Alex snaked an arm around Ava’s waist as she licked her lips. He recognized the tension building on her beautiful features.
“Do you think I’ll have another blackout?”
“I don’t know,” Kyle answered, “but with any luck, no. They were intermittent before. If we can get these drugs working in your system, we can block them.”
Ava flashed him her crossed fingers as Alex rubbed her back. “It’ll be okay, Avs.”
“Well, there’s certainly enough of us here to keep an eye on you,” Chris said, crossing his arms as he glanced at her.
The statement made Alex’s skin crawl. The last thing he wanted or needed was Chris Maxwell looking out for Ava, rekindling something while her emotions were a chemically induced mess.
“I really think we can handle it,” Alex retorted.
“You can’t be with her every second of the day,” Chris shot back.
“I can–”
“Okay, okay,” Ava said with a shake of her head. “Let’s not argue about it, okay? I’m just glad to have people here who care and support me.”
The words struck Alex like a physical slap. Before hecould follow up on them, though, his other arch nemesis strolled into the room.
Sebastian tugged on a t-shirt over his rock-hard abs as he approached them, his skin still glistening from the shower. “Anything?”
Alex stared him, unimpressed. “Dude, next time finish getting dressed before you race to my office please.”
“Yeah, totally,” Kyle said with a frown. “No one needs to see your abs. We all know you have them.”
“Honestly, going to go with Alex and Kyle on this one,” Chris said with a bob of his head. “So…three against one. Ava’s vote doesn’t count.”
Sebastian let his gaze slide between them. “Are you guys serious? Why are we even talking about this right now? There is work to be done.”
“We’re talking about it because you came in here shirtless like it was of vital importance that you be in here that you couldn’t even take the time to put a shirt on. And all know it’s because you want to show off your muscles. It’s pretty obvious.”
Sebastian rubbed his forehead. “Okay, fine, I will make sure my shirt is fully on in the future. Everyone okay with that?”
The men in the room nodded as Ava shook her head. “You guys are unbelievable,” she murmured.
“Well, he didn’t have to rush down here. The program isn’t even finished yet,” Alex said with a frustrated sigh. “This stupid program is the slowest thing on the planet. Who designed it?”
“I don’t know,” Sebastian said. “And at least we’re going to get some answers from it, even if they take a while.”
He crossed his arms, the sleeves of his t-shirt straining against his biceps. Alex wrinkled his nose, returning his gaze to the screen to await any results.
He pulled Ava a little closer to him, feeling like wolves surrounded him, just waiting for their chance to pounce on Ava and steal her. She let her hand fall onto his shoulder, her fingers finding a lock of his shaggy hair to toy with.
He couldn’t stop a smile from curling his lips at the contact.
After a few breaths of tense waiting, a success message popped onto the screen. His heart leapt into his throat as he clicked to open the file.
At the top of the freshly decrypted file, the blazing red logo for PharmaTech shined. Alex leaned closer to read the information that followed, detailing the pharmaceutical giant’s underground experiments with behavioral drugs including Neuroprisol-X, the drug that caused Ava’s blackouts.
Illegal trials where chemicals were added to drinking water, food supplies, and even vaccines were detailed in cold, clinical reports. The scope of the experiments was staggering—entire towns had been unwitting test subjects.
Alex’s stomach lurched as he scrolled further, a cold sweat breaking out on the back of his neck. They weren’t just targeting individuals—they were trying to control entire populations. Neuroprisol-X wasn’t just a prototype; it was being refined, tweaked, tested on thousands without their knowledge.
“These tests…” Alex whispered. “They’ve been going on for years. Food, water, medicine—people are being drugged without knowing it. Ava, they could have given you this chemical at any point.” He turned to look at Ava, fear flashing in his eyes. “How do we fight this kind of power?”
CHAPTER 2
