Under the Microscope

questions. Raine couldn’t tell if they were gathering useful information or not, but the baby grew heavy and warm as she dropped off to sleep, in turn relaxing muscles that Raine hadn’t even realized were tight.

She leaned her cheek against the pink-clad back and indulged in a moment of baby smell.

Contrary to what Max might think, she didn’t have anything against babies. She just didn’t think a woman should have one just because she happened to have a uterus. Until she could say without hesitation that she was willing to give up her other goals, or at least put them on hold for twenty years or so, then she didn’t feel she was ready for a child of her own.

If she never was, that would be okay, she told herself firmly, ignoring the little ache that fisted beneath her heart when Baby Summerton cooed in her sleep.

“Thanks for your time,” Max said. He stood and shook Summerton’s hand. “My cell number is on the card, please feel free to call me if you or your mother-in-law think of anything else that might be helpful.”

“I will.” Summerton looked over to Raine and his eyes softened. “Thank you for taking her. That meant a great deal to both of us.”

“Of course.” Raine eased the sleeping child off her shoulder and placed her in the crib. She handed Summerton the dribble rag. “She’s a beautiful girl.”

Still looking down at his sleeping daughter, he nodded. “Yes, she is. I just wish-” He broke off and swallowed hard. “I wish she’d gotten to know her mother.”

Eyes filling, Raine mumbled something appropriate, shook Summerton’s hand and fled to the rental car. There, she breathed deeply and had herself more or less under control by the time Max joined her.

He started the engine and pulled out of the driveway before he glanced over at her. “That was quite a scene back there.”

She wasn’t sure if he meant her with the baby, or Summerton talking about his loss, so she went with a noncommittal, “Neither of us expected this to be easy.” She took a deep breath. “I’m not sure I expected it to be this hard, though. Even though I know I did everything I could to ensure that Thriller would be safe for its users, I can’t help thinking…” She trailed off and stared out the window, throat closing on tired, hopeless tears.

This time, when he took her hand, he simply held it.

Chapter Ten

Though it was only midday, Max could see that Raine was near collapse. He thought about driving through, but he was low on sleep too, so he picked a hotel at random and checked in under a totally bogus name, paying cash from the emergency stash he’d retrieved from the bottom lining of his duffel bag.

With only a few hundred dollars, he thought about saving money by just getting one room. But ever since earlier that day, when he’d opened up to Raine about Charlotte, he’d felt his natural anti-Raine defenses weakening. They’d taken another hard hit when he’d seen her holding Baby Summerton and something had clicked in his brain, in his gut.

That’s what I want, the click had said. Only that. Only her.

Too bad he couldn’t fully trust the feeling, or the woman. They might make a good couple for a while, but she’d run in the end. That was her pattern, and he didn’t see any evidence of it changing.

So he asked for separate rooms without a connecting door. If he was near her, he would only want her. And from the looks he’d intercepted once or twice over the course of the morning, he had a feeling she wanted him right back. But anything they’d have together would be temporary, and he wasn’t looking for temporary.

Especially not the kind that took a part of him when it left.

He led the way to the fifth floor and handed her a key card. “I’m right next door. Knock if you need me.”

She looked startled for a moment, then her face flooded with a complicated mix of emotions. “Does that mean you trust me not to run?”

“I trust that you’re smart enough to know you’re safer with me than without me at this point. And I know you’re smart enough to figure out you won’t get far without using your credit card number, which I can pretty much guarantee has been flagged by both Detective Marcus and The Nine.”

He wasn’t sure when the existence of the shadow group had gone from impossible to probable in his mind, but too many of the facts fit best when he plugged them into a group rather than a single individual or company.

“Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess,” Raine said, lips twisting in a rueful smile. “I’m going to get some sleep. Want to meet for dinner?”

“I’m going to get room service and keep working.” He jammed his key card in the slot with more force than necessary. “I’ll call the next-of-kin in Richmond. We’ll go there tomorrow morning, then swing back up to the third victim’s family in New York City.” Saying it like that brought home a point he’d begun to consider that afternoon.

Apparently Raine caught the connection, too. “Do you think it’s significant that three of the four deaths were on the east coast?”

He used his foot to hold open his hotel room door. “I’m not sure, but Ike’s checking it out. She’s trying to pull the sample batch numbers and see if the deaths were linked that way. Maybe a small portion of the samples were tainted during the original production process.”

Raine frowned. “How is she going to figure out…she’s hacking into the FDA? That’s illegal!”

“So’s conspiring to hold useful drugs off the market so your own patented compounds keep making money.” Max pushed the door open and stepped through. As an afterthought, he pulled out a twenty from the emergency funds and handed it to Raine. “Get something from room service for yourself.” When she shook her head in protest, he insisted, “Trust me, protein and carbs. You may not want to eat, but you’ll feel better if you do.”

After a pause and a sigh, she took the twenty, lips curving in a soft smile. “You saving me again, Max?”

“Nah. Saving myself from having to carry you around tomorrow after you faint from low blood sugar.” That got a small laugh out of her, pleasing Max. Feeling as though they were chitchatting to prolong the end of a date, he said, “Good night. Sleep well.”

And before he’d fully processed the impulse, he leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

It was a chaste kiss, little more than he might give a first date he hadn’t really connected with. But its effect on Max was anything but chaste.

His blood leaped in his veins, revving from idle to racing speed between one heartbeat and the next. Her lips yielded beneath his, warm and inviting, and he was poised to accept that invitation-

When she pulled away.

She blinked up at him, then exhaled a long breath. “Sorry, Max. I’m not looking to be rescued anymore, and I don’t want a man who has to be needed that way. I’m looking for someone who’ll see me as an equal, someone who’ll need me as much as I need him.”

I see you as an equal, he started to say, but stopped when he realized that wasn’t so. He saw her as a beautiful, desirable woman. As the surprisingly savvy boss of a company that had proved itself successful up until its current troubles. As a different person than the vulnerable, fragile woman he’d known back in Boston.

But not as his equal. Not as someone he could turn to when things got tough.

She nodded. “Thought so.” She pressed her lips together as though remembering his kiss. “Too bad, Max. It might’ve been fun for a while.”

She disappeared into her room next door, leaving him alone with the taste of her on his lips.

“WHEW. NARROW ESCAPE,” Raine said into the generic hotel room, the likes of which were becoming depressingly familiar. She glanced around, saw nothing out of the ordinary and shrugged. “Guess it’s a shower first.”

Then she stopped, having realized that she was talking to herself, trying to fill the quiet. She’d been in constant company for nearly the past four days.

Being alone felt strange. A little eerie.

“Max is right next door. There’s even a connector.” She crossed the room and unlatched her side, so he could