Double Dose (Research & Desire) Read online

  Rubbing the stubble along his jaw, he watched her with a considering expression. “On a scale of one to ten, how angry are you feeling right now? Think of one as not angry at all and you’ll even send us all a Christmas card, and ten as you’ll run screaming to the cops as soon as your feet hit Denver soil—well, pavement or whatever.”

  Daphne blinked at the non sequitur. “Um...probably a seven? I should be at a nine, with the drugging and kidnapping and everything, but this seems pretty mild as possible abduction scenarios could go.”

  He was silent for several moments, still looking at her with a serious expression that looked odd on his normally cheerful face. “I want to explain about us. It won’t excuse Ari’s incredibly idiotic decision to grab you, but it might make it a little more understandable.”

  Daphne lifted an eyebrow. It’d have to be a pretty good explanation to justify a kidnapping, even one that had been fairly civil so far.

  At her skeptical expression, the corners of his mouth twitched. “I said a little more understandable. Maybe?”

  “Fine,” she sighed. “Let’s hear it.”

  Instead of starting his explanation, Darwin hesitated. “I know you have no reason to protect us, but I’m asking you to not share what I’m about to tell you with anyone. Ari and B worked hard to create this hiding place for us. I don’t know about the other guys, but I’m tired of running blindly.”

  “Running from what?”

  He shook his head. “I’ll get to that. I just wanted to ask if you could please, out of the kindness of your heart, keep our secret.”

  Daphne opened her mouth but closed it again when she realized that she wasn’t sure what to say. After a quiet few seconds, she tried again. “I can’t really promise anything right now. I don’t have enough information to make a decision like that.”

  He studied her again. “Fair enough.”

  Despite his words, he just stared at her in silence.

  She tried to wait patiently but finally made a get-on-with-it gesture with her hand.

  “Sorry.” His grin was pained. “This is only the second time I’ve told someone about this. It’s not any easier than the first time.”

  “Who’d you tell the first time?”

  “Tom.” Now his smile was soppy with love. When she gave him a confused look and shook her head, he elaborated. “He was here when you woke up. Bambi eyes and dimples?”

  She thought back to the disorienting, overwhelming minutes after she regained consciousness. Although she had no memory of anyone’s dimples, the “Bambi eyes” comment rang a faint bell. “Is he the one who got in a stare-off with Ari?”

  He beamed with pride. “That’s Tom. He’s my boyfriend.”

  “Oh. He seems nice.” She winced internally at her inane comment, but the chatty way he passed on the information was such a contrast to his ultra-serious demeanor of just moments earlier that it threw her off.

  “He is. He was dealing with some rough issues when we met, and I didn’t help by pulling him into my mess.” His sweeping arm gesture was vague.

  “Your mess?” Daphne prompted, still not any more enlightened than she’d been at the start of this conversation.

  “Yep.” He fell silent again.

  She sighed.

  “I know. Sorry.” He grimaced. “It’s just...well, I don’t really know you. It was hard enough telling Tom. I feel like I’m exposing all of us by revealing it to you, someone who could tell the world all about us as soon as you get back to civilization. It’s nice being able to stay in one spot, especially with everyone else here.”

  It was her turn to make a face. “I can’t really promise to keep your secret when I don’t know what it is. I mean, if you’re kidnapping women—”

  “Of course not,” he interrupted. “You’re our first kidnappee.”

  “Okay. I’m honored?” She shook her head to refocus her thoughts. “My point is that I can’t be complicit in whatever illegal things you’re doing out here.”

  “We’re not really doing anything illegal.” He paused and then amended, “Well, not violently illegal.”

  “Drugs?”

  “No.” He grinned at her again. “Unless you count Claire’s misused sleep aid.”

  “Sleep aid?” Her tone was skeptical.

  With a shrug, he amended the description. “Instant sleep aid? It’s actually pretty awesome stuff. It can either be inhaled, injected, ingested or even absorbed topically... Um, anyway, you probably don’t want to hear about that right now.”

  She rolled her eyes and tried not to laugh. “So what nonviolent, illegal things are you doing?”

  His smile slipped away. “Just what we need to do in order to stay alive and keep our freedom.”

  “Like...?” She suppressed another sigh. Darwin was the king of vague phrases and misdirection.

  “Like fake IDs. Ari and B counting cards in Vegas to get the cash to buy this place. Cal stole a few cars... You know, petty stuff.”

  She choked. “Petty stuff? Car theft is petty?”

  He shrugged. “It was necessary. Besides, the owners got most of them back. Well, except for the one that’s still here. Oh, and the one that blew up.”

  There were so many things wrong with what he’d just admitted that she didn’t know what to say. All she managed to do was open her mouth and close it again.

  Ignoring her consternation, he waved a hand, dismissing the exploding, stolen cars as if they’d been discussing jaywalking. “They tracked down me, Calvin, and Ed, one by one. We came here to hide and figure out a way we could stop running—a way that didn’t involve getting recaptured. Or, you know, death.”

  “Who are ‘they’?” Daphne asked, relieved the explanation was finally getting somewhere.

  “A private research group, although their employees like to pretend to be agents from various government agencies, if it gets them what they want.” His eyes flicked over her face, as if monitoring her reaction. She tried to keep her expression impassive. “The five of us—all the guys except for Tom—were part of a study. They were trying to improve our mental and physical abilities so we’d be better killing machines.”

  She leaned forward, fascinated despite her fear that she was being fed a heaping helping of bullshit. Although a bunch of questions flew through her mind, she kept her mouth shut, afraid that interrupting would shut him down.

  “The surgeries fucked all of us up. None of us can remember our personal histories before we woke up post-op in the lab. It was worse for B, though. After a training exercise, when the scientists forced him to take out this guy, Benjy got knocked on the head. When he regained consciousness, he just stopped talking.”

  “Surgeries?” She jumped on the chance to find out more about Benjy’s brain surgery. Ever since Ari had mentioned it and then clammed up, she’d wanted more details.

  “Yeah.” Darwin’s normally sunny face was dark. “They dug around in our brains and left a bunch of hardware in there. Amped up our senses and processing.” He held out his arm, showing her a faint white line running across his elbow. “Carbon-fiber implants. They strengthened our bones and muscles. We’re just a bunch of bionic bastards now.”

  Daphne sat back, disappointed. She’d been hoping for a real explanation, and he was handing her this science-fiction crap.

  “I know it sounds crazy, but I really am telling you the truth.” He looked around the room, obviously searching for something.

  “What are you looking for?”

  “Something to break,” he said absently, then laughed when she flinched. “Not because I’m a psycho. I just want to prove to you how freakishly strong I am. This is the kind of thing you won’t believe until you can see it for yourself.”

  He prowled the room while she watched him warily.

  “I’ll get i
n trouble for breaking anything here,” he said after a quick tour of the loft. “Let’s go.”

  “Go?” She stood up, hopeful but not quite trusting this suddenly irrational Darwin.

  He grimaced apologetically. “Not to Denver, sorry. I thought I could show you around and maybe find something for an easy-to-replace, hard-to-break demonstration while we’re at it.”

  Daphne bit the inside of her lip, unsure. It would be nice to leave the loft, but his insistence that he had superpowers was kind of freaking her out.

  “C’mon.” Darwin grinned at her, and she softened. It was impossible to resist that smile. “I’m not nuts. I promise. Is this the face of a crazy person?”

  “Quite possibly.” Despite her words, she found herself fighting a smile as she moved toward the stairs and Darwin. It would probably be better not to be in an enclosed space with the man if he was going to get violent.

  When they stepped outside, she immediately shivered.

  “First stop, the main lodge.” Darwin threw an arm around her, and she stiffened. Great smile or no, he was still one of her kidnappers, plus he thought he was the Bionic Man. He noticed her rigidity, and his arm slipped away.

  “What’s at the main lodge?” she asked through chattering teeth, contrarily missing his body heat.

  “A coat for you, for starters.”

  As he moved faster, she jogged to catch up with him. The headache and dizziness from earlier were gone, to her relief, and running actually made her feel warmer. They were on a rocky dirt trail that looked just barely wide enough for a vehicle. Evergreen trees edged the path, towering above them and hiding the view around the bend. They passed another cabin that looked a lot like hers—well, not hers, she mentally corrected herself, but the one she’d been stuck in against her will.

  The brown-eyed guy from that morning jogged toward them wearing several layers of athletic gear. Darwin increased his speed, heading right for the other man. Although he laughed and tried to dodge, the runner was swept up in Darwin’s hold and spun in a circle. Putting down the shorter man, Darwin sent him on his way again with a smack on his ass. Although he glared, the other man didn’t really seem to mind the assault.

  Darwin watched the rear view of the runner until he disappeared around a bend in the path. “That man has a fine backside,” he sighed, before resuming his fast walk in their original direction. Daphne couldn’t hold back a smile as she scurried after him.

  After the trail made another twisting curve, she saw a larger log structure that had to be the main lodge. She slowed, trying to catch her breath. It was a little embarrassing how quickly she’d tired, but she blamed it on the lack of oxygen this high in the mountains.

  Darwin stopped a few paces in front of her and waited for her to catch up with him. “I’ll show you the workshop first. This way.”

  He ushered her toward a side door of the lodge. Stepping inside, she blinked a few times to accustom her eyes to the dimmer light. Once her vision adjusted, she kind of wished it hadn’t. Sir Curse-A-Lot was leaning against a desk, scowling at her. His sour expression stopped her in her tracks.

  “Hey, Cal,” Darwin greeted, nudging her between her shoulder blades as if encouraging her to step farther into the room. She didn’t move, not really wanting to get any closer to Crabby Cal.

  “What the fuck, D?” he growled.

  “What?” Darwin gave up trying to get her to move her cemented feet and circled around her, plopping down a few feet away in an office-style chair.

  “What’s she doing here?”

  Darwin smirked a little. “Ari’s an idiot and kidnapped her.”

  “No, you asshole,” Cal growled. “Why is she here? In the middle of our fucking workshop?”

  “I’m showing her around.”

  “You’re giving her a motherfucking tour?” His scowl deepened, and he crossed his arms. Although he wasn’t quite as intimidating as Ari doing the crossed-arms thing, he was scary enough for Daphne to have to resist taking a step away from him.

  Seemingly unaffected by Cal’s enraged bulk, Darwin spun side to side in the chair. “If she had to stay in that loft much longer, she’d be crying with boredom.”

  Cal thrust both hands in his hair, catching double handfuls. His knuckles blanched white. “Jesus motherfucking Christ, Darwin! It was bad enough that cock-sucking, shithead, kidnapping son-of-a-bitch Ari brought her here. Now you’re showing her around? Making sure she sees every goddamn thing? Guaran-fucking-teeing she’ll know our faces and location and every motherfucking thing we’re trying to do here?”

  Unable to stop herself, Daphne took a quick step backward toward the door.

  “Knock it off, Calvin.” Darwin shot her a glance. “You’re scaring Baby D. Besides, if you want to be technical about it, I’m the cock-sucking one—not A.”

  She held her breath, waiting for Cal’s brain to implode, but his fingers relaxed, and his hands dropped to his sides.

  “I’m serious, D,” he grumbled. “It’s bad enough bringing Claire or Tom or Lauren here, and they actually give a shit what happens to us. Bringing a stranger here against her will? Christ. We’d better start packing, since those lab fuckheads will be here as soon as she can get to a goddamn phone.”

  “I’m trying to fix that.” Darwin had stopped spinning and was watching the other man with a serious expression. “The only way to get her on our side is to let her know what’s going on. If we bring her back to Denver while she’s still a scared victim, she’ll run screaming to the cops.”

  Cal stared at him, his hands fisting at his sides. “You motherfucker. You told her.”

  “Yep.” The chair started moving again, side to side. “She doesn’t believe me yet, so I’m just looking for something unbreakable to break.”

  All the fight seemed to drain out of Cal as he sagged into another chair. “We’re so fucked.”

  Chapter Three

  With both men sitting down, Daphne felt a little more at ease and relaxed enough to glance around the space. When she thought of a workshop, images of hammers and T squares and sawdust came to mind, but this place was nothing like a typical garage shop. Computers, both laptops and desktops, were scattered on the desks and worktables. Large flat-screen monitors were arranged in clusters of three at six stations. Tiny parts to what looked like electronic gadgets were carefully arranged on one workstation.

  “Are you a hacker?” she asked Cal.

  He flicked her a look, and she thought he wasn’t going to answer at first. With a heavy sigh and another hard glare at Darwin, he gave her an affirmative shrug.

  “Is that why the cops are after you?”

  “No,” Darwin answered for him this time. “That’d be the multiple counts of motor vehicle theft.”

  “Motherfucker.” Cal threw something at him. It moved through the air so fast that Daphne didn’t even realize what had happened until the screwdriver was in Darwin’s hand.

  She gaped at him, looking back and forth between the two men.

  “Perfect,” Darwin said. “Come here, Baby D.”

  Taking a few reluctant steps toward his chair, she asked, “Why are you calling me that?”

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her until her thighs were touching the arm of his chair. “Because we’re both Ds but you’re the littler D. Check this out.”

  Automatically taking the screwdriver he pressed into her hands, she looked down at it, then back up at him in confusion. “What am I checking out? It’s a screwdriver.”

  “Exactly.” He nodded in satisfaction as if she’d solved a tricky puzzle. “Try to bend the metal part.”

  “O-kay,” she said slowly, once again wondering exactly how mentally unbalanced he really was. Turning her attention to the tool, she saw that it appeared to be a normal flathead screwdriver, albeit longer than the one
s she was used to, not that she handled too many screwdrivers in her day-to-day life. The metal part was long enough for her to grip it in both fists. She tried to twist her hands away from each other but, as she’d expected, there was no give to the metal at all.

  “It’s a regular, unbendable screwdriver, right?” Darwin asked as he took it back from her.

  “Sure,” she agreed with a shrug.

  “This is a shitty idea, D,” Cal muttered. She glanced at him nervously, but he didn’t come charging across the room to snatch the screwdriver from Darwin’s hands as she half-expected him to do.

  Darwin grinned. “This is an awesome idea. Okay, Baby D, watch.”

  He gripped the screwdriver like she had, although there was less room for his enormous hands. The outsides of his fists tipped down until they were vertical, his closed fingers facing each other. His hands opened, revealing a U-shaped screwdriver.

  Daphne blinked at it, her brain unable to register what she’d just seen. With a grin, Darwin handed her the mangled tool. She didn’t want to touch it at first but then realized that was silly. The bent screwdriver wasn’t going to hurt her. Accepting it, she pulled on either side of the metal U, trying to bend it back. It wouldn’t budge.

  “Is this a trick?” she asked, tugging futilely. “Did you do a sleight-of-hand, creepy-magician thing?”

  He looked offended. “As if I’d do a creepy-magician thing. You’re a hard sell. Hey, C, pass me that padlock, would you?”

  Despite muttering something under his breath that included the words “stupid,” “fucking” and “idea,” he grabbed the opened lock from where it was hooked on the latch of a metal box and chucked it at Darwin’s head. She gasped, but D’s hand shot up to catch it before it left a dent in his pretty face. He didn’t even seem offended as he passed the lock to her with a gentle underhand toss.

  She fumbled the catch, of course, her mind flashing back to torturous games of dodgeball in the elementary school gym. Always being younger and smaller than her classmates hadn’t helped her inability to play pretty much any sport, especially those involving objects flying through the air. Her instinct wasn’t to catch things flying at her face, but rather to duck. She liked to believe her survival instincts were just a little more evolved than most people’s, although that thought didn’t make her feel better when she had to grab the lock off the floor as the two men snickered.