Betrayal (Phantom Protectors Book 2) (15 page)

Gracie and Adam ditched the SUV and hiked the rest of the way through the forest to the vacant cabin where Adam said he’d stashed the vials. Her mind raced with what she’d heard standing outside her dad’s office. Her heart ached like her lungs as she tried to catch her breath.

“Just one more mile
, Gracie,” Adam said as he glanced back once more to make sure she was keeping up.

He slowed his step to walk
beside her. “You do know he loves you.”

She shook her head. “It was a lie. Everything he told me was
a lie. My father sent Ridge to get close to me. He just took his job to a whole new level.”

Adam threw his arm around
Gracie’s shoulders. “Gracie, you’re an easy woman to fall in love with. It might have started as a mission, but if I had to guess, it turned a whole lot more serious than even he expected.”

She lifted his arm,
rolling it off of her shoulder. “You don’t know that.”

Adam
placed a gentle palm on her arm and turned her. “I fell in love with you the first time I met you. Don’t tell me it’s not possible.”

Gracie’s heart
clenched into a tight knot at his declaration. “Adam…”

H
e helped guide her through the trees. “I know. You’re my best friend. I would never do anything to jeopardize that.”

The
y pushed through the last of the brush and into a clearing with a cabin fifty yards away. He steered her to the back door and walked in. The little cabin was similar to the one where Adam had taken her the first time, although there were no hospital beds sitting in the middle of the room. Dust floated in the air in front of her, and she waved it away.

“Is that why you left me in college?”

Adam pushed the door shut behind them
and turned facing her. “That’s why I risked staying.” He walked past her. “If I’d known Black had any chance of finding me, I would have left well before that night we went for a walk.”

He
rounded the corner into the bedroom and slid down to his knees. “I was going to tell you everything that night.” He pried the floorboard up and reached inside. “About my gifts, about Black…” He pulled out a black bag from beneath the floor and tossed it on the bed. After replacing the board, he sank down on the mattress and unzipped the bag. “And that I loved you.”

Gracie was speechless for the first time in her life. He
might have been her best friend, but there was only one man she loved. One man whose touch set her on fire, and one man she was ready to kill, and it wasn’t Adam. She moved to sit on the other side of the bag as he reached inside. “I’m sorry, Adam.”

He chuckled
as he started pulling out the contents. “It’s okay, Gracie. I’ve only ever wanted you to be happy. Somehow I knew it wouldn’t be with me.”

He pulled out two
black semiautomatic guns from the bag. “Do you know how to shoot?”

She
picked up the gun, grabbed the frame, and slid it back, checking to see if there was any ammo in the port.

He lifted a brow. “I take that as a yes.”

Lifting papers from the bag, he handed them to her.

“What’s this?”

He glanced up with vials in his hands. “The genetic code for the stuff in the vials. The stuff I told you about that I was working on for Sinclair.”

Her eyes widened in surprise. “You cracked it?”

He frowned and nodded.

She smiled. “Good. Then you can reverse engineer it and make it go away.”

She handed the papers back to him noting the urgency of him shoving everything back into the bag but the guns before he walked out of the room. She stood in the archway of the living room and the hall leaning against the wall as she watched him drop the bag by the fireplace, threw logs in and struck a match.

“We can’t s
tay here.” Gracie walked into the kitchen and glanced out the window above the sink.

“It’s about to get dark.” His words were
but a whisper on her neck, an intimate caress that didn’t have its intended effect. She turned to find him inches away from her. “Gracie, won’t you at least give us a chance?”

He placed his hands on her hips and pulled her close as he pressed his lips to hers. Gracie placed her palms on his chest. She
felt the electrical energy vibrating in her fingers and knew that Ridge was close by. She pulled her lips from his. “Adam, I’m sorry.”

He leaned his forehead against hers but kept his
hands on her hips. “Can’t blame me for trying.” A sad smile touched his lips. “If you change your mind…”

She shook her head
, not knowing exactly what to say. His kiss was nice but not the soul-searing kind that Ridge gave her. His hands didn’t spark the same fire when they were on her body.

The front door slammed open
, and Ridge walked in with a gun in his hands pointed at Adam. “Take your hands off her.”

Gracie stepped in front of Adam. “What are you doing here
? And put that damn thing away.”

Ridge lowered the gun and shoved it in his holster. “Gracie, you
ran before I could explain.” He stepped closer.

Adam kissed he
r forehead and walked past them both, glancing over his shoulder. “I’ll just be in the other room if you need me.”

She nodded.

Ridge walked to her, grabbed her hand, and guided her to the couch. “Just hear me out.”

She didn’t sit. She folded her arms over her chest and narrowed her eyes. “You don’t get to order me around, bucko.”

His jaw clenched for a brief second, and if she hadn’t known him so well, she would have missed it. “Please, Gracie.”

She lowered to the couch
, sitting on the edge. He sat next to her and took her hands in his. “Gracie, it may have started as a mission, but it’s been more than that for a long time.”

She lowered her head. “I don’t trust you.”
Letting her fingers slip from his, she stood. “How did you find me?”

Rising to his feet, he let out a breath before meeting her gaze
. “The tracker on the SUV.” He extended his hand to her. “We’ve got to go.”

She wrapped her arms around her waist
. “I’m not leaving with you.”

Ridge crossed his arms over his chest
, bunching his shirt at the muscles as he glanced toward the hall where Adam had disappeared. “Is it because of him?”

She narrowed her eyes. “My plans are none of your business.”

“Gracie, you’re in danger. Lydia had a vision, and if the only way I can get you to leave is taking him with us, then so be it.”

Adam stepped out of the room. “Is it safe?”

The muscles in Ridge’s jaw tightened. “No. We need to leave. She trusts you, so maybe you can talk some sense into her.”

Adam stepped over to the fire and kneeled down next to the bag. “It’s too late. I think they’re coming for us.”

“How do you know?” Gracie’s voice hitched.

“I can sense it. It’s one of my own unwanted powers. Everyone gives off a frequency and if I tune into it, I can tell distance from the vibrations.” Adam continued pulling stuff from the bag.

Ridge stepped over to the window and pulled the curtain back before he glanced back at Adam. “What the hell are you doing?”

Adam dumped the vials and paper with the formula into the fire. “I can’t let them get their hands on this.”

Gracie reached out, and Adam grabbed her arm to keep it from getting burned. “It’s better this way, Gracie.”

She s
ank down to her knees in a pit of despair. Her only hope of ever returning back to normal was literally going up in flames. Within seconds the paper was nothing but mere ash. Her palm covered her heart as an intense sadness seeped into her soul. She raised her gaze to Adam’s. “You’ve condemned me to a life I never asked for, Adam.”

She pushed to her feet on shaky legs. There was no going back to the way she was, no way that her father wouldn’t try to recruit her. Hadn’t she wanted to prove herself to her father
from the beginning? Hadn’t that been what all of this was about? She felt cheated somehow. With the gift she now had, she felt she was somehow cheating her own abilities to make it on her own.

Ridge appe
ared by her side and wrapped his arms around her. He did nothing more than hold her, to comfort her. There was nothing he could say that could make any of this all right.

“I’m sorry
, Gracie. You have to know I did this to protect you.” Adam stood, moving away from the fire. “I never meant to hurt you.”

Gracie closed her eyes and s
ank into the warmth of Ridge’s arms, knowing that she was still mad, but she couldn’t pull herself away. For just a second she let her mind forget everything that had happened in the last few months. Ridge cupped her chin and lifted her gaze to meet his. The molten blue of Ridge’s eyes swirled with an intensity she’d never seen. Driven by desire, driven by regret, or driven by pity, she had no clue. His touch was gentle yet surrounded her with a strength she hadn’t felt in a very long time. “We’ll get through this together.”

Adam cleared his throat and stood. “They’re here.”  He rushed to the window and drew back the curtain. “I can feel it.”

Ridge pressed a quick kiss to her lips. “You and I will talk later, but right now we’ve got to go.”

A loud popping sounded in the distance
, followed by shouts and screams carried under the moonlit sky. Gracie froze. Her feet felt as though they were surrounded by ice, and she was unable to move even as Ridge grabbed her hand and tugged her to the back door.

“Brody and the rest are stationed around the house. Sinclair will never make it th
rough all of them.”

Gracie drew the gun from her waistband
, pointing it at the floor. “What if he does? What then?”

“Then I’ll kill him.” He turned his steel
y eyes to Adam. “Take her and hide.”

Adam rushed and grabbed her hand
, pulling her toward the hallway.

“Wait.” She dug her feet in
, refusing to move an inch farther even as Adam tugged. “You can’t fight him alone.”

“Gracie, I love you
, and I promised to protect you. For once in your life, don’t argue with me. Just go.”

She yanked her hand from Adam
’s and stomped back into the room. She grabbed his face in the palm of her hands and pressed her lips to his then stepped out of his reach. “I won’t let you.”

The back door crashed open
, banging against the wall and making her jump.

“Well
, there you are.” Sinclair gave her a sinister smile. With a tilt of his head and a brow raised, he asked, “You didn’t honestly think they’d be able to stop me, did you, Gracie?”

Ridge tried stepping in front of Gracie
as Adam inched farther down the hallway. “What do you want, Sinclair?”

After s
tepping farther into the kitchen, Sinclair paused. “I want it all. I want the scientist, the girl, and the formula.”

Blue electricity shimmered through Ridge’s fingers. She tried to concentrate not to steal his power
, the only chance they had to protect themselves from the lunatic.

Ridge’s voice cut into her concentration. “I’m afraid I can’t let that happen.”

Adam stepped from around the corner. “You’re too late. I’ve destroyed all of it. Every last drop is gone, along with my work.”

Gracie felt the energy in the air swirling with a thickness that made the hair on her arms stand up. Adam glanced down to the blue bolts that had formed in Ridge’s hand. Adam closed his eyes and held out his palm. The bolt vanished from Ridge’s grasp and into Adam’s palm. Within seconds the blue bolt was flying through the air toward Sinclair. He raised his hand and
used an invisible force to thrust it back toward Adam, hitting him squarely in the chest. Seconds passed as Adam’s eyes widened and the blue of the bolt intensified knocking him to his knees, his gaze searching for her.

‘I’m sorry, Gracie.” He fell onto his side
, and his eyes slid closed.

Gracie rushed to his side
, sliding on her knees to reach him. “Adam.” She lifted his head. “Adam, talk to me.”

Sinclair’s menacing smile grew. “I never told him that I
’d already used the liquid.”

Another blue bolt
flew across the room, lifting and knocking Ridge spiraling through the glass window.

Sinclair’s laugh made her shiver. “Now
it’s just you and me, sweetheart.”

Gracie slowly pushed to her feet and stepped backward over Adam’s limp body. “Oh
, I don’t think so.”

He stepped closer as if she
was his prey and he was judging her next move. Gracie’s heart thudded in her chest as her blood boiled between rage and fear. There was no way she would let this asshole win. She heard the shouting outside and felt the energy and the powers from the others. Brody’s energy was the strongest. He was probably the closest by outside, and she prayed he wouldn’t mind her borrowing his gift. The fear of losing her family flashed in her mind, and she pushed it aside. Her eyes narrowed on the energy surging through the room, pure energy from her friends outside. The same energy that apparently he could tap into as well. She needed to out maneuver him before he could get a handle on exactly what powers were present. She concentrated and balled her fist, planning her attack, the one shot she had that he might not see coming.