Page 15 of Devil
“I have no idea, but she’s headed to the elevator.”
That was fine with Devil, since it meant she could use the stairwell.
“Uh-oh,” Cyn said. “Your new operations officer, who is a mighty fine-looking man by the way, is on his way down the stairs.”
“Which floor is he on now?” Devil asked.
Cyn relayed the question to Six, then paused as she received the answer. “He’s walking down from his fifth-floor office and is exiting on the fourth.”
Devil didn’t need the intel, though; she’d heard the fourth-floor stairwell door being flung open. Rather vigorously, actually.
She stilled. The walls of the building were thick, but if someone were listening, they’d be able to hear voices and movement. Even if they couldn’t decipher them.
“Pritchard just stepped off the elevator, and Washington looks like he’s on his way to meet her,” Cyn said.
“Meet her?” Devil asked, keeping her voice low.
“Or intercept her,” Cyn replied.
Devil frowned. Was he here because he and Pritchard were up to something? Or, as Cyn suggested, was he here to intercept Pritchard and keep her from entering the lab? Instinctively, she knew it wasn’t the former. But the latter meant he’d had eyes on her all along, too.
Fuck.
“What are they doing?” she asked.
“Talking in the hall around the corner. I don’t have sound, but the conversation looks friendly enough, though formal. If you’re quiet, you can sneak out now and slip back into the stairwell. He has her occupied enough, and they are far enough away that you have time.”
She could do that. Sheshoulddo that. But the arrival of Darius had thrown her. She’d spent a few hours the night before digging into his life. He had an exemplary career, a large, close-knit family, and liked to scuba dive and hike for fun. Everything she’d read supported her belief that he wasn’t involved in the questionable activities going on in Pritchard’s lab.
Which left the other option—that he was helping her by intentionally intercepting Pritchard—as the only real explanation for his arrival. And if that was the case, she was going to have to pull on her big-girl panties—or thong as the case may be—and talk to the man.
“I could, but I’m not,” Devil said. “I have another idea.”
“Will it require us to hide any bodies?”
“We’ve never hidden bodies, well, at least not as a group, and why do you sound excited by that possibility?”
“Because Joe isn’t home yet to distract me.”
Devil chuckled softly and wondered if Joe would still be able to walk by the time Cyn’s semester ended. “No, it won’t require hiding any bodies, but it will require that I do something I told myself I wouldn’t do.”
“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Again, Devil had to wonder about the eagerness in her friend’s voice.
“I’m going to dinner with Darius Washington.”
* * *
Darius chatted with Dr. Jennifer Pritchard as, hopefully, Lily made her way out of Lab 14. He had no idea what she was doing in there. Nor had he known that she even had access to the room. But he was certain that if Pritchard discovered her there, it wouldn’t be a good thing.
He was suggesting to Dr. Pritchard that she visit the HR office the next day to fix a made-up glitch with her access card when the sound of footsteps behind him drew his attention.
Striding toward them was Lily. Her long legs, clad in form-fitting black pants, ate the distance, and she was smiling at him. He blinked. He wasn’t sure he’d ever seen her smile.
“There you are, babe,” she said, slipping her arm through his and pressing against his side. “I was wondering where you were. Our dinner reservation is in twenty-five minutes. We should head out if we don’t want to be late. Dr. Pritchard.” She acknowledged the woman with a cool nod.
Dr. Pritchard’s gaze bounced between the two as she nodded to Lily. Lily leaned into him a little more then, surreptitiously, pinched his arm.
He cleared his throat. “Of course,” he said with a smile, slipping into the role Lily had set him up for. On any other day, he’d enjoy playing her boyfriend. But today, he had a sinking feeling that she’d discovered who he was. And despite her smile, she wasn’t happy about it.
