Beautiful Beast

Her heart raced. He was toying with her, she was almost certain of it. “I think he’s in some sort of trouble.”

“You think.”

She held his gaze. “Just give me what he gave you.”

“Let’s both go to see him.”

“No!”

“No?”

His misleadingly docile tone sent every nerve in her body clanging in alarm. She’d made a hash of everything.

Gabriel leaned back in his chair with an inscrutable expression, but she knew she’d lost. If Beacher had found the toxin and given it to him he wasn’t going to tell her.

He bared his teeth. It was not a humorous smile.

“Want to try again?”

“You don’t believe me!”

His mocking expression was confirmation.

Defeat lay like bitter ashes in her mouth. Everyone seemed to agree that her father had taken the toxin and all the research from the lab itself, even though he had no motive. The working theory was that he’d conspired with Gabriel, and possibly Beacher, to steal the toxin and sell it to the highest bidder.

The authorities further decided that Gabriel had double-crossed her father and set charges to kill him and destroy any evidence. They believed her father had come home unexpectedly and set off the explosions before Gabriel could get away. There was no other explanation as to why Gabriel had been at the house that day. As far as she knew, he’d never even offered one.

She wasn’t sure where Beacher fit into this scenario, but there were a lot of things no one was telling her. She only knew the consensus was that the three men had conspired to steal the missing toxin and all the research that accompanied it. She assumed the authorities believed Gabriel and Beacher were simply waiting for the furor to die down to sell what they’d stolen. But it never had. The investigation had stayed as active as if the theft had happened yesterday. She couldn’t count the number of times she’d been questioned.

“Beacher didn’t send you, did he?” Gabriel asked.

“Of course he did.” She tried to sound forceful. He might feel sure she was lying, but until he spoke to Beacher he couldn’t be positive.

He took another bite of cheesecake and leaned back. She would not squirm under that intense stare no matter how much she wanted to. Instead, she focused on a small scar on his neck that his turtleneck didn’t completely cover.

Was he scarred all over? Was that why his fiancée had broken their engagement while he was still in the hospital? Cassy had never spoken with Andrea Fielding, but she’d seen the beautiful lab assistant with Dr. Pheng. Dr. Pheng had sent the toxin to her father in the first place, which wasn’t surprising. They were the top men in their field, friends as well as rivals since they had been graduate students together.

Cassy knew Dr. Pheng and Andrea Fielding had come under tight scrutiny as well. Everyone remotely connected to the toxin had, but only her father and Gabriel had had the opportunity to steal it.

With a sigh, she set down her fork. “Are you going to have me arrested?”

“Arrested?” He seemed to savor the word. “I don’t think there’s any need to have you arrested over some minor damage.”

She ignored the heat in her cheeks once more. “I’ll send you a check for the drapes.”

“And the screen?” he asked blandly.

“Yes, blast it. The screen, too.”

“I think we can come up with a more suitable punishment to fit this crime, don’t you?”

Cassy moistened suddenly dry lips. She was completely alone in a house with a man everyone believed was a criminal and worse. And she’d let down her guard!

“I’d rather be arrested.”

“Do I make you nervous, Cassiopia?”

Did lambs sleep with lions? Of course he made her nervous. If her palms grew any damper she’d drip all over the table, but she’d never give him the satisfaction of admitting as much.

“I’m not afraid of you.”

His dark expression lightened. If he smiled at her now she’d toss her cheesecake at him.

“Good,” he said neutrally and took another sip of tea.

She released the breath she’d been holding. “I’m going to leave.”

“Without what you came for?”

“Are you going to give it to me?”

“No.”

So Beacher had given him something! Or was he toying with her again?

“This is a waste of time.”

“Not precisely. I rarely have visitors. Try the tea. It’s a special blend.”

He was definitely toying with her. “To think I was going to apologize. I can see it would have been a waste of breath.”

The eyebrows arched once more. “For breaking into my house?”

“No! For that day at the hospital.”

Humor vanished in an instant. His jaw hardened.

“Does that mean you no longer believe I murdered your father?”

Cassy wasn’t sure what she believed anymore. The authorities claimed Gabriel had had no opportunity to remove the toxin from the lab alone. Only her father could have done so, and that she would never accept.

Her father had been understandably devastated by the sudden death of his wife only two weeks earlier. So was she, but no amount of grief would have caused her father to compromise his job.

“Did you kill him?” He wouldn’t tell her the truth if he had, but she had to ask.

“No.”

She waited until it became obvious he wasn’t going to elaborate. “That’s all you’re going to say? Just ‘no’?”