Heroes In Uniform (128 page)

“Long time no see, Dr. Edwards,” she said, the tones of her voice controlled although her body was taut with anger.

“You’ve got some nerve bringing her here,” Edwards said, shooting a glance at him. “She’s dangerous. She killed Wells.”

Mick shook his head and laughed harshly. “There are lots of reasons why I think Caterina didn’t do the skewering. Let’s start with reason number one - Gates Genengineering.”

Edwards paled. “How do you know about them?”

“I hacked your servers.”

“You found the Gates documents?” Edwards sputtered.

Mick nodded and walked around the edge of the chair to crouch right before the doctor, not wanting to miss a second of his response.

“What happened? Did Wells find out about the experiments you did on Caterina and the others?”

Confusion clouded the other man’s eyes as he shot a look back at Caterina before returning his gaze to him. “What are you talking about?”

“This is what
you
did to me,” Caterina said and approached. To leave no doubt about what she was referring to, she laid her hand on the maple surface of the table. Her anger made the transformation quick as her hand almost disappeared onto the surface of the table.

“I didn’t know that’s what Wells did. I just knew something wasn’t right,” Edwards replied, his eyes wide with fear.

“Wells was trying to help me when you had him killed,” she nearly screamed and advanced on him.

Mick jumped in her way and as had happened before, her extra strength surprised and nearly toppled him. “Calm down, Cat.”

“See how violent she is,” Edwards said. The chair bucked as he tried to escape his restraints to get away from Caterina.

Caterina did as Mick requested, backing away and tucking her arms tight to her sides to restore control. “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Mick stood before Edwards once more, arms across his chest. His stance loose, but ready for action. “If I thought Caterina would do it, I’d gladly let her at you. Someone has to pay for what’s been done to her.”

“I told you. I had nothing to do with that,” Edwards hissed, the skin taut across the almost ferret-like lines of his thin face.

“Nothing to do with it, but you found out about it, didn’t you?”

Hot color erupted on Edwards’ cheeks. “Wells came to me right after I told him about the merger.”

“He wanted to tell Gates about the experiments?” Mick pressed.

Reluctantly, Edwards admitted it, which was not what Mick had been expecting. “He wanted to come clean, but that would have jeopardized everything.”

“So you killed him,” Caterina said and came to stand beside him, the intensity of her fury apparent, but controlled.

“As far as I know, you’re responsible for Wells’ death.”

“You know this based on what? Video feed? Eyewitness testimony?” Mick asked.

Edwards shrugged. “I can’t say.”

Caterina leaned down until she was almost face-to-face with him. “You mean you can, but you won’t.”

As she rose upright and stood beside him again, Mick laid a calming hand on her shoulder as he looked straight at Edwards and said, “Call off Mad Dog.”

Edwards raked his gaze over him intently. “Who is Mad Dog?”

“Matthew Donnelly aka Mad Dog. Soldier-of-fortune. Psycho security expert. Call him off,” Mick repeated.

Edwards shrugged and shook his head. “I don’t know any Mad Dog.”

He was either a damned fine actor or he was telling the truth, but just in case Mick pulled out an old photo of him with Mad Dog and shoved it in Edwards’ face.

“You’ve never seen this man before?”

“Never,” Edwards immediately asserted.

Mick actually believed him, but he also suspected the good doctor might have an idea who had called in the other man. “Who do you think hired Mad Dog?”

“I don’t know.”

Clearly lying this time
, Mick thought.

“Mad Dog’s name was on your security department logs,” he said and crouched down once more until he was eye-to-eye with Edwards. He wanted his message to be clear.

“You’ve got until noon tomorrow to check the logs and call me with the name of the person Mad Dog visited.”

A shrewd look crept onto Edwards’ features. “What if I don’t?”

Mick smiled and shot a half-glance at Caterina before he rose and joined ranks with her. She slipped her hand into his as he said, “I can show you a world of hurt you can’t even begin to imagine. Physical and financial hurt. Understood?”

Edwards’ gaze narrowed at their show of unity and then he nodded.

“Understood, Mr. Carrera.”

Despite the doctor’s words, Mick didn’t trust him. There was too much at stake financially for Edwards. If he had hired Mad Dog, Mick suspected the scientist would not call the mercenary off so quickly.

But Mick hoped the warning would spur the other man into action and help him confirm Edwards’ involvement in what had happened to Wells. He would be tracking Edwards’ every move so he could better understand the kind of battle he faced to safeguard Caterina’s life.

* * *

The ride back to Mick’s home in Bradley Beach was quiet.

Mick was seemingly lost in his thoughts, probably considering all that they had learned from Edwards.

Edwards
, Caterina thought with disgust. He had been so smug and too calm. Clearly unremorseful of all the pain, suffering, and death that had come about because of the contract with Gates Genengineering.

One hundred million dollars for the loss of how many lives
? Caterina wondered as another shiver racked her body.

At her movement, Mick shot a quick look in her direction before returning his attention to the road. “Are you okay?”

The low level heat she had been tolerating all day had been steadily growing until her head had begun to pound and now the chills had started.

“I’m hot,” she admitted and tucked her arms tight around herself to contain the involuntary spasms of her body.

His hands tightened and relaxed on the steering wheel before his gaze diverted to hers for only a moment. “It’s about ten more minutes to the house. Can you hold on that long?”

Her head hurt so much that even the off-on bursts of light from the passing street lamps were creating agony in her skull.
Only ten minutes
, she told herself.

“Only ten,” he repeated and she realized she had spoken out loud.

Another rough shudder slashed through her body, but she lied past her chattering teeth and said, “I can do it.”

She repeated those words as a mantra, trying to ignore the pain and the nearly uncontrollable tremors of her body.

* * *

Mick increased his speed, mindful of Caterina’s degrading condition, but he kept it within reasonable limits so as to avoid being pulled over. The lack of vibration from his cell phone confirmed that his home was apparently still secure since no alarms had been tripped.

He pulled the Jeep into the garage and turned in the seat. “Cat, we’re home.”

She nodded, or at least he thought she did. She was shaking so violently that it made it impossible to know whether or not the motion had been in response to his question.

He sprang into action, exiting the Jeep, and swinging around to her door. He opened it and reached in to carry her from the car and into the kitchen.

Liliana was there, making herself a cup of tea. At her questioning glance, he said, “Cat’s burning up again. I’m taking her to the pool.”

His sister went into action, closing the door to the garage, and disarming the alarm before it tripped. Following him to the edge of the pool, she hovered nearby anxiously as he toed off his boots and ripped his cell phone from his belt. He slipped his holster with the Glock from the small of his back and removed his ankle holster.

“Get some towels,” he instructed and walked with Caterina in his arms to the stairs at the far end of the pool. He carefully moved down the stairs, the chill of the water seeping through his jeans.

Caterina was almost incoherently mumbling something over and over again as he finally entered the water with her.

An immense tremor racked her body at the contact with the cold water. Her eyes flew open, bright orbs of blue made brighter by the reflection from the moonlit pool water.

Rousing, she grabbed hold of his shoulders and buried her face against his chest.

He tucked her close, laying his face close to hers and the heat burning up her body registered against his cheek.

“How is she?” Liliana called out as she tossed down some towels by the lip of the pool and crouched down to get a better look at them.

“It’ll take a little time to cool her down.” But he worried that the fever had returned without another injection of the inhibitor drug.

As he examined Liliana’s face, her similar concern was plainly evident.

“I’ll go get her room ready.”

She rushed off, leaving him alone with Caterina in the pool. He bent his knees, dipping down so that they were covered in the cool water as far as their necks.

Caterina’s face bore a ruddy blush from the fever, but as he cradled her, the heat from her body slowly receded as did the rosy flush. He brought his lips to her forehead, pleased that her body temperature was substantially lower.

“How are you feeling?” he murmured.

“Better,” she replied.

“Let’s get you dry and back to bed to rest. You probably overdid it tonight by coming with me.” Or at least, he hoped that was the reason for the return of the fever and not something else going on in her body.

At her nod, he walked out of the water and onto the pool deck, and released her legs so she could stand on her own. She was wobbly, so he kept one arm around her and she wrapped her arm around his waist. Together they bent and retrieved the towels, drying off their hair and faces. He wrapped a towel around her body to collect some of the water dripping off her clothes. Scooping up his cell phone and weapons, he then picked her up and took her upstairs to the guest room.

Liliana waited there with yet more towels. On the nightstand by the bed she had set up a small bowl and some hand cloths. The bowl was filled with water and ice in the event the fever returned.

Mick walked to the edge of the bed and let Caterina slip to her feet again.

“I’ll help you get out of those wet things,” his sister said and he took that as a cue to leave and also change into something dry.

In his room, he ripped off his sodden clothes and tossed them into the bathtub. Briskly rubbing a towel across himself to counteract the cold pool water, he dried off and eased into a t-shirt and sweats. Brushing his hair back with his fingers, he returned to the room where Liliana had managed to get Caterina out of her clothes and into bed.

Liliana was drawing another sample of blood and when he walked in she explained, “I want to try and figure out what’s causing the fever this time.”

After the vacutainer was filled with phosphorescent green blood, Liliana efficiently removed the needle from Caterina’s arm and bandaged it. As she finished, Caterina reached out and grasped her hand.

“Thank you, Lil,” she said and Liliana returned the gesture, taking Caterina’s hand in a reassuring clasp.

“It’ll be okay, Cat. I promise,” his sister said.

Mick wished he could make the same pledge, but said nothing as Liliana walked toward him, the glowing blood sample in her hand. “I’m due back in the hospital in a couple of hours. I’m going to try and grab a nap before then.”

“I’m sorry I’ve made it so hard for you,” he said, but his sister surprised him by smiling.

“Not hard at all. You’ve given me a place to stay and a reason to believe in myself again. It gave me the strength to do the right thing.”

“Harrison?” he questioned and she confirmed it with a slight dip of her head.

“Harrison
and
Caterina. I know you’ll find the strength to do the right thing as well.” She rose up on tiptoes and brushed a sisterly kiss on his cheek before leaving the room.

The right thing
, Mick thought, closed the door, and approached the bed where Caterina rested, her gaze locked on him as he neared.

Her skin had lost the flush of fever and returned to its creamy hue. Thick curly locks of her nearly black hair, heavy with moisture, rested against the side of her face.

As she turned her face and the deep blue of her gaze met his, she said, “No matter what happens at the end, you’ve done the right thing by me.”

At the end
, he thought, unsure of anything other than the fact that this would all not end well for someone. Whether it was Edwards or Mad Dog or Caterina or even himself, someone would pay a high price at the conclusion of this assignment.

Mick sat on the edge of the recliner and cradled her cheek. Her skin bore a slight chill from the water and was smooth beneath the pad of his finger. So smooth and womanly.

* * *

Caterina covered his much larger hand with hers. His palm was rough. Clearly the hand of a man who worked hard with his hands.
A strong hand
, she thought as she trailed her fingers past his wrist and to his forearm. The hair on his arm was soft beneath her palm. His body muscled and lean until she reached the edge of the bandage on his forearm that covered the wound he had received battling for her. Another scar to add to the rest of the damage on his body.

It had to be the fever that was making her remember just how that body had felt against hers when he had held her in the pool. How he had kissed her and she had responded, awakening passion that might be better left unexplored only . . .

“Would you hold me?” She needed the human contact. Needed the affirmation that she was still a woman. A desirable woman unless she was misreading the signals he was giving.

“If holding is all you want, I may not be your man,” Mick replied and dipped his thumb down to trace the edges of her lips.

“I want more. I want to feel alive again, Mick.”

* * *

She’s using me, but it wouldn’t be the first time or the last that a woman did that
, Mick thought. Considering he found her damned attractive, weird genes and all, why not give into the temptation and get it out of his system?