by Marie Harte
Turning off her computer, she grabbed the knife and rolling pin and went to bed, cursing Alex the whole time. This was his fault, all his fault. It would never have happened if he had just stayed away. He had brought all this trouble with him, and now Noelle was in danger, her baby…baby.
Eve sat on the side of the bed. She had forgotten about the woman Alex was trying to save. Jillian. Alex had said she might as well shoot Jillian herself if she didn’t help him. She was pregnant. And she was alone, right now with a killer searching for her.
Shame pressed down onto her shoulders, and though she was alone, Eve was embarrassed. She was acting so selfishly, worrying about herself when Jillian must be in a constant state of fear, which wasn’t good, considering her condition. That poor girl was waiting for Alex to save her and she was waiting for Alex to…what?
What would he do? She placed the knife under her pillow, the rolling pin on the bedside table Alex used to sit against and slid under the covers. There was no way Alex would be jumping out of bed anytime soon. Though he was strong and was able to heal Cade’s wounds it would still have taken a toll. He needed to rest. She still had time. But time for what? She flicked off the light and rested back on the pillow, she lifted her arm above her head, automatically.
What could she do, run away? Alex would find her. She believed that now. There would be no safe place for her and Noelle to hide if Alex wanted to find them.
* * * *
After the trip to the window and back, Alex hadn’t been able to jump anywhere, let alone out of bed, until the next morning. He’d stared at the ceiling most of the night as the nurses and doctors had fussed over the new body he owned, checking vitals, taking blood samples, asking him a million questions. And just when he had thought it was over and he’d get some time to rest…in came the cops.
He was told about Justine’s death by an older, hard looking man, who he guessed was his ‘boss’. It was hard showing any type of grief towards his ‘wife’s’ death. He’d only known Justine when she had been dead, and though she was quite the smart mouth, she had also been very likeable. He also knew she was now with Cade and that both were happy. So he opted to keep his head down when he was given the bad news.
He silently listened to the condolences and the promises. They would catch the perp responsible for blowing the tyre of the old guy’s truck and he was ordered to take as much time as he needed to recover. Alex stiffened. “How did the tyre blow?”
Trevor, Cade’s partner, who had black eyes, a bald head and a red goatee looked to his boss and received a nod. “The delivery truck that hit you and Justine had blown a tyre. Stan, a veteran trucker, kept saying that he didn’t understand how that could have happened because he checks his truck daily and had been present when new tyres were installed just two weeks before. He kept on and on about something not being right with the tyres.” Trevor sighed. “He was so damn persistent that I did some digging. As it turns out Stan’s gut feeling was right. The lab checked the tyres and the air pressure had been lowered on the left side enough to cause the truck to become unstable but not enough for the driver to notice.”
Alex shook his head. “That wouldn’t be enough for a veteran driver to lose control.”
Trevor nodded. “Stan loads his truck at night for his deliveries the next day. All tether straps holding his loads in the back were eaten away.”
“Eaten away?”
Trevor nodded, his red eyebrows lowering over his black eyes. “That’s what they looked like. It was bizarre the lab tests came back with traces of a bunch of different organic chemicals but mainly—”
Salt. Alex thought.
“—salt.”
Trevor went into detail about the organic acid but it was a waste of time. Alex had used that classified compound to remove a few targets himself. He wasn’t familiar with all the chemicals used to create the lethal mix, but he did know it included acids found in nature, a heavy dose of salt acid and a few other things. He also knew that the company that had accidently created the concoction had been forced to close down by the government and all trace of the new organic acid had disappeared from the public’s eye. The blend wasn’t particularly affective on hard surfaces, such as metal but natural materials—the heavy woven cotton straps used to hold down cargo—the acid would eat through in a matter of hours. Ingestion of the acid was faster—only taking a single drop in a glass of water or on food to kill its victim—and because the mix was created from biological ingredients it dissolved in the body with little or no trace.
Alex felt his nostrils flare as he took a deep breath. Why the fuck would Miles kill Cade and Justine? What was happening here? First Miles had wanted to kill Jillian and then he’d killed Justine and put Cade, who was a cop of all things, in a coma. What the hell was the connection? If he didn’t know better he would say Miles was either panicking or enjoying the kill. Alex silently prayed that Miles was panicking, because if the Project found out he was enjoying the kill, Miles would be put on the list, with more than one team targeting him. And then he would never get his chance to hunt Miles himself.
Shit. And into the middle of all this, he had dragged Eve—he had put her in Mile’s line of sight, and knowing Miles, he probably already knew most of her background and where she lived.
Rubbing his face he murmured out loud, “What a fucking mess.”
Trevor gripped his shoulder, like a friend would and tried to comfort him. “We’ll get him, you just take it easy.”
His first instinct, when the cops had entered his room was to bin the job, he didn’t need someone or something getting in his way when he went hunting for Miles. He’d decided against it when they had proved how capable they were by tracing the acid. It had also helped when Trevor handed him a gun and badge. He almost grinned when he saw the two-tone Sig Sauer pistol sitting in his hand. Alex looked up at the man and nodded. His unit was taught to avoid all police forces. They were bound by different laws, defective laws. Yet, with the state he was in, he didn't have much choice. He’d take all the help he could get. Especially, if they were giving out free guns.
* * * *
Sitting on the side of the bed, Alex rested before he forced his new body to take another circuit of the room. His thoughts constantly turning to Eve.
Eve.
He squeezed his jaw when he remembered the fear in her eyes. At first, he’d wondered if it might have been his actions when the other souls responded to her calling. He had only acted so viciously because they’d wanted him to kill her. Something in him had snapped at the idea of anyone or anything hurting her. That’d been when things had become a little hazy, his vision had clouded over and his chest had burned. The glowing eyes and growl had probably been a bit of overkill, but the message had been received. He would not let any of them hurt Eve or take Cade’s empty body.
Flexing his muscles he stood once again and moved around the room, smelling antiseptic, and sickness. He swung his arms over his head and stretched. He felt good. Solid. Alive.
He moved to the bathroom again and looked at himself in the mirror. Cade’s body was in mint shape, a little more muscle mass in the upper body than he was used to, but he’d have no problems adapting. He was taller too, by about two inches, and his hair was a sandy blond and longer than he liked but not bad either. He ran a hand along the side of Cade’s head that still had hair. He needed to shave this off before he went anywhere.
Staring back at the face in the mirror he saw it again. He wasn’t sure if his mind was playing tricks or just plain wishful thinking, but he could see himself. Features that were distinctly his were becoming very apparent. The most obvious were his eyes, the colour and his old scar. He touched the deep scar above his left eye and noticed the bottom half of a tattoo on his right arm. He raised the sleeve of his white T-shirt.
“Holy shit!” he breathed, touching his unit’s insignia tattooed on his arm. He stared back into his own blue eyes, his mind processing the new Intel.
The scar he
’d received from the man he had tracked down and killed for murdering his parents and the tattoo of his unit—both were unique to him. He rubbed the golden stubble on his face, paused then tugged up the hem of his white shirt and pulled it over his head. The cop’s body was well defined and was lightly tanned, different from his own. He spent the majority of his time out at night, when others were at their most vulnerable. Yet the golden torso that was now his, also held tell-tale evidence. Three round scars marked the chest he now owned. A reminder of a friend’s betrayal.
Chapter Sixteen
Three days had passed since Eve had merged Alex into Cade’s body. Three days of her wondering if he was going to leave them alone like he’d said he would, or if he would come ‘knocking on her door’ as he’d put it, feeling she was a liability. The constant fear was driving her crazy—if he was going to come she wished he would get it over with. But she hoped that he would come for a different reason altogether. Her face heated slightly at the idea. There was more than that, she missed him, actually missed his company.
She shook her head and cursed him again as she climbed the stairs to bed. This was becoming a nightly ritual. Working a little, then getting distracted and thinking about Alex, before finally blaming everything on him and carrying her knife and rolling pin to bed.
She reached the top floor, quietly checked on Noelle, then closed her door and walked slowly to her own room. Who was she kidding? He wasn’t coming back. Her stomach dropped like a rock. She came to a halt just inside her room. She needed to come to terms that she had feelings for a murderer and that she might not see him again. “How can I feel that for him it doesn’t make any sense?” she asked out loud.
“Depends on what you’re feeling and who you’re feeling it for,” the voice came from behind her in the hall. Without looking back she jumped into the room reaching for the door blindly behind her in an effort to swing it shut. She then cleared the height of the bed landing in the centre, then quickly turning she faced the door holding out both knife and rolling pin while she shifted back and forth, her feet almost getting tangled in her sheets thanks to her nervous tizzy.
The door opened and Cade…Alex walked into the room. She froze as she stared at him, her mouth dropping open. He was in her house and she hadn’t heard him enter, he had walked behind her almost into her bedroom and probably up the stairs and she hadn’t heard him. A part of her was terrified but there was a part that was happy and excited to see him.
“You’re dropping your rolling pin.” He nodded to her hand. She jerked it up still gawking at him. “Don’t hold the knife like that,” he suggested calmly. “Hold it so it faces up towards your attacker, the movement is harder to stop.”
He slowly closed the door.
She adjusted the knife in her hand.
Alex casually approached the bed and stopped, crossing his arms. “Now,” he began fixing his blue eyes on her. “What feelings are we talking about here? Warm and fuzzy or”—he gave her a wicked grin—“hot and wet?”
Eve felt her mouth drop open again. “I…I… What are you doing here?”
“Rolling pin,” he pointed out.
She jerked it up and pointed it at him. “How did you get in here?” She noticed he had shaved the other side of his head so that his hair was all the same length, and though the stitches were removed she could see the scar running across his head, which looked to be healing nicely. Cade’s body looked good, Alex had done a good job healing it.
“I saw you activate your alarm system at least a dozen times.” He shrugged. “It wouldn’t have mattered though, I would still have gotten in.” Then, straight faced, he divulged, “It’s what I do.”
“Get out!”
“No.” He edged closer to the bed, his gaze trailing over her face.
Eve took a step to the side, keeping a tight grip on the knife and rolling pin. “Please get out.”
“No,” Alex answered with a lop-sided smirk. He stared at her for a few minutes while she thought of a way to get him to leave. Finally, he sighed out loud, “I don’t get you. You’ve bitched about me for three nights now. You want me here, don’t want me here. I’ve caused all the problems and I’m not here to help you and now that I am here, you want me out.”
Eve felt her mouth drop open again and her face burned. “I…I… No I didn’t say that.”
She watched as he took another step closer, she didn’t move this time, just followed his movement.
“Yes you did.” He grinned up at her. “I think you want me here. What I don’t know is why you’re fighting it.”
She didn’t answer his question. She just stood there like an idiot, feeling her heart pound in her chest and her face burn. Three nights. He’d been in her house listening to her…for three nights and she hadn’t even noticed.
“I’m not going to lie. There is something that attracts me to you, it makes me want to throw you down and fuck your brains out. I wish I knew what it was, because you’re really not my type. I like my women blonde and I like them tall so they can wrap their legs around me. Your hair is curly and you’re a little on the short side.”
Alex raised his brows when she put her hands on her hips.
“I’m not one of your women. So you don’t have to worry about me wrapping anything around you.” The bite in her voice suggested she was about two seconds from throwing the knife and rolling pin at him.
He kept on with his attack and pointed to her hair again. “And the auburn. It has a lot of red in it, I’ve heard redheads—”
She didn’t let him finish—“Oh wait, let me finish this one. Redheads have bad tempers and are bitchy. Thanks but I’m not a redhead.”
He studied her auburn hair. She wasn’t a redhead in the conventional sense of the word but her hair was reddish and he actually liked it. “That wasn’t what I was going to say. What I was going to say was that redheads are supposed to be fantastic in bed, so you do have that going for you.”
He leaned to the side as the rolling pin flew past his head and thumped against the wall. They both paused waiting to hear if Noelle would call out. When the house remained silent, Eve hissed, “You are an asshole.”
“Sometimes,” he confessed. One down, one to go.
Alex planned on insulting her skills as therapist next. She didn’t oblige and turned, huffing out loud as she jumped off the bed. The second her back was turned he moved, coming around the bed fast. He grabbed her arm holding the knife, locked her elbow straight and pulled the knife from her grip.
He loosened his hold and glared down at her. “Don’t ever point a knife at me again.” He then pulled her stiff frame up against his chest. He lowered his voice, “I never want a reason to hurt you.”
Eve looked at his chest. She tried to hide her fear but he saw it the second she looked up at him. “But you are going to hurt me? That is why you came back isn’t it?”
Sighing he tossed the knife on the bed and lightly took hold of her other arm. “Is that what you thought? That I would came back here and kill you and Noelle?”
She looked him in the eye. “Yes.”
He gave her a hard look.
“What do you expect? You’re a trained killer that belongs to a unit of trained killers that no one is supposed to know about. Yes, I thought you would come back and kill me and Noelle.”
He squeezed her arms so she understood. “I am not going to kill you or Noelle. My unit doesn’t just kill random people. I told you, we track and kill people that are a danger to you and Noelle and every other good person.”
“You keep saying people, what people?” Her voice became a little high.
He pulled her to the bed and sat her down.
She looked up at him with big expectant eyes.
“You want an example?”
“Yes please.” Her response was polite and curt at the same time.
He began pacing in front of her trying to think of an example that she would be familiar with, but wouldn’t scare the crap out of her.
It didn’t matter which example he thought about, all of them were bound to scare her.
“Two years ago, hookers started going missing from all major cities in the Prairie Provinces. No one thought there might be a connection. It wasn’t until the girls from smaller cities started disappearing that police seemed to take notice. The girls that went missing all had two things in common. One, they all had tongue studs. Two, they all had their own car.” He stopped and looked down at Eve. She was sitting crossed legged on the bed listening to him intently.
He sat down facing her. “This was a public case and quite a few details never made the papers because of how violent these acts were.”
“Okay.”
“Eve, I don’t want to scare you.”
She blinked as her cheeks flushed. “I’m…” She nodded. “Okay.”
Alex sighed at her reaction. For some reason she was embarrassed that she was attracted to him. He didn’t even need the blush to know what she was feeling. Her pupils always grew large and took over the pretty hazel of her eyes whenever she looked at him.
“When the police from each city found no trace of the girls, we were called in. There was one detail that no one picked up on. Each of these girls had a car and in almost every case the car was also missing.”
“Oh, I remember that case. The Used Car Murders. But the police caught that guy.”
“They caught that guy. But not the others.”
“Others?”
“Wait for it,” he ordered. “We focused on the cars. Even though they had been unregistered, they’d been easier to trace, and not one car had been found. Miles and I had thought that odd, then had wondered if the cars were hiding in plain sight. We’d come up with a theory. What if the girls had been lured away by the promise of big bucks but had had to drive to meet their john at an isolated meeting point?” He clenched his jaw remembering the grisly details of the hunt.
