CONNECTIONS: A Romantic Suspense (DESIGNER CHILDREN Book 2), page 21
“It was on the news. The local news.”
“In Boston?” She knew Harris had worried this would hit the national news, but to have it play in Boston surprised her.
“Yes. Why are you involved?”
“I’m genetically related to these men. And we don’t know why.”
Victor swore.
“Why are you upset?” Piper sat up. “What do you know about this?”
“Nothing. You can’t do this-s-s,” he muttered. His words slurred. “You can’t drag Legacy into this or there won’t be a Legacy. No. Nope. You can’t be involved.”
Uncle Victor was drunk.
“What are you talking about?” she asked.
“You can’t talk about this.” There was a pounding sound from Uncle Victor’s side of the conversation. “You can’t. Bad things could happen.”
“Bad things have already happened. Mom’s in a coma. Someone tried to kill her. Maybe twice.” Her words were sharp. “Do you know why? What do you know? Tell me.”
“Nothing! Don’t say anything. Don’t …” Victor’s voice trailed off. “We can’t. You can’t. Jus-s-st … tell them you don’t know anything. I don’t want to see you get hurt. You’re all I have left of your mother.”
The phone clicked off.
She stared at the screen.
Uncle Victor knew something. But what?
Drew waited for Maggie at the TSA exit. She’d suggested she’d rent a car. He’d insisted he’d pick her up.
He didn’t have anything else to do on a Friday. And the enforced idleness was driving him nuts. The tension in the house, even with Ashe gone, was uncomfortable.
Drew couldn’t wait to see Maggie. Phone calls didn’t suffice anymore. And he thought about her at the oddest times.
He spotted her signature red curls first. They bounced as if driven by a force greater than mother nature. She wore shorts and a sleeveless top that highlighted her athletic body. He loved summer. He grinned wider than he had for weeks. Maggie was taking on Houston.
She walked directly to the exit and right past him. That was a little hard on his ego.
He came up behind her and slid his hands around her waist, pulling her back against his chest. Her body tensed as he pulled her tight.
“Hey, Mags.” He kissed the smooth skin on her neck showing above the white collar of her shirt.
“Phoenix, you’re lucky I recognized your aftershave. Otherwise you would be on the ground. I probably would have broken your back.”
He turned her around and didn’t care that hundreds of people could see them. He kissed her. “I’m glad you’re here.”
There was the taste that had haunted his dreams. Raspberry cream. He licked her lips, wanting more.
“Drew. You always kiss me in public.” She broke away, gasping. A shudder coursed through her body as she dropped her head to his shoulder.
He shuddered too.
“Did you check a bag?” he asked.
“No. I just have my carry-on,” she said.
“Good.” Because he’d dreamed of something to fill his empty Friday night, and that required privacy. And a bed. Or any flat surface. Hell, it didn’t have to be flat. But the odds of that occurring with a houseful of people were—minuscule. And the group was waiting dinner for him and Maggie.
Damn it, he wished he wasn’t staying with Harris and the crowd of people filling his house. Maybe after the press conference life would be sane again.
“So, you got me to Houston,” Maggie said. “I thought the next time I saw you we’d be on my turf.”
“We will eventually get to your turf. Consider Houston neutral ground.”
He led her to the parking ramp, to his rental car. He checked the cars around him and noted makes and models of the cars behind him as they headed to Harris’s house.
She turned toward him, shifting her leg so it rested on the seat and her shorts rode up. He forced his eyes back on the road.
“What haven’t you been able to tell me? I watched the news story about you. That was the reporter who called you, right?”
“Yup. But I think I’ll wait until we get to Harris’s place. He’s got an almost computer-like way of organizing information. He’ll walk you through each data point. The man’s like Data on Star Trek—with emotions.”
“And he looks like you?” She linked their hands together. “That’s hard to believe.”
“I’m the good looking one of the bunch,” he joked. “But it’s spooky looking at Bristol and Torrington.”
He pulled her hand to his lips. “How long can you stay?”
“We’ll see. I’ll stay through your press conference.”
“Bedrooms are pretty full at Torrington’s house. Okay if we buddy up?” He kept his tone light, trying to keep his desire in check.
Maggie aimed those green eyes at him and smiled. “We’ll see.”
Drew couldn’t help it. He blurted out a line from an old movie. “So you’re saying there’s a chance?”
At least she laughed.
And he couldn’t help smiling. He’d been known to turn low odds into a winning hand. Hopefully he could convince Maggie to take a chance on him.
“Thanks for dinner, Harris.” Kat set the last plate into the dishwasher. “I’ll plan tomorrow’s dinner.”
She didn’t have any idea what she would make, but she’d think of something. At least without Ashe glaring at her, the tension had dropped astronomically.
And they’d added one more person to the group. Maggie. The FBI agent. She hadn’t said much during dinner.
Piper finished wiping the counter. “I need to get back to the hospital.”
Harris touched Piper’s shoulder. “Since we said no discussions while we ate, can you take another fifteen minutes? We should talk about the press conference.”
Piper looked at her watch. “Okay, but I hate being away from my mom.”
“We’ll keep it short,” Harris said.
They reconvened in the media room. The room had oversized chairs, at least they were oversized for the women. Ashe, Harris and Drew at six and half feet tall needed lots of extra space.
Kat stopped at the bookcase and grabbed the notebook she’d been using since this all started. Guilt had her looking at Harris.
He nodded. “It’s fine, Kat.”
Swallowing, she curled into the corner of the sofa. She didn’t need Ashe to make her ashamed of what had happened. She could flog herself.
Maggie, Drew and Sunee were already seated.
“Thanks for letting me shower here.” Piper shivered as she took an arm chair. “When I’m in my hotel room, I feel like I’m watched.”
Drew’s friend Maggie looked over. “You do?”
Piper nodded.
“I could check out your room,” Maggie offered. “Make sure there aren’t any cameras there.”
“I’m probably being paranoid.”
Drew shook his head. “I think Maggie should have a look.”
Piper blinked. “You do?”
Everyone nodded.
“Now I don’t want to go back there.”
“Since you’re not sleeping in the hotel, why don’t you check out and leave everything here?” Harris suggested.
“Aren’t you running out of rooms?” Piper asked.
“You can throw your stuff in my room,” Kat said.
“But Ashe …” Piper trailed off.
“Ashe took another bedroom.” Kat thought she’d pulled off nonchalance, but sympathy crossed everyone’s faces. “Stop. It happened. Let’s move on.”
She wanted to pace, walk off the hurt, but she also wanted to know what Maggie thought.
“Harris, can you summarize everything that’s happened so far?” Drew asked.
Harris ran through everything, asking Piper to talk about the doctor who’d tried to kill her mother, and Kat recapped the fire at Ashe’s home.
“The authorities think the fire was set on purpose?” Maggie asked Kat.
“Yes.”
Harris finished by mentioning the white paneled van that had said they were from Harris’s cable company and that the supposed van from the gas company at Ashe’s home had also held a man and woman.
“Good summary,” Maggie said. “You could have a job in the Bureau anytime.”
“They recruited me out of law school.” Harris smiled. “I declined.”
“Looks like things are working out for you.” Maggie waved her hand, encompassing the room. “Drew was right, you’re very good at organizing information. Very logical and analytic.”
Sunee held up a hand. “Could that be one of the answers?”
Piper’s eyebrows jumped up. She touched her nose and pointed at Sunee. “I see where you’re going.”
“Hang on.” Sunee rushed out of the room and returned with her laptop. “Harris, help me set this up.”
Once her laptop was connected to the screen, Sunee opened the DNA slides. Both she and Piper stared at the comparison charts.
“Do you have a clue what they’re looking at?” Kat whispered to Drew.
“Nope.”
Sunee pointed at each of the sectors that were the abnormalities on the DNA. “Analytical thinking. Physical skills. Gender.”
“Why didn’t we see this before?” Piper mused.
“We were in the trees when we needed to be in the forest,” Sunee said.
“Help me out,” Maggie said. “What are you talking about?”
“I think my mother and possibly my father cloned an embryo and then they or she …” Piper trailed off.
“Modified, or edited, the genes to change the embryos’ characteristics,” Sunee finished. “Except Drew’s. We think he’s the unmodified child.”
“Remember, I’m the original and you’re all copies,” Drew drawled.
“We’re back to clones?” Kat said.
Piper and Sunee stared at the screen then looked at each other and nodded.
“It’s the explanation that fits the information we have,” Piper finally said.
“But this was thirty plus years ago,” Maggie said. “Was the technology available? I thought the genome mapping was completed in this century. But you’re talking earlier than that.”
Piper and Sunee looked at each.
Did smart people communicate differently than others?
“My parents researched gene editing forty years ago. I’ve been reviewing their papers.” Piper grimaced. “I have plenty of time. There’s a couple of papers I found on Legacy’s server today that are interesting.”
“I’d love to see them,” Sunee said.
Piper looked at Harris. “Is that a problem?”
“We don’t want to send them by email,” Harris said. “Especially if we think someone is after us because of the cloning or modifications.”
“We can log into Legacy’s VPN from the hospital.” Piper chewed her lip. “Otherwise you can borrow my tablet.”
“We’ll figure it out without using email,” Sunee said.
“Sunee and Piper,” Kat said. “We need the science behind the … the Ashland children. Can you present this information at the press conference?”
“Oh.” Sunee twisted her hands. Her shoulders crunched around her ears. “I didn’t think we would need to say anything.”
Piper took Sunee’s hands. “We need to control what we talk about, right?”
“Yes.” Sunee exhaled and her shoulders dropped. “Yes. We can present the information together.”
“We’ll figure out if we’re going to allow anyone to question you,” Harris said. “You’ll be fine.”
Sunee rolled her eyes.
Kat knew she suffered from anxiety attacks. Participating in the press conference could be bad.
Sunee looked at Harris. “I’ll do this for you.”
“If you didn’t all sound so smart, I would be thinking conspiracy theorists,” Maggie mumbled.
“We think someone doesn’t want us finding out why we’re connected.” Harris frowned. “We might be wrong and there’s another reason we’re being targeted.”
“I’ll see whether there is any buzz about you,” Maggie leaned forward and waved her hand, encompassing the group, “anywhere.”
“Maybe the press conference will expose whoever is after us.” Harris shifted in his seat. “Or we might get lucky and find something in the rest of the medical records.”
“I thought you got the medical records,” Drew said.
“We only received partial records,” Kat answered. “The information they had online. They’re pulling the full files from their long-term storage. Not all their records were scanned or computerized.”
“And Monday you’ll have both Drew’s and Harris’s mothers’ records?” Maggie asked.
“Harris’s at least,” Kat said. “Mrs. Torrington can be very convincing. We’re going back Monday morning. Then I’ll get the records to Sunee and Piper to review.”
Drew took Maggie’s hand. “Since you’re not leaving until Tuesday, maybe you’d like to go to the clinic with Kat and Harris’s mother?”
Maggie slid back in her chair. “I can’t use my credentials to extract information, but if I go with them and anyone asks who I am we can say I’m with the FBI.”
“That might scare them into helping us,” Kat said.
“I’ll talk to my boss,” Maggie said. “But I should be able to escort Kat and Mrs. Torrington without violating my oath of office.”
“That would be wonderful,” Kat said.
Maybe the pieces were coming together. Maybe the rest of the medical records would expose whoever didn’t want the Ashland children’s origins revealed.
Then Kat could get on with her life. She wouldn’t have to live in Harris’s house for protection. She wouldn’t have to be around Ashe or be reminded of how happy they’d been.
She could focus on her career. That was what she wanted, right?
But achieving her dream no longer thrilled her. Without Ashe, success sounded—empty.
On Saturday night, Kat barely ate the enchiladas she’d made for dinner. Everyone else enjoyed them. Everyone was here except Piper. And Ashe.
Harris checked the clock and said, “Game time.”
The group headed to Harris’s media room and his huge screen.
When Harris found the game, the camera was following Ashe as he jogged on the field. He looked determined.
“We must have missed the kickoff,” Harris said.
What little dinner Kat had eaten sat like a brick in her stomach.
Every vow she’d made to never fall in love had failed her. She loved Ashe. Wanted him to succeed, wanted him to be happy. Wanted him to love her.
But Ashe hated her.
“Do you think he should be playing?” Kat asked. “His feet haven’t fully healed.”
“He finally let me look at them. They looked good,” Sunee said. “I’m sure the team won’t risk their franchise player.”
“That makes sense.” Kat pleated the bottom of her shorts. “Did everyone get a chance to review the opening remarks I drafted?”
She’d written an opening and printed copies for everyone in the house.
Maybe if she kept thinking about work, she wouldn’t bawl like a newborn calf because she’d ruined what she and Ashe had started.
“I’ll look at it tomorrow.” Harris set his arm around Sunee. “Ever since I ran into Ashe, I haven’t had time to sit and enjoy myself.”
Kat nodded and looked at the two couples. Drew held Maggie’s hand. Sunee was tucked under Harris’s good arm. Everyone focused on the game.
“Sure. No problem.” Kat wanted to rip out her hair.
“Relax, Kat. Everything will keep until tomorrow.”
Right. And Ashe would be back glaring at her by then.
Ashe took the ball from the center and pulled back into the pocket. His protection fell apart. He scrambled away from a rushing player who was the size of a truck.
Kat gripped the arms of her chair. “Throw the ball.”
Instead of throwing, Ashe ran.
She canted forward, willing Ashe to get to the sideline so no one would tackle him. He was bounced out of bounds.
She let her shoulders droop. At least he hadn’t been sacked, or tackled.
She couldn’t stay and watch this. Couldn’t stay in the room with the two happy couples. Had Drew felt like odd man out when it had been Harris and Sunee, and she and Ashe? “Who wants popcorn? And can I bring anyone anything?”
Kat took drink orders and headed to the kitchen. As she gathered beer and water, she flipped on the game in the sitting area.
“I’ll only listen. Maybe if I don’t watch, I won’t freak out.” Now she was talking to herself.
She pulled out a couple of bowls while the popcorn popped in the microwave. She would make at least two bags. Maybe even three.
Something in the backyard caught her eye. A black clothed shadow ducked between the pool cabana and the back of the garage. Moonlight glinted off something metal in the person’s hand. Then the shadow faded away.
The memory of flames searing her face rushed back. Her heart pounded in her head. No.
Could whoever was outside the house see in?
She had to warn everyone. They had to get out. What if Harris’s house was going to explode?
She sniffed but didn’t smell gas.
The popping in the microwave stopped, and the beep startled her.
Kat punched in ten minutes. If whoever was coming for them hadn’t cut the security system, the popcorn would at least set off the smoke detectors. Hopefully Harris’s system would alert the fire department.
If she was imagining shadows, she’d have to buy Harris a new microwave.
Screw it. The last attack she’d been passive, waiting for Ashe to save her.
Not this time.
She forced her shaking hands to pick up the tray of drinks. Everything rattled like a San Francisco earthquake.
The walk to the hallway outside the kitchen was longer than the checkout line at a Nordstrom’s shoe sale. She plopped the tray on the floor by the steps and ran. Her bare feet skidded on the tiles.
She burst into the media room. Hopefully whoever was outside couldn’t see her. Four heads jerked toward her as the door crashed open.
