by Lexi Blake
Wasn’t that what they all were looking for? What the hell they had been doing before they’d been nothing at all? What they’d left behind.
They were wrong about Ariel. They were paranoid and expecting everyone around them to be lying because that was all they’d ever known.
Ari was the best woman he’d ever met, and he wouldn’t insult her by asking her to prove herself to him. She’d done that over and over again. She did it every time she helped one of them.
He didn’t want to live in a world where Ariel Adisa betrayed him.
“Come on,” he said. “I think we should go to bed and start all over again in the morning.”
Tomorrow is another day. It was good enough for Scarlet. It’s good enough for my boys. No matter what happens tomorrow, you get a new start and you always have each other. It’s enough. I promise you. It’s enough.
He stopped and let the words flow over him, but he didn’t try to catch them. That way led to exactly what had happened to Sasha. The sweetness of it pierced him. Her voice. He could hear her voice. It was throaty, with a Western twang. It was magical to his ears.
It skidded away into the slipstream of his mind, but he’d heard it.
His mother.
“Are you all right?” Sasha asked, sounding like he actually gave a damn.
He nodded. “I’m good.”
He started down the hallway. He wanted more than anything to open Ariel’s door, to wake her up and make her hold him, but he didn’t.
He walked into the room he shared with Tucker because no matter what the rest of them thought, she couldn’t handle him and he couldn’t accept the thought of hurting her.
Still, as he lay down, he couldn’t get the words out of his head.
It’s good enough for my boys. You always have each other.
At some point in time, he’d had a brother.
Chapter Six
Ariel glanced behind her at the table where Rob sat with Owen. They appeared to be studying the menu, but she could feel his focus on her. But then he’d been focused on her all morning.
He’d slipped into her room before dawn and she’d found herself woken with kisses and his big body wrapped around her. He’d made love to her and then taken her to the shower where they’d gotten more dirty than clean. She’d felt like the world had changed, become something better and brighter.
Then they’d joined the others for breakfast and she’d reevaluated her optimism.
Something was up with the lads. Oh, they’d seemed normal. She’d expected their good-natured ribbing about her relationship with Rob, but there had been something underneath it that she couldn’t quite put her finger on.
“Would you like some more coffee?” Rebecca asked from the seat beside her. They were in a booth in a small café on the edge of the medical district. According to Rebecca it was where many of the researchers at Kronberg had breakfast or lunch.
They’d been sitting for half an hour with no real information surfacing in what seemed to be a never-ending recitation of medical journals and who’d published what and when and which prestigious medical position they’d moved on to.
This was yet another reason she was happily in private practice, and one where she didn’t have to run to conference after conference. The social side of business had been dissatisfying.
Rebecca seemed perfectly comfortable with it.
“Sure.” She could use a little caffeine boost. Despite how exhausted she’d been she hadn’t been able to go straight to sleep. She’d lain there in bed thinking about how Robert had walked away.
They all had bad dreams. How could they not? He would likely never get over it if he didn’t try. Did he expect to not ever sleep with his lover?
Rebecca poured her coffee from the small carafe the waitress had left for them.
Dr. Arthur Dwyer was in his mid-thirties, his entire life devoted to climbing up the ladder of corporate medicine. According to all the information she’d been given, he was brilliant and likely lonely since he didn’t date or go out with friends. He worked and worked, and when he wasn’t working, he wrote for a journal devoted to pharmaceutical research.
No wonder he’d immediately said yes when Rebecca had called to ask him to brunch.
Arthur looked at her as though remembering she was there. “You said you were in the medical field, too?”
He hadn’t been pleased when he’d realized Rebecca wasn’t alone. She’d decided to go in with Rebecca when the other woman had mentioned Arthur had been known for getting a bit handsy. Ariel was there to make sure Rebecca didn’t have to deal with unwanted advances and to save them all the trouble that would come when Owen murdered the man for the aforementioned unwanted advances.
“I’m a clinical psychologist,” Ariel replied.
“She’s been helping me with my protocols.” Rebecca had told him a little about the work she was doing. Not that she was working with a group of mind-erased soldiers, but she’d talked about helping recover memories.
“I’m sure she is.” He’d been utterly dismissive of anything that wasn’t drug therapy. He was a true believer in better living through pharmaceuticals. “I can’t believe I’m seeing you again. I didn’t think you would ever come back to Germany. You left so fast. That was such a crazy time. First you and then Steven walked out, and then Dr. McDonald transferred like overnight. I’m glad that’s never happened to my team. We’ve only had to replace one junior member over the last couple of years. Stability is important. I always wondered what happened.”
“I wondered what the rumors were,” Rebecca replied with a hint of mischief in her eyes.
She was good. She might be a doctor, but she’d caught onto the spy thing quickly. That look in her eyes said she was curious but that it was all in fun. No danger here. It’s nothing more than a spot of gossip.
Arthur took the bait. “Oh, there were all kinds of rumors flying around. You know no one can come up with a conspiracy theory like a bunch of researchers.”
“Really? I would think you would be quite serious.” Ariel recognized the kind of man he was. The key to a man like Arthur was to challenge him. He was the kind of man who couldn’t stand the thought of being wrong.
“Oh, we can come up with some crazy stuff.” He looked around before leaning in. “There was a rumor that Dr. McDonald caught you and Reasor having an affair.”
Rebecca shuddered. “No. Never. I was married, and even if I hadn’t been I wasn’t attracted to him.”
Rebecca had gotten comfortable with Tucker, but Ariel had noticed she still didn’t like to be alone with him. She understood he wasn’t the man he’d been, but there was an ugly history there. One only Rebecca remembered.
Arthur shrugged. “I never bought that one. The two of you were complete opposites. My favorite theory was that McDonald was working on something dark.”
Yes, this was one of the things she would like to know. How much had gotten out? How careful had McDonald been? “Something dark?”
Arthur’s voice went low. “McDonald was an odd one. I’ll be honest she always…what is the word you Americans use? She creeped me out. I’m a very ambitious man. It would have been easy to get on her team, and yet something about her always made me pause. I didn’t like to be around her, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say the woman was capable of trying to invent a way to give people Alzheimer’s. That would be evil, and what would the purpose be?”
Oh, it wasn’t as simple as that, but someone had known at Kronberg. Someone had an inkling of what Hope McDonald had been doing there. If the rumors had filtered down to Arthur’s level, a lot of people had to have known.
“I miss the rumor mill. The people here could come up with some doozies. At least it’s not aliens. Well, I assure you everything I worked on was to cure the disease,” Rebecca managed with a laugh, though Ariel could see the way her shoulders had tensed.
“Of course it was. I actually thought she might be close given how Kronberg treated anything coming
out of that lab.”
“I never worked anywhere else in the company,” Rebecca said. “There was a difference in security procedures? I would have thought there would be a single protocol.”
“There was for everyone else. Dr. McDonald’s research was treated like pure gold,” Arthur said with a long-suffering sigh. “While she was working there the rest of the teams were definitely not as important as hers. If McDonald needed a piece of equipment, she got it. They would take money from other budgets to give her whatever she requested. As for security, someone came into her office at the end of the day and downloaded whatever she’d worked on. It wasn’t allowed on the shared network. We take pains to ensure our research can’t be hacked, but they were overly concerned with McDonald’s. I had a friend who worked in tech support who said no one was allowed to work on McDonald’s systems. She had her own tech and no one else touched her systems.”
“I know. I was surprised to find out the other teams didn’t have a dedicated tech,” Rebecca said. “And then I decided Dr. McDonald was merely eccentric. And filthy rich, of course.”
“Yes, the woman did have an entitlement problem,” Arthur replied. “But then she also spent more time with the board of directors than any other doctor here. She and the head of research and development were close. I was surprised she left the way she did.”
“How did she leave? I’d already gone back to the States at that point,” Rebecca admitted. “I left because my husband and I were having trouble. Not that going home worked. We still ended up divorcing.”
Ariel knew the real reason Rebecca had left. She’d been terrified by Steven Reasor, the man they now knew as Tucker. Someone had used the time dilation drug on Rebecca and she’d spent a night in hell. She always said “someone” because she had a hard time believing it had been Tucker.
Arthur shook his head. “It’s a mystery. I think it’s probably why there are so many rumors about her. One day she up and left, her lab was completely cleaned out, and we never heard from her again. They were all gone. All her researchers, not that the team was ever big. She kept her team small because I don’t think she trusted many people. Funny thing is from what I can tell, most of the team is gone now.”
Ariel knew what he meant but wanted him to talk more. “Gone?”
Arthur leaned in, his voice going low. “Dead. They’re almost all dead. Reasor had that car accident. The tech who worked with her was killed a few years back in a mugging. Dr. McDonald died under mysterious circumstances. Even her dad passed. Cursed group of people, if you ask me. You were lucky.”
“Yes, I guess I am.” Rebecca had paled slightly. “Did anyone ever find out what happened to Veronica?”
Arthur shrugged. “Oh, I heard she got out of the business, but I don’t know where she went. I know she upset the big bosses for some reason. She requested to move teams and when she was denied she walked out without notice. It was a couple of days before Dr. McDonald disappeared. It’s good she didn’t want to work in medical research because I don’t think she would be able to find a job again. The bosses were upset with her.”
“Rebecca left the same way,” Ariel pointed out, turning to her friend. “You never mentioned Kronberg tried to blackball you.”
“They didn’t,” Rebecca replied. “I didn’t give notice at all, but they’ve never given me a bad reference.”
“Well, they know you’re going to move on to bigger and better things. Veronica wasn’t in your class, dear. They wouldn’t mess with the darling of neuro. I’m sure they wanted a chance to hire you back someday. No one cared about Veronica. She should have been grateful for the job, but she was a foolish girl,” Arthur said with irritating authority.
“That’s sad,” Rebecca replied. “I was hoping to catch up with her. I always liked Veronica.”
Arthur glanced down at his watch. “Well, this has been delightful, but I have to get going. I have a meeting soon. And you know I never believed any of the rumors about you and Reasor. Now the one about him and Veronica, that I did believe. I always thought the lady did protest too much, if you know what I mean.”
Veronica and Reasor? Rebecca had never mentioned a romantic connection between the two.
Rebecca looked as surprised as Ariel felt. “I don’t. I knew Veronica pretty well. She and Steven never got along. She never once mentioned she had a thing for him. Quite the opposite.”
“Well, I do know that they went away together the weekend before Steven left,” he admitted. “I was at the airport and I saw them get on a plane together. I assumed when he left that the weekend didn’t go well and that was why he requested the transfer to Argentina. He didn’t even come back to the office from what I understood. He simply went straight to McDonald’s secondary lab.”
“Where did they go?” Ariel asked. “Steven and Veronica, that is. Sorry. I’ve heard so much about these people from Rebecca that I feel like I know them.”
He pushed back his chair and stood. “Paris. They boarded a plane to Paris. Like I said, I guess the city wasn’t kind to them because Veronica came back alone, and shortly after, she left the company. Rebecca, it was good to catch up with you. Please keep in touch. We’ve all missed you. I would love to hear more about the private group you’re working for. I thought you were crazy to leave Huisman, but then I heard about the foundation’s troubles. If only we weren’t reliant on foundations for money.”
Rebecca stood, too, offering her cheek for a kiss. “Wouldn’t that be lovely?”
They said another few words of good-bye, but Ariel’s attention had caught on a woman walking toward the bathrooms. Tall and blonde, there was something about the way she moved that gave her away.
Kimberly Solomon. She was chic and lovely in white slacks and a crisp green top, a Chanel scarf around her neck.
Ariel glanced back and Robert and Owen were eating their lunches, seeming to pay no attention to anything but their burgers and beers.
Had they seen Kim? What the hell was she doing here? She didn’t have permission to let anyone else know the fact that they might be working with the Agency in a small way. She wasn’t sure how Robert would handle an operative walking into the middle of their mission. After the morning she’d had with the Lost Boys, she wasn’t sure she should tell them at all. They were suspicious, and a faction of them were starting to question the status quo. That much was obvious. The question was would telling them they had Solo in their corner hurt or help the situation?
“I’m going to visit the loo,” Ariel said, standing. “I’ll be back in a minute. Arthur, it was lovely to meet you.”
Rebecca nodded her way as she and Arthur were exchanging cards. Robert glanced her way but seemed to be mollified when she nodded toward the ladies’ room. She took her purse and quietly stepped away.
She opened the door and Kim was sitting there like she’d been waiting, but then she likely had.
“Hey, Ari. You have a little glow about you. Come on, dish. How was it?” Kim asked, looking like they were nothing but a couple of girlfriends gossiping about their love lives.
“What are you doing here? Owen and Robert are sitting right there in the dining room. They could have seen you.” She knew exactly what was at stake, even if Kim didn’t seem to care.
Kim waved that worry off. “They didn’t even look at me when I walked by. They were far too busy pretending like they weren’t obsessively watching their ladies. They didn’t do a particularly good job of it. When that dude showed up and hugged Dr. Walsh, Owen nearly came over the table after him. That research dude was lucky he managed to stop short of touching her ass or I don’t think anyone would have kept Owen off him. Such a caveman, that one. I wish I didn’t find it sexy. I should be more liberated, right?”
“You should be more careful.” She moved the small trash can in front of the door so at least they would have a heads-up if they suddenly weren’t alone. “What if I’d brought Rebecca back here? What if she walks in?”
“She doesn’t know who I
am.” Kim sighed and put her Louis Vuitton handbag on the counter. “I’m sorry but I couldn’t help it. I needed to talk to you.”
“You could have texted. You seem good at that.” How long had Kim been watching? It seemed to Ariel like Kim had some superpower where a person could only see her when she wanted them to. A handy thing for a spy.
“I wouldn’t risk sending this information to your phone because I don’t know who to trust on your team. I know I didn’t tip off Levi in Colorado. If I hadn’t been following Levi’s man, things would have gone differently. If it wasn’t me who tipped him off, it had to be one of them. You’ve either got a mole or Levi is way better than I give him credit for.”
She’d thought this through about a million times. She lay in bed at night worried whoever was willing to betray the team would come after Rob. “We’re working on the problem. I think I’ve got it down to two men, but I need more time to figure it out. This is a fact-gathering op. It isn’t dangerous or I wouldn’t be out in the field with them.”
Kim frowned. “It might be getting dangerous. Levi is on the move. I have intelligence that places him on his way here.”
Levi was the last thing she needed. This was supposed to be simple. “I’ll let Damon and Big Tag know. Maybe we should pull up stakes and go back to London.”
Kim’s gaze turned distinctly calculating. “Or you can let me try to figure out who’s communicating with him. Pretend nothing’s wrong. Let me watch and track. I can figure this out. Once we know who our mole is, I can work more freely. I’m afraid if I show up again, the mole will dive deep and we’ll lose our chance to catch him.”
That had been exactly Big Tag’s plan, too. “All right. I’ll run that by the bosses, but for now I’ll watch and wait. But I have a question for you. Who are you working for?”