Lethal Consequences (The Aegis Series Book 2)

by Elisabeth Naughton

  Landon tensed. Olivia caught it. But he didn’t push Danica Crossler away. He also didn’t wrap his arms around her and pull her in tight the way he’d done to Olivia that night in Barcelona when she’d thrown herself at him in pretty much the same way.

  “Dani,” he said, frowning, his hands resting on her hips. “Your gates are totally open. You’ve got people all over. We talked about this.”

  She lowered to her heels but didn’t take her hands off his shoulders, holding on to him, Olivia noticed, however she could. A sly smile spread across her lips. “You worry too much. Most of them are leaving today. Don’t stress out on me.”

  His frown deepened, and he dropped his hands. “Most of them? Why don’t I like the sound of that?”

  Reluctantly, she let go of his shoulders, but she didn’t move away. “I was giving vaccinations today. There are a couple of sick kids on the plantation I’m treating. They and their families are staying.”

  “Dani,” Landon sighed, rubbing a hand over his brow.

  “I know, I know,” she said, cutting him off. “But I can’t just kick them out. Really, Landon. That would be heartless.”

  “No, heartless is having them here when it’s not safe.”

  “Well, then you’ll make it safe, won’t you? That’s your specialty.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and heaved out a long sigh, but the look he sent Danica didn’t hold any heat, and Olivia’s back tensed as she glanced between the two. She’d seen Landon pissed. Knew what he was like when he wanted something his way, but with this girl he seemed almost resigned to the fact she wasn’t going to do what he wanted, and he wasn’t about to push.

  Danica suddenly turned toward the door, where Olivia stood in the background watching the exchange, and her eyes narrowed. “You must be Olivia.” She moved forward and captured Olivia’s hand in both of hers in a friendly, welcoming gesture. “I wish I could say I’ve heard a lot about you, but I haven’t. At least not any good stuff.”

  There was a teasing tone to her voice, and Olivia sensed she was talking about her current predicament and the antidote they were here to get, but there was also something else in the girl’s words. A whisper of . . . was that animosity?

  Olivia glanced toward Landon, who’d tensed all over again, but he didn’t say anything, and she had no choice other than to let this Dani chick pull her farther into the room. “Yeah, I am. This is quite a place you’ve got here.”

  “Thanks,” Danica said. “We like it.”

  “We?”

  Danica nodded toward a chair and reached for a pair of latex gloves from the counter at her side. “Me and my staff. Didn’t Landon tell you? I’ve got about four or five locals who live on-site and work around the place. It’s way too big for me to manage alone.”

  Olivia eyed the needle at her side. So they were doing the blood draw right here, right now? She hadn’t even had time to acclimate. Those nerves shot up all over again. “So you said you were doing vaccinations. Are you a doctor or something?”

  Danica grinned as she tugged on the gloves. “Something like that.” She glanced over her shoulder toward Landon and smiled a wistful—what Olivia suddenly realized was a for-him-only—grin. “You really didn’t tell her much, did you?” Looking smug and way too victorious, she glanced back at Olivia. “I mostly do research. But I also run a free medical clinic and help the locals where I can. When did you eat last?”

  “Um . . .” Olivia’s head was spinning. This girl was so freaking young. Not only was she a doctor and smarter than Olivia realized, she was also tall, thin, with gorgeous blue eyes and silky dark hair, and she had the body of a Victoria’s Secret model.

  “This morning,” Landon said from across the room when Olivia clearly couldn’t find the words. “She ate a bagel on the plane about seven hours ago. She hasn’t had much of an appetite lately.”

  “Hm.” Danica tied an elastic band around Olivia’s biceps.

  Olivia frowned toward him. She hadn’t had much of an appetite because she was tired and stressed and dealing with a shitload of crap. And because he’d been distracting her with his mouth and fingers and that sexy body. Not because there was anything wrong with her. He was making her sound sickly.

  “I’m fine,” Olivia said to the girl.

  “We’ll see,” Danica answered, reaching for the needle.

  Olivia tensed, but before the girl pushed the sharp tip into Olivia’s arm, Danica turned Landon’s way once more. “You don’t have to stay. I know how needles wig you out. Why don’t you run upstairs and get those guys of yours busy securing my house like I know you want to do?”

  Landon’s gaze skipped to Olivia. “No, it’s fine. I’ll wait.”

  Danica’s smile widened. “Always such a worry wart. I’m fine.”

  When Landon didn’t move from his spot near the far counter and continued to look toward Olivia, Danica’s smile slipped. She glanced toward Olivia, then back at him. “She’s fine too. We won’t be long.”

  A tingle ran down Olivia’s spine—one that put her on edge, one that told her being alone with Danica wasn’t necessarily a wise idea—but she too sensed that Landon had things he wanted to do and was torn between keeping an eye on her and doing them.

  She was tough. She could deal with this. Besides, a demented part of her wanted a few minutes alone with this woman to figure out what was really going on between her and Landon.

  “She’s right,” Olivia said, working up a smile for his sake, one she definitely didn’t feel. “I’m fine. Go. I’ll find you later.”

  The tension eased from his shoulders. It was subtle, but Olivia caught it. And warmth bloomed in her belly when she remembered the hours they’d spent on that plane wrapped up in each other and the things he’d whispered in her ear when they’d been lying on that sofa, dozing together on the trip.

  This girl didn’t have that with him. Olivia could tell from the way Landon touched her that the two weren’t lovers, though she knew instinctively that wasn’t from lack of want on Danica’s part. The girl clearly had some misplaced hero worship going on, but Olivia couldn’t blame her for that. Landon was the epitome of a hero, whether he wanted to be one or not.

  “Are you sure?” he asked, still hesitating.

  God, she was crazy about this man. More so every moment. “Yes. Definitely. Go do what you need to do.”

  He still didn’t move, but this time Olivia sensed his hesitation wasn’t about whether or not to leave, but how he could get around Dani to kiss her without creating even more trouble.

  Olivia smiled. Loving that even more.

  In the end he sent her a one-sided grin. “If you need me, I’m right upstairs.”

  When he was gone, Danica pressed her gloved fingers around the bend in Olivia’s good elbow, then slowly slipped the needle into her skin. Blood immediately began to fill the tube attached to the end. “He worries too much. It’s so irritating.”

  It was. Olivia had to agree. But . . . part of her liked it. No one had ever cared enough to worry about her before. No one but Eve. “I think I’ve given him several reasons to worry. I haven’t exactly been easy to deal with.”

  Danica huffed, pulled the vial off, and added a new one. Blood collected quickly all over again. “That’s the key with Landon. Never giving too much. Once you do, he loses interest. I’ve seen it happen with other women.”

  Other women . . . A muscle in Olivia’s back twitched. “Landon mentioned he doesn’t come here very often for security reasons.”

  “Oh, that’s true,” Danica said, switching out the vials again. “Not as often as either of us would like, that’s for sure. But he comes down a couple times per year. More lately since he’s been working for Aegis.”

  A couple times per year was a hell of a lot more than Olivia had thought. Doubt crept back in to her mind. A doubt she didn’t like. “What d
oes he do when he comes here?”

  “Oh, you know, the usual. He updates my security system, lectures me about being too lax and trusting with the locals, fixes up parts of the house he thinks are falling apart. Then we just hang out and have fun. The last time he was here I took him to this really awesome street festival. He hated every minute of it, but he was so funny dancing on the beach after a few glasses of rum punch.”

  Rum punch. Landon didn’t like to drink. At least not intentionally . . . unless he was really pissed like he’d been on the plane. Olivia shifted in her seat, growing increasingly uncomfortable with the direction of the conversation.

  “He’s very protective of me,” Danica added, as if she could sense Olivia’s thoughts. “I think that’s why he sends me his paychecks from Aegis. He just wants to make sure I’m taken care of. He’s told me I’m the most important person to him. Women may come and go from his life, but . . . he owes me. I know he’s not going anywhere.”

  She grinned down at Olivia, pulled the needle from her arm, and held a cotton ball against the injection site. “There. All done.”

  Nerves vibrating, Olivia pressed her fingers over the ball and bent her arm at the elbow, watching as the girl labeled her vials and set them in a test tube holder against the wall. She calculated the number of months Landon had been working for Aegis, knew from her sister that Ryder paid his operatives well. Glancing around the room, she saw it in a new light, shocked and . . . highly disturbed by this new discovery.

  She couldn’t fathom a reaction that extreme, but then, she’d never experienced the kind of trauma Landon had been through—or lived with the reality of being the cause. He struggled daily with what had happened to Danica’s parents. Marley had said it was the reason he’d taken a leave from the DIA. And she knew without a doubt that he didn’t want to go back.

  Her heart softened toward him even more, and as she thought of everything he’d been through, everything he felt responsible for, she could easily see him telling this girl that he’d take care of her to try to make it right. But she knew in the bottom of her heart the words hadn’t been said out of any kind of love. They would have been said out of guilt. The kind that eats away at a person. The kind that makes you protective in a way you wouldn’t normally be.

  The way he’s protective of you?

  No, it wasn’t the same. She couldn’t explain how or why she knew it was different, she just did. She felt it. The same way she’d known to trust him from the very start.

  A lump formed in Olivia’s throat. One she had trouble swallowing back. “He’s a very special man.”

  “Yeah, he is,” Danica answered. “You were lucky to have known him.”

  The fine hairs all along Olivia’s nape stood at attention.

  Before she could ask what the girl meant by were, Danica turned toward her and pulled off her gloves. “You do know the odds of this working aren’t good, right? I mean, I have my father’s research, but it’s hit or miss at this point. I’ll do my best, but you really need to prepare yourself for the worst.”

  “The worst?” Olivia asked hesitantly.

  “Landon didn’t tell you?”

  “Tell me what?”

  “That you have two weeks to live—well, less than that now since you were injected several days ago—before the radiation begins to break down your cells.”

  “Break down . . .” The words caught in Olivia’s throat. “What—?”

  “Organ failure. Surely you knew.”

  The blood drained from Olivia’s face, and tiny pinpricks of heat stabbed at every inch of her skin. She shook her head quickly, her throat dry, her brain in a tailspin. “No, I . . .” She swallowed hard. “He . . . He knew about this?”

  “Landon? Of course. I told him what would happen when he called yesterday.”

  Yesterday. Last night. No, Olivia didn’t believe that. If he’d known, he would have told her. He wouldn’t have—

  Danica frowned. “I thought for sure he would have said something. I wish I had better news, but I don’t.”

  Two weeks. Less than two weeks. She’d sensed he was holding something back. Sensed he wasn’t telling her the whole truth on that plane, but she hadn’t pushed the issue. She’d let him distract her with that argument and then . . . sex.

  The room spun, and Olivia quickly pushed to her feet. Sweat broke out all over her forehead. She dropped her arm and the cotton ball, no longer caring if she was still bleeding.

  “Olivia?” Danica asked. “Are you okay?”

  Okay? Was she okay? No, she wasn’t okay. She was on the verge of fucking freaking out. She was going to die. Soon. No, sooner than soon. She was going to die in a matter of days. And Landon had known and not told her.

  “I . . .” She turned a slow circle, not seeing the lab anymore. “Which way are the stairs?”

  “This way. Here.” Danica moved toward a door at the back of the lab, pushed it open, and pointed up steps that ran to the back of the house. “That way.” As Olivia drew close, the girl cringed and wrung her hands together. “I’m really sorry. I thought he’d told you. I’ll do my best to help in any way I can but . . . Well, maybe it’s better you know. At least now you can be prepared.”

  Be prepared.

  There was no way to prepare for something like this. No way in hell.

  She bolted for the stairs, needing oxygen, needing fresh air, needing to escape. But the bitter truth was, she couldn’t escape.

  Not anymore.

  “I want the gates locked and any extra people moved off property,” Landon said to Raleigh Stone as he stood in the circular drive in front of the big colonial house, glaring into the setting sunlight. “I don’t care what Dani has to say. She’s got too many fucking casualties waiting to happen. Anyone who’s not well enough to leave on their own, we take to a local hospital and leave there.”

  “You really think the Red Brotherhood’s gonna show?” Stone asked, a hint of disbelief in his voice. The former Army Ranger had run into his fair share of badass terrorists during his tours in Afghanistan, Iraq, and northern Africa, but even he knew the Red Brotherhood wasn’t a group you voluntarily messed with.

  “Yeah, unfortunately, I think they will. And two men manning the grounds isn’t going to be enough. Not with the way Dani’s got people coming and going. I can’t be out here with you. I need to stay close to Olivia. I want you to get on the horn to Ryder and have him send a few more men down here to help out. The Red Brotherhood will probably start checking the area as soon as tonight, but they’ve got a five-mile radius within the tag location, and with the cluster of islands so close together, it should buy us some time.”

  Stone typed a note into his smartphone. “Got it.”

  Landon pointed toward the fence line, barely visible through the trees that ran all around the property. “I wired this place up a year ago. God knows what she’s done to the system, though. Central command’s located in a room on the first level. If anything moves, we should be able to see it. Assuming we can get the cameras up and running.”

  “Bentley found the com room this morning. He’s been familiarizing himself with the layout.”

  “Good.”

  Stone tipped his blond head. “Have you thought about moving Wolfe off-site?”

  Yeah, Landon had thought about it. But he couldn’t be in two places at once. And out here, getting Olivia five miles away meant taking her to a nearby island, which would make it damn near impossible for him to get back if something happened to Dani.

  “We’re safer here together, locked down in the compound, where we can set up a perimeter and man a defense.”

  He walked around the back of the house, across the yard, and showed Stone the zigzag steps that led down the cliff to the beach a hundred yards below. The sun was already setting on the horizon, casting orange and pink and purple hues all across the sky that Landon
didn’t have time to appreciate. He pointed to a motorboat moored at a small dock jutting out into the water. “Last resort? That’s our escape.”

  “Looks like fun.”

  Not to Landon. Nothing about this situation was fun. “They’re going to divide and conquer. I counted fifteen men still alive at that compound in Sardinia before we left. Even if they send half that after Marley and half to us, that’s still seven or eight fuckers bearing down on us with one goal.”

  Stone shrugged. “Piece of cake. Hooah?”

  Landon frowned. “It’s ooh-rah, idiot.”

  “Not to me it’s not. And you don’t want to get into a debate with me right now about who’s better, Rangers or Marines, because you know who’ll win.”

  Landon huffed. Yeah, the Marines. By a long shot.

  Out of the corner of his eye he spotted Olivia stumble out onto the patio behind the house. Her blonde hair was a mess around her face as if she’d run her hands through it several times, her face was pale, and there was a dazed look in her eyes, one that set him on instant alert.

  “Find Bentley,” Landon said to Stone, “and get this place locked down now. We’re not waiting.”

  Stone glanced over his shoulder toward Olivia, but Landon didn’t wait for the former Ranger’s questions. He stepped around the man and made a beeline right for Olivia, sensing—no, knowing—something was wrong.

  “What happened?” he asked when he reached her. “Did you see something?”

  Her eyes hardened. “I didn’t see anything, you asshole.” She shoved a hand hard into his chest, knocking him back a step. “I learned.”

  Something was definitely wrong. Her hands were shaking, her eyes blazed with a fury he’d never seen before, and her voice was cracking, telling him loud and clear that something was seriously wrong.

  “Hold on.” He held up his hands when she slapped at him again, not trying to avoid being hit, just needing to calm her down. “Tell me what happened. I can’t fix it until you tell me what’s broken.”

  “You could never fix it. That’s the problem.” She shoved him again, her voice rising, her hands slipping against his chest so she stumbled. He reached to catch her before she fell, but she wriggled out of his grip and smacked at his hands to keep him from touching her. “This is my life. Mine. Do you get that? Not yours. You don’t get to make the decisions. You don’t get to control me or tell me what to do.” Her voice hitched, and she sucked in a deep breath. “You don’t get to call the shots.”