Protector: The Elect, Book 1 (7 page)

Carter nodded thoughtfully. “She has several lab assistants. She started the tests when no one was there, but she probably left a couple times to eat or whatever.”
 

Mason shook his head. “That building is keycard access only. None of her techs were there yesterday.”
 

Carter snorted. “Those cards aren’t hard to obtain, man. Find the popular watering hole, get the right person drunk, you can get in the building and they won’t remember how they lost it.”
 

Mason was right. They needed to hire Carter Owens. “Want a job?” he asked dryly.
 

Carter watched him several long minutes before cocking an eyebrow. “I am between employers at the moment.”

His casual acceptance made Brax suspicious. “Why so easy?”

“I made a few calls before I came down,” Carter said with a cold smile. “My contacts say you’re clean and your businesses are completely aboveboard. And my sister is convinced the help Kaden needs is here.” He paused for a breath, and Brax knew his next words would be threatening.
 

“But?” he prodded.

“If you cause my family any harm, I’ll bury you so deep no one will ever find you.”

Brax didn’t appreciate being threatened, but he had to admire the man’s balls and loyalty.
 

“Fair enough,” he ground out, knowing he’d be an idiot to turn away a man with Carter’s skills just because he was aggravating. He jerked his chin at Mason. “Meet your new boss. Director of security.”
 

“Fine.” Carter leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees to meet Mason’s gaze. “We need a complete list of every card used yesterday. Once we narrow the who, we can figure out how they knew about her tests. Almost no one knows we’re brother and sister, and even fewer people know I have a son. My name is on his birth certificate, though. Florida birth records aren’t public record, but if you could get a copy of his mother’s, Jamie’s, driver’s license you could mail a request for a copy.”
 

“You think someone already knew he was Elect and didn’t want it discovered.”
 

Carter shrugged. “Ask Esme. He’s been sick off and on since he was born. No one could ever figure out what was wrong and never bothered to do genetic tests? A boy that age, that small, hospitalized over and over again for some mysterious disease? You think that’s really plausible?”
 

“I sure as hell don’t.”
 

They all turned to the door. Damn, he needed to shut that thing more often. Rose Esposito, as brilliant as Zach and a hell of a lot easier on the eyes, waited expectantly. Brax waved her in.
 

“It’s five in the morning, Rose.”
 

“Yes it is, Brax,” she said patiently. Like he was a dimwitted child. He ground his teeth together. She always had to be a pain in the ass.
 

“I’m not in the mood, brat.”

Her expression didn’t change, but she took pity on him. “I just got in. Zach has to sleep sometime, and losing a couple hours sleep won’t kill me.”
 

She turned to their newcomer. “Carter Owens?”
 

He nodded and Brax bit back a grin at the look on his face. A combination of fascination and wariness. Rose had that effect on people. Hell, most Elect females did.
 

“Can anyone join this party?” Esme drawled from the doorway.
 

“Your brother asked the same thing.” He smiled and crooked his finger at her as he stood. “Come here, baby.”
 

She’d put on her jeans and his T-shirt. He’d prefer her in just the shirt, but there were too damned many curious eyes for that, even if it did fall to the middle of her thighs. Hell, it was longer than Rose’s dress. Her expression was carefully bland as she came to him, her mind mostly controlled, but he could feel a hint of curiosity. Excitement. He pulled her close, ignoring her brother’s disapproving scowl, and kissed her.
 

“You should be in bed,” he whispered against her ear.

She shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep.”
 

“
I didn’t say anything about sleeping.
”

When she twisted and moved out of his arms her pelvis brushed against his. It was just a moment, but it was all he could do not moan as she bumped his erection. Her gaze jerked up to meet his, shock and heat, lighting them.
 

“
Can I do that too?
”
She mentally directed the question at him.
 

“
Angel, that’s all for you.
”

“That’s not what I meant, but it does answer the question,” she said.
 

Her prim tone didn’t have the desired effect. He was even harder hearing it. Suddenly, nothing was more important than getting this meeting over and her back upstairs to their room. She leaned against the edge of his desk, and he resumed his seat.
 

“Okay, you two get with Gabe. Get a list of all the doctors Kaden has seen and verify none ordered any genetic testing on him.” He held his hand when Rose started to protest. “
Or
verify that they did. It didn’t come through one of our labs.”

“I wondered about that,” Esme mused. “Assuming he was tested by an independent lab, then of course there are people who know about us. Why wait to make a move now?”
 

“The situation changed with my return,” Carter answered.
 

Brax agreed. “Yes. So what’s different about the boy living with you and not his mother?”

Carter’s eyes narrowed. “Two things. They had him with a foster family for the few days it took me to get here. And I changed his doctor when I realized how long this had been going on.”
 

“Access.” Esme took a shuddering breath and Brax wanted to wrap himself around her to protect her from the horrors of what they were suggesting. “If her death wasn’t an accident, then someone killed her thinking no one would come forward to claim Kaden.” She turned haunted eyes to her brother. “It would easy to control him or take him. He wouldn’t have had anyone to protect him.
 

“But he does,” Carter answered her softly. “He has me and he has you.”
 

“He has all of us,” Brax interjected.
 

Carter met his determined gaze with one of his own and nodded before turning back to Mason. “You get that list. I’m going to have a little personal chat with his former doctor.”
 

“I’m going with you,” Esme said, succeeding in getting out of Brax’s embrace.
 

“No, you aren’t,” he and her brother chorused.
 

She pinned her brother with a look that could flay a man alive then turned it on him. “The goon squad came after me, remember? Trashed my lab. There’s no telling what they did to my condo. We need to go there, by the way,” she told her brother.
 

He heaved a put upon sigh and nodded. Damn traitor, Brax thought. He’d been sure Carter could be counted on to help protect Esme. He didn’t expect the guy to rush into danger with her.

“Esme,” Brax said, and her focus returned to him.
 

That was more like it. Or would have been if the gaze raking over him wasn’t angry and pained. Shit. No wonder her brother gave in to her. He stood and held his hand out to her, breathing a sigh of relief when she took it and let him pull her close.
 

“You stay right by me. I don’t want you farther than an arm’s length at any time.”
 

He met Mason’s incredulous gaze over the top of her head. His old friend and security chief couldn’t believe he was allowing his mate to go confront the man who was possibly behind an attempt on her life. Hell, he couldn’t believe it. But he also couldn’t stand the hurt in her eyes, couldn’t do anything that would jeopardize her trust in him and his ability to take care of her.
 

“We should go now,” Carter said. “I want to catch him unprepared.” He looked at his watch. “It’s Sunday morning, so he probably isn’t up yet. Esme, I really need you here when Kaden wakes up.”
 

It almost worked. Brax saw the indecision cross her face a moment before she bit her bottom lip and shook her head. “Zach and Rose are here. They’ll keep an eye on him.”
 

“You and Rose know each other?” Brax asked. They hadn’t acknowledged each other when she came in.
 

“Genetics researchers. Small world.”
 

Esme gave him a distracted smile. He could feel her pulling away from him, trying to distance herself. He’d give her a little room, but he wouldn’t let her escape him long.

Chapter Four

She insisted on riding with Carter in his car while Brax took his SUV with the others. She needed time to think and she couldn’t do that with Brax filling her senses, physical and mental. Things were happening much too fast. The discovery of more people like her. The man trying to insinuate his way into her life. She fought the shivers threatening to overtake her body as Carter drove down the highway like a bat out of hell. She glanced in the car’s side window. The SUV behind them easily kept up.
 

“It’s pointless trying to outrun them. We have to go back to their compound for Kaden,” she reminded him.
 

He made the snorting, half laugh sound she knew well. He was frustrated and approaching the end of his patience. “I know. I think they’re being up front with us, mostly, but I still don’t like this setup. We get Kaden well, and then we disappear, Esme. If,” he took a deep breath, “someone is hunting our species, all of us gathered here together is one big fat target.”

“Agreed.”
 

She ignored the funny little catch in her heart. The safety and protection of her family came before her desire to wrap her body around Brax’s again. As tempting as he was, as much as she wished she could trust him, it was too soon. There were things about the Elect he was keeping from her, she knew. She wasn’t so worried about that though. In time she’d figure it out on her own. But she sensed his intentions toward her. His determination to possess her. To take her over. It scared the hell out of her. She didn’t know how to belong with someone like that.
 

Carter turned the lights out as they turned onto the pediatrician’s street. It was just after six in the morning. Despite the deceptively mild weather, it was winter, still dark and quiet. It was in an old, charming neighborhood, neat little Craftsman bungalows lined up in yard after yard of well-manicured lawns. They parked a few houses down and got out. She looked around slowly, trying to see into the shadows.
 

“You feel that?” she asked her brother softly.
 

He nodded. Someone was out there in the dark. Watching, waiting. She realized Brax felt the same disturbance as she watched him exit his vehicle and look around. He spoke to the two men who got out of the backseat. They disappeared into the trees, she presumed to search for the person watching for them.

“
Think they’re trying to flush him out or run him off?
” she asked her brother.

He grinned. “
I think you’ve got that man so confused he ordered them to do both.
”

She punched him in the arm, hiding a moment of amusement behind a scowl. Then Mason and Brax joined them and she turned her focus back to the danger they were trying to identify. Brax looked like he wanted to protest when Carter handed her a pistol, but he kept his mouth shut.
 

She winked. “Don’t worry,” she whispered. “I know how to use it.”
 

“You two go around back,” Carter ordered. “Esme and I will take the front.”
 

“No. She stays with me.”
 

Brax moved close, crowding her and glowering at her brother. She gritted her teeth. Damn posturing males. It was a miracle testosterone hadn’t ruined the world. Brax pressed his hand to the small of her back, a proprietary move that should not have made her shiver. So maybe testosterone had
one
redeeming feature.
 

“Give me your kit. We’ll go in through the back, secure Dr. Franklin, then let you in,” Esme told her brother.
 

“I don’t like you being involved in this,” Carter said, but he handed over the slim, black fabric case anyway.
 

She gave him a cocky grin and set off down the street, cutting between two houses to approach from the back. Brax stayed right on her heels, radiating anger and aggression, then incredulity when they stopped outside the backdoor and she picked the locks.
 

“Why do you know how to do that, baby?”

She grinned at him. “Let’s just say my teenage years were colorful.”
 

She’d been bored, too smart for her own good, and rarely supervised. Falling into the wrong crowd was inevitable, and the adrenalin rush was addictive. It was only when her younger brother started to follow in her footsteps that she’d changed her path and forced him to do the same. They definitely weren’t her proudest years, but she kind of missed the excitement.