“I don’t think she asked for your credentials.” Geoff stood. “Point is he’s really good at this stuff. He’s on the team now perfecting the memory recall machine.”
My pulse accelerated and the equipment dinged loudly. “I don’t want it returned.” I couldn’t find the right words to convey how deep my conviction was on the subject. “Please. You did me a great service making it in the first place. I can have a chance now. The baby can, too. I can’t go back to being a w—” I cut myself off. Whore was such a trigger for Geoff. “Slut again.”
“Not a better choice.” Geoff groaned. “Do we have to do definitions again?”
“It’s like she shot me when she said that.” Dane cleared his throat. “You spit out the dogma perfectly. I’m glad to see the training worked so well. Indoctrination and compulsion are beautiful psychological tricks and the Nobles paid a lot of money to get the best to design them, down to the trick with the chair in the room. Did it lean or remain or on four legs? There has been so much debate.”
My temple throbbed. “I don’t understand.”
“No, of course you don’t. Listen, we don’t have all the answers about repairing the damage. Sometimes we can’t. Some women respond to the treatment, some don’t. I can’t tell you if we can make you remember. There are all kinds of variations. You could get some memory or none at all. We won’t know until we get to The Bridge and find out. What happened to you on the shuttle was Geoff, without meaning to, broke protocol. The little bit we do understand is its best not to let the sufferer know too much about their life beforehand. It triggers the conditioned response to fight the pain. You don’t want those memories. It hurt losing them. It’s a festering wound your mind doesn’t want aggravated.” The computer flashed and Dane walked over to it. “And of course you’ll have a choice. If you don’t want them, we won’t give them to you.”
“What?” Geoff shouted. “Don’t tell her that.”
“Everyone gets a choice. By the time we get to The Bridge, if she doesn’t want the procedure, she doesn’t have to get it.” Dane’s eyes narrowed as he swung around, then stalked across the medical bay to face off with Geoff. “There is such a thing as free will.”
“They took her free will. This is resetting it the way it was.”
Dane threw his hands in the air. “Protocol. Or do you want to almost kill her again?”
“What’s going on here?” Nolan strode into the room, shoving himself between Dane and Geoff with nothing more than the force of his question. He was huge and for a second I couldn’t breathe. The two men separated, Dane returning to me while Geoff retreated to his chair.
“He told her she didn’t have to have her mind fixed.”
“Nolan, you’re going to want to catch Geoff before he falls over.”
“Wha…” Geoff never got to finish his question. Geoff collapsed and Nolan grabbed him before he hit the floor. A second later, my kidnapper snored like he’d been unconscious for hours. I shifted in my seat. Well, I hadn’t seen Geoff passing out coming. At least now I knew what the white powder did. It wasn’t currently very helpful, but who knew when I’d have to knock someone out?
Nolan whistled through his clenched teeth. “How much did you give him?”
“Enough to knock out an elephant. He’ll sleep twenty hours, maybe more. His vitals were reading like he hadn’t gotten more than an hour of rest a night for the last eight weeks. He also annoyed me.” Dane took a deep breath, his chest expanding. “Melissa, this is Nolan.”
“We’ve already been introduced.” Nolan didn’t look at me when he spoke. Instead, he swung Geoff over his shoulder. “I’ll be back after I deposit him. Wish I had known you were going to do this. We have a mission. Now I have to figure out how to do it without Geoff.”
Nolan left as fast as he’d entered. Dane shrugged, his eyes amused when he looked at me. “You’d think they’d all know by now not to take drinks from me.”
Chapter 5
Smart Bombs and Pink Lace
DANE studied the monitor, running his fingers through his hair. I suspected it was a nervous tic. He’d done it several times since I’d woken. His blond locks looked soft, and I had to keep my fingers where they were to stop from touching him. Geoff’s fingernails. Dane’s hair. I must have a real thing for tactile experiences. As he moved, I caught a whiff of his scent. I didn’t know what the aroma was but it reminded me of coffee. I could close my eyes and drift away in the warmth of it.
Only I didn’t because I couldn’t let myself fall under the spell of my captors.
“I don’t suppose you’re going to let me out of here?”
He shook his head. “Nope.”
Someone had to see things my way. If I bided my time, I’d get out. End of story. I’d keep my faith I travelled the right path.
“Huh.”
His mutter caught my attention. “Something wrong?”
“Probably not.” He shook his head. “Lay on that table, will you? I need to see if we have a little glitch in our system. I’m getting an unusual reading. I want to take a deeper look.”
“Is it the baby?” Utter terror filled my soul. I’d do anything for the life inside me. Even claw my way off this ship if I had to. “Did my episode hurt him?”
Dane met my gaze and placed a hand on my shoulder. “Amazing, the mother baby bond. He’s not even here yet and you’re ready to jump out of your skin to save him. I haven’t looked at your baby yet. The computer tells me your bloodwork is fine for a third trimester pregnancy. That tells me most likely your baby is fine. We’ll look at him in a minute. For now, I just need to take one more look at you. I’m good at this. Trust me, will you?”
I wanted to, but what he asked wasn’t easy for me. “I’m here against my will. You could be the greatest doctor ever and I’m going to have a hard time believing you mean me well.”
“Melissa.” He brushed the hair off my forehead. “There are five guys on this ship and every one of us would die for you. Let’s hope no one has to. You’re safe with me, both on and off my table.”
“I…” What was I to do with his declaration? Why would they die for me? My head hurt again and Dane’s machine beeped loudly.
“Easy now.” He entered a code and the plastic pressed outwards to cover me again. “This time we’ll leave your head out, shall we? Not a full circle around.”
Dane thought the machine caused my upset? “It really didn’t bother me the first time. Not a big deal. Guess I’m not claustrophobic.”
“Really? Amazing what the human brain does.” He glanced away from me, typing on a pad on the edge of the table. “Like, for example, Geoff told me you got space sick on the shuttle.”
“Why is that interesting?” I liked watching his mouth work. His lips were full, his face expressive, although the way his gaze met mine and then pulled off so frequently, I wondered if his mind was always slightly somewhere else, doing a million things.
He exhaled loudly. “Protocol. I can’t get mad at Geoff if I’m getting stupid about it, too. Let’s change the subject. Is the temperature in here okay for you?”
“You’re brilliant, aren’t you?” I don’t know why I said my thoughts aloud without filtering them first. Maybe it came from the protocol statement. I’d hit too close to something they couldn’t tell me. I had to say something to move on because the current subject made me want to throw things and alternatively cry. My body, my emotions—they were all over the place.
He lifted his blue-eyed gaze. “It doesn’t help anything. When it comes down to it, I’m pretty useless.”
“You just told me you’d keep me safe. Sounds like the opposite of useless to me.” I would have taken his hand, this man who wouldn’t let me leave, because he needed someone to reassure him. Except the plastic bubble around my center made it impossible.
Dane opened and closed his mouth a couple of times. “You’re kind, aren’t you?” He said the words as though he couldn’t quite believe them. Or maybe the crinkle in his f
orehead made me feel that way. I didn’t know for sure.
“I don’t really know what I am, for obvious reasons.”
“A return to the first product…that had been the idea.” His voice trailed off and I didn’t understand what he was saying anyway. The machine beeped. I was glad he could decipher what the various noises meant because they all sounded the same to me. “Let’s see, now.”
A picture appeared on the ceiling above my head and Dane leaned to look at it. I wasn’t sure at first what I saw. It took a few seconds for the blurry image to come into focus. And then I saw my heart beating steadily, displayed on the screen.
“Is it beating okay?”
Dane rubbed at his eyes. “Looks to be. Nice and strong.” He typed on the screen in front of him and the image of my heart moved around in a various directions. “I just want to see it from various angles.”
“Should I be concerned?”
He waggled his eyebrows. “Nope. I’m good with hearts. And I’m really thinking we had a glitch. Oh.” His hand stopped moving. “What the fuck?”
Those were words I never wanted to hear any doctor say. I reared up and hit the plastic. “What?”
“Lie down.” His words were nothing short of an order and I did as he said. He claimed to be good at hearts. That’s what he’d said. Whatever was wrong…he’d fix it. The baby would be fine. He wouldn’t suffer because something had gone wrong with me.
“Dane.”
He shook his head and narrowed his eyes. A second later, he pounded on the side of the machine once like whatever he saw there offended him. “I’m sorry. I’m scaring you. I…I’m surprised. There’s something in you. Attached to your heart. A piece of machinery.” He pointed upward while he hit a button and the small black dot on my heart grew larger. “I don’t know what it is. Maybe the Nobles designed some new kind of medical tech I’m not familiar with. We’re going to figure it out. Right now. Whatever it is, if it’s helping you, we’ll leave it alone. If it’s not, I’ll take it out. Don’t be afraid. Nothing is wrong.”
“Except you just told me I have some machine in my heart. I’d say that qualifies as a problem,” I shouted. I didn’t need to be pacified or treated like an idiot.
Dane hit his wrist. “Wes, I need you.”
A second passed before a voice answered. “I told you, I can’t do this. Not yet.”
“I wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t imperative. Get in here, now.” He hit his wrist and then typed on the keyboard again. “I’m sorry. This is awful. I never let my patients become afraid. Wes will come. He’ll know what we’re dealing with, and we’ll have some answers. Did I ever tell you about the first time I delivered a baby?”
Tears leaked from my eyes. I couldn’t keep them in. There was something attached to my heart. I was stuck on a ship with a bunch of crazy people, and I couldn’t even get answers because to do so might destroy my brain. Nothing had changed. I’d exchanged one cell for another, one captivity for another, and I remained as helpless as I’d been the first time I’d woken and not known my own name.
“How would I know about the first time you delivered a baby?” I spoke between sobs.
He pinched his nose. “You’re crying.”
“Thanks for the obvious statement, Doctor.” I turned my face away from him. What had I done in my previous life to deserve everything going wrong? I’d probably had more than one lover. I’d been with the rebels—I insisted on thinking of them as such; screw the whole Nomads thing—and I’d probably hurt a lot of people. Was this punishment? Of course it was. Had someone decided the only way I could pay for my crimes was to die?
“Melissa.” Dane approached me, then with gentle fingers turned my chin so I faced him. I didn’t want to but, once again with nothing to do but comply, I let him look at the tears as they poured down my face. “I’m sorry. I’ve bumbled all of this. I haven’t seen tears in so long, I can’t really remember them. Even six months ago, none of us cried. The pain was too much for tears. I forgot them. Forgive me.”
“Are you talking about the same woman Geoff did earlier? His wife? The one he shared with Nolan? Did you share her, too?”
The pain had been too much for tears. Such a thing existed?
He didn’t answer me but instead grabbed something from behind him. A second later, Dane wiped at my face with a soft towel, and I wanted to stop crying. I’d opened a dam, though, and drawing them in proved harder than it should have been.
“Here, look.” He pointed upward.
I shook my head. “I don’t want to see it again.”
“That’s not what I want to show you.”
Curiosity won and I turned to look at the monitor again. A figure I had never seen before illuminated the scene. A beating heart. A swooshing of tiny limbs. Dane had put up an image of my baby. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen and my tears quickly changed from sadness to utter and complete joy. I cried as I laughed.
I placed my hand on the top of the plastic enclosure as though I could reach forward and somehow make contact with the screen. Inside of me, the baby jumped. I would swear the little guy responded because he knew we were talking about him.
“That’s my baby.” I could see his face. It looked smooshed but everything was where it should be. Lips. Mouth. Eyes. Cheekbones. “He’s okay?”
“She.” Dane’s voice cracked.
“What?” I banged the plastic as my body jolted in surprise.
He pushed on the plastic to allow me rise. “She. At least now we know why they didn’t terminate your pregnancy. She is very healthy.”
I swung my legs over the side of the table, letting them dangle while I tried to catch my breath. “You’re sure.”
“I am.” He pulled me against him, pressing my head into his chest while he hugged me. I let him. I needed the hug, and from the way his body vibrated when he held me, I guessed he needed to give me one.
“I never dreamed…” A girl. So rare. She’d be a gift to someone, a hope our worlds could continue. The thought jarred me, and my stomach turned. She was life, growing inside me, almost ready to be born. Did I want her to be a gift? Shouldn’t she have a choice? Oh by the heavens, even my stream of consciousness had become scandalous.
His shoulders relaxed. “Neither did I, trust me on that. Give me your wrist a second, will you?”
I raised my hand, and he pressed it against the plastic. “Need a reading. Nothing to worry about.”
“When did you deliver your first baby?” He’d wanted to tell me earlier.
Dane laughed, which surprised me. The grin on his face made him look younger. “You can’t possibly want to hear about it.”
“I do, actually. I think I could listen to you talk all day. You’re absolutely fascinating.” It must have been the giddiness making me honest. What did I care? My baby was okay. She was healthy. I’d seen her.
“Melissa.” His grin disappeared. “Who are you?”
“I’m here.”
Dane whirled around as a stranger entered the room. He must be Wes. He was tall, but then all of them seemed that way to me. Wes stood a little above Dane in height. His hair was strawberry blond and freckles danced over his nose, drawing attention to his high cheekbones and green eyes. Whereas I was fairly sure Dane and Geoff were older than I, I guessed Wes’s age closer to mine. He wore a pair of frayed cargo shorts. His white T-shirt was stained in places. Like Geoff and Dane, dark circles were visible under his eyes.
Dane stepped away from me. “Melissa, this is Wesley Darby.”
Wes’ jaw ticked. He still hadn’t moved from the entrance. “It’s Wes.”
His gaze met mine, and my stomach tightened. This man might be young, but it didn’t negate his danger. Geoff seemed powerful and in some ways Dane stayed hidden—a mystery I still wasn’t sure about—but Wes made me wonder if I should slide off the table and run for my life. Nolan’s coldness had nothing on Wes’ heat.
“Hello.” I wasn’t sure what else to say and decided to
go with what worked with Geoff and Dane. With no history to draw from, I had to speak my mind. “Are you going to hurt me?”
Wes stalked further into the room like my question spurred him forward. “No. Are you going to hurt me?”
“As though I could.”
Wes exchanged an unreadable glance with Dane before he spoke. “Is she okay?”
“Healthy and pregnant with a girl.”
Wes’ mouth fell open. “No shit?”
Dane nodded. “I’ve sent the results of her fertility chip to your comm. Would you mind taking a look? I’d love to know if she turned it off on purpose or under duress. The exact day of conception is probably useful.”
“Right. You could have told me that over the speaker.” Wes approached me slowly. He didn’t walk so much as inch in my direction. “What did I have to see here? You don’t need me to look at her baby, do you? That’s much more your thing than mine. Unless…” His voice trailed off.
Dane shook his head. “Won’t know that for a while. No, I called you in for something else.” He moved to the keyboard and clicked on it. The image of the thing attached to my heart returned. Dane must have recorded it earlier. One more item I didn’t understand. The story of my so-called new life. I needed a break—to think, to process.
But not as much as I wanted to know what had been attached to my heart. If scary Wes was the person to figure that out, then I’d be grateful for his presence even if he made me squirm.
“Holy shit.” He pointed upward. “Is that her heart? What the fuck is that doing in there?”
“What is it?” Dane stood next to him.
“Increase magnification,” Wes instructed. “So I can see it better.”
The doctor did as Wes asked, enlarging the image until the device took up the whole screen. Silence descended on the room and they both stared upward. I swallowed hard. Something inside of my body made the two of them very tense.
Adding to the moment, Nolan reappeared. He stood without speaking in the doorway. I only noticed him because he cracked his knuckles and drew my attention. As though not looking at me was his job, he walked on quiet feet until he stood shoulder-to-shoulder on the other side of Dane.
Kidnapped by Her Husbands (Wings of Artemis Book 1) Page 6