by Abby Blake
“Do you mind if I come with you?” She felt a little silly asking, but she could use some time away from all the happy people celebrating another wedding.
Jason didn’t look surprised.
Fortunately, the man was wise enough not to say anything.
Chapter Two
Davin hid the fact that he was awake. He could sense two people in the room with him, but neither was familiar. He had no idea what had happened once he’d lost consciousness and didn’t have a clue if these two were friend or foe.
When another man entered the room, all of Davin’s senses went on red alert. Jason had worked for the professor for years. He’d been shot and killed by enemy forces months ago—at least that was what the professor had told them. Obviously that had been a lie. But what did it mean? Was Jason still working for the professor?
“I know you’re awake,” a quiet voice said close to his ear as a soft hand wrapped around his fingers.
“Sandra,” he whispered as dozens, hundreds, thousands of images flashed through his brain. It was overwhelming, confusing, and terrifying, and he struggled to contain his sense of panic. Now was not the time to lose it.
He felt the woman’s emotional recoil, but she laughed quietly and said, “That’s right. Have we met?”
He opened his eyes, the woman he’d seen in his mind sat exactly where he’d expected her to be. “You’re in danger,” he felt compelled to say, even though he didn’t fully understand how he knew that.
“From whom?” she asked with another quiet laugh. “I don’t think you’re up to hurting me just yet.”
“Not me,” he managed to force past his lips. His mind swirled with details, days, events, places, but only one stuck out—Jason on a telephone being ordered to kill her. “Shit!” Davin jackknifed to a sitting position, only then realizing that he was handcuffed to the rails. He tightened his grip on Sandra’s fingers as he tried to figure a way to get her out of here. “He’s been ordered to kill you. You have to get out of here,” he whispered urgently.
“Who’s been ordered to kill me?” she asked, sounding calm and composed even though he was about to crawl out of his skin in panic.
“Jason has. He got a phone call. You’re not the one. He’s going to kill you.”
A soft hand touched his brow, stroking the skin soothingly.
“It’s okay. That was a long time ago. He didn’t kill me. He helped me escape.”
* * * *
Sandra glanced at Jason fully aware that he was monitoring the patient’s every word and reaction. This man seemed to be referring to when Sandra had been abducted. Perhaps he’d been there when Jason got the phone call ordering him to kill Sandra and had somehow confused that event with what was happening now.
It seemed important to reassure him that she wasn’t in danger.
“What’s your name?”
“Davin,” he said, sounding confused.
“Do you have any idea what happened to you, Davin?”
He shook his head minutely, but seemed to stop as the movement caused him pain. “I…um…the professor gave me a vitamin shot…just before—” Davin seemed to cut off what he’d been about to say and then scrambled to think of something else. “Just before I passed out. Where is the professor?”
“In custody,” Sandra said, feeling just a little bit smug. It had been a perfectly executed raid. Zero casualties, zero injuries, and a completed objective. They didn’t get any better than that.
“The raid happened?” he asked and then rolled his eyes in what seemed to be self-disgust. “I mean…I didn’t…I don’t…oh, fuck it.” He closed his eyes and lay back on the bed like he didn’t give a shit what happened next. “So the feds finally caught up with him? Please tell me he’ll rot in jail for what he did.”
“That’s the plan,” Sandra said happily. “We couldn’t have done it without the information you leaked to us.” She still wasn’t sure this guy was their informant, but his reaction seemed genuine, and even though he’d been unconscious at the time, he’d apparently been aware something was about to go down.
“Yeah, well after he just let Jenna die, I finally realized what a monster he was. She was still alive when I found her, but when he told me to check her, I was suddenly worried he’d order her execution if he realized.” Davin closed his eyes and turned his face away from Sandra before adding in a tight voice, “The professor already considered her a traitor. I was pretty sure he wouldn’t have left her alive to testify against him. I just wish I’d been able to help her, or at least been able to stay with her so she hadn’t died alone.”
“Jenna didn’t die,” Sandra said as her eyes filled with tears. She couldn’t sense Davin’s emotions, but he seemed genuinely distressed by the woman’s supposed death. “Jenna’s husbands got to her in time to save her life. She’s actually at her wedding right now.”
“But how? There was so much blood. I was surprised she was even alive when I found her.”
“We have very good doctors here.” For some reason Sandra was tempted to explain exactly how Jenna had survived life-threatening injuries, but she knew that it was highly classified and certainly not something The Agency wanted to be common knowledge.
“Where’s Darrick?” The change in topic wasn’t completely surprising—Davin still seemed under the influence of some sort of drug—but the name was unfamiliar.
“Who’s Darrick?” Jason asked as he stepped closer.
“He’s mine and Jenna’s brother. Was he arrested?”
“Wait, you’re related to Jenna?”
Davin winced and closed his eyes. “I don’t know if she ever knew,” he said with a sleepy shrug. “It’s not like the professor ever took a fatherly interest in any of us. We might have been the fruit of his loins, but we were only valuable if our skills were exceptional. Mine and Darrick’s aren’t.”
Davin’s eyes closed, almost as if he couldn’t fight the lethargy stealing over him. Jason suddenly stepped closer, placed his hands on Davin’s chest, and concentrated. Hurriedly he moved his hands higher, touching the man’s throat before moving to Davin’s skull. Cody rushed into the room a moment later.
Obviously something was happening, but being all telepaths they were communicating silently. Sandra released the strong hold she had on her own senses and let the telepathic words flow over her.
“…needs surgery. I can’t visualize the area accurately without seeing it first. Once we have him open I should be able to fix the damage.”
“I’ll prep the operating theatre,” Bec said telepathically as she rushed from the room.
“Call Dr. Mitchell as well. He’s had more experience with brain surgery and I’m going to need a little guidance.”
“Brain surgery?” Sandra exclaimed out loud. The guy had just been talking to them. How could he need brain surgery?
“Burst aneurysm. Whatever the professor injected him with,” Cody said as he hurriedly unlocked the mechanisms under the bed and rolled it toward the surgical ward, “has caused changes to his brain chemistry that have damaged the veins. He’s bleeding into his skull so we need to move quickly.” He finished the words telepathically as he practically ran down the hallway with the bed.
Sandra nodded, careful to stay out of everyone’s way.
“Sandra?” Damn, the biggest problem with lifting the block in her mind was that someone was bound to find her.
“Not now, Dana.”
“Okay,” she said in a neutral-sounding tone. “I’ll tell your brothers to back off. Call me if you need me.”
“Actually,” Sandra sent in a slightly guilty tone. Dana often lashed out when she was feeling snarky, so if anyone understood Sandra’s current mood it would be her sister-in-law, but it was still no excuse for Sandra’s rudeness just now. “Can you apologize to Jenna for me? I’m at The Agency and won’t be able to make the reception.”
“Will do.”
Sandra couldn’t explain why she needed to be here. It didn’t make any sense,
but she felt a connection to Davin that she couldn’t seem to shake. She glanced around the empty room. Brain surgery was liable to take some time—even with Jason’s healing skills—so sitting here wasn’t exactly productive.
Davin was worried for his brother. The least Sandra could do was find out what happened to him. Determined to be able to give Davin good news when he woke from surgery, Sandra headed toward the main office.
* * * *
Darrick sat in the small cell and wondered what the hell to do now. It wasn’t like he was going anywhere, but it seemed kind of ironic that he was about to be held accountable for the actions of his father. Especially when he’d spent a lifetime trying to undo that damage and undermine everything the man had tried.
He wasn’t even sure where Davin was. He wasn’t answering telepathically. A little while ago Darrick had thought he sensed his brother somewhere nearby, but it was like everything was muffled by the walls around him. All of the hair on his body felt strange and his skin sort of tingly, and he wondered why the air was heavily ionized. He’d read in his father’s research that it could disrupt telepathic communication, but had never actually experienced the phenomena. It may have been the reason for his faulty extrasensory skills, because he hadn’t even been able to figure out which direction his brother’s signal had come from. He’d sensed Davin’s presence for a few moments, and then it had just disappeared.
The most terrifying thing was that the professor had always told them that The Agency was the enemy. Darrick had just never believed him, but if The Agency had done something to hurt his brother, he would spend the rest of his life making sure they paid.
Although, considering the complete absence of any telepathic signal, from anyone, it was quite possible he’d been abandoned here. Wherever here was.
He had no idea how much time passed, but the murmur of quiet voices reached his ears before he sensed anything else. A woman stopped at the door to his cell, glanced through the viewing window, and a moment later stepped inside. “Hi Darrick,” she said with a soft smile with her hand outstretched. “I’m Sandra Nash.” He stood and shook her hand warily. The woman was beautiful. She was exactly the type of physical package—athletic and fit, but curved and rounded in all the right places—that he and Davin would have fallen for under different circumstances.
But this wasn’t the time or the place. He shook off the observation and tried to concentrate on the woman’s emotions. He sensed no intention to deceive him, so he tried to look friendly but stay on guard at the same time.
The only place to sit was on the small molded-plastic cot, but it felt kind of strange to try and be hospitable in a cell in which he was being held captive—so far without charges—so he crossed his arms and waited for her to speak.
“I need to speak to you about Davin.”
“What do you want to know?” Darrick was suddenly very grateful for the injection the professor had given him that allowed him to hide his emotions from empaths. If this woman was coming to tell him they’d murdered Davin, Darrick was quite prepared to return the favor, no matter how attractive she might be.
He and Davin had questioned their father’s wisdom ever since they’d been old enough to think for themselves. Yet, with the events of the last few hours, it was quite possible they were going to pay the ultimate price for their disbelief.
“Davin is in surgery. He—” Darrick cut her off, unwilling to listen to anything else until he knew why his brother needed an operation.
“What happened?”
“An aneurysm burst in his brain.” Darrick didn’t know a whole lot about medicine, but he did know that something bursting in the brain was a very bad, life-threatening thing.
“How?” She looked a little confused by the question, so he tried again. “Where did he get an aneurysm from? Why would it burst just as you and your team invaded our compound?”
Sandra bit her bottom lip in a sexy and appealing way, no doubt knowing the response she would get from any red-blooded male in a five-mile radius. But Darrick had been fooled by a pretty face before, so he chose not to react.
“Darrick,” she said in a sincere-sounding voice. Again he sensed no artifice. Was it possible The Agency had gone one step further in their research than the professor by not only being able to mask the emotions, but to project false ones in their place? “Darrick, when we raided the compound, Davin was found unconscious on the floor in one of the labs. He said the professor injected him with something just before he passed out from the aneurysm. We think the injection caused it.”
Darrick swallowed as he tried to hold his emotions inside. Davin was his twin and the only family he’d truly ever really known. If Darrick lost him, he wasn’t sure how he would cope. They’d tried to protect Jenna and make sure that the professor’s “test subjects” were treated with dignity, but it would seem that their efforts had been for naught.
“Can I see him?”
“He’s in surgery at the moment, but I’ll make arrangements for you to be there when he wakes up.” Darrick had no idea if that offer was sincere, but he took it at face value and hoped that he was trusting the right person. “Davin said Jenna is your sister.”
“Is?” Not was. “She survived?”
“Yes,” Sandra said with a genuine-looking smile on her face.
“Can I see her?”
Sandra hesitated, and it was quite obvious that she was looking for an excuse. With the injury Davin had described to him, it was quite possible Jenna was still in the hospital. It had only been three weeks.
“She…um…might not appreciate us interrupting her wedding reception.” Darrick couldn’t hide the look of disbelief. Did The Agency train their employees so poorly that they were incapable of making up a believable lie under pressure? A wedding reception three weeks after being shot—un-fucking-likely. Sandra laughed self-consciously, obviously realizing she’d been caught in her lie. “All right, but I’m pretty sure she was still wearing her boots under that white gown, so if she comes down here to kick my ass, you’re the one who gets to bend over—got it?”
Sandra was gone before he could even comprehend the meaning of that.
Unbelievable. Un-fucking-believable. Could this day get any stranger?
Chapter Three
Davin woke slowly, his body fighting every effort he made to try and get moving. Everything felt fuzzy, almost as if he’d cut off the circulation in his hand by sleeping on it. Except that this was all over his body, and he moaned at the strange and painful sensation.
“Welcome back, little brother,” Darrick said from beside him.
“What did the professor do to me this time?” Davin asked telepathically, unable to get his lips and jaw moving properly to talk out loud.
“They’re not sure,” Darrick said in a very soft voice, “but they think whatever dear old dad injected you with caused an aneurysm to form in your brain. Without surgery you would have died.”
Davin went to lift a hand to his head, but a strange clanking noise and a sudden pressure around his wrist stopped him mid move. “Why am I handcuffed?”
“Apparently we’re the bad guys,” Darrick said as he lifted his arm to show him that he, too, was cuffed to the bed railing.
“So the raid worked? The professor is in custody?”
“That’s right, but they told me you were unconscious even before they got there.” Darrick moved closer to the top of the bed, and Davin felt like his brother could see right through him. “You knew they were coming?”
“Yeah, I’ve been feeding them information for weeks now. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you. I was actually on my way to collect you when the professor stopped me.” He swallowed, trying to work some moisture into his mouth. “I’m kind of surprised to wake up. When he injected me, I thought for sure he’d realized I was a traitor.”
“Not a traitor,” Darrick whispered telepathically. “A brave man who stood up for what he believed. A man I’m proud to call my brother. I just wish you’d told
me about it. I might have been able to save you from one last injection from the professor.” Davin heard the anguish in his brother’s voice and wanted to assure him he’d done everything he possibly could, but noise from the doorway caught his attention.
The woman was wearing what looked like a white wedding dress, but at the moment she held the front scrunched in her hand so that the big, black boots were visible. Even when his gaze moved up to her face Davin didn’t recognize her until she spoke.
“They say you’re claiming to be my brothers. Is that true?”
“Yes,” Darrick answered simply. “The three of us share a father. We never told you because the professor wasn’t exactly daddy material, but we tried to look out for you.”
“Last time I saw you, you were bleeding to death.” Davin couldn’t quite control the emotional wobble in his telepathic voice. “How did you survive?”
“Same way you survived brain surgery, asshole. So what is it you expect from me? Huh? I’ve already had one brother bail on my wedding reception today to take care of you. Why am I standing here when I should be packing for my honeymoon?” She glowered at them both, her arms crossed, her boot tapping, no outward signs of sympathy for his postoperative condition. But they’d known Jenna long enough to know the poker face hid a wealth of emotion. She cared deeply for the people around her. She just didn’t like to show it.
“I just wanted proof that you were all right,” Darrick said with the same sort of wonder in his voice that Davin felt. There had been so much blood. They hadn’t expected to find her this healthy. A niggling doubt wormed into Davin’s brain, and the other possibility finally occurred to him.
“You’re Alana. Not Jenna. What really happened to Jenna?”
