Cheating Time (50 page)

"I agree, Gran. That's what's best for her,"
I assured him.

He nodded.

* * *

Two hours later, we landed on a helipad that
seemed bigger than the Coxes' house. There was no way it would be
hidden from the people searching for us. They'd instantly suspect
it was where we'd landed and de-droned.

"Where are we, Dad?" I asked.

Dad smiled and said, "Your mom and I have
been building her dream laboratory and my dream SNP headquarters
for years and years. This is it. I'll take you on a tour, but first
we need to tend to our wounded. Your mother will need you and
Thorne," Dad said.

My head bobbed up and down. I was more than
willing to help treat all of the people who'd been injured during
our escape.

As soon as the drone door opened, we were
met with three stretchers and a large cage big enough to fit all of
the panthers comfortably.

Those of us who could walk got out of the
way of the people there to lift Sean onto one of the awaiting
stretchers. Dad and Jayden waved away their own stretchers until
they heard, "Both of you get on those now, and don't give these
nice people a hard time." Mom yelled from a door that looked like
it opened up from nowhere within the forest's edge.

Dad grinned wide when he saw her running
toward him, sporting her own grin. When they came together, she
wrapped her arms around his neck and he lifted her from the ground,
kissing her long enough and hard enough to make us all look
away.

"Put me down, Sam. You're embarrassing our
daughter, and I think your shirt is bloody," Mom said, slapping
Dad's chest.

As soon as he dropped her, she stepped
around him and grabbed me into her arms, kissing my forehead, my
cheeks, and the tip of my nose like she was afraid we'd never see
each other again. After everything I'd been through, I didn't care
that I was too old to be kissed like a toddler. I only cared that I
was back together with my family… that my family was as safe as
they could be.

When she'd finished showering me with
affection, she turned toward Jayden and offered him a glance that
held within it every ounce of appreciation and admiration she had
for him. Then she reached out her hand and pulled him toward the
two of us.

"Jayden… I can't thank you enough for
keeping them safe. For the rest of my life, you'll be my hero," she
swore, giving him his own kiss on the cheek.

Jayden's face burned bright. He wasn't used
to getting this type of praise.

"I didn't do anything special," Jayden
claimed.

With my own kiss to his cheek, I said,
"That's not true and you know it. Now let's go. I'll take care of
you, Thorne'll take care of Dad, and Mom'll take care of Sean."

Jayden winked at me. "Deal."

Following Mom, the stretchers, and the big
cats, Thorne, Rorie, Simon, and I went through the magical door. It
ended up being the entrance into an elevator that took us deep
within the earth to a bunker that would keep us safe even if World
War III took out the rest of the planet.

While we waited for the elevator to be
filled, I saw the helipad flicker out and turn back into the forest
floor it should be. When the doors of the elevator closed, we were
blanketed in darkness as it plunged downward. When they reopened,
we were met by a state of the art facility that had people bustling
everywhere, typing away on computers, and monitoring images that
made little sense to me.

They all looked up and saluted Dad, who was
lying back on his stretcher. They did the same thing when Jayden,
who was sitting on the side of his stretcher, passed by them. Then
a girl a little older than me stood and began clapping. A heartbeat
later, the entire team of people who'd been working at computers,
talking on phones, and rushing from here to there just seconds
before was standing and clapping.

Jayden grinned sheepishly and waved at them
to stop. Instead, the clapping got louder and went on until we made
it into our very own elevator (Mom, Sean, and Simon got the first
one and Dad, Thorne, and Rorie disappeared onto the second, the
panthers on the third) and the doors closed behind us.

"It seems like you're a well-known figure
around here," I suggested.

Jayden shrugged. "I'll tell you everything
after I get this gunshot wound taken care of and I've rested."

"You bet your bottom dollar you will. We
have some talking to do, and don't think you're going to get out of
it either. I'll take care of you, and I'll let you rest. Then it's
you and me. Understand?"

Jayden smiled and said, "You got it,
babe."

I leaned over and kissed him on his lips.
I'd only planned on a quick peck, but Jayden had other plans. He
wrapped his arms around me and pulled me onto the stretcher with
him, kissing me as thoroughly as Dad had kissed Mom.

"I love you," he croaked around our
kiss.

"I love you, too," I said raggedly.

Carles "Carlie" Enoche's world is one that
can barely be imagined. In it, babies have micropharmeceutical
devices inserted in their hearts within hours of birth. The
MicroPharm implant holds code that secretly counts down until the
date of that baby's death (as determined by its genetic analysis)
and contains drugs that are released in such a way that chemicals
and hormones are in perfect balance at all times, making illness
almost unheard of.

Theoretically, the known but unexposed date
of the babies' deaths and the maintenance drugs geared toward
giving the baby a long life have benign consequences. It is the
unknown and unbelievable and unexpected way President John Barone
gathers data about every child and the way he releases
contraceptives from the device in order to control the population
and terminate pregnancies when embryos are identified as weak or
mutated that makes the device and its technology as dangerous as
any malignancy.

For President Barone, seventeen-year-old
Carlie isn't just a MicroPharm first generation; she is the
great-granddaughter of the man who discovered the ability to
determine life expectancy down to the day and the daughter of the
woman who invented the MicroPharm chip. Carlie and her family are
important to President Barone's political career and the plans he
has of creating a nation of strong, healthy, and superior people,
who give more to their country than they take.

Jayden St. Romaine, one of the Facet's most
loyal Surrogate Soldiers, is ordered by President Barone himself to
find the Enoche family and kidnap Carlie. Through blackmail, he
plans to leverage control over the Enoche's scientific research and
the ability to develop even more tools that can be used to
genetically engineer a superior race.

When President Barone sends Jayden on his
mission, he never expected his perfect soldier to develop a
conscience… betray his trust… fall in love with Carlie, but he's
dispatched a backup Surrogate Soldier just in case. With the
ticking of the clock and the second Surrogate chasing them,
Jayden's chances at redemption and Carlie's chances of living a
life where she is free to make choices about her life and her body
are in jeopardy.

A naïve Baylee loves Colt, her boyfriend of
four years, more than she ever thought possible. After a little
snooping, she's convinced she's well on her way toward hearing an
once-in-a-lifetime proposal and starring in the wedding-of-the-year
event. Instead, she's blindsided by a very public breakup and the
crushing news that Colt is marrying someone else… someone more
befitting him and the role his father expects him to take in his
law firm.

Baylee may have spent years resenting
Ariana, her mother, and her suicide, an intolerable show of
weakness in Baylee's opinion, but after Colt leaves her just short
of the altar, Baylee sees the world through her mother's eyes. She
sympathizes with Ariana's actions and realizes that some
things—soul-deep aches—can irreparably damage you and make moving
on nearly impossible.

At least that's how she feels until she
meets Ryker. With his help, Baylee discovers there is life after
Colt, and she prepares to move on by pulling herself up by the
bootstraps, holding her head high, and standing on her own two
feet. Unfortunately, a new jealous and hateful Colt has his own
plans for her, and they are plans no one—especially Baylee—ever saw
coming.

Allison La Crosse, beginning a challenging
family medicine residency, leaves the protection of her family.
With the transfer, her worst nightmares come true. Her closely
guarded mystical talents—those which seldom appeared before the
move—unleash themselves from her confinement and reveal their
presence with very little provocation.

Allison's most terrifying power is her
compulsion to cure the dying with her touch. Given her career, this
gift would be valuable if she were not drawn like a magnet to the
ailing person's every symptom. Some of which are fatal.

At the hospital and surrounded by
life-and-death emergencies, Allison's inability to manage her
impulse turns deadly. When it does, her mentor, Brody, rescues her
from her own demise. His resuscitation ignites an exciting and
tempestuous bond between them.

Desperate for a cure, they join forces and
embark upon a journey to uncover the origins of Allison's lethal
curse. In the midst of their adventure, Allison exposes a secret
pursued by many… known by few.

Allison La Crosse discovers she has several
powers, including a spiritual gift to heal the dying with her
touch. With the newfound awareness, she uncovers mind-boggling
truths about a world which has been hidden her whole life, thanks
to her mother's selfless actions.