Break of the Six (The Preston Six Book 4) (11 page)

“You’re not Marcus,” Julie delivered the words slowly.

Zach looked perplexed. “I’m sorry, I guess I didn’t introduce myself. I’m Zach Ryan Baker.” He extended his hand. Julie kept her hands to her side.

Joey, Poly, and Lucas ran up next to her. Each took in Zach, seeing him for who he was. Joey lowered his hand from his gun and shared the same shocked look as Poly and Lucas.

“So good to finally meet you all,” Zach said. “I hope you don’t mind if I get Samantha treatment for her eye. I fear she may have a concussion as well. Plus, we can get those cuffs off.”

Samantha gazed at her friends, they didn’t say anything in protest. She badly wanted the cuffs off and she wanted a mirror. She gazed back at Joey who studied Zach and his movements. Did they really think Zach was Marcus? Like she wouldn’t know if she was working for the worst person who ever lived? The person who had her dad killed? The idea seemed insane.

“Samantha, please, go inside and get some medical help,” Zach pleaded.

She took one last look at her old friends and trotted up the stairs. The nurse rushed her into the plane, while a man stood behind her and removed the cuffs. Her wrists felt raw and she rubbed them fiercely. She hoped her friends were being cordial with Zach. It’d be just like Lucas to say something stupid.

THE MAN APPROACHING THEM WORE a big smile and a face that wasn’t Marcus Malliden’s. Joey controlled his breath. His hands shook and he fought every urge to rush for Samantha climbing the stairs into the plane.

“I wanted to thank you guys. I know if I hadn’t shown up, you’d have taken care of her,” Zach said. He even sounded different.

Joey recoiled from the man’s hand and reached for his gun.

“You don’t want to do that.”

Joey stopped. “We know who you are.”

Zach’s smile changed to a scowl. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Joey stepped closer to the man. “You might have her fooled, but not us.”

“That’s right, you think I am this Marcus guy...”

“You must have gotten plastic surgery or something. We have proof.” Joey looked to Julie for backup.

Zach waved a dismissive hand in front of Julie. “I don’t want to hear it. I’m not who you think I am. All I want to do is protect Samantha.” He moved closer to Joey. “You may not believe I’m Zach Baker, but that isn’t my problem. Soon, the whole world will be shouting my name from the rooftops.
Thank you, Zach Ryan Baker! Thank you for saving us!
”

“You’re crazy. We know you started this disease.”

Zach chest-butted Joey and put his face close to his. “If you listen real carefully, there will be one more person screaming my name tonight.
Oh, Zach!
”

Joey swung at the douchebag’s face.

Zach grabbed his hand and pushed him to the ground. “See ya, Preston
Four
is it now?” He let go of his hold on Joey and walked toward the plane.

Joey pulled out his gun and fired at the back of his head. Zach didn’t flinch and the bullet bounced off his shield.

“See? You have a shield.
Samantha!
He has a shield!”

Zach ran into the plane and the door closed behind him. The motors revved up and the plane’s gun moved, pointing at them.

“Run,” Joey yelled.

He made sure Poly ran in front of him in case they decided to start shooting. He ran with his shoulder pulled up and his head down as if that would give him any protection. They kept running all the way to the steel hangar. The plane never fired a shot. By the time they looked back out of the hangar, the plane streaked across the sky.

Joey stared at the jet trail it left behind. It was worse than he could have ever imagined. With the knowledge she was given, she still chose to go with him. Zach must have manipulated her, fooled her, fed her lies. He shook his head, trying to put logic where there was none.

“She thinks she’s saving the world,” Julie said.

“She’s searching for love,” Poly said.

“Yeah, well he’s ending the world. They say love is blind. Is it also stupid?” Julie asked.

Joey held Poly with one arm and kept looking at the sky. He wouldn’t accept the loss of Samantha. She was in the arms of the Devil and he planned on getting her back. Marcus, Zach, whatever the guy wanted to call himself, had a plan and Joey was going to do everything he could to stop that plan from happening. If he couldn’t get to Samantha, he’d get to his company; he’d find the errors and give Samantha the trails to follow on her own. She had to see it.

“What’s our next move?” Lucas asked.

“We need help, we need to get to Harris,” Julie said.

“And Travis,” Poly added. “I think with our new knowledge, he’ll help us.”

Joey could only hope.

SAMANTHA FELT THE SUPPLE LEATHER seat and stared at Zach sitting across from her. He didn’t retract from her mutilated face. She hadn’t had the guts to look in the mirror yet, but she felt the puffiness around the wounds and the bandage over her right eye. Zach’s on-plane nurse helped clean up the worst of it. She’d spread white goo all over and then placed a bandage over the side of her face.

“Are you in any pain?”

“No, and thanks for coming to get me,” her voice cracked.

“Anything for you.”

Samantha lowered her head and then looked out the window. The dark, featureless sky sped by. She stared at the void, thinking of Julie and Joey. Julie had grabbed her and told her Zach was Marcus.

She glanced at Zach.

Marcus was an evil man who’d killed her dad. The man sitting across from her was the sweetest, most caring person she’d ever known. And he had the balls to kill any man to protect her. Marcus wouldn’t do such things. Marcus wouldn’t find interest in a nineteen-year-old.

Zach watched her with a smile. “What are you thinking?”

She gave him the clean side of her face to look at as she gazed out the window. “Life’s complicated, isn’t it?”

“You have no idea.” He scooted forward in his seat and took her hand in his.

“Zach,” she turned to him, exposing her face, “are you who you say you are?”

He frowned and rubbed the top of her hand with his thumb. “Do I seem as if I could be someone else?”

“My friends think you are . . . someone awful.”

“Yes, your friends. Interesting bunch. I know one thing though, they love you and they are friends of mine by proxy.”

Samantha turned and stared at the window. The world below was collapsing. She had to help those who were suffering. They had to get the cure out to the world by any means necessary. It wasn’t about her and Zach saving the world anymore. She just wanted to get back to normal. “I want to start mass distribution of the cure.”

“Doesn’t take you long to talk shop, does it?”

“I’m serious.”

He let go of her hand and leaned back in the seat. “I agree. I was just about to tell you that we are launching our first cure centers in France.” He smiled.

“France?”

“I thought that’s what you wanted? We’re rolling it out to most of Europe over the next week, parts of Asia and South America too.”

“What about the United States?”

“The government hasn’t been responsive.”

“We can’t wait for them, Zach. We need to do it ourselves.”

“You saw what happened in LA, I nearly lost you.” Zach glanced out the window and crossed his leg. “If I try, they will stop me and mess everything up. We want to work with them, but they have to be the ones to meet us halfway. You see that, right?”

“It wasn’t the government who took me, but you know that already,” Samantha said. “It sounds like you’ve pissed off the wrong people.”

He laughed. “Yes, the world is a fascinating place with so many layers. Most of those layers the average person never gets to see. Did you know there are six people who control most of the world?” He laughed again. “Kind of like the Preston Six.”

“They aren’t messing around. I think it’s going to get worse. I don’t think they are going to stop until they control ZRB.”

“You let me handle them.”

She nodded. She might have told Zach not to bother, but she wanted him to find those men. They needed to pay for what they did to her. “One of them helped me. He kept calling me Miss Samantha.”

“I only wished he could have helped more. He was a friend of mine.” He gently pushed back a strand of hair and tucked it behind her ear.

“Well, he saved my life.”

“I’ll make sure his family is well taken care of.”

Samantha gazed out the window. “Where are we going?”

“I’ve grown very fond of you.”

She opened her mouth and closed it, smiling sheepishly. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I have a special place I want to show you. I think you’ll like it.”

SAMANTHA CLASPED THE EDGE OF the marble countertop and leaned closer to the mirror. She inspected her face in the morning light. It couldn’t be possible, but there it was, staring back at her. The once large gash, shrunken to a thin red line. The garish bruising turned to just a hint of red over her cheek and eye. She touched it with her hand and felt a hint of pain, but nothing like the throbbing of the night before.

She looked through the bathroom door to see Zach stirring from his sleep. She pulled his bathrobe tighter around herself. Samantha had thought being with Zach would take her mind off of her friends, or the faces of Derek and Marge in the fire fight around the helicopter, but their faces still plagued her mind—maybe even more. She looked back at the mirror, thinking of what brought her there.

The place Zach had wanted to show her was his new cliffside house. She wondered why he built a house so far away from anything. It almost felt familiar to her, but she couldn’t place it. Almost like Déjà vu.

Thoughts of Joey and what might have been crept into her consciousness. Sighing, she pushed him from her thoughts. That was another life. Samantha had a man who wanted her, a man who didn’t hide from his feelings and was able to express his desires.

She watched in the mirror as Zach made his way across the bedroom floor. Both of his hands caressed her arms and he kissed the back of her neck. A chill shot down her back and she turned for more. Kissing him deep, she felt his hard chest pressing against her.

“I have to go for a while,” he said between kisses.

“No,” she whimpered.

“You got me thinking last night. I can do more to get the US on board. I have to at least try. Can you stay here and wait for me?”

“I think I better get back to corporate,” Samantha said.

“Look at your face.” He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand.

Turning around to look in the mirror, she had to search for the damage. “What did that nurse put on me?”

“I don’t know, but she’s getting a raise.” He smiled and wrapped his arms around her waist. “If you want to go back to the office, let me know and I can drop you off there first.”

“Where are you going?”

He let go of her and walked over to turn his shower on. It had three heads and looked like something out of the future. “I set up a big meeting.”

She turned to face him. “With who?”

“The President of the United States has granted me an audience.”

“That’s wonderful news.” She beamed.

“Well, it doesn’t mean we have an agreement, but it’s a step in the right direction.”

“You better play nice with the POTUS.”

“He might be trying to kill me.” Zach laughed.

She crunched her face in a question. She was beginning to know his quirks and that sounded like his I’m-joking-but-I’m-really-serious laugh. “If he hurts you, you tell him he’ll have me to deal with.”

“Hell hath no fury...”

ENTERING THE FRONT DOORS OF ZRB, security waved Samantha past the scanners. The elevator opened on her floor and the office went silent upon her arrival. She stopped and looked around. Faces stared at her as if they were seeing a ghost. She met those stares and they darted back to their screens. Soon, the sound of the office clatter restarted. She walked past the nonsense and opened the door to her office.

The glass door closed behind her and she plopped down on her chair. It wheeled back a few inches.

“Hello, Miss Samantha.”

Startled, she jumped out of her chair. “Derek!” She rushed to him and gave him an awkward hug, careful of his injuries. “I didn’t even see you there.”

“I saw you.” His arm hung inside a sling and a bandage covered part of his forehead.

“I thought they killed you.”

“They shot me and I fell, hitting my head.” His eye’s got watery. “I’m sorry they took you. I won’t let that happen again.”

“What about Marge?” He shook his head and looked at the carpet. “You shouldn’t be here. You should be home or something. How can you even think of working in your condition?”

“I begged Zach to keep me on duty. I made a promise to him not to leave your side.”

Samantha appreciated his commitment. “Thank you.”

He nodded his head and backed up to the corner of the room. “Forget I’m even here.”

“I think I’m safe in my own office.” Samantha walked over to her desk and opened her purse to pull out an emery board. Her nails looked a mess.

“You need me more than I think you know,” Derek said.

“I was just freaking kidnapped, I think I know the importance of protection. And how did it go the last time you were helping?”

Derek looked at the floor. “I won’t let that happen again.”

She felt bad for her choice of words. “Some things are just out of our control.”

“You are right.” He moved closer to her. “And you should have some way to defend yourself if needed. Let me show you something.” He plucked the file from her hand and pulled out a knife from his side. He proceeded to cut the emery board until it had a sharp end and handed it back to her. “Now you have a weapon.”

“Thanks.” Samantha took her new weapon and thought it could still function nicely.

“I won’t leave unless you tell me to.”

She pondered the statement. It was better having his face around than her coworkers. “I don’t mind. Though, I may bug you now and then.”

“You can’t bug me, Miss Samantha.”

She sighed at the name and thought about ordering him to call her Samantha or Sam, but she stopped herself and conceded. Had Zach really ordered everyone to call her that? He must have, but why? Some sort of respect thing?

Meandering back to her chair, she sat and opened her laptop. Typing in her password, Prestonsix19, ZRB’s primary access page flipped up on the screen. She typed Marge in the personnel search bar. She didn’t know her last name, but at least she could send her parents or husband a personal letter or something.

The search came up blank. Not a single Marge worked for ZRB?

She leaned closer and typed in Ashley. Nothing. She sighed and typed in Derek. His face popped up on screen and she read his history. Military turned into a private security specialist. She glanced at him, but he didn’t have a look of conversation about him. He looked as if he was trying to look in every direction at the same time. “We’re alone, you know?”

“Excuse me if I appear jumpy, but I will consider you in grave danger at all times now.”

“Am I, in grave danger?”

“Yes.”

Samantha breathed in deep. It wasn’t for fear of the comment, but for what it meant. He wasn’t going to let off. He was going to be an ever presence of nervous energy. She thought of Zach’s relaxed state and longed for it.

The company inbox on her screen displayed a large number on top of the blue square. Odd, that had never been there before. She slid her finger over the screen and tapped the box. It swirled and an email popped up. She leaned forward, staring at the title.

Five plus one makes six.

She tapped the email and a few lines appeared.

I know you don’t believe me, but I’ll find the evidence. I hope you’re ready.

We miss you.

JM

The words felt bold on the screen, as if they had weight. It shouldn’t surprise her that Julie was able to get into the ZRB system. She tapped the reply button and the window changed to a reply box. Thinking twice, she closed all the windows and shut the laptop. She wondered what they were up to. If they really thought Zach was Marcus, they’d be plotting against him. They would be doing everything they could to stop him.

Didn’t they realize they weren’t playing on other planets anymore? They were on Earth, and could undo everything her and Zach had been building. Julie had the technology beyond anything of this world and the rest had the skills to pull off stunts that could really do damage to the company.