by Marie Harte
J.D. nodded, feeling his strength slowly return. “You know it. Let’s go.”
Chapter Sixteen
“You understand you’re going in as a decoy,” Jurek said for the fourth time in five minutes.
“Yes, I get it. I’m fine.” J.D. stared at his boss, worried. Jurek had never seemed so ill at ease on a mission before. Had Luc or maybe Rafe warned him of bad things to come?
Jurek pulled him aside, away from the others talking around the table where plans and blueprints were laid out. Their makeshift control post, located in an empty warehouse down from the Augusta airport, served as a jumping-off point for this operation.
Carter had cleverly situated his laboratory in the city just two and a half hours northwest of Savannah and southeast of Atlanta. From this location in Augusta, he had access to the Savannah River Site—a nuclear power station—Fort Gordon, should he need advanced communications systems, and the Medical College of Georgia for medical needs.
With the airport down the road from the industrial area he’d overtaken, he had an easy escape route should he need to make haste. With the money he’d accumulated from Brooks and a few other privately donated sources, Carter could most likely buy his way out of trouble.
They had to take him out now.
“Jurek?” J.D. asked. “You okay?”
“I’m fine,” Jurek snapped. “It’s you I’m worried about.”
“Me?”
Jurek frowned. “You were a young man when I first saw you, bloodied, beaten, nearly dead. You spent the last ten years with me, J.D. Of course I’m worried about you. This is Benjamin Carter, an extremely dangerous individual who has it out for you. And you’re so far gone on Remy that you’re not thinking straight.”
“You’re really worried about me.” J.D. stared at his boss. Jurek saw him not like an employee, but like someone closer. As if someone had painted him a picture, J.D. saw the past with clear eyes. He always went to Jurek with problems. From the time he’d been brought in to work at Westlake Enterprises, he’d had an open-door policy with the boss. He did whatever Jurek asked him, without question, because he knew Jurek was one of the good guys and had earned his loyalty.
In turn, Jurek had given him the same. How had he never seen that before?
“Don’t get overly dramatic,” Jurek said, sounding calm and in control of himself once more. “I can’t afford to lose you. Once Max has Remy back, she’ll be all over our records if you’re not here to protect us.” Jurek smiled at him. “With two people so in tune with circuitry and the power behind it, I don’t think either Max or I relish working against one another without someone to buffer us.”
“Yeah, I get you.” J.D. coughed to clear his throat. When it came down to it, Jurek had always been there for him. Like an honorary uncle, kind of. Or a father.
“Good.” Jurek slapped him on the back. “Now get your ass in there, take Carter out, and save Remy from herself. Girl has a real head on her shoulders for the technical stuff, but, you ask me, she’s no field agent.”
How many times had he been nagged about taking care in the field, since he was still considered the new guy at it, even after a year? “Yeah, I hear you. Being away from the desk isn’t for everyone. Don’t worry, Jurek. I’ll get the job done.”
Hunter nodded. “Sounds about right. Unlike you Buchanan idiots, we have a decent success rate.”
“Shut up, Conan.” Thorne glared at J.D. over his shoulder. “And, you, quit sucking up to your boss and get your ass over here. You’re on, princess.”
Excitement and adrenaline coursed through him, adding to the waves of power J.D. forced himself to hold close. He’d need to shield himself while being ready at a moment’s notice to face this dangerous adversary. Failing wasn’t an option. He had to get Remy back in one piece.
“Thorne, you’re sure she’s okay?”
“I felt her up here.” Thorne tapped his forehead. “She’s groggy but in one piece. But she wants us to hurry the hell up. Carter’s got big plans, and he’s waiting on you.”
Go time. J.D. took a deep breath and let it out. “Okay, amateurs. Stand back and watch how a professional handles this particular psychopath.”
An hour later, just as his watch struck noon, J.D. did his thing. After rendering the guards unconscious with a carefully gauged electric shock, and disabling the security cameras, he walked through the doors of a rundown warehouse. Past the junk and bodies strewn all over the floor, he followed the blueprints they’d reviewed and neared the far corner of the warehouse, where the door to what should have been a closet stood.
He held out a hand and pushed his energy past the locks and security holding fast the closet’s steel door. It popped open and he pulled it wide, then let it swing closed behind him.
With a thought, he commanded the elevator to lower four flights, to the floor where Remy should have been taken. The experimental sector, according to David Bellamy.
Fuck of it was, the layout J.D. had studied was an exact copy of the original Institute he’d once escaped from.
Ignoring the unease skittering down his spine, he countered his disquiet with a reminder. Before, he’d been a boy on the verge of adulthood, dealing with the death of his father and crazy Carter out to control him body and soul. Now, he was a man full grown, one who had a woman and a life to pursue outside of these concrete walls.
He refused to allow Carter to control him any more than he needed to get the job done. Once he and Remy left this dismal place and destroyed the lab, they’d never look back.
The elevator came to a halt and he exited, not surprised to find Lennox and a dozen guards with guns aimed at him. He ignored them and took a quick look around. The floors were of a commercial-grade tile, the walls a cold whitewashed block. Overhead, fluorescent lights gave the space an artificial, antiseptic look. Home sweet home. Different place, same look. It was like he’d never left.
“Joshua.” Lennox nodded. He held up his gun for a better view. “Tranquilizers, not bullets. We obviously want you alive. We have Lizzie, so if you want to see her again, no tricks.”
“Not yet,” J.D. agreed. “And it’s J.D. now. Not Joshua.”
Lennox shrugged and nodded for him to follow the guards.
They walked down the hallway and turned left into another hallway lined with glass walls, allowing views into the rooms they passed. Some were empty, others had blank-faced men and women in hospital gowns. Like a fucking zoo. He could only imagine what Carter had done to the poor bastards still strapped down in some of the rooms.
They passed one room still being cleaned, mounds of flesh and pools of blood making the cleanup slow going.
J.D. maintained his composure, reminding himself that Carter would never kill Remy until he’d gotten her near J.D. again. Experiments, curiosity—Carter would need to see them together. Then he’d either gut J.D. or kill Remy outright. J.D. had time. He had to work this the right way. Backup waited for him.
“You’re in. Good.” Thorne remained a part of him, in his mind.
“You know, don’t take this the wrong way, but I’m glad you’re with me. If anything goes wrong, you get Remy out—”
“Nothing will go wrong. Focus, numbnuts. I’ve got fifty says you come out unscathed. Hunter bets you break a leg or a hand and need to be carried out. Be strong.” Mental laughter accompanied the warning. Idiot. Yet J.D. felt better that Thorne didn’t seem too worried about the mission.
“Remy’s good. Hurry it up, will you?” Thorne prodded.
“Asshole.” He intended to have a close talk with Thorne about his poor sense of humor when this was over.
“Your work?” he asked Lennox when they passed another bloodied room.
“Yes.” Lennox appeared proud. God, what a bastard. “Did you know that at 3,000 volts and 5 amps, the muscles spasm and contract into a state of absolute rigidity? The lungs and heart cease working. Blood boils. Mental processes scatter as the body begins to burn itself from the inside out. If we’r
e not careful when we attach the leads, sparks burn the flesh. Though many complain, I don’t find the stench unpleasant. Quite the opposite, as a matter of fact.”
“You know, I’m not surprised. You always were a crazy bastard.”
Thorne mentally agreed. Then he sent another warning. “Getting…random waves…blocked by excess… Can’t… Hear me?”
J.D. had expected not to hear Thorne sooner, so he wasn’t too worried. He often scrambled his field to block Max when visiting the Buchanans, so he figured the massive amounts of radiation or electricity in the lab would eventually do the same with Thorne.
Now he really was on his own.
They passed a guy matching Mike Brooks’s picture in another glass-walled office. Lee Brooks’s nephew spoke to a man in a white coat. A few doors down, several armed security guards monitoring white noise on their video screens frantically tried to fix their system. Still no sign of Carter, though, and they’d come to the end of the hall.
Finally, they stopped. In this room that was slightly bigger than the others, a woman lay strapped down on a table, her form mostly covered by a blue sheet.
J.D.’s heart seemed to stop. Remy appeared conscious and in good health as a technician scurried around her. Thorne hadn’t lied about her being okay.
“I want to see her.” He didn’t bother pretending he’d come for any other reason. Hell, why not show Carter and his minions how vulnerable he was, to throw the man a bone, then yank it away later?
“Of course. We knew you would.” Lennox passed him and held up his hand to a sensor J.D. hadn’t noticed before. The door snicked open, and Lennox strode inside.
J.D. hurried after him. The technician left at a word from Lennox, until just J.D., Lennox and Remy remained. The bulk of the guards took post outside the room.
“Remy?”
She turned her head, her eyes cloudy, her energy unfocused. But when she saw him, her pupils dilated. He noted everything about her, and though he didn’t see any bruising, he vowed to kick the shit out of everyone who’d dared put their hands on her. From what he could see, she wore a hospital shirt and pants under the blanket that didn’t quite cover her.
Lennox stared at her, a little too closely for J.D.’s peace of mind.
Before he could say anything, Lennox nodded. “I’ll leave you.”
J.D. watched the man leave, wondering what the hell to do now. He hadn’t anticipated being left alone with her at all. The guards remained outside the room, but what was Carter hoping would happen? J.D. glanced unerringly at the hidden cameras mounted to the ceiling.
Remy blinked at him. “You’re…here? Dum-my,” she slurred. “Not s-posed to be here…yet.”
He gripped her hand in his, overjoyed to touch her again. “Well, I am here. And I’m not happy about you pulling this crap again.” He didn’t wait. He streamed power into her body, pushing the drug aside.
She grimaced. “I knew you’d th-think that.” She sighed as her eyes cleared. “You mad at me, J.D.?” She blinked, and a tear fell down her cheek. “’Cause I don’t want you to be. Had to be this way.”
“Yes, I know. He’s too powerful to avoid forever.” A bit of flattery to allay the man’s suspicions.
“Did you bring the gang?”
“Yes, did you?” Carter’s voice rang through the speakers in the room. “I’m dying to know.”
Dying. Not soon enough. J.D. cleared his throat. “Of course I brought help. You didn’t think I’d come here on my own? I’m not stupid.”
“You never were.” Carter sounded pleased. “I’m glad to see you alive, Joshua.”
“It’s J.D.”
“We have so much to do now that you’re here. And little time to do it in, I imagine, with your friends soon banging down our door. Don’t tell me. I assume you brought Jurek Westlake. Did you also bring Buchanan? How ironic that Lizzie would work for a man who despises me.”
“Yeah, ironic.” He didn’t answer, but he didn’t think Carter had expected him to.
“Well, then.” Carter sounded brisk. “Let’s get to it.”
Gas filled the room before J.D. could think to stop from taking his next breath. And then the lights went out. Again.
Remy blinked and coughed to expel the sickening sweet stench of her uncle’s knockout gas. She’d learned to counter the disorientation years ago by holding an electronic shield over herself when he used it. Unfortunately, J.D. had never mastered the art.
In minutes, the guards reappeared and strapped him down next to her, J.D. held tight by synthetic, flame-retardant restraints designed to withstand electronic burns. The guards tilted the tables, putting J.D. and Remy into standing positions, then left the room.
Moments later, Carter and Lennox entered.
Her uncle stood next to Lennox and smiled. “Just like old times.”
She wished Carter had lost his hair or looked worse, but he was just as handsome, cold and enigmatic as he’d ever been.
“Fuck you.”
He frowned. Good, don’t like that, do you? Her uncle and his prissy mores.
“Such a mouth. Too bad our family’s refined sensibilities didn’t stick. But your power hasn’t waned. You’ve grown much, much stronger. I know. Now let’s see what Joshua can do.”
“His name is J.D.” She glared at Carter, while wanting to curse out her handsome, idiotic rescuer. Thorne had barely warned of J.D.’s arrival before he’d winked out of her head. After all the trouble she’d gone through to keep J.D. away from here, she didn’t like him showing up now.
He had to have a plan, but it would have been nice if he’d shared it before being knocked off his sexy feet. If only she could reach him, she could push that drug out of his system, the way he’d earlier helped her.
“Yeah, what she said,” he slurred as he blinked awake.
Hell. She had to act, despite the sensors and Carter waiting for her to do something.
Knowing they needed to be ready to fight back, she concentrated and streamlined a small jolt into J.D. Damn, but that hurt. She was a lot weaker than she’d hoped to be. But hopefully…
After a few seconds, she sensed his mental processes tightening. Like a well-oiled machine, J.D.’s mind was a thing of beauty, his synapses firing on all sides.
Buzzers and beeps sounded all around her, and Carter and Lennox jumped to take in the data.
“Thanks.”
She stared at J.D. in shock, ignoring her uncle’s excitement. Several more men in white coats entered, as did Mike Brooks.
“J.D.?” They hadn’t spoken like this, truly merged, in so long. Despite being linked during sex and when they shared energy, their telepathic closeness had evaded her. She hadn’t thought they might reach this level after being with each other for so little time. Maybe… Maybe he really did love and trust her, like he’d said.
“Just bear with this crap. Let him pontificate out his ass. Jurek, Hunter, Thorne and the others are here with me. While Carter deals with us, the others are right now invading the compound and setting any survivors free. We just have to keep him occupied.” Aloud he asked, “Why did you leave me?”
She started to cry, so relieved and in love with him. It was as if Carter wasn’t even there.
“They were merged.” Her uncle’s voice rose. “Did you see those readings?”
“Yes, sir.” Mike Brooks, the little creep, smiled and leered at her, the way he’d been leering since he’d seen her stripped of her clothes and dressed in those nasty, paper-thin scrubs. “Perhaps we should hook up the machine, Doctor?”
“Yes, yes. Lennox, you’re no longer needed. Firm up security. You know we’ll soon have company.”
Lennox frowned and made no move to leave. “I want to be here, Dr. Carter. I can help.”
Remy glanced away from her lover and studied Lennox. He sounded…wrong. The spark in his eyes alarmed her. She’d been suspicious of him, even back when she’d been a prisoner at the Institute. He’d always been too hands on, as if he too par
ticipated in instances of conduit testing. But her uncle had ignored him, so she’d done the same.
A mistake.
“Yeah. He’s fucking nuts.” J.D. watched him as well. “But don’t worry. I’m here.”
“All tied up too. My hero.”
“Witch.”
“J.D., I love you.”
“Back at ya, babe. Now let’s watch this play out.”
Babe? Where had that come from? But he was right, so she focused on the here and now. They had to get through this so they could deal with their new togetherness. A future of tomorrows.
“Yes, yes. You’re always a help.” Her uncle nudged Lennox away from the computer and continued to type with a mad zeal.
Lennox folded his arms over his chest. “Dr. Carter, I’m one of them. You know that. Hook me up to the device. Pour the power into me. Use me, I can handle it. I’m not like the others. I won’t burn up.”
Burn up? Remy and J.D. shared a glance.
“Fine, Lennox.”
She hadn’t expected Carter to concede. Lennox looked like a kid at Christmas. Brooks and two other men put a black glove on Lennox and hooked it up to leads and to what looked like a small computer. They attached nodes to Lennox’s temples.
Brooks moved to Carter’s side. “Vitals are steady, Doctor.”
“You sure you’re ready for this?” Carter asked Lennox one more time. “You’ve been a good man for so many years. I’d hate to see you come to a bad end if the experiment fails.”
Odd, because Carter never looked on the dark side of his genius. He was up to something.
“I’m ready, sir.” Lennox looked so proud, ready to burst. He fixed his gaze on her and smiled. “Soon Lizzie and I will be more than compatible.”
J.D. looked from him to her. “For what?”
“To breed, of course,” Carter answered for him. “With my niece’s offspring, I’ll be able to measure new capabilities otherwise untried. I’d hoped to pair you two years ago, but then the fire happened. Now with Lennox adjusted, he’ll make an adequate replacement.”
