Less life.
“One more thing,” Ryan said, as soon as Blair was gone.
“There’s more?” Dade took a breath and glanced around the room. Whatever it was, the rest of the occupants knew about it.
Ryan lifted Dade’s wrist and pointed to a spot where his IV had been until recently. “There’s a small tracking device in your arm just under the skin. You would never notice it if I didn’t tell you.”
Dade stiffened. “Why?”
Emily grabbed his other hand. “We all have one. Just in case.”
“Only a few people are aware we put them in you,” Ryan added. “I’m sure you’ll forget about it, and no one will ever need to use it, but it’s there for your safety.”
Dade shifted his attention to Emily again. “That’s how they found you.”
She nodded, pursing her lips.
Dade ran a hand through his hair. “Okay, duly noted. Tracker in my arm. I’m like a secret spy.”
Ryan continued. “It’s not without problems. I mean, yes, we were able to use it to find Emily, but the tracker was also used to pinpoint my parents’ location.”
“Great. So you’ve embedded a tracker in my arm to save me, but it can also be used by the enemy to hunt me down?”
“Yeah. Basically.”
“And who the hell was able to access that information?”
Ryan sighed. “We don’t know yet. We don’t even know if it’s an internal operation or a hacker from outside. Which is why I’m going to deactivate it until we find the mole. I’ll only reactivate it in case of an emergency.”
Dade shuddered. There’s a damn GPS tracker in me. Welcome to jumping forward a decade.
Chapter 4
As Blair sat in the back of the medical supply vehicle, holding on to the metal bar at the side to keep from falling over, she tried to calm her mind. It was damn cold outside, and the back of the truck was not heated, so her hands were freezing where she gripped the bar. She forced herself to ignore the discomfort.
Blair had no intention of letting Dade see even an inch of her weakness. In fact, she rarely let a living soul see that side of her. So infrequently that she could count on one hand the number of times she’d cried or been consumed with emotion, and most of those times had been alone, so they didn’t count.
The most recent time she’d been unable to hide her feelings had been that day two weeks ago when Ryan had discovered that Dade had the genetic marker for AA2. After he’d left the suite to head back to the lab, Blair had stayed behind to comfort Emily.
Blair hadn’t even seen a picture of Dade at the time. She knew very little about him. She had no physical description at all. She only knew he was a biomedical scientist who had served in the army in order to pay for his education and then been assigned to work on Project DEEP.
She too had served in the army for ten years, but that would have been after his time. Not to mention her service had looked quite a bit different from his. She had done three tours overseas as personal security detail to many different people. It had been a long time since she’d been tasked with specifically guarding someone’s life, but she didn’t imagine it would involve even half what she’d seen during her service.
She had been at the bunker longer than anyone on the new team. Five years longer. The job had been far more boring when the staff consisted of only the bare amount needed to maintain the facility. For years, the bunker had operated with a skeleton staff until Ryan Anand had gotten closer to a cure and the government had once again funded the project and hired additional members to work on reanimation. Among them was Dr. Damon Bardsley, a cryonicist.
The bunker had been more like a morbid tomb until Ryan and Damon arrived to get down to the business of reviving the previous team. Within months, the team had grown to twelve members, all eager to get the place back up and running, doing what it was meant to accomplish—saving lives.
Blair took a deep breath and gripped the bar on the side of the van tighter as Ryan went over a bump. When she glanced at Dade, she found him staring at her, brows close together. Studying her. He didn’t even look away when she caught him.
“We’re almost there,” Ryan declared from the front seat. They had been driving for nearly an hour, but only because Ryan was following a circuitous route in order to ensure no one followed him. He was wearing a hat and an official company polo of some sort to keep anyone from giving him a second glance as he drove through the throng of protesters at the gate to the facility.
Not a single soul outside of the five people who had been inside the room that morning knew about this mission. Not even the military personnel. Temple had specifically given the order for the men guarding the entrance to wave the truck through without questioning the man at the wheel.
So far they seemed to have succeeded. Though she wasn’t sure Dade had the strength to pretend for much longer that he wasn’t too weak for this rough ride, sitting on his butt, holding on to whatever he could to keep from getting thrown around. The truck wasn’t meant for passengers, and Dade would need a few weeks to regain his full strength.
Finally, Ryan pulled to a stop. He turned around to face his passengers. “You guys okay? I tried to keep from tossing you around like a salad back there.”
“We’re fine,” Blair answered for both of them. She was fairly certain Dade was anything but fine, but she also knew he was stubborn and would never admit to such a thing. His hands were shaking when he released his grip on the metal bar. He didn’t meet her gaze as he shuffled toward the hatch and then jumped down to the ground.
A blast of cold wind hit Blair in the face as she followed Dade. The temperature was dropping. It was supposed to snow later that night. She wanted to get to the cabin before it started falling to make sure they had enough firewood inside. She pulled her coat tighter around her and tugged the zipper up to her chin. Not surprising weather for late February in the mountains of Colorado.
Ryan handed Blair a set of keys and pointed to a nondescript tan Jeep Wrangler. “It’s four-wheel drive. You won’t have any trouble getting to the cabin. I checked out the route yesterday for you. Roads are cleared. Cell service was good, so don’t hesitate to call or text. The internet is working. I also stocked the kitchen with everything on your list.” He smiled.
Blair took the keys. “Thanks, Ryan. I appreciate your help. I’m sure we’ll be fine.”
Ryan turned toward a silent Dade. “We’re going to fix this,” he promised, even though Blair knew as well as Dade that was a longshot. Nevertheless, she fully intended to remain optimistic and drag Dade out of this place of fear and anger to a calmer state of mind where he would stand a chance at life.
Dade rolled his eyes and headed for the passenger side of the Jeep.
Blair smiled at Ryan, thanked him quietly, and climbed into the driver’s seat. At least Dade didn’t argue about which one of them would be driving. That might have caused a battle.
She took a deep breath and started the Jeep. She didn’t intend to treat him with kid gloves or like he was an invalid. She intended to force him to get healthy and fit and back to the land of the living. Her assignment didn’t include those tasks. Her job was to protect him and keep him alive. But she never did anything half-assed, so for as long as she was responsible for the man’s life, she fully intended to ensure it also got extended and that he snapped out of this bitter place of anger.
She had no idea why she felt so strongly about helping him. She knew nothing about him except that he was surly and angry. Oh, and tall, dark, and handsome. He was a total cliché. His thick hair was in need of a cut, but she kinda liked it that way. It took the edge off his stern facial features.
She knew from Emily that he had been funny, often joking around with everyone else. The morale booster of the team. It made Blair sad that he’d buried that side of himself.
Emily also indicated she felt a change in personality since being revived, so maybe it was something they would all experience. She had to assume i
t would be life-altering to wake up one day ten years later and find out you had not died. For some, the grass might be greener. For others, it might appear brown and shriveled. Dade fell in the latter category, although rightfully so.
Blair handed Dade her phone. “You navigate. I’ll drive.”
He took it from her and flipped it around. “Yeah, you do realize I have no idea what you intend for me to do with this, right?”
Did she hear a slight lift of humor in his voice? A glance at his face told her she must have imagined it because he was glaring at her. “Oh shit. Right. Sorry.” She took it back, opened the GPS app, and then handed it to him. “Siri will tell us what to do. You can just follow along and make sure she’s right. She makes mistakes.”
“Who the fuck is Siri?”
Blair grinned wider. “She’s the woman in the phone. You can ask her anything. She knows everything. But do that later. Right now, we need her to get us to the cabin.”
“Fuck me.” He stared at her cell in his hand, and this time she was fairly certain he cracked a smile. Schooling his face back to his scowl, he said, “I thought the cabin part of this saga was a ruse.”
“Nope. The cabin really exists. It just doesn’t belong to Temple. It’s actually mine. And you’re going to love it.” Blair backed the Jeep up and pulled onto the road, heading the opposite direction as Ryan.
“You have a cabin? How far away is it?”
“Yep. It’s only about fifteen minutes from the bunker. Ryan drove us around in circles to make sure we weren’t followed. I bought it about four years ago when I realized there was a good chance I would remain assigned to the bunker for longer than a normal assignment. Thought it would be nice to have some place to get away.”
“Won’t you be just as easily located as Temple would have been?”
“Nope. I’ve never told anyone I owned it. Not until yesterday, that is. And I only told Ryan where it was located. Keeping it simple. The less people informed, the less likely we are to be discovered.” She kept her hands on the wheel and tried not to grip it too hard while she explained herself.
Dade made her fucking nervous the way she could feel his expression piercing her with that damn scowl.
She continued, intent on pretending he wasn’t so irate. “I was standing in the hallway while you spoke with Ryan and Emily about your condition. When you mentioned your bucket list.”
“Eavesdropping?” Great. Now he was pissed.
She shot him a glance. “No. I was assigned to guard your room. Don’t be a dick. It’s not necessary.”
He eased back and faced the front. “Why did I need a fucking bodyguard inside the bunker? I still don’t understand that part.”
She pursed her lips, not wanting to elaborate on that topic.
A few moments later, he groaned as he set his elbow on the window and turned his head to face the mountains. “You weren’t there to guard me from other people. You were there to guard me from me. Suicide watch.”
He was right. He was also sharper than she anticipated. She needed to remember that.
They rode the rest of the way in silence. It wasn’t far, but Blair drove around several winding roads a few times just in case. She never once saw another vehicle.
When she finally pulled onto the hidden dirt road that led to the cabin, she released a long breath. She loved this hideaway. She loved that it was peaceful and all hers. Until yesterday when Ryan came up to stock the kitchen and check on things, no one had ever been there. This was the first time she would have a guest.
“You weren’t kidding about it being hidden,” Dade commented. “I don’t even know how you saw the turnoff.”
“I’ve been here hundreds of times. I know it by heart. I was impressed that Ryan found it yesterday from my directions. Though I am pretty thorough. I know every turn to the exact tenth of a mile.” She wound her way up the curvy drive until finally pulling to a stop.
Dade tipped his face down a bit to catch a better view of the front. He was so tall that his head was too close to the roof to see well. She watched him as he took in her cabin for the first time.
He wasn’t just tall. He was huge. She imagined he’d been extremely fit and worked out a lot before being vitrified—a term she had learned in recent years meant frozen but without the water crystals that would damage organs. It was amazing how well each of their bodies endured the ten years of preservation. With a little exercise, Dade would be physically back to his usual self in no time.
“Why doesn’t anyone else know about this place? Surely you have at least brought friends up here. Or a man. What about a boyfriend? Husband?” He glanced at her.
She shook her head. “I bought it for the solitude. I don’t like to share it. Ryan was the first person to see it since I’ve owned it.”
He stared at her. “You’re a loner.”
She shrugged. “Not always. But I like to get away. Some military personnel who work at the bunker have places in town. It isn’t mandatory. We have housing scattered around the grounds inside the fence of the facility, but I like to be able to leave for a few days and have a place to go when I’m off.”
He nodded and opened his door, unfolding his huge frame to climb out of the Jeep. “Is this your Jeep?”
“No. I left my car at the bunker in case anyone might recognize it.”
He sauntered toward the front.
For some reason she felt nervous about his first impression. There was no reason to care what he thought of her place, but she did. He was going to live here for the near future. She wanted him to enjoy it. “Does it meet the standards of your first bucket list item?”
He stopped walking, hands tucked in his coat pockets, his breath coming out in puffs of clouds, his head tipped back to take in the entire cabin. “Haven’t seen the inside yet,” he murmured.
She pursed her lips in frustration, but relaxed when he turned around and shot her one of his half smiles. A devastating look that would melt most women on the spot. She’d seen it a few times now.
“Kidding. It’s amazing.” He looked away and continued walking toward the front door.
Blair took a moment to see the place through his eyes. It was rustic on the outside, intentionally built that way to blend in with nature. Nothing but logs and wood finish. Even the porch was made of logs. The porch swing too. It swayed slightly in the wind as she followed Dade.
He leaned against the log siding as she unlocked the door and then opened it. The alarm beeped, and she turned to the panel to disarm it. After flipping on the lights, she stepped out of the way. “Home sweet home.”
Dade followed her inside, shutting the door behind him. “We didn’t bring a thing with us.” He frowned.
She kept walking through the front room, opening the curtains and then adjusting the thermostat. “Ryan dropped off everything you’ll need yesterday. He stocked the guest room with clothes and whatever shit men need.” She shot him a grin, trying to lighten the mood.
He was going to be a tough man to crack. And she was assuredly not the right person to do the job. Her experiences with men were limited. Mostly they never lived up to her standards, so she didn’t give them the time of day. Or maybe no one could ever live up to her standards. The walls around her heart were high.
She had dated some when she was younger, but she’d found that a woman who joined the army right out of high school was looked at differently most of the time.
She didn’t care what other people thought. She had been a bitter, damaged, angry teenager. Joining the army had been the best thing she could have done for herself. It had turned her into someone she was proud of. After serving her country for ten years, she never looked back with regret.
“Why did you agree to this?” Dade asked, shocking her.
She headed for the kitchen next, pondering how she wanted to answer his question. She wasn’t completely sure what to tell him. She wasn’t even sure if she knew the answer. She peered in the fridge to find it fully stocked. That
was good. Not that she doubted Ryan.
Finally, she turned around and leaned against the counter, crossing her legs at the ankles and meeting Dade’s intense stare. “It’s my job. I’m good at it. I’ve been on protection detail for a lot of people in the last seventeen years.”
“Huh, you don’t look old enough to have served that long.”
“I get that a lot. I’m thirty-five. I joined right out of high school. Served ten years. Got out. Took a job at the bunker. Been there seven years. Pretty boring resume.”
He nodded. “I doubt that. I would have put you closer to thirty. We’re the same age, then. Technically.”
“Which is strange since you were born a decade before me. I’m still getting used to all you people waking up in bodies that have not aged.”
She decided to elaborate a bit while he wandered around her living space, taking in what she had perfected over the years. “I was in the room with Ryan and Emily when Ryan realized you were not going to be able to receive the cure for AP12. In order to keep the details of your existence and whereabouts limited to as few people as possible, it was logical to assign me to protect you.”
“I see.” He didn’t look at her, but kept wandering. He picked up various items and set them back down, but she didn’t think he really saw them.
“Come on. I’ll show you the rest.” She shoved off the counter and spread her arm. “Kitchen, of course. I changed very little about the cabin when I bought it. I fell in love with the modern simplicity hidden in the rustic look of wood cabinets and floors and furniture. The previous owner sold it to me with the furniture included. I replaced a few things over the years, but most of it was already here.”
He didn’t respond.
She headed for the entrance to the hallway, pointing to the left as she arrived. “Master bedroom.” She then pointed to the next door on the left and said, “Workout room.” Across from it, she indicated, “Bathroom.” And finally, first door on the right. “Guest bedroom. I’ll let you have the master since the bed is king-sized. You’d be dwarfed in the smaller queen bed that’s in the guest bedroom.”
Reviving Dade Page 3
