Rx Missing (Decorah Security Series, Book #10): A Paranormal Romantic Suspense Novel (14 page)

“It takes some getting used to. But when we said the last thing we remembered, it was usually just before an accident. Right?”

There were some reluctant nods around the room.

“The point is, back in the real world, we’re severely injured.”

“You’re talking about yourself, too?” Paula asked.

“Yeah,” he clipped out, wishing it weren’t true. “In here, we can function normally.”

Ben Todd slapped one hand against the sofa cushion where he was sitting. “There’s nothing normal about this place. Like, for example, I can’t taste anything.”

“I think because of your particular brain injury,” Mack answered.

“Brain injury,” he said slowly, as though the reality were finally sinking in, at least for him. Others were looking like they hated the news.

“It’s giving you a second chance,” Grant said. “And you don’t need to eat, anyway.”

“Why not.” several people asked.

“You have intravenous feed lines back in the lab,” Grant said.

“Oh, goody,” Roper muttered. “So you’re saying we’re not getting out of here?”

“You will, if you recover,” Mack answered, knowing that at this stage, he had to give them some hope. “Meanwhile, you can do just about anything you want in here. And if stuff you want isn’t currently available, it can be brought in,” he added, hoping he wasn’t lying.

The insurance salesman glared at Grant, “And what about your status?”

“I’m . . . okay.”

“Then what are you doing here?”

“I was looking for my brother.”

Mack waited for another question about that and was relieved when nobody pressed him.

Instead, Roper demanded, “Back to the part you’re skirting around. What are the chances of us getting out of here?”

Mack kept himself from glancing at Lily. He was sure she had a much more complete idea of the truth, but he’d already decided that the truth wasn’t the best thing to throw at these people.

“We don’t know,” he said, then repeated what he’d explained before, hoping it would sink in. “But I was told this place is designed to provide us with as normal a life as possible.”

“Who told you that?” Todd demanded. “What? You’ve had inside information from the first?”

“No.”

“Then how do you know more than we do?”

“I talked to the doctor in charge.”

“He was here?” Todd pressed, looking over his shoulder and glancing around, then shrugging.

“No.” Mack gestured behind him. I was talking to Dr. Hamilton from the computer in the business center.”

“And just how did you manage that?” Tom Wright chimed in. “I couldn’t get the damn thing to work.”

Grant spoke up. “It wasn’t initiated from this end.”

All eyes swung to him as he continued, “I was in the lab, looking for Mack. When I found out he was here, I asked to speak to him.”

“And they just let you do it?” Roper shot back.

“I’m very persuasive.”

Mack saw Lily roll her eyes.

Todd shifted in his seat. “So you expect us to believe all that crap?”

Lily spoke up for the first time. “You have a better explanation?”

He shrugged. “I’ll let you know.”

“God? The devil?” Paula said.

“Not unless he’s wearing a white lab coat,” Mack answered.

“Then what about the strange stuff that’s happened? The weird sky. The guy you saw in the woods,” Paula pressed. “Why would some doctor want any of that to happen—if this is supposed to be a normal environment?”

Mack sighed. “I was getting around to that.” He looked at his brother. “You said that this place has been hacked.”

“What do you mean, hacked?” Roper asked.

“Well, on a basic level, this is a computer simulation. Like a video game.”

He could tell by the reactions that nobody liked the reminder.

“The guy who created the weird effects hacked in here.”

“Who?”

“Apparently, someone named Preston. Anyone know him?” As he spoke the name, Mack watched for reactions around the room. He saw Grant and Lily doing the same thing.

“First name?” Todd asked.

Mack shrugged. “We don’t know.”

As far as he could tell, “Preston” didn’t seem to register with any of them.

But maybe the guy was listening, because Mack’s words were punctuated by a clap of thunder.

oOo

Some of the people in the group cringed or jumped. Most glanced up fearfully, although some of the guys looked back down almost at once. Mack saw Grant walk around in back of the chairs and bend to put his arm around Jenny Seville. Apparently he’d been drawn to her as soon as he’d seen her.

“It’s going to be okay,” he murmured.

“How do you know?” she challenged.

“Because they’re working on it back in the lab.”

She nodded, looking grateful, and Mack hoped it was that simple.

He glanced toward Paula. “Is there an inside room where everybody could wait while I go outside and see what’s happening?”

“The business center?” she asked.

“How about another office.”

She pointed across the lobby toward an ornate desk. “There’s an office behind it.”

“Okay. Everybody can go in there,” Mack said.

“Like a storm shelter?” Jenny asked.

“Yeah.”

Todd snorted. “What good is that going to do?”

“So far Preston hasn’t gotten in here. Let’s assume that an interior room is safest.”

As the others hurried toward the office, Grant hung back. “I want to see what’s going on.”

“It could be anything out there from a dragon to a squad of little blue men with ray guns.”

“Let’s go meet them.”

Mack was torn as he considered his last encounter with Preston’s effects. Grant was here as a volunteer. It wasn’t fair to put him in danger.

“Okay,” he finally agreed as he watched Lily usher people across the lobby. When everyone was inside, she turned to him, and he could tell from her face that she wanted to talk to him. Not about the situation here. About the two of them.

But there was no time for that now.

She must have been reading his face, too.

“Don’t shut me out,” she whispered.

He wasn’t sure how to answer. That’s exactly what he was doing on an emotional level because he didn’t know if he could handle anymore disappointment.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can,” he said, avoiding the personal issue. When he started toward the exit they’d used to get to the bar, she turned and went into the office.

As Grant came up beside him. Mack couldn’t stop himself from looking back at the closed door.

“You should give her a chance,” he said.

“Why?”

“Because she cares about you,” Grant answered.

“And you know that how?”

“By the way she looks at you. The way she talks to you.”

“She made up a story to tell me and everyone else. She could have made an exception with me—after I fucked her,” he spat out.

Grant winced. “That’s how you think about it?”

“Okay. No. That’s why I hate that she lied to me.” There was a lot more he could have said, but he wasn’t going to share his anguish with his brother.

Instead of pressing him, Grant said, “She was sent in here with a job to do. And did you ever consider that Hamilton may be using her right now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe she’s his control normal.”

“Oh great.”

He hadn’t considered that perhaps her role in the research project might not be exactly what she’d assumed.

But that wasn’t the most important thing he had to worry about. Keeping his voice low, he asked, “What’s your opinion of the others?”

“With regard to what?”

“With regard to Lily’s thinking that a ruthless killer named Avery Sterling might have special motives for putting one of them in here.”

Grant winced. “If you put it that way, we should tie them up and start conducting our own interrogations.”

“We don’t have that option.”

“Well, I haven’t known them as long as you have. A lot of them are hostile. Like that Todd guy. And Roper and Wright.”

“Yeah. But it would be nice to know if it’s just because of the situation—or something unusual.”

Another clap of thunder punctuated the conversation, and they picked up their pace.

“What if it’s not what we think? What if one of the patients is working with the hacker?” Grant asked.

“I don’t know,” Mack said. “Why would they?”

Grant shrugged. “Hard to say without more information.”

When they stepped into the courtyard, lightning flashed above them, followed by another thunderclap.

“The guy’s in the woods,” Mack said, pointing to the trees on the other side of the wall as he ducked into the covered walkway that skirted the lawn between the hotel and the wall. When they came to the end of the pavement, the door in the wall slowly opened. Mack braced for what might come out. This time it was a surge of red and gold flames that charred the wall as they curled around the edges.

“Jesus,” Grant muttered as he tipped his head to the side, studying the effect. “Interesting. Can magic fire burn us?”

“Unfortunately, you have to assume it can. Like coming in here did a number on you until Lily gave you a stimulant.”

As they watched warily, they saw vague figures moving in the flames, then something took more concrete form and rushed out, heading toward them, trailing fire. For the first time, Mack was seeing the hacker’s effects break through into the hotel property.

In the woods he’d commanded a small army of hostile little men. Now his proxy had taken the form of a devil with horns on its head and a long, curved tail. It was bare-chested and wearing tight black pants. In its hand was a pitchfork, which it jabbed in their direction.

Mack and Grant both ducked back around the corner of the building, putting the wall between them and the . . .
what
?

“Yeah, what?” Mack repeated.

Grant looked toward him. “You heard me say that—in my head?”

“I don’t know. It was a natural question. Is it him taking that form, or is it a projection?”

“Maybe it doesn’t make a difference.”

Mack stopped talking and sent his brother a mental message. Grant looked toward him.

“Halloween costume devil,” he said aloud.

“That’s definitely what I was thinking,” Mack answered. “Not very original. I guess I’m not worth the clever effects you told me about.”

“Yeah. You’re just a second-class resident,” Mack agreed, trying to keep up the banter.

They both looked cautiously around the corner, and a wave of fire swept toward them, filling the air with acrid smoke and singeing their eyebrows.

“Cut it out,” Mack shouted.

“Make me,” a voice boomed.

“Why don’t you just tell us what you want?” Mack suggested, trying to sound like you could have a reasonable conversation with this guy when every breath he took felt like it was burning his lungs.

“That’s not the way the game works.”

“It’s not a game,” Mack countered. “It’s our lives.”

“Such as they are.” He paused. “Except for your brother and Dr. Wardman. They should get the hell out of here while they can.”

“I like it here,” Grant called back.

“Oh sure,” the voice boomed, and for good measure, a large cloud of thick and nasty black smoke shot toward them. “Let’s cut to the chase. I want the rest of the people out here so I can talk to them.”

“Just talk?”

“Right.”

“And then what?”

“Nothing bad.”

“Oh sure,” Mack answered. “Like nothing bad happened to me and Lily in the woods.”

“That was just a taste of what I can do. If you don’t cooperate, you’re going to be sorry. As you can see, I’m getting more power over this place.”

Mack winced, wishing it weren’t true. But maybe he could give the guy a nasty jolt.

“Why don’t you just tell us what you really want, Preston?” Mack called out.

The answer was a string of curses. “Where did you get that name?”

“Unfortunately for you, Shelly told me.”

More curses.

“I guess it was a mistake sending her into Lily’s room. But how did you manage it?”

“Like I’d tell you.” Preston snorted. “She’s just a stupid kid. I mean, she hasn’t learned anything since she was five, has she?”

“Then what did you think you were going to get out of using her?”

There was no answer, but a shiver traveled over Mack’s skin as a logical explanation for Shelly’s visit grabbed him by the throat.

“What, Mr. Nice Guy? Did you think hurting her sister would persuade Lily to help you? But there was no way for it to work because Lily wasn’t there when you sent the kid in.”

“Fuck you.”

Mack was pretty sure he’d figured out that nasty little part of the puzzle.

“Tell us what you want, and we might be able to help,” he said.

“Like I believe that.”

“Then stop messing with us,” Mack growled.

“He’s only got so much power,” Grant whispered, “Or he’d be all over us.” Mack was about to agree when the walkway under their feet started to crumble as though an earthquake had swept through the hotel grounds. Only the spot where they were standing was the only thing affected.

They leaped back, but Mack smashed into Grant who was too close behind him. He bounced forward off his brother’s broad chest, lost his footing, and started falling into the gaping hole that had opened where the lawn and the sidewalk met. An involuntary scream welled in his throat when he saw the bubbling lava below him and felt the surge of heat licking at his legs.