by Billi Jean
The only other time she’d been confronted with this, she’d had four guards holding down one man and drugs that could knock out a horse at her fingertips. She’d never wanted to experience that terror again, and now she was faced with another man very close to blowing. Her reasons for quitting the project were long, but this, the way the drug impacted men and women’s lives, was first and foremost. Her father, although she loved him and believed he only sought to use his work for good, had harmed the very people he had been trying to help.
Now she sought out a way to outsmart a man who could out-strategize the best of the best. She almost laughed. She didn’t have a chance. The vials of drugs she’d brought along weren’t as fast acting as the one she’d used on Dare, and even those were packed away in the bag she’d dropped next to the couch.
Life was full of tragedy. The most terrible part of hers ending today would be missing the chance to discover if Daren Scott truly meant her kisses were vital.
Chapter Five
If Dare hadn’t been watching Kylie to the exclusion of all else, he wouldn’t have spotted the fear that slid across her face at Tazz’s words. She blinked rapidly and frowned at him, then fixed her attention on Tazz with that look he’d seen before—the look like no matter what happened, he wouldn’t care if she lived or died. For some reason, what Tazz had said terrified her.
He glanced at his buddy. Tazz could hide a lot of things from people—hell, the man was a master at disguise when he wanted to be—but a pissed off Texan wasn’t easy to hide. Like the state, Tazz’s temper was big, and right now, that anger was fixed on Kylie.
Why? She’d said no more, but no less, than other people they’d interrogated. Why did her lack of answers piss Tazz off? Whatever had caused it, it was time for him to diffuse the situation before it blew.
“You didn’t know Tazz knew your dad, huh? I haven’t met him, but I’ve heard he’s one of the top scientists and works closely with several US departments.” Dare shifted in his seat, uncomfortably aware that he didn’t know nearly enough of what was going on. He should have been debriefed on more of this stuff. Tazz hadn’t mentioned he knew Ky’s father. Hell, Dare barely knew what her father did, let alone why she would be able to market his stuff or what that stuff was. He was beginning to think it was some kind of meds, or perhaps some kind of testing on soldiers. He’d heard rumors of such things, but he’d yet to hear any facts on it.
“Your father went missing two days ago. Since then, you’ve been very busy, haven’t you, Ms. Chung?” Tazz asked quietly.
“You can trust us, Kylie. We’re the good guys,” Dare added with a look at Tazz.
Tazz ignored him.
His attempt at stabilizing the situation was met with such a cold, hard stare from Kylie, he didn’t offer more. What did he know about trust? He barely knew what Tazz had gone through six years ago, and now he’d learned his buddy knew her father. And from the sound of it, Tazz knew much more. He’d known her father’s address. Dare would bet his left nut, Tazz had even been to that apartment before. Had he been to Hiroshima too?
“You were one of his subjects,” Kylie murmured after more silence.
Dare’s mouth would have fallen open if he’d not been clenching his jaw in frustration at so many unknowns. Suddenly, entire gaps of information came to light.
Subjects. Shit, that did not sound good. She didn’t seem to think so either. Her beautiful forehead furrowed between her eyebrows, and her dark eyes shined with more fear than he liked seeing. Why fear though? Was she afraid of Tazz, what he was saying or something else entirely?
Tazz’s face was flushed darker now, but he nodded once, meeting her eyes quickly before going back to staring at the floor between his spread knees. He appeared relaxed, but the way he hid his face sent a knot of worry through Dare. What kinds of things had been done to Tazz? Why had he allowed it? Shit, who would allow scientists to work on them like a guinea pig?
A man who was dead to everyone he’d ever cared about. The thought settled in Daren’s head and increased his worry. Until two years ago, Tazz had been dead to even him—all the team—and to this day, he refused to acknowledge that he was the same man, still Robert McNeil and not this agent, William Klarke. Now his distance, the way he refused to go see his sister, made more sense. Kylie’s fear, the way she watched Tazz like he might at any moment lose it, all pointed to a man who might not have as much control as he appeared.
Had Tazz kept himself away to protect everyone?
It made a sick kind of sense, Dare thought, watching Tazz’s shoulders tense. He remained slumped over his knees, though while he asked, “Where is your old man, Kylie?”
“I haven’t seen my father in months.”
“But you know of his project with genetics.” Another statement from Tazz, not a question, but Kylie nodded mutely even though Tazz hadn’t looked up. “You know what those drugs have done, and the super soldiers they’re capable of creating.”
Shit. The breath left Dare on a heavy exhale. Super soldiers. And Tazz’s body was pumped full of something that had changed his genes?
Kylie didn’t nod this time, but she clenched her hands together, her large eyes fixed on Tazz like he was a rabid dog.
“And you were one of the science teams working on the project.”
Kylie tightened her hands in front of her until her knuckles shined white and his unease skyrocketed.
Was Tazz a danger to her? To them? If so, could he even stop the man?
Tazz glanced up and the intensity of his look sent Dare into the fight or flight state. He’d fought too close to his friend not to know when Tazz was close to violence. But hell, violence directed at Ky? Tazz would break her in half with one arm.
He made to stand, but at a glance from Tazz, stopped.
“I’m not going to hurt her,” he said calmly. His light blue eyes spoke a different story.
“I suggest you don’t, man. You will not like the shit you bring down on yourself if you do,” Dare said. “Genetically modified or not, I will take you down.”
“Yeah, I imagine you would.” Tazz sat back, crossed his ankles and folded his arms over his chest. If he was attempting to calm the situation down, he might have managed better if he’d not scowled over at Kylie. “And that’s what you are providing to his kidnappers.”
Dare’s breath left him. She was being blackmailed. Hell, he was being tossed information so quickly he could barely keep up. If that were the case, if her dad had been taken for ransom, it might also explain the Palestinian. When information on something this big got out, it went viral. If her father was messing with genetically modified super soldiers, and word spread, there wouldn’t be many places he could hide that money couldn’t uncover.
That was bad news for her. But for him, it was the best news he’d heard since he’d spotted her in the airport.
She wasn’t a spy or an agent. She was a scientist. A scientist in trouble, but nothing he couldn’t handle.
He caught Tazz’s glance, but read the silent warning in his buddy’s eyes. Tazz wanted to do more questioning. For now, he’d let Tazz continue, but if he pissed him off by scaring Kylie any more than she already was, he’d haul her out of here and away from the crazy Texan.
“Kylie, do I need to repeat my question? I think we all know the answer,” Tazz muttered.
Instead of answering Tazz, she turned a look on him like he’d just thrown her to the wolves. Had he? He’d been watching Tazz’s body language closely. Other than his display of aggression with his knife, and the brief, pissed off anger, he was now calm. His body was relaxed and he appeared merely irritated. The sense of danger had passed. Even Dare’s system had relaxed, the adrenaline easing off slowly to a normal level. Tazz still looked a bit flushed, but it was damn hot and humid in the cabin. All in all, he’d seen the Texan much worse.
“Answer the question,” Tazz said. “Are you trying to hand over top secret information in exchange for your father?”
Ky
paced to one of the portholes and stood with her slender back to them. She opened it, sending in a cool sea breeze.
“I’m trying to save my father’s life,” she said, turning to face them, her expression full of worry mixed with exasperation.
“With information that could get a whole hell of a lot of people killed,” Tazz reminded her.
She threw her hands up. “What are my choices? Let my father die? I have the same information. Will they take me as well?” she demanded, pacing to the door then to the window to confront Tazz. “Or maybe you were sent here to insure they don’t. Or were you even sent? I thought the tests had ended. I thought the program had been dismantled because the tests were too dangerous. The drugs too harmful. But you’re showing all the signs of stress we found with our first dopings. I—” She spun away from them with another angry little sound.
Dare stood, maneuvering himself between them, but Tazz merely stretched his arms over his head, lazily regarding him as if he’d just discovered a new and interesting development.
The man he knew, the Tazz he knew, would never take a civilian’s life to insure government security. That was concrete. He’d save the individual first, ensuring both were protected. So would Dare.
But the man Tazz had been and the man he was now made that rock solid fact feel more like a gravel pit filled with sinkholes. With a disgusted snort, Tazz gave him a look as if he were sizing Dare up and not impressed with how easily he could take him out.
The look pissed him off.
“You what, Ms Chung? Left when it got too hot in the kitchen? Or did you quit because you realized that the drugs were addictive, that once given, the craving for more grew faster than a hooker on ecstasy?”
Kylie turned back with a frown, her hand at her throat. She shook her head hard and licked her lips. “No, no, I…” She swallowed and her frown grew more concerned. “No, I didn’t know, I never read anything to indicate that the drugs could become addictive.”
Tazz snorted and muttered a foul curse under his breath. “Convenient, don’t you think?” Tazz growled.
Dare put a hand out straight to stop Kylie from stepping out from behind him and focused on his oldest friend. “What are you doing, Tazz?”
“I’m interrogating our captive, Dare. What are you doing?”
Dare anchored his fists on his hips and settled a look on Tazz that the man should have known was the only warning he’d receive before he got a fist in the face. “I’m saying enough is enough. The file was bogus.”
Tazz slouched farther down on the couch and put his hands behind his head and lazily tilted his head. The posture looked deceptively relaxed. Dare wasn’t buying it. Not with the intensity in Tazz’s eyes. The man was lit.
“The file was bogus. We’re to bring her in, if we can’t do that, we insure the information she has never reaches the men holding her father.”
“Like hell,” Dare yelled, so pissed off he could barely get the words out. This was Tazz, a man he’d had at his back for years, hell, a decade and some change, and he’d just threatened the life of an innocent woman. Shit, the man should be aiding her, not making statements like that.
“You know who has her father?” Dare demanded, remembering that Kylie and her father should be the issue here, not his anger with Tazz’s stupidity. Behind him he was only half aware of Kylie’s gasp. He kept his focus on Tazz.
Tazz merely smiled and nodded once.
“And?”
“He’s not coming home to his daughter,” Tazz drawled.
Dare heard a muffled cry behind him and Kylie’s body brushed his as she tried to reach Tazz, for what he wasn’t certain, but he reached out to stop her. She shrugged him off angrily and faced Tazz.
“That’s a lie! He’s alive!”
“He’s dead already. Think, Kylie. Why would they need the file, the specs and you, if he were alive?” Tazz asked.
Kylie stiffened and her face, rosy from her anger grew gray with fear at Tazz’s callous question.
Dare considered knocking him out. Maybe, just maybe Tazz was strung tight, but there was no excuse Dare could think of to explain his buddy’s obvious cruelty.
Dare made a decision, and it wasn’t because Kylie had looked at him like he’d let her down, or that she kissed like an angel—an angel he wanted kissing him again real soon. He knew Tazz. The man was winding up. If he blew, it wouldn’t be good. If half of what he was guessing were true, when Tazz lost it, Dare might not be able to protect her.
He pulled Kylie under his arm. “We’re going for some air.”
Tazz gave him a look of disgust, but didn’t say a word. Kylie didn’t resist either, but she didn’t seem herself
He guided her to the door and stopped there. “We get some air, come back and discuss this like rational adults, okay? Trust me,” he said softly.
She’d been refusing to meet his eyes, but at his words, she looked up and he received a punch right to the gut at the tears brimming in her dazzling eyes. If she cried, he was going to knock Tazz’s lights out, genetically modifed or not. The man might have taken on some crazy abilities, but he was still a man and he would still bleed.
Kylie sniffed and nodded, and as he watched the tears receded. “He’s alive. You believe me, don’t you?”
The punch-to-the-gut feeling shot to a whole new level of pain. He brushed his thumb under her beautiful eyes and nodded. “I believe you, Ky.”
She blinked calmly, and he watched her shove the raw emotions down as she straightened her shoulders.
For some reason, instead of steadying his hectic heartbeat, her control made it worse. The dead look, the one without a hope of seeing another day, filled her eyes and she let him lead her out of the cabin and into the fresh air.
Gone was the feisty woman who looked ready to deck him. In her place a woman who seemed to have lost hope.
Chapter Six
As soon as they reached open air, the ferry shuddered so hard, he collided with Kylie. The people near them screamed and Kylie sucked in a frightened breath, grabbing hold of his arm to keep him close. He steadied her with a firm grip on her shoulder.
The ferry’s engines roared then stuttered. Beneath his feet the vibrations of the powerful thrusters disappeared and in the wake of the missing power, something rammed into the side of the ferry, sending Kylie right into his arms.
“Shit, stay with me,” he growled, curling an arm around her protectively.
A blast sounded off the port bow followed by the sound of tearing, crashing timber as the side of the boat caved in.
People near them started to run in a full panic for something to help them. A few fell overboard trying to reach safety. A man in a uniform raced down from the upper deck, eyes wide, only to fly backwards from the force of a direct hit to his chest. Kylie must have spotted the blood blossoming on his white shirt, because she cried out and tightened her grip on Dare’s arm.
“Don’t panic, Ky. Just calm down and stay with me. No matter what I say, you do it, got it?”
She stared at him like he spoke a foreign language she didn’t know. He cupped his hands on either side of her beautiful face and kissed her quick and hard. “Ky, listen to me, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispered, her eyes dilated but her focus on him now and not the mayhem surrounding them.
“Good, now move, move, Ky, hoof it now.” He grabbed her hand and turned to nearly run right into Tazz.
“We’ve been hit. I haven’t seen the men, but it must be a full crew,” Dare shouted above the sounds of people freaking out.
Tazz nodded and jerked his head to the left. “Captain’s on top. So is the radio.”
A siren split the air but over it the sound of a copter approaching had his skin tingling in warning.
“Shit’s Hawaii all over again!” he shouted above the sound. They’d barely made it out of that situation, and they’d had a Navy base backing them. Out here, in the open sea, what the hell would they do?
Tazz pulled his pi
stol. “Let’s make sure it ends the same way.”
Dare glanced at Kylie and the reality of their situation hit him like a ton of bricks. She was so damn small, fragile even. One shot and she’d be done. How was he supposed to save her from this? With Tazz, he reminded himself. Tazz had been a force to reckon with before he hit superman powers, now? He’d kick ass even harder.
“We’ll follow your lead. Just don’t let me down, man.”
“Never have before,” Tazz shot back with a hard grin.
Kylie let out a breath next to him and squeezed his arm. “We aren’t far from Japan. I can see the coast from here. The coast guard there—”
“Can’t reach us in time. The coast isn’t far. We’re going over and swimming for it,” Dare said.
“Swim?” She sounded close to panic.
“Right. I’ll get the gear we’ll need,” Tazz said. “You get her in the water. In this shit, no one will think to check there, but the clock’s ticking,” Tazz warned, taking off up the narrow stairs right past where the officer had gone down.
No more shots sounded, but the sirens, people screaming and milling around and the drone of helicopter blades was loud enough to mask any other sounds.
He took hold of Kylie’s shoulders to hold her still. “We jump. You heard him. I’ll show you what to do, just trust me.”
“Trust,” she stuttered and swallowed quickly, then gripped his arm hard enough that her nails would leave marks. “I do. But—”
Another hit to the side of the ferry and Kylie’s head smashed into the glass on the passenger’s cabin window. He barely had the sense to grab her as the ferry shuddered again and she nearly went down. He yelled for her to hold onto him, and braced them both for a dash to the side as soon as the ship settled. Kylie caught his eyes, and in that moment it didn’t matter what the mission had turned into or what Tazz demanded, Kylie’s life, and saving it, took center stage.
“Hold your breath, and don’t let go of me.”
Her eyes grew round, but she nodded when he shook her slightly. He pulled her close, lifted a leg over the railing and took them both over the side. He tightened his arms enough that they stayed together when they hit the waves. He used his bigger body to guide hers away from the ferry and helper up for air after they’d gone several feet.
