“Anyway, I heard the ARC ain’t so bad. Kind of a plush holding tank where people stay and get treatment.” Derby cupped a hand around his eyes to shade the sun. “Like a salon or a fancy hotel. You’ll be out in no time. Back to your mama in Oklahoma. You’ve seen the reunions.”
She’d seen the reunions, all right. According to her mother, they were a warm and fuzzy cover up for what really went on within the bloodstained walls. The more Derby babbled on, the more she feared her mother was right. If Reid wanted her there—the place must be excruciating.
Derby leaned over and pointed. “Landing strip. Time to descend.”
Briar’s heart sank into her churning stomach. A white airplane waited below, its red tail jutting up like a knife covered in blood. Not far from the small runway, set a dark automobile with black-tinted windows.
Derby looked up and tugged one of several cords overhead. “Have to let out some of the hot air. Cool air will rush in and bring us down.” He grimaced, giving the red rope another hard yank. “Vent’s more stubborn than Lukas’s,” he grunted. “Ah, there we go. Bend your knees and brace your back against the basket. Hold onto the handle.”
Briar dully followed his instructions, bending, bracing, and grabbing a rope handle fastened to the inside of the gondola. If her bladder held, it would be a miracle.
“It’ll get bumpy, but hang in there. Whatever you do, do not jump out!”
He’d read her mind.
“A sudden loss of weight would cause the balloon to take off again—with me still inside,” he explained.
She considered jumping anyway. But Derby wouldn’t stay in the air forever. And when he landed, he’d find her. And he’d be furious. She glanced at him, the glazed look in his eyes making her mind up for her. She wasn’t a fast runner. She couldn’t out sprint a crazed maniac.
Besides, she still had to contend with the plane and the ominous black car. Derby might be insane, but at least she knew him. Entering the unknown with a crazy person was less scary than facing it alone.
At first the descent was undetectable, but she could feel it now. She watched the small jet increase in size as distance closed between the plane and balloon.
“Hold on!” Derby shouted.
Briar squeezed her eyes shut as the basket crashed against the ground and toppled over. For what seemed like miles, the gondola slid on its side, scraping the earth, the wicker creaking and groaning like an old man tumbling down the stairs. Finally, the movement stopped.
Afraid to open her eyes, she lay motionless inside the basket, knees drawn up to her elbows, hands still grasping the rope-grip.
“Whoo-whee! Now that’s what I call a landing.” Derby’s voice pulled her eyelids open. “Sorry if I rattled you, Miss Briar.” He knelt and gently pried her fingers from the handle. “You’ll be all right once you get on your feet.” He tugged her wrists, uncurling her from her fetal position and hauling her from the basket.
She stole a glance downward, astonished her pants were still dry.
The double-slam of car doors jerked her gaze toward the approach of two tall, sunglassed men, biceps bulging under their perfectly pressed suit coats.
Her bladder screamed against the sudden cringe of her insides. She wondered how much more the poor organ could take.
“Morning, gentlemen.” Derby tipped his ball cap, amazingly, still stuck to his head.
The men loomed. Silent, and without expression.
“Not too talkative, are you?” Derby peeled off his gloves and stuffed them into his back pocket.
Briar gave a startled yelp as the taller of the two giants moved toward her, wrapping his large hand around her elbow.
The other man reached into his jacket lapel and stepped up to Derby.
Briar yelped louder, prompting a rough squeeze from the hand at her elbow. Fear pounded in her ears. The man had a gun. Derby would be shot dead right in front of her.
“This is for you,” the man said to Derby.
Briar shut her eyes and prayed. She trembled, waiting for the click of the trigger, the echo of the bullet.
It didn’t come. She peeked through one crinkled eye. Derby was thumbing through a stack of bills. She exhaled. The man pulled an envelope of cash, not a gun. She hadn’t seen paper money in years—let alone a pile like the one Derby held. Cash was untraceable. That must be the reason. But spending paper in a plastic world was bound to raise suspicion.
“That’ll do fine. Thanks, gentlemen.” Derby folded the thick stack and shoved it into the front pocket of his jeans, poking it down a few times for good measure. “Take care of Miss Briar. She’s a good girl. And a good friend of mine.”
Briar ground her teeth. Friend? Was he kidding? Friends didn’t turn friends over to the enemy. She narrowed her eyes.
He looked at the ground. “’Least she used to be.”
“We’re done.” The man standing in front of him said, turning away. “Make yourself disappear.”
Derby looked up. “Hey, wait a minute.” The man turned back around and Derby tipped back his head, meeting his gaze. “I need a car—”
The man’s lip twitched as though he might laugh.
Derby glanced at his surroundings. “—or at least a ride back to my truck.”
“Sorry, fella. Not in Maxwell Brown’s instructions.” The man opened the door of the black car and slid inside.
The jet’s engines roared to life, rattling every bone in her body.
“Time to make our exit.” Steered by the elbow, Briar walked shakily to the aircraft and climbed the steps. Ushered into one of eight leather seats she sat down and stared out the circular window. The black car pulled away, Derby’s gaze trailing after it.
“Seatbelt,” elbow-man stated.
With unfeeling fingers, Briar clasped the buckle. The plane seemed to stand on tiptoe, sending her heart into her esophagus.
“Breathe,” his strong voice commanded. “It’s a two-and-a-half-hour flight. You may as well relax.”
She sucked in a breath and glued her eyes to the windowpane. Derby waved limply beside his deflated balloon until he disappeared.
~*~
Briar crossed and uncrossed her legs. Though surprisingly plush, the small plane was obviously not equipped with bathroom facilities.
“Uncomfortable?” elbow-man asked.
She bit the inside of her cheek and shook her head no. She couldn’t tell the guy she needed to tinkle or, more realistically, downpour.
“We’re almost there.”
A mixture of relief and dread twisted through her body—relief because she’d surely find bathroom facilities, dread because she’d find them at the ARC.
“By the way, happy birthday.”
“Thanks,” she said through clenched teeth. She crossed her legs again. One more minute and she’d be seeing through yellow eyeballs.
“You know, you’re very fortunate.”
Fortunate? Had the world gone mad, or just her?
“At midnight, the OLG would have shown up at the lab to collect you. They don’t take Commandment breaches lightly. For Caster Stone to serve you up on a platter saved you some very serious repercussions. ”
“I’m not in breach of The Commandment. I was scheduled to receive Stone’s Abstergent today, following the balloon ride.”
“Caster mentioned a Bible and an abandoned ankle monitor as well. As I said, you’re lucky that guy’s on your side. If he’d gone straight to the OLG with the information, instead of the ARC’s Director, Maxwell Brown, you’d be arrested for treason. And the OLG sees to it that Commandment breakers get extra special treatment at the ARC—if you get my drift.”
A hot tear slid down Briar’s cheek. She was furious. And she was drowning. She pressed her hands to her aching abdomen. Things were so much better when elbow-man kept his big mouth shut.
~*~
A zillion times smoother than the hot air balloon landing, touchdown was, nonetheless, torturous. Every jiggle and bump zapped through Briar’
s middle, nauseating her. All the deep breathing in the world couldn’t dull the blanket of pins and needles that was her skin.
The landing strip was close to the ARC, Briar could tell from a mile away. The fortress of a building boasted its name in gigantic letters at least six feet tall, alongside the profile of a roaring lion. The place was a prison, complete with armed guards. The windows on the top three floors even had bars. Thick and tall, the building looked nothing like the health spa/massage therapy/fancy hotel image represented on the countless ARC commercials she’d watched over the years.
Her mother’s worried features flooded Briar’s mind. She’d been scared to death Briar would end up at the ARC. And here she was. Suddenly she wanted her mother more than anything else in the world. She’d even take the ankle monitor back—clamp it on herself, and throw away the key.
If she could only go home.
“Let’s go.” Elbow-man was at it again, tugging her from her chair by the crook of her arm. “The shuttle will take us to the front doors.”
He led her down the airplane steps, across the tarmac, and to the waiting vehicle. On a shiny black bus that seated at least twenty, they were the only passengers.
Elbow-man walked her to the doors and showed his credentials to the guard. He pressed his finger to a device mounted to the front of the building and ordered Briar to do the same. The doors unlocked with a mechanical click.
“This is as far as I go, kid. You’ll have to make new friends, now.” He turned and walked away.
A smock-clad...nurse? Orderly?—She had no idea how to address the woman—appeared and opened the door. Briar didn’t wait for her to speak. “I really, really have to go to the bathroom.” The words rushed out all at once.
“Follow me.”
Briar stepped so closely behind she clipped the back of the woman’s sensible shoes more than once.
Like a spa or a fancy hotel, Derby had said. He’d been wrong. Sure, the place had some fancy furnishings and nice things, but there was a sadness she could almost touch. An oppression. A wave of despair washed over her, thick and heavy in the pine disinfectant.
Death. Clean death.
She was being ridiculous. The place was scary because it was new to her. She’d never been there before. The least she could do was to judge her surroundings sanely, not through the distorted eyes of fear—and bladder urgency.
Besides, as soon as the personnel talked to Lukas, this would all get squared away.
What would Lukas say, when he found out what Caster had done? What would he do?
She glanced as they marched passed a virtual clock on the wall. Lukas was probably at the drop off point right now, leaning against Derby’s truck, waiting for her return. How long would he wait?
Or…what if he abandoned her on purpose? Her heart stopped beating at the thought. She feared she’d faint or fall down, dead. Would the lady in the black smock with the long-stride even notice? She’d sped up, and now had at least a six-foot lead.
This was all Lukas’s fault. Why hadn’t he given her the abstergent? She’d practically begged him to do it—and begging was nightmarishly hard for her. But he hadn’t done it. He’d always had an excuse not to.
Maybe he wanted her here as much as Reid and Caster did.
Briar plowed full-force into the nurse. She hadn’t seen the woman stop walking.
“Restroom.” She held the back of her hand to what appeared to be an iridescent blanket of light, dissolving it before Briar’s eyes.
Briar ran through the opening and into the first stall. “Thank you,” she whispered. She’d thank the woman later, right now she was thanking God.
20
Lukas walked into the lab, worry grinding against his brain like sandpaper. Where was Derby? He’d waited beside his truck in the parking lot for nearly an hour, but he’d never shown. He wasn’t answering his cuff, either. Had something gone wrong? He shook his head, clearing from his mind the hundred and one images of how a hot air balloon could crash, deflate, and explode.
He’d come back to the lab to talk to Reid. She’d known about Briar’s hot air balloon ride—what else did she know? Maybe Derby had additional plans that Lukas wasn’t aware of, and shared those plans with Reid. The balloon ride was supposed to be a relatively brief flight—no more than an hour, total. The only landing was to be back at the parking lot where they’d started. They’d been gone way too long.
Down the hallway, Lukas spotted Reid unlocking her apartment door. “Reid.” He quickened his stride. “Where’s Briar?”
She raised an eyebrow. “I am not your lab rat’s keeper.” She snatched her key from the lock and stepped inside the doorway.
“Tell me.” Lukas followed, standing on the threshold. “Now.”
“I like it when you’re forceful.” A smirk twisted her red lips. “Please. Come all the way in.” She took a step back and gazed at him from under mascara-laden lashes. “Let’s…talk.”
“If you value your job, you’ll do all the talking while I stand right here.”
She dragged her gaze to the ceiling and back. “What’s the matter? I’m not desperate enough?”
“Quite the opposite.”
Her smirk hardened to a straight line. “What makes you think I know where she is?”
Lukas balled his hands into fists then crossed his arms so he wouldn’t be tempted to use them. “I’m through playing games. Tell me what you know, or pack your bags.”
“Your brother told me you’d stoop to this—threatening my job because of that unlevel. I’d hoped he was wrong. Well, I’ve got news for you, Lukas. This was all his idea, not mine. He’s probably informed your father by now, as well.”
Hot lead filled Lukas’s stomach. “What are you talking about?”
“He couldn’t very well let you wait forever, could he? She’s eighteen years old, Lukas. If you were planning to administer the abstergent, you would’ve done it by now. I tried to warn you, but you refused to listen. Instead, you dragged your feet, putting all of us in danger, including your precious lab rat.”
Lukas licked his lips. No. Caster couldn’t have sent Briar to the ARC. This conversation was a ploy. A bluff Reid and his brother conjured up to make sure he was still onboard with the project. A last-ditch effort to ensure he would go through with Briar’s injection. “The procedure is scheduled to take place this afternoon. Dr. Randall Fuller will be arriving from Baltimore in less than three hours to perform the injection.”
“No, he isn’t. Caster cancelled his flight. You would have never gone through with it anyway. You would have dreamed up some last-minute excuse not to do it.”
Rage replaced the blood in Lukas’s veins, and fury pulsed through his arteries. A growing mass of hatred thumped inside his ribcage.
“Your brother cares too much about Stone Labs to allow it to be undermined by ARC officials. What you’ve been working on is no secret to them—no matter what Rosen or anybody else says. They have their all-knowing eye on this place. And it’s not as if they’re cheering for the success of your abstergent—the serum that will put them out of business. They’re waiting for you to mess up—which you’ve done by allowing Briar to remain unlevel. By harboring her, you’ve turned all of us into accessories. Caster did what had to be done. What you didn’t have the guts to do yourself.”
“You’re fired.” Lukas turned away, making long strides down the hallway. Refusing to give her the satisfaction of seeing him run, he waited until he rounded the corner before sprinting the rest of the way to the exit.
Roxy barked twice, catching up with him as he reached the door. “Sorry girl, no time to play. I’m going to get Briar.” He gave the dog a quick pat on the head.
She panted, her big tongue lolling from what appeared to be a huge smile.
~*~
Lukas screeched to a halt and threw open the car door. “Where is she?” he yelled as he strode up the cobblestone walkway leading to the over-extravagant front veranda. His brother’s fancier-
than-thou lifestyle made Lukas want to puke. In what messed-up universe did a rotten to the core, heartless excuse for a man get to surround himself with such splendor? Caster Stone was the biggest joke on the planet. Worst of all, the joke wasn’t one bit funny.
Lukas ignored the bell and beat both fists against the mahogany door. “Where is she?” He repeated, his yell echoing through the flower-filled terrace. The unsuitable beauty of the plants amplified his wrath, and the temptation to rip up a miniature rose bush by the roots nearly overtook him. It wasn’t the thorns that stopped him—he would’ve welcomed the pain. It was the thought of frightening his nephew. He loved Gatlin, and wouldn’t hurt him for anything in the world.
The thought of the little boy calmed Lukas’s temper, slightly. No need to behave like a monster—he’d leave that to Caster. For all he knew, Gatlin could be on a chair staring through the peephole.
Lukas planted his shoe on the threshold as the door opened a crack.
“Oh, hello, Lukas.” Lira, the housekeeper-slash-nanny stood with her hand on her chest. “You gave me a scare.”
“I need to see Caster.” He knew he should apologize, but didn’t want to go too soft just yet. He’d make nice after he saw his brother.
She threw a quick glance over her shoulder.
He followed her gaze. “I’m coming in.”
Lira stepped to the side, clearing his way to the foyer. “He’s in his study. I’ll take Gatlin outside to the play area, to give you some privacy.”
“Thank you.” He walked through the entryway. “I’m sorry I startled you.”
Lukas stepped quickly through the great room and down the hallway.
Caster opened the study door before Lukas was able to knock.
“Ah, come in. I’ve been expecting you.” Caster motioned his brother into the room.
“What have you done? Where is Briar?”
“You really don’t know? I thought surely Reid had squealed by now.”
“She said you had Briar taken to the ARC. I wanted to hear it from you before I decide a course of action.”
“Course of action?” Caster laughed. “It’s too late for that, brother. Your course of action should have been to administer the abstergent to Briar before her eighteenth birthday.”
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