False Match Read online

  “Since we got on the plane, you’ve ignored me.”

  She frowned. “Have I? I hadn’t noticed.”

  He laughed. “Go sell that act to someone else, Jonesie. I thought after last night, things were good between us.”

  She eyed her son, who watched the byplay with interest. “Things are fine between us.”

  “I want things more than fine.”

  “My mother’s nurse would’ve made things more than fine. Or the flight attendants. Did you really not want a free trip to New York?”

  He laughed again. “It was a little harmless flirting. It meant nothing.”

  “It meant something to me.” She couldn’t believe she was acting jealous. She had no reason. Chase had done nothing wrong, and yet she was glad of the reminder they lived in two different worlds. Last night’s sexual interlude had been fun, but the vacation was over. It was back to reality for both of them where she was the steady doctor and he the handsome, carefree flirt.

  Honestly, what had he expected? That they would continue hooking up back on campus? Would they meet for quickies in the middle of the day? Ridiculous. No, she was thankful to the flight attendants and nurse for reminding her of real life.

  “I’m sorry you were upset, but it meant nothing. You’re the important woman to me. I’ll let you go back to brooding, but we’re not done with this conversation.”

  “Fine.”

  “Fine.”

  She picked up the conversation thread later while driving home from the airport. Chase’s confident hands held the steering wheel easily and guided the SUV on the highway. “Chase, when we get back to the Program campus, what will happen with this thing between us?” she dared to ask.

  He glanced at her, keeping his hands on the wheel. “What do you want to happen?” His voice was controlled. His sunglasses hid any hint of what he wanted. She thought about how women reacted to him, and she glanced at her sleeping son in the backseat.

  “I think it was a fun little vacation fling, but it has to end for obvious reasons,” she said. He didn’t respond and continued to stare straight ahead.

  She turned in her seat to look at him and try to understand what he was thinking. But she got nothing. “I have a son, Chase. And a job to do. It’s not like we can openly date. Won’t Shep put the kibosh on it?”

  “Why would he?”

  “Because they want you with your perfect genetic match. Not me. Not a thirty-seven-year-old who isn’t your perfect match in any way.”

  Now he turned to look at her, but the glasses hid his eyes. “Says who? Did you run the tests? Are you one hundred percent certain we’re not a perfect match?”

  “You know we’re not.” Even though Chase wasn’t genetically enhanced, he still had a perfect match somewhere out there. Everyone did. It was in part what the upcoming government hearings were about. If everyone in the world had a perfect genetic match, people feared they’d be required to register and breed with their match. In a Brave New World way, their fears made sense.

  “Did you run the test?” he asked very slowly.

  “No. Why would I?”

  He sucked back a breath, and she thought she heard him mutter “ouch”.

  “Aren’t you the least bit curious?” he asked.

  “I don’t have the flexibility to be curious. I’m nearly past my prime for optimal breeding, and we don’t have any of the other markers. I’m sexually attracted to you, but—” She never got to finish her sentence.

  A huge black SUV swiped the tail end of their car, sending them into a fishtail across the two-lane road. “What’s going on?” Samara stifled her shriek and gripped the door tightly.

  Chase managed to maintain control of the car.

  “What an idiot,” she said when they seemed on steady ground again. “Why aren’t you stopping? Don’t we need to pull over?”

  “It was no accident,” he said between gritted teeth. “Hang on. This may get rough.”

  Her stomach lurched and she grabbed the door again, taking time only to check that Luca was still sleeping.

  “Mommy?” He blinked at her.

  “Hi, sleepyhead. Sit up straight. Chase is going to zoom us back to his house.” She hoped her face didn’t show any of the debilitating panic now gripping her.

  His eyes grew big. They were only a mile or two out from the Program compound, but it was an endless distance if they were bumped again and she had to watch a moment of fear on her child’s face.

  “Drive faster, Chase,” she said in a low voice.

  “On it, Jonesie.” He glanced in the rearview mirror, and she could swear he was excited about this. Stupid adrenaline junkie.

  “Do me a favor. Grab my phone and call Shep. We’re going to need backup as we enter the gate,” he said.

  Wordlessly, she reached for his phone charging in the dashboard console. She scrolled, looking for Shep’s number.

  Bang! The phone flew out of her hand as the car was hit again from behind.

  “Get the phone, Samara. Call now.”

  “Mommy? Chase?” Luca started to cry in the backseat. “Is it the bad mens? I won’t go on the plane with them. Mommy, is it them?”

  “Luca, look at me,” Chase ordered from the driver’s seat. “I’m a real race car driver. I won’t let them get you. But I need your help. I drive faster with my favorite song.”

  “You do? What song?” Luca asked with a sniffle.

  “The ABC song.” And Chase started to sing at the top of his voice. “A, B, C, D…” After a moment, Luca joined in. Samara froze in her search looking for the phone on the well of the floor in front of her seat, falling a little in love with Chase in that second. That he could drive, avoiding Paulson’s goons, and still take the time to comfort her son meant everything. He caught her stare.

  “The phone, Jonesie. Call Shep.”

  Her shaking fingers took two attempts to get Shep on the phone and she put it on speaker in case Chase needed to give military-type details she was not in the least bit qualified to give.

  “Shep, we’re going to need assistance as we pull in.” She tried to keep her tone calm and her words mild, not scary so Luca didn’t panic.

  “We need a full welcoming committee, Shep,” Chase called over the phone.

  “Got it. ETA?” Shep asked.

  “Three minutes?”

  She ended the call and pivoted in her seat when Chase’s voice warned her. “Don’t even think about it.”

  He’d somehow known that every maternal instinct in her was screaming to leap in the backseat and shield her son’s body with her own.

  “He’s buckled in. You’re buckled. For now, it’s as safe as it can get. I can’t concentrate on driving if I’m worried about you flying around in back.”

  She froze and remained buckled in her seat, but she turned her head as far as she could to pick up the singing. “How about You Are My Sunshine?” It was one of Luca’s favorites, and he used to request it nightly before bed. Lately he’d outgrown it, but he jumped in now, his tiny voice hitting high notes in a beautiful off-key rendition. They made it through three rounds.

  “Jones,” Chase said as the gate to the compound pulled into sight in the distance. “When I say so, you should jump in the back, unbuckle Luca and get as low as you can. Got it?”

  So much for staying buckled. She wondered what he wasn’t saying. She understood as soon as they approached the Program’s main gate. They had to slow a little to make the turnoff. Two men stood as sentries, nearly covered head to toe in black Kevlar.

  “Xander and Gavin,” Chase muttered under his breath, obviously recognizing his teammates. “Thank God.”

  She awkwardly, but quickly, hoisted herself from the front seat to the back and unbuckled Luca. “Let’s hide,” she whispered as she covered his little body with her own. She hung on tight, banging her knee, as the car fishtailed on the turn. A loud bang made her think the car had hit something or lost a tire. And then she started praying as she understood it was the
sound of bullets flying.

  “Shit,” Chase cursed from the front. “They got a tire.” She didn’t dare lift her head to see if they’d made it safely onto campus or if Gavin and Xander managed to shoot their attacker. Soon the car pulled to a stop and by the dim lighting, she knew they were safe in the underground garage. Her breath blew out and her hand unclenched from Luca’s head, as if her skin and bones could’ve stopped a bullet.

  As soon as the engine was off, Chase leapt out and was at their door before she’d had time to lift herself off Luca.

  “What do you think, Luca? Better than a ride at Disney?” Chase’s grin was easy as he scooped Luca out of the car, but a vein at his neck throbbed and pulsed. He was masking it well for Luca’s sake, but he was obviously running on adrenaline. He turned to her. “Are you okay?”

  She crossed her arms over her breasts and forced her head to move up and down. Numbly she followed Chase to the trunk and accepted Luca’s hand when Chase lowered him to the ground to get out their luggage. Still in a daze, she followed Chase out of the garage and into the afternoon sunshine of the open campus space. An autumn-like chill had fallen over Maryland while they’d been in Colorado.

  “Do you want to go back to your apartment?” Chase asked, and she managed another nod. With every step they took back to the apartment, her guilt and fear weighted her down until she had to concentrate on simply moving one foot in front of the other. Chase could’ve been killed. Luca could’ve been killed. No, don’t go there. Too painful to even contemplate. Even Luca was totally silent on the short walk, seeming to understand that the adults were shaken.

  “I didn’t think they’d use guns,” she said in a low voice. “You could’ve been killed.” Her voice hiccupped on the last few words.

  Chase paused midstride and turned to face her. He dropped their luggage and pulled her into a tight hug. “Is that what has you so quiet? You’re worried about me? Are you feeling guilty?”

  “Yes,” she whispered against his chest.

  “Don’t you dare. You didn’t drive the car that chased us, and you didn’t pull the trigger on the gun.”

  “But I’m who they’re after. If it weren’t for me, they wouldn’t be here. Did Xander and Gavin manage to get them?”

  “No.” Chase scowled. “They got away. But you’re safe and that’s what counts.” Somehow she knew if she and Luca hadn’t been in the car, it would’ve been a very different scenario. Great, yet another reason to feel guilty.

  “Mommy,” a tiny voice interrupted. “I’m hungry and I gotta go pee.”

  Chase released her from his grasp but the look on his face said they weren’t through discussing this. “Okay, Luca,” she said. “We’re steps away from the apartment and then we’ll find something to eat.” She wasn’t slightly hungry and couldn’t imagine ever being hungry again. It was a testament to the fortitude of children that he seemed shaken and subdued by the events of the last half hour but retained his selfish ability to focus on his own needs first.

  “I’ll bring your bags to your place,” Chase said. “Take Luca to the bathroom and then to the cafeteria. Marlena will make you something even though meal time is over.”

  She agreed but hated the empty pit in her belly as Chase walked down the hill away from them. She felt better when he was close enough to touch, and longed for the security he provided. But it would be stupid to continue to rely on him. She was no good for him. This afternoon had proven it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

  The strikes against her were tallying up quickly. For one, she was five years older than him. She wasn’t his genetic match. She was nearly past the age of easily getting pregnant with his children. She was a single mother who brought along the extra baggage of a mother with Alzheimer’s. And, oh yeah, she was a wanted woman. So wanted, her enemies were willing to shoot at her and her son. Logically, she knew they’d shot at her tires in a bid to recapture her, but bullets were bullets in her mind. Someone could’ve been killed.

  If she had any feelings toward Chase at all, and she was beginning to, it would be kindest to cut him off. She’d said it in the car, but he hadn’t seemed to get the message. Maybe he only wanted her for some fun bedroom sport, but she had to rule that out also. On a campus this small, it would be hard to hide a relationship, and especially harder to hide anything from Luca, who would be so confused. With everything that had happened to him in the last year, she owed it to him to focus on his needs first. Even if her body protested the loss of the pleasure Chase brought to it.

  *

  “Thanks for the coverage,” Chase said, acknowledging the men perched around their conference room. No one even bothered to respond. You didn’t thank people for doing their job, especially when it involved saving your life.

  Chase was still shaking inside. He’d managed to still the tremors in his hands, but the near miss they’d had had him freaking out. It was ridiculous. He’d been in way more dangerous situations, but never with a woman he cared about and her child. Christ, he couldn’t dwell on it, because every time he did, the shaking started again.

  He’d dropped Samara’s luggage off at her apartment and checked to make sure she and Luca were eating in the cafeteria. He knew if he went near Samara right now, he was going to do something hella stupid. Like kiss the crap out of her in plain sight of everyone. He wouldn’t mind, but he knew she would.

  So he’d sprinted back to the main office to see if his teammates had managed to get anything on Paulson’s men. They hadn’t. Gavin and Xander had manned the fence, but their main objective had been to make sure Chase and Samara drove in safely, and everyone else stayed the hell out. Mission accomplished, but the guys in the black SUV had sped off as soon as they’d gotten their shot off and seen the welcoming committee.

  “Is Luca all right?” Shep asked.

  “Yeah, and Samara is too, thanks for asking.” She was not a popular figure around here. Her role in Adam’s kidnapping was too fresh for people to warm up to her. Hell, she’d been a victim as much as Adam, doing everything in her power to keep her son safe. Why couldn’t people see that? He had. Although it had taken a few days of hostility before she’d opened up enough to let him see the warm, scared person behind her cold scientist’s mask.

  “Glad to hear it,” Shep said. “Now, what’s the word on the car tags?” he asked Gavin.

  “Nada. Stolen. No leads that way.”

  “I figured, but it was worth a try,” Shep said.

  “What about our cameras? Did they catch anything useful?” Chase asked, referring to the security cameras they had posted on their gate.

  Again Gavin shook his head. “No dice. The tinting on the windows was too dark.”

  “Shit,” muttered Chase, and quite a few people nodded their agreement.

  “Don’t get bent out of shape. We already know who’s after Doctor Jones,” Adam said from his chair in the corner of the room. “We just have to wait Paulson out.”

  “And Samara’s going to be on lockdown, never allowed to leave the campus until we find him?” Chase asked, turning an angry glare at Adam, who shrugged.

  “It’s for her own good.”

  “Great, you can tell her,” he said.

  “I don’t really want to talk to her,” Adam said, sitting farther up in his chair and wincing. His ribs were still bruised from his encounter with Paulson.

  Chase glowered at Adam but didn’t say anything hostile to the man marrying his sister. Something had happened between Adam and Samara, and he wasn’t sure what. Either way, it was enough that Adam was outright rude to her and refused to be in a room with her any longer than he had to be.

  “I want to go after Paulson,” Chase said, standing.

  “Sit down, Stanton,” Shep said. “We all want Paulson. We can’t have him operating any longer. And we’re going to find him. Here’s the plan.”

  Chase sat and leaned his elbows on the table, listening intently to Shep’s plan. It sounded reasonable, like it might work. It wasn’t the a
ggressive plan he wanted, to bully every international government possibly harboring Paulson and make them turn him over, but Shep’s plan might work. Until he heard Shep’s next words.

  “And if we don’t manage to flesh him out, we can always use Doctor Jones as bait.”

  He slammed his palms on the table. “What was that?”

  Every head in the room turned to him, and he returned the looks with hostility. “Did I hear you say you’re willing to use Samara as bait?”

  Shep stared him down calmly. “Yes. If it’s the fastest means to achieving our goal.”

  “Hell no. I won’t allow it.” He was standing now, and hunched over the table, like a runner about to start a race.

  “You won’t allow it,” Adam scoffed from the corner. “Who are you to stop it?”

  Oh no he didn’t. “I’m her…friend. I like her. And her son. I feel protective of them. I refuse any plan that puts them in danger.”

  “Chase, we’d keep her as safe as possible. We’d never allow her to actually fall back into Paulson’s hands. You know that, right?”

  But he could barely hear over his anger.

  “Besides, what’s it to you? Doctor Jones is not your genetic match. There’s no future there, so stop acting as if you have a say in anything that affects her,” Shep added.

  That did it. He slammed his palms on the table to gain attention and stood straight. “What the fuck difference does it make whether she’s my genetic match? I’m not enhanced anyway.” He waited for the impact of that little bomb to explode and then surveyed the room, ignoring the fact that his non-enhanced status meant nothing when it came to finding his match. He still had one, but maybe Shep and the other leaders wouldn’t push so hard for him to reproduce. “That’s right. I’m not like you all. I can be with anyone I want.” He spun and exited the room, breathing hard.

  *

  “Mommy? Can I get in bed with you?”

  Samara looked up from the book she was pretending to read. In reality, she kept reliving this afternoon’s nightmarish scene. The clock read 8:30 p.m., an hour after she’d tucked Luca in. Between the time change and the afternoon’s events, of course he couldn’t sleep. “Sure, baby. Climb in.” And then she remembered all the parenting books reminding her that unless she was willing to move to a constant co-sleeping arrangement, she had to draw a line. “You can sleep with me tonight, but tomorrow night you go back to your own bed.”