Sari

by Middleton, Rose

  Sari swallowed. The familiar taste of him slid down her throat, awakening her insides.

  “Damn, I’ve missed you, girl.”

  She licked her lips. Hearing his words gave her the courage and conviction she needed. “Good. Now why the hell didn’t you tell me about Rebecca?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Rebecca?”

  Growing heavy, Kai’s body slumped to the floor. Though he held Sari close to his chest, he needed time to think. How did she know about Rebecca? What did she know about Rebecca? He wanted to ask but the words refused to form in his mouth. His thick, dry tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth while his brain spun in circles.

  In his arms, Sari coughed. The shakes had taken over her body, and he hugged her tighter. Torn in two, his heart ached, filling his chest with a dull throb he didn’t think would ever go away. Holding Sari, watching the pink return to her cheeks and feeling the heat in her skin, he could finally breathe again. When he’d laid eyes on her ghostly pale form, his world suddenly made sense to him. All this time with her right under his nose, he hadn’t seen what she meant to him.

  He didn’t have the time to dissect the feeling, and if he were honest, he really didn’t want to take it apart. Everything had felt right when he picked her up. The world around them disappeared when he kissed her. Despite the lies of the past and both of them withholding certain truths, they’d grown close. Kai never expected to feel this way about another woman.

  The way he felt about Sari filled his very being. It weaved into the fibers of his muscles and flowed in the blood through his veins. The taste of it lingered in his mouth, reminding him every time he swallowed that she was a part of him. He huffed and slid the pad of his thumb over her wrinkled brow, the silky soft skin warm to the touch. Who knew he could fall in love with a half-human, half-jaguar hybrid? But there it was.

  “Kai?”

  “You saw Rebecca?”

  A slight bow of her head doubled as a nod. “She’s here.”

  His eyes burned, and though time slipped by, he couldn’t move. “Where?”

  “You lied to me,” she whispered, the hurt in her voice slicing through his heart. “You lied about your passion for the cats. I thought you cared, but it turns out the only reason you’ve been searching is because of your sister.”

  A tear slid from the corner of her eye and landed on his forearm under her head. “Sari, we have time to talk about that later. I need to get you to a hospital.”

  “Now. Tell me why.”

  Reminding her that she had lied too seemed pointless. Even back at the motel she’d confessed that sin, and he knew then her trust in him was precarious. Fragile at best, her belief in others barely measured on the Richter scale. No wonder, given how many times she’d been lied to, manipulated, misinformed, and misdirected. It took an awful lot to elicit her confidence, yet nothing more than a feather to break it. She expected to be lied to, assumed others would take advantage of her, and presumed every person she met was of the same ilk.

  “There are a lot of reasons, Sari. Where do I begin?”

  She reached up and touched fingertips to his chin. The sacred touch felt final, that no matter how he answered her question he’d lost her for good. But they’d only just begun, and he had no intentions of letting her go until she knew every last morsel of truth. When she had all the information, then she could make her decision.

  “At the beginning, Kai. Start there.”

  He closed his eyes and lifted his head. With a silent prayer skyward, he asked for the strength to tell the whole story. Not one person knew it all, at least not from him. Sarah hadn’t been able to uncover much about Rebecca’s disappearance, and she’d used contacts he didn’t want to think about. He doubted the detectives officially in charge knew anything she didn’t. Even his parents had been too hard to talk to. They didn’t blame him for her disappearance, but they never really looked at him the same way. Knowing he tried to find her and failed sure hadn’t helped either.

  “She was a journalist, investigating the sightings of the cats. I remember how excited she’d been, so intrigued and caught up in the whirlwind of the possibilities. She showed me the claw casings. That’s how I came to have them. Because of Rebecca. Smartass that I am, I didn’t believe her, said she was chasing ghosts.”

  He shook his head, opening his eyes and meeting Sari’s curious gaze. “I know, don’t say it.”

  “Don’t say what?” she asked.

  “That I should’ve believed her because I’m her brother. Unfortunately, the scientist in me thought he knew better, said she was a fool to go scampering off into the forest after a bunch of campfire stories.”

  To his surprise, she gave a wry smile and shook her head. “You should know better than to laugh off such campfire tales.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m a stubborn bugger. I let Rebecca come out here alone. Hell, I didn’t even care enough to ask exactly where she would look, just let her go without so much as a brotherly hug. Actually, if I remember correctly, my final words to her were pretty ordinary.”

  He cringed just thinking about that day, the sarcastic words and the mocking tone. Sari, ever the hopeful, smiled sweetly. “She’s not mad at you.”

  “Maybe she should be. I was so damn helpless in trying to find her. I came out here, you know, a couple of times, but without coordinates it was like looking for a needle in a haystack. I thought she’d either fallen and died alone, been killed by some wild animal, or taken. That’s when I started searching. I needed an answer.”

  With effort, Sari pulled herself into a sitting position. “You had to know what happened to her.”

  Kai nodded. “Even if it wasn’t what I wanted to hear, I couldn’t leave it alone. That’s when I decided to use every resource available, Eco-Corp included. Waylon never knew—”

  Sari’s finger on his lips stopped him. Her sad eyes searched his. “He knew, Kai. He knew all along. He’s a part of this, about as delusional as Zimmerman. I understand why you hid it from him. I don’t understand why you hid it from me. Did you think I knew something or was somehow involved?”

  The strange silence in his chest scared him. He held her face in both hands and shook his head. “I would never. I just couldn’t risk you ratting me out to the boss. When I saw how good you were at reading maps and finding things, I knew you could help me.”

  “Did you ever plan on telling me?”

  Damn.

  “I thought about it, and I’d hoped that when we knew each other better, I’d find the words. Then you, well, you sprang a surprise on me all your own, and I didn’t want to screw with your trust. That night, in the motel when you let me hold you, I made a decision to put your needs first.”

  “Well, I guess we’ve both lied enough for one lifetime. Did you know about Waylon?”

  “I thought he was one of the good guys.”

  She frowned. “Do you think I’m one of the good guys too?”

  How could she think otherwise? “I don’t think it, I know it.”

  “Even though I’d planned to double cross you if I needed to?”

  Given her need to find this place and Zimmerman and everything she’d been through, he wouldn’t have expected anything less. “Even if.”

  Her eyes narrowed. “Why?”

  “Because you’ve become very important to me. Keeping you safe, protecting you from the people after you…I thought that by saving you, I’d make up for failing Rebecca.”

  “You didn’t fail her, Kai. Believe it because she knows you came looking for her.”

  A spark in Sari’s eyes roused suspicion within him. In speaking to Rebecca, she knew something about his sister that he didn’t. He opened his mouth, ready to ask when a rumble sounded at the other end of the passage. Kai heard a familiar ding and looked up to find a truck parked in a freight elevator, two armed Hunters standing guard. He could barely breathe wondering who or what was in the truck, but his hearing didn’t fail him.

  The menacing lau
ghter and the sound of cocky victory reached him. One man. One woman.

  “Zimmerman.”

  Sari turned toward the laughing madman, her breath catching in her throat at the sight of the truck, sentinels and armed weapons. Semi-automatics, if she wasn’t mistaken. Summoning every ounce of strength she had left, she got to her feet and faced the one man who’d shaped her life head on.

  He grinned, his gaze ricocheting from her to Kai and back again. “You never cease to amaze me, little one. Who knew you’d live?”

  “Jessica?”

  Sari turned to Kai at the sound of his voice. Shock mingled with confusion. The woman at the other end of the floor laughed.

  “Well, well, if it isn’t the professor. Look where you’ve landed yourself. And to think I thought you had nothing more than book-smarts.”

  Now Sari was confused. They knew each other?

  “She used to work for Eco-Corp,” he explained. “And yes, we dated, until she put her career before her heart. I suppose I should be grateful she didn’t ruin mine in the process, but all I can be right now is thankful.”

  Though he stared straight ahead, Sari felt the meaning in his words directed toward her. It eased her confusion, and she looked at the woman in question. Pretty, and fuming mad if Sari read her right.

  “Why would you be thankful, Kai? I left you, remember?”

  “I may not have known it at the time, but it was just the thing I needed. You taught me a lesson, I’ll give you that much. Did it ever occur to you that you would make me a stronger man?” He laughed, but the sound wasn’t too pleasant. “No, I suppose you couldn’t look beyond your own career. Why doesn’t it surprise me to find you here?”

  Jessica hefted a gun, pointed it straight at Kai. “Your words don’t scare me or make me feel anything. Rex more than makes up for your lack of vision. I chose my path. Didn’t stumble upon it through the events going on around me. Didn’t need my sister to disappear in order to become a man, so to speak.”

  Beside Sari, Kai tensed. She felt his struggle, torn between the urge to rush the woman and the common sense sparked by the barrel of a gun pointed his way. She could shift and take out his old flame quicker than any of them could blink, but Kai wouldn’t want that. He wanted to fight his own battles, take care of his business his way. She admired that quality and besides, she had a different target in her sights.

  “So what are you thinking, Miss Sari?” Zimmerman cocked his head to the side, as if their conversation didn’t take place under the watchful eyes of trained killers. “Maybe you and I should ditch these two lovebirds and get the hell out. What do you say?”

  With a shake of her head, Sari took one step forward. Kai’s fingers wrapped around her wrist, communicating his fear for her safety.

  “Zimmerman, I wouldn’t choose you if you were the last man on the planet. You’re done here. Your association with Eco-Corp is through.”

  “Well, seeing that Waylon is dead, you have a point, but you of all people should know that I don’t just go away. I’m here to stay. Oh, I know you think you’ll come after me, but the minute we’re gone, you won’t find us. I don’t even think you’ll look.”

  Sari took a breath, the gas gone from her lungs, the virus now taken care of. He sure sounded confident, thinking he’d get away, and she wouldn’t come after him. Didn’t he understand that she would never stop? If he got out of this alive and somehow managed to salvage his research it would become her life mission to track him down. She’d hunt him and his psychotic delusions to the very end of the earth.

  Or was he so high on the smell of his stink that he couldn’t see reality anymore?

  “Believe what you want,” she said. “But know this. Wherever you go, however you try to hide, I will sniff you out, and put an end to your operation. You’ll just have to keep packing up and moving on.”

  Zimmerman laughed and glanced at Jessica. “Sure. We believe you. Now if you both don’t mind, we’ll take our leave.”

  She half expected those guns to go off, but Frankenstein and his bride simply returned to the cargo elevator under the protection of Hunters. Unarmed as they were, there was nothing neither she nor Kai could do but let them go. Live to fight another day. The motto had served her sufficiently in the past, and it would have to suffice today.

  “Waylon’s dead?” Kai sounded incredulous.

  “I’m sure we’ll find out soon enough,” Sari said, touching his arm. He turned to her and frowned.

  “So who will run Eco-Corp?”

  With a shrug, Sari nodded toward the two doors that stood closed. “Maybe now’s not the time to think about that. Rebecca is in the far room, and I know she’ll be happy to see you.”

  Kai glanced down the hall and then met her gaze once more. “Where will you be?”

  As Kai walked toward his sister’s room, Sari’s thoughts strayed down the hall. Hawk and Rebecca, along with any of the other hybrids left behind, were her responsibility. She’d let them out into the real world, and she was the one who had to teach them how to live in it. The purpose it gave her warmed her heart and renewed her strength.

  Zimmerman had said Waylon was dead. For once, she believed him. But unlike Kai, she didn’t need to ask what would happen to Eco-Corp or who would run it now. She knew the answers to both. It would continue its mission to make the world a safer place and take care of this brood of hybrids it had inadvertently created. How did she know?

  Because she’d be running the show.

  Kai couldn’t take his eyes off the three shadow lines crossing his sister’s face. They sure as hell weren’t there the last time he saw her.

  “Would you stop staring, Harry. I know our mother taught you better than that.”

  He blinked his eyes back into focus to see her smile. He hadn’t heard her use the nickname in so long it warmed his heart. “I’m sorry, I just…I’m surprised, that’s all.”

  “Surprised I’m alive or surprised to find that I’m a bit different?”

  Kai frowned, stepped further into the room and sat on the bottom corner of the hospital bed. Rebecca sat curled in a rocking chair, the corner dim but the light showing him all he needed to know. In suspecting she’d fallen foul of this place, he knew one of two things would have happened to her. Either she didn’t cooperate and they killed her, or she did cooperate.

  He’d never thought she’d choose to become an experiment.

  “Neither,” he said with a shake of his head. “I’m surprised you’re happy to be here. This facility isn’t exactly a shining example of the good science can do.”

  He studied her for a quiet moment. Shiny brown hair. Bright hazel eyes. Her facial features lifted in a gentle smile. Taut muscles. Skin with a healthy glow. Nothing about her appearance conveyed mistreatment of any kind. A very different picture from the one his memories held. Before she disappeared, he remembered her looking tired most days, weary with fatigue other days. She’d lost a lot of weight in the weeks leading up to her trip out here, but he’d put it down to the excitement of the chase, the thrill of the hunt.

  He’d been wrong, hadn’t he?

  Someone had taken care of her, nursed her back to health, and dammit, he suspected gene therapy hadn’t been used to keep her quiet or threaten her into submission. It had been used to make her whole again.

  “That’s where you’re wrong, little brother. Science did a great job on me. I’m healthy again. No more cancer.”

  If he wasn’t sitting, he would’ve collapsed. Cancer? How did he not know she had cancer? Their parents never knew. Of that he was certain. But it made sense and explained her failing health before they brought her here. Kai rubbed his forehead. He was tired, and his emotions had taken a battering. Glad to have found his sister? Yes. Happy to have saved Sari? Absolutely. But needing sleep? Hell yes.

  “When were you diagnosed with cancer, Rebecca? And why didn’t you tell anyone?”

  Her head tilted to the side and her long brown hair fell across her shoulder. It us
ed to be shoulder length. Now it reached her waist. She was forty years old, but she looked younger and fitter than him. Was that one of the benefits of forsaking your humanity to this hybrid existence? He conjured an image of Sari, thought about her lean musculature and abundance of youth.

  God, he missed her!

  They’d been apart for but a few minutes and he worried. The feel of her lips under his earlier reminded him of what he almost lost. His body craved hers once more and his mind flew to the near future when they’d be alone together. What he wouldn’t give to drag her against him right now. They’d barely begun and he planned on deepening the exploration in the dead of night.

  With his mind so focused on the mortal danger threatening her, he hadn’t had time to make a mental list of how he wanted their reunion to go. Maybe now wasn’t the time. He’d just found his sister, and the shock of the changes within her hadn’t even sunk in yet. They had to mount a new search for Rex before the trail grew cold. They had to lay Waylon to rest, and tie up the loose ends at Eco-Corp.

  All he could think about was Sari’s petite body beneath his, her thighs hugging his hips, her small hands re-familiarizing themselves with his body. He could practically feel her wet heat now. His mouth and tongue tingled with her taste, and in a flash, he knew there was time later to talk to Rebecca.

  “You know what, it doesn’t matter.” He stood, his heart thumping in his chest. “You can explain it to our parents when you see them. I can see they blended your DNA with that of a tiger, and if you’re happy, then, sis, I’m happy. I pray you know what you’re doing because it’s your life and you’re the one who has to live it. I’ll always be here for you, I hope you know that.”

  Her regal smile eased the guilt spiraling within him that he was focused on Sari rather than her. “Let me deal with the repercussions of my decisions, Harry. I think you have other, more pressing matters on your, uh, mind.”