KIRK AND HARRIS stayed behind while Teagan and Ty came with J.T. and Hope to the lab. Hope didn’t protest the extra people, probably because she knew they were nonnegotiable.
The dirt road was filled with potholes and sections of washboard, which certainly would’ve deterred the hapless tourist who had gotten on the wrong road, but Hope assured them they were on the right path.
“I memorized the map before I left California. I knew if I ran into trouble, I’d need to know where I was going,” she explained, adding with a slightly sheepish expression, “Another benefit of an eidetic memory.”
“Damn.” J.T. whistled, shaking his head. “I don’t even want to know what your IQ is. I might never recover.”
“Are you afraid of smart women?” she asked.
“Only ones I’m attracted to,” he quipped, eliciting a blush on her part.
Teagan rolled his eyes. “Keep it in your pants, Romeo.”
J.T. laughed and Hope averted her eyes, though a secret smile found her lips. God, she was sexy.
An hour on the road and Hope directed them to the gate, giving Teagan the code to punch in. The gate swung open and they rolled through.
“No security?” Ty asked, finding that suspect. “Something doesn’t feel right here.”
“It’s okay,” Hope assured him. “That gate is electrified. It won’t open without the right code and if anyone tries to scale it, they’ll fry. So, yeah, don’t touch the fence.”
“Good to know.”
They went deeper into the complex and parked in the near-empty parking lot.
“Boy, when you say it’s an ultrasecret lab, you aren’t joking. The employee picnic must be a real snore,” Teagan said, glancing around. “Are you sure this lab is operational?”
Hope seemed to share his concern. “There should be more employees. C’mon, the entrance is over here.”
She produced a key card from her bag and the door popped open with a soft click.
“The virus storage is on the top level, same as the lab in California,” Hope explained, taking the lead, but J.T. had a weird tingle at the base of his skull that didn’t bode well.
He pulled his gun for good measure, and Teagan and Ty did the same.
They took the stairs because J.T. didn’t trust the elevator. There was power running through the small complex, but it was a ghost town and that was beyond strange.
Hope slid her key card into the lock and the door opened, but was stopped by something on the other side of the door.
J.T. halted Hope before she could push the door open and directed her behind him. Teagan and Ty flanked him for backup as J.T. pushed against the resistance to open the door.
Hearing nothing but dead silence, J.T. entered the room to find what was causing the resistance.
A body.
Hope stuffed back a scream as she stared at the man in a lab coat sprawled out with dried blood staining the floor.
“Oh, my God!” she gasped, edging away from the blood spill. Then she saw that the dead scientist hadn’t been alone. There were two other bodies, another man and a woman, slumped over their stations, staring sightless at the walls. “What happened here?”
“Something bad,” Ty replied darkly. “I say we get the hell out of here before whoever did this comes back.”
“I don’t understand... Anso is dead. Who would do this?” Hope asked, panicked. She scanned the room for answers, her gaze desperate. She looked to J.T. “I have to tell Deirdre. There must be some kind of protocol. This room is supposed to be a clean room. There could be contamination.” Suddenly, she lost the panic and hustled to another section of the room.
J.T. went after her. “What is it?”
She opened a closet and pulled out a huge white suit and climbed into it. “I have to make sure that the samples that are housed here haven’t been compromised. Stay here.”
“Think again,” J.T. said in a low tone. “You don’t know what happened to these people and if there’s some dangerous viruses turned loose in that room, you’re not going in.”
Hope ignored him and zipped the suit. “I’m the only person qualified to go in there. The suit will keep me safe. I have to know.”
Teagan stopped J.T. “She’s right. Let her go. She’s the only one who can.”
He didn’t care what’d happened here. Dead scientists, dangerous viruses—he wanted to put this place in his rearview mirror, but he knew Hope wasn’t going to leave until she knew there hadn’t been a breach. “Fine. You’ve got two minutes and then we’re getting the hell out of here.”
Hope pulled the protective cover over her head and walked into the cold storage where the viruses were held.
“I don’t like this,” J.T. growled to Teagan.
Ty went to a computer and started nosing around, but came up empty. “Nothing here. Whoever was here didn’t much care about what was on the computers.”
Hope reappeared and pulled her cover free. “Someone destroyed the samples. There’s nothing left.”
An idea came to J.T., one that was borderline crazy, but considering their options seemed almost brilliant.
“Destroy your samples, too. It’ll look like whoever broke in was responsible for everything,” J.T. said, shocking Hope. “It’s the best way to come out smelling like a rose in this deal. Otherwise, you’ll always worry that someone out there is abusing the virus.”
Even though the plan had been to destroy the samples, Hope suddenly hesitated, turning to him almost desperately. “This is my life’s work,” she said, torn. “I mean, not only mine, but Tanya’s, too. And it doesn’t belong to me. It belongs to Tessara. Maybe it’s not right to destroy it.”
“No one needs that kind of power,” J.T. said in a low tone. “Especially a company like Tessara.”
Teagan urged them to make a decision. “Time’s short, man. Shit or get off the pot—we gotta blow this place.”
J.T. met Hope’s gaze. Please destroy it. Everything hinged on that one decision.
Hope’s mouth firmed as she nodded slowly.
“You’re right. This is what needs to happen.” She grabbed her pack, pulled her protective hood back on and disappeared into the cold-storage room.