Edge of Danger by Cherry Adair Read Free Book Online Page B

that ?!” she whispered, shaken.
     
      “That what?” Marshall asked coming up beside her. “Sorry it took me so long. I had one of those things, you know? When you walk into a room and completely forget why you’re there? Anyway, here you go.” He placed a steaming cup of coffee beside her. “It’s hot, so be careful.”
     
      I’m hot, too, Eden thought, picking up the jumbo cup with both hands. The heat bled through to her palms as she lifted it to take a sip. “Perfect.” Other than it being coffee, which she never drank, not tea. She hoped he didn’t put her into a diabetic coma after apparently dumping the entire box of sugar into the cup when the most she allowed herself was half a pack of Sweet’N Low.
     
      She sipped anyway as she considered the possibility that she might have a brain tumor. What else could explain these hallucinations and inappropriate sexual behaviors?
     
      Or, maybe she was just on the brink of a good, old-fashioned nervous breakdown. Clearly the stress of her moral dilemma was taking its toll. Taking another small swallow of too sweet coffee, she glanced up at the man beside her. “Do I look normal to you?”
     
      Marshall’s lips twitched. “Define normal?”
     
      Eden reached out and swatted his arm. “Seriously. How do I look?”
     
      With his sharpei frown, he stepped back, then scanned her from top to toe and back again. “Normal. A little flushed. But normal.”
     
      She blushed harder because she was blushing. “How have I been behaving lately?”
     
      He gave her a bewildered look. “Like a person who found the murdered body of a friend should behave? Sad, angry, frustrated. And sometimes like a woman whose favorite toy was taken away. Pissed off.” He shrugged his bony shoulders. “I don’t know, Eden. You’ve been behaving like…a girl, I guess.”
     
      She narrowed her eyes. “Guys don’t get sad and angry and frustrated?”
     
      “Oh, yeah, sure we do. A lot.” Marshall flushed. “It’s—well, it’s you who usually doesn’t.”
     
      “I don’t?” She didn’t?
     
      “Eden. You’re always so… focused. Ninety-eight point seven percent of the time you don’t notice anything that goes on around you when you’re in here.”
     
      “I notice things that go on around me.”
     
      “In this lab?”
     
      “Yes. Sometimes.”
     
      “As I said. Normal.” He wandered back to his desk.
     
      “Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.” She shot at his back. He was already pounding his keyboard.
     
      The truth was, she wasn’t very good with people. Give her a computer any day. Not only was a computer logical, it wasn’t judgmental either. She’d always been a misfit because of her high IQ. She’d never really fit in anywhere but in an academic setting and the lab. Was it any wonder she felt emotionally safest, happiest here?
     
      Theo’s violent death had taken some of that away from her. Not being able to continue their work on the robot was contributing to her enormous feeling of loss. She liked her life ordered. Regulated. Predictable. Right now it was none of that.
     
      Getting back to work, miring herself in a project, would, she hoped, get her back on track. And get her emotions back on an even keel where she could deal with them in a rational manner. She’d rather spend the day with her computer than a person.
     
      God, she thought with self-deprecating humor, no wonder I can’t get laid.
     
      A focused hour later, Marshall swiveled his chair around. “Can I ask you a hypothetical question?”
     
      “Hmmm?”
     
      “Could we maybe rebuild Rex?”
     
      Eden’s head snapped up as she realized just how dangerous that information could be. “Even if we could, that’s something we’ll keep to ourselves.” God. He’d just voiced her worst fears. “Imagine what the wrong people could do with Rex. Imagine it—multiply that grim possibility only a hundred