Fight By The Team (Team Fear Book 2) (18 page)

He grabbed the back of her head and pulled her close. He controlled the kiss, his tongue invading and mastering hers. He thrust in time to her moves until she was mindless with the need to chase the orgasm that tingled under her skin. Her thighs trembled.

Rose clamped both hands around her ass and used his arms to push and pull her through each stroke. His cock stroked nerves and pulsed against tender flesh. He thrust up each time her grind hit the top, putting pressure on her clit. She gave up trying to control and rode out the sensations coursing through her veins. The strength of his thrusts increased. Faster. More. Still more until she shattered. He followed her with a low groan.

Panting, they sat on the chair while they recovered, then, still embedded in her, he lifted to his feet and strode for the bed. “That was an appetizer.” He took her to bed, where he showed her true stamina.

Arms settled around Debi and she wiggled into position next to him like it was an assigned parking spot. A blanket of possessiveness settled over Rose. What they had might be temporary, had to be, but he cared for her. Too damned much for either of their well-being. If they were out in the real world, he could walk away, leave her whole and safe and free, but that was not the way the cards played out. They were both targets, needing refuge at the manor, and he couldn’t safely send her away. He didn’t have it in him to sleep next door instead of in her bed, so for now, she belonged to him, and he took care of what was his. Protected. No matter what happened Saturday, she made it out. He wouldn’t live with any other result.

“
A
llyson
.” Debi gave her a one-armed hug. “Wow, you look great. Did you get a new haircut?”

“I did, thanks.” She fluffed the new style away from her face as if it were more distracting than anything. “What happened to you?”

Debi grimaced and played up the sling. She probably looked like hell. That’s what happened when a team of science experiments chased after you. Bruises, scrapes, bullet holes. “Car accident.” The lie came easy. She should feel guilty, but in two years, Allyson had never called or checked on her. Not after what her brother had done. “Happened right after I saw you the other day.”

“Wow, so sorry.” Allyson removed her coat and draped it over the chair. “I’m going to get a coffee. Want something?”

“No.” She lifted her cup. “I’m good.”

Debi tapped her feet and tried not to think too much. Rose had told her to keep the conversation normal. Don’t seem too anxious. Don’t lead with the need to use the lab. The drive into town had been one long oral exam. She’d memorized every picture of every member of Team Echo. She was wired with a transmitter and had an earpiece with Rose’s voice on the other end. If things went south, she was supposed to use the code word. Slipper, because Rose thought her Goofy slippers were hilarious.

Right now, nothing was funny. She had a dozen scenarios in her head of how things could go wrong, planted by Rose and the rest of the team. It was a miracle her blood pressure was anywhere near normal. She glanced around the coffee shop. It was a small, off-campus place that stayed open late for students. Coffee flowed freely, but on a Saturday night, it was slow. A guy with headphones sat on the opposite side of the coffee bar, and for a minute, Debi’s heart rate increased, but as she looked closer, he was built too small to be a part of Team Echo. Aside from headset guy, the place was empty.

Allyson came back with a to-go cup. “Thanks for calling me. I wasn’t sure you would after the altercation the other day.”

“It wasn’t just the other day.” It was two years of abandonment and lost friends. Debi toyed with her cup, but didn’t drink. After the GHB incident, the days of drinking coffee someone else made were over. She twisted the cup in her hands. “I don’t blame you for Barry.”

“I should have warned you.”

“What? That he was a dirtbag?”

“I don’t think... I mean, I didn’t. He’s clearly focused on his career.”

“Right.” The word stretched, the tip of her sarcastic iceberg. “He’s a backstabbing, research stealing—”

“Slow down,” Rose said into her earpiece. “Remember, no confrontation.”

“He’s a brilliant scientist,” Allyson said, sitting primly in her chair. “But I think you may be right.”

Debi
thunked
back into her seat. “Which part?”

“If I believe one, I guess I believe it all. After we ran into you, I looked at his research grant. It’s your work. DV1028. He renamed it of course. Tweaked the formula, but at the core of it, it’s your work.”

God no
. Debi’s head started to spin.

“Breathe deep, sweetheart. You’re doing fine.”

Then why was her breath stuck in her throat?

Allyson tapped her fingers on the lid of her cup. “I know how he thinks. He wanted to make your formula stronger. Better. He gets a bit overzealous when it comes to scientific discovery—”

“Quit making excuses. What he wants is recognition. He stole my work, and now you’re the one working late hours in the lab and the one checking and rechecking data and calculations. He’s there to steal your accolades.”

“I don’t really want accolades.” Allyson rubbed a hand over her arms like she was cold. “Mark quit six months ago.”

“Wow.” That had to hurt. Debi always figured Allyson and Mark had a thing, a secret work affair.

“Mark’s replacement is a complete waste, but Barry won’t fire him. Probably because he has a penis.”

“Oh. Hmm.” Debi had never seen Allyson like this. Likely as not, Allyson had never used the word penis out loud, let alone in public. “That’s an interesting theory.”

“You know how it is. The men have this freaking bond that has nothing to do with skills or actual scientific talent. Robert is already working on stuff for the research grant, but Hannah and I are stuck with undergraduate level work. Hannah’s ready to walk.”

“Really.” The lab assistant lived for science. “Has she been applying to other universities?”

“I don’t think so. She’s got some new boyfriend. I think she’s hoping he’ll sweep her off her feet.”

“What are the odds?”

“Right? I mean, if he leaves, she’s going to be hurt. And still stuck in the lab.” The words sounded autobiographical. Allyson knotted her hands together. “I like the lab. I don’t mind if he’s using my work, so long as...”

The anger was still there, hidden. Some wounds healed, and some festered. Her time with Barry was a puss-filled lesion. “What? As long as he lets you keep your job? You’re as talented as he is. Smarter, probably.”

“Don’t alienate her. You need her help.”

Debi wanted to toss the ear bud into her untouched coffee cup. Maybe Ryder should have been the voice in her ear. “Look, Allyson, I don’t want to fight.” She reached across and grabbed the other woman’s hand, and it was frigid to the touch. “Let’s talk about something else.”

The guy with the headset left the coffee shop, leaving the two of them and the late-night barista.

Allyson smiled shyly. “Tell me about the man you were with the other day.”

“No names,” Rose practically shouted.

“No kidding,” Debi snapped. She coughed to try to cover her mistake. “I mean, that’s a three-margarita story.”

“Sounds promising. Was he with you when you crashed?”

There was her opening. “Yes, actually, and I’m starting to wonder... The crash was such a fluke. You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. Total drama. But when it was over, I started to wonder. Maybe he was on drugs and that’s why we crashed.”

Allyson gasped.

“Don’t oversell it,” Rose warned.

“If you even think that’s possible, you should leave him.”

Poor Allyson. The world as she knew it was black and white.

“You’re right, I know, but the thing is, he’s, uh, well, you saw him. He’s built like Thor. And after Barry, there’s really no comparison.”

“Careful,” Rose warned.

Not being able to snap back at him was getting on her last nerve. She lived on cigarettes, sarcasm, and bravado. She’d quit smoking, she couldn’t be sarcastic because they needed something from Allyson, and her bravado was slipping. She needed a boost and took it out on Rose. “Plus, he’s a rock star in bed, and a girl would have to be crazy to give that all up without proof.”

Rose went radio silent. The rest of the team had access to audio. She just bet they were razzing him right about now. Served him right.

“Maybe we should go get those margaritas now,” Allyson teased.

Debi barked out a laugh. “Girl, you surprise me.” That was the God’s honest truth. Something about Allyson had changed in the last couple years. She didn’t dress as plainly. She’d cut her hair, Debi realized. Maybe she had a man. Or wanted a man. “But I was actually hoping you could help me figure out if he was on drugs when we crashed.”

Allyson stared at her. That was the look, Debi thought. The look that coined the phrase there was a sucker born every minute. “How can I help?”

Debi pulled the end of a vial to let it peek from her pocket. “Let me into the lab to test this.”

“How did you get his blood?”

“Girl, you do not want to know.”

The woman had a way about her. Rose listened as Debi and Allyson walked across campus. Fowler had a visual through his riflescope on the top of the administration building. Stills was stationed near the back entrance to the building. Craft was hidden inside the science building but outside the labs, hoping to capture Allyson’s passcode when they entered the lab.

No sign of anyone from Team Echo, but Rose’s gut screamed. No mission went this easy.

D
ebi didn’t see
a soul as she entered the science building, which did nothing for the level of tension buzzing under her skin. Knowing Team Fear was out there, watching her back, should have made her feel safe, but instead made her question the illusion of safety she’d walked around with her entire life. Four men had her in their sights, and the only reason she knew was because she’d helped plan the mission. No hidden instinct protected her. The bad guys could be out there, and she’d be clueless. All those years of panic attacks? She hadn’t had a clue the dangers that existed in the world that she
should
fear.

Allyson swiped her keycard to get into the first round of security. A loud
buzz
released the bolt and allowed them through the first set of doors. The determined
clunk
of the door closing behind them was decidedly more intimidating. Trapped between the two layers of security, Debi’s heart raced. The white space between two doors, well lit, had always made her feel claustrophobic, but Allyson quickly punched in the code. 1492. Craft had asked her to memorize it, just in case. In case what, she hadn’t asked, but as they stepped into the open lab, the oversight seemed important.

Glass and lights dominated the open space. The glass ceiling wasn’t a metaphor, not here where the worker bees toiled on the lower level with long rows of florescent lights and no windows to the outside. The higher the office, the more glass along the wall. No woman had ever moved her office to the top floor where cigars were smoked, budgets planned, salaries hiked to ridiculous levels that those in the lower levels would never see.

The cool wash of fluorescents should have been cheery yet the aura of menace covered her. She wasn’t the prodigal son returning to his birthright, but a thief in the night. The last time in this space had not ended well, and the memory of it sucked the air from her lungs. Once upon a time, she’d been a trusted, valued researcher and this had been her domain. The austere surroundings were foreign now, and she noted for the first time the odd scent that wasn’t quite antiseptic. Neither was it wholesome.

It was cold, she realized, as she briskly followed Allyson across the pristine tiles. The lab had sucked her in once upon a time and turned her frigid. Slowly, so slowly she hadn’t known until just this moment, feeling the icy grip of intellectual temptation surround her. The time she had spent with Rose banished the distance and solitude that had defined so many lonely years. She’d never met a man who understood her—all women maybe—the way he did, or one less likely to put up with her evasions. He made her feel present and fully alive, so she’d really rather not die trapped in an ice cave.

The left wall was a series of glass panels peeking into separate labs that required additional clearance. To the right were rows of open lab space. Beyond the offices in the back, behind multiple layers of security was an NMR machine. The MRI for molecules took more clout than the president to gain access.

“Come on.” Allyson wove through the maze with a path born of familiarity. And maybe additional speed as the guilt started to weigh on her. Allyson was a rule follower. “Let’s do this and then get that margarita.” She flipped on machines and the task lights in her area.

Behind them, a mechanical whirring shattered the silence. Debi jumped, and Allyson laughed. “You didn’t used to be so jumpy. I think it’s just someone in the one of the secure labs.”

Just? The pulse racing in her head wanted her to run. Hand shaking, she pulled out a blood vial. “I didn’t think being here would freak me out.”

Once the machine was ready, Allyson inserted the first sample. The noise of the machine echoed in the empty lab. Allyson used her hand like a thumping rabbit’s foot pounding against her chest. “Feels good to break the rules.”

“God, what have I started? Next thing you know, you’ll bring a biker to the faculty mixer.” Debi laughed, but it sounded like a braying horse. She was a complete jackass for suggesting this trip to the lab. She wasn’t some superspy. “Do you mind going to see who’s here? It’s stupid, but I really don’t want to run into—”

“Right now, me either. We’d have a devil of a time explaining this to your father.” Allyson glanced at the machine. “I’ll be right back.”

The second Allyson stepped around the corner, Debi slipped the extra vials from her sling. She worked fast to run the extra reports, so she could hide the evidence before Allyson returned. The need for speed fed the shakes in her hands and arms. Her legs were like overcooked spaghetti. The voice in her head that sounded like Rose told her to take a deep breath, but the real Rose hadn’t piped in through her ear piece since they’d walked into the lab. Maybe the signal cut out when they went through security. Maybe all the equipment messed with the signal. Whatever the problem, she was working solo.

Debi leaned away from the machine half in shock at the sudden realization. Solo was normal for her, or it had been, but since this started, she’d come to depend on the team. Worse, she felt a part of them, a part of something. Being in the lab wasn’t simply an attempt to find what had been done to Team Fear. It was about the camaraderie and friendship and the trust. Guilt weighed on her, because they trusted her, and no one knew the truth, or what she suspected was the truth. She hadn’t told an outright lie either, but that was an excuse her conscience didn’t buy.

Allyson’s shoes squeaked on the tile as she approached, and Debi tucked the reports into her sling. “No worries. It was Robert.”

“Don’t you mean Dick?”

“I think that’s Richard... Oh, you mean because he has one and is instantly in the club?”

Something about being with Allyson always made Debi smile. “Right. Or because he is a dick.”

“Did you just call me a dick?” A tall man in a white lab coat stepped around the corner with a smarmy grin on his face. And it was a good-looking face hidden behind thick glasses and a goatee.

“Oh my god, I am so sorry.” Debi wanted to bury herself in the nearest lab manual. “Open mouth, insert foot.”

He shook his head sheepishly. “All’s fair in love and science. If you hate me, I must be doing something right.”

“Robert, I am so sorry you had to hear those words out of her very, very big mouth.” Allyson glared at her.

“But it’s a very pretty mouth.” His eyes had the look of a predator ready to pounce.

“And you’re charming.” Debi shook her head. A lab guy who knew how to work women was a rare thing indeed. “On that note, I think I’ll be going before I say something else completely horrifying.” Plus, something about the man put her nerves on edge. Freedom was two secure doors away.

“Actually, if you don’t mind, I needed Ally to check something for me real quick. Something about this formula doesn’t look right.”

Ally?
Please
. Now the guy was being an idiot, acting all buddy-buddy when Allyson had made it clear the guy was not a team player. Still, Allyson followed him around the corner. He peeked his head back around the credenza when she didn’t follow. “Coming?”

The shoulder up view shocked a memory loose. In the picture she had memorized, he was younger, with no facial hair or glasses, and he wore a military uniform. He was on the Team Echo wall of shame.

Debi’s fight or flight neurons kicked into gear, slamming her with adrenaline. The smile on her face felt synthetic. “In a sec. Let me clean up my mess here.”

Their voices moved down the lab, but not fast or far. As if he was waiting for her. If what she suspected was true, he was Echo, and he was toying with her. Either he expected her to run or the move with Allyson was meant to draw her deeper into the lab and farther from help, not that she’d make it through both levels of security before he caught her, and she couldn’t leave Allyson. Did he know about the men stationed outside?

Desperate, Debi panned the lab looking for a weapon. Anything she could use to brain him was too heavy for her to use one handed. The fire extinguishers were stationed on the opposite wall and he’d see her. The bottles and vials on the closest shelves wouldn’t slow him down. The slicing and dicing tools were down in the dissection lab.

Think
.

Debi glanced up, her vision already swimmy, when her gaze landed on a bottle that might do the trick.

“Are you coming?” The tone hinted at impatience.

Bile twisted in her gut. “Slippers,” she whispered, hoping at least the outgoing bug worked. No response from Rose, which had her head spinning.

“Debra?” The tone escalated, held a bite that went beyond irritation.

She stepped into the open passageway. “You know, I always wanted to bring a pair of slippers in here and do a slip and slide down the hall.”

Allyson smiled from halfway down. “I did it in stocking feet. Once, after they buffed the floors. Don’t tell Barry.”

“I’m not really worried about him.” She was more worried about the psychopath locked inside with them. It had not occurred to her that Team Echo would have access to the labs. Debi wished there was a way to get Allyson free. “Maybe you should go before Barry shows up. I don’t want you to get in trouble. Robert can show me out.”

Allyson’s features tightened at the tension in Debi’s tone. “Do you two know each other? You called her Debra.”

“Just like Barry.” Which confirmed Debi’s worst fears.

“That’s right,” Robert confirmed. “We have some mutual friends.”

The rapid beat of her heart bruised her chest cavity. Fear pulsed in every beat. She was in a very big trap. “Allyson...”

“She’s not going anywhere.” Robert wrapped a beefy hand around Allyson’s bicep clamping down hard enough to bruise. And suddenly, the white lab coat failed to hide his bulk. In height and width, he resembled the members of Team Fear. Tall and broad like the others, but if Allyson’s assessment was correct, more muscle than brain.

“Hey.” Allyson tried to yank, but he clamped his hand down harder.

“Debra, come here. We’re going to go sit in my office and wait for reinforcements.”

“You have an office?” The hurt in Allyson’s tone was unmistakable.

“That’s not going to work for me,” Debi answered Robert’s command. No way was she going to go deeper into the maze where Rose and company wouldn’t find her. She had to believe they heard her code word. That they were even now working to get inside.

Robert pulled a gun and pointed it at Allyson. “Does it work for you now?”

“No.” But Debi stepped forward to avoid the danger he posed to her friend. She hadn’t given the team the key code for the second level security access, so even if Craft had acquired a keycard, he wouldn’t be able to get past the second layer of security. The knowledge had her temperature rising, but she couldn’t afford a panic attack. Not now.

Allyson stilled. “What’s this about, Robert?”

“Do you want to tell her or should I?”

“No.” Debi angled closer, trying for a position that kept Allyson out of the line of fire.

“Let me go.” Allyson twisted her hand and yanked, successfully freeing her hand.

Robert retaliated with a backhand that sent her reeling to the floor.

Debi raced to step between Robert and Allyson. “She doesn’t need to know. Let her go. I don’t think Barry would want his sister hurt.” Although she couldn’t say definitively. Barry was an egomaniac.

“I don’t give a shit what Barry wants. He’s not in charge.”

“You might want to tell him that.” Debi would love to be privy to that conversation. Her heart threatened to beat out of her chest as she asked the inevitable question. “Who is in charge?”

“You’ll find out soon enough.” He motioned with the gun. “Move.” He shoved Allyson into the back hallway. With his hand now free, he grabbed Debi’s sore elbow to tug her faster.

“Ow, asswipe.” Struggling against his hold kept his attention off her good hand. She tucked it into the opening of the sling and gripped the vial she’d grabbed from lab. Carefully, she pried the stopper free. When the tile floor gave way to carpet, she tripped, freeing her arm from his grip.

“Watch it—”

His gun hand rose, but she was already in motion. She aimed for center body but failed. The acid splashed his gun hand and the white lab coat covering his arm.

“Fuck.” He dropped the gun, screaming as he raced for the eye wash station.

Allyson turned to run back to the security entry, but Debi stopped her. “We’ll never make it. The fire exit.” Debi hauled ass on a serpentine path through the offices, praying that one of the men from Team Fear was waiting on the other side. Even the campus police were something, although Debi was the one trespassing and she had no doubt Echo could incapacitate anyone but another member of their twisted experiment. Bile rose. “I’m gonna throw up.”

“Later,” Allyson pushed from behind her to keep going.

They rounded a corner and ran smack into a wall of muscle. Tall, blond, and silent, he wrapped an arm around her, stopping her from bouncing back from the impact.

“Echo,” Debi panted. She grabbed Rose’s hand and tried to pull him to the exit. “Need to go.”

Rose metamorphosed in front of her. Taller and wider, even his muscles appeared to grow in the dark back hall. She felt like Alice, shrinking in size while the world around her stayed the same. Rose’s eyes darkened to near black and not a drop of empathy lived in his cold features. No longer a healer, this Rose was the machine they’d created in the lab. The one designed to kill without remorse. Bulletproof? Maybe. Fearless, definitely. He was bigger and stronger and more terrifying than any soldier on the planet. “Echo is here? Excellent.” He turned toward the lab.

“Wait.” Debi put her hand over her mouth, but he heard and turned.

The dominant expression on his face threatened violence. “What?”

“You can’t go alone.”

“How many are there?”

“One.” Which to her was too many.

Rose’s smile could only be called feral. The easygoing medic had gone bye-bye. This Rose wasn’t turning back.

“He has a gun. And...” The impatience in Rose’s stance halted her words, but she swallowed the panic. “Wait for backup. Please.” She was afraid for herself, but more afraid for Rose, who looked on the edge of something dark that shimmered through him like a ghost.