Not that he knew what her condition was, except that someone had injected her with something that had left her unconscious.
He looked once again at her relaxed face—peaceful—and was bowled over by how beautiful she was. The concern he felt for her future ran deep. How had a woman he’d only known for two days gotten so far beneath his skin? Was that even possible?
He watched as the sheets moved up and down as she breathed softly.
Yes, somehow it was possible.
Jonathan didn’t leave her side until a knock sounded on the door to his room. He gave her one more quick look before going through the adjoining room—shutting the door behind him—and heading to answer the knock. His body was tense, like a snake readying to strike at the first sign of a threat. He peered through the peephole to see a man standing by himself.
Jonathan pushed aside the lingering fear that he had made a huge mistake in listening to Kate’s text and opened the door.
Jonathan placed Jake around the same age as him. He was shorter, around six feet, but lean just like him. Jonathan bet the black blazer that matched his slacks hid toned muscles that worked in tandem with a trained posture. Beneath the blazer was a white button-up and a black-and-dark-blue-striped tie. The outfit was finished off with dress shoes that almost reflected the hallway lights. His hair was also neat, dark blond and cropped short, while his face was cleanly shaven. Even his eyes, a pale blue, seemed to be proper. Jonathan would bet money this guy was some type of law enforcement. Then again, that didn’t mean Jonathan trusted him any more in the moment.
“Where is she?” the man greeted, body already angling like he had been invited inside. Even though he didn’t introduce himself, his voice matched the one on the phone. But Jonathan had to be sure he could trust him before allowing him anywhere near Kate.
“How do I even know if you’re here to help?” Jonathan asked, voice as cold as steel.
The man didn’t hide his frustration. It turned his expression into a scowl.
“You don’t,” he admitted. “But I swear to you if Kate dies while you’re out here trying to be a good bodyguard, then wouldn’t that be a kick in the professional ass?”
There was no humor in his words, just sincerity.
It was that sureness that made Jonathan turn around, key card already in hand for the adjoining door.
“If you do anything I think is hurting her, I’ll kill you,” Jonathan growled.
The man followed him into the room.
“I thought bodyguards protected, not killed.”
“I’d make the exception for her.”
Jake didn’t respond as they moved to the other room.
“I moved her off the floor,” Jonathan said, pointing out the obvious just in case it affected whatever magic Jake was supposed to generate to fix the situation. “She had just gotten out of the shower.”
Jake went over to Kate so fast that Jonathan fisted his hands. He kept the man’s pace and watched as he bent over her.
“Careful,” Jonathan warned. Jake didn’t pause in his actions. He turned her head carefully to the side to look at the mark on her neck himself. It lasted less than a second.
“This paramedic looked her over after the car ran Greg down?” he asked, attention falling away from Kate.
“Yes,” Jonathan answered, surprised. “How did you know about the accident?”
Jake pointed his thumb back at Kate.
“She called me after it happened.” Jonathan connected the dots. So Jake had been the close friend Kate had called to go to the hospital when she couldn’t. That eased some of Jonathan’s suspicion of the man. But only some. “I’m working on a project with Greg here in New York,” he added, as if that explained anything, but Jonathan was only concerned about one thing.
“So what’s wrong with Kate?”
For the first time since the man had walked through the door, he looked Jonathan straight in the eyes.
“How seriously do you take your job as her bodyguard?”
Jonathan squared his shoulders.
“Very.”
“Then we need to leave now.” Jake was already walking away, head lowered in an obvious show of determination. But, once again, nothing was being explained.
“Wait, leave?”
Jake turned quick, angry.
“Listen here—” he started, but Jonathan had had enough. He pushed the man until his back slammed into the wall. He didn’t stop there, lifting him slightly by the collar of his shirt.
“No, you listen here,” Jonathan fumed. “I don’t know you, I don’t even know your last name and I don’t know where it is you expect me to go. But I’ll tell you right now, I’m not one of those people who run on pure faith alone. I need some answers.”
Jonathan’s adrenaline was pumping through his veins. He could have done some serious damage to the man—shown him exactly how physical suspicion could be—but Jonathan was letting one fact and one fact alone hold his anger back.
Kate had asked him to call the man.
Jake appeared to be wrangling his own knee-jerk reactions. When he spoke there was a sharp edge to his words.
“My name is Jake Harper and I’m a federal agent. My badge is in my blazer pocket, right side,” he explained. Jonathan lowered the man back to the ground and motioned for him to show said badge. He pulled out the black flip wallet and, just as he said, Jake Harper, FBI, was on it. “I’ve known Kate since she was eight, and I’ve worked with Greg for the last five years.”
“You know what she was injected with,” Jonathan stated.
Jake nodded.
“I wouldn’t have, had she gone to the hospital, but if she truly asked you to call me instead, then she must know I can help. And there’s only one thing I would even guess could make her drop like that.” He put his badge back into his pocket. Jonathan caught a glimpse of the holstered gun beneath his jacket. “If I’m right, and there’s a good chance I am, then we need to give her another specific injection from Greg’s lab.”
“And if we don’t?” Jonathan was almost afraid to ask.
“Then she dies.” Jake didn’t pause to let that sink in. “So, bodyguard, you said you were willing to kill for her. Now the question is, are you willing to help steal for her?”
* * *
IT WAS RAINING.
The pitter-patter of drops hitting the tin roof was an ocean of sound around her, filling the tiny bedroom with comforting white noise. The soft glow of her bedside lamp projected hundreds of tiny stars on the ceiling. She looked up at them from where she’d fallen asleep on the rug and drew a line in the air connecting a cluster, creating Orion’s belt with ease. She’d never been able to spot the constellation before, but now she was sure of how its placement looked. It made her happy, though she couldn’t figure out why.
The rain got harder and tore her attention away. She heard a distant slam followed by voices. Quickly, she jumped up and crawled into bed. She wasn’t supposed to be awake.
The rain got even harder and the stars went out, bathing everything in darkness. Something was wrong. Fear twisted around her heart at the sound of footsteps in the hallway. They weren’t heavy like a man’s, but softer. Excitement banished all fear. The star lights flashed back on and even the rain quieted as the door to the bedroom cracked open. A woman’s face appeared in the space, searching for her.
“Kate, aren’t you supposed to be asleep?”
Kate giggled.
“Mom, I was waiting for you,” she said matter-of-factly. “You were gone for a long time!”
Cassandra opened the door wide, already kicking off her boots and throwing her jacket to the floor. She came up to the bed and said, “Scoot!”
Kate did as she was told and soon they were both squeezed into the twin-size bed. Kate didn’t
mind one bit.
“I told you not to wait up for me,” Cassandra said, putting her arm around Kate and smooshing her into her side. “You have your first day of third grade tomorrow. You’re going to be tired.” Cassandra tickled her side a few times until Kate laughed.
The sound became so loud it blocked out all other noises. The stars flickered. A wave of cold wrapped around Kate.
“Don’t be scared,” Cassandra whispered.
And then everything felt right in the room.
“I’m not scared,” Kate said, pouting. She didn’t want her mother to think she wasn’t strong. She slid her hand down to the badge on her belt and ran her finger over the gold. She’d always loved tracing the three letters with her fingertips.
Cassandra kissed the top of Kate’s head.
“Just because someone’s scared doesn’t mean they aren’t strong.”
Kate felt her cheeks heat, embarrassed that she’d had to be taught a lesson and hadn’t learned it on her own.
“Jake says he’s not afraid of anything, because his dad gave him a badge like his to carry around,” Kate said. Cassandra laughed, but the sound was off. Like being underwater. Kate tilted her head up to see what the cause was. Cassandra’s eyes were closed, lips turned downward like she was sleeping.
“Mom?” Kate whispered.
Cassandra didn’t move.
“Is that what you want? A badge?” she asked, and though her lips still didn’t move, Kate knew it was her mother asking. Her voice filled the small room like it was coming through a school intercom. She felt a finger press lightly against her temple. It was cold. “Because I believe this is your greatest weapon, and you should, too. You’re smart and clever and the world will quake beneath your feet if you ever decide to conquer it.”
The frozen Cassandra thawed in a fit of laughter. Kate joined in, liking the way the sounds harmonized.
“If I ruled the world, I’d make everyone have brownies for dinner,” Kate said. “And bedtime would be whenever I wanted.”
“That’s my girl.”
She looked up to see if her mother really did approve, but Cassandra was gone. Kate scrambled out of bed, trying to escape the growing feeling that something terrible had happened. Something was horribly wrong. She ran through the doorway, with her parents’ room in mind, when suddenly she was no longer in her house.
Where she was now smelled old and weird. Half of it Kate could process, the other half she didn’t understand. It was dark, too.
Someone tugged at her hand.
She turned her head to see them.
“Kate?”
Jonathan was staring back at her, blue eyes nearly lost in the darkness around them.
“Where’s Jake?” she asked, unease building into panic. “We rode our bikes here.”
Jonathan didn’t seem to care. Instead he looked over her head, focusing on something with interest. Kate turned and saw what caught his eye. A figure in the distance, sitting in an open room all alone.
“We shouldn’t go in there,” Jake’s voice whispered now at her side. There was real fear in it. Fear that coursed through their hands held together. “We need to go get help.”
“Just because we’re scared doesn’t mean we aren’t strong,” Kate chanted. She started forward, slowly moving closer to the person in the chair.
Kate heard Jake follow—heard his footsteps echo in the abandoned building—and felt braver. She could be strong just like her mom. She could find out who the person was. She could help them.
The closer she came, though, the farther away she ended up. The never-ending hallway became darker and darker until the old building, Jake and the person in the chair disappeared altogether.
“Don’t worry, Kate,” Jonathan’s voice said, now the only thing around her. “I’m going to fix this.”
One by one the stars on the ceiling turned back on. Kate was back in her bedroom, but this time it was different. Sitting on the rug, tears in her eyes, was a little girl dressed in black. Between her small hands was a shiny gold badge.
Jonathan’s words continued to echo around the two of them. They were strong and powerful, but Kate knew they were just words.
“You can’t fix this,” she whispered. “No one can.”
Chapter Thirteen
Jake blew through a red light, swerving around a car driving past the intersection. Jonathan gripped the handle of the passenger door. He wasn’t afraid, but he couldn’t deny that he was anxious. He’d just met the man ten minutes ago and now they were speeding toward an apparently secret lab for an equally secret antidote.
It was all very James Bond.
“I know you have no good reason to trust me, but I’m afraid you’re going to have to,” Jake reiterated. “After we get what we need and administer it to Kate, I’ll let her explain everything she’s willing to—she can do that better than I can, at least—and everything will make more sense.”
Jonathan was starting to doubt anyone had all the answers to connect the dots that had sprung up in the last two days, but he was willing to hold out hope.
“Are you at least going to give me more info on this ‘secret lab’ of yours?” he asked, making finger quotes around the part that undoubtedly made it sound like he was in a spy movie. “Is it a part of the FBI?”
A car horn blared at their side as Jake did some more defensive driving. Instead of hitting the brakes, he smoothly dipped into oncoming traffic before swerving back to the original lane, passing the taxi that had thought it a good idea to cut them off.
“Yes and no,” Jake answered, unaffected by the high speeds and subsequently more dangerous obstacles in their way. It made Jonathan think he’d done it before. “The lab was created and is currently funded and maintained by the FBI, but only a few know about it. The facility is run by its lead scientist, Greg Calhoun.”
“He said he was in business consulting now, only dabbling in scientific pursuits,” Jonathan interrupted, paraphrasing what the man had said earlier.
Jake snorted.
“He lied,” he said. “And before you get your panties all in a twist about being lied to, you must understand that even Kate doesn’t know about his involvement with the FBI or, for that matter, that Greg in no form or fashion lives or works in Buffalo. He’s never even been to Buffalo. Hell, she doesn’t even know of my involvement with Greg.”
“Which is what?”
Jake cast him a look that perfectly exhibited pride and simultaneous defeat.
“I’m his handler.” The defeat—the guilt—now made sense. “Normally I wouldn’t have been assigned a job like this—it was given to me barely out of the academy—but Greg said the only way he’d agree to work with the Bureau was if he could pick who oversaw his work and the day-to-day operations. He picked me.”
“You grew up with Kate,” Jonathan added, realizing the connection. “That means you—”
“Also grew up with Greg around,” Jake finished. “That’s why he chose me. He trusted me, and now—” Jake cut himself off by slamming his hands against the SUV’s steering wheel. “He’s in the hospital, and now Kate?” He quieted a moment but didn’t give Jonathan enough time to say anything before he spoke again. “The power went off in my building last night and killed my alarm clock. I’m not one of those people who can just wake up to the sound of their phone. I need both. Without the first, I woke up late and missed a call from Greg saying he was going to meet Kate. I was supposed to go with him. I was supposed to be there. I was supposed to protect him.” Again, Jake’s anger at fate, or himself, boiled over. He punched the steering wheel. Normally Jonathan would have stopped the rant. He didn’t know Jake, so how could he relate to him?
But, the thing was, he absolutely could.
In a way Jake was Greg’s bodyguard, just with a different ti
tle. He was responsible for keeping him safe. For protecting someone he cared about. As soon as that car had floored it through that intersection, he had failed.
Just as Jonathan had with Kate.
Empathy started to create a fondness for Jake, but that didn’t mean it would last. There were still too many questions he needed answered first.
“So what does Greg have to do with what happened to Kate? And why are the injections we need in his lab?” he asked, trying to grasp something.
While Jake had admitted freely that there was a secret lab and he was Greg’s handler, these questions made him hesitate. “Listen, if I’m about to help you steal from a lab operated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, then you’re going to tell me why.”
Jake turned on his blinker seconds before taking a quick turn. Another series of car horns went off. So far the traffic hadn’t been too bad, a fact that made Jonathan again realize Jake had done this before. When they were heading straight again, he let out a long breath.
“Kate has been working on the beginnings of a drug that could help law enforcement in a phenomenally big way. One that could help turn the tides on interrogation while remaining one hundred percent humane,” he explained. “She brought the idea to Greg, who was an FBI consultant at the time. To his surprise, it actually seemed plausible. He pitched the idea to an FBI task force dealing with scientific pursuits. Instead of simply taking the idea for themselves, Greg convinced them that Kate’s singular focus and passion for the project would benefit them more than a bunch of old scientists trying to become famous. I guess they agreed, but only in part. They let Greg find funding and contacts for her to start her research while giving Greg the same tools. He was told to oversee her work while simultaneously trying to work on it alongside her. While some believed in Greg’s vote of confidence for Kate, others thought she was too young, too inexperienced, to come up with any usable end goal, especially before they could.” The FBI agent cut Jonathan a quick smile. “But she did.”
“She doesn’t know about Greg working on the same thing then, does she?” Jake shook his head. “So what was supposed to happen when she finished?” He didn’t understand how the convention fit into the picture. Jake seemed to pick up on that thread of thought.
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