Authors: Joni Hahn
She wouldn’t budge. “I told you, I’m not going anywhere until I get some answers.”
He lowered his face within inches of hers, his minty breath washing over her heated cheek. Dammit, why couldn’t she
breathe
?
“Yes, you are,” he said.
She gritted her teeth. “
No
, I’m-“
Bending low, he pushed a shoulder into her middle and tossed her over his shoulder. She gasped, nearly swallowing her tongue. His large, warm hand cupped her upper thigh, sending sparks of arousal straight to her core.
Holy smokes. Now is
not
the time to get turned on, Teague
.
“Put me
down
.” She pounded a fist against his back.
“I plan to… in a minute.”
Taking the stairs two at a time, he raced down three floors as she bounced against his muscular back. Yanking open a door, he rushed into a hallway filled with fragments of sheetrock, plaster and other debris. Men and women stopped to stare, some laughing, others slapping him on his free shoulder.
She was a world-renowned doctor of genetics, for cripes sake. Her education and position as one of the leading scientists in genetic engineering warranted more respect than a sack of flour on this Neanderthal’s back.
Walking into a room, he lowered her to the floor. People packed up test tubes, vials and other samples into liquid nitrogen tanks and biohazard containers, others throwing medical supplies into boxes. A musty smell of alcohol and sheetrock dominated the wrecked laboratory, the taste of bile rising in her throat.
Teague stared at the obvious, her heart heavy. Was this Cyrus Matheson’s genetic engineering lab? The place where she’d thrown all of her life’s dreams, her future - into this pile of
rubble and debris
?
How would she ever correct her genetic code and overcome her family’s medical history without his resources? Without them, she had no hope of ever conceiving a healthy baby of her own.
The agency Dylan worked for had the technology. She had no choice but to go with him.
He pulled a pair of handcuffs from a bag. She held out her wrists in invitation.
His eyes narrowed. “You’re not going to fight me?”
Shaking her head, she said, “No. I realize that will only prolong my release.”
Latching one cuff around her wrist, he hooked the other around his own.
Her mouth dropped open.
No
. She already felt too on-edge in his company. Dylan McCall was far too potent, too appealing to be locked beside him for any length of time.
Tugging on the cuff, she tried to squeeze her hand through the hole. “Is this really necessary?”
Stepping close, he towered over her, his body heat fogging her glasses. She took a deep breath and let it out.
“Yes. I don’t have time to chase after you.”
But, what if I let you catch me
? “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
“That’s a matter of opinion, Doctor, and frankly, yours doesn’t count.”
***
“You have her blindfolded
and
in handcuffs? Kinky, McCall.”
The female D.I.R.E. agent gave Dylan a heavy-lidded onceover as she passed him outside the D.I.R.E. security wing elevators, Teague Hamilton in tow.
She said, “Does Mitchell know you’re taking women to the security cells?”
Walking backwards, he called after her. “I have to use foolproof interrogation tactics. I’d like to run them past you to see what you think.”
Laughing, she shook her head.
“Actually, the blindfold was my idea,” Teague said, beside him. “It’s the only way I can keep from laughing.”
The agent stepped into the elevator. “Sounds like you have your work cut out for you, McCall.” The doors shut in front of her.
He wasted a glare on Teague. Despite the way her firm thighs had felt in his hands, he’d never bed one of Cyrus’s allies. Not even one this hot.
“Once you go red, you want nothing else in bed.” He ushered her to a vacant security cell down the hall.
Her voice rang of feigned innocence. “I don’t want bedbugs or cracker crumbs in my bed. Is that kind of the same thing?”
He gritted his teeth. Running his finger over a scanner beside the entrance, he waited for the clear, acrylic door to slide open. Escorting her inside, he whipped off her blindfold.
“Or,” she said, patting down her hair, “is that unless he’s blond, brunette, bald or gray…?”
He’d love to prove the foolishness of her words. If circumstances were different, he’d be all over
that
. Despite her haughtiness, she was one hot doctor.
“You’ll never know, will you, Doctor?”
Her eyes scanned him from the ground up. His body hardened.
“You can bet on it...” Teague looked around the sparse holding cell.
What the hell did she mean by that? He ought to seduce her just to prove she wasn’t as immune as she’d like him to believe.
Following her to the lone window, he admired her round backside in the seat of her skirt, her firm calf muscles flexing under smooth skin.
“Where am I?” She turned to face him, the cuffs giving little freedom for anything other than forced intimacy. Pale gray eyes stared at him through thick, dark lashes, the bridge of her small nose marked with indentions from the nose pads of her glasses. The bright, mid-May sun created a blue halo around her jet-black hair, her dark brows like slashes of ink against her fair skin.
Bracing a hand on the window frame, he planted the soles of his shoes against the tile floor. The air conditioner blew against his neck, emitting the scent of suntan lotion and sweat into the room.
“If I wanted you to know that, I wouldn’t have blindfolded you.”
Holding up her smudged glasses, she rubbed the lenses with the hem of her blouse. Her fingers were long, a blue vein extending across the top of her left hand.
“I went to Arizona State, McCall. I know the desert southwest. I want to know what building I’m standing in?”
The D.I.R.E. complex sat in isolation amongst the mountains north of Las Vegas. A world unto itself, it not only served as headquarters for the prestigious, international security agency, it also held housing for the agents stationed there.
The elevator dinged down the hall. Anticipation itched at his insides, knowing Mitchell would soon be there. If all went well, Teague Hamilton would give them an inside track on where to find the rest of Cyrus’s clones. Once they tracked them down and destroyed them, Dylan would do everything in his power to make sure Cyrus’s technology never saw the light of day again. He’d ensure the man spent a long life in solitary confinement and died a slow death - since the option to kill him was gone.
The door swished open. D.I.R.E. chief, Mitchell Jacobs, entered the cell, along with Clint Robinson, the agency’s lead scientist.
“Teague?” Clint’s eyes were big in his face.
A small smile blossomed over her pearl white teeth. “Clint?”
She rushed across the room, dragging Dylan with her. The scent of mountain laurels choked him, reminding him of home.
She worked for Cyrus. How could Clint treat her like a long lost friend?
Clint glared at the cuffs. “Take these off.”
Dylan gave him a hard stare. “She works for Matheson.”
“What is she going to do?” Clint said. “Take out all three of us?”
He knew she proved no physical threat. He just didn’t want to give her any kind of upper hand in this situation. As far as he was concerned, she was the enemy.
Mitchell said, “McCall, based on your video feed from this morning, I don’t think we have anything to worry about.”
Dylan frowned. What did he mean by that? Did he consider her – or him - nonthreatening? Either way, he didn’t like it.
He removed the cuffs with sluggish movements. “She has a signed employment contract from Cyrus in her bag.”
Clint stared at her with raised brows. Rubbing her bare wrists, she frowned at Dylan.
“And?” she said, lifting her chin. “The last time I checked, accepting a job offer wasn’t a crime.”
“It is if the offer is made by a criminal,” Dylan said.
Her steady eyes betrayed the note of surprise in her voice. “What do you mean?”
Mitchell walked toward her, folder in hand. “Dr. Hamilton, I’m Mitchell Jacobs, head of the D.I.R.E. Agency. You’ve met agent Dylan McCall and obviously, you know our lead scientist, Clint Robinson.”
She shook Mitchell’s hand before her gaze went back to Clint. “Why am I here?”
Mitchell said, “You work for Cyrus Matheson, an enemy of our agency.”
“Enemy?” she said, glancing between Mitchell and Clint. “What do you mean? What did he do?”
Clint crossed his arms over his chest. “Why’d you leave Capri’s lab, Teague? You’ve done some incredible things there.”
Looking down at the floor, she said, “I’m tired of having breakthroughs within reach, then yanked out from under me by pharmaceutical company lobbyists fighting DNA research. Cyrus Matheson offered me an open-ended financial resource to advance my genetic research.” She glanced at Mitchell before her gaze landed on Dylan. “It was a breath of fresh air.”
Giving her a patronizing smile, Dylan braced his hands on his hips. “Yeah, well, the only air he’s breathing now is stale.”
Her brows lowered into a frown. “What do you mean by that?”
Mitchell said, “Cyrus Matheson is in prison.”
Her shoulders slumped. “
Prison
? We exchanged emails a couple of weeks ago.”
Clint leaned a hip against the edge of a desk. “He’s been manipulating the genetic code for years, Teague. He kidnaps people with strengths he desires and uses their genetics as a base for creating clones with specific purposes. He’s built security personnel based on our agent, Riordan St. James.” He looked over at Dylan and grinned. “We’re still trying to figure out why the hell he kidnapped Dylan. Maybe he needed a court jester.”
She whipped around to look at him. He shot the bird at Clint.
“Cyrus kidnapped you?” she said.
Revenge blazed to life inside his chest. He hated thinking about. Hated the memories, the weakness and shame. The entire experience was a disgrace to him and his family’s proud military tradition. If his father knew what had really happened, he’d never consider him a real man worthy of respect.
“I spent months in a Mongolian prison where his people put me through certain
tests
to ascertain whether I had what they wanted. Twice, I was sent to the Hawaiian island for DNA extraction.” Anger teamed with pride to tighten his jaw. “I made them fight for every freaking sample they took.”
Sympathy lined her grey eyes, angering him all the more. What would his father, or grandfather say to such weakness?
I’m not sure you have what it takes, Son. Why don’t you forget the military and make the farm your career?
Looking back, Dylan realized he’d taken a chance being on that island the last couple of days. Until he knew Cyrus had no help on the outside, he had to stay cautious.
Mitchell said, “We’ve confiscated his technology and brought it here to D.I.R.E. We can’t afford for it get into the wrong hands.”
She looked down her nose at Mitchell. “So, you’ve deemed yourselves the
right
hands?”
Tension filled the room like a hot air balloon. Not many people bucked Mitchell Jacobs’s system, and when they did, they learned real fast not to do it again.
“Right or wrong, we have it, Dr. Hamilton.” Mitchell’s steady gaze challenged her to prove otherwise. “We aren’t about to let it go.”
Her wide eyes sparked like flint rock. “You’re no better than the pharmaceutical companies, concerned only with your own agenda rather than the advancement of human health.”
“You’re damned right, we have our own agenda,” Dylan said. “Matheson made this personal. Not only did he kidnap me and Saint, a team of his clones orchestrated the attack on the beach that killed two of our agents. The one we brought back will give us answers. Trust me.”
She gasped. “The men on the beach were genetically-enhanced?”
Mitchell said, “The Oahu police department had orders to deter all traffic to the island. An inside source told us Matheson still had loyal informants in Hawaii who remained on-call, waiting for you to arrive.”
“You had no knowledge of that?” Dylan said, studying her.
Shaking her head, she squeezed her eyes shut. “Good God, no.”
“Teague,” Clint said, his voice low and solemn. “He’s infused them with a self-sacrificing loyalty. They will do whatever it takes to protect Cyrus and his interests - including sacrifice their lives.”
Dylan said, “We have no idea how many clones are out there, but you can be damned sure we’re going to do everything in our power to find them and destroy them.”
Tightening her fists, she turned to Mitchell. “Let me work with it.”