by Cynthia Eden
“Drop your weapon, Sawyer!” Landon screamed. Only the scream wasn’t just out loud. The scream echoed in Sawyer’s head, a hard, psychic blast. The compulsion that came with it was so strong that Sawyer’s hand trembled. But he didn’t drop the gun.
“The test subjects get different psychic powers, don’t they?” Elizabeth’s voice was so cool. As if she weren’t afraid at all. But that was a lie. Sawyer could see the fear in her eyes. “Another side effect that we didn’t anticipate. Bryce could push his emotions onto others and you…you do something a little different, don’t you?”
“I can get into people’s heads. Make them do what I want…” Landon boasted as his mouth came closer to Elizabeth’s ear. “I can make them attack! I can make them destroy. I can make them kill!”
Attack. Destroy. Kill. Those dark orders had come from Landon?
Landon laughed again. “You thought I was so weak at Lazarus, didn’t you? When you pushed me into my office and tried to make me release the band on your ankle. You thought you held the power then, but you were wrong!”
“I still knocked your ass out, didn’t I?”
Landon’s laughter faded. “I was only out a few moments. I heal fast, maybe not as fast as you, but I heal.”
Elizabeth still had her eyes on Sawyer. “You woke up to find your precious laptop gone, didn’t you, Landon? Bet that freaked you the hell out.”
“I knew you had it. Knew I had to find you. But that was going to be easy enough.” And his left hand moved down to her chest.
“Stop!” Sawyer snarled.
“Easy…just showing dear Elizabeth where her tracker is located. You had to wonder how I found her so fast, right? Well, while Elizabeth was being sewed up after her little incident with the gunshot, I took the liberty of having a tracker implanted in her. I knew it would come in handy.”
“You’re a fucking bastard,” Elizabeth said, her eyes hard with fear and fury.
“No, I’m not a bastard. Thanks to you, well, I’m pretty much a god among men now.”
“You’re insane,” she fired right back.
He pressed his nose to her cheek. “I can make you do things, too, Elizabeth. So many things.”
No, he fucking wouldn’t. “Let her go.” Sawyer’s words were a roar.
“I can make you do things,” Landon said again, as if he hadn’t heard Sawyer. “I just have to be close enough to my prey. Within five feet. And I’m plenty close enough to you now.” Landon’s face had gone smug. His head lifted and he smirked at Sawyer. “I want you to take the gun, Elizabeth.” His voice had turned low, soothing. “Take the gun from me…and you fire at Sawyer.”
Her eyes widened. Elizabeth shook her head.
“Take the gun and fire at him!” Landon bellowed. “He won’t shoot at you. Never at you. He’s been obsessed with you the whole time. When you were shot back in D.C., he went wild when we took him away from you. He started screaming your name when he was pulled down the hallway. I killed him again. Did I ever tell you that? I killed him again because he was so out of control and desperate to get to you. I killed him, and I took him back in the Lazarus facility for more experimentation. He woke there, but he’d still dream of you. I’d see him at night, that’s why I had all of those cameras—”
Sawyer took a step toward the bastard.
“The subjects remember more when they sleep. They call out for people. They whisper their secrets. Bryce—he was a freaking killer. He loved torturing women. I knew that, though, before I brought him in to Lazarus. Wanted someone with a killer edge.”
A tear leaked down Elizabeth’s cheek.
“Take the gun!” Landon blasted. “Take it and shoot—”
Sawyer fired his weapon. The bullet hit Landon in the side of his neck, and blood poured from his wound. Landon’s eyes were wide and desperate as he staggered back.
Sawyer yanked Elizabeth from the sonofabitch’s hold. Landon had put his left hand over the gaping wound, and his right was swinging up the gun—
Sawyer knocked the gun out of Landon’s hand. “You fucking killed me. Twice. It’s your turn to die.” And he fired, almost a point-blank shot. The bullet slammed into Landon’s heart, and the man fell immediately, just crumpled on the floor.
Elizabeth’s breath panted in and out. Sawyer pulled her into his arms, holding her tight. His Elizabeth. She was okay. They’d both made it. And he was never, fucking ever going to let her go. “I love you.” The words were torn from him. He needed to say them. Needed her to understand. There were parts of him that were gone. Missing. Gaping holes inside, but there was one thing he knew with utter certainty. “I love you.” His head lifted because he had to stare into her eyes. Had to make her see what he felt was real.
When he’d rushed into that house and seen the gun at her temple, everything had become utterly, crystal clear to him. Elizabeth couldn’t die. Elizabeth was his world.
Elizabeth was his.
“I love you,” he said again. He’d say it a thousand times. Forever, if she’d let him.
Her smile came. Slow, unsteady, but it made his heart feel lighter. The threat was gone. Elizabeth was okay. They’d both made it. They had a chance at forever.
They—
Horror flashed in her eyes. “Flynn! Oh, God, Flynn!” She pulled out of Sawyer’s arms and rushed to Flynn’s side.
Sawyer hadn’t even seen his friend at first. He’d seen Jay and West, and he’d detected their heartbeats so he knew they still lived. But now he saw Flynn, sprawled in a pool of blood behind the staircase. He’d fallen down, face-first, and bullet holes littered his back.
Elizabeth reached for him. Her hand went to his neck. “Flynn? Flynn!”
Sawyer focused on his friend. Tried to hear breathing. A heartbeat.
Nothing.
Grief wrapped around Sawyer even as his hands went to Elizabeth’s shoulders. “Baby, he’s gone.”
Her head lifted. Tears slid from her eyes. “He was protecting me. He…Landon shot him in the back! Flynn didn’t deserve this—you and Flynn never deserved this!”
Sawyer heard a frantic banging. Wild. Desperate. His head turned toward the right.
“The safe room,” Elizabeth whispered. “It’s Cecelia, I-I locked her inside—”
Sawyer focused hard, and he could hear Cecelia’s cries. “Let me out! Get me out! I can’t be locked up again—I can’t!”
“I’m so sorry, Flynn.” A sob burst from Elizabeth. She’d rolled Flynn over and her hand was on his cheek. His eyes were closed. His face was slack. “I wanted to help you and Sawyer, I didn’t want—”
Flynn’s eyes opened. They flew open at the exact same instant—
Thud. Thud. Thud.
At the exact same instant that Sawyer heard the guy’s heart start beating. Sawyer’s jaw dropped.
Flynn let out a low groan. “Oh, man…feels like I was hit by a…a truck…” He licked his lips. “Wh-what the hell happened?”
Elizabeth gaped at him.
He was dead. His heart stopped. He was dead.
But wasn’t Project Lazarus all about bringing men back from the dead? All about them rising again? Stronger, more powerful than ever before? What had Landon said before…
“I killed him, and I took him back in the Lazarus facility for more experimentation. He woke there, but he’d still dream of you.”
Holy shit.
They could come back from death. How many times? How many?
Sawyer could see the same thoughts whirling in Elizabeth’s head. Her eyes grew wider and she suddenly yelled, “Landon!”
He’d had the same realization. If Flynn could come back, then Landon could, too. Sawyer whirled, and he scooped up the gun he’d discarded when he grabbed Elizabeth. He bounded toward Landon just as the guy’s eyes started to crack open.
A sly smile was already curving Landon’s lips.
But that smile froze when he saw the gun right over his face.
“No!” Landon croaked. “N-not my hea
d…n-need brain to f-function—”
Sawyer fired. One shot right into Landon’s head. The doctor jerked back. Then he was still. Completely, ominously still.
“Is he going to come back from that?” Sawyer demanded. He didn’t lower his gun. He spared a quick glance toward Elizabeth.
She was still on the floor, with Flynn sprawled half on top of her. Her face was stark white. “I sure as hell hope not.”
Yeah, so did he…but how about, just to be safe…
Sawyer fired again and again until the gun was empty. Until Landon’s brain was full of bullets.
Just to be safe.
Payback, bastard. Payback.
Chapter Twenty-Four
“I can’t find any trace of Wyman Wright.” Jay sat behind his desk, his fingers poised over his keyboard. “I looked, Elizabeth, and I looked hard. If I can’t find him…” He glanced up, his jaw set. “Then no one can.”
They were back in D.C., well, technically, they were just outside of the city. In yet another of Jay’s houses. He’d been released from the hospital and so had West—though West was on strict orders to take things easy. Her orders.
Currently, West was stationed near the door, and a glower was on his face.
There were a few more occupants in the sprawling office. Flynn Haddox stood next to West—his body in the same, falsely relaxed pose. Cecelia Gregory sat perched on the edge of the couch. While the last member of their little group—Sawyer—
He stood right beside Elizabeth.
“From what I can tell, Wright never made it out of the Lazarus facility alive.” Jay rolled back his shoulders. “Landon wanted to cover all of his tracks there. I think he set the explosions to destroy the place. I think he blew the place to hell and back because he wanted the formula for himself.” He nodded once. “I found plans on his laptop. Logistics that showed the facility’s entire layout. Places that would be perfect for explosive devices. He mapped out the facility, and then he just waited for the perfect moment to strike.”
“What about Bryce?” The question came from Cecelia. Quiet. Hesitant. “Is he…?”
Elizabeth glanced at her. She could feel Cecelia’s fear.
“No sign of him, either,” Jay confessed. “But unlike Wright, we know that Bryce is enhanced. And all indicators say that he slipped away from my house in Arizona, then the guy went completely off the grid. I’m pretty sure Bryce cut his tracker out long ago. Hell, that’s probably how he was able to slip into Cecelia’s quarters so often. He must have left the tracker in his room while he went to see her—”
A low, menacing growl came from Flynn. “He should be dead.”
“Dammit! I didn’t know he could get back up after I shot him in the chest!” Sawyer said, voice flat. “If I’d known it took a bullet to the brain to stop him, trust me, I would have made sure the bastard didn’t rise again.”
Because, unfortunately, Bryce had risen. By the time they’d realized that Lazarus subjects could come back from the dead—apparently, multiple times—he’d already been long gone. Only a pool of blood had been left to mark where he’d been at Jay’s Arizona safe house. Both Sawyer and Flynn had tried to track the guy, but he’d just vanished.
“He’s going to come after me.” Cecelia squared her shoulders. “I know he will.”
Flynn stalked toward her. “Then he’ll find me waiting for him. I’ll finish him.”
Elizabeth bit her lower lip. She was afraid of Bryce, too. Afraid that he was hunting both her and Cecelia.
Sawyer caught her hand in his. “Doc, you don’t need to be afraid. Not ever again.”
If only that were true. She had Sawyer back, and when he looked at her, she could see the love in his eyes. He was going to stand by her, she knew it, just as she would stay by him. Always. But there was plenty to fear.
Landon had created ten Lazarus test subjects. Ten subjects that they knew about. What if there were more?
They had to find them. Maybe those men were good, maybe they were like Flynn and Sawyer—warriors who wanted to protect. That was the best-case scenario. The worst-case?
They were like Bryce and Landon. Monsters who wanted to kill.
She’d poured through all of the notes and files that Jay had been able to retrieve from Landon’s computer. He’d been brutally honest in those notations, ever the cold, unbiased scientist. And he’d realized some truths about himself. “The Lazarus formula amplifies your personality traits. The good ones and the bad.” She swallowed. “Bryce was a sadistic predator even before he got the dosage.” An Army Ranger who’d been dishonorably discharged—he never should have been a candidate for Lazarus. But then, Landon had been so curious about what would happen to a subject like him. “The formula made Bryce into even more of a threat.” Her gaze slid to Cecelia.
“He won’t get to either of you,” Flynn swore.
Some promises were easy to give. But what happened when the monster you hunted could slip so easily into your mind? Into the minds of his victims?
“We have to find them all,” West said, stirring from his position. “If they’re threats, we eliminate them. If they’re not, if they’re like Sawyer and Flynn…”
“We aren’t exactly the perfect image of good guys,” Sawyer drawled, voice rough.
She thought he was. To her, he was better than perfect.
“Landon was a killer before he took the formula,” she said. “He was killing test subjects.” Wright had said Sawyer was deliberately killed so that her lover could be brought into Project Lazarus. Now, Elizabeth couldn’t help but wonder just how involved Landon had been in Sawyer’s death. Because Sawyer was close to me. That pain would always be there. “The formula just made him worse. He lost his grip totally and was consumed with the idea of getting more power, of being able to control others.” To her, he’d become the real monster.
No, he’d always been a monster. He’d just hid his evil beneath the skin.
“I think the authorities and the media bought our story.” Jay flashed a broad smile. “My story. It was, after all, pure genius the way I got access to those security videos from the Lazarus facility. The videos that clearly showed Landon setting the explosives. We were able to prove to the world that he was batshit crazy, while explaining that Elizabeth and Cecelia were never kidnapped—they just managed to escape the mad doctor’s clutches.”
Pure genius? Not so much. Turned out…when she’d installed his little virus into the computer system at Lazarus, she’d opened a back door for him. Jay hadn’t told her about that part, not until later. Once she’d uploaded the virus, he’d snuck into the system and sent the video feeds to himself. He had caught images of Landon planting the explosives. And, he’d also gotten a video of Landon killing Hugh Cleston.
That wasn’t Bryce. The guard’s blood had all been on Landon’s hands.
Jay reached into his desk and pulled out a manila file. “Sawyer and Flynn, I’ve got new social security numbers for you.” He put the file on top of his desk. “Since the world thinks you’re dead, no one is looking for you. I mean, there are graves out there for you two. When you went into Lazarus, Landon and Wright took care of burying you both—literally.”
Elizabeth had once visited Sawyer’s empty grave. And she’d been gutted.
“You can do anything you want,” Jay continued earnestly. “Go anywhere you want—”
“I’m staying with Elizabeth,” Sawyer said flatly.
“Right.” Jay coughed. “Like we all didn’t see that shit coming.”
Elizabeth shook her head. “Jay, thank you. I’ll never be able to repay what you’ve done for me.”
“I’m sure you’ll find a way, one day.” He just shrugged. “We’ve got plenty of time to work everything out later.”
They did have time. Time to hunt the bad guys, time to find the good guys. Time to fix the mistakes of the past. Time to dream about the future.
A future that she’d have with Sawyer. Finally.
They left Jay and th
e others. Headed out into the D.C. night. Flynn escorted Cecelia home—he seemed to always be with her these days. A light flurry of snow had started to fall. By the time Sawyer and Elizabeth reached her apartment, a soft coating of white littered the ground. She slipped from the car and Sawyer took her hand. A snowflake slid across her nose.
He stopped her on the sidewalk, and her head tilted back as she stared up at him.
“Are you sure about me?” Sawyer asked her.
She knew he still worried about the darkness he carried inside. He might never get his memories back completely, they both knew that. But she also knew that they could make new memories. “I’ve never been more certain of anyone.”
He pulled her close. His lips pressed to hers. His lips were cold, but he still warmed her. He heated her, from the inside out. Banished her fears and made her feel alive. He made her hope.
“I love you, Elizabeth,” Sawyer whispered against her mouth. “Always.”
Just as she would always love him. They headed into her building, shutting out the night. They’d fought death and won, they’d fought killers and won. They could face anything else that would come their way, as long as they were together.
And they would be together.
Because she would never give up on him, just as he wouldn’t give up on her. They’d stay together.
They’d never let go.
Epilogue
“You shouldn’t have lied to Elizabeth.”
Jay turned at West’s low words. The others had left. He’d been staring at the light snowfall, thinking about how life could be so strange. All of the twists and turns that it could take. He hadn’t even realized West had come back into his office. Frowning now, he said, “I didn’t lie to Elizabeth.” She was one of the few people in the world that he valued. Not his lover any longer, but he still cared for her. She and West were his family. The only family he had.
“You never told her that you were one of Wright’s biggest backers. That you gave him the money to turn Lazarus into reality.”
No, he hadn’t told her that particular bit. “Once, Lazarus was her dream. I simply supported Wright to give her the chance—”