Reclaim: Project Xol

by Amabel Daniels

  “Thank God.” Tramer sighed. “Luke? You’ll go?”

  I nodded and Cassidy scanned the back of the van. “I’ll come back there and you can…well. I trust you with a gun more than myself.”

  Once Cassidy was hunkered down on the floor of the van, and Tramer was alert and seated fully upright with the gun in his hand, hidden under his shirt, I left. We decided to leave the van running. Not only for a quicker getaway, need be, but also in case it wouldn’t start again after being shut off.

  I hurried as fast as I could to collect the items we needed, and I was in and out within minutes. Back in the driver’s seat, I dumped the two bags in the back with them and then drove off.

  Cassidy distributed water and protein bars from the bags. Then she climbed back to the seat up front. “I’ll try to get a hold of Zero now.”

  “It’s under Miles O’Brien,” Tramer said.

  One corner of her lips tipped up. “Of course.”

  She set in on speaker and held it out so we might all be able to hear it.

  “T-Man,” Zero answered. “What’s happening?”

  His deep baritone was strong yet choppy. Reception wasn’t the best.

  “We need a safe location to hunker down in Antez.”

  “Say what?” Zero replied.

  I frowned slightly, pulling into a faster lane on the road. Where was Antez? Near Xochimilco? I glanced back at Tramer and noticed the map in his hand. He and Cassidy must have planned ahead while I’d shopped. I wasn’t annoyed that I’d been left out, but still, I wanted to know what was being schemed.

  “Antez. It’s a suburb of Mexico City. Near Xochimilco.”

  “Xoch—? Hendrick isn’t in Acapulco?” Zero replied.

  “Was,” Cassidy said. She inhaled a deep breath and rushed through a simple summary of how Hendrick had been taken by the cartel, and we followed suit. She’d talked with him to know that she needed to prevent Xol from getting a beta strain sample, which meant we needed to find Elena in Xochimilco.

  I noticed she’d deflected his questions about injuries. She’d also shut down his questions about Hendrick, answering in a clipped, short affirmative that the man was dead. Then, before he could finish his condolences, the phone beeped. Dropped call. I shared her groan of frustration when the call was lost.

  “Dammit!” Tramer said.

  Almost immediately, Zero called back. “Okay. I’ll find a place in Antez and wire payment to it. You’ve got nothing?”

  “Uh, we don’t have any money…” Cassidy said, glancing at me.

  I shook my head. “We’re out.” I’d spent the pesos she’d lucked out finding.

  “I’ll try to get something to you.”

  “Thank, Z,” she replied.

  “You sure he said it was Tami?” Zero asked.

  “Yes,” she answered, scowling at the device. “My damn mother is behind this.”

  “I don’t know how she can be if she’s dead.”

  Chapter Eight

  Cassidy

  “Dead?” I shook my head. “Since when?”

  “Since the lab was destroyed. She was killed at the same time as Scott and the rest of the team was.”

  Staring at the phone, I tried to fit this news in. I didn’t doubt Zero. But I wasn’t convinced by whatever he’d dug up. “No.”

  “I found her death certificate. I hadn’t looked as closely at the younger assistants in the lab. When you started asking for info, I focused on the actual professors and other colleagues Rosa and Scott would have had. Not anyone younger. There were a lot of people to weed through. And Tami wasn’t with the Project at first. She was visiting from another college and she was kinda assumed to be there.”

  “She’s not dead,” I insisted. Rosa had mentioned a woman in our last phone call. A she. Hendrick explained to me that Tami was the remaining leader of this new Project. Or had been all along. He hadn’t been able to speak at length, but he was lucid and clear with what he’d shared.

  “I have the death certificate right—”

  “What does that matter?” Luke interrupted from the driver’s seat.

  I glanced up at him and stared at his scowl as he continued. His sharp facial features were honed into a lethal and intelligent expression as he drove. “We know the Project has manipulated documents. Prison records. Federal papers.”

  Tramer piped in too. “You said you found Ryan’s death certificate. Which was a fake.”

  “I know. I know,” Zero replied. “But…it just made sense. No one’s heard of her. There’s nothing about a Tami Shaw anywhere.”

  “She probably got a new name and identity,” Luke argued.

  Which, I realized from firsthand experience with the IDs Tramer secured for us, wasn’t as hard as it might seem. Especially if she was involved with a corrupt team of multiple government entities.

  “It… It just…”

  I bit my lip at Zero’s hesitation to elaborate. “What, Z? What?”

  “It just would have explained why Rosa adopted you.”

  I clamped my teeth harder on my flesh at the sinking bomb of that angle.

  “She must have because your parents were dead.”

  I shook my head. “Or, my mom cared more about her messed-up goals for power instead of having a kid around.” Why else would someone carry on like she did after faking her death? No. I wasn’t going there. I wasn’t even going to think about considering the fact that Rosa had taken me because she might have felt she had to. If I could hang on to the glimmer of love I’d always assumed she held for me, I would. Rosa adopted me because she wanted me, dammit.

  My fingers shook in the fist I’d made and Luke reached over to cover his hand over it.

  “Okay.” Tramer cleared his throat. “Tami’s dead or alive. Either way, we’ve got directions from Hendrick and that was who Rosa and Dale directed her to. We’re sticking to the course of action. Antez. Money. I need to sleep more than a few hours before I’m ready to get some real goddamn answers to this mess.”

  “All right. I’m on it.” Zero huffed a hard breath. “I’m not trying to make this messier for you, girlie.”

  “I know.” And I did. I’d tasked my friend with gathering intel. It wasn’t his fault some of it could be damning and hurtful to consider.

  She’s alive. And we’re going to beat her to this beta strain. I owed it to Hendrick, and a deathbed promise wasn’t some silly, trifle nonsense.

  “Give me ten minutes and I’ll call back,” Zero said before he hung up.

  Those minutes passed quickly, since we had the map to guide us closer toward Antez. Another five miles get us to the suburb, by the looks of the legend.

  Just as he said he would, Zero called back. He provided instructions to a small motel where he’d reserved and paid for two rooms. Money would take a little longer after we checked in and such.

  “I shouldn’t be surprised you’re headed that way,” Zero said after we’d confirmed we had the correct address.

  “Why?” Luke asked. He leaned forward to peer at signs, and I pointed the way to go.

  “Because that’s where the axolotls are,” Zero said.

  I frowned. “They’re everywhere.” Literally my entire family knew more about the salamanders than I did. But as I thought back to the little bit I’d searched about the animals so long ago in the hotel room in Pennsylvania, I remembered basic factoids. Axolotls were in labs all over the world, for research and as pets. There was no shortage of the animals in the world.

  “I mean in a native habitat.”

  I raised my brows in acknowledgment of Zero’s statement. He was probably right. While the creatures were abundant in tanks, they were almost endangered in the wild.

  “Kinda makes this a full circle then,” Tramer quipped.

  If it wasn’t a complete loop, us ending up near native axolotls, it had to be a damn freaky coincidence. It was likely why Elena was here, working with the species.

  “I’ll go back to those files from Scott’
s archives in Texas.”

  “Look for something labeled as a beta strain code,” I reminded him.

  “Got it, Cassie.”

  We exchanged farewells and orders for each other to stay safe before we hung up. Knowing exactly where to go offered a sense of triumph. At the least, it beat wandering around and growing even edgier that someone from the cartel could be following or tracking us. Or a Xol patient.

  “Do you think Zero’s safe with Scott’s part of the code?” Luke asked.

  I shrugged. Zero had mad computer skills. I’d bet he wouldn’t let anyone near his systems. But Project Xol didn’t have just anyone working for them. They had money and means. “I hope so.”

  Within a half-hour, we arrived at the motel. Just as Zero had explained, our rooms were already virtually checked in and paid for. We collected the keys and headed upstairs.

  “I’m going to clean up and rest.” Tramer slid his card key into the slot. “Rendezvous in my room at…1300?”

  “Sounds good to me,” Luke said as he unlocked our room.

  I waited in the hallway. He’d held up a hand to let him go first. Like duplicates, Tramer and Luke had their guns in hand and stepped cautiously into the rooms.

  A smile nearly broke free on my lips. Their like-mindedness could have been amusing.

  Tramer reappeared in his doorway and nodded at me before closing it.

  Luke opened our door wider and I walked in.

  “You want first dibs?” I asked. I tossed the backpack to the bed and stretched back, letting my spine tell me it wasn’t a fan of sleeping on rock.

  “Go ahead.” He tucked his gun into his waistband and sighed. Then he glanced at the door that connected our room with Tramer’s from inside. “Actually, I want to check back at the lobby for the money Zero’s sending. And I might go help Tramer out for a minute while you’re showering. If he needs some help with his…uh…wounds on his back.”

  I lowered my arm and nearly shivered at the blood rushing in from my stretch. All those long gashes… He’d been exhausted getting here but he hadn’t complained even once about pain. It’d made it easier to avoid thinking about the gore he carried. I swallowed hard. “I…I can help too.”

  He shook his head. “I think we might have to cut his boot off. And if the bleeding’s that bad…”

  I held up my hand. “Got it.” Me dry-heaving at the blood wouldn’t be any help.

  He strode toward me and kissed me. Fast and hard—just like him. “I’ll keep the door open, to listen out for you.”

  I nodded and accepted the gun he handed over.

  “Keep it with you in the bathroom.”

  Another nod.

  “I’m…” I rolled my eyes. “I’ll be fine. I’d like to be alone for a minute, actually.”

  He slanted his brows, looking at me curiously. “Is that a way of telling me you want space from me?”

  “No.” I couldn’t even imagine him gone from me. We hadn’t been together long, but he sure as hell made a deep impression. What a difference to the first time I’d showered near him. At his apartment, before his and Rosa’s building was blown up, I’d been too scared to clean up without knowing he was right there to protect me. I still wanted him close, but I’d built my independence since then. Which was a good thing, but I hated for him to think I was pushing him away for any other reason. “I just need to…decompress.”

  He still studied me, almost frowning.

  And I won’t become that shell-shocked zombie again either. He knew me so well. He likely feared that if I gave in to my mile-a-minute thoughts, I’d fall into some kind of trauma-induced funk again like I had in Texas. But I was…stronger than that now. I had to be.

  “Go on. I’ll be okay. And if you do need help, I’ll do my best.” My phobia of blood wouldn’t stop me from being an equal here, dammit.

  “I know.” He walked toward the door to Tramer’s room, tossing a quick, gentle smile over his shoulder at me.

  Once he’d opened the door, I headed into the bathroom. Before I removed my clothes, I freed the slim switchblade from my shoe. When Tramer and I had waited in the van for Luke to shop, the military man pulled the knife from the backpack, insisting I carry it in case I need it. I wasn’t sure that I’d be any more skilled with a knife than a gun, but I accepted it and hid it as he’d instructed. Peering at it now, I smoothed my fingers over the warm casing and then set it on the minuscule vanity in the bathroom.

  It was pure bliss to peel off the clothes that had stiffened dry with sweat and blood. And it was divine heaven to stand under the warm water. It wouldn’t get as hot as I’d preferred, and the pressure was at a sprinkler force. Beggars couldn’t be choosers, though, and I reveled in the chance to stand there and rinse off.

  I stayed still, zoning out as I watched the water cascade down my legs. Tinted pink at first, since removing my shirt opened the scab on a cut from my roof escape, the water remained brown for a few moments as the dirt left me.

  I’d told Luke I wanted to be alone, and it was nice to have a private moment to myself. To simply breathe. I tried to stay positive, reassuring myself that I was a survivor, that maybe I might be a little bit of a badass to have fled from the freaking cartel.

  Darker musings swarmed faster than before I could begin to wash myself. It didn’t take me long at all to fall into a pit of sorrow and dread, thinking about the people I’d very nearly failed.

  Hendrick, dying for a cause he’d lived to finish.

  Rosa, for having to hide and run just as I was.

  Luke…

  God, how had he come to matter so much so soon? He was…it. Mine, and exactly who I needed. His hardness didn’t oppose my softness, it completed it instead. But I’d been deluded, trying to think he was making me stronger, showing me that I was a bold woman who could manage a trip to hell.

  How could I be this kickass…companion when I still struggled with so many flaws? I couldn’t have the guts to fire that rifle. I couldn’t stomach the sight of blood. He’d survived so much danger and hell in his life, and I wanted to at least keep up with the chaos in mine.

  I closed my eyes and let my forehead rest against the cold tile.

  If Luke had died in the jungle because I couldn’t save him…

  A sob threatened to spill out but I knew if I started, I wouldn’t stop. And it’d be loud enough that he’d stop helping Tramer to come see what was wrong.

  Dammit. See? I’m just a softie. Too soft. And vulnerable. I let the images of the previous day flood my mind and cringed at the rawness of it. The danger, the sorrow, the fear. I let all the thoughts and visions flood me, hoping that if I gave them attention on center stage instead of dismissing it, that it’d vent right out of my conscience.

  Above all, though, no matter what could come our way, I could not fathom the absence of Luke in my life. I didn’t care if that made me clingy or needy. If it made me some weak, too-attached woman. As we’d proven again and again, we made a good team. Partners. His infallibly rough energy fit perfectly with my shy semi-calm. The yin to my yang.

  And despite how much I might be lacking in this crazy rush to stop Project Xol from advancing, I would do better by him in every way I could. My love commanded it.

  Love. It didn’t matter if we’d known each other for many years or a few weeks. It was love, something I’d sought for too long in my life. I lov—

  Cool air whipped into the cocoon of steam and I raised my head from the tile.

  Luke had stripped already and stepped in through an opening in the curtain.

  I didn’t get a chance to check out all his sinfully sexy flesh on display, not only to appreciate his rugged physique but more so to truly see how much he might be injured and hiding it.

  “You okay?” he asked, his voice a low whisper, as though he respected I was having a moment.

  “As long as you’re with me, I will be.”

  His smile was slow and too solemn.

  Was he picking at my words? Was he trying
to sense the danger in what I didn’t say? Just because we fit together so well in my head, I had no manual for how to gauge what was going on in his.

  How does a man who’s never wanted a relationship—not a meaningless lay—consider the potential of one? Of me? Of…love?

  He grabbed the shampoo and my hand. After he squirted some in his free hand, he distributed some to mine.

  “I get you and you get me?” he asked.

  I blinked water from my eyes, daring to read that far into his words. Yes, we do belong with each other…

  He lifted his shampoo-covered palm higher and raised his brows.

  Ah. He meant we’d clean each other up. Not quite what my stupid heart was getting hopeful for with this rambling cluttering epiphany I was riding out before he’d come to join me.

  Without any more words, we did just that. He lathered suds into my hair as I did his. Then in an even twistier dance in the small stall, we washed each other’s bodies. Every brush of his hand on my flesh burned me hotter and each slow, firm pass of his fingers around my breasts spiraled me from thinking to wanting.

  No, needing. I drowned with an urgent need for him. The undeniable chemistry that never failed to flare between us sparked me into heady desire. Every time he surrounded me with all that taut skin and hard muscle. Any chance I had to feel his raw power and witness his smoky stares. I couldn’t help but be eager for his touch. More so, the promise of his affection guaranteed respite from myself, from my thoughts.

  He’d take care of me. No more worries about the cartel, memories of violence, or pangs of sadness at Henrick’s death. Luke would help me to forget for just a moment—long enough for me to rejoice in the here and now. Because whenever we came together, it was only the perfect bliss of us that reigned.

  My breath hitched as he lost the intention of cleaning me and instead tended to pleasuring me. Our slick skin gave for easy friction as he gathered me in his embrace, with one hand cupping me between my legs and his mouth taking hot kisses from my neck, I lost it. I lost the angle of holding and stroking his cock. I lost the control I had on trapping a low groan in my throat. I lost my damn sanity as he feasted and teased.