by Jodi Redford
Excerpt
Devlin grabbed his coffee mug and crossed over to his office. He powered on his tablet and scrolled through his emails. Nothing much exciting beyond a few tech newsletters he subscribed to and an ad for penis enlargement. He deleted that one and settled in to peruse the article on 3-D printing. Halfway through his read he was hit with the odd certainty that something was off about the placement of his paperclip dispenser. Frowning, he leaned back in his chair. “Hey, were you messing with my stuff?”
A grunt came from the other side of the wall. “Yes, because clearly I have nothing better to do than drive your OCD ass crazy.”
“Well, you are a maniacal motherfucker.” Devlin made a point of loudly plopping the dispenser back into its proper position. “And it’s not OCD. I use the stapler more often, so it should be front and center, not the paperclips.”
“Admitting you have a problem is the first step in recovery.”
“Asshole.” Chuckling, Devlin finished up his coffee and returned to the kitchenette for a refill. He was waylaid on the round trip to his office with Leo’s request to fetch his reading glasses from the lab. After tossing out a few teasing digs about his partner becoming an old man, Devlin made tracks down the hall and fished his badge from his pants pocket.
The moment he stepped into the lab he was struck once again with the peculiar sensation that something wasn’t quite right. As much time as he spent in the space, it was practically his second home. So with that said, if his Spidey-sense was telling him that a detail wasn’t as it should be, he was damn well going to listen up.
Rubbing his chin, he surveyed the room, mentally checking off boxes as he cataloged each detail individually. Trash can in corner—normal. Lab coats on their proper hooks? Yep. Workstations prepped and ready for—
His mental inspection skidding to a halt, he stared at the empty test tube holder resting on the station across from him. The vial had most definitely been there when he and Leo locked up yesterday.
So where the hell did it go?
Determined to get to the bottom of that mystery, he retraced his steps to Leo’s office. “Did you do something with one of the vials from batch 39?”
Leo tore his focus from his monitor, his brow furrowed. “No. Why?”
“It’s missing.”
“What?”
Well aware of where Leo’s thoughts were jumping, Devlin shot up his hand. “Don’t burst your coronary. We don’t know that this is a repeat of Texon.” But after having one of their prized formula’s ripped off by a competitor several years ago, the fear was there of it happening again. Even with all the precautions they’d taken to prevent a reoccurrence, the threat was always present. There was only so much they could do.
Leo vaulted from his chair and rushed from his office. Devlin stayed hot on his heels. Once inside the lab, Leo confirmed Devlin’s suspicions with a string of colorful obscenities. Raking his fingers through his hair, he shot a narrow squint at the panel obscuring the security camera in the corner. “Let’s pray they were too sloppy to cover their ass.”
What were the chances someone would be foolish enough to stroll in here and steal Xtacy without disguising their identity? Wisely deciding to keep that woeful dose of reality to himself, he followed Leo back to his office. With a quick click of his mouse Leo pulled up the link to the security system and located the time stamp for last night. He fast-forwarded through an hour or so of uneventful footage before a blip of motion flashed across the screen.
Leo’s features hardened. “Got the son of a bitch.” He rewound a few frames and pressed play.
On the footage, the lab lights flickered on and a woman stepped into view. Devlin blinked. “Wait a minute. Isn’t that—?”
“Sidney.” Her name fell from Leo with the same amount of bemusement that plagued Devlin. They both leaned closer to the computer as she sashayed to the workstation and picked up the test tube.
Devlin shook his head. “I don’t believe it. Not of Sidney. No fucking way.”
“Then what the hell are we looking at?” Leo demanded, his tone flatter than a desert highway. Despite the lack of inflection in his voice, Devlin knew his friend was hiding a world of hurt while he processed the visual evidence of Sidney’s potentially traitorous activity.
“I don’t know, but let’s not jump to conclusions yet.” Come on, Sid. What are you doing? His heart knocking, he waited for the moment she’d put the vial back and scurry out of there, completely unaware of the real criminal lurking in the shadows about to abscond with the Xtacy formula. The wish was a desperate shot in the dark on his part, but he refused to give up hope. No matter how thin it was. When the test tube went flying out of Sidney’s grasp and smashed onto the floor, he straightened with a jolt, renewed optimism crashing over him. “She dropped it. That’s why it’s missing.”
A fraction of the doubt lifted from Leo’s gaze but his shoulders remained tense. “It still doesn’t explain what in the devil she’s doing in the lab.”
“Who knows? Maybe she was just curious—“ Devlin broke off abruptly when Sidney ripped off her blouse and wrenched down her bra. All coherent thought beating a hasty retreat from his head, he stared at the sheer magnificence of her breasts. She cupped their bountiful weight and tweaked her nipples. The real estate in Devlin’s briefs suddenly became a lot more cramped. Gripping the edge of the desk, he risked a quick peek in Leo’s direction and noticed his friend was equally enamored with the unexpected show.
Leo swallowed hard, his Adam’s Apple bobbing. “We probably shouldn’t watch any more of this.”
“Yeah, we shouldn’t.”
They both kept their attention fused to the screen. Sidney’s hand crept inside her panties. He and Leo adjusted their flies simultaneously. She bit her lip, her head falling back against the side of the workstation as her hips moved in rhythm to the motion of her fingers. Even with that miniscule scrap of fabric concealing the view, the sight playing out in front of them was tantalizing as fuck. She was completely uninhibited in her wild chase to the Big O finish line. The continued reel of her gasps and moans sizzled along Devlin’s nerve endings, but it was his and Leo’s names screamed at the top of her lungs when she ultimately came that sucker punched him like a two by four.
Holy shit. Jerking his gaze to Leo, Devlin discovered he wasn’t the only one sledge hammered by that startling last part of her self lovin’ session. “Uh, she just came while thinking about us.” There was no denying the obvious. A person didn’t just randomly scream someone’s name at the height of passion.
Leo scrubbed a hand over his mouth, his wide-eyed stare still glued to his computer. “Fuck me.”
“Uh, dude? Pretty sure that’s precisely what she’s saying.”