So far he’d done little more than glance in Lacey’s direction. She was relieved—and mad at the same time. “Dr. Sebastian”? Whom was he trying to impress? They’d been on a first-name basis since day one.
He towered over Ruthie, but he was using that sort of Old World dignity of his to charm the older woman. That was a good thing, even if Lacey wished that he’d send some of that charm in her direction instead of ignoring her.
She butted into the conversation. “So, Ruthie, do you need me to submit a formal report or just a note at the end of a pay period?”
Ruth jumped, as if she’d forgotten that Lacey was even there. She’d been busy staring up at Barak. Maybe it was the first time she’d been this close to him. What did she see when she looked at him? Those beautiful silver eyes? The way his black and silver hair framed his chiseled face?
Or one of the legendary enemies of the Paladins and the rest of mankind?
“Mr. q’Young, why don’t you go record the newest data and then enter it into the database for me?” Lacey put in. Two could play the formality game.
He finally looked directly at her, his eyes glittering with some powerful emotion, his nostrils flaring as he gave her an abrupt nod. “Yes, Dr. Sebastian. If you’ll excuse me, Ms. Prizzi.”
Lacey couldn’t draw a full breath until he disappeared behind a bank of machinery. With that one look, her traitorous body was wanting his. She folded her hands on top of the desk, trying without success to slow her pulse.
“Ruthie, how did Dr. Louis find out about Barak doing some work for Devlin Bane?”
Ruthie stared out into the lab for another second or two before jerking her attention back to Lacey. The expression on Ruthie’s face worried Lacey, as if Ruthie had a few questions of her own, ones neither Lacey nor Barak would have good answers for.
Lacey prompted Ruthie again, hoping to derail the inquisition. “Dr. Louis? How did he find out?”
“Someone from IT stopped by to load some updates on our computers. His name was Ben something. Although, come to think of it, why would he know anything about what Devlin was up to, and why would he bring it up to Dr. Louis?”
A good question. One that Lacey intended to investigate. Maybe Devlin would know something. Normally she would have asked Barak, but not this time, at least not now. He’d moved back in sight. She watched him work with his usual quiet efficiency for several seconds. Eventually she’d have to talk to him again, but she still felt too raw after last night.
She also didn’t want to arouse Ruthie’s suspicions about Barak. “Maybe this Ben guy was only making small talk and didn’t realize that it would cause trouble for anybody.”
Ruthie wasn’t buying it. “I think it’s more likely that he was up to some kind of mischief, but we’ll probably never know the why of it.” She rose to her feet. “I’d better get back to my office. His Majesty gets testy if he actually has to answer his own phones, you know.”
Lacey gave her friend a conspiratorial smile. “Should I call to tell him that you’re on your way back, and that we’ve worked things out about sharing Barak’s hours?”
Ruthie laughed. “No use in baiting the bear, my dear, but I appreciate the offer.” She stopped in the doorway to watch Barak for a few seconds. “What’s he like, Lacey? Barak, I mean?”
Lacey chose her words carefully, trying to sound like a coworker rather than a lover. Especially a one-night lover. With some effort she was able to shove that idea down deep, where it wouldn’t hurt so much.
“He’s punctual, methodical, and efficient. He still has a lot to learn about how we do things, but once you show him how to do something, he catches on quickly.”
Barak snapped his pencil in half and gritted his teeth. “Methodical”? “Punctual”? She made him sound like some soulless machine. At least she’d given him credit for being a quick learner. Was she thinking back to last night, when he’d paid such close attention to the way she’d moaned when he’d touched her in just the right way?
He turned to watch the older woman go, counting the seconds until he and Lacey were alone. He thought about confronting her in her office, but he didn’t want her to feel cornered. No, he’d wait out here in the lab.
It was another ten minutes before she ventured out of her office. Lacey wasn’t the type to cower. She headed straight for him with an odd look on her face, one he couldn’t quite decipher. The expressions on human faces were usually easy to read, even when the person in question was trying very hard to disguise what they were feeling.
Small clues in body language or the look in their eyes usually gave it away, but right now Lacey was a puzzle. He kept recording numbers until he finished before acknowledging her presence.
“Do you know someone named Ben? Works in IT?” She cocked a hip against the counter, her eyebrows drawn together in a frown.
“I’ve met him. I wouldn’t say that I know him. He bought a beer for me and your brother the other night.” That got her attention; her eyebrows lifted in surprise.
“You and Penn. Had. A. Beer?” She spoke the words as if each had been a sentence unto itself. “When was this and why didn’t you tell me?”
“It was the day we sparred after work. He had already made plans with Ben and wanted me to come with him for some reason. I didn’t mention it because it lasted all of half an hour and didn’t seem important.”
She pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. “Well, it might not have seemed that way, but this Ben guy is the one that let it slip to Dr. Louis that you were spending time with Penn and Devlin Bane.”
“I’m almost sure that we didn’t mention anything about our workout. In fact, we were already at the bar when Ben came in, so he had no way of knowing for sure that we’d come in together.” He stood up. “I need to share this information with Penn, but first I’ll go talk to Devlin.”
She caught his arm. When she realized what she’d done, she jerked her hand back, as if touching him had burned her. “No way you’re leaving until you tell me why it’s so important that you have to rush off to talk to Devlin Bane. He’s the one who got us into this mess by yanking your leash back into his department.”
“I’m not on anyone’s leash.” He took a step closer to her, trapping her against the counter. A brief flash of fear in her eyes only inflamed his temper. “Damn it, Lacey, don’t do that! After last night, how could you think even for a second that I would hurt you?”
When she didn’t answer, he walked out.
He managed enough control to avoid slamming the lab door; it might draw unwanted attention from anyone else in the area. But he burned to slam something. Paladins were always looking for a fight; maybe he could find one and prod him into trading blows.
For once, the area around Devlin’s office was deserted. They couldn’t be down in the tunnels, because Barak would have felt it if the barrier had gone down. Cocking his head, Barak listened to see if he could pick up any voices. Luck was with him. Some of the Paladins were headed this way. He recognized the voices: D.J., Cullen, and, yes, Trahern. If Bane was with them, he wasn’t talking.
Cullen rounded the corner first, but D.J. was right behind him. Just as Barak expected, D.J. came charging up as soon as he caught sight of Barak sitting at his desk, playing with the odd collection of toys D.J. kept there. It took Cullen and Trahern to hold him back.
Barak was disappointed. He smiled at D.J., knowing that would only set him off again.
“Get the hell away from my desk, you son of a bitch!”
“You weren’t using it.” It felt good to taunt his enemy, even if D.J. really wasn’t Barak’s enemy anymore.
Trahern’s eyes went ice cold. “I don’t know what game you’re playing here, Barak, but go back to the lab, where you belong.”
Barak slowly rose to his feet. He stood a good chance of besting D.J.; maybe even D.J. and Cullen together. Trahern was a different matter, but right now he didn’t care. He had to find some outlet for his pent-up anger. If it meant taking a beat
ing, he’d give it his best.
“I’m not going anywhere.” His smile was not friendly.
Trahern spared a glance for Cullen. “Get D.J. under lock and key; then track down Bane and tell him to come pick up the pieces of Laurel’s pet Other.”
When Cullen tried to tug D.J. away, the man screamed, “At least let me watch. There’s nothing I like better than to watch one of them bleed!”
Barak watched Cullen drag his smaller friend down the hallway. The racket didn’t draw a crowd: maybe these men were used to occasional Paladin explosions. When they were safely out of sight, Barak turned his attention to Trahern.
“Shall we?” Barak sneered at the cold-eyed Paladin.
Trahern stared back at him, a faint smile on his lips. “Something’s got your tail in a wringer, Other. You’ve got a temper, but Devlin normally trusts you to keep it under control.” An unholy glee lit up his face. “And I would guess that something is a woman. Lacey Sebastian, maybe?”
That did it. Barak charged Trahern, happy to finally have a target for his frustrations. He managed to get in one good kick, between a couple of Trahern’s solid punches, before someone caught him by the collar and yanked backward. He twisted and took his new attacker to the ground with him.
Devlin Bane surged back up to his feet, having rolled clear of Barak. “What in the hell is going on here?”
With a nasty smile, Trahern wiped a drop of blood off the corner of his mouth with the back of his hand. “We found Barak sitting here as if he owned the place. When I asked him what was wrong, he attacked.”
He sidestepped Devlin and offered Barak a hand up off the floor. “Feeling better?”
Barak gave the matter some thought. “As a matter of fact, I am.” Despite the ache in his jaw and the sharp pain in his side.
“Good. Now if you’ll excuse me, I’ve got to go help Cullen calm D.J. down.” Before Trahern left the room, he turned back to give Barak a hard look. “This stays between us, Other. Is that clear?”
Barak nodded, staring after Trahern as he walked away. “Does that man ever make sense?”
“About as much as you picking a fight with him right out here where anybody in the organization can see you.” Bane marched into his office, leaving Barak to follow at his own speed. “Now sit down and tell me what’s going on.”
If Trahern wasn’t going to talk, neither would Barak, not about Lacey. “I came to tell you that someone is showing unusual interest in my business.”
Whatever Devlin had been about to say about the fight was forgotten. “Give me a name.”
“Ben. He didn’t give me a last name the one time I met him, but he weighs more than he should and is losing his hair. Evidently he found a reason to work on Dr. Louis’s computer. While he was there, he mentioned that you were having me spar with Penn Sebastian.”
“Son of a bitch, how would he even know about that?”
This was the part that Barak didn’t want to talk about, but he couldn’t risk hiding important information. He debated if it was wise to tell the Paladin leader that it was Penn who had introduced him to Ben. But even if he did, that was no guarantee Penn had mentioned that they would be working together.
No, he’d wait and talk to Penn first. He would accuse no man of wrongdoing until he had proof. It was enough that Devlin had been warned.
“I’m not sure, but I do know that right after I started working with Lacey, he sneaked into the geology lab and shuffled through my papers.”
“You saw him?” Devlin’s temper was starting to flare.
“No, I smelled his cologne in the air.” Tasted it was a better description, but Devlin was human and might not understand what he meant. “At the time I didn’t know who the scent belonged to, but I recognized it when I met him.”
Devlin rocked back in his desk chair and stared at the ceiling. “I’ll have one of my men do some checking on the IT section; it shouldn’t take long to figure out who he is and what his game is. If he contacts you, play along, but let me know.”
“Fine. Now I need to return to work.”
“And Barak?”
Now what? “Yes?”
“Laurel was really pleased that you accepted our invitation.” Then he looked a bit puzzled. “The whole evening was fun.”
If the man only knew. “It was. Thank you for allowing me to come.”
“Tell Laurel. It was her idea.”
“Yes, but if you had really not wanted me there, she would have invited me to meet her for lunch somewhere. She didn’t have to invite me into her home.”
“Yeah, well, get on out of here before D.J. comes back.” The Paladin was probably more at ease with a sword in his hand than accepting a simple thank you.
As Barak returned to the lab, his steps were lighter than they had been all day.
“You look like hell.”
Ben looked up from his sandwich and glared at his superior. “Thanks, that’s just what I needed to hear. My boss has already been riding my ass because of some screwups this morning. I can’t very well tell him that I was lurking in that Other’s parking lot until the wee hours of the morning to see how long Penn Sebastian’s younger sister stayed.”
He shuddered as he took another bite of his lunch. After swallowing, he gulped down some of his soft drink to wash away the taste that last night had left in his mouth. “Can you imagine a human girl like her shagging that animal?”
“You saw them?”
Ben rolled his eyes. “No, but judging by the lights that were on, they didn’t just stay in the living room.”
The other man’s laugh was nasty. “What’s the matter, Ben? Jealous?”
The remark made Ben choke on his sandwich. “Hell, no! Even before, she wouldn’t have given me a second look. Okay, fine. I’m too old, too bald, too fat. But that she’d stoop to spreading her legs for the likes of him—that’s sick.”
“Maybe you should tell your buddy Penn about what you saw.”
The suggestion sounded so reasonable that Ben actually considered the idea. But from what he knew of Penn Sebastian, he was the type to kill the messenger. “No, not yet. I can’t prove anything, and he’s more likely to believe his sister than me. And I can’t imagine her admitting that she’d had a roll in the hay with her brother’s enemy.”
“And maybe it was all innocent, too.”
Ben didn’t appreciate the sarcasm, but there wasn’t much about the man he did like. Once he collected the next payment, Ben was going to finally pay off his debts with his bookie and that would be it. No more midnight spying, no more blue stones, no more anything that could get him killed.
His companion reached for the bill. “Well, I had better be going. Lunch is on me.”
Ben hid his surprise with another drink. “Thanks.”
He’d never paid for lunch before, which probably meant he needed Ben to do something dangerous.
“Our benefactors are pressing hard for more information on how much the Paladins know. You’ve got the best chance of any of us to find out.”
“And just how am I supposed to do that?” Ben didn’t care if he sounded pissed. He was.
“Bug their computers, their phones. Put a trace on Bane’s or Barak’s calls. Figure out something, and damn quick. It isn’t just your ass on the line; it’s mine, too. And if I go down, you’re going with me.”
Then he was gone.
Ben shoved the rest of his lunch away, too unsettled to eat. Maybe he’d call in sick for the rest of the day and go home. After a long nap, maybe he’d come up with some idea of how to save his ass.
But somehow he doubted it.
* * *
Chapter 13
Something has happened to one of the boxes we set up in the tunnels. It’s no longer transmitting data.”
Lacey plunked her toolkit down on the counter near Barak. The lab was full of other places where she could have set it down, but she couldn’t stand his continued silence much longer without doing something about it.
“So call Devlin and request an escort to go check on it. Maybe Trahern would go. He seemed to like helping you last time.” Barak spun away from her on his stool before walking over to check the latest readings from Mount St. Helens. She glanced at his clipboard. His last numbers were timed only five minutes ago.
She smiled. He wasn’t as immune to her presence as he’d like her to think. It was time to crowd him a bit. Moving quickly, she situated herself between Barak and the stool and waited for him to turn around. It didn’t take long.
With his usual grace, he moved smoothly around her and reclaimed his seat. “I thought you were going to call your friend Trahern.”
Of all the possible answers she could have used, she settled for the truth. “I don’t want Trahern. I want you.” She risked a hand on his shoulder, liking the play of his muscles under his shirt right where she’d left nail marks on his skin last night as she’d urged him on. And on.
His posture stiffened, and he set his pencil down with deliberate slowness. Playing with fire might get her burned, but she missed the heat they’d generated when they’d been skin to skin. He looked at her hand on his shoulder before meeting her gaze.
“It doesn’t matter what you want, Lacey.”
At first she thought he was talking about the two of them, but then she realized he was referring to the restrictions Devlin had placed on her venturing down into the tunnels. At least she hoped that was what he meant.
“I’ll call Devlin, but I still want you to go with me.”
He reached up to cover her hand with his. “Spending time alone together isn’t wise.” Then he gently removed her hand from his shoulder. The regret in his eyes didn’t make the small rejection hurt less.
“Barak…”
The sound of the lab door opening had her stumbling back, putting more distance between the two of them. Barak shot her a burning look before turning away, leaving it up to Lacey to face the newcomer. She didn’t want to get caught too close to him, and he didn’t like it.
Just her luck; Penn stood outside her office, his arms crossed over his chest. Bracing herself for whatever argument he wanted to start, she headed straight for him.
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