Read Online Deadly Chemistry (Entangled Ignite) by Teri Anne Stanley - Free Book Online

wasn’t going to call her on her lie just yet. He would wait until Crawford was gone, find out what game she was playing. Yeah, he should probably speak up now, but something—hopefully not his hormones—was telling him to give her a chance.
    Meanwhile, he had to be a maintenance man. He made a note to check the freezer to make sure it held its temperature once it got set back upright, then pulled the ultracentrifuge away from the wall to see if he could put the control panel back in or if he needed to call in someone else.
    The old guy—Dr. Jerrold—who’d spoken to Evan in the hallway the day before, stuck his head through the door. He dressed like Evan probably would in another fifteen years—if not before. This guy’s pants were belted so far over his stomach that the hems were well above the tops of his black socks. Mike conceded to himself that Evan, at least, didn’t wear flood pants, and he kept his belt somewhere closer to his actual waist, even if he did wear a purple and green argyle sweater vest.
    “Lauren, do you have a minute? I need you to sign some papers for the insurance company.” The old guy looked at Crawford. “Your people took pictures? I’ll need copies.”
    Crawford nodded.
    As soon as Lauren left the room, Mike approached Crawford and said, in a low voice, “I think you’ve got some sort of Devil’s Rangers connection here.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    Mike just looked at Crawford.
    The cop blinked, then said, “That’s why you’re here, isn’t it? They think that Devil’s Dust is coming from here ?”
    “Shhh…” Mike looked over his friend’s shoulder to the hallway.
    Crawford grinned big enough that Mike was afraid he was going to sprain a smile muscle. “I knew it. I knew you didn’t do what they said. They just said they suspended you so you could come here undercover.”
    Mike waited a moment, then watched Crawford’s face change as he realized the truth.
    “No. If you were undercover in an official capacity, I would have been notified.” Crawford dragged his hand over his mouth. “They really think you did what they said? You’re not guilty though, are you?”
    Mike just shrugged.
    “I didn’t believe it when your old partner—what was his name?”
    “Dan.”
    “Yeah, I didn’t believe it when old Dan told me you were dirty, and I don’t believe it now.” He slapped Mike on the shoulder. “The job offer’s still open. And you come see me when you can. I’ll do what I can to help.”
    Mike shook his head. It would be easier to stay below the radar if people like Dwayne believed he was guilty and didn’t try to help him. If he couldn’t be officially undercover, it was better that he just looked like a low-life ex-cop. That way, when he found the Devil’s Dust connection, he wouldn’t endanger anyone but himself.
    …
    After signing the insurance papers for Dr. Jerrold, Lauren returned to her lab to try to start the clean up. The police chief asked a few more questions and gave Lauren his card before leaving, telling her to call if she thought of anything else.
    All she could think of right now was trying to find out who had stolen her drug and getting it back before the Pemberton Society got wind of her loss. She was supposed to send them five freaking grams of the stuff by next week. She couldn’t let Pemberton know that she didn’t have the drug, or they’d pull the plug on her funding. She didn’t have enough time to grow more by next week. She had to find the stuff. Before the police did. Because if the police did find her product, it would go into some evidence locker somewhere until long after the window of the Pemberton opportunity—and Lauren’s career—was closed and sealed shut. She would sell a kidney before she called her mother and admitted she couldn’t make it in science.
    She wasn’t sure how she’d find out who the bad guys were, but she’d seen the way Mike’s eyes had narrowed when he read the graffiti on the