“Major corporations, from the looks of them,” Mac said.
“So I see,” Grange said. “If Belanfield was in the car and shooting at Tom, that means he’s dirty. And if he’s dirty for any of these companies, we need to look closely at all of them to see which could be involved with the virus.”
Lily scanned the list, zeroing in right away on one that caught her attention. “What about Delor Pharmaceuticals?”
“What about them?” Mac asked.
“I remember reading an article last year about Delor having financial difficulties due to a recall of one of their prominent drugs. It hit them pretty hard.”
“Interesting,” Grange said. “I wonder what a pharmaceutical company would be willing to do to get hold of a potentially harmful virus?”
“A company cornering the market on the cure for a virus no one has ever seen could make billions,” Mac added.
“Oh, my God,” Lily said. “You’re right.”
“Good plan from a business standpoint,” Mac said.
“They want the virus, they want to develop the drug for it, then they want to let loose the virus on the population and be the first to come up with the drug to cure it.”
“Damn,” Spence said. “That’s vicious.”
“Sadly, it’s often how big business works. They don’t care about hurting the little guy,” Lily said, shaking her head.
Now she really wanted to nail them.
“Which means, if we can tie Delor into the attempts to steal the virus, we’ve got this case nailed,” Grange said.
Excited, Lily clicked on Delor Pharmaceuticals. “Let’s see what we can find out about them.”
Of course, they already knew Belanfield was tied into Delor, which in itself wasn’t damning evidence, since Belanfield was affiliated with several major companies. His front was a security company, though that was bullshit, of course. He was hired muscle, and obviously a hit man, since he was involved in Tom’s attempted murder.
But there had to be more, because Belanfield took orders—he didn’t give them. They had to find out who was directly responsible for putting this together.
“Got it,” she said. “Monty Richardson.”
“Who’s that?” Mac asked.
“He’s on the board at the museum in Chicago. He was my contact, hired my firm to test the new security team they’d hired. If you look at the chart here, he’s also on the Board of Directors for Delor Pharmaceuticals.”
“So there’s your connection,” Pax said.
She nodded. “He knew night security was lax at the museum. He thought he was doing the right thing by making sure it was tight. The last thing he wanted was to have that artifact, aka the virus, stolen.”
“Which is exactly what happened when Mac lifted it,”
Grange said.
“They had to know that could happen, that someone would eventually figure out where the virus might be,” Mac said.
“And Richardson couldn’t afford to have anyone not affiliated with the museum covering security. It would arouse suspicion.”
“Which meant he had to keep Belanfield outside,” Mac said. “Which I’d bet is exactly where he was. He was the one who shot at us that night,” he said to Lily.
“Of course,” Lily said. “Belanfield saw you break in and take the virus. It was his job as outside man to insure no one took it.”
“And when we disappeared with it, both Richardson and Delor were all over Belanfield’s ass, leading Belanfield to climb all over ours in a big way,” Mac said.
“Well, aren’t you two popular,” Spence teased.
Mac laughed. “Not in a way we wanted to be.”
“Okay, so now we have the players figured out,” Lily said. “What next? I assume we can’t just call in the cops with this information?”
“Not exactly,” Grange said. “We don’t have proof, just supposition. But Delor’s corporate headquarters are here in Dallas. Which means we need to set a trap, and we need to do this ourselves, under the radar, as always.”
“My favorite part,” Diaz said with a grin.
“Okay, this is easy,” AJ said. “Bargain with the virus.”
“How?” Mac asked.
“Contact Richardson directly. Tell him you have the virus and you’re willing to deal for money.”
“Do you think he’d buy that?” Lily asked.
AJ shrugged. “I don’t see why not. Dirty guys like that think anyone can be bought for the right price. I see it all the time.”
“He’s right,” Grange said.
“But who’s going to contact him?” Rick asked.
“I will,” Lily said.
“I don’t think so.”
She looked at Mac. “Why not?”
“Too dangerous.”
She rolled her eyes. “Are we going to do this again?”
“Lily. This isn’t small chips. This is major.”
“I realize that. But I’m the logical choice. I already know him. Richardson hired me. Belanfield knows I hopped on the back of your bike after you took the virus.”
“She’s right,” Grange said. “She is the logical choice as contact person.”
Mac stood and brushed his fingers through his hair. “I don’t like this.”
“I know you don’t, but it makes sense. I contact Richardson, tell him I’ve nabbed the virus away from you and I’m willing to sell it to him. You know he’ll fall over himself to get it back. Then all we have to do is wait and see what he does with it.”
“Right,” Spence said. “And we’ll be there, ready to protect Lily as well as track Richardson.”
“Exactly,” Grange said.
“I know. It does make sense. And of course we’ll expect him to take the bait, buy the virus and run it right over to Delor Pharmaceuticals,” Mac said.
Lily nodded, excitement making the blood rush through her veins. She could hardly sit still. “And then we somehow figure out how to call in the authorities once we have Richardson tied firmly into Delor, with the stolen virus on the premises.”
“I’ll take care of that part,” Grange said.
“But we don’t want to give him the actual virus,” Lily said. “Right?”
“No, we’ll mix up a fake batch,” Pax said. “I’ll take care of that.”
“Weird science in action,” Spence said, rolling his eyes.
“Try not to blow up the lab this time.”
“That wasn’t my fault,” Pax said.
“There’s a story I want to hear someday,” Lily said.
“All right.” Grange stepped to the front of the classroom. “We need to get our assignments in order and set up a timeline. First thing we need to do is have Lily make a call and see if Richardson will take the bait.”
Lily nodded and looked up Richardson’s cell phone number, the one he’d given her when he’d hired her firm to test security. She moved over to the secure line and made the call, with Grange listening in. Richardson answered on the second ring.
“Hello?”
“Mr. Richardson, this is Lily West.”
He paused for only a second, no doubt shocked as hell to hear from her.
“Miss West, we’ve been so worried about you after the theft at the museum. Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.”
“We assumed you’d been kidnapped. Where are you?”
“Mr. Richardson, let’s cut through the bullshit right away, shall we? I know all about the virus hidden in the artifact, and how deeply you’re involved in all this.”
He went silent again for a few seconds. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Yes you do. There’s a potentially fatal virus that was hidden in the traveling artifacts. That’s what you hired me to protect, that’s what you were afraid would be stolen because of the lack of adequate security at the museum. And you were right. It was stolen. The good news for you is that I’ve finally stolen it back.”
“How do I know you’re not working for the police?”
She snorted. “I was a cop once, Mr. Richardson. I could have been one for my lifetime and never made any kind of money. Now are you interested, or do I go find another buyer?
I need some cash.”
Another few seconds of silence. This time his voice wasn’t as friendly. “What do you want?”
“One million dollars in exchange for the virus.”
“That’s insane.”
“You want this virus back, don’t you?”
“Where are you?”
“Dallas.”
“I can be there tomorrow night.”
“With the money?” she reiterated, trying to sound impatient, as if she was anxious for cash.
“Yes, Miss West. With the money. You just make sure you’re there with the virus.”
They made arrangements for a time and meeting place, then Lily hung up, her palms sweating and her heart pounding against her chest.
“You did great.” Grange stood and squeezed her shoulder. “Relax now. We have a lot to do before tomorrow night.”
She stood, rolled her shoulders back to ease the tension, and turned to Mac. The others had already filed out, working on their assigned tasks.
“Shall we go join them?” she asked.
“I guess.”
“What’s wrong? You’re worried about me, aren’t you?”
“I’m trying not to be. I know you’re capable.”
“Thanks. For both the compliment and the concern.”
“I just don’t like this setup. It puts you front and center in the danger zone. This isn’t your deal. You didn’t sign up for this life.”
She shrugged. “This is what I’ve always wanted to do, Mac. This kind of life, this adventure. The hint of danger, the chance to right a wrong—all those things my father kept me from doing when I was on the force.”
“And it’s a part of you I love. When I saw you that night at the museum—how much you’d changed—I was stunned, but I loved how kickass and competent you were. It was like you’d grown into your own skin, Lily, like you were doing what you were born to do. So while I’ll always worry about you, I would never stand in the way of you doing something you love, something you’re damn good at.”
She smiled at him, understood exactly where he was coming from “Knowing what I know now, the danger you’re in, I feel the same way. I’m so proud of you for what you’ve done with your life, the way you’ve turned it around, but I’ll always be concerned when you go on an assignment. I can’t help it, because I’m in love with you.”
“Doesn’t make sense, does it?”
“Actually, it does. If we didn’t love each other, we wouldn’t care about the danger. When I go out there tomorrow night, I’ll feel safe because I know your eyes will be on my back.”
He took her hand and they moved into the lab, watching Pax create the duplicate of the virus, laughing when he called it green alien goo. By the time he was finished, Lily couldn’t tell the difference between the original and the copy, down to the plexiglass container housing the vial. It was a perfect replica, even to the fluorescent green color.
“How very comic book this color is,” Pax said dryly.
They spent time working on the meeting spot. Lily was going to meet Richardson at a public restaurant at a busy intersection, which would give the Wild Riders plenty of places to hide in plain sight. They’d be on bikes and in cars, ready to move in just in case anything happened. Lily’s purse and her car were going to be wired so she could record what went down.
It was late, and they’d gone over the plan several times.
Grange told them they’d review the details again tomorrow, but that she looked like she needed some sleep.
She was tired. It had been an eventful night and it was already three in the morning. Mac led her upstairs and closed the door to his room. She yawned and stretched, ready to climb into bed and pass out, but he grabbed her around the waist and pulled her against him, covering her mouth with a kiss that stole her breath.
Tiredness evaporated in an instant as he slammed her against the wall, pressing his hard body against hers. Pinned, her senses went on overload as she felt every steely inch of him, from the wall of his chest to his quickly hardening c**k sliding against her hip.
Passion exploded as she felt the wild, urgent need within him, as if he wanted this because it could be the last time they would be together. She knew better, but she understood him better than he gave her credit for. And she loved this side of him, this primitive, animalistic side that drove on instinct. His mouth still against hers, he jerked at the button of her jeans, slamming the zipper down and pushing her jeans and panties to the floor. She stepped out of them in a hurry while he unzipped his jeans, drawing them open only enough to pull out his cock.
She reached for it, wrapping her fingers around his pulsing heat. He gripped her buttocks, lifting her onto his cock, then pushing into her until he was buried deep. She whimpered against his mouth, pushing her tongue against his.
The ride was wild and harsh. She tore her fingers through his hair, pulled at him as he thrust deeply inside her with relentless strokes. He demanded, and she responded, knowing she wasn’t going to last long, feeling the insane rush to completion tunneling through her.
Mac tensed, shuddering against her.