Cross (The Formicary Book 2), page 12
“Is there something I can help you find?” she asked, eyeing us suspiciously.
“We’re looking for Amanda Kessler’s room,” Gray said pleasantly. His voice had that reassuring underlying tone of authority he always used at the hospital. That tone sent people scurrying to obey with a smile without even realizing why they were. “It’s been a long time since we visited her, and I just want to make sure we have the right room.”
Her brow crinkled some more. “Are you family?”
“Good friends,” he replied quickly.
Not quickly enough to beat me. “Brothers.”
“Cousins,” Chaos said at the same damn time.
There was an awkward pause after our three-way tie for fucking up. Her eyes got squinty. “Well, which is it?”
Even though his pleasant smile remained, I could tell Gray wanted to kick our asses. “I’m her good friend. This is her brother,” he said, pointing at me. He turned that finger on Chaos. “Cousin. We thought we’d all come up here together and surprise Mandy.”
The nickname and his friendly, open manner won her over. “Room 121,” she said hesitantly, pointing in the opposite direction we were traveling. “But her nurse took her to the meditation garden. That’s straight ahead and to your left.”
“Thank you,” Gray said with a smile that made her blush. That smile remained long enough for her to bustle off before he turned and gave us the look of death. “Next time, both of you are staying in the car. A/C off and windows up.”
One hot day, we’d seen a dog in a car at the grocery store, and Gray had insisted on calling the police. So I was almost sixty percent sure he was bluffing. Okay, more like fifty percent. “We’re sorry,” I said just in case.
“He’s darker than I expected,” Chaos murmured to me. “I like it.”
I elbowed him in the gut.
The meditation garden looked as Zen as it sounded. The sanctuary was well-manicured and surrounded by lush greenery—some of it fake, probably in deference to the changing seasons. A young woman was in a wheelchair next to a softly burbling water feature. She had to be Amanda—her face was almost the carbon copy of what I remembered of Ronnie. Large brown eyes with thick lashes, a short nose covered in freckles, and rounded, pink cheeks. Pretty as a porcelain doll.
Unfortunately, it seemed that Amanda had little awareness to enjoy the scenic setting around her. Her face was blank, her hands folded in her lap. Her nurse sat on a bench nearby, reading a book aloud.
Her nurse looked up at our approach, and her face lit up. “Visitors! Oh, how lovely. Mandy hardly ever has any visitors.” When we just stared at her, her smile dimmed a little. “You are here to see Mandy, aren’t you?”
“Of course,” Gray said, stepping closer. “Mandy, it’s good to see you.”
She didn’t move or acknowledge his presence in any way. Her eyes were trained on the slowly trickling water in a trio of terra cotta pots of increasing sizes. The nurse patted Amanda’s hand. “She knows you’re here.” She stood and offered me the bench. “Why don’t you boys sit and talk to her for a spell? I’ll be right over here.”
She squeezed my shoulder and headed over to one of the other benches nearby. She opened her book again and crossed her legs. Her spot was far enough to give us the illusion of privacy, but it was just that—an illusion. I could tell she was keeping an eye on us and her charge.
“Well, this was worth the two-hour drive.” Chaos made a noise of frustration. “We can’t just wait for Dr. G to show up. We may have to kidnap the girl so we’ll have leverage.”
“Are you kidding me?” Gray hissed. “She has nothing to do with any of this.”
“Well, the nurse then. She probably knows how to get in contact with Dr. G.”
“Why do all of your plans involve kidnapping someone?”
Chaos treated him to an eye roll. “I don’t think I need any input from someone who would probably catch and release a mouse.”
“Worse than that,” I admitted. “We lived in this shitty apartment when he was in med school, and this fucking mouse was getting into everything. When I finally caught the bastard, Gray put him in a habitat and started treating him like royalty.”
Gray’s mouth twitched. “You truly remember the oddest things, Cross.”
I sent him a fond look. “That I do.”
“You can’t be serious.” Chaos looked a little nonplussed. “I was just kidding.”
There were some things even an amnesia patient had a hard time forgetting. “Nope. Not kidding. He even bought him a rodent friend from the pet store, despite my insistence that a pet does not get to have a pet.”
Gray glared. “Even you said the mouse was cute.”
I was already shaking my head before he even finished his sentence. “No fucking way.”
“You named him Stuart Little.”
“Do you have any proof of these outlandish claims, Laurie?”
He shrugged. “I have a picture of you putting him in my sister’s old Barbie car. You said he was a cool dude and he deserved to ride in a classic.”
I gasped. “I did no such thing.”
He looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh. “Didn’t you?”
I narrowed my eyes at him. My patchy memory was a real pain in the ass. It was difficult to know when someone was bullshitting you and when you had gone full-on crazy and put a mouse in a pink Corvette. “I find it strange that I don’t remember any of that.”
“If we’re going to start detailing things you don’t remember, we’re going to be here all day,” Chaos muttered.
“You’re the one that shot me in the fucking head,” I reminded him because there would never be a bad time to throw that in his face.
Uncharacteristically, Chaos looked a little flustered as Gray glowered at him. “I’ve already apologized for that. When are you going to turn the page?”
“Actually, you did not apologize.”
“Then let me do so now. I’m sorry,” he said exaggeratedly. “You big fucking baby.”
“I know where this is going. You two argue like you’re getting paid by the word,” Gray muttered under his breath. “I’m going to ask the nurse where the bathroom is.”
He made a beeline for the nurse, and I redirected my attention to Chaos’s irritating face. “It hurt like a sonofabitch, you know.”
“To be fair, it wasn’t supposed to hurt,” he said patiently. “It was supposed to kill you.”
Fair enough. “I also had to suffer through treatment with this extremely positive person named Dr. Michaels. He wouldn’t shut up about how wonderful life could be.” I shuddered. “It was fucking horrible.”
“You know, I don’t remember you being such a complainer,” Chaos snapped. “Maybe you need to drop by the lab so you can get a little update. It’s called the how not to be a whiny little bitch mod.”
“Oh, I’m sorry. Am I being whiny?” I grabbed my chest in mock horror. “It’s just that every time I start liking you, I remember you tried to fucking murder me.”
“Barbecue blueberry jellybeans,” Gray said loudly from behind me, which made us both pause. I turned to stare at him, and he shrugged. “I just wanted you to fucking shut up, and that seemed like a pretty effective way to get your attention.”
I blinked at him. “I thought you were going to the bathroom.”
“I was, but I changed my mind. Now we can get out of here.” He waved a business card at me. “I have what we need.”
“What?”
“I know when Dr. Granger visits and a PO Box address where they pick up her letters for Mandy.” He showed me the back of the card, where an address was printed in neat script. “It’s a shipping center in Coldridge. You remember that little town we passed through at the base of the mountain?”
I blinked some more. “How? Just…how?”
“I asked her nurse. It was interesting that she emphasized that Mandy hardly ever has visitors. I figured she might want to expound on that.” He patted my cheek before turning and heading for the building. “Let’s go, Pinky and the Brain.”
Chaos and I glanced at one another. “Dibs on Brain,” I said hurriedly.
It took Nick a few days to figure out the only possible area of the mountain Ronnie could be. He had some brainy explanation for us that involved a lot of pointing at a power grid and a map, but I glazed over pretty quickly. He found her—that’s all I needed to know.
“Doc, you’re with us,” Chaos said briskly. He pointed at Nick. “And so are you.”
“Why?” Nick squeaked.
“Because we may need to bypass a security system or hack into something on the fly. If we do, I’ll expect you to make yourself useful.”
“How about walkie-talkies?” he suggested hopefully.
“How about you don’t have a damn choice?” Chaos countered.
I would rather Gray stay behind where I knew he was safe. But…wasn’t he safer with me? What if we didn’t find Ronnie out there in the woods? Even though we still had another week, Dobroslav could get frustrated and have Gray killed. By the same token, I didn’t know what we were walking into at Ronnie’s cabin. I had a feeling she wasn’t going to go quietly. Kessler had taken some of the serum; what if she’d done the same?
I tried to hold my tongue—I really did. But in the end, I had to speak up. “Why Gray?”
Gray already knew the answer to that. “Because no one wants to talk to you guys. If there’s any chance of her opening up, it will probably be to me.”
I huffed. “Ronnie used to like me very much, I’ll have you know.”
“After all she’s been through, her opinion on her finest creations may have changed.”
As we trooped to the car, I begrudgingly admitted that he might have a point.
13
Ronnie’s cabin wasn’t even locked. I guessed many years of being in hiding had made her drop her guard. I poked around the quaint cabin, noting little touches here and there that reminded me of the kindly woman that she’d been. It was hard to reconcile that with her work product, which was, quite frankly, the stuff mad scientists dream of.
So maybe she’d gone a little Dr. Frankenstein. She also liked specialty teas and a tea leaf strainer in the shape of a cat, his tail hanging on to the edge of the mug. She liked to curl up in a soft blue cardigan in a chair by the fireplace, and often, judging from how worn it looked. I picked up the book on the small side table by the cozy chair. The folded page told me she was about thirty pages in. How to Stop Doubting Yourself and Let Your Creativity Fly.
I thought maybe her creativity had done quite enough exploring the friendly skies. Bringing people back from the dead and creating clones really ought to do it. I put the book down. I rested my hands on the back of her chair as I looked around, contemplating our next move.
Nick came out of the kitchen, a half-eaten muffin in his hand. “Mabel omom got here fist,” he said around a mouthful of blueberry goodness.
“Don’t eat her food,” I said, frowning. “Also…what?”
“Sorry, but I did ask Frosty the Snowbot to stop for snacks. I was told in no uncertain terms to shut up and be quiet.” He swallowed a couple of times. “I said maybe someone got here first.”
“I don’t think so,” Gray said as he checked around inside a closet. He shut the door carefully. “There are no signs of a struggle.”
“Maybe she didn’t fight back,” I said reasonably.
“She would’ve.”
“Yeah, but how do you know?”
“Because that’s what I did,” he said absently as he checked the next closet. “When your grandfather’s goons came for me, I tried to be cooperative and give them my car. I offered them money. My watch. I quickly realized they weren’t interested in anything I had. They wanted me.”
I could only manage a “hmm” in response. I was kind of occupied with keeping my cool.
“We scuffled for a bit,” he went on, clearly unaware that I felt like breaking something over my knee. “They had surprise on their side, but when I saw that rope come out of the bigger one’s pocket, I was fucking motivated.”
“I hope you gave them hell,” Nick said, his expression cross. “I was too surprised to do much of anything.”
“Trust me, my fighting skills are nothing to brag about. And two-on-one isn’t much of a contest for most people.” He smiled at me sheepishly, clearly a little embarrassed he hadn’t been able to defend himself. “Present company excluded.”
I felt something crack in my hand and looked down. Sometime during his recitation, my loose hold on the chair rail had turned into a kung-fu grip. I let my hands drop as I stepped away sheepishly. I knew it was too much to ask that no one noticed.
“What?” I asked defensively to their collective judgment.
Gray shook his head, looking somewhere between amusement and irritation. “Seriously?”
“Down, boy,” Chaos said with a smirk. “Gray is a big boy. He can take care of himself.”
I gave up on playing it cool. “I know that,” I growled. “I’m still pissed. You think it’s okay for Dobroslav to sic super soldiers on Gray?”
“They weren’t like you guys,” Gray said exasperatedly.
“That’s right, sweetheart. Dobroslav doesn’t send army ants after small fries,” Chaos said, patting Gray on the head. He chuckled as Gray jerked away. “He turned our bodies into specialized machines that cost millions of dollars to create and maintain. You don’t waste the big guns when you can take the target out with a water pistol.”
Gray glowered, his cheeks flushed. “You’re such an—”
“Asshole? Yeah, I know.” He didn’t look all that concerned about it, though.
He should be.
I tried to unclench. It would probably be bad form to throw a team member out of the nearest window. Ronnie’s cabin was one story, so it wouldn’t kill him. It would just be extremely satisfying. Judging from the smirk on his face as he snagged the rest of Nick’s muffin, Chaos was aware of my struggle.
Stiffly, Gray told us that he was going to check the back of the cabin. I watched him go without a word of caution. I had a feeling any mother-henning wouldn’t go over so well right about now. And never mind reminding him that not being as strong as scientifically altered super freaks was a good thing.
Truthfully, he wasn’t the weak one. I was. The thought of him being hurt had the power to bring me to my knees. He was my weakness, and no matter how crafty and careful you were, your enemies could always ferret out a weakness. Hiding in the shadows of the foyer when some of Dobroslav’s goons broke into Gray’s house, I heard them say pretty much the same thing.
“What’s the big fucking deal?” one of them asked grumpily. “Cross isn’t here.”
“The big fucking deal is that there’s no way he won’t come back here,” the leader said, watching him dispassionately. “If he does remember, he’ll be back to protect Laurie.”
“And if he doesn’t remember?” The other guy returned with the broom and started sweeping up the mess, his face in a ridiculous pout.
“He’s drawn to this guy. We’re standing in the home of the only chink in the legendary Christian Cross’s armor.” He snickered as if love was a concept too stupid to even contemplate. “Trust me when I say he’ll be back.”
I tried to follow Gray’s lead and focus on the task at hand. A beep from the kitchen nook drew my attention, and I glanced over to find Nick busily removing a computer from the bench-seat compartment. Another loud beep sounded as he unplugged the external hard drive.
“Don’t touch anything until we clear it,” Chaos snapped. “God, I hate working with fucking amateurs.”
“You’re the one who wanted me to come along,” Nick shot back, not backing down an inch. “Besides, it obviously wasn’t booby-trapped.”
“It beeped,” Chaos insisted. “You heard the fucking beep. Things don’t just beep.”
“Do things shut up for two fucking seconds? Maybe you could demonstrate how that works.”
Chaos gritted his teeth, and I hid a smile. He was right of course, but he’d do better trying to lift this house on his shoulders rather than cow Nick. I ignored their bickering as I meandered over to the large window in the kitchen. I nudged one of the drapes aside with my pointer finger.
Not that I was worried. Not at all. I mean, Gray had only been out of my sight for five minutes. Worrying would be over-the-top crazy. I was just a man, a man looking out of a picture window. Nothing more, nothing less. I was just a man…who didn’t fucking see Gray.
My heart rate kicked up as I gave up on cool. I yanked the gingham curtain aside and scanned the backyard, which was more of a wide-open clearing backed by dense woods. It took me a few seconds to spot Gray close to the tree line, bending over a basket of spilled apples.
“Gray,” I gasped.
I was outside in a few seconds flat, the backdoor banging against the wall behind me. I leaped over the deck railing and sprinted toward him just as he straightened, a big red apple in his hand. I snatched it from his palm and stood in front of him trying to catch my breath, more than a little winded.
Gray stared at me. “Well,” he finally said. “This is awkward.”
“What are you doing? You shouldn’t be so far away from the house. And eating random apples?” I fretted. “Haven’t you seen Snow White at all?”
“For God’s sake, Cross. You’re being ridiculous.”
“Am I?” I demanded. “How’d you get these apples?”
He lifted his chin. “I picked them.”
I looked at him skeptically. “You were out here long enough to get all these apples…without any equipment?”
“Yep.”
I folded my arms across my chest. His lies were too odiferous to even qualify as bullshit. “Where’d you get the basket?”
“I found it on the porch.”
I looked at him hard. “And you just decided to do some fucking apple picking. In the middle of a mission.”
“You have to learn how to stop and smell the roses, Cross. Or in this case, the fruit.” He reached down and picked up another. “Apple?”
