Page 44 of Black Bay Protector
Paige nodded thoughtfully trying to imagine going from having no choice to being faced with a multitude of options. “What did he say?”
“He told me he used whatever his wife bought for him, but since I didn’t have that option, I should just choose one I liked the smell of and go with it.”
“Smart man.”
Jace nodded and reached for his shirt, but before he could pull it on, Paige ran her fingers lovingly over the tattoo he’d used to cover his scars. “What does this mean? I’ve been meaning to ask you but somehow, I always end up getting distracted by this gorgeous body of yours.” She wiggled her eyebrows at him.
With a sexy growl, Jace nuzzled her throat. “I like distracting you. But it meansThrough fire, nature is reborn whole.
“I like that.” He’d suffered the fire and come out whole on the other side. “Now, how about we go home and do some of that distracting stuff.”
Jace clamped his teeth on the side of her neck in a playful hold and growled again. The sound sent a thrill of anticipation straight to her toes.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Larkwasinthesecurity center with Matt, crunching on an apple while he trolled idiots on the internet and laughed like a B-movie villain. She should have been sleeping, but worry for the General was keeping her awake, and company, even if it was just listening to Matt’s odd brand of humor, was better than staring at the walls.
The General didn’t show it – wouldn’t show it – but she knew he was heartbroken. While he wasn’t so naïve to think the government he worked for didn’t have some nasty skeletons in its closet, the very idea of them targeting their own soldiers was a blow. Nor would he let this go now that he’d been made aware of it. Knowing he’d be stonewalled or shut down if he went through official channels, General Davies had spent the evening reaching out to his contacts. Hewouldstop this, whatever it took, and damn the consequences. His first order of business had been to find a way to warn those soldiers on that sick wish list that they were being targeted. After that, he’d reached out to former soldiers in the Maine and Ohio areas to garner intel on those labs Doctor Dietrich had given up.
Matt let out another one of his evil chuckles and rubbed his hands together in anticipation before applying his fingers to the keyboard. “They make it so easy.”
“Stop picking on people.”
He shot her a look of appalled disbelief. “What fun is that?”
Lark shook her head but she couldn’t fully suppress her smile. “You’re mean.”
Matt quoted, “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.” He shrugged. “Not my fault they didn’t heed that advice.”
Finishing the apple, she tossed the core in the trash.
An alert sounded that drew both their attention to one of the many screens. “Someone just accessed the tunnel.”
Matt brought up the feed. There was a man at the first checkpoint, standing there rather than in a vehicle. He was dressed in a leather jacket with gloves on his hands, a baseball cap on his head, the brim pulled low, and dark sunglasses obscuring his eyes despite it being the middle of the night.
As the system scanned him, his biometrics scrolled up one side of the screen. Lark’s eyes widened. Shit. That was one of the upgraded soldiers. It had to be. The one that had gone rogue? Paige’s brother?
Matt spoke into the microphone as Paige reached for the phone to call the General.
“You have entered a restricted area. Visitors are not allowed at Black Bay. State your purpose.”
The man looked into the camera. “Visitors aren’t allowed? But you do have a visitor and she belongs to me. Send her out or watch me tear your island apart stone by stone to get her. You have twenty minutes.”
Having put the phone on speaker, the General heard it all and was quietly swearing a blue streak. “I’m on my way.”
During the five minutes it took for the General to arrive, the man still visible on the screen didn’t move. He didn’t shuffle his feet or shift his weight, he didn’t walk around or try to mess with the security monitor. He didn’t consult a watch or some other timepiece in impatience. He waited in stillness.
“What have we got?” the General demanded as he burst into the room dressed in his usual fatigues.
“Sir,” Lark said. “It appears to be one of the upgraded soldiers. Paige’s brother if I had to guess and it looks like he knows she’s here.”
“Any backup waiting outside the tunnel?”
“No.” Matt motioned to the screens that showed the exterior terrain outside the mouth of the tunnel. The green-tinted display didn’t reveal any heat signatures or anything out of place.
Leaning over his son’s chair, he took in the visuals on the monitor more closely. “Are you telling me one man thinks he can single-handedly get onto my base and bring it down? He’s got some brass balls, now doesn’t he.”
“More like steel balls,” Matt uttered dryly.
