“She’s dead.” Xander blurted the information with all the delicacy of a rampaging elephant. He gestured toward the so-called newlyweds. “These two found her.”
The medical woman turned toward Destiny and Mac, her gaze filled with astonishment and maybe alarm. “How? When?”
Mac gave her a quick breakdown of what they saw. “Whoever carved her up is one serious son-of-a-bitch. I suggest we find the others and evacuate. We need police in here.”
Jordan’s eyes went cold, like the sheen on a silver dollar. “No.”
“No?” Destiny echoed the woman’s word, adding ice to her tone. “Didn’t you hear what Mac said?”
Jordan sat in a chair next to Henrick and crossed her legs with a nonchalance that defied the discomfort she’d displayed moments ago. “Yes, but there is no need to rush things.”
Destiny looked livid enough to bust a cork. Before he could intervene his partner let loose. “Rush things? A woman’s just been murdered.”
Mac tightened his grip on Destiny’s shoulders. “My wife has reason to be concerned. We all do. We need a plan.”
Henrick stood, his glance at Jordan filled with ice. “I think the plan to get the hell out might be a good one. Money or no money.”
Xander made a disgusted sound and approached his coworker. “You are such a pussy.”
Red rushed into Henrick’s face.
Ah, shit. This didn’t look good.
Henrick swallowed hard, his Adam ‘s apple bobbing. “Pussy? Pussy? I ought to break your neck. You’re treating this like its some damned joke.”
Mac figured he might have to step in if these two came to blows. “Whatever your conflicts are, right now is not the time to act them out.”
“Gentlemen.” Destiny stepped in between the feuding men. “I think Xander is concerned if we leave now we’ll be caught in the blizzard. Right, Xander?”
Xander saw the opening, because he nodded. “Last time I checked weather information we’ve got ten inches of snow with another ten on the way.”
Destiny patted Henrick’s arm. “It is dangerous here, and I can understand you wanting to leave. Do you want to leave, Henrick?”
Excellent, babe. Humiliate the weasel.
The man’s shoulders went back, as if he tried to make himself taller. His glare went from her to Xander, then back again. “I don’t think I have any choice but to stay.”
She nodded. “Then that’s settled.”
With newfound admiration growing inside him for Destiny, Mac felt a trickle of alarm as well. He didn’t know if he liked the menagerie of emotions bombarding him. One moment he thought about yelling at her, the next he couldn’t wait to take her into his arms and thrust deep between her legs. With her hair tousled from their earlier bed play, and her cheeks and lips flushed, she looked like a woman who’d been fucked good and hard. Tongue fucked, obviously.
Just recalling how juicy she’d been, how she’d writhed in orgasm against his mouth, made him long for quiet time with her. He wanted to know more, to explore her again until they could fuck for hours. Maybe then she’d stay out of his system forever.
Problem was, their bed session had been interrupted by a pesky murder.
He snapped to the present, pissed he’d lost himself in fantasy while serious trouble loomed around the corner.
Jordan rose from her chair and came closer to the cluster of men, a smile on her red lips that looked as bogus as artificial sweetener. “We’ll take care of Mitzi.”
“We need to find the killer before we worry about cleaning up the damage.” Mac didn’t like sounding insensitive, but he didn’t want the murderer’s trail to grow any colder.
Jordan paced slowly, her hair tumbling over her face as she gazed at the floor. “Dr. Bayou LaCroix may have created this problem in the first place.”
Now we’re getting somewhere. “How?”
Jordan shook her head. “Long story.”
“I’ve got time.” Destiny again eased out from under Mac’s arm. She grabbed the back of a chair and leaned on it with both hands, one ankle crossed over the other in a casual stance.
Reluctance created more lines between Jordan’s eyebrows. Jordan slowed her relentless pacing and put her hands behind her back again. “LaCroix was about to be fired by the company. Upper headquarters considered revoking his contract for conduct unbecoming the top scientist of a corporation.”
Xander laughed. “Who doggie.”
Ignoring Xander’s comment, Destiny released her grip on the chair and straightened. “What qualified as conduct unbecoming a top scientist?”
“He was harassing the female employees,” Jordan said.
“Oh, man,” Henrick said. “Mitzi told me there was something weird going on with LaCroix. She promised to tell me what it was before…” The man’s eyes glazed, his mouth twitching as if he wanted to say more but couldn’t. “I had no idea.”
Continuing with her explanation, Jordan said, “He promised to give each woman a raise if they cooperated with his experiments.” Jordan’s eyes looked sad, and Mac wondered if this, too, was developed for audience benefit.
“Experiments?” Destiny frowned. “You mean sex?”
Jordan laughed, but the sound owned little humor. “He had a hypothesis for how to enhance the female sexual response, but it had nothing to do with having sex with the women.”
Xander sniffed. “What an idiot. If I’d been doing the experiment—”
“Yeah, we all know what you would do,” Henrick said, anger flushing his face and his hands tightening into fists.
For a moment Mac thought the men would get into it again. Jordan didn’t give them a chance. “LaCroix tried the ideas on other companies, and frankly they thought he was dangerous. So dangerous none of them had the balls to put it in his file when he left the companies. When they hired him on at Situational Development Corporation they thought his ideas were brilliant. Just what they needed.”
Only three words came to mind for Mac. “A mad scientist.”
The medical woman stopped pacing. Jordan’s eyes displayed fright, widening as she seemed to wrestle with emotion, a fear barely under control. “You have no idea.”
“Then tell us,” Destiny said, a brittle edge to her voice.
Jordan’s fidgeting returned along with her pacing. “It’s classified. SDC specifically told us we couldn’t talk about the type of work performed here.”
“Government contract?” Mac asked.
Her gaze turned to him, reluctance etched into her eyes. “Of a sort.”
Okay, so she’d decided to be obtuse as hell and may be lying. If the work done here was classified, Quinton would have told them. Their controller would make sure this type of critical information reached his agents.
Destiny’s mouth opened, as if planning on telling the woman she could confess to government agents, but then clamped her mouth shut.
This brought another question to Mac’s mind, one he couldn’t believe he hadn’t posed earlier. “What does this place make anyway? It sure as hell isn’t licenses plates.”
Xander scratched at the back of his neck. “Government stuff.”
“Gee, you think?” Destiny put condescension into each word.
Mac forced himself not to smile. “And here I thought you made ketchup.”
“You think you’re a smart bastard, don’t you?” Xander asked.
Mac allowed his mockery to come through. “Why, yes.”
Annoyance covered Xander’s bearded face. “I ought to—”
“Stop it, both of you.” Jordan snapped out the words. “Now isn’t the time for this. We have to work together.”
Destiny grinned and shrugged one shoulder. “I guess she told you guys.”
Jordan didn’t acknowledge Destiny’s statement. Instead she resumed her pacing, widening her circle as she went. “Dr. LaCroix approached every woman here at least once.”
Mac pressed, priming Jordan to keep answering. “How many women and how long ag
o?”
“Months. Years. I don’t know. I’ve been here six months, but I figured he’s been trying to talk women into doing this for a long time. Mitzi spoke to me about it, and when I went to LaCroix to tell him he should leave the women alone, he asked me to help him. I guess he thought I’d assist because of my medical training.”
“He didn’t want to put you into the experiment specifically?” Destiny asked.
“Yes to both ideas. I would assist and I would participate.”
“And you didn’t agree with the experiments.” Mac left it as a statement, pretty certain of the answer.
Jordan sighed. “No.”
“How did his bosses find out he was asking women to join his experiments?” Destiny asked.
Jordan stopped her relentless walking long enough to stare at Mac and Destiny in turn. “I told them.”
Destiny seemed to ease down, tension leaving her body as curiosity took over. “He retaliated against you?”
Jordan shuddered, as if remembering something evil beyond words. “Yes.”
A ripple of weird fear, unbidden and irrational, danced up Mac’s spine. “What did he do?”
An alarm blared, the piercing shriek more sickening than the woman’s cry they heard earlier. The lights went out, leaving the only illumination from skylights above.
“What the hell is that?” Destiny asked, her gaze darting around the room as if she could locate the source.
Henrick sprung out of his chair. “Someone’s breeched security from outside.”
Chapter Seven
“I thought the electronics were mucked up?” Mac asked.
“Separate system,” Xander replied.
Mac almost checked his weapon, then remembered no one but Destiny knew his true occupation. “We’ll check the building and see if anyone really broke in.”
Xander’s mouth, always tilted at a sarcastic angle, turned more serious. “We’re losing light. We’ll need flashlights.”
After rummaging around in a huge supply cabinet off the lounge, Henrick and Xander came up with high-intensity flashlights.
“Everybody take one,” Mac said. “Xander and Henrick, take the north side of the building. Jordan and Destiny will come with me.”
Jordan shook her head. “I know this building better and can cover more ground without you. I’ll take the basement area on my own.”
At first he wanted to protest, but then Destiny threw her own opinion into the soup. “I’ll go with her. Two women together should be safe, don’t you think?”
Jordan hesitated, and for a moment Mac thought she’d balk. “Let’s get going.”
Everything male inside Mac reared up and protested the two women going out alone. “I don’t think so.”
“I can handle myself,” Jordan’s said flatly.
Destiny fixed Mac with an amused expression. “And you know I can kick ass with the best of them, darling.”
Great. If he kept this up, he’d have two women ready to grill his carcass on an open fire.
Worry rose inside him, even though he realized it shouldn’t. If he didn’t watch his step, protective instincts would ruin his partnership with Destiny. Destiny Tremayne might come across delicate, but experience showed him she packed grit in her wallop and could take on about anyone who moved.
Still…
Shoving back instincts, he stepped closer to Destiny and looked deep into her eyes. He hoped to hell she could see his concern. “Be careful.”
Before she could speak, he leaned in for a quick taste of her lush lips. Sweeping heat rolled through his gut, reminding him not long ago he’d been feasting between her legs and tasting her sweet cream.
“You, too,” Destiny said softly, her face flushed and a little wide-eyed.
He couldn’t help but enjoy the breathless quality in her voice. “Don’t lose sight of each other.” He nodded toward the men. “Let’s move out.”
Xander grumbled, “Sounds like he belongs in a damned war flick.”
Mac grabbed the loose fabric of the clean suit around Xander’s neck. “You’re still talking behind my back, even if I can hear you.”
Xander swallowed hard, but his eyes remained aloof. “Yeah, sure. Whatever.”
Anger still boiling, Mac released Xander and headed into the passageway leading toward the lobby area and the scientific labs on the far side of the complex.
It took forever for them to reach the lab area near the center of the building. They stepped into a scruffy reception area replete with an empty reception desk. When Henrick and Xander started toward the glass door entrance to the lab, Mac started to follow.
Henrick stopped. “Wait here. We’ll talk with them first.”
When the men left, Mac surveyed the room, swinging his flashlight back and forth over the area.
Two expensive burgundy leather couches graced the room at right angles to each other. A bookcase, filled with scientific manuals, stood along the wall behind a reception desk. A computer hummed on the desk, its star system screensaver whirling. It must have been powered by a battery source. Other paraphernalia littered the desk. A cheap matching black plastic pencil cup and a desk blotter lived with a pink message pad.
Mac walked behind the desk and scanned the bookshelves. Volumes on genetics and sex lined the shelves.
Interesting combination. Something beyond weird is going on here.
For a second he considered hacking into the computer to see what he could find, but it would be too risky. The others might walk in at any moment.
Temptation made him touch the mouse and stop the screensaver.
A spreadsheet popped into view, and he scanned it quickly. It looked like a series of mathematical formulas written in a table. Above the table was an interesting comment.
Genetic abnormality probability from the Black Widow Formula is statistically probable, but not imminent.
He read the note and tried to understand some of the formulas. Although he enjoyed math, none of what he saw on the spreadsheet made sense to him.
Mac pulled his satellite phone from his pants pocket and contemplated ringing Destiny to check her position, but he knew it would be too dicey, and so would trying to relay information to Quinton. He would have to make an excuse to get away from everyone later and make the check-in call to Quinton.
Aware of noise on the other side of the lab door, he moved away from the computer and hoped the screensaver would kick in fast. With nonchalance he moved to the couch and stood with his arms crossed.
Seconds later Henrick and Xander stepped out of the clean room, their expressions bewildered.
“What’s going on?” Mac asked.
Xander shrugged and flapped one hand at the door. “Taking their sweet time. And they want to know where the hell Arlinda is, too. They haven’t seen her for two hours.”
“Two hours and no one went looking for her. Can you believe that?” Henrick asked as he shoved his hair off his forehead. “I can’t friggin’ believe it.”
Xander put his hands on his hips. “And then Mikhail tells me that Catronia stepped out and hasn’t returned either.”
Mac felt cold wash over him in an icy wave. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this.”
* * * * *
“Never thought I’d see it this dark in here,” Jordan said as her flashlight cut a path through the hallway as she headed toward the center of the building and the basement level.
Destiny’s flashlight provided a conduit through the gloom. “Emergency lights are even out.”
“I wonder how much longer the heat is going to hold in this building.”
“Not long, I imagine.” Destiny tried not to think of how cold it might become later tonight. “Thank goodness for winter outerwear.”
Right now she wished she’d put on her flannel-lined jeans with her fleece sweater.
“You can cuddle up with your husband. That’s an interesting man you’ve got there. He’s very protective toward you.”
Husband. The word hun
g there, a bizarre thought that sounded right and yet surprised her every time she heard it. “Yes, he is.”
Snuggling with Mac to keep warm crossed her imagination in vivid, erotic color. Based on their earlier skin encounters, she figured he’d be plenty willing to provide her with his body as a heat generator. He would offer his body as a blanket.
He would lie on top of her. Inside of her.
Keep your mind on the business at hand. If you don’t crack this case you’ll be mincemeat for whatever or whoever is attacking people here. Then you won’t have to worry about libido or sexual fantasies ever again.
Destiny tried to decide whether she should be troubled Jordan noticed Mac that much, or that Mac’s attitude toward her came across protective to others. On the other hand, why should she be alarmed by either? They played a part in a big production, and if Mac shielded her, it went right with the cover.
When he’d kissed her before he’d departed with Xander and Henrick, he’d looked more than a little concerned about her. Not faking anxiety, but one hundred percent real emotion.
“My husband was like that,” Jordan said as they came to a door marked Basement.
“Was?”
“He died in Desert Storm.”
An unexpected and serious twinge of sympathy belted Destiny in the stomach. She took a deep breath to relieve the tightness in her throat. “I’m so sorry.”
Jordan shrugged, the movement casual. Her eyes held long born sorrow. “It seems ages ago.”
The medical woman must be a bit older than she looked, or she’d married young. A new respect for Jordan crept into Destiny, and she decided she’d try to restrain her beliefs the woman couldn’t be trusted.
“A whole new lifetime ago,” Jordan said. Then she shrugged. “Men are such pigs.”
Destiny thought about the all-inclusive statement. Not long ago she would have agreed, perhaps wholeheartedly. Now she couldn’t affirm the generalization.
“What? You don’t agree?” Jordan asked. She picked up the pace and released a small, half-hearted sigh. “Of course you wouldn’t.”
“Mac is a great husband. There’s nothing about him that resembles a pig.”
Winter Warriors Page 9