Deadly Chemistry (Entangled Ignite) by Teri Anne Stanley

and not just because he wanted her , in spite of himself. At any rate, he wasn’t going to find out anything standing there gathering wool while Jason scratched his armpits. “Okay, I’m heading over there.”
    …
    Lauren stood in the doorway of her lab, holding a lab coat and box of gloves that someone had handed to her. She couldn’t leave this mess for the housekeeping staff—she needed to find out what was salvageable. And find out if she still had a project.
    The cops had come and gone, too, although they’d kept her out of her own lab as they’d processed the scene.
    They’d asked her the same questions— any sign of forced entry? Nope, the doorframe was completely unscratched. Which was weird, because she was sure she’d locked up before she left last night. Did she know who would have destroyed her lab? Nope again. Who would do something like this? Did she have enemies? Yeah, riiiiight. She’d almost laughed at that one.
    While the police had been there, the other members of the department kept popping by, surprisingly generous with offers of refrigerator and freezer space—commodities that were often jealously hoarded. Evan was the only one who was still physically present, however. Once the police left, there was no more gossip to collect. She sighed and held the box of gloves between her knees while she wrestled her arms into the lab coat. Time to get to work.
    Evan handed her a pair of plastic shoe covers. “Here. Wear these. You don’t know what’s contaminating the floor.”
    “Thanks.”
    “Are you okay?” Evan’s formal reserve slipped a bit, and he put his hand on her arm. He was a good guy under all that uptight armor, which made her think of his completely-wrong-for-her brother with the mysterious background and dark look in his eye.
    “I will be. I just can’t believe someone came in here and did this. I can’t believe no one saw anything.”
    “I was here until late,” Evan said. “I saw the cleaning people leave, and everything was fine. The perpetrators must have come in during the dead of night.”
    “Miss Kane?”
    Lauren turned to see a man in a Tucker Police Department uniform striding toward her. He was about thirty, African American, with a gleaming shaved head and the height and lean power of someone who hadn’t stopped playing basketball after his high school—or maybe even college—career had ended. Of course, she was making an assumption that all incredibly tall guys played ball. His long face was serious, but not unsympathetic.
    “I’m Chief of Police Dwayne Crawford,” he told her, shaking her hand. “I’m sorry it took me so long to get here.” He turned to Evan. “Nice to see you, Evan.”
    Evan nodded stiffly. “Hello, Chief Crawford.”
    The man sighed. “Oh, for God’s sake, we went to preschool together. You really, really don’t need to call me ‘Chief’.”
    Evan almost smiled.
    Chief Crawford turned his attention back to her. “This your lab?”
    Lauren nodded.
    Evan said, “I’ll be in my office if you need me.”
    “Thanks,” Lauren said. Then, puzzled by why a police chief would be at her lab, she turned to the police chief. “Since when does the police chief show up at the site of a little vandalism?”
    “Tucker’s a small force, and we don’t get crimes like this often.”
    He looked over Lauren’s shoulder, into the lab. “It looks like you’ve got a hell of a mess to clean up. Mind if I look around a little with you?”
    “I was just gearing up.” She handed him some gloves.
    “I’d like to see if you can identify anything that might be missing and get an in-person look at the graffiti.”
    “Graffiti? I don’t know anything about that.”
    “The first responders noticed it, but didn’t mention it to anyone because of its threatening nature.”
    Lauren looked through the door. She was hesitant to take a step over the threshold, as if by staying in the corridor, she could keep the destruction from being real. God,