“That was two inches above my head, assholes!” Cade shouted.
“Are you pissed off because they missed by so much or because it was only two inches from your head?” I asked.
“Are you kidding me?” Saige screamed. “Who gives a shit? They’re shooting at us!”
“Of course they are,” I answered. “They’re trying to kill us.”
“Would you shut up, Drake?” Cade demanded.
“You’re about to run into oncoming traffic,” I told him.
The car swerved back to the left and I gripped the center console to prevent myself from rolling onto my injured leg again. Cade glanced in the backseat and I guessed just because we were all going to state the obvious now he said, “You’re bleeding pretty badly.”
“I got shot, dumbass,” I snapped.
“What happened to your superman ability to heal?”
“It’ll heal,” I assured him.
“Is the bullet still in there?”
“No, it went through,” I said. I lifted my head just enough to make sure he was staying in his lane. No one had fired at us in thirty seconds – thirty extremely long seconds that I somehow managed to count despite arguing with Cade and Saige and trying not to pass out from the pain of having been TASERed and shot.
“Glad this isn’t my car,” Cade added helpfully. “I’d be pissed if you were bleeding all over my seat.”
I groaned and closed my eyes. The lack of sleep was catching up to me.
“Still think Parker’s sacrificing men just to run an experiment?” Cade asked. I assumed he was asking Saige since I hadn’t admitted I’d begun to fear the same thing.
“Possibly,” she said, but her voice sounded weak.
I forced my eyes open so I could look her over and make sure she hadn’t been hurt. Some of the shattered glass had cut her arm, but otherwise, she seemed all right.
“I wouldn’t put it past him to throw his own guards to the wolf,” I said. “But not four SEALs. If the government found out he’d intentionally let them die just to run some diagnostics so he could make the next Drake even better, he’d be risking his own life.”
I had no idea who I was trying to convince: her or me.
Cade sat up and glanced in the backseat again. “Bleeding slow down yet?”
“Yeah,” I responded as I closed my eyes. Saige hadn’t even looked at me when I tried to reassure her I wasn’t going to turn on them. “And go figure: Parker’s pissed.”
I heard Cade snort before he asked, “What’s he saying?”
“I tricked him and he can’t let me live now.”
“How many dead bodies did it take for him to figure that out?” Cade mumbled.
I thought that was probably another rhetorical question, but I answered him anyway. “Seventeen.”
Saige sucked in a quick, hissing breath, but I kept my eyes closed. Even if I’d wanted to open them again, I’m not sure I could have.
Cade drove quietly for a few more minutes before saying, “That tall guy you grabbed first… that was Blaine Edwards.”
“I know,” I said softly.
We didn’t speak again.
I opened my eyes and grimaced at the sharp pain in my forehead. The car rolled to a stop and I groaned. “Where are we?”
“Back in Virginia,” Cade responded.
I rubbed a hand over my groggy eyes and blinked at the empty floorboard in front of me.
“Saige?” My voice sounded edgy and panicked.
“She’s up here,” Cade said.
I pushed myself up and looked in the front seat, where she sat staring out the glassless windshield. I gently touched the bloody hole in my jeans and moved the torn fabric away so I could see my leg. So much dried blood covered the skin that I couldn’t see if the bullet wound had completely closed yet, or if I would reopen a scab as soon as I tried to walk on it.
Cade shifted into park and twisted around in his seat. “You ok to put weight on it?”
“If I have to.”
“Well, I sure as hell can’t carry you.”
“Are we going on foot?”
He shook his head and pointed outside. I had to sit up all the way so I could see what he was gesturing toward. We were surrounded by tall pine trees, and ahead of us, a small wooden cabin stood dark and empty.
“Um... if I hear a banjo playing, I’m ditching you out here,” I warned.
Cade nodded. “Sounds fair. I’d totally ditch you as well.”
“Some bond,” Saige muttered.
“Even the bond among brothers in arms has its limits,” Cade responded solemnly.
“I don’t have that bond anyway,” I added. “Everyone except Cade always hated me.”
“Why?” Saige asked.
“Why are we still sitting in the car?” Cade interrupted. “Let’s break into this hunting cabin before an entire army shows up.”
“If the entire Army shows up, it doesn’t matter if we’re in the car or the cabin,” I pointed out.
“Shut up, Drake,” Cade sighed.
His door creaked as he pushed it open and the shards of glass from the shattered windshield that had been trapped between the driver’s seat and door clinked together as they fell to the ground. Saige hesitated then opened her door to follow him. I still wanted to know how Cade had found this camp and to whom it belonged, but they were both heading toward the cabin without me.
I groaned and forced myself out of the car. My entire body ached and protested against each movement. I trudged through the pine needles that covered the forest floor while Cade broke the lock on the door to the cabin. He stood in the doorway giving me an impatient look, like he thought I was just moving slowly to piss him off.
So I flipped him off and reminded him he was an asshole.
He nodded and told me to hurry up.
“Whose cabin is this?” I asked as I reached the door.
“It belonged to Edwards. I don’t think he’ll be needing it,” Cade answered. I stepped inside and he slammed the door closed behind me then gestured toward a table in the corner. “Help me push this against the door to keep people out.”
I groaned again but helped him move the table.
“They’ll just get in through the windows,” I pointed out.
“Then we’ll shoot them, dumbass,” he retorted.
“We could shoot them if they opened the door,” I argued even though we were already moving the table. Its legs screeched along the floor and the noise, combined with the constant static in my mind, made my head feel like it was going to explode. Saige waited quietly by the only other piece of furniture in the small cabin – a sofa in the center of the room.
Cade straightened and shook his head at me. “I just signed my death sentence when your girlfriend showed up at my door asking for help. Can you be a little less of a pain in the ass for once?”
I didn’t bother pointing out she wasn’t my girlfriend anymore. I shrugged and told him, “You’ve known me for five years. I don’t think it’s possible for me not to be a pain in the ass.”
“True,” he acknowledged.
Saige grunted at us and forced me to look in her direction. “You got shot, Drake. Don’t you think you should get off your leg and check on the bullet wound?”
“I don’t think my leg is the most painful part of my body right now,” I admitted.
“Is there running water here?” she asked Cade. “Get him a wet cloth so he can clean his leg and we should find something to wrap it in.”
“Don’t need to,” I told her. “I think scar tissue has already formed over the entry and exit points.”
She crossed her arms defiantly and said, “That’s not possible. Sit.”
I sat even though I knew I was right. Cade brought me a wet washcloth from the bathroom, the only other room in this hunting camp. I unbuckled my jeans to push them off, and Cade mumbled something about wishing he’d never answered his phone.
Saige watched me, and I pretended not to notice. I coul
dn’t get my hopes up that her concern about my leg meant that she still cared about me, even if she did think I was a monster no better than Frankenstein himself. I wiped the dried blood from my leg, and when only the smooth pink scar remained, I finally glanced up at her.
She’d seen my arm. She must have known I healed far faster than ordinary humans, but her wide eyes assured me she hadn’t believed I could possibly recover from a gunshot wound that quickly.
“How?” she whispered.
I wondered if she were asking herself or me. I decided to answer her anyway. “I don’t know. Parker never explained what he did that allowed me to heal so much faster than other people. But I’ve never been sick either.”
She wouldn’t meet my eyes again. “Maybe it’s because you’re not real.”
Her comment stung and hurt far worse than being shot. Far worse than being connected to Parker’s computer even. I concentrated on the rag in my hand and wiping the crusty blood from the back of my leg.
It was Cade who responded. “Not real? Then what the hell do you think he is? You saw him get shot and bleed all over the backseat. How much more real do you expect?”
I didn’t look up but I could tell she shrugged in response. “He told me himself he’s not human. He was created in some lab.”
“Out of human DNA,” Cade argued, his voice rising in his anger, but I had no idea why he was suddenly so angry with Saige.
“That doesn’t make him human!” Saige yelled.
“He’s risked his life for you!” Cade yelled back. “How can you be such a heartless bitch?”
“Hey!” I shouted. “Don’t call her that again.”
Cade didn’t even look at me. He continued to glare at Saige. “Don’t worry. I’ve got nothing else to say to her.”
He turned around and stormed into the bathroom, slamming the door so hard the walls shook from the impact.
I lowered my eyes again and mumbled, “Sorry.”
When she didn’t respond, I risked peeking up at her. She was staring at the door to the cabin, tears streaming down her cheeks. I wanted to kick Cade’s ass for speaking to her like that and making her cry, but he was the only friend I had, and he’d risked his life for me. I couldn’t lose him as well as Saige.
I dropped the washcloth on the floor and pulled my jeans back up even though one leg of them was covered in dried blood. “Saige,” I said softly, “he shouldn’t have spoken to you like that. It’s not true. He gave up everything to help us, and he’s just upset.”
“You’re right. He did,” she agreed. “I don’t blame him for calling me a heartless bitch.”
“You’re not,” I assured her. “I ruined your life. I might have cost you your life. You should both be yelling at me and calling me names.”
Saige looked at me and wiped her cheeks hastily. “Well, clearly, I’m not allowed to.”
“I’ll talk to him,” I promised, but Saige shook her head and stopped me.
“Don’t bother.”
I clasped my hands in my lap and studied the smooth unblemished skin, the tendons and green-blue veins beneath the pale surface. They looked so normal. So real and lifelike and ordinary. “If I thought it would make you safer, I’d die so they couldn’t track me anymore. But I’m not convinced Parker really intends to kill me now. I think I’m still alive because he hasn’t been able to replicate another experiment like me. I’m it. I’m the only one. And he wants me back so badly because he needs to figure out what’s so unique about me that allowed me to survive.”
“Then what’s your plan, Drake? I know you and Cade want to destroy this place and kill Parker but how? There are only two of you and our government apparently wants you so badly, they’re prepared to sacrifice any number of regular soldiers to get you.”
I nodded at my hands. “Destroying the Project is only the first step. It’ll shut off the command center and once they can’t track me, we’ll have a better chance of disappearing and hiding out for a while.”
“And what makes you think they don’t have a backup command center? It would be foolish not to.”
“It would be,” I agreed. “But if one exists, we have no idea where it is.”
“So it’s hopeless,” Saige said. “We might as well stay here and let them go all Ruby Ridge on us.”
“I don’t think the FBI is coming after us,” I responded then groaned internally at my stupidity. Why would I even say something like that?
“Drake,” Saige sighed. “Don’t be so literal. I’m seriously not in the mood considering I just found out the man I’m in love with was genetically engineered by some secret government-financed lab, and now they want me dead because they apparently think I’m going to run off telling everyone they built a modern-day Frankenstein.”
I would have cringed at hearing her call me a modern-day Frankenstein, even though it hadn’t bothered me at all when Phillips had called me the exact same thing, but I was too hung up on the use of her present-tense verb. She’d said The man I’m in love with, not The man I was in love with.
I tried to tell myself she couldn’t possibly still love me, but my mouth uttered the words before I could stop myself. “Do you still love me?” I asked, hearing the hope and pain in my voice. And I wanted to kick myself for asking, but I couldn’t take it back now.
Saige blinked at me then looked away again. “Don’t do this, Drake. Don’t pretend I can overlook what you’ve done.”
“I’m not,” I assured her. “Believe me: I can never forgive myself for putting you in so much danger.”
Saige nodded but kept her eyes on the closed, barricaded door.
Cade must have decided to stop pouting in the bathroom because he stomped back into the room and flung himself on the other end of the sofa. “Think they’re out there yet?” he asked me.
“Probably.”
“Should we try to draw them out?”
“You haven’t slept in a while,” I pointed out.
Cade waved me off. “I’ve gone longer stretches without sleep. You know that.”
“True,” I said, “but never with an entire army trying to kill us.”
“Like I said. I don’t think the Army is out there.”
“Asshole,” I reminded him.
Cade smiled and shrugged. “Too bad it’s not the Army. We’d stand a better shot of living.”
“This is how you ended up in a fight against three Special Forces guys,” I teased.
“Yeah, and I kicked their asses, too.”
“No, you didn’t. I had to step in to keep you from getting your ass kicked.”
“You helped,” Cade argued. “So basically, we were still outnumbered and we still won.”
I shook my head at him. “We didn’t win anything. I just kept you out of the hospital.”
“That’s winning, Drake.”
“Would you two shut up?” Saige demanded.
Cade scowled at her, but I answered for us before he could upset her again. “Sorry,” I apologized. “I guess it seems we should be strategizing or something, but there’s not much we can do right now.”
“So we came to the middle of nowhere to die,” Saige shot back.
I glanced at Cade because it sure as hell seemed that way.
“They’ll find us no matter where we go,” Cade snapped. “We can’t give him a lobotomy to remove the microchips in his brain so what difference does it make where we are?”
“If that’s the case,” I interjected, “why didn’t we go somewhere nicer? Spend our last night alive in a five-star hotel or something. I could go for a beer and room service.”
“You don’t drink,” Cade said.
“I’m thinking it’s time to start,” I responded.
Cade nodded seriously. “We wouldn’t be starting with beer either. Not after the past two days.”
“I’m sore and exhausted and not in the mood to bail your sorry ass out of more fights,” I said. “You wouldn’t be touching whiskey.”
“What the hell
is your problem?” Saige shouted. “We can’t keep counting on this Parker guy to want Drake back so much that he’ll let us escape indefinitely! They shot at us last time, Drake got hit, and we’re going to die! And you’re sitting there talking about drinking!”
“You have to admit,” I said. “You could use a drink right now, too.”
“Dude,” Cade said, “don’t deliberately piss off a woman who’s already pissed off. That never ends well.”
“I’m out of ideas though,” I told him. “I fell asleep in the back of the car and woke up here. And this was your idea, so it’s up to you to get us out of here, figure out how we can blow the shit out of the Project’s headquarters, and keep us alive.”
“You can’t be out ideas. You’re the one with the computer in your head,” Cade argued.
“Not an entire computer. Just the microchips. And the only thing they’re doing right now is annoying the hell out of me with the exact same message repeating over and over again.”
Saige groaned and planted her hands on her hips. “Then here’s an idea, since apparently, two highly trained SEALs can’t do anything more productive than sitting there arguing and wishing you could get drunk.”
“Technically,” I interrupted and immediately wished I knew how to keep my mouth shut, “I’m not highly trained. I just had all this knowledge programmed into my head.”
“Shut up, Drake,” she sighed.
I pressed my lips together and shut up.
“You need to figure out what you’ll need to blow up this building,” she continued. “And then where we can get it. Once you have that much to go on, we’ll worry about getting out of these woods.”
I kept my lips firmly closed because the only response I could think of was another smartass comment about getting out of the woods first so we could rob a liquor store in the hopes we’d have better ideas drunk.
But, fortunately, Cade wasn’t as inept as I’d suddenly become. “I don’t work with explosives. I think the only thing we can do is break into The Genesis Project and destroy every computer there until we find the one that makes the noise in his head stop.”
“And how will we destroy them?” Saige asked.
Genesis Rising (The Genesis Project Book 1) Page 11