Rick's Road Read online

  “I get it,” he told her. “This isn’t your normal thing.”

  “No, it sure isn’t,” she murmured.

  “But we had to get out of there.”

  “Are you sure they were even coming after you?”

  “Nope, but I wasn’t hanging around to find out either.” He wasn’t at all sure that these guys weren’t coming after her, with her skill set.

  “No, I can see that,” she agreed. “At the same time, I was hoping that you would have a few more days.”

  “We didn’t get it, and I’m not too anxious to go back in there and try and get a couple more.”

  “No,” she whispered. “I’m not either.”

  Behind them, they heard shouts. He pulled her closer and squeezed her. “Don’t look.” He moved her over to a bus stop bench, and they both sat.

  “And how do you not look?” She struggling hard to not immediately turn to see what was going on.

  “It could be anything. We have to make sure that it’s nothing connected to us.”

  “Well, we won’t do that if we don’t look,” she argued in exasperation.

  He laughed. “I already know that it has to do with us. I can sense that much.”

  “So can I, but how can you just sit here and not look around to make sure they aren’t coming up behind us?”

  “That’s what our Spidey senses are for, and mine is on strong alert right now.”

  “Maybe,” she cautioned him, “but you’ve also been injured.”

  “Yep, I sure have been.” He nodded. “Another reason why mine are on higher alert than normal. I would do a lot to avoid going back down again.”

  Chapter 3

  Cara watched, as Rick searched the area calmly and effectively. “Nobody is here waiting for us,” she noted. “Aren’t they supposed to be here already?”

  “They will be,” he replied encouragingly.

  “Says you,” she muttered.

  “This is my team. They won’t leave me behind.”

  “No, I agree with that. Terk went to a lot of trouble to keep you alive.”

  “I know, but then Terk is also family.”

  “Like real family?”

  “Better than real family.” He smiled. “No, we aren’t blood relations, though he does have a brother who is also in the industry.”

  “Right, that’s interesting. Does he have the same kind of abilities?”

  “I don’t think so,” Rick stated, “though I don’t know that the discussion has ever come up.”

  “It must be hard to not be part of this, if everybody else around you has these crazy abilities.”

  “Maybe, or maybe he just doesn’t care.”

  She didn’t know what to think of that, and it wasn’t even worth discussing right now. Yet she was happy for any conversation to take her mind off the fact that she knew they were being pursued and that, behind her somewhere, was somebody looking to put a bullet in her back.

  “Do you think they want to kill us or do they want to take us?”

  “Well, if I were them, I would want to take us,” he shared, “but you can’t ever really be sure.”

  “Right, and is this about confirming you’re alive?”

  “I think so,” he replied, “and that may be of more value to them. Depends on what they did to try and kill us all,” he added. “If the attack on us was just a test, then they know that they have to do something different to keep us down on a permanent basis.”

  “Or they’re trying to figure out what kind of abilities you have that you could withstand what they already did,” she suggested quietly.

  “They didn’t know I had a guardian angel,” he murmured, squeezing her again.

  She shook her head. “If they knew about Terk, they should know that he’s the guardian angel, and he’s the one who arranged all this.”

  “Yes, and they’re probably assuming that already,” Rick agreed. “We’re trying to keep them from knowing anything for sure, and what they don’t know won’t hurt us.”

  “Got it,” she murmured. “I’d still feel better if we weren’t sitting out in the open.”

  “Where would you like to go?” he asked.

  “I don’t know. Maybe over in that corner over there.” She pointed to a doorway alcove.

  “Considering that the wind has come up, I’m good with that.” They walked over and stood in the shelter there.

  “How much longer do you think?” she murmured.

  “Terk said they were six minutes out.”

  “It’s been ten minutes.”

  “I know, but, if they’re smart, they’re doing some reconnaissance, ensuring they’re not driving into a trap.”

  She shivered at that. “It’s quite the life you live.”

  “It’s the life we live, but it wasn’t the life we were used to,” he stated. “You never really know where the attacks come from now. We thought we were safe. We thought we were just being officially disbanded by our government. Black ops and all, but we were all prepared to go off and have a life after this. Whoever attacked my team are the ones who changed that,” he added almost viciously.

  She nodded. “So, is this about revenge for you guys?”

  He shook his head. “Absolutely not, but it is about ensuring that we’re safe and aren’t doing everything based on having to deal with these guys. We have to take them off our backs, and, in order to do that,” he stated, “we have to solve this and figure out who is behind it. Then we take appropriate measures so that they can’t come after us anymore.”

  “I know it sounds good in theory and all that, but so many things can go wrong.”

  “Things can always go wrong,” he confirmed, his voice calm and steady.

  “How can you be so calm?” she cried out softly in frustration.

  He looked at her, with a smile. “Because I’ve been here before. I’ve seen it happen, time and time again.”

  “And were you the one who was being hunted?” she asked.

  “No, not necessarily,” he replied, “but it’s amazing what you can get used to.”

  “This isn’t the kind of life I would like to get used to,” she stated immediately.

  “I got it,” he agreed, “which is also why I’m doing the best I can to see that you survive this and can go on and do whatever it is that’s at the top of your wish list.”

  She nodded.

  Just then a vehicle came up in front of them.

  He looked at it. “Bingo. Here we go.”

  She held on to his arm, as he pulled her forward. “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Yes. Aren’t you?”

  She looked at it, then nodded. “Okay, it has the right energy.”

  He nodded and quickly led her to the vehicle. The door opened automatically, and, just as they went to step inside, shouts came all around them. She was basically picked up and tossed inside, and Rick followed, as the vehicle took off at an alarming pace.

  When it slowed down ever-so-slightly, one of the men in the front seat turned, looked at her with a smile, and introduced himself. “Hi. I’m Wade.” He pointed to his passenger. “This is Damon.”

  She nodded faintly. “I’m Cara,” she whispered. “Where are we going?”

  “Someplace safe,” Wade replied gently. “Don’t you worry. Terk will do what it takes to keep you alive.”

  At that, Rick reached over, laced his fingers with hers. “So will I. We’ll be fine. Just hold tight, Cara, while we get through this.”

  She nodded. “I put my trust in you guys a while ago. It hasn’t been wrong yet.”

  *

  Rick watched Cara’s interaction with the others in the vehicle. She seemed a little overwhelmed, but he held on to her, and he had to respect that nothing was easy about what had just happened. He squeezed her hand. “It’ll be fine. I promise.”

  She gave him a ghost of a smile. “You’re not in any position to promise anything,” she murmured.

  He grinned. “Hey, maybe not, but I’ve already beaten the odds.” At that, she shot him a look that he wasn’t exactly sure how to interpret, so he stayed quiet. After several minutes and several elaborate driving maneuvers, they took a few corners at a more normal speed.

  “Did you lose the tail?” Rick asked Wade.

  “We think so,” he responded, “but it’s a little hard to tell at the moment. We’ll keep driving around a bit to double-check.”

  Rick didn’t say anything, knowing how the system worked. Cara, on the other hand, didn’t seem to have the same confidence. She looked a little more worried the longer they were out. “It’s okay,” he whispered to her. “They’re just being cautious.”

  “Are you certain?” she murmured. “It seems like we’re not getting anywhere very quickly.”

  “Except for the tail,” he noted. “Once they get rid of that, we’ll be free and clear.”

  “I hear that. I’m just not so sure I believe it.”

  He smiled. “You know what? Being a doubting Thomas has probably held you in good stead all this time”—he paused—“but there are times when it’s better to trust.”

  She didn’t respond.

  He wondered about the reticence that he felt in her, that sense of holding something back. Something deep inside. But she was already somebody he wasn’t used to because how many people out there had the skills that she had? Yet they shared an instinctive bond, after what they’d been through.

  Yet, if she had been contacted by Terk a long time ago, why had she chosen not to go into this line of work? Almost immediately the answers slammed into his brain. Espionage was definitely not for the faint of heart, and neither was it for those who wanted to live a life of healing. Which, as a nurse, obviously that had been her first choice.

  She had to be wondering how she had ended up in this nightmare, though he remembered something she’d said about owing Terk a favor. And Terk was like that. He knew people all over the world. People who cared, people who seemed indebted to him for work he had done in some shape or form. And that made sense too. Terk’s team saw grateful people all over the world, and it was quite amazing to see just what the results of Terk’s team’s work could entail sometimes.

  Rick settled back, as the vehicle made a series of sudden sharp turns, and then, all of a sudden, they looked to be inside a massive garage. He looked around in surprise. “Have you guys set up a new compound?”

  “Somewhat,” Wade replied. “It would be a lot easier if we were setting up on a permanent basis, but it seems like we’re just trying to stay ahead of the attacks.”

  At that, he felt Cara at his side, her fingers trembling.

  He squeezed the hand he still hadn’t let go of and murmured, “It’s all right.” She didn’t say anything but clung to his hand, and, for that, he was thankful. That contact alone should help her to feel a little better at least. He understood that he really had come into this work lightly. Hell, in his case, he’d come into it without any real options.

  He’d been so busy trying to stay alive with his own abilities and doing the work that he thought needed to be done that Terk had been a godsend. Their team had set into this work willingly, but Rick also knew that it wasn’t for everyone.

  “This is really a temporary residence and our headquarters,” Wade explained.

  Rick looked around at the huge set of warehouses and nodded. “It might be temporary, but it’s not a bad solution at all. I’d imagine it’s got more than a few people confused.”

  “Well, we hope so. It just seems like we never quite get anywhere with these guys.”

  “Well, I’m here to help now, as much as I can,” Rick stated, “so maybe we can get back to using some of our senses.”

  “That would be nice,” Damon noted, joining the conversation. “We’ve missed your grounding abilities.”

  “Yeah,” Wade agreed. “Not being able to power up is hugely frustrating.”

  “I know,” Rick added. “I’ve been dealing with that myself.”

  As they all exited the vehicle, Rick kept Cara close. “I know that you don’t want to be here,” he murmured to her. “But we need to keep you here, until we know what’s up.”

  She just shot him a look and then shrugged. “I trust Terk, but I’m not so sure about everybody else.”

  He frowned at that. “Well, it’s Terk’s team,” he murmured. “So, in theory, if you trust Terk, you should trust his team, since he personally handpicked all of us.”

  “I get that,” she whispered in a low voice. “It’s just strange to see so many people all at once.”

  “I think you’re just used to that single-patient lifestyle.”

  She smiled at that. “Generally I work with only one patient, and then something happens, and they either come back to life or not, and so I move on.”

  He nodded slowly. “I get that. Believe me. I appreciate all you’ve done for me, and I don’t want to see anything happen to you now, especially from an association with me.”

  “Neither do I,” she stated with spirit, “so it’s up to you guys to keep me safe.”

  “Got it.” He chuckled. “I really don’t think that will be a problem.”

  She shrugged. “At least you’re confident,” she murmured. “I’m not so sure that it’s justified yet, but, hey, let’s see what everybody has to say and what’s been going on.”

  Together, they followed the men into a series of rooms. “This is a huge space,” she noted. “You could have people hidden all over in here, and nobody would ever know.”

  “Very true,” he commented.

  “And it would be unusual to have that much open space and not in use. And yet that’s what this appears to be.” She turned, looking at him.

  “And I’ll find out why and how,” he stated. “Don’t you worry.”

  Almost immediately upon entering the main computer room, he was engulfed in hugs. He quickly wrapped Tasha in his arms and gave her a gentle hug. “Hey, am I ever glad to see you. I didn’t even ask Terk if everybody made it,” he admitted. “I assumed everybody did, but I hadn’t really realized until I saw you just now.”

  She nodded. “Some didn’t make it. Mera and Wilson both were killed.”

  He stared at her in shock, as she nodded.

  “I don’t know how much Terk has told you, but, after the attack on the team, they came gunning for the three of us admins in our homes, and they were the first two casualties. It’s a miracle they didn’t get me.”

  By the time he caught up on the rest of the news, he was incredibly angry and overwhelmed. The only thing that kept him from losing it entirely was knowing that Cara was at his side, hearing it all as well. And, for her, this was even more shocking.

  She finally spoke up. “Please tell me that you’ll catch these guys.”

  “That’s the plan.” Terk walked in behind her. He smiled at her gently.

  She walked over and gave him a big hug, with deep affection. When she stepped back, she looked up at him. “What trouble did you get me into?”

  “Trouble we’d hoped we could keep you out of,” he admitted, “but we always knew it was a possibility, once Rick woke up.”

  She sighed. “Hard to believe that keeping him in a coma would have been a better idea.”

  “He was ready to come out. He was starting to fight it.”

  “If you say so,” she said. “I know he was still holding and probably could have stayed for a while longer.”

  Rick stared at her in shock. “I might have been able to, but I sure as hell didn’t want to.”

  “Which is also why I told Terk that it was time.”

  At that, the others crowded around. “I don’t understand,” Sophia admitted. “Rick, were you able to come out of the coma on your own?”

  “No,” Cara interrupted immediately, before Rick had a chance to reply. “He hadn’t healed sufficiently, so we were keeping him in an induced coma until he was stronger.” He stared at her in shock. She shrugged. “It’s fairly typical in medicine,” she murmured.

  He nodded. “I know. I just didn’t realize that’s what you were doing.” Then he stopped, looked down at his arms, seeing strap marks, where he had been held in place. His gaze shot over to her. She gave him a bland smile. He narrowed his gaze. “We’ll have to talk later.”

  “Yep,” she replied easily, “one day.”

  Which, to Rick, also meant that she had no intention of entering such a discussion until she was ready. Rick looked back over at Terk to see the corner of his lips twitching. “So I gather this was something you guys cooked up on your own?” he asked in amazement.

  “Not quite,” Terk stated, “but, while you were in your coma, you were sending out all kinds of signals that were quite likely to get you unwelcome attention. And we couldn’t have anything happen to you or have anybody know where you were located,” Terk explained. “So I had to keep some of your energy shattered in order to have you heal, without sending out all those crazy signals.”

  Rick shook his head. “I didn’t even know I was doing that,” he murmured.

  “Exactly. That’s what I’m saying. Since you didn’t know what you were doing, and we were still all under attack, I had to do everything I could to keep you all safe,” he stated. “So a coma was the best answer, and, even then, we were shutting down as much of your communication ability as possible.”

  “And that’s what she did, wasn’t it?” he asked, releasing her hand, not saying her name, not quite sure how to keep his tone from being harsh, but, in a way, it felt like a betrayal.

  Terk immediately raised an eyebrow. “Cara did that to a certain extent for your own benefit.” Rick frowned at that. Terk immediately shook his head. “Definitely for your own benefit,” he repeated, with a word of warning in his voice. “Don’t even begin to think otherwise.”

  “It just doesn’t feel quite right.”

  “If you had only seen the shape you were in,” she added quietly, “you wouldn’t have argued.”

  He sighed and nodded. “Of course that’s something I didn’t know, but it feels more like I was being kept against my will.”

  She snorted at that. “I disagree, unless keeping you alive and keeping you safe is punishment to you.”