Chapter Nine
Hamel hung on by a thread. As if last night hadn’t been hard enough for him. Now that his jaguar recognized her as his mate, it allowed for their mate bond to click. He’d been expecting to sense her deeper emotions, but he’d forgotten the ability to participate in her dream world.
Being with her, even if it was just a dream, had woken him up with a severe hard-on and the need to touch himself while reliving the things they’d done. Damn. It took everything in him to control his need to take her the moment she’d looked at his face. Her blushing and the scent of her need made his animal insane. He knew what she was doing the moment they saw each other. She’d thought back to her dream. Hell, he’d done the same thing.
Still, he’d controlled himself. Right now, though, he was losing his control. His mate sat on the counter, him between her knees. She breathed hard, her blood pumping through her veins, adrenaline coursing through her. Prey. All signs of prey being hunted. And occasionally, her smell tossed out scents screaming “sex” and “fucking.” Fuck, he was going to break.
He didn’t realize he was even growling until her huge eyes met his. His jaguar would be in full force, rimming his eyes with gold. But she showed no fear. The opposite, in fact. She scented like she wanted more of him. Like in the dream. No, not yet.
He stepped back abruptly, startling her. “Sorry, Melinda. I didn’t mean to scare you. I was in your private space again. I seem to have a habit of that.” He gave her a sheepish grin. She continued to stare at him, saying nothing. All right, then. This wasn’t awkward.
He ran a hand over his bristly head. “We should talk with Kintu. Get security on this.”
Melinda scooted off the counter. “Yes, of course. Let me put my purse away.” Her eyes locked on to something on the far side of the lab. He followed her line of sight to see a wall cabinet with its doors blown off. He followed her dash across the room.
“What do you keep in here?” he asked.
“My laptop and other expensive stuff not bolted down.” She seemed to take stock. “Only my laptop is missing. Oh, damn. This is so not good.” She reached in, but he grabbed her arm.
“Don’t touch anything. We need to get a forensics team in to dust for prints and search for possible DNA residue. I’ll get the mice cleared first so you can take them elsewhere for the day. We’ll pull security footage to see what happened.” For the first time all week, he felt in control of the situation. What a great feeling. He hated feeling like an idiot. “Anything else missing? Look carefully.”
Her eyes methodically swept the room, occasionally moving to different spots to look on the floor. When she reached the refrigerator, her face paled. The lock on it had been pried open. “I need to open it,” she said.
He took a pen from his pocket and wedged it along the lower side of the door and levered it open. After a second, she said, “That’s strange. Only my tea is gone.”
“Your tea?”
“Yeah, there was still a lot in the beaker, so I put it in here for today. They didn’t touch any of the experiments or serums.”
Then it dawned on him. “Your tea was in the beaker with the ESP label partially scratched off.”
“So? Other stuff in here has labels. In fact, the only thing without a label is the ESP serum.” Then he saw it click in her head. “They were after the virus?”
“That’s my conclusion, for the time being. We need to talk to Kintu.” He took her hand and led her through the obstacle course to the back hall entrance. They came across the senior PRO leaving another lab. “Kintu.” The man turned. “We have a security breach in Miss Caster’s lab.”
The senior’s face looked puzzled. Melinda said, “Someone has broken into my lab and stolen my laptop and what they think is the unknown virus serum.” Kintu’s expression changed to one of alarm, then determination.
“Let’s go to my office.” Hamel and Melinda followed Kintu down a series of halls to a corner office. He noticed that Melinda hadn’t tried to take her hand from his. Maybe this relationship thing wouldn’t be so hard after all. He stopped himself from going further with that train of thought with the image of his uncle lying in a grocery store’s dessert display, cake and pie on his face.
They took the seats in front of the senior PRO’s desk and watched patiently as he made phone call after phone call. After a few minutes, he put the phone on speaker and turned his twenty-four-inch monitor toward them.
A male voice spoke through the phone speaker. “Here’s footage from camera four on the south side of the lab’s building.” They watched the video fast-forward from daylight to nighttime. Cars zipped in and out of the front parking lot.
Then after what seemed like nothing for a long time, Hamel said, “Stop. Back up.” The screen showed rewinding, then playing in real time. A shadow slithered down the side of the building from the roof, opposite side from the guard shack.
“Let me see if we can zoom in some.” The man on the phone issued instructions to someone and the image stopped and reconfigured. When in focus, the screen clearly showed a person on a rope, extending down the side of the building.
The way the person moved with confident, sure movements told him whoever this was had done this kind of thing before. He watched as the person attached suction cups with handles to the window and cut a large section of glass from the middle. He then pushed forward, easily entering the lab. A few minutes later, the camera showed him leaving with a backpack.
“My laptop and tea are probably in there. Jerk.”
Kintu turned to her. “Your tea?”
She sighed. “Long story. But my tea was labeled as the virus.”
“What time was this last night?” Hamel asked.
The man on the phone pointed out the numbers running across the bottom of the footage. The time was the first numbers: 22:30. About five hours after most employees left yesterday.
How did this happen in such a facility? Guards were stationed at the gate up front. Security cameras were posted around the perimeter. He’d memorized every route the security patrol took every hour. There were guards in each building after hours.
He scrubbed hands through his hair, frustration setting in. What could’ve happened if his mate had been in the lab during that time? Would she have been killed? A pain like he had never experienced cut him—worse than being shot, worse than the six-inch bowie knife, worse than when he smashed his pinky toe against a chair leg. And fuck, that hurt.
No. Losing his mate was not an option. He’d carry her to the airport if it came down to it. He leaned toward the phone. “What about the camera in lab two? Can you bring up its recording?”
“We’ve been working on it,” the phone voice said, “but it seems the cameras to this building were offline at that time. No data recorded.”
Fuckity fuck fuck. That meant they were dealing with some damn serious enemies.
“Mr. Kintu, sir”—a different, more commanding voice was on the phone—“do you want this reported to the local authorities?”
“Good god, no, Captain. We’d have a circus on our hands. Order your men to keep this under wraps. If the outside world gets a whiff of this, the media will descend like a pack of sharks.”
“Yes, sir,” the captain said.
Hamel asked, “I don’t suppose you have an in-house CSI team?”
Kintu laughed. “We have all the equipment you could possibly want, but no street team.”
“Ironic, isn’t it?” Hamel smiled. He glimpsed at Melinda’s dazed face. Poor thing was probably overloaded with what the hell was going on. If he wasn’t careful, he’d blow his cover with her. Fortunately, Kintu knew who he was, but it stopped there. “Mr. Kintu, I don’t think Melinda here is too interested in what happens next. I think she just wants to get back to work in a different lab.” He gave Kintu a look that said Go along with this.
The senior PRO swiveled his chair around like he’d forgotten she was there. “I’m so sorry, Melinda. Of course, you should get back to work. Don’t let us stop your experiments.”
Hamel stood, taking Mel’s hand again. “If you’ll give me a few minutes, we’ll get her set up and then we can talk about the boring stuff.” He flashed a wide smile at her, trying to play off any suspicions she may have. When she smiled back, he hoped he’d gotten away with it.