by Eve Langlais
Adrian strode to the sliding patio doors leading from the master bedroom to the upper deck. Perhaps she’d gone outside for a breath of fresh air. A glance outside showed the patio empty. The propane fire feature cold.
She was gone.
Adrian returned to the bedroom and quickly dressed, a cable knit sweater over his upper body, fresh slacks, warm socks. Exiting his room, the first thing he noticed was the mighty frown on Jett’s face.
“Shouldn’t you be loading Becky into the car?”
“I’ve got the keys. We can leave anytime. We’ve got a bigger problem.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Someone hacked the security system.” A statement that lacked a climax.
Adrian arched a brow. “You already told me that.”
“Yeah, but I didn’t realize to what extent. They’ve been watching this entire time. Since the moment you moved in. Still watching even now, I’ll wager.” Jett looked at the camera above the door leading outside. There was a camera by every single entrance. Only the bathrooms and master bedroom lacked them.
Someone with that kind of access would be aware of every single move he made. Every word he uttered. All the secrets.
So many, many secrets.
“That’s fucking bad.” He glanced down at the floor as if he could see Luke and his family through it. “We need to wipe as much as we can and go into hiding.”
“Do we dare move Margaret, given what she went through?” Becky asked.
“Don’t have a choice, Red,” Jett answered for him. “We can’t stay here.”
Adrian’s lips pursed. “She should be fine. I’m more concerned about getting out of this area unmolested. We have to assume the hacker is watching the roads.”
“If you’re right, and they’re planning to attack, then they’ll have people positioned along it.”
“The woods, too,” Adrian surmised, glancing toward the sliding glass door.
“That’s insane,” Becky muttered. “You’re talking about a huge-scale operation.”
“We have to assume it’s huge because that way we’ll be better prepared.” Adrian pushed at Jett and began tapping at the keyboard.
“What are you doing?” Jett asked as Adrian’s fingers flew.
“Hacking the hacker.” While he’d specialized in medicine and biology during university, he’d supplemented his income playing with computer code. There was something soothing about machine language. The formulas. The strings and functions that he could manipulate. “First, let’s take back control of my cameras.” A process which started with severing all outside connections and then bringing the various zones on line, one at a time.
“What makes you think the hacker won’t just take over again?” Jett asked, pacing behind his chair. He’d moved Becky away from the windows. A sound precaution, as was the gun he’d placed in her hands.
“They might, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Because I’m pretty sure they wouldn’t want us seeing this.”
The driveway showed a pair of SUVs, not even making an attempt to hide, parked blocking in Luke’s car and slanted across part of his garage.
“How many guys?” Jett asked as he checked the magazine on his gun.
“Unfortunately, I can’t rewind to see how many got out, but I doubt both vehicles were packed. Assume four per, eight in total.”
A deadly chill froze Jett’s expression. “Not for long.”
Becky held her hands over her belly. “You might have an advantage. If they’re here for us, then they want us alive. which means they’re probably armed with tranquilizers.”
“Most likely, but just in case they aren’t, shoot to kill.” Adrian didn’t plan to leave anyone alive. Already, too many people knew his secrets.
Jett cast a glance at the bedroom door. “Where’s Jane?”
“Gone.” Adrian didn’t elaborate because then the screaming voice inside might finally escape.
One of the small video screens showed movement. A body creeping around the side of the house, edging toward the sliding glass door to the basement.
Adrian headed for the stairs. “Get ready to hold this level.”
“Where you going this time?” Jett asked with exasperation.
“Downstairs to arm Luke.”
“You’re gonna give the wolfman a gun?” Jett snorted. “Just when I think my life can’t get any weirder.”
Adrian left him behind as he jogged downstairs, barely hitting the bottom step before Luke stood bristling in front of him, his eyes glowing with primal green fire.
“Gonna shoot me, Adrian?” Luke snarled.
“We have company.”
Instantly, Luke went from bristling to serious. “Who?”
“Does it matter? I’m pretty sure you don’t want to see Junior put in a cage.”
“Not if I have anything to say about it. Point me in a direction.”
“And leave the baby—who is probably their target—unguarded?” Adrian asked.
As if knowing he was mentioned, the baby stirred.
Luke glanced at the child, then Margaret, then Adrian again. “Fuck me. This just complicated.”
“Not really. Take Margaret and the baby into the bathroom. Guard them. I’ll handle the guests.”
“You?” Luke snorted. “This isn’t a lab where they’re strapped down and at your mercy.”
“I’ll have you know we rarely tie down our patients during treatment. It’s afterward that things get a little hairy.”
“Understatement of the year,” Luke muttered as he scooped a drowsy Margaret and carried her to the bathroom. Adrian had just grabbed the baby when he saw something from the corner of his eye. He turned his head and couldn’t miss the man outside the window pointing a gun at the glass—just recently replaced since the incident with Jane.
The weapon fired and barely managed a dent. But bulletproof glass was only so durable. The guy began shooting over and over, mocking their misassumption that the invaders wanted the inhabitants of the house alive.
“That guy is starting to really piss me off,” Luke snapped, grabbing the baby from him.
“I’ll be sure to let him know when I confront him. Close the door.” Adrian shoved Luke and pulled the portal shut.
He then drew his second gun. It made him think of a meme, a dirty one, that said real men double fisted.
The guy in the window still fired away. Overhead, came a pop pop pop. Jett was having issues of his own.
The assailant at the door stopped firing for a second, but it was only so that a voice from outside could shout, his words amplified by some kind of speaker. “Surrender now and no one has to get hurt.”
As offers went, it sucked. Surrendering would put them all in cages for sure. Adrian didn’t think he could live in a cage.
The voice yelled again. “Hand over the pregnant mermaid and the child and the rest of you can go free.”
An even worse deal. Did this idiot seriously think they’d agree?
“Like fuck.” Which meant they’d have to fight.
Adrian lifted his gun and fired, right in the weak spot, which was paler than the rest of the impact streaks. Then he fired quickly again and again until the bullet finally went through the hole he made, right into the guy standing there.
Hold on, make that the guy lying on the ground. One down. At least seven more to go. Maybe six since Jett would kill at least one. Adrian headed for the door and hit the code to allow him outside.
He no sooner stepped out than someone shot. Given the furrow it left in his bicep, it was a bullet, not a dart.
But that was the only shot as someone yelled, “If you kill the doctor, we don’t get a bonus.”
Attacking for money. Something he could understand. Which was why he stepped out further and dropped his guns before he lifted his hands. “I don’t suppose anyone wants to make a deal. I can double whatever is on the table.”
“You ai
n’t got no money left, Dr. Chimera.” A man emerged from the corner of the house and placed a hand on the shoulder of the shooter. The rifle was still aimed at Adrian.
“More than you might think. I’ve got hidden accounts.”
“Nice try. But you’ll have to do better than that. We’re here to take you and all your guests in.”
“I thought you just wanted the pregnant one and baby? Change your mind?”
“Those are the most important two. The rest are just additional bonuses.”
“Who’s paying you?” Adrian asked. He took a step forward, hands still overhead. The rifle jerked at his movement, but the fellow didn’t shoot.
“Stop right there, Chimera.”
He halted and tucked his hands behind his back. “You have to know this isn’t going to end well for you. Didn’t they tell you what happened at the farmhouse?”
The fellow with the craggy features didn’t react. Then again, given the massive scar bisecting his face, could be he suffered nerve damage. He certainly suffered from stupidity.
“You can’t scare us. You’re outmanned and outgunned.”
“Again, didn’t they warn you what happened at the farmhouse?”
A sneer pulled the lip only partially. “Yeah, we heard. You sent in your monsters to kill everyone in the place.”
“Actually, it was one man. Marcus, to be precise. They took his girlfriend, and he decided to take her back.”
“Can’t have been one guy.” Scarface shook his head. “There were seven dead on that mission.”
“One. Man.” Adrian repeated, his fingers wrapping around the grip of the gun he kept tucked in the waistband of his pants.
“You’re not that man.”
“You’re right, I’m not. But Luke is.” Adrian ducked as he whipped out his gun.
Two hundred and fifty pounds of wolfman soared over his head and slammed into the rifleman. They went down in a tussle that involved much growling and a set of screams that ended abruptly.
As for Adrian, he pivoted and fired behind him. The sneaky soldier dropped. Adrian then aimed overhead and heard screaming as his shot went through the wooden deck into someone’s foot.
“Surrender, or I’ll shoot,” screamed Scarface, the gun in his hand steady as Adrian strode forward.
The idiot wasn’t scared yet.
You’ll have to try harder, boyo.
“Who sent you?” he asked.
“Bite me.” Scarface fired, but Adrian moved fast. So fast, he didn’t have time to blink as the barrel of his own gun angled and he pulled the trigger. He hit Scarface in the leg, sending him to the ground cursing.
At least he didn’t blubber and snivel. He took his wound like a man.
“Fucking asshole. They told me you were a pushover.”
“It is really bothersome to me that my enemies think me so weak.” Adrian crouched by the man, hand dangling the gun. “Do you think I’m weak?” He fixed the guy with a stare.
“You’re insane,” spat Scarface. “And sick. I know what you’re doing. You and your monsters.”
“That’s a shame because then that means you know what I do to people who might spill my secrets.”
“Go ahead and kill me,” blustered the guy.
“I will, but first tell me where Jane is.”
“Who the fuck is Jane?”
“Hot redhead. Sometimes throws fireballs.”
The man smirked, a lopsided thing that angered Adrian. “Your girlfriend was the first one we nabbed in the woods. She’s back at our headquarters by now I’d wager. You should join her.”
The fact that she had been captured provided a slight elation. Maybe she’d not left him after all.
“Where is she?”
“Come with me and you’ll find out.”
“I said, where?” Adrian pressed the muzzle of his gun against the man’s forehead.
Scarface continued with his arrogant smile. A face so like Benedict’s that Adrian lost his temper.
He was wiping his gun on the dead man’s shirt when Luke came loping at him from the woods, sporting epic sideburns and hair even Wolverine would envy.
“How many did you get?” Adrian asked.
Luke flashed five hairy fingers. Plus, the two on the ground courtesy of Adrian. There couldn’t be many left.
“I’ll check on Jett. You peek in on Margaret and the baby.”
They split up, Adrian taking the outside stairs to the upper level of the patio, seeing two more bodies on the deck. And another three in the house standing across from Jett, their bodies lightly swaying, as if hypnotized. Perhaps they were, given Becky sang, her hair lifting and dancing around her head, her voice lilting and rushing, inviting and calming.
Adrian’s entrance startled her and halted the song. The men snapped out of it. One reached for Becky and died when Jett shot him. Adrian shot the second, as for the third…
Once they captured him, that soldier told them everything they wanted to know—which didn’t amount to much other than the address of the warehouse where they’d taken Jane.
Adrian only hoped he wasn’t too late.
Chapter Nineteen
When Jane regained consciousness, it was to find herself sitting on the concrete floor of a warehouse. The high ribbed ceiling with girders and the towering containers kind of gave it away.
Her clothes exuded a smoky scent. As a matter of fact, there was a distinct smell of burning meat in the air, as if someone had a barbecue.
Uh-oh. What happened while she was out?
A glance down at herself showed her clothes intact, if dirty. She appeared unharmed. Untethered, too.
She stood and looked around, noticing the vast warehouse stretched a good distance and was set up maze-like with stacks of shrink-wrapped pallets. They were of less interest than the body to her left. The charred remains still smoked, the fat crispy, making her stomach rumble. Past the body, at the far end of the aisle formed by towering product, a door.
Freedom! She began to walk toward it when the shadow from the rooftop stepped in front of her, an indistinct blob that drawled, “And just where do you think you’re going?”
Without thinking, Jane drew fire to her palm and flung it. Only to miss as the shadow darted to the side.
“You throw like a girl,” it taunted.
Jane held on to her next fireball. “Who are you? What do you want from me?”
“I wanted you to kill Chimera, but you didn’t listen to me.”
She recognized the plaintive tone of the voice she was used to hearing in her head. “It was you planting ideas in my mind.”
“Not so much planting as cultivating ones that were already there.”
“I don’t hate Adrian as much as you do.”
“You should because he made you just like he made me.” The shadow gestured to itself. “I only exist because of him. He played God. And now it’s my turn to play executioner.”
“So why kidnap me?” Jane asked, pacing left. The shadow kept pace with her. She stopped when her back was to the door behind her.
“Since you won’t kill him, I guess I will. And what better bait than the pussy he’s slamming?” The shadow crossed its arms.
“What makes you think he’ll come to my rescue?”
“Pleasssse,” the shadow said with a raspberry S. “That guy is so in love with you. He would never let his poor Janey-waney down.” The mockery dripped thickly.
Yet Jane found a strange elation in the idea Adrian loved her.
“Why do you hate me so much?” Jane cocked her head, trying to pierce the shadow clinging to features that somehow seemed familiar.
“I don’t hate you. I pity you. You fell for his bullshit. Fell for the guy that made you into a victim. There’s a name for people like you.”
“Forgiving?”
“There is no forgiveness,” boomed the shadow.
“You have a beef with him, then by all means take it up with Adrian. But don’t think you can use me in your
vendetta.”
“Oh, but I already have.”
“You won’t get out of this alive,” Jane stated. She was beginning to suspect she was the reason for the bodies on the floor. She’d spotted a second charred corpse between the stacks.
“If I die, you’re coming with me.”
Jane quirked a brow. “Was that meant to be a proposition? I already have a boyfriend, thank you.”
“Chimera is a killer.”
“So am I.” But in a strange twist, Adrian proved to be the one person she had no interest in ending.
There was a clang as of a door opening. Startled, Jane glanced over her shoulder to see Adrian striding into the warehouse, his hands spread. “Jane! Are you all right?”
“Adrian!” She beamed, only to frown. “Don’t come any further. I don’t want the shadow to get you.”
“Too late, Janey.”
Jane faced the shadow being. “Leave Adrian alone. He hasn’t done anything bad.”
“Other than supply the pills that led to you losing a promising future.”
“I made that mistake,” she spat. “He didn’t make me swallow those white pills.”
“Um, Jane,” Adrian interrupted. “What are you doing?”
“Trying to save your life,” she retorted with a hot glance over her shoulder.
“From who? There’s no one here other than corpses.”
“What are you talking about?” She stepped aside and pointed. “The one who’s been whispering bad things to me is right there.”
“I only see you.”
“Look again.”
“I am,” he replied softly. “Maybe you should, too.”
She looked down and saw her finger pointing to herself. “I don’t understand.”
“I guess it’s maybe a bit late to ask if you’ve been hearing voices.”
“Yes. I thought I was going crazy.”
“You’re not. It’s a side effect of the treatment. I hear a voice, too.”
A frown knotted her brow. “You mean, all this time, that shadow and voice were me?” She shook her head. “That can’t be right, because it keeps telling me to kill you.”
“Actually, that tends to be very common as well. Becky says it’s because it is engrained in humans to hate the creator of monsters.”