Covert Attraction (17 page)

She reminded herself to stay in character despite how glad she was to see him. Seeing no one nearby didn’t mean they were definitely alone. “I need to find out my next assignment,” she said softly, daring to look at him.

He remained in his dorky character, smiling broadly beneath his glasses. Somehow even that was a turn-on for her, but thinking about his hard, hot body now seemed completely out of place.

“I wondered why you were in my lab,” he said. “We were given a lot of instructions when I got here about preparing for the inspection later.” A fleeting rise to his brows told her that he’d heard things that might be interesting.

She would be eager to get a recap from him, but that wouldn’t happen until later. After the workday.

Over the weekend? Today was Friday, and like it or not, she had the next two days off. Shouldn’t the janitorial crew be required to clean when fewer other people would be around?

It would surely be easier to snoop then.

If she were given the opportunity by Mary Cantrera, she would volunteer. Because she needed the overtime pay, she would tell the woman, not for the first time. That should sound realistic.

Of course, she would need to be careful. The FDA didn’t work only on weekdays, so they might still be around conducting their inspection.

That could be a good thing if she found a way to make some suggestions about what they should look for and on which computer accounts they should check for it. They most likely had—or could get by subpoena— unlimited authority.

“I was told to clean in there,” she responded to Daniel’s voiced words, not their unspoken conversation. “I need to find out where to go next.” She wished she could just leave her cart here rather than rolling the heavy thing with her, but that was against policy—and she didn’t want to call any more attention to herself than she had to.

Like now, when the door to the lab opened again and Ivan Rissinger strode into the hall. He glanced at them. Beth looked toward the elevator, which remained one floor below, according to the digital readout above it.

“I’m taking a bathroom break,” Daniel said to the other man. “But after, would you like me to show you more of what I was working on?”

“No, I’m taking a break, too, then going back upstairs,” Rissinger said. Beth wished she could glance at the expression on the executive’s face, try to determine what he was thinking, but that would be a bad idea. “I understand from Manny, though, that the preparations going on in that lab are progressing well. You agree?”

The elevator arrived and the door opened. The last thing Beth heard before rolling her cart inside was Daniel’s voice. “Couldn’t be better,” he said.

* * *

Daniel felt frustrated.

First because he had seen Beth and couldn’t really talk to her. He wanted to warn her.

While working in the lab, he had seen and heard some things that could mean the company was busy not only fudging reports in a way that could be undetectable by the FDA but also making threats against those who might disclose anything. Tacit threats, where reports about them also would not amount to usable evidence—sort of the way Beth had experienced. But threats just the same.

His fellow techies were busy covering their tails, even as they grumbled.

“Do you know why the FDA is coming a second time on such short notice?” he asked Rissinger as they both still stood in the hall. The enthusiastic lab rat who was him might as well take advantage of the opportunity to question Rissinger. “I heard they were here not long ago and thought they only made unannounced inspections if they’ve heard about some kind of problem with a product or something.” He looked expectantly at his current companion after pasting an interested but nonaccusatory expression on his face.

“Nothing I’ve heard about.” The gaze the older man shot toward Daniel clearly expressed an order to shut up.

Daniel wanted to keep pushing, but his cover persona wouldn’t do such a thing. He took a few quick steps and reached the restroom door first, then held it open for the other guy, his ostensible superior.

“Thanks,” Rissinger said.

They weren’t alone inside, and Daniel had nothing else to say. He soon hurried back out.

Time to return to the lab, perform more quality-control tests that could be shown to the FDA as coming out perfectly—whether they were based on actual ingredients or not—and record voices of his fellow workers if they were still in complaint mode.

* * *

Daniel discovered, interestingly enough, that at least one of his coworkers, Samantha, was freaked-out by what was going on.

Her cubicle was around the corner from his. When he returned to the lab, he started to pass her—and saw that she was simply staring at her computer screen. Her hands were on her keyboard but she wasn’t typing.

And when he looked a little closer, he saw how frozen her expression appeared beneath her wire-rimmed glasses.

The tall woman was sitting up straight in her chair. Her light brown hair was tied behind her head with a yellow band.

Maybe he should just leave her alone. He already had taken on the responsibility of making sure one person stayed safe: Beth. And yet...

Even though he couldn’t protect everyone, this woman had worked here long enough to possibly have some answers for him.

He approached her, and she aimed a startled glance in his direction.

“You look as tired as I feel,” he lied. Scared, yes. Tired, no. “I need some caffeine. How about you? Want to join me in the cafeteria for some coffee?”

She appeared ready to tell him to get lost, but instead she said simply, “Okay.”

Since they were in the lab offices area, they neither had to sign out nor change clothes. Soon they had filled disposable cups with coffee upstairs in the cafeteria. Daniel also bought a large chocolate chip cookie for them to share.

The room filled with tables was nearly empty at this hour of the late morning. That was good. They’d be able to talk.

Daniel looked around, though. Beth might come here at any time to clean. Or maybe one of the other cleaning staff would. But at the moment, there were only a few other workers—low-level executives, since they wore dark trousers and button shirts that would have gone well with a suit jacket and tie—and the two women cashiers in view.

“How long have you worked here?” Daniel began their conversation.

“About a year and a half,” she said. As she sipped her coffee, Daniel was able to see her white teeth that he’d noticed before.

She seemed more relaxed now, and he led her into a nice benign conversation—until he broached the first subject he’d intended to ask about: different levels of passwords for access to reports. He phrased it as if he were just so fascinated by the company’s products that he wanted to learn all about them.

But she didn’t answer. Looked as if she was going to dash off, so he changed the subject—to their work in the labs. Including... “Did you see the mess in the primary QC lab the other morning? Broken glass all over the place, and—”

“I saw it,” she said. “It happens now and then, when some of the reports are bad. So mostly, they’re never bad.”

“Then someone does that intentionally? Who?”

“Don’t know. We don’t talk about it.” She seemed even more uncomfortable now than when he had suggested possible inconsistencies in tests. “Now, you’d better excuse me. I need to get back to work.” And with that, her coffee cup in hand, she fled.

Chapter 17

M
uch later that day, Beth wheeled her cart out of the service elevator downstairs, ready to store it and head home.

As always, she would be glad to rid herself of the heavy and sweet-smelling load she’d had to push around from place to place, scrubbing and mopping and dusting when she wasn’t moving the burdensome equipment.

At least she had managed to get Mary Cantrera to assign her to the entry area for a while, under strict orders to disappear when anyone looking official arrived.

Around two that afternoon, three people—two men, one woman, all in suits—had stridden through the glass doors and up to the welcome desk, where they had been greeted in a friendly manner, told to sign in and met by some of the executives from the top floor.

Beth hadn’t confirmed where they’d gone after that, but she’d figured they would be taken upstairs, treated cordially as if they were really welcome, then shown to where they could dig into the computers and lab samples.

Would they find anything helpful, anything this time that could actually be used as the evidence against Corcoris?

Maybe she was growing too cynical, but she doubted it. Too bad this visit hadn’t been a complete surprise. There would have been more possibilities that way.

Which made her wonder even more: How had the people here at Corcoris learned of the impending inspection?

Judge Treena wouldn’t have called the executives here to warn them. Would someone from the FDA?

If so, did that mean that someone was being bribed for information—and perhaps also to make sure that whatever harmful data was found, it would disappear before anything bad could rain down on Corcoris?

She finally rolled her cart up to Mary, who scanned it, then said, “Looks fine. Everything accounted for?”

“Yes, I brought everything back except for the bottles I emptied. And I put them in the designated trash bins.” Beth had been here long enough to know the basic rules.

Mary returned to her place behind the counter and looked at the computer screen there. “Okay, then. See you on Monday.”

It was time to make her plea for the weekend. “Ms. Cantrera, would it be possible for me to work a few hours tomorrow? Sunday, too?” She looked down as if embarrassed. “I need the money.”

Mary didn’t answer right away. She seemed to be scanning something else on the computer. “Well...I suppose so. I have only a skeleton staff scheduled to come in, and with the inspection possibly ongoing... Why don’t you come in tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. and stay till 2:00 p.m.? That would be helpful, and it’ll earn you some overtime.”

Did that mean this woman had a heart after all? Beth wasn’t sure. It was more likely to indicate that she actually did believe that more grunt work like cleaning hallways or labs would impress the FDA inspectors—and thereby make her look better in the eyes of the Corcoris executives, too.

“That sounds perfect,” Beth said, making her voice ring in apparent delight. “And Sunday?”

“You can talk about it tomorrow with whoever’s in charge here then.”

* * *

When Daniel left for the day, he made sure to walk past the area of the campus garage where Beth had left her car that morning.

The space where she’d parked was empty. Not a surprise. He had stayed a bit late, trying to look busy in the areas where the FDA inspectors were starting their work.

He’d overheard them say they were going to spend time in the manufacturing building the next morning. He would have no good reason to hang out there to eavesdrop, so that wouldn’t do him any good. But they would be back in his building in the afternoon, so he made sure he had some quality-control tests of his own to run then.

Right now he really wanted to talk to Beth. He felt pleased and confident about what he believed the results of this inspection would be.

And he’d had the opportunity to plant some ideas of where to look in the mind of one of the feds—once again finding the men’s room a handy place.

He reached his old clunker, unlocked the driver’s door and slipped behind the steering wheel.

Then he pulled his phone from his pocket and called Beth.

“Can you talk now?” he asked, unsure if she was driving or someplace else too awkward to conduct a conversation.

“Yes, but you’d better hurry home.”

His heart began racing. Was something wrong? “Why? Is everything okay?”

“Yes, but the take-out Italian food I bought us for dinner is going to get cold.”

* * *

Daniel had hurried to his place. He’d scolded Beth for going there without talking to him first.

Even if the suspect who’d followed her the other day was in custody, the guy was unlikely to have chosen her coincidentally. And that meant someone else could be stalking outside his apartment building, watching for her.

He pulled into his designated spot in the building’s underground garage and jumped out of his car, rushing to the street in front.

Beth was parked right where he had anticipated. Anxiously, he scanned the street for any other occupied vehicles.

She rolled down her window. “It’s okay. I’ve been watching for anyone who didn’t look like they belonged here. Just in case, I was ready to drive somewhere where there’d be lots of other people around.”

He shook his head. “It’s not that easy. What if—?”

“I get it. It wasn’t the smartest thing, but I didn’t think you’d get here this much later than me. Anyway, can we go inside now?”

He nodded, and she picked up a bag from the passenger’s seat along with her purse. He opened her door, still keeping his attention on everywhere but her—for now.

“Everything seem okay to you?”

He made himself relax a little since her voice now sounded anxious.

She might as well save that anxiety until sometime when it was justified.

He was incredibly glad to see her here. So they could discuss what they had learned today, he told himself, then almost laughed aloud.

No, it wasn’t just that. He was delighted to view her gorgeous, slim butt as she walked up the stairs ahead of him. His imagination tore her clothes off her as he anticipated her staying the night. In his bed.

Sharing another bout of unforgettable sex?

Maybe.

At the top of the stairs, he moved around Beth and unlocked his door. After opening it, he walked inside first.

His apartment was empty, as it should be. He took the bag from Beth and took it into the kitchen, placing it on the table.

When he came back out, she was in his living room. She had pulled her phone from her purse, but before she could call anyone he drew close and pulled her into his arms.

She responded immediately, embracing him as her mouth rose invitingly for his kiss.

He was glad to oblige.

* * *

Beth hadn’t intended to kiss Daniel now. Despite what she had told him, she had been a little worried sitting out there in her car, so she hadn’t wanted to take on any distractions.

But now that she was with Daniel and everything was okay, she wanted to turn on her burner phone and at last give a call to check on her parents. She knew they were okay despite that vehicle showing up in their neighborhood, with the extra security Judge Treena had arranged for. Her calling them, showing her concern, might only frighten them more, and that was one reason she’d delayed getting in touch for now. But Beth couldn’t help but worry.

Yet having Daniel so near, alone in his apartment... She reacted instinctively.

Her tongue darted into his mouth to taste his, an appetizer far more enjoyable than their pending dinner. His taste was hot and enticing, his tongue suggesting coffee and mint and the rhythm of sex.

And his arms around her, the feel of his tight, toned body pressed against hers and his erection straining against her... Definitely, she now hoped, a preview of things to come.

To encourage him, and herself, she held him all the tighter. Was he as aware of her body as she was of his?

Eventually, as they both became breathless, Daniel was the one to end their kiss.

“Wow,” he said, his mouth now a frustrating few inches from hers.

“Yes, wow,” she said as clearly as she could muster considering the unevenness of her respiration.

“Let’s eat and then talk,” he continued, his businesslike tone spoiling the mood for her, as if their kiss hadn’t happened at all. It clearly hadn’t stirred his senses as heatedly as it had hers. His backing away more didn’t help, either.

“Okay,” she said, trying to sound cool and businesslike. If that was the way he wanted it, fine. She wanted it, too. They needed to discuss what they had learned that day. That was the whole reason they had gotten together. Their newly created cover of two coworkers having the hots for one another was irrelevant after hours unless they were out together for dinner. And surely they’d already overdone their restaurant meet-ups.

Well, she was the one who would benefit from their upcoming conversation. Her day had been useless, and she had little information to contribute. But what he had to say would be of interest.

“Would you mind putting the stuff out on the table?” she asked. “There’s something I need to take care of.”

“Sure.”

Beth watched Daniel’s still-enticing body move out of the living room toward the kitchen. Like it or not, that was where her hunger of the evening lay, not gobbling down a gourmet dinner of veal scaloppine and pasta that she had bought at a nearby Italian restaurant for them.

But when he was gone, she pulled her burner phone from her pocket. She’d felt it there as they kissed but she’d definitely been distracted from making any calls.

Now, when she pushed the button to turn it on, it immediately beeped, signifying a message.

That was odd.

She had given the number to her folks but made it clear that she virtually never turned the thing on. Trying to reach her, even in an emergency, wouldn’t work.

Had that car thief gotten to them after all? Harmed them despite all the security Judge Treena had arranged for?

Why hadn’t they left on that trip yet?

Beth pressed the button to retrieve the message.

And gasped when she heard her mother’s voice say, “Andrea? It’s Friday morning, and we’ve gotten another threat. We called the police and those other people like you said, and they’ve stepped up the security they’re doing for us. And we really are going to take a trip, starting in a couple of days. That’s all fine, and we appreciate it, but the message we got said that you’re in more danger now, not us. Oh, Andrea, we’re so worried about you. Please be careful.”

* * *

“What was that?” Daniel demanded about two minutes later.

Beth sat there fighting back tears of anger and frustration. She glanced at Daniel, who had rejoined her in the living room. “My parents. They...they didn’t say anything about the car thief or anything like that—but they left a message warning me that there have been more threats.” She didn’t want to mention that any threats had been aimed at her. “They’ve been in touch with Judge Treena and her staff, of course, so I’m hoping...”

“Don’t lie to me, Beth. I heard part of the message. They called because some threats were leveled at you. It’s time for you to go back to Seattle—as long as Judge Treena has local staff to make sure you’re still okay there—and let the professionals here do their job. If you’re hurt, it won’t help your family or anyone else.”

His glare as he stood looking down at her was furious. As if she had caused this latest problem.

She wanted to shout at him. Sure, she was an amateur, but so what? The sooner they both were successful—him as well as her—the sooner she and her family would finally be safe.

But accusing him of ineptitude, or at least being too slow, wouldn’t solve anything. It would just underscore and broaden their conflict.

And he wasn’t inept. He was doing all he could without giving himself and her away. That took time. She knew that.

As much as she craved immediacy.

She needed somehow to get past her own emotionalism and talk and act so rationally that Daniel would feel comfortable that working with her right here, right now, remained their best course of action.

“You’re right,” she told him as he sat down at the far end of the sofa from her, emphasizing how far apart their positions were. “And I don’t want my family to be hurt, or me, either. But I have to assume that Preston is feeling under a lot of pressure right now, thanks to the latest FDA unscheduled investigation. He’s probably lashing out in all the ways he can think of to try to get everyone to back off, and since I was involved with the last FDA inspection, maybe he assumes I’m somehow remotely involved with this one, too. But the additional threat doesn’t make me want to leave. It makes me want to act all the faster, if I could.”

There. He could read into it what he wanted, including her need for him to hurry, too.

“But don’t you get it? Your being followed the other day, even by that perp who’s a stranger, means that someone, probably Corcoris, knows who you are. Maybe they believe that scaring your family and threatening you more will somehow turn off the menace to the company that you’ve unleashed.”

“They’re smarter than that.” Beth looked Daniel straight in the eye without wincing under his fury. Instead, she kept her expression neutral. “I suspect Preston’s not only trying to send a message. He wants revenge. And even if he knows I’m here, it won’t be easy for me to just disappear again anyway with no further repercussions. So I have to stay in my undercover role but be even more cautious. And try to help this all play out as it should. We need to bring Corcoris to justice and stop the company from endangering patients who take its drugs.”

She also needed to keep her family safe, of course. And to find out once and for all what had happened to her friend and mentor, Milt Ranich.

But at least her family’s safety should follow if the other results came to fruition and all the bad guys were caught and prosecuted. Her safety, too. And Milt’s...?

Daniel stood. His fists were clenched at his side as if he was considering punching something.

“Look, Daniel,” she said gently, fighting her inappropriate urge to rise and hug him in gratitude for his protectiveness. “Let’s just keep things as they are for now. I’m aware of the risks, and I’ll be careful.” And make sure her family’s security remained at a high level, too. “If this latest inspection finally yields what we hope it does, the situation here could be over without either of us having to get more involved.”