by Marie Harte
The vehicle stopped. Careful to keep her breathing even, she forced herself to remain limp, not resisting when someone picked her up and carried her.
She listened carefully as they moved, conscious of the different sounds. A cool breeze tussled her hair, the heat of the sun hit her face and the sound of birds could be heard chirping. The sun? How long was I out? Not a car or truck passed by, and the man holding her walked over pebbles or gravel of some kind.
The sound of a door opened and closed behind them. A cold darkness swallowed them up.
Then an excited younger man asked, “Lennox, is that her?”
Oh hell. Lennox, the crazy bastard and the worst of the bunch, next to her uncle, carried her. She’d never wanted to be this close to him again.
“Yes, Mike. Please inform Dr. Carter that Lizzie’s back. I’ll be putting her in her room.”
Mike scurried away. What sounded like a metal door scraping the ground opened and slammed shut a few moments later.
Lennox stood still for a moment, then turned in the opposite direction. He turned several times but remained on the same floor, she thought, but dizziness assailed her again. After a while, another door opened. They walked as if in a labyrinth with tons of twists and turns.
Good Lord. Where the hell am I?
The cold, stale air made her feel as if they’d gone underground. They moved down forty steps—she counted—before he swung to the right. About a hundred paces down the hall, he stopped and opened a door. He deposited her gently on a bed and knelt beside her.
She felt his hot breath wash on her cheek and fought the horror of being a prisoner again. She’d known this was coming. She had to deal. Period.
But should she wait to blast him or make the decision and do it now? What if Carter wasn’t on the premises? She had to be sure of her uncle before she made her move.
Warm lips touched her ear, and she couldn’t help her instinctive recoil. Hoping he didn’t notice, she kept her breathing even, using every disciplined resource in her body.
“Liar. I know you’re awake,” Lennox whispered and nipped her earlobe. “I’ve missed you, little pretty. All grown up and a woman now, aren’t you, Lizzie?”
Hell. She’d look for her uncle on her own. Time to deal with Lennox, because no way was she going to let him feel her up. But before she could center herself and fry him, he took the opportunity from her.
A sharp pinch at her neck again. Oh shit. She didn’t want to lose herself this close to the bastard. He scared her more than her uncle did. Benjamin Carter was crazy, but he had no intention of raping, molesting or torturing her, unless he could further scientific progress. Lennox, on the other hand, got a thrill from bad things. For fun. She tried to stay awake, but once again sleep took her over.
“Now, now. Be a good girl. We’re going to have so much fun together after your uncle is done. Just you and me, Lizzie, you’ll see…”
Carter studied his niece with pleasure. He hadn’t felt such satisfaction in years. Finally, after so much time, he neared the end. With the pending success of the Carter Device, Lizzie’s presence in the lab would force others to see him as a real power again. His old contacts at DoD had to take him seriously. Especially since he now had the means to recreate the ISPP in its entirety.
With Bellamy no longer a threat and Lizzie his to control, he could capture the essence of what the Carter Device had been made to do—to turn the everyday soldier into a true warrior. One who wielded death at his fingertips.
Once Benjamin took hold of that power, he’d be more than a match for Joshua when he returned. Fortunately, Lennox hadn’t killed the bastard. Joshua would prove a true test, a real opponent. The perfect dry run to verify that the device worked. He, its creator, would finally know the fruits of his labor.
How thrilling. He couldn’t wait.
Benjamin glared at his niece with impatience. He filled a syringe with a counteragent to subvert the drugs fogging her system. He took pains to inject her gently, not wanting to cause the bruising Lennox already had. The oaf.
She didn’t stir after the injection, and he congratulated himself on crafting a sedative that worked on those of her ability. From what Lennox had told him, Joshua too had gone down hard.
Lizzie coughed and her breathing grew as erratic as her pulse. On the monitor nearby, her vitals started to even out.
Her eyelids fluttered and then opened, the neon blue of her power glowing in her eyes. So beautiful. He wondered if the glow would remain should he remove her eyes. Did the orbs hold the charge? Something in the actual iris that held luminescence? Or was it simply her power reflected from that preternatural source within her? He couldn’t wait to find out.
Lizzie’s inky hair shimmered under the side lamp shining on her face. She looked a great deal like her mother, her only saving grace, to Benjamin’s way of thinking. Catherine would have been happy to help him in his quest for scientific progress. How sad that her daughter had proven such a disappointment when it came to teamwork and loyalty.
The girl licked her lips, no doubt suffering from dehydration. The one drawback to using the tranquilizer.
“What’s going on?” she asked, her words slightly slurred. It would take at least an hour before the drug had completely worn off, but in the meantime he planned to get reacquainted with his niece. He had questions.
“Lizzie.” He watched her struggle with her wrist and ankle restraints. The glint of fear in her eyes pleased him. Time she remembered who was in charge.
“Good old Uncle Bennie.” Odd, she didn’t sound afraid. Resigned, perhaps, but not worried. “I’d hoped one of your experiments would come back to haunt you before now.”
“Ah, Lizzie, if only our wants and needs could come about so easily. Then I never would have lost you.”
“And you’d drop dead. Yeah, too bad.” She smiled through her teeth.
He frowned. “You seem less pliable then you were back then. Not the good little girl any longer, I see. I’m disappointed, of course, but I’d expected to have to deal with your setbacks.”
“Fuck off.”
He slapped her and had the pleasure of seeing real fear in her eyes. “I’m sure the years apart have had a negative impact on your significant intelligence. Too bad that can’t be helped.” He glanced at her curled fingers. “Don’t bother trying to shock me, dear. The drugs I gave you interfere with your power. Until I choose to unleash you, you will remain here, tied up and unable to cause harm to anyone, least of all me or yourself.”
She remained quiet. Smart enough to realize her perilous position here.
He wondered how strong she’d grown and couldn’t wait to test her. But he had to restrain himself from pushing her too soon. He needed her at full strength to power the device.
“Where am I?” she asked.
He had to admire her spunk. That she got from his side of the family. Her father had been a weak man, fond of sentiment and lacking the fortitude needed to discipline his progeny. Very unlike Benjamin’s father, a stern man who ruled his children with a heavy hand. There was no room for failure or mistakes, and loving attention was rarely doted on children who knew better than to misbehave. But Benjamin had no complaints. He’d turned out just fine.
“You’re home now, Lizzie. I’ve got new tests, more in tune with your abilities than anything we used in the past. My work has blossomed into a masterpiece. It’s the future.” He watched her carefully. “But for now, rest. I need you at full strength.”
“Terrific. Just what I’m looking forward to. Helping your sorry ass out.”
He hadn’t expected to deal with such vitriol. Then again, what did he expect? She’d lived on the run, among common thinkers, for years. Her experiences had obviously changed the quiet girl he’d helped raise. A pity she’d turned out so much like her father in the end.
He shook his head and left her, needing to focus once more on funding. With Brooks no longer a factor, and the device fully functioning, it was time to bring
the general back. Now to find Lennox and ask a few nagging questions still bothering him about Joshua and Bellamy. Something wasn’t adding up.
Remy promised herself to do her uncle some serious damage before she escaped. Nothing had changed in the decade she’d been gone. The asshole still thought the world should bow at his feet in awe of his stellar intelligence. What a crock.
She shivered again. Between the drugs, her memories of Lennox and the cooling temperature in the room, she wanted nothing more than to leave. She’d seen Benjamin Carter. Perfect. They now had a location to work with. She just hoped the transmitter continued to feed her whereabouts to the team.
With her hands and ankles held fast, she couldn’t move much. Her head swam when she tried to look down at her shirt to see if she still wore her pin. Likely they’d removed it. Lennox might be a moron in some ways, but he was pretty smart in others.
Well, Luc, you were right. Max’s nephew, the prognosticator, had pegged it. He’d warned that if she took this job, she’d be at her uncle’s mercy again. But to put a stop to Carter for good, she would have agreed to French-kiss Satan. In a metaphorical way, she kind of felt like she had.
Lennox… She shook away memories of his touch, focusing instead on her body. She didn’t feel used and couldn’t remember anything he might have done. Her uncle wouldn’t let Lennox soil her. The one good thing about Carter. He didn’t think anyone was good enough for her. Not even J.D. The man in her life.
She prayed he’d made it out of the club intact. And more, that when he knew the whole truth about how she’d taken on the danger again, leaving him behind, he wouldn’t be too mad at her. He had to understand that this wasn’t like the last time. She hadn’t taken the choice from him. Exactly. Carter was her uncle. It was her responsibility to put a stop to him her way.
At least if this went bad, she’d hurt no one but herself. J.D. remained free of the danger zone. He had to be. She loved him too much to think otherwise. Hell. Everyone she’d ever loved in her entire life had been taken away. Was it too much to want to protect the one good thing she had left? She didn’t think so.
With grim resolution, she did her best to calm herself, center her energy and work on the restraints. Her uncle would be back soon enough. She had to be ready this time. Ready to end him for good.
J.D. woke up just as they set him onto what looked like sateen sheets. He jackknifed into a sitting position and would have jumped off the bed if Thorne, Hunter and Jurek hadn’t been there to stop him.
“I told you,” Hunter muttered and shoved him down, hard.
“Shit. Get off. Where’s Remy?” J.D. struggled but couldn’t break free from Hunter or Thorne. Behind them, Jurek stood rubbing his temples.
“Where is he?” he heard Max Buchanan from another room.
“In there.”
He glanced around him, noting the strange room that wasn’t in a hospital or a part of the Westlake building. Man, he’d been spending way too much time at Buchanan Investigations. Except this didn’t feel like any part of the Buchanan building he’d visited before. No, wait…the club…Atlanta…
And speaking of Buchanan, another of the man’s relations appeared. Cole stepped into the room. The guy had some nice bruises, in addition to the bandage covering his left shoulder, visible through his torn shirt. “They prepped a room for you,” Cole mentioned. “We’re in Atlanta, by the way. We knew you were coming.”
“You look like hell.”
“Thanks,” Cole answered dryly.
“Wait, they? We? Who knew I was coming? How?”
“Whoa, slow down.” Cole blinked. “I can’t think that fast through the painkillers.”
J.D. had a suspicion foreseers had been consulted. “Rafe or Luc?”
“Luc,” Max answered as he walked through the door and filled the already tight room. “We know where Remy is. Not exactly, but we’re getting closer.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
Cole held up a hand. “Before you blow your stack, this was the plan from the beginning.”
He fumed. “Bullshit. You never cleared this with me or Remy or…” He paused when he noted the bland expressions all around him. “Wait. You all knew?” The betrayal ate at his already sour stomach.
“Shit. Cut it out.” Thorne winced and backed away, rubbing his forehead. Damn telepath.
“Keep out of my head,” J.D. spat, wanting to hit something—someone—hard.
“You keep thinking violent thoughts, use Hunter as a punching bag,” Thorne advised.
Hunter blinked. “Huh?”
“No one betrayed you, so quit the drama,” Thorne continued. “Luc had a vision of Remy with her uncle. It was meant to happen, and it has to if she’s going to stop him.”
“Why not tell me all this before? Why am I the last one to know anything?” Why didn’t she tell me?
Jurek answered, “Because you never would have gone along with the plan. You and Remy are too close to each other to be effective. Or at least, you were. Carter is expecting you to come after her. That’s where we come in.”
“How?” It physically hurt to know that the woman he loved was right back where she’d been ten years ago, at the hands of a psychotic asshole who got off on torturing in the name of science. Unbidden came the thought he tried to suppress—she left me behind again. “He’s going to hurt her.”
“Yes, he will,” Max said calmly. “Unless you get moving. I’ve already looked through David Bellamy’s thoughts, and he’s been as honest as we’d hoped. I know where the laboratory is, but we need to move now. Once Carter uses his machine to harness and steal Remy’s energy, there will be no stopping him.”
“Shit. You mean to tell me he got that thing to work?” Talk about OCD. Carter had been trying to create people with superpowers back when J.D. had been there. The man was three shades shy of sane. He couldn’t think he’d actually be able to steal Remy’s abilities? Could he?
As he recalled the events of the night, he realized he’d been shot with the same dart that had incapacitated his woman. “How long was I out?”
“A few hours,” Thorne answered. “Yeah, I helped you shrug off the drug. A mind push cleared you—that’s why you’re up and moving when by rights you should be dead to the world for another twenty hours or so.”
“And that’s our advantage,” Max said. “Carter won’t expect you so soon. We need that leg up on him. From what David shared, Carter’s been running through doped-up psychics at a rapid rate. Many are dying, and the others lose their faculties.”
“Living vegetables,” Thorne said softly. “What a nightmare.”
“Lennox is a real danger,” Max added. “The man’s happiest when hurting people. He was bad before, but now he’s outright crazy. David believes he might have his own abilities as well. But that’s something Carter doesn’t know or want to know.”
“What about Mike Brooks?” Cole asked. “We going in to rescue him too?”
Max frowned. “From what I’ve gathered, Mike is up to his eyeballs in deceit. He’s a willing participant in Carter’s brutality. No, he’s not someone we need to save, but someone to arrest.”
“Fine by me.” Hunter cracked his knuckles, and J.D. picked up on the thread of violence in his energy.
He blinked and looked around him, feeling with senses he normally kept buried unless working on his computers. Now, with Remy’s life at stake, he’d do whatever he had to, to bring her back. Then he’d paddle her ass for leaving him behind…again. He couldn’t believe she’d done that.
Though angry and hurt, he shoved the emotions aside. He stood with Thorne’s help, shaky but steadying as the seconds ticked by. “So what now?”
“Now we snap the trap closed and rescue our insider, who was more than willing, by the way, to sucker her uncle into seeing her as a helpless woman.” Jurek gave a grim smile. “Note, we don’t need to be easy about this. Carter’s no longer someone needing to be saved.”
“As if he ever was.
” But J.D. knew what Jurek meant. Westlake Enterprises normally cleaned up messes while adhering to the law. But the ISPP had been taken down years ago for a reason. The government didn’t trust Carter then, and apparently they didn’t want him alive now.
“Sounds like a plan. You guys can fill me in along the way.”
They turned to the doorway when Max took hold of Cole. “Not you, Cole. You’re going to the clinic nearby. Jurek has a few friends in town who can help.”
“But I—”
“He’s not asking,” Luc added from the doorway.
Behind him, two big men stood waiting. Two of Jurek’s men, friends of J.D.’s, actually. He waved. The larger of the two nodded back.
“Oh, come on. You’re using Westlake pricks to keep me here? A little ironic, huh, Uncle?” Cole glared, but Max shrugged away his pique.
“Whatever works.” He narrowed his gaze, and J.D. knew communications had passed between uncle and nephew.
“Fuck. Fine. But tell Remy she owes me when you see her again.” He smirked at J.D. “I’ll take my payment in a date.”
J.D. didn’t respond until he came nose to nose with Cole. He put a hand on Cole’s good shoulder and squeezed. In seconds, the big man passed out from the electrical shock, caught by the guys standing behind him.
“Damn.” Thorne whistled. “I don’t suppose you killed him?”
“Nah. Just a warning. Remy’s mine.” He glared at the rest of them.
Thorne nodded, but J.D. saw the laughter he didn’t share. Hunter outright grinned.
“And another one bites the dust,” Jurek murmured. “Way too much romance involved in company business, I’d say.”
“Amen to that,” Max agreed. “But he’ll ground her, and that’s a good thing. I’ve been worried about losing my IT rep for some time.” He turned to J.D. “You ready to save your girl?”
“I was born ready.” He paused as they entered a larger suite that looked expensive. “Just where the hell are we, anyway?”
“Still in Atlanta, and we have a short drive ahead of us,” Hunter murmured. “Two hours to Augusta, Georgia, where Remy and Carter are waiting. You in?”
