There was nothing of use on the desk.
She told herself to scream!
It was all she had left.
“How could you?” Michael said suddenly, turning abruptly away from her.
She gulped down her scream.
“What?”
“How in the world could you suspect me of anything? Although what you think I’ve been doing, I still don’t know. You’ve been on my computer. You’ve been searching this lab. What do you think that I’ve done? Or are you out to steal something from me?” he demanded.
She stared at him, a frown furrowing her brow. He seemed to be genuinely upset, and he also seemed to be as much at a loss as she was herself right now.
But if not Michael Preston…who? He was the scientist here.
The brains, not the brawn.
“What?” she repeated, stalling for time, rapidly trying to determine just what to say.
“Are you a thief?” he queried.
“Of course not!” she protested.
“Then what have you been doing?”
She sighed, looking downward. “Trying to understand,” she murmured.
“Understand what?” he demanded.
“Well, you know, more of what’s going on around here.”
“Really. Didn’t the concept of simply asking occur to you?”
Again she sighed. “Well…no. It’s all so strange. This place, the people here.”
“Except for Jesse Crane.”
She stared at him, then shrugged. “He seems to be a decent guy. I like him,” she murmured.
“In a way you don’t like me?”
“Oh, Michael! You’re great. You know that. Half the women you meet immediately start crushing on you,” she told him.
He grinned ruefully, then shrugged. “The problem is,” he said huskily, “it’s the half of the female population I want that couldn’t care less about me.”
Lorena felt awkward then, not sure what to say. But feeling awkward was much better than feeling terrified.
“Michael…”
“Never mind. It’s true. Women prefer brawn to brain.”
She arched a brow. “Are you insinuating that men with brawn can’t have brains? I have the impression that you spend a fair amount of time in the gym.”
He sat beside her on the desk, crossing his arms over his chest. He sounded amused as he admitted, “Yeah, I go to the gym. But do I want to be out looking for a giant gator? Not in this lifetime. I like hatchlings. They’re little. They might bite fingers, but it’s unlikely that I’ll become dinner for them.”
“Michael…have you ever altered a hatchling?”
“Altered?”
“When you crack the eggs. Have you ever experimented?”
“Yes,” he said flatly. His eyes narrowed sharply as he stared at her. “Is that what you’re after? Trying to steal my vitamin compounds?”
“Vitamins? No.”
“Well, that’s about all I’ve worked with. Vitamins in the egg. You want my password? You want to get into the files you haven’t been able to crack?” he asked.
She was uneasy again, thinking that he might have refrained from harming her only because he hadn’t decided what she was really doing, why she had come.
Was this a trap?
“Just what kind of work are you doing?” she inquired.
“What do you think?” he demanded. “The same kind of research as everyone else! Alligator meat is already lean and high in protein. I’m trying to make it even better, so someday it can feed the world.”
He sounded like her father. But she wondered if he was driven by the same true passion to help, or if he was seeking renown—or just money.
He shook his head with disgust suddenly and walked around to click on his computer. “What kind of work do I do? Research, and yes, experimentation. But you know what? Nothing I know about can create a giant killer gator. So you go ahead and take a look. I hope you’re up on your enzymes, proteins, compounds, vitamins and minerals.”
“Look, Michael,” she began. “I—”
He was typing something when he suddenly looked up. “I just realized something. Why are you looking into my research? For a gator to have gotten as big as this one supposedly is, it would have to have been growing for years and years—while both of us were still kids, practically.”
“Not that long,” she murmured dryly.
He stared at her, then exhaled slowly. “Is there some kind of research out there that I don’t know about? Some kind of discovery. That is…what you’re saying is impossible.”
“Hey,” she murmured, keeping her eyes low. “I’m not a researcher. I’m not even an alligator expert.”
“So what are you after?”
“I’m not sure. I’m just curious, I guess,” she lied. She still wasn’t certain she could trust Michael Preston.
He shook his head, studying the computer screen. “There have been big gators, but the biggest one on record wasn’t even caught in this state. I suppose someone could have figured out a way to jump-start gator growth, or hybridize a gator with something else. I mean, we only have beefalo because of somebody’s bright idea to breed a cow with a buffalo.”
He seemed genuinely absorbed in seeking answers, but Lorena found that she was uncomfortable despite that fact.
“Come. Look,” he demanded, staring at her belligerently.
She walked over to see the screen. He stood, urging her into the chair.
He had opened his research files. He had been telling her the truth—at least, as far as this proved. There were notes on the eggs with cracked shells. There was a study on albino alligators, with statistics regarding their life expectancy in the wild. There were side notes reminding him to speak to Harry about habitat changes, notations regarding the fact that he intended to set the temperature to create a male so they could eventually breed it with a number of females and track its genetic influence.
As she read his notes, she could feel him. He was standing directly behind her chair.
“Go on,” he snapped, sounding angry again. “Keep reading.”
Words began to swim before her eyes. She wondered how much time had passed.
It felt like forever.
She pushed the chair away from the desk, pushing him back, as well. “Michael, I told you, I’m not a researcher, so I don’t even understand what I’m reading. I was just curious.” She stood. “And I’m tired, really tired.”
He shook his head. “You’re not leaving here. Not until you tell me what you’re up to.”
“I’m not up to anything,” she lied flatly.
“Then why break into my lab?”
She lowered her head, seeking a plausible explanation. She looked up at him again, knowing she had to be careful. “Michael…you’re an attractive man.”
“So?”
“I…well, frankly, I was interested in you. As a man. As a scientist. I was curious about you. I wanted to know what made you tick, why you’re so fascinated with such strange creatures. But then…”
“Then you met Jesse.”
She shrugged, not wanting to commit.
“You’re sleeping with him,” he accused her.
“Michael, that’s really none of your business.”
“Ah, I see. You break into my lab because of a crush on me—sorry, interest in my life, what makes me tick—but your life is none of my business.”
She lifted her hands. “I’m sorry.”
“I should report you to Harry.”
“Do whatever you feel you have to,” she murmured, looking down.
“You’re making a mistake, you know.”
He was close to her again. Just a foot away.
He reached out a hand. She nearly jumped.
He touched her face. “A big mistake,” he told her.
“I’m afraid I’ve already made more than a few of those in my life,” she murmured.
He tilted her chin upward, meeting her eyes earnestly. “No. You
’re making a big mistake with Jesse. You don’t even know him.”
“I know something about his past, if that’s what you mean,” she said.
“He’s a loner, Lorena. Do you want to spend your entire life sitting on a mucky pile of saw grass? He belongs here. You don’t. His passion is the land and the tribal council. He’s decent enough as a human being. But he puts a wall up. He always will. Think about it.”
She caught his hand and squeezed it. Like a friend. She was more anxious than ever to get the hell out of his lab.
“Michael, we’ve got a bigger problem than my love life right now. There’s a killer gator out there.”
“People have been killed by alligators before,” he said flatly.
“Yes, but this is different. And we breed gators here. People are liable to think we have something to do with it.”
He laughed a little bitterly. “You think? Who cares? Maybe that gator will make things better here. Think about it. People love to stop and stare at accidents. They love horror movies. People don’t mind watching terrible things happen to strangers. I think the fact that there’s a man-eater out there will draw even bigger crowds.”
“Michael, that’s horrible!”
He shrugged. “A lot that’s horrible is true.”
She hesitated for a moment, feeling another tremendous surge of unease.
“They should be coming back soon,” she murmured. “Very soon.”
“Are you trying to get away from me?” he asked her.
She straightened determinedly. “I want to see if they’re back yet, if they’ve caught that thing,” she said.
She headed for the door.
She felt him following her.
For a minute she was terrified that she wouldn’t be able to open the door easily, since it was locked.
She twisted the knob, feeling his heat as he moved up close behind her, almost touching her.
She was certain he was reaching out, about to grab her, but the door opened easily, and as she threw it open, Sally was coming down the hallway.
“Sally!” she exclaimed loudly.
If Michael had been about to touch her, his hand fell away. “Hey, Sally.”
“I think they’re coming back,” Sally was saying excitedly. “Harry was just on the radio with someone. They’ve got something.”
“They caught it?” Michael asked.
“Well, I don’t know if they caught ‘it,’ but they caught something. Come on.”
Jesse felt drained and uneasy when they arrived back at Harry’s. Jack Pine had come too damn close to being that alligator’s last meal.
But he was apparently the only one who felt uneasy. Everyone else, including the hunters who had come back empty-handed, seemed to be on some kind of a natural high—amazed and excited by the size of the creature.
“It’s a record,” Harry said as the men made their way to land, a number of them dragging the nearly headless carcass onto the hard ground.
Harry was barking out orders, getting people to take measurements. He, too, seemed pleased and excited.
Jack, who had been given the tape measure, cried out, “Son of a gun, we just beat Louisiana. Twenty-two feet, three inches!”
“I don’t care what it costs, we need the best taxidermist in the country. What’s left of this sucker is getting stuffed. Hell, who shot the thing so many times? Never mind, never mind, the bullet holes are good. They make him look tougher than a Tyrannosaurus rex,” Harry said.
“Harry, it’s going to a lab. There’s going to be an autopsy,” Jesse said. He was drenched and covered in muck, and in no mood for the spirit of joviality going around. The thing had been a killer.
“An autopsy? On a gator?” Harry said.
Jesse felt his stomach turn. “We need to know for sure if this was the animal that took down Billy Ray.”
Silence fell over the crowd at last as they all realized what Jesse was saying.
The gator would still have been digesting its last meal when it was killed.
“All right, Jesse. Have it taken to the lab.” Harry sounded unhappy but resigned. “Do I get it when you’re done?”
Jesse didn’t answer, just turned away. Lorena was there, standing back in silence.
He felt a flip-flop of emotion.
In the heat of the hunt, he’d forgotten that he’d left her here. Alone.
But she appeared to be fine. More than fine. As ever, she was stunning. A rose in the midst of swamp grass.
“Are you taking the carcass to Doc Thiessen?” Harry asked.
Jesse kept staring at Lorena as he answered. “They’ll have better facilities upstate, at the college,” he said, turning away from Lorena at last.
Everyone had their cameras out now. They had hoisted the alligator up over one of the steel light poles. The thing was actually bending with the weight. Everyone had gone back to talking excitedly and having their pictures taken with the carcass.
The head…just the head…dear lord. The size of what was left was terrifying.
Lorena stayed apart from the crowd, but he saw that Michael and Sally were posing, Hugh snapping the picture.
“Harry, we’ll see about getting the gator to you when we’re done, okay?” he said congenially.
“Folks, we got the cafeteria open!” Harry called out, beaming at Jesse’s words. “There’s just coffee and sandwiches, but you’re all welcome!”
Still grinning broadly at Jesse, Harry walked away.
Lorena was still a good twenty feet away, but her eyes were on him.
“Hey,” he said softly.
“Hey.” She smiled, apparently having forgiven him, and walked toward him slowly.
Damn, but he was in love with just the way she walked. The slow, easy sway of her hips. The slight look of something secretive, something shared, in the small curl of her lips. The way her hair picked up the lights, burning gold.
She reached him and touched his face, apparently heedless as to whether anyone noticed or not.
“You know, Officer Crane, you look good even in muck,” she told him.
“I’d be happy to share my muck,” he told her.
“Not here,” she whispered. He thought she shivered slightly. “Not tonight.”
“Are you coming home with me, then?”
Her head lowered; then she looked up, and her smile deepened. “Yeah, yeah, I guess I am.”
The feeling of dread and weariness that had taken such a grip on him as they returned seemed to melt away. Strange, how life could be, how human emotions could be changed by something as simple as the sound of someone’s voice.
The sway of someone’s hips. Her smile.
Chemistry. She had been fascinating but unknown, and now she was known. Everything he knew now made her slightest movement all the more seductive. The thought of touching her again was deep, rich, combustible.
“Should we take my car?” she asked.
He arched a brow with a rueful smile, indicating the state he was in.
“I told you, I like you in muck.”
“Down and dirty, eh?” he teased.
“I was thinking of a shower,” she murmured.
“Jesse!” someone called excitedly.
He was startled from the absorption that had made him forget that dozens of people surrounded them.
“Jesse!” It was Sally. She came over and gave him a big hug. “Aren’t you excited? That’s the biggest gator on record, and you’re the one who bagged it.”
“It was a killer, Sally.”
“That makes you one big, bad hunter, then, doesn’t it?”
There was innuendo in her voice. Once it had amused him, but now it was an imposition.
She suddenly realized she had her back to Lorena and turned. “Oh, I’m sorry, Lorena. It’s just so exciting.”
Exciting? Yeah, Sally was excited, Jesse thought. Sally was the kind who found sensual stimulation in danger.
He looked at Lorena, and at that moment he realized tha
t he was falling in love. She was clearly amused by the situation. Her eyes didn’t fill with anger, fear or suspicion; there was even a slight smile on her face. She was willing to let him handle it. And she would wait.
“It was an alligator, Sally. Thousands of alligators are killed on hunts. But I guess you’re right. There are people who like the hunt. Frankly, I’m not a hunter.”
“Jesse! Your people have lived off gators for over a century, hunting them, wrestling them.”
For some reason, the way she said “your people” didn’t sit right with him. He realized suddenly that Sally would always be fascinated with someone for what they did, not who they were. He hadn’t really given it any thought before, but she’d never been more than someone with whom to enjoy a friendly flirtation. Tonight, he found that he was slightly repelled.
A wry smile came to his lips. That was, of course, because he’d never realized he could actually fall in love with anyone again.
“Isn’t the casino the big moneymaker these days?” Lorena asked, her smile growing deeper as she and Jesse met each another’s eyes.
“Oh, yeah. Bingo,” Jesse agreed. “But we’re all glad this guy’s been caught. I think he’s the one that got Billy Ray, and we’ll know for certain soon enough. Good night, Sally.”
He didn’t actually step around her, just eased into a position that let him slip an arm around Lorena’s shoulders.
“Good night, Sally,” Lorena said.
The woman stared blankly at the two of them for a moment. Then she seemed to realize that they were leaving. Together.
“Oh! Uh, good night.”
They avoided the cafeteria, where people had started massing. As they walked down the hallway, they could hear Jack talking. “I’m telling you, I thought I was a goner. If it hadn’t been for Jesse, I’d have been chum.”
Outside, Jesse protested again. “Lorena, this is swamp muck. Heavy, smelly dirt. The car—”
“There’s a towel in back. You can throw it over the seat,” she said. After rummaging for a moment, she found the towel and put it over the driver’s seat.
“Hey, I’m the dirty one,” he told her.
“And I don’t know where I’m going. You need to drive.”
She tossed him the keys. He shrugged. It was true. If you didn’t know where to take an almost invisible road off the Trail, you were never going to find his house.