Page 92 of Always Been Mine

Just then, Travis and Nate walked into the office.

“Doc? What are you doing here?” Travis asked.

“Sullivan here had someone for me to patch up,” Dr. Ryan replied. “I gotta go. See you around, Travis. Give my regards to Cat.”

After the doctor left, Travis turned to Gabe. “What’s going on?”

“Everything squared away with the senator?” Gabe asked.

“Yes,” Nate replied. He and Travis wore identical frowns as they regarded Johnny in the conference room.

“Are they keeping you on?”

“Nate’s out,” Travis said, “but I told the senator I’m a hundred percent behind what Nate did.” Travis paused. “Why am I telling you this? It’s none of your business.”

Gabe shrugged. “Beatrice is in a meeting with Zach Jamison right this moment. I was curious.”

“Are you telling us what’s going on?” Travis looked pointedly at Johnny. “Who the hell is that?”

“Sorry, I didn’t tell you Travis, Nate,” Em came up behind them. “Both of you were busy with Senator Mendoza, I didn’t want to interrupt.”

“Juan Rodriguez, otherwise known as Johnny,” Gabe said. “I had some intel about Ryker’s hideout in the Cloverleaf District.” The other two men stilled. “I found where he did his executions, which were really medical tests.”

“Damn,” Travis muttered. “Let’s go to my office.”

“Can’t. Need to keep an eye on Johnny.”

Travis looked at Em, who understood and returned to the reception area out of ear shot.

“Speak,” Travis prompted.

“These documents hold the technical information on the virus.” Gabe held up the stack of papers recovered from Ryker’s room.

“How is it different from what we already have? Porter said they’ve typed the genome.”

“Yes. But here”—Gabe held up the paper—“it states it’s inert when in powder form. It’s transformed into a liquid evaporate by a careful ratio of the indicated compounds. Ryker experimented on five test subjects. It’s all there.” Gabe handed the paper to Travis, with Nate looking grimly over hisfriend’s shoulder. “Everything from time of exposure to time of death.”

“Fuck me,” Nate whispered. “This is sounding too damn real.”

“Damn straight,” Gabe muttered. “I already left a message for Porter.”

Travis nodded. “Whatever covert group Porter is working with needs this data.” Though Gabe agreed, he wanted in on that mission, so he could personally gut whoever tortured Beatrice. His anger was under control, but it would spike to a killing degree whenever he let his thoughts drift to the cuts on Beatrice’s arms.

“I’m done,” the sketch artist said, walking up to them. “Johnny agrees it’s not an exact likeness, but it’s the best he could remember.”

Gabe looked at the sketch and balked. He could feel the blood leave his face as a fear like he’d never felt before ratcheted up inside him. Travis cursed while Nate said, “Fuck! Tell me that’s not Zach Jamison.”

Zach Jamison is dirty.He was working with Ryker.

Beatrice read the message twice to make sure she hadn’t misunderstood.

“What’s wrong, Beatrice?” Zach whispered.

Her gaze lifted reluctantly to stare into dark soulless depths. The gears in her brain tried to make sense of who was clearly before her.

The person who tortured her.

The more you fight, the more it’s going to hurt.

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