Damon growled. “Not going to happen.”
She sighed, tipping her head to one side. “Damon, how are you going to stop me?” She glanced at one of her men. “Go around to the back of the house. No one leaves here.”
Damon heard the unspoken word alive as if she’d said it out loud. Think, Damon, think.
One of the large armed men marched around the side of the house, which left two.
“I don’t know what your intel provided you, but they lied. Livvy doesn’t know anything but that word.”
“You expect me to believe Joseph Boyden vitrified an innocent healthy woman because of a word?”
Damon nodded. “It was powerful and important. It was the key to many other things, but not anything Livvy was aware of.”
“What other things?” Temple lifted a brow. “Talk faster. I’m growing increasingly weary of this chatter.”
“Apparently several of the people on your original DEEP team were hypnotized by a man named Theodore Monk. You remember him?”
She pursed her lips for a moment and nodded. “Guy came to help with stress.”
“He did far more than that. He buried coded numbers in your team members. Before you sentenced them all to ten years of hibernation.”
She flinched. “I did no such thing.” She smirked. “It was a stroke of luck, but I’m not the one who infected them.”
That answered one question. Apparently the still-preserved Boyden had arranged this saga, as Damon suspected. It was possible no one would ever know how, but if Temple didn’t infect her own people, someone else with a stake in this game had to. Boyden was the most logical answer since he was the one who hid the numbers. He must have orchestrated the infection through Monk. Had him plant the defective beaker to sabotage the team. It was a risky convoluted attempt to preserve information. And it worked.
“What were these coded numbers?” Temple asked, crossing one foot over the other and leaning against the SUV.
“I’m betting they somehow correspond to six key members of your organization. Spencer’s been trying to crack the coded numbers for weeks. He hasn’t been successful.” There was no reason to inform Temple that someone else knew the answer. Damon would hold back that detail for now. It might prove to be useful at some point.
Damon had one goal in mind—keeping the two most important people in his world alive. Maybe if he told Temple nearly everything he knew, it would somehow soothe her. At the very least, perhaps it would keep her men from torturing Olivia and Spencer for information.
She nodded slowly. If it gave her a false sense of security to think no one from the original team knew what the numbers stood for, perhaps she wouldn’t hunt them all down and kill them next. Although based on Dade’s phone call, there was a chance she’d already found the group in Montana and her people were in the process of killing all of them at his very moment. It was certainly no secret that was their goal. “Too bad,” Temple responded. “What a waste.”
“It doesn’t have to be. I bet we could come up with some sort of arrangement.”
Temple shrugged. “It wouldn’t matter anyway. Your entire team will be dead before I’m finished here.”
Damon flinched at the mention. Temple was confident, which meant far more than the two people Dade had mentioned had breached the farmhouse in Montana. Fuck.
Temple lifted her weapon, aiming it at Damon. He raised his too, but he knew he was no match for the three people now holding a gun up.
The front door flew open, and Olivia screamed behind him.
Damon’s heart raced. He couldn’t save her. He couldn’t save any of them. He was completely impotent.
“Stop,” Olivia shouted. “Back the fuck off. I’ll tell you anything you want to know, but put the guns down. There’s no reason anyone needs to die.”
Temple’s gaze darted toward Olivia, as did her aim. It looked as if she was about to pull the trigger and take Olivia out first, but suddenly she gasped, lowering her arm. “Evelyn?” Temple tossed a glance to the men on both sides of her. “Hold your fire. Give me a moment.”
Damon had no idea how Temple might know Olivia’s birth name, but if it bought them some time, or even their lives…
“General…” one of the men growled, his attention on Temple.
She shot him a warning look. “You’ll wait.” And then she spun back around.
Olivia was standing beside Damon now. He hated it, but she didn’t back down.
“Livvy…” he murmured.
She ignored him. “How do you know my name?”
“My God. It is you.” Temple kept coming forward. She was waving her weapon at her side, but she came all the way to the porch.
Damon had no idea what the hell was going on. He grabbed Olivia’s arm and tried to tug her back, but she didn’t budge or even look at him. “Again, how do you know me?”
“What are you doing here?” Temple’s eyes went wide, and her mouth fell open. “Oh my God, you’re the one Boyden preserved.”
Olivia flinched, and this time she grabbed Damon’s arm.
Spencer stepped up to her other side, gun lifted. “Back off. All of you. Now.”
Temple didn’t even seem to hear Spencer speak. Her gaze was locked on Olivia. “But how…” She didn’t finish her sentence.
The sound of screeching tires made everyone turn around as another SUV pulled up and slid to a stop behind the first two.
Damon lifted his gun.
“General,” one of Temple’s men shouted, “get out of the way so I can get a shot.”
Both men had their weapons aimed at the three of them on the porch.
“I gotta take the shot, General. Duck. Now.”
Temple didn’t duck. In fact, she leaped onto the porch instead, rushing toward Olivia. A shot rang out, hitting Temple in the back. Her eyes were wide as she fell forward, taking Olivia to the ground, which seemed to have been her intention in the first place.
Damon crouched behind a column, gun lifted. He was marginally aware of Spencer doing the same thing on the other side of the steps.
Damon took a shot at the approaching men, but missed. Target practice had never been on his radar. It probably should have been.
Two people Damon had never seen before jumped down from the latest SUV to arrive and rushed forward. The taller man with gray hair screamed, “Guns down, assholes.”
It took Damon a moment to realize the newcomer was aiming at the men who had arrived with Temple. His partner was younger, thick dark hair, darker skin, wider, stockier. He wore a suit. His gun was lifted, and he took a shot at one of the two men barreling toward the porch. The guy went down without a sound.
Another vehicle approached. Damon didn’t bother to look. He needed to pay attention to the current players. He had no fucking idea who the good guys were. He didn’t know anyone.
Olivia grunted as she pushed Temple off her.
Temple groaned, not dead. “Evelyn. Oh God…”
Damon couldn’t spare them a glance. He kept his gaze on the man still rushing toward him with a death wish. The guy fired off several rounds that ricocheted off the house and porch, sending splinters everywhere. The sound of glass shattering made Damon duck lower.
The older man shot the approaching man in the arm. The guy screamed as he dropped his weapon. The younger man ran forward and set a foot on the wounded guy’s chest. He aimed his gun at the man’s head. “One move and you’re dead.”
Another shot pierced the air. The man with his foot on the guy’s chest thrust forward and collapsed.
“Fuck,” Spencer shouted.
If the newcomers were there to help, one of them had been picked off.
Damon jerked his attention toward the side of the house. “Shit.” He’d nearly forgotten one of them had rounded to the back of the house. “Look out,” he shouted.
The two newcomers from the fourth vehicle wore full SWAT gear. Black vests included. They raced in a crouched position toward the side of the house where the
shot had come from.
Damon prayed these were the good guys. How the hell was he supposed to know? The only person he recognized in the entire group was Temple, and she was still moaning behind him, apparently having fooled everyone about who she really worked for.
Another shot. Then two more, followed by some shouting.
Finally, an angry growl filled the air as Damon watched one of the first men come running from the side of the house, shooting at everything and nothing. Firing every round he could in a last-ditch effort to win this battle.
A hail of gunfire filled the air as at least eight bullets nailed Temple’s last man all over his torso. He jerked in several directions before dropping his weapon and collapsing.
The SWAT guys spun around in slow circles, guns still raised. “Are there any others?” one of them shouted.
Damon didn’t answer. Other what? He still had no idea if anyone who’d arrived on the scene had his best interests at heart.
Olivia screamed something Damon didn’t understand and then leaped to her feet, stepped over Temple, and ran down the three steps.
Damon’s heart fell so low, his life flashed before his eyes. He was certain she would be shot and killed.
Instead, she barreled into the older man, wrapped her arms around him, and flattened her body against his.
A pang of jealousy slammed into Damon as he stood slowly, glancing around.
Spencer did the same next to him. “You okay?”
Damon nodded. “You?”
“I’m good. Who’s that?”
“Who are any of these people?” Damon retorted.
When Temple moaned on the porch behind him, he spun around. “Fuck. Can someone call an ambulance?” he shouted as he kneeled next to her.
She met his gaze with wild eyes. Her mouth was open, but she didn’t speak.
“Check on Livvy,” Damon told Spencer.
Spencer nodded and bolted down the steps.
Damon looked around Temple’s front, but the bullet had entered from the back. He had no idea if it had struck anything vital. Judging by the look in her eyes, she was struggling to breathe.
“Evelyn…” she managed.
Damon twisted his head to find Olivia and the older man rushing up the steps.
“Temple,” the man whispered as he took her hand. His expression was pained, and he closed his eyes.
Enough of a shadow fell over them to indicate one of the SWAT team was behind them. Damon assumed the other guy was seeing to the man who’d been shot at the bottom of the steps.
“You…knew…” Temple said, her gaze on the gray-haired man and then shifting to Olivia. “Why. Didn’t. You. Tell. Me?”
“Oh, Temple. Would it have made a difference?”
She closed her eyes slowly. “Probably not.” When she yanked her eyes open again, she focused on Olivia. “So. Sorry. Wish…I…had…” And then she exhaled her last breath, her body going limp.
Damon swallowed over the lump in his throat. The woman who had been his boss for three years had just died right before his eyes. The same woman who’d come there with the intent to kill him, as well as Olivia and Spencer. The same woman who’d also sent a team of people to kill every member of DEEP in Montana. He jerked his gaze toward Spencer. “Call Dade. Warn him. If he doesn’t already know, there are far more than two people on their way to that farmhouse, and their orders are to kill everyone.”
Spencer nodded and rushed back into the house.
“Daddy?” Olivia asked.
Damon jerked his attention to the gray-haired man leaning over Temple. This was Olivia’s father?
Olivia set her hand on the man Damon knew now was Ash. “Who is she?”
“Your mother,” Ash responded. The pain in Ash’s eyes was very deep.
Chapter 20
Olivia couldn’t stop pacing back and forth in the kitchen area of the great room. She’d been doing so for over an hour while she waited impatiently for bodies to be removed, people to be arrested, phone calls to be made. She still had no idea what was going on in Montana, and she was anxious for answers from her father. Finally, most people were gone—or at least waiting outside.
Her father leaned against the counter, flanked by Spencer and Damon. Fitting. Damon hadn’t stopped frowning, and Spencer’s eyes remained wide. Each of their distinct personalities filled the room. Could her father feel the tension?
Just outside the front door stood an FBI agent, while his partner guarded the back of the house. Olivia was just now understanding why they were there, and the reason had nothing to do with protecting anyone.
They were there to take her father into custody. It was only a courtesy that they permitted him to spend some time with Olivia before they took him away.
Her father looked at Damon. “Your team?”
Damon nodded. “I spoke to Dade. Everyone is safe. If it hadn’t been for your knowledge and help…”
Olivia jerked. “What did you do, Daddy?”
Spencer answered. “He sent a team of men to rush onto the property in Montana right behind the agents from Blue Cell. If it hadn’t been for them, there would have been far more casualties. Luckily, they caught the bad guys unaware from behind.”
“No one was killed?” Olivia asked, knowing immediately the question was stupid.
Her father swallowed. “A lot of people were killed, but none of them were with Project DEEP.”
She nodded slowly. And then she narrowed her gaze on her father and changed the subject. “My entire life is a lie,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
“It was never my intention, E.”
“You told me I was adopted,” she pointed out, pausing to set her hands on her hips and glare at him. She was angry, but she also couldn’t keep the tears from running down her cheeks. This was her dad, a man sixteen years older than the last time she saw him. She’d missed him terribly, and she wanted nothing more than to hug him and cry. But he had so many things to explain, and she wasn’t sure she would want a hug from him when they were done.
“Technically, you were. By me.”
“But you are my father, right?” She narrowed her gaze.
He nodded. “Yes. Your mother and I were in a relationship for several months. She was in Russia, working. I knew she worked for her father, but she never fully explained what she did. When she got pregnant, we fought. She wanted to go back to the States and have an abortion. I wanted her to marry me. In the end, she agreed to have the baby, but our relationship took a sharp turn and we were over.”
“And she left me? With you? She went back to the States and never looked back?” This was incomprehensible to Olivia, almost as incomprehensible as internalizing that the woman who’d just stepped in front of a fatal shot to save Olivia was her mother. A woman she’d never known existed. Someone she’d heard a lot about for the past several weeks because Temple Levenson had been Damon’s boss for three years.
Her father nodded slowly. “I wish I could have protected you better. From this. From everything. After you were born, you became the most important person in my life, and you never stopped being that person. I loved you deeper than I ever could have thought possible.”
“But?” Olivia whispered, sensing the ground was about to fall out from under her. Her world was going to shatter into a billion tiny fragments soon. She glanced at the open front door and then the back. Two men stood waiting. To arrest her father. For what?
Ash sighed. “In exchange for your life, I agreed to provide Temple with information.”
“She blackmailed you?” Olivia flinched. What kind of mother would do that?
He nodded. “It was worth it. I had a daughter. A beautiful human being who made my life worth living.”
“What information?” Her head was spinning. Now she understood why her father had been adamant about no one seeing her. He’d known if Temple set eyes on her, she would know who she was.
“Temple worked for Blue Cell. She was actually born into it.”
<
br /> Damon twisted toward her father and spoke for the first time in a while. “How far back does Blue Cell go?”
Ash shrugged. “At least fifty years, and before that, it was growing into its existence for decades. Her father started it. He raised Temple to join the team and infiltrate the government. Many of the members of Blue Cell are also government employees.”
“Six of whom match the numbers our team provided,” Damon stated.
“Yes. When you gave me the numbers, I knew exactly what they represented. I also knew Temple was one of them.”
Spencer spoke now. “Which explains why Boyden planted them.”
Ash nodded. “I suspect he knew too much. He knew Temple was involved. He could have known how deep Blue Cell extended and how powerful they were. His last hope was to hide the information for a while. It was a gamble. It paid off.”
“Who are the other five?” Spencer asked.
“Temple’s father is one. Randall Levenson. He’s the head of operations, the man who put all of this in motion decades ago, even before Temple was born.”
“He’s still alive?” Olivia asked. My grandfather. Did he even know she existed?
Ash nodded. “He’s being taken into custody as we speak. As are the other four. I came back to the States to help the FBI.”
“You cut a deal…” Damon surmised.
Olivia sucked in a breath.
“I did,” Ash admitted, his shoulders drooping. “I wish I could tell you everything, but a lot of it is classified.” He glanced at the FBI agent. “What I can tell you is that I essentially became a middle man for an organization that was already well-established. While Temple climbed the ladder toward becoming a general, she also became her father’s best point man, or woman.
“I think she became more and more powerful as she used me. It helped elevate her within Blue Cell as well as the US government. It wasn’t an accident that she was assigned to the DEEP bunker. It was strategically plotted for decades.”
“Jeez,” Olivia murmured.
“I’m not proud of anything I did. At first I didn’t know what I was participating in. All I cared about was the sweetest little baby that relied on me to keep her safe and happy. Couriers came to our house and dropped off floppy disks in the early days. Later those became flash drives. Sometimes there were instructions on information I needed to procure; other times I was simply the middle man getting the data from one person to another.”
Reviving Olivia (Project DEEP Book 7) Page 21