Sexy/Dangerous

  Max was puzzled. “Don’t you have a backup generator for the lab?”

  “I do.”

  “Then why are you being such a pain in the butt? Pick a day or I’ll pick one for you. Today is Tuesday.”

  He met her eyes, and when she didn’t flinch, he again wondered how such a beauty could be so tough. “Tomorrow,” he mumbled. “Get it over with.”

  “Thank you.” Max wanted to throw up her hands. She’d never had an assignment drive her insane on the first day.

  “When will the dog pen be built?” he asked bluntly.

  Max sighed. “What is it with you and my dogs?”

  “When?” he asked quietly.

  “As soon as possible.”

  “Good.” He stared over at her for a long moment, then said, “I have to get back to work. Try and keep it down.”

  When he was gone, Max shook her head and went back inside.

  Downstairs, Adam surrendered. No way could he concentrate with the bedlam going on upstairs. He’d asked her to keep it down, but apparently she had a different definition for the phrase because the noise sounded louder. Disgruntled, he slid from the stool and took off his lab coat. He’d never had anyone call him a pain in the butt before, and he wondered if her military training was responsible for her fearlessness or if she’d been born that way. From her point of view, he supposed he was acting like a pain in the ass, but she didn’t seem to understand he had no room in his life for upheaval. And she’d only been around a day. He couldn’t imagine what things would be like in a month. The dogs were bad enough, but now he had to contend with wheelbarrows, drills, and dust. To make matters worse, every time he looked at her, his memory kept flashing back to her in that towel; the droplets of water on the edge of her neck, the imprint of her nipples pressed against the damp towel, the sleek firm muscles of her legs and thighs. He ran his hands over his eyes. He had to stop. If he didn’t get those images of her out of his mind, his commitment to celibacy was going to crumble around his ears just like his old house.

  To do something with his restless energy, he changed clothes and went to work out on the weights he had set up in one of the basement’s other small rooms. He pumped iron for a good thirty minutes, but it didn’t help; all he kept seeing was Max.

  Four

  Max took Adam Gary’s grumbling about the noise into consideration, but because no one in the work crew spoke drill or saw, it was hard to tell the machinery to hold it down.

  By five o’clock that evening the workers were packing up for the day. They’d all be back first thing in the morning. Although the house was still torn apart, the various projects were proceeding well. According to the electricians, the wiring was so old and substandard the place was a potential fire trap, but they’d made good headway pinpointing the areas needing to be worked on first. Max was pleased because Benny, with his fiber-optics equipment, would be coming tomorrow to lay in the cameras. The plumbers had also given her a report. They’d turned the water back on and their diagnosis of the pipes had something to do with air chambers and ratios. Since Max didn’t have a clue as to what they were talking about, she simply nodded and told them to take care of it, and they had. The faucets were fixed in her shower, and when she turned on the water, the pipes protested for a moment but then went silent. A new shower head had been installed as well. When she stepped in to wash off the plaster dust and the rest of the day’s grime, the experience was blessedly drama free.

  After the shower she dressed and, refreshed, went went on a search for Kaitlin. Max wanted to know if there was a decent restaurant nearby that didn’t involve clown’s crowns or paper bags. She was hungry and in need of a good meal. However, she hadn’t fully explored the house and so had no idea where Kaitlin’s office might be. “Ruby, find Kaitlin, please.”

  Ruby stood still for a moment, then moved her head a few degrees to the right and left as if listening. When she seemed satisfied, she began walking up the hall. Max could have just as easily yelled out Kaitlin’s name, but every opportunity she had to work the dogs kept them keen.

  Ruby made a turn and led Max and Ossie into a hallway Max had never seen before, and then up an old rickety staircase. Max asked, “You sure this is where she is, girl?”

  Ruby kept going. At the top of the stairs was a landing. Set back a few feet stood a large wooden door bordered with carvings of mathematical equations and chemical symbols. Ruby walked to the door and sat down. Max, confused, stood on the top step. “Okay, if you say so.”

  Just as she raised her hand to knock, she heard Adam Gary ask, “What are you doing?”

  Max turned and stared into his suspicious eyes.

  “Looking for Kaitlin.”

  “She’s not in there.”

  “According to Ruby, she is.”

  “Well, the dog’s wrong. That’s my room. Kaitlin knows it’s off limits.”

  His room? Max had wondered where he slept but assumed he had a place connected to the lab. “She’s usually right.”

  “This time it’s not.”

  “She’s not an it,” Max gritted out. What was it going to take to get him to lighten up?

  He came up the stairs, brushed by Max and opened the door. Lo and behold, there stood Kaitlin, looking for all the world like a kid caught rummaging through her parents’ room.

  Seeing Gary’s thunderous face, Kaitlin spoke up quickly, “I—came to see if you had any laundry.”

  He folded his arms. “Laundry,” he echoed skeptically.

  Max didn’t believe her for a moment.

  “Yes, you asked me to take your sheets to the Laundromat. Remember?”

  Max could see him scanning the room as if looking for her real purpose.

  “I remember,” he said, “but I also remember telling you not to be in here without permission.”

  She smiled that cute twenty-five-year-old smile that probably made lesser men believe her every word. “I know I’m not supposed to be up here, but sometimes, Adam, you get so busy that you forget stuff like washing your sheets.”

  “Oh really?” He looked her up and down, then said harshly, “Get out, Kaitlin.”

  Her shocked eyes morphed to hurt. “You don’t have to be so mean, Adam Gary.”

  “Out.”

  With her lip quivering, she shot Max a nasty look, then made a hasty exit.

  Max waited until she was gone to say, “Guess Ruby was right, after all.”

  He didn’t say anything.

  Max wasn’t surprised, so she asked instead, “Do you keep anything connected to your work up here?”

  “One of my desktops is over there.”

  Max could see the screen saver on the computer’s monitor. Multiple strands of Einstein’s famous equation e = mc2 floated lazily over the screen. “Check and see if she logged on or tampered with your disks. If she was up here after sheets, I’m five-foot-two.”

  Max thought he smiled in response to her quip, but like last time, it vanished so quickly she wasn’t sure.

  While he sat down and booted up, she checked out the room. This was obviously the attic. The space was circular, with walls paneled in cherrywood. Large windows overlooked the lake. Built-in shelves, filled top to bottom with books, dominated one wall, and a huge black metal bed covered with a beautiful indigo quilt dominated another. Where his downstairs outer office resembled a cave, this space with its plush gold and ivory Turkish rug, framed artwork, and neatly stacked audio components resembled a cocoon. Also unlike the office downstairs, the bedroom was barracks clean, not a book or paper out of place. The room exuded haven, and she thought it would be the perfect place to cuddle in and let the world go by, but she doubted he knew anything about that. On the other hand, she liked seeing him in real clothes. He was wearing an old MIT T-shirt, jeans, and Reeboks. Without the lab coat, the lean muscles in his arms showed themselves for the first time. He had a trim waist and the jeans fit real nice. Not bad for a brother made out of ice water.

  To put herself back on trac
k, she asked him, “Any idea what she really might have been doing?”

  He shrugged. “No telling. Nothing seems moved or out of place, though.”

  “I’ll have a lock put on tomorrow.”

  “Good.” For a moment there was silence as he did a quick scan of his programs, then said, “Nothing indicating she logged on so far.” Adam clicked on his mailbox and saw a message from his mother. Smiling, he opened it. A digitalized picture began to load and seconds later her face appeared. Her brown eyes, so like his, were filled with intelligence, and as always a spark of mischief. He glanced to the bottom of the pic and froze. Beneath the picture were the words: Will the lioness fight as fiercely as the cub? Have a good evening. Your friends in Madrid.

  Max saw him stiffen. “What’s wrong?”

  “They’re threatening my mother.” Adam quickly pulled out his phone. If they went anywhere near her, he’d kill them with his bare hands!

  Max read the message and whispered, “Good lord.” Seeing the phone next to his ear, she said, “Are you calling her?”

  “Yeah.” He stood and began to pace.

  “I’ll call Myk and let him know.”

  Adam turned his attention back to his own call. His mother’s voice mail kicked in. Disappointed, he kept his voice as normal as he could. “Hey, Mom. Just checking in. Call me when you get a chance. ’Bye.” As he ended the transmission, his worry increased in proportion to his anger. If the people responsible for sending the e-mail wanted to tangle with him fine, but leave his mother out of it. Grim, Adam punched up his stepfather’s cell number. Ray’s phone rang a few times, then Adam was sent to his voice mail, too. Tight-lipped, he forced his voice into the same calm tone he’d used before and left Ray a similar message.

  At that moment Adam felt like a terrible son because he had no idea where his parents were. He remembered his mother calling to say she’d be going on a trip to West Africa, but he’d been so obsessed with the prototype that he hadn’t paid much attention to the dates or to her itinerary. Had she gone already? Had she returned? How long did she say the trip would be? He ran his hand over his hair. He didn’t know. The same held true for his stepfather. The last time he’d talked to Ray had been two weeks ago. Or had it been longer? Once again he couldn’t recall the conversation clearly, and now there was no way to be sure they weren’t in danger unless they called. If anything happened to them he’d never forgive himself.

  Max was on the phone with Myk. She had him hold on for a moment while she spoke to Adam. “Did you get your stepdad’s voice mail, too?”

  He nodded. “Neither of them answered. She said something about going to West Africa but…” He shrugged.

  Max relayed that info to Myk. She and Myk talked for a few more minutes then she closed her phone. “Myk’s tracking down your parents right now. He’ll call back soon as he can. If it’s any consolation, Myk and I are both betting they sent this to scare you.”

  “And they’re doing a damn good job.”

  Max sympathized with him. “I’m not going to tell you not to worry, because if it were my mama, I’d already be on a plane for home. We’ll just have to wait and see what Mykal finds out.”

  Adam nodded but all manner of disturbing scenarios filled his mind. For the first time in a long time his work on the prototype took a backseat.

  “Who else knows about this invention of yours?” Max asked.

  “Most of the scientific community. I took the wraps off at the Madrid conference and referenced some of the work that went into it.”

  “Exactly how much referencing did you do?”

  “Enough for them all to know that I’m just a heartbeat away from perfecting it.”

  “I see.” Max rolled that around in her mind for a moment, then asked, “So can the people who sent the e-mail do anything with the prototype if it’s not finished?”

  “Depends. Lot of people out there with bigger brains than mine.”

  “Could anyone you know be helping them?”

  It was a question he’d been asking himself since leaving Madrid. “Not that I know of.” Adam wished he knew where his mother was.

  “You have firewalls on your computers?”

  “Yeah.”

  Max was glad to hear that, although the Madrid people had somehow accessed his mother’s screen name in order to lure him into opening the message. “Myk’s going to contact a friend and have her try and find out where that e-mail really came from. What about Ms. Kaitlin, could she be a mole?”

  “Only for her daddy, but he doesn’t have access to a lab, as far as I know, and you’d need one to finish the prototype.”

  “He’s a scientist?”

  “Yeah. Got himself kicked out of the community, though. A couple of his assistants popped up pregnant and took him to court.”

  Max’s empty stomach growled loud enough to be heard in Tokyo. “Sorry,” she said apologetically. “If I don’t get something to eat, I’m going to keel over. I was looking for Kaitlin originally to ask if there were any real restaurants around that delivered.”

  “Danny’s. Over on Third.”

  “What kind of food?”

  “Basic stuff. Best sweet potatoes, greens, and ribs this side of Detroit, though.”

  Max was impressed. “There’s a soul food place up here?”

  “Yep.”

  “This Danny’s a Black man?”

  “Nope, Polish, but when you taste his food, you’ll swear his mama was a Black woman from the South.”

  Max smiled. “Okay.” She could see that he was still worried about his mom, and she couldn’t blame him. “If your mama is anywhere on the planet, Myk Chandler will find her.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Whoa!” she exclaimed.

  He stared. “What?”

  “I didn’t think you knew that word.”

  His dark eyes flashed irritation.

  Max quickly defended herself. “I was kidding, goodness. You really need to lighten up, Doc. All that darkness is gonna turn you into Darth Vader one day.”

  He smiled.

  She was so astonished she laughed, then said to the dogs who were lying by the door, “And he can smile, too, guys!”

  Ruby barked twice in happy response and Max saw Adam freeze. The stony set of his face made her study him in the silence now filling the room. She said to him quietly, “You really need to tell me what’s going on with you and the dogs.”

  He looked away and didn’t respond for a few long moments. Finally he said, “Two rottweilers attacked me on the way home from school.”

  Max’s heart twisted. “How old were you?”

  He met her eyes. “Twelve. I was hospitalized for ten days. Had to have seventy-five stitches put in my jaw and lips. Another fifty in my back and shoulders. The beard is mainly to cover the scars.”

  Max could only imagine the pain he must have endured. “I’m so sorry. That’s why you don’t do dogs.”

  “Exactly.”

  She understood now. She walked over, knelt next to the dogs and said just as quietly, “Ruby and Ossie, go wait for me down by the steps. I’ll be there in a few minutes.”

  Ruby stood and left. Ossie stood, too, but he stayed. When Max looked down, she saw that the dog’s eyes were focused on Gary. It wasn’t like him to not comply with a command, so she said, “Go ’head, Os,”

  The big male gave the scientist one last long look, then trotted out.

  Max said to Adam, “Being around them must be hard. There was nothing about the attack in the file I was given.”

  “Not something I talk about. Grown men aren’t supposed to be afraid of dogs.”

  She understood that, too. “I feel really bad. I’m so sorry. I can be like a bull in a china shop sometimes.”

  “I’ve noticed that.”

  “Bet you have.”

  They both grinned this time, and the effects of his soft one seemed to slide right through her. Oh my, she said to herself.

  Adam had been affected by
her as well and found himself wondering what it might have been like had they met each other under normal circumstances. “What would you like from Danny’s?”

  “The yams and ribs sounded good. Do you have a menu?”

  “Yeah. Hold on.” He walked back over to the desk and opened a drawer. Pulling out the menu, he handed it over.

  Max read the selections then said, “Yep. Yams. Ribs. Collards. And throw in a piece of coconut cake because I’ve been such a good girl.”

  He chuckled, “Oh really?”

  “Yes,” Max said with mock attitude. “You don’t think so?”

  Adam stilled. He knew how he wanted to respond to the provocative question, but he’d known this woman less than a week and he was supposed to be practicing celibacy.

  An amused Max asked, “No comment?”

  His eyes sparkled. “No comment.”

  Max was pleased that the ice between them seemed to be thawing, even if it was only a small crack. It made her wonder about the man beneath the scientist.

  He made the call to Polish Danny’s Soul Food. After ordering for Max, himself, and out of courtesy, something for Kaitlin, he closed his phone. “About thirty minutes.”

  “Okay. I’m going to hang out with the dogs until the food comes.” Then she added, “And Adam, I am sorry about what happened to you. Ruby and Ossie would never hurt you. It’s not how they were raised.”

  He didn’t speak to that, but did say, “If I hear from my mother I’ll let you know.”

  “And I’ll let you know if Myk calls me.”

  “Sounds good.”

  Unspoken words passed between them then, and Max sensed he was as aware of her as she was of him. “I’ll see you later,” she said in parting, and left him alone in the room.

  Adam walked over to the windows and looked out over the lake. He was so concerned about his mother, she was all he could think about. Did those men have her? Once again hundreds of ugly scenarios played in his mind with such vividness he finally had to force his mind onto something else. The dark clouds forming out on the horizon signaled rain. Usually, watching a storm roll in was one of the joys of living there on the lake. Adam was as fascinated by weather and storms as he was with every other branch of science, but this evening his excitement was muted. The swan-shaped glass barometer mounted on the wall beside the window had been a Christmas gift from his mother a few years back, and the sight of it sent his thoughts to her again. Where is she? How is she? Is she safe? What about Ray? The glass swan measured barometric pressure by the movement of the red dye resting in its belly. The dye was rising into the neck, which meant the pressure was dropping rapidly, indicating the approach of a big storm. Sure enough, Adam could see thick dark clouds filled with flashes of lightning sweeping across the water like dust from an advancing herd of charging buffalo.