Stolen: Project Xol

  STOLEN

  PROJECT XOL

  BOOK FOUR

  AMABEL DANIELS

  Disclaimer

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Copyright © 2020 Amabel Daniels

  All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions

  Dedication

  For Sophia

  Chapter One

  Cassidy

  The needle jabbed straight for my chest, promising darkness.

  I don’t think so.

  With a sweaty grip, I heaved the briefcase up like a shield, deflecting Jolene’s blow. Ramming my shoulder up, I pushed her back down the hallway. I’d stood with the move, thrusting my all into it.

  “Don’t waste your time,” Jolene spat at me, bouncing back to her feet. She huffed a few strands of blonde from her face and rushed forward. Only a few steps. As quickly as she’d rushed for me, she stopped. Narrowed her eyes.

  I panted, hyped on the raving energy of fight-or-flight. God, how I wanted to fly the hell out of here. Escape. Run. Yeah, I was starting to like running. Whatever it took to get away from these Xol freaks.

  Why did she stop?

  Luke groaned softly and Jolene’s face warped into a wicked grin. She eyed him closely as he started to wake up.

  The syringe was slipped back into her pocket and she removed the gun from her waistband.

  “Do you need a little incentive?” she asked me, leveling the weapon at Luke. “Hmm?” She cocked the gun and I dove into Luke’s lap.

  No. She wasn’t doing this. Dammit. No.

  “You come along and I’ll let him live,” she purred.

  “How about this?” I snapped. Uh… I licked my lips. Bravado was all fine and dandy…but… What, Cass? How about what? I had no leverage. She had all the power, trapping me with no choice.

  She could kill Luke, or I could go along with her and end up with a team of crazy-ass scientists hell-bent on some new form of inhumane research.

  Research.

  The data.

  My fingers tensed around the strap of the backpack. Oh, I had leverage, all right.

  I licked my lips, pulling the bag around to my lap.

  “Cas…sid…y?” Luke’s question was still sleepy.

  “How about what?” Jolene scoffed. She brought her other hand to join the steady one holding the gun.

  I fumbled, my fingers shaking too much for speed. But I unzipped the bag, gripped a slim piece of plastic. Everything was jostled into a mess. I pulled a zip drive up and hoisted it for her to see.

  Her jaw slid as she acknowledged it.

  Uh-huh. I wasn’t about to get cocky. She had a gun. I held a square of plastic. Yet, I sure as hell had her attention. “You want this?”

  She stepped closer. “I intend to collect it. And you.”

  I’m not going anywhere with you.

  The witch took one more foot near us and I smacked the zip disk to the ground. The casing cracked at the corner and she flinched but said, “I’ll kill him first. Is that what you want?”

  No. Not on my watch, she wasn’t. If she wanted to hurt Luke, she’d have to shoot through me to get to him. And if she only targeted me with the sedative, it seemed I was too important to kill.

  “I’ll destroy this first. Is that what you’d prefer?” I smacked the zip disk to the ground again. A chunk of plastic shredded off the corner.

  “I’ll—”

  “You’ll stop right where you are if you don’t want me to destroy this.” As I kept my stare on her, I groped in the bag between me and Dale. It had slipped down when I’d taken the zip drive, but it was close enough. I just had to find…

  She huffed, lowering one hand from her gun. “Yeah?” Then she dropped her arm, removing the threat of her firearm. “Destroy it how?”

  “Like this.” Triumph teased as I closed my hand around a slim stick. The lighter. Luke had insisted we get it in case we’d need to camp out and make a fire. I didn’t waste a breath as I brought it up, depressed the button, and stuck it to the zip disk.

  “No!” Jolene roared the word and rushed for me.

  Small flames licked up the side of the bashed-in square. The pungent odor of melting plastic didn’t enter through my face mask, but the light-blue casing softened and curled under the heat. Once the fire reached the adhesive paper label, the tiny peaks of red jumped even higher, burning through the easy fuel.

  “No!”

  As she screamed and dashed toward me, I threw the flaming data at her.

  I prayed the disk would be melted beyond use. Even if it wasn’t, I had my diversion.

  Jolene snatched the square, grasping the fire in her bare hands. In her hasty moves, the zip disk fell against her forearm, sparking flames to the end of her long-sleeved shirt.

  “Luke!” I shoved at him, scrambling to my feet. As I moved, I couldn’t take my stare from her. This seemingly normal woman—a human shot four times in the torso—who was wiping her bare hands over a burning disk. Flames crawled up her jacket and all she did was smooth her fingers over the fireball, trying to blanket the flames.

  “Go…” Dale’s voice was faint, but I heard him. He was still alive. I had to get him help. She’d shot him—

  “Go,” he repeated firmer, likely reading me and knowing he couldn’t fit in my plan. I nodded, barely glimpsing his movement. He stuffed canisters from his pocket into the backpack. More gas-bomb things. Whatever they were.

  “Just go,” he ordered again.

  Luke shifted. “What—”

  Words. He was speaking, waking up. Snapping to. I tore my focus from Jolene, jamming myself under Luke’s armpit and pushing at him to get him to stand. “Come on!”

  Blinking, he shook his head. He grunted, finally reacting to my attempts to lift him from the ground. “What—” His eyes widened. “Oh, shit.”

  I glanced back and gawked. Jolene wiped at the disk, scowling as she burned. Or not? While the fire had nowhere to go on the zip disk, merely melting the plastic, it had more than enough fuel on her. Red tentacles of searing heat rose from her jacket, through her hair.

  Oh, shit was right. But not now.

  “Come on!” I yelled at Luke.

  At the sight of the burning woman, he moved. He stood with me, and within another moment, we were hobbling down the hall. Away from the inferno. We rounded the corner, and at the sounds of thundering footsteps coming our way, I reached into the front pocket of the backpack.

  Just as Dale had, I flicked my thumb on the tab and tossed the flat circle ahead of us. It bounced on the ground a second before officers ran forward. Red lights began to flash in the corner. Fire alarm. A smoke detector had been tripped.

  Perfect. Another obstacle. That alert would only bring more personnel down here.

  The lawmen fell to the ground and I urged Luke on. His gait was still sluggish, and his injury pulled him down. There was nothing for it. We had to go. Now.

  I gritted my teeth, encouraging him to move it. After another pair of turns, we found a door that looked like an exit.

  “Here.” Luke held out his hand to me and I passed over a couple of the gas bombs.

  We knocked out the staff in the outer lobby space of the station. I didn’t know how many of those magic gas tricks we had left. And it was pointless to count on them. Once we exited the building, I doubted they’d work on every single person in our vicinity. Not in the open air.

  “Maybe over there.”

  I followed to where Luke pointed. To the side. Not the main double doors that’d deliver us to a probably busy sidewalk. Was it a side entrance for the people who worked here? It was the best option.

  Together, we stepped over and around the bodies at our feet. Loud snores ripped from someone in the reception space. I shoved into the door’s push-bar and we stumbled outside. A sidewalk. But there were no pedestrians or cops coming to and fro. A dumpster stood nearby. Looked like we’d found a maintenance door? Whatever it was, I’d take it.

  “Which way?” Luke whispered, looking around.

  “I don’t know. He said a couple of blocks.”

  Craning his neck, he surveyed the area. “Maybe we should take the masks off? Be less…”

  Noticeable? I nodded. He tugged his down, leaving it hanging on his chest and I removed mine, letting it flap from my wrist. There was no way to know which way Dale’s car was.

  “Let’s go for the road, at least,” Luke whispered.

  It felt like an eternity lagged, each laborious step dragged so slowly. I wanted to sprint, fly the hell away before someone spotted us on a surveillance camera. Before another Xol freak would pop up from a corner. Or before Jolene pursued us like a flaming monster.

  We got there, though, panting and shaking with fatigue. At the road the police station was located, we looked both ways. To the left were tall, multistory structures. One-way traffic left no room for parking. To the right, I immediately spotted a signpost. Blue with a single P in the middle of the arrow. Public parking.

  “Bingo,” I muttered.

  Luke pivoted with me and we made a run—the best one we could manage—for it. As we approached, I found the keys Dale had shoved at me. They were in my pocket, the metal digging against my skin. I pulled them out and pressed the unlock button. Maybe locking it or disarming the
security would be faster ways to find the vehicle among the mass of many, but those tricks would also be audible and obvious.

  Down-low was our philosophy. We had to find this car quietly. Quickly. Every time someone walked past, each time footsteps sounded nearby, my heart raced even faster and I couldn’t suck in a breath fast enough.

  Any minute now. Any second someone could make me. I was a wanted woman. Walking down a sidewalk in the city was too exposing, to say nothing of the tall, limping man leaning on me.

  “There!” Luke jerked his head forward as I continued to press the key fob’s button. Lights blinked in the reflection of a maroon truck. We aimed that way. I pressed the tab again.

  Yes, there it was. Dale had given us a getaway. The headlights of a black SUV flashed in a trio of light.

  I guided us toward the passenger side and Luke yanked the door open. Once he was halfway in, sliding into his seat, I ran to the opposite door. Elation chased away the panic, but I refused to believe we were in the clear. It’d be so stupid to assume we were safe. I wondered if I’d ever be duped into a sense of safety again.

  The engine turned over and I reversed out of the spot.

  Only once we were well on our way out of the thickest part of the city did I exhale the pent-up air I’d been gasping to keep in my lungs. A deep, whole-body sigh left me. My shoulders slumped, even as I maintained a diligent watch on the road. No sooner than I breathed so loudly, Luke did the same. I glanced at him for the first time since we’d gotten in the vehicle.

  I felt calmer at his stern scrutiny, scoping the scenery out the window, turning his face ever so slightly to check on the mirrors.

  “You okay?” he asked without trying to make eye contact. He must have felt my attention on him.

  I nodded, returning my gaze to the road. “Yeah. You?”

  “Still here.” He huffed.

  “What about Dale?” I asked. I couldn’t find the courage to speak it louder than a whisper. He’d given his life for us. And we’d just left him.

  “Don’t.” Luke shifted his hips, stretching his leg out and rubbing at his thigh. “Don’t let the guilt get to you.”

  I nodded, tears burning in my eyes. With an angry swipe, I cleared the blur from my vision.

  “Maybe he’ll be all right.”

  Oh, sure. Because we’d only abandoned him back there with a pissed-off fireball freak.

  “I’m sure someone has to be awake already. I came back fast.”

  “Because I shoved your mask back on.” Dale had probably only had a little bit of the noxious gas.

  “How long was I out? He fell on me and then…” A rough snort. “Then she was on fire.”

  I quickly explained the brief time he’d been out of it. Once I’d rushed it out, regret surged forth again.

  I shouldn’t have destroyed that disk.

  But we had backups with Zero.

  We shouldn’t have left Dale there.

  But he’d urged us to bolt.

  “There’s still no point wondering what-if and beating ourselves down.” He sighed, dropping his head back to the rest for only half of a second. “I’ll call Jonah and see if… what…” His hand shot up and he rubbed at his face. “I’ll check on Dale. Okay?”

  “Okay.”

  Silence claimed the car and I followed the signs for the interstate.

  “That was…”

  I glanced at him. What was with that incredulous tone? I glanced again. Was he smiling? One tip of his mouth curved up, spreading faint laugh lines near his eye. His smiles were so damn gorgeous but rare. What the hell did he have to grin about now?

  “What?”

  He chuckled. “You’re badass, Cassie.”

  Instead of basking in his praise, I deflated like a balloon. All the adrenaline and “badassness” I’d had fled. Just like that, his admiration pushed me face-first into the aftermath of it all. Badass? I was a badass? I’d barely survived. I’d freaked out. I’d faced death. I’d argued with an undefeatable monster—all because I’d clung to the instinct not to give up. Because the fear of failure was just as strong as the terror of dying.

  Hysterical laughter threatened in my throat and I swallowed it down. I was no badass. I was merely scared. Terrified and trying to float above it.

  I could feel the heat of his stare. Words failed me and I didn’t know how to reply. How to correct him. I was not a badass. How could I be when I was still so worried and scared?

  “It’s a compliment,” he deadpanned.

  I jerked my head, nodding. Compliment. Right. He was respecting my bold decisions. My strength. Reacting at the drop of a hat. And I had. When he’d been knocked out, I’d done it. I’d gotten us out of there.

  There wasn’t time to wallow in the mind-freezing and heart-gripping shock again. Not ever again. I’d just escaped an inflamed Xol mutant with nothing more than my instinct and gut. And hell, I’d damn well do it again.

  “Badass, Cassie,” he repeated.

  I heaved a sigh, refusing to linger and overanalyze it all, to replay the horrible emotions. Since when had I become my own worst enemy? Doubt and the worry of failure had always lurked in my mind. It would be a death wish to give in to them.

  Be the badass and get over it. I had to, because if we’d managed to escape that time, there was no guarantee we’d be as lucky the next time. And we were far from the end of this kind of trouble.

  I reached over and took his hand, relishing the strength and heat in his rough grip.

  Chapter Two

  Luke

  As soon as Cassie parked Dale’s SUV at a nondescript ranch-style house seemingly in the middle of nowhere, I readied myself to stand. For hours, we’d been cooped up in that car. It seemed that road-tripping was all we’d done since I’d met the fierce woman yawning in the driver’s seat.

  That wasn’t all we’d managed. We—she—had kicked ass. Took Scott’s data. Fled from Jolene. And Michael. And Ryan.

  How many are there? Those Xol “recruits”?

  Before I could fall back into the mind trap of imagining how many unfortunate people were ghastly manipulated pawns in the name of research, I focused on the now. Here.

  We’d arrived at the safe house Zero had given us directions to. Neighbors were distant, fields of drying crops spacing us out far enough that I felt secure. Businesses were absent in these farm-town outskirts of Oklahoma, which was a reassurance that Big Brother would have minimal reach way out here. I wasn’t deluding myself. We weren’t safe, not by a long shot.

  Yet, as we stepped from the car that was generous enough to not run out of gas on our journey out here, I couldn’t help but feel less threatened. Stretching under the navy-blue sky, I took the brief chance to stare at the stars. My leg throbbed as blood rushed to my muscles and I leaned down to rub my thigh. Out here, reduced to a mere human beneath the wide openness of the countryside sky, I succumbed to a fleeting relief. No one was on our heels, demanding the data or promising violence.

  We needed this break. Goddamn, did we ever.

  “Maybe we can take shifts sleeping tonight?” Cassidy asked, her voice soft but loud in the muted noise of the night.

  She was already thinking ahead, that plotting, overanalyzing mind of hers never taking a breather. But I couldn’t fault her logic.

  “I’ll take first watch.”

  Whether it was fatigue or something more extreme, we dragged ourselves toward the house without any more words.

  Zero had texted where the hideaway key was, and once she retrieved it from the bark-covered lockbox glued to a shrub along the back wall, we entered. I took the backpack from her and she brought in the briefcase.

  It was a modest, simple residence. Skimpy with furniture, bare of décor or ornamentations. We weren’t here for a five-star welcoming rest. It had a roof and running water. Perfection. I’d never stayed in a “safe house” before, and scoping out this one, I had to wonder which branch of the government Zero had collaborated with in the past. For as crucial Zero had been to Cassidy and I surviving, I still knew next to nothing about the man. I certainly appreciated his association with whoever owned this place.

  While Cassidy showered, I paced from the kitchen to the largest of the two bedrooms. I was sick of sitting, and limping my way back and forth gave me the distraction from thinking too much. Like an honest-to-God badass, Cassie hadn’t sunk into that zombie-like shell. She’d been quiet after we escaped the police station, but I could see the determination in her exhausted eyes when she drove us here. She’d come back to me. Holding my hand, she stayed with me instead of wallowing in her thoughts.