Chapter 6
Alex stared at the white walls of Gray Tower Headquarters’ secure medical wing.
She had told Miles this was going overboard; she would be fine in the normal medical area, not several floors below ground.
Then again, she had also told Miles she was feeling good, and there was no need to have her checked out.
However, Miles insisted she be evaluated and stay overnight.
Alex disagreed. Blue Eyes had obviously given her a sedative. There was nothing else to observe.
She had groggily woken up next to her car, paramedics hovering over her. Alex had been disoriented, but it only took a few moments for someone to mention “overdose” and “Narcan” for her to catch what was going on: they had found her passed out and thought she had ODed on opioids.
As soon as she found her voice, she screamed, “No Narcan! Not a drug addict! Kidnapped!” People had begun to scatter, and it took her a few long moments to clear her head before she said calmly, “I need to speak to Miles Bryant. I need a cell phone.”
She saw blue flashing lights from the corner of her eye. A paramedic was wheeling out a gurney. After saying the word “kidnapped,” no one was paying attention to her.
Alex sat up, looked at the paramedic, and growled in her most intimidating voice, “If you don’t give me a damned cell phone or call Miles Bryant, I’m going to stab you in the balls with that Leatherman you have in your pocket.”
“Jesus, lady,” the paramedic said, putting down the gurney and taking his cell off his belt. “What’s the number?”
She rattled off his private cell number by heart and watched as the paramedic called. Luckily, Miles picked up. He was probably going crazy trying to find her. She had been so scared in that cabin with Blue Eyes that she never thought of how Miles and her friends at Gray Tower were feeling.
It had been a huge relief to hear Miles’ voice on the other end of the line. She cried. Five minutes later, Gray Tower had shown and bullied their way past the police and paramedics. They snatched her up and took her back to Headquarters. She had been in this medical room ever since.
Miles had barely left her side, except when Dr. McKay—Gray Tower’s Head Physician—kicked him out for exams and questions. It felt good to have him near, but he was also suffocating her. She was fine. Except for Sims being a bastard, nothing had happened.
Alex watched Miles come back in from a coffee run, looking tired.
He was in his early fifties and exceptionally fit.
Dark brown hair with slight touches of gray framed a handsome face.
He wasn’t as tall as the elite ops guys, but his presence filled the room.
Alex knew some women who had huge crushes on him.
However, he was happily married, though his relationship with his wife had been rocky over the years.
Alex had never felt that way about him. With the way they had met, he had always been a mentor figure for her.
He dug her cell phone from his suit pocket.
“Your purse was still in the parking lot,” he explained as he handed it to her.
She nodded and said, “Thank you.”
“I know you and Dr. McKay have had a few private exams,” he began. “And I shouldn’t ask…” He looked down at his hands, which were clenching and unclenching. “…But I need to anyhow. Did he rape you, Alex?”
The question hurt her heart. Miles had been thinking the worst this whole time. She needed to set him straight.
“No,” she said firmly. “He didn’t touch me. In fact, he stayed far away from me.”
Miles let out a long breath but only looked slightly better.
“I know you’ll do a full debrief, but I’d like to know—if you’re up to it—who was this guy?”
Alex shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t give me much. All I know is that he was at the Sims Center against his will and was given experimental drugs for a long time. He seemed…unstable, and he mentioned having to detox.”
“Could he perhaps be one of our—” Miles began.
Alex shook her head.
“Already asked him. He’s not a missing veteran. I don’t know what he is. In some ways, he was frightening, and in others he was…” She paused for a moment, trying to choose her words carefully. “…almost caring, regretful I was there.”
Miles stood there, frowning. Alex wasn’t sure if he was buying her story. It was the truth, but she wondered if he thought she was lying so he wouldn’t feel bad about putting her on the mission.
Finally, he said, “Do you have any idea who this guy is? What did he look like? What was he doing? Did he tell you anything?”
Alex shook her head.
“I don’t know. He had a gun and containers full of supplies he was hauling into my car, but he wouldn’t say much about himself—not even his name.
” Alex blew out a breath. “I know he had been locked away for a while. He had a long beard, wild hair, and his body looked like he had lost a ton of weight. Even though most of his face was covered in a beard, I could see how gaunt he looked. Whatever Sims was doing to him was awful.”
“Do you think he was a trafficking victim? We had suspicions about the Conglomerate being involved with Sims. We still don’t know what they were doing with those people.”
“I don’t know. I know he was being tortured. Whether he was kidnapped for some sick psychiatric experiment or whether he was a Conglomerate enemy being punished, I have no clue.”
Miles began pacing. Alex watched him, worrying about his mental health.
She knew he had one hell of a night. Dr. McKay had noted that he had pulled a ton of Gray Tower resources for her, which made her heart warm.
Miles had become like a father after her parents had driven her away. He was essentially her only family now.
“I should never have allowed you to go on that op,” he said pointedly. “It wasn’t safe. We knew the Conglomerate could have been involved, and the more you talk about that patient, the more I wonder…”
Alex held up her hand.
“First, I decided to go. It was a low-risk mission—until a patient escaped. That situation was so off the wall we could never have anticipated it. But…”
With everything that had happened, she forgot about Sims and the sexual assault. The mission would have ended regardless.
“But?” he asked when she stayed silent.
Alex bit her lip nervously.
“Yesterday, before I left the facility, Douglas Sims called me to his office, and he…”
She closed her eyes; she didn’t want to think about this. Blue Eyes, though unstable, seemed more trustworthy. Sims was a slimeball. She preferred being in that cabin over Sims’ office any day.
“And he?” he pressed.
“And he tried to sexually assault me.”
“What?” Miles yelled, slamming his hand down on the railing attached to her bed.
Alex jerked in surprise and then scooted as far away from him as she could. She had never seen him this angry before, and she had no idea what Miles Bryant was actually capable of.
“Miles…please,” she said softly.
As if he were snapping out of a trance, he shook his head and backed up from her bed, immediately giving her space. He realized his outburst had scared her.
“Hell, I’m sorry, Alex. Can you please tell me what happened? I need to know.”
“He came near me, grabbed my arm roughly, and tried to unbutton my blouse,” she said quickly.
His expression darkened, but she continued before he could say anything.
“I kicked him in the balls and got the hell out of there. I ran out of the building and to my car. I was going to call Ryan to tell him I was cancelling the mission. Except…”
“Except you ran into a patient in the middle of an escape,” Miles offered.
She nodded.
“Well,” he began, his expression lightening slightly, “I was about to be thoroughly upset, but the only thing I can think is…good job kicking his ass.” A smirk crossed his face. “That’s my girl.”
Alex couldn’t help it: she grinned. She had taken years of self-defense classes, and they had paid off.
“I’ll have to thank Logan,” she said, chuckling.
“I’ll have to give Mr. Slade a raise,” Miles said, though Alex wasn’t sure he was joking.
Logan ran a self-defense class geared toward women on certain evenings during the month.
It was an extremely successful program, and many employees and spouses came.
It was getting large enough that they might need another instructor.
Joel was working with Logan on training techniques.
When he was a vigilante, he combined parkour, sniper work, close combat, and anti-detection driving skills, as well as a myriad of other skills.
Miles had wanted those added into ops training, and since Joel hadn’t been ready to go into the field, he had obliged.
Alex doubted he’d want to do a few women’s self-defense classes.
Plus, he lived in Akron, Ohio, and most of the women would drool over him. Not that they didn’t over Logan, but damn, Joel was gorgeous.
The moment grew serious again, and the smiles slid off their faces.
“Are you okay, Alex?” Miles asked, concern etched on his face. “Are you really okay?”
“I’m fine,” she lied. “I’m tough. It’s the years of therapy and self-defense classes. Please don’t worry about me. And please don’t beat yourself up, okay?”
Miles nodded.
“Okay. Is there anything you need before I head back to the office?”
“Yes,” she said firmly. “First, I need all the paperwork for my debrief. I want it done now, please.”
She had to laugh at herself that, even though she had been through this ordeal, her relentless need to be perfect was still there.
“You don’t need to—” Miles began.
“If you want to help me, then let me do my thing, Miles,” she said with a smirk. “I would feel better if it were completed.”
Miles nodded.
“I understand.”
“Also, keep everyone away from me for a bit. Okay?”
Alex was nervous about facing her friends and colleagues.
She knew everyone wanted to see her, but she couldn’t face the Gray Tower girls right now.
That included Kiera (who couldn’t come anyway because she was on bed rest), her best friend Kat, Ashlen (Mercer’s girlfriend), and Sophie (Gabe’s girlfriend and daughter of presidential candidate Roger Clark).
They could be a bit much when everyone was there at once, and Alex didn’t want to deal with it.
Plus, she didn’t want to see the guys, especially Jack and Ryan. Nope. No way. They’d look at her with pity, and she didn’t want that.
“Everyone?” Miles asked, one eyebrow raised.
“Yes. I just can’t right now. Okay? I’ll text Kat later. I need time.”
“Understood. Anything else?”
Alex nodded and said, “I need you to go home to your wife and get some rest. Don’t come back here until you’ve gotten at least a few hours’ sleep, and you’ve spent some time with Candice.”
Miles smiled slyly. Candice Bryant was his beautiful wife. They had been estranged for years after Miles went overboard trying to find the murderers of their daughter, Jasmine. Her death sparked the whole creation of Gray Tower.
As much as Alex depended on Miles as a surrogate father, she knew not to overstep when it came to his family.
The fact was, she wasn’t his daughter, and she never would be.
Candice was a lovely woman, but it was obvious that Alex wasn’t allowed to encroach on the Bryants’ homelife. She wasn’t Jasmine; she never would be.
“I’ll go home for a bit,” Miles promised. “But you need to get some rest, too.”
“Yeah,” Alex said, though she wasn’t sure how much “rest” she was going to get.
She was on edge. After talking to Miles about Sims, her body was wracked with anxiety. It was odd she hadn’t felt that way when she had talked about Blue Eyes. In fact, as Miles left the room and Alex was finally alone again, she couldn’t help but wonder if her captor was okay.
? ? ?
Douglas Sims pounded his desk and growled as he read another security report.
Somehow, Nathan Slade had been able to escape without any evidence.
Any. The cameras hadn’t shown anything, although they later learned the feed had been put on a loop.
No one had noticed his escape. It was like he had disappeared.
And now Douglas was in deep shit.
He had been given Slade by the Conglomerate specifically to test new drugs for Project Euphoria. It was also being used as torture—to see if he’d give up the location of his X-suit. One didn’t cross the Conglomerate, and Slade had fucked up big time.
Unfortunately, Douglas was in a similar position if he couldn’t find and contain Nathan Slade. Project Euphoria had to get back on track. If he had lost a subject, especially a high-value one like Slade, Douglas would be the one in a cell being tortured.
But what if Douglas could convince the Conglomerate that Slade had died during the trials?
Or what if he didn’t say anything? No one had checked on the asshole since he had been brought to the facility, except for the initial interrogation.
If no one from the Conglomerate inquired, then Douglas would have time to find Slade.
Or he could have one of his security people nab a junkie off the street and kill the guy, saying that it was Nathan.
Regardless, Douglas needed time: he needed to find out how Slade escaped, and he needed to find where the guy was hiding.
Shit.
He had way too much to figure out. There was no way he could end up on the Conglomerate’s hit list because of one punk.
Douglas was about to call his secretary when he realized he didn’t have one.
Miss Jones hadn’t come into work today. Apparently, she was “missing,” and police had been around asking questions earlier.
Thankfully, they hadn’t been back. They had probably found the bitch.
He didn’t need cops sniffing around his facility.
It was a shame she had left. He would have loved to fuck her over his desk, but she had been difficult.
He let out a frustrated growl. The last day had been shit, but he was going to lighten the mood.
The easiest way to do that was to screw with some of the inpatient subjects.
Douglas loved it when he could get someone worked up in a discussion group by slipping in some key trigger words.
It was fun. Besides, it wasn’t like he had built this place to help people; he was in it for the money, mainly the extra money he got pumped in from his Conglomerate friends.
Hopefully, those friends didn’t become enemies because of one drug-addled soldier.