Authors: Rebecca Zanetti
her neck across her face.
Audrey’s heartbeat kicked into a full-out gallop. “What is that?”
Isobel giggled. “Good news. Very good news.”
Dr. Zycor pushed an ultrasound machine toward the table. “You’re completely healed, Audrey. It’s
almost a miracle.”
Oh. So her crazy mother wanted grandchildren someday, was that it? Audrey lay down and shook her
head. “There’s no way I’m procreating, Mother.” Yet, the thought of being healed, of actually having a
child, created a burning need inside her. The feeling had been there since she’d first met Nate, actually.
The doctor squirted gel on Audrey’s stomach and pressed the receptor against her abdomen. Audrey
settled back, relaxing. She’d had hundreds of ultrasounds through the years.
A rhythmic
thump, thump, thump
echoed throughout the room.
Audrey frowned and turned toward the screen. “What is that?” Her gaze landed on the outline of a baby
with something fluttering in the center. The heart. Shock nearly stopped her breathing. “What—”
Isobel clapped her hands. “It worked. I can’t believe it worked.”
Audrey’s chest constricted and her breath caught. She began to pant, and a ringing filled her ears.
“Hold on.” Dr. Zycor pressed a dry hand against her head. “Panic attack. Hold your breath for a
moment.”
Audrey held her breath, allowing the carbon dioxide to dissipate. She’d fought panic attacks for a while
after the explosion, but she’d learned to manage them and hadn’t endured one in over a year. She sucked in
air. “I’m pregnant?”
“Yes.” Isobel peered closer to the baby moving on the monitor. “About fourteen weeks. Your last
surgery wasn’t really a surgery. We sedated you and inserted sperm into you—after you’d been ingesting a
series of hormones, of course.” She frowned. “I’d hoped for a multiple birth, but apparently there’s only
one little genius soldier in there.”
Audrey shook her head, the room hazing. Pregnant? “How—who?”
Isobel’s eyes glittered with satisfaction. “Nathan’s, of course.”
“No.” Audrey shoved the ultrasound receptor away and sat up. The thumping stopped. “All of their
specimens were destroyed in the blast.” She’d double-checked.
Disappointment filled Isobel’s face when the screen fuzzed, and she turned toward Audrey with a
resigned sigh. “We had one vial for each Gray brother stored at a safe location, because as you know, we
always wanted to create offspring from them. They’re the most talented and gifted soldiers we’ve ever
created, so who knows how gifted the next generation might be? How much they might help the
commander’s cause? We used all of the samples over the last five years—unsuccessfully—saving Nathan’s
for you in case we healed you. You were the only woman ever to be impregnated by a Gray brother, so we
had to take the chance that it wasn’t a fluke.”
Audrey swayed. “Wh-why Nathan and not one of his brothers?”
“Because Nathan had managed to impregnate you before, even though that was natural and not via test
tube. Sometimes there are chemicals and hormones at play we can’t pinpoint.” Isobel beamed, a maniacal
glint in her eyes. “Since you and Nate had created life once before, we hoped against hope the result might
happen again.”
Audrey shook her head, her mind swirling. Fear and a dangerous hope burst through her. She was
pregnant. Again. With Nate’s baby.
The room went dark as she fainted completely.
When Audrey came to, her mother was gone. Audrey sat up on the examination table, her head
pounding. She put a hand to her forehead and murmured a soft “ow.”
Dr. Zycor, sitting on a rolling stool, finished typing onto a tablet and glanced up, his eyes soft behind
the wire-rimmed glasses. “Are you feeling all right?”
Fury consumed her so quickly she nearly hissed. “You bastard. You fucking bastard.” She’d trusted
him. Hurt and disbelief nearly propelled her from the table, but her legs shook, and she didn’t trust them to
hold her up.
From day one, when he told her he’d be able to heal her internally, that he’d be able to save at least one
of her ovaries, she’d thought they were on the same page. In the same corner. She’d thought she wasn’t so
alone in the sterile medical environment. “I’m going to kill you.”
He nodded. “I can fully understand your anger.”
“Can you, now?” Disbelief flooded her. “My mother was aware of the plan from the very beginning?”
she whispered, already knowing the answer.
“Of course.” Sympathy glittered in his dark eyes. “It was her idea, actually.”
Betrayal melded with outrage until focus escaped Audrey. Her mother had allowed the commander to
impregnate her against her will and without her knowledge. How could she have done that?
Rage overtook the hurt.
Audrey reached under the pillow to draw out the card and jumped off to snatch her skirt off the chair.
Why hide her body? The man had seen her both inside and out. “I trusted you.” She kicked one leg into the
silk, discreetly sliding the card into a pocket.
“I know.” He stood and whipped off the glasses. “I apologize for deceiving you, but you knew I
worked for the commander from the beginning. And the medical advances here—”
“Shut up.” If one more person talked about her body and the incredible medical advances, she’d break
their nose in one punch. “Where’s Dr. Evil?” She hadn’t called her mother by the sarcastic nickname in way
too long.
Zycor glanced at the closed door. “I assume she went to update the commander on the news.”
The news. Audrey’s hands trembled as she zipped up her skirt. A baby. Her baby. And Nate’s baby.
They’d used condoms when they’d had sex. Yet here Audrey had become pregnant with Nate’s baby
via in vitro when he’d been nowhere around and she’d been sedated. The irony nearly choked her.
Danger instantly threatened the barely formed human for the mere fact of its parentage. Nathan’s child.
The commander and Audrey’s mother would never let the child live a normal life—never let him or her see
freedom. Unless Audrey stopped them.
Maternal rage surrounded her heart. This was her baby, and she’d protect it. No matter what. Its father
was one of the most deadly men in the world, and he needed to live in order to help. So she had a job to
do. Now.
Air swished as she shot an uppercut to Zycor’s throat, sending him sprawling against a cabinet. He cried
out, arms wide, and medicinal cotton balls rained down. Twirling him, she forced him into a choke hold,
fighting hard as he struggled like a caught carp. But she held fast, taller and with better leverage, until he
dropped into unconsciousness. “Sorry, Doc,” she muttered while removing his lab coat and taking his
security clearance card just in case.
Her shoulder ached when she shrugged into the lab coat, which smelled like bleach. Then she reached
for a rubber band in a drawer and put her hair in a bun. The final accessory was the doctor’s eyeglasses.
She was well known in the facility, and she might be able to fool people into thinking she now worked
with her mother. Maybe. Time ticked down. Her mother would return soon.
Audrey hurried through hallways toward the secured areas, fear and adrenaline flooding her system.
Was that bad for the baby? She pressed a palm against her still-flat abdomen, trying to force herself to be
calm. Her knowledge about pregnancy and forming fetuses could fit on a note card. Last time, she hadn’t
been pregnant long enough to figure out how to do it right.
Maybe she should hit the bookstore on the way home. For now, she needed to center herself and relax
as she committed treason, trespassing, and disloyalty. The third element was the one that would send the
commander over the edge.
Her mother’s card swiped easily in a reader, and Audrey stepped through a new doorway into an area
she’d never visited. A narrow hallway led to another locked door, and her boots swished on bleach-clean
tiles as she made her way through the next security point and into a small vestibule leading in several
different directions. She headed to the right and peered through a window in a door where a myriad of
scientists worked at different stations in a lab. A series of doors led to other areas—probably more labs.
Too many people.
So she hustled back and took a different hallway, this one leading to several armories and conference
rooms littered with battle plans. An office at the end smelled like the commander and was decorated with
pictures of war. His computer beckoned her, but she probably had a better chance with her mother’s.
A hand on her elbow stopped her. She gasped and glanced up at a man in a black soldier’s uniform.
Dark brown eyes focused on her. “Miss Madison? Where’s your escort?” he asked.
She slipped her arm free, almost surprised when he released her. “Dr. Zycor let me in and told me to go
to my mother’s office for some assignment. I wanted to pop by and say hello to Franklin.”
Suspicion tightened the soldier’s solid jaw. Standing almost as big as Nate, the guy lacked any kindness
in those eyes. “I was not informed you’d be in the secured area today.”
“Need to know, buddy. I’m now working with my mother.” She turned on her heel and tried to keep
her shoulders back as her stomach objected. “Get back to work.”
He escorted her down the hallway, past several offices to a large one at the end. The scent of rose water
smacked Audrey, and her gut revolted. Now she got morning sickness? Swallowing, she loped inside and
dropped into a chintzy guest chair. Her mother’s desk was glass, and pictures of the brain covered the walls.
No pictures of Audrey. “I’ll wait here.”
The soldier reached for a phone and talked into a speaker. “I need confirmation that Miss Madison is
now allowed in the secured areas without an escort.”
Shit. Shit. Shit.
Audrey eyed him, looking for an opening. How was she going to take him down? What
if she put the baby at risk?
A crackle echoed across the speaker, and a voice hissed through. “I’ll alert the commander and track
down Dr. Madison. She mentioned she had a meeting later today. For now, your orders are to get on the
plane for China, Daniel,” a voice ordered. “We’re under the gun here.”
Daniel eyed Audrey. “Stay here and don’t touch anything.” Turning on his heel, he disappeared.
“No problem,” she whispered, hurrying around the desk to the computer. She punched in a couple of
keys and waited until the sign-in screen came up. What would her mother’s password be? She had no clue.
Taking a chance, she tried several variations for “brain” and Franklin and war. Frustration welled up. It
couldn’t be. So she typed in AUDREY.
Denied.
Why would she have even thought her mother would’ve used her kid’s name as a password like a
normal mother? Why did that hurt? She shoved down any pain because now wasn’t the time to deal with
childhood issues. If ever.
Oh well. Audrey rolled up her sleeves and went to work. Having a superior IQ that was shaped by the
best in the world came in handy. If anybody could hack her mother’s computer, it’d be Audrey.
Unfortunately, she didn’t have much time. The algorithm she ran had been created by a genius ten years
ago, and she’d made it even better. Faster. Trickier.
The computer dinged exactly five minutes and twenty-three seconds later, giving up the code made up
of a random set of letters and numbers. Figured. Audrey sat forward and searched for “kill chips.” The
computer offered no results. What would her mother call the chips? Audrey sat back, her mind reeling, and
typed in “C4 neutralizing measure.” C4 came up on several documents, and Audrey began clicking through
them.
She needed to vomit halfway through reading, and it wasn’t from pregnancy. How could her mother be
so evil? The chips had been inserted and would certainly detonate. The only man she’d ever loved and the
father of her baby.
Baby.
This baby would have a father, damn it. If Audrey didn’t find a way to deactivate Nate’s chip, he’d die.
She would not allow her child to be abandoned by its father, even by death. Pressure threatened to choke
her.
An outside door slammed. Air filled her lungs as she sucked it in, trying not to puke. One more page.
She clicked on it and finally hit pay dirt. All the details about the computer program that controlled the
chips.
Quickly printing the page, she folded the paper to cram in her back pocket. She erased her search, and
instituted the password page right before her mother’s high heels clicked into the room.
Isobel sighed and clipped around the desk to see the now blank page. “Impressive move taking my
security card.” She held out a hand.
Audrey slapped the card into her mother’s palm with a bit more force than was necessary. “How could
you do this to me?”
Isobel sighed. “For goodness’ sake. You were so sad when you lost the baby before, I figured you’d be
pleased.”