Deadly Target [IAD Agency 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) (21 page)

Arvan looked down at his Rolex and smiled brightly at her. “I was going to head out to get something to eat since it’s just about lunchtime. Why don’t you join me? We can discuss the upgrades and get to know one another a little better.”

He went to place his hand on her waist to guide her toward the parking lot, but she turned, evading the move. “Unfortunately I already have plans for lunch.”

His smile never wavered. “Lunch with your colleagues? I’m sure they won’t mind if I join you.”

He was a presumptuous bastard, wasn’t he? “Actually, a friend is picking me up.”

“Well, how about dinner tonight then? There is the perfect place—”

“I’m sorry, Mr. Kelner. I’m not going to be in Denver for long and I don’t like mixing business with pleasure. Besides, I’m seeing someone.”

His eyes dimmed slightly, but he continued to smile at her. “Well, of course a beautiful woman like you would be taken. I couldn’t imagine a man alive who wouldn’t be happy to have you on his arm. And it’s Arvan, please.”

Mikayla was grateful when she saw Katie’s SUV pulling into the parking lot. “It was nice to meet you, Arvan. My ride is here. Perhaps I will see you again next time I come for a visit.”

“I’ll count on it.”

Katie had barely pulled her car to a stop when Mikayla opened the door and hopped in. Arvan bent down and peered into the passenger window, waving at them as Katie put the car into drive.

“I’m guessing that wasn’t a friend of yours,” Katie said with a laugh.

“Hell, no.” Mikayla blew out a breath. “Excuse me for a moment.”

At Katie’s nod, she pulled out her phone and dialed Rock.

“Miss me already?” Rock’s voice came over the line.

Mikayla snorted. “Yeah, every minute away from you is my own personal hell.”

“Ouch, that’s cold, Lynx. You calling to change your mind about letting us come to lunch with you? I’m hungry.”

She chuckled. “You’re always hungry. And no, lunch is still a no-penis event.”

“Damn.”

“Listen, I just met Arvan Kelner outside the building. I think you need to do a deeper run on him. Something about him rang my bell.”

Rock cursed. “I thought there was something off about that guy, but I thought it was just because his name reminded me of the bad guy on that show you used to make me watch with you.”

“Make you? You liked it. Admit it.”

“Fine, I did. She kicked ass,” Rock conceded. “But still. Hold on a sec.”

Mikayla could hear Rock talking to Adrian and she heard the other man curse in the background.

“Fuck, I knew that fucker was part of this, but we didn’t find anything on him,” Adrian bit out.

“We’ll do a deep run on him and see what’s what,” Rock said. “You sure about lunch?”

She laughed. “Call me when you get something.” She hung up before he could reply and smiled in apology at Katie. “I’m sorry about that.”

“No worries. I thought we could go to this great Greek restaurant I always go to when I’m in Denver. Do you mind?”

Mikayla grinned at her. “Honey, I’m half Greek and you just made my day.”

* * * *

The restaurant they went to was a family-run business that sat in the middle of a very busy section of Denver. The streets were bustling, so they found a space in a parking garage about a half a block away and walked the short distance with ease.

Once inside, Mikayla and Katie were lucky enough to be seated in a corner booth away from the busy lunch crowd. The fact that Mikayla had spoken to the hostess in Greek might have had something to do with it. They quickly placed their orders and decided to split a bottle of wine to go with their meal. When their glasses were full they toasted to their girls’ day out and took a sip.

“So, tell me,” Mikayla began. “What’s going on between you and Nick?”

Katie almost spat out her wine and began to cough after she swallowed. “Nothing,” she sputtered. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Mikayla stared at her in silence with one eyebrow raised.

Katie blushed then her shoulders slumped. “Okay, so I sort of have a crush on him, but he doesn’t think of me that way. I’m just a little sister to him.”

Mikayla laughed. “Honey, he doesn’t see you as a sister at all. He eats you with his eyes every time he looks at you.”

Katie perked up. “Really?”

“Oh yeah. I figured you were just hiding it because of your brothers or something.”

“No, well…” Katie hedged. “I guess that is a factor. I mean it hasn’t exactly been easy meeting guys when my brothers and cousin are always breathing down my neck.”

“I can imagine. I’ve had the same problem with my friends.”

“Those guys are pretty intimidating,” Katie agreed. “So, what do you think I should do? I mean I want to be with Nick, but he won’t make a move.”

“It’s simple,” Mikayla said. “You should seduce him.”

“I can’t!”

“Katie, he’s interested. I bet he’s just waiting for you to give him the green light to proceed.”

“But I…” Katie lowered her voice and leaned forward. “I’ve never done something like that. I mean
never
.”

“Oh,” Mikayla said, finally understanding. It seemed like the young woman was exactly as innocent as she seemed. “Well, I don’t mean you have to strip naked in front of him or anything, but I bet he’d take over if you did something like kiss him.”

“Jeez, I don’t know if I can do that.”

Their conversation was put on hold as the waiter came to the table to deliver their meals. They began to eat and Katie waved her fork in the air. “So, you really think he’s interested in me?”

“I do. His eyes are fixated on you every time you’re in the room. He may look away when you look at him, but I’ve seen it.”

Katie smiled. “I guess I’m going to have to do something about this then. I’ve been in love with him since I was thirteen. Speaking of love, what’s up with you and my brother? I’m assuming you guys made up since he spent the night at your place.”

“I guess you could say that. It’s complicated, but we are trying to work through it.”

“Good, because I think you guys are great together. Sebastian is really sorry, by the way. Gage isn’t speaking to him and neither are me and Dylan really. He feels like shit.”

“I understand that he was trying to look out for Gage. I don’t blame him for that. Sure, he was a prick, but I can’t fault his protecting his family. I’m an unknown to him.”

“But Gage is falling for you and he shouldn’t have tried to get in the way of that. It’s not like Gage is a kid or something. He knows how to make up his own mind about his relationships. He deserves to be happy. You make him happy. Truthfully, I’ve never seen my brother so happy and so miserable before.”

Mikayla winced but Katie shook her head. “That’s a good thing. After his accident he went into this…funk. It was like he had given up on everything. He got better slowly, but he seemed to keep everyone at a distance. He still does. Everyone but family. And now you.”

“I care about Gage,” Mikayla said carefully. “Because you’re his sister I can tell you that I care for him more than I’ve ever cared for another man I’ve dated in the past. But my life is complicated. We both need to consider what that means and if there is a future in this for us.”

Katie chewed thoughtfully then nodded her head. “That makes sense. I guess I’m just pushing because I’ve always wanted a sister. If you marry my brother then I’ll finally get my wish.”

This time it was Mikayla’s turn to choke. Who the hell said anything about marriage?

Mikayla decided to turn the conversation to a safer subject matter and asked Katie about the town of Serenity. They enjoyed the rest of their meal while Katie asked questions about Mikayla’s time in the Army. Katie expressed her interest in starting a women’s self-defense class that could be taught at the ranch once a week. Mikayla thought it was a wonderful idea, and if she decided to stay and take over the training facility at the cabin then she would definitely want to be a part of the program.

They finished eating and much to Katie’s dismay, Mikayla picked up the tab. She had thanked Katie for introducing her to a restaurant she would be sure to visit often if she did make the move to Colorado. They walked back to the parking garage slowly since Mikayla’s leg was paining her from the overuse the night before. Walking toward Katie’s car Mikayla heard a noise behind her. Before she could turn around she felt a sharp sting on the back of her neck.

Her vision blurred then she felt herself falling to the ground as Katie let out a scream that faded into complete silence.

Mikayla came to slowly, becoming aware of several things at once. She was lying down on a flat surface that was most definitely not in the parking garage. She thought it was a bed. Was she home? No, that wasn’t right. Was she in the hospital again? Maybe. But she couldn’t think of why she would be in a hospital or what had happened to get her there.

This was not good.

Her memory came back slowly and she fought down her panic when she was unable to get her eyelids to move. Trapped in the dark, the rest of her limbs felt heavy and refused to move as well when she tried to shift position.

No, definitely not good.

By the cool air chilling her skin she was also naked under the thin sheet that had been placed over her.

In a word, she was fucked.

With her senses dulled from whatever drugs they had given her she heard the muffled sounds of rock music playing in the distance, someone typing on a computer close by and the steady beeping of a machine. Unable to fight back the panic any longer, it became obvious that she was hooked up to whatever machine was beeping as the steady tempo increased as her heart rate sped up. The typing halted, and the sound of footsteps approaching had terror filling Mikayla.

“Ah, you’re awake. Careful now, give yourself some time. Don’t try and move yet,” a quiet voice said softly. “My name is Dr. Ellis…Robert Ellis. Your leg was injured and I treated you with a new medication that speeds up healing at an exponential rate. In order to work properly I had to keep you knocked out while your body repaired itself.”

Mikayla heard the wheels of a chair or stool squeak as he drew it closer to the bed and sat down next to her. The machine’s beeping cut off as he pressed a button. She wanted to open her eyes to see the man speaking to her. Robert Ellis was the doctor that had gone missing in Philadelphia. It became clear that she had been targeted by the group that was behind the theft at Cryton Dynamics.

A sick feeling of dread filled her as she worried about what had happened to Katie. The last thing Mikayla remembered was hearing Katie scream as Mikayla had passed out from the tranquilizer someone had shot her with. If they had hurt Katie, Mikayla wouldn’t rest until she made every single individual involved in this bullshit pay with their lives.

But first she would have to fucking get control of her body back.

“You see, there’s a new drug that’s not yet on the market that I’ve nicknamed cryo-fix. When injected into the system around a wound it begins to repair the damaged area at the cellular level. We just started the human testing phase, but don’t worry. I assure you, it’s perfectly safe. I created it and know it works. It’ll change medical science as we know it.”

The excitement in his voice was clear. Mikayla felt an uncomfortable tingling sensation spreading through her body. It felt like thousands of needles were poking her everywhere until she wanted to scream with the pain, but her body was still paralyzed by whatever he had given her. She worked hard not to show she was getting feeling back, planning to use it to her advantage later.

“It should be another three or four hours before the drugs leave your system completely. But you should be able to start having mobility again in about two or three hours.”

Fuck, that would be too long!

Robert sighed. “You may not even be conscious now, but it’s been so long since I’ve actually had a conversation with anyone that talking to someone who is only semi-conscious is better than talking to the wall. I was actually surprised when they let me bring my laptop in here so I could monitor you. I’ve been down here in this bunker for almost a month now with no one but the guards and…”

His voice trailed off and his breath hitched. “I’m really sorry this happened to you. I never wanted to be part of any of this. I mean, sure, it was fun talking about in theory. At first what David proposed seemed totally out there. I mean, splicing animal genetics with human genomes to create a synthetic drug seemed too sci-fi even for me. It was simply a game, a puzzle to figure out…until it worked. And then it was too late to stop it. They’d taken my basic formula and altered it into something horrible.”

Mikayla went quiet inside as she listened to him. Even with her muscles twitching viciously she held herself completely still, waiting for him to continue.

“I’d never considered the ramifications of the drug they wanted to create. Who would have thought of making a drug that forced humans to imitate animals in heat? It wasn’t something I would have ever wished on anyone, especially all those poor girls…”