“It’s too dangerous, Victor.”
“Annette.” He met her gaze and held it for a moment. “How long do you think you’ll have this facility to yourself for? There’s a very good chance that Eli already knows that we’re here. Do you want to leave whatever is here to be discovered here for him?”
Annette sighed and shook her head.
“Fine,” she said. “But be careful.”
Back in the office, Victor slipped his fingertips into the handle. He looked up at Annette and then focused his attention down at the hatch as he began to bind his scarlet aura.
“Voice recognition activated.” A monotone, computerized message played from a speaker somewhere within the hatch, apparently activated by Victor’s touch.
“Say your father’s name!” hissed Annette. Victor raised an eyebrow at her, but did as suggested.
“John Anders,” he said. Something clicked from within the hatch, and the mechanism swung open, powered by hydraulic hinges that allowed it to push upward on its own.
Annette pulled him into a tight hug and let out an excited squeal. She slipped around Victor and started down the ladder before he had time react. Victor waited for her to reach the bottom, and then followed after her.
Motion sensor lights flicked on automatically as the two of them stepped forward into a space about the same size as the office above. The room was a mess of jumbled wires, circuitry, and monitors, all of which connected to a large platform in the center that vaguely resembled an operating table.
“Uh…” Victor scratched his head. “This wasn’t really what I was expecting.”
“It’s a neural connection interface,” said Annette. “It looks almost as though your father continued working on it after the facility was abandoned, trying to build it from the team’s leftover blueprints.”
She walked around to the other side of the table and ran her hands across two circuitry helmets positioned near the top of the platform.
“So, two people can connect their brains to each other with this?” asked Victor.
Annette was staring at the machine, thoughts and calculations running behind her eyes.
“Victor…” She turned and gave him a serious look. “This could help your friend.”
“What?”
“The one in the coma,” said Annette. “Yes… I’m sure of it. We might need to do some minor repairs to it, but we could use this to-“
“Are you being serious with me right now, Annette?” Anger, of all emotions, flared up in Victor’s chest. It was followed immediately by hope, which was, in its own way, even harder to deal with.
“Yes,” said Annette. “Assuming you could get her here.”
Heavy footsteps approached the ladder hatch above them, and Annette’s guard’s face appeared, staring down at them.
“Ms. Lockwood!” he said, in a worried voice. “The woman from before, the one from Monteiro, is outside.”
“What does she want?” asked Annette.
“She hasn’t said anything.”
Annette looked at Victor.
“It’s now or never, Victor,” she said. “You have to choose. If she gets inside this place, I can’t do anything for you.”
Victor met her expression with grave determination.
“I’ll take care of it,” he said.
CHAPTER 16
Jade was standing a few hundred feet away from the entrance of the facility. She was unnaturally still, as though she was a wax statue, perfectly contoured and painted with all the details in place.
Victor didn’t smile as he walked over to her, and stopped at what would have made the perfect distance for a wild west standoff. He raised a hand and nodded his head slightly in greeting. Jade said and did nothing.
“You took a risk exposing yourself here,” he said. “And before, outside the limo.”
Jade stared at him. Victor waited an appropriate amount of time, in case she finally decided to voice a response, and then continued.
“Look, I’m doing my job,” he said. “Eli sent me to work for Annette and keep an eye on her. It’s impossible for me to do that effectively if you’re out here, scaring the shit out of her.”
Jade said nothing.
“We want her to find something!” said Victor. “And when she does, I’ll take the information back to Eli.”
Jade took a step forward, and the movement was so unexpected that Victor flinched back a little. She started walking toward the entrance of the facility.
“Jade!” Victor shouted. “Listen to me, dammit! You can’t!”
She moved to pass by him, and Victor instinctively reached out and grabbed her shoulder. No sooner than his fingers had made contact was Jade in motion, grabbing his arm and flipping him neatly over her shoulder.
Victor almost landed on his feet, the momentum reminding him a little of his crash landings. Unfortunately, one of his ankles rolled underneath him, and he painfully skidded to all fours.
Jade was already turning away from him, turning back toward the door. Victor bound his diamond aura and threw himself at her in a flying, superhuman tackle.
She tried to leverage his momentum again, but he had too much of it this time. Victor kept a hand on her shoulder and both of them spiraled to the ground. Jade was quick to recover, but this was exactly what Victor had planned the attack around.
He climbed on top of her as she was getting to her feet, placed his hand on her chest, and flared his scarlet aura, pumping as much arousal into her as possibly could, in a single go.
Two can play at this game.
For the first time that Victor had seen, emotion flickered over Jade’s face. She looked surprised, and then angry, and then frustrated, and then sexually frustrated. Her legs wrapped around Victor’s waist in an attempt to either gain leverage or grind herself against him.
Her hand swung up to bind her own aura to him, but Victor pinned it at the wrist. He leaned forward across her, using his chest to hold her down and letting his breath tickle the nape of her neck. A shiver ran through Jade’s body, and Victor knew exactly what it was that she wanted.
“Go back to Undercliff City,” he whispered. “Tell Eli that I can’t do the job he gave me with you getting in the way.”
Jade struggled slightly, trying to use her substantial strength to turn the tables back against Victor. He responded by kissing her full on the mouth and grinding himself between her thighs. Jade shuddered and lost a bit of her will to fight.
“Do it, Jade,” said Victor. “If you’re a good girl, we can talk some more very, very soon. Well, I’ll talk.” He kissed her neck. “And you’ll listen.”
Jade was subdued enough for Victor to release her wrist. He moved it into the waistband of her tight leather pants. Jade practically writhed underneath his touch. Victor let his hand slide down to her dripping pussy. He carefully traced a finger over her sensitive clit, gently rubbing and massaging, while Jade shivered and fluttered. He pressed a little harder on it, and her entire body shook with a powerful orgasm.
Victor stood up, wiped his hand off, and nodded to her.
“Go,” he said.
The look Jade gave him was an even mix of lust and hate. She turned away from him sharply, took a few long running steps, and lifted off into the air, bound for Undercliff City. Victor watched her until she’d moved over the horizon and then made his way back into the facility.
Annette was waiting in the office, having a hushed conversation with her bodyguard. She waved the man away when she saw Victor.
“What happened?” she asked.
“Eli will know about this place before nightfall,” said Victor. “Jade isn’t stupid. She knows that there is something here that we don’t want them to find.”
Annette nodded thoughtfully.
“I can have the machine up and working again by midnight, possibly sooner,” she said. “That’s the earliest that Eli could move against this place. Jade can’t carry him and a strike force on her back.”
Victo
r closed his eyes and ran a hand through his hair.
“I don’t even know how I’d break her out of Monteiro Tower,” he said.
“You’ll need help,” said Annette. “But it’s doable. You’ll have to be the distraction for it to work.”
It’s still a gamble, with Kiara’s life on the line.
Victor didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds. Finally, he nodded, and turned toward the door.
“Make sure it’s fixed by then, Annette,” he said. “I will make sure Kiara gets here safely.”
CHAPTER 17
As expedited and efficient as flying was, it also took an enormous toll on the body. Victor spent most of the trip cursing himself out for not thinking to bring extra clothes along to make the cold durable. He made good time, however. Extremely good time.
The sensation was incredible. Victor had flown around Undercliff City often enough, but that was never intended to be a test of his speed. On this flight, he could feel the wind, and feel himself becoming part of it. He saw flocks of birds meandering through the air, the nomads of the sky. He even saw a few planes, and had to resist the temptation of flying up alongside them, and knocking on their windows.
The trip out to Maxworthy had essentially taken the entire day. The flat tire had slowed them down, but even without it, it would have been at least a five hour trip. Victor made it back to Undercliff City in less than half of that. He only began to slow down in the last few seconds, and because of that, he had to do not one, but two, passes over Lucy’s apartment complex before burning off enough speed to attempt a landing.
A hop, skip, and a trip later, Victor pulled himself up off the ground and made his way up the stairs to Lucy’s door. He knocked on it and waited, taking a second to admire the sun setting over the cliffs to the west.
Lucy opened the door and started slightly when she saw him. She still had on her work clothes, her black tube skirt and professional white blouse.
“Victor,” she said. “What are you-“
“We can save Kiara, Lucy,” he said. “I’ve found a way.”
They headed inside, and Victor spent the next few minutes explaining the facility to her on the couch. Lucy listened with rapt attention, and by the time he’d gotten to the end, she already had her phone out.
“We’ll need Kronenberg’s help,” she said. “I can also call in a few favors with the staff in the infirmary, and with Piper, too.”
“You think they’ll help us?” asked Victor.
“Most likely,” said Lucy. “Even them looking the other way for a few minutes, or taking a strategically timed smoke break would help.”
Victor took a deep breath. She called number after number, confidentially explaining the situation through the use of inference and code words that Victor didn’t recognize to thwart anyone that might have been tapping the line.
She’s been prepared for this. Lucy has been thinking about getting Kiara out since the very beginning.
Finally, she called Kronenberg. When he answered, she switched her phone to speaker mode and set it down between her and Victor on the couch.
“Kronenberg,” she said. “It’s Lucy.”
“Hey Lucy,” he said. “I wasn’t expecting a call from you.”
“You were expecting this one,” she said. “And you have been for a long time.”
There was a pause on the other end of the line. Victor opened his mouth to say something but Lucy put a hand on his chest and shook her head.
“Alright,” said Kronenberg. “I’ll be meeting you for an early dinner, then?”
“Exactly,” said Lucy. “The earliest the restaurant staff can be ready is a quarter past seven.”
“Right,” said Kronenberg. “I’ll be there. Of course I’ll be there.”
“Thank you.” Lucy hung up the phone and slipped it into her pocket.
“Why did you put that on speaker if you didn’t want me to say anything?” asked Victor.
“I just want you to understand that we’ve been preparing for this,” she said. “You’ll have to be the distraction for this plan to work. But we can handle getting her out of there, and it’s important that you stick to your part.”
“I’m nothing if not a team player,” said Victor, with a smile. Lucy punched him on the arm jokingly.
“We have about an hour before you should report back into Eli,” she said.
“Yeah,” said Victor. “I guess we do.”
There was a momentary silence between them in which their eyes did all the talking. Victor took a slow breath as the familiar forbidden tension settled over the room.
“Victor…” whispered Lucy. She shifted on the couch slightly, and with that, he was on top of her, pushing his lip against hers and sliding open her thighs.
Lucy kissed him back with just as much passion. It was as though they were two magnets snapping together, the stress and circumstances of the situation having brought them close enough for it to happen.
Victor’s eyes met hers, and he saw a tiny hint of guilt that he knew must have been reflected in his own expression. They were saving Kiara tonight, but they were also, in a way, betraying her. But they couldn’t stop. Not if they wanted to, and not if they tried. Temptation has its own event horizon, and just by being in the same room together, Victor and Lucy had stepped over it.
He fumbled with the buttons on her blouse, while Lucy simultaneously pulled his jacket off his shoulders. She was wearing a black lace bra underneath, and Victor buried his face in between her breasts, kissing her upper chest and collar bone.
Lucy ran her hands across his back as he unzipped his jeans and pulled them off. IT was an uncoordinated mess of lust and arousal. The two of them were rushing to get started, as though the longer they took to get naked, the more likely it would be for them to think about what they were doing and pull back.
She was his dad’s former assistant and former lover. And as Victor pulled his boxers down, letting his cock snap into view, Lucy slowly wiggled out of her panties.
He was all but dating Lucy’s younger sister, the two of them having gone through experiences together that forged intimacy out of fear and struggle. And now here he was kissing the older of the two Wilson sisters with horny, aggressive determination.
Lucy kept her skirt on, and Victor’s cock missed its target on its first attempt, nestling under the fabric of the skirt like a snake in the grass. He pulled Lucy close to him again and unclasped her bra, letting her large, beautiful breasts bounce loose.
“What are we doing, Victor?” whispered Lucy. Her eyes were misty. She’d been thinking, and she knew what they were doing was wrong.
“Lucy…” Victor’s cock ached.
I have to have her.
He kissed her, and felt her lips responding less than they had before. Lucy leaned her forehead against his and then shook her head slightly.
“What about Kiara?” whispered Lucy. “And our history… it’s like you’re almost family, Victor.”
He shifted against her, letting his cock slide across her hot cunt, her pussy lips slippery with excitement. The head of his cock pushed in ever so slightly, hovering at her entrance. It took all of Victor’s willpower to keep it from going any further.
“We don’t have to do anything, Lucy,” he said, forcing the words out.
“I just don’t want us to…” She bit her lip and moved slightly, sliding a bit more of Victor’s cock into her cunt. “To complicate things needlessly.”
“It doesn’t have to be complicated,” whispered Victor. “Just for tonight… we could…”
He slid his cock in a little deeper and felt an illicit shiver run through Lucy’s body.
“It’s wouldn’t just be tonight,” said Lucy. “It would always be there. When Kiara wakes up, the two of you would be back to being close. But the temptation between us would always be there.”
Lucy rested her hands against the back of Victor’s waist. She moved as though to push him off her, but at the last second, p
ulled him in a little closer. The result escalated the encounter, rather than defusing it.
“Lucy,” said Victor. “We’re both right here, right now.”
She bit her lip. Victor locked eyes into her and slowly sheathed his cock into her cunt, as though trying to force her decision. Lucy’s legs wrapped around him.
“God,” she whispered. “You feel so good.”
“We could just stay like this,” he said. “And not take it any further.”
Even as he spoke, Victor’s hips were moving, grinding into her, winning pleasure for his cock. It was Lucy, his mentor, his boss, his fantasy. And she felt incredible.
His scarlet aura flared before he even realized what was happening, binding itself to Lucy and multiplying her arousal by tenfold. Victor pulled back, terrified by what he’d just done.
“Lucy!” he said. “Lucy, I didn’t mean to!”
“Wha-” Lucy was shivering with pleasure, with need. “What did you just do?”
“It was an accident,” he said. “I flared your emotions. Look, I didn’t mean to. We’ll-“
She grabbed him and pulled him back on top of her. Victor felt his cock slip back underneath her skirt.
“You bastard!” she shouted. “Oh god, Victor, you bastard!”
“Lucy!” He shook his head. “It wasn’t intentional!”
“You have to!” She locked eyes with him and bit her lip. “You have to do it, now. I can’t handle it. I… I need it!”
Victor frowned.
This is a mess.
He tried to pull back again, the roles now reversed. Lucy locked him in a leg grip and pulled his face down to her breasts.
“Please,” she said. “Victor. We’ll talk about this later, and work everything out. But right now…”
She trailed off and let her eyes carry the message of her horniness and need. Victor found the entrance to her cunt and pushed inside of it. Lucy’s body practically thrashed with delight, and she almost fell off the couch.
“Lucy,” whispered Victor. “I’m so sorry.”
She wasn’t Annette, or Jade, or any of the random swathe of women he’d been forced to use his scarlet aura on. She was Lucy, his friend, his mentor. Someone that had his good intentions in mind. Someone who he loved, and had made love to honestly before. Not someone for him to play with the emotions of, to use as a hold for his cock.
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