by Marie Harte
“You think it was a test,” she said slowly. “I agree.” She stared at the others and her mouth firmed into a thin line. “We passed; he failed. Time we raised the stakes with Dr. Carter, don’t you think?”
“What do you have in mind?” He liked this side of her. Lying unconscious, she’d been too fragile, too vulnerable. But now, with fire in her eyes, she made him want her all over again. This woman could handle him. In all ways.
“We go back and have another look at everything we know about him. Then we take him down. All the way. No going back.”
“No going back,” he agreed. Not on this job or on their fledgling relationship, such as it was. He’d lost her once before. This time, he intended to see Carter pay for his mistakes. Then they’d see just what the future had in store for them—together. “That’s a promise, sweetheart.” He paused when her eyes widened. “Or a threat. Take it either way.”
Chapter Eleven
Two days later, J.D. sat with his boss, Remy, Max and Cole around the conference table in the Buchanan building. J.D. wanted to go back to Cozumel and sit with Remy in that big tub, just the two of them.
“I don’t like any of this.” Jurek frowned at the rest of the room. “We knew Carter would track you to Brooks and Cozumel. But giving up like that? So easily? It doesn’t fit.”
Max nodded. “I agree. Of the five men, he killed one.”
Jurek’s eyes darkened, his pain real. They’d had the funeral for their downed man yesterday. He’d had no family, but a host of friends in attendance.
Max said softly, “Granted, that’s one too many, but Carter’s men let the others go? And it’s too much a coincidence his men disappeared and you two came back without a scratch. No offense, J.D., but you have to admit this looks like a setup, not a real kidnapping.”
“Yeah, I know.” J.D. looked at Remy, his eyes narrowed in thought. Since arriving back in Savannah yesterday, they hadn’t spoken. Jurek and Max had given them respective protection details. She and he had made so much progress in Mexico, learning about one another. Now it felt like they’d regressed. He didn’t like it one bit. “Remy, your thoughts?”
She flushed when she noticed all eyes glued to her. “I think Carter wanted to know what you can do. And I think he wants you back as badly as he wants me.”
“That’s my guess,” Jurek concurred. “I think it’s time you two disappeared for a little while. I’m putting Hunter on this one. He can track down our mad scientist’s lab.” He turned to Max. “Unless you were planning on using him?”
Hunter, once one of Jurek’s top agents, now worked as an independent with his wife. They routinely took cases for Westlake and Buchanan Investigations. The man could track anyone and anything. It made sense to use him, even if he’d prove to be a pain in the ass, as he usually did.
Max protested a little too loudly, to J.D.’s way of thinking, “Oh no. I wouldn’t dream of taking him from you.”
“Only because I’m having to foot the bill,” Jurek grumbled. “He’s not cheap.”
“I know. But he’s less hostile under your direction.” Max winked at Remy, and his good humor seemed to calm her nerves. “But we might want to rethink the matter of J.D. and Remy hiding out together. The temptation to grab them might be too great for Carter to resist.”
“That’s what we want,” J.D. countered. He itched to take the bastard out, especially after Cozumel. Such a needless death. “Carter’s got to stop hiding and come after us.” Though he wanted her far from danger, he knew Remy would be safest with him by her side.
“Yes, but we don’t want him to get his hands on you to do it.” Max turned to Jurek. “Perhaps we should separate them to slow Carter down. I could stick Remy with Cole, and you—”
“No.” J.D. didn’t want Cole anywhere near her. “You don’t know Carter like we do. Cole can’t protect her like I can.”
“Bullshit.” Cole glared at him. “I’ve been doing this a hell of a lot longer than you have. Besides, we’ll pull Thorne and Luc in, make it a party. No one will get near you.”
Remy finally seemed to wake up. She frowned. “I don’t need anyone’s protection.”
“Oh really?” J.D. asked. “What about the beach? You nearly got yourself kidnapped.”
“That’s because I was distracted,” she shot back.
“Oh?” Cole asked.
“By what?” Max added.
J.D. smirked, remembering he’d been swimming at the time, and she’d been watching him. “Do tell. What distracted you?” My little former virgin.
She blushed. “The, uh, the sun and the water. Well, the atmosphere there was so inviting that I didn’t set up proper safeguards.” She had the nerve to glare at him. “And I put too much stock in our backup. A stupid mistake, and one I won’t make again.”
Max coughed and drank down a full glass of water. “I see.” Hell, he probably did.
“I don’t think you do,” Remy said in a firm voice. “That other day in your office, I only used a small portion of my abilities. If Carter comes at me again, I’ll be prepared, and this time I’ll take him down.”
“But that stuff he injected you with knocked you out,” J.D. felt the need to point out.
“You pushed it out. If you’ll show me how to do what you did, I’ll do it myself next time.”
“You can’t if you’re unconscious,” he argued, wishing she’d stop being so damn stubborn.
“J.D., Remy, why don’t you two take a break,” Max suggested. “We need to discuss a few things and, frankly, you’re too close to the situation to be of real help.” When J.D. would have argued, Max spoke over him. “Remy, show him your office. Talk bits and bytes. I’ll call you when we’re ready for you again.”
She screwed up her nose, annoyed. So cute. “Fine.” Remy jerked to her feet and stomped out of the room.
J.D. followed her. “Where are we going?”
“You heard him. My office.”
Minutes later, they entered a large room filled with computers and parts. Unlike his rampant disorganization, her office was neat as a pin. She had a plant in the windowsill, and he remembered how much she liked flowers and living things. Having been closeted in Carter’s lab for so long, they’d both longed for the freedom of the outdoors…which reminded him. They had a jogging date to plan.
“I’m thinking you have an OCD problem. Everything is stacked and labeled. It’s making me twitchy.” He sat in a chair across from her desk.
She sat behind the desk, instead of next to him. Putting distance between them that didn’t need to be there.
She snorted. “I’ll bet your place is a pigsty.”
“You got that right.”
She gave him a small smile, one that went straight to his heart. “You always were a messy guy.”
“Some things never change.” He watched her smile fade. “What’s wrong?”
“Just thinking that Carter needs to be stopped. This time for good. Can you imagine what he’s been up to since we’ve been gone?”
“I don’t want to think about it. But I promise you this, one way or the other, his time hurting people is done.” He frowned. “Are you going to be able to handle that?”
“What do you mean?” She looked confused. “What? Because he’s my uncle, I’m praying for a grand reunion?” The fury darkening her eyes was something to see. Then she shocked the hell out of him. “Fuck that. And fuck you.”
He blinked. He’d never heard her swear like that before.
“Of course I’m okay with him going to jail, or even dying. Didn’t you hear anything I told you in Mexico? I was a helpless kid caught up in his plots for years. None of what he did was my fault.”
“I didn’t say it was. Damn it. Don’t put words in my mouth.”
“Don’t put them in mine either.”
He watched her, wanting to close the distance between them. Talk about attraction to the max. He did his best not to, but he couldn’t help grinning. “Fuck me? Remy, that mouth. S
omeone so cute shouldn’t be swearing like that.”
“Oh shut up.”
“Say it. Say, shut the fuck up.”
She glared at him, but her frown soon turned into a reluctant grin. “I hate when you don’t take me seriously.”
“I take you very seriously.”
She sat up straighter. “Good to know.”
“You have no idea. I can’t stop thinking about you.” At his admission, she seemed to soften more. “I keep seeing you in bed. In the bath. On the beach in that sexy one-piece you wore like a nun. You’re a beautiful woman. Next time we’re catching rays, I don’t want to see you wearing a top.”
“Would you stop.” Her cheeks grew rosy.
“Do you think about me at all?”
She chewed her lip. “Yes.”
“I’m sorry, what?” He cupped his ear. “I didn’t hear that.”
“Yes, you idiot. I think about you all the time.” She paused, and in a smaller voice, confessed, “I never stopped thinking about you.”
He’d done a lot of soul-searching since Mexico. Trying to put himself in her place when his life had gone to hell. “Yeah, well, if it helps, as much as I tried, I couldn’t stop thinking about you either over the years. And now that we’re together again, it’s worse. Especially since I know what you look like naked.”
“Pervert.”
“Yep. That’s me.” He didn’t want to own up to it, but he figured, why not? Why not put all his cards on the table? “Something else. I don’t like the way Cole looks at you.”
“What?”
“He wants you. I’m not okay with that. You’re mine.”
“I…you… Yours?” she ended weakly.
“You know it and I know it.”
“Well if I’m yours, you’re mine.” A challenge, not a question.
He nodded. “Sure. I don’t care who knows it. This—us—is new. Something I’d never thought might happen again. I want to see where it goes. We’re different people now. Maybe we’ll grow together, and maybe we won’t, but I don’t want to play games. Life is too short, you know?”
“I do.” She stared at him with such emotion. He wished he could have said it was love, but he had no idea what to call it.
He only knew he could too easily imagine her saying “I do” in a church in front of their friends. She’d look radiant in a white gown, and he’d dress to the nines for the occasion. The wonder of such joy made him speechless.
“J.D.?” She narrowed her gaze. “Are you okay?”
Marriage? A lifetime to learn Remy’s secrets, to hear about all the things he’d missed the past ten years, to see her smile? Watch her laugh with joy, hold their baby?
He coughed to hide his overwhelming emotion at the thought. Jesus, he loved her. He’d tried not to, but that love he’d felt so long ago had lain dormant, not vanished. And it was too easy to bring it to life again, scaring him with the depth of his feelings.
“I may not be in your heart yet,” he warned, his voice thick, “but I’m in your blood. Soon enough, I’m going to be buried in your hot little body again, filling you up.” Gauntlet thrown.
She leaned across her desk and raised a brow. “Promise?” Challenge met.
He laughed, enthralled with this woman who stood up to him. He liked that she didn’t cave to pressure or flinch away. “Hell yeah.”
“Ahem.” Cole smirked at them from her doorway. “As intriguing as this open flirtation has been, I’m here to tell you Max wants you two lovebirds back in the conference room. There’s something they want to try.”
J.D. turned and concentrated, and Cole jerked away from the doorknob he’d been holding. “J.D., you’re an asshole.”
He saw Remy try to hide her laughter, but she failed. “Play nice, boys.”
“You know, I used to think you were the nice one,” Cole said to her with a scowl. “Now I’m not so sure. I think you two were made for each other.”
J.D. nodded. “You’re right about that. Come on, Remy. Let’s see what great plans the powers that be have in mind for us.” He sneered at Cole. “And you get your own girl. This one’s mine.”
David Bellamy stood outside Benjamin Carter’s small office with his ear pressed to the door.
“Very good, Lennox,” Dr. Carter said. “So Joshua is as strong now, if not stronger, than he was back then? Outstanding. His power didn’t diminish at all. Of course, only proper readings will reveal the extent of his growth. He willingly shocked you, controlling the power?”
“Yes, sir.” David imagined Lennox nodding, ever subservient to the man he never stopped going on about. And he’d have that empty, eerie gleam in his dark eyes.
David didn’t like him. He didn’t like Dr. Carter either. Hell, he didn’t care for anything he’d been forced to do for the past four months he’d been working in this dump.
The university had been all too glad to hand him over to Dr. Carter, a supposed well-known scientific genius. The man had made a name for himself. But David would bet his next semester’s grade point average they had no idea about what really went on in this shithole Carter called the Institute.
David hadn’t known what he’d signed on for, and then he’d seen those files…
Lennox, a sadistic bastard with sociopathic tendencies, continued to talk in a voice just shy of shrill. “He did. Gave us just enough to knock us out, but not enough to kill or do any real damage. Of course, the counteraids you had us wear absorbed most of it. But my guess is Joshua has learned control.”
“Perfect.” Carter sounded excited. “I’m almost done with my preparations. There’s no need to wait any longer. We need to pick them up. My Carter Device is done and fully functional, far as I can tell. But I need a good subject to verify it.” He paused, then over the intercom, he paged David and Mike.
David and Mike Brooks were currently Carter’s only grad students, since the last two had mysteriously vanished a week ago. It didn’t pass David’s notice that anyone who disappointed the good doctor seemed to leave the Institute without a word, never to be seen again.
He hurried away from the door and walked back from farther down the hallway, as if he’d just reached Dr. Carter’s office. He noted Mike coming from the other direction and waited for the guy to join him. Mike, that suck-up, wasn’t to be trusted. He did everything Carter told him to without question.
They entered the room and waited.
The way Carter nodded at Mike with approval only exacerbated David’s need for caution around his fellow student. Mike’s uncle had given some big donations to further the Institute’s goals.
Considering David had recently disposed of fucking bloody sheets and what looked like clumps of hair, he knew better than to ask questions. He wanted desperately to leave, but lately Lennox had been keeping a close eye on him. And when Scarface had been in Mexico, Mike had stuck to David like glue.
“Mike, David, I need you to find me another subject. I know we’ve exhausted our supply.” He talked about people as if they were things. David suppressed a shiver as the doctor continued. “For that reason, I’m assigning you two to Lennox. With his help, we’ll be able to secure—ah, recruit—a few people I’ve been waiting for, for a very long time.”
David and Mike shared a glance. David hoped he looked as thrilled about the prospect as Mike. It was all he could do not to puke.
“And, David?” Carter said quietly. “No more questioning my methods. Or you will be replaced.”
A synonym for killed? David nodded. He’d asked one question after disposing of the stained sheets. Just one was all it took to know he’d be next if he said another word on the subject.
Carter nodded. “Good. I want this taken care of immediately. I need time to recalibrate and exhaust my findings before presenting them to the general, in just three more weeks. The timeline is on the board.” He nodded to the hallway, where he had posted instructions on a communal whiteboard. “Now go. Lennox, you have this under control.” A question, as much as a stat
ement.
“Right, sir.” Lennox did all but salute the egomaniac.
David nodded and followed Mike and Lennox out.
“You two hang around,” Lennox murmured. “I have a few things to do. Keep your radios at hand.”
“Yes, Lennox,” David agreed quickly, not wanting the maniac to focus on him anymore. He’d heard rumors that Lennox had once painted a room in one of the test subject’s blood. He hadn’t put any credence to it at the time, but then Bill had vanished after sharing that tidbit. And so had subject 7.
Lennox stared at him a moment, then left with a grunt.
“I need to transcribe some of Dr. Carter’s notes,” Mike said. “I’ll be in my room working if you need me.”
“Okay. I’ll find something to do while we wait.” David put a bit of cheer in his voice, gratified when Mike grinned.
“I know. This is great. A chance to finally see the device work again. I mean, Dr. Carter did tap into it that one time. But it faded so fast.”
David nodded, though he had no idea what Mike referred to. He didn’t want to know. “Right. I think I’ll prep the spare lab after I grab a bite to eat. Dr. Carter did say he planned on having two subjects.”
“Good thinking.” Mike waved goodbye and left.
David walked back to their small office upstairs in the old warehouse, now a functioning laboratory out in the middle of fucking nowhere. Sure, they had access to the airport. But Augusta, Georgia? The city had an army base and golf courses out the ass. David had never wanted to join the military and hated golf. He’d hoped to stay in Atlanta, near school, but just as David joined the team, Carter had changed facilities.
If he’d had access to a phone line or computer with web connectivity, he’d have ditched before now. But Carter limited access to the outside world in his supersecret laboratory.
