by Kym Grosso
“How’s your head?” Lars gently brushed his fingers over the tiny bump.
“I feel great.”
“You sure?”
“Hmm…yes. My lip, though…” Her voice went soft as she recalled the slap to her cheek. “He hit me.”
“I’m so fucking sorry, Brae. I should never have left you alone.”
“It’s not your fault. It’s mine. I…”
“Let’s eat something before we get into it.”
“No Lars…”
“You must be hungry, sweetheart.”
“Hmm…yes.” Braelynn snuggled into his chest one last time. She was starving but couldn’t decide what she craved more, food or Lars. “But I need to tell you…”
“The quiche is cooking. I’m going to throw the steaks on in a bit.”
“You made quiche?” she asked, a smile breaking across her face. His lips pressed to her head and he tilted her chin, so that her gaze met his.
“Why is everyone surprised I can cook?”
“Because we don’t, that’s why,” Seth joked from across the room.
Braelynn’s eyes went to his and her face flushed with heat, recalling Seth’s touch.
“You don’t need to be embarrassed,” Lars told her.
Her stomach flipped as he brought up the subject. She’d loved having their hands upon her skin, but admitting it in front of both of them was difficult. All she knew was that she’d enjoyed the experience.
Glancing to the pitcher, she wrenched out of his arms and attempted to change the subject. “Good morning, Seth.”
“Morning, darlin’.”
“I…” She began pouring juice into a glass that had been set out on the counter. “I need to tell you both about the chip. The papers I stole.”
“Brae…” Lars attempted to interrupt her.
“I need you to know what I know,” she pressed.
“Do you really want to do this now?”
“I have to tell you…yes. You shouldn’t mess with the chip. It might self-delete.” She sipped her drink, and her eyes lifted to his.
“Okay, fine.” Lars sighed. “Brae, I’ve run through all of this, and I’m going to tell you what I think.”
“All of it is confidential,” she told him, setting the glass on the counter. “I know you both have clearances but we all work on different projects.”
“Did Garrett make you do this?” Lars asked point blank.
Braelynn forced down the emotion that rushed up through her chest, her lips tightening at the question. “Yes.” She crossed the room to the kitchen table and sat, shaking her head. “I worked for Garrett. Well, technically I worked for Chase but I was at Emerson Industries.”
“No way, I would have seen you there.” Seth reached for a chair.
“I worked with Chase in the lab. I’d met him when I worked in the Caribbean. During my postdoctoral work. He was, you know…larger than life. I was young. Impressionable. You could even say I had a small crush.”
“Do you sleep with him?” Lars’ eyes widened.
“No, I didn’t sleep with him. I mean, we…” she paused, turning her head to stare onto the veranda. Tell him the truth. “We dated, okay? We did things people who are dating do. But it wasn’t serious. He’s the one who got me a job at Emerson Industries.”
“What does Garrett have to do with this?”
“Chase and I found something in the Caribbean. An undiscovered species. We’d only seen maybe five of these creatures in the water over the course of the day. Once we’d brought them to the surface to test their blood, it was clear they wouldn’t survive. We found a protein. I mean this protein, it’s not like other animals don’t have it but in this creature, it was different. We could see the potential almost immediately.”
“What was so important about it?”
“Myoglobin. It’s a protein that allows cetaceans to breathe underwater.” She registered the confusion on their faces and continued. “Whales, elephant seals, they can dive for long periods of time without surfacing. Some whales can stay down for a couple of hours. Now this research, scientists have already been looking at its potential for medical uses.”
“So what’s the big deal about this fish?”
“HWB614. It’s a mammal like other cetaceans. But when we tested the blood, we found an extra protein…a very special one.”
“What’s so special about it if they are already looking at it for medicine?”
“No, this was a unique protein the others don’t have. Imagine if we could somehow use these oxygen-binding proteins for soldiers…if they could take a pill or a shot and dive for hours without scuba gear? The implications are limitless. For the military. Industry. We think it could even provide the ability to survive at higher elevations where most species are no longer able to exist. Mountain climbing. Fighter pilots.”
“Everest, baby.” Seth gave a disbelieving smile. “No offense, but this sounds like science fiction.”
“But that’s the thing. It’s not real yet. It’s just a theory. But it’s solid. And it’s mine. It’s my theory.” She went quiet, aware of Lars sitting next to her. Chase hadn’t believed her at first, but within weeks, he’d given her project the green light. “This creature’s blood was special. Nothing had been tested yet. We’d been working through the case, still dissecting the sample, cell level testing.”
“Okay, let’s say all this is true. How does it end up missing?”
“Lars. I need you to believe me on this, because Garrett,” she sighed, frustrated, “he never believed a word I said. I’m telling you. I didn’t steal the data. Or the samples. But one day…it was gone. The paper files too.” She shook her head with a grimace. “And at Emerson, you know you can’t just take in a USB flash drive. You can’t save anything. But it disappeared.”
“And Garrett accused you of taking it?”
“Chase at first. There was no explanation for it. And Chase, I mean, part of me doesn’t blame him. I was new. The discovery technically belonged to Emerson Industries, since the expedition had been partially funded by them, and then one day…poof, it’s gone. They said they had me on video but I was nowhere near the office when they claimed I was. Of course I had no alibi.”
“They blamed you.” Seth leaned back into his chair.
“Yeah, and then worse, they questioned the discovery of the protein, which is bullshit, because Chase was there. But since the samples were missing too…look, I swear to you I did not take them.”
“What happened?”
“They searched my office, my car, my house. Even though I didn’t have anything.” She knew the disclosure would come as a shock to Lars. “When I went to get my clearances, I lied during the interview.”
“Lied about what exactly?” Lars pressed.
“Armand Giordano.”
“What does he have to do with you besides you working for him?” he asked, pressing the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He lifted his lids, pinning her with his stare. “You know him, don’t you? What is he to you, Brae? A lover?”
“No. He’s my uncle,” she whispered, having not admitted the lie to anyone.
“What?” Lars shook his head. “No, don’t tell me this. Garrett has had his ass in congress, been trying to take him down for over two years.”
“He’s my mom’s brother. I have a different last name. I think…I have no proof. I think he may have killed her or had her killed. My dad is missing. It’s been five years. But before I went to work at Emerson, before they made me work at Bart-Aqua, I had nothing to do with him.”
“So Garrett found out and accused you of stealing for your uncle?”
“Yes. But I swear to God, I’ve had nothing to do with that man since my mother’s funeral. You saw what he did to my cat. He’s been like that forever and I just…”
“This is what he had on you, how he got you to steal it back? And he scrubbed any records of you being related to him in case anyone started poking their nose around?”
“Yes, but Lars, he had no proof my uncle took it.”
“So he sent you in to find out?”
“My uncle was suspicious of me at first, because I hadn’t talked to him in years. But I managed to convince him that I hated working at Emerson. I have no other family, and I think he thought he could use me against Garrett. But you know…he’s dangerous.”
“Well, yeah, you were shot at. We all were shot at.”
“Those men who shot at us? I’d overheard him talking about HWB614. It was late in the day, and I followed them.”
“They caught you,” Seth surmised.
“They saw me tailing them. Chased me. Shot at me. But at the hospital…I lied to my uncle. I told him it was a coincidence. That I was going to visit a friend. They couldn’t prove anything.”
“You refused to see me.”
“I had to protect you. If you’d stayed, they could have killed you.”
“But we didn’t know each other.”
“I knew you,” she confessed, a rosy flush rising in her cheeks.
“I don’t work at Emerson. We’d never met.”
“You gave the employee speech once. Do you remember?”
“Everest.” He gave a small laugh. “So there was no friend, was there?”
“Every girl in the office knew who you were. But that day, everything about your speech, your eyes, your lips…I just…I…” she stammered, embarrassment coursing through her. “I recognized you…your blue eyes…that day on the beach.”
“You said my name.”
“Yes. I was afraid they’d kill you too.”
“And the key? What does it open?”
“There’s a duplicate chip. A prototype. It failed. It only has partial files on it. I hid it in the sea caves. It’s nearly impossible to find. But the key opens its lockbox. Garrett was so angry I’d lost the key but I don’t know what I’m doing. They sent me to retrieve it, told me you’d be out of the house. And I wanted it back. I didn’t want any evidence. The keychain has my initials on it.”
“You were expendable.”
“Yes. No,” she said, confused. “I was the only one with clearances who even knew about the research besides Garrett and Chase. And Garrett, and you can’t blame him for this, he felt that the fewer people who found out about it, the better.”
“Who are the people who shot at us on the beach?” Lars asked, blowing out a breath.
“I don’t know who they are. I just know they were talking about it with my uncle. I haven’t seen them in the office since that day. When I followed them, it looked as though they were headed to the border.”
“Garrett knows you aren’t a spy,” Seth stated in anger.
“But she has top secret clearance and understands the research. And he thinks she stole it,” Lars countered.
“I didn’t steal it,” she protested. Dear God please let him believe me. Leaving him would be hard enough but if he didn’t trust her, she’d be devastated.
“I’m not saying you did, sweetheart. Honestly, even though you did try to break into my house, you weren’t very good at it.”
“I was just so stressed out. I didn’t want you to see me.” Braelynn exhaled. “I’m sorry, Lars. I’m sorry for all of it. You don’t know. I’ve never been accused of something like that before. Garrett and Dean…they wouldn’t believe me. My uncle, he never left me alone. It took me months before I had access to the room I needed, where they keep the data. The samples though…we still don’t know where they are. From what I can tell, my uncle doesn’t have them. My guess is that if they weren’t stored properly, they’d be compromised anyway.”
“But still, how did the data get stolen?” Lars scrubbed his hand over his beard.
“It’s not the first time there’s been an inside job,” Seth offered.
“It’s possible,” Lars agreed. “There was a guy who tried to infiltrate Emerson’s entire network with a virus. He was a mole.”
“I’ve thought about this over and over again. When we made the discovery, we were on a yacht. Maybe thirty plus staff onboard. Most of those people knew about the discovery. We were celebrating a new species. It wasn’t exactly a secret but we had no idea of the implications until maybe a couple of days afterwards. Maybe someone overheard Chase and me talking? My uncle…he’s not working alone.”
“Someone else obviously knows what your uncle is doing. He could have financial backing from a terrorist organization. Who knows? Or it could be as simple as one of the other large countries looking to steal secrets,” Seth speculated.
“It wouldn’t be the first time.” Lars shrugged. “Those guys in the helicopter, the ones who went after Garrett, they were never caught. Maybe it’s all connected.”
“That discovery…it was ours. Chase and I found it together. But the theory, how we could use it, not just use it but proving its use, that is my idea. And some of that isn’t anywhere but inside my head.” Braelynn bit her lip, terrified Lars had chosen to believe Garrett. The painful truth lay out there, and with the guilt lifted, she blinked away the tears on her lashes. “But now? Honestly, I don’t want anything to do with the data or Emerson Industries right now. I just want to be safe.”
“But if your uncle isn’t arrested, you’ll need to leave San Diego.” Lars shoved to his feet, clearly frustrated.
Braelynn jumped as he slammed his hands onto the granite countertop in frustration and grabbed a potholder. Lars swung open the oven, and retrieved the quiche, letting the pan drop on the counter, and slammed the door shut.
“This is what we are going to do,” he began, without looking at her. His disappointment in her crushed her spirit but her mind told her she deserved it. “I’m going to go through the documents and that chip. I don’t know how it works but I’ll call in a few favors with a few buddies in the NSA. My company works in data, and if Emerson Industries has clearances for it, I’m calling them on the carpet. I want to know how it works and how to read it so we can figure out how bad this shit is.”
Although Garrett had warned her that under no circumstances should she try to tamper with the chip, Braelynn remained silent and hoped Lars could pull strings and read it before Garrett arrived. Exposed to so many lies and accusations, she no longer knew who to trust. Braelynn’s eyes flashed to Lars, and her heart caught in her chest. His feral expression laced with both anger and desire, reminded her that this man had risked everything for her when no one else gave a shit. The only thing he’d ever asked for was the truth, and with it finally out in the open, there was nothing left to do.
“I’m sorry.” There was no apology that could make up for the lies.
“You should have told me.” Lars sliced into the quiche and then glanced to the steaks. “Fuck, I forgot these.”
“No worries. I’ll start up the grill.” Seth jumped up from the table and snatched the plate.
“Thanks.” Lars nodded
“I didn’t even know you very well. How was I supposed to trust you?” Braelynn asked.
“I get that maybe you didn’t know me in the beginning, but Brae, I’ve never given you a reason not to trust me. I have given you every opportunity. Everything that’s happened between us.” Lars dropped the knife onto the counter.
Braelynn cringed. “A weekend. You said that. That’s all it’s been.”
“It hasn’t been just a weekend. That’s the thing. It’s been months. That’s how long I’ve known you.” Lars crossed the room to open the sliding glass doors, and stared out into the glass solarium. “I was there for you in the hospital. I came to that event the other night specifically looking for you, for answers.”
“Aside from clearances, if I’d told you, I could have put you in even more danger,” she countered.
“I was already in danger. Those guys, your uncle’s pals? They probably knew exactly who I was after I took you to the hospital. Now granted, you kept me out of it by saying you didn’t know who I was, and they didn’t go after me again. That’s probably why Garrett di
dn’t want me near you at the party. He kept warning me off, but he still sent you to get that key after I told him I’d found it.” He flattened his palm against the doorjamb. “You lied to me. You both lied to me. At Altura. He was right there. How could you not say anything?”
“I told you…clearances.”
“You know what? It doesn’t matter.’ Lars raised his voice.
“They were threatening to put me in jail. Do you really think I had a choice? Because I’m telling you right now that I didn’t have one. Not only did Garrett accuse me of stealing, he’d brought in the Assistant District Attorney to pressure me into doing what they wanted. There’s no way I could have told you. I have no evidence to prove my innocence.” All Braelynn had ever wanted was to be a scientist, work with animals and plants in the ocean. Chase had offered it all to her on a silver platter, giving her a chance to expand her knowledge, work for a prestigious company.
“We made love right there at the club. In front of everyone. Jesus Christ.” He raked his hands through his hair.
Made love. Braelynn’s heart contracted at his words. “It was special. You trusted me to go there and I trusted you. You know what we did…”
“I don’t even know what to think. I’m just frustrated as hell over this whole situation. You have to see this from my perspective.”
“I do. And I’m sorry.” Braelynn knew that in the heat of the moment, her words brought him little comfort. Lars needed time to process everything she’d disclosed.
“We’ve got to eat before breakfast gets cold,” he replied, not acknowledging her apology.
“Lars…I didn’t want to lie to you. I would never hurt you. The club…everything. This whole weekend…”
“Seth will be in with the steaks soon. I’m going to text Garrett. Don’t leave the property.”
“What?” Her voice trembled.
Lars served the quiche onto large plates, focusing on his task. She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye, attempting to choke down the sob that rushed to her throat.
“I said, don’t leave,” he repeated.
“Why would I leave?” she asked, shocked he’d think she’d try to go anywhere.