Invisibility Cloak (24 page)

Virginia Sullivan flipped on the light switch as the three of them walked into a small, white room with computers sitting on various desks and video cameras.

“Please sit.” Virginia motioned to the two chairs that flanked the stark walls. Only Amanda took a seat, he decided to stand.

“So, what do you have to show us?” Ryder asked lifting an eyebrow. Amanda immediately laid her right hand on his arm and he tensed. If this was a set-up . . .

“I want to show you some footage.” Ginny pulled out a tape and pushed it into the video machine. “I ran across this quite by accident, actually.” The older woman pursed her lips. “I came in here to look at something else and stumbled across this. I think Terrence is in deep.”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why would you think that?”

“Well after I came back yesterday to check on Wayne’s office, I saw Terrence surrounded by three mean-looking men.

“I’m not sure that means anything, Ms. Sullivan. Hell, I’m mean-looking.” Ryder stood with his legs spread wide and his hands clasped behind his back.

“No.” Ginny shook her head. “There was no mistaking these guys. Rough. They were dark and pushy.” She gestured with her arm to the hallway. “And they backed Terrence all the way down here.” After she depressed the button on the monitor she said, “See what I mean?”

Everyone’s eyes jumped up to the display screen. Three large Hispanic men cornered the pudgy, dark-haired physicist and physically manhandled him to the structure they were at now. The tape documented everything. Two of the men had on baseball caps. And they barked out orders to Dr. Montgomery as they pushed him to where they wanted to go. One man on the video looked vaguely familiar to him, but his interest in what was in this building drew his attention more.

“Can we look around?” Ryder walked to the door. “I need to see what is in this building that would cause others to kill to get their hands on it.”

“I suppose,” Virginia said haltingly. “But this is confidential research material.”

“I won’t breathe a word of anything I see, Ms. Sullivan,” Ryder said. “To anyone.”

“It’s not you―” She stopped and nodded at Amanda. “Amanda works for our competitor.”

“Oh, honestly, Ginny!” Amanda took a step closer to her ex-husband’s colleague. “I won’t say a word―or copy your secrets! I’m not here trying to steal information! Someone cut Wayne up into little pieces―” She stopped and sucked in a breath before saying quietly, “Someone is trying to hurt me and my children. I have to stop this before anything happens to my kids.”

Virginia Sullivan lowered her head and closed her eyes. “Of course, I’m so sorry Amanda.” Walking over to Ryder, she opened the door. “Come on you two.” She motioned with her hand. “I’ll show you what we’ve been working on.”

Ryder waited until Amanda got in front of him, so he had her back as Ginny led them out.

“Okay.” Ginny sucked in a breath before she opened the door for the first room. “We’ve been commissioned to find an invisibility factor so that the . . .” Pausing, she used her fingers to make air quotes before she finished the sentence, “. . . ‘
Powers That Be’
can move heavy artillery and aircraft through hostile combat zones undetected. That was what Wayne was consumed with before his death.” Motioning to one side of the stark white room, she continued, “To your left is our first attempt at invisibility.”

She flipped on a switch with her hand and half of the room illuminated with light. “But we saw limitations. Our first inclination was to manipulate the rate of speed for light. We thought if we could slow it down or speed it up; we’d approach the notion in that vein, hitting the pockets where the rift splits. But again, we hit limits with space and derivatives. So then we delved into crystals.” Ginny laughed. “I swear I felt like a voodoo High Priestess conducting that trial.”

“Hey what about camouflage?” Amanda cleared her throat and then clarified, “I mean optical camouflage, of course.”

“Too basic and that would mean actually pinning the object in a specific area.” Ginny shook her head. “So not doable.”

Camo.
He grunted to himself. Finally something he could understand. Had to be related again to the environment origin, right? Ryder furrowed his brow just trying to follow what the scientist was explaining. Grasping most of what was being said, but crystals? He absently shook his head not understanding that one.

Ginny smirked at him. “I know, right? But when certain crystals are cemented together they can bend light. You need light to see an object. Darkness shows emptiness.” She waved her hand at both him and Amanda. “At any point, that trial went nowhere.”

Ginny steered them on to the next room. “We did find a way to hide objects from microwaves, but only with a functionary algorithm. Again, but it only worked successfully in its natural environment and how practical is that?”

Amanda nodded with Virginia Sullivan’s ramblings and then asked, “What about metamaterials? That’s what I’d test.”

“Bingo. How long have you been at Verdant, Amanda?” Ginny flipped another switch. “We could use you here.”

“Thank you Ginny, but Verdant has been good to me; I’m not planning on looking elsewhere for a place of employment anytime soon.”

“Well, if you’re ever ready to make a switch. Call me.”

Amanda nodded and looked into the empty room. “So is this the latest prototype?”

“Yes,” Ginny said. “See if you can detect the cloaking mechanism.”

“Okay.” Amanda eagerly walked into the room and looked around.

Ryder immediately noticed two things. She was walking great, so she must have her brace on. And second, her wrist glittered. Narrowing his eyes, he watched as the silver circles floated up and down on her forearm. He’d seen the bracelet on her a lot, lately.

Ryder didn’t know about the other two, but what he saw in the room, or rather what he didn’t see in the room confused him. Running his hand over the top of his head he asked, “What am I missing here?” It was another white room like the others they’d been in, but this one was empty.

Amanda stepped up to him and pointed. “Look. Do you see the space over there?” She indicated an area just to the left of him.

He nodded. “Yeah.”

“Come here.” She ran her hands over the open space and her palm instantly flattened. But there was nothing there.

“Let me guess.” Ryder stepped up next to her. “Is this the invisible object?” He placed his hand next to Amanda’s and when his fingertips touched a hard surface, he took in a quick breath and muttered, “Well, I’ll be damned.”

Amanda placed her hand over his and guided his palm across the surface of the unseen object. “And this Mr. Stevenson is metamaterials at work,” she said proudly before her mouth broke into a big toothy smile.

He could tell Amanda just loved this stuff. Clearing his throat, he asked, “So how exactly is this procedure done?”

Amanda looked over at Ginny. “May I explain it to him?”

“Be my guest.”

“You see, Ryder.” Amanda eyes gleamed as she explained the phenomenon. “The man-made properties that the cloak is made from, effectively guide electromagnetic waves around the solid, making it invisible.” Her voice hitched slightly with excitement. “The cloak splits light into two waves and it wraps around the object and re-emerges at the end as one single wavelength. There is no break at all and no shadow.”

Virginia Sullivan nodded. “Yes. That is about it. In layman’s terms, of course.”

“Fascinating,” Amanda murmured.

“So.” Ryder rubbed his hands together and faced the two women. “This material . . ." He lifted an eyebrow at Amanda. “Can make anything invisible to the naked eye and to radar? Anything at all?”

Ginny and Amanda both nodded.

An idea was forming in his head and he didn’t like what he’d pieced together. “I need to see that tape once more.”

Ginny led them back to the first office they were in and she popped back in the surveillance tape.

The scenario played over again. This time Ryder narrowed his eyes. One of the stocky, dark-haired guys looked too damn familiar.

Awe
. . . His gut roiled.

The goon wearing the blue baseball cap was definitely the perp that broke into Amanda’s house on Saturday night. Ryder swore underneath his breath.

“What is it?” Amanda asked.

Ryder instinctively knew what
they
―The Mexican Cartel―wanted, no . . .
demanded
, from Dr. Terrence Montgomery.

Invisibility.

They wanted to be invisible.

The Cartel wanted the technology that the Institute of Physics was unearthing.

Totally concealed as they what?

Run their drugs, arms, and girls up to the States? Ryder shook his head when he fully figured out what the scum suckers wanted. The Cartels wanted the technology to transport anything and everything they wanted across the borders without any hindrance. Go right over the fricken’ American border with anything they wanted. Right in front of our noses?

Hell No.

No. Way.

Ryder’s head got hot when he thought on Amanda’s ex-husband selling these secrets to the slimy Cartel. Where’d his American honor go?

“What’s the timeline on this?” he asked.

“This footage was from yesterday,” Ginny answered.

Ryder shook his head. Montgomery’s cheeks were flushed as two big men pushed the chubby white male in a lab coat so vigorously that he stumbled numerous times. It looked as if the third man was the lookout. The muscular man that broke into Amanda’s house was roughing up Dr. Montgomery and enjoying himself.

“So . . .” Ryder looked over at Virginia Sullivan. “Why did they push him to come here? To this particular building?”

“This is our lab. Where we test our theories. And have models set-up, of course.”

His blood boiled as the rage surged though him.

“I think Terrence sold us out.” Ginny’s hands trembled as she turned the nobs on the desk trying to get sound from the video. “They wanted our new technology we’re working on.”

“Did they have to sign their names anywhere to enter the building?” Ryder asked the older woman, but he already knew the answer to that question.

“I can check at the front desk.” Her brows furrowed as she explained, “Everyone is supposed to sign it at the front desk, but Terrence could’ve met them at a side door and let them in like I did with you two.”

“Can I get a copy of this tape?” Ryder asked Ginny before they left.

Chapter 14

“A
manda.” Her mom looked beseechingly at her. “Please, darling, come back home with us.” Beverly Anders grabbed both her arms. “We’ll all go right now. All five of us. This morning.”

“Mom, I’ll be fine.” Amanda hugged her. “I promise.”

Ryder stood beside her and spoke in hushed tones with her dad, who was on the other side of her pleading mother. Her father’s brows were pulled down as they talked.

Amanda darted her eyes back to them in between convincing her mom she’d be safe.

Don Anders seemed satisfied at whatever Ryder told him, because he smacked him on his back then both men shook hands. She wondered what Ryder told her father to satisfy him. Why couldn’t Mom relax?

Her mother was driving her crazy. Because there was absolutely no way that she would go home with them.

“Come give your father a hug, Panda.” Her father held out his arms to her and Amanda walked into him and gave him a squeeze and whispered in his ear, “Dad, I’ll be fine.”

“I know, honey.” Her father gave Ryder a hard look then turned his gaze back to Amanda and his eyes softened. “I love you, honey.” Squeezing her shoulders, he said. “We’ll see you in two weeks. Get some rest.”

“Will do, Dad.”

“Ryder?” Nickel came up beside Ryder and they spoke in low voices.

“Do you need something, honey?” Amanda wrinkled her brows, hoping she didn’t forget to remind them to pack something for this trip.

“Ah, no, Mom.”

Curious as to what Ryder and Nick were speaking about so secretively, she circled around them.

“I trust ya, buddy.” Ryder shook her son’s hand and Nick nodded.

Before she had a chance to ask them what was going on, her dad put his arm around her for one last hug.

“Come along, Beverly.” Don Anders walked to their SUV. Sammie was already inside ready to go.

Nick jumped in the car next to Sammie. “C’mon already, Gramps,” Nick yelled out the window he buzzed down. “I’m getting hungry.”

“Oh,” Her mother grimaced back to him and hugged Amanda again for the twentieth time, before getting in the car.

“Love you!” Amanda waved at their car until it turned out of sight. Her heart squeezed together a little tighter than normal for some reason. They left later than they usually did; all because her folks badgered her to come home with them.

Go back to Fort Collins?
Ah . . .
No.
Her nose scrunched up. Make that a resounding N.O.

Her left hand played with her bracelet on her right wrist. Just feeling the loops made her feel better and her gaze shifted down and she watched her thumb outline the glittery silver circles. Breaking her out of the melancholy mood draped over her, Ryder looped his arm around her waist. “How about some lunch?”

“Okay.” Amanda leaned into him and they headed back into the house. “I’ll pull together a salad and get it chilling in the fridge if you want to go for a run.”

“That sounds good.” Ryder grabbed the door and held it open for her. “I really do need a few miles.” He flipped his wrist over and glanced at his watch.

“You got it, big boy.” She bit her cheek after the words spilled out of her mouth. Amanda groaned inwardly. Why couldn’t she just keep her mouth shut sometimes?

Ryder arched his eyebrow up at her last big-mouthed comment, while heat invaded her face. “Big boy, eh?”

She lowered her head and closed her eyes hoping to erase her last remark. Walking past him, she flung open the refrigerator. Narrowing her eyes, Amanda scanned the contents for salad makings. Good. Looked like she had everything she needed. After grabbing lettuce and spinach out of the fridge, she elbowed the door close and turned to set the greens on the shelf behind her coming face to face with Ryder. He smiled as he plucked the salad greens out of her hands and set them on the counter for her. When his arms came around her waist, she was forced to take two steps backward until her rear-end pushed up against a cabinet.

“Wha―?” Her head jerked up as both hands automatically reached out behind her to touch the countertop to brace herself. With her heart hammering wildly, she realized they were totally alone. No one would come walking down the stairs at any given moment or almost catch them in an innocent kiss. Having her kids around had always kept them chaste.

He didn’t really mean anything by his flirting, did he? Amanda hadn’t read anything into his kisses, only that they were wild and wonderful. Oh, and it was flattering that he did want to actually lock lips with her when a woman like Sophia Edgington was climbing all over him for attention. She looked up at his face. His soft brown eyes resembled melted chocolate.

“Amanda,” Ryder half-whispered and half-groaned before he crushed his mouth down on hers.

That was when she realized her fingertips frantically gripped the edge of her kitchen counter almost to the point of pain.

Calloused, rough hands gently cupped her face as he bent over and touched her lips. When his soft kisses became more demanding, she reached for him. He became her anchor and she kissed him just as intensely back. It wasn’t until she felt her nails digging into her palms did she realize his lightweight T-shirt was fisted in her hands and she’d ground her body into his. Ryder had kneed her thighs apart and had somehow fit his hard body in between her legs. Even through the jeans she’d recognized his arousal and plastered herself more into his frame.

T
he pounding in his head and groin took control of his actions and before he could stop, Ryder advanced on Amanda. Her green eyes widened as he plowed into her, but she met him head on. His palms cradled her jaw gently but he had to fight himself every step of the way to ease up and not throw her over his shoulder. When she pushed her cheek into his right palm, his thumb automatically stroked her soft skin and she groaned.

She was such a little tiger. Ryder pulled his left hand away from her jaw and brought it down to rest on her stomach.

“Aren’t you hungry?” Amanda blurted out after their lips parted.

“Oh, yeah, I am.” He scrunched up the material that covered her stomach in his hand and touched the soft skin on her belly. As his hands explored the silky flesh around her belly button, her breath hitched and his desire spiked higher. “Starving.” Grabbing her waist, he lifted her on top of the kitchen counter.

“Ryder,” Amanda said softly as she wrapped her arms around his neck. He felt pressure on his back and he sucked in a breath when he realized it was Amanda’s legs around his waist.

He hadn’t had a woman in so long. But it wasn’t any woman that would do.

Only Amanda. And they were all alone. No kids to have to worry about. They had her place to themselves for two whole weeks. They could get to know each other slowly.

He grinned, thinking of all the things they could do to get better acquainted. His fingers fumbled at the hem of her shirt and she lifted her arms so he could pull it up and over her head. Her green eyes glowed between the blond strands that fell over her face and she shook her head to push them out of the way. She gripped him tightly at the waist and her fingernails dug into his abdomen. He leaned back and looked at her as his hand crept up her ribcage.

Damn, she was pretty. No, she was beautiful. Even in a white lace bra, she took his breath away. Amanda easily blew away any other woman he’d ever been with in the past.

“Do you want this, Amanda?” Ryder leaned in close and asked softly near her ear.

She nodded.

“You sure?” He needed to be sure she was in this just as much as he was.

“Yes,” she whispered back.

Her pulse thumped wildly on the side of her neck. He said a silent thank you to the all mighty powers up above and reached for her waist. Pulling open the button, he tugged the zipper down.

With her eyes half-shut, she grabbed for the end of his shirt.

He instantly obeyed her silent command and held his arms up. She made it as far as his head as she leaned forward to tug it off, but it got stuck around his shoulders.

She pulled away and quietly laughed. “Help?”

He tugged it up and over his head then handed it to her. She flung it behind her carelessly and then leaned forward to place her hands on him. The silver bracelet danced around her right wrist as she touched him. The silver circles moved erotically around her arm.

Shit, right now anything she touched was a sexual gesture to him. Amanda’s fingers pressed along his lower belly and edged underneath the band of his jeans and he jumped on the balls of his feet and closed his eyes.

Just a little lower
.

He held his breath.

Lower
.

Ryder sucked in his breath, waiting . . .

DING DONG. DING DONG. DING DONG.

Her doorbell ripped through the lower level of the house. Amanda jerked her hand out of his pants and her eyebrows jumped up as their eyes locked together.

DING DONG.
DING DONG. DING DONG.

“Who could that be?” she whispered.

Ryder let out his breath as his options just plummeted downward. He leaned his head over right as Amanda did the same and their foreheads met.

Damn.
“Don’t know, honey.” His teeth clenched together.

“What time is it?” She spoke so softly he barely heard her.

“I think it’s around fifteen hundred hours.”

“Is that three o’clock?” she murmured huskily. “Kelsey! I completely forgot.” Groaning, she shook her head. “Kelsey, my friend.” Amanda cleared her throat. “Called yesterday, said she wanted to come over and help me get ready for the Dinner Dance.” She pushed at his chest and set one foot on the floor.

“Not so fast,” Ryder growled before he pulled her up against him. He lowered his head and pressed her body into his. His mouth crushed down on hers and she threaded her arms around his waist and kissed him back.

DING DONG.
DING DONG. DING DONG.

After he lifted his head, he walked behind her and grabbed up her top. “Here, honey.” He grinned and pushed her shirt into her hands.

Amanda stayed still where she was. Her eyes were wide and she hadn’t moved yet. He liked kissing her senseless.

Chuckling softly he said, “I like ya fine the way you are, but I don’t want anyone else to see you like this.”

She shook her head as if to come out of a trance.

“Oh!” Finally moving, she threw her top over her head and pushed her hands through the sleeves. “That will be the last time
you’ll
see me like this.” Her face was beat red. “I honestly don’t know what came over me.”

He chuckled softly. “Uh huh.”

Amanda stomped to the front door.

“We’ll finish this later, okay?” he said as she stalked by him. Turning toward the refrigerator he opened it. “Want a sandwich?” With the door open, he waited for her to answer at least one of the questions he’d thrown at her.

Amanda took a few steps toward the front door and nodded and then shook her head. “I mean, no.”

“Beg pardon?”

She looked back at him. “No sandwich, Ryder.”

She looked slightly unsteady.

He took out the bread, mustard, and ham, but his eyes followed her as she walked to the front door.

When he saw her ready to just fling the door open without using any precautionary measure, he bellowed from across the kitchen, “Damn it, Amanda, use the peephole. Use more caution.”

DING DONG.
DING DONG. DING DONG.

She turned and glared at him.
Oops.
Maybe he should’ve toned it down; women were so damn touchy. He stepped out of her vision to assemble his lunch. Man, Ryder could feel her making a face at him even though he couldn’t see her. He chuckled at the thought of her probably even sticking her little tongue out at him, too.

“Hi, Kelsey.”

Ryder heard her greet her friend and then they spoke in lower murmured tones while he busied himself spreading mayo and squirting mustard on two pieces of bread. Trying not to listen. He peeled off four slices of ham and threw them on the bread. Their footsteps padded up the stairs.

Pouring a cup of milk, he took his glass and sandwich over to the kitchen table and chowed down.

While his body ached from what
didn’t
happen.

“H
onestly, Kels, I’m not sure why Ryder is still here.” Amanda walked into her bathroom with Kelsey on her heels. “The kids have left. He really doesn’t need to be here all the time.”

“Hello, are you home, Amanda?” Kelsey said dramatically and held up both hands in the air. “Honestly . . .” Her friend shook her head as she lifted the blue evening gown up off the top of the closet door. Taking the dress off the hanger, she held it out to her. “Strip, girlfriend.”

“What are you talking about?” Amanda asked as she undressed down to her undies.

Arms up.” Kelsey held the pretty sapphire gown out. “Here, slip this over your head.”

With her arms straight up in the air, she nodded and the soft material cascaded down her body.

“He’s obviously attracted to you.” Kelsey put her hands on her hips. “
Duh
. It’s so freakin’ obvious.”

“What?” Amanda adjusted the beautiful dress and smoothed it down with her hands.

“Oh honestly, you can be oblivious sometimes! The guy is crazy for you, Amy!”

Amanda snorted. Why would he be interested in her? She was just so ordinary. Her reflection in the bathroom mirror caught her eye. Was that her? Wow. She looked almost pretty. She pranced around the bathroom and swirled the hem of the gown around her ankles a few times. “Not bad, eh, Kels?” In the midst of a turn, she stumbled slightly, but caught herself against the sink counter.

“Amy, you look be-a-u-tiful.” Kelsey’s smile turned downward as she sucked in a breath. “Ah! What are those?” Kelsey squealed. “That gargantuan panty line!” She pointed her finger at Amanda. “Off with your mother’s underwear and put the thong on.”