Page 16 of Devil
“Please excuse us,” he said to Dr. Pritchard. The woman nodded again, then continued to her lab.
“Have a good evening,” Lily called over her shoulder as she walked, towing him along, toward the elevator. They waited in silence for the car to arrive, Lily keeping her grip on him the whole time. When they stepped into the elevator, though, it was a different story. As soon as the door closed, she dropped his arm and moved to the other side.
“What’s the plan now?” he asked.
She smiled again, only this smile wasn’t the come-hither, happy smile she’d given him in the hall. “Now we go to dinner. I have a few questions for you, Commander Washington.”
CHAPTERNINE
At work the next day,Darius kept the feed from the security camera outside Lily’s lab open on his monitor. He couldn’t help himself. She was far too interesting to ignore.
The night before, he’d been ready for her to grill him about why he’d been on the fourth floor at the exact moment she needed Pritchard intercepted. But she’d thrown him for a loop. Their entire dinner was spent in what most would call casual conversation. She’d asked about his schooling, his career, and his family. They’d talked sports—which she wasn’t a big fan of—and television shows—which was a short conversation since neither watched much.
It hadn’t been until much later that night, when he’d been home in bed, that he realized why she hadn’t asked him about any of the events in the hallway. She’d known all the answers to the questions she’d asked, and she’d been testing him. Testing to see if he told the truth, for sure, but also testing to see what his tells might be if he lied.
He’d been so prepared for an attack on one front that he’d completely missed the one that had actually happened. He was grateful this op was a solo one; his navy buddies would never let him live it down. And he wouldn’t blame them, either. He’d been played, and he’d let it happen.
Not that he minded. In fact, he kind of liked the idea that she’d researched him. And that she was taking her time deciding whether, or how much, to trust him. Trust earned was a much more precious commodity than trust that was given freely.
But if he thought she’d piqued his interest before their dinner, well, that was nothing in comparison to his interest now. Even knowing she’d been playing him, he believed that some of her smiles had been genuine, and some of her interest had been real. And he’d liked both. More than he should. In fact, each time she smiled, a startling warmth came into her eyes, leaving him feeling as if he’d received a rare gift.
Again, thank god his navy buddies weren’t around to see him. He feared he might be rolling straight from intrigued to obsessed. Not in a creepy sort of way. Other than watching the camera feed outside her lab, he wasn’t going to start stalking her. But he was certainly having a hard time keeping his mind off her.
And he wasn’t sure he wanted to change that.
Letting out a long exhale, he switched applications on his computer and started catching up on email. Twenty minutes later Judy brought him a coffee—a preemptory bribe to bring her a sandwich at lunch—and he used the distraction as an excuse to check the security feed again.
He took a sip of coffee and, not for the first time, considered what she might have been doing. She hadn’t mentioned her foray into Lab 14 during dinner, and he hadn’t brought it up. He’d enjoyed their conversation, but it had left him with a lot of unanswered questions. Questions about the lab, about Dr. Pritchard, and about what Lily might have encountered when she’d come across the “cleaning” women.
It went against everything inside him to not pursue the answers. He hadn’t anticipated how difficult it would be to hold himself back when he’d agreed to the assignment. But his orders were clear: do not to engage unless or until Lily required his engagement. And to date, she hadn’t required anything of him other than the small interference he’d run the night before.
With a grunt of annoyance—at himself—he acknowledged that he needed to get his shit together. Yes, the revelations about Lily’s private life had surprised him, and yes, he was attracted to her. But he had a job to do. Two, actually. Whether Lily ever grew to trust him wasn’t relevant to his orders. Sure, he wanted more, and yes, it would be easier to fulfill his mission if she trusted him, but it wasn’t required.
There was also the very real possibility that even if she knew who he really was, and why he was currently running the research center, she might not ever take him into her confidence.
* * *
“You need to trust him, Devil,” Cyn said, sounding annoyingly close through the earbud Lily wore. She was looking at a sample under the microscope and hadn’t thought twice about answering Cyn’s call. Something she now regretted.
“Uh-huh,” Devil answered, dialing in on a spot in the sample she was studying.
“You’re not listening, are you?”
“I always listen to you, Cyn.”
“Now I know you’re not listening. Look, Devil, I know you don’t want to hear this, but youneedto hear it. Not only that, you need to see it.”
Devil bit back a sigh. Cyn was on a tear and with her current state of boredom, she wouldn’t let it go until Devil heard her out. Straightening away from the microscope, Devil focused her gaze on a distant building as she asked, “What do I need to see?”
“Finally, I have your attention.”
Devil didn’t respond.
Cyn huffed. “It’s in your email. I already told you.”
Dutifully, Devil picked up her phone and opened her email app. Clicking on the message from Cyn, she found a video file. Opening the file, she watched a clear feed of Darius leaving his office and striding straight to the stairwell. Once there, he jogged down to the fourth floor, then walked purposefully toward the elevator, arriving in time to encounter Dr. Pritchard. Devil had already accepted the possibility that his interception of Pritchard had been deliberate. The video supported that conclusion, but she wasn’t sure what the big deal was.
“And?” Devil asked.
