“We got you the injection. Feel any different?” Jax asked, lines cut into his face.
Tace blinked. “No dots in my vision.” He turned to look at the bed next to him, where a small woman was busy patching up a guy with multiple knife wounds. She had long black hair and flawless mocha skin, and her movements were quick and economical.
Tace narrowed his gaze on the patient. There was something familiar about the guy.
“That’s Marcus,” Sami whispered. “Right, Jax?”
Jax wavered in place, his face unusually pale. “Yeah. That’s my brother.” He seemed almost in a daze.
Tace’s eyebrows rose. Yeah—he did look a little like Jax. Where the hell had he come from? Marcus was broad across the chest, looked tall, and held himself perfectly still. Turmoil filled his eyes as he let the woman stitch a slice over his right pec.
“You let me infect you, Penny,” Marcus rumbled, his voice raw.
Tace craned his neck to see a bandage over the woman’s shoulder.
She finished the stitches and gently placed a bandage over the wound. “I told you I’d get you out. That’s all that matters.” Sweat dotted her forehead, and her hands shook a little.
Ah, shit. Tace pushed himself up in the bed, his arms feeling like he’d lifted weights for twenty hours straight. He was the only medic there. “Do you have vitamin B?”
The woman nodded and pointed toward a counter near Jax. “I had an injection yesterday.”
“If you’ve been infected, you need another one now.” Tace shifted his legs to the edge of the bed.
“I’ll get it.” Sami patted his shoulder and crossed the room to take out the B. She filled a syringe and paused when Marcus growled.
Tace stiffened, preparing to insert himself between Sami and the threat. There was no doubt Jax’s brother was all threat.
“It’s okay,” Sami said calmly, handing the syringe to the woman. “Penelope can inject herself.”
Marcus settled back down, his gaze scanning the room.
“Marcus?” Jax said, leaning forward like he was approaching a wild animal. Hope and fear sizzled in his eyes. “You remember me?”
Marcus looked him over, no expression on his hard face. “No.”
Ah, shit. Tace looked at Marcus. “Are you a Mercenary?” Had they somehow missed Marcus before?
“No,” Marcus said.
Jax shuffled in place as if unsure what to do next. Emotion swirled in his dark eyes.
Tace glanced at the small woman Marcus seemed to be protecting. “Marcus, are you a soldier here at the Bunker?”
Marcus stilled. Tension rolled from him in a swell of heat. “No.”
Penelope reached out to touch him and then stopped. “Marcus was held in the cells.” At her words, Marcus’s face went blank.
Sami shook her head. “We let everyone out two months ago. Where were you before that?”
Marcus kept his gaze on Penelope and didn’t answer.
“Marcus,” Penelope said gently.
He didn’t blink. “This wasn’t my first Bunker.”
“How many are there?” Jax asked.
“Dunno.” Marcus said. “You infected?” he asked Penelope.
She nodded, her lips turning down. “I’m sorry. I think so.”
“Told you to run. You promised,” Marcus said so softly Tace could barely make out the words.
“I also promised to get you out of there.” Penelope sagged against the wall.
Marcus stood and gently laid her down on the bed. “You’ll be okay.” Gun still in his hand, he sat on the edge between the woman and everyone else. “We’ll move after the fever. Tomorrow.”
Tace cut a look at Jax. If Marcus thought Jax would let his younger brother loose again, he really didn’t remember Jax at all.
Jax cleared his throat. “Slam? I’m your brother.” His voice shook.
Marcus studied Jax but didn’t speak. He had features similar to Jax’s, but his were broader and somehow more rugged. His eyes held more green than brown, but his muscles were just as well defined as his brother’s.
Tace exhaled. The strength returned to his legs, and his breathing smoothed out. He couldn’t just sit there. “I’ll go help Raze.” He shoved to his feet.
Sami grabbed his arm. “You need to stay here. We don’t even know if the injection worked.”
“I know.” He reached for a gun in his boot. “I guess we’ll find out soon enough. If I go dark and pass out again, it didn’t work.” But he’d go down fighting. “For now, isn’t there a computer center we need to secure? Just think of the data you could get there, Sami.”
Her eyes glowed, and something settled deep inside him. There was his little hacker. So much of her made sense now, and he liked her even more than before. “I guess we could go make sure Raze has it all under control,” she said, almost bouncing toward the door.
The gunfire had stopped, so either Raze was down, or the computer room was secured. Either way, they needed to find out. Tace took the lead, his vision incredibly clear. “Stay behind me, Sami.”
“I can fight,” she grumbled.
Yeah, but she still sucked at shooting. “If we go hand to hand, you can lead,” he said.
Jax opened the door. “Yell if you need backup.”
Tace nodded, dodging into the now-empty hallway. “Copy that.” Just as he finished the last syllable, Raze strode out of the computer center, a man over his shoulder. “Looks like we have injured.”
“I can handle it,” Penelope said, pushing from the bed.
Marcus stepped back, effectively blocking her.
“Please,” she whispered.
Without a word, he shifted to the side.
Tace shook his head. Here he thought he’d had problems. “Yell if you need me,” he told Jax, hurrying toward Raze. “Status?”
“Entire floor is secure—several Bunker soldiers dead.” Raze kept moving, his strides long and strong. “We’re holding prisoners in the cafeteria on B for now and will need to make some decisions soon.”
Tace motioned for Sami to follow him back into the computer room. “I guess we’re on data collection for now.” He’d cover both doors while his woman went to work, as long as his vision remained. He felt better but still weak in the limbs.
The fight had been bloody, and they’d surely lost a few. But was there a cure for Scorpius hidden somewhere in those computers?
A real cure? It was the first time he’d felt hope in so long that it took him several moments to recognize the feeling.
Hope.
* * *
Jax stood at the Bunker command center window, staring down a level at the sprawling cafeteria. White plastic chairs surrounded wooden tables all around with a long orange counter holding food. “That’s all the people left standing?” he asked.
Greyson walked over from a wall of computers to stand next to him. “Yes. At least ten people escaped through an underground tunnel when we breached the facility—we’ll know who once Sami hacks into these computers when she’s finished with the medical ones.”
“Nobody down there, not a person, knows the codes?” Jax asked, irritation clawing his skin.
“I don’t think so.” Greyson pointed to the door in the far wall of the command center that had now been cordoned off. “Once they started losing floors, they escaped from here. The top soldiers, doctors, and scientists all had escape plans and are probably halfway to another facility.” He stared down at the people held below. “Not that we shouldn’t interrogate every single person down there.”
“Agreed.” Jax studied the people. Twenty-five soldiers in blue uniforms, ten lab techs or scientists in lab coats, and another twenty people in off-duty comfortable clothes. “Fifty-five people here, ten escaped, thirty dead. That’s only ninety-five personnel in a facility created to hold probably three hundred.”
“Scorpius took two hundred, according to the lab tech I questioned,” Greyson said. “I don’t know how many down there are survivor
s, and how many haven’t been infected.”
“The doctor with my brother right now hadn’t been,” Jax said slowly. He’d left Marcus with the suffering doctor in the infirmary, posting three guards on the door.
“That’s weird about your brother. You okay?” Greyson asked.
“Fine. Just glad he’s alive.” Jax’s chest hurt and he wanted nothing more than to go hug his brother and force him to remember their childhood. But right now, he had other things to deal with. The last thing he needed to do was bond with Greyson Storm, since he was still considering taking Storm’s resources. Plus, it was almost certain Raze was going to kill the guy at some point. “Anybody down there know of a cure for Scorpius?”
“I’ve only interrogated three lab techs so far, and I don’t think anyone’s found a cure for Scorpius. But one lab tech had plenty to say about a vitamin B inoculation that helps the body create its own B. Unfortunately, she deals with data and isn’t a scientist.”
Sami moved into the room, reams of paper in her hands. “I’ve hacked through all the security in the medical computers and have a couple of the guys collecting data. I had to use an encryption program, so they’ll collect it now and we’ll have to sift through it later. Frankly, somebody with a medical background needs to translate half that stuff, anyway.” She looked around the command center and gave a low whistle. “Nice.”
Tace entered and covered the door.
“You okay?” Jax asked.
“So far,” the medic said. “If I pass out again, then no. If not . . . I’m back, baby.”
Jax snorted.
“You okay, Jax?” Tace hissed out.
Jax sobered and gave the truth. “No.”
Greyson pointed to a center console. “Sami, I tried to get in and had absolutely no luck. Can you do it?”
“Sure. First I’ll—” Sami started.
Jax held up a hand. “Get started, Steel. I don’t want the details.” The last thing he wanted to worry about right now was trying to understand how to hack anything when the hair on the back of his neck was raised. “I need you to get into the overall physical security of this place right away. Did a warning go out to the other facilities when we breached this one? What kind of forces might they send—what kind of forces are out there—and who will be coming for us?”
Sami paused. “Coming for us? You think—”
Jax nodded. “Yeah. It’d help if we knew where the facilities are and how long it’ll take the assholes from here to get there.” This was his facility now, and he wasn’t losing it.
What if there was a cure for Scorpius hidden in those computers?
The risk was worth it.
“Maybe we should get all civilians out of here?” Sami asked.
Jax turned to stare down at the people quietly sitting at tables awaiting their fate. “No. If an attack is coming, we need everyone here. The Bunker residents don’t get to leave without us, if ever.”
Greyson crossed his arms. “Agreed.”
Jax partially turned. “We know that the president is looking for this place and that he obviously doesn’t know about the many facilities. That begs the question—who does? Who or what is in charge of this shit show? Find me the answers, Sami.” Hopefully, there was information listed somewhere. He hated being in the dark like this. “I have men searching floor C for the generators and storage—and who knows what else. Find an inventory list after the security shit, would you?”
Sami nodded and started typing, muttering to herself. Her fingers were so fast over the keys that the sound was almost rhythmic and soothing. Except for the fact that enemy soldiers were probably heading their way right now.
“Can you talk and type?” Jax asked.
“Yeah.”
“Did you find anything in the medical computers that showed a cure for Scorpius?” Jax asked.
Sami shook her head. “I just decrypted the files and didn’t have time to read. We need Lynne here.”
Lynne would give her left leg to be in a working lab again, but no way in hell was she coming to the Bunker until Jax knew it was safe. “We’ll take data back to her.”
“Yep,” Sami said.
“How about Marcus? Were there records of what they did to him?” Jax tried to keep his voice level, but a thread of heat wove through his words. When he found the doctors who’d harmed his brother, he’d rip the skin from their bones with his bare hands. “Sami?”
“I’m sure the records are there, but I didn’t stop to read anything,” she said, her typing speed increasing. “I need quiet for a moment, Jax. This is a tough layer.”
“Copy that.” Jax leaned closer to Greyson. “I have scouts looking for hidden rooms and other floors. Who says there are only three?”
Grey nodded. “Damon is leading a team doing the same thing. I think we’ve just touched the surface of this place, you know? Maybe Sami will find schematics, if there are any.”
“If we don’t get attacked first,” Jax muttered.
“There is that.” Greyson shook out his arms. “I need to do something. You want to scout or do you want to start questioning people?”
Jax looked at the Bunker residents below. Healthy and hardy . . . with good food. Some of them may have been prisoners, while others had chosen this life. There was only one way to find out. “Let’s go start chatting one-on-one with these folks.” He pointed to a door that must lead to the kitchen. “There are plenty of tools in there, I’m sure.”
Greyson nodded, his jaw hardening. “Sounds like a plan.”
Jax turned for the door. “Tace, you staying on point?”
“Yeah. I’ve got Sami’s back so she can type away,” Tace said, his Texan drawl back in full force.
It surprised Jax how much he’d missed that sound. Interesting. “All right. The second you have information, any information, get me, okay? Soon, Sami.” He didn’t want to pressure the young woman, but if well-armed forces were about to blow a hole in the side of the facility, he needed to know. Worse yet, what if there was another back door somewhere? They’d be sitting ducks. “Thanks.”
Chapter Thirty
I can be this person. I know I can.
—Sami Steel
The sound of a printer running was almost foreign and instantly comforting. Sami fell right into typing code, Tace at her back, a screen at her front. If it were possible to feel a slight moment of contentment in this crazy world, she was almost there. Except the damn firewall was blocking her. She’d pared through several of the defensive layers and was already printing out personnel files and some communications between different facilities.
Yet there was something hidden . . . a file she couldn’t quite reach.
Her instincts hummed, and the thrill of the chase poured through her.
“You’re stunning in your element,” Tace drawled from her left.
That drawl . . . that sexy twang. The sound slid right down through her, warming her in the cool room. “Stop flirting with me.” She grinned.
“Can’t help it. In fact, truth be told, you’re always stunning.” He probably sounded just like the scores of Texas lawmen in his family who’d come before him.
She’d wondered if he’d like the studious side of her—the real her. Guess she had her answer. She would’ve given anything to have kept digging through the medical records downstairs, but now that she’d unlocked the files, anybody could gather the data. “You’d better be cured of rejecting B, Justice.”
“I’m hoping, darlin’.” His voice was clear, as were his eyes. That had to mean he was cured. It just had to. The idea that the tough soldier, the brilliant medic, could be brought down so unexpectedly scared the hell out of her. Yet the man he’d become, the badass with the twang, kept her interest every day. He had to survive.
She typed faster. “There’s something here.”
“I’m sure.” He turned and scanned down the hallway, his shoulders relaxing as he focused back on her. “Is this place just like you remember?”
/> “More people were here before,” she said softly. “Then they had to go cover other Bunkers, and fewer people made it back.”
“The air is secure here, right?” he asked. “Wait a minute. That doesn’t matter. Scorpius is a bacteria, so air doesn’t matter. But this place is secure, right?”
She paused. “Well, it was secure until we breached it. We’ve brought the bacteria with us into the facility.”
“Shit. Be right back.” Tace jogged out of the room and was gone at least five minutes before returning. “Jax and Greyson already had figured that out, so they’re not touching anybody they’re questioning. Or to be more accurate, they’re threatening to bite anybody who doesn’t cooperate.”
“I guess people are cooperating,” she muttered.
“Definitely.”
She sighed and kept typing.
“Just take your time and work the problem,” Tace said, standing at attention near the door.
“Are you still feeling obsessive?” she asked.
“I am.”
She let her fingers fly and her brain work the problem, kind of zoning out a little. “Then you should stop fighting it so much. Maybe if you settle into it, you’ll relax.”
“Maybe. Sex helps.”
Humor bubbled through her. “I’m here to help.”
“You’re a giver, Sami,” he drawled.
She shivered at his sexy tone. “If we keep this facility, I’ll probably need to stay here and keep working on the computers.”
“Shouldn’t you concentrate on what you’re doing?” he asked, curiosity in his tone.
It probably did seem odd to somebody who didn’t work the way she did. “My brain and fingers are working, and sometimes if I concentrate on something else, talk a little, magic happens.” It sounded weird now that she tried to explain, yet she knew he wouldn’t judge her. Not Tace.
“Odd, but okay—let’s chat. If you want to stay here at the Bunker and work, if the place remains secure, then we’ll stay here.”