Authors: Rebecca Zanetti
the-line machinery surrounded her on pure marble countertops with Brazilian maple cabinets. A medical
facility for only the very special… or those with amazing connections.
The doctor straightened, his dark eyes warm. “Well, I know it still hurts, but it’s amazing you can walk
now.” He spoke without ego or self-congratulations, and more like an overall gratefulness for the status of
modern medical achievements.
“Thanks to you.” This doctor was one of many who’d worked on her leg, but he’d done a good job,
and he’d always treated her like a patient and not a science experiment. Audrey glanced down at the scars
on her leg and grimaced as the Band-Aid on her elbow tightened. The nurse had taken blood the second
Audrey had arrived.
The doctor smiled. “I think it was more your own stubbornness in the recovery process. For years I’ve
performed surgery on some of the best trained, toughest soldiers in the world, and you beat all of them in
heart and determination, hands down.” He slipped the sheet back over her bare legs.
“Thanks.” The months and months of physical therapy had almost broken her, but she’d kept going
with one thought in mind: revenge. For her childhood and for the brainwashing Isobel had endured for
years.
The doctor typed onto a tablet, taking notes. “Are you seeing Dr. Zycor today?”
“Yes.” Audrey settled more comfortably onto the examination table. “My last internal surgery was over
three months ago, and this is a follow-up to check for scar tissue.”
Dr. Washington nodded and rubbed the back of his neck with a large-boned hand. “Excellent.” He
swiped something on the tablet and patted her shoulder. “Let me know if you have any further discomfort,
and please consider returning to physical therapy.”
“I will.” Not. Physical therapy had brought her as far as it could, and she would do the remaining
exercises at home. “Have a good one.”
“You too.” The doctor turned and quietly exited the room.
Audrey took a deep breath, swinging her legs under the sheet. The A/C flipped on, and she shivered.
The door opened, and she began to smile, only to stop halfway when a woman entered. She swallowed.
“Hello, Mother.”
Isobel Madison lifted her chin, her dark blue eyes appraising. “Audrey, how are you feeling?”
“Better. My leg is hanging in there.” For the past five years, since Audrey had worked with the
commander, she and her mother had reached a mutual agreement. Maybe, for once, her mother was actually
proud of her. Audrey didn’t want maternal approval, or rather, she didn’t want to need maternal approval.
But she sat straighter and with a lighter heart. “I’m waiting for the next doctor.”
Isobel nodded. “You could’ve done something with your hair.”
Irritation chilled Audrey’s chest along with an odd hurt. “I could always go for the bun look, but it’s
patently yours.”
Her mother sniffed and flipped over the metal chart in her fine-boned hands. “Sarcasm is beneath you.”
Audrey tried to shrug but ended up patting her hair instead. How could she and her mother be so
different? She’d inherited her mother’s blue eyes and black hair, but Audrey was much taller and curvier
than the genius scientist. Even now, as Isobel perused her daughter’s medical chart, scientific curiosity lit
her eyes. “Why are you here?” Audrey asked wearily, searching for concern in her mother’s expression.
There had to be some.
A familiar hurt assailed her. She knew her mother felt love because that sentiment had motivated the
woman for decades with the commander. So surely her mother loved her, too. She just didn’t show it well.
Isobel closed the chart and smoothed down her perfectly pressed lab coat. “I’m here to review your
current medical progress, of course. Some of the surgeries we performed on you were experimental and
will change the medical community forever.”
Science and exploration ruled and motivated Isobel Madison like nothing else. “Of course,” Audrey
muttered.
“Have you been taking the concoction of natural vitamins and muscle-healing tissues we created for
you?” Isobel asked.
“Yes.” Audrey warmed a little. Isobel had been pushing those vitamins that really did help Audrey to
feel better, and plus, she trusted the science and the doctors. Her pathetic gratefulness at thinking her
mother cared tasted like sour lemons on her tongue. They’d never really had a heart-to-heart, and it was
time. Since the commander would surely kill Audrey if he found out her deal with the senator, she might
not have long to get the answers she needed. “Why did you have me?” Audrey asked quietly.
Isobel tilted her head. “You’ve never asked me that.”
Frankly, Audrey had never wanted to hear the answer. “I’m asking now.”
Isobel sighed and pushed a strand of hair away from her timeless face. “I found myself pregnant and
wondered at the experience. Plus, it seemed a shame to waste my intelligence and not pass it on.” She
tapped long nails on the metal clipboard. “These last couple of years since you’ve been working with us,
I’ve truly seen your potential.”
It was as close as Isobel had ever come to expressing pride in her daughter. Audrey’s throat clogged.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. I take satisfaction in seeing my child succeed.”
Audrey swallowed, wondering if she could finally gain answers. “Who was my father?” She’d asked the
question many a time, never receiving an answer.
“No clue.” Isobel glanced at the gold watch around her narrow wrist. “Could’ve been any number of
soldiers—it’s not like I’ve ever denied myself.”
No, the woman had slept with dozens of soldiers through the years. Maybe more. But… to say her IQ
went beyond genius was accurate. Wait a minute. Audrey thought about the myriad of emotions that struck
her because of Nate. She’d never want to have somebody else’s child if she was around him every day. Her
mother couldn’t be that different from her. “You wouldn’t have let yourself get knocked up.” Fire washed
through Audrey’s torso. “You would’ve chosen carefully.” Why had she never figured that out?
“Somebody with good genes and high intelligence.”
Isobel chuckled and shook her head. “Not exactly.”
Oh no. Audrey gasped and clutched her stomach. “You didn’t—”
Her mother frowned and then laughed. “The commander isn’t your father. While he’s tough and sexy,
his intelligence isn’t quite what I would’ve hoped.”
Wait a minute. While Isobel lied to herself, Audrey knew full well the woman loved the cruel
commander. She would’ve wanted his baby—intelligence or not. “I don’t believe you.”
Isobel started. “Excuse me?”
“You would’ve wanted Franklin’s offspring.” Audrey narrowed her gaze as her mind clicked facts into
place. “He said no.”
A glimmer of hurt lightened Isobel’s eyes to be quickly dispelled. “Fine. Franklin said that since we
worked together every day that a child between us would complicate things.”
Audrey bit back a gasp. How could such an intelligent woman like Isobel let a man treat her so poorly?
In the name of love? “Why do you love him, Mother? He’s terrible to you.”
Isobel scoffed. “Love? Don’t be ridiculous. This is about the pursuit of perfection.”
“At what cost?” Audrey murmured. Was she like her mother? Falling in love with the wrong man—a
man who could kill so easily? One who’d put his mission before her?
“Any cost is worth it if we create the perfect soldier.” Isobel shrugged, her eyes veiled.
Audrey shook her head. “You wouldn’t have picked somebody to knock you up.” She’d been wrong
and hadn’t figured in Isobel’s inexplicable feelings for the commander.
“I’ve told you for years that I have no idea who fathered you.” Isobel’s expression didn’t change.
“There was a time when I experimented a bit with hallucinogens, trying to expand my mind, and it often led
to recreational activities I can’t quite remember.”
Audrey’s head jerked back. “So my father might not even be a soldier?”
Isobel glanced down at the chart in her hands. “It’s possible, but usually I took a cadet or two home
with me.”
Audrey shook her head and dropped her head into her hands. “So it’s possible I was conceived in an
orgy after you’d popped shrooms. Really?” She lifted her head, finally, and with a bone-deep sadness,
accepting the possibility that she’d never know her father. Maybe he would’ve liked her.
“Again, I have no clue who fathered you, not that it matters,” Isobel said.
Audrey gathered the sheet more protectively around her legs. “So why have me?”
Isobel shrugged. “Why not? There was a chance you’d inherit my brilliance.”
“Apparently not,” Audrey said, her mind calculating scenarios. She needed answers. “Does it even
bother you that you set me up with Nathan? It nearly broke me when our relationship ended.”
“Oh for goodness’ sake. Nathan was just a man—get over it.”
“Just a man? I loved him!” Everything inside Audrey exploded at once. Just like Isobel loved the
commander. Life was so screwed up, and the one person who was supposed to have protected Audrey had
actually thrown her under the bus. “You used me. You used us both—as an experiment. As a way to
motivate a soldier.”
Isobel sighed. “Well, get over it because he’s never going to want you back. You broke his heart, and
there’s no forgiveness in that man.”
Nate would agree with her, and they were both wrong. The man had more capacity for love and loyalty
than anyone Audrey had ever met, and forgiveness was a part of that.
Audrey knew him, and it was time to seize the opportunity to delve deep and manipulate Isobel into
giving her information about the kill chips. No matter how screwed up Audrey’s feelings were for Nate, she
wanted to save him. She had to save him. “You don’t know Nathan.”
“I know everything about that boy—I’ve studied him since birth. You took away the only thing he
every truly loved besides his brothers—you. Nothing in him will ever be able to forgive you for that. It’s
how I made him.” Isobel frowned and eyed her watch again. “What in the world is taking so long?”
“You’re wrong. Nate will be back for me someday.” Audrey tipped her hand in order to gain
information, her fingers tapping nervously on the leather table. “Don’t you think?”
Shrewd blue eyes narrowed on her. “No. Why—do you?”
Audrey sat up straighter. “I wouldn’t, except the commander has had men following me for the last
three weeks. Why would they be watching me, if there wasn’t a credible reason?”
“Interesting.” Isobel pursed bright-red lips. “Soldiers, hmmm?”
“I can spot a tail, Mother.” Good Lord, she’d been partially raised in a military environment. “Why. Am.
I. Being. Followed?”
Isobel rolled her eyes. “I assume it has something to do with the subcommittee for military funding.
Franklin is hedging his bets.”
“Why haven’t you been able to find the Gray brothers? The commander is the best at tracking and, yet,
nothing.” How could she get Isobel to admit the truth about the kill chips?
“I’m not the soldier here, and I have no idea.” Isobel tapped a high heel on the floor.
No way would her mother let the truth slip. Well, one action left. Audrey launched off the table and
shoved her mother against a cabinet, forearm against the older woman’s throat. She cared little that she
stood in a T-shirt and underwear. “Tell me the truth, now. I have no trouble killing you.”
Surprise widened Isobel’s eyes, and she burst out laughing. “You forget—I made you, too.” Genuine
amusement and no anger crossed her face. She shoved Audrey’s hips, pushing her back a couple of inches.
“You always have amused me. Like you’d ever really kill your own mother. Sit down before the doctor gets
here.”
Audrey waited several heartbeats and then slowly backed up, reclaiming the sheet to sit on the table.
Yeah, the woman did know her. She’d never kill Isobel. But she would and could catch her off guard. Her
mother’s security card cut into her palm, and she discreetly tucked it under the pillow. The older woman
may have made Audrey, but she didn’t know her as well as she thought. The security card would get
Audrey access into any area of the entire facility. “I apologize. I’m not quite myself today,” she said quietly.
“I understand.” An indefinable gleam filled Isobel’s eyes.
Audrey swallowed as unease straightened her spine. What was going on?
A discreet knock sounded on the door, and Dr. Zycor slipped inside. Small of stature, the Asian doctor
was the smartest person Audrey had ever met—and that was saying something. Audrey instantly smiled.
While several doctors had operated or rehabbed her leg, only Dr. Zycor had fixed her insides. He remained
a calm and gentle man in a dangerous facility, and he’d been on her side.
He silently handed a sheet of paper to Isobel, who breathed out while reading. A pink flush rose from