Page 15 of Pleasure Control

Gerard cleared his throat again and continued. “There’s a problem down at your lab.”

Jay felt his face tighten warily. “What’s up?”

“It’s been broken into.”

Shit. Jay mumbled curses under his breath and began tugging on his pants.

“I’ll contact Laura,” Gerard said.

“That’s okay, I’ll let Laura know.” With that he hung up the phone and looked into Laura’s questioning eyes.

“You’ll let me know what?” she asked, closing the distance between them.

A sick knot tightened his stomach. His shook his head with worry. “The lab’s been broken into.”

He watched the color drain from her face.

“Our research,” she mumbled, her voice merely a strangled whisper.

He wrapped his arms around her and drew her close. “That’s likely what they were after. Come on, we’d better get down there right away and see if anything is missing.”

Laura squeezed her way between the two burly officers blocking her entrance to the lab.

One grabbed her by the arm and mumbled through a face full of donut and hot coffee. “Excuse me, miss, you can’t go in there.”

She opened her mouth, about to tell Detective Jelly Donut exactly where she was going and exactly where he could go, but Jay cut her off and wrapped his arms around her waist in a protective manner.

“This is Laura Manning and I’m Jay Cutler. It’s our lab,” he assured the officer, with a flash of his security identification card.

The officer let go of her arm, cleared a path, and waved his hand. “Oh, then by all means, come in. We’ve been waiting for you two. We need you to go through your files to find out what’s missing.”

The strong smell of ammonia assaulted her senses as Laura pushed her way past him. The sight before her left her shocked. Splaying her hand flat against her chest, she glanced at the smashed filing cabinet and gasped. The locks had been picked and files were strewn everywhere. The compilation of months of research could be lost, or even worse, stolen.

Their latest experiment was top secret for a reason. They knew if corporate-funded Ad-Tech got hold of the idea, they’d rush to produce the drug first and claim the glory, leaving Laura and Jay high and dry.

Broken vials and test tubes crunched beneath her feet as she stepped farther into the room. She carefully tried to sidestep the puddles of spilled serums.

She bent down and sorted through the tangled mess of wet papers. If the thieves had been looking for the files that recorded the chemical components in the suppressant, they’d come to the wrong place. Fortunately, those files were at her apartment. Safe and secure, under lock and key.

Jay crouched down beside her. He raked his fingers through his tousled hair and shook his head in disgust. “What a disaster.” He kept his voice soft, but his anger was evident.

She shot him a sidelong glance. Tiny lines creased the corners of his blue eyes while tension lines bracketed his mouth.

“Do you think it was random?” She was anxious to hear his take on the situation.

Doubt etched his features. A muscle in his jaw flexed as he ground his back teeth together.

He must have suspected it was Ad-Tech as well. She opened her mouth to ask, but he cut off her unspoken question with an answer. Sometimes it really surprised her that he could read her so well.

“I have no doubt it was someone from Ad-Tech. This is just like something those sneaky sons of bitches would do.” Gone was the tenderness she’d seen earlier in his gaze. Frustration and anger had moved in to take its place.

He glanced at her and raised his brow. “Laura—”

She already knew his question and quickly addressed his worries. “The files are safe.”

He exhaled his breath of relief. “What would I do without you?”

“You might want to have a look over here,” the detective’s voice boomed from the other side of the small room. They both twisted around to see him standing next to the opened refrigerator. He rubbed his protruding stomach and peered inside as though searching for more jelly donuts.

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