Tainted Hearts

by Cyndi Friberg

  He took a menacing step toward her, cutting short her angry tirade. “Do you realize what this will do to her if we fail? Not only will you condemn her body, but it will crush her spirit.”

  “I didn’t condemn her to anything, asshole! You’re the one who took Methuselah!”

  “Fine! I’m an asshole, but Elise is completely innocent in all of this. We have to help her! We have to find a way.”

  Each impassioned plea penetrated a little more. Tuesday retreated into her professional reserve, but the child’s face pursued her ruthlessly. Those huge, illness-sunken eyes stared back, luminous with hope and expectation.

  “I’m not God,” she whispered. “I…”

  “You are to Elise.”

  His warm hands closed around her upper arms, his strangely beautiful gaze burned into hers, demanding things she didn’t understand, stirring feelings she wasn’t ready to feel. “I’ll do what I can.”

  “Not good enough!”

  Tension built within her, tightening and twisting until she wanted to scream, had to lash out. She hit his chest. He ignored her. “What do you want me to do?” she demanded. “I’m not a surgeon. I can’t grab one off the shelf and install it on your kitchen table!”

  He moved closer.

  Tears blurred her vision. She blinked furiously.

  “She needs you, Tuesday.” His voice, rough with emotion and determination played across her senses, like a physical touch. “You’re her only hope.”

  Hope!

  Damn him. Those haunted eyes, in that delicate face… Tuesday sobbed. Her tears escaped. “I’ll—try.”

  “Not good enough.” His tone was gentle now. He brushed his thumbs across her cheeks, wiping away her tears. His lips touched the corner of her mouth.

  No! Not now. This wasn’t fair. Her emotions were too raw. She couldn’t resist his tenderness.

  Everything within her that was feminine and soft pulsed to life…yearning. He was masculine and strong—and just a touch away.

  “I’ll—”

  He cut off her words with his mouth, wrapping her firmly in his arms. She opened for him, hungry, yet vulnerable. He wanted too much, expected too much. She couldn’t think when he touched her. Didn’t want to think. Trembling, she sank her fingers into his thick hair and ventured into his mouth with her tongue.

  This was madness. She was falling into his trap, allowing him to manipulate her.

  It had been years since she felt truly alive. How had he known where to strike? It was almost as if… She’d heard the rumors, everyone had heard about the experiments. Was it possible? Could Marc be a genetic anomaly, able to sense her emotions and hear her thoughts?

  “Marc.” She sighed his name as his mouth moved to the underside of her jaw. “You don’t have to do this.” His hand cupped her breast and she instinctively arched into the touch, needing it so badly she trembled.

  “This isn’t…like that.” His moist breath fanned her skin, sending tingles spiraling deep into her body. “I want to touch you. No, I need this.”

  Part of her still suspected he was just telling her what she wanted to hear, but his thumb found her nipple and she no longer cared. She felt alive! She felt desired. She felt.

  He slipped her zipper down and pulled her dress along her arms, trapping her elbows against her waist. The deep rose lace of her bra offset her ivory skin. A sound suspiciously like a growl escaped his throat. He traced the scalloped edge of the bra with just his fingertip, then spiraled inward until he circled her nipple. It tingled and tightened against the lace. The gentle abrading made her want to squirm, but she held perfectly still, enjoying every nuance of sensation.

  He cupped her breast again, the heat of his palm searing her skin with so little left between them.

  Suddenly, she caught his wrist. “Marc, I don’t want you to do this if… I don’t want… I mean I do, but—”

  He put his finger over her lips. “Don’t. Don’t think. Don’t rationalize. Just feel. For once in your life, just let yourself feel.”

  And she felt. She felt the subtle tightening and then the merciful release as he unfastened her bra. She felt his heated breath against her shoulder as he guided her arms from the wide straps of her sundress, and finally the tantalizing glide of his mouth against her collarbone.

  “Your breasts are unbelievable,” he whispered, his tongue stroking the silken curve. “It should be a crime to cover them up.” He chuckled. “With anything but my hands…or my mouth.”

  His hands caressed, cupping and squeezing, stroking and lifting her breasts, while she whimpered in needful urgency. Tangling her fingers in his hair, she guided his mouth to her nipple. He happily obliged, drawing upon it firmly, then catching it between his teeth. She cried out, but the pressure stopped well short of pain.

  “Please.” She was shocked by the demand in her own voice.

  “Please stop or please more?”

  Trembling, she wrapped her arms around him. If she let this go any further, this gorgeous man would peel down her dress and see her fleshy hips and round thighs, her…but she ached like she’d never ached before.

  “Everything about this is wrong,” she whispered. “I don’t even know who you are.”

  Marc gently pushed her to arm’s length, searching her flushed face, confounded. “My name is not what’s bothering you. You’re afraid of something. I won’t get you pregnant. Is that what you’re worried about?” She shook her head. “I’d never hurt you, Tuesday. If you aren’t enjoying this, let’s stop.”

  “I haven’t… It’s not just my face. My body hasn’t been cosmetically enhanced either.”

  She sounded so utterly miserable, Marc wasn’t sure he understood what she meant. Gently cupping one breast, he said, “There’s no need for enhancement.”

  If anything, she only looked more miserable. “Nature wasn’t quite so kind with the rest of me.”

  “Tuesday.” He stepped back and swept her from head to foot with a slow assessing stare. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  Crossing her arms over her breasts, she stared back at him silently.

  “Your legs are long, your hips are nicely rounded, and from what I could see when you were on all fours, there is certainly nothing wrong with your ass, so what is—”

  “My thighs wiggle, my hips are fleshy, my stomach makes me look pregnant, and my—butt is fat.”

  “With your vast knowledge of the female anatomy…” He laughed. “Guess you do have a vast knowledge of anatomy, but I’m more qualified to judge the appeal of female anatomy, so why don’t you let me determine if I find your—butt fat or not.”

  She slipped her arms into the straps of her dress and Marc wanted to howl. “How about if I tell you how I’m going to save your daughter, instead?”

  Smart lady. His body would have been much happier with a truly dumb blonde right about now. Tuesday Fitzpatrick was…complicated.

  “Okay,” he reluctantly agreed. “I don’t see why we can’t have the conversation naked, but I do like the topic.”

  She smiled and moved toward the door. Her glorious breasts swayed subtly and he realized her bra lay on the floor at the foot of the bed.

  His already pounding erection just about buckled his knees.

  Chapter Five

  A shrill perimeter alarm signaled an unscheduled arrival. Phil Carey turned to the security screen, which monitored the secluded shuttle lot. He armed the external pulse array without moving his gaze from the monitor.

  From the outside, his headquarters appeared to be a ramshackle warehouse, indistinguishable from the myriad buildings crowding the industrial sector of the city.

  A common, unmarked shuttle landed. He reached for the transmitter, meaning to warn the trespasser they’d put down in a private lot. The side hatch opened and Elijah James climbed down.

  What was he doing here? His current assignment as “Elihu”, Job’s lieutenant was perhaps the most dangerous Elijah had ever undertaken. Elijah was much too ex
perienced to risk exposure without good reason. Something must have gone wrong at the Tower of Babel.

  Elijah disappeared into the adjacent building. An underground passage connected the two. Having no one enter or exit directly reinforced the illusion that Phil’s building was abandoned.

  Phil met Elijah as he emerged from the security passage.

  “Sixteen months of groveling and kissing that pompous weasel’s ass and she blows it all in one fell swoop.”

  If the young man’s florid face was any indication, he needed a minute to regain his composure. “Let’s take this to my office. I still have scans to run.”

  Elijah followed him silently down the concrete corridor. Exposed pipes and mildewed cracks completed the dismal setting. Phil pushed open his office door and motioned for his subordinate to precede him.

  Beyond the simple threshold, Phil’s spacious office awaited like an oasis in the desert. Comfortable, clean, and painstakingly organized, the room revealed more about Phil than he cared to admit.

  Elijah looked around in silent awe. “You’ve added a toy or two since the last time I came down here.”

  “Our current employer is generous in the extreme.”

  Elijah scoffed. “Sinclair owes you his life. Suck all the blood money you can out of that bastard.”

  “Maybe it’s best you’re out.” Phil studied him through narrowed eyes. “You’re starting to sound like one of them.”

  Elijah slipped his hand into the pocket of his uniform pants and moved farther into the room. A faint bruise discolored his jaw. Tension twisted inside Phil. Had Elijah blown his cover?

  “What happened?”

  “So many of the PURE concepts make perfect sense on the surface.”

  “Survival of the fittest, redemptive purging, Job’s propaganda isn’t even original.” Phil dismissed the nonsense with a wave of his hand. “Where does he think you are and who were you referring to in the corridor?”

  “Working my way into Job’s confidence has been time consuming and demeaning in ways I’ll never explain. But I’m there. He trusts me implicitly and tells me everything.”

  Phil pulled out a chair and sat. Elijah paced the short distance between the control console and the door. “If you’ve achieved your objectives, why are you upset?”

  “Three weeks ago I was sent out on recruitment detail with several other disciples. I had no choice but to act the part and I found a woman who seemed more than willing.”

  “You knew sexual interaction might become necessary when you accepted this assignment. Has the woman proven to be difficult? I still don’t see the problem.”

  Elijah huffed and plopped down in a chair facing Phil. “I screwed up, Phil. This whole day has been a comedy of errors. Job has developed an interest in Tuesday Fitzpatrick. Interest, hell, it’s an obsession. He told me—”

  “Did you say Tuesday Fitzpatrick? Mr. Sinclair asked me earlier if Job had shown any interest in her. Why didn’t you report this to me? How many times have I told you that nothing is incidental?”

  Elijah crossed his legs, his hands clenching around the arms of the chair. “He has me run background checks on all sorts of people. I included her in my last report.”

  Elijah was meticulous. The documentation was doubtlessly there. It was only Marc’s request for information that brought Tuesday to mind. “Go on. How did you screw up and what do we need to do to reestablish Job’s trust in you?”

  “It’s complicated. Job ordered me to bring Tuesday to him. I guess he’s tried to contact her and she’s playing hard to get. He sent me to arrange a meeting.”

  “With or without her consent?”

  Without responding to the question, Elijah went on. “Her schedule indicated she had a meeting with the Sinclair-Dietrich team and the shuttle always uses a rooftop pad. It’s more secluded and easier to access than the departure ring at the mediplex, so I set up at SD Towers. She boarded the shuttle, but the damn thing didn’t follow its flight plan. I have no idea where she went.”

  Phil chuckled. This was getting interesting. Had Marc taken an uninvited guest to his hunting lodge? Why? She wouldn’t recognize him with his recent facial enhancements. Phil gave a mental shrug. Perhaps that was the point.

  Elijah’s gaze narrowed. “Do you know where she is?”

  “I might. Why does Job want her?”

  “This is where it gets really strange. Job decided to use my trainee to punish me. He all but bent her over his desk and made me watch.”

  “How did your trainee react? Were you able to intervene?”

  “I was prepared to. I tried to, but she was into it. I think it’s what she wanted all along. It was obvious she was using me to get to Job. So, I just played along.”

  “You left her with him?” Tension gripped Phil’s stomach. This wasn’t good. If half the reports he’d uncovered were true, this girl was in serious trouble. “Should I arrange an extraction?” She wasn’t technically his responsibility, but one of his men had recruited her.

  “Not yet. There’s something odd about the whole thing. She seemed like the average desperate outcast when I recruited her, but over and over I’ve sensed something different, something more. She has a definite agenda.”

  This caught Phil’s attention. The disenfranchised flocked to freaks like Job. “What exactly did you sense?” Elijah’s empathic abilities were minimal at best. Still, what he did pick up tended to be accurate.

  He shrugged, frustration heightening his color. “She was always guarded. Then, fury would spike when she thought no one was paying attention. She played me, Phil, offered herself to Job while I went off to redeem myself. We don’t need to do anything. She’s right where she wants to be.”

  “Any chance she could be an operative?”

  Elijah shook his head, dismissing the possibility. “She might be wily, but Rahab’s just a kid.”

  “Rahab?” Phil about choked on the name. “Do you know her real name? Who decided to call her Rahab?”

  “Does that mean something to you? Everyone in the stronghold takes on biblical names. There are hundreds of Marys and I know of at least two other Rahabs.”

  Phil said nothing for a long moment. It had to be a coincidence. What would Raeanne Rawsen be doing in the PURE stronghold? “Describe her to me.”

  “Medium height, maybe a little less. She looks tiny at first glance, but she’s toned, athletic. Long dark hair, big brown eyes.”

  The body type was right, but Raeanne’s eyes were blue. Besides, wouldn’t Elijah have recognized her? The tragedy had been fodder for the tabloids for almost a year. He shook away the speculation. He’d have to do some digging.

  “You can crash here tonight,” he told the younger man. “I’ll contact Mr. Sinclair and find out more about his interest in Tuesday. I have an old army buddy who can probably help us find out more about Rahab. Just give me an hour or two.”

  “I know I shouldn’t have come here. I just didn’t know what else to do. She damn near blew my cover and I still need to produce Tuesday if I intend to go back in.”

  “One step at a time, Elihu. One step at a time.”

  * * * * *

  Tuesday collapsed onto a kitchen chair and covered her face with her hands. She had to get away from her captor! The nobility of his quest made him far more dangerous than any of Job’s fanatical followers. Marc would do whatever it took to save his daughter’s life. She knew that now. How could he not? How could any parent look into Elise’s wide, dark eyes and not resolve to move Heaven and Earth, make any sacrifice to ease her pain?

  “So what’s your plan?”

  Lowering her hands to the table, she found Marc seated across from her. He sure moved quietly for such a big man. What had he looked like before his enhancements? Why did he seem so…familiar? It didn’t matter. She had to focus on the task at hand, convincing him she had a plan.

  “The second generation is ready for human testing,” she began.

  “You’re not using Elise as
a guinea pig. That’s not the deal.”

  “Hear me out. There have always been two minor problems with the SP-64. The first is more a vulnerability than a problem and we’re still working on a failsafe. The second is a slight, intermittent malfunction with the valves. The self-rerouting feature compensates for any failure, but it’s troubling nonetheless. We’ve solved the problem in the SP-65. It performed flawlessly in the animal tests and CPT just received a ten-patient permit for human installation. The problem is, because the SP-64 is performing so well, we haven’t been able to convince anyone to volunteer.”

  “Why risk the unknown when there’s a proven product already in existence.”

  “Exactly.” She interlaced her fingers while possibilities rolled through her mind. Everything she said was true. She’d begun the tale only to shift his focus from seducing her, but why not slot Elise for one of the SP-65s? It was a mutually beneficial proposition.

  Because you’re giving in to the demands of a kidnapper.

  No, you’re saving a little girl.

  “Is any of this true?” Suspicion etched his tone and again she wondered at his flawless insight. Even if she asked him if he was empathic, why would he admit it?

  Scooting her chair closer to the table, she looked him in the eyes. “Every word.”

  “Is it possible?”

  “That’s the more complicated question. It’s possible to install a SP-65 in Elise, but when, where, who would perform the procedure? A conventional hospital is out, way too many variables. I’ll tell Vonne I found our first volunteer. She’ll be thrilled. Still, I have to have a reason why you want to remain anonymous.”

  He fidgeted, combed his hair off his forehead with his fingers. “Tell her…oh, to hell with it. My biggest fear when I decided to do this was that you’d recognize me. I think you suspected my face had changed because you remembered my voice.”

  “I know you?”

  “We’ve vidconferenced for years, Ms. Fitzpatrick. I even asked you to dance at the fundraiser for the Methuselah Foundation last spring. You politely turned me down.”