Page 57 of Sucker For You
This is what matters right now.
The cephalopods matter.
Chase could—would have to—wait.
Brianne watched her complete the form’s Relevant Experience section. “You’ve worked with octopuses before? Didn’t the wildlife photographer mention something about you being a consultant? If you have a background in biology, we can probably find something more specialized for you to do here that keeps you out of the fish guts. Maybe data or basic sample analyses? We don’t normally let volunteers work in the computer lab—but if you can provide credentials?”
“Manual labor is fine.”
Cutting up fish would keep her near theOctopus bimaculoidestank.
She couldn’t show credentials anyhow.
As for the background check? She had no criminal history.
Yet.
“You might not say that after you see our work rotation.” Brianne scanned the rest of Isabel’s inked responses. “How about I walk you through the chore list before you sign up for your shifts, in case you change your mind?”
She wouldn’t change her mind. However, this was an opportunity to get inside MORI’s biological research facilities again, even sooner than she’d hoped. “Yes, please.”
“Follow me.” With a glance down at Isabel’s sandals while she locked her computer and swiped her badge at the lab door, Brianne added, “Like yesterday, watch your step.”
She’d have to buy different shoes. Open-toed footwear wasn’t safe around fish hatchets, soluble chemicals, and venomousspecimens. She’d need waterproof muck gear, or something similar to Wes’s steel-capped hiking boots—
One of which blocked the industrial door from closing behind her.
Her stomach warmed and lurched, her breath catching.
“Mind if I join you?” With a crooked, eye-crinkling smile—his mouth on hers, her fingers in his hair, sunlight and wind and salt—Wes raised a hand to greet Brianne and came after them down the hall. “Sorry to barge in, but I forgot to get MORI’s species catalog on Saturday. It’s probably in my assignment brief. The audio’s hard to search, though, and a laminated copy would be nice to reference when I’m diving. Especially if it’s illustrated. Something like that poster over the weighing scales, by the sea cucumber tank?”
“Well, there are brochures on the front desk.”
“Great.” He waited, leaning against a refrigerator, a seawater supply pipe humming over his head.
“Do you want me to get one for you right now?”
An eyebrow lifted.
“Wait here.” Brianne pushed back through the lab door. “Please don’t touch anything.”
The steel plates and hinges swung shut with an electronic snap. Wes stepped closer to Isabel, across the antiseptic threshold. His murmur was no louder than the ceiling-mounted filtration systems, too quiet for the few researchers and volunteers (high schoolers getting community service credit while chatting about flounders?) who were working late shifts on a Sunday afternoon to catch.
“We know something bad’s happening here. I’m going to stick close today.”
She swallowed. “I’m fine.”
She was. She was also focused—almost—and at least in a marine lab she knew what she was doing. Did he think she hadn’t considered the risks? She always knew her risks.
Right?
The elbow of his sweatshirt brushed lightly against hers. “I know.”
Yes, right—but her skin prickled. Her lower lip tingled.Don’t touch.She stepped back to put a little breathing distance between them. Then the facilities manager reentered the hall with Wes’s brochure and led them farther into the facility, greeting MORI’s scientists and another volunteer as they passed.
“The Monterey Oceanic Research Institute cares for more than three hundred and seventy species daily. That’s close to five thousand individual animals. Some are being rehabilitated or bred for release into the bay. Some are cultivated for research purposes here and at other labs—like the Hopkins Marine Station and our sister institute, the Monterey Bay Aquarium. Others are unidentified specimens collected by long-range underwater vehicles during their expeditions into the deep-sea canyon.”
Brianne moved them by the tanks of young squid and octopuses, not pausing.
