Brainy and the Beast Read Online Free PDF

squad, and he’d gotten a little bit of play. Dad usually went to his games, since I had to be at the shop.
    Today Dad had left at two thirty for a doctor’s appointment. Lee had left to meet his wife for date night. That left me to go to the kid’s game. Guh . Well, the soccer fields were kind of close to Henry’s office. I could suck it up, act like a grown man and drop the car off, then hustle over to the fields.
    Whoa-kay.
    Dr. Henry Travis, here I come.

Chapter Four
    I parked the fintail in the visitor lot next to the entrance at Renton Technologies. Renton was a world-famous research and development company and one of the biggest employers in Lake County. Any business guy worth his salt knew about Renton and about the amount of money the company spent in the county. They had thousands of people working at the campus, plus their national and international locations. From what I’d heard, the big bosses had the ear of the governor. They could make a call and get what they needed, anytime.
    Unlike us small-business guys. I frowned automatically at that.
    Taking a deep breath, I got out of the car, then carefully locked it. I grimaced when I spotted a mark on the rear door. What the frick? “That better not be—” Using my sleeve, I wiped at it, relieved when it turned out to be just a grease smudge.
    A security guard stopped beside me. “May I help you, sir?” He was giving me the once-over, and not the kind I occasionally got in bars. I still had on my coveralls with my Carhartt jacket over them, so I guess maybe that wasn’t up to Renton standards.
    I sniffed, wiping my nose on my hand for effect. “Nick Shelton. I’m here to see Dr. Travis. He’s expecting me.”
    “Uh-huh. Let me call the desk.” The guard, with a name tag showing James Anderson, was a big, hulking guy who probably worked weekends at the WWE. He spoke into the microphone attached to his earpiece, keeping an eye on me as he waited for a response.
    I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned my ass against the fender. Fuck all if Big Jimmy was going to intimidate me. Didn’t matter that I could feel the smartness oozing from the building just fifty feet away—or that I’d started to get nervous just being in the vicinity of so many active brain cells. So much smartness surrounding nonsmart me. I was positive some brains were looking out the windows at me right then, wondering how I had the gall to show myself here.
    “Oh. Okay. Sure. I’ll send him up.” The guard had a surprised look on his face when he turned back to me. “They said to go on up.” Raising an arm, he motioned to the main entrance. “You’ll have to check in there.” The surprise had morphed into displeasure as Anderson frowned. “Watch yourself.”
    Don’t know why, but Jimmy’s attitude made me feel at ease again. “Don’t like letting the hired help upstairs, do you?” Putting on my best swagger, I grasped the lapels of my jacket and tugged them, setting the cloth straight across my shoulders. “Thanks, Jimbo.” Ignoring the snarl that generated, I plastered on a smile as I headed inside.
    Going through the security check to get to the upper floors of Renton was like going through TSA at O’Hare—except these Renton guys knew what they were doing. In fact, some of them reminded me of the intel boys I used to see around Barksdale, back when I was doing my four-year stint in the air force. Those boys didn’t fuck around, and neither did the crew here. I had to go through the magnetometer and get a pat down. I’d like to say I enjoyed it, but I was once more too nervous at the thought of seeing Henry Travis again.
    I was escorted in the elevator up to the third floor and checked in again at the reception area there. There was a guy sitting behind the counter, which surprised me. I kind of thought receptionists were women. Huh.
    “Hi, Mr. Shelton. Dr. Travis left your name in case you came by today.” The twentysomething button-down was nice enough,