Obsession (The Plus One Chronicles) (11 page)

A current of icy spikes skittered along her right side. Sudden, hot fear clamped around her chest. Wavy lines edged her vision. Her heart rate shot up until she felt each and every pulse point in her body.

Two people on her right. A woman in scrubs.

And him. The man from the picture. The man who’d held David back and told him,
Consequences, Dr. Burke.

Was it possible, or was Kat imagining what she saw? Straight ahead was a waiting room with typical wood-framed chairs and burgundy-colored cushions. She could keep right on going and sit in one of those chairs. Tell herself that she was having a panic attack. It wasn’t real, she was upset over Ethan. Hell, maybe it was a delayed reaction from the car accident.

She could run. Hide.

Or she could face her past. Find out the truth.

Even as all these thoughts streamed across her mind, Kat turned her head.

There, framed in the opened doorway of the elevator facing her, was that man. Taller than Kat, maybe five eleven, his long face cut by a dark goatee, and his eyes…

Like chocolate frozen so hard that if you bit into it, it would shatter your teeth.

She couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get air. Wavy lines chased through her vision. She could almost see that bat coming at her.
No, please, please!
Her own voice shrieking in her head. She’d screamed, begged, so confused and terrified.

She blinked away the flashback, focusing on the elevator and the man staring right back at her. The elevator doors began to glide closed.

He moved, his hand catching the doors, stopping them from closing.

Was he coming for her? “No.” Her voice startled her, breaking through the fear holding her hostage.
No panicking, Kat. You live.
Sloane’s words from the other night propelled her into action. Sloane was there, just down the hall.

Get to him.

She whirled around, tried to run, but her leg nearly buckled. Kat grabbed the wall, caught her balance and kept going. Hurrying. Desperate.
Don’t look back.

Was he following her?

* * *

“His name is Finn. I only saw him a couple times. I got his contact info from a guy at the gym.”

Sloane kept his voice calm. Answering his questions was stressful enough on Ethan. “One of my fighters?” How deep had steroids penetrated his organization?

“No. Just a guy working out. We talked a few times, and he told me about Finn who sells steroids that can beat testing. He gave me a phone number. A cell phone with a recording.”

“I’ll need that number. What does this Finn—?” Sloane cut off at the sound of shuffling and panting behind him. He spun around. All he saw was Kat’s dead-white face before she stumbled into his arms. He caught her automatically.

Christ, she was shaking. No one was following her into the room, so what the hell?

“What’s wrong with her?”

Sloane glanced back at Ethan. Damn, the kid didn’t need extra stress. “Panic attack. It’s all right.” Lifting Kat off her feet, he dropped in a chair with her on his lap. He slipped his hand beneath her shirt to spread his fingers over her damp, sweaty back. Kat didn’t panic as easily as she once had. Worry ate at his spine. Something had happened. “Look at me.”

She tilted her head up. Her pupils were dilated, and her eyes swam with anxiety.

“Good, now breathe. I have you.” The need to check the halls to see what scared her fought with his compulsion to calm and comfort her.

“Him. I saw him.”

Her voice rasped, and the pulse at her throat jumped sporadically. She curled up tight against him, more frightened than he’d ever seen her. “Who?”

“The man from the picture.”

Fire exploded in his gut. “Where?” That bastard who hurt Kat had been in this hospital? Near her? Murderous rage roared in his head. He surged out of the chair and hit the doorway in two strides with her clutched in his arms. He slid Kat to her feet while he scanned for the man who’d terrified her.

“Gone. He was in the elevator.” Her fingers dug into his arm. “Don’t leave me. Please.”

Her desperate plea cut through his boiling need to kill. He dragged in a breath and turned to her. “I’m not leaving you, baby. If Ethan wasn’t sick, then he’d protect you and I’d be all over that fucker.” He pulled her into his arms, holding her against him. “But I won’t leave you unprotected. You know that.”

Her heart slammed against his ribs, though her trembling slowed and she leaned into him.

She’d run to him. Right to him. Had flung herself in his arms, knowing full well he’d catch her. Hold her. Protect her.

Love her.

God he loved her. Sloane had never felt this powerful or complete. Not even when he’d won championships. Not until now. Kat, his beautiful survivor working so hard to be strong, trusted him enough to lean on him when she needed it. Let him be strong for her until she could handle it. And she would handle it, she always did. But she gave him this, a chance to be her strength for a few minutes while she recovered.

Sloane would shoot himself in the balls before he let her down.

The guy she saw was gone now, so he led her back into the room to see Ethan looking at him with amazement. Ethan had driven Sloane around with a few plus-ones. He couldn’t miss that while Sloane had held the others at arm’s length, he’d moved Kat right into his life. So why did he have that shocked look on his face? “What?”

“You’d do that?” Ethan asked. “Still?”

Sloane tucked Kat against his side, pulled out his phone and scrolled his contacts while keeping an eye on the door just in case. “Do what?”

“Trust me to protect Kat?”

He forced his eyes to the bed. Ethan had made a mistake, yeah, but that didn’t change who the man was. “Would you protect her?”

His gaze was solemn. “With my life.”

“Then yes.” He made the call. “Liza, contact Jack at McVey Investigations. The man in the picture I sent Jack on Saturday was spotted at the hospital minutes ago. I want it searched and the security-camera footage scrutinized.” Hanging up, he shifted to Kat. “Can you tell me what happened, what the man was doing? Or do you need a couple minutes?”

Her pupils were returning to normal. “I was walking past the elevators to the waiting room. I glanced at the two people standing there. It all kind of happened so fast. I’d already turned away and took another step when I started to panic. Like my subconscious realized what I saw before my brain caught up.”

Her speech had begun slow and halting, but now she was rushing. He listened, letting her tell it her way.

“By the time I turned to look, he was in the elevator staring at me. Like he recognized me. The panic attack hit hard, along with flashbacks. I couldn’t move until I saw him lift a hand to stop the doors from closing.” She put her hand on his chest. “I heard your words in my head telling me not to panic, to live. I had to get to you.”

Sloane covered her hand. Fought for his voice. “Exactly what you should have done.”

“You believe me.”

It wasn’t a question. “Every word.” She could be wrong, the guy could have just resembled the man she remembered, but he didn’t think so. “Since you saw him, we know he’s here in town, and my investigators will find him. Maybe he has someone in the hospital he’s visiting. I’ll have them stake it out. Let me finish with Ethan, and we’ll get on that.”

She nodded, leaned in to hug him, then tried to step away.

Not a chance. He held her against his side with his arm around her shoulder where he knew she was safe. Focusing on Ethan, he said, “Where were we?”

“Finn.”

“Right.” The one who sold Ethan the designer steroids. “What does Finn look like?” He needed every detail the kid could give him.

Ethan fiddled with the tape holding the IV in the back of his hand. “Not quite six foot. He wore a baseball cap or beanie when I saw him. Dark brown eyes.” Leaving off the tape, he stroked the three days’ worth of beard on his chin. “He had a goatee too.”

Kat stiffened. “A circle kind?” Pulling away from his shoulder, she drew a finger around her chin and upper lip. “Cut close?”

The hair on Sloane’s neck stood up.

Ethan frowned. “Yeah, I think that’s it. Why?”

Kat dug into her jeans, pulling out her phone. “Wait, I have it…”

Sloane dropped his hand to her hip, giving her room to scroll. When she touched the screen, enlarging the photo, Sloane saw the man from her hospital room. The one she’d seen in the hallway. Circle goatee exactly as she’d asked Ethan. Was it possible? Could that guy who’d been involved in the attack on Kat, who had some nefarious connection with David, be their steroid dealer?

He met her eyes. “Show him.”

Kat, her hand rock steady, held it out.

Ethan leaned forward to study it.

One second ticked by. Then another.

Finally, Ethan answered, “That’s Finn.”

Kat dropped her hand and turned, her blue-green eyes radiant and a flush rising over her cheeks.

Sloane couldn’t look away from her. The panicked woman he’d held moments ago vanished as the strength in Kat surfaced. Electric energy arced between them, a powerful force that held Sloane captive.

“Remember when you asked me if I was good enough to make designer steroids?”

What he recalled was spilling out his worries and guilt to her, telling her he hadn’t known Ethan was doping. And she’d comforted him. The woman had been in a goddamned car accident only hours before that, had been in pain and misery, but she’d comforted him. In that single moment when the magnitude of how badly he’d failed Ethan tried to drown him, Kat had been his lifeboat. “You said you’re not.”

“No. But David is.”

Chapter Eight

Kat sat in the chair by Ethan’s bed, her mind spinning. Things were clicking so fast, she could barely catch her breath.

Sloane asked, “Would he make them at SiriX?”

“No. Maybe years ago, but not now. SiriX has grown too big and has too many controls in place. He’s either doing it somewhere else, or advising them on how to do it.” She frowned, thinking. “I need my old flash drive.”

“Where is it and why?”

“In my bedroom closet at my parents’ house.” Her pulse skittered and skipped. “I worked on…” The full implications were mind-boggling. “Jesus, I’m going to kill him.” He’d used her, and she’d been too stupid and star struck to have a clue.

“What?”

She took a breath. “Human Growth Hormone has been shown to slow memory loss in early Alzheimer’s, while anabolic steroids speed up the progression. I worked on testing for both those when I was on David’s team.” Kat shoved up and paced along Ethan’s bed. The young man looked tired, but she needed to know. “You stacked steroids, right?”

“Yes, I took oral pills and injections on a set schedule, and then stopped altogether for a period.”

She nodded and turned back to Sloane. Oh yeah, it was all coming back to her. “David had me running tests on a protocol of stacking or cycling anabolic steroids that sped up the progression of the degeneration of brain cells seen in Alzheimer’s. Then in a second group of testing, we included a blocking agent he developed as part of the cycling. David’s theory was that if he could develop a drug to successfully block the destruction of healthy brain cells from long-term steroid use, then it might also block the destruction caused by Alzheimer’s.”

Sloane stood still, but his muscles were coiled as if ready to spring. “Did it?”

“No. All it did was produce clean urine.” She’d been so stupid. So naïve. “I didn’t realize what he was really doing, which was figuring out how to beat steroid testing.”

“Jesus.” Sloane shoved his hand through his hair. “That’d be worth a fortune. And definitely worth going after you if Dickhead tried to fuck with Finn and Finn wanted to keep him in line.”

“Consequences, Dr. Burke.
That’s what Finn said. Because David was screwing with them.”

“Maybe demanding more money. Making threats. Who knows.” His voice softened to liquid death. “What I do know is that you paid the price, and that’s not happening again.” He crossed his arms. “What happened to the test results?”