Chapter Two
Michelle
“Morning,” she said, sing-song, as she walked into the lab proper. “How is everyone today?”
“Oh, just fine,” Jacob Devries replied, not matching her tone. He never did. “How was your weekend?”
“Great. Just great.” She put her coat and bag down at her desk. “I can feel it, Jacob. Today is going to be the day.”
“You say that every day.”
“And you say that every day. One of these days, though, we’re going to figure it out. We’re very, very close, you know that.”
“Of course I do. We can all see the evidence. If we can just figure out how to do it efficiently, then we could put it to human trials and cure millions. Wouldn’t that be something?”
“Something indeed,” she echoed, sitting at her chair and pulling up her emails. As head of the lab, Michelle had to do plenty more than the others she worked with. All the administrative work fell on her plate as well. Thankfully, as a privately funded laboratory, there was comparatively little of it, which was why she took the dual role. Still, every day there were other items that called to her attention before they could get to work.
“Junk, junk, junk,” she muttered to herself, deleting the various newsletters and e-flyers that she couldn’t seem to put a stop to no matter how hard she tried. “Oh, look at this,” she called sarcastically.
“What is it today?”
“Another offer from EPP.” She opened it and quickly scanned the attached document. “Look at that, they’ve even upped their offer from the last one by another ten percent.”
She and Jacob both laughed. EPP, or EuroPharmaPrix, was one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies on the continent, if not the world. They’d been relentlessly trying to buy the research her lab was working on.
“Like that’ll happen,” Jacob snorted.
Although he was more of a dour and impressionable personality, the opposite of her outgoing but strong-willed, they both shared one thing in common: a hatred for “Big Pharma”, as they termed it. Their lab was independent, and it would stay that way. When they finally found the cure they’d been working on for so long, it would go into public hands, to be made for a tiny fraction of what B.P. would try to charge for it.
“Never,” she agreed, and sent the email away to the trash bin, where it and everyone who worked for EPP and its rivals belonged, in her opinion. “Though they’re starting to get more persistent. Do you think they’ve got a sniff at how close we are?”
“Maybe? I don’t see how, though.” Jacob started tapping a pencil on his desk as he thought, a habit she’d long since gotten used to. “Not unless somebody talked.”
The lab employed a grand total of eleven people, and Michelle could vouch for all of them. She doubted there was a leak.
“I don’t know,” she said at last. “Let’s see what else. Hmm. That’s new.”
Jacob’s chair slid across the floor until he could peer over her shoulder. “Michelle,” he read. “An investor will be arriving at the laboratory today. Please give them a tour. They have been vetted and are to be given complete access. Answer any questions they may have with our permission. Signed, Molly G. Sims, Board of Directors.”
Michelle rolled her eyes. “Yay, I get to play tour director. How wonderful.”
Jacob laughed, rolling back over to his desk. “That’s why they pay you the big bucks,” he said, still smiling.
“Lucky me.”
“Hey, maybe if you do a good job and they decide to invest, we’ll get enough money to hire someone else. Another brain here could help us advance things pretty quickly, you know.”
“That depends on if it’s someone with a brain like yours or not.”
Jacob feigned being hurt, clutching as his heart. “Oh, my pride has been woundeth by thou. Whatsoever shalst I do!”
“Learn to speak Shakespeare would be a good start.”
Her coworker frowned. “You’re really annoyed by this, aren’t you?”
“Sure. I have to do it, because we need all the money we can get. We’ve been lucky that whoever the board deals with has continued to invest money into us for four years without us producing anything concrete yet.”
Michelle had only ever met Molly. The board didn’t do anything regarding the lab’s day-to-day operations. From what she understood, they oversaw a bunch of various investments, one of which just happened to be the lab. They didn’t care what she and the others did as long as they didn’t go over budget.
“You just want to spend all day trying new variations, don’t you?”
She shrugged. “We’ve gotten this far; derivatives are essentially all we have now, otherwise we go back to the drawing board.”
“I know.”
“To answer your question, yes. I am frustrated. I don’t want to be wasting my time on this, but I know it’s important to the lab as a whole, so I’m going to do it, and I’m going to do it with a smile on my face as well.”
“You’ll be fine,” Jacob said, dismissing her irritation. “They didn’t make you the head of the lab when you were twenty-eight for no reason.”
“Don’t remind me.” Michelle had no idea why she’d gotten the position she did. Almost fresh out of her PhD, she’d been told a new lab was being constructed and they wanted her as the head. Four years later, she was still there. To her, it was a minor miracle, and not one she wanted to discuss, lest they realize their mistake.
“Does it say when he’s going to arrive?”
“No. So let’s see if we can get some work done first.”
Jacob nodded in agreement, but the phone rang before she could even read the next email.
“Is someone spying on me?” she complained, staring at the phone.
“With what? There are no cameras in here.”
“That we know of,” she joked, well aware that the only cameras were outside the building. With a sigh, she picked up the receiver. “Hello?”
“Hi, Michelle. There’s a gentleman here to see you. Said he has an appointment?”
“Send him in, Lindsay,” she told the receptionist. Only after she hung up the phone did she realize that nothing had mentioned to her the potential investor’s name. Great. What a start to her pitch.
Standing up, she straightened her clothes in a vain attempt to look more professional. Frowning at the way her loose-fitting jeans and olive-green t-shirt clashed with that image, she snatched up her white lab coat, draping it overtop, hoping that might help offset the casualness of her outfit.
Today is just not the right day for any of this. I wonder if I can call out sick before he gets here.
The doors parted and someone walked into the offices. Michelle’s jaw dropped as she took in the tall figure with granite-gray hair, well-defined facial features that lacked the sharp, hard edges that would make him appear unfriendly. He was clean-shaven, but the stubble was still visible even this early in the morning. A long aquiline nose stood profile on to her, until the man turned to look at her.
“Kase,” she said dully, shocked to realize she knew the man. Sort of.
His eyes locked on to her, making her shiver now like they had four and a half years ago when they’d first met. They were distant, almost cold, but with just enough warmth to be deceiving. When the light hit them just right, they seemed to glow silver, something she remembered vividly.
“Hello, Michelle,” he said, smile and voice both coming across awkward and almost reluctant.
Wasn’t she supposed to be the one who didn’t want to be there, not him?
“What are you doing here?”
“I’m here to look at the lab.”
Her jaw dropped as she stared at him agog. “You? You’re the investor coming by to see if we’re worthy of your money?”
The giant started to say something, stopped, started again, shook his head, and settled on a nod.
“Fantastic.”
Kase. Last name unknown, possibly nonexistent. Like Cher. Or Bono. Except not famous or a singer. As far as she knew. That one karaoke night she’d been rather wasted, which made recalling his vocal ability hard.
“Don’t look so unhappy to see me,” he joked.
“Right. Because I haven’t heard from you in four years. Since I got this job, to be exact. You just disappeared out of my life.”
He looked away. “Yes, I did.” There was no trace of apology.
“Well this is more awkward than someone trying to fistbump the English Queen,” Jacob remarked, standing up and walking right into the washroom without saying another word.
Kase nodded, looking around the lab, not saying anything. He definitely seemed unhappy about it all, too. Was that because he had to put up with her? Michelle was no expert on human behavior, but nothing about his reaction so far had said he was surprised to see her there. Did he dislike her so much that he couldn’t hide it for the length of time it would take to conduct a tour?
“Well, how lovely. Shall we get started?” she asked through a smile that couldn’t possibly have reached the rest of her face.
“Of course. The sooner this is over, the better.”
You took the words right out of my mouth, you dick.
“That seems to be your normal way of doing things,” she said tartly. “So, begin.”
Kase chewed his lip at her comment, but just stood there.
She sighed. “What do you want first, a tour? Do you have questions? Why are you here, Kase?”
He ignored her last question. “What are you working on at the lab?” He shrugged out of his coat, revealing the button-up drawn tight across his frame.
She remembered that body, the firmness of his muscles and the way they looked dripping with water. The way they felt under her palm as she touched him flirtatiously. He’d always been the best-looking man that had ever shown any interest in her. Interest that had ended before they’d done anything but kiss. The most attractive, and also the most confusing. She’d decided he was probably gay—it was easier that way, less of a blow to her ego.
“We’re working on a cure to a muscular degenerative disease.”
“Seriously?” He seemed surprised.
“Yes. We’re close, as well. Very close.”
We need to be. There isn’t much time left.
Kase looked impressed. “I wasn’t told that. Amazing, and you’re the one leading the research behind this cure?”
“Yes. I was appointed as head scientist—we’re not big on actual titles here—when the lab was first built four years ago. I’ve held that position ever since.”
“Good for you.”
Compliments? What the hell is he playing at now, she wondered. The abrupt switch from one mood to another had caught her unprepared, and now she was reacting to him instead of taking the lead, which frustrated her. “Umm, thank you,” she said, speaking more to fill the silence than anything.
“Well, are you going to show me around?” he pressed.
“Sure, though knowing your reputation with tours, I’ll be surprised if you’re still around at the end of this one.”