Page 17 of The Alpha Experiment
His gusty sigh conveyed condescension even without a facial expression to accompany it. “Academia is soft,” he said. “It makes you lazy. It is that easy, if you want it to be. I have complete faith in your abilities, when you’re properly motivated. You’re a brilliant scientist. For both our sakes, I hope you don’t disappoint me.”
“You make it sound like it’s something I can do overnight!” I jumped up off the couch, the only way to alleviate the twitching in my limbs. I nearly tripped and fell. “I can’t—it’s just not that simple. I don’t have—even with enough funding, I can’t—and I don’t have—it’s not that simple!”
“If you need something specific, tell me, and the funding will become available. But no stalling,” he added, his voice going as cold as liquid nitrogen. “You can have a month, because I do understand that these things take a reasonable amount of time. But if you disclose this agreement of ours to anyone, or don’t appear to be making acceptable progress, I’m afraid the terms of the deal will need to be renegotiated. We’re very serious about confidentiality at Initech.”
“What the hell does that—” I broke off as the quality of the connection changed, and pulled the phone away from my ear to see the call information blinking out.
He’d hung up on me.
The son of a bitch hadhung up on me.
I stared at my phone, panting and probably wild-eyed.The terms of the deal will need to be renegotiated. Who did he think he was, Darth Vader, telling me to pray he didn’t alter them any further? Which made me Lando. The asshole who screwed everything up and then eventually fixed his mistakes, but not before getting his best friend frozen in carbonite, setting up another guy to get his hand chopped off, and wearing a stupid visor thing with fake tusks on it for half a movie.
Maybe I could skip the part in the middle.
I couldn’t do what he wanted, though. A month wasn’t enough time. Research like mine took thousands of painstaking steps, usually one back for every one or two forward. A month was nothing.
But it was all I had.
I put the phone down and staggered into the bathroom to splash some water on my face. What I saw in the mirror made me stop and stare. Wild-eyed was an understatement. I could see the whites all around, with a huge pool of dark pupil in the middle and only the smallest ring of blue dividing them. My pale, blotchy face could’ve illustrated an encyclopedia entry on shock.
I couldn’t face Colin like this, and he’d be back within a few minutes. I couldn’t go out.
Shower. I could hide in there. He’d be pissed I’d gotten in the shower where I couldn’t hear an intruder or get the phone if he called me, but that was better than the alternative of him seeing me like this and demanding an explanation I simply couldn’t give.
Because I didn’t think Greenwald was the type to bluff, and he’d told me not to talk to anyone. Not that he’d know—unless he had my apartment bugged, and oh, shit, but that thought nearly made me throw up all the coffee I’d drunk that morning, no matter how unlikely it seemed—but Colin wouldn’t sit on that kind of information. He’d want to take action, and every action had consequences. It was supposed to be an equal and opposite reaction, thanks to my namesake, but I had the feeling Greenwald’s reaction would be far from equal.
I’d rather lie to Colin than see him get dragged through some kind of public scandal, ending in him blaming himself for me losing my job, my research—the most important thing in my life.
He wouldn’t agree with that decision. To him, lying to protect him would be a bigger betrayal than letting Greenwald screw us both.
I’d tell him, I promised myself as I undressed with shaky fingers, dropping my clothes on the floor and climbing under the hot water. I hissed in discomfort as it hit my chilled skin, and closed my eyes, covering my face with my hands. I’d tell him. As soon as I could be sure no one would know, and as soon as I could figure out how to convince him not to do anything about it, and to let me handle it my way.
Inaction didn’t come naturally to Colin. He’d need a lot of convincing.
I let the water flow down over my neck and back, took a deep, shaky breath, and put my mind to work.
Iwasa brilliant scientist, dammit. I could figure this out.
Apparently all I needed was—motivation.
I made myself another promise. I’d destroy Dr. Asshole Greenwald. Somehow, some way, I’d give him an unequal and opposite reaction of my own.
Chapter 6
Unorthodox Methodology
Colin announced his return home by bursting into the bathroom, claws out. I nearly jumped out of my own skin, yelping and flailing and catching myself against the glass shower door with a clatter and bang. The bathroom door whacked into the wall and bounced back, and I winced as Colin stopped it with a clawed hand. If I didn’t do some serious work to get those scratches out, there went my deposit.
He stood framed in the doorway, staring at me, as I got my balance back. “What the hell? Is something wrong? If you needed to piss you could’ve just knocked!”
Colin slowly retracted his claws, the alpha glow in his eyes fading away and leaving them their usual dark brown. He looked me up and down—slowly, and I couldn’t parse the look on his face. I fought the urge to cover my groin with my hands. Colin would’ve laughed at me, and it wasn’t like we hadn’t changed in front of each other, showered next to each other at campgrounds, or gone swimming on impulse when we hadn’t had any trunks.
“Actually, I did knock, but you didn’t answer.AfterI called out for you when I came inside, and you didn’t fucking answer. Why are you in the shower?” he demanded. “You can’t hear anything in there. Anyone could’ve broken in and surprised you. Haven’t you ever seen a horror movie?”
Well, I’d called that reaction. I couldn’t help my epic eye roll, and by the way Colin’s narrowed, he noticed. “You mean those horror movies where a monster, like, say, awerewolf, busts in on someone innocently taking a shower? Those movies?”
Colin cracked up, the tension bleeding out of the set of his broad shoulders. “Yes, asshole, those movies. Anyway, I freaked out a little. Sorry for startling you.”
