had the answer to. Included with the Gary info had been the addresses and pictures of his famous parents in case pressure needed to be applied to make him cooperate. The device Gary had invented was a potential gold mine, and if he could get his hands on it, he could rename himself Midas.
Sexy/Dangerous Page 3
