by Amy Rench
And he wasn’t sure Jeff was on his side anymore. His boss was always evasive, but this time was different. Almost like a warning. Do your job or we’ll find someone who can, was Jeff’s message.
“So if you find her, bring her in.” Jeff tilted back in his leather chair and picked up his papers, dismissing him.
“Great.” Rome nodded with a coolness he didn’t feel and stood. He walked to the door and looked back to Jeff over his shoulder. “I’ll take care of it.”
“Yes, you will,” Jeff said, evenly holding his gaze.
Jeff was so damn hard to read. That’s what made him so good at what he did. And it’s also what made Rome now question whether going there was as good an idea as he’d thought it was earlier. Maybe he’d just tipped his hand. Damn it all.
Quickening his pace without appearing to do so, he moved down the shadowy corridor. A couple of burly guys turned the corner ahead and moved his way. They were unusually huge. Shit. Were they after him?
They looked like the same guys who’d tried to stop Harper when he helped her escape. He was sure no one had seen him in the alley, but he had witnessed them use the same power as her, though a tad muddied. And it confirmed what Jeff told him about the experiments. Maybe these brutes were the subjects.
Rome gave them a cordial nod as they passed. Nodding back, the two hulks kept walking. He resisted the urge to turn around and see whether they were watching him. He didn’t want to appear concerned, but his back felt as if it were on fire.
Walking out the door, he held his breath as if waiting for someone to yank him back inside. Or tackle him. But nothing happened.
Reaching his car, Rome quickly inspected the Land Rover. He was going to have to switch it out before returning to the warehouse with the items Harper requested.
He had to get back to her. Now. Someone was hiding the whole truth. And hard as it would be, he needed to make sure it wasn’t her. He was so damn tired of secrets.
CHAPTER NINE
Jeff Donovan watched the secure feed from the three streetlight cameras on his computer monitor. Rome finally passed the last one and moved out of sight.
He sat back against the buttery leather of his chair, steepling his fingers against his mouth.
Agent Rome Lucian made him uneasy. He always had. And that uneasiness was what prompted this whole project.
Not too long ago, the agent had mistrusted his instincts and the falter had cost lives. Yet the incident sparked an idea. An idea that removed unreliable instincts and replaced it with raw power. With the powerful serum, his men could create the variables instead of react to them.
And failures like Rome’s could be prevented.
But here the agent was, testing his instincts again. Yes, Rome knew something. The fact that he’d been to the facility twice since Harper Kane became an issue had reinforced that.
Damn her. Damn her and her goody-goody brother.
Dr. Robert Kane had wanted to use his formula for global assistance. So did Jeff. Only their definitions of “assistance” were slightly different. Jeff’s vision of saving the world meant creating the ultimate warrior. It was his pet project. To mold a force that no one would be able to reckon with. The country and its allies would be invincible. No one would dare cross them ever again.
That wasn’t Dr. Kane’s vision. Jeff didn’t understand why their dreams couldn’t live in harmony. The doctor was part of Five Watch. Surely he understood national security and everything that went with it.
But Dr. Kane refused to share even a scrap of his precious formula. And with that refusal, the doctor had signed his own death warrant. Jeff couldn’t tolerate associates who weren’t on board.
The moment Dr. Kane had found out about Jeff’s experiments using a replica of his serum, the bastard went wacko and destroyed it all. Torching his private underground lab at the Five Watch facility along with his precious plants and every single piece of research he’d ever created. And he’d destroyed every drop of the serum.
Or so Jeff had thought.
Then that damn woman had shown up just as his men were finishing off Dr. Kane. When Jeff had heard that, he’d been furious. But it hadn’t compared to the rage once he’d gotten the report about the incident at the train tracks.
Apparently the sight hadn’t been pretty. Decimated bodies everywhere. The damn woman had injected the last of the serum. Used the power. And left behind a useless flash drive, which had no doubt held the only surviving remnants of Dr. Kane’s data on the formula. Why else would her brother have given it to her?
Harper Kane was a tough bitch, no doubt, but he’d been sure they’d be able to get to her eventually—especially in the main lab at the Five Watch facility for more extensive and invasive testing.
Then she’d overpowered his own test subjects to escape. Though he knew his boys were imperfect, he’d underestimated the power the true serum gave her. Good thing he’d kept her underground.
Although her powers were obviously superior, her escape was just a little too convenient.
The surveillance cameras in the alley hadn’t revealed anything out of the ordinary, but that was before she’d used her power to tear up the area. Her shock wave had damaged the cameras beyond recall.
So he hadn’t been able to see whether she’d had help. But Rome’s visit today was a little too coincidental. And Jeff had never really believed in coincidences. Everything was planned.
Rome had agreed to find Harper Kane again, but something in his eyes seemed amiss.
Doubt.
Rome had never asked questions about a job. Never doubted what task he was given.
But there were definite questions in his casual interest as he’d sat there, asking about Harper Kane.
The agent had admitted to witnessing her power. Could he be trusted with that knowledge? Especially given the suspicious vibe Jeff had sensed?
Maybe Rome had come here to feel him out. Maybe he already had the woman and was going to use her for his own purposes. Maybe the two were a team.
No. Harper Kane and the serum that flowed inside her was his. Jeff wasn’t going to take any chances. He needed that formula, and he’d get it from the bitch if it was the last thing he did.
And no one, not even his best agent, was going to stand in his way.
Picking up the handset of his phone, Jeff dialed the number for his enhanced task force. He tried to think of every hiding place Rome had. He knew of only a few. He’d never had to tail him before, but he was certain Agent Rome Lucian had unlimited resources. Rome was that good. So it was going to be a challenge.
But Jeff loved challenges. He knew Rome did, too.
So, it was war. The prize?
Harper Kane.
Another undead attacker exploded across the television screen as Harper maneuvered her computerized warrior through a dark forest, hacking and slashing everything in her way with her giant sword.
Ragged zombies continued to emerge from behind nearly every rock and tree, swarming around her character, grunting while they persisted with their all-out assault, trying to keep her from reaching the magical fortress.
It was a nice break to mindlessly play the video game, allowing her to set her troubles aside for blessed spurts of time. Immersing herself in the game also helped put her worry for Rome on hold.
But not entirely. She found her mind wandering while her hands intuitively operated the controller. She wasn’t convinced that Rome was being prudent in chatting up his boss. He’d been confident that no one would be the wiser. She wasn’t so sure. Was she just a skeptical Sally now that her life had been turned every way but right?
Maybe. But although she was new to this cloak-and-dagger stuff, she was pretty certain that you just didn’t walk up to the people who ordered a hit on the girl you were now helping and ask them questions about it. What if they suspected she and Rome were a team? Would they kill him?
Dramatic music filtered into her thoughts. Eyeing the television screen, she saw her warrio
r surrounded. How appropriate.
Harper completely empathized with her red-haired heroine, twitching while she turned her character in circles. She herself had been in the same situation. Though her attackers weren’t slobbering zombies with staves.
She quickly activated her character’s inventory to see what, if anything, she could use against her threatening enemies. A box flashed across the screen, showing her everything she’d found, bought, or stolen while on her journey. What did she have that could get her out of the potentially fatal circumstances?
The zombies closed in on her waiting warrior. Harper noticed that she possessed a magical spell that would raze the zombies for good. Well, it sounded cool. She’d do it.
Casting the spell, Harper watched her simulated warrior sheathe her sword and raise her hand as a sparkling silver hue encased the character.
A gleaming energy wave burst from the outstretched hand like a shimmering bubble. In flashes of computerized smoke, the hostile zombies vanished one by one as the wave swept through them, clearing the way to the castle for her digital warrior.
A muted thud drew Harper’s attention away from the television screen. Glancing down, she saw the controller on the carpeted floor and her empty trembling hands. Realization swamped her senses. She actually had those powers.
But instead of obliterating simulated zombies, she’d killed real people. Actual human beings had died at her hands. Because of her inadvertent power. The inadvertent power she had purposefully used.
Harper felt sick. Her stomach churned like it was folding into itself. She wrapped her shaking arms around her roiling torso, trying to ease the shocking pain.
She was a murderer. She’d killed in real life. Not in some video game.
Yet, the reason was the same. To survive. She had to make sure she remembered that.
Survival. She needed to keep going in order to get revenge for Bobby.
With effort, Harper uncoiled her body and sat up straight, sucking in several deep breaths and blowing them out slowly. On screen her character was ready and waiting for Harper to put her into action. Instead she reached to shut the game off.
Okay. Okay, Harper. She couldn’t change the past. But she could shape the future she wanted. Relax. She wanted revenge. Focus. She began to take easy, measured breaths, just as she did before a race.
Yesterday she had been able to summon the power and control it. Well, not quite control, but she’d directed it. Though the brutes she’d been up against had somehow met it head-on with a power similar to hers, she’d been able to have a shred of command over her mind’s energy.
But not inside the facility itself. Harper leaned against the back of her chair, deep in thought. No, it hadn’t worked inside.
The trigger seemed to be related to her emotions. It had come unbidden the times she’d been in extreme pain from thinking about Bobby and her unthinkable situation. The first time she’d been able to temper it was at Rome’s. She’d been upset but hadn’t wanted to hurt him.
But in the facility, she’d wanted to get out, not caring who or what she might hurt. Yet her mind hadn’t cooperated. The energy hadn’t been there for her, no matter how much pain she’d endured.
Taking a deep, controlled breath, she focused on the stack of game boxes on the table and attempted to summon the energy in her mind and direct it toward the innocuous pile. Nothing. Okay, so what was different? Inside versus outside? No, that couldn’t be it. She’d been inside Bobby’s lab and the power had come without command, from an overload of grief.
Shaking her head in frustration, she stood and walked out of the room. Heading to the refrigerator, she pulled out a bottle of water and twisted off the cap. Taking a long sip, she relished the cool liquid as it refreshed her body and settled her mind.
Rome had told her to stay inside, but she decided she needed fresh air. Suffocation was clutching at her.
She had changed into her own clothes now that they were clean, but she stopped by the bedroom to pick up one of Rome’s well-worn gray sweatshirts. Smiling at the cozy oversized fit and the big maroon and gold M on the chest, Harper pushed the long cotton arms up past her wrists and walked to the front area of the warehouse.
Only the one sliding door faced her. The entrance was just large enough for the Bug to creep through. Walking across the empty space, she glanced toward the security box on the wall. Red lights warned her that some sort of alarm was activated. She smiled. Was he trying to keep her in or everyone else out? Most likely out, given that she’d told him she was a programmer, and surely he’d figured she’d be able to deactivate it.
Programmer. Right. Hacker was more like it. Her part-time job at the video-game company included programming, but was essentially hacking into the games to see how much code she could dismantle and how imaginatively she could mess with the so-called security measures. Then she would create hidden layered logic routines to keep other hackers out.
So as she stepped in front of the alarm panel she was pretty confident she could easily disarm it. Snapping the plastic cover off the mechanism, she peered at the exposed wires. Rome had obviously rigged the thing himself, given the concealed plate that hid a tiny keyboard and screen and the level of complication. Data streamed across the minute display, as Harper watched the shuffling code sequences for patterns.
There. She found a common string and studied it closely for a few minutes. She was able to identify figures that appeared to represent the broadcasting of the alarm signal without actually disarming the alarm.
Hmm. Close enough. Harper placed her fingers on the Blackberry-sized keyboard and entered a command to disrupt the data flow. Without hesitation, she hit the Enter key. The constant stream came to a slight pause and then flowed again, with an ever-so-minor modification. She doubted that Rome would even be aware of it. Besides, she’d change it back once she returned.
Smiling, she replaced the plastic covering and walked to the sliding door. She grabbed the handle and pulled. No sound. A long breath escaped her lips, one she didn’t even know she was holding.
The autumn sunlight was sluggishly waning, but still coating every surface in its path. She took several deep breaths of crisp air and began to pace around outside the warehouse to the area that faced the dense forest, stretching her muscles as best she could.
Harper rolled up the sleeves of Rome’s sweatshirt a little more and rubbed her bare arms. The sun’s warmth invigorated her, as did the fresh air, sending light pulses of energy through her veins.
Strange. She experienced the same revitalizing sensation as soon as she stepped outside the facility right before she escaped. Harper peered at her arm, running her fingers gently over the tingling skin.
She swept her gaze around the area, looking for something she could practice with. She wanted to try to harness this power. Control it. If she could, revenge would be a lot easier. Quicker.
Shielding her eyes from the sunlight, she squinted to see a bunch of empty milk crates stacked against the wall of the adjacent warehouse to her right. Recalling the image of the warrior in her game, she raised her hand and focused on the crates.
The ice-cold sensation that preceded the scorching heat was now becoming familiar. Even welcome. Fiery power blazed through her blood, filling her mind and surging down along her outstretched arm. A small wave of nearly invisible energy rippled toward the crates, originating from her prickling hand.
Harper kept her gaze locked on the stacks, watching in amazement, and a little satisfaction, as they began to vibrate under her power.
A distant rumbling broke into her focus. Uh-oh. Rome’s Bug.
Harper quickly dropped her hand and raced around the building to the sliding door she’d left slightly open, shaking off the power swelling inside her body.
Harper was just slipping inside when she saw the Bug come to a halt only feet from her. Peering through the flat windshield, she spied Rome’s striking, narrowed blue eyes staring crossly at her.
She was busted.
Slinking back out, she mustered the most sheepish look she could manage. Maybe there was a way to spin this so he wouldn’t be too upset with her. Then again, he was supersexy when he was angry. Maybe she could get him madder instead.
Rome had barely stepped out of the car before he went on the offensive. “What the hell are you doing out here?”
“I needed some air.” She gave him a half grin. Well, it was the truth.
“How?” He stiffly gestured toward the sliding door with a wave of his hand. His kissable lips were tight with frustration.
“I altered the code.” She held up a placating palm. “Don’t worry. I’ll reset it.”
“Altered the code?” His anger turned to intrigue.
“I told you, I’m a programmer. It’s what I do.”
Rome didn’t really have anything to say to that, but his gorgeous face, bathed in the fading daylight, cracked the most admiring and alluring smile she’d ever seen.
He walked over to her, stopping just inches away. She flushed. She could see every blue swirl in the eddy of his eyes. Smell every spice of his lingering soap. Feel every breath that brushed her face.
“Show me,” Rome whispered as he leaned in. His mouth was so very close to hers. He licked his lips. She wetted her own. Harper almost closed her eyes, just waiting, desperately wanting the touch of those lips against hers once again.
Then she was flat on her back on the ground.
Well, that was fast.
“Somebody’s here.” Rome’s whisper was nearly silent, just a tickling breath away from her ear.
Rome covered her body with his as he frantically searched the area. His intense blue eyes at such close range were a sight to behold. Stay here, he mouthed, rolling off her body easily and moving into a crouch, gun drawn. Wow, she hadn’t known he was even carrying one.
Creeping around the dented front bumper of the Bug, Rome disappeared from her sight. She sat upright and tried to listen for whatever had startled him. And stopped their imminent kiss. Darn it. Her lack of trust in him hadn’t diminished his allure. Double darn it.