by Cindy Skaggs
“That depends.”
“On?”
“What’s your plan with Allyson?”
“Well.” Debi scratched the back of her skull. She wasn’t exactly expecting him to be... open to discussion. “The plan is to meet Allyson and steal a copy of Barry’s records while he’s asleep. I thought I’d make it back for breakfast and no one would be the wiser.”
“How do you plan to get past Fowler’s security system?”
Debi’s heart pulsed with hope. He’d used the present tense.
Camy raised her hand like a student in class. “Getting past security here at the manor is my job. I plan to bypass it and reset it in five minutes once we’re clear of the gate.”
“Wait, there’s no we.” On this, Debi was emphatic. “Rose would destroy me if anything happened to you.”
“You think he wouldn’t kill me for helping you escape and then letting something happen to you?” Camy asked.
“Not even. Right now, he’s mad enough to kill me himself.”
“Let’s table that discussion for a moment.” Stills interrupted. “How are you getting into the lab? Or are the records somewhere else?”
“I think the records are at the lab in Barry’s office. And I’m getting through security with Allyson like I did last time.”
“What happens if Echo shows?”
“On that point, I was hoping for a little good luck. We’re due.”
“That’s about stupid. Luck has nothing to do with it. One of their men disappeared from the lab. Of course they have it under surveillance.”
“You’re a killjoy.” For her, going was worth the risk. Her heart hurt with the separation from Rose. Maybe getting the records would help to redeem her in his eyes. It certainly couldn’t hurt.
“What you need is a bodyguard.” Stills stared at her, his gaze void of emotion.
“As in... You?” Her voice rose hopefully.
“Possibly. Let me see Allyson’s email.”
Camy handed him a computer printout. He glanced over it before looking up. “Will Allyson let me through with you?”
“Doubtful.” After the attack last time, it was a miracle she’d agreed to let Debi in. “I told her I wanted evidence to prove Barry had stolen my research. She doesn’t know about you guys, and I don’t think she should.”
“Then Camy needs to come along to help me get into the lab.”
Camy drew her hand into a fist and pumped in celebration. “Yes!”
“No way.” Rose hated Debi enough already.
“It’s the only way it works. You’re not going into the lab without backup. Camy, can you get me past security?”
She rolled her eyes. “Piece of cake.”
“Things like this are seldom easy. Put ego aside. Can you do it?”
“Of course. I’ll need to borrow some of Craft’s equipment.”
“Run get it.”
Camy spun on her heel and raced to the command post. Debi waited until she disappeared before speaking. “How did you know something was up?”
“I’ve come up with some particularly dumbass plans, which is how I recognized yours.”
An ache started in her stomach. Camy was bubbly and sweet, and every single time they faced someone from Echo, people got hurt. “We should leave right now, before she comes back.”
“We need her to get off property and to get me into the lab.”
“If anything happens to her, he’ll kill us.”
“If anything happens to either one of you, he’ll kill me.”
“Then why do it?”
“Fastest way to the desired result. We’ve sat on this information for too long, and sooner or later, the Company will eliminate your friend Barry and probably Allyson and the rest of the people in the lab. While we sit around fighting or negotiating or planning or whatever the hell we’re doing, we’re letting Echo take the lead.”
“You’re quite the strategist.” Or fearlessness made him reckless.
“I’m flying by the seat of my pants here, and it will probably come back to bite me.”
Debi had the same feeling, but she needed to do something, because waiting for Rose to change his mind hurt too much.
“I think we have more than the cone of silence going on. Believe me, I’ve been there,” Camy said with a shake of her head.
“The cone of silence is real,” Stills insisted. They debated Rose’s cold-shoulder treatment on the drive into El Paso. “The most consecutive days on record is twenty days. We don’t even know what caused it. Rose simply tuned everyone out. No words for twenty days.”
Camy weighed her thoughts. “That makes it seem like he was in a protracted bad mood, but my brother doesn’t have a temper.”
“The brother you knew before joining the team.”
“He doesn’t have a temper,” Camy insisted.
“Girl, you did not see him beat a man to death.”
Stills shook his head. “That wasn’t him.”
“The drugs may have pushed Rose over the edge to kill Robert, but it wasn’t drugs that made Rose want me to get the fuck away from him. The way he said it was more than temper.”
“That’s what I was trying to tell you before Dean so rudely interrupted,” Camy said. “Sounds like the zone of protection.”
“Is this some weird sci-fi thing?” Debi asked. She was never quite sure what was going on in Camy’s head.
“He’s protecting you.”
Right. As he carved her heart out with a spoon.
Stills nodded slowly. “Zone of protection, huh? Sounds like him. Hell, sounds like all of us. I ditched the girl back home. Told her I found another girl. A woman. Made sure she wanted nothing to do with me. Ever. Didn’t want her trying to look me up the way Camy went after her brother.”
“That’s you. And, by the way, that makes you an ass. You could try honesty.”
“Sure.” Stills watched the scenery drift by in the headlights of the car. “Let’s see, how does that conversation go. Hey, baby, I’m a walking experiment. No longer human. No fear. No emotional ties. And if you stick with me, you’ll probably end up dead. By my hand.”
“Are all of you guys so melodramatic?” Camy asked.
“This isn’t melodrama. Look around. Debi, how many dead bodies have you since you and Lauren got kidnapped?
“Baby Face Joe and his team at the townhouse. The two guys from the meth house. Robert.”
“Seven. Does that sound like melodrama to you?” Stills asked.
“Sounds like a nightmare.” Debi wanted to feel something, but sadness oozed from her pores and negativity spewed from her mouth. “Did you love her? The girl back home?”
“It’s not past tense.” Stills pounded a soundless tune on the steering wheel. “But I wasn’t going to see her gutted in front of me. After Mad Dog, I figured we were marked. Maybe we are, maybe we aren’t, but I’m not going to bring her into this. We made our choices. Signed on the dotted line.”
“It wasn’t informed consent,” Debi contradicted.
“We agreed. We deal with the consequences. And wanting to keep the woman I love out of harm’s way is not an asshole move. It’s the right choice.”
“Which is what I’ve been trying to tell you.” Camy peeked up between the bucket seats. “River is trying to protect Debi, the same way Stills is protecting his girl back home.”
“I’m hardly an innocent. Rose knows I was the one who developed the drug.”
“You didn’t use it on him or anyone.”
“I used it on myself.” She’d been desperate to get rid of the panic attacks. To make her father proud. “God, I make myself sick. I don’t want to be near me. Can’t say I blame him for the distance.”
“I do,” Camy answered. “That’s why I’m here with you now. Plus, the manor is starting to creep me out.”
“Same.” Debi laughed, but it sounded hollow in her ears. Sleeping by herself, she jerked awake at every old house noise, imagining ghosts or monsters or Rose mo
ving even farther away. “Do you think Janet sees dead people?”
Stills laughed. “I think she orders them around like her own personal army.”
“Somehow that’s comforting,” Camy answered. “I mean, if she can see dead people that’s creepy, but if she can order them to protect us, that’s the coolest thing since the Internet.”
They rode in silence the rest of the drive into El Paso. The closer they got, the more nerves twisted her thoughts. When the lights flickered and grew closer, she pulled out the printout of the email. “Allyson said to meet her at an all-night café a block from the bar. I know the place. It’s where Ryder took Lauren the first night they met.” And Debi tried not to be jealous of the love they shared.
Camy watched Allyson and Debi slip through the first line of security. “How long before we sneak in behind them?”
“As soon as backup arrives.”
“Backup?”
As if the word conjured them, Ryder, Craft, and Fowler gathered with them in the shadow of the science building.
“You traitor.” Every bit of fun she’d had faded into reality. “I thought you were on our side.”
Stills shrugged. “There’s only one side. Team Fear.”
“Hooah,” the soldiers agreed.
She had considered Dean a friend because he’d been with her longer. He’d hitched a ride. He’d let her come along on the mission.
“I may be fearless, but I’m not crazy. At least not yet. We need backup. This forced the team here sooner rather than later. They got the alert ten minutes after we left. With the time we had to meet Allyson, I figured they’d beat us here.”
“Ran into a complication.” An earring glinted in Craft’s ear, and with his wicked grin, he looked like a marauding pirate.
Camy turned her back on her former friend. “Where’s my brother?”
“He’s the complication,” Craft answered.
Fowler grinned like he was thoroughly enjoying himself. “We had to tie him up a few miles back.” He gestured at Stills. “Won’t take him long to get free. You might want to avoid him for the next couple days.”
These men were not right in the head. Ryder stepped up and started giving orders like he was born to it. “Craft. Recon. Fifty feet around the perimeter. If there’s a squirrel in a tree, I want to know it.” Craft disappeared into the night as Ryder continued. “Fowler, find a perch. Craft and I will find the asset. Does she have her phone on her?”
“Of course.” Stills pulled out his phone and showed a red blip where she wound her way through the lab.
“Excellent. Stills, find a place to stash Camy.”
“Hey.” That did not sound like a good time.
“Just until your brother shows. He’ll need access to the lab, so you get to show off your skills again.”
“Oh, I’m sure River will love that.” Sometime soon they needed to talk about her new life plan.
Stills rubbed his jaw. “You do not want to position me with Camy when Rose shows up. Not if you want both of us in top shape.”
Ryder gave a swift nod. “New plan. Craft—”
“Was the one who tied Rose up in the first place,” Fowler said.
Ryder cursed. “Fowler, trade places with Stills.”
“I’m a better shot.”
“True, and as much of an asshole as Stills can be...”
Stills flipped him off.
“I’d like the whole team to survive tonight’s fight.”
Fowler handed off the sniper’s rifle and Stills disappeared into the night.
Craft reappeared like a ghost flickering back into view. “No one on the ground or in the air.”
Fowler shrugged the muscles in his shoulders like he was stretching awake. “I don’t like that one damn bit. Either they’ve got eyes all over this ground—”
“Or they’re inside,” Ryder finished. “Craft, let’s roll.”
“Wait,” Camy called, but nearly swallowed her tongue when they turned. They were all fierce warriors with hard jaws and cold eyes. “The inner code is 1492.”
They disappeared in silence, leaving Camy alone with the gorgeous and completely intimidating Jake Fowler. “So.” She cleared her throat. “How come you call your mom Janet?”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The lights in the lab were on power-saving mode, so only one in ten was lit, leaving shadows in corners and around shelves. Debi peered over her shoulder. She couldn’t shake the feeling someone was watching. Probably Stills, although she hadn’t felt this nervous last time when four of the team members were watching over her. Maybe it was from having too little backup. Great. Now was the perfect time for that epiphany. What she wouldn’t give to have Rose’s pissy voice in her ear.
In front of her, Allyson walked briskly to the back, her pencil skirt swishing. The only sound in the place. The fans were off, the equipment was off, and so were all the researchers.
An easy in and out. Debi forced a breath. She’d been kidnapped by drug dealers and shot at by enhanced soldiers. Nothing in the lab was as scary as that. Even if she ran into Barry, what the hell? She could let him have it. Lay every complaint she’d ever had at his feet. A nervous giggle escaped.
Allyson put a finger over her lips. Yeah. Quiet. The whole covert thing was testing her warrior skills. Really, after one day training with Janet she felt like a badass. Until she walked through the secure doors and felt more insecure than ever. Her arm hurt because she didn’t wear her sling today, her legs hurt because Janet was a badass and trained like one, and all Debi really wanted was to drop to the ground and have a good cry. Instead, she was breaking into a lab and stealing government secrets. That was probably a felony. Or treason. Did they still give you the electric chair for that?
Deep breath. She heard Rose’s voice in her head. After everything she’d done in the past few weeks, this was the easiest. She followed Allyson down the hall to the offices. Barry’s was in the back. Corner office one floor down from her father’s. The lights came to life when they walked through the door. Allyson went to the computer and booted it up. As Barry’s assistant, she knew his passwords even if she didn’t know his secrets.
“Which files?” Allyson whispered.
Debi moved around the desk and plugged in the drive that Camy had given her. She wasted precious time flipping through the directories looking for the right folders.
“These.” Allyson tapped the screen. “I’ve never seen these before.”
“Are you sure?”
“Start moving the files. We can verify while they’re copying.”
They opened the first one as the door clicked open.
Rose jogged through the shadows until he spied his sister and Fowler. He approached on foot and unarmed. Fowler turned at the last second, but Rose was on him with a solid hit to the jaw. Fowler crashed against the brick wall. Camy jumped in front of him. “What’s wrong with you?”
Fowler wiped blood from the corner of his mouth. “I wasn’t the one who tied you up.”
“It was your turn.” The anger was tucked away. He’d jogged three damned miles thanks to Craft and his dumbass stunt. “Where’s Debi?”
“Inside.”
“With?”
“Allyson.”
“Who’s running this operation?” Rose pointed at Camy. Okay, maybe some residual anger still flowed through his veins. “If I have to lock you in a basement cell, you’re not leaving the manor until this is finished. You got me?”
She stuck her tongue at him. “First you need me to get you inside.”
“How do you plan to do that, little sister?”
She pulled a slim electronic gadget from the bag she wore across her body. “Follow me.”
Barry gloated in the doorway. “Debra. I knew you’d be back.”
He didn’t ask why she was here, which meant he had a pretty good guess, but Debi wasn’t giving in easy. She leaned over, panting like she was having a hard time breathing. “I’m looking for evidence that you sto
le my research, you arrogant prick.”
“I think we’re long past that kind of lie. After Robert disappeared, I knew you’d be back, but finding you with my sister. That’s a surprise.” He frowned at Allyson. “I’ll deal with you later.”
Allyson’s face went white.
“I figured you’d bring one or two of our science experiments. Make it easy on everyone.”
Debi didn’t have to fake the gag. God, she hoped Stills and Camy were hidden.
“Still having panic attacks? You should have kept some of your illicit supply.”
If she’d had enough time, she would have, but depending on the drugs to eliminate the fear wasn’t a cure. It was a weakness, one that she was finally facing. The Army wanted to use the pills to create a fearless fighting team. Maybe that had been a noble purpose once, just as hers had been. Or so she wanted to believe. “What did you do to my program?”
“Improved it.”
“Improved my ass. You perverted it. It had legitimate uses and you turned it into a money maker to fuel your ego.”
“You do realize that’s our job.”
“Our job is to help people.” Bent over like she would during a panic attack, Debi tried to focus her thoughts to prevent an actual attack. Losing it now would cost her her life.
“You can’t really be that naïve. Our job is to bring money into the university. Our job is to find paying sponsors.” Barry pulled out a cell phone and dialed. “She’s in my office. She appears to have come alone, but search the lab.”
Please, please, please let Camy and Stills be somewhere not in the lab.
Allyson dropped back in the chair like she’d been slapped. “Barry, what are you involved in?”
“We’ll discuss that after my new friends take Debra away.”
Allyson picked up the phone off his desk. “I think we should let the police sort this out.”
