Page 67 of The Alpha Experiment
The thought of anyone but Colin on top of me, inside me, made me so sick I nearly threw up all the coffee I’d drunk.
Gods, I should’ve taken a blood sample after all. I was probably producing some kind of werewolf mating hormone by the bucketload, flooding my brain and destroying my capacity for rational thought.
I didn’t wantanyoneon top of me or inside me, including Colin. I didn’t want any of that. I wanted to go back to normal. I wanted me and Colin to go back to normal, together. Our normal.
I could get over this, if Colin could. I promised myself I would.
My vision refocused, and Colin had moved closer, leaning in to look at me. I stumbled back all off-kilter again, scurrying a few feet away.
Colin stopped in his tracks.
“Fuck,” he said, very quietly. And then, “Fuck!” He spun on his heel and strode to his car, stopping with his hand on the door handle. He turned his head and looked at me, a long, searching gaze, nothing on his face at all. “You’ll be okay as soon as the effects of the ‘experiment’ wear off,” he said wearily, like every word took a massive effort. “You’ll be fine, Newt. Call me if you need me. For anything.”
And with that, he yanked the car door open with a screech of rusty metal, practically flung himself into the car, and drove away before I could muster so much as a word.
I stood there in the rain and watched his taillights until he turned out of the parking lot and disappeared.
***
Meredith called me at eleven the next morning, waking me out of a fitful sleep. I didn’t have class until three, and I’d been up all night, finally passing out right before dawn.
I sat up on the couch, rubbing at my eyes. “Sorry, I’m not quite with it yet,” I muttered. That was the understatement of the year. My eyes felt like burning sand pits and my hands were shaking like a detoxing junkie’s. That just covered the extremities. The rest of me felt worse. “What’s up?”
“I got his schedule! Had to chat up his research partner, and you owe me dinner for that, Newton. He’ll be in the lab tonight. Where are you? Wait, home, obviously. I talked to Tony again. He’s down to help later and back up our story. Have you written the email? Should I come to your place and help with—”
“No!” I interjected in a panic. Shit, she couldnotcome here. I hadn’t slept in my bed, I couldn’t even bring myself to go in my bedroom. The magic handcuffs were still lurking on the floor. Colin was gone, and I’d have to explain that, and even saying his name might push me over the edge. “Sorry, sorry,” I added, into her stunned silence. “The place is a total mess. But I’ll—meet you at the office at eight, and then head to the lab after. Can you finish fabricating the results? I’ll bring a thumb drive when I come.”
She agreed, and I managed to chivvy her off the phone and try to get myself into the land of the living.
It only took me an hour to get into the shower, not bad considering I spent twenty of those minutes psyching myself up to go in my room long enough to get clean clothes. I tried not to look at the bed that Colin had made up for me, after he’d ripped the mattress to shreds while I rode his cock.
I failed.
Once I’d shut my bedroom door with myself on the outside of it and pretended that was normal, I sat down at the coffee table. First part of the plan: the email Meredith had mentioned, which I’d open up as a new draft window on my laptop screen right before absentmindedly leaving the lab bench, and my computer, unattended in order to make a phone call.
Addressed to Greenwald, the email needed to contain a reference to having received a competing job-offer call from Dr. Anthony Whittaker of PharmaTestics, and also a weaselly attempt to get out of our deal, since no matter how generously he meant to compensate me for handing over the data, I didn’t like that he’d simply give me the money and I’d never get any credit for it. In a little stroke of inspiration, I included some whining about how I was worried about giving it to him, since I hadn’t collected it ethically, and I didn’t want the university to find out.
I sat back and read it over again, drinking another cup of coffee while I did. I couldn’t find any errors. Kyle, sneakily reading this email, would assume thatanyoneproviding Greenwald with the data would be paid generously; when Kyle told Greenwald I had another potential offer, Greenwald would leap at the chance to get my research from Kyle before I could hand it over to a rival company. Moreover, since the data had been stolen from me, and was supposedly my personal copy of it, Greenwald wouldn’t suspect tampering.
And if Greenwald called to gloat and tell me he already had my data, he might threaten to expose me to the university for ethics violations if I didn’t keep my mouth shut about the work being mine—instead of leveling any other threats that might be more of a problem for me.
Because that was a threat I could seriously live with, considering Greenwald wouldn’t have my work in the first place. I wouldn’t want credit for the garbage Meredith was currently concocting to stick onto the thumb drive I’d leave sticking out of my laptop that evening, ready to be pocketed.
Last but not least, Tony would quietly confirm any discreet inquiries about having offered me a job, giving Greenwald additional assurance that someone else in the industry thought my data was worth having. The threat of competition might even make Greenwald more eager to use the data quickly, and hopefully carelessly.
Meredith had also asked Tony to make sure Kyle never worked in any major pharma lab except for Initech’s, so that was doubly nice. I could live with Kyle profiting off Greenwald, especially since Greenwald would be paying for total bullshit that with any luck would eventually get his board to fire him, but I didn’t want Kyle to profit from his theft long-term.
Meredith’s friend would supply his eventual karma. That warmed me down to my toes.
Unfortunately, by the time I’d finished my part of the job, I still had over an hour before my class started, leaving me with more time than I wanted to brood.
I could clean the apartment, try to get rid of any lingering trace of Colin.
In the living room and kitchen, anyway. I needed more fortitude to tackle my bedroom. And more liquor.
Or I could leave early.
Leaving early worked for me.
