“No, thanks.”
He slipped some coins in and heard the resulting thunk of the can he had chosen rolling out of its chute. Grace had taken a seat on a chair with another close by, perpendicular to it. She motioned for him to sit there.
“Look, Grace,” he said as he sat. “I really regret that we had such a nasty end to a…well, remarkable night. Being with you was—”
“No need to try to smooth things over, Simon. I didn’t want to speak with you to rehash it. The sex was great, our argument sucked, and that’s that.”
Her lovely face had taken on a hard expression. That should have made him feel relieved that they were simply moving on, but instead he had to quash an unanticipated ache inside.
“There are two things we need to discuss,” she continued. “First, unless you have any objections, I’ll bring Tilly in tomorrow afternoon to do another therapy-dog exercise. We’ll be sure to visit your patient Eddie, see if his shyness is eased a little if a very smart dog gives him attention, okay?”
“Fine. Are you on duty at all tomorrow?”
“In the morning for a few hours, then I’m officially off for the day. This should work out fine.”
“Good.”
The remote look on her face grew suddenly uncertain. “There’s something else you should know.”
He had the impression he wasn’t going to like it, whatever it was.
She hesitated, looking around the room, including toward the ceiling, as if checking for security cameras. “I need to go to my office,” she said. “Please walk with me.”
Whatever was on her mind, she obviously didn’t want anyone else to hear. Were there cameras recording what went on in the doctors’ lounge? He doubted it, but rose and followed her.
She stopped in the hall, putting her hand partly over her mouth, as if to hide it from any prying camera lens. “I’m going to speak quietly.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. He wondered if he would be able to hear it if he had strictly human hearing and leaned down as if needing the additional closeness to make out what she said. “Simon, I’m not the only one considering you a suspect in the biohazards theft. I’m convinced you’re innocent, but Major Dryson of the Air Force Security Forces has you on his radar. You may be under close scrutiny. Very close scrutiny. And we both know what a bad thing that could be for you. Be really careful, Simon, about what you do and where you do it.”
Shocked, he backed up. Was she telling him that she now really knew he was a shifter—and that the surveillance being conducted by the security group could reveal that about him if he didn’t take precautions?
“Grace, I’d like to talk to you more about this. Somewhere else, if possible.”
“Like your apartment, or mine, one of these nights? I don’t think so, Simon. Just be careful.” She turned and walked toward the stairway.
As he sat in the busy hospital cafeteria that evening, nibbling on a sandwich and watching the other diners—Grace not among them—Simon’s frustration was palpable.
Not just his sexual frustration, although he did regret not anticipating an encore session with Grace. Yes, he’d been peeved with her and her suspiciousness. But he could live with that, especially since it sounded as if she was now convinced of his innocence.
Was she also convinced he was a shapeshifter? Was that the hidden meaning behind her warning? She was no longer pushing him to admit it as she had when they were college kids—yet he wasn’t sure that she no longer suspected him of it.
The way she cautioned him seemed suspicious in itself.
Although she had hinted back then that she, too, was a shifter, she wasn’t doing so now. Was that because she was a regular human, or because she didn’t want him to know the truth?
Could she have been the canine presence he had noticed while he, too, was shifted?
If he came right out and asked her, he would have to admit what he was, too—and he still wasn’t ready to do that. Plus, he sensed she’d be the one to get defensive now, and deny it, whether or not it was true.
Yeah, he was frustrated. And those weren’t the only reasons.
He’d also had to limit his activities on the lab floor. Working on his homeopathic and herbal remedies was no problem. But if what Grace said was true, he was under closer scrutiny now. Working on the formulations he really wanted to, experimenting and blending for his own tests—that might not be reasonable at the moment.
“Hello, Simon. Would you mind some company?” It was Grace.
She held a cup of coffee. He hadn’t seen her because his back was toward the large coffee urns.
“Please, join me.” He pointed across the table.
“Thanks.” She sat and regarded him with an expression so sad that he fought an urge to stand and take her into his arms. “I didn’t mean to alarm you before. Or to make old wounds between us start festering by pushing you last night. I…well, I enjoyed what we started between us again. I’m sorry it can’t continue.”
“It could,” he suggested, keeping his face somber instead of letting it light up into a hopeful smile.
“There’s too much baggage between us, Simon. The old attraction is still there, and maybe even more now. But…well, when I saw you here alone I couldn’t resist coming over to talk to you. As impossible as it may seem, I’d like for us to be friends, as well as colleagues. Can we try that for now?”
“Maybe, but—” He couldn’t resist. He leaned toward her over the table, making sure first that no one was near enough to hear over the crowd’s roar what he was about to say. “My turn to ask you,” he said softly. “Grace, are you a shapeshifter?”
Her lovely brown eyes widened, as if in shock. And then she burst out laughing. “After all that I put you through in the old days, Simon, and after expressing my suspicions against you today, I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d try to get back at me now. See you tomorrow.” She grabbed her coffee cup, stood and hurried away through the crowd.
Leaving Simon realizing that she hadn’t answered his question any more than he’d answered hers back in the day.
Grace should be laughing for real over this irony—not the feigned laugh she had shot at Simon.
Oh, how the tables had turned, she thought as she hurried across the hospital parking lot toward the air-force base’s gate. Now she should simply avoid Simon and fulfill her mission as quickly as she could. She had already come up with some ideas to run by her fellow Alpha Force members here before trying them on Major Drew Connell. Ideas that might bring the thieves into the open so she could catch them in the act.
But despite herself, she was worried about Simon, and whether he could keep his true nature secret while the investigation into the biohazards thefts continued. She had the resources of Alpha Force to help protect her and the other side of her nature. As far as she knew, Simon was on his own.
The night air was stifling as usual. Even so, Grace especially looked forward to being with Tilly that night. She had a lot to think about, and the calming presence of her dog, as well as the brisk exercise of a long walk around the base even under bright artificial lights, might help her figure out her next moves.
Which, regretfully, wouldn’t include another passionate night with Simon Parran.
Chapter 9
“So what’s your great idea?” Autumn Katers asked Grace. The four Alpha Force members were back in Grace’s quarters that night. She had contacted the others after her walk with Tilly and said she needed their opinion about something important.
Now they all sipped lemonade that Grace had asked Kristine to bring in for them. The two dogs sat on the floor at their feet, and Autumn’s alter-ego hawk Venus was present in her cage again, too. It rested on the clunky coffee table they had gathered around.
“I’m eager for things to move faster,” Grace said, without any intention of explaining why she wanted to fulfill her mission and move on as quickly as possible. It was becoming much too hurtful to stay around Simon.
Although if they all
bought into her idea and it worked, that still wouldn’t resolve her other dilemma of finding the key to Simon’s shifting abilities. She had done some subtle checking, and neither he nor anyone related to him had apparently ever been associated with Alpha Force. Maybe he was friends with a member of the team, but that hadn’t shown up either. So far, Grace had found no indication that anyone had handed Simon a sample of the Alpha Force shifting elixir. Nor did he seem to have any knowledge of what Alpha Force was about.
No, whatever he was doing to control his shifts, it had to be devised by him. Or at least not be from any source she knew about.
She was aware that Alpha Force had conducted an official investigation into whether their elixir had any counterparts or competition. Their covert but thorough research had found other shifters in many U.S. locations, enough to sometimes spur legends like the one around Mary Glen, Maryland—which was why Ft. Lukman, the headquarters of Alpha Force, had been located there. The idea had been to allow normal, sane humans to ridicule those werewolf legends, and therefore add to the unit’s cover.
But although quite a few shifters had apparently attempted to devise control methods, none uncovered in that ongoing research had created any viable ways to manage their shifts in any consistent and reliable manner.
They hadn’t found out about Simon.
“Doing things fast would be good,” Ruby said drily as she peered at Grace over her glasses. “So, like my boss here said, what’s your big idea?”
“Well, though it’s always possible that we’ll see another outbreak of something nasty and infectious,” Grace said, “we don’t know when it’ll happen. My suggestion is that we don’t wait. We contact Major Connell, ask him to get Alpha Force to help set up a fake outbreak of something nasty, then publicize it and use all our resources to catch our bad guys.”
“Not bad,” Kristine said pensively. She sat closest to Grace on the no-style sofa, and Bailey lay at her feet on the worn berber carpet. “What kind of illness do you have in mind?”
“Something from a biohazard level 3,” Grace said. “I’d like to have it rated, but I’d rather have it look like the cause of a disease for which a vaccination exists.”
“You think our bad guys’ll steal stuff that’s not especially lethal?” Autumn sounded dubious.
“People can recover from all the diseases for which they’ve already stolen samples,” Grace reminded them. “At least so far. And that includes most types of shigellosis.”
“They can,” Kristine acknowledged, “but not always. A huge epidemic, if that’s what they intend…well, what do you have in mind? And where would you get it from?”
“I’ll just pass the idea by our fearless commanding officer. If he likes it, he can help work out the details.”
But when she tried calling Drew Connell on the secure satellite phone while the gang was still around, she only got his voice mail. “Please call back as soon as you can, Major.” To make sure he didn’t misinterpret she added, “Nothing’s wrong now, and the air-force security guys have been cooperating with me, even gave me an update. But I have something I’d like to run by you.”
Grace didn’t hear back from Major Connell until the first thing next morning, as she walked toward the medical center. She told him what she’d discussed with the other Alpha Force members.
“I like the idea,” he said. “It would give us better control over what’s going on. What about if we staged the whole thing, brought in a group who only appeared to be sick?”
“As long as the apparent biohazard samples seem real enough, that could work,” Grace said. “But we need to make it look good. What if our bad guys work in or around the hospital and are somehow involved with the testing? If it’s all clearly a sham, they’ll keep their distance and our efforts won’t get us anywhere.”
“I’ll run the idea by some of the guys who are helping me work on the latest version of the elixir. Maybe take it to General Yarrow, too, for advice.”
Grace knew that Drew was also a medical doctor, and he had been the first to devise the prototype elixir that allowed shifters to change at times other than the full moon and always to maintain their human cognition. Since he had helped to found Alpha Force, Drew had also called on other members who were doctors to help upgrade the formulation several times. As great as it already was, it was always subject to improvement.
She considered casually mentioning having run into another shifter here when the moon wasn’t full. She probably had an obligation to do so, and if it had been anyone other than Simon she wouldn’t have hesitated.
But it was Simon. She’d come up with no further ideas about how to get the truth from him, though. If her plan worked and they caught the potential terrorists, she’d either have to confront Simon for the truth…or, when she left, tell Major Connell about it. Alpha Force needed to know.
“That sounds like a good idea to me,” Grace said. “General Yarrow seems to know everyone in the military, plus he has other contacts in the government. I’ll bet that, with your input, he can help find the people and apparent biohazard samples we need.”
“You trying to flatter both your commanding officers, Lieutenant?” Drew’s voice sounded amused.
“Yes, sir,” Grace said smartly. She had reached the front steps of the medical center. “How is Melanie doing?”
“She and the soon-to-be little one are getting impatient. Me, too. Otherwise, things are fine.”
“Great! Well, I’m nearly on duty here now. I’ll discuss the plan with you again later, if that’s all right.”
“Fine, Grace. Time for you to go cure some patients.”
He sounded wistful, and Grace knew that despite his own medical background, Drew had been too busy to practice hands-on medicine for a while.
“I’ll try to save a few for you,” she said, and hung up.
That afternoon, Grace asked the nurses in the pediatric wing to bring some of the young patients to the same visitors’ lounge on the second floor where Tilly had performed before. She slipped the service dog vest over her eager pup once they arrived in the area, where several children were already waiting. A couple had been there the last time, but the other three boys and a girl did not look familiar.
“Which of you is Eddie?” Grace asked. The youngster she’d have guessed was Simon’s shy patient raised his hand. He had wild, longish hair and his gaze mostly settled on the floor. “This is Tilly.” Grace had her dog approach the boy slowly, then sit near him. “She wants to shake hands with you.”
“Really?” the boy squeaked.
“Hold out your hand and we’ll see.”
That was the beginning of a performance that seemed to awe the kids and delight the nursing staff observing it. Grace, too. Tilly adored the attention, and she danced and bowed and sang in a whine on command as if that was her main purpose in Alpha Force.
Grace was especially pleased to see that Simon was there as well, watching from just outside the lounge area. He caught her gaze and sent a smile in her direction, the first she’d seen from him since…well, since they’d both been doing a lot of smiling, and more, in bed together.
The memory had turned bittersweet, and Grace firmly cast it aside as she continued to give Tilly commands.
She ended the show after about twenty minutes. Both Tilly and the recuperating kids were obviously growing tired.
She still had Tilly shake hands again with each of them. When they got to Eddie, Grace said, “She really likes you and would love to tell you so if you’ll ask her to speak.” Although Eddie had clapped and cheered with the rest, he still seemed to favor watching the floor when Tilly was between tricks.
The child looked into Grace’s face briefly. “What do I do?”
When he looked back down again, Grace said, “You’ll need to look her in the eye so she’ll know you’re talking to her.”
Slowly, Eddie raised his head and looked straight at Tilly’s eyes. The dog stuck her tongue out and began to pant slightly, which cau
sed Eddie to grin. “She looks silly.”
“She’s tired and a little thirsty, but she isn’t going to get her drink till I tell her it’s okay.” Grace had put a bowl of water on the floor for the hard-working pup. It was behind a nearby chair. Of course she wouldn’t keep her dog from a drink for long, but another minute or two wouldn’t hurt. “First, tell her, ‘Speak.’”
Eddie did so, and Tilly barked, startling the boy so he stepped back.
“That’s how she speaks, honey. She can’t say your name.”
“I know that.” Eddie looked at Grace in a manner that suggested he felt smarter than she, at least at that moment, and Grace gave him a hug.
“I know you do. Now it’s time for us to go. Say goodbye, Tilly. Speak!”
Tilly barked once more, then sat still while the kids all gave her a farewell pat. The nurses, too.
As Tilly finally got her drink of water, Simon joined Grace at the side of the lounge. “That was great,” he said. “I’m really pleased to see how well Eddie did. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” Their gazes locked for an instant, and her insides stirred with heated memories and current desire. But reality and practicality ruled. They had to. “Are you…has anyone asked you any questions?”
“Not today,” he said. “I appreciate your concern, but—”
“But you think it’s unnecessary. And you’re not going to tell me otherwise. I get it, Simon. Just be careful. See you around.”
“I don’t suppose you’re having dinner in the cafeteria tonight.”
She looked at him in surprise. “Is that an invitation?” She hesitated. “I’m taking Tilly over to the other wings she visited before. After that, well—I’m not sure what my plans are other than to take Tilly back to our quarters.”
“If you’re interested, I’ll probably be there around six.”
Grace was definitely interested. But she didn’t know if her heart or sex drive would be able to stand another difficult session with Simon, where they remained so distant from one another. “Maybe I’ll see you there,” she said noncommittally.
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