They had an unspoken agreement. Or maybe it was Damon who’d set up this pattern. Perhaps there was no agreement at all, just Damon making Spencer’s blood boil when Olivia left the room.
Spencer was not complaining. He hadn’t said a word. He spent twenty-three hours a day looking forward to these moments, knowing he would be left hanging without relief and loving every second of the torture.
Damon finally stepped back, gasping for air. He stared at Spencer with an intensity that could have broken that glass without touching it.
He also kept Spencer pinned to the wall, his lips swollen, his breathing uneasy. Spencer’s heart pounded as he waited for Damon to say something.
Damon finally lifted a hand and wrapped his fingers around the side of Spencer’s neck. “You okay?”
Spencer nodded, giving Damon the half smile he knew the man needed.
“You’re so fucking hot.”
Spencer didn’t respond to that. Damon said it often. It was mutual, but Spencer didn’t trust himself to return the words. Besides, they would sound corny coming from Spencer in a shaky voice.
Finally, Damon’s hands slid to Spencer’s shoulders, and his gaze grew serious. “You looked alarmed earlier when you were working. What did you not say in front of Olivia?”
Yeah, nothing got past this man. “Blue Cell issued a new directive to their field officers.” He licked his lips.
Damon cringed. “Bad?”
“Yes. It instructed them to take out any of your team if they’re caught. They are no longer interested in interviewing anyone or even maintaining a pretense of civility. Kill on sight.”
Damon gritted his teeth as he put a few inches between himself and Spencer, still gripping his arms. “Fuck.”
“Yeah. One of us should call Dade and warn him.”
“I’ll do it right now before Olivia comes out of the bathroom.”
As Damon turned around, Spencer immediately mourned the loss of contact. He was out of his mind for wishing the two of them could continue to make out and not worry about the death threat. But Spencer couldn’t help it. He couldn’t stop himself from watching Damon’s ass as he walked away and praying there would come a day in the near future when Spencer could see that ass naked and exposed. Touch it. Taste it. Even fuck it.
“Oh my God.”
Olivia jerked her attention toward Spencer as he jumped up from the small table in their third hotel suite that week, and backed up a few steps from his computer. He was running a hand through his hair as he so often did.
“What is it?” Damon asked as he stood from his spot on the couch.
Olivia had been sitting on the desk chair, and she jumped to her feet and whirled around to face Spencer also.
For days, this had been their seating arrangement. Spencer took the small kitchen table. Damon the couch. Olivia took the desk chair or the armchair, depending on the room. She’d made the demands herself and insisted they all comply.
After their intense kissing indulgence a week ago, she’d spent over an hour in the bathroom showering and then staring at the mirror. She’d come three times under the spray, not giving a single fuck if either of them heard her.
If they wanted to masturbate when they were in the shower, they also had that right. And she decided whatever they did alone together while she was in the bathroom was equally out of her control.
Olivia had a plan, and by the time she’d emerged from the steamy room, she hadn’t asked either man’s opinion. She had determined they had to put a halt to the madness and step back from each other. It was the only option.
They had a massive crime to solve. Rolling around between the sheets would not only eat into their time and leave them exposed to anyone tracking them, but they ran the serious risk of creating tension that couldn’t be fixed in tight quarters.
Maybe she was just scared. Too scared to face the intensity of what she felt for both men, but her reasoning was sound anyway. She’d explained that she’d only been back from the dead for three weeks. She’d seen only two people in that time. It scared the hell out of her why she might feel attracted to both of them. She had no way to know if her feelings were real or the product of desperation. She would not jeopardize anyone’s future in order to quench her thirst for sex.
Damon and Spencer had stared at her, not interrupting while she gave her rambling speech. She figured they would argue, but they surprised her. When she was done, they both nodded in agreement.
The entire thing had been too easy. Especially since she’d more or less lied. She wasn’t confused in the least. She wasn’t even feeling stir-crazy inside these hotel rooms. It had only been three weeks, not three months, and they’d moved often.
To her, she’d gone to sleep one day and woken up the next in an apartment with a stranger. Sure, she was pissed at Dr. Boyden for stealing a decade of her life, but they weren’t ten years she was aware of losing yet. She hadn’t aged. She’d had no family or close friends to speak of. What had she really missed?
According to Spencer, she’d missed several seasons of The Office and a decade of an up-and-coming show called The Big Bang Theory. Spencer seemed excited to point out every detail of the last decade from politics to entertainment to technology. He did so late at night while they lay in bed before they fell asleep.
Because Olivia enjoyed listening to his animated storytelling, she watched him as he spoke in hushed tones, absorbing his enthusiasm. What she did not do was touch him. She kept several inches of distance from him at all times, even at night.
Why? Because she was afraid to rock this boat and jeopardize their precarious arrangement. They needed each other, and they needed to be sharp at all times.
After a week of tiptoeing around both of them, she had no doubt she would trade that decade of her life for a chance at a relationship with them. But that wasn’t odd for her. After all, she’d left Russia in order to be true to herself and open the door to the possibility of whatever sort of arrangement made her happy in this life.
If two men made her heart race, then she wanted to live in a world where that was marginally acceptable. Or at least not punishable by death. And she wanted to be able to do so without endangering her father at the same time.
William Radford had dedicated his life to being a diplomat in Russia. He shouldn’t have to sacrifice his passion so that she could enjoy hers. That was why she’d left. That was why he’d let her go. It was the reason he even arranged it for her. So the two of them could live their lives free of worry.
What had that gotten her? It would seem she was somehow tied up in a deep underground government conspiracy that involved Russia. Coincidence? Had to be. Right?
On that thought, Spencer finally spoke, jerking her out of her pondering. He was staring at his computer, pointing at the screen. “I think I found a link.”
Damon rushed forward, set his hands on the table, and lowered his gaze to the laptop. “What am I looking at?”
Olivia came up beside the men, hands clasped. She was concerned. Spencer looked like he’d seen a ghost.
“It wasn’t easy. I’ve been trying to breach the firewalls on Blue Cell’s computers for weeks, but I finally found a hole. One of the newer hackers isn’t very good at his job. He’s leaving doors open, exposing the group.”
“And?” Damon asked.
“And it looks like Blue Cell has spent decades working as a deep web middle man between Russia and Project DEEP.”
“What does that mean?” Olivia asked.
“It means they’ve been tapping into the DEEP computers for all these years, stealing information, and selling it to the Russians.”
“What information?” Damon asked before he stopped dead and froze. “Medical information?”
“Yes.” Spencer nodded. He turned around and started pacing. Olivia knew by now that’s how he thought best, when he was trying to work something out in his mind.
He set his hands on the top of his head and spun in a circle. “Christ. All
these years while DEEP worked their asses off to find cures for diseases, Blue Cell was stealing that data and selling it to the Russians.”
“So, they’re like a rogue underground organization selling to the highest bidder, like the mob?”
Spencer shook his head and met her gaze with a look that made her blood freeze. “I think they work for the government. Or at least they’ve got members from our government involved with their organization.”
“What?” Damon shouted. “You’re telling me the members of Blue Cell are also government employees?”
Spencer nodded. “I’d bet money on it. Or at least most of them. Obviously not all. They hire outside people. But I bet their core leaders are congressmen and senators and perhaps even military generals looking to line their pockets. They led me to believe when they hired me that they were a faction of the government. It wasn’t until I discovered they were involved in criminal activity that I thought I’d been duped. What if I wasn’t? What if both scenarios are correct? What if they are both criminals and government employees?”
“Jesus,” Damon murmured. “You’re probably right. How did you figure out they’ve been selling medical advances to the Russians?”
Spencer returned to the table, sat down in the chair, and pointed at the screen as he spoke, even though Olivia could hardly keep up. “I stumbled upon some data that caught my attention, and I’ve been looking for similarities with other data going back years. There is no doubt.”
“What do you mean?” Damon asked.
“Look at this, for example. In 2006 DEEP developed a vaccination for some random variety of influenza and just before they released the findings, Russia mysteriously announced their own similar data.”
Olivia set a hand on the back of Spencer’s chair. “Couldn’t that be a coincidence? I mean, they are both world powers. Wouldn’t it stand to reason they are always both working on finding cures for the same diseases with similar findings in a similar timeframe?”
“Yes,” Spencer agreed as he clicked around on the computer. “But look at this.” He opened a spreadsheet and scrolled down to the bottom, causing Olivia and Damon to see how many entries there were. Dozens.
“What am I looking at?” Damon asked as he set a hand over Spencer’s to keep him from continuing to scroll.
“Every disease or cure or vaccination DEEP developed from their conception.” Spencer pointed to a column on the left side of the screen. “And here are the dates they stared working on each one.” His finger trailed to another column. “And here are the dates they released their finding.” Another column.
Olivia understood what he was getting at when his finger moved farther to the right and he pointed at another column. “And here are the dates Russians worked on the same diseases and when they released results.” His finger danced to every column on the right.
Finally, Spencer lifted his gaze and glanced back and forth between Olivia and Damon. “They were sly about it. They didn’t take credit for everything the US did. That would have been too obvious. Instead, they strategically picked some results to release before the Americans and others to release after. But the timing is too tidy and undeniable.”
“Why would they not just skip some occasionally altogether? What notoriety would it get them to find a cure for something after the US?” Olivia asked.
Damon slapped his forehead. “They didn’t need the notoriety every time. They didn’t even need it often. What they needed was for someone else to do the work so they didn’t have to.”
“Exactly.” Spencer leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. “It’s as plain as day.”
“My God,” Olivia muttered. “That’s huge. And it’s been going on for decades.”
Spencer nodded.
Olivia tapped her lips with her fingers, thinking. “If the entire goal was to steal the research developed by Project DEEP, then why would Blue Cell now chase everyone from your team all over the tri-state area, thwarting any continued efforts to advance medicine?”
Damon shrugged. “I assume the fire got too hot, and now they’re more concerned with getting caught, so they’d rather put an end to our team at any cost. They’ve been in existence so long, they realize losing a few years of inside scoop is worth ending the current threat.”
Olivia wrapped her arms around her middle, trembling. “Damn.”
“No kidding.” Damon turned toward Spencer. “Can you tie Dr. Boyden into this?” Damon asked.
“Nope, but I bet he was onto them, and they got nervous and infected him with a disease he couldn’t cure in time to avoid outright murdering him.”
“And you think he figured that out and planted information in other people before he was preserved…” Olivia sighed. What an operation.
“So, what do the fucking numbers mean?” Damon growled. “If they are so important that Boyden hid six sets of numbers in a bunch of scientists in another bunker in Falling Rock, Colorado, they have to mean something.”
“I agree. And I wish I knew.”
Olivia had an idea. “Maybe they’re something Russian.”
Spencer cocked his head. “Could be, but that doesn’t help me.”
“Maybe I can help. If you give me some direction, I could dig around in Russian sites and see what I come up with.” After all, she spoke fluent Russian.
Damon nodded. “It’s not a bad idea, but I’m seriously concerned about Livvy’s role in all this.”
She jerked her gaze to him. “I don’t have a fucking role.”
Damon set a hand on her shoulder. “I’m not suggesting you knew anything. I think Boyden used you. And I think the Russians know it. So does Blue Cell. That’s why people are hunting us.”
“You’re right,” Spencer agreed. “First chance they get, they will not hesitate to grab Livvy. They’re scared.”
“Why haven’t they snagged me yet, then?” Olivia asked. “It’s obvious people are watching us, and they have some way they keep tracking us. If they’re so concerned that I know something, why not just storm the building and shoot me or take me hostage? They could grab me as we’re moving in the night since they seem to find us every fucking time.” She shuddered, backing up a step at the thought.
They had three weapons with them. They had a minimal amount of ammunition. There was no way they could protect themselves against a dozen men who chose to storm a hotel and take her captive.
Fear made her mouth dry. A fear she’d tried to ignore for weeks, that now filtered into her system to freak her out.
Both men jumped toward her and grabbed a shoulder.
“Calm down,” Damon stated. “If they wanted to take you, they’ve had plenty of opportunity.”
“He’s right,” Spencer agreed. “I can’t imagine why people are watching us or how they find us every time we move, but we’re not going to let them get close to you, Livvy.”
“Essentially, they are holding us hostage. Feels like a ticking time bomb,” Olivia surmised.
Damon sighed. “She’s probably right. And what sucks is that she already gave up what she knew. The key word. Samara. I don’t think she has anything else.”
“But Blue Cell and the Russians don’t know that. They don’t realize she’s already given up what she knows. If they did, she wouldn’t be worth following. She’d likely already be dead,” Spencer stated.
Olivia jerked free of both men and backed up. “I’m endangering both of you. You need to ditch me.”
Damon frowned, stepping toward her as she continued to back away. “That’s ludicrous. You’re not going anywhere.”
She swallowed, suddenly feeling the entire weight of her unintentional role in this saga. “Seriously. I’ve already given you everything I know. It was a word. That’s all I had. Hell, I didn’t even know I had that much. And now men are watching us, hoping to grab me because they think I know something I don’t even know.” Her voice rose. “You need to let me go so you can get this mystery solved.”
Damon lurched forwar
d, grabbed her shoulders with both hands, and shook her gently. “Stop it. You’re not going anywhere. Neither of us would ever let you do that. Besides, you just said yourself, you could read through Russian data and be helpful. We need you.”
“You don’t need me.” She shook her head. “Anyone could do that. Someone who isn’t such a liability.” She was trembling now. Scared and frustrated and nervous as hell.
Damon yanked her against his chest and held her.
Spencer rounded behind her, set his hands on her hips, and then pressed his chest to her back, sandwiching her. His lips landed on her ear. “You’re not going anywhere.” He repeated Damon’s words emphatically. “If anyone leaves, it has to be me. After all, I’m the one who must be doing something to cause us to be found each time.”
Damon groaned. “Not you too. What the hell are you talking about?”
Spencer lifted his face from her shoulder, but didn’t back up. “I’m the computer geek here. I’m the hacker who got hacked while I was working for Blue Cell. Someone must be tracking me even now.”
“That’s crazy,” Damon insisted.
Olivia turned her head to better see Spencer. “He’s right. No one is hacking you. You’re the best. It’s something else.” She had no idea what that something else was, but she wasn’t about to throw Spencer under the bus for whatever was causing them to be followed. She felt confident it had everything to do with her and nothing to do with him. “It’s far more likely someone is following me than you.”
Spencer shook his head. “If it’s Blue Cell constantly on our heels, then they’re after me. I’m the one who knows stuff. I’m the one who fled in the middle of the day with a brain full of information about them. I’m the one they would be afraid of hacking into their systems. And they aren’t wrong. I am hacking into their systems.”
“Stop it,” Damon demanded. “Both of you.” His shoulders relaxed as he sighed. “You both sound ridiculous arguing over who’s got the bigger reason to be abducted. Maybe they need a cryonicist.” He smirked.
Olivia was shocked by his attempt to make light of the situation.
Reviving Olivia (Project DEEP Book 7) Page 11
