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senses had kicked into extrasensory overdrive the second he’d landed in Sedona. It was as if there was something here, thousands of miles from where he called home, waiting for him.
    She’d been standing at the window in the main lobby. Even with the risk of an audience, the need to be close to her, to touch her, scent her once more, had been too great to ignore. She felt perfect in his arms, the top of her head resting just beneath his chin, her curvy body fitting seamlessly against his own broad frame. Inside his cat had purred and Ezra had sighed. He had to have her. And then he had to walk away. Anything more was not an option.
    The spitfire attitude, the bold stance she’d taken against him, all added to the allure. The undeniable stench of fear, etched with worry, was the problem. Instinctively, he wanted to know what was scaring her and how he could put a stop to it. To do that, he knew he’d have to get even closer to Jewel Jenner, an objective he didn’t mind one bit.
    Pulling up to the gate at Comastaz Laboratories once again, Ezra focused on the job at hand. He wasn’t here to flirt this time, wasn’t here to scope out the layout of the building—he’d pored over those blueprints until late last night. This morning his sole objective was to get inside their computers and start the search. The mysterious e-mails had stopped. Nick had been monitoring each of his in-boxes for contact from the one that had been so helpful in providing the shifters information. X was still trying to trace those IP addresses, even though they’d all pretty much given up hope of finding where the messages had originated from. So it was now up to Ezra to find out what the hell was going on in this lab and if need be how the shifters would put a stop to it.
    He gave the fake name that he’d been set up with, Smith Johnson, and was allowed entrance and then directed to the staff parking lot around the back of the building. Once at the employee entrance door the sound of locks clicking signaled him to open the tinted glass access and enter the building. Ezra knew this hallway led from one end of the building to the other. He knew that there were approximately five break-offs that would carry him to different locations on this floor. Two emergency-exit doors, one supply closest, two restrooms, and one restricted-access room also occupied the space. He could have easily walked to the bank of elevators that were located ten feet down, a left turn, and then a right. Instead, he stood still, waiting for the human resources representative to meet him, just as Jacques instructed she would.
    â€œGood morning, Mr. Johnson,” the light and cheerful voice greeted him about ten minutes after he’d entered the building. “My name is Sara Pennington. First, I would like to welcome you to Comastaz Labs.”
    Ezra shook her extended hand as he mirrored the smile on her marginally distorted face. She was a well-built woman in her midfifties, he guessed, with stern features that didn’t exactly fit the happy-all-the-time voice she possessed. Her dark brown hair was cut evenly to ear length around her face, with short, wispy bangs in front. Unnaturally high cheekbones were stroked with too much makeup, giving her a bruised look instead of the desired highlights he suspected she’d been going for. The same was true for eyes that appeared just a bit pinched at the ends, mascara in globs on thin eyelashes, and lips too plump to be natural. His summarization—plastic surgery addict.
    â€œThank you,” he replied after the few seconds of analyzing. “I’m very happy to be here.”
    â€œAnd we’re thrilled to have someone of your caliber working here with us.
    â€œWe’ll make a pit stop in HR, get all your paperwork filled out and your ID badge issued, then I’ll take you up to Mr. Rudger and you can get started.”
    â€œThat sounds great,” he replied