She released every doubt, every caution, and lived only for sensation. Luke gave her that sensation, with his hands and his mouth, with the little moans that proved how much he wanted her.
When she couldnt bear another minute without him, she unsnapped and unzipped Lukes jeans, pushing them down over his hips. She freed his erection and stroked the length. Once. Twice. He spun her onto her back and rested between her legs, nudged at her center and then drove deep in one long plunge.
Luke made love to her in a way he never had before, harder, faster. He lost himself in her body. There was a newly discovered fire in Faith that she embraced with every fiber of her being. There was no fear here. There was only Luke. Luke and love.
Her climax was sharp, crisp, wave upon wave of pleasure and release. Luke came with her, gave her everything he had to give. Love. Passion.
Life.
Spent, he fell over her, cradling her body as he rested his head on her shoulder. This was the moment to tell Luke that she loved him. He was inside her, still, and she had promised herself she would be bold, fearless.
But some fears died harder than others.
Passion spent, the moment over, they separated and Faith reached for her discarded clothes as Luke straightened his. He glanced at her warily. Youre sure youre
Im fine, she said. When he did not look assured, she said, And Im me. Just me.
Luke grinned at her, and when they were both dressed he again sat beside her on the cot. God, Faith. What are we going to do?
She didnt know what problem Luke addressed with his simple question. He could be asking about so many things. So many dilemmas. No matter which problem plagued him at the moment, Faith knew they couldnt do anything until the Coalition was stopped.
What did the haz-mat team find? she asked, laying her head on his shoulder.
His stubbled jaw tightened. That crap was all over my office at home. Abby mustve wandered in there and He grew noticeably pale. He didnt want to think about what had happened any more than she wanted to face the truth. She wrapped her arm around him and held on tight.
Lukes home had been contaminated because he was close to her. Someone had wanted to get him out of the way so theyd have a clear shot at Faith, unguarded. If that were true, then the Coalition had the virus, had been in possession of it all the time.
No one who was close to her would ever be safe.
Another truth hit Faith between the eyes. They planted the virus to draw me out, she whispered. The Coalition did this because they knew I would be called here.
Which meant that the Coalition henchman who had delivered the trigger to her programming had been here in Rockland all along, waiting for her to arrive. Her mind spun. The trigger was verbal, Jake had told her that much. A nursery rhyme. Someone had to have found the opportunity to speak to her alone, at least for a few minutes, in order to deliver the trigger. Luke, his nurses, the people of Rockland, they had been here for years and couldnt possibly be associated with the Coalitionunless this place had been chosen for that very reason.
But then again
Mitzi, she said, stiffening and drawing away from Luke. The reporter. I think shes the one.
How can you be sure? Luke asked.
Im not sure. It just makes sense. Luke, she planted the virus here knowing I would come. She planted it and waited, and she let those people die. More wouldve died, if the antibiotic hadnt worked. Abby couldve died. How could she? Faith began to rise, but Luke stopped her.
Youre not going anywhere.
I have to stop her.
Ill call the sheriff and have him detain her. If she is associated with the Coalition
She is, Faith said, more sure than ever. Remember that day when she spoke to me in the lobby, and I got dizzy? Later, I couldnt even remember what she said to me. Thats when the dreams started, the dreams about my past. That mustve been when she delivered the trigger.
Luke nodded. You rest. Ill call the sheriff. He left her alone in the room, but she could hear and see him through the opened door. He plugged in the phone on his desk and made the call immediately, insisting that the sheriff find and detain Mitzi Chastain, but refusing to tell him why.
Faith knew she had to call Jake and tell him the news, too. He would know what to do.
She didnt make that call, but followed Luke into the hallway. He was headed to the sheriffs office; she was going to sit with Abby while he was gone. As he walked away, Faith muttered a very soft, Be careful, and an even softer, impossible to hear, I love you.
Luke knew the best thing he could do, for himself and his daughter, would be to put a little distance between him and Faith. She was trouble in a big way. It wasnt her fault, but to get involved with her now
Too late. He was already involved with Faith, more quickly and more intensely than he had imagined was possible. He loved her, and he wasnt going to leave her to do battle with the Coalition on her own.
Luke knew his limitations; he definitely wasnt a fighter. He couldnt physically stand between her and the organization that wanted her in its dirty hands. But he could stand beside her. He could stay with her through this and whatever came after.
Sheriff Talbot had found Mitzi Chastain less than an hour after Lukes call. Shed been trying to make her way out of town on foot, apparently planning to trek over the low hills to the south of town. When caught, she had fought Talbot, but hed managed to bring her in. She was now in his custody, locked up in the Rockland jail just blocks from the clinic.
Luke stood in the narrow hallway, sturdy iron bars between him and Mitzi. She sat on a hard cot, looked up at him and smiled.
I wont be here long, she said confidently. The people I work for wont allow it.
The Coalition, Luke said calmly.
She smiled. So, you know. Its a very dangerous thing, to be aware of the existence of the Coalition. Youd better watch your back, Dr. Winston.
He wanted blood, but not as badly as he had when hed thought Abby might die. Abby was safe, sleeping in a clinic room with Faith at her side. Outside their door there was an armed guard who had strict orders not to admit anyone but Luke to the room.
You almost killed my daughter, he said softly.
Mitzi shrugged. Sorry about that. The virus was meant for you, you know. I couldnt even get close to Faith with you hanging around her all the damn time. I had to shake things up a bit, in order to get to her and the formula she put together for me.
For you?
For me. Okay, it was someone elses plan, but Im the one who pulled it off. Procuring that formula will secure my place in the Coalition. Im moving up in the world.
Doesnt look to me like youre going anywhere. He thumped one of the iron bars.
I wont be here long. Mitzi seemed so sure she would be out of this cell, and soon. Her certainty was chilling.
She leaned back casually. I didnt plan on you getting in the way. Everything was laid out so perfectly, but I did not plan on you.
Did you really plant the virus here?
Mitzi smiled. The people I work for, they want Faith very badly. Finding out who she worked for was one thing. Actually getting our hands on her was anot
her. I mean, the woman doesnt stay in one place very long, and shes all over the world. A few months ago another agent found out that she had been in a small village in Africa, but by the time he got there she was gone. It took him days to find out shed gone to India, and by that time no one could be sure shed still be there. One of the bigwigs came up with the idea to test the virus here in the States in hopes it would draw her out. Worked like a charm. We figured we might have to wait out another team of doctors first, before they called her in. Why chase her down when we could bring her to us?
Thank God they hadnt had to wait. Faith had arrived with the initial team. If she hadnt, this epidemic might have gone on for weeks more. Months. Mitzi would have seen to that. How many were you willing to let die in order to get Faith here?
As many as necessary, Mitzi said coldly.
He didnt understand people like her. Did the woman who called herself Mitzi Chastain have a heart? A soul? What about the people she worked for? They couldnt be allowed to get their hands on Faith. Not ever.
What happens next? Luke asked.
Reinforcements will be here within hours. I missed my rendezvous, and thats going to set off alarms that will send my people running. Besides, I wasnt able to get my hands on Faith. Theyll come for the formula, and then well move in and take her. By force, if necessary.
The town is still quarantined.
You think that will keep out the Coalition? She laughed lightly. No way. Besides, weve all been vaccinated. Even if some of the powder has been left lying around, the virus wont affect us.
People had died, and the Coalition had had a vaccine in their possession before anyone had become ill. Luke saw red all over again. Youd go up against the National Guard?
A lot of soldiers are down with the virus, and reinforcements arent exactly pouring in. Things here are going to get really ugly before they get better.
Youre going to lose, Luke said.
Mitzi smiled too confidently. I dont think so.
Faith lifted a squirming Abby from the baby bed and cuddled the child close. Abby rested her head on Faiths shoulder and sighed. The fever was almost gone, and Abby breathed normally. The treatment had worked. For the first time Faith was genuinely thankful for her origins. Her blood had saved this little girl. The fact that she was Lukes little girl should have made no difference.
But it did.
Faith sat in the rocking chair and swayed gently until Abby drifted off to sleep again. She didnt rise and place the baby in the bed again, but continued to rock.
It would be best for everyone if she just disappeared. Today. Now. Luke and Abby would certainly be better off without her, and everyone in the clinic would be safer when she was gone.
The sad fact was, no one she loved would ever be safe. Jake assured her that Nash would remain under constant guard without his knowledge, though apparently the bodyguards assigned to her adoptive brother had already complained that he was difficult to keep up with. Nash had never lived by anyones rules but his own. He was hardly going to start now, especially since he knew nothing of the danger to himself.
Danger caused because she loved him. It was so unfair. She could change her name, alter her appearance and find a small town in which to hide. No one would ever find her. Not Jake, not the Coalition, not Luke.
As tempting as that scenario was, at the moment, Faith knew she wasnt going to run. Not now, anyway. She wanted to meet her family, the family of her birth. She couldnt drag Luke into the morass that was her life, but she didnt want to disappear without a word, either.
It was too soon to know for sure, but it was possible she could be pregnant. The timing was horrida child at this time in her life would be a complicationbut she could only be glad. She smiled, studying a sleeping Abby. If there was a baby, maybe he or she would look like Luke, as this child did. She hoped so. In that way, she would always have him with her. Always.
Luke had thanked her several times for helping him. She needed to thank him for teaching her to accept who she was, to embrace her beginnings as different but not monstrous. He had made her see that she was a woman, not a freak.
And she believed that he did love her, even though hed only said so in gratitude. Still, she had sensed, hoped for and reached for love. That love had saved her more than anything else. More than any spoken assurances, more than any logical argument. She should tell Luke that she loved him, too, but that would probably not be wise. She couldnt stay here, and he wouldnt go with her. Would he?
The whirr of an approaching helicopter grabbed her attention. She had become accustomed to the sounds of helicopters patrolling overhead, but they never came this close. As it came noisily near, Faith placed a sleeping Abby in the bed and went to the window.
A military helicopter landed in the empty field to the north of the clinic. A single man, a large soldier dressed in fatigues and armed to the teeth, jumped to the ground before the Black Hawk completely touched down.
The soldier ran toward the clinic.
Reinforcements? Maybe. But why only one soldier? Faith stepped into the hallway. The private who guarded her door looked toward the window, and so did Molly, who stood a few feet away at the nurses station. The other nurses were standing at the end of the hallway, watching the helicopter through panes of glass. It continued to operate loudly, its motor thunderous and the rotors whirring and whipping up a wind.
Stay with Abby, Faith said to Molly.
Molly nodded and entered the room, and Faith ran for the elevators. Before she reached her destination, the door to the stairwell flew open with a resounding bang and the soldier who had exited the helicopter stormed into the hallway. He was only a few feet away, and his eyes immediately landed on Faith.
Lets go, he said firmly.
Faith turned and ran. There were only two on-duty soldiers on this floor. The others were sick, in bed and unarmed. The two guardsmen who watched Faith and the pursuing soldier were confused, and rightly so. This man looked like one of their own, but he wasnt. He was here for her. She knew it. He was going to put her on that Black Hawk and take her away to God only knows where, and shed disappear. Not in the way she had imagined, but in a much more sinister way. Shed be locked away, forced to concoct more deadly biological weapons. Shed be experimented on and tested and
She didnt get far before the soldier caught her and wrapped one big hand around her arm.
Whoa. Hey. Come on, he said, his voice surprisingly gentle. You have to come with me.
No! Im not going anywhere with you. She kicked him in the shin, a wasted effort since he seemed to feel nothing.
Listen he began.
I have no intention of listening to anything you have to say.
But Im
I know who you are, and Id rather die than go anywhere with you!
The soldier looked momentarily confused, maybe even distressed. Then he lifted Faith much too easily and tossed her over his shoulder. Yeah, well, Im not giving you that option.
She fought him as best she could, but resisting was like struggling with a rock. Nothing affected him, not her feet or her fists. The private who had been guarding her doorway stepped cautiously into the path of the kidnapper, but it was clear he didnt know what to do. He hadnt been trained to do battle with someone who looked like an American soldier, a member of the same team.
The last thing Faith wanted was to see the young soldier harmed, maybe even killed. He was no match for the Coalition henchman. She waved the guardsman aside, told him not to interfere, and then she again ordered the kidnapper to put her down.
Her abductor carried her to the stairway and held her in place with one arm while he opened the door. He ran down the stairs so that she bounced on his shoulder.
You cant do this to me, she insisted as he pushed open the stairwell door and burst into the lobby. Put me down, you barbarian!
Look, I dont have time to argue with you, he said. We have to get you out of here now.
Im not going anywhere with you!
The sole guardsman in the lobby lifted his weapon, but like the private on the second floor he was confused.
Lieutenant? The uncertain private lowered his weapon.
The man who hefted Faith as if she weighed nothing looked like a friend, not an enemy. Again she waved the soldier back, certain that bloodshed would come of gunfire in the clinic lobby.
The so-called lieutenant stepped through the doors and into a cold wind, and he turned toward the helicopter that awaited them. Suddenly Faith saw Luke, less than a block away. He hesitated, looked directly at her, and then he began to run.
Faith continued to fight, but her struggle had no effect on the soldier. You cant do this to me! Put me down, youyou There was no word fittingly repulsive enough for the man who was kidnapping her. Luke! she screamed. She tried to wave him off. No! Get back!
Luke ignored her order, didnt so much as falter. He didnt gain on them, but he almost kept pace. The soldier who carried her was fast, incredibly fast, even though he carried her like a sack of flour. She should be slowing him down more than this, but she was almost glad he wasnt affected by her weight. She didnt want Luke to catch up with them. He wouldnt have a chance against the soldier who held her. More than anything, she didnt want to see Luke hurt. Or killed! The man who carried her so easily was armed and definitely dangerous.
Family Secrets: Books 5-8 Page 90
