Playing With Fire (25 page)

He nodded in acknowledgment. “Do you know this loser?” he asked me quietly.

I shook my head.

“Rome and I work together,” Cody supplied, as if Tanner had asked the question of him.

Oh.
Oh.
Shit! Not good, not good at all. Most likely, Cody was here to apprehend me and take me to John. A hard lump formed in my throat (how many of those things had I swallowed lately?). I released Tanner’s hand and buried my own between my knees, covertly stretching my fingers. Drawing on my emotions would be difficult. I was tapped out, so to speak. But I wasn’t leaving this cabin. Not without a fight. Rome’s orders be damned.

Cody eased to his feet, squaring off with Rome. The two men stood nose to nose. “John wants to see you. My job was to find you, then the girl. But I see you saved me some trouble.” He motioned to me with his chin, then turned back to Rome. “You haven’t phoned in a while. We were worried, but now I see there was no need.” Accusation laced his tone.

“I won’t allow her to be taken,” Rome said with deadly calm.

Cody arched a black brow, the harsh color a surprising contrast to his pale hair. “So it’s like that, is it?”

Rome nodded. “It’s like that. I don’t want her recruited.”

“You know the rules. You know how things work. You took the assignment. Now you have to finish it or it will be finished for you.”

“She didn’t volunteer like we did, Cody.”

“That doesn’t change the strictures of your assignment.”

“She stays.”

“They won’t do anything to her that they didn’t do to us,” Cody said, exasperated.

“I told you. We volunteered. She didn’t.”

“Doesn’t matter. Word is, she’s dangerous. She can start fires.”

“So can anyone with a lighter,” Rome countered.

“Lighters can’t cause thunderstorms,” Cody replied. “Nor can they freeze buildings.”

“You want her to freeze your ass, keep talking,” Tanner piped up.

The men ignored him.

I shifted nervously on the couch, wavering between attack and patience. They were discussing me as if I weren’t in the room, and I didn’t like it.

“Rome, don’t give me shit about this,” Cody said. “I’ve been ordered to bring the two of you in and that’s that. If she’s not taken to John and trained it will only be a matter of time before Vincent and his men find her. All John wants to do is test her and put her in the field. She’ll be doing the world a public service, taking down the bad guys.”

Should I maybe try to freeze him? Give Rome time to decide what we should do with him? I mean, it wasn’t like the icebox would kill him. “Rome,” I interrupted.

He knew what I was asking. “No,” he said. “Do nothing.”

“She may not be able to help herself,” Tanner muttered. I elbowed him in the stomach and he
hmphed.

Cody grinned. “I’m an electrophile, sweetheart, and Rome’s afraid I’ll hurt you.” I must have worn a blank look because he added, “I have an affinity for electricity. I wield it, control it, and if you attempted to use your powers against me, I’d have to give you the shock of a lifetime.”

“You know that Taser you used on me?” Rome asked without turning to face me. “Cody can send a thousand more volts than that through your body.”

Cody’s grin widened. “She took you down?”

Rome gave one jerky nod.

“Good for you, sweetheart,” the gorgeous (traitorous) man said to me.

“You won’t think so when I do it to you.” I gave him a confident smile—a smile I wished I actually felt.

Cody laughed. “I see why you want to keep her, Rome. Not many are so brave and foolish at the same time. She’s perfect for PSI.”

Rome gave no reply.

“Right now, John doesn’t realize you’ve decided to walk. He just wants you and the girl delivered safely.”

“What will happen if Rome refuses?” I asked.

Cody shrugged, lifting his big, wide shoulders. “That’s assuming I’ll
let
him.”

“I’ll be hunted,” Rome told me, “as will you.”

“The government can’t afford to have people like us running loose with no one to pull our strings,” Cody added.

“We either work for them or against them. And working for them isn’t a bad deal. I once got to neutralize a woman who sucked the soul right out of a man during orgasm. Literally.”

“You killed her?” I gasped.

He frowned. “No, I put her to sleep and she was locked in Château Villain with the other scrims. Anyway, if you’re a good girl and do grunt work for a while, like chasing down the fake psychics and crap, you’ll eventually get to handle gems like the little sex fiend. Best assignment of my life. If you continue running, well…” He shrugged again. “It’s the whole can’t-let-anyone-else-have-you thing.”

Rome would be hunted if I didn’t cooperate. I didn’t care about myself. Well, I did, but not as much as I cared about Rome. If he was at risk, that would put Sunny in even more danger. Rome must have expected that. Accepted it, even. But…

Maybe the best way for me to help him with his ultimate goal was to turn myself in so he wouldn’t be blamed for my escape. That would take some of the heat off him. I closed my eyes for the briefest of seconds, unable to believe what I was about to do. But I forced the words out. “I’ll go in,” I said.

Rome whipped around, facing me, finally taking his attention off Cody. His eyes glowed with fury. “Don’t say another word,” he snapped.

“I’ll go in.” I stood, squared my shoulders, all the while eyeing Cody. “Do you have to handcuff me or anything?”

His silver eyes gleamed wickedly. “I will if you ask sweetly.”

“You don’t have to do this, Belle,” Rome said. “And for fuck’s sake, Cody, quit flirting with her!”

“Yeah,” Tanner reiterated, standing beside me. “What he said.”

“I want to do this,” I said softly. These men had done so much for me already. Rome had chosen me over his job. He’d helped me break into Dr. Roberts’s house. He needed me now, and I wouldn’t let him down. “Cody said it wouldn’t be very bad for me,” I offered, trying to soothe him.

Rome sighed. “Then I’ll go with you.”

“Me, too.” Tanner assumed battle position, arms locked behind his back, feet spread.

“Excellent.” Cody’s tone sounded gleeful, but his expression was one of surprise and confusion. “We can have a celebration on the way.”

“You’re not taking us to headquarters,” Rome said, turning back to Cody. “I don’t want her anywhere near the lab.”

The blond angel lost his smile. “I know what you’re trying to do—”

“Just shut the hell up and call John. Unless you want a fight, those are my terms.”

There was a long pause; a heavy tension. Then Cody shrugged. “Fine.”

“Tell him we’ll meet him at the park near his house in two hours. And no agents. Got it?”

“No one knows where he lives,” Cody said, brows arched.

“I do.”

Admiration sparked in Cody’s expression. He nodded. “I’ll make the call.”

W
E DROVE FOR AN HOUR
. Tanner and I sat in the back seat of a very comfortable sedan. The interior was leather, the standard black that seemed to be preferred by all types of agents. Overall, pretty nice. As far as prison vehicles went, that is.

“How much of a fight did John put up?” Rome asked as he steered down the winding roads.

Cody chuckled. He’d made Rome drive so he could keep his own hands free. The better to subdue us with. “I’ve never heard him so angry. How’d you find his place, anyway? He’s so guarded I doubt his wife knows where he lives.”

“I tracked him one day.” Rome’s tone suggested his words were no big whoop, but I sensed his pride.

“That’ll teach him to make a jungle cat, eh?”

Dawn tinged the sky, lighting it up with pinks and purples. I yawned. I’d been without sleep for…what? I couldn’t remember. Seemed like forever. But then, these last few days hadn’t exactly been tame. And on the bright side, I was too tired to be scared of the approaching confrontation.

“Stop there.” Cody pointed.

Following the direction, Rome eased the car to a halt near a beautiful park. Flowers bloomed, a sea of yellows, reds and blues. There were two swing sets and a merry-go-round. Several slides.

No people.

I had a tingling sensation at the back of my neck, though, as if I was being watched. Probably John. I started to unbuckle.

“We’ve been spotted,” Rome suddenly said, “and not by John. See the two SUVs? Black? Tinted windows?”

Cody glanced out the passenger mirror. “Vincent. God, the man is a walking cliché.”

“He wants Belle just as bad as John does,” Rome said.

“Well, we can’t let him get near John. If John were hurt, PSI would be placed in major upheaval and Vincent could try to take over. Again.”

“Pussy,” Tanner mumbled, acting brave, as if he could defeat Vincent single-handedly. “No offense, Cat Man,” he added.

“Cut it
out,
Tanner.” Rome thrust one hand through his hair and gripped the steering wheel with the other. “Shit. Are you ready for another roller coaster ride, Belle?”

“Floor it,” I said, dread filling me from head to toe. And here I thought I’d be too tired to fear my fate. I glanced skyward.
Thanks a lot for proving me wrong.
To my way of thinking, this proved beyond a doubt God was actually a man.

I
T WAS A CAR CHASE
to end all car chases. Several times we almost crashed—into parked cars, moving vehicles, trees and buildings. The object didn’t matter; nothing was safe from our rampage. I was surprised the police weren’t involved yet. Maybe Vincent had convinced them to look the other way, as he had at the café. I just didn’t know. All I knew was that my stomach churned and was very close to heaving.

As we soared down the highway, a black SUV pulled alongside us. I gasped. “Uh, guys. Look to your left.”

“Can’t,” Cody said, chuckling. He hadn’t stopped laughing since the chase had begun. Either he was a danger junkie or completely insane. Maybe both. He leaned out the window, aimed the gun he’d taken from his ankle holster, and fired off a few shots. “We’ve got a tail on the right, too.”

“What?” I whipped around and gasped. Sure enough, another black SUV had closed in on our other side.

The sound of bullets—with which I was now intimately acquainted—erupted, followed by a loud thump, thump. I whimpered, okay. Like a little girl. I’m not ashamed, but I had to keep my fear to a minimum. I didn’t want ice in our car’s engine.

Logically, I knew I should cause a thunderstorm, shielding us from their view. I just didn’t have it in me. I couldn’t forget my fear, couldn’t force sadness to come. If I’d been offered a million dollars and a one-way ticket to heaven, I still wouldn’t have been able to make it rain.

“Everything’s going to be fine,” Rome said, suddenly hitting the brakes.

The momentum threw me forward, but my seat belt shoved me back again, saving my life. The SUVs sailed ahead of us. Cody fired as Rome jerked the wheel, steering us into oncoming traffic.

“Someone could have hit us from behind,” I squeaked out. Tremors raked me. “We could have died.”

“I checked before I stopped, baby, and there was no one behind us. Have a little faith.”

“Yeah, have a little faith,” Tanner said. Brave words, marred by his pale face and trembling hands.

One civilian car after another whizzed past us, honking and swerving to avoid hitting us as we traveled the wrong freaking way. I squeezed my eyelids tightly shut, desperate to drown out the sights. “How did Vincent find me?” There. Conversation. Now maybe I could pretend I was at home, with my dad, sipping hot chocolate and watching cartoons.

“I’m sure he had men all over town, and one of them spotted us and called in the others,” Rome said.

“I don’t want you to talk, Rome,” I said. “I want you to concentrate. Cody can answer me.”

“I’m sure he’s had men all over town,” Cody repeated with a chuckle. His damn chuckling! “Someone spotted our car, figured you were with us, and hello, B movie scene.”

“They’re gaining on us again,” Rome said, ruining the mirage I had going. “Use your goddamn powers, Cody, and let’s finish this.”

“If I do, I’ll cause a power outage in this area.”

“So?”

A pause, then, “Fine.” Cody leaned out the window again, stretching out his hands. Electricity sparked from nearby poles and lanced toward him in orange-gold streams. He gathered the crackling, flickering energy in his palms and hurled it at the SUVs. The surrounding streetlights, which were already muted upon the arrival of the dawn, darkened completely.

Crash!

The cars lit up like a Fourth of July fireworks display. One flipped, careening down the highway. At that point, I shut my eyes again and anchored my head between my knees.
Deep breath in, deep breath out.

Finally, blessedly, we lost them and traveled back to the park where we’d originally arranged to meet John. When I called Rome and Cody stupid for going there, they laughed at me.

“Vincent won’t think we’re ‘stupid’ enough to return, so he won’t show up himself,” was the answer Rome gave me.

“Tanner, you okay?” I asked. “You’re so quiet.”

“Just wishing for babes,” he answered with a nervous smile.

Cody jerked a phone from his pocket and speed-dialed John. He informed him of our whereabouts and what had happened. When Cody hung up, he turned to Rome and said, “He’s on his way. And he’s bringing protection.”

Half an hour later, a car parked beside ours. Same make, same model. Four men exited. We did the same. Rome came up beside me and took my hand. There were kids on the swing set a short distance away, parents watching over them.

“You trust me?” Rome whispered.

“Yeah. Thanks for asking,” Tanner said drily. And not quietly.

“Yes,” I whispered back. I studied the man obviously in charge. He was the only one who didn’t look as if he’d just come off a beefcake calendar. He was about five-eight, with thinning gray hair, glasses and a slightly rotund belly. Yet he radiated power.

“Belle Jamison. Finally we meet,” he said to me.

“Yes.” Here he was in the flesh, one of the men who wanted to control me. He was somehow more menacing than the males around him, who were tall and muscled. One had red hair, one black and the other highlighted brown. They oozed strength and mysterious power as they surrounded the old man. The redhead was smoking, and that smoke wafted to me. I coughed, the ashes tickling my throat.

“Put that out,” Rome snapped. He wasn’t content to wait for the man to obey. He strode to him, plucked the butt from his mouth and tossed it on the ground, stomping it out.

Slowly my coughing subsided. John watched all of this with interest.

“Strong aversion to pollutants,” he said with interest. “Were you always like that?”

How could this grandpalike figure have ordered painful experimentation on me? “No,” I said hesitantly. “Just recently.”

“Interesting.” A faraway look glazed his eyes, as if he were mentally calculating an equation.

“Let’s get this over with,” Rome barked.

“All right, then.” The old man’s features creased with anger, and yes, power more intense than the young men around him, giving me a glimpse of the tyrant who could hurt me without blinking. “Why don’t you tell me why you failed to bring Belle in when you found her? Why don’t you tell me why you stopped all communication between us?”

Expression unreadable, Rome stepped in front of me. “You’ve always wanted Vincent out of the picture, but the government wouldn’t let you take him out. Well, I’m willing to do it, and I’ll make sure it’s never linked back to you. But I’ll need to use Belle as bait.”

John’s eyes narrowed. In unison, his shadows crossed their arms over their chests and flanked him. “I can’t risk it. Besides, I want her tested.”

“There’s no time for that. You either want him gone or you don’t.”

“What makes you think you can get him and not have the blame fall on me?” John asked staunchly.

“There will be no evidence. Not while Belle’s at my side,” he answered. “I’ll give her over to him, and she’ll burn his lab to the ground.”

The conversation finally clicked into place for me, the part of Rome’s speech that affected me most. “You want to dangle me in front of that madman?” I gasped, then pressed my lips closed.
Trust him.
At least he hadn’t mentioned Dr. Roberts’s letter.

Rome reached behind him and gripped my hand, squeezing. “We plan to break into his lab tonight,” he said. “Believe me, Vincent will come to us.”

A long pause ensued, blanketing the sound of insects, the rustle of wind. Then, in the distance, I heard a helicopter. Dear God. Would it never end? The bad guys knew we must be in the area, I guess, and were desperate to find us.

“Yes or no, sir?” Rome splayed out his arm. “We can’t stay here, they’ll spot us. Either take her or send us on our way.”

I trusted Rome, I did. But jeez, thanks a whole hell of a lot. Just gamble with my life, why don’t you. No biggie.

A muscle ticked in the old man’s jaw. “I don’t have any men to spare right now. Everyone is out on assignment, and I can’t give up my guards with Vincent so close.”

“We’ll be fine on our own,” Rome said.

John paused. Sighed. Then mumbled, “Use her. But Cody is going with you. Get in the lab, kill Vincent and bring Belle to me. Understand?” His eyes glinted in warning, telling Rome the consequences if he failed to obey.

I gulped.

Rome nodded.

Without another word, we pounded back to the car, and Cody claimed the driver’s seat this time. He gunned it, shooting into a nearby thicket of trees. I looked back, but John’s car had already disappeared.

“V
INCENT
’
S LAB HAS
an internal security system that is not reliant on outside electrical units,” Rome said to Cody.

I knew that Vincent’s lab was the place Dr. Roberts had worked, the building across from Utopia Café. And night had, unfortunately, fallen, which meant we were about to head straight into that lab. Into danger. Right now, we were several blocks away, standing near a deserted intersection. Already I wanted to vomit. Danger sucked.

“That won’t be a problem.” Cody patted the lamppost beside him. “The lights
do
use outside currents. I’ll be in before you know it.”

I kid you not—Cody climbed the pole, reached out and grabbed two of the wires. Sparks flew around him a split second before he
became
the sparks. He seemed to melt right into the wires. I watched from the ground, wide-eyed, as those sparks traveled along, disappearing from sight.

“My God,” I breathed.

“He’s a good man to have on our side.”

“Are we really going to draw Vincent out and try to kill him?”

“Yes. First we need the formula Roberts left in the building, though, so
it’s
the bait rather than you. Can you make it rain?” Rome added with barely a breath, wasting no time.

“Yes.”
Maybe.
How many emotions could one girl endure before spontaneously combusting? Or better yet, killing herself?

At the moment, I wanted nothing more than to soothe my stomach and embrace numbness. Maybe experience total anesthetization. Maybe sedation. Even the thought of happiness bothered me right now. I wanted nothingness, damn it.

Tanner gripped my hand and gave a comforting pat. “You can do it. I know you can.”

I guessed we’d find out. I forced sad thoughts into my mind, but the emotion didn’t touch me. It was kind of like standing on the edge of a dream, watching, unable to do anything. Rome linked his fingers with mine, forming a three-person circle.

Tendrils of strength suddenly curled through me; thunder boomed. I straightened. Wait. I hadn’t been sad. I’d simply—ohmygod! Did I actually not need to feel sad to create a storm? Maybe…maybe I just needed the
power
of the emotion. Like seeing a rainbow in the distance, but not having to touch it to experience its beauty.

There were reservoirs of emotion in everyone. Perhaps if I could tap into specific feelings and experience their effects at a distance…Hopeful, I searched for and found the sadness buried deep inside myself without letting it flood me. I drew on its strength, milked it.

Another clap of thunder boomed. I grinned. Yes! Lightning lit the sky with jagged gold bolts. The already dark sky turned a swirling, churning black. Droplets of rain began to fall, already hard, already fast.

“You’re doing good,” Tanner praised.

Rome said, “We need to get to the lab, baby. Try to keep the rain up as best you can.”

I nodded. I was excited by what I’d discovered, but also very ready to get this over with.

We hiked on foot, rain pelting us the entire way. We remained in the shadows as best we could, avoiding streetlights and businesses. Very few cars were on the road. My wet clothes were soon plastered to my skin, and water trickled into my eyes as I passed Utopia. I barely spared my former workplace a glance. It felt like a lifetime had come and gone since I’d last been there—the day I drank that fateful latte. What would good old Ron the Pervert think if he could see me now?

By the time we reached the laboratory, I think I carried more water weight than at prime PMS season. At the doorway, Rome jerked wires from a metal box with one hand and withdrew a card from his pocket with the other. He twisted a blue and a red wire together and flashed the card in front of a scanner. Obviously he’d done this type of thing before.

The doors slid open.

He entered. I followed close behind him, Tanner on my heels. The entryway was plain and unremarkable. I’d kind of expected computers, maybe a robot. Definitely armed guards.

“Dr. Roberts’s office is this way.” Rome grabbed my hand, I grabbed Tanner’s, and like a train, we started moving through a winding corridor. Rome stopped along the way and jerked cameras out of the walls. At the last camera we could see, he froze, sniffed. “Someone’s coming.”

“Yep, and he’s got a gun!” Tanner shouted. “Duck.”

In unison, Rome and I dived for the floor. During our fall, he jerked me underneath him. The guy fired at us and missed. Tanner had already aimed his gun and squeezed the trigger. A muffled whiz and crack rang out, barely audible over the roar of blood in my ears. The bullet slammed into the uniformed guard, and his big body crumbled to the ground, just to the right of the Rome-Belle huddle.

“Come on.” Rome stood, grabbed my arm and helped me to my feet. Maybe I was about to pass out, because I saw sparks shoot from an outlet, lights flashing, crackling…and then Cody was there, standing just in front of me. I blinked, shook my head. My heart had yet to calm from everything that had already happened, and seeing him suddenly appear didn’t help.

“Well?” Rome said to him.

“I did damn good,” Tanner exclaimed.

Rome replied, “Not you, little boy. How many guards, Cody?”

“I counted only three. I disposed of two…” Cody’s silver gaze flicked to the blood-soaked tile and to the gun in Tanner’s hand. “Looks like the kid took care of the third, so we’re good to go. The building has been emptied out. Maybe Vincent feared discovery and ran. The whole place is under surveillance, though.”

“I took care of the cameras,” Rome said, “but this seems easy. Too easy.”

“We’ll look at the office and get out fast.” Before Cody finished his sentence, he was moving down the hall.

The rest of us followed, flying along abandoned hallways. We soon entered a large room, where the sound of our breathing echoed. The walls were covered in chalk marks. Some were symbols I didn’t recognize, other were clearly depictions of the four elements. There was a periodic table, as well. Several floorboards had been ripped up. Vincent and his men
had
been searching for something here. Had they found what they were looking for? I turned full circle, wondering what to do, where to look when there was nothing to look through.