Hold On Tight (Lazarus Rising Book 6)

by Cynthia Eden

  Yes, she knew what it meant.

  “They’ll kill Savannah. And Dr. Rowe has ties to the government. They’ll make me and you vanish. They’ll make this all go away.”

  Without responding, Jennifer reached for the keys that the cops had left in the ignition. Bad mistake on their part. You never leave keys in a patrol vehicle. She cranked the car. Reversed.

  “Uh, Jennifer…”

  “Just tell me how the hell to get to Savannah and Jett.” Because maybe this insanity was actually real.

  And if it was, then she was damn well saving her best friend.

  ***

  The van braked. Savannah sucked in a sharp breath. Her gaze was still on Jett. He’d come back much faster the last time he’d died. They’d driven and driven, but his body hadn’t moved. He’d been stone cold the whole time.

  She had no idea where they were, and Jett—come back to me. Please.

  “Uh, Dr. Rowe?” McNeely cast a nervous glance at Jett’s body. They’d put thick handcuffs around his wrists. “Shouldn’t he have woken up?”

  “He will.” Rowe didn’t seem the least bit worried. He shoved open the van’s door. Jumped out.

  Savannah didn’t move.

  Rowe turned to smile at her. “I am so happy that you’ve made it past your first trimester. I was waiting for that, you know. No point grabbing you and making you disappear until I was sure the fetus was viable.”

  “You aren’t touching my baby.”

  “Your baby is going to be the start of something brand new.” An armed guard appeared behind Dr. Rowe. “If the child inherits your genetic anomalies…”

  Anomalies?

  “And if the child exhibits any of the Lazarus traits, then we’re looking at the future. A great and powerful future.”

  Her gaze slanted to McNeely. “You seriously work for this prick?”

  Dr. Rowe grunted. He turned to the guard behind him. “Bring Jett. If he twitches, just shoot him again.”

  “No!” Savannah lunged out of the van, McNeely surging out with her. She put herself in front of the guard with the gun. “What do you jerks know about Lazarus?” She was totally talking out of her ass. “Because I know more.” No, she didn’t. “If they die too many times within a twenty-four hour period, their bodies can’t recover.” Did that sound good? She hoped it sounded real enough. “Their cells just aren’t up to the challenge. If he dies again, that’s it. Jett won’t come back.”

  Dr. Rowe frowned.

  All during the ride, Savannah had been working to put up a mental shield in her mind, trying to keep her thoughts blocked because she didn’t know just what he could do. What were the extent of his psychic powers? Since she didn’t know, Savannah just stared at him. Tried to only think…

  Lazarus soldiers can’t regenerate that quickly. They need more time. They need…

  “Don’t shoot him,” Dr. Rowe announced as his brows furrowed. “Just drag his ass to confinement. Shackle his legs and make sure those restraints are on tight.”

  Her breath left in a quick exhale.

  Dr. Rowe laughed. “It doesn’t matter, don’t you see? As long as we have you, Savannah, he is controlled. Jett will never do anything to jeopardize you. That’s what this whole thing was about. Lazarus made a major mistake by cutting me out of the research. They should have used my skills. They should have seen that evolution was necessary. Now, I’ll show them.”

  “Show them what? That you’re crazy? That you’re a killer?”

  But he only shrugged. “I am what I need to be.”

  More armed guards were running toward them.

  “McNeely, escort Savannah to her new home. I want her and Jett put in the cells right next to each other. As long as he sees her, he won’t make a move.”

  The guy was so confident.

  He was also a fool.

  McNeely moved closer to Savannah’s side. She watched with wide eyes as several men pulled a still-not-moving Jett from the van. “He’s not breathing,” she whispered.

  McNeely tensed.

  “How did it feel to kill a man who was a US patriot?” She glared up at him. “I know you read Jett’s file. He was a decorated SEAL. He saved lives, over and over again, and this is how you repay him for his service?”

  McNeely’s jaw tensed. “I work for the government. I work for—”

  “You work for a sadistic bastard.” Her head turned. She watched as Jett was strapped onto a gurney. Wheeled away. She immediately followed, not needing anyone to “escort” her. “I hated Rowe when I was a kid. Couldn’t stand him. He locked me away. Drugged me. Half the time, I felt like I was in a fog.” And now, she knew Jett had been right. Dr. Rowe had played with her mind. He’d made her forget things from her life.

  She didn’t even know what all she was missing.

  “You didn’t pick the right side here,” she muttered to McNeely. “And to think, I actually believed you were helping me all of these months.”

  They headed down a long corridor. The armed men turned to the right. Entered a small room. A cell. Jett had told her before that he’d been kept in a cell. And now he would be again. She tried to follow, but McNeely pulled her back.

  “Savannah…”

  She tried to run into Jett’s cell.

  Swearing, McNeely lifted her up, held her too fucking easily, and carried her into the next room. Another cell. She twisted and punched at him.

  “I don’t want to hurt you!”

  He let her go, and she whirled to confront him. “You don’t? What do you think is going to happen to me here? What do you think is going to happen to my baby?” Her gaze flew around the room—cell. A prison cell. Three of the walls appeared to be made of metal. One of the walls—it was glass. She could see through it. See Jett in the other cell. His hands and feet were now locked in heavy, vice-like restraints. He was on the floor, not moving.

  What if he doesn’t come back? What if he’s dead? He’d told her only a shot to the head would take him out. He’d better have been right. Dammit, Jett, I need you.

  “I…you will be taken care of here.” McNeely was sweating. And sounding uncertain. “Your child will be given the care he or she needs.”

  Her incredulous stare flew back to him. “Are you shitting me? There is no way you can believe that.”

  He backed away. And his gaze jerked up, to the video cameras that she hadn’t noticed until that moment. “Ordinary doctors will never be able to give your child the proper care—”

  “Stop bullshitting!” Savannah yelled at him. “Rowe is going to take my child from me! He’s going to use my baby! Then he’ll probably kill me!”

  McNeely flinched.

  “Who is it that you think you’re working for? You’re not FBI. The FBI doesn’t do this crap. Just what government agency do you think would order this?”

  He stared back at her.

  “And do really want to be this monster?”

  He was inside the doorway. Away from the view of the cameras. “I’m sorry.” McNeely didn’t speak those words, just mouthed them.

  Her eyes turned to slits. “You will be sorry. Especially once Jett wakes up. You’ve killed him what—two, three times now? Yeah, three. If you count when you shot him in the van. When he was already dead! Payback will be a bitch.”

  McNeely whirled to leave.

  The phone she carried gave a growling vibration.

  Oh, shit.

  McNeely’s shoulders stiffened. She knew he’d heard the sound. He looked back at her. His gaze swept over her body. A faint smile curved his lips. He still stood just beyond the range of the cameras. They were focused on her. Not on the door.

  She waited for him to come forward. Waited for him to search her. To take the phone.

  But he just walked away. Shut the door behind him.

  She lunged forward and immediately tried to open the door, but it wouldn’t move at all. She was sealed in. Locked in tight.

  And while she was pressed to the door, while the
cameras couldn’t pick up her movements, she pulled out the phone. Looked at the screen. Read the text.

  We’re coming.

  Hope had her fingers trembling as she hid the phone again. Then she whirled and ran for the glass that separated her from Jett. She banged her hands on the glass. “Jett! Jett!”

  He was still out.

  “Jett!”

  ***

  Bennett McNeely closed his eyes as he stood just beyond Savannah’s cell door. She had a phone. No one had searched her—probably because all of the guards felt bad enough about abducting a pregnant woman.

  She was right. He hadn’t signed up for this. This twisted sci-fi shit hadn’t been on his agenda. He’d been military, too. A Ranger back in the day. Before he’d been approached by the US government. Told that his services were needed.

  Now he looked back on his cases, and he tried to figure out…

  Had he been the good guy in any of them?

  And was it too late to ever be good again? Or had he already sold his soul with no hope of a fucking refund?

  Chapter Twenty

  Jett let out a groan as awareness flooded through him. His muscles and cells felt as if they were on fire. The burn consumed him, pulsed through him, and then—

  His eyes opened. He was on a cold, tiled floor. His hands and feet were bound.

  And Savannah wasn’t there.

  A roar came from him. And he ripped those metal cuffs apart, freeing his hands, and then he grabbed for the restraints around his ankles. Whoever these bastards were—they weren’t used to Lazarus soldiers. It took a whole lot more than this flimsy crap to keep someone like him secured. He ripped the restraints from his ankles. Free, he surged to his feet.

  Bang! Bang!

  He whirled. His gaze zeroed in on the glass to his right. Savannah was there, tears in her gorgeous eyes, as she pounded her fists into the glass that separated them. She pounded again and again. He bounded to her. “Baby…” His gaze flew over her. “Are you okay?”

  In the next moment, she was in his mind. I was so scared you wouldn’t wake up! I was afraid you had left me!

  Jett shook his head. No, baby, never happening. I told you that. He gave her what he hoped was a reassuring smile. Never gonna leave you again.

  It’s the shrink who treated me when I was a teen. Dr. Rowe. He’s behind all of this. He’s—

  Are you okay? Is the baby okay?

  She nodded. He wants to use us all. I think we’re some kind of experiment.

  Story of Jett’s life. He’s not going to use you. We’re all getting out of here.

  Her gaze dropped. Seemed to linger on the front of her shirt. One of her hands moved near the oversized pockets. I still have the phone. The others are coming. They just sent me a message.

  Hell, yes. If the others were coming, this place would go down in flames.

  McNeely is working for him. Do you remember seeing—

  The bastard had killed Jett. Again. Jett’s hands fisted. Yeah, he remembered. Back away from the glass.

  Jett?

  Get as close to the far wall as you can. When the glass breaks, I don’t want you getting cut. Because objective one was getting to her. Being there to put himself between Savannah and any threat.

  She backed away. I love you.

  And he’d die for her. Over and over again. Baby, it still doesn’t count when you don’t say it out loud, he chided her. Jett slammed his fists into the glass.

  But the glass didn’t break.

  He hit it again.

  It’s reinforced, isn’t it? Savannah’s worry was clear. They fixed it so that we couldn’t get out.

  He hit it again. And again. The glass didn’t break. But his rage did grow. Don’t worry, baby. I’ve got this. Nothing would stop him from getting to Savannah. Nothing.

  ***

  Anthony Rowe smiled as he stared at the monitors. This was his first chance to really see a Lazarus soldier up close, and he wasn’t disappointed. The guy had risen from the dead. Absolutely fantastic. And his strength—he’d snapped through those restraints as if they were nothing.

  Jett wouldn’t get through the glass, though. That was fortified. Built for use on submarines, that glass could withstand pressure up to—

  “He’s going to get free.”

  Agent McNeely was behind him. Sounding far too confident.

  “Jett’s going to get free, and then he’s going to come for us both.”

  Rowe smiled. “No, he won’t get out. I knew the restraints wouldn’t hold him for long. They were just an experiment.”

  “Everything is an experiment to you.”

  McNeely didn’t understand. He didn’t know what it was like to spend most of your life feeling like you were a freak. Anthony had gone into psychiatry in the first place because—after growing up his whole life hearing voices, trying to pretend to be normal because his father had refused to have an “insane friggin’ son”—he’d wanted answers. Medication had never made the voices stop. All of the therapy in the world hadn’t made them stop. He’d finally just pretended the treatments had helped him so the world would stop seeing him as a freak.

  He’d pretended so well that everyone had believed him.

  And I got into the best damn college I could find. Graduated with honors. Went on to become a psychiatrist. Then fate had given him the best present possible. While he’d been down in Biloxi, trying to get funding to start up his own clinic…

  Savannah Jacobs had walked into his life. Savannah—who shared so many of the same traits he possessed.

  Savannah had been his key. Phillip Jacobs had known that his daughter had gifts, and he’d been afraid of those gifts coming to bite him in the ass.

  “What if she remembers? What if she hears my thoughts? I know I sound crazy, but she can do it. And I can’t stop thinking about the accident. You have to help me. You have to make sure Savannah stops getting into my mind.”

  He’d stopped Savannah, and he’d found a powerful ally in Phillip Jacobs. The senator had gotten Anthony access to the D.C. movers and shakers. The government had given him clearance to begin psychic testing and evaluations on others. He’d become one of Uncle Sam’s pet project leaders. When he’d learned about Lazarus, learned that the Lazarus subjects were waking with psychic enhancements, Anthony had known he should be involved with that program, too. It had seemed to be a perfect fit for him.

  Only the powers-that-be at Lazarus had shut Anthony out. Soon after the rejection, he’d gotten word that all of Lazarus was going dark. Something about dangerous results in the test subjects. Unpredictable aggression.

  The government wanted Lazarus gone.

  But he wanted a new chapter. If no more Lazarus subjects were going to be made, then Anthony had figured the subjects would be born.

  He’d wanted to enhance the child’s likelihood of developing psychic powers, so he’d decided the mother needed to have gifts, too. Savannah had been perfect.

  But her father hadn’t thought so. When he’d realized that Anthony had pulled strings to get one of the last Lazarus teams in Biloxi, when he’d realized that Jett was getting obsessed with Savannah…

  Phillip Jacobs tried to stop everything. Megan had taken care of him, though. Oh, sure, Anthony knew about her little blackmail game, but he didn’t particularly care. As far as he was concerned, she’d gotten rid of a useless pawn. Phillip hadn’t been valuable any longer. But Sam…Sam was definitely someone valuable in the new game.

  Because I control him. He’d gotten into Sam’s mind years ago, and the man had never been able to get him out.

  Anthony’s gaze lingered on the security monitors. He ignored McNeely’s last comment. Why bother to reply? Yes, everything was an experiment. Life was an experiment. He opened his mind, wanting to catch some of McNeely’s thoughts…

  But there was nothing there. Interesting. “You’ve gotten better at shielding yourself.”

  “What happened to all the people my team brought in? All of tho
se threats to society?”

  “You think I lied to you? Don’t be naive. Many of those bastards were more dangerous than you can possibly imagine. The US government backs me. I was given a team of special agents for a reason.”

  Because I had a senator in my pocket. Because he’d been able to work Phillip Jacobs for years. Until the very end. The senator had only balked when he’d realized Savannah was part of Anthony’s plans.

  “Savannah Jacobs isn’t dangerous.”

  “Don’t be too sure of that.” A woman protecting her child could be the most dangerous individual on the planet. “Never let your guard down around her. I think she’d kill you in an instant, Agent McNeely.”

  Jett pounded harder on the glass. Anthony chuckled as he watched the scene. “He’s just not giving up. He’s—”

  “I think the glass is breaking,” McNeely noted quietly. “Better take a closer look.”

  Anthony stopped laughing. He leaned closer to the monitor. A crack had appeared in the glass. A quiver of what could have been fear slid through Anthony. “He’s stronger than I thought.”

  “We all fucking are.”

  What?

  Anthony whirled around—just as McNeely’s fist drove into his jaw.

  ***

  The glass was breaking. Jett snarled as he pounded his fists over and over into the barrier that kept him from Savannah. Blood flowed from his knuckles, but he didn’t care. She was what mattered. Always Savannah. Always.

  The glass shattered. An alarm blared. He leapt into the other cell, crunching the chunks of glass beneath his feet as he ran for her.

  Savannah threw her arms around him, holding him tightly. “Don’t die,” she whispered, “don’t die again. Don’t.”

  He kissed her. Was so desperate for her. His arms were locked around her, and his mouth was wild on hers. His Savannah.

  Against her mouth, he muttered, “I’m getting us out of here.”

  She pulled back and stared at him with her amazing eyes. “The door—I think it will be harder to break than the glass.” Her gaze searched his. “And there are guards outside. We need—”

  He heard the heavy groan coming from the door. Immediately, Jett shoved Savannah behind him. As soon as he’d gotten through the glass, he’d known guards would rush inside. That was why he hadn’t been too worried about getting through the door. That problem had solved itself.