Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Baby Doctor

Grace swept her hand out, indicating the small pile of goods on the floor. "I'm packed." Then she bent over the back of the couch, looking behind it. "But I need to find Baby," she mumbled. "And before you suggest I leave her behind, I won't do it."

He frowned, confused. "Why would I suggest we leave your pet? We've already agreed taking the cat is a condition of you coming with me to see Makayla. Would you use your pet's absence in order to back out of your promise?" he demanded.

She shot upright. "What? No. Why would you think that?"

Raptor breathed a little easier. In part, because the woman wasn't draped over the furniture with her very fine ass in the air. He had to think about something else. Looking away from Grace, he bit out, "We have an agreement, and I have no reason to back out of it. I will help you find this baby." He studied the pet door. "I didn't see a cat when I was outside, but is there somewhere she likes to go?"

Sighing, Grace shook her head. "I don't think so. She would have heard the men. Smelled them. Baby doesn't like men."

He took one side of the room while Grace searched the other. Although, if the cat didn't like men, it was likely it would hide from Raptor. "While we search, can you explain why the men were here? It was pretty obvious their orders were to capture or kill you."

She surprised him when she laughed. It was a wicked little trill and Raptor knew his life for the next few days was going to be hell. He'd fucked up and come to Earth in a form guaranteed to repulse anyone. Now he was stuck with it.

He turned to watch the woman that would be his Keeper if he could ever get her to agree. She was close to six feet tall, curvy, and strong. He'd seen the exercise room she had next to her bedroom. There were weights, a mechanized running track, and some type of mat. One of those mats was rolled up and sitting on top of the things she packed.

Even though Raptor ran from being put back in stasis and had been hiding out from his Guardian duties—his mind remained connected to the universal consciousness. When he thought mechanized running track , the word' treadmill sparked in his brain. When he considered the mats, the universal consciousness bombarded him with visuals and the word yoga . Now his mind could come up with its own visuals. Grace lifting weights and running on the treadmill, wearing next to nothing, sweat glistening on her pale skin. Her long brown hair was in some complicated knot on the top of her head, exposing her neck.

When he put Grace's face and body into all those yoga poses, Raptor groaned. He had to stop doing this or he was going to go insane.

"Did you hear me?" she asked.

Raptor willed his body into submission and turned. "I'm sorry. I must have been thinking too hard about where I'd go if I were a cat."

Grace snorted. She'd changed her hair. It was now braided into two thick ropes that hung over her shoulders, ending just below her ample chest.

Now that he'd dealt with the men pursuing her, they'd turned the lights on in the house. He could clearly see her pretty pale skin, and the freckles scattered over her nose. Her eyes were a beautiful dark green and had lighter green flecks. She was incredibly beautiful.

She stopped in the middle of her living room and sighed. They'd been through this room already. While she searched her bedroom, Raptor searched the exercise room and her office. They'd looked in every closet, under and around every piece of furniture, and still no cat.

"You asked me about the men. I'm an obstetrician."

"A baby doctor," he said, so she knew he understood.

She laughed again. "It's a little more complicated than that. An obstetrician is a doctor who specializes in pregnancy, childbirth, and a woman's reproductive system. I do all of that, but I specialize in genetics, and genetic counseling, as well as environmental issues that can cause health problems for the woman and child. I've always done a great deal of lab work in my practice. Trying to help circumvent health issues and genetic diseases that are often passed from the mother and father to the child," she explained.

And now Raptor knew exactly why Makayla wanted him to bring Grace to Megoth. He'd thought the woman was being picky, not using the services of a Guardian doctor for her and her family. But Makayla, her sister Kaitlyn, and their cousin Lauren had all become pregnant by aliens. Different species of aliens. Their genetic pool had to be... an issue . And Falcon told him the women were having problems. Grace's specialty was exactly what they needed.

Now he was the one frowning. "So, I still don't understand why these men were trying to kill you."

Grace

She wasn't sure they should take the time to do this, to have this conversation at this moment. He'd just done away with, she assumed, the men who had been ready to capture or kill her. He took care of them so they would have the time to escape the house and run somewhere and hide. Having a discussion right now kind of felt like one of those too-stupid-to-live moments in horror movies.

But she wasn't going anywhere without Baby. So... she might as well explain. "I don't know what to do about Baby." She went into the kitchen and got two bottles of water. After handing one to Raptor, she sat on the edge of the couch. "I guess while we wait to see if she shows up, I can give you some background."

Taking a few sips of water, she thought about where to start. "About a year ago, I noticed there was an increase in alarming symptoms among my patients. Many of them had difficulty getting pregnant, and if they got pregnant, they had a hard time staying that way. Besides an increased incidence of miscarriage, there were clotting issues with both mother and child after birth. You saw I have my own small lab here?" She was sure he wouldn't miss that since he helped search her house for the cat.

He nodded.

When he did, she had to wonder why she was so fascinated with the damn man's every move. He certainly couldn't be labeled eye candy. His body had gone to pot and then some. Yet she felt like smiling every time she looked at him. Just happy to be near the man. It was getting ridiculous.

What the hell had she been talking about?

Oh. "I started doing some research at home. But I didn't have all the equipment I needed and some of the devices were out of my price range. One of the largest employers in the area is a medical research facility. I talked to them about working part-time, while keeping my practice open in the mornings and on weekends. The arrangement included allowing me an hour or two a week to use their equipment for further research."

Raptor sighed. "I don't think I like this story."

Grace snorted. "You and me both. With better equipment, I discovered that pregnancy and miscarriage issues and the clotting problems—were visible symptoms. Under the high-powered microscope, I found a hell of a lot more. There were so many other things going on in the blood and tissue. Mutations, cancers, all sorts of issues. At first, it was hard for me to understand what was happening, to trace the chemicals I discovered, and locate the reaction of the elements to human blood. I spent more and more time in the lab, and less time with my patients, because I believed that eventually, these chemicals would start causing people to die. And not just mothers and babies, but anyone drinking the water. Since this is the town supply, that means everyone."

He frowned at her. "So, what did you do? I still don't see the connection with someone wanting you dead."

She couldn't sit anymore. Grace got up and started pacing. "Eventually, one of the local bigwigs offered me a job at his lab. It was better equipped, and he said all the right things... that I'd have the autonomy to research anything I wanted, not what they wanted me to pursue. I'd been working there for about three weeks when I had a breakthrough, realizing that the chemicals weren't coming from nature, but were added to the local water supply. Deliberately to cause harm. It was a targeted attack. The discoveries unnerved me. It was all I could think about. I spent more time in the lab trying to figure out where the chemicals came from—how they were getting in the water supply, and most importantly, if someone was doing this on purpose?"

Continuing to pace, she ran everything that happened through her mind again. Wondered why she hadn't seen the truth sooner. She could have been more careful.

"Grace," he reached out and put a hand on her arm. Stopping her motion. "What happened? Who is trying to kill you?"

She looked into Raptor's dark brown eyes. He really wanted to know. "Once I discovered chemicals were being added to the water, I could test for those chemicals. Figure out what they were and follow the trail. You need to patent manmade chemicals. It took me just a few days to trace the chemicals to the company I work for. Those chemicals are the ingredients in a fertilizer they make and sell to third-world countries. But I didn't believe it. Why would my company be putting these chemicals into the local water supply? If they knew the chemicals were harmful, why were they being sold in other countries? It didn't make sense. Before I figured out what was going on, I realized someone had been through my desk. They'd accessed my research notes and the data in my files. Then, earlier tonight when I left work to drive home, someone tried to run me off the road. I've been trying to decide how to handle this."

"They tried to run you off the road tonight and you think the men surrounding your home worked for the same company you do?" he asked.

Grace laughed without mirth. "Yes. And I'm pretty sure it is my boss who wants me dead."