by Maya Banks
“Do you have their abilities?” Sam asked as he took a step closer to Resnick.
Resnick shook his head. His nostrils flared and his lips flattened into a thin line. “I was a…failure. A dropped experiment. Disappointing results. They went back to the drawing board after I was born. It wasn’t until many years later that Grace and then Shea were born.”
“So what, you just hung around the lab? I’m having a hard time wrapping my mind around this,” Ethan said. “It doesn’t add up and it damn sure doesn’t make sense.”
Resnick lit another cigarette and blew out a cloud of smoke. “There wasn’t anything else to do with me. I was the first. They didn’t have a plan for what happened if I didn’t yield the results they were looking for. After me, they adopted out babies that didn’t work out. But they kept me.”
“Who is they?” Nathan asked impatiently. “We’re wasting time here. I’m not interested in your life story.”
“The project was started during the Cold War. At first the U.S. was primarily interested in psychic and telepathic powers. They wanted a way into the heads of people in positions of power. They wanted their secrets. It sounds far-fetched, yes, but then a whole lot of secret research is pretty damn unbelievable.
“There wasn’t any solid success until after the Cold War ended. That’s when Grace and Shea were born. At first there was a lot of excitement that the two girls could communicate telepathically with each other. But then when their ability to heal and take on pain was discovered, it marked a complete one-hundred-and-eighty-degree turn in the possibilities.”
“Okay, so who do we like for this?” Nathan demanded. “The government? Some unheard-of, nonexistent shadow group of the CIA who want to keep experimenting on Shea and Grace?”
“Where did they get the donors?” Donovan cut in. “Shea said that according to her mother’s journal they paired egg and sperm from donors who had remarkable abilities. That doesn’t explain how they laid hands on these people. Hardly something you can advertise for.”
“I don’t know the answer to your question, Nathan,” Resnick said in a low voice. “But we’ll use whatever resources I have to find out. I swear it.” He turned to Donovan. “That’s exactly what they did. They studied each and every case of special abilities. Some turned out to be hoaxes, but there were others who clearly displayed unique talents. Years went into cataloging and searching out men and women with psychic or paranormal gifts. They were tested extensively and then semen samples were taken from the men and the females had eggs removed. Then began an experimentation on mixing and matching certain profiles to see what the result would be.”
“It all sounds fucking unreal,” Ethan muttered.
“I was a failure. As were many of the offspring that were created in the lab,” Resnick continued. “In fact, Grace and Shea were the only two who displayed marked abilities. You can imagine the excitement they caused when it was discovered what they could do. There were others with questionable abilities but nothing that was tangible, that was there in black and white, that could be proven, and most important, controlled and reproduced at will. That is what they were looking for, and that’s why Grace and Shea aren’t safe. They want them not only for what they can do, but for the possibilities their offspring would provide.”
A chill went up Nathan’s spine, and fury gripped him all over again. There was no fucking way Shea was going to spend her life being tortured and have her eggs taken to produce mass offspring in hopes of having one or two who shared her remarkable ability. The mere thought made him sick to his stomach.
A sudden thought occurred to Nathan and he met Resnick’s gaze. “You were the one who helped the Petersons, weren’t you? When they moved to Oregon. It’s how you knew about the house there and why you sent Phillips there to find Shea.”
Resnick gave a resigned sigh. “Yes. I didn’t locate the Petersons or the girls until they were nearly adults. The Petersons took the girls and ran when they were very young. Just toddlers. I was glad. I hated seeing what was done to them. I was just a teenager who was helpless to do anything but watch while they were treated like objects.
“They were why I pursued a job in the CIA and why I worked my way into the upper echelons of the intelligence community. I not only wanted to find and protect them but I wanted to keep my ear to the ground so I’d know if there was an effort to regroup or if anyone began digging around for information on the girls.
“The project folded after the Petersons escaped with Shea and Grace. There was a fear of discovery. No one knew when or if the Petersons would go public. One day the project was alive and well. The next day it was a ghost town.”
“And you?” Sam asked. “Where do you fit into all this, Resnick? What did you do after the project folded? Or did you keep your hand in it all this time?”
Resnick’s lip curled at the distrust in Sam’s voice. “Since I was conceived in a lab, I didn’t officially exist. I didn’t even have a name, though the Petersons called me Adam. For the first created man. But I had no official identification. No birth certificate. To the world I didn’t exist. It was pretty easy to disappear, start over, create my own past. It didn’t take long to get a birth certificate and a social security number. Things were much easier back then. Not as much red tape. And once you’re in the system, you’re there. And so I became Adam Resnick. More importantly, my connection to the research project has never been known.”
Resnick stopped for a moment and then he tiredly ran a hand over his jaw. His injured arm hung loosely at his side and he had a gray cast to his skin. He looked beaten. Regret radiated from him in waves.
“For what it’s worth, I’m sorry, Nathan. I didn’t know. I couldn’t have known. I only wanted to protect Shea. I still want to protect her.”
“Then let’s find out who the fuck has her,” Nathan ground out. “Last time they caught up to her in California and they held her in the vicinity for a week. She escaped and I found her in Crescent City, hiding in a culvert. They kept her drugged the entire time. She remembers little except the torture, so she couldn’t tell me anything about who they were.”
Resnick sighed. “I’ve looked for her and Grace ever since the Petersons turned up dead and the girls disappeared. I knew they were in serious trouble. I made sure the Petersons’ bodies were removed and nothing got out about their deaths. The house belonged to me under an assumed name, and on paper the Petersons were renters. They kept to themselves and never involved themselves in the community, so it’s doubtful anyone ever knew they were gone. I made sure the house was kept up in case…in case one of the girls ever came back.”
“You mean you intended to nab them as soon as they showed up,” Nathan said darkly.
“I would have taken them in, yes,” Resnick said calmly. “I would have done anything to protect them. Unfortunately, I wasn’t the only one watching the house, and Phillips and his team got there too late to help Grace. I was determined to at least bring Shea in. When we failed to intercept her at the house, I knew that eventually you’d take her home, so we waited for our opportunity and took it.”
“Who else is watching?” Sam demanded. “Who else wants them?”
“I don’t know. But I plan to find out.”
“So what now?” Garrett demanded with his trademark impatience. He was positively fidgeting with all the talking going on, an impatience that Nathan shared.
Resnick pushed off the edge of the counter. “Now we find the fucks who have Shea and we go blow some shit up.”
Ethan grinned. “Now we’re talking!”
CHAPTER 38
TORTURE was preferable to this hell. Her sanity was slowly being eaten away.
She was in a clear plastic tube, the sides pressed to her arms so she couldn’t move. Bands circled her ankles, her wrists and even her neck. That one was the worst of all because she fought the sensation of choking every second she was conscious.
They’d already taken blood samples. It had all been sterile and very
methodical. No one spoke to her. They treated her like she was a nameless, faceless object. Soulless. No one. Just another research project. Was this what it had been like for her and Grace in the beginning?
What did they want from her? Tears pricked her eyelids and her vision blurred. She was a human being regardless of the circumstances of her birth.
This wasn’t right. None of it was right. She and Grace deserved to be left alone. Running from a faceless enemy was no way to live.
She glanced fearfully over at the monitor positioned to her left. She had to calm her thoughts. Make everything blank.
The electrodes attached to her head monitored brain waves and activity. She’d already learned the hard way that the consequence of her trying to communicate telepathically was horrific pain, not only from the lingering effects of the drugs but from the electrical shock that speared through her body every time her brain activity increased.
But telepathy wasn’t the only thing that would raise the level of her brain activity. She had to be careful to temper her emotions.
She felt like the negative reinforcement rat. Eat, zap. Do the wrong thing, zap. Zap, zap, zap.
Yeah, she was starting to lose her mind. It wouldn’t take much at all to sever her fragile grasp of reality. She was clinging by a thread, and right now it seemed a lot easier to just let go and check out.
She hadn’t tried to contact Nathan for hours now. She could still feel the lingering pain from her last effort. The empty void in her mind was hell. The claustrophobic capsule they’d crammed her in was hell. She knew in that moment that she didn’t want to connect with Nathan. She never wanted him to know how this felt. He’d already endured so much torture, and knowing what was happening to her would send him right over the edge.
RESNICK paced back and forth in the basement of his home that served as his office away from his headquarters in D.C. “She should have been able to communicate with you by now. Have you tried reaching out to her recently?”
“I won’t do it again,” Nathan said fiercely. “Every time I do, I can feel her pain. It’s horrific. I won’t put her through that. I can feel her confusion, her emptiness. She’s so goddamn alone and she’s hanging on by the thinnest of threads and the pain is unimaginable. We have to give her more time.”
“I could try,” Joe said in a low voice. “You’re too worked up, man. We need to keep her calm. If she feels what you feel, I can’t imagine what that does to her. I’m more objective. At least let me try. Maybe I’ll cause her less pain.”
Nathan sighed, knowing his brother was probably right at least about him being too worked up. “I appreciate you trying to help, man, but this thing with Shea, it’s random. She told me she has no control over whom she can connect to.”
Joe slowly shook his head in disagreement. “She can speak to me. I’ve heard her in my mind. Back when we first met. I felt her and then I heard her. I thought at first that I was imagining it, but yeah, it was her.”
Nathan stared at his brother in confusion. “What?”
“She didn’t tell you?”
“No, she didn’t tell me. I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Joe held his hands up. “Whoa. It’s not like she was cheating on you with me or anything. She was afraid I’d be pissed because she could hear me and vice versa. It was the reason I asked to talk to her alone back at the house. So we could iron out a few things.”
Nathan gripped the back of his neck and glanced at his other brothers, who were attempting not to seem interested in the current conversation. Unsuccessfully, since everyone’s eyes were glued to the twins. “I had no idea. I mean how?”
Joe shrugged. “She thought maybe because you and I were twins and were so close. Who knows why? You said yourself it was random. She said as much too. But I told her if she ever needed anything to call for me. Maybe I can reach out to her instead. It’s worth a shot, right?”
Indecision rolled through Nathan. The last thing he wanted to do was make her suffer more, but he also needed to find out where the hell she was. Resnick was working on it. He had every available resource allocated to finding Shea. But damn it, things were moving way too slow for Nathan’s liking.
“Let him try, man,” Swanny said in a low voice. “We have to find her before it’s too late. We have no idea what those bastards are doing to her, and if it’s like you already said and she’s hanging on by just a thread, how much more can she take?”
Nathan glanced again at his brothers. Then at Steele and his team. Even Resnick and his team headed by the young Marine, Phillips. Everyone was tense. Ready to move at a moment’s notice. They were just waiting. Waiting for word, information, Shea’s location, so they could go in and kick ass.
It had been hours. While Resnick had gone to work pulling out every stop in his search for information, Nathan, Swanny, Joe and Steele’s team had scoured the streets of Charleston. They’d questioned people endlessly, until finally they’d hit pay dirt when an elderly man getting off a bus had mentioned seeing a young woman in extreme distress. He’d pointed them in the direction she’d gone, and from there, they canvassed a four-block radius until they’d found one witness who’d seen her getting into a black Toyota Avalon.
Resnick had pulled metro surveillance for that location, and sure enough, hours before, they saw a man forcing Shea into a vehicle. They’d even gotten a license plate number, which so far had yielded them exactly nothing.
“I don’t know, Joe. It’s…hard. You’ll feel what she feels. I don’t know how to prepare you for that.”
“Maybe not,” Joe argued. “You love her, man. You’re emotionally involved. What you feel for her and through her is magnified ten times. I like her, yeah, but I’m not in love with her. I don’t have the emotional connection to her that you have. Let me try at least. If I sense I’m causing her too much pain, I’ll break away immediately. That’s even assuming I can reach her. I don’t know how to do this shit.”
Nathan closed his eyes and breathed deep. Joe was right about one thing. They had to at least try. Whatever pain she endured leading them to her would be worth if it they could bring her safely home.
He’d failed to do the one thing he’d promised her. Keep her safe. It was an easy thing to promise. Something to make her feel safe. But they were just words, and he hadn’t been able to make that happen, even with the backing of KGI and his family.
Resnick was partially right. He, and his brothers, had no idea what they were dealing with. They were only just starting to understand, and they still didn’t have the entire picture.
Nathan put his hand on Joe’s shoulder and looked him in the eye. “Just focus on her. Think about her and remember what that pathway felt like. Then open your mind and call for her.”
Joe took a deep breath. “Okay then. I’m going to do it.”
Resnick stopped his pacing and moved in close to where Joe and Nathan stood with Swanny. Nathan’s lip curled in distaste, but Resnick was focused on Joe, watching as Joe drew in a deep breath and closed his eyes.
Around them, the others leaned forward, some taking steps to get closer to Joe. There was intense curiosity but also determination on everyone’s faces. Quiet descended until the only sound that could be heard was breathing.
Joe sucked in his breath and then exhaled long and slow. He purposely blanked his mind in preparation. He didn’t want any distractions. This was important. Nathan was suffering. Shea was suffering. If he could somehow get through to Shea, then he could help them both.
He closed his eyes, and the rest of the room fell away. His awareness of the others became dim as he focused solely on that pathway to Shea. When he was completely relaxed and felt the sensation of familiarity, he sent out a cautious inquiry.
Shea? Can you hear me? It’s Joe.
He kept it short, fearful of causing her unbearable pain. He waited, his breath held, his fingers curled into tight fists.
At first there was quiet and then he felt a slight stirring in his
mind. It was unlike anything he’d ever felt before. A burst of warmth, but with that warmth came a flood of terror, panic and clawing pain.
He flinched but held on to that pathway with every part of himself. Immediately he could see her surroundings. Felt what she felt. Experienced all she was experiencing.
She was being held in a long, plastic tube that opened from the top. Steel bands clamped around her wrists, ankles and neck. He could feel the horrible panic over the belief that she would choke.
Dear God. He didn’t even know what to do to try to make her feel better, to take away the awful fear that ate at her sanity.
She closed her eyes and everything went black. He could feel her battle to remain calm.
Open your eyes, Shea. Open them for me, sweetheart. Let me see what you see.
There were electrodes attached to her head. When she opened her eyes, he saw through them to the machines monitoring her brain activity. She was trying valiantly to keep her mind quiet, but one of the lines spiked too high and suddenly he was assaulted with an electrical shock that sent him to his knees.
He folded over, holding his stomach with his arms, and then he had to put one down to the floor to prevent himself from pitching forward.
“Oh my God,” he rasped out, each word laced with pain.
“What is it?” Nathan demanded. “Goddamn it, Joe, talk to me. What’s going on?”
Joe held up his hand to silence his brother. He couldn’t lose concentration now. Not now. He had to fix this. He had to find a way. He was so fucking furious that she was being treated like some kind of an animal that he wanted to kill someone.
He tried to soothe her, sending her waves of comfort and love, but it was hard when his mind screamed revenge and retribution. He forced the blackness away and brought to mind all the things that made him happy.