He hated himself for his next question. “How can you tell?”
“Because if we were still inside, I could change all of this. I could fix you.” She stroked his cheek. “I could erase these bruises.” With a whisper of breath, she brushed a kiss to his lips. It wasn’t enough. He caught her jaw and kept her still as he devoured her mouth in a much fiercer kiss. She opened to him without an ounce of protest, and his whole body kindled. The last time he’d been with her, in the memoriam, he’d felt every touch of his hands on her body. He’d experienced her pleasure with his and the catch of sound as she sighed into his kiss encouraged him.
A cough followed by a laugh intruded, and he glared over at Andreas, who just grinned at him. What a shit. Then again…even Oz had a bit of a real smile, and to his utter shock, Dirk wasn’t scowling. While he didn’t have a smile on his face, he did have some trace of amusement.
Fine. “Fifteen more minutes, then I’m kicking the rest of you bastards out.”
Non-negotiable.
Valda laughed at that, and it punctured some of the tension. But he got it, he had heard her words. They weren’t in the memoriam anymore.
“As much as I’d like to do that for you,” Oz said. “We can’t linger here much longer. We pushed it staying here the last two days.”
Hatch wanted to argue, but Oz was right. They’d done a scan for any tracers or trackers that might have been implanted. Just because they didn’t find any, didn’t mean they were safe.
“Agreed,” Dirk said, and that decided it. Valda caught his hand and threaded her fingers through his, but she made no move to leave Hatch’s lap. No complaints from him, not when he craved her nearness. “Finish the brief, Oz, we need to know what else you know. Then I’ll work on our extraction plan.”
Chapter 10
“Threats are the weapons of those who are threatened.” - Giovanni Boccaccio
VALDA
We couldn’t stay at the manor house. The two days they’d waited for us there had been dangerous enough, according to the reports from Campbell and his men. When I asked Campbell why he didn’t tell me about the escape, all he said was, “Until I had confirmation, I wouldn’t risk you. That meant not telling you. Captain’s orders.”
Dirk had nodded and clasped the man on the shoulder. The two had hugged like brothers. In fact, all of Dirk’s men had looked relieved and pleased to see him. There had been no small amount of ferocity in their eyes at his appearance. His and Hatch’s both.
They’d been tortured. Abused. But they were in good spirits, and any time their gazes snagged on me, those expressions softened. I hadn’t left Hatch’s lap for the entirety of Oz’s debrief.
Oz.
He hadn’t left me.
Well, he had. He’d lied to me. And from the look in Andreas’ eyes, he’d known about the lie. I could be angry about it all, I supposed. Oz’s words and logic, coupled with his cool delivery, had all been carefully designed to make me believe him. To encourage me to let him know.
Severing our connection had been more about making sure I stayed behind than about leaving me. I’d have to reconcile that with the hurt he’d left in his wake. It might take time, but I could certainly do it. Despite the wound to my heart and my pride—yes, I could admit to the last—I’d never fault his choice. I’d taken years from them all with my actions.
If he truly had wanted to move on, I had accepted that idea. I couldn’t ask him for more. Yet, he’d done the opposite. He’d run into danger to get Dirk and Hatch back. Now, he kept his distance from me, his worried eyes tracking to me when he thought I wasn’t looking.
It took Campbell a couple of hours to arrange transport, during which, Oz debriefed us on what he’d managed to learn during his time with the Blossom Foundry. The most troubling aspect seemed to be that they wanted me back in the memoriam. The why, however, had remained classified. At least, as far as Oz had been concerned.
We made a meal of protein packs, and then we were back in vehicles. Oz and Andreas rode in the vehicle behind ours, but Dirk wanted me with him. Even wounded and beaten, his opinions on my safety hadn’t changed. There was room enough in our vehicle for all five of us, but Oz had just diverted to a second car and Andreas followed him after giving me a soft kiss.
Things with Andreas were better than they’d ever been, while Oz and I seemed to be disintegrating before my eyes.
Dressed much like his men now in casual clothing, it did nothing to hide the weapons Dirk had secured on his person. We had no intentions of stopping before we reached the ferry crossing at Dover. It was old school, and the sooner we were off the British Isles, the better.
As much as I kept telling myself to look at the passing landscape, I couldn’t focus on it. No, I kept turning over the data Oz had shared, along with the questions Dirk and Hatch described—what questions there had been. While few and far between, Smithson had let some details slip. Hatch and Dirk had merely been a means to an end for him.
His goal had been to plug them back into the memoriam, something he’d apparently attempted and failed over and over. Yet, Oz had been unable to determine why. That ‘why’ was important, because it would also tell them if the man would continue to pursue us or not. I leaned toward continue. After all, he’d sent people to attack us at my compound, half a world away from him.
“You’re awfully quiet,” Hatch murmured, stroking my hand, and I shook my head.
“I’m thinking.”
“About?” The prompt pulled a smile from me, though it was a bit of a reluctant one.
“Too many things,” I told him, then squeezed his hand. “Happy that you and Dirk are safe.”
Dirk’s fingers flexed around mine. At some point, he’d taken possession of my free hand, and when I leaned my head against his shoulder, he’d pressed an absent kiss to my crown. Like me, he’d been lost in his own thoughts. So much had happened. And we’d barely had time to scratch the surface of it.
Their safety was more important than my feelings. We could take time to address all of that later. “Should I apologize?” I asked abruptly. This question had come up in the memoriam, but for so much of that, I hadn’t been me so much as all these disparate personalities that came from me. If I focused on it for too long, then I would give myself a headache.
It was another aspect I needed to sort out, sooner or later. But I needed time to organize those thoughts, record them, categorize them…
“For what?” Dirk turned his attention briefly from the window to me. He swept his gaze over me, the intensity in his eyes a physical caress.
“For the experiments. For the coma. For…all of this. If I’d talked to you about it ahead of time—”
“You would have done exactly as you did,” Dirk said, interrupting without an ounce of malice or irritation to ruffle his tone. “Your work is everything to you. I’ve always known this. And when you seek answers, you don’t stop.”
My work was everything to me?
I frowned.
“You are all more important,” I said slowly, giving weight to each word as they took shape on my tongue, and I lifted my head to meet Dirk’s gaze for a long moment before glancing over to find Hatch staring at me. The riveting demand in his eyes held me captive as he searched my gaze. “All four of you.”