Formula for Danger. Camy Tang

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СКАЧАТЬ always amazed Edward how Alex had become such good friends with Detective Carter, who had been the man who had arrested his brother all those years ago for robbing a convenience store.

      “I hope not too many plants die because of tonight.” Horatio paused as he pulled open the door. “Rachel has been working pretty hard on this new product.” He left the greenhouse, heading toward the south side of the property.

      Edward’s jaw tensed. “Yes,” he said softly to himself. He knew exactly how hard she’d been working. At least, how hard she’d started working three months ago. She was probably driving herself into the ground by now.

      And why should he care?

      He was fooling himself if he thought he didn’t care. Seeing her on her knees, her eye swollen and red, had shot him through the heart.

      For the past year he had been growing the special Malaysian basil plants she used to create the scar-reduction cream that she planned to launch in a few months. During that year they had grown closer, but a couple of months ago she had discovered how truly revolutionary her product was. She had then thrown herself into her research with single-minded purpose and insanely long hours.

      She had spent less time with him, and he had tried not to let it bother him at first—after all, Rachel’s cream, thanks to the Malaysian basil as the secret ingredient, was truly a breakthrough product in reducing scarring, and they were only working together, not dating. But up until that point they had been getting closer, and he had wanted to see if she would take their relationship beyond a professional one. He had asked her to dinner at his mother’s house, to meet his family.

      She had been pleased and excited, which got his hopes up. But the night of the dinner, thirty minutes late, she had called to say she had found a new formulation and wanted to test it. That she was sorry to have to cancel last minute. Maybe next time?

      Mama had been disappointed. For Edward, Rachel’s phone call had caused a twist of pain in his gut because it had reminded him of Papa’s excuses, the way Papa would cancel last minute, the way Papa would put work before his relationships and all the bitterness and pain coloring Edward’s memories of his father.

      To protect his heart, he had made a decision to back away from their friendship before it became more than that. He’d thought a couple of months of polite phone conversations and professional meetings here at the greenhouse meant he had distanced himself emotionally.

      He’d been deluding himself.

      He threw himself into the cleanup work, trying to sweep away the vision of her bruised face. After clearing a path through the dirt and pottery shards on the floor, he righted the tables that had been knocked over, making a mental note to fix the broken leg on one of them.

      Snap!

      His heart stopped in his chest. The sound had been too loud—like a heavy foot stepping on a branch.

      Horatio had left several minutes ago to talk to Alex in greenhouse seven, which was in the opposite direction of where the sound had come from, so it couldn’t be either of them. Which meant…

      An intruder was outside in the darkness.

      He exited the greenhouse as casually as he could, listening for sounds of running footsteps just in case the intruder had seen him leave through the glass of the greenhouse windows and was now escaping. No sounds except a soft rustle of tree leaves in a stray night breeze.

      It took too long for his eyes to adjust to the darkness. He moved away from the greenhouse door by feel and smell more than sight, his shoes padding against wet leaves and grass.

      The crickets from the pond were loud. He hunkered down near a tree, still and tense.

      Suddenly he saw a shadow move.

      He circled around, avoiding patches of dry leaves that could give him away, keeping the shadow in sight.

      Then the man stopped moving.

      Had the figure heard him? Edward froze, trying to pick the intruder out from the darkness. It was almost impossible—he had to wait until the figure moved again.

      Nothing stirred in the darkness for what seemed like hours. His hands started to numb from the cold night air, so he eased them into his pockets to warm them, never taking his eyes from where he’d last seen the intruder. This was private property, and he resented this invasion.

      Edward saw a slight movement. The man was short and stocky, or maybe he was hunched down. He almost didn’t seem to be trying to stay out of sight. He had stopped under an orange tree, and the overhanging branches partially hid him from sight and protected him—Edward couldn’t grab him while the arms of the tree circled him.

      Then the man moved.

      The stranger eased closer to the greenhouse and seemed to be trying to peer inside. He had to be up to no good. He moved slowly, as stealthy as a coyote.

      When the intruder had fully cleared the branches of the orange tree, Edward leaped at him.

      They went down in a whirlwind of dead leaves and the stranger’s thick jacket. The man was smaller than he had anticipated, but wiry and quick. Edward got a glancing blow to the jaw from a flailing fist that made him jerk back slightly.

      The stranger took advantage of the pause to scramble away, or maybe to grab a branch as a weapon. Edward didn’t want to find out—he dived for the figure, using all his weight to pin the man to the ground, reaching to capture scrabbling arms and twist them behind the man’s back.

      “Eep!”

      He stilled. Male trespassers didn’t eep.

      He loosened his hold, and the person flipped over.

      “Rachel!”

      She stilled the moment their eyes met. The light from the greenhouse windows gave her face a pearl-like glow, and he caught a whiff of her perfume—lavender and citrus. She was beautiful, ethereal. The first time she’d come to his greenhouses to hire him, over a year ago, the sight of her had sucked the air out of his lungs. Like now.

      No, this was dangerous territory. Edward stood and gave her a hand up.

      She busied herself dusting the leaves from her jeans, but at the same time, she seemed to be trying to shrink inside her bulky winter jacket.

      “What are you doing, Rachel? Detective Carter said you didn’t need to be here.”

      “Yes, I did.” Her eyes, wide, determined, but fighting tears at the same time, met his. “I did. I couldn’t stay home and just…” She bit back a sob.

      He could understand her need to see for herself the damage done to the plants and how that sight would somehow make her feel more in control of the whole situation. She had been working long hours to develop her scar-reduction cream, and this kind of setback would have thrown her for a loop.

      He wanted to hold her, comfort her, tell her it would be all right.

      No, he had to keep his distance from her. He and his family had already lived through the broken promises and hurt from a workaholic father. He had vowed he would never neglect his own children for his work, he would never make them feel like a secondary priority in his life, he СКАЧАТЬ