Tiger Bound (12 page)

“Too long,” Gail whispered. She followed one more hunch. Who was the father? Uncharacteristic tears sprang to her eyes when the picture came up on the screen. Hadn’t she just been thinking how cruel love could be, how inconvenient? He of all people was the father, and she should have known that. He was the strongest of the shifters at that time and the most appealing. They mated him with several women. Few took, all died—except
her,
she now knew. This was another bit of data kept from her, but then that’s how Spiderweb worked, to allow no one person to have all the information. Well, there was one thing even they didn’t know, she thought angrily. Her former lover was not dead, and unless she missed her guess, his son lay in her lab.

She backtracked through a few screens of data on the shifter and brought up his blood test results. In a split screen, she compared them to those collected from Heath. Rather than type in the code to have the computer do the DNA matching sequence, she went through line by line for herself. They were a close match, so much so there wasn’t a doubt in her mind now as to who Heath was.

Under usual circumstances, she wrote down her notes and then entered them at her leisure into the computer. This time, she shredded the pages in the notebook and deleted what she had already added to the database. An IT person could come behind and retrieve the data, but she hoped they wouldn’t think to look.

“What did you do to me?”

She jumped at the sound of Heath’s voice. The formula had worn off, and therefore he came out of the trance. She regretted not instructing him to forget, but she never said out loud what she learned. Better for him not to know until she took care of a few things for herself.

They both faced the door when it opened, and Gail sighed in relief when she discovered it to be Arlo. He held out the bag along with a cup of coffee. “Thank you, Arlo. I need you to give him something to help him rest. I have to run an errand. Then you take the afternoon off.”

Her assistant stared at her. She never thanked him. “Are you sure, doc? I thought you said—”

“Are you questioning me again, Arlo?”

“No, ma’am.”

“Good.”

She left the lab and headed straight to the underground parking spot. A camera followed her as she walked across the cement to her car, and she hoped she appeared casual.

* * * *

Gail unlocked the door to her apartment and walked inside. She paused in the entry, scanning the luxurious interior with a critical eye. She had everything money could buy, or rather that anyone could want in their home when money wasn’t an issue. The large screen TV had been powered up only twice, and both times it watched her as she perused notes on her patients and racked her brain for solutions to problems that refused to come. She knew if
he
had stayed with the program, the answers would have presented themselves by now, and if she kept his son, the same might be true. How could she, though, when a twist of fate could have made Heath hers?

She tossed her keys on the table and headed toward her bedroom. After stripping and turning on the tap, she stepped under the cold spray, a punishment she welcomed. What would it have been like, she wondered? To have Heath growing inside her, to give birth to him and have his father looking down on them both with doting, loving eyes? Gail allowed the water to run over her head, and the rivulets mingled with her tears. When she did this—she didn’t have to think too hard on whether she would—that would mean the end of years of research. Her dream of the program one day going public and her getting the credit for countless breakthroughs in shifter development would end with a phone call. Sure, she might hope Spiderweb remained ignorant of her doings, but if she fell into that fantasy, she’d commit a greater crime than falling in love.

She stepped from the shower, dried off, and slipped into a simple blouse and a skirt. Inside her purse, her cell phone rang, and she fished it out. Her boss’s name flashed on the screen, and she chuckled, a mirthless sound. Just as she thought. If she didn’t go now, the knock on her door would occur sooner rather than later.

People teemed the streets. She counted on it, and checked over her shoulder as she walked. Attempting a casual air was beyond her at this point, so she didn’t try. Perhaps the man on the corner in the dark business suit and sunglasses wasn’t admiring her figure. He might be Spiderweb. Not like they wore signs. Sometimes they didn’t even wear suits. They were often a next-door neighbor with a smile and a baby on the hip.
A baby.
Why did it have to hit her this hard
now
?

At first, she’d gone to the apartment to put things together, knowing she wouldn’t be coming back. Now, she realized her place was a shell that looked nice, but no one lived there. She camped out in her lab more often than not. The place she called home didn’t exist, and she’d designed it that way on purpose because after he left, there was nothing.

She hadn’t locked the door on the way out and didn’t take her cell phone or her purse. Cash to buy the disposable rested in her pocket. If they caught up to her before she made contact, everything was for naught. Another glimpse of the man in the suit confirmed he worked for Spiderweb. Gail ducked into a shop with odds and ends hanging on pegboard walls, from screws to adapters. Behind the counter was what she needed.

“The black one,” she instructed the cashier, indicating the phone she wanted. After a complicated procedure that took longer than she preferred, she was on her way. In the store’s alcove, she paused and scanned the street. The contents of her other skirt pocket now lay in her palm as she stepped out. From nowhere, the suit stood before her.

“Where are you going, Gail?” The glasses kept her from seeing his eyes, which of course sent her heart into overdrive. Gail pursed her lips and then smiled, taking hold of his arm.

“Darling, don’t be silly. A woman has to get out sometimes and get her needs met, if you know what I mean.” She allowed her breast to rub his arm and was gratified at the way he stiffened. “Unless you want to volunteer? I’m only ten years older, I bet. I can teach you a thing or two in the bedroom.”

His lip curled. “Don’t play games with—”

She pushed the needle into his arm and released the liquid filling the syringe. He twitched once, and she led him into an alley and left him there. The call took longer than she preferred. She pressed the phone to her ear until it hurt and darted across the road. Two blocks from where she’d left the dead operative, he picked up, and her breath became a flutter at the deep timbre of his voice.
At my age.

“Hello, Ward.”

“Gail, it’s been a long time.”

She ducked her head and closed her eyes. Tears started again, but she brushed them away, not the crying sort. “Aw, darling, I’m so gratified to know you remember me.”

“And I’m sure this isn’t a social call.”

She sighed. How could he love her when she had been instrumental in making him the way he was? The fact that she’d shared a few amazing nights with him was enough, and she couldn’t ask for more. She scanned the area around her but didn’t spot anyone suspicious. That meant nothing. Spending time flirting with Ward might feel good, but it might also get Heath killed. “I am calling to tell you to come get your son.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She frowned. “His name is Heath Hunter, and he’s here in Nevada.”

“Here?” The word might have sounded casual on the surface, but she sensed him going on guard. Ward had a special place in his heart for Spiderweb. He lived to bring them down, and while she believed he never would, he left knowing she, for one, would never betray him. That’s why he eventually gave her a way to contact him if she needed to. He never understood her devotion to the company’s mission and her devotion to him when they were exact opposites. She hadn’t told him about the lab in Nevada because he would come and destroy it, just as he had one other, the one where his tiger side came into existence.

“Logan City,” she told him. “There is a lab in Logan City—beneath it. Your son is being held captive there. I suggest you come quickly before it’s too late.”

“So what you’re saying is your ambition drove you to have my child, and now your experiments on him have gotten out of hand and you want me to rescue him?”

She started, not imagining he would jump to such a conclusion. The bitterness in his tone hurt like a knife to her chest. Composing herself enough not to reveal her emotions took a moment. “Does the name Elizabeth mean anything to you?”

“Elizabeth!” Bitterness dissolved into raw pain, and she heard the love lost in his tone. If she didn’t know then, she knew now, no one could compete with Elizabeth. Gail couldn’t help being glad she was dead, even if it was selfish and she would never have him for herself.

“She was pregnant when you helped her to escape thirty-five years ago.”

“I know that,” he snapped, as if the memory tortured him, “but she died in the explosion that almost took my life as well.”

“She didn’t.”

This time he grew quiet, and she guessed he reviewed the facts in his mind and determined the possibility of Elizabeth surviving and him not knowing it. She guessed he evaluated whether someone was there with her, forcing her to convince him to come. He must know she would allow them to kill her before she led him into a trap. Even if he never acknowledged it, he knew she loved him. He would never return the feelings.

“Listen, Ward, we don’t have a lot of time. You know Spiderweb almost as well as I do, and you can imagine what I’m risking to call. Elizabeth is listed as dead in our database, but several days ago, a man wandered onto our property. He demanded answers about his dad, the man he called Tate Hunter. Tate Hunter was a Spiderweb operative, a brilliant scientist from the reports I came across. The young man held my assistant hostage until several of our people were able to subdue him, for his sheer ignorance of what he is.”

“What he is?” Ward repeated.

“A tiger shifter. He doesn’t have full control, and he has to be pushed to let go, but blood does not lie. Heath Hunter is your son, and his mother, by his own mouth, was Elizabeth—
your
Elizabeth. So you can come and rescue your son, or you can allow Spiderweb to do what it wills with the first man born as a tiger shifter.”

Gail ended the call when two men appeared at the end of the street. She strolled to the end of the block, turned right, and bent to pretend to adjust the strap on her shoe. The phone slipped from her hand and fell down the sewer hole at the curb. She straightened and continued on. How close they must have been watching, or Arlo informed them she had been acting strange. Then there were the searches she used on the database. “Of course, Tate’s name must have had a red flag attached to it, especially since Heath said he was murdered. Hurry, Ward, they may have already made the connection between you two.”

Chapter Ten

Heath felt the darkness coming over him again, but he fought it to stay awake. He had to figure out a way to escape, but his mind refused to clear, and worse, Deja’s scent filled his nostrils. He heard her voice in his dreams, crying out for him. Her obvious pain ripped him apart, and for awhile, all he wanted was to go back to his ignorance, to down the pills and force his tiger into hibernation, or wherever it had been all those years.

The scrawny man he’d held captive stood at a computer, punching in data. He kept his back turned as he worked, but Heath smelled his fear.

“What did you give me?” he demanded of the man. He thought he remembered him being called Arlo when he was in and out.

Arlo turned. “Oh, you’re awake again. That’s good.” He came closer and checked Heath’s bonds. Heath drew in a deep breath and narrowed his eyes. He hadn’t imagined Deja’s scent, but then again, he couldn’t be sure if they tricked him. That lady scientist had hypnotized him and asked him all about his parents. She might have followed up with a drug to torment him with thoughts of Deja. No, he could at least relax in the knowledge that she remained safe at home, and with any luck, this organization would never learn about her since he cut ties. As much as it hurt knowing he would never see her again, it was what he had to do.

While Heath thought of the beautiful woman he left behind, something in his peripheral vision caught his attention, and he turned his head to get a clearer look. He hadn’t consciously thought to growl, but the noise rumbled up from his throat anyway.

“Where did you get that ring?” he demanded.

Arlo grinned and held up his long, slender hand with the bit of jewelry on the baby finger. “Isn’t it nice?”

“Where?”

Arlo frowned. “Don’t you worry about it. It’s mine. The doc said I could take it.”

Heath jerked at the bonds, and the assistant jumped back a full foot, crashing into the counter and almost knocking the laptop to the floor. Vials in trays rattled, and a glove box
thunked
on the floor.

“Tell me now,” Heath threatened, “or I will rip that hand off and feed it to you as soon as you’re close enough.”

“I―I―I am not scared of you,” Arlo insisted. “You’re strapped down. You can’t get to me, and even if you could get loose, I just have to snap my fingers and the guards will be in here to take you down like they did before.” Arlo raised his chin and put up a brave front. Heath had seen how the scientist treated him and how the guards scoffed at the little man as if he was nothing.

“Snap your fingers?” He sneered. “The one you call doc can replace you in a heartbeat. You’re an assistant, a dime a dozen. In fact…” Heath paused to give his next words more impact, “…I suspect with an organization like this, you wouldn’t find yourself fired if you screw up. You would find yourself dead!”

That got to him. While Arlo tried to work, his hands shook so much he couldn’t hold onto the papers he shuffled, and he kept backtracking on the keyboard because he entered incorrect information. Heath hadn’t gotten far, but he enjoyed knowing he rattled the piss ant even a little.