He hesitated. “Bill worked for Mercile Industries and isn’t worthy of you protecting him. You are aware that Mercile Industries used our kind to experiment upon. You know they created us to do illegal testing on our bodies. Bill worked for them and he tortured many of my people. He enjoyed causing us pain. Vengeance is so enraged because he was joined to one of our females for a long-term breeding test. He mated her and when they ended the test, they tried to take her away. A fight broke out and she was murdered by the technicians as punishment to him for attacking them. Vengeance was only trying to protect her. Bill didn’t kill the female but he killed another male’s female out of revenge. Bill reminds him of all he lost.”

Horror and shock tore through Lauren. She had heard Mercile Industries had done some horrible things to New Species but she hadn’t heard that they had murdered their victims.

“Brent killed someone?” She shook her head, taken aback. “Are you sure you have the right guy? I mean…” She kept shaking her head. “He’s an ass**le and creep but I never would have thought he was pure evil.”

“We have the right male, Lauren. I am telling you the truth. He tortured my kind in the facility where he worked. He brutally raped a female and slit her throat in front of a male as punishment for his refusal to do as he was ordered in a breeding test. The male whose female was murdered, along with other victims from that facility, have all identified Bill by photographs we were able to obtain. She wasn’t the only female he raped and he enjoyed hitting males while they were helplessly chained.” His voice deepened into a snarl. “He deserves to be punished for his crimes and he is one of the humans we want most.”

It was beyond appalling to hear that the guy she worked with was capable of such monstrous atrocities but she believed Wrath. A shiver ran down her spine. She backed up to the bed and sat hard. Her legs shook a little at the thought of all the times she’d spoken to Brent, totally unaware of what a vile person she dealt with. She’d even filed complaints with their boss over his rude behavior. He could have killed her in retaliation.

“I am sorry for Vengeance’s behavior toward you. He thinks you are Bill’s female. The pain of what he witnessed with his own female and the rage at her loss has driven him a bit crazy. We haven’t found or identified the male who killed his female but Bill is so similar to that human that he’s taken this mission to his heart. I apologize. It will never happen again. You weren’t supposed to really be harmed. You assumed we were similar to those males we watch in criminal movies and we allowed you to believe it. We don’t hit or torture females but we thought your fear of us would make you talk. We played the part you expected.”

Lauren still reeled from finding out she’d worked with a ra**st and murderer. “I understand. I feel so bad for Vengeance now that I know why he was so awful to me. I don’t condone it but I get it.” Her arms hugged her waist and she peered up at the New Species. “I had no idea who Brent really was but I’ll do anything you need to help you track down that piece of shit. I mean that. I know you guys think I’m dating him or sleeping with him but I have better taste than that. He’s a creep.”

“How well do you know Bill?”

“I know him as Brent. Everything I’ve said is true about just knowing him from work. I started there three months ago and I didn’t like him from the get-go. Vengeance said I smell like perfume that Brent likes, that it’s rare, but I got this at a Christmas gift exchange at work. It must have been the gift he brought. I took men’s cologne in for the exchange. It’s a common thing to buy for those things.”

“We’ve talked to many females who Bill has dated and shared sex with. You carry the scent he buys them and prefers they wear. Perfume confuses our sense of smell. We aren’t picking up any trace of sex from you or even the scent of a male but we can’t read you accurately. I can faintly scent another female. Did you hug or brush up against one?”

“Wow. You really do have an enhanced sense of smell, don’t you? I read about that. I hugged my friend, Amanda, when I met her for dinner. You won’t smell sex on me.” She blushed at the thought that he could smell her that well and hoped her deodorant was really as good as it boasted.

Wrath’s intense gaze studied her body. “You are his type. Has he ever approached you with an interest in sharing sex?”

She hesitated. “The first week I worked there we had an incident.”

“Explain what an incident is to you.”

She sighed. “I was bent over a desk reaching for the phone. He walked by and smacked my ass. He made a sexual comment, he hit me hard enough that it hurt, and I was mad. I threatened to bring him up on sexual harassment charges and raised hell. We deal with each other in the office but it’s tense at best. Now he’s taken to bringing his cell phone to work and showing off pictures of na**d women’s body parts. It’s disgusting.”

“He wanted you but you weren’t interested.” Wrath nodded. “Does he go out of his way to annoy you?”

“Sometimes I swear he does but I can’t prove it. Otherwise I’d have gotten him fired. Mel, our boss, says we’re just different people and I need to try to get along with him. I just can’t.”

Wrath stepped closer. “Vengeance didn’t believe you because of how you look and smell. You lied to him about not ha**ng s*x in a long time so he refused to believe you about anything.”