05 Desperate Match (13 page)

“You caused a lot of trouble here,” the doctor said.

“I did?” She’d gathered there’d been some objections to her staying here since she and Rowan hadn’t consummated their matching, but she didn’t think her sex life was anyone’s business.

“Don’t be dense. You were smart enough to find a spot on this campus, so do me the courtesy of not acting like a dummy.”

“I…”

Doctor Wise didn’t let her get a word in. “Your husband caused a lot of trouble. Enough to get this place shut down. You need to do something about it.”

“What are you talking about?” She had no idea what the woman was talking about. “I’m not going back to Jack.”

“I didn’t say you should,” the doctor said impatiently. “You need to figure out another way to silence him and get the media off our backs.”

She was starting to think she should get away from this crazy woman and return Thea’s dress later, but then she saw the computer screen and the news article the woman had been reading when she’d come by. She stepped over to it and bent to read. “What is this?”

“You didn’t know?”

Jill kept reading. The headline had her stomach churning, and her hands crumpling Thea’s clean dress. She straightened to face the doctor. “Oh my God. How long has this been going on?”

“Since two days after you got here. Your husband went to the press. They’re having a field day thinking we kidnapped you. It’s a hard thing to disprove since you’ve been in hiding.”

“I…I had no idea. Rowan hasn’t said a word.”

“He’s been busy trying to cover his ass and keep himself out of trouble.”

The safety net she’d hidden behind slackened and suddenly she felt she was falling into an abyss. “What do I do?”

“Don’t know, but you have to do something,” Doctor Wise said. “Now, listen to me. Here’s the other piece of advice you need.”

She hugged the plastic bag to her chest and looked the other woman in the eye. “I’m listening.”

“I don’t know what Rowan’s told you about his arm, but it’s a genetic defect. He carries the DNA marker, and it’s likely your kids will have defects also. Maybe minor, maybe more severe.”

“You’re a geneticist. You can’t do anything to fix it?”

“I’m a scientist, not a miracle worker. I can do this for you. I have Rowan’s brother, Adam’s, specimen stored. He carries the marker, but the odds for his children to be defective are less than Rowan’s. When you and Rowan start trying for a baby, come see me and I’ll implant Adam’s semen. Since they’re brothers, the genetic trail will be near impossible to discern. No one will be hurt, and your children will be healthy.”

She stared at the woman trying to process what she’d just been offered. “You want me to trick Rowan?”

Doctor Wise sat again at her computer and looked back at Jill. “It’s a deception that will cause more good than harm.”

It was insane. “Are you serious?” The look on the doctor’s face told her she was deadly serious. Jill didn’t know what to think, but the churning in her stomach made her queasy. She didn’t know what to do except get out of this woman’s office before she hit her.

“Think about it,” Doctor Wise said.

“Fine, I’ll think about it.” She turned and fled the office, hurrying down the hall blindly looking for Thea’s door so she could return the dress and get out of here. She had no intention of ever thinking about such a treacherous act, but Doctor Wise had said she was in charge of matching. What if she had the power to kick Jill off campus if Jill didn’t go along with her plan? She didn’t want to risk pissing the woman off without knowing the consequences.

“Whoa. Jill, where you going?” Thea was exiting a door on the right and they’d narrowly avoided a collision.

“I…” Jill blinked trying to get her bearings and get control of her worry and anger. “I’m returning your dress. Thank you so much for letting me borrow it.” She’d already returned the shoes the day after the wedding.

“I take it Rowan liked it,” Thea said, grinning at her.

She tried to put on some semblance of a smile at Thea’s implied sexual innuendo, but she knew she’d failed when Thea frowned.

“Jill, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing. I’m fine.” She’d had too many years of pretending all was right with the world to take advantage of a friend with a listening ear. Plus Thea and Doctor Wise worked together. She didn’t know if she could trust her or if Thea would agree with the plan to deceive Rowan. It wasn’t as if she
wanted
a disabled child, but she’d far prefer that than the alternative, which was a horrible deception to a man she was coming to care about. “I have to go find Rowan.”

“O–kaay,” Thea said, but a frown appeared on her face. “You know where I am if you change your mind about talking. Doctor Wise isn’t a demi–God around her,” she said cryptically. “If she said something to upset you, you can tell me.”

Jill nodded, but her back was already turned and she was walking out of the building to go find Rowan. She had no idea where he’d been spending his days, but he’d been waking early and been gone until after dinner. She’d assumed his job was keeping him occupied, but now she wasn’t sure. What if he’d been in trouble about bringing her onto the campus? She’d feel horribly guilty if her actions had caused him a problem.

She stood outside the science laboratory, trying to decide which building to go to next. To her right was the main office building where she’d first entered The Program compound. Might as well try there first. Even if Rowan wasn’t there, others might be who knew his whereabouts. She hurried through the icy wind, breathing a sigh of relief when she was inside the building minus the wind stinging her cheeks. Tears gathered in her eyes from the cold and she blinked them back, though it was tempting to let them fall.

She looked down the long narrow nondescript hallway not sure where to go next, but the sound of raised angry voices gave her a clue. It kind of sounded like Rowan’s voice. They hadn’t been together long enough for her to pick his voice out of a babble of voices, but she thought it might be him. Even if it wasn’t, someone in the room could steer her to the right place. If she was brave enough to go knock.

She walked slowly down the hallway, trying to pick out words and phrases from the melee of shouting. What was happening in there? She hoped it didn’t have anything to do with her and the situation she’d created, but her hopes were smashed when Rowan’s voice clearly rose above the others to shout, “Jill is not going back to the Jackass. Stop fucking suggesting it.”

She froze and leaned against the wall. Rowan was in trouble and it was her fault. She’d never meant to cause a problem when she’d run away. Stupid her, she’d only been thinking of herself. It had never crossed her mind to consider the impact on Rowan, other than the new room–sharing situation. She was an idiot. An idiot whose first instinct was to run away. Except she was in mostly the same position she was in the last time she’d needed to run away.

No money, no job, no work experience, and no car. The only positive in her corner was the lack of an abusive husband, except she still technically had that. Jack had seemed far away these past weeks of hiding on campus, but he was lurking in the shadows, striking where he could.

He couldn’t physically get to her, so he’d attacked her saviors, The Program. She had to do something, but what? And then she started getting angry. It sounded like a roomful of men all loudly discussing her and her situation, and not one of them had thought to include her in the discussion. Not even Rowan, whom she’d thought was her champion. He probably thought he was protecting her by keeping her in the dark about the outside world. He was wrong.

She strode toward the closed door from which all the shouting was happening and knocked loudly. When someone called, “Who is it?” she didn’t bother saying her name. Instead she swung open the door and entered the room. Eight men sat around a large oval table. None looked happy to see her.

Rowan jumped to his feet. “Jill. What are you doing here?”

She took a deep breath. “I heard there’s a shit–storm about me leaving Jack. Thought I ought to be included in the conversation.” Without waiting for the response, she pulled out a rolling chair and got comfortable. She rested her forearms on the table’s surface and scanned the faces surrounding her. “Well? Bring me up to speed.”

“Rowan, get her out of here,” an older man barked. She thought his name was Shep, but they hadn’t been introduced.

“I’m not going anywhere,” she said, trying to project a calmness into her voice that was a total pretense, “until someone explains what is going on.”

Rowan came around the table to her and gently tugged at her elbow. “I’ll explain it all, but you need to come with me. Now.”

She heard the frustration in his voice and looked at his eyes. He seemed calm but tense. She didn’t want to cause him more trouble than she’d already created, so she stood. “Fine, but I want to know everything.” She followed him out of the room and all the way back to the small room they shared.

When they were finally alone, they sat on their own beds facing each other. “So,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest, “want to tell me why you haven’t said a word about this in the last few weeks?”

He shrugged and looked uncomfortable. “Because I didn’t know what to say. Nothing’s been solved, and I wanted to say nothing until I knew more. Otherwise I’d scare you.”

“Well, I’m scared now.”

“I’m sorry ‘bout that. Never wanted you scared. You had enough of that crap.”

They were both silent for a minute. “What’s happening?” she asked. “What did Jack do?”

“Well, somehow Jack figured out you were here. Not sure how. He went to the press. Conservative media’s been dying to take a shot at us and close us down the second they learned about the place. Jack gave ‘em their ammo.”

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, staring down at her sneakers.

“Not your fault. They would have found something to call us out on. You were convenient.”

“But…”

“Not your fault,” Rowan repeated. “My fault for being blind.”

She looked up at his face. “No. How can you say that? None of this is your fault.”

He gave her a doubting look. “Really? I had no other options? Couldn’t have sent you to hide with Loren’s mom? Or to a hotel?”

“I never would have taken money from you for a hotel,” she protested hotly. She internally acknowledged he’d done more than put her up in a hotel. He’d put her up in his home. But somehow it felt different. This wasn’t a hit on his bank balance.

“Doesn’t matter; there’s no going back now. It happened and now we deal with the media.”

“What is the media doing?” she asked. She’d seen a brief snippet on Doctor Wise’s computer, but she wanted to know everything.

“Mostly a lot of yelling and rallying conservative groups to lobby the government to shut us down.”

“Shut you down?” she asked blankly. “Can they do that?”

“We’re government funded, so sure, they can cut off funding whenever they want. They’ve been having hearings on it since the summer when the news broke about us.”

“I thought that was more for show. Are they actually serious?”

Rowan leaned back against the wall. “They seem to be more serious now. The protesters are loud and angry.”

“About what? Why are they so angry I left Jack?”

“They don’t think you left Jack. They think we kidnapped and brainwashed you.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“Maybe, but the idea of scientific matching scares a lot of people, especially married ones. Think about it. You think you’re happy in your marriage, but—
bam
—along comes your genetic match, and marriage over.”

“Yeah, I can see how religious groups would hate that. So what do we do?”

“You do nothing,” Rowan said. “The Program will continue to educate the public with its PR campaign.”

“Which is obviously working so well,” she muttered.

“Well, what do you suggest we do?” For the first time since she’d known him, Rowan sounded angry, and when she looked at his face she could see lines of strain around his eyes. He’d been protecting her and dealing with the brunt of the fallout. It hadn’t been easy from what she’d heard from the yelling coming from the conference room.

“I don’t know. Maybe I can talk to Jack.” She responded to the look of
yeah right
on his face. Good point. Not going to work. “Well, maybe I can talk to the press, tell them the truth of what happened. If they see that I’m obviously not brainwashed, maybe things would calm down.”

He didn’t even have to think about it for a moment. “Hell, no. You don’t have to expose yourself like that. Shep will come up with another solution. He always does.”

“Who’s he?”

“The head guy in charge of this place. He does more operational and strategic stuff, but any decisions have to go through him.”

“He doesn’t want me here, does he?”

Rowan looked conflicted, then finally answered. “Not really. He feels like you’re using us as protection.”

“He’s right. I am.”

“Yeah, but you are my match. As such, you get my protection. Period.”

“But...”

He must have sensed she was about to bring up their sex life, or lack of, and he sat forward to change the subject. “Listen, I’m going to stop at the cafeteria to pick up a sandwich to bring back to my desk for lunch. Wanna come with?”

She thought about it for a second. The alternative was eating in the cafeteria now and eyeing every other person there, wondering if they questioned her right to be on campus eating their food. “Okay, I’ll come with you.”

They stood, and he slung his arm around her shoulders to squeeze. “Stop looking worried. This’ll get resolved. I promise. Or was there something else that had you upset?”

She leaned into him, now thinking about her earlier conversation with Doctor Wise. Should she tell Rowan? She didn’t want to dump additional problems on him, but he had a right to know. Come to think of it, Adam had a right to know also. It’d be his kid. But Adam was off somewhere at a secret location for a mini honeymoon with Loren, and she decided to wait until they were back and tell all three together. She gave Rowan a squeeze. “I’m okay. Just worried about this and thinking about how I can help.”