Charlie shrugged. “For the most part. Of course, sometimes he can get that scary, hard look and it’s hard to tell. I don’t think anyone has ever really figured out what’s going on behind that steel wall he puts up.”
Or then again, maybe the woman could be honest.
Tessa relaxed a little as she gave the bubbly stranger the once over. Charlie was taller than her—but who wasn’t—and had bright red hair that Tessa was pretty sure wasn’t natural. Her smile was sincere, and more than a little contagious.
The strange truth was, Tessa found herself liking the woman almost immediately. If they had met at a party, Tessa could even see them becoming friends.
“I wouldn’t worry about Rhys though,” Charlie went on. “If there’s one thing that man is, it’s loyal.”
“To who?” Tessa asked.
“As far as I can tell, it’s not a who as much as a what.” Charlie went back to the bag on the bed and started digging inside. “Rhys has a soft spot for the underdog, the little guy fighting against insurmountable odds.”
That certainly sounded like her, especially last night. It explained why he’d risked his own skin to save hers.
But Tessa didn’t need a champion right now. She needed a way out.
“Yeah, but battling other people’s fights sounds like a good way to get yourself hurt…or worse,” Tessa said. Maybe if she could convince Charlie, she might be able to talk some sense into her friend.
Charlie lifted her head. “You have no idea who saved your ass last night, do you?”
Tessa blinked. She’d thought she did. “Some guy that works at a security firm.”
“Rhys is a hell of a lot more than that,” Charlie said, her grin growing. “He’s ex-Special Forces. And trust me, that Special means something when it comes to Rhys.”
“So, he’s a badass.” Tessa had already seen the proof of that. No regular Joe could have rescued her from Boyd’s compound.
“It’s more than that,” Charlie said, pulling a couple of bottles of nice shampoo and conditioner from the duffel bag. She tossed them down on the bed. “All the guys that work at Macmillan Security used to be in the same unit.”
“Under the Captain,” Tessa said. The title finally made sense.
Charlie nodded. “They became kind of famous for doing the right thing no matter the consequences. I don’t think that desire ended the day they got out of the Army.”
Great.
Tessa’s gaze slid to the floor. She was sure that Charlie was telling her this to reassure her, to let her know that she was with the good guys, and that no one was going to hurt her. And, in a way, that was a relief. But on the other hand, now Tessa had to slip away, not just from a single man, but from an entire Special Forces unit.
“You really like these guys, don’t you?” Tessa asked.
“I do,” Charlie said with a nod. “More than that I like what they do. I’ve seen them save a lot of lives. Right a lot of wrongs.”
“And that’s why you work for Macmillan?”
“That, and Carter pays twice as much as anyone else in town,” Charlie said with a twinkle in her eye.
“Be careful,” Tessa said, recoiling at the mention of money. “Believe me when I tell you it isn’t everything.”
Boyd had lured her across the country with the promise of more cash than she’d ever dreamed of. Looking back she should have known what was happening. She was smart enough to have figured it out, but the truth was, Boyd had offered Tessa her dream, and she’d been blind to anything else. Coming from a family that had struggled for every cent, Tessa had been thrilled to be given the chance to help them out for a change. She’d never imagined the cost.
Not until it was too late.
She’d carry the regret of that mistake with her for the rest of her life. Which, in all probability, wouldn’t be that much longer. Not if she did what she had to.
Her horror must have shown on her face though because Charlie’s expression had changed. Her gaze had turned critical, and her smile had faded. In its place was a look of concern.
“Are you okay?” she asked.
“I’m fine,” Tessa said, but Charlie looked far from convinced. Maybe it was better to change the subject. “What do you do at Macmillan Security, Charlie?”
“I run the IT department,” she said. “Hell, I am the IT department.”
“Something tells me there’s more to your job than setting up new software and printers, if they drug you all the way out here.” Tessa sat down on the edge of the mattress. Her legs were already getting tired.
“Well, I have a feeling Carter thought it would be a good idea to bring a woman along for this one.” Charlie took a seat on the opposite corner. “You might not have guessed, but our office isn’t exactly a bastion of gender diversity.”
“So, you’re just here to bring me clothes and help me wash my hair?” Tessa raised her brows.
Charlie met her gaze for a long moment, before finally shaking her head.
“No,” she said. “Carter was hoping you’d trust me, and I’d be able to get some more information from you.”
Tessa cocked her chin to the side. “More?”
“Carter had me dig up everything I could find about you after Rhys called last night,” she said.
Tessa’s heart started to hammer against her breastbone at Charlie’s words. She could feel the blood draining from her face. Rescuing her from Boyd’s house was downright noble. Protecting her from Dylan and his goon squad was understandable, if not misguided. But delving into her past? Rhys and his friends had no idea what dangerous waters they were diving into.
“What did you find?” Tessa asked, not bothering to mask the fear in her voice.
Charlie’s brows pulled together at the sudden change in her demeanor. “Not much, or I wouldn’t be here now.”
Thank God.
Boyd had always kept Project Exodus a well-guarded secret. He’d said it was to keep the media distractions to a minimum, but now Tessa knew that was only half true. It wasn’t just the press he was trying to avoid. It was any number of government and defense organizations as well.
But there was bound to be some kind of trail. It might be buried deep in the SciGen archives, but it was out there. And Charlie seemed to be the type that didn’t give up easily.
Tessa grimaced as she struggled to turn her aching body toward Charlie.
“You have to promise me that you won’t keep looking,” Tessa said, grasping the other woman’s hand.
Charlie’s eyes widened at the sudden move, but she didn’t pull away. “Why?”
“Because it’s dangerous. Very dangerous,” Tessa said. “I can’t explain why. You just have to believe me.”
Concern showed in Charlie’s eyes. Compassion, too. But no fear.
Damn it. Why didn’t any of these people have the sense to be afraid.
“I do believe you,” Charlie said. She paused before lifting her eyes to Tessa’s. “But my boss won’t. Until he knows more, Carter will keep asking me to find out everything I can about your work.”
Tessa closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. That was what she was afraid of. She pulled back her hands, and groaned as she rose to her feet.
“Then, I guess I’m just going to have to go out there and explain it to the Captain myself.”
“Now, that’s an idea I can get behind.” Charlie stood up, a wide, mischievous smile spreading across her face. “But I’m thinking that we might want to wash your hair and get you into a pair of pants before we launch Operation Stern Talking To.”
Tessa glanced down at her bare and bruised legs. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”
“I usually am,” Charlie said with a wink.
***
The last twenty minutes had gone by painfully slow for Rhys. He’d spent the first part answering seemingly endless questions about what he’d been doing out at Boyd’s house to his boss, and the second half watching Carter Macmillan silently pace back and forth in f
ront of the empty fireplace as he mused over Rhys’ answers.
Nothing new there. Rhys knew how Carter worked. Just like he knew Carter wasn’t all that happy with him at the moment.
It was nothing personal. Carter was just protective. It might have been years since he’d been Rhys’ CO, but Rhys knew Carter still thought of everyone on his team as his men.
It was part of the reason the old unit was still so loyal to the man. Every one of them knew they had brothers they could lean on.
And right now, Rhys knew he needed them. Not for himself, but for Tessa. She was going to need the full power of Macmillan Security behind her if she had any hope of surviving this fight.
After a few more laps in front of the mantle, Carter stopped and crossed his arms. “So, Anders Boyd,” he said with a sigh. “The man is one hell of an enemy.”
Jake, who looked like he’d been about to doze off in the leather chair next to Rhys, popped his head up. “We’ve fought bigger.”
Carter’s jaw tightened. “And destroyed half of downtown Sacramento in the process.”
“I still say one floor of a single office building is surprisingly little collateral damage,” Jake said, dismissively waving his hand.
Carter ignored Jake’s wisecrack, and focused his gaze on Rhys. “If we’re going to pursue this, we’re going to need more information about what Boyd was trying to get out of Dr. Rosenthal.”
Rhys’ shoulders tightened. “Have Charlie do her thing.”
“She already tried,” Carter said. “Whatever Boyd is hiding, he’s buried it deep. Charlie could barely find anything.”
“So, have her dig deeper,” he said plainly.
Carter’s eyes narrowed as his head tilted to the side. Rhys understood his confusion. Carter wasn’t used to being told no…especially by Rhys.
He’d never refused a mission that Carter had given him—never. Of course, he’d never disagreed with one until now.
But there was no way that he was going to interrogate that frail, broken creature in the back of this house. He couldn’t live with himself if he shattered what was left of her fragile defenses. Tessa was barely holding herself together as it was.
Carter took a step toward Rhys’ chair, his stare intensifying.
“Maybe I didn’t make myself clear,” he said. “We cannot take this case, unless I get more information about what I am dropping my men into the middle of.”
“Then I guess you won’t be taking this case, Mr. Macmillan,” a feminine voice said from the edge of the hallway.
Rhys shot up from his chair as everyone turned her way.
“Tessa.”
She glanced his way for a moment before focusing back on Carter. The change in her appearance from when he’d left her was dramatic. Her honey-blond hair was clean and wet. It was brushed back from her face, revealing not just a smattering of cuts and bruises, but also the stubborn set of her chin and her sharp, intelligent eyes.
Charlie’s fresh set of clothes seemed to have given her a new confidence as well. She might still be leaning against the wall to help prop herself up, but there was a new sense of purpose in her stance.
Maybe frail and broken weren’t the best descriptors after all. Even though she was obviously still injured and healing, there was nothing fragile about the woman standing before Rhys now.
Rhys rushed over to her side and gave Tessa his arm. She leaned on him hard. She should be resting, not walking straight into a head-to-head battle with Carter Macmillan.
Rhys turned his head as Charlie scooted past them on her way to the living room.
“You were supposed to be watching her,” he said through tight lips.
“I did. I watched her walk right out of the room,” Charlie said.
“You know that’s not what I meant,” he said.
“Well, if you wanted a babysitter, you should have hired one.” Charlie took a position by the mantle. “Besides, I think you might want to hear what she has to say.”
Rhys helped Tessa over to the chair he’d been in moments before.
“I take it you’re ready to explain what’s going on, Dr. Rosenthal,” Carter said the moment she was settled.
“No.” Tessa shook her head. “I’m afraid I can’t do that. But I can make you understand why.”
Chapter Five
Tessa squared her shoulders as she met the stare of the man in front of her.
This had to be Carter Macmillan. He certainly fit the part of the Captain. Tall and dignified, he gave off an authority that was impossible to misread. And by the dark expression on his face, he really didn’t like being told no.
But if he thought that she was going to be intimidated by his powerful stance, he was bound for another disappointment. There was too much on the line for her to be cowed by a simple glower…no matter how intense it was.
Of course, it helped that Rhys was staying by her side. He took a seat on the wide arm of the leather chair, his hands cupping her shoulders. The simple touch felt good, as if he was imbuing her with some of his strength.
She’d see how long that support lasted after she was done talking to his boss.
Carter Macmillan stepped closer, so that he towered over her.
“You have my undivided attention, Dr. Rosenthal,” he said.
Tessa lifted her chin. “You need to stop looking into the project that I was developing for SciGen, and you need to stop now.”
“And why should I do that?”
“Because there’s nothing to find.”
Carter crossed his arms over his chest. “How can you be so sure?”
“Because I destroyed everything.” Tessa met his hard stare as she pushed a lock of hair back behind her ear. “Notes. Computers. Prototypes. Everything.”
Tessa glanced down at the memory. Years of her life, everything she had worked so hard to create, everything that she ever believed in, gone in a matter of minutes.
A flicker of surprise showed on Carter Macmillan’s face, but it was gone in a flash.
“But even if you managed to destroy the hardware there would still be an electronic trail the moment you sent an email,” Charlie said.
“Which was why I never did,” Tessa said. “My lab was kept under the strictest security, totally self-contained. Nothing was ever sent in or out. Boyd made sure of that. He said it was for the protection of the project, the only way to be one hundred percent sure that no hacker could steal our work.”
“And what exactly was your work?” Carter asked.
Tessa shook her head. “I can’t—”
“—tell me,” Carter finished for her. “You might want to rethink that strategy, Dr. Rosenthal. You might have been able to destroy information about your project, but we were still able to dig up some information on you. And I have to say that when you put it all together it doesn’t look good.”
Tessa swallowed down past the lump growing in her throat. “What information?”
“We know you received your doctorate in Bio Engineering from MIT, even though not everyone on your thesis committee agreed with some of your more radical ideas on genome manipulation,” he said.
“All new ideas are controversial,” Tessa shot back. That was hardly a smoking gun.
Carter turned his back to her and moved back to the fireplace. He leaned against the mantle. “We know Boyd recruited you right after graduation. We know that you two were so close that for the last three years you headed a project so secret that only you and Boyd knew the true nature of it.”
Tessa’s shoulders tightened. She didn’t like the way Carter Macmillan was twisting this around.
“A project,” Carter went on, “that Anders Boyd claims you perverted into a biological weapon that you are now hiding until you can sell it to the highest bidder.”
“I didn’t hide anything,” she countered. “I destroyed everything.”
“I only have your word for that.”
“And it’s the only one you need,” Tessa said, her voice growin
g louder with every word. She felt her defenses rise. “You think that I’m the one who weaponized the project? That’s ridiculous. I went into bio-engineering to save lives, not to kill people. Boyd is the one that stands to make a profit.”
“I don’t know what to think,” Carter said slowly. “I know that Anders Boyd is no saint, but he’s the only one telling his side of the story.”
Tessa turned her face up to Rhys. His expression was flat, giving nothing away. Surely, he didn’t believe that she was the bad guy.
Tessa drew in a deep breath. She knew it shouldn’t matter to her what any of these people thought of her. They could think she was the living embodiment of the devil himself, as long as she had the opportunity to get to downtown San Jose and end this.
But not Rhys.
For some reason, she couldn’t bear the idea of him thinking she was some kind of monster. Not after all he’d done for her.
“You have to believe me,” she said, slipping her hand over his. “I thought I was working on a medical breakthrough, something that was going to change the world. If I had known what Boyd had planned for Project Exodus I would have never agreed to work for him.”
“What was his plan?” Carter demanded.
Tessa swiveled her head his way. “I can’t—”
“I don’t think you understand the gravity of your situation,” Carter said, his voice stern.
Something snapped inside her. Tessa had no doubt that Captain Badass had qualifications of his own, but they most certainly did not include telling her what she did and did not understand.
She pulled forward until she was teetering on the very edge of her seat. Rhys clasped her tighter, holding her steady. But he didn’t pull her back.
“No, Mr. Macmillan. You’re the one that doesn’t understand a damned thing,” she said, piercing him with a glare. “Boyd kidnapped me. He strapped me to a chair and sicced his dog Murtry on me for two straight days. But I didn’t say a word. Not when he hit me, or cut me, or threatened everything I hold dear. And if you think I endured all of that because I was waiting for some big payday, then you are truly an imbecile.”
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