“What does junk email have to do with this?” Romeo whispered.
Harper glared at him. “He means the meat in a can, not email, idiot,” she hissed through clenched teeth. “Now. Shut. Up.”
Romeo looked stupefied. “Meat in a can? Can they do that?”
Harper hurled a graphic death threat at him before shushing him again. She had no earthly clue what Ken was talking about—or how Romeo got to be forty-five years old and hadn’t ever heard of Spam—but she’d never find out if Romeo kept asking stupid questions.
“I met your mom in a Sentry lab,” Ken went on. “I volunteered for some genetic experiment they were running just to get off the street for the night. She was…different than me. Her family turned her over for the same experiments. Said she was touched.”
“Touched?” Riddick asked.
Romeo scoffed. “City boy. Any good Southerner knows what that means. The man is saying that Riddick’s mama was bat-shit crazy.”
Harper put a finger in one ear and held the phone up to the other in an attempt to block out Romeo. While she was doing that, she missed Ken’s reply. Although, she assumed he’d probably just told Riddick some variation of what Romeo had said.
“She wasn’t crazy, though,” Ken added. “She was telekinetic. Could move any damn thing around with nothing more than a thought.”
Harper frowned. “He sounds like he cared about her,” she murmured. “As much as he’s probably capable, at least.”
Romeo shushed her, earning him a karate chop to the chest. He grunted, but didn’t retaliate, seemingly as engrossed in the conversation as she was.
“What kind of experiments did they do on you?” Riddick asked.
Good question, Harper thought. In the case of Riddick’s father, she kind of hoped the experiment involved hooking his genitals up to a car battery and zapping the shit out of him regularly.
“Vampire blood,” Ken answered. “Huge doses of it. Through a dialysis machine.”
“Fuck me,” Romeo muttered.
“Why would they do that?” Riddick asked.
“Who the hell knows what their original hypothesis was? We all assumed they were trying to build day walkers to help them fight vampires.”
Shit, Harper thought. That sounded exactly like something Sentry would’ve done. If they could engineer slayers with the strength, health, and endurance of vampires without any of the weaknesses, vampires wouldn’t stand a chance.
“Most of the subjects couldn’t handle it,” Ken said. “They were edgy, violent, and unpredictable. But there were a few, like me and your mom, who had better control for some reason.”
To the best of Harper’s knowledge, Sentry had wiped out all of the known natural slayers, except for Riddick—and apparently his dad…and possibly his brother or sister—for that very reason. Edgy, violent, and unpredictable were pretty tame words and didn’t come close to describing the few Harper had seen in action.
And now it would seem, as Ken had pointed out, that “natural” was totally the wrong word to describe Riddick’s abilities. Yes, he’d been born with his abilities, but only because the same abilities had been created in his parents.
She heard a repetitive, light thudding noise in the background and knew that Riddick was drumming his fingers on the table. When he was anxious or upset, he couldn’t keep his hands still. She fought against her every instinct to go to him. Ken would surely stop talking if she showed up—and Riddick needed to hear about his mom.
And his possible brother or sister.
Harper shook her head. Jesus, would she ever get used to the thought of Riddick having a sibling?
“What happened?” Riddick prompted.
“She promised me anything I wanted if I got her out of there. All I really wanted at that point was her—“
Aw, Harper thought. That was kind of romantic.
“—and money, of course, which she promised she had in trust.”
And splat goes the romance.
“Man, she really hitched her wagon to a star, didn’t she?” Romeo asked, contempt curling his lip into an Elvis snarl.
Harper didn’t bother to shush him. Not when she so whole-heartedly agreed.
“So, you took advantage of a scared woman whose family signed her up for experiments at a government lab,” Riddick said, disgust—but not surprise—plain in his voice.
“I saved her life,” Ken said, sounding surprisingly self-righteous for such an admitted scumbag. “She was sensitive. She wouldn’t have survived in the lab for much longer. And I didn’t just save her—I saved them all.”
“All of who?” Romeo and Riddick asked in stereo.
Harper didn’t have to ask or listen to Ken’s reply. “The test subjects,” she whispered. “He let them all go.”
“How many?” Riddick asked.
Harper could practically hear his teeth grinding, and again, she had to fight the urge to go to him.
“You’re missing the point,” Ken said. “It doesn’t matter how many others there were like us, or why Sentry chose us, or even what became of your sister.”
“Sister?” Romeo hissed. “Ken Riddick’s daughter? I bet that’s one scary bitch.”
Harper punched him in the shoulder, but couldn’t say anything. All the questions swirling around in her brain robbed her of the power of speech.
Riddick had a sister? Where was she? Had she been dumped in foster care like Riddick? Was she even still alive?
Ken and Riddick were silent for a moment, and Harper knew Riddick was probably asking himself the very same questions. Finally, he asked, “Then what is the point, Ken?”
“I’ve seen it in you, you know. Even though you keep it in check, it’s in you just like it’s in me.”
“What?” Riddick asked, his voice hoarse.
“The beast. The wild. You’re a killer just like me. You’re not normal. You belong with us, son.”
“Who’s us?”
“A few of the other test subjects who managed to not get themselves killed when Sentry hunted them down to work for the Lykoi with me. They’re just like us. Frankly, you don’t belong with anyone else. You think you belong with this little girlfriend of yours?” He snorted. “Trust me, you don’t. You’ll hurt her eventually, just like I hurt your mother. People like us don’t belong with normal folk. We’re different. Better. Stronger.”
Harper’s heart dropped to her stomach. That was the very last thing in the world Riddick needed to hear. He already suffered under the delusion that he was a danger to her, and now he was hearing it from someone else—his father, of all people.
Over the receiver, she heard a chair scrape against hardwood floors before Riddick said, “I won’t fight with you or the other test subjects or the Lykoi. But I can promise you this: tomorrow, only one of us is walking out of that pit.”
Harper sucked in a sharp breath. He’d sounded exactly like Ken when he said that. She’d never heard him sound so cold.
She tossed her phone to Romeo. “I’m going in.”
Romeo caught her phone in one hand and grabbed her arm with the other. “There he is.”
Sure enough, Riddick stalked out of the hotel lobby without a backward glance. He made a sharp turn between the buildings and melted into the shadows.
Oh, boy. This wasn’t good.
“Okay, you go after Riddick,” she said. “I need to have a chat with dear old Dad in there.”
Romeo’s brows lifted to his hairline. “You want me to go after Riddick? What am I supposed to say to him after all this shit?”
She was momentarily speechless with horror at the thought of Romeo trying to talk to Riddick in his current frame of mind. When she found her voice again, she said, “Good God, I don’t want you to say anything to him. Just follow him. Call me and let me know where he ends up.”
Romeo opened his mouth to ask what was most likely another stupid question, so Harper leaned over him and opened his door, then shoved him onto the sidewalk. “Go! He’s gettin
g away.”
He grumbled under his breath as he pulled himself off the ground and dusted off the seat of his jeans. But thankfully, he didn’t offer any other comment as he took off in Riddick’s direction.
Harper took a deep breath and got out of the car.
She somehow doubted this would be a typical girl-meets-her-future-father-in-law evening.
But then again, what in her life could really ever be considered typical?
Chapter Twenty-Six
The fucker actually had the nerve to smile at her when she took a seat at his table.
“I figured you were lurking in the shadows out there somewhere, little girl. Love what you’ve done with your hair, by the way.”
Her hand flew to the wig she’d forgotten to take off. She narrowed her eyes on him, wondering just how good a fighter he really was. Because at this precise moment? She was pretty sure she could take him. She had pure hatred and rage on her side, after all.
“Why did you tell him all of that?” she asked. “If you were really only here to recruit him to fight for your boss, why bother telling him about his mother or sister or any of the other test subjects you supposedly saved?”
His brows winged up. “Girl, when you spy, you certainly don’t half-ass it, do you? I’m impressed.”
“I can die happy now that I’ve impressed you,” she deadpanned. “Seriously, though, what was the point of all that crap?”
Ken took a swig of his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “I got tired of him looking at me like I’m the bad guy and he’s some fucking hero. Like he’s too good for me. He needed to know he’s no different than me. I saved those people in that lab. And all my wife ever wanted in life was kids, and I gave her two of them. So, he’s no better than me.”
She let her gaze move over him, before meeting his eyes once more. She shook her head. “You thought you could come here and bribe him to fight for your boss?” A harsh laugh escaped her. “You assumed he was like you and would fight for the highest bidder. He’s only fighting to save me. That kind of selflessness is something a narcissistic psychopath like you could never understand.”
Harper leaned forward and made sure she had his full attention before adding, “He’s nothing like you. He’s twice the man you’ll ever be.”
His hand shot out and latched onto her wrist. She barely resisted a smirk. He’d done exactly what she’d wanted him to do.
I am the puppet master.
She pretended to listen to what he was saying, but kept the majority of her focus on the vision he was unwittingly feeding her.
In that moment, Harper wanted to kiss Hunter square on the mouth. His breathing and relaxation techniques were ten times more effective than anything Sentry ever taught her.
The vision flowed seamlessly and only gave her a minor headache instead of the crippling, shooting pain through her temples she usually experienced. She was able to pick up everything: what had happened to Riddick’s sister, what Ken’s relationship with Riddick’s mother had really been like, what would happen to Ken if he failed to convince Riddick to fight for the Lykoi.
What Ken planned to do to Riddick if he couldn’t win their fight.
She gritted her teeth. No fucking way was she letting that happen.
Harper used all her weight and his grip on her wrist to yank Ken toward her, then she slammed her palm into his nose. He fell back into his chair with a grunt and wiped his bloody nose on his shirt sleeve.
“For that alone, you’ll die, little girl.”
Which would’ve been a really scary threat if he hadn’t sounded all nasal when he said it. “Yeah, I’ve heard that before. Thanks for the information.”
And with that, she gave him the finger—yeah, it was childish, but she couldn’t help herself—and ran out of the bar to find Romeo and Riddick.
When she hit the hotel lobby, she came face to face with Romeo, who had his head tipped back and was pinching his bloody nose closed. She closed her eyes and did her best to gather her patience. “You lost him?”
He gave her a hard look. Well, it was about as hard as a guy holding his nose closed could manage, at least. That look was answer enough.
Riddick had only stopped long enough to dissuade Romeo from following him. He was now in the wind. Probably once again thinking he was a dangerous killer like his father.
“Aaaarrrggghhh!” Harper shouted, drawing nervous stares from everyone in the lobby. She threw her hands up in frustration, turned on her heel and headed back toward the elevators.
Time to go back to the room and formulate a plan to save the day. Again. By herself.
“I fucking hate Vegas,” she muttered, snatching her phone out of Romeo’s pocket.
***
Everything happened all at once. The lights came on, the elevator started moving again, Mischa’s phone rang, blaring I’m Too Sexy, and she realized she couldn’t see a damn thing.
“Son of a bitch! Why can’t I see?”
Hunter calmly slid the glasses off her nose and polished them on his shirt. Oh. Apparently she couldn’t see because her glasses were all fogged up.
She felt a blush creeping over her skin as she thought about why they were all fogged up.
OhmyGodohmyGodohmyGod.
This is bad.
That was awesome.
I possibly just made the best mistake of my life.
And on that incoherent jumble of thoughts, both sides of her brain, her heart, and her body all agreed.
Her breathing hitched as he slid the glasses back onto her face and gently kissed the tip of her nose before smiling down at her.
That’s when she officially decided to tell all the voices to piss off. She’d just had mind-blowing sex against the wall in an elevator with a guy who cleaned her glasses for her and smiled at her as if she was the most beautiful, fascinating creature on the planet.
Sure, it would be nice if he was alive—and if she hadn’t tried to have him executed him a few times—but hey, she wasn’t about to nitpick at this point. Nobody was perfect.
A good orgasm—or five—had apparently given her a whole new outlook on life. Who knew?
Mischa snagged her phone off the floor. “Hello?”
There was a pause on the other end before Harper asked, “Why do you sound like that?”
“Like what?”
“Relaxed. Happy. Slightly out of breath.”
She glanced up at Hunter, who smirked. “I said one word. How do you get all of that out of one word?”
“Because I know you. You never sound relaxed and happy and slightly out of breath.”
Mischa frowned. Well if that didn’t make her sound like the most uninteresting woman on the planet she didn’t know what would. “I was exercising.”
Harper snorted. “You don’t exercise. Unless you count pressing the ‘Next page’ button on your Kindle. Try again.”
And that made her sound lazy and uninteresting. Time to try another tactic. “Fine. I was having sex in an elevator with Hunter.”
He raised a brow at her. She just shrugged. It was worth a shot.
Harper sighed. “You’re not even trying to come up with a convincing lie. But if you don’t want to tell me—fine, don’t tell me. Were you able to find any leads on a cure?”
And the fact that Harper didn’t even believe the truth made her sound sexless, lazy, and uninteresting. Maybe it was time she considered making an effort to change her image.
Mischa briefly filled Harper in on everything from kidnapping Leon to current, only leaving out the sex she’d just had. Mind-blowing sex of the five-orgasm variety.
Sex that she could have again if Harper got off the damn phone.
She glanced over at Hunter, whose already-dark eyes darkened even more as her gaze moved over him, plotting a path for her fingers—and maybe her tongue—to follow later.
Mischa shivered and shook off the lust lingering in her system. Harper was using her serious tone. Time to focus.
; “Leon thinks he can be done by morning,” Mischa said. “I’m booked on the 10:00am flight out of JFK. We’ll be there well before Riddick’s fight.”
Harper sighed. “Well, thank God something is going right,” she muttered. “Thank you.”
Mischa waited for her to make some snide comment, but she never did. That’s how she knew her friend was stressed out. Harper never missed an opportunity to crack a joke. And she also never got too stressed out about her own problems, which meant she was probably more worried about Riddick than she was for herself at the moment. “How is Riddick doing?”
Harper took a deep breath before unloading a story that left Mischa in wide-eyed, speechless shock for a full three minutes before she said, “Shit.”
“I know, right?”
Mischa shook her head, still not sure she’d heard everything correctly. “So, if naturals were really a Sentry science project, why were they all killed when Sentry disbanded?”
“I have no idea,” Harper said. “Maybe your buddy Leon knows. I’m sure his clearance was higher than ours.”
Mischa was starting to think everyone’s security clearance had been higher than hers. Kirk the janitor had probably known more about the inner workings of the agency than she had. “You can ask him yourself. He’s coming with me to Vegas. He apparently needs some of your blood to finish off his antidote. He’s a big fan of yours, too.”
“Great,” Harper said dryly. “Just what I need.”
“What else can I do?”
A long sigh on Harper’s end of the call. “Well, I have a plan, but it’ll take a good bit of coordination on your part. Are you up for it?”
Mischa scoffed. “Of course I am. Coordination is kind of my thing. What do I need to do?”
She listened for a bit longer before realizing that she’d been wrong to scoff so quickly at Harper’s concern. There was coordination, and then there was what Harper needed her to do. On a scale of difficulty for the coordinator, Harper’s plan ranked somewhere just above organizing a Van Halen tour that included both David Lee Roth and Sammy Hagar on stage at the same time. The end result would either be magical, or a train wreck of epic proportions. There was no middle ground on this one.
Semi-Human (Harper Hall Investigations Book 2) Page 14