Chapter Eighteen

Soft focus filled the spaces between my eyelashes, slowly lightening to the blue-white of a hospital room. I heard a regular beeping sound and knew it was a heart monitor. My eyes blinked, trying to clear the blurriness away.

“Hey, sleeping beauty.”

I frowned. That voice…. It was familiar, but… from where?

I heard the rustling of fabric and leather, caught the scent of leather, and the same voice said, “Yeah, she’s waking up.” More rustling, then someone leaned over me, and his fingers brushed my forehead. “I wondered if I’d ever get to see those honey colored eyes again.”

Oh my God! I thought. His face came into focus just as I placed his voice. I tried to speak, failed, swallowed and licked my lips, and tried again. This time I managed a whisper. “Cole?” I asked softly, barely able to believe my eyes.

Cole Byron – as in Nicholas Byron’s brother – smiled down at me. “Hey Cookie. Long time no see.”

Cookie was short for Smart Cookie, which had long been Cole’s nickname for me. It had been truncated over the years to simply, Cookie. Which I’d always felt made me sound like a stripper. Not that this deterred him any.

His smile was a genuine smile in a handsome face, but from what I could see at first glance, Cole had put that face through its paces. A scar ran through one of his eyebrows and grew thicker underneath the same eye. Obviously he’d barely escaped losing that eye at one point. There was an old bruise beneath the other eye. I was frankly surprised he had all of his perfect, white teeth. Maybe they were implants.

He was also in need of a shave. But that part wasn’t anything new. Cole Byron was the rogue in our trio, always in leather, always sporting a five o’clock shadow, his smile always more of a smirk. In short, he looked scruffy, rough-and-tumble, hard as nails, and lucky-good-genes handsome. Just like he always had.

“Cole, what – ” My voice cracked and I had to stop to attempt swallowing. Cole chuckled that cocky chuckle of his, reached for a glass of water on the bedside table, and tilted the straw toward me.

“You sound so sexy when you’re hoarse. Like you’ve been screaming in ecstasy all night,” he teased as he slipped one strong arm under my upper body and lifted me so I could drink. I wrapped my lips around the straw and drank thankfully, and of course Cole said, “Now that’s what I like to see. I wish I was this straw.”

I ignored him like I had always ignored him. Cole was helplessly incorrigible. There was no reforming him.

“Go easy. Not too much,” he warned, the smart side of him making a cameo appearance before he hurriedly covered it up with his usual smirk.

But he was right. I released the straw and Cole put the glass back on the side table while he used his free hand to rearrange the pillows behind me. With infinite care, he slowly lowered me back down atop them. Once I was settled, he pressed the controls on the side of the bed to elevate me a little, sitting me up just enough that I didn’t feel so lame.

Of the Byron brothers, Cole was certainly the more wild and unpredictable, but he was also the one who really “got” me. He knew I didn’t like the idea of being handicapped or disabled; it didn’t sit well with me and made me feel awkward and uncomfortable. Without being asked or told, he’d done something to alleviate that discomfort.

I sat still and just tried to get my bearings. There was some general pain in my abdomen, a low throb that I could tell would grow stronger and stronger as the pain medication wore off. The same ache was going on in my right arm – which was encased in a damn cast. That pissed me off. Casts stayed on for weeks.

Given the slight headache and the sand paper feel of my tongue but lack of post-surgery queasiness, I knew anti-nausea medication had been added to the pain meds. Bless whoever’d thought of that, because there was little worse physically than waking up from the helpless oblivion of surgery to the sound of squeaky shoes and beeping monitors, the blinding sight of white and blue, the stinging smell of antiseptic – and nausea.

I looked down. My cast-free arm was tubed and taped. There was an IV embedded deep in my vein under that tape. Goosebumps rose across my flesh and a twinge of phobia-induced panic touched me. I must have been the only female teenager in my class not to have a crush on a some male vampire in a movie or series. I couldn’t stand the thought of things being inserted into veins. It just… bothered me. Needles were the worst.

“I know,” said Cole softly. I looked up at him. You do? I thought. He knew about my phobia? I couldn’t remember every detail of my grade school years, so it was possible I’d confided in him. Or maybe he’d just witnessed me being a baby at some point.

“Just don’t look at it,” he told me. He smiled that pirate’s smile of his and it helped me forget about the tube embedded in my vein and the needle that had put it there.

Instead, I focused on everything else, starting with the room I was in. I slowly scanned it, taking it all in. It was big for a hospital room, and lacked the bed for a roommate. There was a counter at the other end, a dresser of sorts beside it, a TV on the wall, and there were vases filled with orchids on virtually every surface. It was the most extravagant hospital room I had ever seen.

I recognized the blooms not only by their appearance but by their scent. These were all the most pleasantly fragrant orchids, from the aptly named “Fragrance Fantasy,” or more technically, the Oncindium Twinkle, which smelled like vanilla – to the beautiful and small orchid scientifically known as Phalaenopsis Violacea, which smelled like cinnamon. The mixture was reminiscent of cookies. I wondered at the flowers and where they’d come from, but it was honestly just one more question on top of everything else I wanted to know.

First out of my mouth was, “Cole … what are you doing here?” I turned to looked up at him. Truth was, I’d really never expected to see him again. It had been seventeen years. The better part of two decades had passed since I’d last laid eyes on the man seated beside me.

Regardless of the full scholarships to ivy league schools he’d inadvertently managed to obtain – by not even trying – he’d disappeared after we graduated high school. His brother and I attended Stanford together on full scholarships. But Cole had vanished with the wind.

I’d learned through the grapevine that he’d left Pittsburgh, and then Pennsylvania altogether. I’d heard by way of the same grapevine that he had been in and out of trouble wherever he’d gone, despite his brilliant aptitude. But then the news stopped coming and that was the extent of it.

“Lieutenant Black works for the CPD,” came that one special voice I’d come to know so well and yearn to hear, drawing my attention to the doorway of the hospital room. Lucas was entering the room – and right behind him were Jack, Daniel, Sonia, Charlotte, Lex, Mabel... and Nanuk.

I grinned at the lot of them, but my eyes opened wide when I saw the dog. “Nanuk!” I exclaimed, surprised to no end. I was shocked and relieved he was alive, for one. And I was also surprised that his massive, furry body was in the hospital.

Jack gave me a brilliant smile. “Damn, it’s good to see you awake,” he said. “I knew you’d want to see Nanuk, and I figured he’d want to see you too.”

“No, I’m the one who said Nanuk would want to see her!” Mabel insisted, turning an exasperated expression on the police captain.

Jack shrugged helplessly, his smile broadening, and held up his hands, “Okay, okay, Mabel knew he’d want to see you.”

Charlotte grinned and placed a gentle hand on Mabel’s shoulder to guide her to the bed as they filed into the room and circled around me.

I watched them as they entered, but Cole was watching me. I glanced at him then leaned as far as I was comfortable leaning and asked him, “Did he just call you ‘lieutenant’?”

He raised a brow and leaned the rest of the way in so he could whisper in my ear. “So the plastic asshole and the captain get the real smile and I get the skepticism?”

I ignored the derogatory comment regarding androids and turned my face to his. He was very close… bringing back old memories. So I retreated a little and asked again, “Cole, you’re seriously a cop?”

“You seem surprised, Cookie,” he said as something flashed in his piercing, dark blue eyes and he sat back to cross his arms over his chest. Now that I noticed it, he was dressed like a cop. To be more accurate, he was dressed like the quintessential plain clothes TV detective, and the attire matched his scruffy personality to perfection.

“That’s because I am surprised,” I said. Cole didn’t exactly not have a rap sheet. And honestly, never in a million years would I have pegged him for law enforcement. At least not someone on the legal side of it.

“You’ve got good instincts,” said Jack with a wary eye toward Cole. “Lieutenant Black was passed over three times for promotion because he doesn’t know how to use his words to solve problems within the department. He would be a chief by now, otherwise. The only reason he hasn’t been fired altogether is because of his brother.”

At the mention of Nicholas Byron, I realized he wasn’t in the room with us. And now I had even more questions.

But before I could ask any, Lucas looked at Jack and, with no small amount of sarcasm he said, “He would seem to take after you, Captain.”

Jack blinked at him. Then he slowly smiled and shoved his hands into his pockets. “Crap, I’m oh-for-two today.”

Cole considered Lucas carefully and leaned in to whisper in my ear again. “I’m beginning to hate the plastic asshole a little less. He’s got a sense of humor.”

Lucas surely heard him this time, seeing as how Cole wasn’t trying to be as quiet. And he’d probably heard Cole the first time too, given his android capabilities. But either he didn’t care or he was definitely the more mature between the two of them because he still chose not to address the insults. Instead, the android calmly walked around the bed toward Cole, who sat back again, crossing his arms over his broad chest.

Lucas stopped inches from the seated cop and turned to face me fully. For his part, Cole appeared to be remarkably unafraid of the powerful android he had just insulted.

Nevertheless, Lucas would have had a much easier time reaching me by coming to the other side of the bed, where no one was sitting and there was plenty of room. He was doing this to prove some kind of point. Either to remind Cole of the power difference between them… or – and this thought gave me a strange thrill – to assert his dominance when it came to his girlfriend in the face of a new male competitor. Knowing Lucas and the way he covered all his bases, I was betting it was both.

Lucas reached out to take my hand on the hospital bed covers. His fingers curled possessively around mine before his expression changed, becoming so starkly concerned and apologetic, that I rapidly forgot about Cole’s misconduct and remembered why he would feel apologetic. In other words, I remembered the way Lucas had inadvertently injured me when he’d torn me from Zero’s grasp.

Now I knew why it had happened though; the Anthrocore had been moving through my system. Under normal circumstances, the action would not have injured me at all and would have freed me from my captor. Lucas had indeed behaved rather harshly and without much thought to consequence, but he certainly wasn’t to blame for the medical mishap.

Yet he still looked like he’d been stressing about it since I’d passed out. He leaned over the bed so he was speaking into my ear and whispered, “How are you feeling, Beautiful?” As with the first time he’d used the term of endearment with me, he said it fervently, as if he truly believed it. And that sent a string of something warm uncoiling inside me. His tone had changed when he addressed me, becoming more intimate, and his gray eyes genuinely searched mine when he straightened a little to capture my gaze.

I knew those eyes were searching other things too, of course – those damn android readings – but at the moment, I didn’t really care. I was content to be there with him, seeing him whole and well and not strapped to Zero’s torture table, covered in Vulcan blood.

I tried to squeeze his hand back, but when I did, it sent a little more pain up through my arm. So I backed off and said, “I’m good,” I told him reassuringly. I honestly was. “There’s almost no pain.”

“Chalk one up for opiates,” said Cole with a broad smile.

To which Sonia, who stood at the foot of the bed with the others, wryly said, “You would.”

But Jack interjected in Cole’s defense. “Hey, I’m a veteran cop and I’ll still take the lieutenant’s side on this one right now. Thank God for good drugs. Pain sucks.”

I laughed at that. He wasn’t wrong. “I gotta know though,” I said as I looked down at my wrists. “How did you guys get Zero’s cuffs off me?” I distinctly remembered still having them on when I’d passed out.

Jack had the answer to this. “The one-time emergency release code was sent to the hospital, and when you arrived the hospital officials used it right away.”

I looked at Jack. “Who sent it?”

“Vector Fifteen,” he said after an ominous pause. His expression was grim as he met my gaze.

But I’d already known that would be the answer. There was something going on here, in this hospital, that had IRM-1000 written all over it. I wasn’t sure what, exactly. But the fact that it was the only fully-staffed hospital in several states and staffed both androids and humans without inter-departmental incident spoke volumes. Zero’s apparent ability to influence what happened here was icing on the strange cake. I was having a hard time ignoring it all.

His scope of power was filling me with trepidation.

“Guys, where’s Nicholas?” I asked, looking from one member of Prometheus to the other in turn.

Sonia had a strange smirk on her face when she said, “Nicholas hightailed it out of here when this asshole showed up,” she nodded at Cole. “The lieutenant came with a contingent of cops to run round-the-clock guard duty on this entire floor of the hospital. He almost wasn’t going to let us in to see you.” She glared at Cole. But that small smile was still there.

Cole just gave her a lopsided shit-eating grin. It was cannon Cole.

“That’s why we weren’t here when you regained consciousness,” said Lucas by way of explanation. He looked truly pained by the fact that he’d seemingly broken his promise to be here when I woke up.

Behind him, Cole’s smirk grew. I was glad Lucas couldn’t see it.

“It’s true,” confirmed Sonia. “I had to threaten the lieutenant with a certain limb detachment to make him sneak us in here,” continued Sonia, crossing her arms over her chest.

Cole eyed her and drawled, “That particular limb would take you an inordinately long time to saw through, sweetheart. You should have threatened a leg.”

I could have sworn something was going on between the two of them then. Not that Cole wasn’t a goddamn flirt who would have romanced the gurney I was on if the pillows had been more round – and firm. It was just that I was beginning to get the feeling there was more going on here in general than they were all letting on.

“Okay,” I said, choosing to let it go for now. There was something I needed. I released Luke’s hand and turned to Nanuk. “Come here boy,” I said, no longer able to hold back my enthusiasm in seeing the dog. He wagged his fluffy tail zealously at being finally noticed and lumbered his enormous body around the bed. When he reached my side, he gently brushed up against Luke’s leg. I knew from experience that if Luke hadn’t been an android, Nanuk’s size would have caused the leg to buckle.

Lucas obligingly stepped back out of the way. He smiled in that way that made my soul smile back. “Easy, Nanuk!” I instructed. “You have to watch out for people, remember?” Nanuk stopped, tilted his head to the side adorably as he stared up at me, then gave me a small grrruff and great big tail wag before spinning around and jumping on Luke to lick his face in apology.

I let out a bewildered laugh. Nanuk’s actions could only mean that he’d understood me perfectly. And people didn’t think animals were intelligent.

Lucas let out a laugh too. Then he gave Nanuk a scratch on his head to let him know he was forgiven before the beast got down and turned to me again. Without hesitation, he proceeded to thoroughly lick my outstretched hand.

“Awww… if you were a third the size you are Nanuk, I’d have Luke put you in the bed with me.” I wanted to hug him so badly.

“Aaaaand now I’m jealous of the dog,” Cole muttered, chewing on his cheek as he watched us happily interact.

I shot him a warning look. But when Sonia chuckled and suggestively added, “You and me both, Lieutenant,” I turned wide eyes on her. She shrugged her faux bad girl shrug and played faux innocent.

Cole said, “Okay, that is just fucking hot.”

And half of Prometheus suddenly said, “Language!” as Charlotte covered Mabel’s ears. But they were smiling.

Cole held up his hands in placation. “Sorry!” He smiled too, blushing. “Christ. I’m not used to a rug rat being underfoot.”

I turned and winked at Mabel – who was grinning because she and every other member of Prometheus knew damn well she’d already heard every bad word in the book. We were rebels, not saints.

Then I turned to address Jack. Maybe it was because he was the oldest member of Prometheus, but sometimes I found myself just naturally turning to him for answers. “Jack, when can I get out of here?”

“That’s….” He looked suddenly uncomfortable, all signs of revelry dropping away as he put his hands on his hips, shifted his stance, and looked sidelong at Cole. “It’s sort of complicated, Sam.”

“What do you mean, ‘complicated’?” I asked.

Cole sighed. When I glanced at him, it was to find the smarmy cocksure expression entirely gone and replaced by a look a lot more serious and grown up than one I’d ever seen him wear. He sat forward, placing his elbows on his knees. He did it exactly the way Zero did it, and for a split second, I was thrown.

But I got over it quick and listened.

“When the order came through the department for your protection, I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “And I jumped at the chance to see you again, Sam. But when I got here and recognized Daniel for who he was,” he nodded at Daniel – who still hadn’t said anything and was simply watching everything carefully – “I realized you were working with Prometheus.” He gave a meaningful pause, and I think I may have blushed. He was a cop. And Prometheus was pretty much as vigilante law-breaking as you could get.

“But I know you,” he continued, “and I know you wouldn’t do something you didn’t believe was the right thing to do. And if you believed this was right, then it probably was.” He sighed. “So I tried to find out who the security detail order came from, and that’s where I ran into red lights. The chief is tight lipped about this one.” He shook his head, his dark blue eyes flashing. “The scared kind of tight lipped.”

“We believe IRM-1000 has someone in the Columbus Police Department on his payroll,” Daniel finally said. His voice was so calm, collected, and mature that it had instant leadership effects on the group, including me.

“Along with most likely the entire hospital,” added Cole. “And more than a few people outside the hospital. The captain tells me this IRM-1000 runs most, if not all of Pittsburgh – along with neighboring cities and even some areas in neighboring states. I’m getting the impression his financial and influential arms are longer than anyone at first suspected, and certainly long enough to stretch to Columbus. Plus, the Wexner family has all sorts of political connections, always has.”

Wexner was the name of the hospital, which was technically a part of Columbus University, which was also largely funded by Wexner. I wouldn’t have been at all surprised to find that Zero was in bed with the Wexners either.

“Which means it may be difficult to extract you from the facilities, Sam,” said Daniel.

“In truth, that’s why it was hard for me to get your friends in here,” Cole said seriously. “I’m under direct orders to keep all non-essentials well away, and arrest anyone who makes any trouble.”

And now I knew why Lucas hadn’t been bothered by Cole’s insults. Lucas knew he didn’t mean them. That was why Sonia hadn’t actually been mad at him either. They were all on the same side, working together in this. I couldn’t have said how relieved I was to hear that. For the first time in days, something seemed to be going right.

But there was still so much wrong – and there were still so many questions. I didn’t even have time to ask any of them before Jack spoke again.

“We had to drug Lieutenant Black’s partner,” Jack told me, looking distinctly uncomfortable with this bit of information. He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans and looked around nervously. “Eye drops in his coffee. I swear I never thought I’d use that trick on someone’s partner.” He cleared his throat. “Not again, anyway.”

I frowned, choosing to ignore the humor in what he’d just said because something else he’d just said caught my attention more. “Wait. You called him Lieutenant Black earlier too.” I turned to Cole. “Black?”

Cole shrugged. “Too much publicity tied into my real name,” he said. I knew what he meant; his brother was more than famous. “So I chose another.”

I processed that and then blinked, looking between the two police officers. “Wait. You had to put a cop out of commission to do this?”

Cole ran a hand over his mouth in a sign that he was amused, but also stressed. I watched him as he gestured to Nanuk. “The dog was actually the easiest to get in. I pulled fast strings and registered him as a therapy dog. Can’t believe that shit still flies.” He looked up at Charlotte and company. “Then that little ring leader there,” he smiled at Mabel, who beamed proudly back at him, “led Lex, Charlotte, and the dog through the guest’s entrance. With the therapy tags, they waltzed right in. Once my partner tucked into the men’s room to alleviate his sudden intestinal discomfort, I slipped Daniel and Lucas back here to clean the room.”

By “clean the room,” Cole no doubt meant check for bugs.

“Once they were done, they hid in the ladies room. They made the whole thing faster and easier by changing into hospital staff wardrobes, then waited in a stall for my call.”

Cole nodded at Jack now. “The captain slapped a pair of cuffs on Sonia and came in on his own cognizance, claiming she was a key witness in an android homicide who’d been injured during an altercation and was in need of new biocomponents before she could be processed. His badge and her drama skills did the rest of the talking for them.”

He gave Sonia a cheeky look. She smiled and drawled, “I have many skills.”

His brow shot up. “Xena,” he admitted, nailing the old school reference. Then he grinned. “Nice.”

But I frowned. I tried to swallow and couldn’t because my throat was too dry. So then I looked down at the bed and just tried to wrap my head around everything they were telling me. It was a lot to take in. They’d gone to a ton of trouble to get in here to see me. Exactly how long had I been out? And why would they go to such great lengths to be in this hospital room when I woke up? Why not just wait?

And something else didn’t add up. If Cole was actually on our side, then why was so Nicholas so hesitant to see his brother? Where the hell was Nicholas? He wouldn’t have actually left in a huff upon seeing Cole if we were all working together, would he?

“Cole, where is Nick really?” I asked.

He reached behind him for the glass of water on the bedside table and brought the straw to my lips as he said, “Running surveillance.”

I gratefully drank as Lucas filled me in from where he again stood beside the bed. “He’s been keeping watch for any sign of Zero or his men,” he told me. “He’s parked in a van across the street, where he’s been for the last thirty-one hours.”