Covert Attraction (16 page)

But she’d known for a while that Beth was also working with one of the judge’s undercover agents. The CIU had wanted results. When they’d sent Daniel to achieve them, they hadn’t known that anyone else—Beth—was working on them, too.

The judge had undoubtedly believed, at least at first, that Beth could mess things up. Or at least slow things down.

Well, she hadn’t yet and never would. In fact, she needed to make sure progress occurred even faster now. For her family’s sake.

Yet now, as she sat with Daniel at her tiny table eating pizza and trying not to meet his eyes, she couldn’t help worrying about what would come next.

The FDA was sending inspectors again? That could be a good thing. But they all knew well that Corcoris had plans in place to deal with a visit from the regulatory agency.

Even if the examiners got into the reports once more regarding the weight-loss medication that the doctors had criticized when Beth was eavesdropping, what was undoubtedly maintained for federal scrutiny would show that the tests had all gone well and that nothing was wrong. Sure, the FDA’s Office of Testing and Research could conduct its limited inquiry into safety and quality, but would they? Even if they did, what they were given to check could be modified.

And if Corcoris ever learned the reason for the feds’ new visit... Beth shuddered inside. So far, even with the incident with the SUV, her family had only been threatened.

After the FDA conducted its next unscheduled inspection, might her family actually be harmed?

“What are you thinking?”

Beth jumped, startled by Daniel’s voice. “I’m just worrying about my family. I know they’re okay for now, but— Do you think this second visit by the FDA will finally resolve everything?”

“Count on it.” He smiled at her over a half-eaten slice of pizza.

He looked so certain—and so cute as he boyishly dug into his meal again—that she couldn’t help smiling back.

Which might not have been the best idea. Not when, notwithstanding the impression they might give to the world, they had vowed to keep their hands off one another tonight and forever.

Yet what if Daniel was right? What if this time, after what they had learned during their last visit, the FDA inspectors were wise enough to uncover whatever hidden information existed...especially with a little help?

From the man who had discovered some of the records that might not have been available before but were this time, thanks to the “borrowed” password.

Daniel.

And if he was right, and everything was finally resolved starting tomorrow by actual evidence uncovered by the FDA that could even—she hoped—result in arrests, then tonight might be one of the last times Daniel and she would see each other alone for a coordination meeting or anything else.

Would this be the last opportunity she might have to engage in unforgettable sex with Daniel? Could be, for there was no doubt that he would exit her life immediately when his undercover services here were no longer necessary.

She looked away and took another bite of pizza. Those thoughts needed to be squelched. Especially since she realized they could just be an excuse to herself in case she tried to seduce him this night.

And yet when she did move her gaze back to Daniel, she found him regarding her with a heated stare that suggested his mind was heading in the same direction.

Interesting that their thoughts—and bodies—seemed to be in sync. Or was she just hoping...?

“Beth,” Daniel said softly, placing his slice of pizza back on the paper plate on the table in front of him. He stood and held out his arms.

Almost as if mesmerized, Beth did the same thing: food down, body standing, and suddenly she pressed herself tightly against him.

She inhaled slowly at the incredible feel of his hard body, its angles fitting so enticingly against her curves. She tried once more to remember what a bad idea this was. And failed as his head bent toward hers, causing her to raise her lips for the searching and stimulating kiss she anticipated.

She wasn’t disappointed. Nor did she passively accept his embrace. She tried to let her mouth outtease, outsearch his. Her tongue kicked off a game with a rhythm that mimicked what their lower bodies could do.

Would
do. Had to. She felt Daniel’s arousal pressed tightly against her center, and her body responded with growing desire.

Her knees weakened, or was that just an instinctive reaction? She yearned to slide to the floor with him while pulling off their clothes.

Daniel put one of his hands between them, caressed her aching breasts. Instead of lowering them where they stood, he began undressing her even as he moved them in a dance of passion toward her small and narrow couch.

Would he convert it? Should she?

He let go of her. Oh, yes, she felt bereft, but she determined the time wouldn’t go to waste. She stripped off the rest of her clothes.

The bed immediately emerged from the sofa under Daniel’s strong and relentless tug. Beth smiled as he turned back and saw that she was naked.

“Beautiful,” he breathed and stepped toward her.

“You need to share the view,” she said softly, and also drew closer, unbuttoning his shirt as he bent and slid off his pants.

Oh, yes. He did share the view. His toned, muscular body was every bit as gorgeous as she recalled. And the way his shaft stretched toward her...

She couldn’t help it. She knelt and took him into her mouth, sucking gently, then releasing his erection just enough to lick its length before he bent and pulled her toward the bed.

It was his turn to touch, then taste her. She moaned as his lips reached her breasts and almost cried out when he licked first one hard nipple, then the other, even as his clever hands played with the lower part of her body, teasing her, then gently pushing one, then two fingers inside in the way she wanted not his hand but his hardness to go.

Instead, he moved off the bed again. She almost cried out until she realized where he was headed: toward the pile of his clothes on the floor.

He had come prepared, and when he tore open the condom and returned to her, she held out her hand.

“Let me,” she whispered.

He did. Moments after he was sheathed, he was inside her, loving her, bringing her to the highest crescendo of need.

When she bucked and cried out in her raging orgasm, he, too, moaned and stilled.

His body soon straightened on top of her. He was heavy, but the weight remained fraught with passion and suggestion.

Which meant that after a short time to rest, they began their lovemaking all over again.

Chapter 16

D
aniel stayed the night. Good idea? Maybe not. But it felt so good to wake up now and then and draw Beth’s nude form close to him again.

It led to more lovemaking. And more.

He woke up before her and hit the shower. He’d need to go to his place to change clothes before heading to work. He didn’t want to have to explain wearing the same outfit twice, even though his geek personality there could suggest that he simply forgot what he’d had on yesterday.

Although if someone really was making assumptions about Beth and him...maybe to maintain their cover, wearing yesterday’s clothes again might be a good thing.

In fact, when a grinning Beth joined him in the shower and their subsequent activities took up a lot of the time he’d have needed to go home, he decided that a change of clothes was unnecessary after all.

* * *

Beth drove separately to work when her bed was once more a sofa and they’d left her apartment.

She refused to let her mind dwell on the reasons that what they had done all night had been a series of mistakes.

Instead, she convinced herself—maybe—that it had been a good diversion, an enjoyable interlude that would be the last time they’d have the opportunity to engage in sex.

They both had to return to reality.

That was exactly what she did after Daniel and she assumed their chosen roles at Corcoris once more in the parking lot and wished each other a good day.

She would wait until later to call her parents, when it wouldn’t be so awkward to do so. Not that she’d have hesitated even in the middle of the night if she’d felt she had to warn them...again.

But even if the danger to them had been increased by the man who’d stolen the SUV and followed her, her family should be okay now—especially since not only had he been caught, but the security patrols in their neighborhood had also been stepped up.

Beth walked into the building, used her ID card at the entry and was met immediately by Mary Cantrera, who was giving assignments for the day to the entire group.

“Glad you’re on time today,” the older woman stated. “Busy day. Word is out there’ll be some unscheduled government inspections conducted this afternoon, so we need to make sure all the lab areas where tests are conducted are spotless.”

Not that Beth had doubted Judge Treena’s warning, but now it appeared that the whole company was aware of the impending FDA visit.

How had that happened? And was it a good thing?

Usually, the feds were concerned with records and reports. This could be overkill to help make the best possible impression.

Unless the cleaning was somehow also designed to obscure something that could otherwise be used as evidence. Beth would keep her eyes open for that.

But shouldn’t the FDA just have shown up completely unannounced? Beth had only a vague idea about how those things were usually handled. She had sometimes been aware of inspections when she had worked here before, but the only time she had heard much about them was when they went well and she was ordered, in her public relations capacity, to come up with releases to announce that to the world.

Less favorable results had been handled delicately by her bosses. Like her missing friend, Milt Ranich.

When all this was over, would she finally know where he was?

In a short while, she and the other cleaning-staff members gathered their equipment and started off with their carts down the hall toward the service elevator.

She had to wait for several carloads but eventually got into the same ride as Gabrielle Maroni. The young cleaning-staff member seemed giddy about being so important that day. “It all depends on us,” she said, grinning broadly as she held on to the long handle of one of the mops extending from the top of her cart. “If we don’t sanitize something right, our company could fail the inspection and get into big trouble.” She did a fist pump. “It’s about time they recognize that the cleaning crew rocks.”

Beth couldn’t help smiling, even as she maintained her shy personality—and realized that this young woman didn’t catch the irony in what she said. Too much cleaning in areas of the FDA’s focus might be the exact wrong thing to do, in the agency’s estimation. It could appear that they were attempting to mask a problem. And maybe they were.

“I just hope I do everything okay,” was all she said.

“You will.” Gabrielle gave Beth’s arm a squeeze. “But if you’re worried, you can always tell Mama Mary to double-check what you’ve done.”

Beth would as soon drink some of the cleansing soap as ask their boss to inspect her work. But she said, “Good idea. Are you going to do that?”

“No way,” Gabrielle said. “I may be pretty new at this, but I know I’m handling it just fine.”

It wouldn’t be long until the elevator stopped on the second floor. Beth hadn’t been alone with Gabrielle since the major lab cleanup to which she’d been assigned.

“You’ve been here longer than me,” Beth said. “I’ve been wondering since the other day—have there been any other...accidents...like the one we had to clean up? I mean, where so much stuff was trashed and all over the floor.”

Gabrielle’s vivacious expression suddenly turned blank. “We’ve been told not to talk about that.”

“Then there have been others,” Beth speculated. “How many since you’ve started working here? And do you know how—?”

She really meant
who
rather than
how,
but it didn’t matter. Their elevator arrived and the door opened. Gabrielle shot her a glance that looked both scared and relieved. But before she got out, she said very softly, “What I heard was that it happens sometimes when a report shows stuff it shouldn’t.”

In other words, where the results were bad, Beth figured. But it was too late to get anything else from Gabrielle. She was already out the door, shoving her equipment ahead of her.

Beth pushed her cart out of the elevator, too. She watched Gabrielle’s back for a few seconds, then started making her way down the hall to the lab area where she was assigned to clean.

It was, she recalled, the same one where she had met Daniel—was it only a few days ago? It was Friday now. That had been Monday, not even a week.

As she entered the outer room of the lab, she went through the same procedure as she had then: changing into sanitary clothing, pulling on a vinyl cap and sanitary gloves. And, yes, she exchanged her cart for the cleaner one that waited for her.

Then she opened the inner door and went inside.

And stopped. Her being assigned here was a mistake. This lab was occupied now by several technicians who appeared busy. Conducting regular tests—or some kind of preparations for the inspection? That, Beth couldn’t tell.

But Daniel was there among the half a dozen other men and women dressed in white lab jackets and also wearing gloves who clustered around the laboratory tables and computers.

With all the organized chaos, she considered leaving and reporting the apparent mistake to Mary.

On the other hand...could she somehow use this? Maybe she could find a way to clean corners without getting in anyone’s way.

While eavesdropping.

Still, Daniel, with whatever he was doing, was much more likely to extract something that could turn into evidence against Corcoris.

Especially if any of these lab worker bees had been instructed, officially or not, to change results or reports to make the company look better to their inspectors.

Was that possible, especially here, where there were so many of them? She would have to ask Daniel later.

Daniel appeared to be doing something with a formula, pouring stuff from one flask into another. She would ask him about that later, too.

Meantime, for now, she found an area at one corner of the room where no one was working. She said nothing to anyone, not even Daniel, and everyone seemed to ignore her.

The chaos gave the impression of fear. Or was it supposed to look efficient?

She was glad that her mother’s long-term medication was now generic. Beth felt sure now that if she were ill and needed a prescription, Beth would ask her mother’s doctor to give her something not manufactured by Corcoris.

Manufactured. Did all this furor in the labs today carry over to the other building across the campus where she’d been so briefly yesterday? Were the people involved in making the pills and liquids that the company sold also stressed-out while preparing for another possible inspection?

“Hey, why are you in here now?”

Beth had been using a disinfectant on the outside of some wall cabinets while listening to the people closest to her. They’d all been grumbling in terms that made them sound as if they were afraid for their jobs if they didn’t get whatever they were doing right.

Now she turned to see who was talking. It was Ivan Rissinger, the deputy CEO, who worked closely with Preston Corcoris. He was all dressed in sanitary gear, too, but it was definitely him.

He had been there when Andrea had gotten into trouble at the company and with Preston Corcoris.

She had pretty much avoided Rissinger since her return, as she had the other top executives.

But now he was looking at her.

She made sure she was in character as a lowly staff member, glancing down at the floor before regarding him again. “Are you talking to me, sir?”

“Yes. There’s work being done here. We don’t need the cleaning crew getting in the way.”

“I’m sorry, sir,” she responded, not quite looking at him. Was her disguise good enough? “My boss said I should come here and I did, but I’ll leave now.”

She quickly collected the paper towels and bottles she had been using and reorganized them on her cart, then pushed it toward the door. Fortunately, Rissinger didn’t seem to look at her again, as if she was way beneath his regard.

She did catch Daniel’s quizzical glance and nodded slightly as she continued out the door. He didn’t have to worry. She didn’t need protection. She just needed to leave.

But Beth was concerned now. Whatever these people were doing seemed disorganized and inappropriate. Were the underlings being set up to take the fall in the event the feds agreed that something was amiss here at Corcoris?

That wasn’t what she had been after.

She wanted the real people at fault—starting with Preston Corcoris—to pay for what they had done. Especially since her fears about at least some of the drugs they manufactured here might be coming true, judging by what she had overheard those doctors say.

People’s lives might hang in the balance.

* * *

Daniel wasn’t sure what that was about, but he wanted to make certain Beth got out of the lab all right.

He found it somewhat amusing that all these lab techs were trying to outmaneuver each other, all wanting to show that they knew exactly what they were doing.

“How are those tests going?” Ivan Rissinger had come up to Daniel where he worked with some samples of one of the long-term Corcoris antibiotics, CorcoBiotica.

“Perfect,” Daniel said with a grin. “Every sample I’ve checked seems spot-on.” He decided to ride the executive to see if he could learn anything. “But should I do something different to prove it? I mean, I’ve been preparing the same kinds of records as I was told to, but I heard that the testing and reports are going to be checked out by the FDA. I’ve never directly interacted with them before. Is there any way I can show them what I’m doing or whatever so I can prove everything here is fine?”

“We’ll see.” The look on Rissinger’s long well-lined face appeared speculative.

Why? Daniel had expected him to shove a negative response to him immediately.

Was the company looking for scapegoats in case things didn’t go right?

“Thanks,” Daniel gushed. “Can I show you what I’ve been doing?”

Manny Busbey came over to them, looking miffed. Had he wanted to show off to Rissinger, too? Daniel hadn’t worked directly with Manny before but, from his pompous know-it-all attitude, had the impression that the guy had been here since the start of time. Or at least the start of his career after college, which had to have been a couple of decades back.

“But I don’t mean to steal Manny’s thunder,” Daniel said, using his hands to gesture toward Manny in a way that a model on a TV game show pointed out something valuable.

Rissinger turned toward Manny and started questioning him, too—about his tests on the new diet drug, CorcoTrim.

That gave Daniel exactly what he needed: a lack of attention.

Time for a restroom break...and, he hoped, an opportunity to check in with Beth.

* * *

Beth didn’t really want to return to the basement and Mary Cantrera’s disapproving glare. And criticism. She had no doubt that Mary would tell her that Beth was the one who was wrong, that she had given her a different room number for her cleaning assignment.

Maybe she should just head for the lab where Gabrielle had been assigned to work at the end of this hallway. But then all she would be able to do was clean, not learn anything helpful. Gabrielle had already mentioned more than she’d appeared comfortable saying.

Not that Beth had heard anything before that would assist her much while in Daniel’s lab. She hadn’t been able to interact with or learn anything from him—or from anyone. No one she’d been near had said anything worth her eavesdropping.

Grumbles and concerns, yes. Admission of fooling with the formulations or hiding anything from the FDA, no.

That didn’t mean that none of them were doing any of that. But if they were, they simply weren’t talking about it.

Well, she couldn’t just stand here. The hall was empty, but with what was anticipated for later in the day, there would undoubtedly be a lot of foot traffic here soon.

And Ivan Rissinger wouldn’t hang out in the lab forever.

She pressed the button for the elevator, then heard a door open from the direction from which she had just come.

Assuming it would be someone she wouldn’t want to communicate with, she studied the damp equipment on her cart as if searching for something.

“Are you done cleaning?” asked a wonderfully familiar voice. Daniel’s.