Soldier Protector

by Kimberly Van Meter

  Oh, God, how she’d been wrong.

  At first glance, they should’ve been a decent match. Their careers were compatible—he was also in the scientific field—but whereas she was quiet and reserved, he was a know-it-all blowhard who loved the sound of his own voice.

  Anything that might’ve been remotely interesting about him had drowned in the wash of self-congratulatory nonsense flowing from his mouth like a flash flood.

  She’d barely managed to choke down her dinner before quietly ending the evening with the excuse that her stomach wasn’t feeling well.

  Not exactly a lie.

  After that she’d blocked his number and tried to forget the awkward almost-kiss that he’d tried to pull as he walked her to her car.

  She’d never moved so fast in her life than when she’d ducked that pucker.

  A shudder followed the memory. How could he not see from her body language that he made her skin crawl? Oh, well, that was a long time ago but it’d been a sufficient reminder that she wasn’t cut out for social entanglements.

  Caitlin preferred the solitude of research to the confusing dance of modern dating rituals.

  Huffing a short breath, she adjusted her pillows and pulled her blankets more tightly around her, but a comfortable spot continued to elude her. She never suffered sleep issues. Ever.

  But then again, she’d never had a complete stranger sleeping in the next room.

  Was this to be her reality until Tessara determined her bodyguard was unnecessary? Lord in heaven, she hoped not. She needed a solid eight hours of sleep or else her brain suffered.

  As it was, she was past her own bedtime.

  Thanks, Mother.

  Forcing her eyes to close, she practiced a tried-and-true meditation that never failed to calm and relax her.

  A blank clockface. Numbers appearing one by one, followed by the hands. As the hands marked the hour, the number disappeared, cutting into the clockface until nothing but a black sheet of nothingness remained.

  Ah, almost there.

  She slowly drifted into that familiar place where sleep was found.

  Until Zak’s face returned to her mental theater and ruined her calm.

  Again! A blank clockface...

  It was going to be a long night.

  Chapter 5

  Caitlin growled beneath her breath as she took the passenger side of Zak’s black Tahoe, which had been delivered early that morning. It smelled new and everything gleamed with the freshness of a vehicle untouched by humans or Taco Bell.

  Clicking her seat belt as he maneuvered the beast down her driveway, she prepared to ride in silence, but Zak had other plans.

  “Tell me about your team,” he said, getting onto the highway.

  Even though she was tired and grumpy, she tried to remain professional. “What would you like to know?”

  “Let’s start with the easy questions. Did you personally vet every member on your team? How did they come to you? Do you trust them?”

  “Those are the easy questions? I’d hate to find out what you consider difficult questions.” Drawing herself up, she said, “Of course I trust them. I personally vetted every single person working for me. I take my job very seriously.”

  “Of that I have no doubt,” he said. “I’m not trying to imply that you’ve fallen down on the job or been careless, but whoever stole the sample knew exactly where to look, which suggests that whoever came into that lab had inside information.”

  “That’s a plausible theory, but I’m sure there are many theories that could apply,” she said, refusing to believe that anyone on her team had anything to do with the theft. “I’d advise you against marrying yourself to one particular agenda without first acquiring facts to back up your belief.”

  If she sounded defensive, she couldn’t help it. To imply that one of her team had violated her trust was too much to consider, and she simply wouldn’t allow a stranger to throw around accusations without letting him know exactly how she felt.

  And Zak got the message, loud and clear. “Look, I understand you want to protect your team but we’ve got bigger issues than loyalty. The safety of the world may rest on your ability to separate your feelings about your team from this investigation. I need to know everything you know about every single person who has access to your lab.”

  “It’s not only loyalty that you’re questioning,” Caitlin said. “It’s integrity. And I can assure you, everyone on my team is solid.”

  “I hope you’re right,” he said. “But we have to look under every rock just to be sure.”

  Shrugging with annoyance, she said, “Well, clearly, Rebecca isn’t a suspect.”

  “And why is that?”

  “She has a disability,” Caitlin answered, frowning. “Do you really think that Rebecca broke into the lab, smashed the controls and made off with the sample with her one good leg?”

  “On the surface, I agree that Rebecca is seemingly easy to discount, but appearances can be deceiving. I take nothing for granted even if that means placing a woman with a disability under a hot bulb.”

  “That’s ridiculous. It’s not Rebecca. Although, she’d probably be happy that you consider her a potential suspect simply for the fact that she always feels people treat her differently because of her leg,” Caitlin said, shaking her head at the odd logic. “I can tell you that Rebecca may act like a hormone-riddled teenager but she’s brilliant.”

  “Exactly why we can’t discount her.”

  “She would definitely find that flattering,” Caitlin mused with private amusement. “But I can say with confidence, she’s not a suitable candidate for your list of suspects.”

  But Zak wasn’t entirely convinced. “What else can you tell me about her?”

  Caitlin found his persistence annoying, especially since she knew Rebecca better than anyone else did in that lab. “What would you like to know? Would you like to know if she’s single? Because she’s very single. But dating is a challenge, which is probably why she’s so damn thirsty all the time.” Wow, that had come out all wrong and from a weird place. She hadn’t meant to sound so judgmental. Caitlin bit her lip with embarrassment. “That was unprofessional. I’m sorry. What I meant to say is, she’s incredibly smart but she’s boy crazy, as my mother would say, so don’t be surprised if she tries to get you to take her to dinner. She’s harmless, though.”

  He chuckled and asked, “How long have you been friends?”

  Zak’s casual question threw her. Friends? She and Rebecca weren’t friends. Friendships within a working environment, particularly between a supervisor and an employee, created problems. “She’s not my friend,” she corrected, shifting in her seat against the wave of loneliness that the simple statement created. “We’re colleagues and she just happens to talk a lot.”

  And Rebecca was a sharer. Something Caitlin definitely was not. However, Rebecca didn’t seem to notice and kept right on sharing, which was why Caitlin knew everything that was happening in Rebecca’s life and why Caitlin knew Rebecca couldn’t possibly be the one who broke into the lab. Quite simply, between her penchant for karaoke and volunteering down at the local animal shelter, the woman didn’t have the time.

  “But you like her,” he concluded and she could only shrug in answer. She liked Rebecca well enough but it wasn’t as if they went out on Saturday nights and whooped it up at the local bar. Oh, goodness, the very thought made Caitlin anxious. Zak pressed a little more. “What else do you know about her? Where does she come from? What is her background?”

  Caitlin stiffened, crossing her arms. “If you prefer I can just have HR send you all of the team’s personnel files. When I hired my staff, I looked at their professional qualifications, not their personal lives. I have no idea what they do on their off time. Nor do I care.”

  “And yet you seem to know that Rebecca was very single and ap
parently ready to mingle.”

  Her cheeks heated. “Like I said, Rebecca likes to share and I don’t like to be rude.”

  At that he chuckled again. “Well, what else has Rebecca shared? Did she have money problems?”

  “How should I know? I have no idea what her personal finances look like. That’s...well, personal. I don’t ask those sorts of questions. And why would you ask?”

  “Money is a great motivator. Whoever stole that sample is likely going to try and sell it to the highest bidder. That means millions—possibly billions—of dollars. So someone with money troubles might jump at the chance of selling the world’s most deadly and toxic biological agent to whoever is willing to pay the price.”

  “I can’t imagine that Rebecca would steal something that we were all working on. Money might be a great motivator for some people but for us it’s about the science.”

  He corrected her, “No, for you it’s about the science. Everyone else is suspect.”

  “I work with these people every single day for long hours—morning, noon and night, and some weekends,” Caitlin protested. She refused to believe they had anything to do with the break-in. “There’s no way anyone on my team was involved.”

  He realized she wasn’t going to budge on Rebecca and suggested, “All right, let’s move away from Rebecca for now. What about Robert?”

  She huffed a short breath in irritation. This car ride was beginning to feel like an inquisition. “What about him?”

  “He wasn’t at the lab yesterday.”

  “He called in sick.”

  “Seems a little suspect.”

  “People get colds. Do they forbid sick leave at Red Wolf Elite?”

  He smirked, amused by her small jab. “Does he have a habit of calling in sick?”

  “Not really, but there was a virus going around the lab a few weeks ago. So it’s not far-fetched to believe that he caught the bug that had bounced around. And it’s our strict policy that if you’re sick in any way, you call in, because we can’t risk contamination.”

  Zak accepted her answer. “What’s he like?”

  “Not single.”

  He laughed. “Good to know. What else can you tell me?”

  “His research is exquisite.”

  Zak’s brows shot up. “Exquisite? I’ve never heard anyone describe cold, hard facts as exquisite. Isn’t that something you reserve for, like, key lime pie?”

  A smile found her even though annoyance was still riding her hard. “Well, it’s true. The first time I read his work I was stunned by its beauty. His work is clean, no mistakes. Unlike some people who lead with their egos, when he doesn’t have an answer, he doesn’t pretend to know what he doesn’t know. I wish I had an entire team just like Robert.”

  “Seems very efficient.”

  “He is,” she agreed.

  “And would probably make an excellent assassin.”

  Caitlin chuckled. “I guess it’s a good thing he chose science.”

  A moment of silence followed. Just as Caitlin began to relax, thinking that perhaps Zak was finished with his line of questions, he started in again. “Are you aware that Tessara has a shady past?”

  Her shoulders tensed. “Everyone has a chapter in their story they don’t like to talk about.”

  “Does that sentiment apply to corporations?” he mused.

  “Of course.”

  “So you’re okay with Tessara’s past?”

  She sighed. “You sound like my parents.”

  “Elaborate.”

  She didn’t know what possible use sharing how her parents felt about Tessara was to the investigation. But at least he wasn’t grilling her about her team anymore, so she indulged him. “My parents were top research analysts in their fields and Tessara courted them back in the day but they turned the lab down.”

  “Why?”

  “Because they had serious reservations about what they felt was a conflict in ethics at the time.”

  “But you don’t have the same concerns?”

  “Nope.”

  “Interesting.”

  Was that judgment in his tone? “That’s a pretty heavy rock you’re holding while you stand in a very delicate glass house, wouldn’t you say?”

  He barked a short laugh. “Touché.”

  “My parents have a difference in opinion about where I should work but I’m not living their life, I’m living mine. They don’t understand how important the work is that we’re doing.” She loved her work and wasn’t ashamed of it, either. “I love what I do and that’s enough for me.” And it was exciting. That part pinched a little with guilt because her mother’s worry was real and not just her typical nagging, but Caitlin had to ride this out. “Anyway, nothing in life is ever black-and-white, right? You’re always the villain in someone’s story. Just depends on whose story you’re telling.”

  “True enough,” he agreed. He seemed to understand her point. Maybe his own parents had given him grief about his life choices and he understood how it felt to be alone in his conviction that he’d made the right choice for himself. Still, it was weird to be talking about such personal things with a virtual stranger. She wasn’t cut out for small talk but then she didn’t enjoy sharing deep topics, either, which was probably why she was a loner at heart.

  Even so, she was staunchly loyal and she’d defend her team to death. “I can promise you everyone on my team is devastated over this break-in. Every single one of us feels violated. We want to find out who did this, but honestly, we really just want to get back to work.”

  Zak blew out a heavy breath, as if knowing he was about to become really unpopular with his next statement but was going to say it anyway, “Look, I admire your loyalty to your team. I get it, I really do. I’m alive today because I put my life in the hands of my team. In certain situations, you have to believe that your team has your back and take that belief to the bank. But you also can’t ignore facts to your own detriment.” He ignored her gathering scowl, putting the facts as he saw them on display. “Caitlin, someone knew exactly where to go to get that sample. The theft was an inside job,” he concluded with a firm shake of his head. “That means someone on your team is guilty and dangerous.”

  She dug her heels in. “I refuse to believe that.”

  “You’re being stubborn.”

  She flashed a hot look his way at his admonishment. Just when she thought they were reaching some kind of accord, he went and ruined it. “Well, there you go. I guess there’s nothing more to say about the subject. If you don’t mind, I’d like to finish the ride in silence.”

  Zak accepted her request and she unhappily turned her gaze out the window. There was a simple comfort in clinging to the assertion that no one on her team was guilty of the break-in. She didn’t want to think about the possibility that a traitor was working right beneath her nose. It made her question everything she thought she knew about her team and, worse, about her own skills as an administrator.

  She struggled against the helplessness that the situation put her in, but there was also something about Zak that poked at her in a way that was worrisome. She just wanted him to leave so she could stop feeling this way. But if Tessara was right and her life was truly in danger, she couldn’t imagine anyone else who could do a better job than Zak at keeping her safe.

  And that caused a riot of feelings she didn’t want to feel, either.

  Honestly, the whole situation made her want to climb into bed and pull the blankets over her head.

  She felt bad for being short with Zak, but her lips remained seamed shut, and she couldn’t manage a simple apology. Blame it on the lack of good sleep, the need for strong coffee or the fear that somehow she’d inadvertently been to blame for this disaster. Inside, she felt like a miserable little bitch. No wonder no one invited her to anything.

  Chapter 6

&
nbsp; He’d hit a nerve but he couldn’t spend too much time worrying about hurt or bruised feelings when he had a clear objective. Even though his TL was running down leads from her end, he knew the theft had been an inside job. His intuition told him he was on the right track, which meant he had to keep pushing forward.

  Even if it meant pissing off his prickly scientist.

  After securing Caitlin in her office—ignoring her sour, withdrawn looks—he started his individual interviews, starting with the previously absent Robert Vepp.

  The man was lanky, wore glasses and had knobby knuckles. Zak had never seen a man play a stereotype to a tee like Robert Vepp. Sometimes people with ridiculously high IQs suffered from a low social EQ, which could present like a guilty conscience because they didn’t like to make eye contact, seemed shifty and avoided conversation.

  He was prepared for awkward.

  But Robert Vepp wasn’t awkward at all.

  He thrust his hand forward for an aggressively manly handshake as he and Zak found a quiet corner to talk. “So sorry I missed the introductions yesterday. I heard it was quite the hubbub having someone such as yourself roaming our halls.”

  Zak smiled, faintly amused. Was Robert flirting with him? Well, that’s certainly a different track to travel. Not that it mattered, but he wondered if Caitlin knew Robert was gay. “Who’d you hear about me from?” he asked, curious as to who was talking after hours. He knew it wasn’t Caitlin, because the woman had only spoken to her parents and then had gone to bed with a bag of pretzels.

  “Am I on the record?” Robert teased with an amiable smile. Robert was easy to like, which Zak filed away for future reference. Sociopaths were often likable. Zak returned the smile and waited. “Ah, so we are,” Robert said, shifting in his seat. “As you might’ve heard, I was home with a stomach virus. But I’m friends with Jonathan Petranski, and when he called to check up on me, he let me know about our new visitor—you.”

  Were Petranski and Vepp a couple? “I’m sorry if this question seems inappropriate, but do you and Jonathan have a romantic relationship?”