“Was?” Damon interrupted, shuffling over to take a seat next to Olivia again.
Spencer lifted his gaze to the two people watching him closely. “Yes. He was found dead in his home. You want to guess the date?”
Olivia shuddered. “The same day I was preserved, I assume.”
Damon reached for her hand and squeezed it. Interesting. How close were these two?
Spencer jerked his attention back to the computer, even though he didn’t need to look at the details in order to relay them. “Correct. The autopsy showed he was poisoned, but no one was ever able to conclusively determine with what or why. The case was closed after a shockingly short investigation. The list of items in his blood stream would have easily been found in any lab.”
Olivia wiped her free hand down her face. “God. I just saw the man last week. I was sitting in a meeting with him. It’s hard to believe he’s dead.”
Damon frowned at her. “Livvy, the guy hypnotized you, and then Dr. Boyden made your heart stop against your will, drained your body of its blood, and vitrified you. Please tell me you aren’t feeling sympathetic toward either of them.”
She pulled her hand out of Damon’s grasp and rubbed her temples with both sets of fingers. “I’m still trying to wrap my mind around all that. They were both kind to me. Smiling. I can’t fathom Dr. Boyden killing anyone, let alone his hypnotist.”
“And you,” Spencer pointed out. “The guy basically killed you too.”
“Yeah… It’s just so weird.” She leaned back and stared at the ceiling.
Damon had gradually angled his body toward hers. He sat very close and watched her intently.
Several emotions came to the surface. Spencer wasn’t the sort of guy who often dealt with emotions. But as he glanced back and forth between his two new roommates, he knew he was in so much trouble.
He wanted to comfort Olivia. It was as if his hormones had recircuited the moment he walked into this room. Inexplicably, he wanted to pull her into his arms and hold her close. Maybe his reaction was simply due to the fact that it had been a long time since he’d been with anyone. Sexually.
It was obvious Damon felt the same way about Olivia. Spencer pushed back the ache inside him, the one he always seemed to get when he was around couples. And the one that seemed to be clawing at him now, even if there wasn’t anything between these two. Spencer wanted to be part of something. He wanted to be adored and important and necessary to someone.
Which only made his other problem even more of an issue. He would give anything for the man staring down at her to look at him in the same way.
It’s not that he was shocked by his reaction. He’d dabbled with both men and women in recent years. He’d been to clubs that catered to whatever kink the patrons were interested in. He hadn’t had time in many months, but for a while, he’d been able to blow off steam by satisfying his curiosity with a variety of willing adults.
Spencer had never turned down the occasional threesome of any combination of men and women—before. Before he’d lost a bit of his bravado, he’d been the kind of guy who was super-curious about everything. As a result of how much time he’d spent on the internet in his life, nothing would shock him. He tried nearly everything that presented itself, sort of like a social experiment as far as he was concerned.
He sighed. His days of experimenting with anything and everything had taken a nosedive when Blue Cell had caught him. He was well aware he’d lost a chunk of his cocky confidence. It would seem he’d shifted into a new version of himself—one he wasn’t very fond of. Shy. Timid. Nervous.
He glanced down as if he were intent on something on the computer screen for a moment, shaking thoughts of Olivia and Damon from his head. Such thoughts were totally inappropriate in this small studio apartment where he would be staying indefinitely with the two people who both made his palms sweat.
Great.
And it would appear they were possibly into each other. At the very least, Damon was absorbed with Olivia. Even now, he brushed a lock of hair off her face and then let it slide through his fingers. “You okay?” he murmured.
“Yeah.” She sighed and grabbed his hand, squeezing it. Yeah, she was into him too.
What a shit storm.
Spencer jerked back to the real world when his phone rang in his pocket. He lifted a hip to wiggle it out. “Shit,” he murmured. “I forgot to call Dade when I got here.”
Dade’s voice came through immediately when Spencer connected. “You make it?”
“Yes. Sorry. I’ll put you on speaker.” He tapped the screen and set the phone on the coffee table so they could all lean in and hear.
“Hi,” Damon and Olivia said in unison.
“Hey,” Dade responded before jumping right into the reason for his call. “Spencer, did you keep your eyes peeled while you were driving? You’re sure you weren’t followed?”
Spencer stiffened. “I didn’t see anything unusual. Why?”
“A few people left the farmhouse here in Montana and picked up a tail about a half hour east of here.”
Spencer winced.
Damon leaned closer. “Who?”
“Blair, Zeke, and Grayson. Blair was driving. She took the guys to a larger town to get electronic supplies, and somehow they were spotted.”
“How the hell is that possible?” Damon’s voice rose. He had his elbows on his knees, and now he set his forehead against his palm.
“I don’t know, but they spent the day taking their tail on a wild chase around southern Montana. Thank God they noticed. The last thing we want is for anyone to find out our location. This farmhouse and large barn are perfect for us. Plenty of space. It’s much easier to secure the perimeter of one place where most of us are together than multiple locations all over the damn country.”
“Are the three of them sure they weren’t followed back to the farm?” Spencer asked. He hoped to God no one had managed to follow him without his knowledge. If so, Spencer would now be putting two other lives at risk.
“They haven’t returned yet. Too risky. They’re lying low.”
“But they think they shook off the tail?” Damon asked.
Dade chuckled. “Oh, Blair lost them for sure. She’s a regular NASCAR driver when she’s behind the wheel. Three tours overseas as personal security detail to many different people made her sharper than anyone I know. That’s why I sent her with Zeke and Grayson. I knew she’d be sharp. Those assholes picked the wrong woman today.” Spencer could hear the pride in Dade’s voice. After all, he and Blair were practically married. They were attached at the hip.
Damon was smiling.
Olivia glanced back and forth between Spencer and Damon. Of course she had never met any of the people in question. Damon had actually worked with Blair at the bunker long before Dade or any of the others were revived.
Dade continued. “After circling around the town and weaving back through it a few times, it was beyond obvious someone was tailing them. When their tail realized he’d been discovered, he got brazen and tried to run Blair off the road.”
“Jesus,” Olivia murmured. She grabbed Damon’s arm and squeezed.
“Yeah. Don’t worry. That pissed my woman off royally. She picked the perfect spot, bumped the corner of the car, and sent it careening off the rural road into a ditch.”
Olivia gasped. Her eyes were wide and her mouth hung open. She was newly reanimated and undoubtedly not up to speed on how intense the daily lives of everyone associated with DEEP were. Of course, Damon would have filled her in, but still, this had to seem surreal to her.
“Do you think this has anything to do with those damn number sequences?” Damon asked.
Both Zeke and Grayson had succumbed to the hypnotization, but Spencer shuddered to think anyone out there would have figured that out yet. After all, everything that happened to any member of the team was kept mum. Always. Not a soul at the bunker was informed anymore for fear of leaks. Not even General Temple Levenson.
; Dade sighed. “God, I hope not. That makes my skin crawl. But we’ll be more careful. Watch your backs.”
“We will. Thanks for the update.” Damon leaned back against the couch.
Spencer ended the call.
Olivia was staring at Spencer. “You think you were followed?”
“No.” He shook his head. “I was careful and circuitous.” He rubbed his temples and closed his eyes. He’d thought he was careful before too, and look where that had gotten him. He knew he was a damn good hacker, and he was determined to put his skills to work helping the good guys get out of this fucked-up mess. However, he now also knew Blue Cell employed other hackers, and some of them might have the capability to fuck with Spencer.
Even though Spencer had new equipment, a totally fake identity, and the best firewalls known to mankind, he wasn’t invincible. Especially since Spencer spent half his time weaseling his way into Blue Cell’s system to see what they were up to. There was no guarantee someone from Blue Cell wouldn’t find him.
And if they did, they would find Damon and Olivia too.
Chapter 6
Olivia hadn’t smiled so wide in a very long time. In fact, she’d thrown her head back and laughed a few times as she listened to Spencer talk about his antics as a young teenager.
They’d had dinner together without saying too much. Their dynamic had been awkward from the moment Spencer had arrived. But as soon as Damon got in the shower, Spencer had seemed to relax a fraction.
He was sitting across the small kitchen table from her, poking at the last few fries on his plate while he talked about hacking into his high school’s computer system and changing his name from Spencer Casey to Casey Spencer. He also changed his birthdate to make himself seven instead of seventeen, confusing the hell out of his teachers on the first day of his senior year.
His smile was infectious, even when he wasn’t telling such amusing stories. A small dimple formed on both his cheeks when he grinned. His brown hair was cut short on the sides and in back but left long on top so that it hung in his eyes, and he constantly ran a hand through it to push it back.
He’d been wearing a ball cap when he first arrived, but at some point in the afternoon, he’d taken it off and let his hair fall loose. The cut made him look extremely young, even though Olivia knew he was only a few months younger than her.
“What did the school do when they found out?” she asked, wiping tears of laughter from her eyes.
“By then, they didn’t know what to do with me. I was a total shit disturber. My grades sucked. Everyone knew I would barely graduate. They also knew I was brilliant, bored, and harmless. I never did anything that would change people’s grades or alter their lives. Not even my own.”
“Why did you do it, then?” She leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table and her chin in her palms.
He shrugged and cocked his head to one side. “I guess I just liked to prove I could.” He leaned back and laughed before he added, “That wasn’t nearly as funny as what I did the previous year.”
“I can’t wait.” Olivia giggled. “Tell me.”
“I changed every female student to male and every male student to female. It got to the point where the teachers were always leery about what they might see on their rosters on the first day of school.” He snapped his fingers, excitement dancing in his eyes. “Oh, and I changed all the second floor classes to the first and vice versa. Kids were wandering around in the hallway for half an hour after the first bell that year.”
“You are so bad.”
The bathroom door opened, steam rushing into the room. “What did he do?” Damon asked as he wandered toward them still towel-drying his hair. His eyes were drawn together almost in a frown.
If she wasn’t mistaken, Olivia thought perhaps he was miffed. Or jealous. He’d been overly attentive with her all day, even more than before Spencer had arrived. Comically territorial.
Granted, she had kissed him earlier before Spencer showed up. That was on her. But Damon hadn’t given her many inches of space from the moment their new roommate had arrived.
“What didn’t he do?” Olivia joked. “Better change the password on your computer frequently or you might wake up to find your wallpaper is flowers and your files are all in the wrong folders.”
Damon lifted an eyebrow as he set a hand on the back of Olivia’s chair and smirked at Spencer. “Please tell me you’re not going to prank us to demonstrate your abilities. I’m well aware you’re a genius. You don’t have to prove it.”
For a second, Olivia wasn’t sure how Spencer might react to Damon’s proclamation. He practically sounded like his dad or something, but that gave Olivia the chills since she was rather attracted to Damon, and he certainly wasn’t her father. Not even close. He was only seven years older than her and Spencer.
Spencer’s eyes danced, however, and then he winked. His confidence seemed to be growing as he grew more comfortable with her and Damon. “I’ll try to control myself.”
Damon groaned as he padded back to the bathroom and then returned without his towel. He set his hands on his hips and looked at Spencer again. “Will you be okay sleeping on the couch? It’s pretty comfortable. I did it for most of the last month while Livvy was in a coma.”
“Of course.” Spencer sobered, his gaze coming back to Olivia.
She felt a tight ball in her throat for some reason. The energy in the air was thick. Damon had just made a claim on Olivia by declaring he would be sleeping with her. Meanwhile, Spencer looked a little hurt as if the conversation they’d been having for the last half hour should have given him a leg up with her.
He wasn’t wrong. She liked him. He was funny and cute and entertaining. He made her laugh.
Damon tended to be a bit more serious. But that was a characteristic she also found attractive. They had a lot of work to do. They would be hiding in this small cramped space for an eternity if they didn’t figure out why they were being hunted down and put a stop to it.
Things were about to get uncomfortable if these two men thought they were going to fight over her all day every day. And judging from the narrowed eyes they both had trained on her, she knew she was right.
Life was about to get very interesting.
She took a deep breath, pushed to standing, and carried her dinner plate to the sink. She could wash the dishes in the morning. Or hell, one of the men could do it. At the moment, she needed to escape the stares and head for the bathroom to change clothes and catch her breath.
Without a word, she made her way to the dresser next to the bed, rummaged for a pair of sleep shorts and a tank top, and avoided both sets of eyes as she headed for the bathroom.
As soon as she shut the door and leaned against it, she breathed. “Jesus, I’m in so much trouble.” She stared at her reflection in the mirror. She was flushed from laughing. Her hair was a mess from doing nothing to it after her morning shower. It had dried naturally, as it did every day, and hung down her back. She had no makeup, and before this moment, she hadn’t cared.
Why the hell would she care now?
It wasn’t like she could or should or would try to flirt with either of these men. She wished she hadn’t kissed Damon earlier that day, in fact. It had been impulsive and had given him the wrong idea.
No. She’d given him exactly the right idea, but her judgment and timing had been horrible. It wouldn’t matter if she was attracted to Spencer or not, she couldn’t very well fawn all over Damon or make out with him while they had a third person in the apartment.
She rubbed her forehead and groaned at her reflection. She’d created this problem, and now she had to get out of it. She needed to have a chat with Damon and apologize for kissing him earlier, promising it wouldn’t happen again. To clear the air. Boundaries.
And when the hell was she going to have this chat? Except when one of them was in the shower or using the toilet, they were not going to have a single moment of privacy.
When she emerged from the bath
room, she found Spencer arranging sheets and a pillow on the sofa. Damon was sitting on his usual side of the bed, propped against the headboard with the new laptop on his knees.
Olivia was exhausted, mentally more than physically, after a stressful day of adding a third person to their hideout and getting to know him. Without a word, she slid under the sheets next to Damon and rolled onto her side, facing him.
He reached over and gave her hand a quick squeeze and then resumed typing something on the computer for several minutes. By the time he closed the laptop and set it on the bedside table, Spencer had used the bathroom and taken up residence on the sofa.
The sofa faced the far wall, so the back of it prevented Olivia from seeing Spencer once he was situated. A wall of sorts. If a couch could be considered a wall. For this small space, it was all they had.
Damon turned out the light, which didn’t leave them in the dark. They still had the streetlights coming through the partially open curtains. As if by mutual silent agreement, neither of them had ever shut themselves in complete darkness. Their lives were at stake. They needed to be ready at a moment’s notice and not caught off guard in blackness.
Surprising her, Damon settled on his back and then let out a long slow breath and reached for her, pulling her into his embrace so that she was on her side against his chest. He threaded his fingers in her hair and leaned his lips against her ear. And then he whispered, “Sorry if I’ve been grumpy.”
She flattened her palm against his chest. This was the most intimate they’d ever been. Sure, he’d touched her many times in the last week. Usually briefly. Just enough contact to leave her wondering. But she was the one who had kissed him that afternoon. Had she opened up the door for him to reel her in closer? She wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing yet. Especially considering the addition of their new roommate.
She realized she needed to respond and tipped her head back to see his face in the dim light, keeping her voice low. “We’re good.”
He lifted a brow. “Are we?” he whispered in return, his lips nearly touching hers.
Reviving Olivia (Project DEEP Book 7) Page 6