Absolved (Altered series)

by Marnee Blake

  “Mr. Barnett!” Parker demanded. “Now.”

  Jack moved, but he didn’t want to if the jerkiness was any indication. Walking slowly toward his former friend, Luke lifted his hands, pleading through gritted teeth. “Fight it, Jack. You know you don’t want to hurt me.” He could only hope that was true.

  The effort it took Parker to force Jack to move was having an effect on his control over the guards. They were giving in to Beth’s will. Hope surging, Luke coaxed Jack further. “I know you have reservations about working with Parker. I know you regret things. I know. Fight him. We can help you.”

  “No.” His jaw firmed, and his eyes met Luke’s. The veins on his neck strained as if he carried a heavy load. “No.”

  “Exactly. No. You can fight him. You can come with us. You can save yourself.” He didn’t even know what he was saying, if he was interpreting Jack correctly, but he had to sway Jack into their corner. Beth was winning, and if he didn’t keep Jack occupied, if he didn’t force Parker to spend his energy to manipulate Jack, then Beth would be in more danger.

  So he talked.

  “I saw the girls, Jack. I saw them. I know you wanted to save them. We all wanted to save our families.” He shook his head. “None of them deserved this. None of us deserved this.”

  Jack’s eyes closed, and the lines around them hinted at his pain, even as he growled with his effort to break free. The stark agony on his face touched Luke in the spot where he hid his own grief for his father. Had Luke ever known how strongly Jack had felt his sisters’ deaths? He suspected. They’d found the little twins together, seen the blood trails on their faces. Jack had stood in the middle of their room, between their beds, and he’d screamed.

  The sound of it, guttural and broken, haunted him with the rest of his nightmares.

  Jack hadn’t been the same since.

  “Stay with us. Fight him.” They were nearly facing each other now. Jack’s face reddened as his fist lifted.

  Luke glanced to the side. The guards were turning, facing Parker.

  The entire room was tense, full of the wars going on behind closed eyes. Luke held his breath.

  Everything exploded in a burst of horrifying energy.

  Parker lost hold of Jack. He burst forward, as if he had been pushing against Parker’s bonds physically. But though he dove at Luke, he veered to the right at the last moment.

  He jumped, then, flying high through the air in a graceful arch.

  The guards Beth and Parker had been fighting over were now pointing their pistols at Parker. They lifted their guns as Jack came down.

  It happened so quickly that Luke wasn’t even certain that he saw it all correctly. Jack descended, grabbing Parker’s head and spinning it. The angle was so brutal, there was absolutely no way the man was going to survive.

  At the same time, there was gunfire.

  The two bodies fell, dropping to the ground next to one another.

  Luke hurried to Jack’s side. He’d been shot in the chest, high on his left shoulder. It didn’t look good. Blood pumped from the wound. Luke shrugged out of his shirt, pressing it against the wound. But, even though he was practically leaning on Jack, the fabric was soaked through in moments.

  “It’s okay,” Jack gasped out. He writhed, his eyes wide. “I’m cold.”

  “Jack. You…” The image of Parker’s head being nearly ripped from his head would never leave him. “Parker’s dead.”

  “Should be,” Jack whispered. “I broke his neck.”

  A shiver ran along Luke’s spine. The way he said it was chilling.

  “God, Jack…”

  “He wasn’t going to stop, Luke. You know that.”

  Sadly, he did. Parker had been obsessed. He wouldn’t have ever let up, would have come back over and over again. Not here to the Capitol, but somewhere. People would keep dying.

  He had no idea how hard it must have been over the past few months to live with him. The short time he’d spent with Parker had been repressive. Jack must have suffocated.

  Beth crawled next to him. “Jack. I’m so sorry. I was aiming for Parker. I didn’t mean for you to get caught in the crossfire.” Her forehead furrowed as she closed her eyes. “Let’s get him out of here. He needs help.”

  Jack lifted his hand, waving them off. “No worries. Did it to myself.” He snorted, but it made him cough. “Special powers, too, remember?”

  “I wasn’t trying to kill anyone. Only stop him…” Her voice trailed off, sad and broken.

  “Didn’t deserve to live.” Jack’s voice was barely above a whisper.

  “Parker?”

  He shook his head. “Me.”

  Beth’s helpless eyes found Luke’s. She wasn’t the sort to hurt someone, not on purpose. Maybe she was right. Maybe sometimes situations were out of one’s control.

  Lifting Jack off the ground, Luke shifted to his feet. “Hang in there, Jack. We’re going to get you some help.”

  But Jack had already passed out.

  …

  Everything was cold. It radiated from the wound on Jack’s shoulder, but it stretched through his back, down his spine, into his stomach. The chill was welcoming, and he yearned for it.

  He’d done it. He stopped Parker.

  She wasn’t going to do it. The doctor. She wouldn’t have killed him. It had been all over her face. Justice. She’d planned to take him in so he could have a fair trial.

  Parker didn’t deserve fair. Besides, there was no containing someone like Parker. He would have gotten away. He definitely didn’t deserve freedom.

  No one else should have to die for his ego. The government was supposed to have checks and balances, people who would rein in fanatics. Jack refused to take that chance.

  He drifted. In the recesses of him mind, he could hear Beth Jenkins. He knew she was calling to him, coaxing him to come back. She was a telepath, and she was trying to make him stay.

  He didn’t want to.

  His last thoughts were the memories of his sisters’ laughs.

  Chapter Twenty

  Three hours later, Beth and Luke stood in front of the Capitol building. The senators had all been discreetly removed from the premises. They’d been taken to private rooms at Walter Reed, where they were being treated with the utmost secrecy and skill.

  Martins had been effusive in his praise. He’d told her how proud he was of her, how her father would have been proud. How there was nothing more she could have done.

  The whole process had been such a communal effort that it was hard to be given so much credit. Besides, as Kitty was in critical condition and Kenny might be suffering from a punctured lung thanks either to his ribs being broken or the gunshot, it didn’t exactly feel like a win.

  Two men were dead. She wouldn’t mourn Parker, but Jack… She couldn’t stop thinking about him.

  She had no idea what Martins had told the news. Exhausted, she hadn’t even listened in. It’d be online tomorrow. That was soon enough to find out the entire cover story.

  Right now, all she wanted to do was go home, have a long bath, then a longer sleep.

  First, though, she needed to talk to Luke. Downstairs in the boiler room, she’d heard his remorse. He’d figured it out, what she was capable of. They might not use the same technique or method to reach their goals, but they had the same goals.

  She just didn’t know if it made any difference.

  “Listen, Luke…” she started.

  “Beth, I’m sorry.”

  “I know.” She sighed. “I know you are.”

  “No.” He shook his head. “I mean, yes, you know I am. I’m sorry I doubted your abilities. I’m sorry I let you down.”

  “I know.” His hope…it was breaking her heart. “Now that things are over, now that we’ve stopped Parker and Jack, you must be relieved. This is everything you’ve hoped for.” It had been so important that he’d placed it above everything, including taking a chance on trusting her.

  “It is.” He reached for h
er hands, cupping them in his own. She wanted to deny the contact, but she couldn’t, damn her. “I expected when we got them, I’d feel free, better. It would be over.” He shook his head. “But it isn’t.”

  “It isn’t?”

  “No. Honestly, as I looked at them lying there, all I could think was how needless it was, how sad.” He closed his eyes, the lines around them deepening with his pain. “They were victims of this, too. Changed because of what happened to us. They made horrible choices, and killing them saved lives, yes. But it didn’t make me feel better. Because they aren’t my problem. My pain, my sadness, my anger… That’s mine. And it’s still there.”

  It was impossible to remain hardened in the face of his honesty. Her throat tightened, and she held him, to ease the effects of the horrors he’d seen. She squeezed his hands, not wanting to interrupt but needing to let him know she was there, that she understood.

  “When I accidentally sent that man to his death, I learned that I’m the kind of person who can throw someone out a window when he’s afraid. It changed how I viewed myself.” As he replayed the memory, she watched the vision of him throwing a military man out of a hotel window. “I didn’t mean to. I was scared, I acted too quickly, out of pure instinct. If I could do that, then who was to say how far I could go, who I could hurt?”

  “That was an accident, that soldier.” She replayed it. “You thought he was coming after you.”

  “I don’t know. I meant to send him out the window.” He glanced over her head into the darkness. That darkness was never far from him. But when he returned to her, he smiled. “But I didn’t mean to kill him. I’m not sure if it makes a difference.”

  His fingers tightened on hers, and he shrugged. “Parker Sinclair was an old hermit. He hid in Glory so that he didn’t have to approach the real world. He wrote about ethics and government, but he was afraid. I never, not in a hundred years, would have expected that he would be the sort of person to try something like this. Never.”

  He dropped his gaze to hers again, tilting her chin up so he could see her face “Tonight. I lit a boy on fire.” She tried to hold in her gasp, but failed. “I know. I never thought that I was the kind of person who could do that, either, but I did it. He was holding Kenny, I have no idea what he intended to do, and I was afraid for my friend. And those are extenuating circumstances.”

  “But as he lay there writhing in pain, his clothes on fire, I also did what I could to save him.” The left side of his mouth tilted up. “I made that choice when there weren’t any outside factors. I chose to be the right kind of person.”

  “Of course, you did.” She saw then that he’d been afraid that deep down he wasn’t a good person, that he was rotten at his core, where it mattered. “I’ve seen inside your thoughts, Luke. I know what kind of person you are.”

  He was the kind of person who checked her to make sure she was okay first, before he worried about intruders. He was the kind of person who sat with her while she visited her dying mother, knowing he had nothing to say but wanting to be there with her anyway to support her.

  He was the man she loved.

  “I was afraid of what could happen, of who I’ve become.” He gripped her shoulders, pulling her closer. “But mostly I’m afraid that I’ll let you down. The woman I’ve come to love.” He pulled back, his eyes searching hers. “And because of that, I did let you down. I’m an idiot. Please, please forgive me. I love you so much.”

  He loved her? In his gaze, she could see the truth, hear it inside him.

  “I love you, too.” She stared into his eyes and at the soft dark hair that fell on his forehead. “But, God, Luke… Do you know how much it sucked to have you doubt my intentions? Comparing me to Parker, to Fields? I love you, but you don’t trust me…” She shook her head.

  The air seeped out of her chest, leaving only a flare of pain. As she blinked up at him, he stepped closer. “I do trust you. It’s me I didn’t trust. I’m trying, I really am,” he whispered. “You’re stronger than me, than Parker, than Fields. Probably stronger than all of us combined.”

  She didn’t want to believe him, but he wasn’t lying to her. Maybe if he had forgiven himself, there might be hope for them.

  “I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you about the pharmaceutical company. I should have. I kept expecting that there would be a better time. That maybe if we talked more about it, you’d get it. I didn’t think you’d like it, but I hoped we’d find some understanding.”

  “I should have listened when you talked about it at your mother’s home. I know how important she is to you. I can see it.” He gathered her against him, and she wrapped her arms around his neck. Holding him, she couldn’t imagine they wouldn’t work things out. “I am sorry that I wasn’t more open to that, that I let my fear get in the way of your goal.”

  Though she was scared, she refused to step away. Maybe she wasn’t usually good at connections, but whatever was between them was worth working for.

  “We’ll figure it all out. Together.” She tilted her face up to his.

  Luke’s face broke into a huge grin, and he ducked his head down, covering her lips with his.

  As she lost herself in his kiss, she relished the sound of that word, of everything it meant.

  Together.

  …

  Two months later…

  “Luke!” Beth skidded around the corner, barreling through the door to the main computer lab. Luke smiled reflexively.

  It had been two months since the events at the Capitol, and everything had changed.

  The senators had no recollection of the events of that night. They remembered getting sick, but the press who had insisted there was an active shooter revised their reports to reflect accidental poisoning through the air ducts, the fault of poor maintenance of the ventilation. In response, the head of maintenance had been removed from service.

  Edgar, the fifty-five-year-old former Capitol maintenance man, now worked at Fort Detrick for Colonel Martins, with guaranteed pay for his remaining years until retirement. He also received a huge severance package to take the fall for their story, even though his name was never mentioned by the press and his employee record had never been recovered.

  Luke pushed back from his computer as Beth dropped into his lap.

  It had taken him a while to gain back her trust. But every step forward had felt like a huge win, and he never took for granted that she’d taken a chance on him.

  She wrapped her arms around his neck, and her lovely strawberry shampoo filled his senses. Closing his eyes, he breathed deep. When she pulled back, he planted his lips on hers.

  Every kiss was like the first one, full of promise. He played his mouth along hers lazily until she pulled away, breathless and laughing. “Stop. I came to tell you something.”

  “What’s up?” Discreetly, he trailed his fingers along her arm, relishing the softness of her skin.

  “They start trials tomorrow.” The color was high on her cheeks, and her smile shone with joy.

  She’d been working to get her Alzheimer’s drug through initial testing and her mother into their clinical trial group. Apparently, tomorrow was the day.

  “That’s wonderful.” He dropped another kiss on her mouth as she laughed. He never got tired of kissing her smiling face.

  “It is. If my calculations are correct—and they are,” she teased, “my mother should see improvement by the end of next week. Her breathing could even improve over the weekend.”

  He folded her closer, hugging her. This was what she’d been working for. He couldn’t be happier for her. “That’s great, Beth.”

  “How are you?” she asked, lowering her voice so the technician across the room couldn’t hear. “How was Dr. Bourne?”

  It had taken him a month after the Capitol to acknowledge that he couldn’t handle what happened in his head by himself anymore. He’d agreed to meet with an army psychologist, Dr. Susanna Bourne, who was helping him work through the lingering depression and guil
t he’d been shouldering.

  Now he felt as if he’d made some headway. He still had hard days, but he smiled more than before. Some nights he slept better, too.

  It was progress.

  “It was good. I asked her to stay on for another month or two.”

  Beth nodded, tilting her head in the movement he’d come to associate with her when she listened to his thoughts.

  While he used to be anxious about what she would hear, now he only looked at her and grinned. “Hear anything good?”

  Her face softened. “You sound…content.”

  He didn’t think he’d ever heard a better word. “Sounds about right.”

  “Anything new in here?” She glanced around the computer lab.

  After the Capitol, Martins had scaled back their group at Detrick, but he hadn’t closed it down entirely. Except now, instead of only watching for Solvimine, they worked with the counterterrorism department. Beth had returned to the FBI, to her role in research and development.

  Blue and Seth had chosen to leave the base entirely. Blue had never acclimated to being so near to metropolitan areas, and Seth was as happy on Blue’s mother’s ranch in Idaho as he was in any city. After a lifetime growing up in the foster system, he had come to love wide open spaces.

  Nick and Kitty were getting married in the fall in Brooklyn. They spent a lot of time going up and down I-95, spending time with his family and preparing. He’d never seen a couple more blissfully happy.

  His friend Kenny had stayed on. He was dating a woman in Annapolis now.

  Everything had settled down, but after a year that had seen more action that he ever expected in his life, he was happy about that. He’d take the status quo over any life-threatening excitement again.

  Especially if that status quo included the woman in his lap wearing a “Talk Nerdy to Me” T-shirt.

  She looped her arms around his neck. “Can you leave?” She leaned forward to nibble on his earlobe.

  He glanced at the bank of computers behind him. “Hey, Shawn. You got this? I was going to take off.”