Prey (Copper Mesa Eagles Book 2) (8 page)

Zach was beginning to feel a little lightheaded as he told Pete about his whole life: how everyone in Obsidian hated his family for a hundred-year-old slight; the stupid rumor that they could turn into eagles; the way that a mining conglomerate had nearly taken everything from them.

He left out the part where his oldest brother, Seth, had fallen from a cliff and turned into an eagle. Zach had never told that part to
anyone
. They’d think he was crazy.
 

Hell, he probably
was
crazy. No matter how many times he saw Seth shift, he could never quite bring himself to believe that it was real.

Maybe that’s why I can’t shift
, he thought, his brain feeling a little foggy.
I don’t believe, or something
.

“Where’s Seth now?” Pete asked.

Why are you so interested in my brother?
Zach thought. He shook his head slightly, still feeling a little lightheaded.

“He’s still in Obsidian,” Zach said politely. “He got married last year.”

“They have any kids?”

This guy is really nosy
, Zach thought.

He wanted a job, though, so he answered.

“Not yet.”

“They trying?”

Zach stared, open-mouthed. Pete looked completely serious.

There was a long, long silence.

“I have no idea,” Zach finally said. “I’ve never asked.”

Pete just shrugged.

“I think that’s everything,” he said, wrapping the interview up suddenly. “Here, I’ll take your glass—” Before Zach could offer to do it himself, Pete stood and snatched the glass, lifting it with his fingertips and setting it carefully on top of the mini-fridge.

“Thanks,” Zach muttered, standing.

He felt even more light-headed, and tried to take deep breaths.

What the hell is going on?
he wondered.
 

Was it the water?
 

Is there black mold in the ceiling and I’m allergic?

Pete came around the desk and clapped Zach hard on the shoulder. Zach was a good six inches taller than the other man, and he could see the thinning hair on the top of his head.

“I think MutiGen could really use someone like you,” Pete said, practically running to open his office door. “In fact, I’ve asked Katrina to give you a tour of the labs while you’re here. Might as well get acquainted!”

“Wow,” Zach managed to say. He shook his head, trying to clear it, but he still felt foggy.

Focus
, he thought.

“I’d be thrilled to have a summer position here,” he said. “The work you’re doing is really something.”

Pete’s hand was on his upper arm, and the older man was half-leading, half-grabbing him as he walked down the hall before darting into an office.

“Show him around the labs,” he said. “And don’t forget cold storage.”

“What?” said Katrina’s voice. Zach craned his neck to see around the other man.

Pete didn’t answer her, and then he pulled Zach into her office as well.

“Hello,” Zach said, trying to remain both upright and pleasant.

Katrina just nodded once.

“She’s one of our best,” Pete said.

Zach squinted at him. Had he started sweating...?

“Go ahead, I’m sure he’s got obligations tonight,” Pete said, and practically shoved the two of them out of Katrina’s office, then went back to his own and shut the door.

Zach and Katrina looked at each other. His head was getting cloudier by the minute, and when he looked into her eyes, he felt like he was falling into a perfect deep blue pool.

“He’s being really weird today,” Katrina said. She looked down.

“Yeah, he’s a character all right,” Zach said, trying to sound neutral.

He
wanted
to suggest that they skip out on seeing the labs, go back into her office, and spend half an hour getting to know each other, but that was just idiotic.
 

Yeah, he’d rather make out with her than get a summer internship here, but
she
already had this job. If she got caught with him, she’d pay the price, not him.

“He’s usually pretty normal,” she said, shrugging. Then she smiled up at him, and nothing else mattered. “Want to go see the labs?”

Chapter Eight

Katrina

“This is the robotics lab,” Katrina said, pushing open another door. “Where they design, program, and test the stuff that makes our prosthetic limbs work.”

Zach whistled, then walked toward a big table, scattered with electronics pieces. Mounted on the wall were two big monitors, both powered down.

“This place looks like a TV show,” he said. “The labs at the University are garbage by comparison.”

“Are they that bad?” Katrina asked.

“I didn’t think so,” Zach said. “But now I’ve seen the Promised Land.”

Katrina had to smile, just a little. Watching Zach so excited about all the cool stuff they did at MutiGen did make her feel better, even if it was only a little. He was like a kid in a candy shop — a kid who’d had his first piece of candy a week before, and couldn’t
believe
that there was so much candy in the world.

She kept replaying Pete’s assurance in her mind. They weren’t going to do anything to Zach, just steal his hair or something. It was probably her job to show him around for a while as Pete made sure whatever he’d gotten would work, and then she could let him go free.

I hate this
, I thought.
I hate having to lie to Zach to keep my job. To keep ANY job.

Zach was across the room, marveling at half a robotic hand, propped up, its circuitry on display. He didn’t touch anything, but leaned so close that Katrina wondered if he might be breathing too hard on it.

Does Pete really know that many people?
She thought.
I shouldn’t have believed him. Maybe I’m an idiot for just rolling over and playing dead, but...

MutiGen
did
work with the Department of Defense pretty often. There was a good chance he
hadn’t
been lying.

“Am I taking too long?” Zach asked.

“You’re good,” Katrina said, standing still, her arms crossed over her chest. She couldn’t help but enjoy what a good time Zach was having.

After a few minutes, he came back to stand by her. He looked around, then put a hand on her shoulder.

“You sure everything’s okay?” he asked.

“I’m fine,” Katrina said. She hoped she was convincing.

Then she had an idea.

“You know, there’s no cameras in this lab,” she said. “They didn’t want anyone to be able to steal our secrets.”

Zach raised his eyebrows and grinned.

“None?” he asked.

“Nope,” Katrina said.

She put her hands on his waist, and he brushed her hair back from her shoulders.

“You give this part of the tour to everyone?” he teased. He put his fingers underneath her chin, tilting her face up.

Katrina let her eyes slide closed.

Even if this situation is shitty, it’ll be over soon, and we can date like normal people.

Besides, I like this part.

“Only the VIPs,” she teased right back.

“It’s nice to be important,” Zach said.

He bent and pressed his lips to hers, softly at first, but in moments the kiss deepened and Katrina felt a warm river of liquid heat rush through her. She parted her lips and pushed her fingers through Zach’s hair, tightening her hand around it and pulling his head down further.

Then his tongue was there, tracing along her lower lip and she met it with her own tongue, wrapping them together, her other hand on his shoulder.

At last, Zach pulled back, gasping for air.

“We probably shouldn’t—“

Katrina shut him up by kissing him again, even more fiercely this time, not caring that it was stupid to make out with Zach in the robotics lab at
work
. All she wanted was to feel his lips on hers, his hands around her waist, his strong arms around her...

Zach broke the kiss but this time he planted his lips at the corner of her mouth, then trailed kisses along her chin and down her neck, each touch sending sparks down her spine. A noise came out of Katrina that she was certain she’d never made before. She pressed her hand into the small of his back. She wanted him close to her, as close as he could possibly get.

He paused when his lips reached her collar.

“We should stop,” he murmured. The vibration of his voice sent a new thrill through Katrina.

“Probably,” Katrina said.

She didn’t move to let him go, just ran her hand lightly up his back. He made a noise in his throat not unlike a growl, and Katrina bit her lip.

He just growled at me
.

The thought sent a rush of heat through her, pooling in her core.

“Do you want to stop?” she whispered.

Instead of answering, Zach pressed his lips to the hollow of her throat, then bit her gently, just barely grazing the delicate skin with his teeth. Katrina swallowed and slipped a hand underneath the jacket of his suit. Underneath his shirt, he was almost impossibly warm, and she could feel him breathing hard, his heart beating furiously.

“No,” he said.

He lifted his head, then took her by her upper arms and moved her back a few steps, until Katrina’s back was against a wall.

She could feel her brain going fuzzy with lust, especially as Zach kissed her again, even harder this time. The kiss was hungry and needy, and now whatever he’d awoken in Katrina was alive and
insatiable
.

I need this now
, she thought.
Right now, and I don’t give a fuck what happens.

Biting her lip, she fumbled with the top button on his shirt. It finally came loose, and she reached for his tie, pulling at it to loosen it.

Zach’s fingers were tracing down her throat, and then they were drifting over her breasts, then cupping her ass and pulling her even closer to him. A tiny moan escaped her lips, and Zach grinned down at her.

He growled again.

Katrina thought she might lose her mind, and yanked on his tie, finally pulling it loose.

Then someone laughed.

Katrina
froze
, staring up at Zach.

The laugh sounded again. It was in the hallway outside the lab, and now she could hear another voice joining it, saying something.

“
Shit,
” she hissed

Zach dropped one more kiss on her lips and backed away, quickly re-buttoning his shirt and pulling his tie tight. Katrina straightened her clothes, pulling at her skirt.
 

I’m sure I’m bright red,
she thought.
They’re just going to look at me and know what we were up to
.

The voices paused, right outside the door.

“Sorry for getting carried away,” Zach whispered.

Katrina smiled, feeling something warm wrap around her heart. Then she pointed at a mechanical hand on a desk, just as the door opened.

“This is a hand that isn’t a real person’s hand, it’s a robot hand,” she said. It was the first sentence that came to mind, and as she finished it, Pete entered, flanked by two men she’d never seen before.

“Just finishing up the tour?” he asked, barely even looking at Katrina.

For once, she was glad to go unnoticed at work.

“I think we’re done,” she said. “Can I walk you out?” she asked Zach, eager to get the two of them out of there.

“We can take it from here,” Pete said. His voice sounded vague and like it came from far away.
 

Katrina swallowed. She felt like there was a rubber band tightening around her lungs — she could
feel
that something was wrong, she just couldn’t put her finger on what it
was
.

“Your facilities are very impressive,” Zach said, trying to stay a part of the conversation.

Pete just nodded.

“We’ll show you the stuff in cold storage, then take you out the back way. Got a great view of the mountains.”

One of the men Katrina didn’t know opened the door to the lab and they all walked back into a too-bright hallway, Pete coming last. He nodded once at Katrina, dismissively.

“Thanks for coming in today,” he said. “You can go home now. We’ve got it from here.”

The band around her lungs tightened. The two men with Pete still hadn’t said a thing, and didn’t seem like they were about to get talkative.

“It was nice seeing you again,” Zach said. He stepped forward and shook her hand again, giving hers a firm squeeze that made her feel a little better.

“Likewise,” Katrina said, looking him square in the eye.

And I’ll see you again tomorrow night. And Monday morning, if I get my way...

“See you Monday,” she said to Pete, and turned to walk back toward her office.
 

As soon as she was out of earshot, she could just barely hear Pete begin to talk quietly, though she couldn’t make out what he was saying. Katrina gritted her teeth and pushed open the always-locked door that led from the offices to the labs.

She made it back to her office, then slumped into her chair, leaning her elbows on the desk.

It’s fine
, she told herself.
They’re not going to hurt him, they’re going to steal his hair. He’s never even going to know, and you get to keep doing the work that you love.

Now the band was so tight that she could barely breathe, and she looked at the wood grain of her desk.

She didn’t believe a thing she’d just told herself.
 

Why tell her to leave if everything they were doing was above-board? Who were those two other men, the silent ones she’d never seen before?

Why take Zach to cold storage — in the
basement
? It was where they kept their computer servers and tissue samples for the skin-replacement they were working on, in separate rooms, of course. But Zach’s background was structural with a little of mechanical knowledge tossed in.

He didn’t know the first thing about tissue samples, and Pete
knew
that.

Katrina took a deep breath, then reached into her desk drawer and pulled out a pair of old sneakers that she kept in there just in case something happened — earthquake, snowstorm — and she needed to walk a serious distance.