“Okay, I can work with that.”
He sighs. “What are your plans? When do you plan on letting Asad know? Are you going to at least leave the formula for Glass Slipper behind?”
“I’m not even formally on the payroll, remember? Can’t remind the masses that Marcus Cross has a daughter. This isn’t some shit where I have to turn in my two-week notice to HR. He’ll know when I tell him. But hell, he’s smart. As soon as that will was read, he should’ve figured that shit out. And they can reverse engineer the drug. I don’t owe these muthafuckas a thing. As far as my plans?” I grin. “They’re my own.” I shift forward and close the distance between us and kiss his lean cheek. “See you later, Sam.”
“I have guards already waiting for you outside, Ember,” he warns me. “Where are you headed? Home, I hope. It’s been a long-ass day.”
“I can’t argue with you on that, but mine isn’t over. I’m going in to work.”
He frowns. “To the lab? What the fuck for? You attended your father’s funeral today, for God’s sake.”
“I know.” I shrug. “Threw my schedule all off. Talk to you soon.”
Throwing a hand up in a wave, I set off for the doors. I havesome business to handle that can’t wait. And putting my father in the ground isn’t reason enough to put it off.
Forty minutes later, I step off the elevator into the bowels of the Castle and enter the stark white antechamber outside the lab. Within seconds, I press my thumb to the fingerprint scanner next to the lab door, and a green button at the top corner of the small black box beeps. Next, I lean forward to the retina scanner and wait for the low-level infrared light to beam through the eyepiece. Seconds later, the green button beeps again, and the stainless steel, pneumatic-seal APR doors silently slide open.
As soon as I step into the sterile lab with its stark white walls and spotless workstations, the heaviness and stress of the long day evaporates from my chest and shoulders like a poisonous gas. Taking a moment, I scan the room, visiting the workstations, sinks, array of beakers, test tubes, microscopes, incubators, and exhaust hoods as if they were old friends instead of standard lab equipment. The silence is a cocoon of ambient noise that soothes my soul from the past fifteen hours. The faint whiff of chemicals and cleansing solution smells better than the most expensive perfume.
I inhale my first weightless breath of the day that doesn’t contain death, rage, or avarice. Simply put, in this place of lab equipment, tools, and deadly compounds, I feel… home.
Crossing the large open space, I stop at the far wall and press my hand to a panel, and a section of the wall swings backward, revealing a spacious locker room. And that’s a bit of an understatement. Yes, there are four cubbies, but they are huge, a beautiful oak. A long, matching table, cabinets, and full kitchen complete the room. And tucked in the corner is a bathroom with a full shower.
I quickly open my locker, pull out my lab coat, and shrug into it. Sure, it’s just an article of clothing, but in a way, it’s like putting on a new skin. The right skin.
When I emerge from the locker room, Perla, Jarrod “Gus”Gusner, and Jaq Merritt enter the lab. Together. That’s them. Always together. They even showed up for their interviews for the positions as my lab assistants as a trio. Three people couldn’t be more different in appearance and personality, but according to Perla, they’ve been best friends and inseparable since middle school. Most of the time I love that for them since this world is known for being cruel to anyone born or who dares to be different.
And other times I’m envious that they had each other during those confusing, sometimes toxic years, and I had no one.
“Oh good, you’re here,” Perla says in her sweet, slightly squeaky voice. “We weren’t sure if you were still coming in tonight, given… you know, your—”
“Your father being dead ’n’ all,” Jaq states in their usual blunt manner. When Gus and Perla hiss their name, they blink at them. “What? She knows he’s dead; she buried him today. And it’s not as if she’s broken up over it. Other people might be off, but this is just a regular workday for all of us, so I don’t know why you’re over there stuttering and shit.”
We all stare after their tall, slim frame and the long, fishtail braid riding their spine as they head toward the locker room. I smirk while Gus glares and Perla just looks mortified and apologetic. I don’t know why. Jaq’s right. Now if anyone else but one of these three had fixed their mouths to speak to me like that, I can’t promise they wouldn’t find something odorless and colorless seeping out of the car vents next time they turned the engine on.
But Perla, Gus, and Jaq aren’t just my lab assistants. They’re the only friends I have. Aside from Sam, they’re the only people I trust.
“We’ll be right back,” Gus mutters, then he and Perla follow behind Jaq.
Though he walks ahead of her, as soon as they reach the door, Gus holds it open for his much smaller friend to enter first. With his nearly seven-foot frame, the wide, powerful body to match, thick, auburn beard, sharp-as-an-axe cheekbones, and deep-setblue eyes, he could be Paul Bunyan’s Gen X, liberal cousin. He’s also a gentle giant with manners that would have him in high demand at aBridgertondinner.
Fuck y’all judgmental hoes.Bridgertonis the shit.
Moments later, they reenter the room, their white lab coats and game faces on. The regular day-to-day HoC business might’ve been postponed for the day, butmybusiness? It begins when everyone else’s workday ends. What we’re working on right now?
My liberation.
“Ready? We got a long night ahead of us. I want to run several tests on the various subjects we have. I think we’re closer than we’ve ever been before to perfecting this new drug.” I head toward the back of the lab, passing by the contamination shower and stopping at the rear wall that to the naked, unknowing eye appears just like that—a wall and not another door inside the lab.
“I’m curious to see what effects increasing the MDMA will cause,” Perla says, excitement causing her voice to rise even higher.
Other people her age would be hyped at just using ecstasy. She’s excited at examining the chemical effects of it.
Yeah, we’re nerds.
I lean forward, and an infrared light beams out of the undetectable retinal scanner embedded in the white wall. The activation of the door also triggers the cameras in the lab to loop so if anyone does go snooping, they will only see an empty room. In the next second, a panel slides open on a sibilant hiss, and I enter, Jaq, Perla, and Gus close behind me. I don’t need to glance behind me to see Gus press his hand to the black device just inside the door to seal us in. It’s routine by now.
Only the four of us know of this secret laboratory.
