by Cynthia Eden
Right. Time for the separation.
And she would need to separate from everyone.
“You need to get the hell out of here, too,” Maddox advised Sawyer. “All of you.”
“We will,” Sawyer assured him. “I’ll get a chopper to land on the roof. We’ll be gone in moments.”
Luna and Maddox hurried away. The ride down in the elevator was conducted in silence. She tried to get her breathing under control. Tried to fight back the fear. And tried to find the right words to say to Maddox.
Because there was no way she was leaving that place with him. She wouldn’t put him at risk. There were plenty of vehicles in the garage, that was what Sawyer had said. So Maddox would take one of those other rides, and she’d take the blue SUV.
“Jett.” Maddox’s voice slipped through her mind. She knew he was pulling her and Jett into a psychic web. “Meet us in the garage. We’ve got trouble.”
Yes, they did have trouble.
She was the trouble.
And she would not bring Jett and Maddox down with her.
***
Sawyer exhaled on a long sigh.
“We need to go,” Elizabeth murmured. She stood by the door, but her beautiful gaze was on him. “The sooner we all clear this place, the better. The last thing I want is for any of the Lazarus bastards to ever get their hands on you again.”
He strode toward her, lifted his hands, and cupped her cheeks. “The first time I saw you…I thought you were the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.”
Her eyes widened. “Sawyer?”
“Way out of my league, though.” And he smiled. “Didn’t think I would have a shot in hell with you.”
“You…remember? The first time we met?”
“Your hair was in one of those twists you like to wear, and a few locks had come loose. You walked into the exam room, nibbling your lower lip, your gaze on the chart in your hands. I stared at you and knew I’d never want anything more in my whole life.”
Her lower lip trembled.
“Then you looked up at me. And you smiled.”
Shit. He’d been a goner before she’d even spoken.
And he had that memory now. He could remember every detail, even the shoes that Elizabeth had worn. The way she’d laughed nervously when she’d caught him staring at her. The way her grin had come and gone when she’d straightened her shoulders and tried to be all business-like and professional.
The way her eyes had sparkled when she looked back at him.
“It works. Luna’s power can bring back memories.” And the joy was there, wanting to break free. The promise of getting back the life he’d lost. So close…
We just have to make sure Luna stays safe.
“It works,” he said again.
“That’s why someone tagged her, permanently.” Worry shone in Elizabeth’s eyes. “Someone else wants what she can do. That someone wants to be able to control Luna. We have to get that tracker out. We have to help her.”
If they helped Luna, she could help all of the other subjects. “We will.” A vow. Absolutely will.
***
“There’s a tracker inside of you?” Jett demanded. “Shit, let’s cut the bitch out!”
“Not that easy.” Maddox didn’t want the guy whipping out a knife. “They put the thing in her heart. Elizabeth said she didn’t have the skill to get it out, not without possibly killing Luna.”
Jett backed up a step. “Hell.”
“Exactly,” Luna mumbled, rubbing a hand over the back of her neck. “And that’s why we’re separating. Now. You need to get out of here.”
Maddox glanced around. There were plenty of cars in that garage, just as Sawyer had said. “Hot-wire one,” Maddox ordered him because he knew that Jett could easily do that. “Get a car, and go.”
“Luna, Maddox, shit, this isn’t the way things are going to work.” Jett shook his head.
But Luna’s expression didn’t alter. “It’s the way things have to work. Go,” she urged him. “I can be found, wherever I go, but it doesn’t mean you need to be caught, too.”
She wasn’t going to be found, wasn’t going to be caught. Maddox would make sure of it.
“And take Maddox with you.” Luna’s spine was ramrod straight. She didn’t look him in the eyes when she made that little announcement. “After things are…safe, I’ll get in contact with you both. Sawyer said he’d call when a doctor was lined up. Once my surgery is complete, I’m sure that I will be able to find—”
“Oh, hell, no.” Maddox bit back his rage.
Luna glared at him. “Oh, hell, yes. You’re not going down with this sinking ship.”
“You’re not a fucking ship, and there is no way I’m leaving you.” He jerked his head toward Jett. “Go.”
Jett hesitated. “I don’t want to leave you two.”
“Elizabeth talked to you, didn’t she? About the fact that we can have kids?” A hard edge cut into Maddox’s voice. “Dammit, man, what if they’ve been watching Savannah?” He hadn’t wanted to say anything to Elizabeth because it had been Jett’s story to share, but…
Jett had rescued Savannah Jacobs from a kidnapper, a domestic job that their team had been sent on a while back. Only Jett and Savannah had gotten very close, very fast.
Then Jett had been forced to vanish from her life.
“Get to Savannah,” Maddox ordered him. “Make sure…”
“How the hell will I explain all of this to her?” Pain flashed on Jett’s face. “She’ll hate me even more.”
“She needs protection. And if she’s pregnant…” Something Maddox knew was a definite possibility given the fierce connection the two had seemed to share. “The baby will need you, too.”
Jett stared hard at him. “If this shit goes south, if you and Luna need me…you call, got me? And I’m not talking about on a freaking phone. You know I can hear you, wherever we are.”
Because that was Jett’s talent. He was an amplifier. He could pick up psychic communication from Maddox and make it stronger, send it farther. That was how their group had been able to communicate over such long distances during their missions.
Jett pulled Luna into a big hug. “You stay safe, you understand me? Safe and alive.”
She squeezed him back. “I’m absolutely working on that.”
Jett was gone moments later, a Jeep’s growl filling the parking garage. He’d hot-wired that ride in seconds. Luna watched him leave, then she squared her delicate shoulders and turned toward Maddox. “You should have gone with him.”
“Screw that.” He headed for the blue SUV.
“If you take that vehicle, I’ll take another—”
He whirled around, grabbed her wrist. “Screw that.”
“Maddox…”
“Luna.”
She glared. The woman was so sexy when she was angry.
“Don’t do this,” Luna snapped at him. “Don’t put your life at risk for me.”
“Sweetheart, time for you to wake up and see the truth.”
She blinked at him.
“You are my life. And if you think I’d just turn my back and leave you to face a nightmare on your own, you need to think again.”
Her expression softened. “I want you safe.”
“And if I’m not with you, then I’ll be going absolutely insane. If anyone comes after you, they’ll have to go through me first. That’s just the way it’s always going to be. I’ll always stand between you and any threat.”
She swallowed. “You did that before. You stood between me and Adam. And you remember how that worked out? Both of us dying?”
“Won’t happen again.”
She leaned onto her toes and her lips brushed his. “Damn right it won’t. I won’t let it happen.”
His eyes narrowed. “Don’t even think it.”
She didn’t respond.
“You aren’t ditching me. We’re in this together. All the way to the end.”
Luna glanced away from him. “Wer
e you always this hard to deal with? Or is it a new Lazarus thing?”
“You used to say I could drive you crazier than anyone else. And I always took that as a compliment.” They’d wasted too much time. “Get into the SUV, Luna. Or I’ll put you in there.”
“Don’t play the domineering asshole with me.” She yanked her hand free. “You and I both know you’d never do anything I didn’t want.”
That was where Luna was dead wrong. When it came to her safety, her life, he’d do absolutely anything necessary.
But she headed around the SUV. She jumped into the passenger seat. He followed, and he slammed the door behind her. Moments later, he’d cranked the engine, and they were driving out of that hospital’s garage. And even as he left, he heard the whoop-whoop-whoop of a helicopter overhead.
Everyone was clearing out. Because they all feared they were being hunted.
Chapter Nineteen
“Tell me what happened to Adam.”
Luna stiffened. They’d just pulled into a little motel. A place where they could crash for a few hours. The door had barely shut behind them—
“Walk me through everything, Luna.”
She turned to face Maddox. “He’s dead. I told you that already.” She wrapped her arms around her stomach. She’d been trying to shove those particular moments out of her head, not relive them.
He leaned his broad shoulders against the door. “I learned something new about him today.” He tossed the burner phone onto a nearby chair. “Turns out that Sawyer remembered Adam’s psychic bonus.”
Did she want to hear this?
“The guy could manipulate fire.”
For an instant, she was back in the lab, she could feel the burn of flames as she ran down the hallway, desperate to get to Maddox.
“He couldn’t create fire, but once it was there, burning from say…oh, I don’t know, freaking bombs that the jerk had set off, he could control it.”
The flames had been so hot all around her.
“So I’d thought…even if a bullet to the brain hadn’t killed Adam back at the Lazarus facility, then the flames would’ve taken him.” His jaw was locked tight as he gritted, “But that doesn’t seem to be the case.”
Her heart was beating so—
“Why are you scared right now, Luna?”
She couldn’t look him in the eyes.
“Why is your heart racing so fast? Why is your breath catching?”
“I-I need a shower.”
Maddox stepped toward her. “Luna—”
“I need a shower. Give me a few minutes, okay? Then I’ll tell you everything.” And then he could look at her not with that bright, shining love in his eyes.
But with hate.
***
She was holding back on him. Maddox stared at the closed bathroom door, every muscle in his body tight. He wanted to go in there, pull Luna in his arms and make her tell him the truth but…
But his gaze slid around the cheap motel room. A motel room that reminded him far too much of the damn place where they’d once died. So he didn’t bust in the bathroom. He stalked to the edge of the bed. Stripped off his shirt. Tossed it. Then he sat on the sagging mattress with his elbows propped on his knees. His head tipped forward.
And he waited for Luna.
***
She didn’t feel better after the shower. Didn’t feel stronger or more prepared. When she came out of the bathroom, a thin robe wrapped around her body, Luna just felt more vulnerable.
Maddox sat on the edge of the bed. His head had been bent forward, but when the bathroom door creaked open, he immediately snapped to attention.
Always the good soldier.
While she…wasn’t.
She didn’t go to him. Instead, she paced away, moving toward the lone window in the room. Another motel. She didn’t know why she wanted to put space between them. Like space was going to make anything easier.
“Luna…”
“It’s, um, it will be better if I just get it all out.” As fast as she could.
He waited.
Right. Deep breath. “You ran down to get Jett. You told me to leave. But…Adam came back. I heard him, and I ran back into the lab.” She pulled in another deep breath. Exhaled. “He said he’d set the most explosives down below. That’s where you’d just gone. Down below.” Her fingers fisted. “I had picked up the gun from the floor. The same gun he’d put to my head. It felt comfortable in my hand. Like I’d held a gun so many times. Too many.”
“Baby…”
She gave a short, negative shake of her head. “He kept saying you were dead. ‘Fucking dead.’ But I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t let you die.” The idea of being in a world without Maddox? No. “I shot him. The first shot was to his upper body, to make him let me go. He fell back, hit the floor, and he…Adam said he could get me out. Begged me not to shoot him because he said he’d get me to safety. That he could make sure I got out all right.”
A muscle jerked in Maddox’s jaw.
“But he only wanted me out. Just me. Not you.” She turned away from him. Stared out the window. Just saw a small parking lot. A dumpster. “Adam said you were already dead, that you wouldn’t come back from the fire. So I…shot him again.” Her lips pressed together. “God, you think I don’t know how this makes me sound? I shot him in the leg the second time. I said I’d keep shooting until he told me how to find you. How to get us both out of there. And I…did.” She’d shot him several times, all in locations designed to cause pain, but not to kill. Not yet. Because she’d needed the information that Adam had.
She’d asked for the chance to speak, to say everything fast, but the silence from Maddox seemed deafening.
He knows I’m a monster.
“Adam was saying that he loved me. That he knew he’d screwed up, but that everything he’d done had been designed to get me back. That he didn’t want to live without me. That if I just gave him the chance, we’d leave and he’d make me happy again. That he was sure he could do it.” And she’d known exactly how he planned to do that. He’d planned to kill her. To let her wake with no memory. Maddox would be dead then, and Adam would be the only lover she knew.
Her heart was beating so fast, but her words were getting softer and softer as she said, “So I put the gun to his forehead. I said if he didn’t tell me how to get you and me out of that building, I would pull the trigger.” Her eyes closed. “He told me. Told me how to get out. And then Adam thought I’d let him get away. He said I didn’t have it in me to kill him. Not with our past.” Her breath heaved out. “And…maybe…maybe if I had remembered him more, then I wouldn’t have been able to pull the trigger. Because maybe then I would have been able to remember something good about him. He was bleeding so much by then. I had turned for the door, because I wanted to get to you. I just wanted you. Adam was saying that he knew I couldn’t kill him…and then he lunged for me.” She swallowed. Her eyes opened as she turned back to face Maddox. “I fired. I aimed for his head, and I fired.”
Maddox’s face could have been carved from stone.
“I closed my eyes when I pulled the trigger.” A hushed confession. “Because I just couldn’t see that bullet going into his brain. I was killing a man who said I’d loved him, and I couldn’t see it happen. When I opened my eyes, there was blood sliding down his temple. His body was on the floor. I ran out, and I locked the door behind me, just in case…” Her words trailed off.
Maddox tilted his head to the side as he rose from the bed. “Just in case of what?”
Say it all. “I’d aimed to hit him in the forehead. But when I closed my eyes, he must have dodged—you know how fast Lazarus subjects are. There was blood streaming down his temple, but I didn’t see a place where the bullet had gone into his head.” Her stomach knotted. “The gun was out of bullets. So I locked the door behind me, thinking the fire…” God, say it. “Thinking the fire would finish him off.”
“Fuck.”
She flinched. He h
ated her. She’d tortured a man. She’d left him to burn.
“The fire wouldn’t have killed that sonofabitch,” Maddox’s voice was thick with fury. Fury directed at her? “And if the bullet didn’t go straight into his brain, then the bastard could still be out there.”
“Maddox…”
“If he’s out there, then he’s coming for us.”
***
“I’m not going to ask you again, Dr. Paul.” He let the tip of his knife cut into her pale, white throat. The blood dripped down, such a stark crimson. “Where is Luna Ashton?”
He’d tied her hands to the arms of the chair. Roped her ankles together. Getting to her had been ridiculously easy. Mostly because she still thought that he was working on her team. She’d opened her office door for him, a smile on her face.
The smile had now been replaced by tears. “Sam knows! He said that he was closing in on her!” Regina Paul sobbed as she craned back her neck, trying to avoid his knife.
Sam seemed to have fallen off the face of the earth. Adam lifted the knife away from her neck.
Regina Paul sucked in a deep, relieved breath. How cute. She thought he was going to stop using the knife. No…
He drove the knife into her right hand.
She screamed. “Adam! Please!”
Was he supposed to stop because she begged? Luna hadn’t stopped when she had him in that lab. And he wasn’t about to stop now. Luna and I were always so much alike. “Not going to be able to do those surgeries any longer, are you, doc? Not with the damage I’m doing.” And he twisted the blade.
Tears leaked down her cheeks. “Stop! Stop! Stop!”
“I want to know Luna’s location. Now!”
“Sam had government clearance. He is the one in charge. You don’t have clearance—”
“Don’t spout bullshit to me about clearance. You’re not working for the US government.”
Shock flashed in her eyes.
Adam laughed. “What? Did you seriously think you were? No, you were hired to steal government tech. That’s what Luna is, you see, a piece of government property. Only someone else wanted her—wanted that beautiful tech. That’s why you were hired to tag her. To put that wonderful device right in her heart.” He tilted his head. “My former boss hired you, by the way. On my recommendation. Not Sam’s. Sam was never a leader on this. I was. I might have lost my past when I first died. But I’m a fucking bulldog when it comes to digging. After I got out of that hell in Arizona, I took some intel with me. Intel about me, about my connections, about how the fuck I’d wound up as a caged lab rat.” He yanked the knife out of her. “So at the first shot I had, I went back to my former boss. Showed him what a super soldier could do, and he was only too happy to start financing me.”