Authors: Kelley Armstrong
Kyle hesitated, his gaze moving around the lab, then asked, “Do you think you’re up to walking?”
When Claire nodded, he urged her back to her feet. “Come on, then. This has been more than enough for the day. Let’s get out of here.”
Claire couldn’t have agreed more. She felt fine, but didn’t want to stay in the lab. And she definitely didn’t want to be there when John woke up. If he said a single word to her, Claire might be tempted to commit bodily harm on the jerk. He could have killed her with that stunt.
Kyle took her arm, eyeing her closely. He was just opening the door when Claire suddenly recalled the poor rabbit still strapped to the table in the experiment chamber.
“Wait.” She paused and turned back. “What about Thumper?”
“Oh.” Kyle glanced toward the glass-walled room. After a hesitation, he said, “Wait here” and hurried over to the control panel to switch off the destabilizer, then continued on to the small room.
Claire watched him unstrap the animal, smiling as she saw his lips moving as he petted and soothed the rabbit. Like herself, Kyle tended to murmur and coo nonsense to the lab animals, and she knew he got just as distressed when something went wrong. It was only John who treated them like blocks of wood.
Thoughts of the other man drew her attention to his unconscious form and she scowled. John Heathcliffe had done some rotten things in the time she’d known him, but today had taken the cake. It wasn’t just that she could have been killed, but who knew what effects the destabilizer could have on her?
The door to the experiment chamber opened with a soft swish, and Claire glanced over, relieved to be distracted from her thoughts. Kyle was quick about putting Thumper in his cage and then he hurried to join her at the door.
“What are we going to do about him?” Claire asked, nodding toward John’s still form.
“Leave him. I’d call security, but…” Kyle hesitated, then admitted, “I’m worried about Dr. Cohen’s reaction if he learns you were exposed to the molecular destabilizer.”
It was all he had to say. If anyone found out, Claire could expect to be kept here in the lab in her very own cage—though it would probably be a sterile white room rather than an actual cage. She would be subjected to hundreds of tests and asked a million questions every day to see just how her mind had been affected by exposure to the destabilizer.
No, thank you. Claire didn’t know what effect her exposure would have on her, but no matter what it was, she’d rather not be locked up while it happened.
“You don’t think John will tell?” she asked anxiously.
“And risk being banned from the scientific community?” Kyle asked with a snort. “Not to mention being arrested for assault, because that’s what it was.” He shook his head. “No. He’ll keep his mouth shut.”
Relief soaking through her, Claire nodded and allowed Kyle to take her arm and lead her out of the lab.
They didn’t run into anyone on the way down to the parking garage. Claire was so unsettled by the whole experience that they were in Kyle’s car before she remembered her own vehicle.
“What about my car?” Claire asked as Kyle started the engine of his little red car.
Pausing, he glanced in the direction of her parking spot, a small frown playing about his lips, then he shook his head. “I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to be driving just now. In fact, I don’t want you to be alone. I was planning on taking you home with me so I could keep an eye on you for at least tonight, preferably the weekend. But if nothing happens and you continue to seem fine, I’ll bring you by to pick up your car tomorrow morning.”
When she nodded her agreement, Kyle added, “Fortunately, it’s Friday, so you’ll have the weekend to recover before we have to decide what—if anything—to tell Dr. Cohen about this.”
“I thought we didn’t want him to know?” Claire asked with a frown. “I mean, if nothing has happened…”
“I don’t want John to get away with this,” Kyle said solemnly. “We could tell Dr. Cohen that he
tried
to turn the destabilizer on you and I arrived as he did it and knocked him out. That you managed to throw yourself out of the way when you heard it power up.”
Claire blinked with a sudden realization.
“What is it?” Kyle asked.
“I
didn’t
hear it power up,” she said slowly, perplexed by the fact. Usually the soft hum started while she strapped down the animal, then built to a high-pitched whine as she left the room.
“He must have powered it up before you went in,” Kyle said thoughtfully, and his expression became even more forbidding. “The bastard must have planned to try this all along. He was just waiting for a time when I was out of the lab.” Kyle cursed. “I never should have—”
Claire placed her hand over his on the steering wheel and patted him soothingly. “You couldn’t know. It’s fine. Let’s just go.”
Blowing his breath out, Kyle nodded and shifted the car into gear, then backed out of his parking spot.
“You’re okay with staying over tonight?” Kyle asked once they were out of the parking garage.
“Yes.” Claire nodded. “To tell you the truth, if something’s going to happen, I’d rather not be alone.”
Kyle gave a nod, and fell silent, leaving Claire to worry over what might result from the experiment. Nothing much had appeared to happen yet to the animals they’d tested it on. If put in front of a white background, some of them lightened in color, like a chameleon taking on its surroundings, but it didn’t happen to all the animals and it didn’t happen regularly. This didn’t seem to bother Kyle. Claire supposed he was just happy it happened at all. As John had pointed out, the animals didn’t understand what was done to them so simply might not be using their full abilities. She did understand, however, and supposed that was why John had broken all the rules and exposed her to the destabilizer.
Claire peered down at her hands, the only part of her body that wasn’t covered by clothing and that she could see at the moment. She stared at where they rested in her lap, but they looked the same as always to her. Her skin wasn’t suddenly lightening to match the white smock she wore. For a moment, she considered trying to make them lighten, but then changed her mind. She was almost afraid to find her exposure had had some effect.
“Here we are.”
Claire glanced up and felt herself relax. They were pulling into the driveway of the home Kyle shared with his twin sister, Jill. It was an old Victorian house on the edge of the city, their childhood home. Kyle and Jill had inherited it jointly when their parents died in a car accident some years back. The twins got along well enough that they’d decided to live there together until one of them married. At which point, they’d either sell the house and split the profits, or one of them would buy the other out.
Claire had been in the charming old house many times over the years. She and Jill had been best friends since grade school. Claire had slept over countless times as a teenager and still did. It was a second home to her, and she wasn’t surprised to feel relief ease through her as Kyle parked the car in the drive.
“Jill’s home early,” Kyle commented with a frown. “I wonder what’s up.”
Claire shook her head, her eyebrows drawing together with concern. After the accident that had taken their parents’ lives, Kyle had taken his half of their parents’ insurance money and invested it. Jill had used her half to purchase a little clothing store downtown. It was doing well, mostly because Jill was a very dedicated store owner, willing to put in long hours to make it work. She usually started early and worked late. Her being home in the middle of the day was unusual.
Kyle slid out of the car and started around to her side, but Claire opened the door and stepped out before he could get there to open it for her. She smiled faintly as he took her arm to walk her to the door, noting the worry still visible in his eyes as he peered her way. His concern was sweet…and encouraging to Claire. She’d had a crush on him all through high school. It had blossomed into something more since she’d started working with him. Unfortunately, despite Jill’s assertions to the contrary, Claire suspected he thought of her as nothing more than a buddy and coworker. She wished it was otherwise.
“Jill?” Kyle called out as they entered the house.
“Kyle?” Jill’s voice came from the living room. Her tone suggested she was just as surprised at his arrival home in the middle of the day as they had been to know she was here.
“Yeah. Are you okay?” Kyle led Claire up the hall. “You aren’t sick or something, are you?”
“Or something.”
Claire frowned at the weariness evident in Jill’s voice. As they entered the living room, she stepped around Kyle and peered at her friend. Jill sat balled up in a corner of the couch, her shoulders slumped and posture dejected. She was pale, her eyes red-rimmed, and she held a freshly opened container of ice cream…always a bad sign.
“What’s wrong?” Claire asked with concern as she moved to sit beside her on the couch.
“What are you doing here?” Jill asked with surprise.
“Never mind that,” Claire said. “Tell us what’s wrong.”
“Nothing,” Jill said, then sighed and admitted, “Actually, I just got dumped.”
“What?” Claire asked with amazement. Jill had been seeing a store owner named Ted Leacock for the last six months. Claire knew her friend had thought it was “the real deal.” That she’d found the man she would marry and raise babies with.
“Yeah.” Jill held up the container of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream. “So I came home for lunch.”
“Oh, honey.” Claire hugged her with sympathy.
Jill shrugged. “Plenty of good men out there, and right now Ben and Jerry are being
very
sympathetic.”
Kyle shifted and Claire glanced his way to see a myriad of emotions cross his face, anger for his sister, a frown of concern, then discomfort.
“Well,” he said finally. “You can’t just eat ice cream, Jill. I’ll see about lunch.”
Claire watched him leave the room, then glanced back to Jill as the blond slid a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth.
“I’m sorry, Jill,” she said quietly.
Jill shrugged. “Better now than later.”
“You’re too good for him anyway.”
“I thought you liked him?” Jill asked with a frown.
“I did. He seemed nice,” Claire said quickly. “Though he obviously had bad taste if he broke up with you…and you deserve a guy with good taste. A super guy.”
“Super guy, huh?” Jill smiled briefly, then sighed. “He wasn’t as nice as we thought, anyway. It seems I wasn’t the only woman he was dating.”
“What?” Claire asked with surprise, then understanding crossed her face. “All those late nights working?”
“Yeah. It seems he was
working
on a couple of other girls. Trying to decide who would be the winner in the ‘Ted’s wife lotto.’ I apparently made it to the final two, but the other finalist won out.”
“What?” Claire repeated with amazement.
Jill grimaced. “It was apparently close. So close, in fact, that he couldn’t bring himself to break the news to me until now. A week before the wedding to the winner.”
Claire opened her mouth, but Jill forestalled her with “Please don’t say what again.”
Claire closed her mouth, frowned, then shook her head. “But you two went away last weekend.”
“Yes. And have been sleeping together for the last four of the six months we’ve been dating.” Jill grimaced. “I guess I should be glad I wasn’t the winner. Who needs a jerk like that for a husband?”
Claire nodded. “He’ll never be faithful. Oh, honey. I
am
sorry.” She gave her another hug.
“I guess I’ll have to go to the grocery store,” Kyle announced coming back into the living room. “We’ll need lunch and supper.”
“I thought you two were going to the school reunion tonight?” Claire reminded him, peering over Jill’s shoulder. She had decided not to go herself, but the twins had planned to attend, and Claire was sure that getting out would be the best thing for her friend.
Jill snorted at the idea. “Like I’m going to the reunion without a man on my arm? You have got to be kidding. Magda would spend the entire night insulting me…the bitch,” she added on a sniff.
“And I’d rather not leave you alone,” Kyle said. He was speaking to Claire, but his concerned gaze was bouncing between her and his sister. “I need to keep an eye on you for at least twenty-four hours, though the whole weekend would be better.”
Jill stiffened in Claire’s arms, then pulled back to peer at her.
“Why? What’s happened?”
Claire merely grimaced, while Kyle said, “John zapped her with the destabilizer.”
“What?!” Claire winced at the shriek as Jill peered from her to Kyle and asked, “How? Was it an accident?”
“No,” Kyle said grimly.
“You’re kidding?” Jill looked outraged. She was one of the very few people privy to their experiments and what they entailed. “How?”
Sighing, Claire shook her head. “I had strapped in the bunny and started out of the room, but he sent me back to check on the camera. He said it was offline and told me how to move the table so I could kneel under it and check the camera alignment. Once I was there, zap,” she finished with a shrug.
“So that’s how he did it,” Kyle murmured, and she realized he hadn’t known how John had got her under the camera and therefore under the beam.
“The toad!” Jill said with disgust, tossing the ice cream carton on the coffee table.
“Yeah.” Claire sighed. Really, it was unconscionable. She could have been killed and was just lucky Kyle had got her out before any damage was done.
“Dangerous toad,” Kyle said grimly. “He was tired of running trials and decided to speed the experiment along.”
Ben & Jerry—and even Ted—briefly forgotten, Jill caught Claire by the arms and looked her over as if expecting to find her glowing green and falling to pieces. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” Claire assured her firmly. “Really. I don’t feel bad at all.”
“Well, you aren’t suddenly turning the same color as the couch or anything,” Jill murmured, eyes narrowed.
Claire glanced toward the paisley couch and muttered, “Thank God.”