Michelle closed her eyes and continued to breathe deeply. It pissed her off that his presence at her back alone affected her so strongly. She tried to convince herself her reaction was fury, but she knew better. She seriously couldn’t stand the fact that anyone would so openly feel disdain toward her. It dragged back unwelcome memories of her childhood.
Why should she care? For years she’d managed to bury that side of her, the side that felt the need to please people at all costs. It took too much energy, and most people weren’t worth the effort.
Why did Zeke get under her skin, then?
She knew the answer, but she was loathe to admit to herself that some ridiculous part of her was attracted to him. As a man. Perhaps it was just his looks alone. Or maybe it was the challenge. Either way, he was about as closed off from any sort of human advances as anyone could be, so she needed to shake the absurd draw and move on with her life.
Chapter 3
One week later…
* * *
Zeke was fiddling with the newest smartphone as he leaned back in his desk chair, feet propped up on the desk. He nearly fell off the chair Michelle walked into the lab.
He sensed her immediately and dropped his feet to the floor, turning to face her. It was late in the evening. He’d assumed everyone was done for the day and wouldn’t return. But Michelle never seemed to sleep. She had a work ethic that rivaled his own.
She didn’t give him more than a passing glance as she headed to the other side of the room, but she did speak, probably because it would have been awkward not to. “I heard you got a smartphone. I assume you’ve already loaded it with a hundred aps and informed the designer how to improve it for the next version.”
He couldn’t be sure about her tone of voice. Perhaps a combination of teasing and taunting. Maybe even a hint of envy. He laughed, because he couldn’t stop himself quickly enough. No matter how she intended her message to come across, her snarky comment had amused him. Which was saying something. “Not yet, but I did google his information,” he joked in return.
She faced him, eyes rolling. “Of course you did.”
“I had the latest phone before I was preserved, but it wasn’t nearly as cool as this one. If you need me to program anything into your phone, let me know,” he returned.
She lifted her eyes toward the ceiling next. “Were you born this cocky?”
“Nope. It’s a trait I picked up a few years ago.” She didn’t need to know he’d gotten bitter and defensive after his divorce. Nor did she need to realize he reserved most of his animosity for her alone. And he sure as shit wasn’t going to tell her why. He didn’t think he could articulate it if he wanted to anyway.
Without saying another word, she turned around and faced her desk. She notably didn’t sit in the swivel chair that was pushed under the computer. Instead, she bent forward and moved the mouse around as if she didn’t intend to stay more than a minute.
She wore scrubs. They all did. Nearly every day. There was no reason to bother to dress in anything else. It was easier in the lab, plus no one who was recently reanimated had much in the way of clothing at all. Scrubs in all sizes and colors were in the supply closet.
Michelle’s ass, however, was prominently featured as she bent forward. Her damn fine glutes drawing his attention. Since when did he notice or give two shits about women’s butts?
Suddenly, Michelle blurted out a string of uncharacteristic cuss words. She spun around to meet his gaze, forcing him to jerk his attention higher and causing him to hope she hadn’t noticed he’d been ogling her from behind. “Who else has been in here?” she asked.
“What do you mean?” He set his phone on the desk next to him and sat up straighter, hands on his thighs.
“How long have you been in the lab? Did you ever leave?” She ran a hand through her hair, making him nervous alongside her.
“I went to dinner, then I came back. The only people I’ve seen were the janitor and Temple.”
Michelle pressed her palm into her forehead as though she suddenly had a headache.
“What’s the matter?” he asked as he stood and strode across the room.
She spun back around as he approached and stared at the screen. “The data I’ve been entering all day is gone.”
That made the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end. “Are you sure?”
She yanked out her chair as she shot him a glare. A glare that could melt ice. She didn’t respond, and that was probably a good thing. He hadn’t earned any brownie points with her by questioning her.
She lowered to her chair and started opening files. She checked the backup. She searched the hard drive. All while he watched over her shoulder. “Fuck,” she muttered, and then she looked up at him again. “Just Temple and a janitor?”
He nodded. “I wasn’t here the entire time, though. When I got here, no one was in the room. Everyone was at dinner.”
“Someone wasn’t fucking at dinner,” she retorted.
“Apparently not,” he agreed. “Mind if I have a look?” he asked, half afraid she might actually take a swing at him if he suggested his week-old computer skills might be superior to hers. The only thing that would be worse would be if he proved his expertise was better by finding the missing file.
She pushed to standing and made a dramatic gesture with the swipe of her arm, indicating he should sit. “Be my guest.”
A week ago she had lurked over him in a similar fashion. The results weren’t different today. She stood too close, distracting him with her vanilla scent and her soft breathing.
He quickly looked through all the same files she’d just scanned. “Is this the document you were working on?” he asked, pointing at the screen. The crazy thing was he could see it was open and whatever data she’d entered at some other time was there, but nothing from today.
“That’s the one.”
No way in hell would he insinuate she hadn’t saved it. And besides, it shouldn’t have mattered. It backed itself up every few minutes and should have been on the hard drive and in the cloud. There was no evidence she had come to work today at all. And yet, he’d personally seen here working all day at this desk.
“Dammit,” she shouted, spinning around, hands on her head.
“Has this happened before?” he asked, his concern growing by the moment as he continued to look through possible backup files.
She chuckled sardonically. “Shit happens in this lab all the time. Welcome back to DEEP. It’s a new decade.”
He shuddered as he released the mouse and turned to face her. “I’m starting to get that.” There was a chance the computer had a glitch, but from what he’d been hearing from Ryan and Tushar, the number of unexplained incidents and accidents in this lab were far too many to be coincidences.
Zeke felt sorry for Michelle. She would beat herself up over this, doubting her abilities when he knew damn good and well she was a perfectionist who didn’t make mistakes of this magnitude.
No way in hell would he touch her, but he had the urge to pull her into his arms and comfort her. He wasn’t sure if she was on the edge of tears or a rampage of anger. Probably both.
“It’s like someone doesn’t want us to cure Myasthenia Gravis. We’re so close, and every time we take a step forward, we end up two steps backward.”
“You mean accidents happen more often related to that particular study?” Zeke stood. He hated sitting with Michelle staring down at him for some reason. She wasn’t a short woman, but at five nine she was still three inches shorter than him.
“Yes. But it could simply be that we spend more time on that disease than others right now.”
“Why that one?” He cocked his head to one side. “I mean, I know there have been more incidents of it in recent years, but there are thousands of diseases out there that need our attention. What’s special about Myasthenia Gravis?”
She shrugged. “How the hell should I know? I just do what I’m told and focus on whatever trickles down to me.�
��
He nodded.
“And now I’ve lost an entire day’s work for no apparent reason.” She rubbed her arms, shivering. As she turned around to leave the room, she murmured, “Gives me the creeps.”
Zeke watched her leave and then turned back to her chair and stared at her computer. He made note of the files she’d been using, grabbed a laptop, and headed for his suite.
Michelle slept fitfully, got up early, showered, and headed for the cafeteria. She grabbed a bagel and an apple and hurried to the lab. It was going to take her all day to make up for yesterday’s lost work, and she also needed to tell Ryan what happened when he showed up.
As soon as she opened the file she’d been using, she froze. “What the hell?” She dropped the bagel on the desk and leaned closer, opening several other files.
She glanced behind her, half expecting to find Zeke at his desk even though he hadn’t been in the room when she entered. No one was. It was not even six in the morning.
She returned to the first file and scrolled through it. The only thing that kept her from assuming she’d lost her mind entirely and completely fabricated the missing data the night before was that it was organized differently today.
It was all there, but whoever entered it the second time used a different method. A better one.
She gritted her teeth. “Zeke.”
For a moment she sat there staring at it. He had to have stayed up for hours entering all the information, not to mention creating a slightly different spreadsheet. This one was more interactive and useful than the one she’d been using.
She played around in it for a few minutes, her emotions all over the place. On the one hand, she was excited to see the improved system. On the other hand, she was pissed that Zeke had figured out a better method instead of her.
Zeke Holleran was the only person she’d worked with since coming to the bunker who got under her skin so badly that she didn’t feel like a team player most days. She’d never been this competitive with the rest of the staff. They were all on the same team. Didn’t even matter if they were from the old team or the new team. Their job was the same. Cure diseases. If someone came up with easier techniques, everyone benefited.
But Zeke had a way of pissing her off. She couldn’t stand the idea that he’d made an improvement she hadn’t thought of.
Of course, all this presumed he’d been the one to reenter the data all night. And where was he now? She had half a mind to go hunt him down. Knock on his door. Drag him out of bed. But that would be a bitchy move on her part since he was probably asleep, and he deserved to stay in bed late considering all the work she knew in her gut he’d done.
Why did the infuriating man have to be so damn good-looking? She struggled every day to ignore him. There were dozens of people working in this bunker. None of the others drew her attention. In fact, no other man from any walk of life had captivated her attention.
Until Zeke awoke, she’d gone about her business every day without so much as thinking about entering into a relationship. She didn’t have time for such a thing right now, nor did she have options since she never left the bunker.
She had no idea why she cared. It wasn’t as though he was the only good-looking man in the bunker and she needed to impress him. She didn’t need a man at all. She had devoted her life to education and then research. Medicine was her passion.
The few men she had dated in her early twenties before she buckled down and swore off all men had left an impression. They weren’t worth it. She could easily take care of her own sexual needs with a vibrator and a set of batteries. In fact, she did so far better than any man she’d slept with, which made it easy to put relationships on the back burner and concentrate on her job.
Nope. She did not need men in her life. They did nothing for her.
Except Zeke. The man who reentered her data all night even though he rarely did more than growl at her.
A noise behind her grabbed her attention, and she spun around in her chair to find the very man who wouldn’t stay out of her thoughts striding into the lab. He didn’t even look tired. Damn him. “You’re up early,” he said as he headed for his desk.
She swallowed, staring at his back. “Did you even bother to sleep at all?” she responded.
He shrugged, still not facing her. Yeah, he’d done this. For her. No need to ask. Her heart beat faster. It made no sense. The infuriating man didn’t even like her. He made that perfectly clear every day. She couldn’t imagine why he would go out of his way to do something so kind and thoughtful. He easily could have gone to bed and left the entire mess for her to deal with today. It hadn’t even been his fault.
“Thank you,” she managed in a voice that barely traveled across the room.
He glanced over his shoulder. “For what? Just helping out the team. It’s my job.”
It was way more than his job, above and beyond. No one even knew he’d done it. She hadn’t had a chance to tell Ryan yet about the disappearing data.
“Well, thank you anyway. You didn’t have to do it.” She turned back around to face her computer, but she didn’t see the screen. All she could see in her mind was a conjured vision of a different Zeke, one whose brows weren’t drawn together in aggravation. Surely, today of all days he wasn’t scowling. She had no way of knowing, but she imagined his face relaxed. Perhaps not smiling, but at least less angry. He’d done her a solid, and she hoped it softened him a bit.
Chapter 4
Two weeks later…
* * *
Thank God Zeke had spent every possible moment for the last six weeks working out in the small gym at the bunker because tonight he was putting his endurance to the test. The last hour had been a whirlwind of insanity he still couldn’t wrap his mind around. Until he could pull himself together and manage to paste on his best poker face, he needed to remain outside the bunker, where he was currently pacing in the moonlight.
He spun around for the millionth time and faced Ryan. He had so many questions he wasn’t sure where to begin.
Ryan Anand was the head of the latest team of doctors and scientists who moved into the bunker two years ago to find a cure for AP12 while simultaneously figuring out how to reanimate the previous team. Ryan had been dedicated to this project like no other human. After all, both his parents had been preserved in the bunker.
Ryan was a rock. He was the glue that held both the old and the new team together and forged ahead to ensure every last one of the original team members was successfully reanimated.
The only problem was that Dade’s prognosis had not been good. And tonight in a whirlwind of information, Zeke had learned that Dade would not live, only to find out five minutes later that it was a lie and Dade would indeed grow old and gray.
“So, let me get this straight. The experimental stem cell replacement you gave Dade totally worked, and yet we’re going to keep this information to ourselves, and not a single soul besides you and I know about this?”
“Correct.” Ryan was patiently waiting for Zeke to absorb the information. He was also pacing in the darkness where the two of them had wandered about fifty yards from the bunker to have this private conversation.
“I can’t decide if I’m elated you decided to include me in this ruse or if I want to punch you in the face.”
Ryan nodded. “I understand. And honestly, if you hadn’t been in the room when Temple came in to hear the bad news, I’m not sure I would have included you. But it suddenly seemed like too big a burden to carry alone, so I let you see the slides for yourself.”
“Great.” Zeke threw up his hands and tipped his head back. “Drop the burden on me, why don’t you?”
“Like I said, several things came to mind. I hated for you to think your best friend was dying, and it seems prudent for someone besides myself to be aware of the situation, just in case something ever happens to me. Besides, I know you obviously can’t be the person leaking information about the bunker since you were still preserved when shit star
ted attracting my attention.”
Zeke ran a hand through his hair and tipped his head back to face the sky again. It was no secret there was a mole inside the bunker. Someone was leaking information about the reanimation of the various team members as they were revived. Information that reached the press, religious zealots from all over the country, and anyone else willing to pay a buck to find out who was revived and when.
The leaked information was the reason Dade had left the bunker with Blair weeks ago to hide out in a remote cabin. He was also the first person to successfully do so without being tracked down—impressive since every one of them had a tracking device imbedded in their forearms, which evidently the mole was taking advantage of.
The information about the GPS trackers was kept to a select few people also, but eventually word would get out since every member of his team was now privy to the fact as they awakened, particularly because it seemed the trackers were being used against them.
After a wild race against the clock to save Emily when she was abducted by a madman, none of the team were left in the dark about the tracking devices. If Emily had known she was fitted with one, she wouldn’t have spent several hours worrying about how anyone would find her.
“Where is Dade planning to go?” Zeke asked. “And how can he possibly remain hidden anywhere as long as he has that tracker in his arm? Someone will figure it out eventually. I don’t understand how no one found him at the cabin in the first place.”
“No one found him because I deactivated it before he left the bunker. But, I’ve been watching those devices in everyone like a hawk for weeks now. Someone broke into the system in attempt to find him. They even managed to reactivate the chip. At this point I wasn’t even surprised, and I hope they had a field day chasing their tail to the hotel in western Colorado where Dade left the tracker weeks ago. I cut it out of his arm before he and Blair left town.”
Reviving Zeke Page 3
