Chapter Eight

CHAPTER EIGHT

Harris

“ You’ve got to be shitting me. Long lost brother.” Shaw said as they packed up the hotel room. “You think the guy’s been tracking us?”

“ Don’t doubt it,” Harris agreed. “Can we trust him? That is the real question.”

“ When we meet with the rest of the team again, we’ll have to discuss how much we share with this Apollo. Spence is digging as we speak, but I doubt there’ll be much on file,” Brick said. “The Noah Group covered its tracks, and if this guy did manage to break free, he’d stay deep underground.”

“ We were able to get the license plate of the car he was driving, but then again, I doubt he used his actual identification,” Fletcher said. “Be surprised if he did.”

“ If he has any,” Harris added. “The guy would want to stay off the radar, and I don’t believe the Noah Group was handing out birth certificates at the facility.”

“ Conor can’t get a read on him,” Brick said. “I don’t like it. We’ll leave for the airport to head home to Fire Lake, then have Jason pick us up and return to the rental. That way, the members of this cell of the Noah Group will believe we left town and won’t suspect anything. Then we’ll regroup and decide on a new plan of attack because this one is dead in the water.”

“ Shit,” Harris grumbled. “That opportunity would have been perfect. Hell, they were about to make their move, and then this giant came along to screw the entire mission.”

The team might never get another chance at these assholes. Now what? Wait until they made another move on a survivor? Not likely. There was no way Harris would allow this chaos to continue as long as he drew breath.

So far, this Apollo wasn’t winning any points with him, even if the guy thought he was saving Harris from being abducted. Everything was a mess because of him, and they were no closer to shutting these assholes down. A plan that took months to create was single-handedly destroyed by some guy playing hero. Harris knew he was being irrational, but he’d put everything into this plan and had been willing to risk his life in the process.

It was a dumpster fire now. That was the only way to describe this shit show.

***

Over twenty-four hours and hundreds of miles of flying, they were finally reunited with the rest of the team back at the rental. Harris couldn’t help but zero in on Woodley when they entered the house. Who knew being apart from the guy for less than a week could affect him viscerally? He gravitated toward the man, not bothering to hide his intentions.

“ Damn, you’re a sight for sore eyes,” Woodley drawled low enough for only Harris to hear, and hell if it didn’t take him from zero to one hundred in two seconds flat.

“ Keep it up, and I’ll be bending you over the nearest flat surface.”

“ Won’t hear me complaining,” Woodley growled low.

“ Yeah, but I think the rest of the team might have a few words to say on that.”

Brick tossed his duffle bag on the couch and looked over at Spencer.

“ Report.” The man didn’t mince words.

Without missing a beat, Spencer spun his laptop around and began his breakdown.

“ Tom and Elise Hammon, daughter of Commander Rask, had two children. The youngest is Ellen, who’d be nineteen years old now, and an older boy who reportedly died at birth. Now, that fact comes into question with the surfacing of Apollo, who claims to be the dead boy in question. If it were him, he’d be twenty-eight years old. Without a DNA test or Apollo allowing Conor into his mind, we have no way of knowing. Any record of Hammon’s firstborn child was erased from all the Noah Project records we were able to save from the flames of the storage unit arson. Still, there’s a vague mention of a subject’s multiple mutations that veered outside all spectrum results and followed the same timeline.”

“ What the hell does ‘mutation outside spectrum results’ mean?” Jason asked.

“ Good question,” Spencer said. “And I wish I had an answer.”

“ How would they even identify such a thing in a newborn?” Jennifer asked. “It’s not as if he could have popped out and begun talking. Right?”

The team looked back and forth at one another, but no one bothered to answer, mainly because they didn’t have answers.

“ Did anyone else notice the bright blue veins that seemed to shine in the guy’s irises?” Fletcher asked. “Reminded me of lightning.”

“ Yeah, keeping that mutation under wraps without tinted glasses or contacts would be hard. Perhaps he was wearing contacts back in the bar,” Harris said.

“ How tall do you think that guy is? Seven, seven-eight?” Jason asked.

“ I’ve seen some tall people in my day, but none could pull off this guy’s muscled physique. Typically, they were tall and lean,” Shaw said.

“ The bigger question is, what now?” Woodley asked. “Do we trust him enough to allow him to participate in this plan, or do we cut ties? And will he keep following us either way?”

“ All good questions that we need to discuss, “Brick said. “I have Apollo’s contact information. I say we plan a meetup on neutral ground and ask if he would allow Conor into his thoughts to confirm he is who he says he is.”

“ And if he refuses?” Woodley asked.

“ Then we leave,” Brick stated without compromise or discussion.

“ What!” Harris exclaimed. “We walk away and leave this offshoot to carry on unchecked? I can’t do that. You can leave, but I’m sticking around. If I have to, I’ll figure out how to take them down myself.”

“ Hell, you’re not staying alone. I’m staying with you,” Woodley stated.

“ Calm the fuck down. I’m not suggesting a retreat,” Brick growled as if the mere thought pissed him off. “But even the best plan requires regrouping and reevaluation when the variables change. Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it.”

Harris nodded but refused to take back what he’d said. He wasn’t veering from this path, no matter the roadblocks and variables thrown up on his way.

***

Woodley

Neither he nor Harris questioned sharing Woodley’s bedroom at the rental. What was the use? After all, everyone appeared to have declared them a couple, even if they weren’t. They weren’t. Couples plan futures together. Couples talk about what they mean to each other. Couples share their lives. He and Harris did none of that and never would.

It didn’t take Harris long to have Woodley wrapped up in those strong arms and pressed against the nearest wall. The bulge pressed up against his thigh matched his own; it had been a long week apart, and now that they were alone in the same space, nothing would get in their way.

“ Damn, you feel good,” Harris said before capturing Woodley’s lips in a commanding kiss full of promise.

He loved it when Harris stopped thinking and just went with it. Everything got screwed up when they stopped to think about the future or what the hell either of them wanted out of this. Enough was enough. They’d be fine if they could stay in the here and now, but that wasn’t as easy as it sounded.

He wouldn’t lie and say he was sorry the plan went to hell. Woodley had never liked it from the beginning, and now that it was a wash, his blood pressure had drastically lowered. As his lover’s strong hands worked their way down Woodley’s body, he couldn’t help but moan in need. He wanted so much more.