Of Eternal Life (17 page)

He looked …old. Not just age-old, but soul-old. As though life had been kicking him when he was down, and the fight had been beaten out of him.

Eli thought sadly that he might have had something to do with Sergeant Collins’s current aura of sadness, though he hoped that wasn’t the case.

Collins sat the milk on the table and sank into the chair to Eli’s right with a sigh. He put his hand on Eli’s shoulder, and the tiny happiness in his eyes flared for a second.

“Still can’t believe you’re here,” he said.

Eli reached up to give his hand a squeeze, and it seemed to jerk Collins from his inward thoughts.

The Sergeant cleared his throat. “So,
why
are you here, son?” he asked. “And
how
? Your mama and I were told you were dead.”

Eli nodded, wondering for a moment at the mention of his mother and his mentor as a collective unit. “Well, I have been.” Sergeant Collins’s eyes narrowed. “Dead,” Eli clarified. “Several times,” Eli finished, as though it weren’t the big deal that it was.

The air of the kitchen filled with tension. It caused the hair on Eli’s arms to stand up. Collins’s face twisted into a glower.

“Don’t tell me those fool-rumors are true,” Collins growled.

Rumors
. Eli’s heart leapt at the word. It meant, perhaps, that he had not been forgotten; that at least a portion of the Tormentor’s treachery had escaped his tight hold on the truth.

“What rumors?” Abilene asked, not content to view this conversation from the sidelines.

“That the key to immortality had been unlocked,” Sergeant Collins scoffed. “That they had found a way to create a death-proof soldier.”

Abilene scrunched her brow. “People were saying that?” she asked. “I just went through medical school; no one ever mentioned this — in print or in person.”

“No, you wouldn’t have heard anything,” Collins said, shaking his head. “You’re a civilian. These rumors circulated among a very small, very select group of government intelligence agents.” Collins shrugged. “
I
only know because I beat down doors and called in favors when Eli’s mother — ” A guilty flush colored the Sergeant’s face.

Eli straightened. This was the second time Sergeant Collins had mentioned Eli’s mother.

“What about my mother, Sarge?” Eli asked.

Sergeant Collins screwed his mouth down into a frown, then met Eli’s eyes. “Hell, boy, you know I …
loved
,” here Collins squirmed, “you like a son.”

Something tingled at the back of Eli’s neck. The words were wonderful, but something in the Sergeant’s tone caused Eli alarm.

“Well, when you disappeared,” Collins continued, “your mama came to me for help. She didn’t buy your
Killed in Action
status, nor should she have.” Collins emitted a deep chuckle. “She’s a smart cookie, your mama. They wouldn’t release your body. She pitched a royal fit, claiming they were hiding something from her. That if you had died, they needed to send you home so she could bury you properly.”

Sergeant Collins paused in his story and looked down into his lap where his hands were knotted together. “One look at her, and I was a goner,” he revealed. “She was so full of passion. So full of loyalty to you — which was something we had in common.”

“I married her, son,” Sergeant Collins finished in a whisper.

Happiness flooded Eli. It was almost too good to be true. “Married her?” Eli repeated. God, someone had been here to take care of his mother while Eli was gone. He was so grateful to his mentor that he was tempted to give him a huge ole kiss.

And then Eli realized something. If Sarge had married her, she was here. In his house!

Eli surged to his feet; his chair screeched on the floor as it shot back. “Where is she?” He was charging toward the door before Collins could answer.

“Hold on now, son,” the Sergeant called to Eli’s back. It didn’t even begin to slow Eli down. He stepped into the doorframe so he could look up and down the hall. He was determined to find his mama one way or the other, even if he had to open every door in the house.

“Eli, stop!” Sergeant Collins barked. Eli halted.

That was a command from his superior officer.

Eli turned around. The niggling feeling of worry was back, lodged at the base of Eli’s brain.

“Where is she?” Eli repeated.

“I found out about Operation: Middle of the Garden, Eli.”

It was the one thing the man could have said to diffuse the situation. Eli visibly crumbled, though he still stood. Sergeant Collins walked around the table, his hands held out in a pose of supplication.

“I promised your mama I would get to the bottom of what had happened to you. Your disappearance was very suspicious. It reeked of a cover-up. I was able to pinpoint your last known location, but no one — not any soldiers from your unit, not any officers — would admit to knowing how you had died. They simply said you were there one day and gone the next.

“That’s when I started pounding the pavement. I called in every favor I had, followed every lead. I heard the rumors about the immortal soldier and that they were testing men in a top-secret government operation.”

Eli made an involuntary noise of distress. Collins heard it and swore under his breath.

Abilene left her chair and moved to Eli’s side. She took his hand in between her own and cradled it against her stomach. He spared her a quick, grateful glace, then returned his attention to Sergeant Collins.

“I found out you were involved in the operation. Operation: Middle of the Garden was an embarrassment; a blight on the reputation of the United States Army. When word was leaked that scientists were conducting experiments on civilians, the entire program was shut down. I was given access to your files.”

Sergeant Collins gaze turned imploring. “Your death was recorded in vivid detail, Eli. I finally believed that you were dead. I couldn’t tell your mother what had really happened to you. She was sick. Fragile.”

Eli grunted. He knew that. It had been the only reason he had agreed to be a test subject: so his mother would be supported.

“So, I just told her that the Army’s initial report on your death was true.”

Eli sighed with relief. Sergeant Collins had made the right decision. God, the thought of his mother knowing what he had gone through —

“But, she gave up,” Collins whispered. He pulled in a ragged breath that caused his chest to buck up and down. “She knew it wasn’t true, that I had lied to her. It broke her, ruined us, and caused her to stop fighting the disease.”

“Where …is …she?” Eli enunciated through clenched teeth.

Sergeant Collins swallowed several times and looked at his feet.

“She passed.”

The walls of the kitchen closed in on Eli until he couldn’t breathe. Spots danced in front of his eyes. He felt Abilene put her arm around him and guide him back to the chair he had vacated earlier.

When she tried to force his head between his knees, he snapped.

“No!” he yelled, swiping his arm out to the side in a cutting motion, sending Abilene scurrying back.

Eli noticed that Sergeant Collins had made his way back to the table himself. The man looked as though he had aged even more in the last few minutes. His eyes were dark.

Conflicting emotions warred within Eli. The Sergeant had done exactly what Eli would have: protected Eli’s mother from the devastating truth of what had happened to him.

Yet, Eli felt anger as well. Of course his mother would have shut down if she suspected Collins of lying. Trust was so hard for her in the first place. If she had suspected her second husband of being the same kind of man as her first … .

Eli groaned aloud and allowed Abilene to push his head down until he was looking at the tiled floor from between his knees.

His mother died unhappy.

And it was Eli’s fault.

The slight weight of Abilene’s hand landed between Eli’s shoulder blades. She began a soothing, circular motion that encompassed his entire back, and Eli felt his muscles relent their death grip on his bones.

Eli sighed.

“Eli, God, I’m so sorry, son.” Sergeant Collins huffed out a breath and plowed his stubby fingers through his hair. “There’s just no delicate way to deliver news like that. I wouldn’t hurt you for the world. I hope you know that.”

Eli lifted his head and leveled his gaze on the worry-glazed eyes of the Sergeant. “I know.” He swallowed once. Twice. Gathered his courage. “Did she suf — um, was it bad? You know, at the end?”

Sergeant Collins looked at him. Eli could see the answer in his eyes, but knew the man would never confirm Eli’s worst fears.

Eli nodded. Message received.

The sharp stabbing pains of tears pricked his eyes. Eli let his head sink down again.

He was a failure.

He’d taken on the role of becoming a test subject so his mother would be okay. She’d needed the money that Eli was promised would come her way with his cooperation.

Instead of helping her, he’d ensured her painful death.

He should have died before ever allowing himself to be defiled in such a way.

And now, he never would.

The chair to his left screeched against the tile as Sergeant Collins pulled it out and fell into its support.

“Eli …I need to know what happened.” The Sergeant paused for a moment, waiting to see how his words would be received. “You obviously escaped. You’re still alive.” He scooted closer to Eli and laid a hand on Eli’s shoulder. “What happened in the last eight years?”

Eli spoke to the floor, his head too heavy to lift. “It’s all true, Sarge. Every bit. They experimented on me. Made me eat the damned fruit. Then, when they found out it had made me immortal, they killed me. Dozens of times. And recorded my body’s reaction.” Eli’s voice was deadpan. He relayed the information without any inflection, without any bid for pity.

Sergeant Collins sucked in a breath and absorbed the information. He must have already suspected what had happened, though, because he recovered to ask, “But how? Eli, I swear to you, I tore apart Washington trying to find you. The record of your death was very detailed and complete. I watched as they dismantled Operation: Middle of the Garden and forever put to bed the idea of experimentation. It was over. Done.”

Eli shook his head and laughed without humor. “Done for who, Sarge? Not for me. I know I was moved at least once. And when I got out, I discovered I had been kept in the basement of a civilian hospital. But I was still definitely there. And Major Taylor was still experimenting on me.”

When Sergeant Collins heard Major Taylor’s name, he made a threatening noise in the back of his throat. “Shit, I knew that son of a bitch was trouble,” he whispered. Then he remembered Abilene sat on the other side of Eli. “Excuse me, ma’am.”

Abilene rolled her eyes at this. “Sure. Why the fuck not.”

Some of the tension dissipated from the kitchen. Sergeant Collins let out a hearty chuckle and slapped Eli on the back as though to say job well-done. “I like her.”

Me too
, both his mind and the Voice chimed in.

Abilene’s eyes sparkled with mischief at the compliment, and the corner of her lips tweaked up in a secret smile.

Heat rushed to his groin. It was the same smile she wore after coming apart beautifully beneath him. And above him. And —

Eli cleared his throat. “Um, Sarge, I don’t suppose you can put us up for the night? I think Abilene must be tired.”

The “tired” woman let out an unfeminine snort, and Sergeant Collins chuckled.

And Eli blushed.

“Sure, son, you can stay here for as long as you’d like.” Then he wagged a finger in Eli’s face. “But in the morning, you’re telling me everything.” A gleam entered the Sergeant’s eyes. “And then we’re going to bring the world crumbling down on Taylor’s shoulders.”

The words choked Eli up. They meant he wasn’t alone. Wasn’t fighting his own battles. That someone else recognized Eli had been wronged.

Eli recognized the same feelings shimmering in the face of the other man. Sergeant Collins clapped Eli on the back once again. “Damn glad you’re here, boy,” he choked out. Then he turned and led the way out of the kitchen before the men started crying like kids in front of Abilene.

• • •

When Sergeant Collins delivered them to the guest room, Eli stepped inside and turned to face her. He was just out of Sergeant Collins’s field of vision, so only Abilene saw as Eli bit his bottom lip and trailed his eyes over her body.

Then his gaze flicked to the bed and back to her.

Holy fraking cow
. Her belly quivered, and she was ready to sprint into the room and close the door behind her.

But Collins spoke. “Abilene, hon, I know Eli’s mama always hated to wear clothes for too long. Do you want to look through her things before bed? See if you can find anything that would work for you?”

The tantalizing thought drove all others from her head. “God, yes. Sir,” she added quickly. “That’d be great.”

Clean clothes
. She could feel human again.

She looked to Eli to tell him she’d be back in just a minute, but the look of disappointment on his face almost had her laughing out loud.

He looked like a kid whose favorite toy had been poached by the neighborhood bully.

“Eli, some of your old things are in boxes in the closet. And there should be soap in the shower. I’ll send her back soon. I promise,” Sergeant Collins teased.

Collins laid a hand in the small of her back and ushered her down the hallway to the master bedroom.

She’d just met the man, and it wasn’t under the best of circumstances, but she was already a little taken with him. He just exuded a sense of concern and care. It felt so good it made Abilene dizzy.

Her own father had never cared for her.

Of course, it didn’t hurt that Sergeant Collins had announced he liked her. Obviously the man had impeccable taste, and therefore had passed the “I’m okay” test with flying colors.

He escorted her to the closet of the master bedroom, announced “Help yourself, hon,” and settled himself in an overstuffed armchair to watch her sift through his wife’s belongings.