Wade's War, page 18
“Obviously the implant icons are labeled as cities instead of names. Protecting the guilty and all that.” She sent a glare to Poma. “Therefore, not their current location necessarily. Which can only be accessed by initiating a tracking sequence. So none of the implants are live until I do a trace.” She again glared at Poma. “It’s not the dead guy with me,” she noted. “And I doubt it’s the dead guy upstairs because this icon is still moving.”
“Good enough.” Wade and Damon set up positions, as they watched and listened. They heard an odd sound but coming from another room. Wade frowned, then headed to the kitchen, Damon on his heels. They found a service elevator, something he hadn’t seen in operation in a very long time. As he studied it, he realized it was more of a laundry chute, designed to get linens from the main floor to the basement and then on upstairs. He sighed, then pointed it out.
Damon immediately nodded.
They hid themselves on either side of it and waited. Sure enough, the door slid open just a tiny little bit. Then it moved a few more inches, while somebody checked out the lay of the land. With his heart in his throat, Wade waited, until the guy jumped free. Immediately Damon had a hand at the intruder’s throat, and he was slammed up against the wall. “Nice of you to drop in.”
The guy started swearing heavily.
Damon just smiled. “Hey, this is all good. We’re happy to have company.” He shared a knowing glance with Wade, recognizing this guy as Jamison Delaware.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he snapped. Just like that, his knee came up hard against Damon’s groin, which he immediately blocked, then the visitor punched Damon alongside his head.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa.” Wade jumped in and pulled the guy’s arms back beside his head. “Stop moving, or I will knock you out cold.” Wade was about to punch him out, when he suddenly stopped dead in the tracks, “Oh, shit, I forgot.”
“What are you talking about?” Jamison asked, as he struggled in Damon’s and now Wade’s grasps. “Forgot what?”
“That thing in your buddy Riley’s head exploded when I hit him, killing him.”
Jamison looked at Wade and frowned. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. This is my house, so what the hell are you guys doing here?”
“I don’t think so, Jamison,” Damon replied.
Wade noted the surprise on Jamison’s face, at knowing his name. “The owner of this house is William Poma, currently on holiday. Have you spoken to your brother Thomas lately?” Wade asked him.
Jamison froze. “Who the hell are you two?”
“Somebody who wants to talk to you,” Damon replied. And they shoved him forward into the other room with the kid.
As soon as he saw the Poma kid, Jamison swore, keeping up his charade. “What the hell is this?” he asked. “Why is everybody in my house?”
“We’re not that stupid,” Damon replied.
Sophia frowned when she saw the newcomer. “Hi, Jamison.”
The guy gave them all a sly look. “Yeah, you are stupid,” he spat. “We’ve got you running circles around your tail.”
“And you are Jamison Delaware,” she told him, then turned to Wade. “The two forging brothers who are known associates of the Poma kid here.”
Wade nodded.
Damon smiled. “We’re cutting off your legs. Eventually you’ll run out of people.”
“Not for a hell of a long time.”
Wade shook his head. “I don’t know. Have you spoken to your brother lately?” When Jamison refused to answer his question, Wade continued. “People on your side are dropping like flies. Especially the hired hands, the local help.”
Jamison jerked his head to Wade. “Do you know why we’re after your team?”
“Nope. No idea.”
Jamison shook his head. “Idiots.”
“Okay,” Wade said. “I’ll bite. Why?”
“Have you ever heard the phrase ‘there can only be one?’”
At that, Wade and Damon looked at him. “Only one what?”
Jamison laughed and laughed. “You’re the idiots who don’t know anything. You’ve got nothing on me. I didn’t do nothing to anybody.” He looked down at the guy on the floor. “Jesus, did you kill Riley?”
“No, it was that thing in your heads,” Wade replied.
Jamison looked at him and frowned. “Ain’t nothing in my head, so I really wouldn’t think anything of it. And, once again, you guys are just making shit up. But then governments do that, don’t they?”
“Lots of governments do, yeah,” Damon noted. “But what’s that got to do with us?”
The guy looked at him and laughed. “You don’t even understand what the hell is going on here, do you?”
“Nope, I sure don’t,” Damon replied.
“Well, you were terminated,” he stated, and calmly and with certainty he unraveled the mystery. “But unfortunately you apparently didn’t get the message. That’s all it is. You know too much.”
“And what is your role in that?” Damon asked, an eyebrow raised. “Because obviously you guys suck at your job.”
“Well, it’s not our job to take you out.” Jamison laughed. “We’re just watching you and relaying information to the people tracking you. They have some unusual methods that they’re trying.”
“Not so unusual,” Damon noted. “And, so far, they apparently aren’t working. We’ve got seven of you guys down, and our team is still here. With those implants in your heads, you and the Poma kid are next. So that’ll be nine of you dead. Oh”—Damon raised his finger—“I forgot. One of the dead is your brother, in the crawl space on the second floor.”
Jamison hesitated, schooled his expression. “All of you are in their sights.” He grinned. “I don’t know what kind of a weird freakish group you guys are, but they wanted to make sure that brain dead meant completely dead.”
“Too bad they failed at that.” Sophia stood and walked over.
“Who are you anyway?” he asked. “You must be Tasha.”
“No, not Tasha.”
“Mera?”
“Nope, wrong again,” Wade interrupted. “Mera is dead. You guys got some of the admins, but the rest of us? Not so much.” Wade studied Jamison’s face, seeing the undercurrents evident from hearing of his brother’s death. “Apparently you guys don’t know what the hell you’re up against.”
“Well, I don’t necessarily know all the details,” he admitted, “Even if you take me down, that doesn’t stop the rest of us.”
“Maybe not.” Wade shrugged. “But we’ll turn you in and use you as leverage to get a little something for ourselves out of this deal.”
The guy sniggered at that. “And, for all you know, I’m transmitting all this to them right now.” At that, he turned a sly look toward Sophia. “I’ll be sure to tell them about you.”
She studied him for a long moment. “Well, I can see that you’re being tracked, but transmitting? I’m not so sure about that.” She frowned.
“Because you don’t know anything.” The kid tied up on the ground laughed. “I told you that I’m good.”
“Well, you better not be that good,” she replied, as she walked back over to his laptop. Sure enough, she found a signal. She immediately killed it and looked over at Damon. “There was a signal, but I don’t know if it was tracking, transmitting, or what, but it’s dead now. We probably ought to get out of here, just in case.”
Damon nodded. “You’re right on that. Let’s go load them up.” He got the kid to his feet, while she grabbed her stuff and the kid’s laptop and headed to the front door. She stopped there. “I wish I had a little more confirmation that a drone won’t be waiting out there, ready to pick us off,” she muttered.
“Hold tight,” Damon replied. “If you want to hang on to this guy, I’ll go grab the vehicle.”
She looked at Poma, shook her head. “How about I grab the vehicle and pull up closer to the front? You guys hang on to them, and I’ll be right back.” Ignoring her misgivings, she raced out to the truck and hopped in, feeling a sense of relief as soon as she was inside the truck, and she pulled up to the front of the house without incident.
Wade watched as she pulled the truck near. Motioning Damon to go first, they stepped out. But the kid only made one step away from the front door, then made a weird gasp. Reaching his hand to his head, he collapsed to his knees.
“Shit,” Damon muttered. “The kid didn’t even make it as far as the truck.”
“What the hell?” Jamison yelled.
“It’s that implant in his head,” she called from the truck.
The kid then fell forward onto his face. Damon checked for a pulse, then shook his head. He dragged the body back inside, then turned and looked at Jamison, standing beside Wade and looking decidedly pale. “You still want to be the tough guy?”
“Absolutely. That’s my team out there. They won’t take me out because I’m on their side.”
“Well, we’ll see, won’t we?” Damon stated in disgust. Then he shifted, pushing Jamison out ahead. As they headed outside, it took only about ten steps before Jamison dropped to his knees, then pitched face forward too.
Just then, a drone fired at them from above.
Wade and Damon dashed inside the truck, taking the front seat. Sophia had shifted to the back seat, with the kid’s laptop opened, and Wade called to her. “Can you shut down that drone?” he asked urgently.
“I’m trying to, damn it.”
He watched as her fingers flew across the keyboard, then finally she said, “Got it!” She punched a button, and immediately the drone crashed to the ground.
“Can you tell if we’re being tracked?”
“Not by that drone anyway. I crashed it.”
“So we can’t get anything off it, can we?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Probably not. But no telling what else we’ll find on the laptop. We’ll definitely get more information as I dig. A ton is on here.”
“Good enough. Home it is then. Let’s go.”
As they raced away toward home, she looked over at Wade. “This really is a life-and-death scenario for you, isn’t it?”
“It appears to be,” Wade replied. “I told you. You don’t have to be here just to hook up with me.”
“Too late,” she said.
He looked at her in the rearview mirror and frowned.
Damon sat in the passenger seat. “Hey, don’t worry about me being here.” He grinned, clearly trying to go with humor.
“I wasn’t,” Wade replied, with a laugh.
She smiled but thought about everything that he would try to convince her of. She didn’t know how to tell him that she was in for the long haul. It would take time, which was something that they may or may not have. But she wanted whatever days they could have to be together, even if they were cut short.
As they got back to the base, Damon walked inside and took Tasha in his arms.
Whereas Wade dragged Sophia down to their room. “You need to go home,” he told her. “Pack up your stuff and go, so at least you’ll live to see another day.”
“And you?” she asked calmly. She finally realized that Wade really was all about looking after her and making sure that she stayed safe. “You realize, of course, that there’s no guarantee even now that I would be safe.”
He swallowed. “But we can hope that you are. If you stay here, you’re not.”
“Well, so far, we did lose Wilson and Mera. However, more of the bad guys are dying,” she noted. “Remember that.”
Wade frowned, and she nodded. He felt his own energy draining as the shock and the adrenaline of the encounter wore off. “Jesus, I’m about done.” Wade reached out a shaky hand.
“Exactly,” she agreed, “so you need me.”
“And what exactly can you do for me?” he asked.
“Well, I don’t know, but maybe you should start using some more of the energy I’ve been giving you.” He looked at her in shock and surprise. She nodded. “I might not know how all this works, but I haven’t been an innocent for a very long time. So, when you needed energy, I made it available.”
“What do you mean, you made it available?”
“I called out to you mentally and told you to use it. I don’t know if you heard me or not, but you definitely started using it. But I have an almost unlimited source because, well, I don’t have to burn it as quickly as you do.”
He thought about it for a moment. “Wait. So you were the source of that huge warm rush of energy that came to me?”
She nodded. “I presume so. Why don’t you test it and see?” In a teasing voice, she asked, “You’re the one who can see signatures, right?”
He smiled, then closed his eyes and searched. Looking for her energy, he recognized it right off the bat. He opened his eyes almost immediately. “I don’t know why I didn’t realize it was you before.”
“Because it was part of your own energy really,” she noted. “Love is like that.” He widened his eyes at her wording, and she just nodded. “There’s only one reason I would be here right now,” she explained, “but I’m not so sure I want to be here if it’s a one-way street. Therefore, you need to be straight with me.”
He wrapped her up in his arms, held her close. “It’s definitely not a one-way street,” he whispered. “I just wanted you safe. Once I realized that everything was turning into such a big mess, I knew I couldn’t take the chance and put you at risk like that.”
“We had something very special,” she admitted. “Something I’ve never experienced with anybody else.”
“I know … I know,” he whispered. “I felt the same way, but I couldn’t imagine having something so special only to get you killed because of it.”
“I get it.” She reached up and kissed his cheek. “But you don’t get to make that decision all on your own,” she murmured. “There are two of us in this now. Not just you alone.”
“And if something happens to you?” he asked, his voice shaking.
She reached up, wrapped her arms around his neck. “What if something happens to you?” He frowned. She nodded. “Exactly. It’s the same thing. But neither of us wants the other to get hurt, so let’s do our best to be safe together.”
“Fine,” he said, giving in. “You can stay, but damn it. If something happens to you, I—”
She reached up and put one finger on his lips, and, searching his face, saw the exact same emotions that she felt in her heart. “For the same reason that you could use my energy,” she replied, “there’s no reason that we can’t be strong enough together to beat this. I don’t know what life will bring for us,” she murmured, “but I’m willing to give it our all to make sure we find out.”
He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her deeply. “Got it,” he said. “Fine. No more talk about you leaving.”
“Good.” She nodded. “How about no more talk about when you walked away too?” she added. “I will let that go.”
“You will?” he murmured. “Thank you. I’m so sorry I hurt you.”
“Me too,” she murmured. “It sucked.”
He laughed. “But at least now we know where we stand.” With a cheeky smile, he pulled his T-shirt up over his head.
“You’re the one who just told me that you were tired and worn out.” She smiled back at him. “I’m pretty damn sure that means you need to have a little bit of time to yourself to unwind.”
“So what does that mean exactly? You’ll go out there and work, while I’m in here?” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Hell no. I’m here with you. And we both need a bit of time together,” she stated. “Just like we all do. And I have no idea where Terk is.”
“Probably recharging,” he replied, with a big smile.
“Man, have you got a lot to explain,” she stated. “I’ve picked up some things, but still, I don’t know so much.”
“I understand.” Wade nodded. “And it’s tough to take it all in, even parsed out, but we’ll get there.” Then he lowered his head and kissed her. But that wasn’t enough for her, so she wrapped her arms around him and walked backward until her legs hit the edge of the bed, and she just fell back, pulling him with her. He came down hard on top of her with an oomph.
She absorbed the impact, then slipped her tongue into his mouth, her own appetite suddenly racing, as she realized what was once again within her grasp. She whispered, “Love me.”
“Always,” he whispered and lowered his head.
This time, his passionate kiss took them to depths that she’d only ever experienced once before—with him. By the time she surfaced for air, she’d already been completely stripped of her clothing and was even now being repositioned, so he had better access. She chuckled, opening her thighs wide, her arms wrapped around him, literally holding on for dear life.
He slowly and delicately slipped down and entered her. But she grabbed him hard, and, holding his hips, she plunged up, while pulling him down, seating him deep within her. He shuddered in her arms, softly dropped his forehead against hers, and whispered, “We could have done this more slowly.”
“Next time,” she murmured. “Next time. Right now this is all about us. And there has been a long enough wait as it is.” And, with that, she flipped him on his back. “You’re the injured one.”
And she started to ride.
He didn’t argue; he didn’t do anything except arch his back and his hips, while his hands stroked up and down across her breasts. “If this is what it means to be injured,” he replied, “I won’t argue quite so much next time.”
She chuckled and leaned forward, then placed her hands on his chest and picked up the pace into a hard and fast ride. When the tremors started deep within, she cried out.
Then he reached up, grabbed her hips, and plunged up hard several times, sending her trembling over the edge, following in a fury of groans himself.
She collapsed on top of him. “I don’t know if that charges energy,” she said, “or if it drains it. But I sure hope it’s charging it.”
He chuckled. “I think, in this case, it’s probably doing a whole lot of both.”
“Well, I don’t think that’s bad then,” she murmured, “because it’s never been like that with anybody else.”
