Retrieval (9 page)

“How the hell did you get so jaded?” Sky asked in consternation.

“Life,” Piper replied coldly and then got up from her position bedside her sister to lounge against the wall.

“Hey is this room blocked?” Kinsey looked around like someone was going to magically appear and pose a threat.

“Don’t have it in me right now, ladies. You should have been here when I blocked the room and forced the bullet from my side. I’ve never had that much trouble blocking, even that time I tried to off Daddy Dearest.” Skylar motioned her sister to help her sit up.

“Maybe you should’ve called to us, and we could’ve helped you out,” Piper admonished from her perch on the wall.

“That’s the crazy thing. I tried to get to you when I was lying in the cornfield, but the only person I could connect with was Sebastian. Talk about scary shit. He helped, but I couldn’t ask him for what I needed. Hell, guys, he doesn’t even know what the hell I am. I couldn’t just say, ‘Uh hey do you think you could give me some of you, so I can heal myself, and get the fuck out of Dodge?’”

“You’re right. That probably would have gone over like a fart in church,” Kinsey mused beside her sister.

“Anyway, I had to delve deep into myself to push the bullet out. I thought I wasn’t going to be able to get myself out. And I had to shield, because Bastian never left the room. He cleaned me up when he got me here, covered me, and then parked his fine ass right beside the bed and didn’t move,” Sky said on a gasp. Moving a certain way caused pain to shoot through her side.

“So it’s
Bastian
now huh?” Piper said sarcastically.

“Leave her alone, Pipe. She’s hurting. There’s time for this later,” Kinsey cautioned and turned back to Skylar.

“So yeah, they’re probably hearing every word we’ve said because I can’t shield us right now, and I’ll have to answer all kinds of hard questions when you two leave. Thanks. I really appreciate ya,” Skylar said in an exact sarcastic imitation of Piper.

“Well then let us give you the skinny, and we’ll dip. Raina needs some back up, and I don’t want to leave her alone too long where she is. We had to know you were okay, so we came back. Piper followed the trail you left, and we found you, but we had a hard time making it in without them seeing us.”

Just then a horrendous noise from beyond her door sounded. It was followed by a horrible growling, like a hellhound from the depths of Sheol had gotten really pissed off.

“Oh shit. I almost forgot. We had to get King out of the vet who was boarding him. He’s out there and oops.” Kinsey winced when she heard a grunt followed by cursing and more growling.

“Well go get his bad ass and bring him in here. You guys know I haven’t seen him in a week.”

Kinsey went to the door, opened it, and was immediately shoved against the wall as a huge black bullmastiff raced through the door and slid to an ignominious stop at Skylar’s bedside.

Laughing Skylar patted the space beside her on the bed, and the dog, King, jumped up oh so gently for an animal of his size.

“My baby. How’s my man doing? You sweet piece of animal. Mama loves you. Give me some smooch, King,” Skylar crooned to the dog who’d just moments before been about to take a bite out of one of the men now standing mute at the threshold of her room.

“What the fuck is that?” Sebastian roared as he skidded to halt just inside the doorway.

“This is my dog King. King,” she said lovingly taking the dog’s big head into her hands and turning him, so he could see Sebastian, “this is Bastian. Get to know him, I think I like him,” she whispered the last, so that only the dog and her sister’s keen ears could pick it up.

It was a warning to all three of them. Hurting Sebastian was now off-limits.

The sisters stayed where they were, but King hopped lightly off the bed and strode carefully toward Sebastian. He sat down in front of the big man, looked up, offered his paw, and smiled.

Looking over at Skylar he shook his head, held out his own hand and shook the dog’s paw.

“I can safely say this has never happened to me before. For all that though, King it is a pleasure to meet you,” Sebastian said solemnly and released the dog’s paw.

The dog inclined his head as if to say, “You’re right, the pleasure is all yours.”

“Well, now that the introductions have been made, Sebastian did you bring me anything to drink?” Skylar asked huskily.

“Shit,” Sebastian blurted out and then hustled into the kitchen to fulfill her request.

“Now that’s some serious training in action for your ass right there, big sister,” Piper said on a laugh.

“Piper, let it go,” Skylar said wearily before she looked at the men still hovering in her room. “Uh, could you guys go back in the living room for a minute?”

“Sure, why not?” Morrissey said sarcastically before drilling Kinsey with a look.

“What exactly did you do to him Kinz?” Skylar asked.

“Not one damn thing. The man is an autocratic jerk who needs to be castrated, so his little head doesn’t get in the way when his big head tries to do the thinking,” Kinsey hissed.

“Aaannnd I’m sorry I asked. Anyway, you guys need to get out of here. I’m fine for now, but get to the safe house and hole up for a few days. It’s going to take me that long to get back on my feet. If we move, I’ll send you a postcard or something.” Sky winked, but her sisters could tell she was about to pass back out.

“You’re sure you’re good?” Piper asked her hesitantly.

“As good as I’ll get, but if Smythe-Ward gets his hands on you I’ll be really pissed. Go, and be safe until I get to you,” Sky ordered in a tone that brooked no argument.

“Yes, ma’am,” Kinsey laughingly said.

As the last one born of their quintuplet, Kinsey was the one who laughed the easiest. Her indomitable spirit had kept the sisters afloat in times of trouble. She was a lifesaver for Skylar, who turned to her when her own spirit lagged or suffered. Kinsey was unselfish and freely gave all that she was to her sisters.

That particular aspect had worried Skylar more often than not lately. That last little operation she’d gone on for them had cost her baby sister something valuable—her heart. Kinsey wouldn’t say it, but Skylar had a sneaking suspicion that Morrissey was the one Skylar heard Kinsey crying for in her sleep.

And there wasn’t a damn thing Sky could do to ease that pain for her sister until Smythe-Ward was out of the picture. She couldn’t help any of them until that bastard was rotting in the earth.

Kinsey took off in her way, disappearing without disappearing; she became a muted blur of black against the already dark room. She was gone after kissing Sky on the cheek and sending spare energy through her fingertips into Sky’s chest.

Piper wasn’t gone so easily.

“Take care, big sister. The big bad wolf is knocking at your door,” Piper warned her.

“You need to lighten the hell up, Pipe. And I swear your cursing has rubbed off on me,” Sky told the woman. “Take care of them. I love you. Now go. I’m good, and I’ll see you in a few days.”

“You better. Love you, too.” And Piper was gone as well.

Piper’s exit was a little more distracting for Sky because Piper actually bent the matter surrounding her and distorted the space she came into immediate contact with. The effect was a mirage of sorts. She was there but nearly impossible for the naked eye to see. Most people just shook off the image their brain recognized but couldn’t understand as a visual defect, a temporary visual disturbance.

They were miraculous women who were unbelievably powerful. She shook her head. From her place in bed she watched as Piper walked by the men in the living room. They didn’t even notice she’d passed.

“King, come up here with me,” Sky called to the dog that had been with her for ten years but didn’t show any signs of slowing down.

That could have something to do with Sky’s healing touch. This dog brought Skylar joy. She’d move the entire earth to make sure he stayed as long as God let him.

The dog turned toward her, lightly hopped on the bed, and parked his big body right beside his mistress. He turned what Sky fancied was a gimlet eye on her as if to say, “What have you managed to get yourself into now?” and then huffed lightly before swiping his tongue over her cheek and settling down beside her.

She couldn’t keep her eyes open any longer. Her thirst forgotten in the wake of her fatigue, she propped her cheek against King’s large back and drifted off.

*

He opened the door, saw her asleep, and shook his head. The dog raised a hairy eyebrow, yawned, and joined his mistress in the Land of Nod. He moved back to the kitchen, set the glass of water on the counter, thought better of it, and drowned the contents in one gulp. He wished it was a shot of whiskey. Maybe a nice sharp bourbon, the color of her eyes. He’d need a ton of antacids to wipe away the burn.

He checked the door and their safety precautions and headed to the war room.

As he knew they would be, Bleak and Morrissey were waiting for him. Rover had taken his orders and gone to bed. He didn’t wait for them to speak. It was time to find out what the hell they knew that he didn’t.

“I heard some rumors that Dray’s former Army Ranger teammate, Peter Dempsey, is involved in his problem. Is that true?”

“Yeah. I’ve seen a couple of his ‘getaway’ spots. I don’t know how he keeps his commission. He’s a sick fuck. The Bonners think that torture house we raided was owned by him,” Morrissey relayed as sat back in his chair.

Sebastian snorted. “Sick fuck doesn’t begin to describe that bastard. So the plot thickens because here’s another little piece of information that adds to the jigsaw puzzle this has become: Guess who’s a junior member of the board for GenTech? Yeah, Peter Dempsey, who’s managed to become an aide to Senator Cobb from Massachusetts. By the way, Senator Cobb also sits on the board, as a Senior Advisor for GenTech.”

“Is this common knowledge?” Morrissey asked, sitting up straight, glancing at Sebastian.

“You have to dig a little, boys, to get to the meat sometimes. When Post first contacted me about this job I researched Smythe-Ward as much as I was able. He’s classified. But I have connections in the DOD, so I dug further on the way to our last meeting with Smythe-Ward. Anyway, by order of a Senate Subcommittee for Genetics Research, the acting board for GenTech was given autonomous protection from the general public, and this included any dispersing of the names, incomes, and job status of any of the board’s members.”

“So you’re telling us that GenTech, a publicly funded entity, is powerful enough to wipe their names from public records and, in essence, they answer only to the Senate Subcommittee for Genetics Research?” Bleak’s face was growing darker by the second.

“You got it in one,” Sebastian said.

“I’m going to contact Dare, see if I can’t get into their files on Dempsey. I have a personal bone to pick with that bastard. If I can get a current location on him, we could catch up to him. I could get some payback and maybe get some info for you in the process. I’d love an opportunity to break him,” Bleak said as he headed off to their war room.

“Bleak.” Sebastian’s voice stopped the man in his tracks. “You signed on with me, and this mission is priority right now. I know what happened to your sister is wrapped up in this somehow.”

Bleak’s face was agonized, and confusion swept across his features before he looked him in the eye. Sebastian forged ahead.

“Yeah, I know a lot about what happened to Talia at his hands. But I have a feeling if you’ll stay on board with me, you might just get your shot at Dempsey.”

Bleak’s shoulders tightened, but he didn’t acknowledge Sebastian in any way other than a sharp nod.

“Gonna tell me what’s on your mind?”

Bleak turned away a look of confusion wrinkling his brow. Morrissey took a deep breath and met his eyes.

“Get it finished,” Sebastian ordered.

“I told you I worked with Dare and Dray. Bleak did too. Bleak was trying to save his sister and ended up betraying Dray. Talia had been kidnapped and moved to various Dempsey hideouts. She was tortured periodically, and during the course of a rescue attempt, we discovered another woman. The one you just saw and accurately guessed was Aurora. Hey, Bleak? Anytime you want to help out is fine.”

Bleak said nothing. His face still held that hard facade of hate. Morrissey’s was agonized.

Good. I hope you’re uncomfortable knowing you withheld information from me.

“Thanks, man. Anyway, Aurora slash Kinsey was held at one of the Bonner’s safe houses in South Dakota until she managed to give me the slip. They wanted to know everything they could about her because of one thing: She looked almost exactly like Dray’s woman, Sasha.”

“What the hell? Dray’s woman looks like them, too?” Sebastian ran a harried hand through his hair. “So now we have a woman who looks like our objectives, and we also have Peter Dempsey thrown in for good measure. When the fuck were you going to drop this in my lap? Never?”

Sebastian was pissed, and while he never demanded absolute fealty, part of his reason for asking the three men he’d ask to join him on this op was because of their unswerving loyalty to him in the past.

Morrissey shrugged. “I didn’t think it would have any bearing on this op, Seb.”

In spite of his anger at Morrissey keeping this information close to his vest, Sebastian could visibly see the wages of his friend’s struggle.

“How could you not? You should have told me from the start, Mo. I don’t like what I’m hearing, but I just might understand why you held it back from me. We’ll talk about it later.”

“I got it,” Morrissey responded.

“You both need to get some rest. We’ve got plans to make later.” Sebastian dismissed them with a curt nod.

Bleak nodded at Morrissey, and both men left the room. Sebastian sat down to absorb everything he’d just been told and picked up the phone to make a call. It was time to get the lowdown. He could only hope that everything would end up copasetic.

Chapter 8

She hurtled headlong into consciousness with a sharp cry. Dark shapes followed her from her dreams, searching and grasping. She was slow to realize that only King was in the room with her. Sweat beaded her forehead, and she shivered. Her nightmares had been bathed in blood and half-formed monsters. In the arms of sleep, she’d gone back to a past she’d tried to outrun.