Deadly Genesis (Boomers Book 2) (15 page)

The music shifted several times, but she was far from done. He almost wished he could mute the speakers to a more acceptable volume. Unfortunately, she embraced the pounding backbeat as a part of the experience. Ten long songs later, she finally strutted off the dance floor. Her skin gleamed with sweat, her eyes shone with excitement, and she headed straight for the bar.

Two men watched her hoist herself up and lean over to whisper in the bartender’s ear. She wanted water. He couldn’t hear the thoughts of her watchers—but he didn’t have to. Their lecherous expressions and focus on her ass spoke volumes. Irritation rankled over him, but he had to let it go. This was the past and the fact that their actions were so clear meant she noticed…and ignored them. He could do the same.

Bottle of ice water in hand, she slid back onto a stool and crossed her legs. She downed the first bottle in no time and the bartender returned with a second. Amanda plucked her phone out and checked it. No new messages from Rory. Disappointment filtered through her joy. She’d really been looking forward to their girls’ night out.

He wanted to walk over and wrap an arm around her, but he was powerless to act in this situation. This was her memory. Reminding himself of the fact repeatedly, he settled in to be patient. Fast-forwarding risked losing details. So, he waited.

She finished her second bottle of water and waded through the crowd to the dance floor. She didn’t slow down for another forty-five minutes and still no strangers or anyone looked out of place. Simon frowned and catalogued the crowd slower this time. Whomever took her might not have looked out of place to her. So he checked for new faces and, of the faces that remained, anyone who didn’t look like they were there to party.

A tap on her shoulder pulled him around.

Josh winked down at Amanda and she laughed, looping her arms around his neck.

That’s out of place.

At no point in the last few months had anyone mentioned Josh saw Amanda the night she went missing, much less met her at the club to dance. Simon closed the distance separating him from the pair.

“Where’s Rory?” Josh had to practically yell the question in Amanda’s ear to be heard over the loud music.

“She stood me up.” She grinned up at him, hiding all traces of her disappointment. Interestingly enough, she wasn’t that thrilled about Josh being there. Josh who had a thing for Rory but liked to pretend he didn’t. The words
stalker much
floated across her mind.

“Well, that’s a shame!” Josh twirled her around and pulled her up against him, her back to his chest. Their grinding took on a far more intimate dynamic. “On the other hand, three is a crowd.”

He kissed a spot behind her ear. Simon’s fists clenched. He’d been in the little punk’s brain. He could melt it.

Amanda elbowed Josh in the gut and pulled free. “Yeah, no.” She delivered the rejection with a laugh and a smile. Her body language communicated a distinct lack of anger at his presumptuous caress, but she wasn’t interested. But he wasn’t dissuaded or maybe their friendship could handle the sexual overture and rejection, Simon couldn’t be sure. They danced for three more songs before Amanda held up a hand and headed back to the bar. Josh followed. The hero’s gaze stayed on her ass—much like the jerks from earlier.

Forcing calm became more difficult. He’d seen no sign of Josh’s overt interest since Amanda’s rescue. If anything, he’d barely showed up.

A warning bell rang in the back of Simon’s mind.

Barely didn’t cover it. One meeting—with the whole team—that he couldn’t have avoided without being conspicuous. At the bar, Amanda ordered two bottles of water and waved Josh toward the barstool. She had to use the restroom. Simon didn’t want her to walk away. Dammit, that meant he’d lose the room and, sure enough, the memory segued into the bathroom. He pushed forward, blurring the memory a little to give her a modicum of privacy. He slowed it only when two women sauntered in while Amanda washed her hands but, other than nod to her, they said nothing. She walked back out then claimed her water and stool.

“I get why you two like this place.” Josh leaned against the bar next to her. He looked like he was watching the dancers, but his gaze never actually left Amanda. The longer he stared, the uneasier Simon became. Something was off. If only he could scan him, but the memory offered no alternatives to him. He was a helpless observer, smoothing the path between the memories until they flowed together.

Amanda downed her water and Josh passed his unopened bottle to her, twisting the cap off gallantly before holding up his fingers to order two more.

Don’t drink it.
He willed it to the memory, but Amanda couldn’t hear him. She drank the second bottle nearly as quickly as the first. Josh ran a finger across her bare shoulders and she nudged him.

“Knock it off.” And the words slurred.

Simon closed his eyes. The water was drugged. She drank it too fast to taste it—especially considering her exertions. Swallowing back bile, he maintained the perimeter and stared at the disaster as it unfolded before him. He couldn’t stop this. He had to ride it out. They needed answers.

I am so not a replacement for your Rory fantasy.
But the room wavered and she was uncomfortably hot and very aware of the sweat slicking her skin beneath the bustier and skirt. Even her boots felt sticky. It was well past ninety minutes and no sign of Rory or any texts from her. She pulled out her phone to check it and took another bottle of water from Josh.

No messages. The evening fun deflated and her head hurt. The music actually made her pulse throb, and she was too damn hot to stay in the crowded club.

“Want to get out of here?” Josh asked. It was like he’d read her mind, so she finished the third bottle and nodded. He gave her a hand, and she would have blown it off except the world wavered again. Maybe she’d overdone it. They’d been on call all week and she’d flown from New York to Los Angeles and back in less than two days.

He wrapped a proprietary arm around her, and she leaned against him all the way out the door. They were a block away from the club when it occurred to her she was walking the wrong way to hit her usual subway stop.

“Hey, Josh, we need to—” Her tongue didn’t quite cooperate, and she damn near staggered. If not for Josh’s arm around her, she would have fallen down. Belatedly, she glanced up and down the empty side street they walked on. No one was around.

“We’re just going to walk it off,” he soothed. But outside of the club, he didn’t sound like Josh.

What the fuck…?
A van turned the corner and pulled right up to them. The door opened and three black-suited figures jumped out. It was like being disconnected from her body, she could see what they were doing, but she couldn’t stop it. They picked her up and put her into the van. Her wrists were bound and her ankles, too. Josh stroked a hand along her thigh and pulled her phone out. He stared at it for a moment and the screen cracked.

What are you doing, Josh?

He glided his hands over her again, checking her breasts, her skirt, and even running his palm over her panties where they rested against her sex. “She’s clean. Take her in and give her two injections. We need to keep her down until we’ve got her secured.”

He definitely looked like Josh, but he didn’t sound like him. He leaned in close and kissed the corner of her mouth. “I’ve missed you, Amanda. We’re going to have so much fun together.”

Her mouth opened, but no words came out. He stripped off his face, and she cringed inwardly. But it wasn’t actually his face. It was a mask. Fizz smiled at her, his eyes cold and hard. “Take her back. I’ll clean up the surveillance.”

The door shut, and the world went black.

Amanda shot up on the sofa, screaming, but Simon was there and he pulled her close. “I have you. You’re safe. You’re not there.”

“It was Fizz! He dressed like Josh—”

“I know.” He rubbed her back, wishing he could sooth away the dark reality as easily as if it were a dream. “Now we know who. We just need to know why.”

She shuddered against him and he sighed, gathering the ragged threads of her mind and soothing away the nightmares populating from those restored memories. Deep scans were painful—and often awoke more than just the memory.

They awoke the fear.

Simon checked the bars on the phone again. No reception. Amanda slept—finally—after he refused to push her any further. She’d gone the seduction route, needing to be touched but, with her abduction so freshly imprinted in his mind, he didn’t dare push or take advantage of what she offered. Instead, he held her until she slept and then tucked her in with blankets. The distance from Connecticut to the city wasn’t as great as he led her to believe. He could reach that far, but he needed one of the Boomers to be willing to hear him.

Fixing Amanda in his mind, and drawing a mental curtain around her to filter any extraneous mental noise, he sent his thoughts racing out for Garrett. The Boomer had stayed at the Hamptons house to keep watch over Ilsa to protect her patients. It was well into the middle of the night, which meant he would most likely be asleep. He flung his mind out, racing across the miles separating them. The world flashed by, flickering lights of a multitude of minds lighting up the landscape like an image captured from an orbiting satellite.

Time slowed as he followed the nearly barely perceptible thread—the bond he shared with all of the Boomers. Their years together had strengthened their bond. He could find them anywhere, following the microscopic filament to the mind at the end.
Garrett…

Simon.
The tepid greeting carried no trace of fatigue or sleep. Garrett was awake. Good.

When Amanda was taken, it was by a man wearing a disguise to look like Josh. He is a former teammate of theirs named Fizz…technopath. I found notes on him in the earlier files we constructed while researching Rory.

Surprise and consternation blinked through the connection.
Are you sure?

Yes.
He didn’t hesitate.
And it doesn’t matter if I’m not. Warn the others and contain Josh until we can be certain of his identity…

Hesitation.

What is it?

The hesitation pulled Simon’s nerves raw.
Garrett?

Michael and Rex are with Josh and the earthbender now. They’re using Josh as bait to lure out the soldiers. They wanted him captured so they’d follow him back and see if they could nip the whole thing in the bud.

What the hell were they thinking? Why proceed with a plan like that with Simon so far away?
How long?

They left late yesterday afternoon and, before you get pissy, you went rogue first.

He needed to find Michael and warn him.
Garrett, get Ilsa and the patients out of that house. Relocate. Where are Drake and Rory?

Garrett didn’t explain, the information flashing through his mind and into Simon’s. Damn Michael and that violent need to protect her. Rory might have at least been able to talk sense.

Call Drake. Get them out of the warehouse. We have to assume we’re compromised on all fronts.

The poisoner didn’t waste time on agreement, his thoughts mirroring Simon’s.
Are you secure?

Yes. I have Amanda contained. We’ll head back as soon as…

Don’t.
Thoughts bounced around in Garrett’s mind. He wasn’t a strategist, but long term survival taught them all to think on their feet.
She may have the answers to where they will be taken if we can’t get to them. We need at least one person on the outside. I won’t call you, but you check in with me…

They were divided, stretched to their farthest, when they needed to be backing each other up. Simon blamed his own choice for this. He should have confronted Michael and hammered out the plan together. But they didn’t have time for their regrets now.
Go. Go fast.

I’m on it.

With great reluctance, Simon released the connection. He should be there—with his team. Bitter recrimination tasted sour in his mouth.

“Simon?” Amanda stood in the open doorway, her cheek wrinkled from the pillow and her hair rumpled from sleep.

“It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not. Something’s wrong.” She walked barefoot across the cold grass and slid her arms around him. The comfort he took in the simple gesture surprised him almost as much as how right it felt to have her leaning against him. “And no, I’m not a telepath, but your mouth is tense and your eyes are sad.”

A breeze pushed at them, and he wrapped an arm around her, sheltering her from the cold. Her warmth seeped in to thaw the icy core of worry burning in his chest. “Do you remember our session?” Choosing his phrasing carefully, he hoped to find out how much of the reconstruction held.

“Fizz.” The melancholy in the name echoed her confusion and sadness. “Fizz was Josh or Josh was Fizz. He drugged me. I never saw it coming, but I guess it was in the water.”

He rubbed her back soothingly. “Josh is with Michael and Rex right now, baiting a trap to lure out the group that abducted you and seemingly tried to abduct him yesterday.”

She didn’t respond immediately, but he could hear the whir of thoughts racing in her mind. She tried to reconcile what she knew with what she felt and, worse, what she feared. “Do they know?”

“I told Garrett. He’ll reach out to the others and warn them. For now, we have to assume that Josh is compromised, which means we all are.”

“No.” Amanda pulled away and circled to face him. “Josh isn’t a traitor.”

The conviction in her voice pulled at him, but he couldn’t argue with her faith—only the facts. “He may not even realize he’s a traitor.”

“You were in his mind. Rory told me. She said you went into his mind to control him once, when he tried to rescue her from all of you. Did you see any of this in there?”

He hadn’t and his expression must have revealed the answer because her chin came up in defiance. “I don’t know him that well, and he wasn’t necessarily thinking about the time you were taken. Besides, I didn’t do a deep scan. I try very hard to protect the privacy of those around me. He didn’t trust us, and I think on some levels he never will. He’s doubtful of Rory’s relationship with Michael…”