Page 59 of Atone in Darkness
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Marisol was exhausted. Her newest bunch of captors hadn’t given her a minute’s peace since they’d dragged her back to the compound. The only concession they’d made was to allow her a few minutes to pack up her few personal possessions after she’d given Devlin Bane and his buddies a personal tour of the entire building. Once she had her bag packed, she’d answered every question they’d asked,volunteered any information she thought they might find useful, and finally surrendered the one bargaining chip she had left.
Right now, they were in her former quarters. The Paladin leader took her laptop and handed it off to DJ. “So that’s the only computer you have?”
She’d thought Chase was a big man, but Devlin Bane dwarfed everyone around him. His green eyes were jade hard as he stareddown at her. She brought her chin up to let him know she wasn’t cowed by his massive size or his bad temper.
“Yes, Mr. Bane, for the final time. As I already told you when we were in the lab, I used a lot of electronic equipmentto run tests on blood samples and to monitor Chase’s vitals when he was working out on the gym equipment. I transferred all of the results to that laptop, which was theonly computer I had access to. Chase and I didn’t want to risk sneaking it out of the compound for fear they’d track our movements.”
He glanced at DJ, who nodded. “Yeah, that makes sense. I would’ve left it behind, too.”
DJ’s fingers danced over the keyboard. He studied the screen for a few seconds before speaking. “It’s password protected, and the data is probably encrypted. It will take Cullenand me a while to get in.”
“Unless they’ve locked me out, my password would get you started.”
It was no surprise that Devlin was already shaking his head. “I don’t want you anywhere near that keyboard.”
It was all she could do not to roll her eyes. They’d already made it clear they didn’t trust her. Fine, she got that. But did he really think she was stupid enough to try to sabotage whateverdata DJ might be able to recover when she was alone in the middle of nowhere with them? They could retaliate with a bullet through her head and then dump her body in the woods, and she’d be helpless to stop them.
Deciding to ignore the head Paladin for the moment, she turned to DJ. “My user name was Marisol dot Riggs. My most recent password was capitalized Keeper, hashtag, and the numeral five.”
Despite the seriousness of her situation, she couldn’t help but smile. “That’s what Chase called me, you know—his keeper. He said he felt like he was the latest exhibit at the zoo.”
Neither man laughed, but there was a slight softening in Devlin’s stance. “Sounds like him. The kid always did have a twisted sense of humor.”
DJ shut down the laptop. “I don’t want to mess with this too much untilCullen can help me with it. With luck, we can backtrack to see where they were sending the data Dr. Riggs was uploading.”
Devlin took one more look around her small apartment. “Okay. Let’s round up everyone and get out of here. We’ve been lucky so far that no one else has come poking around this place. I wouldn’t put it past this Cadre bunch to be monitoring the area. Considering they took outtheir own people to protect the secrets of this place, they won’t hesitate to come after us, too. I also don’t want to put anyone else at risk of being taken prisoner.”
He started toward the door. “No matter what these guys did, their families deserve to have some closure. DJ, once we’re back at headquarters, send an anonymous notice to the state cops about this place, but make sure they won’tbe able to trace it back to us.”
“Not a problem.”
Devlin’s cell phone rang just as he stepped out into the hall with Marisol and the other Paladin hot on his heels. “Hey, babe, what’s up?”
Whatever the woman on the other end of the line had to say had him frowning at Marisol big-time. “Son of a bitch, how many times?”
They had to be talking about Chase, and it clearly wasn’t good news. Herpulse did a stutter step as she waited for him to finish the conversation. As soon as he disconnected thecall, he dragged her down the hall toward the exit. She had to almost run to keep up with their long-legged pace.
“That was Laurel, my wife. She’s the Handler in charge of Chase’s care, which means she’s his doctor. Personally, I would rather not let you anywhere near him, but when it comesto the medical end of things, what she says goes.”
“What’s happened? Is he okay?”
She already knew the answer to that question, but she needed to know how bad it was. Devlin walked on in grim silence until they reached the front door of the building. “He’s having trouble making it all the way back.”
He ran his hands through his shoulder-length hair in clear frustration. “We’ve learned thatsometimes having the right person there can make all the difference. Even though Jarvis and Chase’s sister have been with him, he keeps backsliding. Laurel has tried everything she knows to stabilize him, but it’s not working.”
Her breath caught in her throat. “What happens if he can’t find his way back?”
When Devlin didn’t immediately respond, DJ answered her. “They’ll shove a needle full ofpoison into his veins and end his pain permanently.”
His wife was a doctor who would do such a thing? She looked at him in horror. “But that’s murder.”
Both men stared off at the horizon, their shoulders slumped. Finally, Devlin looked at her, his eyes dull. “No, Doctor, that’s mercy. Never doubt that for a minute. No one wants it to come to that, so you’ll be on the first chopper back to headquarters.He’s been asking for you. Whether he’s doing that in the few minutes of clarity he has or when thecraziness is taking over isn’t clear. Either way, Laurel wants you there ASAP to see if that will make a difference for him.”
“I promise I’ll do whatever I can for him. I owe him that much.”
Actually, she would do it because she loved him. These men wouldn’t believe that, but she didn’t care. Allthat mattered was getting back to Chase.
