“Dr. Berwell, I thought you’d be here.”
“Nils.” She let her breath out with a rush. “You startled me.”
He frowned a little and motioned back to the elevator. “You didn’t hear it ping?”
“No, I was deep in thought. Um, big staff meeting on Monday.” She tried to smile. Then her brain caught up with her adrenaline. “What are you doing here on a Saturday?” Nils was a low-level assistant who did grunt work for her part time, when he wasn’t needed in other departments, and was never alone in the lab. He shouldn’t have even been able to get downstairs—except that the main desk knew she was here and probably figured she’d asked him to come in.
“I’m working upstairs with Caitlyn. You know Mr. Madrassa, he’s such a workaholic.” He giggled and shoved his hands in his back pockets, rocking up on his toes. “She said Matthew—I mean, Mr. Madrassa—needs the files on Jason he asked you to put together yesterday?”
Her heart raced so fast she put her hand to her throat, certain he’d see it pulsing in her neck. “He said for me to give it to Jason.”
“I know, but Jason’s up in his office with him now. They’re really busy, so they sent me down.”
It was such blatant bullshit Gabby didn’t have to think twice about what to do. “All right. Let me get it.” She unlocked the lab doors, swiped her card, and let the scanner read her retina. Nils stood by, still rocking back and forth. He started to follow her when she opened the door, but she held up a hand.
“You can stay here. I’ll just be a second. It’s all on a flash drive.”
“Okay.”
She hurried into her office and grabbed the erased flash drive out of the pencil holder where she’d left it, then carefully locked back up again and met Nils in the hall, right where she’d left him. She handed it over, hoping her smile didn’t tremble.
“Here you go.”
“Thanks.” He took it and gave her a nod. “Are you leaving, then?”
The last thing she wanted to do was travel with him in the elevator even as far as the main lobby, but she’d obviously been on her way out a moment ago.
“Yes. You? After you take that up, I mean. Or will they be working you all day?”
“Oh, no, this is it.” They began walking to the elevator. “I think they’ll be here awhile, but they won’t need me anymore.”
They sure wouldn’t. Gabby itched to call Jason. Surely he didn’t know Nils was one of the insiders, or he’d have done something about it. She wanted to do something herself—like knock him out and sit on him until someone came. But she couldn’t let on that she knew anything.
The elevator ground lower, molasses or something gumming its mechanisms. Was she imagining it, or did the small space smell of nervous sweat? She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and made herself hold still the rest of the way.
Finally, the elevator reached the lobby. “Have a good weekend, Nils!” She glanced back as she stepped out and watched him press, or pretend to press, the button for the top floor. Matthew’s office. Then the doors slid closed and she was safe.
Except, of course, she wasn’t. The most secure location in which she’d ever found herself had suddenly become as dangerous as a war zone.
Gabby signed out and tried to make small talk with the desk officer, but she knew she sounded inane and distracted. She practically ran to her car once she reached the garage, her head swiveling back and forth until she felt the vertebrae pop. “Victim” was written all over her, but she couldn’t help herself.
Finally breathing easy once she was out of the Hummingbird complex and on the main street toward town—with no car behind her—she relaxed her grip on her phone and dialed Jason’s number. He didn’t answer right away, and her anxiety level rose again. “Come on, answer, please.” A click. “Jason?” she said before he could speak. “It’s Gabby.”
“Are you all right?”
“Yes.” She took a deep breath. Of course she was all right. “I need to talk to you.”
“Where are you?”
“Just left Hummingbird. But—”
“Where do you live?”
“In Adams Mark.”
“Get to a Metro station, park your car, and take the train to the Mall. We’ll meet you in front of the Castle.”
The jitters returned. “Are you sure? Won’t the Metro be more dangerous?”
“Your car is probably tagged. The closest Metro station won’t be that crowded right now, and they won’t be able to get close without you seeing them. But call me if you see or feel anything unusual or frightening, okay?”
She didn’t know how he seemed to understand what was going on without being told, but his take-charge attitude calmed her again more than anything else could. “Okay. I’ll be there in half an hour.”
“So will we.”
Gabby hung up and set the phone on her lap as she pulled up to a stop sign. There were no cars in any direction, and no easy places for anyone to hide. Still, she barely paused before running the intersection. The calm had lasted only until she dropped the phone. If her car was tagged, they didn’t need to follow her. They could stay out of sight and follow the signal instead. Jason had to know that and wasn’t concerned, but now she wanted to get out of the car as much as she’d wanted to get out of the building a few minutes ago.
How long would it take Nils to discover the flash drive was blank? Who would come after her? He was a pipsqueak and didn’t frighten her, not physically, but she doubted he’d be used as muscle. It would be someone else, someone infinitely more able to do her harm.
She screeched the car to a stop in a parking space in the center of town. Only pausing long enough to make sure she had everything, she scrambled out and hurried into Mike’s Cab Service. A few minutes later she relaxed, safe in the back of an anonymous cab, heading for the city.
* * *
“That was Gabby?” Lark had been half dressed when Jason’s cell phone rang, down the hall. By the time she finished putting on clean clothes after her second shower of the evening, he’d answered and completed the call. She’d caught only the tail end of it.
“Yeah, she’s in trouble. We have to go pick her up.”
Lark rubbed her hair vigorously with the towel in her hand and watched him reattach a holster to his belt. He was wearing a snug, long-sleeved shirt and jeans similar to what he’d worn before. She had an inkling now of why he was dressed that way in the warmth of summer, but they still needed to talk. As soon as she thanked him earlier, trying to hide her embarrassment at going off from a simple dry hump, he headed for the shower without looking back.
Gabby’s timing sucked.
“Let me just grab my shoes,” she told him, turning toward her room.
Jason stopped, met her gaze, turned red and looked away. “I think you should stay here.”
“No way.” Something flared—not quite anger, but intensity. He wasn’t leaving her behind. “We’re in this entire thing together. And I’m safer with you.”
“You’re safer here.”
Lark didn’t bother arguing. She raced down the hall to her room and snatched her sneakers from the floor, reaching the garage door just as Jason started the truck. He hung his head when she jumped in, but when the door had risen he backed out without another attempt to make her stay behind.
“What did Gabby say?” She stuck her left foot into a shoe and wiggled it on without unlacing it.
“Nothing. I wouldn’t let her. She parks her car in the main garage—it could be bugged as well as tagged.”
“Why do you think she called, then?” A stomp, and the right shoe was on, too. She settled back into her seat.
“Could be anything.”
They were silent while Lark considered that. “It could be. But Dad—either drugged, or Not Dad—told her to give the files to you, and she hadn’t seen anyone this morning. Maybe she ran into someone after we left her and wanted to let you know who it was.”
“That could be it.”
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“Okay, good, we got that out of the way. Now let’s talk about the other thing.”
“No.”
“I beg your pardon?” It infuriated her that he wouldn’t look at her. He was driving, of course, and it was starting to get dark, but he could at least glance her way. She wasn’t going to claim to love him, for cripes sake!
“This is not the time to talk about it,” Jason said.
Lark huffed. “It’s a great time. We’re stuck in the car for half an hour, right?”
“It shouldn’t be that long. Traffic’s light.”
Well, Lark didn’t need him to talk. She had plenty to say herself. “Fine. You just listen, then.” She took a deep breath to avoid launching into speed-babble. Embarrassment was seeping back in. “I apologize for my thoughtlessness earlier. I know you’ve been holed up for six months and haven’t…well, I’m assuming you haven’t been with anyone. And that while you were in the hospital…lab…whatever…you weren’t usually in the mood to…you know.” She made a motion with her fist. Now she had Jason’s attention.
“What?” He stared at her hand. She flattened it onto her leg, feeling awkward. “Lark, you have no clue—”
“Of course I don’t,” she quickly agreed. “I’ve never been through what you have. I’m just saying, I should have figured out a different way to help you. I didn’t mean to—” The words choked her and she looked out the side window, not wanting to see his reaction to the next part, even in the dark. “I got carried away, and I’m sorry. I’m not usually—that—responsive,” she ended in a near whisper.
Jason blew out a long breath. “Lark—dammit, I didn’t want to have this conversation.”
“Then don’t,” she shot back, frustrated. “You don’t have to say anything. It was my fault, I take full responsibility, and since I know your next words are some variation of ‘I’m too old for you,’ please just spare me.” Her throat tightened again. Part of her would have been very happy not pushing this conversation, but she couldn’t let Jason think she wanted a relationship with him. The attraction, no matter how intense, couldn’t offset his health concerns and dangerous job. But that didn’t mean she wanted to hear him reject her.
Jason didn’t spare her. He couldn’t. There was too much at stake to allow her to believe the wrong thing. Or to avoid the subject—which, he admitted, had been pointless and cowardly.
He didn’t like being a coward.
“I probably am too old for you, but it doesn’t feel like it.” He winced, imagining what Matt would say. “In fact, in a lot of ways, I think you’re perfect for me.” The admission caused something to swell in his chest, something light and—geez, he couldn’t believe he was thinking this way—happy. And the look on Lark’s face made him want to slam on the brakes, haul her into his lap, and kiss her for real. The way he should have kissed her back at the house, instead of ravaging her.
“But it’s irrelevant, Lark.” The pain that chased away her joy pierced his own bubble. “Besides the age difference, and the lifestyle difference, and the fact that I live in DC and travel the world and you live in Boston and travel the world, there’s the fact that we’re in a dangerous situation that has to take priority over everything else.”
“I don’t disagree with that last part,” she started, but he held up a hand.
“Lark. He’s my best mate.” He winced at the words and tried to cover. “My best friend. For a decade. He trusts me to protect you—stop laughing!”
“Best mate?” She covered her mouth with her hand but it didn’t stop the unladylike snort. “Have I been wrong all this time about the platonic part? Are you two really soulmates?”
“Stop it. It’s a Harry Potter thing,” he grumbled, making her laugh all the harder. His entire body blushed.
“You read Harry Potter?”
“I listened to the audiobooks. During all those lonely hours of rehab when no one bothered to come see me, not even your father.”
She stopped laughing immediately. “I’m sorry, Jase.”
“Forget that. My point is that I will never do anything to hurt that man, and that includes defiling his daughter and if you laugh again I will pull this truck over and leave you on the side of the road.”
Instead, he pressed down on the accelerator as if he could speed out of the conversation.
“I think you underestimate my father,” Lark said softly, all hint of laughter gone. “I would say I don’t care, that I’ll be with who I want to be with, but that wasn’t how I started this conversation. I don’t—I’m not looking for a relationship of any kind.” She lifted the bottle of hand sanitizer out of the console and turned it in her hand.
Jason frowned at the bottle she was contemplating with an odd seriousness. He’d appreciated the thoughtfulness when she bought it, but what did it have to do with relationships? Did she think he was too weak? Maybe his cramping episode had scared her off. She thought she’d have to take care of him.
Or maybe it wasn’t him at all. Her career was important to her, of course. He was a little irritated at the idea that she thought he’d stand in her way. The work she did was important, finding plant-based medicines to help people like—
Oh.
“Are you thinking about your mother?” he asked softly. That Lark didn’t jump or look startled told him she was.
“My father wouldn’t trade what they had for anything, even to get rid of the pain of missing her.” She dropped the bottle back into the console. “But never having something to miss is different.”
Jason could tell she was trying to sound matter-of-fact, but her voice came out tight and shaky. Her father’s loss was only an excuse. She’d endured the same pain, and Jason had seen the toll it had taken, watching Kelly battle the simplest of illnesses for years. Even if Jason never got sick, the risk was too high.
It shouldn’t hurt this much to be rejected for something he told himself he didn’t want.
“Okay, then,” he finally said. “We’ll just concentrate on getting your father back and neutralizing Kemmerling so you can get back to your normal life.” Lark didn’t answer. When he glanced over she was facing the window, her elbow on the ledge and her fist pressed to her mouth. “Okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah.” He thought she might be crying, but when she turned to face him, her eyes were dry. “On a similar subject, I made some calls while you were running.”
That was an easy shift of topic. He hid his faint disgruntlement. “And?”
“My boss blasted me for taking off. The cops want a statement. I told him I’d go give one Monday, and left a message for the investigator that I would.”
“I don’t think—”
“That I’ll be back by Monday, yeah, thanks for dragging that fear up. The longer it takes us to find Dad, the worse off he’ll be. I just felt better with denial.”
“Sorry.”
“Anyway, there’s something weird going on with my ex-boyfriend.”
He so didn’t want to hear about her ex-boyfriend. But “What?” came out of his mouth anyway.
She shifted in her seat to settle more comfortably against the door. The position had her squarely facing him, trapping him.
“A couple of days before this all started, he got real friendly all of a sudden. We hadn’t been going out for a few weeks, but then one evening he came on to me in the elevator. When I put him off, he said he missed talking to me.”
Acceptable Risks Page 16
