Catalyst (Dogs of War Book 4)

by J. M. Madden

  Half an hour later the door pushed open and Belladonna came in, looking frazzled and fearful. He rose to meet her, unsure what was going on.

  “You have to leave,” she hissed. “I don’t know what you said or did, but they’re talking like they’re going to use you for something. Can I trust you Haven?”

  He blinked at her. “The only reason I’m here is because of you. I could feel your anger and fear, even with my mind as shattered as it was. And now, with you standing here in front of me, I can feel it even more sharply. What exactly do you do for the senator, Belladonna?”

  “Just Donna.” She sighed, looking toward the camera in the upper corner of the room, then back to him. “I’m a catalyst. I used to work for Edgar Shu in his lab. I was just a low-level nurse tech for his department, but when I read that he was looking for volunteers for a little experiment he was running, I applied. I needed the extra money for, well, I needed the money.” Her eyes shifted away for a moment, then back to lock onto his. “I put on the application that I had some mental ability already, and it wasn’t really a lie. It just wasn’t focused. I had déjà vu a lot, stuff like that. Anyway, the serum enhances mental ability. Long story extremely short, because you have to go and I have to get out of here, is I can gauge others that have been given the serum. I can tell if they’re going to develop a useful ability or if the serum will leave them unaffected.”

  Holy…

  “So, when you came to the Guyana camp where I saw you for the first time and you touched all of our heads, you were deciding who was useful and who was not.”

  It was as he’d expected. When she’d gone through the camp reading people, he had proven to be useless.

  “No,” she said firmly. “By that time, I was being forced to work for the senator. There was no one else that could do what I do, even though Shu had tried to find another like me. At the Guyana camp I chose the men I felt like I could manipulate later. Strong, but susceptible.”

  Shock rolled through him. After the demeaning walkthrough, and the subsequent move to the outskirts of the camp, he’d thought he was useless. He’d expected to die.

  “No, you weren’t useless,” she said, obviously reading him. “I knew you would grow to be too strong for me if you had the correct guidance. You need a little more shaping, but by the time I’m done I think you’ll be as scary as you thought I was.” Reaching out, she rested a palm on his forehead, and Haven felt that wash again, like cool water over a burn. This time, though, she seemed to be looking for something. He tried to pull away, but she sank her very strong mental claws deeper.

  I need to know I can trust you, Haven. Who are the people that were following you?

  Raine’s face popped into his head, with her dressed in her nurse scrubs. It was the only way he’d ever seen her, in her scrubs, and he missed her gentle touch. Then Belladonna brought Noah’s face to the surface, and he got reassuring feelings from it as well. Protector feelings. Haven knew Noah was former military, but not what branch or anything. Another face popped into his head as well, but Haven had no knowledge of who he was or why she was curious about him.

  Belladonna drew back, her brows furrowed over her eyes. “I’m going to have to trust you, Haven, and you have no idea how hard that is for me.”

  “Okay,” he said, catching his breath. “I never wanted to hurt you. I just had to know that you were okay. I felt you near me…Why don’t you leave this place with me?”

  She gave him a strained smile. “I will be fine, but you have a job to do.”

  She gripped his head again and a deluge of information hit him, all about a young girl. Lillian Matilda, or Lilly as Donna like to call her, was a spitfire. Sixteen years old, she was her mother’s mini-me. And the senator was holding her captive somewhere to the north of where they were. Before, Belladonna was taking information from Haven. Now she was pushing it in, and his overloaded brain was struggling to take in the info dump. It was obvious that Belladonna hadn’t done anything of her free will. As soon as she started indicating who was valuable and who was not for Shu, the senator had seen her worth. The woman was packed with power, and the senator had moved to control that power. Using her to read the average human being was even easier than reading the enhanced.

  They kept Belladonna sedated and in her room most of the time, unable to follow the world unless he allowed her access to it. The senator feared her, because she could read him as easy as anyone else, and she knew how truly despicable he was. Sometimes she was unable to contain her disgust and she fought back, until he knocked her out. He gave her to the guards, then, when she was unable to protect herself, and when she was allowed to rouse, threatened to take more drastic measures if she didn’t comply.

  Haven could see that Belladonna’s daughter had been in seclusion for the better part of three years, on a compound up the Hudson River, near Albany. It looked like it was another of the senator’s private homes, and he only let Donna visit very rarely.

  “Why don’t you go with me,” he asked, irate. “You should be with me.”

  Donna raised her fingers to a black choker around her neck. Haven had seen it but hadn’t really noticed it.

  “If I go anywhere without his permission, all he has to do is press a button and this thing injects a drug. Shu used to use them for sedatives for his lab patients, but Hall has told me that this one also has a euthanasia drug, pentobarbital, in it, which will more than likely kill me. My daughter wears the same kind of collar.”

  Damn. No wonder she hadn’t been able to leave.

  “I can get you out, but you have to promise me you’ll try to get my daughter,” Belladonna said, her eyes beseeching. “She has nothing to do with any of this.”

  “I will absolutely do what I can,” he promised. On impulse, he reached out and hugged her.

  For a moment she stayed frozen, unmoving, then something seemed to break in her and she let out a sob. For just a moment she took comfort, then she pushed away, shaking her head. “I can’t do this right now. I have to focus.”

  Haven didn’t say anything as he watched her lean against the door, one hand resting on its surface. He felt the power surge even from where he was staring. Glancing around he spied the coat he’d been wearing tossed to the side. The shirt, he was sure, was in a trash can somewhere. There was nothing else he could put on, so shirtless it was.

  His head was reeling from the info she’d projected into him, and he had a feeling it would be a while before he’d seen it all. When Donna guided him through the door, both of the armed guards stood motionless, eyes closed.

  They’re fine, Donna told him. Just taking a long blink. Let’s go.

  She led him down the hall, then right at another hall and into a huge, exquisite kitchen. A woman looked up from chopping vegetables and Donna put a finger to her lips, keeping her quiet. The woman immediately looked back to the cutting board. The penthouse was amazingly huge, but they finally came to a solid oak door, obviously a back, staff entrance. Donna rested her hand on this door as well, then opened it cautiously. The guard there looked the same as the other guards at his room, eyes closed, though this one sat in a chair. Donna turned to Haven, reaching for his head.

  If you go here, I think you’ll be able to find your people. She projected a building into his mind, and a path to get there to avoid as many cameras as possible. I can’t do anything here until you get my daughter out safely.

  He nodded, holding her eyes for a moment. They were no longer the cold brown they’d once been.

  I will do my very best. You stay safe.

  She nodded, letting him go. I will.

  Chapter 9

  Once again, they were back in the bland safehouse. Raine knew it was probably super expensive just because of the sheer size of it and the centralized location, but it didn’t make it any prettier. Apparently, the government shopped at Generic-Rooms-R-Us. She would have joked with Rose about it, but he wasn’t there. None of the team was. Even Poole was gone, though most of his equipm
ent still seemed to be on the dining room table.

  Noah stood across the room, looking out the window, his broad back to her. Their time in the park had been a little surreal, a pause of the real-life drama of life and death. It had been a moment for them to steal time.

  Raine could still taste Noah’s lips on hers. The feel of his tongue inside her mouth sent a shiver down her spine with remembered arousal. And she didn’t remember ever being so turned on that she straddled a man’s lap in a public park! That just wasn’t her.

  Back in her little corner of Tennessee, her actions would have been seen as wonton. Through school and later she’d always had a bit of a goodie two-shoes reputation. Her daddy had been an extremely hard worker, and well known in the area for standing up for worker’s rights. The kids that she went to school with were the children of the men her father worked with, so there was no getting away with anything. Yeah, they had their fun here and there, but someone always blabbed.

  Dating was the same. Their school was small hence the dating pool was equally small. Raine had ‘dated’ the same boy all through high school, Jacob Palmer. Within hours of losing their virginity together after Junior Prom the entire county knew. Mama wasn’t as upset as Daddy was, but they had had a long, intense conversation afterward.

  Her mama had been a country midwife, just like her mother before her. Between the two of them they had delivered most of the babies in the county for almost forty years. Raine could remember going to birthings with both of them and wanting to help out and learn. Then her Gram had gotten sick, unable to go out as much as she used to. Raine had stayed with her for almost a year as the cancer ate her bones. It was inoperable supposedly, but she doubted Gram had explored every option. It hadn’t been her way to trust city medicine.

  Raine had wanted to find a way to blend the two, so she’d started focusing her classes toward nursing. It had been in her junior year of college that her mother had gotten sick. Mama hadn’t allowed her to come home, telling her she needed to stay in school so that she could help people like her.

  College had brought a wider range of men to choose from and the distance from her hometown prying eyes to do it. With her mother’s guidance ringing in her ears, Raine had enjoyed herself at college, but not gotten too involved with any one boy. She had bigger plans and she didn’t want to tie herself to a man.

  The summer she graduated she spent at home with her family. Mama had slowed down, the cancer making her unable to travel far. Daddy was kind of lost. Mama had always been his rock, and now he was having to be hers. When the doctors told them there was no more they could do, he’d gotten very angry. Raine could remember him guiding Mama into the house after that last appointment, gentle as could be, then he went out to the barn and let the anger go. He broke pitchforks and brooms, ripped a door off its hinges, beat a metal burn barrel to death. Mama had heard him, of course, and went out to him. They had crumpled together in the barn lot, Mama holding Daddy as he cried. Raine and her siblings had stood on the porch crying as well, until Mama had opened an arm, calling them to her. They had all cried in the dirt that day, held by the strongest woman Raine had ever known. By the following Christmas she’d been gone.

  “Baby, what’s wrong?”

  For a moment, she thought it was her father asking her mother what was wrong, then her mind cleared. Noah stood directly in front of her, concern etched into his handsome face. His thick fingers reached out and swiped at her cheeks, and she realized she was crying. “Oh, sorry. I was thinking about my mother and I just…”

  She turned away, but he caught her arm. “Are you sure, Raine?”

  She nodded hurriedly, keeping her face turned away from him. “I’m going to go get a drink of water.”

  He let her go but she could feel the weight of his gaze on her back as she left. Instead of going to the kitchen she headed to the bedroom she’d been assigned. It had an en suite bathroom, and she stopped in front of the mirror to look at herself. Her blue eyes looked deeper blue, and big in her pale face. Why had she broken down like that? What did that scene from the past have to do with what was going on right this minute?

  Maybe she was just missing her mother’s wisdom when it came to dealing with Noah. In all her life she’d never been so affected as she had been by the kiss they’d shared in the park. It had legit rocked her on her foundation. If she wasn’t careful, she would think Noah could mean a lot more to her than just a fun time with a guy from work.

  Maybe that was why she’d relived that scene with her parents and siblings. It was the strongest example of love she’d ever seen and felt. Somewhere in her heart was she feeling something similar for Noah? No. It was way too early for anything like that. Literally, they’d just kissed! It had been a melt-your-panties kind of kiss, but still. They were here to do a job, not play around and have sexy time.

  Huffing out a breath, she wiped her face and reapplied some makeup. She had no idea what was in store for them the rest of the day, but she wanted to be ready.

  Her phone rang in her pocket. Drawing it out, she swiped a finger across the glass. “Hey, Elizabeth. What’s up?”

  “I have news. Is Noah there, and Rose?”

  “Let me walk out. Rose went out. I don’t think he’s back yet, but Noah is here. How’s my floor doing without me?”

  Elizabeth laughed. “Well, Paul is fine. He’s not wild about the nurse I put up there.”

  Raine frowned. Paul rarely got aggravated. “Who did you put up there?”

  “Kelle, the nurse from the Brazilian camp.”

  “Oh,” she breathed. Yeah, Kelle was a bit of an odd one. The woman had worked for the Silverstone Collaborative at the Brazilian research camp, where the Dogs of War had escaped from. She claimed that she hadn’t taken part in any of the torture or testing, only helped the men recover. Several of the men had vouched for her, so…

  ”She’ll be fine. Paul will keep her in line.”

  “Undoubtedly.”

  Raine made a motion to Noah when she walked out and hit the speaker button. “We’re here, Elizabeth. Rose must still be out.”

  “That’s okay. I think Wulfe is talking to him actually. So, the meeting with the general went very well. The powers that be are working to create a multi-departmental task force and get some protections in place. It’s sounding like every big department in Washington has an investigation running on the senator, they’ve just never had enough to take him down. If they all work together, though, I think something will happen.”

  “What about Haven? At this point he’s all I care about.”

  Elizabeth sighed. “I know, Raine, and we’re trying to figure out what to do about him. Unless we get some kind of proof that he’s actually there in the Senator’s penthouse, we can’t do anything. I think Officer Rose knows that as well.”

  “So, you’re basically telling us we need to cool our heels for a while,” Noah murmured.

  “Yes,” she said. “Sorry. The way things are sounding, though, when something happens it will happen fast.”

  She looked at Noah and they nodded. “Okay. We’ll be ready.”

  When she hung up, Raine didn’t know how to feel. First and foremost, she was here for Haven’s health. She didn’t want him hurt in any way and it worried her that people were deciding about his safety that didn’t know him.

  She looked at Noah. “This is aggravating.”

  His grinned slightly. “I know. This is a really big deal, though. They have to literally dot every I and cross every T correctly so that he doesn’t worm out of this like he’s done so many other times. This man has killed innumerable people.”

  “And Haven may be one of them. We haven’t seen him for hours.”

  Noah moved closer, holding her arms in his hands. “I’m not going to lie to you. Yes, there is a chance that Haven is dead, or will be soon. Agent McCullough has been Hall’s clean-up man for many years and there’s a very good chance he was called in to dispose of a body.”

  The thoug
ht sent a shock of terror through her middle and she shivered. “And yet we sit here.”

  His bright eyes narrowed. “We sit here because we don’t want to end up being one of those disposed of. I have a feeling the senator has a lot more men in that building than we know. Now, I’m willing to go in if you want me to, and kick some ass, but we need to let the CIA actually think they’re doing something.”

  Her mouth quirked with a smile, then she sobered. “No, we’ll wait. I don’t want you getting hurt either.”

  “Ah, baby, I’m bulletproof,” he said, grinning, and he flexed his massive biceps for her.

  Raine laughed, loving that he let himself be silly for her. It was so opposite of the normally intimidating persona he wore, and she had a feeling he wouldn’t have done it if the CIA had been here. “You’re not bulletproof. Elizabeth said you were shot getting Blake out.”

  He waved a hand. “It was just a graze. No worry.”

  Raine shook her head at his disregard. “You got SHOT.”

  He shrugged those big shoulders. “I’ve been shot before, I told you that, several times in fact. As long as no major organs are hit, you’ll probably recover.”

  Blinking, she gaped at him. “Yeah, you said you’d been shot before but I guess I didn’t really think about it being as bad as the TBI you mentioned. How long were you over there and how many times did you get shot?”

  ”I did four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’ve been shot half a dozen times.”

  The thought of a gaping wound like Haven’s on Noah’s body made her ill. Noah’s body was too pretty for that. “Four tours. Seriously?”

  He shrugged. “What else was I going to do? Go home to Philly and struggle to find a job? I didn’t want to do that. I did eventually go to school, but it was a struggle to get through it because of these.” He waved at his ears. “I’m much better in an active job. If I have the chance to protect someone, or even better, shoot someone, I’ll take it. If it means I get shot,” he shrugged those massive shoulders, “it’s what I have to do.”