The Cure (39 page)

“You think we’re just going to turn it over?” Dimitri took a step closer. “Do you know what that research almost did to all those school children?” He snorted. “There’s not a chance in a thousand worlds that we’d ever give it to you. You’re as insane as she was to even think it.”

Edgel shook his head. “That’s not the part I want. I want the other research, the cure for autoimmune diseases.”

“Why should we believe you?” I asked.

Again Edgel’s gaze shifted to me. “It’s my mortal daughter. She has an autoimmune disease. She’s already bedridden. The doctor gives her less than three months before her body destroys itself.” His gaze went back to Ava. “Please. She has two young children. The Emporium was going to suppress the cure, but they were going to let me have it. They didn’t know why I wanted it, but that was the promise. They don’t know about my daughter.” His brow furrowed. “Now, I have nothing.” No mistaking the misery in his voice.

I pushed hard at his mind shield, and almost immediately his surface thoughts became apparent. He was telling the truth. “You killed that scientist,” I retorted. “You murdered him in cold blood. If you hadn’t, he could have helped you. But after what you did to him, you don’t deserve it.”

His jaw tightened. “I was a soldier following orders. I
always
follow orders. Besides, we had the research. What did I need him for? Killing him meant no chance of it being duplicated. For us it was the right thing to do.”

“He was innocent!” I almost lunged for him, but Ava’s hand on my arm stopped me.

Edgel lifted a brow at the gesture. “Maybe you’re right that I don’t deserve it, but my daughter does. Please. I’m begging you. She knows nothing about the Emporium or Unbounded. Please.” His dark eyes searched mine and then each of the others in turn. No one spoke. His was a dilemma we all understood only too well. Yes, his daughter was innocent. Should she pay the price of her heritage like so many of our descendants? The Emporium would say yes.

Ava and Dimitri exchanged a long look. Finally, Ava spoke. “I personally don’t believe you deserve this, and while your daughter may be innocent, she could have more children who might become Unbounded and eventually work for the Emporium. Of myself, I would say no. But the decision is not mine alone. I will let Stella decide. Your interference in Mexico has cost her the most. As a technopath, she is also the only person who can make sure that we give you only the final recipe and none of the actual research, in case you try to recreate the other drug.” Ava looked around at us. “Do you agree?”

We all nodded. I was sure Stella would send him away, and maybe Ritter could even get rid of him permanently by detonating his explosives when he was far enough from the apartment. The man was never going to switch sides, and we’d have to face him again in the future. So what if he loved his mortal daughter and kept her a secret from his leaders? It didn’t mean much in the face of our own loved ones.

Or did it?

Stella released a long sigh. “Let him have it. No one—not even him—should have to feel this pain.”

I choked back a gasp. We all stared.

“Erin.” Ritter nodded at me.

I pulled the thumb drive from my pocket where it had been since I’d taken it from Benito on the plane. I handed it to Stella. Any way I looked at it, Justine’s and Tom’s deaths meant our mission had been more of a success than we’d known, especially after losing Bronson, but giving the cure to Edgel seemed to diminish everything we’d achieved.

“Will you get the laptop from my spare room?” Stella asked me, moving toward a box of equipment salvaged from the palace. By the time I returned, she’d found one of her headsets and put it on. Plugging the drive into the laptop, she began transferring files. One minute. Three. Six. We all waited. A single tear slid down Stella’s cheek.

In ten minutes she was finished. She took out the drive and handed it to Edgel. “I swear to you that this is all we have. I’m really sorry about your daughter.”

Edgel’s hand closed over the drive, swallowing hard, his jaw clenching and unclenching with his emotion. “Thank you. Thank you so much.” He backed toward the door, and we all let him go, watching until he jogged down the road out of sight.

Ritter’s voice broke the silence. “Fifteen minutes and we’re out of here. It’s too dangerous to stay. Leave whatever we can replace. I’ve already sent Marco and the others to the storage unit to get what we need there.” He strode to a box of electronics, hefting it. “Grab something, Keene. You owe us.”

“Owe you? Ha. I’ve done enough of your dirty work the past few days.” But Keene grabbed a box and followed Ritter outside. Dimitri, Jace, and Chris lifted more boxes and hurried after them, Chris with an uneasy glance over his shoulder at Stella.

Stella’s arms wrapped around her stomach. She looked lost and alone. “I’m sorry,” Ava said, going to her.

“Poor man.” Stella’s voice was scarcely a whisper.

“I don’t see what’s poor about him,” Mari retorted. “He’s getting what he wants.”

“My thought exactly,” Cort said from the couch.

Stella sighed. “No, he’s not. He’s going to have to reap what he has sown. I only let him believe I gave him the research so he didn’t blow us all up.”

“You mean . . .?” While I hadn’t wanted to help Edgel, this cruelty seemed unlike Stella.

“I mean the drive didn’t contain the cure or any medical research, and I knew he’d never believe that.” Her arms dropped from her stomach and her shoulders straightened. “However, the drive did hold numerous Emporium files, which together may be the single most important piece of intel we have ever managed to recover. Names, dates, locations. It may even be enough to turn the tide permanently in our favor. There were too many for me to analyze in such a short time, and some are encrypted so I’ll need to break their codes, but even the unencrypted files should prove useful. At least one is clearly related to us.” She paused, her expression less somber now. “It tells the location of our people they took prisoner in the New York raid.”

A smile lit Ava’s face. “Where?”

“They’re still in New York.”

“Ritter’s going to flip,” Mari said.

I nodded. “Better tell him
after
we finish loading the van.”

“No,” Stella said. “We’d better get someone out there now. I transferred all the files from the thumb drive and reformatted it, but by now they’re going through all of Justine’s personal effects and recovering what they can from her laptop and any other computers she owns. Depending on where she kept her files originally, or where she copied them from, they might figure out exactly what information was on that thumb drive. I’d be able to. They’ll change protocols and identities and whatever to mitigate their losses, and it won’t matter because we’ll still be able to use much of the information. But if they suspect we know where the kidnapped Renegades are, they’ll move them again, and we can’t allow that to happen. Two months is a long time to be held by the Emporium.”

Even two days was too long in my opinion. “I’ll get Ritter.”

I hurried out the door, passing all the men except Ritter on the stairs as they returned for more boxes. Keene’s grin grew wide when he saw me, but I didn’t stop to give them the news—Ava and Stella could fill them in. Knowing how much it meant to Ritter, I wanted to tell him myself.

I found him organizing a mound of boxes and duffels piled inside the back of the van. My shoe hit the edge of the metal opening, clanging loudly as I pulled myself inside. Ritter turned, his hand going to his pistol, stopping short when he saw me. He looked strong and powerful and dangerous—and incredibly sexy, though I probably shouldn’t have noticed that at the moment.

Our eyes met across the dimness. I felt the burning in him and the echoing fire in my own veins. Before I could get out a word, he dropped the box in his hands and crossed the space between us. Pushing me up against the interior wall of the van, his mouth fell on mine, a heated contrast to the cold metal at my back. Flames ignited everywhere we touched, and he pushed closer, or I did.

“Told you it wasn’t over,” he whispered hoarsely against my lips.

“What makes you think that?” My mouth opened to his, my hands going around his body to pull him even closer. I wanted to forget the thumb drive and lose myself in him, but we were in every bit as much danger as we had been in the jungle, now that Edgel knew our location. The thought brought me back to my senses, and I pushed him away.

He uttered a muffled groan, casting a quick glance at the opening of the van, where there was still no sign of the others. His black eyes returned to my face, glittering in the weak light. “You didn’t bring a box,” he said, his voice still rough. “So either you came out here to drive me crazy, or something happened.”

Leave it to him to figure it out. “It’s good news. Drop all this and grab your bags—we’re going to New York. We have some prisoners to save.”

T
HE
E
ND

N
OTE FROM
T
EYLA BRANTON
: Thank you for downloading my book and for spending time in my world! I hope you enjoyed
The Cure.
If you did, will you please leave a review on
Amazon
and
Goodreads
? The more positive reviews I receive, the less time I’ll have to spend trying to sell random people my book and the more time I can spend writing sequels. Yes, I have multiple sequels in store, so thank you for any help you can give me in spreading the word. I promise I’ll make it up to you! To read a chapter of
The Escape,
the third book in the
Unbounded
series, please continue to the next page. You can learn more about me and my books in the About the Author section following the sample chapter. Also, be sure to sign up for new release notices and ebook updates at
TeylaBranton.com.

I
RUBBED HANDS OVER MY
bare arms as I studied each person in the lobby, but everyone we passed was mortal. None of them was shielded or thinking about Unbounded. Their thoughts came to me loudly, their life forces glowing with the additional brightness I’d felt since Mexico, when I’d pushed my ability to its limits. The increased sensitivity made me jumpy since coming to New York, where there seemed to be a crush of people and stray thoughts everywhere I turned. My own mental shield was becoming conversely strong as I worked at keeping them out.

Keene McIntyre arched a brow, a question in his eyes, and I shook my head, indicating that I hadn’t located any Emporium Unbounded or Hunters. Of course we had yet to see our target.

I wondered for the hundredth time how Ava had talked me into attending this swanky political fundraiser in New York City. She or Stella would have been a much better choice for hobnobbing with the rich and famous, as well as ferreting out the truth about our target. I’d agreed only because a prominent Hunter and his cronies would be in attendance and I was one of the few Renegades not in their database—the only one who also had the sensing ability.

“Cold, Erin?” Keene whispered, amusement thick in his voice. As luck would have it, he was the only other experienced Renegade in our group who was likewise not in the Hunters’ database. In fact, before his defection from the Emporium, he’d worked undercover with the Hunters. That he was mortal was ironic, since it meant he was also one of the most vulnerable of our group, but he was good at what he did, coming by his fighting ability through sheer force of will and determination rather than by inheritance.

Not that we were left to ourselves. This mission was far too important. All the Renegades who could be spared were watching the grounds, ready to back us up if needed. Keene and I were here to gain information about our target, not take him out—unless we uncovered information that made his demise more important than our safety.

I rolled my eyes at Keene’s comment. “A strapless dress like this in December doesn’t make sense, and why did I have to check my fur coat?”

His eyes, their green color bright under the chandelier, roamed over the dress appreciatively. “Because people who spend five thousand dollars for a picture with the vice president of the United States always check their coats.” Easy for him to say since he wore a tuxedo and couldn’t feel the winter chill seeping into the gilded lobby.

Cold notwithstanding, I’d spent far too much time working lately not to enjoy wearing the dress. The silky folds hugged all the right curves and made me feel feminine and in control. Unfortunately, the last time I’d worn red, things hadn’t gone so well, and right now there were a lot of other places I’d rather be. Particularly with our Renegades not involved in tonight’s operation, who were several miles away keeping watch on the building where the Emporium had taken five of our people captive. We’d staked out the compound for three weeks since discovering their whereabouts, but so far we hadn’t found a way to rescue them.

My eyes went past Keene and the reception hall entrance, where men in stiff white suits were helping attendees to their destinations. With so much power and money here tonight, the Emporium would likely be represented in significant numbers, though we had yet to verify the presence of any operatives. That fact contrasted sharply with the uneasy feeling in my gut that told me something would go terribly wrong before the night was over. The sensation related to my ability and was one I’d learned not to ignore. I wanted to warn the others, but it wouldn’t make a difference to our plan. We all knew the danger. We were prepared for it.