Authors: Beverly Jenkins
Sexy/Dangerous (2 page)
That’s when he saw the dog. It was a big rottweiler, and the sight of it standing in the open doorway where nothing had stood seconds ago rattled him so badly he almost fell off his stool. Wondering how the animal had gotten in and where it had come from took a backseat to getting the hell away from it. His heart was pounding, he was sweating, and his basic instinct was to run, but he knew better. “Go!” he yelled at it. “Get out of here!”
The big dog raised its head and barked. Adam frantically scanned the paper-strewn office for something to throw or to threaten the canine with, then just as quickly changed his mind. Agitating the animal might provoke an attack.
Then, suddenly, another rottweiler appeared in the doorway, and beside it stood a tall woman with skin the color of old gold in the sunshine. She was wearing jeans. The thin straps of her low-cut, green tank top showed off bare arms that were sleek and toned. Dark glasses shaded her eyes, and the permed hair showing beneath the black Stetson was short, brown, and softly spiked. Adam was six-foot-three, and she was tall enough to look him in the eyes.
“Good job, Ossie,” she was saying to the dog, giving it a fond pat. Her soft voice was sweetened by a faint southern twang. Only after thanking the dog did she turn her attention to him. “I’m Max Blake. This is Ossie and Ruby.”
Before the shocked Adam could recover from that bombshell, Kaitlin marched in, saying, “I told her you were working, and I told her you don’t do dogs.”
Adam was still trying to make sense out of this.
Max Blake? My security expert?
Not wanting Kaitlin to know that he didn’t have a clue as to what was going on, he
said to her, “I’ve been expecting her.” It was a lie, of course. He’d not been expecting a woman, and he certainly hadn’t been expecting dogs! He looked her up and down. Chandler’s people were supposed to be sending him a security expert, not a woman in a cowboy hat! “Get those dogs out of here,” he growled.
“They’re clean.”
“I don’t care.”
Though Max hid her irritation behind her shades, she didn’t like his attitude or his tone. The angry looks he kept shooting at Ossie and Ruby made her wonder if there was more going on here than just a fear of dog germs. She held off on quizzing him, though. Instead she turned to Kaitlin and asked, “Can you walk them back out to my car, please? The doctor and I need to talk.” Max met his eyes and noted that his held not an ounce of welcome.
Max’s request had obviously offended Kaitlin, who drawled, “Adam, tell her that I am
not
a dog walker.”
“Just go, Kaitlin, so she and I can talk.”
She huffed in response and crossed her arms.
Max knelt next to the dogs and said, “Kaitlin’s going to take you guys back outside, so be nice to her, and I’ll see you in a bit.”
The dogs looked up at Kaitlin with such expectant faces she seemed caught off guard for a moment. Then, with her young pretty face set tight with anger, she turned on her heels and stomped off. The dogs padded along silently in her wake.
Once she was gone, Adam said to Max, “Nobody told me you were a woman.”
Hoping to lighten the tension, she tossed back,
“You were expecting maybe mouse and squirrel?”
His stony face said he didn’t care that she had jokes. “Why wasn’t I told?” he asked pointedly.
Tough crowd,
she said to herself. “Because it didn’t matter.” Max took a casual look around the small wood-paneled space. Judging from the racks cut into the walls, it must have served as a wine cellar once upon a time. The space was below ground, and the bright bare bulbs strung across the ceiling for lighting made it feel like a cave. There were a couple of computer monitors, a few tables and chairs, and against one wall sat an old tan couch. Every flat surface was covered with stacks of papers and leaning piles of books.
“And the dogs?” he asked bluntly.
She turned back to him and the matter at hand. “What about them?”
“Do you always take your
pets
on a job?”
“They’re not pets. They’re part of my team.”
“Oh, really?” he drawled, sounding unimpressed.
“Yes, and their security clearance is probably higher than yours, Doc.” Max didn’t see any beakers or any other nerd gear she imagined scientist types would have around, so she asked, “Where do you do your real work?”
That seemed to throw him for a moment, and it made her wonder if he’d thought her not smart enough to know this wasn’t his lab.
He finally answered, “Through there.” He used his head to indicate the small door at the back of the room. “But it doesn’t matter because you won’t be staying.”
She casually folded her arms and gave him a cool smile. “Oh really?”
“Really.”
Max knew from the file that he’d be a good-looking man, but it hadn’t prepared her for his arrogance. “They’re not going to replace me.”
“Yeah right.” He pulled out his cell phone.
Max shook her head at his obstinance and took a seat. Removing her Stetson, she finger-combed her short hair. While he waited for the call to go through, she went back to sizing him up. He was built. No Poindexter here. The way his razor-cut moustache flowed around the sexy mouth and down into the jaw-hugging beard gave him a dangerous outlaw sort of look. Had she met him at a club, she would have been subtly and sinuously all over him—until she realized he was a jerk. He looked tired, though. There were dark circles under his brown eyes and weariness in his face. Whatever he was working on must be kicking his butt, she decided, and she wondered when he’d last had a full night’s sleep. Probably the last time she’d had one, she noted as she yawned and stretched. She’d gone from Osaka to L.A. to Texas and here to Michigan in what seemed like a day. Tired didn’t begin to describe how she felt, but the fatigue took second place to knowing Mr. Wizard was going to have to eat his lab coat when he learned that she wasn’t going anywhere.
Holding the phone to his ear, Adam waited for Myk Chandler to pick up. Adam was convinced he’d have no trouble getting rid of the woman watching him so silently from behind her shades. All he had to do was say the word and her butt would be outta here.
Wrong.
“What do you mean, you won’t replace her?” he
snapped into the phone. He watched her remove her sunglasses to reveal amused green eyes set in a face fine enough to stop a man in his tracks. Adam blinked. He turned away and forced himself to pay attention to what Myk was saying on the other end.
“The Department of Defense approved her, so she stays.”
“And I have no say?”
“She’s a former Marine. She worked Homicide here in Detroit. She cut her security teeth in the Colombian jungles.”
“I don’t care about her credentials,” he said evenly, “I want her and the damn dogs gone.”
“Adam,” Myk said reasonably, “she’s there for security, that’s all. Let the lady do her job so that you can do yours. Okay?”
For a second or so Adam was too angry to answer, but finally said, “Yeah.”
“Good,” Myk replied, sounding weary. “Now, anything else?”
“No.”
“Talk to you later, then.”
“Later.” Adam closed the phone and studied the woman seated across the room.
This is a disaster waiting to happen,
he told himself.
A disaster.
Determined not to be distracted by how good she looked, and not caring if she heard the annoyance in his voice, he said, “Kaitlin can show you where you’ll sleep. I have work to do.”
Adam then walked to the door of his lab and without another word closed himself in.
Max sat in the silence wondering how much jail time she’d get for cutting off the nose of a top-secret
government scientist. His attitude toward her didn’t really matter; she’d worked for bigger jerks. She just wished this one weren’t so seriously fine. Sighing at the injustice of it all, she stood up and strode off to find her rottweilers and the Chihuahua.
The dogs were outside resting on the grass by the
Honda, but Kaitlin was nowhere to be seen. Max leaned down and rubbed their necks affectionately. “She abandoned you all, huh? Well, come on. Let’s go for a walk.”
She started up the drive and marveled at the stately pines towering over the front portion of the property. They were magnificent, but from a security standpoint, their size and numbers could provide excellent cover for lurkers, so she made a mental note to get Benny up here to install some surveillance cameras. Another problem was that ancient gate she’d used the bolt cutters on. The whole thing, gate, fence, and all, needed replacing yesterday. It didn’t provide an ounce of deterrent. As it stood now, a squirrel could jack the place.
After a while the meandering walk took Max and the dogs back the way they’d come. On the side of the house, they discovered a crumbling brick archway that led to the rear of the property and onto a very large cement patio that offered a breathtaking view of the lake. “Wow,” she whispered with awe. Behind her was the large
wall-sized window of the living room, and she could see Kaitlin watching her from inside. Max ignored her and walked to the edge of the fenced-in patio and looked out. She’d had no idea the house offered such a panoramic view nor that it was built on a sandy bluff that had to be a good fifty feet above the beach below. Gulls circled overhead on the thermals of the gorgeous day. Their cries and the waves breaking against the shore were the only sounds. The peacefulness Max felt was welcome. Having been on the move from country to country for what seemed an eternity, she was glad to have an assignment that might have a slower pace. Yes, she was here to do a job, but she looked forward to sitting out here at the end of the day and breathing in all this serenity.
The dogs, on the other hand, had their attention dead set on the water. Rottweilers love to swim, and Ruby and Ossie were no exception. Max looked to the left and saw a set of wooden steps carved into the face of the bluff. A metal handrail ran down their length to the beach. “You two want to swim?”
Both dark heads turned her way and the excitement in their eyes made her grin.
She gave them the go command with her hand, and they took off down the slope, leaving her to navigate the steps.
While the dogs played in the lake, Max stood down on the beach and looked up at the house. With her shades on she could see many large windows. She counted three balconies attached to rooms on the second floor. She’d known the place was big, but from down here she saw that it was even larger than she’d initially believed. Were the rooms on the second floor as empty as the few she’d seen on the main floor? She knew scientists could be
eccentric, but surely the house had furniture somewhere.
From a security standpoint, the elevated positioning was a good thing. The steepness of the dune was also good. She wished there was a way to neutralize the steps, however, and planned to think about it. Surveillance cameras would be needed on this side of the house, too, as would motion detectors. If perps were coming by sea, she needed to know before they knocked on the patio door.
After, the dogs shook themselves dry. It was time to climb back up the bluff to the house. Max jogged up the stairs while the dogs loped up the face of the dune. They beat her, of course, and when she did arrive, every muscle in her body burned from the exercise, but the former Marine was still in excellent shape.
Max pushed open the large patio door and stepped into the cavernous unfurnished living room. In the center of the empty space stood Kaitlin. Max slid off her sunglasses. The young woman didn’t appear any friendlier than she’d been earlier, but Max didn’t let that bother her. “Dr. Gary said you’d show me where we can sleep.”
“Why are you here?” Kaitlin demanded.
Max wondered if there was some kind of microbe in the local water supply that made these folks so rude. “I’m the new housekeeper.”
“What?” Disbelief filled Kaitlin’s face and then she began to laugh. “You’re kidding, right?”
“Nope,” Max responded easily. “I’m here to cook, clean, and help the doc out any way I can.” Max’s attention strayed to the large stone fireplace built into one wall. It wasn’t in very good shape. The dark grate looked
to be filled with dirt, cobwebs, and lord knew what else.
“I don’t believe you.”
Max shrugged. “Doesn’t matter what you believe. I’m here. The dogs are here. You and I can either get along or not. Makes no difference to me.” Max waited.
Kaitlin responded with, “There are three bedrooms upstairs. Take your pick.” That said, she turned, and with her stilettos clicking on the dusty wooden floor, left the room.
Max shook her head at the woman’s attitude and walked over to let the dogs inside. The dirt on the floors made it impossible to know the wood’s true color or condition, so she didn’t think it mattered if Ruby and Ossie tracked in more. However, once she had the place cleaned from top to bottom that would change, and other arrangements would have to be made for the dogs’ entrances and exits. For now, though, she was content to have them with her as she explored the house.
Just as she’d feared, the place didn’t hold a stick of furniture. Not in the large dusty library where the books on the shelves were so old that when she pulled one free it crumbled into dust and pieces in her hand; not in what appeared to be an old ballroom where the peeling wallpaper looked to be fifty years old; not in the once grand dining room with its wood-paneled walls and tin ceiling.
The kitchen, however, held a 1950s gas stove, an ancient refrigerator, and a single enamel sink. There were spaces on the surrounding walls that showed someone had removed most of the cabinets and had even primed the empty areas in between as if planning to paint, but the job must have been abandoned. The two small cabinets that remained hung on the walls like orphans.
“This is a mess,” she said aloud. She looked down at the dogs.
When Ruby barked as if agreeing, Max cracked, “You can say that again. Let’s go see what the upstairs looks like.”
Kaitlin had been right. There were three bedrooms, but not one of them had so much as a lightbulb inside, let alone a bed. Sensing she was genuinely going to need a whole lot of patience to survive this assignment, Max pulled out her phone and put in a call to Mykal Chandler.
After he picked up, she explained her dilemma. “I’ve seen anthills with more furniture than this place. The appliances are something out of
Leave It to Beaver
, and there’s no place to sleep because there are no beds.”
“The place is government-owned. Maybe he’s been waiting for them to provide furnishings. Give him the benefit of the doubt.”
She walked to the windows. With the heel of her hand she rubbed at the grime covering the glass until she could peer through. The view of the lake would be spectacular from the room once you were able to see out. “I’m giving him that and more, believe me, but I need to get some contractors up here to look at the wiring. I’m sure his lab is state of the art, but this house can’t possibly be.”
“You’ll definitely need to make sure the wiring is up to code if you’re installing cameras. As for the appliances, beds, and furniture, you’ll have to talk to him. Even though the government holds the title, he’s the tenant. If he agrees, bill me and I’ll bill DOD. If they can pay thousands of dollars for toilet seats, I don’t
think they’ll mind springing for some improvements, but talk to him first.”
Max sighed. “Okay. I’ll see what he says.”
They then moved on to discuss Gary’s issues with the dogs. Max stated bluntly, “He’s just going to have to get over himself on that. According to the file, he’s not allergic, so there are no medical issues. The dogs aren’t going to be in his lab unless its absolutely necessary anyway, so…” She let her voice trail off.
“I agree, but keep me posted, okay?”
“Will do.”
She ended the call and snapped the phone back onto her belt. She wasn’t looking forward to another confrontation with the good doctor, but there was no way around it.
After leaving the dogs in the room, Max made her way back down to the cellar.
When Adam heard the knock on the door, he ignored it. He knew the sound and cadence of Kaitlin’s knock, and because it wasn’t hers, he assumed it was Max Blake’s. A second knock sounded, firmer this time, and he ignored that one as well. Then he heard her shout, “Dr. Gary!”
He studied the door, then barked back, “Go away! I’m busy!”
“We need to talk!”
“Later!”
“Now, dammit!”
In contrast to the darkness of the outer office, the walls of his lab were white as snow. Computer monitors were humming, the lights in the ceiling above were sharp, bright, and state of the art. His work was his life, but this woman seemed set on messing up both.
An unhappy Adam slid from the stool, did a quick save to his work on the computer, and with tight jaws went over and opened the door. “What do you want?”
“To have a conversation.”
Adam wasn’t accustomed to a woman tall enough to look him in the eyes, nor one fearless enough to challenge him like this. “Kaitlin can answer any—”
“Forget Kaitlin. This is between us.”
Adam’s jaw tightened. Stepping out into the gloom of the cellar, he closed the door on the lab. “What?”
“First of all, why isn’t there any furniture in this house?”
Adam studied her. “Not my job.”
“How long have you lived here? Five years?”
“Give or take a few months, yeah.”
“Have you ever had the electricity checked, or the furnace cleaned, or done anything else to maintain the house’s systems?”
“Nope. Haven’t had time.”
Max stared. “Well, before I install security cameras, this place needs to be inspected and brought up to code.”
“Fine,” and with that he turned to the door.
“We’re not done, Doc.”
He stopped.
“I’ll be replacing the appliances in your kitchen, too.”
“Why? They all work.”
“But they worked better in 1957. How do you cook in there?”
“I don’t, but Mrs. Wagner never complained.”
Max knew from the file that Mrs. Wagner was the old housekeeper. “Well, if I’m going to be doing the
cooking, I’ll need something a bit more modern.”
Adam’s lips thinned. “Do whatever you think needs doing, just keep the noise down and leave me the hell alone.” He went back into the lab and slammed the door.
Max stared at the closed door and toyed with the idea of lobbing a Molotov inside, but it was just fantasy. No way would she let the fact that she couldn’t stand him impact his research, but sooner or later the two of them were going to have to talk about the security issues, otherwise she was going to run this operation the way she wanted and to hell with his input or his complaints.
Not pleased, Adam sat in the silence of his lab. The only thing he was supposed to be concentrating on was perfecting the prototype, not kidnappers, and definitely not the distracting Max Blake with her arresting green eyes and svelte curves. Just looking at her, he never would have guessed that she carried such impressive credentials. Marines. Homicide. The dogs notwithstanding, if she’d been sent by the Department of Defense, she had to be good at what she did. Which was what? Admittedly, he didn’t know a thing about security protocols. He knew computer firewalls and how to keep a lab from blowing sky high, but this was unknown territory. Myk said to let her do her job so he could do his, and in reality that was the only logical choice. Adam wasn’t stupid. The kidnapping attempt was dangerous business, and they’d try again, so just because he didn’t want Max Blake around didn’t mean he didn’t need her.
With that in mind, he knew he needed to stop grumbling and cooperate with her because the sooner he did that, the sooner he could give full attention to his work.
That decision made, Adam walked back over to the
computers to resume his quest to fix the prototype, and as he settled in, there was no other place he wanted to be. For him, scientific discovery was an exciting, exhilarating love affair that had begun in the second grade when his teacher, Ms. Rogers, brought a cocoon into the classroom and placed it inside a glass aquarium. Over the course of the semester, he and his classmates were treated to the metamorphosis of a monarch butterfly. No one was more mesmerized than Adam’s eight-year-old self. From the moment the orange and black monarch came out of the chrysalis and spread its distinctive shaped wings to dry in the classroom’s warmth and light, he became hooked on science. Been that way ever since. It was an obsessive, all-consuming love that came before fiancées—he had two broken engagements as proof—before sports—although he did take a peek at the NfL and his beloved NBA every now and then—before friends—he hadn’t talked to anyone in over a year; before everything.
His mother, Lauren, to whom he did talk frequently, warned him that one day he was going to come out of his lab and find that life had passed him by. Adam imagined she was right. Over the years, he’d spent so much time in the lab that the days would pass unnoticed. Tuesdays would melt into Fridays and Fridays into Mondays, but the sleepless nights and the lack of a social life were minor prices to pay in the real scheme of things. The Black Satin Project was on the cusp of changing the world in ways more far reaching than the discoveries of radio, the combustible engine, and penicillin combined, and for Adam, being able to positively affect and impact the lives of people not only in industrialized countries but in small underdeveloped pockets
of the globe was what being a scientist was all about.
He’d be the first to admit that he lived the life of a recluse, though. If he ever expected to have the family he wanted, he was going to have to live aboveground long enough to find a woman willing to marry a man who otherwise doubled as a troll. She’d have to be unique, but not as unique as Max Blake, he mused sarcastically. He wondered if Ms. Texas was married. Any man in her life would have to be a strong one. It was also a given that a sister as fine as that didn’t sleep alone, or at least not for long.