Page 101 of Sloth
She jerked back, as though surprised. “So why are you being obtuse? Where is Max? I saw him on the news. He’s not at the hospital. He’s not—”
Tony frowned and held his hand up. “Wait. Rewind. What are you talking about? Why would he be at the hospital?”
“You don’t know, do you?”
“Know what?”
Unease trickled in, casting a dampener on his drunkenness. His immediate thoughts went to his sister, Sloan. Was she okay?
“It was all over the news. They found Max in the municipal district—outside the courthouse with a goddamned bomb strapped to his chest. The Deadly Seven came in and deactivated it, but—” Bailey shook her head. Her eyes turned glassy. “Something was wrong with Max. They took him. I want to know where.”
The blood drained from Tony’s face. He pulled his cell from inside his jacket pocket and checked. No one had contacted him since that first text from Parker. He opened the message, just to see if he’d missed a reply, or another message on the thread. Sometimes he did that.
Nothing.
He met Bailey’s eyes. “You said the Deadly Seven took him. Why would I know anything about that?”
She stared at him, unblinking. That mind of hers revved a million miles an hour, and Tony knew in that instant, this woman was smart. Clever. Perceptive. She was cataloging every minute behavior of his and filing it away for another time. A distant memory came forth, reminding Tony of the conversation he’d had with Sloan about one of Max’s staff being ex CIA. Not that Bailey’d officially told anyone else. That knowledge was supposed to be on the down low.
Well, Tony straightened. Bailey wasn’t the only one who was perceptive. She wasn’t the only one who flew under the radar. He knew how to appear not as he was too. He made sure to sway a little, slur a little, and even added a burp when he said, “Say that again. I may or may not have been thinking about your… b—” he glanced down at her chest pointedly. “Bootiful skin. S’really nice. What moisturizer do you use.”
Bailey sighed laboriously. “Obviously, I was mistaken coming here. I don’t expect you to know anything. I just know Max was on contract for Parker doing something top-secret. If you see Parker, please tell him to call me.”
Tony nodded.
Bailey walked away. She smiled softly at Gus and he let her out.
Tony watched her stride across the street until she disappeared in the darkness. He stood watching for long moments and didn’t know why.
I don’t expect you to know anything.
He hit the down button on the lift. “Yeah, join the crew.”
* * *
It wasa mad house when Tony arrived in the basement. He passed Griffin and Liza sitting morosely in the strategy room. Most of the action concentrated around the medical room and standing in the hallway, watching through the glass viewing window were his parents, Evan, Wyatt and Misha. Tony followed their worried gazes inside the medical lab and had a profound sense of déjà vu. Inside, laid out on a stretcher, was Max. Parker, Sloan and Evan’s lifemate Grace were in there, as was the scientist they’d rescued, Barry Pinkerton.
It reminded Tony of when Wyatt had been sliced across the throat by his ex and was in there being patched up. Goosebumps erupted over his flesh, and he turned to check on Wyatt. He stood with his arms around Misha, holding her tight, eyes locked on Max.
When Tony brought his gaze back to Max, he knew why Wyatt looked disturbed. Something was wrong with Max. The whites of his eyes showed. His back bowed on the stretcher. Veins in his neck protruded. Foam spat from his snarling mouth. It was like the special effects team from a zombie movie had worked on the man. Parker used all his strength to hold down Max by the ankles. Sloan was holding his wrists, but not successfully.
“She needs our help,” Tony murmured, catching the dismay in Sloan’s eyes.
Wyatt cast a downward glance at Tony’s attire—the loosened tie, the untucked shirt—and his lip curled with scorn. Then Wyatt gestured at Evan. “Let’s go in.”
Misha placed her palm on Wyatt’s chest, lifted on her tip toes and whispered something into his ear. Wyatt’s expression softened. He looked down at his woman and nodded. Then he shouldered into the med-room.
That love right there was something Tony would never have. As soon as the thought entered his mind, he saw the same love everywhere. Between his parents. Evan as he came up behind his woman in the med room. Sloan as she looked down at Max as if he was her life. What did people see when they saw Tony? Not even Tony knew.
He shoved his hands in his pockets, then stepped forward until his nose almost touched the viewing window.
Wyatt and Evan each took a wrist and held Max down. This only infuriated Max, and he strained more. It was as though his muscles expanded in diameter, as though his body was growing, getting bigger, stronger… like a monster. Like those beastly animals at the black site.
“Hold him steady,” Grace insisted as she aimed a syringe toward Max’s inner elbow. She had her surgical scrubs on, which meant she must have come straight from the hospital at Evan’s behest. “If I can’t draw blood, we can’t test it.”
Max was barely containable as he bucked.
Sloan shouted. “We just need his blood. The note said the answer is in his blood!”
