Page 14 of Black Bay Protector
She remembered Grady’s funeral with full honors. The rifle reports that had made her jerk every time she’d heard them even knowing they were coming. She remembered the solemn faces of his teammates, his fellow SEALs that had approached his casket to pound their tridents into the smooth wood to pay tribute to their fallen brother. Her mother’s heartbroken sobbing…
Her mother. Until the funeral, Penny Carter had refused to believe her son was dead. Paige had been visiting her folks when the officers had come to her parent’s door to deliver the news. Her mother had refused to believe them. She’d screamed at them that they were wrong, that her son was not dead, that she’d feel it if he was. She’d even gone so far as to attack one of the officers, beating on his chest and calling him a liar until her husband had pulled her off and restrained her in a bear hug. Right up until the funeral she’d held out hope that she’d get word from Grady that it was all a big misunderstanding.
It turned out her mother had been right. Grady wasn’t dead. Who had they buried? Paige shook her head as more tears gathered in her eyes. They’d probably never know.
He’d looked right through her without even a hint of recognition. He’d pointed a gun at her. Her brother. No. Not her brother. Not anymore. What she’d encountered today was a machine wearing her brother’s face.
They hadn’t been told the particulars of how Grady had died, only that he’d been a hero saving lives. Had the government taken his grievously wounded body and experimented on it? Had they told his family he was dead so that no one would come looking for him, asking questions?
“Tracker!”
Paige screamed as the sudden shout broke the quiet, the van veering wildly on the road before she got it back under control.
Jace was awake. Thank God. She clapped a hand over her wildly beating heart. “Holy shit, you scared me.” She glanced over at him and was grateful to see his color looked good. “Are you okay?”
“We need to pull over. Right now.”
“Okay.” Paige scanned the road. After Jace had passed out, she’d driven them back to the interstate, and this stretch didn’t have much in the way of a shoulder. “I think there’s a rest stop coming up soon. Can we wait until then?”
His answer was a grunt as he unfastened his seatbelt and then squeezed in between the seats to get to the back of the van. She’d take that as a yes.
“How’s your arm?”
“Healed.”
Incredible. What an amazing gift… Though she wondered if he considered it a gift. He’d been raised in a lab, she reminded herself. Experimented on. He hadn’t even been given a name.
“Who named you Jace?” she called back, suddenly curious. “Did you choose it yourself once you were free?”
Another grunt as he rummaged through one of the hard plastic bins. “I chose Jace because it was similar to the last four of my serial number.”
Paige frowned, but before she could ask for clarification he tacked on, “And I chose the last name Davies to honor the man who came to free me and pretty much adopted all of us.”
Jace Davies. It was a good, strong name.
“I see the rest stop ahead,” Paige told him. She glanced over her shoulder quickly. “What are you looking for?”
“They found us too fast. There has to be a tracker. I’m thinking they must have put it on the van while I fought that team at your place. Probably attached to the undercarriage.” There was a rumbling growl that made the tiny hairs on her arm stand on end as Jace added, “I should have checked sooner.”
A tracker? Well, that was scary. Paige looked at the side-view mirror and the reflection of the widely-spaced vehicles traveling behind them on the interstate. Could one of them be tailing them? Would they encounter another soldier like Grady? Paige shuddered at the thought. What he’d done to Jace’s arm…
“Found it.”
On that announcement, Jace came back up to the front. The splint and wrap job she’d done on his arm was gone and the forearm that had been a horrifying pulpy mess not so long ago didn’t even have a pink mark to show for such a catastrophic injury. Incredible. Paige shook her head, still not quite able to wrap her head around the medical miracles this man was capable of.
Jace showed her a black cylindrical thingy not much bigger than a tube of Chapstick. “What is that? Is that the tracker?”
“Not the tracker. Normally, this little gadget is used to disrupt a signal. Short range. But on the flip side, it can also detect a signal.”
“Like the signal from a tracker?”
“Exactly.”
Pulling into the rest area, Paige parked in the first spot she came to. Unlike the other time they’d stopped, this one wasn’t one of the big plazas with amenities. Instead, it was a small stone structure that just had restrooms with exterior doors on either side.
“I’m going to use the bathroom while you search.”
“Do you still have the gun I gave you?” Jace asked as he popped open the glove box.
