Stronger Than Sin (21 page)

“And you’ll be…” she said, anxiously waiting for his reply.

“Coaching football. Maybe in high school.”

She recalled her challenge to him the other day that he stop living in the past. His answer now confirmed that maybe he had.
That he was thinking for the future instead of holding on to what-might-have-beens.

“Sounds like a good plan. Would you stay here? In the area?”

“How else could we keep on seeing each other?” he teased, but she sensed it was half serious to test the waters.

Tempted to respond that she would offer his team a discount on physicals, she instead tilted her head upward until her lips
were once again within kissing distance.

“I’d like to keep on seeing you. Have you meet my family,” she replied.

The strong line of his smile brushed across her mouth and he murmured, “Do you think they’ll approve of me?”

A loud knock came at the door, and they bolted apart as Bruno entered without warning.

“Ever hear of knocking?” Jesse asked as he rose from the sofa, hands fisted at his sides.

“It’s okay.” Liliana rose and covered his hand with hers. He relaxed at her touch, reassuring her that he was capable of control.

“Whittaker called. They think they found another patient,” Bruno advised.

Another Wardwell escapee?

Excitement raced through Liliana at the possibility that they would soon find all of the patients and free them.

“Where is—”

“Back at your lab. Whittaker wants you to meet him there. He says it’s urgent.”

Liliana looked up at Jesse apologetically, regretting that she had to leave him so soon. “I’ll be back in the morning.”

Jesse twined his fingers with hers and squeezed gently. He had known all night that she would eventually have to go, but it
didn’t make the leaving any easier. Especially after the too-short encounter they had shared.

“I’ll see you in the morning,” he said and watched her depart. Observed Bruno eyeing her appreciatively as she walked out
the door.

When Bruno returned his attention to Jesse, his guard said, “You better not get too close to the doc. Don’t want to break
her heart when you go.”

Before Jesse could reply, Bruno exited, closing the door behind him but leaving behind the cryptic words.

When you go.

Was Whittaker planning on taking him somewhere? Had he gotten whatever he wanted from Liliana? If he had, would he keep his
promise to help Jackie?

Dozens of questions raced through his brain as he paced back and forth in his room, feeling more like a caged animal than
ever before. Finally it was more than he could bear.

He headed to the kitchen, where Bruno was reading the paper as usual.

He lowered it as Jesse entered, watched over the page’s edge as Jesse went to the fridge. After Jesse grabbed a soda and faced
him, Bruno finally brought the paper down to his lap.

“What did you mean by ‘when I go’?”

Bruno shrugged. “Boss man’s giving the doc another patient to work on. He got the drugs he wanted, and you’re a pain in the
ass.”

Which meant that in Bruno’s mind he was expendable, but had Whittaker reached the same conclusion?

He eyed the other man. It wouldn’t take much to overpower him. Hell, he had nearly gotten past three of them earlier that
night. And as sore as his body was, he wouldn’t go down easy if Whittaker decided to take him out.

But there was one thing… no, make that two things that kept him from escaping Bruno right then and there.

His sister and Liliana.

Until he knew Whittaker’s plans for them, he would have to sacrifice his own freedom.

Bruno must not have liked how Jesse was eyeing him, since he slipped his hand beneath his jacket, confirming his gun was in
easy reach.

“No need, Bruno. I’m not going to cause any more trouble.”

Not yet, anyway,
he thought as he left the room.

A
cold knot of fear gripped Liliana’s insides as she assessed the patient lying on the examination table.

Carmen stood across from her, face pale.

The patient was human—or at least he had been at one time. Almost his entire body was covered with what appeared to be an
exoskeleton of bone. Only a few patches of human skin remained on his body and face.

The patient’s breath rasped in and out of his chest, barely lifting it, as if battling a heavy weight.

Liliana wondered how far the ossification extended. Were his organs likewise being infiltrated?

She leaned over the patient and his eyes fluttered open. Still human. Pleading.

For what?
she wondered.
A cure, or the peace of death?

“Where did you find him?” She looked over her shoulder to where Whittaker stood by the door beside Howard, who seemed a little
pale himself.

“Local police got a report of a body along the side of the road. Called us when they noted his condition. Haven’t confirmed
it yet, but I think he’s one of the Wardwell patients,” Whittaker lied. He was well aware that it was
one of the original patients, because he and Howard had taken him from Morales’s lab earlier in the day.

“It looks like what’s happening with Jesse,” Carmen said, sending another skitter of fear through Liliana.

As her friend noted her reaction, she quickly added, “But we’ve got Jesse under control. Not like this.”

No, not like this,
Liliana thought, slipping on her stethoscope to listen to the man’s heartbeat and lungs. The heartbeat was sluggish. Labored
like his breathing.

She yanked off the stethoscope. “Let’s get him on oxygen. Get a blood sample.”

“What about a bone marrow plug?” Carmen asked even as she was setting up the monitoring equipment.

Liliana wheeled over a respirator and eased the mask over his face. Immediately his breathing grew less stressful.

“Let’s wait on the marrow until we can get him to the hospital,” she said and prepped an IV. What remained of the human parts
of the man’s eyes, skin, and lips were showing extreme signs of dehydration.

“I’m not sure that’s going to be possible,” Whittaker advised, but this time Liliana wasn’t going to settle for that answer.

“This man is critical,” she said, motioning to the patient. “If you’re worried about people nosing around, we can arrange
for him to be placed in quarantine.”

“If you can accomplish that, I may be amenable to moving him,” Whittaker replied, surprising her. She had been expecting more
of a battle. His easy surrender raised her antenna about his real agenda.

“I’ll make the arrangements.”

She left the room to make the necessary calls to the hospital, including an ambulance for transporting the
patient. It made her wonder why he had been brought to the lab in the first place. When she had finished making all the arrangements
with the hospital, she phoned her cousin Ramon.

He immediately answered. “No news yet, Lil.”

“No news? As in, you haven’t been able to find out anything about Whittaker and his men?”

“Nothing. None of the local branches are claiming him. Of course, he could be part of some secret unit,” Ramon advised.

Liliana could picture Whittaker running some kind of clandestine operation, but it still worried her that none of the local
Feds knew of him. Maybe if she had a picture of him, only…

“Wait a second, Ramon.”

She raced to her desk and woke her desktop from its hibernated state. Because they had to share data in an assortment of ways,
the computers had been networked to be operated remotely. Using the remote desktop connection, she accessed Carmen’s laptop
out on the worktable. Engaging the webcam on the unit, she was able to see to where Whittaker and Howard stood by the door.

Luckily the faces of the two men were visible to the camera, and with a few quick keystrokes, she snapped off a bunch of photos
and saved them to the hard drive.

“I’m e-mailing you pictures of the agents. Maybe that will help,” she said.

“Just got them. I’ll use them to ask around,” Ramon confirmed.

It occurred to her that while he was checking things, he could inquire about one other item. “We have another
patient in the lab. Whittaker says that local law enforcement found him on the side of the road.”

“If it was anywhere nearby, I should be able to check with my fellow police chiefs in the neighboring towns.”

“Would you?” she pressed.

A long, drawn-out sigh followed her request before Ramon said, “You really don’t trust this guy, do you?”

As she recalled the beatings Jesse had endured and all the little things that didn’t seem professional, it wasn’t hard to
confess her misgivings.

“I don’t trust him. Not at all, so anything you can get me would be truly appreciated.”

“Anything for you, Lil. What about Mick?” he asked, well aware, as she was, that her older brother had the ability to access
a wealth of information legally unavailable to a police chief like Ramon.

“Mick has enough on his mind right now. I’d rather he not be involved.”

“Got it,” Ramon said and hung up.

She closed her cell phone and slipped it into her pocket. For a moment she considered calling Mick, but he was only just getting
his life back on track after the nearly fatal events of six months ago. She wouldn’t rupture that peace because of her cynicism
about Whittaker.

A knock came at the door and Liliana rose, opened it.

Whittaker stood there with Howard. Behind them were two paramedics she recognized from the hospital, wheeling a gurney toward
the examination room.

“Good to see they got here so soon. Let me just grab my bag and I’ll ride with them to the hospital.”

Whittaker nodded, a chill look in his eyes almost like
that of a serpent as he examined her. “Is something wrong, Dr. Carrera?”

Liliana schooled her features, worried that they were giving away her distrust, and shook her head. “Just concerned about
the patient.”

A sudden commotion pulled her attention toward the examining room. She hurried there to find the two EMTs staring at the patient.

“He’s going into quarantine. Is it contagious?” the one EMT asked, snapping on latex gloves.

“I’m not touching him,” the other EMT advised, his eyes wide and a fine line of sweat across his upper lip.

“It’s not contagious, but I understand your worry. The three of us can transfer him to the gurney.”

Together with Carmen and the EMT, they lifted him from the table to the gurney, and at the last second, the fearful EMT relented
and assisted them.

The EMTs wheeled the man from the room, and Liliana met Carmen’s concerned gaze. “I’ll keep you posted on his condition. Let
me know ASAP what you get from the blood tests.”

Liliana turned, pushed past Whittaker and Howard, who were still lingering by the door. Outside the lab, she climbed into
the back of the ambulance and sat beside the EMT, who was wrapping a blood-pressure cuff around their patient’s arm.

Liliana had opted not to try to get a reading earlier, fairly sure she would obtain an irrational result. After a few tries,
the EMT gave up.

“His skin—or whatever this is—is too thick,” he mumbled.

“It’s compact bone, from the looks of it. I’m worried
about how much of his body has been compromised,” Liliana advised as she checked the IV she had inserted earlier. It had fallen
out, and the former spot for the IV had closed up with bone.

“Can you find a clear spot to re-insert the IV?” she asked the EMT who searched for a visible vein along a thin ribbon of
skin at the crook of the man’s elbow. The needle went in cleanly, but shortly after insertion, the area around the needle
whitened as bone formed around the site.

The EMT reared back from the patient, his earlier cooperation replaced by shock and fear.

“What is this?”

“Science gone wrong.”

With little left to do for the patient until they reached the hospital, she and the EMT covered him, hiding the damage to
his body beneath a crisp white sheet. Within minutes, they reached their destination. Before the ambulance stopped completely,
Liliana advised, “I want to get some x-rays before we get him in quarantine.”

Nodding, the EMT swept into action as the vehicle stopped and his partner opened up the back doors. Liliana followed the two
men as they pushed the gurney into the emergency room. The duty nurse approached and greeted Liliana.

“Good evening, Dr. Carrera.”

“Hi, Maggie. Good to see you again. I need this patient taken to x-ray and then quarantined.”

“You got it.” Maggie handed Liliana a chart and pen, raised her hand, and waved over another nurse to take responsibility
from the EMTs.

“Get this patient to radiology, stat,” Maggie instructed,
and the nurse took hold of the gurney and began wheeling it down the hallway.

Liliana was about to follow when Whittaker and Howard entered the emergency room. They moved forward, clearly intending to
accompany her, but she held up her hand to stop them.

“It’ll be better if you wait down here until we know more.”

“Don’t make us wait too long,” Whittaker warned and, with a jerk of his head, commanded his man to a line of hard plastic
chairs in an adjacent waiting-room area.

“I understand, Special Agent,” she advised, her biggest concern for the moment ascertaining what she could do about the patient
being wheeled to x-ray.

Turning on her heel, she hurried down the hall and navigated the assorted twists, turns, and elevator banks to reach the radiology
department. The nurse was waiting at the door for her beside one of their x-ray technicians. Peering into the room, she noted
that her patient had already been transferred to the table for the procedure.

“We can’t retract the IV needle,” the x-ray technician advised.

“You’ll have to take them with it intact. Is it all right if I watch while you complete the shots? I need you to get his entire
torso.”

The technician nodded and prepped shot after shot, the
kathunk
of the x-ray machine registering with each exposure until his task was completed.