Body Thief (39 page)

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Authors: C.J. Barry

BOOK: Body Thief
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That sent a rush of adrenaline through Griffin. If Parker so much as touched her, he’d kill him. “Don’t even think about it.”
Parker grinned knowingly. “Wouldn’t be the first time I stole your girl.”
His jaw clenched. “Deirdre thought you were me.”
“Is that what she told you?” Parker laughed. It echoed through the tunnels and came back twisted and monstrous.
“I got a news flash for you. My affair with her started long before I stepped into your shoes.” Parker took another step forward. “She
wanted
me. As me. It was never you.”
The kernel of doubt that Griffin had buried firmly in the back of his mind stepped forward, as solid as Parker’s words.
Parker said, “
You
were too busy working, trying to make a big name for yourself. She got lonely, Griffin. Simple as that.”
Rage flooded over him, turning his mind dark and centered on one realization: Everything in his life had been a lie. “You’re going to wish you were dead.”
That got a belly laugh out of Parker. “Maybe you aren’t seeing the same reality as me. Because you’re an unarmed human, and I’m a big bad Shifter. You lose.”
Time to show Parker something new. Griffin flexed his hands, inviting the electricity he alone owned. “You’ll have to drag me bodily out of here.”
Parker smiled and reached for him. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
Griffin gripped Parker’s wrist and let loose a powerful and reckless surge. Pain coursed through his hand with every pulse. There was no restraint and no reservations; he just let it flow.
Parker donned a look of horror and tried to pull away, but Griffin held him tight.
“Whaaaaa doing?” Parker said in abject desperation.
“Something I wish I’d done a year ago,” Griffin said, and watched Parker sway and then drop to his knees. He didn’t let go; he wasn’t done. “How’s it going?”
“Fuuuu—” Parker gasped. His eyes rolled up into his head, and Griffin pushed him onto his back into the sewer. His body started trembling, and color drained from his skin, turning him a ghostly white.
Griffin held on far longer than he ever had before, watching Parker die slowly. Rage gave him strength and conviction. He had the right to do this. Parker had killed innocent people, ruined his life, and needed to be stopped—
Then Cam cried out in pain.
His rage slipped away at the sound as he turned around to look at her. She was covered in slime, fighting to get up.
The last of his anger dissolved. He released Parker, and the Shifter shuddered. He wasn’t dead, Griffin knew, but suddenly, he didn’t care.
The only thing that mattered was Cam. He left Parker and knelt beside her. He wiped the grime from her Shifter face. She’d slipped back into unconsciousness. He patted her face, but she didn’t come to.
This was his fault. He’d put her in this danger, knowing full well they should have had backup. Because he’d wanted so badly to make sure he was the one to kill Parker. To get the revenge he’d earned. Now, she was suffering because of him. He didn’t deserve her.
Then he pulled Cam up by her hands and draped her over his shoulder. He cast one final look at Parker before heading back to the safety of Aristotle’s world.
 
Cam came to with a pounding head. Her Shifter body had done its thing and healed the broken bones, contusions, and anything else that needed fixing. Except her head.
“How are you feeling?”
Griffin’s rough voice surprised her, and she turned to find him sitting on the edge of the bed. He appeared tired but otherwise unharmed. A dim light was on, and she immediately shifted to human form.
His eyes narrowed. “You didn’t have to do that.”
She didn’t even realize she’d done it; it had been an instinctive reaction. “I know how you feel about Shifters.”
A slow smile crossed his face. “I’m getting over that.”
She smiled back. “I’m so glad. Did you get him?”
Griffin’s smile waned. “No. He got away.”
Cam pushed to her elbows, ignoring the few extra throbs of her head. This was important to him. He had to find closure. Without it, they—he—wouldn’t move on. “Parker is a threat to you, me, and everyone here.”
“I know.” Griffin gently pushed her back on the bed. “But you broke two walls. I think that’s enough for today.”
“I’m healed,” she protested. And she was. She hated to tell him that slamming into two walls was nothing.
She said, “I know how good you are at your job, and I don’t mean to sound unimpressed, but why didn’t Parker kill us when he had the chance?”
“Thanks,” Griffin said, his eyebrows lifting in amusement. “I think he was planning on using us as hostages against Harding.”
“That
asshole
.” No wonder Griffin wanted him dead. She remembered being on the ground and listening to them talk, but she couldn’t recall what they said.
Griffin leaned forward and checked her head. “How’s your skull?”
“Hard as a rock,” she replied and waved him away. “What did Parker tell you?”
Griffin’s expression turned serious. “Nothing important.”
She blinked at him. He was lying to her. Why? Was he cutting her out? It wasn’t just her pride that was hurt. And then it occurred to her that whatever they’d talked about might be something he didn’t want to face himself. There was a whole lot of history between them. “Are you going to hunt him down now?”
Griffin shrugged. “Probably.”
Foreboding loomed. “He’ll kill you next time. He won’t talk.”
Griffin didn’t reply, which concerned her even more. “You can’t take him down alone. You’ll need Shifters.”
He looked away from her, and she felt the distance between them grow. He said, “My wife knew it was him, not me.”
Oh God. His ex knew it was Parker that she was sleeping with? What next? How much more could Griffin take? She didn’t know, but if she didn’t do something, it would consume him. Anger would eat him alive and steal any chance of a life. She sat up in the bed. “Then she’s an idiot. You can’t change that.”
“He ran up all my charge cards with her. For her and she knew it,” Griffin said. The look of betrayal in his eyes reached all the way to his soul.
She put her hand on his cheek. “You can’t change that.”
“XCEL locked me up for four months because of him,” Griffin said.
“You can’t change the past,” she said. “You can’t live in it either.”
He focused on her. “You should hate us all for trying to exterminate you.”
His insight startled her. “I do, but it’s not like I can kill you
all
. Besides, I don’t have a choice. I have nowhere else to go.
We
have nowhere else to live. I’m stuck with you.”
For long moments, they sat in silence. She waited. Waited for him to finish whatever it was he didn’t want to say.
“Harding was behind protecting him,” Griffin said. “That’s how he came back from the dead.”
“I know,” she said, and then smiled. “I don’t need to be one hundred percent healed to kill Harding.”
Griffin turned and kissed the palm of her hand, sending jolts of excitement through her body. “Aristotle already has Shifters on him.” He pressed his lips to the inside of her wrist. “All we have to do is say the word.”
She sighed at his sensual pull on her. “Then I’m saying it,” she told him. “This has to stop. I’ll do it myself.”
Griffin pushed her back on the bed and climbed over her slowly. “I appreciate that, but you’d be at the end of a long line. Besides, we need him right where he is.”
She accepted Griffin’s weight and the line of kisses he planted down her throat. Her hands spread across his shoulders and back, drawing heat with every stroke. “Why?”
His teeth nipped at her earlobe. “I have a plan.”
That sounded vaguely promising. She tugged at his shirt. “Does it involve murder and mayhem?”
He pulled his shirt over his head and leaned on his elbows over her. His eyes were dark and focused on her, and only her. His breathing was deep and fast. “Definitely. Are you ready?”
Cam slid her thigh between his legs, reveling in the hard length of him. She was born ready for him. “Try me.”
 
Braxton had his little moles.
He walked through the corridors of the facility that he called home with a definite spring in his step. The white walls, floors, and ceilings were as sterile looking as they were clean. Every surface gleamed. This was a research facility, after all. He didn’t need a degree in chemistry to understand that one mistake, one broken beaker, one slip could mean death to all of them.
He ran this place with military precision. Today, it had paid off. He pushed open the steel doors that marked the outer part of the laboratory. Signs warned of danger everywhere. He donned a mask, gloves, a thin disposable jumpsuit, and booties.
Then he entered the containment cell that puffed air at him until it was sure he was not a threat. The door into the lab opened with a loud hiss, and he marched into the circular room where two beaten and bloodied lab techs were tied to chairs in the center of the room. Braxton addressed the armed guard standing over them. “Did you get anything out of them?”
“Just that they got their orders from someone underground, sir.”
Braxton eyed them. “They must have gotten paid somehow.”
“Neither of them took any money. We checked their finances. Nothing unusual.”
Braxton turned his attention to his two spies. Why the hell would they risk certain death for nothing? Fucking idiots.
“Are either one of them Shifters?” he asked.
“If they are, they didn’t try to shift during interrogation.”
Braxton nodded. That made it a lot easier. He’d probably gotten everything he was going to get out of them. His men were all well trained. “Kill them and dispose of the bodies.”
“Yes, sir.”
He left the room feeling mighty good. The moles were neutralized, which would get Harding off his ass and protect his communications. All he needed now was someone to clear him to kill Shifters.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
 
G
riffin sat beside Ernest at the computers as they processed their algorithms or whatever the hell Ernest’s computers did.
He was tired. He’d stayed with Cam for hours while she was unconscious, waiting and hoping she’d come back to him. The strain was more than he’d imagined, sitting there helplessly and hating himself for what he’d done to her.
Leaving Parker alive wasn’t anywhere near as bad as that. He didn’t want Cam to know he let Parker go either. He didn’t want her to blame herself, and she would. Besides, there would be another day for him and Parker. In the meantime, he’d left her alone to get some well-deserved sleep while he tried to come up with a plan to get inside the facility. He felt more tired just thinking about it. Even Ernest looked like he’d aged ten years since they came down here a few days ago.
Ernest yawned and said, “I tried, but I haven’t found a way in that doesn’t include everyone dying.”

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