by Vanessa Kier
Gabby never believed it. Her father hadn’t had one of his fits for months before the accident. He’d been perfectly safe to drive. Otherwise, her mother never would have climbed into the car with him.
To this day, Gabby believed her parents had been murdered by the men he’d been investigating. Her parents had argued the night of the accident. Her father wanted both Gabby and her mother to stay at her aunt’s house for a while. He’d insisted it was the only way to keep them both safe. Her mother agreed to send Gabby away, but refused to leave her husband. He’d been furious, but her mother had held firm.
From the way her dad had kissed her forehead before telling her to be a good girl and always listen to her aunt, Gabby had been scared she’d never see him again. She’d cried and begged him not to leave. She’d been mad at him for leaving her with Aunt Leticia instead of staying with her. She’d been equally mad at her mom for going with him when she suspected a threat.
When the police officer showed up early the next morning with news of the accident, Gabby had told the officer that her dad had known something bad was going to happen. But the police claimed there was nothing suspicious about the accident, and the matter had been dropped. In her heart, though, Gabby had always believed someone killed her parents.
With any luck, by accepting Ryker’s job offer she’d achieve both her goals. Restore the victims of Agent Styx and the men in Kaufmann’s program to normalcy, and find the one responsible for her parents’ deaths.
Kaufmann’s Compound
Adirondack Mountains
“How many subjects did we lose?” Dr. Leonard Kaufmann glared at Rufus Cygan, his head of security.
“Five dead, sir. Eight missing. Three more with injuries that will take them out of the current round of testing.” Cygan paused, then continued resolutely. “Half of sector seven suffered extensive damage from the explosion and will require significant repair before the staff can move back in. One doctor, two staff, and three guards are dead.” He cleared his throat. “And Dr. Montague is missing.”
Kaufmann stilled. “How is that possible?” Of all the staff, Dr. Montague had proved the most valuable, despite her reluctance to aid him.
“We believe Dr. Montague planned tonight’s attack and that she had outside help. Our chase team fell under automatic weapon fire when they pursued the stolen transport truck.”
“Outside help? Dr. Montague was supposed to have no contact with the world beyond this compound. Who assisted her in contacting an assault team? She worked with crazy, dying veterans. None of them could have participated in tonight’s rescue.”
“Unknown, sir. We’re looking into it.”
The pencil in Kaufmann’s hands broke. If word got back to Wayne Jamieson about tonight’s losses, the man would throw a fit. Kaufmann had enough trouble managing his egotistical funder without presenting the man with such a failure.
He couldn’t afford to lose Jamieson’s money right now. Or to lose the protection of Kerberos, Jamieson’s ultra secret black ops group. Kaufmann’s program was at a turning point. Even the slightest change could set their progress back weeks. “Did any of the papers or computers in section seven survive?” He needed Dr. Montague’s research.
“No, sir. However, we will be able to retrieve electronic data from backup.”
Kaufmann ground the broken end of the pencil into the scarred wood of the desk. “See that you do that as soon as possible. I won’t let this attack slow down our progress.” He’d have to assign another doctor to Montague’s task and hope similar results could be obtained quickly. “Our location has been compromised. I want you to look into moving the facility. Keep the potential relocation a secret both from our staff and from the outside world. I don’t want morale affected and I certainly don’t want any more attacks.”
“Understood, sir.”
“You’ve sent a team out looking for Dr. Montague and the missing subjects?”
“Yes, sir. We should know where they went within a few hours.”
“Good. When you find them, kill the subjects. But bring Dr. Montague back to me.”
Chapter 8
Early the next afternoon, Gabby headed across the SSU campus, looking for the communal dining room McDermott had mentioned. She’d slept long and deep, and while she didn’t yet feel fully rested, she felt markedly better than she had during the past several weeks.
As she exited the apartment building, she once again had to appreciate the differences between the SSU’s compound and Kaufmann’s. No guards stood watch at the building’s entrance and no one followed her as she walked. Strolling along the well-manicured paths through a cluster of cabins, she saw personal touches ranging from child-sized bicycles left on front lawns, to melodious wind chimes. A few runners nodded in greeting as they passed.
Kaufmann’s housing complex had been as sterile as the labs, with interaction between staff strictly monitored. Runners and walkers were assigned times to use the special track set up behind the complex, but even there they’d been monitored. The staff had largely ignored one another as they focused grimly on their workouts. After a few tense runs, Gabby had instead chosen to perform a routine of ballet and Pilates moves in the privacy of her cabin.
Gabby hadn’t realized how starved she’d become for normal human contact, free of fear and suspicion, until one of the runners smiled at her and Gabby felt her lips curl in answer. Basking in the peaceful atmosphere, she strolled slowly along the tree-lined path. Under the warmth of the sun, the terror filled minutes when she’d thought Rafe and his team would kill her faded into memory. A burst of childish laughter coming from the yard to her right startled her into another smile. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard a child’s laugh. There’d been no kids at Kaufmann’s compound.
Gabby took a moment and watched two girls and a boy, all under ten, race around the yard before she continued her stroll. Could this place possibly be real? It seemed impossible that yesterday she’d feared for her life working with Kaufmann, and now she was back in a world where happy children played.
A couple of houses later, the path forked. Remembering McDermott’s instructions, she turned left. The trees grew closer together here, dimming the sunlight. She shivered, then paused as she heard the sound of male grunts and the unmistakable slap of boots on concrete. Frowning at the violent intrusion, Gabby hurried forward.
She emerged from the copse of pine trees and stopped in shock. On the other side of a low stone wall, a group of soldiers swarmed up a vertical net, climbed over, then dropped down the other side. The men’s muscular bodies gleamed with sweat that plastered their tight t-shirts and shorts to their skin as they high-stepped through a tire course. One man in particular caught her eye.
Rafe reached the top of a giant net and easily swung himself over before dropping to the other side with feline grace. The man next to him landed badly and Rafe leaned over and helped his friend regained his balance. Then the two of them raced forward.
As Rafe reached the end of the tire course, a staccato burst of gunfire caused Gabby to gasp and jump back. But Rafe and his men just dropped to the ground and started belly-crawling through the mud under a series of low-hung nets.
Gabby inched closer to the wall separating her from the training field. Because of the way the land dipped, no matter how hard she strained or which way she moved, she couldn’t see past the middle of the nets. Yet she needed to know that Rafe survived the obstacle course. Which made no sense. First, he was some kind of private soldier. He probably could run this course in his sleep. Second, she barely knew the man and what she did know confused her. He’d been ruthless last night, then flirtatious. She’d seen him controlled and deadly, then touched with grief. He intrigued her in a way she instinctively knew was dangerous. No matter how much Rafe appealed to her, she couldn’t afford to get distracted from her work.
She stepped back into the trees, intending to find the correct path to the dining hall, but she’d already been noticed. A man in
his forties with close-cropped brown hair, wearing a long-sleeved olive green t-shirt and matching pants approached her.
“May I help you?” His light blue eyes regarded her with curiosity.
Gabby shrugged self-consciously and stuck her hands in her jeans’ pockets. “I think I took a wrong turn. I was looking for the dining hall.” Unable to help herself, she glanced over the man’s shoulder in hopes of seeing Rafe. “Um…” Oh, to heck with it. “Rafe and his men will come out of the exercise okay, won’t they?”
The man grinned at her. “You must be Rafe’s lady doctor, the one he rescued last night.”
Gabby felt her cheeks heat. “Uh…I suppose. I’m Dr. Gabrielle Montague.”
“Pleased to meet you, ma’am. I’m John Wilson.” The man shook her hand. “Would you like to watch the rest of the exercise? We’ve got a viewing area in the middle of the field.”
“I…” She didn’t know what to say. This obsession to know everything about Rafe wasn’t rational.
“C’mon.” He held out his hand. “Rafe will work harder knowing he has a pretty woman watching him.”
Giving in to her curiosity, Gabby let him help her climb over the stone wall. A few minutes later, she was seated in a low grandstand next to a couple of men in dress uniforms who Wilson said were observers from the Department of Defense. Apparently, even though the SSU was a private organization, it often performed contract work for the DOD.
She felt self-conscious and out-of-place at first, but soon lost her nervousness as she became absorbed in watching the training exercise. For as many years as she’d worked with veterans, Gabby had never seen soldiers in action before last night. Even if Rafe hadn’t been among the men running this obstacle course she would have been fascinated with their sheer physicality. Tasks which would have driven her into the ground they handled easily.
To her eyes, Rafe stood out as quicker and more graceful than the others. She bit her lip to hold back her smile, instinctively knowing Rafe wouldn’t appreciate being called graceful. But his movements were performed so smoothly she couldn’t think of a better word.
True to John Wilson’s word, when Rafe spotted her he grinned, threw her a mock salute, then turned up his effort. At the end of the exercise, after the teams had huddled around the observers to get feedback, Rafe sauntered toward her.
Gabby’s mouth dried up and her heart started beating erratically. She’d like to think she was experiencing a fear response based on the way Rafe and his men had terrorized her last night, but she couldn’t lie to herself. This reaction was purely feminine.
Rafe’s muddy clothes clung to his body, defining his lean muscles. It had been way too long since Gabby had been attracted to a man, and she’d never met anyone who shone with such wild vitality. Arousal curled in her belly. She shook her head, dismayed by her reaction.
“Hey, doc,” Rafe greeted her with a self-satisfied smile. “Like what you see?”
She wanted to deny it, certain he received too much flattering female attention. A set down would do him good. But she couldn’t lie. So she said instead, “Just trying to understand what you do, since Ryker wants me to help you plan your return to the compound.”
Just thinking about Rafe facing Kaufmann’s trained killers and the insane rage of his subjects made Gabby’s hands tremble. Yes, this exercise proved that Rafe and his men were extremely capable, but he didn’t understand the unnatural power of Kaufmann’s subjects. If they were let loose to attack Rafe and his men, only death would stop them.
“Hey.” Rafe’s finger stroked her cheek.
Gabby flinched in surprise, not realizing that he’d stepped closer.
“What’s got that pretty face all somber?”
Gabby shook her head, afraid that if she gave voice to her fears she’d somehow jinx Rafe. Again, not rational. But it seemed that with this man she acted on instinct instead of intellect.
Rafe raised one eyebrow, but thankfully didn’t push her. “So, what brings you out to the training field?”
“I got lost looking for the dining hall.”
He glanced at his watch. “Give me ten minutes to shower and change and I’ll walk you over.”
She should tell him no. She had to tell Ryker she accepted his job offer, then start work before Nate and the others got worse. But the long-denied feminine core of her refused to pass up the chance to get to know Rafe better. After weeks of stress she needed something positive in her life. “Okay.”
His rakish grin set butterflies dancing behind her breastbone and she wondered if she really understood what she’d just agreed to.
“My dad worked for the Drug Enforcement Agency,” Rafe said during lunch. “One of the best field agents they had.” He glanced down at the sandwich in his hand, but not before Gabby saw the flash of pain in his eyes. “When I was nine, he was shot in our driveway while washing the car with my older brother, Niko. Pop was paralyzed and spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair, but that didn’t stop him from going back to work for the DEA.”
“What about your brother?”
“Physically, he had just a few scratches. Psychologically?” Rafe shrugged. “It messed him up. He was only thirteen, but he blamed himself for not protecting Pop. No matter that Mexican crime lord Jaime Alvarez had ordered a hit on our father and no thirteen-year-old boy could’ve stopped it. Niko was already big on taking responsibility. He turned angry. Started getting in trouble.”
“I’m sorry.” She wondered how the change in his brother had affected Rafe, but didn’t feel comfortable asking. Not when he’d given her such a deeply personal story. Given that she barely knew the man, she didn’t know whether to be flattered or horrified that he felt comfortable sharing such a traumatic event.
“Yeah, well, Niko ended up putting his anger to good use. When he was eighteen, he accepted an offer from the DEA to unofficially go undercover in Alvarez’s organization. Niko spent five years working his way up to being Alvarez’s right hand man, until finally he had enough evidence to call in a raid that sent the bastard to prison.”
“Did you know your brother was undercover?”
Rafe shook his head. “Alvarez sent us reports a couple of times a year, bragging about how he’d turned Niko into the type of man our father had spent his life working to put behind bars. Pop knew the truth, but not the rest of the family.”
To her surprise, Gabby reached out and touched his hand. She wasn’t the touchy-feely sort. Yet she left her hand where it was, wanting Rafe to have the comfort of touch. “That must have been hard.”
Rafe turned her hand over and straightened out her fingers one by one. “I never believed Niko had gone bad. No matter what the evidence showed. Even when the DEA sent Niko to prison after the raid, as punishment for the things he’d done while undercover, I still knew he was one of the good guys.”
Gabby’s throat ached. She’d always wanted a brother or sister to love. Someone who would stand by her side no matter what. “Niko is lucky to have a brother who loves him so much.”
Rafe grinned. “Damn straight. You stick around long enough, you can tell him yourself. He’s also an SSU agent.”
“Is Alvarez still in prison?”
“No.” A feral expression swept across Rafe’s face. “Long story short, Alvarez was released from prison after ten years, but then he tangled with Niko and ended up dead.”
“I’d be interested in hearing the whole story some day,” Gabby said, surprised to find how hungry she was for more information on Rafe and his family.
“I’ll tell you, but only if you promise to stick around.”
“That’s something I need to discuss with Ryker first.”
Rafe’s eyes probed hers. “All right. So, what about you? Happy childhood? Your file says no brothers or sisters.”
Gabby lowered her gaze to her plate. She didn’t feel comfortable talking about her past, and never told anyone about her father’s rages. Yet she owed Rafe some insight into her life, since he’d been so
open with her. “Well, I was mostly raised by my aunt—”
“Dr. Montague?”
Gabby looked up to see McDermott heading toward her. “Yes?”
“Ryker would like to see you in his office now, if it’s convenient.”
“Of course.” Gabby stifled her disappointment at having her time with Rafe cut short. What kind of spell had the man thrown at her to make her greedy for such intimate, two-way conversation?
Before she could stop him, Rafe stood up and disposed of their food trash. “I’ll see you later,” Rafe said, kissing the back of her hand. “McDermott,” he acknowledged with a nod.
Then he was gone.
Gabby blinked at his abrupt departure. “Okay, McDermott, lead on. I don’t know my way around yet.”
Ryker met her and McDermott before they reached the administration building. “Hello, Dr. Montague.” With a nod, Ryker dismissed McDermott, who flashed Gabby a grin before disappearing down a side path.
“Have you made a decision regarding my job offer?” Ryker removed the dark glasses hiding his eyes, making it easier for Gabby to answer.
“Yes, sir. I’ve decided to accept your offer…for now.”
He nodded. “Good. Let’s get you settled in right away. I know my medical team already has a list of questions for you.” He started walking back the way she’d come, then took a right at the first intersection.
“If you don’t mind, I’d like to see Kaufmann’s men, sir,” Gabby said.
“Let’s hear what Dr. Smith has to say about that.”
The medical building turned out to be the size of a small hospital. Inside, though, it looked like the same decorator who’d done her guest apartment had taken care to make the facility as warm as possible—painting the walls in warm earth tones and hanging plants and artwork where they best caught the natural light from skylights and windows.