Catch Me If You Can (Love's Command)

by Billi Jean

  Dare turned to give her a hard stare and folded his arms across his chest. He looked serious for once, the teasing glint in his eyes missing.

  Did he think her father was a monster? The way Tazz painted his picture, she and her father seemed like mad scientists. She swallowed past a sudden dry throat, too nervous under both of their heavy stares to do more. The doubts she had concerning her father made it even worse. Even more frustrating for her was the fact that their government sanctioned—worse, they encouraged her father’s research to the point that she’d left, not able to push aside her own unease in what they’d been asked to do. Had she made it worse by leaving? Should she have said more, pushed for the end of the research?

  “I read your chart. I remember that you were unique, a wholly different case since you had volunteered your body to research after your death but then survived. He wasn’t asked to the scene and the doctors there worked without his knowledge. As soon as my father learned of what they’d done, he adapted your medications and monitored your progression. We did observe signs of strain—”

  “Wait. Hold on.” Dare stood and raised his hands to chest level in a slowdown gesture. “Are you telling me that you and your father have created some kind of DNA altering drug? And you, Tazz, have been given this shit?”

  “I’ve been given shit for years, Dare. Why would this be any different?” he scoffed.

  She wanted to stand as well, but simply said, “We never meant—”

  “If you’re messing with genetics you can’t claim you never meant harm, Ms Chung,” Tazz said roughly, then sat back down and quietly added, “Without scientists like you messing around, the world would be a safer place.”

  Kylie curled her arms around her middle and turned from Tazz’s harsh stare. Was he right? His words mirrored her own fears and brought them out into the harsh light of day.

  Dare stared at her as if just now seeing her for the first time and not liking what he saw. How could she blame him? What they did or had done was illegal in most countries or should be. Even though they’d worked with volunteers, she’d gotten more and more upset with the proceedings. And really, Ky, did you think by leaving in a huff of disillusionment that the work would grind to a halt?

  Again, for the millionth time, she worried over what the blackmailers would do with the knowledge she handed over. But if she didn’t finish this, her father would die. According to this man, a man who’d been fed not only drugs to enhance his fighting and survival instincts, but his brain’s use of strategy and coding, her father was already dead.

  No. I won’t believe it. I won’t.

  “Look, settle down, Tazz. I agree this is fucked up, but without scientists messing around, you’d be dead and more than just the once, my man.”

  Tazz snorted.

  “Now, I need to hear this from the beginning of the genetics shit, and don’t even think to say I don’t have clearance. This affects me as much as it does you,” he told Tazz, then turned to her. “If there are men holding your father, and they want this technology, we can’t hand it over. But we can get your father out—”

  “Hold it right there. The man is dead, Dare,” Tazz snarled. “And we sure as shit don’t make promises like that, neither do we negotiate—”

  Dare slashed his hand down in a cutting motion, getting right in Tazz’s face. “We don’t negotiate, but we don’t lose a vital resource. To me, it sounds like her dad is that and bit more, don’t you think?” He shot Tazz an odd look.

  She couldn’t decipher it but it almost looked like a quelling glance on anything else the man might say.

  In response, Tazz backed up a step and sank back in his chair, letting Dare win the battle.

  As soon as he did, Dare turned to her and she was suddenly in the hot seat. Does he ever lose a battle?

  “Now, explain this Frankenstein shit to me please. You’re saying that you and your dad developed something to bring men back from the dead?”

  Stunned, all she could do was stare at him until she snapped her mouth closed then managed to splutter, “No, we don’t bring men back from the dead!”

  “Naw, I did that on my own, weren’t you listening? They have created some crazy shit to enhance performance. To make a better solider—”

  “That is not what we first intended. My father worked to find a cure for cancer. His work was—”

  “But that’s what’s been done with his work, isn’t it?” Tazz growled.

  With a look from Dare he settled back down, but she guessed by Tazz’s angry expression that he wasn’t done.

  “My father never meant his genetic research to be used for such things,” she said quietly.

  If anything, her words made Tazz look angrier. “Again, that’s exactly what it was used for, wasn’t it? To create a better soldier.”

  “What he worked on was a formula to manipulate the DNA sections responsible for brain growth and activity and moved on from there, adding more opportunities for growth to the hormone, both in the body and the brain. He worked hard to monitor everyone and remove them from the program if they were showing any signs of strain.”

  Under both men’s unblinking stares, she tried hard not to show how completely out of her comfort zone they were pushing her. She didn’t stand up to people and correct them, and she didn’t give long speeches, and she certainly didn’t face off with men yelling at her.

  And I don’t swim, but I did. The thought made her sit up straighter and remind herself of all the things she had survived so far. Maybe she did stand up to people. Maybe she could prove to Tazz her father had never meant to hurt him, or anyone. And maybe then he’d help her instead of stop her from saving her father.

  “Let me get this straight. You’re now some, what, super solider?” Dare asked Tazz with an incredulous look.

  Tazz muttered something that she didn’t catch then shook his head. “It’s done some things to my ability to think strategy.” He shrugged. “It’s made things that looked impossible before, easy. It’s difficult to explain, but so far its side effects have been limited.”

  “So far?” she asked.

  “So far,” Tazz grumbled under his breath again.

  “Spill it, man. What’s been going on?”

  Tazz gave them both an angry look but exhaled wearily when Dare rolled his hand for him to get on with it.

  “I’ve lost track of some time.”

  “Lost track of time?” she asked, trying to remember if any of the dozen or so reports on the men and women she’d worked on had ever said such a thing. “Do you mean you blacked out and came to again? With gaps in your memory?”

  Tazz nodded.

  A chill settled along her arms even though the room was sweltering. The memory blanks had become common in a few of her father’s earlier subjects. He’d discontinued the drugs on them and after six months they had been fine. A year later, she’d contacted them and out of the three subjects only one had come in to let her check on him. He’d suffered from a form of short-term memory loss off and on for the year, and after a CAT scan, had proved to have significant brain damage.

  If Tazz was experiencing this, she feared he, too, would become more and more damaged. Her father had tried several treatments and after three weeks, the subject had shown significant re-growth in the areas of the brain most affected. He’d not been the same man though, and after the last time she’d worked with him, she’d not seen him again. She had heard he’d gone back to his life, and her father had checked in on him to discover he had been living happily enough as a civilian in the suburbs. But Tazz was a soldier, and she doubted he wanted to be anything but a soldier. What if the brain damage was too far gone for that?

  “You don’t seem shocked, Ms Chung. Can I assume I’m at the end of this experiment?” Tazz asked quietly.

  She blinked and shook her head quickly. “No, not at all. There have been cases of memory loss, but my father was able to—”

  “Your father isn’t here. I want to know about you,” Dare
interrupted. “What the hell does it mean he’s lost time? Can you help him?”

  Tazz laughed harshly. “It means I’ve woken up places I don’t remember getting to. It means that I’ve been out of it and out there, doing what, I don’t know.”

  “Shit.” Dare rubbed both of his hands over his closely cropped hair. “And this mission. You signed on to get to her? To see if she could help you?”

  Shocked, Kylie watched Tazz slowly nod. “She’s all I have. Her father is most likely dead already.”

  “Stop saying that!” She stood so fast she didn’t remember moving. Dare put a hand on her shoulder and she shook him off angrily. “My father is alive and I want you to stop saying he isn’t.”

  “Tazz is pissed. Angry, but your dad is going to be fine.”

  She struggled to keep the panic down and latched onto Dare’s words like a lifeline.

  “You can’t be saying things like that, man. You know—”

  “Enough. She’s tired. You should be too, Superman, because I know I am. We’ve all been up and running, some of us more than others,” he said, shooting her a mock frown, “for more than twenty-four hours and some change. You take first watch. Kylie, there’s a room in there with a bed. Go sleep. I have the couch, and, you, watch the damn doors.”

  She thought Tazz might argue, but he met Dare’s eyes steadily until after a silent second, he merely nodded and walked to the sliding glass doors leading to the patio then sat down outside in one of the chairs.

  Dare squeezed her shoulder. “Go on. It’s safe. We’ll get this all worked out in the morning. For now, we need to rest.” He moved closer when she didn’t move. “What is it?”

  What to say? That she’d never meant to harm anyone? How naïve was that? “I am sorry that people were hurt—are and will be hurt by this. That your friend,” she whispered, her throat tightening on how inadequate her words were, “was hurt.”

  Dare surprised her by cupping the side of her face with his hand. She held her breath at the oddly gentle touch. He was such a big man to be so careful.

  “Yeah, well, sometimes people don’t stop to look at their actions. Sometimes people get hurt when others try to make things they shouldn’t, don’t they?”

  His words stung but she held in the pain, knowing he was right. It wouldn’t do to argue, not that he’d listen to her. She had to leave these men. Already it was like being pulled under deep water with all Tazz had said. She needed to contact Eric. She needed to get to her dad’s lab here, without being seen or followed by anyone, including this man. With Tazz on guard and Dare on the couch, her chances of escape were slim to none.

  “Sometimes even the best intentions can go wrong,” Dare murmured. “Better go rest now, we can talk in the morning.”

  He dropped his hand and stepped away.

  She ducked her head to block the sight of him. He confused her.

  “Of course. I just need to sleep, I’m sure I’ll be fine in the morning.”

  She glanced at him once before retreating to the bedroom and closing the door silently. The way he’d looked at her made her stomach feel like it was full of butterflies, because he looked as if he wanted to join her. Kiss her at the very least.

  She leaned against the door.

  What would he think he if knew I want him to?

  Dare stared at the closed door, knowing that before the night was finished, she’d try to get away from them. He wanted to pull her close, ease the fear and helplessness he saw in her eyes and fill the night with soft sighs and hot, wild sex. But he couldn’t do that. Not now, he thought, trying to tame the hard-on trying to suck up every reason why he couldn’t do just that.

  He reminded himself that Tazz had shaken her. Hell, the man had shaken him. All the talk of DNA, genetics and some crazy drugs that had changed his buddy sounded like he’d stepped into the Twilight Zone. Or some horror flick.

  He rubbed his head, trying to get the idea of her body sliding along his out of his brain. It would take her mind off her unhappiness, but only for a short time.

  Do you want your first experience with her to be to get her mind off her worries?

  His chest tightened painfully at the thought, but he still wanted in there. He belonged in there with her, comforting her, easing her, holding her.

  I shouldn’t open that door. She was in there, probably sizing up the windows to see which one she could climb out to get out of the room the quickest. They were on the tenth floor, but the windows were placed one on top of the other. Would she attempt to climb down?

  The look in her eyes said yes.

  She’d looked cornered. Cornered people did crazy things. He was half surprised she’d not tried before now. He’d gotten them here, purchased her a change of clothes, even found the laundry to wash out her backpack and clothing from the dip in the ocean. She’d showered, but he’d been in a panic the entire time thinking she’d try to get away and he’d find her dead somewhere. So far she’d stayed close.

  He glanced out at Tazz on the patio. The night sky of Hiroshima blinked in a multitude of colors and bright lights, but he doubted Tazz was enjoying the view.

  No wonder the man seemed at the edge of his endurance. Shit. He’d died. Died. To come back to this shit? Experiments and worse, his body full of chemicals changing him? As far as he knew, everyone thought Tazz had faked his death or the government had forced him to. Dare doubted even Mac knew Tazz had literally died. No one knew Tazz had been fed experimental drugs. The team wouldn’t let that go. Retired or not, they’d have been on his ass more than they were now, trying to get him to come clean to Mandy and simply live again.

  He was amazed Tazz was listening to him. He was even more shocked the man wasn’t knocking down Kylie’s door for answers to the memory loss. The man he’d known most of his life wasn’t known for his patience, yet there he sat, not doing a damn thing except drinking a bottle of water.

  Tazz had shut down. The man could hold his thoughts close to his chest when he wanted to, and as far as planning, he’d been damn near Einstein about it before, Dare couldn’t imagine him being better at strategizing.

  No doubt that’s what he was doing now. As long as he didn’t plan on doing something to Kylie, Dare was good with it. If he thought to harm her, modified genetics or not, Dare was going to dig him a shallow grave—at least to hold him until he could get Kylie somewhere safe.

  He considered going out there and hashing it out, but he knew the Texan was closed mouthed when he wanted to be and right now, Dare sensed he wasn’t going to listen. Unless Dare forced him to.

  The only thing Dare wanted to force was that door open, so he could insure that one little beauty stayed with him.

  There was something fucked up about it, but he almost welcomed the upcoming struggle with these blackmailers so he could save her life again. Or whoever else was after her father’s work. He knew he was skating on thin ice, but he also knew he was addicted to saving her.

  Right now, though, he’d best save her from falling out of a window.

  If she were trying to escape, he doubted she’d be quite as thankful as she had been over the rescue in the ocean.

  Decided, he opened the door without knocking. What waited for him was better than any damn Christmas gift he’d ever been given.

  He’d seen more than his share of women in his life. Kylie half naked in a pale yellow lacy bra and matching panties was by far the most beautiful. Her slender legs looked like they went on forever. He fisted his hands, otherwise there’d be nothing stopping him from pouncing on her. Already his cock hardened to an almost pre-cum state. What the hell would he do once he had her in his arms? The months of celibacy, a first for him, weren’t helping matters either.

  She gasped and turned to face him fully, but in her shock she didn’t cover her body. Instead they stood there, both of them lost in the moment, with his mouth hanging open, no doubt.

  Didn’t matter, he decided, and drank her in. The glow to her skin, the roundness of her genero
us breasts, and her perfect legs that he knew would drive him insane once he got himself between them, all added up to one hell of a punch. She was perfect in all the right places. And some places were so damn right, he knew he’d exhaust himself before he ever got enough of her.

  What would she feel like, sitting astride him and riding him until they both hit that edge and fell over? The question made his cock, already painfully hard, jerk against the fabric of his shorts.

  “What are you doing!?” she shrieked, pulling the blankets off the bed. She yanked them around her body toga style and faced him with an angry little scowl. “Get out! You said—”

  “I know, I said, I’d wait out here and sleep, but I’m a big man, I need a full sized bed.” He closed the door and reached her before she could make it too far. “And you can’t be trusted, can you?” he asked, drawing her right up against his body with his hands firmly lodged right above her lush ass. If he moved them down a half an inch he’d not be able to stop the need to rut against her like some sex-crazed maniac.

  Her mouth went slack at his words or the feel of him, he wasn’t sure which, but he liked that she didn’t pull away.

  She also didn’t look like she’d been on her way to escaping anything more than her clothes.

  “I can,” she whispered. “Be trusted.”

  He had to take a second to figure out her words, because of all the women he’d seduced, this one, this woman, he wanted more than any other. His cock was so tightly trapped in his cargo shorts it hurt. It at least wanted out. He wanted inside her, but hell, he also wanted her trust. That look of relief when he’d told Tazz to back off was something he wanted directed at him. Only him.

  Instinctively, he guessed he couldn’t get that if he pushed her for sex. Something warned him if he did, he’d only have that with her. There would be no starting with sex and easing into a relationship. She hadn’t been brought up that way. And from what her file said about her life, she’d only dated a few men and those men had been picked by her family or her father.