Cheating Time (46 page)

While Barone was busy sifting through his
memories, Gran turned his own stare on me. It was equal parts
apologetic, sad, angry, and remorseful. I offered him an
infinitesimal grin in order to let him know I don't hold him
accountable for doing what he had to do in order to save
Tawney.

She's my
priority.

Shaking off his gloom, Barone turned toward
me.

"Forgive me, dear, for barging in here. I
saw the illumination outside the tent and thought it prudent to
find out what was going on. For your sake, of course. It's a good
thing, too. If I hadn't, I wouldn't have been able to share our
good news with Peter, nor would I have been able to let each one of
you know how important it is to keep all of this between us,"
Barone said, scanning the room and making sure the threat embedded
in his every word was heard and felt.

No one said a word or did anything more than
clench jaw muscles or grip fists.

"I think we all see eye to eye. Now, I'd
like St. Romaine to round up Sean and Simon. They're under my
protection, and I can't protect them while they're out in those
woods. Carlie and I will be waiting here until you return," Barone
said.

Jayden's glance snapped my way. I shrugged.
I'd added them to my immunity list so he suspected they were
somewhere near.

"Go. I'm at the end of my patience and am
ready to retire."

I nodded encouragingly, but Jayden was slow
to leave me. The last thing in the world he wanted to do was leave
me with Barone. I nodded one final time, and he left. There was no
doubt in my mind that he'd return quickly. He had no intention of
leaving me alone with Barone for too long.

"C-Carlie… we never refilled your
MicroPharm. Why don't we do that while we wait on St. Romaine to
return?" Thorne suggested, and I noticed Rorie was nowhere to be
found.

Good girl! I'm glad to
know I don't have to remind her to make sure she's not to be seen
or heard when Barone is around.

I glanced toward Barone for his permission,
an act that pleased him based on his encouraging smile and nod.

"I'll not have you wanting for anything,
Carlie. Let Angleton take care of you. Healthy is what you have to
be during these formative years. By the time you're thirty, you and
I are going to have a family bigger than any that's existed in
decades. That means you have to take care of yourself now," Barone
proudly announced.

Little did he know that what he wanted for
me was not what I wanted for myself. I'd never seen myself having
the first kid, much less a litter. Still, he needed to assume I was
going to concede to his demands and bend to his will.

At least for
now.

Thorne pulled back the curtain and held it
for me while I passed through to his makeshift exam room, one where
he could privately refill my MicroPharm. Just when he was about to
let the curtain drop behind me, Barone reached up, held it in
place, and followed the two of us into the tiny area of the tent
where Sean had been earlier.

As if he watched physicians in action every
day, he sat down on the stool Thorne usually used, crossed his
arms, and stretched out his legs casually. He tried to look bored,
but I wasn't nearly naïve enough to believe his presence was
benign. He had an ulterior motive and only part of it had to do
with him not wanting Thorne and me communicating without him.
Suspicious for me was where he'd positioned himself. At the head of
my bed rather than the foot.

When Thorne lowered my shirt, Barone would
get a glimpse that few non-clinical people had ever gotten of me, a
glimpse that I wouldn't mind giving Jayden, but was nowhere near
ready to give to the president. I may have resented Jayden and his
arrogance and insistence that I go more and do more my whole life,
but that was nothing when compared to the resentment I had for
Barone. I hated him in a whole new way, one that made it clear to
me that my claims of hate where Jayden was concerned was anything
but.

Love and hate. There's a
fine line.

In Jayden's case, my hate was born from
love. In Barone's case, my hate was fueled by pure abhorrence and
didn't have the first smidgeon of love embedded within it.

"Sir, she might be more comfortable without
an audience," Thorne suggested.

"I'm anything but an audience. You on the
other hand are nothing more than her physician, will never be
anything more than her physician. Mind your business and refill her
MicroPharm so I can take her back to our tent."

Begrudgingly mollified, Thorne went to work
and took great care to make sure Barone saw nothing more than his
backside while he added particles to the MicroPharm reservoir and
applied ointment to the visible snakebites.

While Thorne worked, Barone mused, "Carlie,
do you remember our kiss?"

Gulping, I closed my eyes. I wanted nothing
more than to pretend for the rest of my life that he'd not ever
laid a hand on me, but I couldn't.

"I know you thought I was a pervert… think
I'm a pervert. The truth is that your grandfather and your parents
refused to give me a complete genetic sample from you. I'd long
suspected you were special and they were hiding something from me
and the scientific community. I decided to take matters in my own
hands. I got you alone, kissed you, and retrieved my own genetic
sample.

Thorne's eyes closed. He'd just gotten
confirmation that his suspicions were correct. He was as sickened
by and disgusted with Barone as I was.

"That's when I learned what they'd been
hiding. That's when I found out that you have the potential to be
the longest living human ever to
officially
exist. Imagine my surprise when I ran a
match and found out that our children would live almost twice as
long."

Every muscle in my body tensed, and while
his open admission that he'd kissed a sixteen-year-old girl, one
who'd never been kissed before, should have brought him shame, it
didn't. He felt no humiliation when it came to doing what he had to
do when it came to furthering his cause, immortality.
No cost too great.
For me… for the
sixteen-year-old girl, it brought shame. It also brought betrayal
and contempt.

He'd kissed me to get to
get the genetic sampling my parents had refused him. I only thought
I loathed this man minutes ago.

Before I knew what was happening, I jerked
up. At least, I tried to. Thorne saw in my eyes the moment insanity
took over. Craving Barone's instant death more than I'd ever wanted
anything, I had a fleeting glimpse at what a crime of passion
looked like. For everyone's sake, Thorne held me back.

"Carlie, when Tawney is in the state of
inertia, where will she live?" Barone, unaware of the war raging
inside of me, mused.

As if a bucket of ice-cold water had been
poured over my head, I stopped fighting. I stilled. The fight that
had inflated me
whooshed
from my
body and left nothing behind to hold me up. Curving in on myself, I
slumped. Then, I lay back, closing my eyes again, and remembered
that I'd given Tawney's life for my own.

He'll do worse to you. You
might as well get used to it.

A single tear dripped from the corner of
each eye while I let Thorne refill the particles. A few seconds
later and catching me off guard, I felt palms on the sides of my
head and thumbs stroking away the tears.

"Carlie, can you open your eyes? I want to
look at your pupils and make sure there aren't any unexpected
effects of the particles."

I almost started crying for real when I came
eye to eye with Thorne, when I saw despite his quiet, gentle words,
he was experiencing his own internal battle. My scientific equal
was as angry as I'd ever seen him, and the regret over my situation
and the subjection he felt over not being able to intervene—not
without risking Rorie's life—was wearing on him in a way that made
me add him to my list of people who needed more from me than just
immunity.

He needed someone he could really talk to.
Keeping those raw and powerful emotions locked up and never sharing
them, never having anyone who could take on at least a few of his
burdens seemed cruel. Thorne was too good of a person to bear these
kinds of crosses without a confidant who will listen without
judging, reacting, or burdening him even more.

Okay. I might not be the
person for the last two.

I might react with anger over what he was
going through and my own situation might add more of a burden to
him, but I definitely wouldn't judge. I knew why he did what he had
to do. Rightfully so, his priority was Rorie. If he ever put anyone
above Rorie, he wouldn't be the man I'd come to respect, and I
wouldn't have been able to care for him so easily.

It was time for me to lighten his load.
Rather than wallowing in my situation, I sucked in a breath meant
to give me strength, smiled at Thorne, and gave him a small wink,
one that suggested he and I would get through this together. He
smiled back, and before Barone got too curious about Thorne's
assessment of my eyes, he went back to work.

"Do you want to know why you are so
attracted to her, Angleton?" Barone sang from behind Thorne.

Thorne didn't answer. He ignored the
president and kept working. Apparently, the question had been
rhetorical.

"You're attracted to her because before I
knew better, I wanted you to be."

I cocked a brow that told Thorne my
pheromone theory had been solid.

"There are four people within the borders of
our nation that have the genes necessary for me to have what I need
in order to create the superior race. You are one of those people.
When I programmatically merged your sperm with Carlie's egg, I
found that the two of you were destined to have children with IQs
over two hundred. Every scenario I tried, I got the same
results."

This news was a little more difficult for
Thorne to ignore. A shocked stare met mine, and with it and for the
briefest moment, Thorne allowed himself to think of me as the
mother of his children. Just as quick, he mourned the children we'd
never have together.

"Why are you telling us this?" I
snapped.

It took a few seconds before he answered.
"The two of you will never marry as planned, but you will co-parent
genetically altered children."

It was Thorne who spoke this time. "I'm not
sure what that means."

Happy to finally share his plans, Barone
said, "Carlie's eggs will be fertilized with something better than
a single sperm. They will be fertilized with a sperm that will be
modified with your intelligence, St. Romaine's strength and
agility, and my charisma."

My anger returned. I was just about to give
Barone a piece of my mind when we heard people enter the infirmary.
A second later, the curtain separating the exam room from the rest
of the tent was snatched open.

A wave of relief shot through me when I saw
a larger-than-life Jayden standing before me. He scanned the exam
room until he'd made sure I was there and safe. He wasn't angry
enough for me to think he'd heard anything Barone had said. That
didn't mean he wasn't worried. He was, and he was drenched in
sweat. I couldn't have been more relieved that he was back.
Safe.

Given his appearance, he'd run like it had
been a matter of life and death to get to where Sean and Simon were
camped out and back to me. I planned one day to tell him thanks for
doing that.

For doing everything he'd
done for my family and me.

Snapping me from my thoughts, Barone jumped
up and backed as far as he could against the wall of the tent.
Apparently, he wasn't accustomed to anyone but him commanding a
room. I almost giggled when I saw Simon's giant exotic cats. They
were as majestic and imposing as anyone or anything I'd ever seen.
For Barone, they were dangerous and terrifying.

"
What the hell is this,
St. Romaine?
You were supposed to bring Sean and Simon.
Not zoo animals."

Jayden shrugged. "They're my brother's pets,
and they go where he goes."

"Manniless!" Barone shouted.

Dammit! Is every person I
hate at this camp?

Charging in as if Jayden weren't near and
someone was trying to kill the president, the former Lead
Surrogate, Isaiah Manniless, ran into the infirmary tent, looking
around and trying to decide exactly who he was going kill for
Barone. He looked at Jayden as if he were his first choice.

At least he did until he saw Sean, Jayden's
double. Isaiah's stare bounced between the identical twins as he
tried to figure out which of the two men took his Lead Surrogate
position from him and left him with guard duty.
Which was going to die.

"Don't just stand there like an idiot! Shoot
these animals," Barone yelled, nodding his head and waving his arms
in the direction of the cats. "Shoot them now!"

Without any hesitation at all and like any
loyal soldier would, Isaiah whipped his gun from its holster and
aimed it at the first animal, one of the male black panthers,
Jadbalja.

Of the four intimidating cats, there were
two males that were clearly larger and more dominant than the
smaller, more graceful females. Each male and each female was
distinguished by the pureness of their coat. There were a male and
female black panther and a male and female white panther.

None had the same eye color. The black
male's, Jabdalja's, eyes were the violet hues of the purple pansies
in Gran's genetics lab. Bagheera, the white male, had the jade eyes
of a Surrogate. A pure white Sasha had irises as magnificent as the
gold typically reserved for tigers, and Vixen's eyes, hers were
midnight blue and stunning when coupled with her pure black
coat.