Bone Deep (30 page)

“As soon as we’ve equalized her neurotransmitters or some such malady, she’s going to make history despite the annoying infertility problem. We can live with that minor defect.” His smile widened to that sinister expression she now associated with the man. “Kate is our first human clone.”

Shock rumbled through Jill like an earthquake, the tremors deep under the surface, the fault line across her heart.

Long moments after Richard had gone, the reality finally sank in.
She’s going to make history
.

Jill’s eyes closed and her breath caught on a sob. Paul’s child was growing inside her. Whatever she did from this moment forward, she had to be very careful. She could do nothing that would risk this child.

She’d lost Paul. She would not lose his child.

~*~

He had to wake up.

As if coming from deep within the bowels of the ocean, Paul swam upward, through the murky water, the need to breathe a searing pain in his chest.

But he couldn’t stop... had to swim harder... faster.

Jill needed him... he could feel it. She was waiting for him to come and rescue her.

He broke through the surface.

He gasped, sucking in all the air he could.

His eyes popped open.

Blinding light.

He blinked, tried to focus.

The hospital.

Alabama.

Shot.

He looked at the IV bottle hanging on the pole to his left and remembered the nurse had sedated him that way. Gritting his teeth he ripped the tape from his skin and jerked out the IV needle.

“Whoa there!”

Paul swiveled his head to the right.

Tom Cuddahy pushed out of a chair and rushed to his bedside. “I think you needed that thing, buddy.”

Thank God.

“We have to get out of here.” Paul pushed upward, pain spearing through him. He ignored it, swinging his legs over the side of the bed.

“Wait now. The doctor said—”

“I don’t care what the doctor said!” he roared. “They’ve got her. I have to get back to Paradise.”

“Okay, let’s be calm a minute.” Tom used both hands stop-sign fashion to make his point. “Just take a breath and bring me up to speed.”

“You got the files?” The mere effort of holding himself upright took every ounce of strength Paul possessed. His breath was ragged from it. He’d sent a copy of Connie Neil’s files to Cuddahy’s email address before attempting to leave the townhouse. That was the reason he’d gone back into the living room while Jill waited at their escape route. Was probably the reason he’d gotten shot but it was a risk he’d had to take.

“Got’em,” Tom confirmed. “Had a hell of a time figuring out what it all meant. But I got there.”

“They’ve got Jill. We have to go after her.”

“Here’s the deal,” Cuddahy said carefully, staying in front of Paul so that he wouldn’t jump out of the bed. “I’ve got a team in Paradise already. They’re keeping an eye on MedTech, LifeCycle and the local brass. But I haven’t made a move. I was waiting on you.” He shrugged. “The files are incriminating in themselves, but I had a hunch there was more and I didn’t want to tip your hand if you had one.” He exhaled a big breath. “I have to tell you, I did some sweating until I heard from that doctor yesterday. He said he almost didn’t call... thought you were just delusional. Hell, I had no idea where you were, man. I had your figured for dead.”

“So did I.” Paul frowned, trying to recall how much time had passed. “How long have I been here?”

Cuddahy didn’t answer right away. Paul glared at him.

“A week.”

Paul swore. Jesus Christ she could already be... No! He refused to believe Jill was anything but alive and waiting for him. “How is that possible? I lost all concept of time.”

“You were so combative they had to keep you sedated most of the time. And the doctor thinks you need to stay at least another week. He says you’re lucky as hell to be alive. All three bullets nipped something vital. The staff around here’s calling you the miracle man. You’d about bled out when they brought you in. The ER folks say you were living on sheer willpower.”

“I’m leaving now.” Paul readied to scoot off the bed. “Get out of my way, Cuddahy. I’m going after her.”

He shook his head, empathy in those serious green eyes. “I understand how you feel, but the fact is she’s probably dead already. I know you don’t—”

“She’s alive,” he told him flatly. “I know it.”

Cuddahy considered his statement, then backed up a step. “Well, I guess we’re out of here then. I’ve got another team ready to scramble. We’ll go at’em from all sides.”

Tom was one of the few people who understood how Paul could sense things. And even he didn’t know everything.

No one did... except Jill.

“I’ll need some clothes,” Paul said as he gingerly eased off the edge of the bed.

Cuddahy pointed to the bag sitting next to the chair. “I’m beginning to think I might be psychic too.”

“And a gun.”

The demand startled Paul almost as much as it did Cuddahy. He hadn’t touched a gun in years. But he wanted one now.

“I can handle that,” Cuddahy assured him.

“We have to hurry.”

The nurses tried to stop them, but Cuddahy simply waved his badge and rolled Paul away in a wheelchair. He was weak as hell. He needed to conserve every ounce of strength he had for when they arrived in Paradise, which wasn’t going to be soon enough for him.

The one thing that kept him going was the complete certainty that she was alive... waiting for him.

Chapter 18

Sunday, July 24

It was late in the next day when Jill’s cell door opened again. Though she had no clock, she’d learned to judge the time by the comings and goings in the corridor. She raised up as Richard stepped inside, he looked frazzled.

“Come with me,” he ordered.

She shook her head. “Forget it.” She moved to the corner of the cot, as far away as possible. How could she have let this man touch her? The thought made her sick at her stomach.

He manacled her arm. “I said come with me.” He withdrew a revolver. “I didn’t risk coming back in here for nothing. That child you’re carrying is my retirement package.”

Her heart lurched.
The baby
. Oh God. She couldn’t do anything that would risk the baby. But if she fought him… “Okay, okay. Just be careful with that thing.”

He dragged her from the cell, keeping one arm around her neck, effectively pinning her to him. They moved down the long white corridor until reaching a bank of elevators where he stabbed the call button. Jill looked at the numbers above the cars. There appeared to be eight stories above ground and four sublevels. She blinked, looked again. Four underground floors? She wondered if only those with the right clearance even knew these floors existed. Probably.

She swallowed tightly. She had to escape. But she couldn’t do anything as long as she was a prisoner herself. She now knew with complete clarity how her mother had felt all those years. She’d done whatever necessary to protect her children. Now, Jill was sentenced to the same fate.

The elevator’s floor indicator stopped on sublevel four. She shuddered, feeling as if she were in a missile silo. Her lungs were suddenly hungry for more air.

He punched the button for S1. The first underground floor. The claustrophobia that had gripped her eased as they moved upward. The doors glided open on S1.

This level looked vastly different from S4, where she’d been held prisoner. Looked like your typical basement storage area. Nothing but long, deserted hallways lined with doors.

“Where are we going?” she finally had the presence of mind to ask. Her legs felt wobbly it had been so long since she’d walked any distance.

“It seems we have uninvited company and I plan to make sure you and I are not discovered.” His fingers tangled in her hair and he jerked her around to face him. “Behave yourself and I might just let you live. As much as I want the grandchild you’re carrying, I want to keep my freedom more.”

She nodded obediently. His fingers loosened in her hair, the weapon lowered slightly. When he would have started forward again, she kneed him in the groin with all her might. He dropped like a rock. She ran like hell. She had no idea where she was going. She only knew that she had to get away from him... from this place.

She heard him swearing. He was probably getting to his feet already. He had the gun. She had to protect the baby.

The corridor ended abruptly. She rushed through the last door on the right.

Darkness greeted her. She felt her way along the wall. Another door on the right, she took that one. It closed with a thud behind her.

A long, creepy corridor lay before her. The low wattage security lighting kept it from being completely dark. The corridor, tunnel, she decided on closer inspection, stretched forward for as far as she could see. She ran, refusing to slow. He would be coming right behind her.

If she could just get away she could bring help. She didn’t have the files, but she wouldn’t stop until she found Paul’s friend at the Federal Bureau of Investigation and then she would make him believe her one way or the other.

Footsteps echoed somewhere behind her.

Without daring to look back, she pressed her hand to her belly and ran faster.

~*~

“Look, man, I think you’d better sit down,” Cuddahy suggested.

“Back off,” Paul muttered. Yeah, the pain had him sweating profusely and he felt confident he was as white as a sheet, but he wasn’t stopping until he found Jill. They’d been searching for hours. The afternoon was fading into evening. No one had been allowed to leave either of the facilities, MedTech or LifeCycle.

They’d found nothing. Yet, Paul knew she was here. He could feel her. The moment he walked into the building, he sensed her. She’d never left Paradise.
She was here
.

And she was alive.

Somehow those few days they’d spent together had created a bond that went deeper than any other he’d ever shared with another human being.

A crackle came over the two-way radio. “We’ve searched all eight floors. Nothing but labs, technicians, offices, and office personnel.”

“The basement’s clear too,” came another report.

The LifeCycle Center was clear as well. The chief, the mayor and the senator, all of whom they had in custody at the moment, had taken the Fifth. Bastards.

Paul was ready to start his own kind of interrogation with one of them... preferably the chief.

“She’s here,” Paul insisted again.

“You give it a rest and I’ll go through the steps with the acting CEO one more time.”

Paul knew what he meant by that. Cuddahy was going to rattle the woman some more to see if she broke. She was slick, kept repeating that she knew nothing about their accusations. Paul doubted she would alter her statement but she might just let something slip.

His knees near the point of buckling, he rested his hip on a desk. Swiping his damp brow with the back of his hand, he studied the security monitors again. MedTech had a hell of a security system. Cameras everywhere. Even infrared heat tracking sensors that tagged body heat.

He thought of the basement in Karl Manning’s house. Fireproof... sealed off except for that one necessary hidden entry.

What if…he straightened and moved toward the single security officer left behind to operate the systems. The rest had been taken to chat rooms—Cuddahy jargon for interrogation rooms. This guy, the youngest and most cooperative, was named Lee Partin and he’d casually advised Paul that he’d like to be an FBI agent one of these days. Why not capitalize on the opportunity to facilitate the lines of communication? Paul was a pro at playing the buddy-buddy role to get information. It was part of his training... part of his background in psychology. Hell, it was simply second nature.

“There are no other floors below the basement level?” Paul asked, instinct humming a familiar tune. He was on to something.

Lee shook his head. “If there are any, I’m not aware of them, sir. The elevators and stairwells only go down one sublevel to my knowledge. But—”

Something on one of the monitors snagged his attention.

“Holy crap.”

“What?” Paul demanded hoarsely. Damn he’d be lucky to stay on his feet another twenty minutes.

“We got somebody in the tunnel.”

He didn’t remember hearing anything about a damned tunnel. “What the hell is the tunnel?”

“Escape tunnel in case of a fire or other emergency,” Lee explained. “It should be in the main floor plans. You access it from the basement level. There’s been no activity until now and the sensors don’t lie.”

Paul had a feeling the tunnel was about more than a fire escape. “How many?”

“Two hot bodies. One advancing on the other.”

Paul leaned over the screen that had Lee’s attention. He winced at the pain that accompanied his every move. “How do I get there?”

“Down to S1. Take a right off the elevator.” Lee wheeled around and traced the path on the floor plan spread on a nearby table. “The last door on the right, then another immediate right and you’re there.”

“No pass codes or keys required?” Paul asked as he strode toward the elevator.

“Nope. As an emergency exit it’s never locked from the inside. Just a mile and a half of tunnel and then a ladder straight up.”

“Find Agent Cuddahy, tell him where I’m headed.” Paul didn’t wait for Lee’s response. His senses were buzzing. He knew in his gut that Jill was down there.

Lee’s instructions led him right to the tunnel door. Paul stepped inside and the door closed behind him. The dank smell assaulted him at once. Then his senses homed in on the mile and a half of near darkness before him.

Panic hit hard, paralyzing him with its intensity. Fear snaked around his chest, squeezing, making it impossible to draw in a deep enough breath, hindering the rhythm of his heart. He backed against the wall for support and focused on controlling his breathing.

Dammit. This couldn’t happen now. He blinked, forced himself to focus. Not now. It took him another minute to pull it together enough to move.

Please help me!