by Cynthia Eden
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Does it matter?”
He stalked to her. Stopped only when he was right in front of Elizabeth. “Yes.”
Her chin lifted. “I did.”
Fucking sonofabitch—
“Before I ever met you. Before a tough as nails SEAL headed into my exam room, and I found myself looking into a pair of blue eyes I’d never be able to forget.” Her smile was sad. “Jay and I were before you.”
“I was trapped in Lazarus hell for three months—” He stopped, unable to say more. His jaw locked as his teeth ground together. Had she been with someone else during that time? Had another man touched her, kissed her, made the pleasure tremble through her body while he’d been locked away? Had she turned back to that Jay asshole? Don’t want to know. Shouldn’t have asked. Want to kill—
“Jay was before you, and there was no one after you.” Her gaze held his. “Did you really think I’d just go to someone else, when I knew what was happening to you? That I’d just turn my back on you that way?”
He’d hurt her. Shit. He could see it now. “I didn’t mean—”
“I know that you don’t remember me and that hurts. Because I remember it all. But try to understand me now, would you? Try to know me. I’m not the kind of person who’d do that. For me, you were…it.” Her lips pressed together and she blinked quickly. “Being with someone else would have been wrong. Not that I ever wanted anyone else. Just you.” She shouldered past him, marching for the bathroom.
He could only stand there, with his hands clenched, and with the image of her tear-filled gaze burned into his mind. “Beth!”
She stiffened. “You never called me that.”
Jay called her Beth. Jay helped her. Jay remembered her. So why the hell hadn’t she gone back to Jay?
“Why not?” he rasped.
“Because you got into the habit of calling me ‘doc’ when we first met.” She reached for the doorknob. “And then, whenever we were together, you’d call me other things.”
“Like what?” He should stop. Just—stop.
“Sweetheart. Baby.” Her shoulders rolled back. “The endearments that lovers use.”
“What did you call me?”
She looked over her shoulder. “Mine.” She licked her lips. “Because you were mine, and I was yours, and then everything went to hell.”
Yes, it had.
Elizabeth hurried into the bathroom and the door shut softly behind her.
Sawyer spun on his heel and strode for the motel room door. He wanted his past back. He wanted his life back.
I want Elizabeth.
He opened the door, making sure to check the perimeter to be certain there weren’t any unwanted guests lingering around. Then he knocked softly on Flynn’s door. The door was jerked open immediately, and Flynn stood there, looking slightly flushed, his hair raked back from his head.
“Clothes,” Sawyer snapped. “I need them for Elizabeth.”
Flynn lifted a brow. “Sure about that? From what I heard, didn’t sound like you two were doing an activity that involved—”
Sawyer grabbed Flynn and shoved him back, surging hard until Flynn’s shoulders hit a wall.
Cecelia gave a quick gasp and ran toward them. “Stop it!”
Sawyer didn’t let him go. “You don’t talk about her. Got it?”
Flynn searched his gaze. “Do you got your control, bro? ’Cause you seem a little unsteady to me.”
Cecelia grabbed Sawyer’s arm. “Let him go!”
He did, mostly to prove that, yeah, he still had his control. For the damn moment. Sawyer exhaled and rolled back his shoulders. “Give me the clothes.” He didn’t comment on the fact that Cecelia was wearing a towel and that Flynn was partially dressed. How’s that for control?
“On the nightstand.” Flynn caught Cecelia’s hand and pulled her behind him.
A protective pose. Interesting.
“Elizabeth called her friend.” Friend, ex-lover, hell—he was going to have trouble being around that guy. The surge of emotion was not good. “Jay is coming for us. He’ll be here within thirty minutes.”
Flynn’s brows rose. “Can we trust him?”
“Don’t have any choice. He’s not the only one coming for us.” Sawyer snatched up the bag of clothing. “Got a little telepathic visit from our buddy Bryce. He’s pissed as hell, and he’s promised to hunt us down.”
“He got out of the facility?” Cecelia cried. Fear flashed on her face.
Fury darkened Flynn’s eyes. “He’s a dead man.”
“Aren’t we all,” Sawyer muttered. “The bastard said he was coming after Elizabeth. He thinks he’s going to kill her and push me over the edge. Not happening.”
Flynn nodded grimly. “We’ll stop him.”
I’ll kill him, and he won’t come back. That will stop him.
“Better turn on the TV.” Sawyer inclined his head toward the dark screen. “Seems we’ve made the news.” He strode toward the door.
“The news? What do you mean? Is Wright looking for us? Did the bastard say we’re—”
“The whole facility is gone. Exploded. And Jay said the news reports are claiming that Elizabeth and Cecelia were kidnapped. Kidnappers. Hell.” He yanked open the door. “Add the crime to our damn resume.”
Chapter Twenty-One
The black SUV braked in front of the motel. Sawyer was peering out of the window, and he saw the two, armed men who jumped from the vehicle. Even without his enhanced vision, Sawyer would have been able to easily see the men. The light from the motel spilled onto their vehicle.
“Your friend came armed,” he announced.
“Not like I invited him to a picnic,” Elizabeth threw back at him. “Wouldn’t you come armed to a situation like this one?”
Sawyer glanced back at her. Flynn and Cecelia were both in the room, too, but they were silent. Tense. They were all tense. If this meeting went south, if Jay wasn’t someone they could really trust, then Sawyer would have to end him.
“Make sure it’s Jay,” Sawyer ordered quietly.
Elizabeth slid closer to him. Her body brushed against his, and her scent surrounded him. She peeked out of the blinds and the tension eased from her body. “That’s Jay. The one with the too-long hair. The other guy is his bodyguard, West Harper.” Elizabeth gave a quick, decisive nod. “We need to go, now.”
He caught her hand. “Stay with me.”
Her lips parted.
“Bryce is coming after you. We can’t get separated. I need you close at all times, understand?”
A shadow slid over her face. “Right. Bryce. Of course.”
He’d said the wrong thing. Done something wrong. What?
But he didn’t have time to question her. They had to move and move right then. He yanked open the door, and they rushed out.
The one she’d identified as Jay tensed even as his bodyguard—a tall, African American man dressed in khakis and a leather jacket—brought up his weapon and aimed it at Sawyer.
Sawyer’s eyes narrowed on the guard. “You don’t want to be doing that.”
“No!” Jay’s sharp voice. “West, it’s okay. Lower the gun.” Jay shoved his own gun into the holster at his hip. Then he was surging forward and grabbing Elizabeth, pulling her against him in a fierce hug. “You scared the hell out of me.” He buried his face in her neck, but Sawyer could still hear his muttered words. “When I saw that news report, my first thought was that you were dead. And when the reporter continued, saying you’d been kidnapped…” He shuddered.
And he kept holding Elizabeth.
Enough of that shit.
Sawyer pulled her from the guy’s arms. “She wasn’t kidnapped.” He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, keeping Elizabeth at his side. “I was keeping her safe. Leaving her behind wasn’t an option.”
Jay was tall, just an inch or so shorter than Sawyer, and his hair slid over his forehead. His features were even, the casual, handsome All-American look that some w
omen might like. Not Elizabeth. She’d—
“Funny.” Jay didn’t sound particularly amused. “She said the same thing about you, Sawyer. Leaving you wasn’t an option. That’s why she’s in this mess.” He craned his head and looked at Flynn and Cecelia. He raised his brows. “Dr. Gregory, I assume?”
Cecelia nodded.
Jay’s gaze swept over Flynn. “And you are—”
“Two—” Flynn began.
Cecelia stepped in front of him. “His name is Flynn.”
Jay nodded. “Ah, right. The wing-man. I remember you now. Should have figured you two would still have each other’s backs.”
“Speaking of backs…” It was the bodyguard who spoke. His voice was low and gravel-rough, and his gaze kept sweeping the area. “I can’t protect you in the open like this. Get your asses into the SUV.”
I don’t need protection. Did the guy have any idea who he was facing?
Jay gave a little laugh. “Don’t get all offended, Sawyer. West was talking about me.” He reached for Elizabeth’s hand. “I guess some things don’t change. Sawyer still has to be the baddest asshole in the group, huh?”
Sawyer caught Elizabeth’s other hand. The guy kept talking as if he and Sawyer had met before. Maybe they had. And maybe I disliked him just as much then.
They jumped into the SUV, though, because they didn’t have time for some freaking drama. West got into the passenger seat. It was a three-row SUV. “Bullet-proof windows,” Jay announced. “And amped with every bit of bonus tech I could think of.”
Flynn and Cecelia crowded into the rear, while Jay, Elizabeth, and Sawyer slid into the second row. Elizabeth was locked between Jay and Sawyer. The driver spun the SUV out of the lot, and then they were racing down the dark highway.
“I have a laptop for you,” Elizabeth said to Jay. “It’s screwed to hell and back, but it’s got data on the drive that I need.”
“I’ll take care of it.” The guy sounded absolutely certain. As if he could get the job done, no questions asked.
He was also still holding onto Elizabeth’s hand. What was up with that crap?
Sawyer kept his hold on her, too.
“Sawyer and Flynn…” Jay cleared his throat. “I’ll get new identities for you two. I have a private plane you can use for your escape, and I’ll have my pilot drop you off any place you want to go.”
“What?” Sawyer turned his head, frowning at the other man.
“Your new identities.” Jay spoke as if what he’d said before had been crystal clear. “Not like you can just waltz back into your old lives, am I right? I mean, you’re dead and buried to the rest of the world.”
The hell they were.
“You’ll need to get out of the country, especially with all the press that’s happening right now about the bombing at the facility. No one knows just what kind of work was going on in that place, and I’m sure Uncle Sam is going to make sure the truth doesn’t ever get out. Right now, the story is that all of the government employees—except for Elizabeth and Dr. Gregory—they were all killed and—”
“They weren’t,” Sawyer cut in grimly. “We weren’t killing the guards. We knocked them out to escape, but Flynn and I didn’t kill them.”
“Someone did.” Jay’s voice was flat. “Because I’ve got a contact who sent me pictures of the bodies being removed. The reporters are being fed a line of bull about explosions, and, yeah, some fire rocked the place, but it was hardly the bombings portrayed by the media. Still, my contact saw the bodies. The guards who were inside are all dead.”
Elizabeth’s hand jerked in Sawyer’s grip. “Who is your contact? You never said anything about having a man at Lazarus.”
“I couldn’t have you going in blind. You think I was going to risk you dying?”
He cares about her. There was so much tension in the guy’s voice.
“I bribed a guard to keep me updated, but he was on outside duty at Lazarus, not given access to get to the lower levels of the facility. And he swears the folks inside are all dead.”
Silence. The driver kept the vehicle surging through the darkness.
“Your contact is wrong,” Sawyer finally said grimly. “Everyone isn’t dead. I know for damn sure that another test subject got out. Subject Five—”
“Bryce King,” Elizabeth cut in.
“He got out. And the bastard is coming after us.”
“How do you know that?” Jay immediately wanted to know. “Did you see him escape? Was he with you all when you left—”
“Not hardly,” Cecelia mumbled.
“If he had been,” Flynn added in a voice that was hard with purpose, “I would have killed the bastard myself.”
The front seat squeaked as West turned to look back at them.
“We know Bryce got out,” Sawyer announced clearly. “Because the bastard told me he got out. Just like he said he was coming after Elizabeth.”
“He told you?” Jay’s voice rose. “He contacted you? Fuck, is he following us right now?”
“Uh, Jay, there are a few things you need to know.” In contrast to his high voice, Elizabeth was oddly soothing. “Turns out my formula had a few side effects that I didn’t realize.”
“You brought men back from the dead, Elizabeth. Of course, there were going to be side effects—”
“The subjects can communicate telepathically.”
Jay didn’t speak.
“They have enhanced strength, healing abilities, senses—”
“Let’s go back to that telepathic bullshit,” Jay said. “And then go over things…slowly, from the beginning.”
***
He didn’t take them to just any safe house. With Jay, she shouldn’t have been surprised. He spirited them away from the no-tell motel to what was basically a mansion, one that was totally walled off with top-of-the-line security and a giant gate that promised to keep the rest of the world away.
“Why do I feel like we’re walking into another prison?” Flynn asked as he exited the vehicle.
But Jay just shook his head. “You’ve never been to a prison this nice.” He jogged toward the sprawling stone steps. “I’ve got men watching the gate, but I’d still prefer to get our asses inside as soon as possible.” He looked back at her. “And Elizabeth, you and I need to talk.”
She caught the part he didn’t say…alone. You and I need to talk alone. She’d felt the tension in his body as soon as she started discussing the enhancements that the Lazarus subjects had. Jay wasn’t happy. Actually, she thought he might be on the verge of freaking out, and with Jay, that was never good.
“Jesus, man. Who the hell are you?” Flynn demanded as the group followed Jay inside. The interior of the house was as decadent as Elizabeth had suspected it would be. Gleaming marble floors. Glittering chandeliers. She was pretty sure she caught sight of a Monet painting. Typical Jay.
“Better question,” Sawyer growled. He’d been silent for most of the trip to the safe house. She didn’t think that was a good sign. “How do you afford this place?”
West was at Elizabeth’s side. West wasn’t just Jay’s bodyguard. The guy was his best-friend, his closest confidant, and pretty much the only family that Jay had ever had. The two men had been foster brothers once, and when they’d grown up, West had gone into the military. He’d become part of Delta Force, sliding into danger every chance he got. And Jay…
Jay had found trouble. As he typically did.
“Glad you’re okay,” West murmured to Elizabeth. He pulled her into a quick hug, and the move surprised her. West wasn’t much for emotion. Jay, on the other hand—the guy was always bursting with emotion. Barely holding his feelings in check. The two men were such opposites.
And they were her best friends.
“Thank you,” Elizabeth squeezed him back. “I can’t ever repay you and Jay—”
Sawyer snarled.
It was a rough, animalistic sound, and Elizabeth stiffened. She slowly lifted her head from West’s shoulder a
nd found Sawyer glaring at her. No, not at her, at West.
“Him, the hell, too?” Sawyer snarled. “How many exes do you have around this place?”
Her cheeks burned. No, he had not just said that to her.
“Watch yourself,” West warned. “Super soldier or not, I will take your ass down if you use that tone with Elizabeth.”
“Get your hands off her.”
“His hands aren’t on me.” Elizabeth lifted her chin. “Mine are on him. Because West is my friend. Jay is my friend. They are helping us, and you—”
Sawyer let out a guttural cry. He put his hands on either side of his head and hunched his body. “Fucking trying to control…”
“Uh, Beth?” Jay cleared his throat. “Maybe do us all a solid and back away from—”
Sawyer’s head had snapped up. His eyes had gone cold and lethal. “She’s mine.”
Her body iced.
“The only thing that got me through hell. A memory that snuck into my head while I slept. A dream I didn’t think was real.” He stalked toward West. “You won’t take her from me. No one will take her again.”
“Sawyer!” Elizabeth jerked from West and put her hand on Sawyer’s chest, stopping him. “What are you doing?”
He stared at her, and she saw the confusion in his eyes. He just looked…lost. Oh, dear God, was Bryce in his head again? Feeding him emotions? Driving up his rage? Was he—
“He’s been living in a vacuum for months.” Cecelia’s steps seemed to echo as she crossed the marble entranceway. “Then you returned to his life, and you brought emotion back to him.”
Sawyer squeezed his eyes shut. “Sorry,” he rasped to Elizabeth. “So damn sorry.”
“Emotions can be good,” Cecelia continued in her soft, quiet voice. “There are good emotions like joy, love, and hope, but some emotions can be bad. I think Bryce has shown us that. When dark emotions take hold, I think they are particularly dangerous for the Lazarus men.”
“Jealousy,” Jay announced as he lifted his hands into the air. “It’s a bitch for any man.”
Sawyer’s eyes flew open. His stare locked on Elizabeth. He didn’t look as lost, but he did look…sad. So very sad. “I remember that you’re mine,” he told her, his voice still little more than a rough rasp. “And I don’t want to lose you to another because you can’t stand the idea of being with a fucking monster.”