CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Sabrina had not only fucked Logan, she’d fucked him up. His eye was black, his lips swollen, his cheek ripped open from her nails. He sat in the chair at a desk, in front of a computer, with her standing behind him. A webcam chat displayed Powell—a distinguished, fifty-something man in full army greens, while Sabrina gritted her teeth through an explanation of why Lucian was missing. “Apparently he’d not only conspired against us with the Renegades, and planned to claim the Russian for their use, he’d involved Lara,” she continued. “I killed Lucian and the Russian, but Lara escaped.”
Powell didn’t react, his jaw tense, his face an emotionless mask, the air thick with his silence. Sabrina had come to know it signaled an impending explosion she wished to avoid with Powell, and these were those signs.
Her fingers dug into Logan’s shoulders. “But as you can see, Logan and I have been discussing options to present to you. He’s assured me he can not only bring Lara back to us, but reprogram her and send her back to the Renegades as a weapon.”
Powell’s gaze narrowed sharply on Logan. “Explain yourself.”
“Each of the Serenity GTECHs has a built-in mental trigger, a memory that will take the subject back to her real identity, but will also take her to an exact location I’ve programmed into her mind. Then she’ll be yours—a clean slate, ready to recanvas. We then send her back to the Renegades, where she will be trusted. We can use her to destroy them from the inside out.”
The muscle in Powell’s jaw ticked. “Explain the trigger.”
“It would be in our best interests to have this conversation alone.”
Powell’s eyes lifted to Sabrina. “Leave us.”
“General—”
He cut her off. “Wait in your quarters.”
Sabrina ground her teeth, barely containing the urge to scream with the injustice of the moment. Logan was going to pay for this, just as Lucian had paid for crossing her. She exited to the hallway and went to her room, a sterile white-tiled, white-walled duplicate of the lab, minus the tables, where she paced for twenty long minutes. Finally, the webcam program on her laptop beeped from where it sat on top of her white-and-glass kitchen table.
She rushed to the computer and hit the button to bring it to life, bringing Powell into view. “Who would you consider the best of Team Serenity, besides yourself, of course?” he asked, not bothering with a greeting.
Uneasiness fluttered in her stomach. “It depends on the mission.”
“The best, Sabrina,” he repeated sharply.
He studied her a long, hard moment. “Send Crystal to me here in Germany where I will remain for several weeks,” he finally said. “She’ll be replacing Lucian as my personal bodyguard. I won’t be returning anytime soon, and I wouldn’t want to take Opal—as I’m sure you’ll be counting on her for your upcoming mission.”
Damn it to hell. Crystal was power hungry and eager to win Powell’s favor. “What mission?”
“First you will close the front of the facility. Move everyone to the west, bottom level, so that it appears we’ve evacuated. Lara will be spending a few weeks in the Renegade camp earning their trust, and no doubt, she will tell them our location. When they come looking for us, we will know our plan is working. Then, we will exploit that trust to its fullest potential. Understand me, Sabrina. If anything happens to Logan to prevent him from bringing Lara back to me, I will hold you accountable. Are we clear?”
“We’re clear,” she agreed tightly and without hesitation. She could cause a lot of pain without impairing his performance. And she would enjoy every last second of it.
Lara heard the knock a second before Damion released her and pushed to his feet. The door opened and a pretty woman with light brown hair, about Emma’s age, wearing a lab coat, came in the door and shut it behind her.
“Hi Doc,” Damion said, his tone still tight from their confrontation. He motioned to the bed. “This is Lara. Lara, this is Dr. Petersen.”
“Hi Lara,” the doctor said, claiming a rolling chair and setting her clipboard on the counter that ran along the wall, before extending her hand. “Call me Kelly. It’s nice to meet you.”
Lara accepted her hand, surprised at the energy she sensed in her. “You’re human.”
“I am,” she confirmed. “As are most women you will meet here in Sunrise City, though we do have a handful of women converted to GTECH by Lifebond.” She arched a curious brow. “But you were converted by injection, I understand?”
Lara nodded. “Yes.”
“Are there more like you?”
“I’m part of a team of female soldiers,” Lara confirmed.
“Soldiers,” Kelly repeated, casting a surprised look at Damion. “I’m shocked Adam would choose women for such a task.”
Damion’s eyes met Lara’s as he replied, “Women were meant to be surprise weapons,” he said. “Created to kill GTECHs, but fortunately, Lara liked me too much to kill me.”
Kelly’s eyes went wide. “You’re a Renegade assassin?”
Lara could feel Damion’s attention, feel him watching her, feel the tension weave through the air, binding her breath for long seconds inside her chest. Only hours before, Lara would have proudly let Kelly believe she was a Renegade assassin, rather than a GTECH assassin, because that would point to Adam, not Powell. But now… it wasn’t so simple, and she wasn’t sure why. “This was my first mission,” she found herself saying, making it clear she’d never killed a Renegade, avoiding a direct answer. Or she thought this was her first mission, and her gaze dropped, her lashes lowering, hiding her doubt. What horrible things might be buried in the recesses of her mind?
“They told her the Renegades killed her family,” he said. “Promised her vengeance. Still Lara stood against them when they wanted an innocent human killed. Now they want her dead, and we’re offering her protection.”
Lara’s gaze lifted to his, colliding with Damion’s, and finding a silent reminder of his words. And I’ll keep protecting you.
“I see,” Kelly said. “How long ago were you converted, Lara?”
“As I remember,” Lara said, meeting her gaze again, “six months ago.”
“She has a head injury about twelve hours old,” Damion offered, stepping closer. “And she’s had no food, rest, or vitamin C since the injury. She’s hallucinating, or she is having flashbacks that come on her almost like seizures. Twice now she’s completely passed out. She’s having trouble holding her camouflaged eye color as well.”
Kelly arched a brow at Lara. “A dictionary of information, now isn’t he? Anything you might want to add, since this is you we’re talking about?”
“The first flashback was before the head injury,” she said. “So the injury isn’t the cause.”
“And that rules out the healing illness,” she said, making a note on her clipboard.
Lara didn’t know much about the healing illness, but if it was ruled out, she’d leave it at that. She wasn’t asking more questions that Damion might believe she should already know the answers to.
Kelly finished making her notes and set the clipboard aside again. “Before we continue, let me tell you a little about me. I can sense that trust is an issue for you, so I want to assure you that I’m your doctor, plain and simple. I make you well. The rest is between you and the others.” She didn’t wait for a reply. “I’m one of many humans who live and work with the Renegades, and I’m honored to do so. I’m as much of an expert on GTECH anatomy and health as one can be, considering the ever changing evolution of those converted. I was also one of the original doctors at Area 51.” She frowned and eyed Damion over her shoulder. “You’re hovering, Damion.” She pointed at the chair. “Sit.”
Lara drew back in shock, watching the scowl on Damion’s face, shocked when it turned to defeat, and he stalked to a chair and claimed it. Kelly, a woman—no, a human woman—had just successfully ordered Damion, a male GTECH, to sit, and he’d done it. Blown away didn’t begin to describe how the demonstration affected Lara. This display, and the trust she sensed in Emma for the Renegades, didn’t compute. Damion didn’t match the monsters she’d thought Renegades to be, the Renegades who would abuse and use women as the Zodius did.
Kelly eyed Damion. “Thank you,” she said when he was settled, and then glanced at Lara. “Unless you’d rather Mr. Mother Hen here wait outside?”
Damion flew to his feet. “I’m not leaving her alone.”
“You will if she says so,” Kelly shot back, and then arched a brow in Lara’s direction. “Lara?”
Her eyes went to Damion, who was staring at her, willing her to allow him to remain with her. Damion, Lara realized, was an anchor, the safety net her instincts were clinging to in all of this. He might be a devil in disguise, but at least, he was the one she knew.
“He’ll make a scene if I don’t let him stay,” Lara said.
His scowl deepened, and Kelly eyed him and laughed. “That he will.”
“Vitamin C has arrived,” Emma said, rushing into the room. “And I thought we should feed that GTECH metabolism.” She held up two chocolate bars. “These should hold you over until we get you some real food.”
Her stomach growling at the mention of food, Lara eagerly accepted. “Oh thank you. You’re an angel.”
Emma beamed. “I try.” She glanced at Damion and pulled out two more candy bars from her pocket. “Brought you some too.”
“She’s right,” Damion said. “You’re an angel.”
Three minutes later, Lara had inhaled the chocolate bars, and already she felt a little better. Five minutes later, she had vitamin C pumping through her. Thirty minutes later, she’d given blood, had her vitals and head injury checked, and there was an IV inserted in her arm. Forty minutes later, Damion was propped in the corner, looking as heavy-lidded as she felt, when Emma returned with her test results.
“Okay then,” Kelly said, as she read the report Emma had brought to her. “Your vitamin C levels weren’t overly low, which would have indicted the healing illness, but we pretty much knew that. Your blood levels are… a bit odd.”
“Odd?” Damion and Lara said at the same time.
“It could simply be normal for a female converted by serum,” Kelly said, dismissing concerns. “We have no one to compare to.” She sighed. “I don’t see any physical reason you should be having your symptoms. We need to do a CT scan and look at what’s really going on inside your head.”
“No,” Lara said quickly, despite the heaviness of sleep overtaking her. “I don’t want anyone poking around in my head.”
“Lara—” Damion started.
“No,” she repeated, holding a hand up to him, before he could even consider coming out of his chair. “Save your breath. I won’t do it.”
“We really need this test, Lara,” Kelly said. “What about it is worrying you?”
“How am I to know the CT scan is just a CT scan?” She sat up and glared at Damion. “Was this your plan all along? To use some machine to read my thoughts?”
He was on his feet, towering over her in a flash of a moment. “The plan is to get you healthy.”
“And you’re trying to get information from me,” she said. “You admitted that, so don’t lie now and say you aren’t, or I’ll never believe another word you speak to me.”
“I happen to believe that once you learn the truth about the Renegades and the Zodius, you’ll freely share it.”
“The truth or the truth you let me see, so I’ll talk?”
He flung his hands in the air and then ran one of them through his hair. “Doc,” he said. “Can you give us a minute?”
Lara started to get up, ready to rip out her IV to avoid whatever he had in mind.
Damion was on the bed holding her down quicker than she could move. “Oh no. You stay in the bed.”
“Because you fully intend to force me to take the CT scan, or whatever it is, right?”
“You know what?” Damion said. “If that’s what it takes to be sure you don’t go and die on me, then yes.”
“Because you can’t have your biggest source of information die, right?”
“Chale’s crashing!” Emma shouted from the door. And just like that, Lara was alone. Damion, Kelly, and Emma charged from the room, but not before Lara had seen the distress in Damion’s face. Lara yanked out her IV, and quickly grabbed paper towels from a wall dispenser and folded them in the V of her arm. She rushed to the doorway and stood there, knowing she should use this moment for escape—a moment of indecision paralyzing her. Even if she could escape, which she doubted, she didn’t know how to prevent Lucian from tracking her, or whether she was well enough to take flight without passing out again. Still… it was now or never.