Dangerous Designs Read online

CHAPTER NINE

  Getting along with your mother beat trying to avoid her. Two hours later, Storey headed to her bedroom door, yawning. She had homework to finish and no energy to care about such minor details. Pushing her door open, she came to a sudden halt.

  She gasped, checked behind her to make sure she was alone before stepping in a shutting the door behind her. "Oh my God," she hissed. "What are you doing here?" Leaning against the door, she stared at Eric, who lay half asleep on her bed. Damn, he looked good there. As if he belonged.

  Not.

  "About time you got here. I've been waiting forever."

  "Why? What do you want from me?" Pulling out her computer chair, she sat down facing him, before her knees gave out on her. "And how did you get in?"

  "Same way you did, only I removed the paper as I went through so we couldn't be followed."

  She raised an eyebrow. "Cool. Too bad I didn't think of that. Then again, I wasn't sure if it would work in the first place."

  "Well, it's not there anymore."

  "Thank God. It's a little creepy to have people entering my bedroom from another dimension. Maybe the kitchen or living room, but not my bedroom, thanks."

  He just stared at her.

  "Okay, I'm babbling. Sorry. It's just a little unnerving to have you here out of the blue like that." She stared out the window.

  "They want me to bring you back."

  She tilted her head and studied the look on his face. Odd wording. Hmmm. "And what do you want to do?"

  "I don't want you to go over there again."

  She raised an eyebrow. So much for seeing where the relationship with Eric might go. Long distance didn't quite cut it, as she already knew. Look what had happened to her and Jeff.

  "Good, then I won't. The last visit was enough for me, anyway."

  "They will send someone else if I don't bring you back."

  The sunshine lengthened in the early evening light. "They again." She watched him carefully. "How much force will 'they' use to make me go back?"

  His face paled.

  Her stomach twisted. "That much, huh?" She didn't want to dwell on it. They didn't look like the kind of group that lived and let live. "Did they come to an agreement about the Louers yet?"

  Eric shook his head. "I think they're more concerned about you being a loose end."

  Her eyes widened. "They're afraid of me? Of what I might say? Do?" At each successive nod, the knots in her stomach tightened. She closed her eyes. Think, damn it. There had to be a way out of this mess. "What are my options?"

  "I don't know. I've been lying here and going over them. None are great."

  "List those you've considered."

  He appeared to choose his words carefully as he listed off choices like him never going back, going back and helping his people after negotiating her return, hiding away by moving to another part of the planet so the people coming behind him wouldn't be able to find her.

  As he rambled on, she had a distinct sense that something was wrong. "Okay, out with it. Something else happened. What?"

  He sat up and swung his feet over the bed. "They will kill you if you go back."

  She swallowed. Hard. "As a conversationalist, you suck."

  His lopsided grin slipped out. "Sorry. Not used to this kind of conversation."

  The grin did it, easing the weight on her chest threatening to suffocate her. She grinned back. "Yeah, it shows. So they don't want to leave any witnesses behind, huh?"

  "Something like that."

  Silence fell.

  "You're serious, aren't you?" How had everything gone so wrong? A few days ago life had been normal. She'd been wishing for something new and different to come into her life. A death squad from another dimension wasn't what she had in mind. "So, if I go with you they will kill me. If I don't go with you they will send a team over to retrieve me then kill me anyway? Where's the option that lets me live?"

  "I think that's the run part, so they can't find you."

  "Except you have technology that allows you to track me, while I don't have anything to help me evade your people. So that's hardly an option." She studied the fatigue in his eyes. He looked like he'd been to hell and back. "What happens to you if I don't go back with you? Anything? Or just a slap on the wrist because you didn't follow orders?"

  He stood up straight, his face lean and ravaged. "Death. I will face a death sentence if you don't go back with me."

  Storey couldn't believe it. Studying his face in disbelief, she found the truth in his pain. Eric's father was a monster. "Why would your father do that?"

  "According to him, you're a threat to national security and that outweighs his parental concern."

  "Bullshit."

  He winced.

  She laughed bitterly. “That's a load of crap. There's no way I'm a security issue. He's power tripping."

  "Maybe, but it's effective. He's issued the order in front of witnesses. It has to be carried out. There is no rescinding that kind of order."

  She stood and stared up at his face. Nothing like parents to remind you of your humanity. "I'm sorry. It has to hurt to hear your life has so little value."

  He snorted. "You think?"

  "I'm not going back there. Not so they can use me as a lab rat and then kill me out of their own fear."

  His eyes stared down at her, closed briefly then opened, a bright blue light shining deep. "I know and I wouldn't want you to."

  "Except that means your death."

  "I know," he said, grim and determined, stalwart in his decision.

  She respected him in that moment. But then, when hadn't she?

  "Okay, this is ridiculous. Now that we've settled that, let's come up with a way to make this right for both of us."

  "Do you think that's possible?"

  It was that faint hope peering from deep inside his eyes that made her determined to find a solution. One where they both got to live.