Find: Project Xol

by Amabel Daniels

  Wyatt slammed his lips shut but then uttered, “I remember. But—”

  She raised her palm, asking for silence. “Did I say I was finished?” After she gave him the uh-huh look, she said, “You know what else I see?”

  I followed the aim of her finger. She pointed at the cash in my hand. “I see a way to get that new drug trial. The radiation isn’t helping. If we want to try to kick this cancer in the ass.”

  “We don’t have to take her…her…blood money to pay for that trial.”

  She crossed her arms and huffed. “Oh. So, the insurance company man is gonna magically grow a heart and let us afford it? Huh?”

  Wyatt shut up. He sighed at her and then turned his tense glare to me.

  I held up my hand even higher to demonstrate my willingness to pay. “I can get more, too.”

  Negotiating wasn’t my kind of thing. But Zero had said he’d get me money. I’d pay him back. Or Rosa could. All that mattered was getting someone to help Luke now.

  “You’re not high on anything are you?” Wyatt sneered.

  “No.” Maybe on extreme exhaustion but nothing illegal.

  “I’m Sue.” She elbowed her son aside. “Come on, hon. Let’s get you cleaned up. What’s your name?”

  “What about your…friend?” Wyatt asked as he stepped aside for his mom to pass. She gingerly placed her hand on my forearm and I melted.

  I’d done it. I’d secured help. But I wasn’t too quick to trust so easily. Wyatt waiting for my name warned me to be careful.

  “I’m Cassidy. That’s all I can tell you. The less you know…”

  Sue nodded. “I know how this works.”

  How? Because she’d been on the run once?

  “Do you have surveillance cameras inside?”

  Sue jerked her head back toward the inside of their office. “Turn ’em off, son.”

  Wyatt stiffened and inhaled deep at her command. I shot my hand out, slapping the cash in his hand. Maybe a show of faith would help. He raised a brow at the money and nodded.

  “When you come back, I’ll need your help to get Luke out of the truck.”

  Wyatt left us and Sue sighed. “My sumbitch ex hunted us down for over a year.”

  Damn. Months of watching over your shoulder? I’d been at this for a week and it was overwhelming.

  “He was a state trooper over in El Paso.” Her snort spoke volumes. “There were days I didn’t think I could hide from him.”

  Shit. A pissed-off ex who was in law enforcement? Maybe this was a big mistake.

  She must have sensed my doubt and continued. “Oh, he long gone, hon. Drinking and driving and crashing into a semi.” She shook her head and eyed the sky for a moment. “Good riddance to that sumbitch. Excuse my manners, but he was as mean as a snake. We’d run and run and it wasn’t ’til we came here to Gorgen that we got a break.”

  Ditto.

  “Doc Heyer’s the vet.” She jerked a thumb at the open door. I glanced at the space, wondering how much longer Wyatt would be. “This is his place but he’s off on a vacation in Europe for the month. Wyatt’s his vet tech. Doc Heyer been leasing us the apartment upstairs since Wyatt was still in kindergarten. A saint, that man is. He rented us this place to call home, let me work as a secretary while I went to college for nursing, and now he’s given my boy a job too.”

  “Wow.” A good man.

  “He done so much for my boy and me…” She shook her head. “It’s only right to pay it forward to y’all.”

  I inhaled a shaky breath. This generous, hardened woman. I needed this so much. One faint reminder that there still were good people out there.

  “You said he’s in the truck?” Wyatt asked as he came back.

  I eyed him as he stepped outside. What took him so long in there?

  “I disconnected the internet and disabled the camera app, all right?” He smirked at my cautious glare. “I’ll show you. But if your man’s in such shitty shape that you’ll hand over five grand without flinching, he probably needs to get some attention first.”

  True. And I would make sure he showed me he’d severed any ties to the cameras inside.

  “Follow me.”

  Chapter Four

  Luke

  A cold sheet of metal instantly chilled me as I woke up. I resisted making a move, holding back the slightest sound until I knew where I was.

  Last I could remember… I let the memories zoom past as I thought to the morning. Or, at least the last morning I could bring up. I had no clue how long I’d been out. Cassidy and I had gone to the library. Ambushed. Michael and Ryan. I shot a man again. The hardened guilt and acceptance of that fact sank deep into my consciousness.

  No doubt about it, I’d killed Michael so we could escape the archives in the basement. If a man could survive two direct shots to the heart and live… That man—thing—was no longer a human.

  We’d gotten out of the building, into the car. Zero… I replayed that man’s deep voice over the speakerphone. He’d instructed us to get away from the Dallas area. To find… To find what? I’d passed out then.

  Unlike Mutant Michael, I had no Project Xol cure in me. I was fully human, vulnerable to injuries and blood loss like every other mammal on earth.

  “You want more, hon?” A soft voice spoke up nearby. An older woman, maybe, with plenty of Southern twang in her speech.

  No reply. Was she talking to Cassidy?

  “You sure?” She emitted a sassy little chuckle. “You look like you need a little meat on your body. I’ve got supper cooking in the slow cooker upstairs but I’ll get you another snack now if you’d like.”

  Yeah. She had to have been talking to Cassidy. That fierce woman was petite but she wasn’t malnourished. Then again, we hadn’t exactly had a healthy diet on the run.

  But…we weren’t running at the moment, a fact that concerned me. I didn’t need to remember every detail of Zero’s warning on the phone. After the deaths and violence at the Harlowe library, we were even more at risk of being caught. Or at the very least wanted. Being on the move was wise.

  “Should I be worried that he isn’t awake yet?” Cassidy asked.

  Hard as it was, I kept my eyes closed and my body still. I didn’t want to give anyone the heads up I was back with them until I could gauge what had happened since I’d fallen asleep. If Cassidy was being fed by some woman, I had to rely on her decision to trust her.

  “Nah.”

  I barely maintained my stillness. That time it was a male voice replying. So a younger guy and an older woman. Were there more? Lying in what felt like not a lot of clothing, I resisted the vulnerability I had on this cold metal surface.

  “He’s lost a lot of blood,” the older woman said. “But not so much to be dying on ya. I seen some poor folks lose more than he did.” She laughed once. “I seen lots of poor folks worse off than him. Twenty years in the ER gives a nurse lots of stories to tell.”

  I wasn’t here for storytime. So kind of her to dismiss my pain as something that could be worse. Getting my ass kicked and nearly killed by Ryan not once but twice was more than enough for me. I focused on the fact she was a nurse. Cassidy wouldn’t have given in and brought me to a hospital, though. She wasn’t stupid. Where were we? No sounds or smells gave me clues.

  “His blood pressure is stable,” the male offered. “I mean”—he huffed—“this cuff is supposed to be for large domestic animals, but the science is the same.”

  Animals. Ah. Good girl. She’d brought us to a vet clinic.

  “And he’ll be all right. Best he’ll get in your, uh, circumstances.” The woman inhaled a soft sigh before continuing. “The lacerations will heal on them own. The X-rays didn’t show no breaks.” Here, she giggled. “With all them muscles, no wonder. He’s got a nice, healthy body.”

  “Mom?” the guy said. I could hear the gagging scold in his voice.

  “A lady can look.”

  “So he’ll recover,” Cassidy confirmed.

  “Oh, sure.
’Course he will. I removed the metal fragments from his leg. If’n it got closer to the bone you woulda had more problems. He’ll be sore, that’s certain. But he’ll recover.”

  “How long will he need to rest?” Cassidy asked.

  The man laughed. It wasn’t a nice sound. Jaded. “Like you have the time to sit around and get better? You’re not staying on here for that long.”

  “Wyatt!” The woman’s voice grew loud enough to annoy the start of my headache. “I raised you better than that. Where’s your manners?”

  “We’re not a rescue shelter.” He sighed then said, “Well, not for people. We don’t need any more trouble.”

  “You live under my roof, I’ll be the boss ’round here.”

  “Mom—”

  Cassidy cleared her throat. “Sue, we’ll be out of your hair as soon as we can.”

  The mediator. For a woman who seemed to avoid confrontations, she’d survived some deadly ones. I wished Cassidy didn’t have this Project Xol burden on her shoulders. But she did, and I knew it was fruitless to wish even more that she could have a breather from it all.

  “You’re all cleaned up, hon. Them bruises will take their time. Same as his. But other than keeping them stitches together and clean, y’all don’t have no internal injuries. Nothing I seen from the X-rays and your bloodwork. ’Course, I’m just a nurse, but I spent plenty of time in the ER following them docs.”

  “And thank you. So much.”

  “Aw, hon. Don’t mind Wyatt’s attitude. I told you. I’m paying it forward. And if’n you need a coupla days to get a good rest, I don’t mind none. Asides, you paid me fair and square.”

  Paid? Did she give this Sue the cash from Rosa’s bedpost?

  “I’m going to run up and prepare the fixings for supper. Wyatt? You coming?” Footsteps sounded in the room.

  “I’ll be up in a second. I’ll finish sterilizing the rest of this first.”

  “M’kay, son.” Before her soft but waddling footsteps faded away, she said, “You just relax there and wait for your man to wake up, hon. I’m sure he will soon.”

  Your man.

  Had Cassidy told them I was her…her…something? She wouldn’t have told them who I really was. Because no good Samaritan, no matter how giving, would open their doors and care to an ex-con who’d killed again.

  I slowly raised my lids, blinking at the bright lights of the clinical space. A mural of dogs, cats, a horse, and a fishbowl covered the wall to my right. I didn’t move my head but scanned what I could see. Yep. A vet’s office. Cassidy sat to my left. She was curled up in a chair, hugging her knees that were bent to the side and under her. All the blood was gone, her hair still damp, perhaps from a recent shower. Without the gore of the morning, she almost looked normal. The fatigue in her eyes belied the truth. Her pain broke me. She didn’t deserve this. Any of this.

  Craning her slender neck, she stared absentmindedly out the thinly curtained window. Red marks—new ones—were visible on her creamy flesh and the rage built in me once more. The vision of that monster’s hands on her neck…

  Fuck the guilt. I was glad I killed him.

  A quiet tink of metal on metal tore me from my emotions and my obsession of looking at this woman.

  Near the end of the metal table I lay on, the man—Wyatt, it had to be unless someone else had come and gone—stood in front of a deep, stainless-steel sink. His tatted arms dipped and rose as he rinsed off what looked to be surgery tools. He wasn’t overly tall or built but he didn’t strike me as a wuss. As he stood there, he stared at Cassidy, his hands moving by autopilot. I watched as his gaze dropped to her breasts. He licked his lips. Next, he roved his intent stare up and down, checking her out, a devious smile curving one side of his lips. Seemed he had a problem ogling her breasts. Cassidy sighed, still oblivious to this man visually stripping her, her head still facing the window. Wyatt inhaled a deep breath and lowered his hand to adjust his dick in his pants.

  That fucking twerp.

  “See something you like?”

  In the quiet of the room, my voice was scratchy, barely clear with the croak in my dry throat.

  He flinched, dropping a scalpel to the ground, his wide-eyed expression darting to me.

  Yeah, I saw you, asshole.

  “Luke!” Cassidy cried out. She jumped up and came to me.

  Wincing, I pushed to sit. No sooner than I was upright, Cassidy reached her hand out to me. I grabbed the back of her head, cradling her closer. There was no hesitation. No doubt. I pulled her face to mine and crashed our lips together.

  I kissed her hard and fast. The possessiveness was unstoppable. Her unh of a reply told me she didn’t mind. The urgency of her lips pressing back against mine more than proved it.

  She’s mine, asshole.

  Or I wanted her to be. Even if she wasn’t, this jerk had no right to look at her like that.

  “Luke,” she breathed against my lips as I released her. Her forehead rested on mine and I inhaled her scent, my eyes closed. It didn’t matter if Wyatt still wanted to check her out. He could take note that she was in my hold, not his.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  I pressed one more quick kiss to the corner of her mouth. “Better now.”

  She sighed and backed up to stand fully. Her hand slid down, stopping above my heart. Licking her lip where I’d last kissed her, she said, “I was so worried.”

  A louder clank of metal on metal sounded. “I’ll let you two catch up,” Wyatt said dryly. He left, the door slamming shut a lot louder than it had when Sue exited through it.

  “Who’s that punk?”

  She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Sue’s kid. A vet tech who works here. They live upstairs.”

  I shifted, holding my breath, and scooted to the edge of the table. I wore shorts. That was it. They had the AC cranked to refrigerator status in here. She must have noticed my shivers because she went to the backpack to retrieve my jacket.

  “I used a lot of the shirts to wrap the wounds until we got here.”

  “We can get more.” I draped the jacket over my shoulders, appreciating her help with my limited range of motion. Damn, was my back stiff. With my legs hanging off the bare metal examination table, I reached for her, guiding her to stand in the space between my knees. I wanted her close. I needed her warmth. Just…her. “Where is here?”

  She explained what happened since I passed out. The summary of our injuries followed. I’d already eavesdropped on enough but I didn’t think it mattered to say that. I ran my hand up her arm, tracing the edge of the gauze wrapped around her arm. “But you’re okay? Really?”

  She nodded, stepped even closer to me. I dropped my hand to my uninjured thigh, resting my fingers above my knee, so close to her hip. “Yeah. I lost a bit of blood but I’m fine.”

  What was I after? A psych talk? The trauma of what we’d experienced would stick with us for a lot more than a day. Still, I wanted to comfort her—to let her know she wasn’t alone in the aftermath of violence.

  “What’s with that guy? Wyatt.”

  “I think he’s protective of his mom. I wasn’t exactly a pretty sight showing up out of nowhere, asking for help.”

  I raised a brow at her. Then Wyatt the creeper who liked to ogle her without her knowing. Because that ass more than thought she was pretty.

  “I would have been suspicious too.”

  Fair enough. “But can we trust them?”

  She nodded and rubbed her neck. “I think so. They know our first names and that’s it. Period. Sue was on the run from an abusive ex so I think she’s understanding to the point she’s letting our problems lie.” She shrugged, her hand still on her nape. “Or she respects it’s none of her business.”

  I didn’t comment, staring at her and taking comfort in this simple moment. A beat of time where we weren’t racing on adrenaline.

  “I checked too. I gave him the last of my cash and he claimed to turn off the building’s security cameras.
Once we got you out of the truck and in here, he walked me around. Each camera was unplugged and the batteries were removed. He unplugged the router as well. We’re as untraceable as I can see to.”

  I wrapped my hand around her waist. “You did good.”

  She raised her brows in an I guess so manner.

  “Thank you.” I swallowed hard, battling the urge to expand on my gratitude but fearful to expose my thoughts.

  A light laugh burst free. “Jesus. Thank you for just waking up.” She lunged forward and hugged me. Her arm tightened on a tender spot just above the scars I’d gotten from Ryan in prison. She breathed in deep and I closed my eyes, soaking in the comfort of her touch.

  “I figure we can at least stay here for the night. Maybe tomorrow. If we’re able to stay on the down-low, I’d rather you rest. Both of us.”

  I rubbed her back and opened my eyes. “We need to get in touch with Zero though.” I was again impressed that she’d ditched our phones. Another clean start. I only hoped Zero would remain untraceable for as much as we contacted each other.

  “I thought to run to the store someplace close tomorrow. New phones. More clothes.”

  My stomach rumbled and she leaned back, a gentle smile on her pink lips.

  “But first, maybe we should feed you.”

  Sue insisted on bringing food down to me rather than expecting me to climb the single flight of stairs. While Cassidy had gone up there to let them know I was awake, I tested out my injuries. I’d taken the pain relievers they’d had on hand—nothing insane like a narcotic—but it was enough to make standing up almost tolerable. I managed a lap around the examination table, holding on to the metal as I shuffled around. It wasn’t as terrible as I feared when I saw the cross-hatched pattern of stitches on my skin. I wasn’t going to be sprinting anywhere in the near future, but I was pleased I wasn’t entirely immobile.

  Sue and Wyatt dragged stools over to the coffee table in the vet’s waiting room. Cassidy and I sat in the plastic chairs. As we dug into a chicken stew, Sue gave me more information on my recovery—from what she could guess.