Page 32 of Tight Spaces

"It’s Chernichenko and you may call me Danusia if that’s easier."

"What were the perps looking for?" the detective asked.

"I don’t know for sure."

"Look, Danusia, we can’t help you if you won’t be frank with us. If you’re in something over your head, we’ll do what we can to help, but you need to tell us what it is."

"Local police are allowed to lie." She turned to Max. "Only federal investigators are required to tell the truth, though that doesn’t extend to the CIA apparently."

Max almost laughed, but he held it in. "Do you think Rebekah is involved in something dangerous?" he forced himself to ask.

"No, but I think I may be."

The detective looked triumphant.

Max should have been surprised, but he wasn’t. "The pharmaceutical research?"

"Yes. I realized in the car on the way here what those results could indicate. I mean, if you weren’t looking for people getting better."

"What’s that?"

"Nanotechnology as a weapon rather than medical treatment."

He cursed. The detective looked confused, and he didn’t look like he understood a whole lot better after Danusia’s explanation. To give the guy credit – which Max wasn’t overly inclined to do considering his negligent attitude toward Danusia’s safety – parts of her explanation went right over Max’s head as well.

But he had no trouble figuring out that his little professor was in a world of trouble. Or would be if he weren’t around to keep her safe. He didn’t just know how to kill people, he knew how to stop others from doing it.

He planned to put his knowledge and experience to full use in protecting the sweet and too damn sexy scientist in the making.

And it was a damn good thing, because once the detective did get the gist of what Danusia was trying to tell him, he immediately dismissed her theories as farfetched and fanciful. "This isn’t an episode of Law & Order, Miss Chernko."

Max couldn’t decide if the man was getting her name wrong on purpose or really was that dense.

"I’m fully aware that this is real life. It’s my apartment that’s been ransacked, detective."

"And you want me to believe someone did it trying to get back a bunch of computer data you got researching for your paper." The man couldn’t have come off as more dismissive if he’d called her little lady and rolled his eyes.

"Do you have a better theory?" Danusia asked.

But Max didn’t need to.

"Well, now. It’s a lot more likely that you’ve been turning your knowledge of chemistry to more lucrative endeavors." The police detective’s words were annoying as hell but expected.

Danusia, though, looked shocked and horrified by the implications. "You think I’ve been making drugs?" she demanded, proving her brains worked outside the classroom too. "Are you aware that one of my brothers is a former DEA agent?"

"Former?"

"Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe what you are implying." She turned to Max. "Is he really saying what I think he’s saying?"

"Looks that way to me."

"Now, listen here, Miss Chenkiro."

The detective’s misuse of her name yet again was the last straw because she gave him a contemptuous look and got to her feet, marching away from his desk toward the exit without another word.

The detective wasn’t so quiet. "Wait a minute, there. You can’t go storming off. I’ll have you arrested on obstruction of justice."

Danusia ignored the petty threat for the empty hot air it was.