Agent T3: d'Artagnan (Superhero Romance) (The D.I.R.E. Agency) (9 page)

Her pulse pounded where she clutched her throat. Dar had been there and taken care of her without a thought. Now, she could see why D.I.R.E. had been at the hospital. She had to be a unique case. Despite all of the science fiction gadgets the future held, time travel still outshined them all.

“We meet again.”

The man she had seen in the electronics store and again in nineteen forty-four, stood before her now. He wore a confident, easy smile that surely rendered the ladies dumbstruck. Based on Cassandra’s clasp on his hand, his magic had worked on her.

“I’m Aidan Monroe, Rachel’s brother, and you’ve met my girl, Cass.”

She shook his hand. An electrical current tickled her palm. “Where’s Dar?”

“Dar is recovering and can’t be with us.” An older, dark-haired man went around the table to escort her to a chair. “I’m Mitchell Jacobs.”

Watching him walk around to the end of the table, Jocelyn stood again. “Recovering from what? What happened? I want to see him.
Now
.”

Rachel touched her hand. “Jocelyn, Dar is fine. If you sit down, we’ll tell you about it.”

Could she trust them? What if he’d been hurt, or worse, and they hid it from her? What if they brought her here to interrogate her, then kill her?

“I’m not saying or doing anything until I see him.”

“Jocelyn, we love Dar. He’s our brother,” she said. “We’re all on the same side here. To disturb him now would deter his recovery.”

She took a calming breath. Dar trusted his family. That meant she could trust them, right? Just because her own family had betrayed her didn’t mean all families would do the same thing.

Taking her seat, she adjusted the pink cotton dress Rachel had loaned her. “Tell me what’s happened.”

Mitchell said, “We’ve given Dar some enhancements, much like Tristan and Aidan. They were successfully installed last evening. He’s recovering now. You should be able to see him in the morning.”

“What kind of enhancements?”

Mitchell gave her a steady stare. “Time travel.”

She caught her breath. “Like Aidan?”

“Yes.” He nodded. “But, Aidan was never intended to do time travel. Dar’s enhancements are a combination of Tristan and Aidan’s systems, but with specific additions.”

“So, he will teleport and create electricity?”

Mitchell shook his head. “No. When he disappears, he’s time traveled.”

That meant he could return to nineteen forty-four…

Hope took flight in her chest. “He can take back the weapons technology we need. You have your gold as payment.”

Obviously, someone had gotten smart and melted the gold into barrels too big to return to the past.

“I’m sorry, Jocelyn. We can’t alter the past.”

Her heart stopped dead. After all she’d risked, thousands of lives came down to Mitchell Jacob’s decision not to send back the technology they needed? Who made him God?

She jumped up again. “That’s so easy to say seventy years in the future, isn’t it?  While you’re sitting here in your humidity-free building, wearing silk boxers and eating steaks,  men are shooting each other. Families are being killed because they don’t have the right hair or eye color, or were born without the right ethnic background.” Tears blurred her vision. “Thousands died just a few weeks ago in Normandy. They’re still counting the bodies. Senseless, meaningless killing. Every day. Their atom bombs are far beyond our Manhattan Project. With new weapons technology, we could take Germany and end this quickly.”

Rising from her chair, Rachel hugged her. She held her while Jocelyn cried like a baby. None of them had lost someone, had held that horrible telegram in their hands, afraid to open it, knowing in their heart what it contained.

Had any of them lost the person they loved most in the world in a senseless, horrifying battle, knowing their father helped the cause?

“We know you lost a beau at Guadalcanal, Jocelyn. We’re so sorry.” Rachel leaned down to look into her face.

John had been a classmate in high school, relentless in his pursuit of her. Jocelyn had had better things to do than pay attention to him,
until
he came home on leave two years before the war. The silly boy had turned into a brave, handsome man and she’d fallen hard.

She’d written him every other day, and when he came home on leave, they’d spend most of it in a hotel bed. He’d proposed to her before he shipped out for the last time. She received the telegram a month later.

“Thank you, but this isn’t about me. It’s about people all over the world.” Despair weighed on her shoulders. “Please. Give us the weapons. You’re our only hope.”

Tristan said, “You can’t go back, Jocelyn. They’ll kill you.”

Her gaze shot to him. “Dar can go back.”

Mitchell let out a breath. “Jocelyn, Germany loses the war. If we alter the past, we could change the outcome. Who’s to say the implementation of modern weaponry wouldn’t cause them to drop a bomb?”

She lifted her chin. “Then, either way I die.”

“What do you mean?” Aidan frowned.

“I’m not blonde and blue-eyed – like Angela, my stepmother. My father has my same coloring, but they need him and his time machine. They need him to learn all he can from Professor Einstein.” She pointed at her chest. “Me? I’m not necessary.”

A part of her still couldn’t imagine that her father and Angela would allow them to kill her. Did she mean so little to them?

Tristan looked at Mitchell. “Are you going to tell her?”

Mitchell glared at Tristan before turning back to her. “What kind of weapons does your father have at his disposal? What could we expect when they return here?”

She pulled back her head. “Return?”

“We have their gold and the technology they want,” Mitchell said. “Would you chock up thirty million in gold to a loss?”

“No,” Jocelyn said. “But, other than a handful of men and some guns, I’ve seen nothing. They say their scientists have weapons far beyond our imagination. How can we defeat them without the same kind of approach?”

Elbow on the table, Mitchell stared at her with two fingers at his temple. “Jocelyn, your father is from the future.”

She felt her mouth drop open of its own volition. Her breath stalled in her lungs, her mind screeching to a numbing halt. “What?” she whispered.

“I met your father back in the nineteen eighties. He took his time machine and other…” He cleared his throat. “...key intelligence with him. I suspect the weapons you’re talking about were taken to the past by him. With Einstein’s intelligence at his disposal, I have no doubt their arsenal is powerful.”

Falling back in her chair, Jocelyn felt defeated. Completely and utterly spent. Her father was at the heart of their movement and she never suspected? He’d taught her all she knew of science and space, of love and family.

God above, she must be blind
.

Mitchell said, “Each time travel incident changes history, whether in a large or small way. If your father hadn’t traveled to the past, who knows what the war would look like. What we do know is that they need something more powerful. It’s up to us to keep that technology out of their hands.”

Jocelyn covered her face. What if she’d succeeded the first time she came to the future? What if she had given that technology to her father?

Oh God…

She’d known her father’s associates fronted the gold. The idea that they were Nazis never entered her mind.

Rachel rubbed her back. “Don’t beat yourself up over it, Jocelyn. He’s your father. You had no reason to suspect him.”

Lowering her hands, she let out a deep breath. “At this point, they’re winning. What if, by coming to the future, we’ve changed the outcome? What if the history you know has already changed?”

Mitchell said, “I have a plan, Jocelyn, and Dar is the key. The sooner we get him up and going, the sooner we can take care of this.”

Dar woke the next morning with Joce beside him in the recovery bed. He’d never heard her arrive
.

What a sight for sore eyes
.

With her dark hair disheveled from sleep, she snored lightly on her side, her rear snuggled up against him. He should use the video recorder on his new armband to show her proof she actually did snore.

He smiled. The munchkin would probably kick his ass.

Taking a mental inventory, Dar realized he felt good. The armbands felt heavy on his arms, the spots where they tied into his blood stream and nervous system looked good and healthy. His veins felt heavier with the copper and gold compound, his nervous system running at a low hum
.

Robinson said he’d feel stronger, more bulky. To others, he’d feel like a rock. While he really had no strength enhancement, it would be harder to take him down
.

Dar watched Jocelyn sleep. Robinson had told him she’d regained her memory. He wondered how she felt about him, her beau, her father, and his enhancements
.

She’s here now. That’s a good sign
.

Brushing back her hair, he kissed her temple before wrapping an arm around her waist and holding her close. He shut his eyes to go back to sleep
.

“Dar?” Her voice sounded groggy.

“What baby?”

“Are you all right?”

“I am now.”

She squeezed his fingers.

“I have my memory back.”

“Robinson told me. Are you all right?”

“I am now.”

Grinning to himself, he kissed her hair
.

Now that her memory had returned, he needed to tell her Angela was his mother. He also needed to warn her about the spies and his father, since he remained on site. Dammit, he wished Mitchell would get him off property.

“I like your tattoo.”

He’d forgotten about his new tattoo. “What does it look like? It’d better be cool.”

Turning his back to her, the area between his shoulder blades still stung. All of his nerve endings remained raw after his procedure.

“Cool? What does that mean?”

“It means… unique or appealing.”

Jocelyn touched his back, her fingers cool, soft on his tender skin. “You have a hydrogen atom on the left and a titanium atom on the right, with a period clock in the center. In my opinion, it’s very… cool.” She kissed him there. “I missed you, d’Artagnan.”

His eyes popped open. Had anyone ever told him that?
Ever
?

Turning on his back to face her, Dar felt his blood pump at a low gurgle. Her beautiful, dark eyes took in his bare chest, the armbands, his face
.

“Tarzan. I’ve gone to the theater to see Tarzan picture shows. That’s who you remind me of, except you’re much more…”

He gave her a cocked brow.

“…stimulating.” With a sultry smile, she reached up and kissed him lightly on the mouth
.

Dar’s body shot into second gear, his blood pumping, his nervous system buzzing. Damn, sex was going to be one helluva ride with this shit
.

“
No
.” Robinson walked into the room shaking his head vigorously. “Absolutely not.”

Taking Jocelyn’s hand, Robinson helped her up from the bed. “We haven’t met. I’m Clint Robinson, Dar’s… doctor. And, right now, this early in the process, Dar can’t get his… ahem, system up.”

Cursing in his head, Dar gave Robinson a get-serious look.

Have you taken a good look at her? It’s already up, Robinson
.

Jocelyn pulled in her lips over her teeth. “Yes, doctor. I’m Jocelyn Chalmers, by the way.” She gave Dar a hot, heavy-lidded perusal, her dark eyes filled with hunger.

That’s when he realized she wore one of his shirts and a pair of his socks. That’s it. She was practically naked.

Standing up, he grabbed a blanket off the bed and threw it over her shoulders. She frowned up at him
.

“How did you get in here, Jocelyn?” Robinson made him lay back down on the bed
.

“The nice agents at the end of the hall let me in when I told them who I was. They were very kind and even told me to call them if I needed anything.”

Those sons of bitches. “No. If you need anything, you call
me
. If I can’t help you, go to Tristan or Aidan.”

Robinson laughed as he checked Dar’s vitals
.

“What kind of security does Mitchell have around here?” Dar said, “Do I need to be worried about my father, Clint?”

Robinson gave him a thoughtful frown. “It does seem like we’ve had our fair share of lapses since he arrived.”

Heading to the door, he said, “I’m going to grab your breakfast, Dar. When I return, you’ll need to leave, Jocelyn. I’m sorry, but we have more to do. And,
no
funny business.” He pointed a finger at them.