Lover Uncloaked (Stealth Guardians #1) (17 page)

Her eyes perused the doors she passed, ignoring those that had numbers on them. Clearly those were the rooms the prostitutes used. Turning around the corner, she reached a dead end. The three doors without numbers were closed. She perceived a faint scent of coffee and guessed that one of them had to be the kitchen, just as Manus had said.

She listened for any sound, but it was quiet. Reaching for the first door, she turned the doorknob and pushed the door inwards.

Semidarkness greeted her and froze her into place. This was clearly not the kitchen, because the dish that was being served up on the massage table in the middle of the room, was too rich for her liking.

A naked man lay on his back while a young woman dressed in nothing but a see-through caftan bent between his legs and licked whipped cream off his cock. At the same time another woman was bent over his head, her breasts, which were also covered in whipped cream, dangling over his mouth.

When the man sucked one breast into his mouth and suckled on it with much gusto, a gasp escaped her. Instantly, the two women whirled their heads in Leila’s direction.

Her hands shaking, she yanked the door shut. Her cheeks burned with embarrassment, and her heart raced at the thought of what the threesome was doing.

Damn it, this wasn’t a place she wanted to be at. This wasn’t her life.

Behind her a door opened. She spun around, her nerves already on edge. A young woman stepped from the room, a steaming cup of coffee in her hands. She smiled briefly and walked past without saying a word.

Leila sighed with relief and walked into the room she’d exited. At least, she’d found the kitchen. Maybe she’d feel better after a cup of coffee.

The room was surprisingly homey and well-equipped. On the counter stood an oversized coffeemaker with cups lined up next to it. She poured herself one and added milk. As she sat down at the round table in the middle of the room, she noticed the TV that stood in the corner. It was switched on, but somebody had muted it.

Leila took a sip of the hot coffee and allowed it to warm her overtired limbs. She hadn’t pulled an all-nighter since her residency and felt that her age was showing now. In her teens and early twenties, she’d had no problems staying up all night, but now she felt the strain physically.

As she lifted her head from the coffee cup, her gaze drifted back to the TV. A red stripe scrolled on the bottom of it. It said
Breaking News
. Then a reporter appeared in front of a building she recognized instantly: Inter Pharma.

Leila jumped from her chair and rushed to the TV, frantically searching for the button to increase the volume.

***

Manus rubbed the back of his neck. “That didn’t go well.”

“As always you have great timing,” Aiden replied.

“Hey, I said I’m sorry, and I tried to explain to her that at night that’s just what you need to do to get some rest, but you saw how she cut me off. Besides, how did I know you’re resorting to cheap tricks to get your charge into bed? Should have simply used your charm.” He gave a half-hearted grin. “Works for me.”

“She wanted it.”

His second lifted his arms. “Hey, hey, I’m not denying that. It was pretty obvious by the way she blushed, but you’ve got lots to learn about women.”

As if he hadn’t figured that out himself. “I don’t need a lecture. I’ll handle this.”

How, he had no idea. They were both adults; she knew what she was getting into, and still she’d let him proceed. Wasn’t she the one who had started it? Hadn’t she asked him to make her forget? Nevertheless, he had to somehow get her to forgive him.

Aiden cleared his throat. “Now tell me what you’ve found out.”

Manus flopped down on the couch and put his feet on the coffee table. “The car that nearly ran your charge over was stolen last night.”

“That’s not a good sign.”

“I’m thinking the same thing. Somebody could have stolen it solely for the purpose of killing her with it.”

While Aiden had to agree with that assessment, one thing didn’t make sense. “But why would the demons want to kill her? She’s in the final stages with her research. If they kill her now and the drug doesn’t work, they’ve cut their own arm off. It would be stupid.”

“Is there a chance that they already have a sample of the drug and know it’s working?” Manus asked. “Maybe they don’t need her anymore.”

“I don’t know. We’ll have to ask her about that possibility. What about the fire?”

“Ah, the fire. I rode with the fire truck and played fly on the wall. Looks like they suspect arson, most likely some incendiary device. They found something in the kitchen where the fire started. Could have been a timer.”

Aiden rubbed his temple. If somebody had deliberately set the house fire after failing to run her over, then he couldn’t write off any of these events as a coincidence or just bad luck. Two attempts on her life in one night couldn’t be explained away so easily.

“I heard a loud sound. Could have been some sort of explosion. What if something in her kitchen malfunctioned? There were plenty of electrical devices that could have shorted out and caused a fire. Or it could have been the gas stove.”

“The fire chief doesn’t think so. It definitely wasn’t the gas stove, and that’s the only appliance in her kitchen that could have produced the sound of an explosion if that’s what you heard. It’s still early in the investigation, but he seemed pretty convinced that it was arson, and I’m inclined to agree with him. I had a look at the kitchen. There was no electrical cable or outlet in sight where they believe the fire started: on the counter.”

Aiden nodded. “We have to figure out who could have brought something into her apartment without me or her noticing. I was there before she got home. I didn’t see anything suspicious.”

Manus shrugged. “Then somebody must have planted something later.”

“Impossible. I was in the apartment most of the night. Nobody could have gotten past me.”

His friend lifted one side of his mouth. “So you were watching the door all night?”

Heat shot through his chest. Did Manus know that he’d been in Leila’s bedroom, watching her pleasure herself?

“How I do my job is none of your business,” he snapped.

Manus jumped up from the couch and faced him. “Really? Is that because you don’t want to admit that you’re just like me? That fucking a charge excites you? That Leila excites you?”

Aiden growled low and dark.

“Can’t you just admit it?”

“There’s nothing to admit.”

“Isn’t there?”

Aiden clenched his hands into fists, trying to rein in his fury. While he’d never before fucked a charge, unfortunately the rest of Manus’s accusations came too close for comfort. Leila excited him, and he wanted her.

Manus took a step back, nodding. “Well, I guess we’d better talk to Leila about her drug then. Besides—” He pulled out a little box from his jacket pocket. “—I have a birthday present for her. She loves Swiss chocolate, you know.”

Aiden stared at his second. “Her birthday.”

“Of course, I thought you read her file.”

Realization flooded his senses. How could he have missed that? It had happened right in front of his own eyes. “It’s her birthday. Of course. That’s it.”

Then he turned toward the door.

“What are you talking about?” he heard Manus ask behind him.

“Come.”

NINETEEN

The first thing Aiden noticed when he entered the kitchen, followed by Manus, was that Leila’s face looked like she’d seen a ghost. The second thing he noticed was that her eyes were transfixed on the TV screen.

He instantly followed her blank stare and focused in on the sound coming from the program.

“ . . . no signs of the missing researcher. The police have not revealed whether Dr. Cruickshank is considered a suspect in the brutal murder of her boss, however, they have called her a person of interest, since she was the only other person in the building at the time of the murder besides the security guard.”

The newswoman suddenly glanced to the side and listened to somebody off camera. A moment later, she looked back into the camera.

“I am just being informed that the apartment Dr. Cruickshank lives at was gutted by fire earlier tonight. Fire investigators have not announced a conclusion as to the cause, but suspect arson. Whether these two incidences are related is unclear at this point. This is Deborah Winters, WOTK News.”

Aiden walked to the TV and switched it off. He’d expected this, however, he’d hoped to prevent Leila from seeing this.

“They think I did it,” she muttered as if talking to herself.

“You don’t know that.”

Her head shot up, and she stared at him. “They think I killed Patten. They’re looking for me.”

“The press is just making assumptions. We know you didn’t do it.”

“
We
, yes, but how about the police? How can I go back now?”

Manus sat down next to her. “Listen, Leila, you can’t think about that now. It’s not important. What’s important is to keep you safe. Here, happy birthday.” He placed the small box of chocolates on the table in front of her. “Your favorites: dark chocolate truffles.”

Did his fellow Stealth Guardian really think he could distract her with
truffles
?

Her hand reached for the box, but she only stared at it without opening it. “Thanks.”

“There’s something else we need to talk about,” Aiden started and took a tentative step closer to the table. After their earlier confrontation he thought it wise not to approach too closely. For all he knew, she could still scratch his eyes out. And he wouldn’t even blame her if she did.

When she looked back at him, he suddenly noticed the tiredness in her eyes, as if resignation had set in. “What else is there to talk about? My life is practically over. Everything I’ve worked for… ”

“I’m sorry,” Aiden replied, looking for a way to smoothly turn the conversation to what he needed to ask her. “But there are important things we need to figure out. And we need your help.”

Manus patted her on her forearm, making Aiden want to hiss like a beast. “As much as I hate to agree with him, he’s right. There are a few things that don’t make sense.”

“Like that there are demons in this world?” she mocked.

Aiden shifted from one foot to the other. “No. Unfortunately that makes perfect sense. But we don’t understand why they want to kill you when they want what you have.”

Leila raised her eyes and tossed him a inquisitive look.

“The Fire Department believes that the fire that broke out in your apartment was arson.”

“How? You were there. Wouldn’t you have seen if somebody had started a fire?”

Aiden pushed the rising memory back, not wanting to be reminded right now how she’d looked lying in her bed. “It was an incendiary device, a little bomb, most likely with a timer on it.”

“Oh my God! The demons did that?”

Aiden scratched the back of his neck. “Actually, I’m not sure.”

“Why not? You told me the demons are after me. And now you’re saying they’re not?”

Manus lifted his hand. “That’s not what Aiden means. What’s strange is why the demons would kill you when they don’t have the formula for your drug or a sample of your drug in their hands yet. Don’t you see? Why kill the goose that lays the golden egg? You’re valuable to them. They wouldn’t kill you until they’ve gotten what they wanted.”

“But then why did they kill Patten?”

“I’m not sure they were the ones who killed him,” Aiden answered, drawing her gaze onto him. “Tell me something. We know that they didn’t get your drug’s formula because you’d already wiped the backup disk, and the data on the laptop was fried. But is there a chance that the demons could lay their hands on a sample of the actually serum?”

Leila instantly shook her head. “Impossible. The clinical trials are conducted in Inter Pharma’s outpatient satellite clinic.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, normally clinical trials take place in clinics of hospitals and medical centers, but we wanted to maintain confidentiality and prevent any chance of our data leaking out. So we required the test subjects to come to our own clinic, where their doctors would administer the drug under our supervision. It was the only way to make sure that nobody else had any samples of the drug. We only gave them one dosage at a time and supervised its administration. Nobody could have taken a sample.”

Her voice had taken on a calm and efficient tone, and he realized that she had slipped back into the skin she felt most comfortable in, the brilliant researcher.

“And you’re sure there’s no other copy of the data anywhere?” He searched her eyes.

Leila blinked, her fingers playing with her diamond studded pendant. “I’m sure.”

Manus let out a long breath. “Then it doesn’t make sense that the demons would have tried to kill you. They still need you, because the only way for them to get at it now is for them to force you to reproduce it from memory.”

His colleague was right. Which then invited another question. “What do you know about Jonathan?” Aiden asked.

“Who?” Her eyebrows snapped together in confusion.

“Your upstairs neighbor.”

Her mouth dropped open. “What does Jonathan have to do with any of this?”

“He planted the incendiary device.”

“That’s impossible. He would never… he’s a nice guy.”

Aiden shook his head. Humans could so easily be fooled by a friendly face. “He gave you a present for your birthday. The bomb must have been in there.”

In disbelief, Leila moved her head from side to side. “But… but I don’t believe that.”

Why was she so vehemently denying the obvious? Did she have any feelings for this guy?

“He even told you not to open it before today.”

“How… ?” She broke off, realization flooding her intelligent eyes. “You were watching even then.”

There was no need to deny it.

“It still doesn’t mean it was him. I’ve known him for over a year. Why would he suddenly try to kill me?”

Manus drummed his fingers on the table, drawing his attention away from Leila. “Can we cut to the chase here?” When Leila looked at him, he continued, “According to the Fire Department, the fire started in the kitchen. Did you by any chance place the birthday present he gave you on the kitchen counter?”