Melissa
On the ride back to Texas, that one sentence replayed in my mind. Out of his hands? How could it be out of his hands? He was a plethora of information, of endless ways to get people to do what he wanted. Why couldn’t he help us find Myter and Bane? They were traitors to our country. Was there really something else more important going on for him to abandon this search?
We landed in Texas late that night, and I threw my dress bag into the truck, not caring if it wrinkled or not. I sat in the parking lot, uncertain of where I should go. I had a decision to make. Where would I go from here, in the middle of the night? My apartment and sleep it off? Or make the three hour drive back to Bath, give or take a few, and take the antiserum.
My gut clenched with a deep ache I chalked up to the effect of what was happening to me.
Did I really want to do it? Did I want to take the risk of never having Garrett or Dallon back in my life? Could I really see them with someone else? It had been so long ago when our friendship grew only to be separated and reconnected in a more intimate way. Thrown together in a massive confusion and scientific espionage, we had only had five… no seven days of getting to know one another and half of that was spent between the sheets. But even with that small bit of time, my heart told me the years between us didn’t matter. I wanted to stay with them. My head spoke reason about how impractical it was to love two men. Was I truly thinking about staying with them?
I pulled out of the parking spot before I realized what I was doing and headed toward the farmhouse. It was only to check on Trisha, I told myself, to make sure she was okay. And then to take her back with me. The reasoning satisfied my brain, but my heart knew it was a lie.
When I pulled up to the farmhouse, it was still dark. Vehicles were nowhere to be seen, and it looked like the farmhouse had been abandoned. Dark windows, no signs of life. Well, it was what we wanted a safe house to look like, that way no one would think twice about searching there. Unless they wanted to be found. Did the guys stay for that reason? Hoping for me to come back?
Parking in the driveway, I wished I took the Director’s advice and purchased a phone. It would help to get in contact with the guys to figure out which way to go. Into the barn or inside the house?
I needed to grab the antiserum and explain it to the guys. Decision made, I got out of the truck and slammed it shut, hoping to rouse someone into coming out. No one made an appearance, so I walked up to the porch. Then I hesitated, unsure if I should knock or not, but when I drew closer I noticed the front door was ajar.
My muscles tensed. That it was unusual. Wishing for some sort of weapon, I slowly backed off the steps, hoping nothing creaked. Back on the dirt, I went to the side yard and grabbed the thickest stick I could find and headed back up the porch and into the house, flipping on the lights as I went.
Nothing in the front room looked disturbed; the exercise equipment was still where it had been before. I went over and traded my stick for a barbell before slowly stepping into the hallway, continuing to flip on lights as I went, wanting to secure the downstairs before I went up to the second floor.
Easing my way past the steps that lead upstairs, I went toward the kitchen. I briefly considered the closet safe room as I paused at the hall closet, but I had no idea what the code was and again, it didn’t seem like anyone was there. Unwilling to let my guard down, I entered the kitchen and walked to the rotary phone that never rings and picked it up.
Silence met my ear. I froze. Someone cut the line. Putting it back on the cradle, I turned and crept upstairs, worried someone found the antiserum my father gave me.
I made it to my bedroom. Not bothering to turn on the lights, I went straight to the vent and pulled the lever that opened it, allowing the jewelry box to fall into my hands. My shoulders sagged with relief then tensed when I heard the shuffle of foot steps.
Whirling around, I found Myter outlined in the doorway with a gun in hand. His once sure and smooth voice held an air of desperation. “I need your help, Melissa.”
Myter held the gun in his right hand as he flipped on the light. His usual daily wear was worn and torn. He was a wreck.
“This is messed up, Edmund.”
His hand rose in a pose of surrender. “I’m just here to talk. Melissa, I didn’t set out to do this. My daughter got sick. It’s a father’s duty to make sure that all resources have been looked at when your child is terminal.” He slowly lowered his hands. “I talked to a few people to see if they knew anything about a new drug out on the market. That’s when General Bane reached out to me and said that General Steel was working on something top secret that might help.”
It didn’t add up. “Just like that, General Bane offered up information? Why?”
“I did it for a favor.”
“Ah.” I nodded, realizing where things were going now. “The inoculations Trisha and I received.”
“Yes. I’m sorry, but I was desperate, knowing there was some kind of treatment that could cure my daughter. I tried to get a meeting with General Steel, to see if he might let my daughter in on the program. He never answered my phone calls, never bothered to get in touch. I even went to an event and met up with him. I shook his hand, and he told me that he knew nothing about any new drug.”
“So, you played with mine and Trisha lives for information that led you to a brick wall. Lovely.”
Ignoring my comment, he went on. “He said he was sorry for her. The bastard knew. I was sure of it. So I took my own liberties in finding out all I could and accessed our database. I found very little information about it, but it was there. Proof. I went to get into the army systems and couldn’t. I was blackballed and reprimanded by Director Phillips who told me not to pursue it further. My baby got worse, Melissa. All the hospitals. All the needles. All the pain. I couldn’t handle seeing her like that. I left the nurses to tend to her while I tried to figure out a way to change General Steels mind. He wouldn’t listen, and then the very man we were investigating, that you were sent to bring in, gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“An offer that turned you into a killer,” I retorted.
“But wouldn’t you have done it?” he rasped. “Wouldn’t you kill to save someone you loved?”
His thoughts and reasonings were skewed. He wasn’t the same man I remembered before he became guilt-ridden and desperate to save his only child.
“This is different,” I told him firmly. “Willing to take someone’s life, someone innocent who had their own kids, for the chance you might save your daughters? To make that ultimate choice on your own and not as a defense to your person, it’s wrong. You killed one of our own.”
“I know!” he yelled.
“So why are you here? Why do you need me?” I kept my hand at my side, trying not to draw attention to it.
“Because I need you. Nero’s no longer an issue. I’ve dealt with him.”
I knew that, but he didn’t know I did. “And one more tally on your kill list.”
He ignored the comment and went on. “But, Bane.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Bane is the crazy one.” He pointed to himself. “Crazier than me. He has this idea…” He drew closer, circling both hands for the universal sign of lunacy. My muscles stiffened as the gun as it waved in the air. “This idea that he’s going to have women birth superhumans. I did what he wanted, and he took my daughter.”
I put up my free hand. “Don’t come any closer.”
He paused. “He took my daughter, Melissa. I need your father. I need to know where he is so he can help me find her. Bane is planning to use my daughter. You see why I need your dad to speak with him? I need to know where they are.”
“My father’s not an option. But if you turn yourself in, I’ll do my best to find them.”
He threw up his hands and took one step closer with the gun. “No, I need to speak with him. He’s the only one who could find her. Them.”
I moved back and clinched the jewelry box in my hand. “I can’t. Won’t.”
An evil glint entered his eyes, and I went on high alert. “You know, I could make you. I’m different, now. Nero made me different.”
“What he made you is a monster.”
“You’ve made your choice, Adams. Come to me.”
At first I froze, unsure what he was doing. Then, I realized that persuasion must be his new talent.
“Why isn’t it working?” he growled. “I said ‘come to me’ dammit!”
I got an idea and moved toward him. As long as he thought he was in control, he wouldn’t harm me.
I played my part and took a step toward him. “What did you do? What’s going on?”
“Stop the questions!”
I clenched my teeth.
“That’s it, that’s right, come right to me.” I stepped close to him, not wanting him to take interest in what I held in my right hand. “I really don’t want to harm you.” I flinched as he brushed away a strand of my hair. “You remind me of my daughter. I can’t have you telling anyone else where I’m going or what I’m doing.”
His hand dropped. “It’s frustrating that I couldn’t compel you over the phone, but it doesn’t work that way. Now, tell me where your father is.”
I spoke the truth. “Colorado.”
Satisfaction gleaned in his eyes as his hand wrapped around my throat. My eyes widened, and I almost jerked back. “Where in Colorado?”
It was time to be proactive.
In one fluid movement I knead him in the family jewels, ducked as he fired his shot, and slipped the syringe out, slamming the needle of the antiserum into the side of his neck shoving the plunger down.
Shocked, he staggered on a groan.
“Go to purgatory, you asshole!”
“What? Ho—”
When he started foaming at the mouth, I shoved him away.
Outside, doors slammed open.
“Melissa!” a voice shouted.
I ignored it, my attention on Myter. “You’re dying,” I told him, backing away. “The H-15 serum that Nero injected you with has been eliminated from your system and the cyanide that remains is now finishing its course.”
His eyes glassed over. “I’ll find your daughter, and I’ll tell her you loved her enough to give up everything to save her life.”
He drew in his last breath, and cold eyes stared back at me. Dead eyes. I kept going. “But I will never tell her of the monster you became. I’ll do this for the man I used to know, not for the one dead at my feet.”
I looked up to find Aaron in the doorway, as well as Tristan and another man. I silently thought, I will never forget what happened here.
The unknown man replied as if reading my mind, “And you shouldn’t.”
I guess I finally met Kellan, the mind reader.
***
“So what do we do now?” Dallon held me on his lap after I explained what went down.
I stared at him in confusion. “What do you mean?”
Garrett put a hand to my cheek and turned my attention to him. “You know what he’s asking, sweets. Are you going to let me win, or are you going to prove me wrong?”
I gave his palm a kiss and turned away from him with a tilt of my lips as I looked out to the sunrise bleeding into day. “I never did like losing.”
Dallon chuckled. “No, you cheat.”
I leaned in and kissed him. “That’s rule number fifteen.”
“So, you’ll stay?” Trisha asked, coming in from the hallway. It seemed like forever since I’d seen her last, and she looked happy. Her grin was infectious. “Rule number one. Never leave a man behind.”
She frowned, her guys surrounding her. “But surely that’s not the reason.”
I took Dallon and Garrett’s hands in mine. “No. When you’ve found a good thing, you don’t let go of it. You hang on.”
“Another one of your rules?” Aaron teased as the others came in to join us.
“No, my mother’s.”
A phone rang in the distance and Weston, who was somewhere in the house, answered it. I held still, tuning in a listening ear to try to hear the conversation, but his voice was a muffled murmur.
I listened anyway until boots shuffled toward the kitchen. When Weston entered the room, his expression looked grim.
My intent gaze focused on him. “What is it?”
Weston shook his head. “Myter’s daughter is dead. It happened a few days ago. Around the time we left the base to rescue Macintosh.”
“But now the body’s missing.” Kellan, the mind reader, answered. “Someone took her.”