I, Spy? (Sophie Green Mysteries, No. 1) (Sophie Green Mystery)

with it. Alexa ordered it. Her own spec. We needed a lab…”
    And a lab it was. The walls were steel and there were no windows, but a few vents that Luke assured me led to tanks with weeks of oxygen in them. There were racks and cupboards and microscopes and metal tables and the sort of scary stuff you usually only see in Frankenstein films.
    “And then we have this,” Luke said, picking Sven up by a foot and dragging him over to a cage on the far wall. “Maria and Macbeth have been down here working on this. Making it everything-proof.”
    I tapped the bars. They were set in inch-thick security glass. There was a small serving hatch with secure hinges and locks all over it, and a larger one, through which we shoved Sven. Luke swiped his card to open it, and again to close it. Both times he had to get voice authorisation.
    We stood back and looked at Sven.
    “I think he should be chained up,” I said, and Luke grinned.
    “Chains we can do.” He opened a steel cupboard and pulled out some manacles. “Would you like to do the honours?”
    “This is weird,” I said as we chained Sven up to the wall.
    “Not big on bondage?”
    “You know what I mean.”
    “Never thought you’d have to chain up a co-worker, huh? Especially not one you fancy.”
    “Believe me, I’ve gone off him.”
    “Date rape’ll do that.”
    “Do you think that’s what it was for?”
    Luke produced a bottle of the drugged lager from his backpack. “I’ll get Lexy to analyse it tomorrow. But it was probably Rohypnol or something. Good job I was there.”
    We stepped out of the cage and Luke locked it up.
    “Good job you were there? What did you do? It was Tom who switched the drinks.”
    “Could Tom have got Sven off you if you’d drunk the bad beer?”
    “All beer is bad.” I scowled and earned a smile from Luke.
    “Yeah. Now, d’you want to stay here and prod him with one of  

these—” he fetched something that looked like a cattle prod, “—or do you want to go home and get some sleep?”
    Sleep seemed like a very enticing prospect. “Where home?” I said. “If I go back to yours, you’ll probably drug me to keep me there.”
    Luke gave me an indefinable look that brought me out in goose-pimples.
    “You can’t go to your place,” he said quietly.
    “It was fine when I got there. And I have new locks on the door. Lots of them. And I had bolts put on the windows.”
    “’Cos they’ll stop another arson attack. Look. You can’t go home alone.”
    “If you think you’re staying—”
    He laughed and took a step closer. “Would that be so bad?”
    “It would be…” He was very close and it was getting harder to breathe. He still smelled really good. “It would be unprofessional.”
    Luke sighed. “Fine. Go home. Get blown up. See if I care.”
    Dammit. Wrong reaction. Plus there really was a possibility that someone might try to blow me up.
    “I could go to my parents’,” I suggested, and Luke nodded.
    “Good plan. I’ll stay at your place.”
    “Why?” Oh shit, the revolver.
    “So I can look through your underwear drawer.” He grinned, and amended, “So I can protect the place.” He paused. “Do you have a fire extinguisher?”
    I shook my head. “I don’t even have a fire alarm. It kept going off at random and frightening Tammy.”
    “Jesus.”
    We stepped into the little lift. “How long do you reckon he’ll be out?” I asked, glancing back at Sven before the lift doors swooshed shut. He was slumped very unattractively in the corner of the cell with vomit in his hair.
    “Could be hours. He’ll probably still be asleep tomorrow. If he isn’t, we can always hit him over the head with something heavy.”
    I smiled. Luke could be okay when he wasn’t yelling at me.
    He locked up the office, having left a Post-it on Alexa’s desk that we had a visitor who was to remain undisturbed, and we walked to our cars.
    “So,” Luke said.
    “So.” He looked good in the moonlight. Was he going to kiss me?
    Did I want him to?
    Oh, hell. When did my life turn into something so complex?
    “So your car turned out to be useful for something after all.” He gestured to Ted’s back seat. “The vinyl, I mean.”
    God, I wish he hadn’t said that.
    “He’s a very versatile car,” I managed.
    “Sure is.” Luke tossed his keys up in the air and caught them backhanded. “Well, you officially have the day off tomorrow, despite your flu.”
    “Oh, yeah. But