Acceptable Risks by Natalie J. Damschroder Read Free Book Online Page B

remembering other schools, threats that had been real. “Okay, I get it now, but he should have explained it instead of expecting me to just do as he told me. I was seventeen.”
“I know, Lark. He knows. No one’s patting you on the head. You have to know what the threat is to be safe from it. And we need your help.”
Well, that was a new one.
“My curiosity level just went to red. But we have to go to my apartment first.”
“Lark—”
“Jason . ”
Jason closed his mouth. Part of her gaped in amazement that he was here. That she was talking to him. Questions raced through her head, dragging so many emotions there wasn’t time to feel them before the next one crowded in. But prioritizing them was easy.
“My work is there. The plant that led to the compound that led to the regeneration therapy that’s partly responsible for you being alive and whole. And all the data supporting it.”
Jason immediately turned the car around, and Lark sank into her seat. He didn’t say anything, but she didn’t need him to. He’d just confirmed the reason Isaac had been after her. Despite the cauldron of questions and emotions, she appreciated the silence the rest of the way to her apartment. She needed a few minutes to absorb what was happening.
Since her father didn’t exactly participate in Take Your Daughter to Work Day, Lark had never seen Jason in action. Not that she actually saw him this time, either. He left her in the car outside her apartment house and in five minutes, figured out where the Kemmerling spies were and identified their blind spots. Then he got her inside, slipping past the guard at the desk, who didn’t look up.
Lark waited until they were in the elevator before asking, “What did you do?”
Jason quirked an eyebrow in question.
“The guard ignored us. They don’t do that here, even the ones I don’t know very well.”
“Your father knows them all. It didn’t take much to convince him not to see us come in. Now he doesn’t have to lie if Isaac or his guys try to get information from him.”
Lark winced. “I hope they won’t hurt him to get it.”
“Isaac is smarter than that.”
“Yay.” Smart wasn’t a good thing in an enemy.
Jason insisted on entering the apartment first. As soon as he’d cleared the entryway, he pulled her in and made her wait by the door. The alarm was armed and undisturbed, but Lark waited patiently while he searched the rest of the apartment.
“Okay, where first?” He holstered the gun he’d strapped on in the car, hidden under a snug jacket he now wore over his super-tight long-sleeved T-shirt. Clothes that showed off in delicious detail how fit he was. Lark wondered again how that was possible. The regeneration therapy could only do so much.
“Roof. Greenhouse.” Since she had the top-floor apartment of the small building, she had the only access to the roof. Still, she breathed a sigh of relief when she found her low-tech precautions intact. Isaac must have assumed all her work would be at BotMed. But since she’d developed the compound before she went to work there, both the data and the remaining plants were all here.
She strode to the rear of the greenhouse but then stood, fists on her hips, staring at the four plants sitting on their table.
“What’s the matter?” Jason asked.
“I don’t know what to do with them. We can’t cart them all over the place. And I can’t hide them in a safe or something. They need light and air.”
Jason picked up two and carried them to another table. “Mix them in with the rest. Then pull all the labels.”
She stared at him, open-mouthed. “Pull all the labels?”
“He won’t be able to tell which ones are the right ones.”
“Neither will I!”
Jason gave her a look and came back for the other two.
“Okay, fine.” But she hesitated, then pushed the tabs with all their important data down into the soil, instead, brushing it over the top so no one could tell they were there. Jason watched for a second, then