by Debra Webb
Chapter Eleven
French Quarter
Unspecified Location
His creations were spectacular.
Even equipped with night vision and every other advantage imaginable, his men had failed to capture the two seers.
Galen had watched the thermal imaging scan as the mission played out. The male had simply disappeared into thin air, along with the female.
But they had been there, right under the noses of his men.
Impossible, his team leader had exclaimed. Body heat, wherever they had hidden, would have been picked up by the scan. There had to have been an underground escape route, he had insisted.
But Galen had surveyed the location personally, had walked the area, ending up right back where he’d started without an answer. Then he’d known. He’d crouched down on the bank and dipped his hand into the water. Even now, he had to smile at the ingenuity of the male’s strategy.
The water.
The seers had hidden beneath the murky surface of the water. At this time of year, the temperature was certainly cool enough to drop body temperature beneath the scan’s search setting.
Each of the Enforcers was a phenomenon in his own right. Whatever gene manipulation man attempted, each human was individual and the result varied. Therefore, each one created had evolved with his own special skill set. All were physically and mentally superior to the rest of mankind. But he had to admit that the one called Aidan amazed him with his gift of elevated sensory perceptions. The female could be every bit as good; she merely lacked the essential training.
What a magnificent pair they would make. He wondered what kind of offspring they would produce. There was no precedent for breeding among the Enforcers, though he suspected the country’s esteemed leader would produce the first. Still, the superior genes of the original Enforcer Cain would be diluted by her lesser genetic code. Galen was not interested in that avenue.
He wanted perfection. Aidan appeared as close to perfect as could be achieved with current technology and without converting to machine augmentation. The seer was both beautiful and powerful. His strength surprised even Galen. His intelligence level dazzled. He would not be easy to capture. And yet, he was capable of being distracted.
His growing obsession with the female—the one who had been created to be his mate—was proof positive. Galen smiled. He would lay odds that Aidan had no idea that the only reason a female had been designed was for future breeding potential. Special training and intensive bonding sessions had been included in their early education. The female, of course, would not remember those sessions since she had been deemed a failure and her memory wiped. He imagined that even if she remembered parts of her training, there would be skips in her logic since she had worked so hard against her teachers.
Somehow, she had realized that failure to cooperate was her ticket to freedom. Galen turned that concept over in his mind. How could she have known that freedom existed in any capacity outside Center’s walls?
Like any scientist, he had encountered instances where unexplainable knowledge or recall had been excused by the theory of genetic memories. How did an individual born and living in contemporary times recall vividly the exact details of an incident that occurred hundreds of years prior?
Galen gave no credence to such occurrences. However, that this female seer could have known that a world outside Center existed before her training had exposed her to that data defied any other explanation.
That issue might very well remain a mystery. The matter did not particularly concern him. He had only one priority at this point—capturing the two seers.
The Collective and Center had taken everything from him…had left him with nothing. He could envision no way to regain his former status and certainly would never be able to reassemble the Concern, the new organization he had secretly built after being shunned by the Collective and Center. He was on his own.
At the very least, he could start his new venture with his two greatest creations. The male would fight him, try to eliminate him. But Galen knew his one weakness now. He would exploit that.
And the female. Well, her containment would be a simple matter. She had many weaknesses. But he would see that she received the proper training to alleviate those inadequacies. Already he had set the plan in motion.
Soon she would realize she really had no choice in the matter. He wasn’t worried about Center’s involvement. He felt certain the male would not want to risk her elimination, which would most certainly be ordered in light of what Galen suspected. He wondered what Darby Shepard would think if she discovered that her hero—her lover—had been sent to determine whether or not she should continue to exist.
Very soon he would know all he wanted to about her.
Already he’d left her a gift.
Château Garden Apartments
Garden District
AIDAN SURVEYED the headlines of the Times-Picayune, as well as several other local newspapers, to see what had been reported about the discovery near Lester’s swamp habitat.
As he perused the numerous articles that related much and verified little, he also listened to the conversation between Darby and the Shepard family attorney, Mr. Thomas. She’d called his office and he’d agreed to come by this evening.
“I’m sorry I can’t help you, Darby,” Thomas was saying. “Your father handled the adoption personally. The only thing I did was review the contract for him. I had my reservations, as any attorney would, about that kind of private, closed adoption, but it worked out, didn’t it?” He smiled warmly at Darby.
She managed a faint smile in return. “Yes, sir, it did. I guess I was just curious.” She sighed wistfully. “After all this time, I don’t suppose it really matters.” She leveled a hopeful look on the older man. “Did you keep a copy of the contract at your office?”
“I didn’t.” He shrugged. “It was a personal venture so I didn’t bother keeping a copy. Surely your father kept the original.”
“I couldn’t find anything even remotely related to my adoption.”
“I wish I could do more, but unfortunately I don’t know much of anything about it.” Mr. Thomas pushed to his feet. “Please don’t hesitate to call me in the future, my dear.” He patted her on the back as she walked with him to the door. “I assure you I’m generally a good deal more useful than this.”
Darby laughed, the sound pleasing to the ear but hollow. “I appreciate you stopping by.”
The attorney gave her a fatherly hug. “Call me again soon. Don’t let so much time pass next time.” He glanced in Aidan’s direction. “Good to meet you, Agent Tanner.”
Aidan nodded. Every instinct told him that the other shoe was about to drop.
Thomas hesitated when he would have gone out the door, a frown furrowed his brow. “There was one thing,” he said to Darby. He shook his head then, disgusted with the effects of aging. “I’d almost forgotten.”
Tension vibrated through Aidan, but he kept his gaze focused on the newspapers spread in front of him on the dining table.
“Anything you remember might prove useful,” Darby urged, her tone hopeful.
Aidan could feel her holding her breath. She wanted to know the details of her past, now more so than before.
Even in the short time that he had known her, he’d sensed the restlessness growing inside her. It was easy to see that as soon as the business with Lester was over, she would focus more fully on learning the truth about where she’d come from. Though he doubted any real success would come of her enthusiasm, the Collective, O’Riley in particular, would not see it from that prospective. They would only see what they wanted to see, which was a confirmed risk.
Her elimination would be ordered.
No margin for error.
Aidan couldn’t let that happen.
His jaw hardened and his hands clenched into fists.
He had to find a way to protect her from Galen as well as the Collective. She was a part of him. Despite the gaps in his memory of the
ir time together, he sensed how close they had been. Knew on some level that they had been created for each other. Now that connection was complete on a physical level. The mental connection grew more solid with each passing hour. He’d sealed his fate when he’d made her his this morning. That intimate bonding had completed him in a way that left no doubt as to what he must do.
He would not allow her to be harmed…no matter the price.
“There was a gentleman your father dealt with,” Thomas said as he stroked his chin thoughtfully. “An Irish name, as I recall. O’Riley.” He nodded, his eyes narrowing as he rolled the name around in his mind. “Yes. Richard O’Riley. But he was only the courier. Your father never dealt directly with your biological parents.” He chuckled. “I’d completely forgotten that name.” With a shrug he added, “They say memory is the first thing to go.”
Darby tiptoed and kissed his cheek. “Thank you so much for your help.”
Aidan returned his attention to the newspapers as she promised to keep in touch and closed and locked the door behind her departing visitor. That she now knew O’Riley’s name was a serious breach of security. Even he couldn’t ignore that, despite how badly he wanted to. What he couldn’t understand was why O’Riley would have used his real name. It didn’t make sense. The infraction actually started with him. Aidan certainly wouldn’t need to point out that error in judgment. O’Riley would know and that knowledge might very well cost both Darby and her old friend Mr. Thomas their lives.
Darby considered the information Howard Thomas had relayed as she locked the door behind him. Richard O’Riley. Oddly the name sounded familiar. She didn’t see how it could, but maybe she’d heard her father say it at some point in her life. Though she doubted that. He and her mother never, ever spoke of her life before or of the adoption. She had assumed it pained them to be reminded that she was not biologically their child. But it shouldn’t have because she couldn’t have loved them more.
As far as she was concerned, her biological parents were nothing more than the sperm and egg donors. Her only reason for looking into her past was the fear of the “men in white coats” that loomed over her life.
She wanted to put that anxiety to rest.
A smile stretched across her mouth and those troubling thoughts vanished when her gaze settled on Aidan. She did so love to look at him. A rush of heat surged through her as her mind replayed their lovemaking. Nothing she had ever experienced had even come close to making her feel so alive. He completed her in a way that still boggled her mind. She knew almost nothing about him and yet she trusted him with every fiber of her being.
He was her soul mate.
She hadn’t really believed in soul mates before. At least, not one for her. It wasn’t that she’d been unpopular in high school or college or even in the past four years as an independent, wage-earning single woman. She just hadn’t made herself available, she supposed. Reserved and selective defined her attitude toward the opposite sex for the most part. Though, in reality, the whole reserved-selective thing was more about being shy. Her old schoolmates would laugh if they heard that. Darby Shepard was not afraid of anything, they would insist. She represented the only one of their group who would walk through a cemetery at night all alone and not suffer the slightest twinge of discomfort, much less fright.
Fearless, determined—those were the words her friends had used to describe her as they’d autographed one another’s school yearbooks.
Fear hadn’t really had anything to do with her shyness with boys and men, she now knew. It was more about patience and the subconscious sense of certainty that the right man would come along.
And now he had.
She felt, without reservation, that Aidan was the only man for her. She shivered as memories of his kisses, of his plunging deep inside her, invaded her mental discussion with herself. No way would sex ever be that right with anyone else. She almost shook her head, but resisted the impulse since he might notice. Not just sex. Lovemaking. They’d made love.
“There is no mention of you in any of the articles related to…what happened,” he said, breaking into her thoughts. The mere sound of his voice washed over her like a soothing balm, made her yearn to feel his arms around her again.
“Detective Willis assured me he would keep my name out of the case from now on.” She was glad he’d lived up to his promise.
“According to the Times-Picayune, it will be a while before the identities of the remains are confirmed.”
Darby thought of the parents and how they would have to wait longer still to know…but she knew already. Those were the lost children. She prayed that they would soon be returned home. A whole different kind of shiver raced over her when she thought of Lester. She also prayed that he was dead as she sensed he was. He didn’t deserve to live. Not for another day…not even another hour. And then she thought of the missing officer.
“Did they find the other officer?” she asked, hoping against hope he was still alive.
“Not yet.” Aidan moved away from the table and toward her. “I see no reason why they would keep his recovery a secret. He’s likely still out there somewhere.”
Close to death.
The words echoed in Darby’s skull. She closed her eyes against it, didn’t want to know it.
“It may be too late by the time they find him,” Aidan said, confirming the awful premonition she’d just experienced.
She turned away from him, hugged her arms around herself. “I don’t want to think about it.” She closed her eyes and repressed the memories that tried to surface. “I don’t want to think about any of it.” Running for their lives in the swamp…hiding underwater…finding the children. She just couldn’t bear to think about it anymore.
His arms came around her and he pulled her close, somehow knowing just what she needed at that moment. To feel his strength…his love for her.
Love.
She stilled. Her eyes opened and she clung to him, keeping her face pressed to his chest, afraid to let him see what was in her eyes. Afraid he would read her mind as he always seemed to do. But he did care deeply for her. She felt it in her heart. Yet, she wondered if she could trust her heart. It was the same one that had allowed her to fall in love with a stranger.
A stranger who’d saved her life, she added.
He held her close for a long while, not speaking, not allowing the moment to become sexual. It was about comfort and safety…nothing more.
Eventually, he broke the silence. “Was your Mr. Thomas’s visit helpful?”
She pulled back and looked into his eyes. “I don’t know.” A frown nagged at her brow. “The name Richard O’Riley feels somehow familiar to me but that may be coincidence. I may have had a student with that name or I could have met someone in college briefly.” She shrugged. “It’s just one of those vague kind of feelings.”
“What do you plan to do now? There doesn’t seem to be a real direction for you to take.”
One hand was rubbing her back, slowly, soothingly. It felt so good, made her want to forget about adoptions and men in white coats or those named Richard O’Riley.
She sighed, suddenly weary. But then, they’d scarcely slept last night and this morning’s lovemaking workout had been a hell of a cardio adventure.
“I wish I knew where to go from here.” She thought about the few pieces of information she had, the name O’Riley and the fact that the adoption had been a private business deal. That really wasn’t much to go on. Definitely no direction, as Aidan said.
She tilted her head back and looked at the man who now owned her fragile heart. “Who do you think those men were last night?” She didn’t have to specify which men she meant. He knew. The ones they’d been running for their lives from.
“Not Lester, not the police.” He lifted one shoulder in a casual shrug. “I have no idea. Perhaps poachers whose territory we’d stumbled into.”
She supposed that could be true, but then again he’d mentioned some pretty high-tech gea
r. Poachers didn’t usually walk around equipped with night vision and thermal scans. She wasn’t even certain what the latter was.
“But you were worried that they might have night vision or thermal scans. That doesn’t sound like your typical poacher,” she countered, putting voice to her thought.
His expression closed instantly. The change was so abrupt it startled her.
“That was just a guess,” he pointed out. “I have no idea who those men were, only that they represented a threat of some sort.”
He was lying.
The realization rocked through her like a devastating earthquake, shattering her hopes and deflating her dreams. It damaged her somehow, made her want to cry when she’d remained fairly stoic through all of this. It wasn’t fair. She wanted to keep trusting him, wanted to believe in him. But he had just lied to her. She knew it with utter certainty.
“Let’s sit,” he offered, tugging her toward the sofa. “We’ll sort through this. You tell me everything you remember about your life before you came to live with the Shepards.”
Somehow he tugged her thoughts away from the worry of whether or not she should still trust him. He urged and soothed until she repeated what she’d already told him about the men in the white coats, doctors maybe. All the poking and prodding, tests of some sort. He listened without comment, his expression never altering from that neutral one he’d adopted the moment she questioned him about the men who’d been chasing them last night.
“The only other thing is the word Center,” she concluded. “Whether it means anything or not, I don’t know. Instinct tells me it’s a place…a clinic or something like that. But I can’t remember any more than that.”
He nodded, then inclined his head to the right. “Have you remembered these details more recently or have you known them all along?”
She thought about that for a bit before answering. “I think I’ve known some of it all along, but other parts become clearer in the dreams.”
“You dream about this place called Center and the men in the white coats?”
“Yes. Not often, but once in a while.”
