He’d said he loved her.
And as Harper collapsed onto Rome’s heaving body, spent and sated like never before, she believed she might be in bigger trouble than she thought.
Because in spite of everything, she had to admit to herself that she was falling in love with him, too.
Harper peered at the laptop, scrolling through the files that had finished downloading as she lay on her stomach on the rumpled bed, naked beneath the down comforter. As soon as they’d awakened, they’d engaged in another round of lovemaking. Well, honestly, really hot and mind-blowing sex. But this time it had been slow and easy, even playful. When it was over, they’d just dozed until her empty stomach growled for some attention.
Rome had made them something to eat, and then they’d gotten down to some more research to plan their next move. It was the first time she’d been able to get back to the laptop and finish scanning over Bobby’s files. Reading the same paragraph for the third time, she rubbed her strained eyes, easily figuring out why she was so unfocused.
The reason was sitting against the sturdy headboard, his lower body covered by the other half of the comforter.
She’d known he was hurt at the compound, but it just now came to her how close he’d come to getting killed. Rome was willing to die for her. Yes, he’d betrayed her once, but even knowing that she didn’t have long to live herself, he’d now risked death to protect her.
Shaking her head, she glanced over her shoulder and saw his intense gaze focused on her. She smiled at him, which earned her a matching grin. He added a heated leer and then returned to reading one of the file folders they’d taken from the lab. There was no longer any doubt that he was committed to helping her in a way she was just beginning to understand, and she was eternally grateful for it.
She reluctantly turned her attention back to the bright screen and switched gears. A few extra seconds and the data began to register. The picture and scope of what her brother was doing flashed by as if she were on an interstate highway, soaking in the landscape as it spoke to her.
The serum, once bonded with the plants, couldn’t be transferred from them. Meaning you could eat the fruit, but not extract the formula. The plants wouldn’t pass it along. No wonder the creepy woman torturing her couldn’t get what they needed to replicate it. Bobby hadn’t got around to testing that for sure, but she was living proof.
As normal plants, they needed the natural elements to thrive. That’s why Bobby had constructed unique lights inside his lab to emulate natural sunlight. He’d built them sunshine. And it had worked. Perfectly. Plants that had received his sunshine had flourished just as if they’d been outdoors.
Just as she had. Her psionic power had worked in his lab and outside in the natural light. But in any dark confines, she’d been unable to summon it. And every time she’d stepped outside, she’d felt rejuvenated.
No damaging side effects had been found. Well, not to the plants. She, on the other hand, was in for a different fate given the results of Jeff’s trial. But at least the
plants wouldn’t be shooting out angry psi-powered waves at people as they picked fruit or sprinkled water on them. She guessed that was a bonus.
Bobby had kept everything top secret so the serum wouldn’t get in the hands of people who would abuse its power. People like Jeff. He had intended the test plants and serum to be delivered to a few hand-picked secret agricultural regions for trials, but nothing could move forward until the final tests proved the serum’s perfection.
Harper smiled fondly. It was so like her brother to want to be absolutely, positively, one hundred percent, inescapably sure before he launched it.
The next folder she opened housed one lone document. She clicked to open it and was rewarded with a request for a password. Harper had to laugh. She should have known that Bobby would do the unexpected and make the final step straightforward instead of the most complex one of all. Any other hacker would be fooled. Sometimes she got so caught up in encryption and breaking codes that the basic password protection delighted her.
Until she realized she had no idea what that password could be.
Oh, for crying out loud. She closed her eyes and thought of her brother. Pictured Bobby sitting at his laptop securing this folder with the simplest of protection. Yet the most difficult to crack by her standards. She could hack it, but that would take time, and she was running low on patience.
Okay, so she wouldn’t hack it. She’d reason it.
He’d probably been in a hurry, so it would have to be something that came to him quickly. And something he knew only she would know.
They had so much history to choose from. So many inside jokes. What would he think only she knew?
Maybe her name? It was simple enough. She typed it in but was denied. Darn.
Okay. Think. It would be a direct message from him to her. Olympics? Ever since she started training again, he’d e-mail her just one word: Olympics. Reminding her that he was with her every step of the way. That had to be it. She entered the word.
Denied once more. A simple password would lock out after three unsuccessful tries and she’d be back to square one. She had to get it right this time or maybe lose the data forever.
With a frustrated sigh, she glanced outside the window at the misting whitecaps of the frigid river.
A sudden memory flashed to her mind. A few years ago, they’d gone hiking on Mount Shasta. She’d slipped, slid down the slope, and splashed into a glacial pool at the bottom. Bobby had tried to reach her, descending carefully, but had ended up falling into the pool along with her. They’d laughed until their keisters began to freeze from the icy-cold water.
Ever since, whenever one of them tripped or fell, they had called out “Shastaboom.”
With a fond smile, she shifted her thoughts back to the present.
Wait. Shastaboom.
Could it really be that easy?
She typed the crazy word in and held her finger over the Enter key. Hesitating, hoping she knew her brother as well as she thought.
But no. She was sure. She had to be. Pressing the key, she held her breath.
And let it out slowly with a grin as the document opened without fanfare.
The formula.
Maybe now that she had the actual recipe, someone could develop an antidote. Bobby’s notes mentioned that he hadn’t yet reverse engineered the serum. He obviously thought he had the time to do it right. He’d been proven wrong.
She carefully committed his formula to memory, then closed her eyes and recalled it in her mind a few times. Opening her eyes, she peered at the formula again. She knew it now. And knew she’d never forget it. She erased the document and saved it, completely blank. Then she deleted it.
Closing the file, Harper rubbed her face with tired hands. The more data she uncovered, the more she resented the situation she’d been thrust into.
Bobby’s research was beyond important, but she had no experience dealing with this kind of thing. Jeff and his faction were twisting the honorable research into an ugly vestige of its original intention. And before she could even begin to deal with her new life—whatever that new life may be—she was determined to avenge her brother.
The only thing she didn’t resent was Rome. Though she hated that he was caught up in the fallout from the horrific situation his boss had created.
Shaking her fuming thoughts away, she focused on the data again, nearing the end of Bobby’s entries. Every stark word seemed rushed. He’d known the worst was going to happen. Harper tingled with rage because he’d been right.
The worst had happened.
Bobby had given his life to keep his secret and make sure it got into her hands. By avenging his sacrifice, Harper would give her brother his rightful tribute.
After reading the last of Bobby’s notes, Harper realized that her brother had no idea who was running the counter operation, only that he had discovered the faction and tried to find out as much as he could.
They hadn’t taken any time to talk about it, though she knew it had to be bothering Rome. It would certainly bug her if she found out her coach was engineering bio-enhanced swimmers. Especially if it was driven by some mistake she’d made.
She peeked back at him. Earlier Rome had admitted to her that she’d been his first partner in two years. That explained his puzzling nervousness in the shower. Harper realized that his confession, and the fact that he’d let himself be with her intimately, really spoke volumes about the love he’d professed to her.
A gorgeous specimen of man like him, she would’ve thought he had women lined up at his bedside. She never lacked for partners, but Rome was different. There was a connection there that went deeper than physical gratification.
She had always wanted a man for fun, not a relationship. Relationships were messy and distracting. Something she couldn’t afford while training. And she’d been training forever. So she’d never wanted more than a quick and pleasant rendezvous.
Until now. Maybe it was the extreme circumstances. Maybe it was the secluded setting. But maybe it was just the right man.
“Harper.” He purred her name. She raised herself on her elbow and looked at him. His eyes darkened as his gaze moved from her face to her chest. Glancing down, she realized there was no comforter covering her upper body.
A smile cracked her face again. She’d never been an
exhibitionist, though she was used to wearing nothing but sleek racing bathing suits. And she was proud of her fit body.
A moan simmered from deep in her chest when she felt his strong hands cup her breasts and start to stroke them. Leaning into his touch even farther, she placed her hand on his lap and slipped on the paper files resting there. Losing her balance completely, she ended up sliding off the bed and landing on the hardwood floor with a solid thump.
Rome joined in with her laughter. She got on her knees and began to pick up the scattered papers. Looking at one of the sheets, she noticed a scrawled signature at the bottom.
Jeff Donovan.
Her laughter faded as she glanced to Rome. He waved his hand for her to join him back on the bed.
She grabbed the rest of the documents and returned to the bed to sit beside him, showing him the paper. Reading it along with him, she could sense his gentle playfulness morph into serious work mode.
The paper was a gruesomely detailed report on what the faction had found up at the Barracks. The empty syringe. The bodies. The destruction.
The last paragraph was a requisition for additional force to track down the source of the damage.
Meaning her.
The last line of the requisition clarified the additional force.
Meaning Rome.
Jeff signed the order to hire Rome to track her down and bring her in. Dead or alive.
Harper just gawked at the paper, realizing just how crazy things had become. And just how much he’d given
up for her. She was going to destroy his entire career. Because of her, he’d had to make a choice to go against his boss, regardless of the fact that Jeff was a horrible, rotten, disgusting person.
A strong hand settled on her thigh, halting her uneasy thoughts.
“This was my choice, Harper,” Rome said quietly. “When Jeff gave me your picture, I knew. I just knew that something was off about it. But this, you and me, is right.”
Harper looked at Rome’s face. He was looking out the window, but his gaze seemed unfocused.
“I can’t explain it, but I guess it doesn’t surprise me that Jeff is behind this,” he continued. “I just hate that for the first time in my life, I regret what I do for a living. Regret that my mistake provoked this. I knew that operations like Jeff’s existed. I knew that innocents like Bobby were killed for knowing things they shouldn’t. I guess it just never mattered to me.” His gaze shifted to hers and burned in its forlorn intensity. “Until you.”
She covered his hand with hers, not really knowing what she could say to make this better. Wait, yes she did. She just couldn’t believe she was about to say it.
“I love you,” Harper simply stated. The three words tasted strange and unfamiliar, but somehow right.
Rome turned his body to face her. Taking her hand, he brought it up to his lips and kissed her palm. “I know you do,” he said with a sure grin.
She smiled back at him and shook her head at his response. The same one she’d had.
Rolling the other way, she swung off the bed and padded to her bag of clothes. Unzipping the duffel, she reached in and pulled out a few things to wear and slipped them on with a sigh.
Things between her and Rome were getting a little too close, a lot too fast. And ultimately had nowhere to go. But it felt nice. New and scary, but nice.
She needed air.
Besides, she needed to do something. Now more than ever, she wanted to resolve this whole thing and get her revenge so she could explore a real relationship with Rome. She had no idea how long it would be possible or whether life was ever going to return to a semblance of normal during her tapering life span.
“I’m going outside for some air,” she said, bending over to tie her running shoes. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw him still sitting on the bed staring at her with a questioning expression. She tossed him a wave and walked to the door of the cabin.
Harper stepped outside the cabin, breathing in the fresh, crisp air. Thriving ferns graced the area, waving in the light breeze.
She moseyed past the Bug toward the rushing creek and began to walk along the side of the burbling water. The natural hum had a calming effect on her mind and body, as water always did.
Gazing around the lush green trees flanking the rough path beside the creek, she thought of the information she and Rome had gathered from Bobby’s data and the files.
So. The formula flowing in her blood was the only true serum left. And she had the formula buried and locked deep inside her memory. Which meant she was the only pure fruit of Bobby’s efforts. She was able to do things the other guys couldn’t do. And so far, Jeff’s faction had been unsuccessful in trying to replicate it.
It was a strange feeling knowing that she was one of a
kind. Strange and isolating. Even if—
when
—she did finish this, the psi powers would still be part of her. And eventually steal her life.
A life that was forever changed. And though she had Rome, what kind of life could they really have with her unknown and limited life expectancy?