by Vanessa Kier
“I’ll catch up with you later, doctor.”
Gabby shivered at the warm press of his lips. She sincerely hoped she didn’t meet this sexy, deadly man again. Her equilibrium was unsettled enough as it was. “Good-bye, Mr. Andros.”
Rafe shot her a devil’s grin, then slowly released her hand, letting his fingers stroke her palm as he pulled free.
She had to grit her teeth against the urge to keep her skin touching his, to absorb his warmth and strength. She refused to give him the advantage by showing him how he affected her. At least he’d never know that even when he’d threatened her back at the cabin she’d been aroused by his touch. Just thinking about her reaction made her cheeks heat. Luckily, Rafe took her blush as a positive reaction to his kiss on her hand.
With a wink, Rafe turned to her escort. “Be nice to her, McDermott. She’s had a hard night.”
Then he was gone.
“Right this way, doctor,” the young man said. He led her through a secure door and down a long corridor toward the back of the house.
As she walked, she realized she’d made a mistake in trying to brush Rafe off. An alpha male bent on flirtation would only take it as a challenge.
Tough. She had no idea where she was, or even if Rafe and his men really were the good guys. She wasn’t going to waste her energy flirting with him when he might have orders to kill her the next time they met.
McDermott stopped before a closed door of heavy, carved mahogany. He knocked, and at some signal she didn’t catch, opened the door.
The man behind the desk rose and came around to greet her. He was in his early fifties with short, nutmeg brown hair silvered at the temple with a few gray strands. Standing around six feet tall, he had the trim, athletic build of a long-distance runner. His sharp, gray eyes gave nothing away as he met her gaze.
“Dr. Montague, welcome to the Surgical Strike Unit. I’m Director Ryker.” He shook her hand with pressure that was firm enough to be authoritative, but not so hard as to be aggressive or painful. “Please,” he gestured to an old-fashioned wingback chair. “Sit down.”
As she lowered herself onto the seat, he moved back around his desk. “I understand you have information on what our man Nate Ngoro has been put through.” The steel underneath his friendly tone reminded her of Rafe.
Nate. Rafe’s friend. Her memory was a bit foggy from exhaustion, but she thought the picture they’d showed her had been of a big black man. “I’m sorry, sir, but I never saw Nate at the compound. Kaufmann kept the work groups isolated, probably so we wouldn’t understand the full scope and purpose of his program. So I can’t say for certain what was done to him.”
Gabby suspected that Kaufmann’s research was far more complex than she understood. But with Laurel’s death, the notes she’d stolen from the other sectors were gone. Gabby had hoped those notes would give a fuller picture of the scope of Kaufmann’s work.
Ryker nodded slowly. “Please, give me your best overview of what we’re dealing with. We can get into specifics later. For now, I need to know which resources to assign to caring for Ngoro and the other men rescued.”
Gabby nodded and launched into an explanation of what she knew. At the end, Ryker’s expression was grim. “Since you have the best knowledge of Kaufmann’s program, I’d like to offer you a job working with our doctors on reversing the damage done to Ngoro and the other men.”
“You trust me enough to work with them?” she asked.
Ryker’s eyes bored into her. “Yes, for now. We’ll be monitoring you, of course, but you impressed Rafe with the way you cared for the men on the trip here. He’s got good instincts and he says to trust you.”
Gabby felt her cheeks heat with pleasure. Odd to think that Rafe’s opinion mattered after the way he’d terrified her back at her cabin, but the way he’d interacted with his men and his willingness to reconsider his initial judgment of her had given her a degree of respect for him.
Ryker tapped the tips of his steepled fingers against his chin. “I also want you to work with Rafe on creating a map of the interior section of the lower lab, so we can return and remove the remaining subjects.”
Gabby froze. Go back to the lab? Was he nuts?
Her face must have given away her emotion, because the corner of Ryker’s mouth twitched. “My people excel at this type of rescue operation,” he said.
“I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to insult them. It’s just—”
“We understand the risks,” he said with surprising gentleness. “That’s why we need you to tell us every detail about the lab you remember, no matter how insignificant it seems. The more complete a picture we have of the facility, the safer our team will be.”
Gabby nodded. She didn’t want to think back on her time in the labs. But she’d do it in order to save the men left behind.
And if her heart beat faster at the thought of working with Rafe, she ignored it.
“Of course, sir. I’d be happy to help.”
The scrabble of claws against the floor inside his cabin let Rafe know he had a visitor even before he opened the door. He barely had time to close the door and brace his back against the wall before his sister-in-law’s golden retriever leapt at his chest, aiming an exuberant doggie kiss at his chin.
“Whoa, Monroe. Down boy.”
“C’mon, goofball, leave my brother alone.” Rafe’s older brother, Niko, pulled Monroe down by the collar and dragged him into the living room, where Monroe was promptly distracted by his favorite chew toy.
“Welcome home, bro,” Niko said in Greek. He bent down and snatched up a squat glass before Monroe’s tail knocked it off the coffee table.
Rafe’s throat tightened at the familiar language. Their father had been dead less than four months, and using the tongue of his birthplace still made Rafe choke up at his weaker moments.
To hide his reaction, he thumped his brother on the back, then headed toward the open bottle of Ouzo that sat on his kitchen pass-through. It was too early in the morning for drinking, but what the hell. He needed something to dull the horror of watching Kaufmann’s subjects die.
“Where’s Jenna?” Rafe asked after the first fiery shot cleared his throat of any lingering emotion.
“With the hawks.”
Rafe shot his brother a glance. “Kai okay?” Kai was Jenna’s older brother. If he’d taken a turn for the worse, that could explain why Jenna needed time alone with the birds of prey. When the SSU had first moved into this compound, it restored the section that had originally been a wildlife rehabilitation center. Working with the various birds and animals had become part of the SSU’s therapy program for agents recovering from both psychological and physical wounds.
“Yeah. They’ve got him stabilized, but he came damn close to dying. At least this time they’ve found some new drugs to help battle the malaria.”
The mutant malaria parasite Kai had picked up in a warlord’s prison in Indonesia had resisted even the latest experimental drugs, leaving their friend suffering from attacks every few weeks. And no one could predict how debilitating the attacks would be.
“Nearly losing Kai again has been rough on her,” Niko admitted. “She just needs some time to herself.”
Rafe heard the worry in his brother’s voice. “You okay with that?” he asked.
Niko shrugged and tilted his head for another shot of Ouzo. “She’s getting better. When she’s upset, Jenna turns to me more often than before.”
Over two years ago, Jenna had barely survived an attack that killed her parents and her fourteen-year-old twin brother and sister. She’d come out of that ordeal believing Kai was responsible. Determined to kill her brother in revenge, she’d trained with the SSU, trying to turn herself into an emotionless killing machine.
Jenna had discovered Kai was innocent only to almost lose him first to a vicious crime lord’s torture, and now to his latest malaria attack.
Rafe and Kai had bonded during shared physical therapy sessions after a mission that
finally took down Mexican crime lord Jaime Alverez. He hated seeing his friend suffer from the malaria, but at least Kai was among friends who cared about him.
For a moment Rafe thought about Gabby Montague and wondered how she was settling in. Was there anyone back at Kaufmann’s compound who worried about her absence? Her background report had shown no living relatives. Since her obituary had run in her local newspaper, her friends surely believed her to be dead.
Monroe whined and butted his head against Rafe’s knee. Rafe leaned down and rubbed the dog’s head. Maybe he should check up on the pretty doctor. To reassure her that she was safe here. That he cared if she was frightened or lonely. The irony made his lips curl in a rueful smile. But it was true. He wanted her to start thinking of him as a friend. Hell, as more than a friend. He hadn’t been attracted to a woman this strongly in years.
Shit. How’d the woman get under his skin so fast?
Rafe distracted himself from digging too deeply on that question by rubbing Monroe’s ears and grinning down at the happy dog before straightening and reaching for his glass of Ouzo.
He probably needed to give the sexy doctor some space. After all, he’d nearly frightened her to death, then dragged her across the country to a place where she knew no one. So he doubted he’d be welcome at her door.
For some reason, though, that only made the urge to see her stronger. Cursing this inexplicable connection he felt to the doctor, he glanced over at Niko. “So, what brings you here, bro?”
“Heard you found Nate,” Niko replied. “And brought back a sexy scientist.” He tilted his glass toward Rafe. “Way to go.”
Although Rafe had never hesitated to tell Niko about a woman before, he couldn’t bring himself to discuss how he felt about Gabby. So he just shrugged it off and filled his brother in on the details of the mission.
“We’re gonna have to go back,” Rafe said. “Rescue the other men and shut the program down.” He rubbed the back of his neck. He needed to get some sleep, then discuss this in more detail with Ryker.
He also needed to question Gabby. Find out exactly what was being done in those lower labs. Work on getting her to trust him so she’d give him the necessary information to plan a successful return raid.
And if his blood heated at the thought of spending more time with her, that was an unexpected bonus.
Gabby’s hands trembled as she blotted her hair with a towel. Showering had felt like a hard won luxury after believing Rafe and his men were going to kill her. That she’d been assigned this guest apartment instead of ending up in a cell for what she’d helped Kaufmann do seemed like a minor miracle.
But she felt most grateful for the privacy. She’d never been certain if Kaufmann had video or audio surveillance installed in the cabins. When she’d asked about whether the SSU monitored the guest quarters, Ryker had given her a sympathetic look and assured her that the SSU fully respected the privacy of its guests and the only cameras were in public areas, to alert the security team of any threats.
Maybe she was crazy, or so exhausted that she’d become gullible, but Gabby believed Ryker.
The knowledge that no one could see her now made her weak with relief.
Combing her damp hair back from her face, she slipped into the terry cloth robe hanging on the back of the bathroom door, then walked into the bedroom. She liked the surprisingly homey mix of mission and rustic style furniture that filled the apartment. The earth tone fabrics and black-and-white nature photos fit perfectly with the surrounding woods. Such a stark contrast to the sterile, institutional furniture of her cabin at Kaufmann’s compound. The soothing environment added to her sense of safety.
Gabby turned on the bedside light. Maybe someday she’d stay in one place long enough to have a house of her own. A smile touched her lips. When she was thirteen, she’d seen a stone cottage tucked into the woods during a drive to the house of one of her aunt’s interior decorating clients. For weeks after, she’d dreamed about growing up and living in the cottage. Imagined how she’d decorate it. Thought about what plants she’d have in the garden. And decided that she wanted two cats and three dogs.
But since leaving her aunt’s house to go to college, Gabby had mostly lived in quarters provided by whatever medical facility she’d been working for. There had been no quaint cottage for her and no pets to welcome her home. Her last place had been a small low-rent apartment near the veterans’ home. Ryker had said that during their pre-mission research on her and the other people in the satellite photographs, the SSU had sent a team to her old apartment. Her things were gone and the apartment had new tenants. What Kaufmann had done with her personal items and the few mementos she had of her parents and her childhood, no one knew.
Squashing a flare of melancholy, Gabby sorted through the clothing she’d bought at the SSU’s general store. When he learned that Gabby had nothing but the one change of clothes in her go-bag, McDermott had offered to take her shopping after her meeting with Ryker. Although she’d needed both clothes and toiletries, she’d told McDermott the shopping trip would have to wait until she found a way to pay for the items. She had only a few dollars in her wallet, left over from her vacation before Kaufmann had whisked her away. Kaufmann had deposited staff salaries into special bank accounts controlled by his finance department. Before her escape, Gabby had been unable to touch her money without arousing suspicion. And her purse with her credit cards had mysteriously disappeared between the moment Kaufmann approached her about the job and her arrival at his compound.
Yet McDermott had waved off Gabby’s concerns about money. He’d been instructed by Ryker to set up an account for her at the store and explained that they’d work out the payment details later.
Though she hated being dependent on others for her basic needs, Gabby had given in and let McDermott lead her around the store. Used to the uniforms and generic toiletry items distributed by Kaufmann’s supply team, she’d found the available choices overwhelming. Eventually, though, she’d settled on a few purchases, knowing that if she wanted to pay the SSU back she would have to either accept Ryker’s job offer or quickly find a job in the outside world.
While she wanted to help Nate Ngoro and the others, part of her was afraid of ending up in another situation where her work was misused. Although her gut instinct said to trust Ryker, she had no way of knowing if his intentions would change once he had access to Kaufmann’s data.
She sighed. Unfortunately, Rafe and his men had confiscated all her notes and test tubes. She didn’t like having them out of her control, but even if another doctor got hold of them it would take months to replicate a program as heinous as Kaufmann’s.
She tossed the damp towel on the bed and pulled on her new pajamas. If she accepted Ryker’s job offer she’d have access to Nate Ngoro and the other escapees. She’d be able to take blood samples and check to see if they, too, had traces of Agent Styx in their blood.
If they did…
Her hands stilled on the knot of the drawstring waistband as hope fluttered deep inside her.
For years she’d listened to Vietnam veterans tell stories and pass along rumors of horrible acts committed under the influence of experimental chemicals, and of the terrible long term side effects. Finding one blood sample with the marker for Agent Styx in the blood of her patient back at Kaufmann’s compound wasn’t enough proof that Kaufmann had been using the supposedly destroyed chemical. But if Nate and the others all showed the Agent Styx markers in their blood, then maybe she could ask Ryker to help her investigate how Kaufmann got hold of the drug.
With any luck, such an investigation would lead back to the men who’d created the chemical in the first place. The men who’d given it to her father during the Vietnam War.
The same men her father had been trying to expose before his death. Even though she’d been a child, she’d understood that the mysterious phone calls that spooked her mother and her father’s insistence that Gabby stay inside as much as possible had meant trouble.
>
Her suspicions had been confirmed when she turned twenty-one and the key to a special safe deposit box had been forwarded to her by a lawyer. What she’d discovered in the box had changed her life.
Medical reports from his time in the army that proved her father’s rages had been the result of exposure to Agent Styx. A list of other symptoms. Vials of the chemical, along with a copy of the chemical’s destruction order from the U.S. government. And several coded pages Gabby still wasn’t able to read, no matter how hard she tried to crack the code.
The contents of that box had further fueled her desire to go into medicine so she could find other veterans like her father and help them before it was too late. She’d analyzed the samples of Agent Styx, then searched for those unique markers in the blood samples of her patients. When she did find veterans with traces of Agent Styx in their blood, she’d gone out of her way to pamper them. Done her best to ease their symptoms, even while she searched desperately for a way to lessen the rages and other symptoms.
With Nate Ngoro and the other men possibly the latest victims of the deadly chemical, could she really say no to Ryker’s job offer? Gabby carried the damp towel into the bathroom and hung it up to dry. To be honest, she couldn’t turn down Ryker’s offer. She owed it to the victims of Agent Styx and of Kaufmann’s program to help in any way possible.
Once she regained access to her notes, she expected to be able to continue isolating Agent Styx and working toward a counteragent. She’d also work on reversing the effects caused by Kaufmann’s unique combination of drugs. With live samples from Nate and the others, maybe she’d even find a way to stop the physical deterioration before Rafe’s friend also succumbed to death.
Then maybe you can get a real life. Gabby shook her head as the voice of her late aunt whispered in her head. It was an argument she’d had too often with the woman who’d raised her after her parents had died in a suspicious car crash when Gabby was twelve. Aunt Leticia felt the past was better left as dead as her sister and brother-in-law.
But Gabby couldn’t forget the look on her father’s face the night he’d died. The police had ruled the crash an accident. Claimed her father must have experienced one of his rages and lost control of the car.