Forged in Deception

When it comes to finding a research breakthrough, scientist Karlin McKenna won’t let anything get in her way–at least not until her employer pressures her into crossing an ethical line. If she refuses to play their game, it could cost her everything. Including her brother’s life.

Private security operative Asher Forge has never been one to turn down a chance to go undercover, and taking part in a top secret medical trial sounds pretty sweet. Especially when his client happens to be a beautiful redhead who clearly hasn’t broken a rule since the second grade.

It doesn’t take long for Asher and Karlin to realize that taking down Senera Pharmaceuticals is going to be even more difficult than they expected. And little do they know that even darker secrets are lurking in the cold desert night.

Chapter 1
BEFORE
THE WOMAN


The woman looked down at the palm of her hand.
The sound of drums and chanting voices were getting louder.
They seemed to brush up against her ears as though they were real things, as solid as the hard-packed sandy floor where she sat. Smoke filled her nostrils, the smell shifting from rich and pleasant to sour and sweet. A bonfire danced in the center of the room, sparks escaping only to extinguish themselves against the rough stone walls.
She tried to ball her hands into fists, but she could no longer figure out which muscles to use.
Her limbs had been working just fine. She was still quite sure of that. She had gripped a rough clay mug, lifting it to her lips and imbibing the herbal brew within.
But her fingers were shifting now, growing longer before twisting, warping, crawling upward toward the top of the hut.
They no longer looked like hands at all.
They were slithering flesh, like pale snakes coiled together, waiting for an unlucky soul to tread upon them in the dark.
She tried to swallow the sudden sick feeling that pooled in her gut.
This was wrong.
All of this was horribly, terribly wrong.
The world she had known was washed away, replaced by something different altogether. Something vast. A sky with stars and black holes in equal measure, a fickle place where a thousand doors waited to be opened.
And there was no way out.
There were no fingers now, no sturdy stone walls, no shifting smells, no fire.
People had been there moments before, she remembered. At least ten of them, casting their dark shadows in the firelight, chanting together, their voices blending as one. Now, they were gone, replaced with waves of light that seemed to undulate through the air like smoke, a spectacle of a thousand colors.
She didn’t know if she was chanting or not.
She heard her voice, meek and high-pitched amid the bellows of the others, but she couldn’t make her mouth open or close. Her tongue felt dry and thick.
She couldn’t make herself scream.
Her breathing felt fast.
Sputtering exhales followed rough inhales as smoke choked at her throat. She couldn’t look down at her chest, but it was expanding and shrinking again, in and out, fast and ruthless.
It felt real. Breathing still felt real.
It was something. Something to hold on to.
She closed her eyes, trying to hold on to the sensation of air rushing into and out of her lungs. Even the wrongness of the smoke was welcome. It was unpleasant and blessedly real.
“You don’t need to be afraid.”
A voice was there now.
It seemed to be beside her.
It was his voice.
But no longer could she open her eyes and see her beloved Professor.
“You’re doing just fine for your first time. I promise. Don’t fight it. Just surrender. Trust me.”
She breathed again and again, grasping for her thoughts in the frenetic show of color and thundering sound.
Two words entered her mind before leaving it again, carried on the smoke and the waves of light.
“I’m scared.”
She hadn’t spoken them aloud, but she knew that he heard her. Some part of herself, a part that felt very far away now, was certain of it. She could trust him, just as she always had.
She felt herself beginning to relax at last.
The Professor was there beside her in the hut, and everything would be all right.
He was there.
He was still holding tightly to her hand.


Chapter 2
ASHER

“We can still fix this. This is not an emergency.”
“The bridal shop canceled! That is the ultimate wedding emergency.”
“I’d say throwing up on your dress is a little bit worse. Or being left at the altar–”
“Ladies, can we focus, please? We’ll just find new bridesmaid dresses. It’ll be fine.”
“Ooh, now that we have the chance to change things up, have you considered doing orange? I look so gross in green. And orange is the hottest color for weddings this season. I read it in, like, ten bridal magazines.”
“Orange-orange, or pastel orange?”
“Either one. But not, like, orange soda orange. Obviously. Gross.”
“But orange is the hottest color for fall. It’s going to be almost Christmas!”
“So what? This is San Antonio! It’s not like it’s going to snow. Probably.”
“Okay, hold on. How about this? We keep it simple and just do black. It’ll be classy. And everyone looks good in black.”
“Black? Bristol, you can’t have your bridesmaids wear black! I know you’re stuck marrying Cam and therefore cleaning a house he lives in, but this isn’t a funeral.”
“Um, ouch! You do realize I’m sitting right here?”
“She’s right. You’re the messiest person on earth!”
Asher Forge stifled a laugh as his youngest brother, Cameron, glared over at the group of women gathered around the large dining room table. Just when he thought he’d die of boredom from all this wedding talk, things were finally starting to get interesting.
Cameron and his fiancée, Bristol, were due to be married in two months, and they seemed to be feeling the crunch. The father of the groom, Gabriel Forge Sr., had suggested that a family Sunday dinner and wedding planning session at his home in the country would be just the thing, considering that the reception would be taking place under a huge marquee in the backyard.
Apparently, it was going about as well as Asher had expected.
“You want my advice, Cam?” their cousin, Reilly, chimed in from the adjoining living room. “Just let the women handle the wedding. Just let them do whatever they want. It’s the most painless option.”
“He’s right, you know,” Gabriel Forge Sr. called out in agreement, sitting up straighter in his favorite armchair that rested in the corner of the living room. “Mary chose everything for our wedding, God rest her. I was happy to make her mine. That was all that mattered to me.”
“Mom would have loved this chaos,” Asher’s twin brother, Benjamin, declared in his rumbling timbre from his place at the far end of the table. “Can’t say I share that particular trait.”
Cameron shot Bristol a wink.
“Guys, guys, guys. You don’t have to tell me twice. I’m just here for the first kiss and the cake.”
He paused, allowing Bristol an opening to give him a playful swat on the arm.
“And the whole binding-our-souls-before-God part, of course,” he added.
Grace Hinton, Ben’s girlfriend and the office manager of their company, Forge Brothers Security, got to her feet and pointed at the back door.
“As maid of honor, I am officially declaring this meeting to be women only until Gabe gets here with dinner. Go take the twins out to the yard. Show them a chicken or something. You, too, Reilly. Gabe Sr. can stay if he wants, but only because it’s his house.”
Ben shot out of his seat before Grace had even finished her sentence, and Asher, Cameron, and their old man followed without hesitation. Reilly paused for a moment to sweep his eight-month-old twin girls, Clara and Josefina, off of the dining room floor.
His wife, Lauren, leaned over and pressed her lips to each of their foreheads in turn, cooing something to them in Spanish that Asher didn’t quite hear.
“No kiss for me?” Reilly joked. “Is our marriage getting boring already?”
Lauren rolled her dark brown eyes and gave him a quick peck on the lips.
“Seriously, out!” Grace admonished, shooing them toward the door.
The late afternoon breeze was refreshing as Asher followed the others out into the backyard of the spacious farmhouse. The men sank into the grass and watched as Clara and Josefina each found a crisp fall leaf and proceeded to stick them directly into their mouths.
“So, Benjamin,” Gabe Sr. said, swatting a fly that had landed directly on top of his balding head, “when are you and Gracie getting married?”
Ben paused to pick up Josefina, who was happily poking her sister’s tanned forearm with a stick.
“Soon enough,” he grumbled. “I’ve been waiting for the right moment, but this wedding excitement is sending Grace into hyperdrive.”
“Don’t wait too long, son,” Gabe Sr. replied.
“I agree,” Cameron said. “Honestly, I kind of wish I’d asked Bristol sooner.”
“You guys know that Lauren and I wasted no time,” Reilly added. “No regrets. I love being married. And being a dad.”
Ben narrowed his eyes. “At least I have a girlfriend. Why don’t you guys hound Asher for once? He isn’t even trying to find anybody. He’s getting way too comfortable sitting around listening to music and playing video games until two in the morning.”
Asher put a hand to his chest in mock indignation. “In case you missed it, dear brother, I’ve also been focusing on getting closer to the Lord for the last few years. I’d say that counts for something.”
It was true. Though the Forge boys had all been raised Christian, they hadn’t all stayed on the narrow path as they grew up. Asher certainly hadn’t. Neither had their brother Jacob, who was currently halfway across the world aiding persecuted Christians in an attempt to atone for the sins of his youth.
“It does,” Gabe Sr. acknowledged. “Our relationship with Jesus comes first. But that doesn’t mean you–”
Before the lecture could continue, however, the men were interrupted by the sound of a truck rumbling along the quiet dirt road.
The men went quiet for a couple of minutes as Gabriel Forge Jr. pulled his black Ford into the driveway and cut the engine, but the babies kept up a running commentary of adorable babbling.
“You’re hungry too, huh?” Cameron said to the girls, ruffling the nearest twin’s dark hair with his fingers. Lauren had dressed them in the same outfit today, and though they weren’t identical, Asher had already lost track of which one was which at a glance.
“Good to see you here, bud,” Gabe Sr. said, getting to his feet along with the others as Gabe Jr. stepped out of his truck. Asher and the rest of the boys shot glances back and forth as the two men embraced one another.
Though they were all generally on good terms, there was still some tension yet to be resolved between the Forge family’s patriarch and his oldest son.
Even after more than eight years, it was clear that Gabe Sr. still held some resentment toward Gabe Jr. for leaving the original family agriculture business, Forge & Sons, in order to found a private security firm.
“Sorry I’m late,” Gabe Jr. said, handing several paper bags of still-steaming food to Reilly, Cameron, and Ben.
Asher couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t entrusted with any of the Screaming Peach Cafe’s delicacies. Fair enough, he supposed. He probably wouldn’t have been able to resist digging in right then and there. The local coffee shop mostly served breakfast food, but Iris was always willing to adapt the menu for some of her most loyal customers.
“Don’t worry about it,” Gabe Sr. said easily, pulling back to look his son up and down as though he hadn’t seen him in years. “I’m just glad to see you stepping foot on the property. Especially with Iris’s catering in hand.”
“But please make sure you’re on time for the actual wedding,” Cameron joked.
Gabe Jr. smiled, but Asher could see that his blue eyes were troubled. “In my defense, I was stuck at the office trying to finish up some paperwork for the Fairman file. It’s due tomorrow, but honestly, I think I’m going to have to admit defeat and break the news to our lawyers that we’ll need an extension.”
Gabe shot Asher a brief glance that filled his stomach with lead.
He looked down at the twins playing in the grass, surprised that his oldest brother hadn’t yelled at him in front of the others, which he probably deserved. He was supposed to have had that paperwork done by Friday, but instead he’d forgotten about it completely.
And then proceeded to spend most of the weekend at a music festival, having also forgotten his phone back at the house he shared with Ben.
Oops.
“Don’t worry about the paperwork,” he said quietly to Gabe as the men began to file into the house. “I’ll eat fast and go finish it. I was gonna be up too late tonight, anyway.”
“I appreciate it, bro,” Gabe said as he followed the others. “At least dad will be ticked at you for leaving early instead of being mad at me for… everything he’s always mad at me for.”
Asher wanted to say more, but Gabe had already slipped into the house and let the screen door fall shut behind him.

KARLIN

Karlin McKenna fiddled with the photograph in the pocket of her white lab coat as she walked, turning the worn paper over and over between her fingers.
She’d started carrying the photo of her older brother, John, a few years ago. Now, the picture felt like it had become a part of her. During her most difficult hours at work, it was a reminder of why she kept pushing, no matter how much she wanted to give up.
Fighting back the nervous urge to stare down at her feet, she kept her chin high and gave a curt nod as she passed a group of interns, who scurried out of her way immediately.
So far, she hadn’t seen anyone else down here on the lowest lab floor of Senera Pharmaceuticals.
It was getting late, and most of her colleagues who had gotten stuck working on a Sunday had long since gone home for the night. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling of guilt that bubbled up every time she took even the shortest break. Despite the fact that she was now a senior research scientist, a small part of her still felt like the terrified newbie she’d been a decade ago.
Karlin pushed through a set of swinging doors, wincing at the sudden glow of artificial light in the wide hallway beyond. Finding the space empty as well, she brushed a stray wisp of red hair behind a freckled ear and stood a little taller.
Maybe she owed her past self a little bit of self-confidence now. If she hadn’t been so terrified to do what was right back then, perhaps she wouldn’t be carrying so many regrets.
She nodded to another passing scientist, an Asian man she didn’t know very well, and picked up her pace. There was no point in dwelling on her mistakes.
She had to get outside and call John. Surely he was out of the insurance office by now and, hopefully, he had good news.
She headed for the elevator at last, pausing for a moment to glance over at the nondescript but heavy door that led toward the most secure area in the entire facility.
She could almost see the small room in her mind, lined with tall refrigerators, cryo freezers, warming trays, and room-temperature cabinets, all filled with little vials of DX8.
She’d been in and out of the high-tech storage space what felt like a million times, retrieving sample after sample in pill, liquid, and powder form. She had spent countless hours recording data, analyzing and refining chemical properties, and every now and then, procuring doses of DX8 for research on animal and human test subjects.
Years and years of research, pools of sweat and tears, all for a powerful psychedelic that would revolutionize the treatment of mental health disorders.
A familiar shiver of unease wound its way up her spine as she continued on her way, instinctively quieting the clicking of her heels on the cold tile as though someone was waiting to jump out of the storage room and grab her.
Ever since Senera Pharmaceuticals had hired Dr. Daman Bajwa as head of research and development, he’d been running her and her colleagues ragged. Their hours had never been so long, but, to the man’s credit, Senera had never made so much progress on so many medical products.
But there was nothing that Dr. Bajwa cared about more than DX8. When it came to that drug in particular, he was single-minded. Sometimes even to the point of cruelty. Nothing else mattered. Not his employees’ personal lives, not labor laws, not his reputation as a boss, none of it.
On the other hand, his enthusiasm for DX8 was often inspiring. It was easy for most of Karlin’s colleagues to forgive his eccentricities. They never doubted that Dr. Bajwa was genuine in his belief that the drug was deeply important to the future of humanity. He wanted to see DX8 being widely prescribed as soon as possible.
Sometimes, Karlin believed his hype, but she often found his eager speeches in the lab to feel a little too forced, his beaming smile a little too wide. It set her teeth on edge, and it kept her from ever feeling comfortable in her role.
Some part of her was always wondering about what it would be like to be somewhere else. Somewhere she could breathe.
But however she felt about the direction Bajwa was taking, she knew one thing better than almost anyone else working at Senera.
At the cutting edge of mental health research, errors in judgment could be deadly.
And they could also get her fired, sued, or thrown in jail.