Deadly Chemistry (Entangled Ignite) (19 page)

Chapter Twenty-Three

Mike’s pulse beat hard and fast as he stared at Lauren’s frowning face. He’d have a hell of a lot of groveling to do to get her to smile again, he figured. “I’m an asshole,” he said, holding up a bouquet of daisies.

She didn’t take it from him, so he lowered it to his side.

“Yeah. So?” Lauren leaned on the edge of the open door, not opening it far enough to admit him.

Damn
. He was too late. There was no way she was going to give him a chance now. What did he expect? “Look, can I come in? It’s chilly out here.”

“You should have put on a jacket.” Her lips were pursed, a sure sign of a disgusted woman, but her upper chest and neck were flushed and she didn’t quite meet his gaze.

Mike cleared his throat. “I, um…I haven’t handled much of anything well today.” That was an understatement. “As a matter of fact, I haven’t handled anything well in—hell, my whole fucking life.”

“Okay,” she said, pale and shaky. “I don’t really want to talk to you right now.”

“All right, then. I probably should stick with the program and not handle this well, either, so I’ll just do it right here on the second floor balcony of the Tuck U Inn.”

She glanced to the side, then said, “Really, Mike, not now.”

“Just one minute, then I’ll go, okay?”

Her eyes were almost…pleading? He needed to make this fast.

“I’ve spent the past ten years trying to make up for shit that maybe other people should have been responsible for, and trying to fix things that couldn’t be fixed. If Dr. Phil was here, he’d probably tell me I have trust and control issues.”

She’d raised an eyebrow and was looking at him now. “You don’t say.”

“I let that bleed into our relationship.”

“We have—had—a relationship?” She had wedged most of her body into the six inches that the door was opened.

Mike swallowed. He looked away, over the parking area below. “I think so. I’m not so sure I’d know what that—a relationship—looks like, but if it’s me wanting to be around you constantly, thinking about you when I’m not, and when freaky shit happens, my first instinct is to come find you, then I think, at least on my end, that’s a relationship. I know that I probably hurt your feelings when I walked away from you at the hospital—”

“Try
ran
,” she said, but he was on a roll now.

He turned and faced her again, watching her eyes, hoping she was hearing everything he was trying to say. “When I realize that I hurt you, my stomach feels like it’s full of glass, and when the thought that you took evidence from a crime scene doesn’t even give me a moment’s pause because I know it’s going to help you do what you want to do, even though—”

“I didn’t—”

“I think, maybe, that I’m probably in love with you. And if you don’t want me, that’s going to hurt like fucking hell, but I had to tell you anyway, because my fucking pride doesn’t matter when—”

“Okay. Thanks, Mike. I think it’s time for you to go now,” she said, and shut the door in his face.

Mike was stunned. He’d thought for a moment there that she was listening to him, that she was considering what he said and thinking about giving him a chance. How had he blown it?

…

Lauren faced Alex after she turned her back on the future she might have had. In that moment, she didn’t give a damn about the weapon pointed at her. She could have strangled the son of a bitch. How on earth had she ever gone out with him? Why hadn’t she seen how greedy he was? How that unbalanced him?

“Good job,” Alex told her. “We’ll give him a few minutes to get out of the parking lot, and then we’ll get out of here.”

Lauren was destroyed. Absolutely devastated. The man she loved, the man she wanted to be with more than anyone she’d ever met in her life, had come to her, opened his heart and poured it out for her, and she’d shut the door in his face.

Alex was still talking. “We’re going to have to head out of here quickly. Is your gas tank full?”

“What?”

“Do you have a full tank of gas? Because I’m short on cash, and we don’t want to use your credit card, because someone will probably trace it, and we don’t want that to happen if we can avoid it.”

“Alex, shut up,” Lauren snapped. “I’ll do what you want, but please. Shut the hell up.”

Alex’s face reddened, and she realized she’d made a misstep, but he only said, “I get it. Your wittle heart is bwoken. Well, you’ll get over it. Right now, we need to leave. Get your things.”

Lauren didn’t have any
things
, just the dirty clothes she’d been wearing earlier, shoved into the Walmart bag she’d taken her new jeans and T-shirt from a while ago. But she obeyed Alex and gathered up the clothes. Walking to the parking lot, every warning she’d ever heard about not getting into a car with a kidnapper screamed at her to find a way to escape, but Alex had a gun pressed into her side, and she guessed that a bullet would pass through her spleen on the way to her heart if he pulled the trigger.

She unlocked the car and opened the driver’s side door as Alex moved around to the other side.

“Don’t try anything. I can shoot through the car,” Alex warned her.

“No, you can’t.”

Alex whirled, gun waving as Mike stepped from the shadows, carrying a tree limb like it was a baseball bat.

“Back the fuck off, asshole,” Alex said, aiming the gun at Mike. “I will kill you.”

“You can try. But I don’t think you can.” Mike took a step closer, raising the branch.

“Mike!” Lauren couldn’t help herself from stating the obvious. “He’s got a gun!”

Alex held the pistol higher, and Lauren screamed as she saw his finger tighten on the trigger.

She wasn’t sure if it was her scream or something else that made Alex look her way, but his eyes widened just a fraction as the tree limb came into contact with his head at the same time he pulled the trigger. There was no report. Nothing. And then his face went blank as he disappeared completely from view.

Mike bent over him before straightening with the gun in his hand.

“Hi,” he said. “I hope you don’t mind, but I wanted another chance to plead my case.”

“What the hell were you thinking?” Lauren had come around the end of the car and saw that Alex was unconscious—dead? “He had a
gun
!”

Mike held it out to show her. “See this? Safety. It was on.”

“But…but…he could have un-safetied it. Or whatever.”

He nodded. “I know. But he already screwed up my big scene. I had a few more things to say before you shut the door on me up there.”

Lauren’s knees wobbled, and Mike put an arm around her as he put the gun in his waistband.

Before the police, sirens blaring, pulled into the parking lot, before Mike dragged Alex in to tie up his own loose ends, he reached out to touch Lauren’s chin. Tip her face up. Hold her gaze in his. “A few minutes ago, I said I’m probably in love with you.”

“Yeah. You did.”

“I think it’s more like definitely.” He stroked her cheek and smiled. “Screw that. I am, most definitely, in love with you, Lauren Kane.”

Epilogue

It was another three hours before Lauren got to be alone with Mike. Alex was in the hospital, suffering a concussion and handcuffed to a bed, under guard. She and Mike had gone to police headquarters to give a statement after the cops had crawled all over the scene. Crawford promised Lauren that Alex wouldn’t be going anywhere for a long time, and she felt like she could breathe for the first time in hours. Days, even.

Mike held the door of the Tucker Police Department open for Lauren, and they exited together. He led the way to his truck and opened that door, as well.

He didn’t even have his seatbelt on before she crawled across the center console and straddled his lap. One big hand on each side of her waist, heating her body, he stared up at her, a smile playing about his lips. He moved his hands over her, up and down her ribcage, along her hips. He shifted, and she was pretty sure—yep, his body was saying things that his mouth had yet to articulate.

She decided not to wait for him to speak and kissed him.

It was a long, sweet, slow kiss. There was no urgency, and Lauren took her time, showing him how she felt about him. She planned to show him more later, but for now, this would have to do.

After what felt to be about forty-five minutes of lip lock, she finally let Mike come up for air.

“So,” she said.

“So.”

“I didn’t take the algae. I gave it to Chief Crawford.”

“I know.”

“You do? But you said—”

He put a finger over her lips. “For a while, I did think you took it. Then Crawford told me you turned it in when I gave him my second statement of the day. But it didn’t matter.”

“It does matter,” Lauren said, leaning her forehead against his. “You’re a stand-up guy, and I don’t want you to think that I’m shady.”

“I don’t. Even if you had taken it, I know it would be for the right reasons, to see that your drug can get made and help people as soon as possible.”

She shrugged. “Maybe. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter now, though, because I did turn it in. I’m going to call a couple of pharmaceutical companies in the morning and see if I can give them the notes. I won’t earn anything for it, not like I would if I had the bugs worked out and could patent the process, but…”

“Yes, you will.”

“No, thanks for the vote of confidence, but—”

“You don’t understand.” He held up her phone. “Have you checked your email lately?”

“Where did you get that?”

“You dropped it in the parking lot. I haven’t had a chance to give it back to you.”

She took it from him.

“Check it. I’ll wait.”

Lauren moved back to her side of the truck and pulled up her email. She read, and then looked up at Mike. “What did you do?”

He smiled. “I don’t know much about science, but I did spend a few summers working at Kentucky Jelly. And Miss Emmaline Tucker’s son-in-law is my boss.”

“Jason is a Tucker?”

“A Tucker-in-law. And he’s got some influence. Not to mention the fact that Miss Emmie was my grandmother’s best friend.”

Lauren’s email was from the Tucker University Female Faculty Foundation. She’d been awarded a $100,000 TUFFF grant, available immediately, for the next year. “But I thought Miss Emmaline’s grant was for a married biology faculty member. That’s why I never applied for it.”

Mike nodded. “It was. She wanted to award it to someone to take the pressure off of female faculty who struggle to maintain research funding and have a family. That’s what she needed when she was a young scientist. But Jason and I had a talk with her and convinced her to reconsider. Times have changed. No one has applied for that grant in ten years, so the money was just sitting around gathering dusty old interest.”

Lauren snorted.

“She agreed to change the rules, to make it available to any female faculty member—married, or single—as a financial bridge when funding issues crop up.”

Lauren had too many things to say, so she went with the easiest. “Thank you.”

He was watching her from the corner of his eye, fiddling with his keys. “So…”

God, he was so damned handsome, sitting there with his heart on his sleeve, those eyes, that jaw, that…everything that was Mike Gibson. “Are you asking me to go steady?”

He pulled her into his arms. “Yeah,” he said into her neck, sending a shiver to the very core of her. “I’m asking you to be my girl. Or woman. Lauren, I’m just asking you to…be. With me.”

Her breath caught in her throat. Less than a week ago, she’d lived in a world of science and fantasies, never imagining a man like Mike could love her.

And honestly, she never imagined
she
could love a man like Mike. Someone who took control when needed and gave it freely. Someone who protected her yet allowed her to make her own decisions. Someone who made her heart thump and her heart sing.

“So…”

She grinned. “Only if you promise not to use your tools on anyone else’s plumbing.”

It was later—much later, in Mike’s bed—when he tucked Lauren’s hair behind her ear and said, “About that one-woman plumbing contract.”

“Hmmm?” She answered, only half listening. She was idly making swirly patterns in his chest hair.

“I may be retiring my tool belt.”

“Huh?” She sat up, looking down at him. He reached up, distracted by her naked breasts, so to keep him on task, she pulled the sheet over herself. “What are you talking about? I really hope we’re switching metaphors, because I’m pretty fond of the way you use that tool.”

He nodded, smiling. “Jason’s going to have to find someone else to work on his maintenance crew. With the Devil’s Dust no longer in circulation, I’m done at Tucker U. But Crawford offered me a position with the Tucker police department.”

“That would be so cool!” Lauren grinned. “I’m so glad you’re going to be a cop again.”

“I’d be a patrol cop. You know, those Kevlar vests make guys look kinda portly.”

“Are you sure it’s not the donuts?”

He pulled her back down into his arms and kissed her. “I can think of a few ways you can help me work off the donuts.”

“Mmmm.” She could totally get behind that.

“Mrrrow!” Possum jumped onto the bed, landing with her claws outstretched within centimeters of putting Mike’s, uh, exercise program out of commission.

“Damn, cat!” He said, but reached a careful hand out and was allowed to stroke her highness under the chin.

A shadow crossed Lauren’s heart, grief over the loss of her own kitty. But then Possum settled down between her and Mike, the cat’s rumbling purr soothing away some of the sharper edges.

“You know, it’s good you’re gonna be hanging around. Possum needs a strong female figure.”

“Does that mean you’re keeping her? Making that Foster Dad thing into a real adoption?”

“Maybe…”

Lauren got lost in Mike’s lazy grin, the beard stubble and bedhead turning her heart around in her chest.

There was something she needed to say still. “Hey, there’s something I forgot to mention earlier. It kind of slipped my mind, what with all the chaos.”

“Yeah?” He stroked her shoulder, then met her eyes. “Let me have it.”

“I’m probably—no, definitely—in love with you, too. In case you weren’t sure.”

His hand stilled. “I thought you might be. But it’s always good to have cold hard proof.”

She got up, shooed Possum out of the room, and proved it to him again.

…

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