by Julia Derek
Right as I approached the corner of the mansion, I stopped dead in my tracks and swiveled around. Standing with my legs wide apart, I pointed the gun at Ian, who was only about ten yards away from me now.
“Stop or I’ll shoot you,” I told him. Unlike Christian, Ian did stop charging after me, even held up his hands in the air. But he kept walking toward me, slowly, slowly.
“What? You’re going to shoot me?” He chuckled like this was the most incredibly silly thing he’d ever heard. “Why would you do that? I just killed Jonah, for Christ’s sake! I’m on your side, Gabi. We won. But they don’t know that.” He jabbed his thumb, indicating the mess he’d just left in the study, and smiled as he slowly walked toward me.
Did I just imagine the bloodthirsty glint in his eyes as I caught sight of him?
I really couldn’t tell. As he moved in my direction, gazing at me, he looked the same as always, kind and reliable.
Was it possible that he had been faking it the entire time? Had the injection failed to change him? There was no way for me to know this for sure. What would happen if I tried to inject him with the Haldol if the Zoc 3 hadn’t taken? Would it hurt him? Kill him?
I needed to make a decision quickly, and this one was far more difficult.
“Stop right there,” I told him when he was only a few yards away from me. “I mean it.”
He finally did as I wanted. “Come on, Gabi. Stop this silliness. We don’t have much time. I realize that you’re worried that I’m changed, but I swear, I’m the same person as before. The injection didn’t work. How can I prove it to you?”
Still pointing the gun at him, I said, “You’ll let me inject you with the Haldol.”
“Fine. Let’s do it. I’ll do anything you want me to do to prove to you that I’m still the same.”
“I’m glad to hear that.” Then I shot him in the left forearm.
“Arghh!” Grimacing, he folded over, gripping the flesh wound I had just inflicted upon him. I took advantage of his weakened state, tackling him so he fell to the ground. To my horror, he instantly pulled himself together despite the pain he must be in. He flipped me around so I ended up on my back and dropped my gun. The bloodthirsty look was back in his eyes that had grown black as he glared down at me, his hands around my neck. He began to squeeze with surprising strength for someone with an injured arm. My windpipes closed up and I could feel myself lose consciousness. I knew I only had about ten more seconds to get him off me or it would be too late, I’d be too weak. The veins on the inside of the arm with the rolled-up sleeve bulged more and more as he kept squeezing my neck.
He moved his legs up one at a time to pin my shoulders to the ground. When he raised his left knee to place it on my right shoulder, I saw my chance. Having already flipped around the syringe in my hand, I drove it straight into his arm, hoping that I hit the vein I had aimed for, and pushed the plunger all the way in.
His eyes rolled back into his head so that only the whites showed. Then he collapsed on top of me and didn’t move.
Chapter 12
I took a few moments to catch my breath, pull myself together. Then I began pushing Ian’s heavy body off of me, the syringe falling from his arm to the ground. It required all the strength I had left in me to move him. When he finally rolled off me and landed beside me, face up, I needed another few seconds to recuperate and breathe somewhat normally again.
When I did, I had to force myself to push myself up on my elbow and take a look at Ian, check if he had a pulse still. As immobile and quiet as he was, he seemed he was dead.
Sucking in a deep breath and steeling myself, I turned to face him, getting ready to place two fingers against the carotid artery in his neck. But before I could reach him, he opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times. A moan came out of his mouth as he rubbed his temples, like his head was hurting.
Joy surged through me as I stared down at him. He’s still alive…
“Bloody hell, my head feels like it’s about to explode,” he groaned and sighed. I kept staring at him, overjoyed.
In the midst of his moans, a smile began to tug at the corners of his lips. It soon became a fullblown smile and he got silent, taking me in. I felt his knuckle against my cheek, caressing it, and I knew he was back with me. The sincerity of the love in his gaze as he was watching me was so intense it made my eyes tear up. No one could fake that kind of a look. Not even Stenger’s genius scientists.
“I don’t think I’ve ever seen someone smile so wide,” he said, smiling wider himself.
“That’s because I’m really, really happy,” I managed to say despite that I felt all choked up. And I realized that I didn’t think I’d ever been happier than I was right then.
“I love you,” I said, the words out of my mouth before I had thought twice about them. But I didn’t regret saying them.
He hiked a brow. “Really? Are you sure about that?”
“Yes,” I said. “I really do love you.”
“That’s good, because I love you, too. I’ve loved you since I saw you that first time during the sting operation at the airport years ago. But I only realized that as I got to know you better. Or maybe that’s when I truly fell in love with you. You really are a one of a kind woman.” His eyes moved to the flesh wound on his arm. “Did you do that to me?”
“Yes, sorry about that. But you gave me no choice. It was the only way to stop you from killing me. Stenger injected you with the virus and you became a whole other person. An untouchable.”
“Bloody hell, I remember now…” His face went serious and he closed his eyes. “I kept seeing a man in my head who told me I needed to eliminate you…” He opened his eyes again and regarded me glumly. “I had to kill you at any price. Do and say whatever it took to get close to you. I felt compelled to follow his orders. And that’s what I did. I’m so, so sorry, Gabi.”
“It’s okay. As long as he’s gone now.”
“Yes, he is.” He let out a sigh of relief. “Now there is only one thing I want to do to you.”
“What’s that?”
Instead of answering, he pulled me close to him and brought my lips to his, wrapping his arms around my neck. He kissed me hard and soulfully, like it was the last time he’d get a chance to do it. I wished I could stay there forever, feel his hot tongue circle mine in that incredibly exciting way, but we weren’t done yet.
Ian must have thought the same thing, because he reluctantly broke the passionate kiss.
“We need to get back in there,” he said and pushed himself up onto his elbows. “As far as they know, I’m still on their side. And I’m also the one in charge of the movement now that Stenger is dead.”
“Really? He’s dead?”
“Yes. Jonah actually managed to squeeze the life out of him.”
“Damn,” I said and pushed myself up on my feet, then helped Ian get up as well. “Well, that’s great. To have both of them gone.”
We started walking toward the study.
“Yep, I know,” Ian said. “And since I’m the one in charge now, I’m changing direction of the movement. Fortunately, there’s nothing they can do about my decision.”
“Wow, you are as smart as you look,” I replied, nudging him with my elbow. “Did you think that up all on your own?”
“Yes, though I think a certain woman might have inspired my thought process,” he said, winking at me. “By the way, it seems his men know that you were always supposed to be off limits.”
“Yes, I agree. I guess we can just tell them that I freaked out and that’s why I ran away like that. So you came to get me. And shot me up with some Zoc to keep me in line.”
“Exactly.” He slung an arm around me and pulled me close when we were only a few yards away from the study. I remembered Lyssa and Eric then, who must be terrified where they sat inside some hedges, having witnessed all the stuff going on between me and Ian. They surely didn’t know what to believe. As I turned toward the garden, a man I didn’t recognize stu
ck his head out the window from the study. He immediately spotted us as we approached.
“Ian,” he said. “Is everything okay?”
“Yes, everything’s fine. How’s Renee?”
Deciding that Lyssa and Eric had to stay put until we got control of what was left of Stenger’s movement, we walked up to the man in the window. Ian and he helped me get back into the study, then Ian climbed back in. The big room was buzzing with activity. Men were around Stenger, who looked as dead as Ian had said with his head hanging limply to his chest. Jonah’s mother was on her knees, leaning over Jonah while crying.
I realized that we couldn’t have been away for more than max ten minutes.
Ian stopped next to Renee, Jonah’s mother, who gazed up at him with a tear-stained face. “I’m sorry he’s dead, but you saw what he was doing.” He shot a glance at Stenger’s lifeless body, then back at Jonah’s mother. “Unfortunately, it was already too late. As you can imagine, I’m as upset about my father being dead as you are about your son.”
With those words, he turned away from her and walked up to the two men next to his father.
“He’s really… um… dead?” Ian asked them, acting like it was difficult for him to ask for confirmation.
“Yes,” the handsome man with the dirty-blond hair replied. He glanced at the square-faced man on the floor. “What happened to Christian? Why’s he shot?”
“He tried to stop Jonah from attacking Stenger, so Jonah shot him,” I replied in Ian’s place. I held up my gun. “I finally disarmed him. Ian was still lying dazed on the floor after receiving the Zoc injection from his father.”
“Zoc what?” The man looked confused. I realized that he mustn’t be aware of the different viruses Stenger’s staff of scientists had developed, or at least not the intricacies of them. Being part of Stenger’s security team, I supposed there wasn’t really a reason for him to know about it. All he needed to know was that Ian was Stenger’s son and that he was his boss now.
“I was sick and needed some medication that Dad gave me,” Ian said with authority. “I’m fine now. Listen, I need to speak to our closest advisors. Can you call them for me and tell them what’s happened, then let them know that I need them here for an emergency meeting? I need all of them here today, so make sure everyone gets the message. No exceptions.”
The man nodded. “Right away, sir.”
He turned on his heel and headed toward the study’s exit. Ian looked at the other man, who’d just been watching us. Ian shot me a conspiratorial glance, then asked the man, “What’s going on with the invisible fence around the property?”
“What about it?” the man asked.
“We don’t need it any longer,” Ian said. “Please disable it.”
“Of course,” the man said and hurried out of the study.
“We should find out what’s going on with the men Brady was supposed to send to help us,” I whispered to Ian. “While you were out, I was in touch with him and he told me he’d get some here.”
“Good idea,” he replied. “You have your phone?”
I felt for it in the pockets of my hoodie and, miraculously, the disposable was still in one of them. Going off into a corner, I dialed Brady’s number. He picked up almost instantly.
“Longoria. What’s going on?”
“Stenger’s dead and so is his evil son. Ian is now in charge of what’s left of the movement.”
I proceeded to give him a brief summary of how we were about to meet with Stenger’s closest advisors. “Where are the men you were supposed to send?”
“It took me a while to round up a group that I could be sure wasn’t corrupt, but they should be there right about now. I just got off the phone with my cousin and he said they were arriving.”
“Can you contact him and tell him and a couple more to come to the main entrance? I’m gonna need them to escort your niece and her boyfriend out of the house. Thanks for sending them. They both did an excellent job. At the moment, they’re hiding out in the back garden and I’d like to get them home.”
“I’ll call him right now.”
***
A couple of hours later, Ian and I were in the huge sitting room in the Stenger mansion, and around us, in the couches there, sat Stenger’s ten closest advisors. Among them were four of his top scientists and doctors, another three were top businessmen out of which one was The Adler Group’s CEO and the rest were United States politicians. Ian and I were very familiar with two of those politicians—one was Senator Janine Eastwood and the other Governor Chatterly.
Their faces had been priceless when they spotted me in a couch as they arrived. I bet they thought I had worked for Stenger to spy on them all along. Whatever they thought, it didn’t really matter. All that mattered was that everyone was under the impression that the latest version of the virus—Zoc 3—had gotten into Ian’s system, permanently transforming him into an untouchable because his father wanted him to take over his empire when he was no longer able to run it. Apparently, all of them already knew that Ian was Stenger’s eldest son, and that he was the chosen one, never Jonah. The fact that Ian had a different view on how to proceed was irrelevant; having won over the security hybrids and their friends, all of which were in the house with us, the advisory board would have no choice but to go along with Ian’s wishes.
Ian got to his feet when they had all been served refreshments. “Thank you all for coming on such short notice, and I appreciate all the condolences. Losing my father now that he finally got me to see the greatness of what he’d been building for so many years is especially hard. My brother as well of course.”
I struggled to keep a straight face when he said that, especially when he pretended to wipe away tears.
Clearing his throat, Ian continued. “After having spoken to my father today, I believe we’re not quite ready to go through with the coups. They need to be postponed at least another month so I have a chance to learn exactly what’s going on in each department and who’s involved. Especially now that he’s gone and can’t fill me in himself. When I know everything, we’re going to prepare a new strategy together based on that information. I’m sure this makes sense to everyone what with the leadership of the movement being thrown on me so suddenly. I need some time to think things through to be absolutely sure we succeed with my father’s vision.”
Everyone looked at each other and nodded. Yes, of course Ian needed to learn all the ins and outs of the movement before he could proceed with the takeover. How else would he know what to do?
“Who would like to be the first to speak?” Ian asked.
When Janine eagerly stretched out a hand, I couldn’t help but smile.
EPILOGUE
I collapsed on top of Ian’s naked body, having come hard for the second time tonight. He was truly an amazing lover.
“Wow, that was great,” I mumbled into his ear as I just lay there like a sack of potatoes, exhausted but happy.
Two weeks had passed since we found Stenger and both he and Jonah died. Just like we had planned and expected, the ten advisors we had gathered in the mansion had filled us in on everything we needed to know about the conspiracy. We found out exactly who was involved in every country, how many labs and hybrids there were across the world, and how to find every one of the hybrids as there were meticulous records. Apparently, there were fewer of them than Ian had feared, only about eight thousand in total. The youngest were in the embryo stages, while the oldest were in their late thirties.
When they were done telling us every detail of the movement’s infrastructure and plans—which took them hours—we calmly informed them that everything they had just told us had been recorded and would be used against them as they were brought to justice for all that they were guilty of directly or indirectly, particularly for the murders of my husband, Ariel, and Emma, not to mention Burt, Nadja and Dr. Sokoloff. When the thorough investigation that had been launched into the movement was completed, several more were sure to be uncove
red, especially when all the labs had been examined. Lots more crimes besides murder would be found. It would take many months before the investigators got to the bottom of all that the scientists had been up to, as well as the businessmen and the politicians. That included members of the movement operating on lower levels. Needless to say, both Ian and I were glad that we didn’t have to be part of the huge investigation. We had had enough of The Adler Group and being undercover.
All ten of the advisors would have separate trials, and deals were struck with some of them to get the most lenient sentences.
One such deal regarded one of Stenger’s top scientists. He informed us that there was an antidote available to fully undo the changes in the brain the various versions of the Zoc virus had triggered in not only Brady and Ian, but in many others during experiments. There would be no need for any of them to be dependent on Haldol for the rest of their lives.
We found out that, while Stenger had always been aware of Ian’s existence, it was only when Ian contacted his FBI handler wanting to stop the movement that Stenger began taking an interest in him, quickly realizing how smart he was and what a good leader he would make. The more he studied Ian, the more obsessed he became with him. Since he wanted the empire to stay within the family and Jonah was not improving, he decided that Ian would be his successor.
Stenger himself was not in his early seventies like I had assumed, but in his mid-nineties. His doctors had given him treatments to make him younger, more vital. Even though the treatments worked, Stenger was often tired still, preferring to use a wheelchair when he was at home.
One of the movement’s doctors showed regular doctors how to remove the microchips built into the heads of the younger hybrids without making them explode. Without the microchips, there would be no way to control the hybrids nor turn them into killers. They would be allowed to live like regular people, which was only fair to them. We were all hoping that their super-human abilities would be used to achieve good in the future, not destroy the world.
