“We’ll find her.” Ace tried to reassure his mate.
“We will.” Zack nodded. Now wasn’t the time for doubt. Only one thing mattered: finding Kelly.
“No matter what it takes,” Derrick muttered from the driver’s seat. “The two of you need to dig out those cell phones and make some phone calls. Between your contacts and mine, we’ll find her. And don’t count Harry out. If he hasn’t seen her near the labs, she ain’t there.”
“Homeless” Harry saw everything, for the right price. He and a few of his friends lived outside the abandoned industrial area near Pearson Labs. His network of informants was vast, and he particularly liked Derrick. They had an arrangement, of sorts. No matter how many times Derrick had tried to find Harry a place to live, food, and employment, Harry would only work for money. And he only accepted it from Derrick.
“What’s with you and Harry?” Zack asked.
“It’s a black thing.” Derrick shrugged.
“But he’s white.”
“How can you tell with all that dirt on his face?” Ace asked.
“Good point,” Zack conceded.
Derrick grinned. “Maybe it’s because I’m black and bad and I impress him. More than you skinny-ass white boys.”
“Who you calling white?” Ace asked. “My blood’s darker than yours.”
“Please. I’m ebony, you’re --”
“Not ivory. The cub’s Cree,” Zack interrupted with a snort. “I agree you’re bad, though.” Zack grinned, despite his worries. Derrick had a way of pissing him off and making him feel lighter at the same time. “A bad dresser, bad tipper, bad with the ladies…”
“That’s pushing it.” Derrick huffed.
“Actually, D, Zack has a point. And you know, my mate’s never wrong.” Ace finally said it out loud. My mate.
Derrick smiled, a sincere grin that turned his stern countenance into a face of masculine beauty. “About damned time, pretty boy.”
Ace frowned. “I hate it when you call me that.”
“I know. Now give me the phone.” Derrick took the phone and pressed a button. A few moments passed. “Yo, Harry. It’s D. I have a situation, one that’ll have you rolling in green if you have the answers I need. Here’s the deal…”
Sabrina Torrence stared down at the unconscious female Circ strapped to the gurney as she pushed it along the hallway. Bile rose in her throat as she realized what she’d done. No more pretenses. Pearl would know who’d sabotaged this latest lab work. But there’d been no hope for it.
The woman was pregnant.
The likelihood of Kelly Malloy passing on sane, rational Circ genes to her progeny was about an 89 percent surety. She’d done the math. With the blood and tissue samples Elliot had already collected, and his plans to remove the woman’s embryo now, Sabrina couldn’t wait. Even though Elliot knew he might risk this offspring by grabbing it at such an early state, he wanted complete control over its development. Not a rational decision for Pearson Labs’ top scientist, but then, she’d had her doubts about him for some time.
She rolled the gurney faster, nodding at the colleagues she passed. No one would question her. Not with her new clearance level. The CEO had seen fit to promote her, regardless of Pearl’s ambivalence. She knew Pearl respected her intelligence, but the man didn’t like the way she treated him. Well, fuck him. She hated his guts. If it hadn’t been for him, she wouldn’t be in this mess right now.
So much for a promising career in biochemistry. Her chance at leapfrogging from the Navy to something more lucrative in a state-of-the-art scientific lab, courtesy of Project Dawn, had tanked the minute Pearl created psychotic killers.
Sabrina still agreed with the project’s original intentions -- to help the military, her fellow sailors and soldiers, be less vulnerable. She’d already lost friends due to the current conflicts the military was thrust into. Why sacrifice hardworking troops when science could do what so many peacemakers couldn’t? Rid the world of evil one dreg at a time by force. A superior force. Unfortunately, an unstable, murdering, superior force.
Five of Circe’s Recruits had survived, and it killed Elliot that he didn’t know why. It also aggravated him to no end that Dr. Evan Dennis held the men’s loyalty. That his nemesis had the means to continue research on viable test subjects, while he made do experimenting with failure, time and time again.
“Where are you going?” a low voice rumbled, shooting tremors of fear through her every pore.
Sabrina stopped as McKinley stepped out of the shadows. Just twenty more feet, and she’d have made the elevator and freedom. The giant Circ’s yellow eyes gleamed with a predatory intent. She never felt safe in this environment, not with what she knew and what she’d done. But Sabrina felt positively hunted whenever she was around McKinley. She’d swear he knew all about her, except he’d never acted on her misdeeds. Yet the man was aware of everything. More psychic than any of the Circs they’d ever seen.
Even Folsom and Dunn’s new partner, Colins, didn’t possess McKinley’s ability to blend with the shadows, and they were Pearl’s new, top-of-the-line Circ generation. They’d both lasted weeks longer than any of the others and showed no signs of regression.
“Torrence?” McKinley hissed, growing impossibly larger. He towered over her, nearly brushing the ceiling as he radiated hostility.
“I’m taking the patient to the subbasement levels after more testing. Dr. Pearl wants me to harvest her embryo first.” Which wouldn’t explain why she’d be near the service elevators instead of the level two shafts she’d already passed.
McKinley studied her. Then he stared at the woman on the hospital bed. He leaned down to sniff her, and his gaze darkened. He straightened and stepped closer to Sabrina.
She couldn’t help backing away, but his low growl stopped her in her tracks. He sniffed her, nuzzling her neck. Shocking the hell out of her, he proceeded to lick her there, the rasp of his tongue like lightning against her skin. She felt the heat spiral to her sex in an instant.
McKinley rose, staring into her dark eyes. Nose to nose, they considered one another.
Will he kill me now or toy with me first? Oh, God, please don’t let him rape me, too.
“You took this route because the elevators are busted, right?”
It took a minute for her to understand. The level two elevators weren’t working? The perfect excuse. “Yes. Right. Not working. Exactly why I was…going to go this way.”
The woman beside them moaned, the sedatives beginning to wear off.
McKinley shook his head and stepped back, his hands fisted into claws. “Get your ass moving. Dr. Pearl wants results fast on this one.” Yet his words didn’t seem right. McKinley should have asked more questions. Even if the level two elevators were inoperable, it made no sense to use this elevator leading to the outside.
“Well then, let me get on it.” Sabrina tore past him, relieved beyond measure when the doors opened right away and she hustled her patient inside. She watched McKinley as the doors closed. Bemused, she thought she saw him murmur “good luck” before she lost sight of him.
Once on the ground level, she hurried down the nearly deserted hallway toward the back lot. With the keys to a white, nondescript medical van the PPA used when working Circ cases, Sabrina loaded Kelly into the vehicle with the slowest pneumatic lift known to man. Once Kelly was inside and the gurney locked down, Sabrina flew into the van and drove away.
It took every ounce of discipline she had to make small talk with the gate guard and to drive the fifteen-mile-an-hour speed limit off the property. She nodded at Mary, one of the homeless who lived outside the grounds. A nice woman, one who used the information Sabrina gave her all too willingly.
Sabrina knew where that information went. She could only hope it did more good than it seemed to lately. Because she wouldn’t be able to pass any more. Not now when she’d stolen Elliot Pearl’s greatest treasure.