“Take her to the education room. I will be there shortly,” were his instructions and Hope was dragged kicking and screaming from that beautiful, deadly lab. Calling after her, he said, “Remember, there is no shame in begging for forgiveness, my brilliant dove. I await those sweet words from your beautiful lips.”
Hope had no idea what an education room was, but she had a terrible feeling she had no wish to learn what Anso sought to teach.
J.T., help me!
* * *
J.T. WASN’T ABOUT to hang around in a closet all day. What he could tell about the house was that it was big enough to get lost in, but that also meant that there were plenty of empty rooms to duck into if needed.
Talk about a security risk. Whoever this Anso character was hiring for security should’ve been fired.
But that worked in J.T.’s favor and for that he was grateful.
He shimmied down the wall from the balcony and landed with a soft thud on the grass. He rounded the building, sticking to the walls, making his way carefully around the perimeter, learning the layout as best he could.
A shrill scream sent cold fear down his spine and he bolted in its direction.
If anything happened to Hope, he’d tear people apart with his bare hands.
* * *
HOPE WAS DRAGGED down a corridor as if she weighed nothing even as she struggled and kicked and screamed her head off the entire way.
“Let me go, you big idiot!” she yelled without effect. “What you’re doing is illegal where I come from and I’m certain it’s illegal here, too!”
Rage, fear and panic fueled her muscles as she fought with everything in her to get free. She’d almost managed to wrangle herself loose when she was flung inside a room and the door closed. The two men, their impassive faces hewn from granite, advanced without mercy. She tried to run away, but there was nowhere to go.
Trapped like an animal, she was handcuffed and then hung from a hook in the center of the room, her feet barely able to take the pressure off her wrists. It was instant agony and she had to stand on tiptoe to relieve the pain.
The room was filled with horrifying contraptions. Seemed Anso had a thing for torture.
Tears filled her eyes as cowardice filled her heart.
What was Anso going to do to her?
It was easy to be brave when you were spewing hot words, but when push came to shove and the white-hot brand was nearing your skin? All bravado fled, leaving fear and desperation in its wake.
But she couldn’t do what Anso wanted.
He was a despicable monster.
He was the reason Tanya was dead.
She’d refused him and paid the price.
Anso had no reservation about killing those who got in his way.
The door reopened and Anso entered with an expression that was determined yet pleasant, which made it all the more disturbing.
This was what a sociopath looked like, she realized.
Anso came to her and lovingly ran his hands down her sides, pausing on her hips. “You have a lovely figure. So womanly, so lush and yet lean. Again, the contradictions of Dr. Larsen intrigue me.”
“What are you doing?” she asked, her voice trembling.
Cold sweat ran down the small of her back in spite of the heat in the room.
Anso gestured to his men and they responded by placing a long black leather whip in his awaiting hand. “You see, sometimes a strong woman, like a unbroken horse, must be tamed, must be taught how to properly respond to her master.”
“You’re not my master,” Hope bit out, hating the tears rolling down her cheeks because they made her feel weak. “You’re nothing but a rich sociopath with a God complex. That makes you the master of nothing.”
He caressed her cheek with the butt of the whip. “You remind me of another. She, too, was as stubborn as she was beautiful. Pray you do not follow in her footsteps.” He continued, walking a slow circle around her, taking his time. “I blame her youth. She did not possess the necessary maturity to understand when she was clearly bested. You, Dr. Larsen, are a very smart woman. I believe it will not take much to educate you on how to act.”
Anso paused, then smiled.
“However, I will give you some time to think before your education begins. I believe you will come to the right decision.”
“Which is what?”
He lost his smile. “To do as you’re told.”
Hope started to tell him to go screw himself, but a latent sense of survival curbed her tongue. She wasn’t exactly in a position to be sassy and she didn’t doubt that he wouldn’t hesitate to beat her if given the chance.
Anso snapped his fingers and his thugs followed him out of the room, leaving Hope to hang painfully, her wrists screaming.
Her fingers were already going numb, her toes cramping. This was medieval torture. Blinking back tears, she willed herself to remain strong, but she knew everyone had a breaking point.
And let’s face it—she wasn’t a trained spy or anything like that.
She was a scientist, for crying out loud. Her most challenging physical test of endurance had been a Tough Mudder and she’d sworn to never do that again after getting mildly electrocuted on the course.
Hope thought of Tanya and swallowed her fear. Tanya had given her life. If that was what it came down to, to protect the world from what she’d created, that was her penance.
Just as her fingers lost all feeling and the cramp in her arch had become excruciating, the door opened and J.T. slid in silently, closing the door behind him and locking it with deliberate care.
Immediate tears sprang to her eyes as J.T. rushed to help her off that horrible hook, relieving the pressure on her wrists and toes.
She shuddered as he sheltered her in his arms, holding her tight.
“You get yourself in the most damnable situations,” he joked in a strained voice as she quaked with silent tears, so grateful that he was there. “C’mon, let’s get those cuffs off you, I Dream of Jeannie.”
A watery chuckle escaped Hope as he helped her stand and she winced, as the pain in her feet hadn’t quite subsided. J.T. found the keys to the cuffs and released her, then rubbed the circulation back into her abused hands.
Agonizing tingles and sparks flooded her fingers as the blood rushed to the digits, but Hope bit back the cry of pain as she weathered the inevitable process, knowing it needed to happen.
“I’m going to kill that bastard,” J.T. said, rubbing the redness on her wrists gently. “I’m going to put a bullet right between his eyes and not feel a moment’s guilt doing it.”
J.T. lifted her wrist to his lips and pressed a sweet kiss to her skin and she nearly sobbed with a breaking sort of emotion that was as foreign as it was all-encompassing, but they didn’t have time to examine it—they both felt the ticking clock.
“Can you walk?” he asked and she nodded, knowing they had to get out of there now before they were discovered.
He slipped his hand in hers and took the lead as they wound their way out of the house, using stealth and cunning to evade the guards who milled around.
They cleared the house using a back entrance and J.T. helped her up and over the fence, then made quick work of climbing over to join her on the other side.
She stared helplessly at the fortress where her pack remained and J.T. knew where her mind had gone.
“I will come back and get your damn pack, but for now, we need to get the hell out of here while we still can.”
Hope nodded, knowing their options were slim if they wanted to survive to see another day. She also knew that J.T. would keep his word. If he promised he would return, he would.
Satisfied, J.T. gripped her hand and they fled into the rain forest, putting as much distance as they could between themselv
es and Anso’s long reach.
Frankly, Hope didn’t think they could run fast or far enough. Anso was the great savior around these parts. How could they possibly find anyone who would help them get her pack and kill the charismatic lunatic?
Problems for another moment.
For now, they had to survive the rain forest.
Again.
16
J.T. HAD TO keep his head on straight, but he was still seeing red.
He was going to kill that bastard for what he’d done to Hope.
Hope stumbled and went to the soggy ground, ripping the flimsy material of her genie pants.
“Ouch!” she cried out, frustrated as he helped her back to her feet. “This stupid outfit is beyond ludicrous.” She wiped the mud from her knees and shook off her hands. “I feel like an idiot.”
“If we weren’t in mortal danger, I’d help you out of that outfit,” he said in a silky tone as he pulled her into his arms for a searing kiss that was inappropriate given the situation, but he didn’t he care. Hell, if he was going to die, this wasn’t a bad way to go.
Sealing his mouth to hers, he let his fear and rage coalesce into something white-hot as Hope clung to him, meeting the plunge of his tongue with a parry of her own.
“Should we be doing this?” she managed to ask, breathless. “I mean...this is probably not the time. I mean, not that I’m not enjoying it, because I am, but this is sort of like those movies where people start making out when they are clearly not out of danger yet.”
“Always gotta be the voice of reason, don’t you?” he teased gruffly, but she was right. He reluctantly turned her loose and they struck out again, pushing through the dense foliage until they were far enough away for J.T. to make a phone call safely.
Hope bracketed her waist as she drew harsh breaths from running, cheeks flushed and hair flying every which way. She looked like a crazy person—and had never looked sexier.
Deliberately cutting his gaze so he could concentrate, J.T. called Teagan, but got his voice mail, which meant Teagan was still on his way, and that was a good sign.
“Teagan will use the GPS on my phone to find us. We just have to hole up and stay safe until he does.”
“Anso will be looking for us,” Hope said, worried. “How are we supposed to hide out until then?”
“We’ll have to. It’s our only choice. We can’t trust anyone right now. Our best bet is to remain in the forest.”
“With the snakes and bugs and mercenaries?” Hope groaned when he nodded. “Fabulous. Well, I suppose that’s a step up from what Anso had in store for me by way of my education.”
“Education?”
“Yeah. That’s what he called it. He was going to whip me into submission. Apparently, that’s his thing. I was not looking forward to the prospect of being beaten.”
“What a sick prick.”
Hope shuddered at the memory, still too fresh. “Yeah, you don’t know the half of it.”
J.T.’s expression sobered and by the set of his jaw she knew what was coming and she didn’t blame him when he said, “It’s about time you tell me what the hell is so special about that pack of yours.”
J.T. was right. At this point he’d more than earned the right to know what he was risking life and limb for.
Time to come clean. “I’ve wanted to tell you, but I couldn’t find the right words. And then after everything... I didn’t want you to judge me.”
“Why would I judge you?”
Hope drew a deep, fortifying breath and met his gaze bravely. “I work in the virology department of Tessara Pharmaceuticals. My supervisor, Tanya, and I managed to create the single most devastating virus in the twenty-first century. It has the power to mimic any known pathogen introduced to it.”
J.T. did a double take, trying to absorb what she’d just revealed. “Wait a minute—are you telling me that this virus of yours can suddenly become, like, Ebola or the plague or smallpox?”
“Yes.”
He stared, incredulous. “That’s what you’ve been protecting this whole time? Why the hell would you create something like that? That’s nuts, creating something so dangerous.”
The very thing she’d been afraid of happening was unfolding right before her eyes and she couldn’t help the defensive tone that flowed from her mouth. “There are other applications aside from destruction and that’s what we were looking for. If it has the power to mimic any pathogen, then we were one step away from finding a way for it to mimic powerful cancer-fighting bacteria. Imagine if we could design a virus that would act as a warrior against disease, going after it with single-minded purpose. If we could do that, we could wipe out cancer, sickness, pretty much put a stop to anything aside from aging that could affect a human being’s quality of life.”
“Yeah, but you had to know that when word of that lab bomb got out, you were going to have unscrupulous people—such as Anso DeLeon—coming after you.”
“No, we didn’t think of that,” Hope admitted, facing his censure with a lifted chin. “Anso accused me of being naive and maybe I was. Tanya and I were too excited about our research and the breakthroughs to look at the potential ramifications. I’m sorry, but if you want me to be honest, that’s the truth of it. Am I aware now that it was a mistake? Hell yes. But it’s hard to explain to someone who couldn’t possibly understand what it felt like to be on the verge of a discovery like this. It’s intoxicating.”
His mind was blown, she could tell, but she needed to come completely clean if they were going to move forward.
“Anso wanted the virus to wipe out a tribal village standing in his way of a development in the Amazon. I refused to do it.”
“And how was he going to make you do that? Make the tribe drink your virus or something?”
She shook her head. “The virus had to be turned into an aerosol for the most effective way of distribution, and he set up this entire state-of-the-art lab for me to do this. I wasn’t going to do it. Which is why he was going to educate me in the reasons why I should cooperate.” Then she admitted her shameful fear. “If you hadn’t shown up when you did...I might’ve caved and done what he wanted. I was so afraid.”
Even though he was struggling with her revelation, he pulled her to him. “Most people would’ve been pissing themselves. You were brave. Don’t ever forget that.”
Hope didn’t deserve his praise, but she sank into him, inhaling the spicy scent of his body, feeling safer in that moment than if she’d been tucked away in a panic room built with thick steel walls.
J.T. held her for a long moment and then after a brief kiss on her crown, he drew her away to return to the most pressing issue aside from survival, saying, “Okay, so we’re back to the original question...what the hell are you going to do with that virus now? You have to destroy it.”
That was the crux of it.
“That virus is my life’s work. It’s what Tanya died for. I can’t just toss it in the trash. Besides, it’s not mine to destroy. That’s why I was taking it to the South American lab. Tanya and I thought it would be safer there. More contained.”
“Are you sure Anso was the only one who was after the virus?”
She frowned. “I think so. Why?”
“How would he have known about your work? It’s top secret, right?”
Hope nodded, getting where he was going. “Anso had said that he’d been watching my research for a while. Someone on the inside had to be feeding him updates.”
“So that means whoever your mole is...is likely still embedded in your circle. Who has access to your files?”
“I don’t know. Probably only the higher administrators in our department. Tanya was my supervisor, but I imagine her supervisor had access to our research docs.”
“And who is that?”
Hope shook her head. “No, it can’t be her. She’s been with the company for years. She’d never do something so dirty.”
“What’s her name? My buddy Ty has some friends in IT who can dig around in her background and see what pops up.”
“Deirdre Ellison, but we can’t go digging into her life. What if we’re wrong and we just violated her privacy for nothing?”
“And what if we’re right?” J.T. tossed in as tension returned to her gut at the possibility of Deirdre’s involvement. “If there is someone on the inside, you’re still not safe and neither is that virus. Can you destroy it any other way?”
“It has to be destroyed in a specialized lab with heat and pressure. It’s too dangerous to try it on our own.”
“We’ll figure it out.” He cupped her face as he sealed his mouth to hers. She drank in his kiss, losing herself for a brief moment in the stolen pleasure. Their tongues tangled almost desperately, but there was a sweetness to it, too. J.T. had quickly become someone she needed, not only for her safety, but something deeper that she wasn’t ready to examine.
Clinging to one another, J.T. broke the kiss and she was reluctant to let him go, but she knew now was not the time.
Had it been only days that they’d known each other?
Days that felt like a lifetime.
Of course, that wasn’t good.
But it felt like heaven.
17
J.T. HEARD THE low-flying aircraft and immediately tensed, but when he scanned the plane and saw the familiar underbelly gliding below radar, he grinned from ear to ear.
Teagan!
God, he loved his brother.
He gently shook Hope awake and she came to with a start. “What is it?”
He pointed to the sky with a grin. “Reinforcements have arrived.” J.T. climbed to his feet and helped Hope to hers. “C’mon, we have to follow. Teagan will have to land in a clearing and chances are if we heard the plane, so did Anso’s thugs.”
They followed the plane’s trajectory and found the small plane in a clearing that was barely noticeable unless by air.
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