“Denise, if you don’t get moving right now, we’re going to be arrested!”

Denise Hammond bit her lip and stared at the wolf cub on the other side of the bars. The little thing was crying, its paws pressed to the door of the cage just under her hands.

Reliance Research wasn’t supposed to be doing animal testing on anything bigger than a rat. Between this cub and the chimps now in the van, her team had been right to target this place. But what was she supposed to do now?

Unlike the other cages in the adjoining room, this one had a digital combination lock. Even with her repurposed ATM decoder, it would take more time than she had to get the cage door open.

She spun around, checking the dimly lit lab space for anything that would help her. The facility was a series of converted warehouses, whose big storage rooms had been divided into a bunch of smaller ones. There were no other cages save for the wolf cub’s in the central laboratory. Most of the space was taken up by lab benches and shelves full of chemicals that lined the plain white walls.

Unfortunately, there were no crowbars handy. Not even a misplaced plumber’s wrench.

“I’m serious.” In Denise’s Bluetooth earpiece, Karen’s voice was getting louder. “We’ve got to get out of here! The guards will be passing on their rounds any minute. Denise, are you there?”

“Yes, I’m here. Lower your voice,” she whispered.

“Why aren’t you out yet? The rest of us are in the van. We’ve got the chimps. We’re done, but you’re way behind schedule. Any second and the guard will check the lab.”

Shit. “I can’t go yet,” she whispered. “There’s another animal here. A wolf cub.”

Another voice cut in. “Damn it, Denise. You can’t save them all. The chimps were our priority. Get your fat ass out here,” Max hissed.

A cutting response rose to her lips, but she heard footsteps in the distance. She gripped the bars weakly, her hands starting to sweat in her gloves. Wincing, she stared down at the little wolf. Max was right. She was out of time.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Inside the cage, the wolf whined. Its eyes seemed to plead with her not to leave it behind.

The footsteps were louder now, closer than she expected. Frak. She’d miscalculated. The guard was outside the door. Denise spun, diving for the only cover at hand—a narrow space between a lab bench and a poorly placed equipment shelf. When she squeezed between them, she cursed her plentiful curves as the metal drawer handles dug into her thigh.

Max wasn’t wrong about her ass. However, as her new boyfriend, he was supposed to be less of a jerk about it. But Max had never received the how-to-be-a-supportive-partner memo.

Maybe getting involved with one of her teammates hadn’t been the brightest idea. Whatever. She would deal with that later—possibly after she got out of jail.

The guard was inside the room now. Denise held her breath, her eyes so wide they hurt. Across the room, the little wolf was still looking at her as the security guard stepped closer. Denise could see a bit of the man’s pant leg as he moved to the occupied cage. Praying the little cub wouldn’t start yipping or do anything that would give her away, she put a finger to her lips, silently shushing it.

Please don’t bark.

The little wolf cocked its head, then moved it up and down. Denise blinked. Had the animal nodded at her? Impulsively, she gave it a thumbs-up.

What the hell am I doing? The cub couldn’t understand her. She had to focus and figure a way to get out of here, or everything she’d worked for would be over.

Except… the cub nodded again. Or at least it appeared to before it sat on the floor of the cage, resting its head on its paws.

Okay, the stress of being caught was making her crack up. Crap. The guard had moved to the left. All she saw was the back of his head. If he turned around now, he’d see her crammed between the shelves.

Moisture pricked and began to trickle between the valley of her breasts. Would the guard hear if a drop of sweat hit the tiled floor?

“Hey, Jackson, did the lab coats order the chimps moved?”

There was the crackle of a radio. “I don’t know. Why?”

“Well, obviously cause they’re not there.”

There was silence for a minute before the voice on the on the radio came back. “They don’t have anything down in the schedule, but weren’t they due to start testing that new drug soon? They probably forgot to file the paperwork again.”

“Well, we have to call them to make sure,” the guard in front of her said.

More silence, then the voice broke through the static. “I can’t find the number.”

The guard in front of her swore. “Sure you can’t.”

“Just come back and find it for me.”

“Fine. But you’re still making the call. I don’t want to talk to the asshole in charge either.”

“It’s your turn,” the voice on the radio protested.

“The hell it is. I did it last time—when the fire alarm short circuited.”

“Fine, whatever. If Mr. High and Mighty didn’t want to be bothered at home, he should have forced the brass to upgrade the wiring in this place. Hold on, I’m coming back.”

The guard moved out of view, his fading footsteps indicating he was walking away. Denise knew he had left the room when the little wolf stood up, its head swinging between her and the direction of the door. It was almost as if it were trying to tell her the coast was clear.

Denise hurried back to the cage. “Okay, little buddy. I owe you for that one.” Without stopping to think of the likelihood of success, she ran to the other side of the room and grabbed one of the lab carts. She sprinted back to the cage and lifted the whole thing onto the cart with an audible grunt.

“Don’t bark,” she ordered the pup, praying it would remain quiet until she reached the facility’s side door. Half-running, she pushed the cart toward her designated exit, wincing every time the wheels squeaked.

By the time she reached the exit, she was panting. But she didn’t stop. Taking a deep breath, she flipped the handle and shoved, wedging the cart into the opening and pushing with her hip to widen the gap enough to get it through.

It was dark outside. There was no armed guard pointing a gun at her. No spotlight shone down as she hustled the cart beyond the trees where the van was waiting. But the reception from her team left a lot to be desired.

Max was standing at the door. “Damn it, Denise, what the hell? You got the dog anyway.”

She ignored his bluster. “It’s a wolf cub. Now help get this in the back.”

“No, you idiot. It won’t fit.”

Her blood heated. If he called her an idiot one more time…

She glared at him. “It will fit. So just open the door and make room.”

“I’m telling you it won’t fit. Why don’t you ever listen to me?”

Maybe because you’re an immature jagoff?

“It’s my van. If it doesn’t fit, I will take the cage and leave you here instead. Now open the door and make room. We don’t have much time. The guards have already noticed the chimps are gone.”

Max swore under his breath, but he finally yanked open the door. The long bed of the van was crowded, but by stacking the cages, they could fit all four inside.

“Go!” She waved him to the passenger side and ran to jump into the driver’s seat.

“This is a bad idea,” Karen said from her crouched position in front of the cages. “The dog is going to get the chimps all riled up.”

Denise fastened her seat belt. “Again, it’s a wolf cub, not a dog. And it’s too late. If you wanted quiet, we should have drugged the chimps.”

That had been a point of contention for the group. To carry off the rescue quickly and efficiently, she had suggested using a small amount of animal tranquilizer. They needed to keep the poor animals from hooting and screeching during the extraction or the guards would come running.

Her arguments had been rejected. According to them, drugging the animals was cruel. The fact that the excitable chimps would get them caught without sedation didn’t seem to matter.

The others, Karen in particular, argued they would be no better than the monsters experimenting on them if they drugged them. Only Max had agreed with Denise, and that was probably because they were dating.

She sighed. I may have to rethink the team’s composition.

Denise was the organizational force behind their little band. She had originally chosen the members of the rescue team according to their degree of commitment to the cause, but that had clearly been a mistake. They needed dispassionate and methodical thinkers if they were going to keep doing this without getting arrested.

“The chimps were being quiet before you brought that damn dog in here,” Karen said with an annoying cluck of her tongue.

Because I drugged them anyway… She couldn’t let the plan fail because members of her team were too soft.

The chimps had been gibbering quietly since they picked them up. They were making more noise now, but it wasn’t the earsplitting screech they would’ve made without the partial sedation she’d secretly administered.

“Listen, we are a democracy—”

Denise’s temples were starting to throb. “Karen, stop yelling. I made an executive decision on the fly to save a life. That’s why we’re doing this after all, isn’t it? We just saved an innocent wolf pup—one that is not even barking right now—so can we argue about this at the next meeting?”

“What good will that do after the fact? It’s not like you listen to anyone else anyway.”

Denise focused on the road ahead, but silently conceded Karen had a point. She’d been doing this on her own for a while before deciding to take on bigger targets. Larger research facilities meant more test animals. Unable to handle the job alone, she’d formed a team. But a lot of the time, she still acted like she was flying solo…

She sighed, turning right onto the highway. “Let’s just wait until we’re in the clear before we continue with this discussion.”

Karen muttered something under her breath that sounded like bitch, but Denise ignored her. Karen was the veterinary technician in their group. She worked at a zoo and had experience treating primates. Denise needed her too much to cut her loose, but maybe she could convince the woman that she could serve their goals better by joining the second team—the one that transported the animals to the nature preserve.

“That reminds me. I need to ask you for a huge favor.” She looked in the rearview mirror, trying to gage Karen’s reaction. “I meant to talk to you about it earlier, but I think it would be a good idea if you went with the chimps to Zambia.”

Karen poked her head between the two seats. “Me? I…I have to work.”

“Can’t you call in sick?”

The vet tech sounded uncertain. “I don’t have enough vacation days.”

“Would it be possible to get some unpaid leave? I can cover you as long as you make sure the animals get where they need to go in good health.”

“Um…”

“I would really appreciate it.”

Karen thumped the seat behind her. “You know what? I’ll do it. I’m going to call my boss now.”

Beside her, Max snorted. No doubt, he’d be using this in an argument later. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d accused her of being manipulative.

Denise didn’t see it that way. She was a problem solver—more concerned with getting results than soothing bruised egos. There weren’t enough hours in the day for that. Besides, Karen always had dark circles under her eyes. An all-expense paid trip to Zambia might be exactly what she needed.

Twenty minutes later, Denise was pulling behind the abandoned gas station on the edge of a tiny no-name town. Parked in a break in the tree line was another vehicle—a truck this time. It was attached to a horse trailer.

They transferred the still-drowsy chimps with a minimum of fuss, something none of the others thought to question.

Even Max didn’t appear to catch on to what she’d done. “You guys are cute, but lazy little bastards, aren’t you?” he asked them before poking her in the ribs too hard. “Now we know why they lost the evolutionary arms race.”

Intent on getting the chimps unloaded as quickly as possible, Denise simply gave him a tight smile. Her teeth were gritted to keep from correcting him on what that term actually meant.

As the others finished up, she changed the plates on the van and added matching decals to the side panels. Once they were in place, the van looked older, like a seventies throwback. A few strategically placed dirt smears cemented the transformation.

Denise studied her work critically and decided it would pass muster in the dark. Even a cop at a checkpoint would most likely fail to recognize the van unless they looked very closely.

Here’s hoping no security feeds caught it in the first place.

The chances of that were slim. Reliance Research was in an isolated corner of Wyoming, a few hours from the Colorado border. The nearest town was ten miles away, a place with a budget too tiny to have traffic cameras. The facility only had a handful that were easily avoided. As the guards had pointed out in their argument, their budget had not gone toward infrastructure or security.

“What are we going to do with the cub?” Max asked. “You’re not planning to send it to Africa, are you?”

“No, of course not. We’ll take it with us, at least until I figure out what to do.”

Max shuffled his feet. “Oh yeah, about that. I was thinking I could maybe tag along with the chimps or something. The second team probably needs help.”

He looked at Karen—or more precisely at her low-cut sweater and skinny thighs—and shrugged.

Denise’s lips parted. “Oh.”

Blinking hard, she fought to mask her reaction. The sudden lump in her throat made that difficult. “If you think you can help them, knock yourself out. But first, I’d appreciate some help with the pup’s cage. See if you can open it,” she said, handing over the decoder device.

Your voice was steady enough. She hadn’t given herself away. Denise turned, needlessly adjusting the decal one more time as he went to work on the lock.

Why am I even upset? She had just been thinking he was an ass. But he’d been her ass.

Apparently, that was about to change.

After a few minutes, Max called out to her. He’d managed to unlock the cage. Well, at least you’re good for something. Leaving the cage unlocked but fastened with wire, she shut the van doors and casually waved goodbye.

Denise waited until she was a few miles away before letting a few tears slip down her cheeks.

It doesn’t matter. I don’t care. She was used to being on her own. That was the primary reason for dating him in the first place—to stave off loneliness. But it hadn’t exactly been a match made in heaven.

Behind her, the pup yipped, and she snorted, remembering she wasn’t as alone as she thought. “Well, I guess it’s just you and me, kid.”

The little animal yawned as it curled up on the floor for a nap.