Page 35
Ethan handed the keys to Creed. “Thanks, man.” He sat in the wheelchair because arguing with Sommer would make her life hard. There was probably some protocol she was following. “I’ll give you a call as soon as I’m done. Tango eats—well, you know what to do.”
Sommer rounded behind Ethan. “All right. Here we go. You’ve been losing blood. If I roll you inside, do you promise you won’t pass out on me?”
Chapter Ten
Piper
“Hey, I can feel you out there freaking out,” Chanti said over the phone. “Are you okay?”
“No. Actually, I’m really not. I’m so sorry that you felt me. I still don’t know how that works. You freak me out. And thank you for calling.”
“That’s all right. Where are you?”
“I just parked at my mouse lab.” Piper turned into the wind, pulling strands of her long brown hair from her mouth. “I’m heading into the building.”
“So you’re getting back from your speech at Alabaster? Is that the problem?”
“Chanti, I’m shaking like a chihuahua. My mind is racing. I am so damned confused right now. I need you to help me think.”
“Wow. Okay. Hang on. Let me just close out of this. I’m not going to hang up, but I am going to go silent on you so I can focus.”
Piper pushed through the door and walked down the hall to her lab. She shut the door behind her and, for whatever reason, locked it.
When the door clicked, her lab tech, Vivian, turned from the sink where she was washing the mice water bottles.
Vivian looked at the door. “Is everything all right?”
Piper stilled.
“You locked the lab door.”
“Did I?” Piper looked back over her shoulder. How would she explain that she felt like she had to run and hide? “I did.” She let her gaze sweep over to the clock on the wall. “Can you tell me what’s on your agenda for the rest of the day?” Vivian normally worked ten thirty to seven, so she could avoid most of the traffic. And in the grand scheme of mouse care, it didn’t much matter.
Vivian turned to look at the cages with their blue or green labels. Blue signified the genetically altered mice with Runker-Bailey Syndrome, and green signified the unmodified mouse population, which served as the control group. “I have the cages cleaned. I need to get them fed and watered, and then I’ll work on data entry.”
“The data entry can wait,” Piper forced a smile. “You know what? It’s a beautiful day. How about you finish with the animal maintenance, and then you go ahead and let yourself go for the rest of the day.”
“Seriously?” Vivian looked over at the locked door, then at the phone pressed to Piper’s ear as she waited for Chanti to get back on the line. “Thank you.”
“Yup. Have a happy day.” Piper moved toward her office and shut the door, hating the silence as she waited for Chanti. She sat in her chair, rocking herself like a child trying to find comfort; she chewed at the end of her pen until the plastic cracked, and now she was contemplating how she could fill the lab sink with ice water so she could plunge her face into it to reset her nervous system without freaking Vivian out.
“Hey, I’m back. I’m all yours. What’s going on for you? You sound bad.”
“I’m mush. My brain is absolute garbage. I’m so frightened that I can’t think straight, and I need you to help me think right now, Chanti.”
“Does this have to do with your formula?”
“I don’t know. I honestly don’t know what’s happening right now. I was at Harcourt Alabaster.” Piper launched herself from her chair and went to the office window to make sure Vivian was by the mice, not up against her door listening.
Paranoid. Why would Vivian be listening?
“I was speaking to the executives. Of course, Lionel wasn’t there. My understanding before the meeting was that Lionel and his wife, Amanda, were overseas setting up a medical spa where they would feature Alabaster products. In my mind, I guess I was thinking plastic surgery and laser hair removal. But now, I don’t know. I just don’t know.”
“Okay. Let’s take this one step at a time. You went to Alabaster. You gave them your speech.”
“Talk really.” Piper plopped back in her chair. “I was freewheeling. They don’t respond well to slide shows or prepared remarks.”
“Did they say they were going to foot the bill for the FDA stuff?”
