Leaning against the bar, Lewis scanned the crowd. “So, what's new with the Committee and my beloved cousin Derek, the ever-loyal arch enemy?”
Oliver hadn’t expected such a blatant move. “You don’t seriously expect me to talk Committee with you now?”
“Ehhh,” Lewis wagged a finger at him. “I had to give it a try, right?”
Oliver fought hard to keep his irritation in check. “Despite my injuries, I agreed to accompany Luna here. Not only because this is where we spent our honeymoon.” He almost choked on the last word and had to clear his throat. “But because we are trying to be civil despite what you’ve done to other GVs and me in the past.”
Lewis placed his empty glass on the counter and lifted both his hands in a placating way. “My bad. I certainly appreciate your willingness to move past these unfortunate events.”
Oliver’s instinct told him to keep away from Lewis, but Lewis loved to hear himself talk, and judging by his slurred words, he’d clearly had more than his share of champagne. Maybe he’d overshare. It was worth a shot.
Lewis heaved his body onto a wooden barstool next to Oliver. “What we did was for the good of our nation. But I admit we did wrong by you.” Lewis snapped his fingers at the bartender and pointed at his empty glass.
The bartender popped a new bottle of champagne and filled the glass. Before he could take the bottle with him again, Lewis interjected, “Leave the bottle here.” After another sip of bubbly liquid, Lewis lifted his shoulders. “Can you believe GovCorp is turning forty tomorrow?” His eyes glazed over, and he quickly emptied the glass just to refill it. “And it’s been twenty years now since the government was so enthralled by our innovative approach that they bought into our Hayes Lewis Group and we renamed it GovCorp.” He sighed, staring out at the moonlit shoreline. “What a proud day for our family.”
The last thing Oliver needed was a history lesson, so he added dryly, “And then it all went to shit. I’ll drink to that.” He gulped down his last swig of beer, half turned and lifted the empty bottle so the bartender could bring a new one.
A sly smile lifted Lewis’s lips as he nodded haughtily to Oliver. “We made mistakes, and we’ll keep trying to make amends.” He raised his glass, obviously waiting for Oliver to do the same. Gritting his teeth, Oliver lifted his new bottle in a halfhearted attempt to keep Lewis talking. Maybe something useful would eventually tumble from his lips.
It only took one more glass of champagne and Lewis started rambling on. “It was the only logical decision for the government to give control of the GInVitro battalions to GovCorp. We had created you. We had the training facilities, labs, and rehabilitation facilities.” A deep line divided his eyebrows. “And everything would have worked out just fine if those cowardly politicians wouldn't have put their tails between their legs when GovCorp decided to show the world which nation was on top. Our vision could have brought the US unprecedented prosperity and would have granted us unlimited access to the world's resources. Instead, those spineless idiots took us out of the driver’s seat.”
Oliver huffed. “You mean you. The government took you out of the driver’s seat.”
Lewis sucked in a deep breath, turning toward Oliver. “We haven’t treated you right, but we could have changed that.”
Oliver couldn’t take Lewis’s pathetic little pity party any longer. They both knew Lewis would never have dreamt of changing a thing if the new government hadn’t taken over and degraded him to deputy director. They both knew all too well that even though GovCorp had been forbidden to work on any further military projects, Lewis still had enough latitude and resources to continue his shady dealings. GovCorp’s newly discovered connection to the Mexican drug cartels and weapon’s dealers was only one example.
Lewis’s phone vibrated, and he pulled it from the front pocket of his open shirt and pressed it to his ear. His brow furrowed. “I’ll call you right back.”
He nodded at Oliver. “Enjoy your evening.” In passing, he shoved his barstool into Oliver’s lower back.
Searing pain shot through Oliver’s kidney, and before he could think straight, his hands wrapped around Lewis’s neck in reflex.
Lewis gasped, and a man Oliver hadn’t noticed before aimed a small caliber firearm at his face.
“You better let go of Mr. Lewis.” The man scowled. “Right this moment.”
Shit. However bad Oliver had thought this trip might go, physically attacking Lewis on their first night was about as messed up as it could get.
An alarmed murmur rose from the direction of the bar, and Luna’s heart almost stopped. Lewis’s bodyguard pulled a weapon and aimed it at Oliver. A cold chill ran down her spine as she realized that Oliver’s hands were wrapped around Lewis’s throat.
Oh God, no. Almost bumping into a colleague, she hurried toward the bar. But Oliver was already letting go of Lewis.
For a tense moment, she could only hear her own heartbeat pulsing in her ears.
Coughing, Lewis held out a hand to his bodyguard. “Put that gun away.”
As soon as Oliver had taken a few steps back, Luna rushed to his side, never taking her eyes off the man by Lewis’s side who slowly holstered his weapon.
Luna checked to the left and right, but to her relief, not too many people had witnessed Oliver’s outbreak.
Lewis cleared his throat. “Everything is fine. This was my fault.” He turned toward Oliver. “I apologize. I didn’t mean to cause you further pain.” He sounded more amused than sincere.
Oliver’s jaw muscles flexed, but he gave Lewis a curt nod. “No, I’m sorry. I overreacted.” He pointed up at their suite. “I think it’s best I call it a night. I need rest.”
“It probably is.” Lewis seemed almost content as he motioned his bodyguard to follow, and they disappeared into the hotel.
Oliver grabbed Luna’s hand and pretty much pulled her along with him to the elevator bank. Cursing her heels, she tried to keep up with him. They stepped into an empty car, and as soon as the doors glided shut, Oliver let go of her hand and rested his forehead against the wall. He touched his lower back and moaned.
His open display of pain set off alarm bells in her head. “Let me check.” He didn’t protest as she carefully lifted the hem of his shirt and inspected his wound. “Nothing reopened, but the wound is angry red.”
Back inside the suite, Luna asked. “What happened down there?”
Oliver cursed. “Lewis shoved his barstool into my back.”
Luna slipped out of her heels and took the padded cooling container with the syringes from Oliver’s bag. “Do you think Lewis did it on purpose? To test if you’re really injured.”
Oliver slipped out of his shirt and flung it on the couch. “Probably. I should have stayed away from him. I should have known he would latch on to every opportunity to agitate me.”
Luna held out one of the syringes to Oliver. “You need another shot.”
Shaking his head, Oliver passed her on the way to the bathroom. “I won’t take that shit anymore. You see what it does to me. I can’t believe I lost it down there—not that the bastard didn’t deserve it.” He quickly checked the wound in the bathroom’s full-length mirror. “And you see what I do to you when I take it.”
Although that episode at the bar had sobered her up a little, she was still dizzy, so she sat down on the bed. “Don’t stop taking your shots on my behalf. I’ll be fine. I shouldn’t have drunk so much. Just forget the stupid tears from earlier.”
Oliver pushed off the wall and passed her on his way to the other side of the bed. Shaking his head, he grabbed the bottle of painkillers from the nightstand. “Too much of a risk. Painkillers will have to do.” He disappeared into the bathroom again, and soon after, she could hear the shower running.
Luna placed the syringe back into its container and sighed. Oliver already went through so much because of her. She didn’t want him having to add physical pain to the list. She peeled out of her dress and slipped into a short nightshir
t before she slipped under the covers. At home, she always used to sleep in her panties, but as things were right now, Oliver probably wouldn’t much appreciate it.
After a few minutes, he came back out of the bathroom, wearing only black boxer briefs. Water dripped to the floor as he scrubbed the towel over his head once more before he tossed it back onto the bathroom floor.
He crawled under the sheets but stayed on the far edge of the bed, staring up at the ceiling.
Propping herself up on her elbow, she whispered, “How is your back?”
“Better.”
“I’m sorry for earlier. I promise I won’t drink anymore as long as we’re here.”
He turned on his stomach, probably to give his aching back a rest. “We both screwed up. Just try and sleep off the alcohol.”
Moaning sounds echoed from the neighboring room, gradually increasing in volume. Judging from the bumping sounds against the wall, the couple next door was obviously getting it on.
“Oh, come on.” Oliver jumped out of bed again.
Fuming, he grabbed a pair of board shorts from his travel bag and pulled them on. “I can’t be here right now.” With a string of deft curses, he stalked out of their suite.
Luna sat up and hugged her knees. If the circumstances were different, she would have probably found the whole scene funny. Right now, it only intensified the desperation curling through her stomach. If she could have only found another way to save her sister.
Somehow, she’d done everything wrong.
As the moaning and wailing on the other side of the wall intensified, she slipped out of her shirt and panties again and went into the bathroom.
She turned on the water in the giant luxury shower, and as multiple body sprays splashed water across her skin, she wished she could just rinse away her guilt and send it down the drain. She had secretly hoped that the forced proximity would somehow lead to a second chance for her and Oliver. But she realized that she had to stay as far away from him as she possibly could, or they wouldn’t make it through the retreat without Lewis calling their bluff.
The following morning, Oliver watched Luna applying sunscreen to her face. He tried hard to ignore how the orange of the rising sun in the background couldn’t compete with the glow of her satiny skin, but it was a futile endeavor.
“Your outburst yesterday might actually have an upside. I’m pretty sure it has already made the round to everyone.” She rubbed the excess fluid on her arms and grabbed her sunglasses from the corner desk.
Oliver stepped out on the balcony. “And how is that a good thing?”
She tilted her head and followed him. “It gives you the perfect excuse not to take part in any of the scheduled activities. Nobody will question that you need rest, and Lewis might stay off our backs now. Or at least off yours.”
Oliver huffed. “He’d better.”
She rested her forearms on the balustrade next to him. “I warned him that I couldn’t guarantee your behavior if he insisted I convince you to come. He knew you were on strong medication with unpleasant side effects.” She lifted her hands. “So, maybe you should just go on taking the shots.”
Oliver turned to look her in the eyes. “I got a free pass last night. I doubt Lewis will let me attack him another time.” He suppressed the urge to tuck a stray lock behind her ear. “And I don’t want to hurt you again. I just want to get through this retreat without any more screwups.”
Luna bit her lower lip and let her gaze roam the turquoise ocean. She looked almost exactly the same as in one of his fake memories. The knee-length dress had been a lighter green than the one she wore today, but otherwise, the similarity of the scene almost took his breath away. He blinked to eject the memory from his mind. “So, where are you headed today?”
“We’re visiting a children’s hospital GovCorp is sponsoring, and afterward there’s a tour of a rum distillery.” Without much enthusiasm, she checked her phone. “I got to go.” She touched his elbow in passing, and he followed her back inside the suite. “If everything goes according to our itinerary, we should be back in the late afternoon.”
Wiggling her feet into a pair of flat sandals that matched the color of her dress, she slung her purse over her shoulder before she disappeared through the door.
Oliver had tried to rest in the morning, but he couldn’t stand staying in the suite that evoked so many mixed feelings in him. He had just finished lunch at the terrace restaurant when he received a text from Luna. She’d overheard Lewis on the phone. He’d be coming back to the hotel and then would go somewhere else to meet somebody. She didn’t get names but had a feeling the meeting was imported to Lewis.
Oliver walked over to the open coffee bar, where he had a good view of the lobby, and sat down at one of the small glass and wicker tables. About ten minutes later, Lewis appeared. He spoke to somebody at the front desk before he turned and left the building again. Following him out into the parking lot, Oliver watched as Lewis drove off in one of the hotel’s white rental sedans.
The fact that he opted for a rental car instead of a taxi and left all on his own was more than suspicious. Oliver signaled an autonomous taxi at the entrance, and the vehicle backed up until it came to a halt in front of Oliver. He got into the back seat and commanded the vehicle to follow Lewis’s car at a safe distance.
After only a few minutes’ drive inland, Lewis stopped at an old sugar cane factory. Oliver told the taxi to wait behind a row of old shipping containers off to the right of the premises. His spyware app detected no drones but several security cameras. The app was able to scramble the camera feed so nobody would recognize him, but they would still see that somebody was on the premises. Which only left him with the old-school approach of trying to avoid the cameras’ angles altogether. He snapped a couple of photos of the location before he sneaked closer to the entrance. So far, he couldn’t make out any security personnel, and Lewis’s car was the only vehicle in the parking lot.
Suddenly, the metal door to the building swung open again.
He barely managed to duck around the corner, pressing himself flat against the wall. He heard Lewis quietly talking about genetic codes with somebody whose voice Oliver didn’t recognize. Then Lewis’s voice boomed. “And, Fry, make sure this can’t be traced back to us.”
Then silence, followed by footsteps. Oliver edged closer to the corner and risked a quick peek. Lewis got back into his rental car, and a man Oliver hadn’t seen before got into the passenger seat. Crouching behind a bush, Oliver waited until Lewis passed him, leaving a dust cloud in his wake. He recognized the man as one of GovCorp’s scientists, but it wasn’t Fry.
Waiting for the nearest camera’s angle to change, Oliver paced along the side of the building. Had Lewis only talked to Fry on the phone or could Fry actually be inside the building? If Fry were inside, Oliver would’ve liked nothing more than to stay and wait for him to leave so he could grab him. The scientist wasn’t only key to finding and curing Lexi, Oliver needed him to restore his original memories and erase all the bullshit they’d been replaced with.
But Lewis was probably heading back to the resort, which meant Oliver had no choice but to return too. He couldn’t screw up again. And if Fry was here working on some secret project, it was more important to figure out what Lewis and the scientist had in store. Maybe it had something to do with the stolen research of Fry’s predecessor, Prof. Anderson. Whatever the late head of GovCorp’s military research program had worked on, it was dangerous enough that Anderson knew the US government would never use it. Dangerous enough to sell it to one of the US’s many enemy nations for big bucks.
The Committee had always suspected that Fry grabbed Anderson’s work, but so far, they didn’t know if Lewis was somehow involved or if he’d been truthful when he claimed he had no idea about Anderson’s plans. But the way it looked now, Lewis might be in on it after all.
Seething that he had to let go of this opportunity to possibly get his hands on Fry, Oliver sneaked back to t
he taxi and rode in the hotel’s direction. Against Dr. Bergmann’s orders he got out of the cab two miles from the resort and started jogging back to the hotel at a speed his kidney would allow. He needed to keep his adrenaline level low so he could think straight. Tonight, he’d have to try his best to see if any of the other research scientists or lab staff were somehow involved.
“Oliver?” The sun was already low on the horizon as Luna’s voice prompted him to rise from the love seat on the balcony and step inside the suite. She’d texted him an hour earlier that they wouldn’t be back before dinner, but now it was already past nine.
The door clicked shut behind Luna as she dropped her purse on the floor. With a long sigh, she sat down on the bed, shucked her sandals, and rubbed at her eyes. “God, I thought this trip would never end. Lewis rejoined us in the afternoon and insisted on visiting an old plantation.”
He sat down next to her. “I followed Lewis out to an abandoned sugar cane factory. Fry might be on the island.”
Her eyes went wide as she pulled her legs up on the bed and faced him. “Are you serious?”
“I’m not sure. Something’s going on at that old factory, but I don’t know what it is. For an office or a black lab site, there isn’t enough security. But what I know is I heard him speaking to Fry either on the phone or in person.” Oliver pressed his lips together as frustration crept through him. “I wish I could operate here. But if he so much as suspects I’m following him, we can just as well fly back to GovCorp City.”
Luna opened her high ponytail and raked a hand through her hair. “We should call Derek.”
The words hardly registered with Oliver. She smelled so damn good. Inhaling the heady mix of sun-soaked skin and coconut, he leaned closer.
Luna tilted her head and searched his eyes. “Are you okay? How’s your back?”
“It’s fine.” He straightened his back a little too fast, and his kidney reminded him painfully that this wasn’t one of its favorite moves. “I’ll call Derek tonight, but I want to mingle with some of the lab staff first, see if they know anything about Fry. If they’re going to be as drunk as they were yesterday, I might be able to get one of them to talk.”
Adrenaline Heat Page 10
