Page 28 of Devil
“Ready, Commander?” she asked, tipping her head up to see him. Though in her heels, she didn’t need to look up very far.
“Always.” He grinned back down at her. And he was pretty sure that given the opportunity with Lily, that would be his answer to that question for the rest of his life.
* * *
“Dr. Pritchard, lovely to meet you. I’m Dr. Lily Devillier,” Lily said, holding out her hand to the guest of honor for the night. Somehow, the tickets she’d managed to procure were at the head table. “And this is Commander Darius Washington,” she added, after shaking the older man’s hand.
Gerard Pritchard’s gaze didn’t linger on him the way it had on Lily, and call him judgy, but the good doctor wasn’t making a good first impression.
“And what brings you here tonight?” Dr. Pritchard asked, reaching for the whiskey that sat on the table. They’d already mingled for over an hour and had just been seated for dinner.
Lily inclined her head but didn’t play into the man’s attempt to bolster his own ego. “We felt like dressing up. This was the most interesting event we could find,” she said. She threw in a teasing smile, and Darius could all but feel the man’s interest in her spike. Despite being old enough to be her father.
“Well, I’m glad I made the cut,” he responded, holding up his glass. Lily clinked her wineglass against it. Gerard might be ignoring him, but at least Lily wasn’t. She’d turned so that she could face the doctor while speaking, but in doing so, she pressed her back to his side. He’d even managed to slip an arm around her waist and rest his hand on her hip.
“We actually heard about the event from your daughter. I work at the same research center, and Darius is our chief operations officer,” Lily said. There were two empty seats between Gerard and him and Lily, and Lily was taking advantage of the moment before the other guests arrived.
With a tip of his head, Gerard gave the smallest acknowledgment of their shared connection, but then he added, “It’s an excellent center. She’s lucky to be there.”
Not exactly the words of a father proud of his child’s accomplishments.
Lily was saved from having to come up with something more to say when the two seats between her and Gerard were filled by an older couple. Darius didn’t recognize them—not a surprise—but Lily knew them and promptly introduced him to Drs. Jane and Henry Goldstein, both of whom were retired professors from the university she’d attended.
The first course progressed much as Darius expected, and a steady stream of people stopped by the table to meet the guest of honor. The gift he had for Lily was burning a hole in his pocket, but he’d been so stunned when he’d first seen her that he’d forgotten about it. And now that they were in the middle of the evening’s event, it wasn’t the right time.
But perhaps later, after the dinner. He hadn’t intended to invite Lily up to his apartment, but he had an excuse now. It wasn’t very sporting of him to use the gift as a lure, but he wasn’t feeling very sporting at the moment. Not when it seemed as if every man who stopped by the table made a point of ogling Lily. They should be keeping their eyes to their damn selves.
After the waitstaff cleared the salad plates, Dr. Pritchard rose to give his speech. He filled the twenty minutes with the latest scientific information on four of the world’s deadliest viruses. The data were actually interesting—and mildly terrifying. But Pritchard’s delivery made it clear that he believed he was the only one who could save the world from itself. More than once, Darius fought not to roll his eyes. He didn’t belittle the doctor’s work, but despite what Dr. Pritchard wanted them to believe, no man ever accomplished anything completely on his own.
When he returned to the table, the waitstaff served the main course, and more drinks flowed. Within ten minutes, Dr. Pritchard had downed his second glass of wine. It didn’t hurt that Lily kept topping off his glass, asking a subtle probing question about his daughter each time. Wasn’t it too bad she couldn’t attend? Was he going to have a chance to stop by and see her work? Would they be able to visit while he was in Boston?
The more he drank, the more his answers revealed about his relationship with his daughter. By the time dessert came around, they’d learned that he and Jennifer had met the night before for a drink, but he didn’t intend to see her again before he left in two days.
Dr. Pritchard was to the point of slurring his speech when Lily’s hand landed on Darius’s thigh. The contact gave him a start, but in a flash, his palm covered hers. A second later, he realized she hadn’t been trying to cop a feel; she’d only been trying to get his attention without turning away from the doctor.
Leaning forward, his chest brushing against her back and shoulder, he spoke. “What is it?”
She kept her gaze forward, but she drew her head back a touch. “He’s not well.”
What he was, was drunk. “Whiskey and a bottle and a half of wine will do that.”
She gave a subtle shake of her head, and wisps of her hair brushed his cheek. “No, look at him. Really look at him.”
Darius did as he was told and let his gaze settle on the older man. Leaning back in his seat, Gerard had one arm stretched out, holding a wineglass, while the other rested on his leg. Beads of sweat had formed on his brow, and his face had turned a ruddy red. He looked to be burning up, but then, as Darius observed him, the man shivered.
“He has a fever,” Darius said, his mind instantly going all sorts of dark places.
“And look at his hand,” she said, keeping her voice low.
Darius dropped his gaze and noticed a rash-like mark on the man’s wrist, barely visible past the cuffs of his tux. “Do we need to call in the CDC?” he asked. It was extreme, but he’d seen the effects of biological terrorism. He didn’t want to mess around if somehow, Dr. Pritchard was infected with something.
Lily shook her head but never got the chance to respond because chaos erupted when Dr. Gerard slumped back in his seat and lost consciousness.
CHAPTERFOURTEEN
Devil’s heartclimbed into her throat at Gerard’s sudden decline. There were dozens of doctors present, so rather than step in to help, she took Darius’s hand and pulled him to the side of the ballroom. She was sure the paramedics were already on their way, and the best thing they could do was stay out of the way. It seemed everyone realized the same thing and within minutes, a path cleared from the back of the room to Dr. Pritchard just as the EMTs arrived.
Scanning their surroundings, Devil kept her eyes open for anything unusual. Was anyone paying a little too much attention? Or, alternatively, was anyone looking to scamper away?
