Catalyst (Dogs of War Book 4)

by J. M. Madden

  “Well,” she murmured softly, resting a hand on his shoulder. “We’re going to try a couple things today. Okay?”

  He nodded and followed along as they guided him to the bathroom. Mr. Dart started to shudder, the fear obviously building, and Raine abruptly changed direction. “Let’s go to the staff locker room.”

  Paul gave her a look, and nodded, covering his startlement. Mr. Dart looked surprised as well. “The staff locker room?”

  She nodded. “Yes. Let’s get out of this cramped space and spread out. I’ll grab your shower gel and you follow Paul.”

  The other nurse led the way from the room, Mr. Dart following along behind like a dog that had gotten yelled at for chasing chickens. She hated making him go through this, but she would find a way to make it more productive for all of them.

  They’d tried baths and showers, bed baths, and every variation in between, but he would not relax with water. But maybe it was the environment as much as the water itself. He was definitely more agitated when he was in the bathroom, the smallest room they had tried.

  When she arrived, Mr. Dart had stripped down to his pale, so-delicate skin with no sign of modesty. It was one of the things that broke her heart most about working here. The men had no sense of their bodies being their own. They just went along with whatever the staff guided them to do. A few had fought them just on principal, but not because they had to be naked. Elizabeth had said that most of them were kept in cages about the size of the bathrooms, always unclothed. And she’d been told that they only received showers before they were tested upon, which was another stumbling block with Mr. Dart, she was sure. Whether he realized it or not he correlated getting clean with being tested upon.

  As soon as they walked into the locker shower room, she could tell that Mr. Dart’s anxiety hadn’t spiked the way it normally did. Paul had even turned on one of the spigots for the water to warm up. Mr. Dart was watching the water, an odd mix of fascination and terror in his expression. “I used to love water,” he admitted. “It was what made me such a good soldier. But now I only fear.”

  Raine rested a hand on his bare arm, hoping he would look down at her. “There’s nothing to fear here. You know Paul and I aren’t going to hurt you. Our entire job is to take care of you. Literally. We want to get you to a place where this is just a part of your day, as normal as everything else.”

  He looked down at her finally, sorrow in his eyes. “I would like to be normal someday.”

  She nodded, giving him a smile. “Would you like me to get in the water first?”

  His eyes widened and she was glad he was at least reacting. And she would do this for him if it proved that the water wasn’t painful. It wasn’t what she’d planned, but she would go with her gut.

  Giving Paul a look, she stripped her blue scrub shirt over her head. She wore a pale pink t-shirt beneath that would probably turn translucent when wet, but oh, well. Kicking her clogs to the side she bent over and stripped off her socks. She would leave the T and the blue scrub pants on, which was perfectly modest. Her hair… ugh. It was such a heavy mass… Drying it would take forever. Whatever. It would dry eventually.

  Turning, she walked deeper into the tile room and stepped beneath the shower. She rocked beneath the hot water for a while, letting it soak her, then she looked at Mr. Dart expectantly. He was watching the water rain over her but he took a step toward her open hand. Then his hand was gripping hers painfully hard and he was very slowly letting the water inch up his arm. Raine made sure not to pull him or do anything unexpected, just stood there waiting for him to move closer. He didn’t look at her body at all, and she didn’t look at his more than to monitor how much he was accepting the water.

  Then he was standing beneath the shower, the water flowing over his shoulders as he looked down at her. There was a tremulous look in his eyes, like he expected to be hit or dunked. Raine knew she needed to distract him.

  “I used to show meat cattle at the county fair,” she said clearly, “and we used to have to bathe them the same way.”

  His eyes widened the slightest bit. “You brought them in a staff locker room and showered with them?”

  Raine tilted her head and chuckled, loving the spunk. “No, but by the time we were done we were as wet as the cattle. They hated the water and did everything they could to get away from us. Trying to control a thousand pound animal who doesn’t want a bath isn’t fun. My brothers and I knew we were going to be wet by the time we were done.”

  Amazingly, Mr. Dart’s lips tilted up slightly. “It sounds like you enjoyed the process.”

  She hummed as she took a washcloth from Paul, who was standing outside the circle of water. Wetting the cloth, she added shower gel, then she handed it to Mr. Dart. “I did. Start scrubbing. Those fairs were the highlight of this young farm girl’s life. Oh, I would give anything for an elephant ear, or to walk through the draft-horse barns, maybe get a trophy in halter class. My grandparents always brought their camper out and we lived on the grounds for the week. Even though they were a lot of work they built a lot of pride and work ethic in me. Did you have fairs in your country?”

  He paused from washing his face. “Ukraine? Not exactly. We were a rocky, angry country and we prided ourselves on our horsemanship and our warriors.”

  As he talked, he began rubbing it up and down his arm, then over his body. Raine didn’t even think he noticed, and she certainly wasn’t going to draw attention to it. “Did you have market days or something like that?”

  He nodded, a light entering his eyes. “We do have Ivan Kupala day, a day of celebration of youth. It is like an American fair, I believe. We dance and sing and drink too much.”

  Raine grinned, nodding. “We don’t drink at fairs, necessarily, but it is definitely a celebration of youth.”

  One side of Mr. Dart’s mouth tipped up in a smile and he tipped his head back into the water, running his soapy hands through his hair. “I haven’t thought about those days of my youth in a long time.”

  Raine blinked. The guy couldn’t be anymore than thirty-two or three she thought. She would have to look at his file later. Right now, she was too excited to correct him, fearing that he would stop what he was doing.

  “It sounds like a blast. Do you celebrate Christmas like we do? I’m planning on decorating a room for the holidays down the hall.”

  He nodded, eyes closed. “Yes, we do celebrate Christmas. And St. Nicholas day the week before.”

  Raine noted the name. She would have to look it up.

  Mr. Dart abruptly went still, and looked down at her. Most of the soap had rinsed out of his hair so clear water ran down through his eyes. Abruptly he jerked out of the water, blinking.

  Raine kept the gentle smile on her face and Paul stayed just as calm. “You’re okay, Mr. Dart.”

  He blinked and seemed to straighten. “I… you…” He looked at the running shower. “I didn’t even think about the water after a while.”

  Absently, he took the towel Paul handed him, wiping at his face.

  “You know we’re not going to drown you,” she said gently. “And when you go back to your room today, you’re going to watch TV or do whatever you want to do. You’re not going to be experimented on.”

  He nodded, looking down as he held the towel against his chest. “I know that in my head, I promise you.”

  She nodded. “Paul will help you get dressed if you need.”

  He looked up at the very patient male nurse. “I think I can do it, Paul. Thank you.”

  They watched as he wrapped the towel around his waist and headed to the pile of clothes on the bench. Again, with no modesty, he toweled off and dressed, then he crossed the room, dropped the towel in the bin and left the room. His demeanor screamed bemusement.

  Paul looked at her, dark brows raised, then he held out a hand for a high-five. Grinning, Raine smacked his hand with her own. “That was amazingly non-traumatic,” he murmured. “Good job. I thought you were nuts getting in the shower
with him, and I’m not sure that you could get away with that in any other job than this one. I’m not sure that I would even tell the doctors here you did that, but well done Nurse Walters.”

  He glanced down her body and the tips of his ears turned a little pink. “Uh, you might want to um, run to your rooms.”

  Raine looked down and realized that the pink shirt had turned transparent, as she’d expected, and the water had chilled her a little, leaving no doubt that she felt the temperature, even through the bra. Laughing, she took the towel he shoved at her.

  “I’ll be back. Hold down the fort.”

  “Will do,” he mumbled.

  Raine took a moment to try to squeeze some of the water out of her pant legs, then snatched up her dry clothes and shoes and headed out of the room barefoot. She jogged lightly to the elevator, praying that she didn’t see anyone she knew on the way up to the employee apartments. She had no idea how she would explain away her… self.

  Since she was one of the nurses that stayed on-site and had her own apartment, she’d never been assigned an actual locker in the locker room. She could probably just pick one but it seemed silly with her living quarters mere steps away.

  When the doors opened, she almost thought she was home free, until she stepped inside. Noah Cross was inside, against the right hand wall. Oh, no, why did it have to be him?

  Blinking, she forced herself to look away from his glorious form and stepped inside, holding her clothing in front of her protectively. She’d met the man a few months ago and she was a little unclear about why he was here. Apparently, he’d been Elizabeth’s son’s bodyguard at one point, but now he was some kind of patient liaison. At least, that was the title he’d been given, but she’d drawn blood from him before. He wasn’t a patient, per se, but he seemed to have been given the same drug or a variation that the other patients had been given.

  “Hey,” she squeaked.

  “Hey,” he murmured, voice incredibly low. “You might want to hit a button.”

  She glanced at the dark panel and punched the seventh floor, face flaming, then stared straight ahead, praying that the elevator would jump to warp speed any second. Out of her peripheral vision she saw him look down her form to the floor, then back up again.

  God, why did it have to be Noah? The man was ridiculously attractive, with rich dark brown skin. He wore a thin stripe of black hair along his sharp jawline, as well as a neat beard. It probably took him a decent amount of time to keep it that neat, she thought. His hair was skin short on the sides, then a little thicker on top. It definitely had a military feel, making her wonder if he missed being in the Marines.

  Obviously, he’d just come from the basement gym because his skin glistened in the light of the elevator, and the perpetual earbuds hung around his neck. Sweat gleamed on his shoulders under the ceiling light and it was harder than heck to drag her gaze away. Watching the numbers change on the display she wondered if she would ever have enough courage to approach a man like Noah, a man so beautiful and… slightly scary. Who was she kidding? The guy was intimidating and considering the way she’d seen other staff skirt around him, she didn’t think she was the only one that thought that. Raine couldn’t help but be intrigued. Though she hadn’t been in the profession long, she prided herself on her ability to separate herself from her patients, but she had a feeling she would smudge that line in a heartbeat if he showed any inclination.

  “You’re, uh, kinda raining,” he pointed out.

  She looked at him. “I’m sorry?”

  He glanced down at the floor and Raine followed his look. A puddle was spreading beneath her cold, bare feet. “Oh, no!”

  Squatting down she put the towel beneath her feet and swiped up the water with the excess fabric. She hadn’t even noticed, but he had. Great impression, she sighed. Again, she squeezed her pant legs with the towel, hoping to absorb some of the water.

  “You’re very wet,” he said when she stood, and her face flamed, though she knew what he meant. Her brain had just jumped to the inappropriate.

  “I, uh, got into the shower with a patient.”

  Her mouth fell open in horror and she looked up at him. He was frowning and looking at her oddly, waiting for an explanation. “Not the way you’re thinking,” she hissed, praying that the weight of her sodden hair would keep the top of her head from blowing off.

  His black brows lifted and his clear eyes, an incredible shade of dark golden hazel that reminded her of a lion, glinted with humor. Then his gaze slid down her body, across the expanse of her wet t-shirt. Raine knew her breasts were already pebbled from the cold, and they firmed even more as she felt the weight of his gaze for that split second. She jerked her arms to her chest, then leaned down to snatch up the towel from beneath her feet as the elevator dinged to a stop—finallythankGodhallelujah—gathering it to her chest as well. When the doors slid open, he held a hand out for her to exit first. Raine gritted her teeth and walked out, thankful that there was carpet in this hallway. It padded her steps as she jogged lightly down to her door, fumbling to get a hand free to key in the code. She could feel Noah walking slowly behind her, giving her time to get through her door and into her apartment.

  Then she realized that he could probably see her panties through the super-thin fabric of the pale blue scrub pants. What was she wearing today? She wracked her brain, trying to remember, but it was useless in her flustered state.

  Finally, the door lock released and she stumbled inside, then she slammed the door shut behind herself, panting. Holy Toledo, she would never live that down. Great way to show the man what a professional nurse she was. Not!

  Padding through her entryway and living room she entered the bedroom, already tugging her wet t-shirt over her head. When she saw her emoji-covered underwear, she groaned out loud, wondering how she would face the man again. Surely he had seen the cartoons through the paper thin fabric of the scrubs.

  Sigh…

  Noah was way out of her league. The man was dangerous and his ever-steady gaze made her wish she was more worldly.

  Raine had never been anywhere as big as Arlington, Virginia, just outside of DC, before she’d moved here. Nashville had been the biggest city she’d been to. It was where she’d gone to school for her nursing degree. She’d thought that the people there had been a little crazy, but it had been nothing compared to the shock she’d gone through moving here for her job. DC was full of crazy people anyway. All you had to do was watch the evening news to see that.

  She was glad that the job had come with on-site accommodations. It made her life so much easier. Only occasionally did she venture out into the city. She didn’t need to. There was a kitchen in the middle of the floor that was always stocked with delicious food and if there was anything she needed all she had to do was add it to the master list kept on a clipboard beside the fridge. The Holiday decorations would require a foray outside. Maybe if she made a thorough list, she could do it in one trip.

  Doubtful. She always forgot something. Even now she could hear her mother laughing at her as she pounded through the house two or three times for forgotten items before she finally made it down the drive to the bus.

  Heading into the bathroom she unsnarled her hair from the bun and let it hang down her back. There wasn’t enough time to dry it completely but maybe she could at least get it from sopping wet to a little damp. Flipping her hair forward she snatched up her blow dryer and went to work.

  It was when she flipped her hair back that the cold chill slid down her spine. Someone had just walked over her grave.

  Raine cocked her head, listening for her ringing cell phone, then she remembered that she’d left it at the nurse’s station before Mr. Dart’s shower. Crap on a cracker. Hurrying back into her bedroom she pulled out another pair of scrubs, these ones dark maroon. She almost fell over bouncing around to get her socks on, then slid her clogs on again. Grabbing a ponytail holder, she slipped it over her wrist, then left the apartment. Something in her gut was urg
ing her to move swiftly and she always listened to her gut, even if it was inconvenient.

  Amazingly the elevator doors were just closing as she reached them. Shoving her hand forward she prayed that the doors would stop. They did. She jumped on board, only to find Noah standing on the elevator, his lips tilted up at one corner.

  If the urgency hadn’t been pressing on her Raine would have grinned and probably made a playful remark. Or she would have tried to, at least. It would have come out lame and hick. As it was, though, she punched the button for her floor, then the door close button in the hopes it would speed up.

  She watched as the numbers ticked down.

  “Are you okay?”

  She gave Noah a half-hearted smile. “Yeah, sure. I just need to get to my patients. Residents.”

  As soon as the doors slid open, she jogged onto the floor, looking for Paul. When she didn’t immediately see him, she went to the nurse’s station and retrieved her phone.

  911- 412

  “Fudge,” she hissed as she bolted around the corner of the counter. She paused long enough to key a code into the medication lock box and remove a loaded syringe, tucking it into her pocket.

  Haven had been fine earlier, before she’d gone to talk to the doctor. Why the 911?

  Who was she kidding? She was surprised it hadn’t happened already. As she pounded down the hallway she thought about the past week. There had been a Haven emergency every day. Usually nothing major but enough to keep them on their toes.

  Haven was the problem child of her floor. He’d been in the Guyana camp and Dr. Cole, Elizabeth, said that they hadn’t found a lot of information on him, and suspiciously he’d been in one of the farthermost cages. The man had also been incredibly skinny, barely more than bones, so it was amazing that he’d been found at all. When the rescuers had approached his cage, he hadn’t roused to consciousness; he was too near death. Supposedly they had thought him a pile of rags.

  For a solid two months he’d been comatose and surviving on IV fluids. His body began to recover and rouse and that was when the trouble started. In his mind, Haven was still in that cage being tortured. That was when the manifestations had started. Whatever evil bedeviled his mind became an apparition that the medical staff had to deal with. For the most part they were ghostly images, easily disregarded, but the deeper the psychosis the more visible the apparition became. When he lapsed into these frantic states it was extremely difficult to bring him out of them.