Dark Abyss Kaitlyn O'Connor (best fiction books of all time .TXT) 📖

in protective custody. They probably didn’t want her to leave the house and that was why they’d made arrangements for a place for her to work. It might not be safe for her or them. “Never mind. I wasn’t thinking. I forgot I was in protective custody. I guess I can’t wander around.”

“Actually,” Caleb said slowly. “I did talk to a guy that has a lab here. He said he went to school with you.”

“Really?”

“Dr. Sikes? Raymond Sikes?”

Anna blinked at him. “And he remembered me?”

Simon glanced from Anna to Caleb, feeling a different sort of uneasiness flicker through him. “You don’t remember him?” he asked grimly.

Anna frowned, thinking it over. “Actually,” she said wryly. “I didn’t really socialize a lot in college and I’m not very good with names.”

Caleb shared a look with Simon. “I don’t think you would’ve overlooked him. He’s about my height, hair about the color of Ian’s—maybe a little lighter shade of brown. Green eyes. He looked like the kind of man a woman would notice. Not that I’m much of a judge, but I would’ve said he was handsome.”

“Oh, well maybe that would explain it,” Anna said. “I’ve always been more attracted to ….” She stopped abruptly, feeling her face heat at what she’d almost said.

“Uh … jocks, you know?”

She could see that they knew that wasn’t what she’d intended to say, but she wasn’t about to tell them that she’d always been more inclined to notice blonds—not with Ian and Simon standing there and both of them dark!

“To be perfectly honest, I was pretty wrapped up in this guy I met—Chance Linden—a football player. And after he dumped me, I focused on getting my degree. Handsome or not, he could easily have been in my classes without me noticing. I wasn’t really very keen on the idea of giving anyone else a chance after I got burned, and besides, it took all Mom could do to pay my way. I didn’t want to let her down,” she added hurriedly to cover her goof.

“Do you think I might be able to convince him to let me use his lab occasionally?”

“We’ll see,” Simon said grimly. “We need to check him out first.”

Five minutes in to their interrogation, Raymond Sikes admitted he didn’t know Anna and hadn’t gone to school with her. He’d just figured it was a good way to meet her.

They ran a very thorough background check on him anyway and finally cut him loose. They decided it would be better all the way around, though, to ‘borrow’ a few pieces of equipment here and there. Most of what they managed to round up was outdated and no longer in use, though still useable, but it took a concerted effort, a lot of searching, and a good bit of bullying.

They decided it was worth it when Anna danced up and down and flew from one to another to give them kisses of appreciation as if they’d brought her diamonds instead of clunky, antiques.

“This is wonderful! It’s great! All of it works?”

“So we were told,” Caleb hedged. “I don’t guess we’ll know for sure until we get it hooked up and you test it.”

Anna was so excited she was determined to help them clean up and remodel. She was more of a distraction and a hindrance than help, but they gritted their teeth and bore with it. Simon finally bought tool bags to hide their tools in since Anna had a bad habit of moving things and forgetting where she’d put them—cleaning up behind them. If anybody set a hammer, a wrench, a measuring tape, or a screw driver down, he had to look for it the next time he needed it.

“It’s like living with a ferret,” Simon muttered with a mixture of amusement and exasperation as he watched Anna taking her turn in the kitchen.

“Or a magpie,” Caleb countered. “She’s pretty territorial.”

“Ferret,” Joshua said succinctly. “Magpies are mean little bastards.”

Ian’s lips curled, his eyes gleaming as he, too, studied her. “But she sings.”

Joshua chuckled. “As if any of you have ever actually seen either one! Magpies are melodious.”

Ian’s smile broadened. “I didn’t say she sang well,” he murmured. “I still like hearing our little magpie chirp.”

“She still doesn’t have anything to look at in her garden but benches and lights,”

Caleb reminded them. “Somebody is going to have to make a trip to Water City to buy supplies. There isn’t a lot available in New Atlanta and what there is, is damned expensive.”

“It’ll be expensive in Water City, too,” Simon said dryly. “They may only be a mile from the mainland, but they still have to haul everything like that out to the city. Ian and I will go tomorrow. You and Joshua have watch. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to stop by her place just to see if anything’s left. I’d like to get a closer look at it anyway.”

“I imagine the platform sank—either that or the PD had a tug move it.”

Simon shrugged. “We can still look.”

* * * *

“Good timing,” Ian drawled as he and Simon surfaced in the sub and saw that the city was in the process of hooking up what was left of the platform to tug it away.

“It isn’t gone yet,” Simon said grimly, throwing his safety harness off and heading for the tube. “I think we can safely assume the PD has released the crime scene.”

“True. That being the case you still think it’s a good idea to go in in uniform?”

Simon paused at the door and glanced at him. “We can’t be strolling