Eve Vaughn (6 page)

“Hardly.”

“If that weren’t the case, then why were you so riled up when you brought her here?”

“Because… she…” When put like that, what excuse did he have for being nasty with Sydney? In fact hadn’t she done him a favor by not making such a big deal about them fucking? But why did it bother him so damn much? Could it be that maybe he had felt a little more for her?

How could that be when they’d only known each other for such a short period of time? No. That couldn’t be it.

“Okay, maybe it didn’t feel so good. I didn’t like being treated as if I had no feelings whatsoever. I at least tell my women up front what they’re getting into before I embark on an affair. And I know you’ll probably throw the Anna incident in my face, but I was truthful with her as well.”

“How do you know Sydney discarded you without a thought? Did you ask her how she felt?”

Jack snorted. “I think she made her feelings pretty clear. Who was I to make a big deal about it?”

- 57 -

“But that’s exactly what you did. By being mean to her, you showed her, me, and probably Anna that it was a
big deal
to you. Maybe Sydney had a reason for being so nonchalant about the entire thing. It isn’t every day one’s declared a fugitive.”

“What do you expect me to do to fix this?”

“Go talk to her.”

“She probably doesn’t want to see me. I acted like a jerk.”

“You won’t know until you try. But however she reacts, you’d better fix it fast.

The rest of the group will soon know of her arrival and they’ll want a briefing on what she knows and how we can use it against the Cyrellians.”

“I guess you’re right.”

Chase wiggled his brows. “I know I am.”

Sometimes Jack hated being the leader.

Sydney didn’t realize she’d fallen asleep until she was shaken awake. Sitting up abruptly, she was surprised to see Jack sitting next to her on the bed. The light was on and she noticed it was dark outside.

Instantly she went on the defensive. Her head was pounding and she wasn’t in the mood for another verbal back and forth with him. “If you’re here to start an argument then please save your breath, because you won’t get one out of me.”

“That isn’t why I came. I actually wanted to apologize.” She shook her head, not sure if she’d heard him correctly. “What?”

“I said I’m sorry.”

Maybe something was wrong with her hearing because those words were not something she would have expected from this arrogant man. “Excuse me?”

“Sorry! Do you want me to write my apology in blood? Dammit, woman, the least you could do is accept it.”

Despite herself, Sydney smiled. He was adorable when he was annoyed, even if he was infuriating as hell the rest of the time. “What exactly are you apologizing for?”

“You know. For behaving the way I did. It was unacceptable. Just put it down as one of those things.”

“I see. And what about the next time I do something to tick you off? Are you going to rip into me again?”

“I’ll try not to make that mistake again.”

Sydney lifted a brow. “But you can’t make any guarantees?”

“Don’t press your luck, sweetheart. Besides humbling myself before you, what more do you want from me?”

- 59 -

She wasn’t sure. What
did
she want from him? Reluctantly her gaze drifted to the broad expanse of his chest and down to his lap. His cock lay dormant now, but she couldn’t help recalling when it wasn’t. Great day, he was huge and he’d filled her so completely.

Beads of perspiration broke out on her forehead as heat raced along her every nerve ending. Was it wrong to want someone, knowing they were no good for you?

She bowed her head so she’d no longer have to look at him. “I’m not sure, but I think since we’re going to be working toward a common goal, we should at least be cordial to one another.”

“I agree. So does this mean you’re in?”

“What does it take to be in with this group?”

“We all have different tasks. Some gather information and go on missions into the city, while others stay here and keep the house in order. No one job is more important than any other because we’re a team. And we all pitch in where necessary.”

“Oh. And what would I do?”

“I’m sure we can find something for you. No worries on that front. We’ll give you a few days to settle in and see where you’d be best suited. Does that sound all right with you?”

“Yes, that seems fair.”

An uncomfortable silence fell between them. There were so many questions she wanted to ask him, but was too scared. Sleeping with someone on such short acquaintance sure made things awkward.
Come on, girl, where’s your courage when you
need it?
She’d never backed down from anything before and now shouldn’t have been any different.

“Jack --”

“Well, I --”

They began speaking at once and then laughed. “You first,” Jack offered.

- 60 -

“I was only going to ask how this all came to be. Growing up, I’d heard about some dissention pertaining to the Cyrellians, but I don’t think I remember anyone mentioning any other rebel groups until a few years ago.”

“Oh, there have been others, but in the beginning our not so friendly alien guests were a bit more brutal. Those groups were sought out and destroyed. The Cyrellians have become more subtle since then. If you think about it, they control all the major corporations and what’s in the media. You’ll never see anything they don’t want you to, and their recent strategy has been to make freedom fighters like my group look like crazy terrorists. First they question our mental stability and then they make us look like criminals.”

“Well, you guys were responsible for blowing up the clinic.”

“Sometimes one has to take extreme measures for people to take notice.”

“I understand, but my concern lies with the fact that my friend Holly could have been killed. She was there that day.”

Jack crinkled his nose. “She wouldn’t happen to be a plump redhead would she?”

Sydney narrowed her eyes. “Yes. What do you know about my friend?”

“Only what Chase told me about her. He was the one who did it, you see.” Jack grinned. “He manages to bring her up in just about every conversation since their meeting. Says she had spunk. Chase likes them feisty.” Sydney rolled her eyes. “Good for him. I’m not going to let you change the subject. How did you come to suspect the Cyrellians were up to no good in the first place?”

“For one thing, they were performing experiments on unsuspecting people. How do you think I ended up with this?” He lifted his eye patch to reveal a tiny mechanical ball in the shape of an eye in the socket covered by a thin film which she assumed was meant to match his normal one. Clearly it didn’t.

Sydney gasped, not because she was disgusted, but from the contrast the metallic thing created. “What… what is that?”

- 61 -

“It’s a bionic ocular piece. In other words, it’s an artificial eye.” Sydney reached out to touch it, but pulled back not wanting to offend. “Is it functional?”

“More so than the other one. Therein lies the problem. The bionic one picks up things from a great distance. It gives me a damn headache because on one side I have nearly perfect vision by Human standards, but on the other side, I see too well. I tried adjusting, but it became too much of an effort, hence the patch. This wouldn’t be something I would have chosen for myself, but this metal monstrosity has gotten me out of a jam or two. It can zoom in on something as if it were being spied under a microscope. I’ve been able to read people better, see trouble coming my way.”

“Why do you have it if it wasn’t something you chose for yourself?”

“I went to the clinic because at the time I was suffering migraines. I saw an advertisement that said they had a treatment for it. Little did I know my aches were from the side effects of their poisonous food, but I went in anyway. At first I questioned why they needed to put me under, but they insisted.” Jack paused, his face tightening, as though reliving the memory was painful.

It took several moments before he continued. “When I came to, I had this thing in. That’s when I knew something was wrong. What rational person would have gone into any medical facility for one thing and then have another procedure done on them?

But that’s exactly what they tried to convince me happened. They attempted to make me look crazy. Everyone is prone to bouts of madness, myself included, but I definitely didn’t have one then.”

“That sounds horrible. Why… well, I suppose knowing what I do now, I guess I can’t put anything past them. What happened next?”

“Of course I argued with them, told them to fix what they’d done. They insisted this was what I’d asked for. In my anger I attacked, which was my one mistake, because it gave them reason enough to sedate me. The next thing I knew, I woke up strapped down on a gurney with three Cyrellian doctors poking at my bionic eye. They were

- 62 -

speaking in their own tongue, but little did they know, I’d picked up enough of their language over the years to basically understand what was being said.”

“And what was that?”

“They were going to harvest my organs and replace them with artificial parts, eventually, but not before they could perform experiments on me. From what I can discern, it was some kind of program they’d created to benefit Cyrellian health.”

“In what way? I’m not sure I follow.”

“Apparently the Human molecular structure is similar to theirs as far as how our hearts beat, we digest food, and so forth. A while ago, I’d read in some history books how our society used animals to test make-up, drugs, and anything that hadn’t been introduced to the market yet. Though we’ve since found other means to do that, it occurred to me the Cyrellians were doing something similar to what our ancestors did.” Comprehension hit Sydney like a ton of bricks. “But this time around we’re the animals.”

“Exactly.”

“Oh no, poor Bella,” she whispered.

Jack rubbed her arm in a comforting gesture. “It’s quite possible your friend has managed to escape. You don’t know for certain if they have her.”

“But she went to the clinic for treatment to get her hearing back. It seemed like her prayers had been answered when she received a letter in the mail that said there was a cure. It sounded too good to be true, but I wanted to support her. I even encouraged her to go for it.” If only she had listened to Holly. Why hadn’t she made Bella research this so-called procedure before diving in headfirst? Sydney buried her face in her hands.

Jack touched her knee. “Don’t blame yourself. They had us all fooled.” She raised her head. “It doesn’t make me feel any less responsible for what’s happened. I thought I was being supportive. Instead I should’ve voiced my concerns.

Maybe then she might have thought things through a little more before going for it.”

- 63 -

“Sydney, regardless of who’s responsible, there’s no point in beating yourself up over it. We have to move on and figure out how to prevent those bastards from repeating their actions.”

“But in the meantime, she could be dead, or worse, on someone’s dinner table.” She shuddered at the idea, her stomach rolling with nausea.

“Or they could have farmed her out.”

“What do you mean?”

“For reasons known only to the aliens, people who went to the clinic were sometimes sold off to other planets as slaves.”

“How did you learn of this?”

“Because one of the men who’d come in for treatment around the same time I did suffered that very fate. I believe his name was David, or it could have been Daniel. You see, they kept a bunch of us locked in a holding cell. Every day one of the guards would choose a victim amongst us randomly for the doctors to run experiments on. This would go on until eventually we either died from the barbaric tortures we were subjected to, or they simply killed us outright.”

“I still don’t understand how you’d know about this David person being shipped away.”

“Oh, did I forget to mention? Our prison was made of Plexiglas -- located in the very laboratory where the procedures were conducted.” Sydney gasped in horror, her hand flying to her throat. “How could they be so cruel? Making you watch…” She trailed off, unable to voice the unspeakable act.

“Apparently, it was another one of their studies. One of the doctors, a female with the coldest pair of eyes I’ve ever seen, would record our reactions. Whenever one of us would turn our backs to block out the horrible scenes they’d made us watch, she’d flip a switch that sent electric shocks to our feet. We had no shoes you see, and the floor was metal.”

A pained expression crossed Jack’s face making Sydney want to reach out and offer him comfort, but she knew she couldn’t. The last time she did, things ended in

- 64 -

disaster. It didn’t help matters that his very nearness was still wreaking havoc on her equilibrium even though she’d seen a side of him that worried her -- the one that showed him as an imperfect man with the ability to be hurt.

Before she’d dozed off, Sydney had racked her brain trying to figure out why he’d been so angry with her. The only reason she could come up with is that she’d offended him somehow. But it wasn’t something she planned on bringing up. If Jack was willing to pretend they hadn’t fucked, then so would she.

“That’s the most barbaric thing I’ve ever heard.” Jack nodded. “I still get nightmares about the things I saw. One day they came for David, but instead of strapping him to the operating table as they normally did, they put him in restraints and led him off. I already told you I understood enough of the language to know what was going on. They said something about selling him off to an interested party in another galaxy. For what purpose I’m not sure. Subsequently, others were soon sold off as well.”

“How did you manage to escape?”

“Playing dead.”

“Wouldn’t they have checked for your vitals?”

“Not necessarily. So many of us dropped dead on a daily basis that when one of us would fall, the doctors would simply call in a team to remove the body. I took the chance they’d be careless with me as well. I lucked out that day because they took me out of my cell and tossed me into a corner for the pick up crew. You have no idea how difficult it was for me to remain still and hold my breath for long periods of time. When the goons came, they dumped me in the back of a truck.”

“Did you by any chance end up at Cryo Cor?” Sydney guessed. It was all starting to tie together.

“Yes, although I didn’t understand the connection until a little later. I came very close to becoming someone’s meal. The second the back door opened, I was ready for them. I fought for my life and barely managed to escape. For days, I hid in the sewers, ate garbage, and did all I could to stay alive. Like you, I knew too much. My face was

- 65 -

plastered on bulletin boards all over the city and I was labeled a dangerous fugitive.

Just when I thought there was no hope, I met up with Chase who took me in, despite the danger of harboring a criminal.”

“Why didn’t he turn you in?”

“Because he’d been having doubts about our so-called benefactors and I believe he helped me because he thought I might answer some of the questions plaguing him.

He’d lost someone special, you see, though it’s really not my story to tell, but his. I will say, however, I think I probably would have died had it not been for him.