Deadly Chemistry (Entangled Ignite)

by Teri Anne Stanley

  “No,” she said slowly.

  “No?”

  “Um…I’ve let him have mine a few times, when I couldn’t be here and needed him to do some work.” She paused, and her mouth opened, shut, then she said, “You can’t possibly think he did all this! Besides, I keep the dried algae and the step two drug locked up.”

  He looked at the safe, closed up now, but it had been hanging open yesterday. “Does he have the combination?”

  “No?”

  Mike waited.

  She sighed. “I keep it written down on a sticky note in the top drawer of my desk. But I’ve never taken it out and said, ‘Look, here’s the combination to the safe.’ I have no idea how the bad guys got that open. And the bad guys don’t include Dylan.”

  He didn’t want to do this, but she clearly didn’t have a clue. “Last year, right after he turned eighteen, he got arrested for vandalism.” There was more, a lot more, but Mike couldn’t tell her the rest of it without having to explain his own actions, and he wasn’t interested in showing her his dirty laundry.

  “What? How did that happen?”

  The obvious answer—he went somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be, and there was serious collateral damage—didn’t seem to be what she was looking for. So Mike gave her the other answer. Part of the real answer. “I left him alone too much after our Grandma died, and he joined a gang.”

  “A gang? In Tucker?” She stared at him.

  “No, Cincinnati. He lived with me at the time, right after our grandmother died, and I was…involved in some pretty heavy undercover work. I wasn’t home much.” Jesus, he hated talking about this shit, but her huge eyes seemed to be sucking the truth out of him. Pretty soon he was going to be spilling the whole messed up thing, all the way back to when Mike nearly got Dylan killed.

  “What about Evan? Where was— Oh, I remember. He was in Central America.”

  Mike nodded. Yep, Grandma had died while Evan was in the rainforest collecting frogs, and by the time Mike was able to get him a message, she was buried. Mike hadn’t asked Evan to come home and take on part of the responsibility for their brother. All things considered, Mike wasn’t sure Evan could have handled things any better, but at least he could have kept Dylan out of the city. Hell, he’d let her house sit empty for all that time, he could have moved them back here sooner.

  Lauren seemed to come to some sort of a conclusion then, because she nodded. “Well, he seems to be doing pretty well now. And he’s on a mission of mercy, so we’ll consider this a work-related outing and not turn him in, huh?”

  “I can’t wait to hear this explanation,” Mike said, leaning back on the bench. “And it had better be good. Because if he’s back to his old tricks, I’ll take my baby brother to the station myself.”

  Chapter Ten

  “He went to see a pig about a horse.”

  When Mike laughed, Lauren’s heart did one of those little fluttery things she was getting used to feeling when he was around. She loved to see him laugh, she realized with a start. This wasn’t a giant gut-grabbing guffaw, but a head-tilting bark of laughter. It turned his throat—and that little shadowy area under his jaw—into somewhere she wanted to lick.

  “You know what?” he said. “I actually believe you.” He stood there for a second, smiling at her.

  Lauren smiled back. Oh boy. She liked him. Like, liked him. If her best friend had been there, she’d have slipped her a note to pass to Mike, asking if he liked her back. Check yes or no.

  Then what he had said sunk in and she said, “Wait—why wouldn’t you believe me?”

  “Well…”

  She waved the question away. “So what brings you here on a Saturday?”

  “I’m on call. I got a call, so I came in to fix a leaky sink…and to check up on Dylan. And find out if you’ve heard an update from Crawford.”

  Lauren hesitated a minute, then said, “I think it’s time for you to tell me your story. There’s some kind of…something swimming below the surface here.”

  Mike’s gaze narrowed on her mouth.

  She licked her lips, but then said, “Oh, no, you’re not going to distract me. Spill it.”

  He raised an eyebrow, and she realized she’d revealed too much—that she was aware of him, of how much he appealed to her. He smirked, then chewed on his bottom lip, as though trying to decide how much to tell her.

  Staring straight at her, he said, “I…resigned…because I let a drug dealer get away with a few thousand dollars’ worth of heroin.”

  He looked away then, far away. After a moment, he continued. “We went to make a bust. We’d heard a drug exchange between an out-of-state distributor and a local gang, the Devil’s Rangers, was going down in this old factory that was about to be demolished. So we went to bust both the unknown out-of-state distributor and the gang leader, Dino Romain, and whatever lackeys Dino had dragged along. I got to the meet, hid behind a Dumpster, and Romain came in with a couple of his gang members. The problem was, one of the other guys was Dylan.”

  Lauren couldn’t hold in her gasp. Wow. Dylan, a drug-dealing gang member?

  Mike nodded. “I almost let him go through with it. I was so pissed off at him. But I knew he was only there because he was trying to impress Dino—the dumbass had joined the gang to impress Dino’s sister. Going to jail would have gotten Dylan killed—brother of a cop, you know. I’d already fucked him up enough—” He took a breath before continuing. “When he came through the door, I grabbed him, slammed him up against a wall. And gave Dino time to snag the dope and get away.

  Lauren didn’t know what to say. “I have a hard time seeing Dylan involved with drug dealers.”

  Mike laughed harshly. “It was more about being hot for the drug dealer’s mature-beyond-her-years sister.”

  “Ah.”

  “It still got him in trouble. Both of us, actually.”

  “Why were you in trouble?”

  His mouth had an ironic twist when he said, “Well, there was the small matter of all that heroin walking away from the crime scene. And the mid-level Devil’s Ranger that we did manage to bust tried to turn informant by sharing that I had a family connection to the Devil’s Rangers. That I turned a blind eye to their drug deals. My boss didn’t like me anyway—I had, uh, dated his niece—so he agreed not to prosecute me and to lower the charges against Dylan, but told me I had to go on ‘indefinite suspension pending investigation of an ethical violation’.”

  “That sounds like made-up bullshit,” Lauren said.

  He shrugged. “I needed to get Dylan the hell out of that town.”

  So why didn’t you get a job somewhere else?”

  “I did. Here.”

  “I mean as a cop.”

  Mike shrugged. “If I were to officially resign and go somewhere else, I’d never have a chance to take those sons of bitches down and get my reputation back. Besides, I couldn’t bail on Dylan. He’s an adult, but he’s had it rough—and as much as he hates me…”

  “You’re family.”

  He snorted. “For what that’s worth. Evan helped get Dylan into Tucker University so the kid would be out of the city and away from the gang. Then this Devil’s Dust shit hit the streets, and I hear that it’s coming from Tucker U, and that the Devil’s Rangers crew is distributing it.”

  “Did your old coworkers tell you about the Tucker U link?”

  He snorted. “They only talk to me on special occasions. Nah, I happened to call my old partner, Dan, a few nights after my suspension hearing when he was three-quarters of the way through a twelve pack, and he, uh, shared his feelings with me. To the tune of, if I hadn’t fucked up and let Dino Romain go, this new shit wouldn’t be out there putting junkies in even more danger than normal.”

  “So you think this Devil’s Dust is my step two drug?”

  He nodded. “Yep. I think that’s what the vandalism to your lab was about. To steal your step two.”

  She sat down on a stool. She’d known she wasn’t getting as
much step two from her extraction process as she should, and now that a whole lot of it was stolen, was willing to consider the possibility that someone could have been stealing smaller amounts for a while. But having Mike put it out there like this, that her life’s work had become a street drug called Devil’s Dust, which could kill people?? Now she had even more motivation to find those pellets. She had to get them out of circulation—if someone knew how to come into her lab and funnel off product without her knowledge, they could possibly have the skill set to make the step one pellets into step two and make enough Devil’s Dust to get every addict in America high. They would need her notes, though. They would need to know how to mix the algae with the toxin that released the drug into the extraction liquid and how to clear out the toxin later.

  Fortunately, her notes were safely at home, in her computer and tucked away under her bed, along with dust bunnies and probably a half dozen mismatched socks.

  Mike took a step toward her. “So that’s the whole story. I’ve got to find that drug and get these assholes busted, and Tucker University is the best place to do that from.”

  Lauren considered this. If she kept an eye on Mike, she might be able to get the pellets back before the police could get to them. And Mike was here right now. And very watch-able. She focused on the center of Mike’s chest, where his faded Tuck U T-shirt had a tiny pinhole. “You’re a good guy.”

  “Not so much.” His eyes dropped to her mouth, then back to meet her gaze.

  He stared at her. They were standing very close. Well within each other’s personal space. His dark brown eyes had little spots of green. And he’d cut himself shaving that morning, because there was a tiny nick on his jaw, halfway between his chin and his ear. And his lips were just the right—something—for his face.

  His head had somehow gotten closer to hers. And her body had somehow gotten closer to his. Just before their lips met, she could have sworn she heard him sigh, but that might have been her.

  It was a soft, quiet kiss, that much more startling for its gentleness from this big, rough man. No big clacking together of positive and negative poles—a simple brush of lips, but more than that. Something that had been building between them for two days now, ever since she’d tripped over him on her way out of the building.

  He started to pull back, so Lauren leaned forward, following him. She pressed her lips to his, more firmly this time, and touched his lower lip with her tongue. He tasted like coffee and peppermint. Her hands moved up his arms to his shoulders, solid under her touch.

  He lifted his head from hers then, staring down at her, his expression as shocked as hers must be.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t—”

  “Why—”

  “This isn’t—”

  He wasn’t interested in her that way. How embarrassing. “Oh. God, I’m sorry,” Lauren said, pushing off of him. She must have caught him off guard, because he stumbled back a step, bumping into the big metal shelving unit behind him.

  The top shelf collapsed with a deafening crash, and several large glass and plastic containers of chemicals fell to the ground and shattered, spilling their contents in waves of color and texture. Another tipped over on the top shelf, raining a blinding cloud of powder, coating them both from head to toe.

  Lauren started to wipe at her face before she realized that she had no idea what she was about to grind into her skin. Panic set in, injecting epinephrine into her bloodstream in a searing rush. It could be something as benign as table salt—or any number of lethal chemicals that normally lived safely on those shelves. She kept her mouth closed and made a “Mmmph!” sound at Mike. She took his hand and pulled him toward the hall.

  They needed to get this washed off before it maybe killed them.

  …

  A soon as Mike saw the powder on Lauren’s face, he realized he was in trouble. He needed to jump into action, but he had no idea what he was trying to save her from. Instead, he had to follow her into the hall. She looked a little freaked out, but in control. Her lips were tightly shut, so he kept his mouth closed, too.

  She led him to the nearest chemical shower and pulled the chain. After a brief hesitation, the pipe squealed, and water dripped from the oversized showerhead, slowly increasing to a steady flow. Lauren nudged him forward, but when he realized her intent, he grabbed her, yanked her under the water with him, and made sure her face was rinsed off first.

  After a few seconds, Lauren stuck out her tongue and tasted the water that poured over her face. She smiled and raised her hands to push her wet hair out of her face.

  “Sodium phosphate,” she told him. “Totally safe.”

  They took turns rinsing. When she nodded, Mike pulled the “off” lever. Most of the water made it into the drain under the shower, but there was a decent-size puddle extending around their feet.

  As Lauren stepped away from the mess, her foot slid. Mike caught her and pulled her against him before she hit the ground. He held her slender upper arms in his hands, felt soft wet skin under his rough touch.

  He knew he should let go, but he couldn’t seem to release her. He’d made one mistake by kissing her, and he was probably about to make another.

  Lauren leaned back, looking up at Mike. Her golden brown eyes wide. “Oh my God. For a minute there, I had visions of melting like the Wicked Witch of the West.” She started to laugh, the sound maybe a little hysterical, and buried her face in his shoulder. She clutched his shirtfront, her breasts pressed against his chest. Hmmm, she must be cold. But he wasn’t. He was burning up.

  She kept laughing, the giggles turning into something different, almost—she sagged a bit, pulling him off-balance with her. They slid to the floor, and then she was on his lap, and he was holding her while she sobbed. Oh hell. Nothing to make a guy feel helpless like a crying female. If it was any other woman, he probably would have gently patted her on the shoulder and made his excuses before hightailing it back to his man cave.

  But he couldn’t seem to help himself from wanting to take care of Lauren. Oh, for Chrissakes. Get a loincloth and a vine to swing from, already. He held her tighter and rocked a little bit and—God help him—kissed her hair.

  After a few moments, she stopped crying, took a shuddering breath, and Mike loosened his arms a fraction, but not all the way. He wasn’t quite ready to let her go. She turned her head away and wiped at her eyes with her shirtsleeves. “I’m so sorry.” A sniffle. “I don’t know what came over me.”

  Mike chuckled. “No? It’s been such a quiet, serene couple of days.”

  She giggled.

  “I think you get a free meltdown pass for this one.” He knew he shouldn’t, but he stroked her hair back from her forehead, turned her face toward him, then realized what he was doing. He dropped his hand so she could move off of his lap. If she wanted to. “You okay?”

  She tilted her head at him and didn’t move away. Damn. She was too close. Her lips were right there, soft and inviting, and her sweet body was pressed right up against the family mascot, who was standing at attention.

  He felt her hands shift against his chest. It was an accident, he was sure it was, but her thumb brushed over his nipple and he jerked. He knew she realized where she’d touched him, because her eyes heated. She looked down at his mouth, then back into his eyes.

  He was afraid to breathe. Then she licked her lips, and it was all over.

  …

  Mike’s tongue was in her mouth, and his hands were on her butt, pressing her against him, and Lauren could feel…yes, that seemed to be an erection against her hip.

  Oh God. Everything in her went full throb. His kiss trailed away from her mouth and over her jaw, down her neck. She had her hands in his hair and was about to shift so she could straddle him and get that hardness pressed where she needed it when she happened to look up and saw Chief Crawford standing a few feet away, leaning against the wall, smiling wide.

  Mike must have felt her freeze, because he released the breast h
e had just cupped and cursed. Her boob was a little disappointed, too.

  Crawford held up a hand. “Don’t let me interrupt. I can wait.”

  “Crap.” Lauren scrambled off of Mike’s lap, hearing his oof as she rammed her hip somewhere he didn’t need to be rammed, but she was too horrified to stop and apologize. She pushed her wet hair out of her face. Then she looked down and quickly crossed her arms over her chest. She was in a wet T-shirt and an unpadded bra. And it was cold in that hallway.

  Mike got to his feet next to her and stood half a body width in front of Lauren, as though he would shield her from the cop, if need be. It would have been sweet if she wasn’t so embarrassed.

  “What do you need?” Mike asked, his voice low.

  The cop pushed off the wall and approached, pulling his little notebook from his breast pocket. “I’ve got some more questions for the good doctor here.” He stopped and gave Lauren a once over, then raised an eyebrow. “But maybe you want to get into something a little more comfortable?”

  “Yeah, I can do that,” Lauren said. She had a gym bag that she kept in the lab. It was probably the only thing that hadn’t been touched by the vandals. She turned on her heel and went to grab the bag, then scurried down the hall to the ladies’ room. Mike and Crawford spoke in low voices.

  When the door shut behind her, she pulled off her wet jeans, leaving them inside out, and decided the panties needed to go, too. The heck with it, she could go commando in basketball shorts for an hour. Fortunately, she had a sports bra in her gym bag. She fought her way into that and topped off the whole ensemble with a T-shirt that advertised a scientific research supplier. It read, “Apoptosis: Cell Death Tour 2010” and had catalog numbers instead of concert tour dates on the back. It was nerd humor, but Lauren liked it. She wondered if Mike would, too.

  Mike. Whoa. Looking into the mirror, she examined her puffy lips. She paused for a moment and touched her mouth, the feel of that kiss, those kisses, flooding through her again. She might have to rethink this “lust from afar” stance, because the real thing was definitely better than the fantasy.