Something dark caught her eye. “Ryker.” She grabbed his arm and pointed. “There.”
He turned and followed a barely there path to another outbuilding made of cinder blocks. He set her to the side of the door and kicked it open. It flung inward and hung awkwardly. Zara hurried after him and looked around the empty room. “He’s not here,” she whispered. There had to be other buildings. Where the hell was Greg?
A gun cocked behind her, and a barrel pressed against her neck. She stiffened. “Ryker?” she whispered, her voice shaking.
Ryker turned and faced her fully, looking over her shoulder. “Don’t shoot her.”
“Drop your gun, sweet boy,” came a feminine voice. “God, I’ve missed you, Ryker. Look how grown up and handsome you are.” She almost sounded like a proud mother.
Zara shivered as nausea attacked her. “Dr. Madison. Where’s Greg?”
Ryker dropped his gun and kicked it over to the right.
“No!” Zara coughed out a sob.
Madison tapped her weapon on Zara’s head. “Go toward him and turn around. Both of you get against the back wall. On your knees.”
Zara stumbled toward Ryker, feeling that gun trained on her. The second she reached him, he shoved her behind him and backed to the wall. She tried to move to the side, but he pressed her against the hard blocks.
“Well, then. I guess I shoot you,” Madison said almost conversationally.
*
Ryker faced the woman from his past. “You won’t shoot me, and we both know it.” He crossed his arms, careful to keep all of Zara out of a bullet’s path, just in case. “Where’s Greg?”
Isobel Madison smiled, and those deep blue eyes sparkled. “Greg is mine again, and I’m not giving him up. Why don’t you and your brothers come with us, shackled of course, and we’ll do some tests?”
Do some tests. He remembered those words from that mouth, and he wanted to puke. “Fuck you.”
“Oh, the things I could teach you.” She kept the gun pointed levelly at his chest—center mass. “Have you missed me, sweet boy?”
He gagged. “No.”
“Liar,” she whispered, her voice seductive and way beyond creepy. “There are secrets from your past I’d share. Like you’re not alone. Not really.”
She hadn’t seen Matt or Jory, now, had she? “I don’t care about secrets, and I’ve given up the past. How about you just go to hell now?” he said, his voice shaking just enough to piss him off. Had his brothers found Greg? Where was Cobb? He had to get the gun from Madison, but she was right in front of him for the first time, and he needed to ask. “Why me? Why did you leave me in New Orleans as a baby and have me later relocated to North Carolina? Why did you mess with my life at all?”
“Mess with your life? I gave you life, boy.” Her gaze narrowed.
He rolled his eyes. “It’s no coincidence that Heath, Denver, and I ended up at the same place being tested by you. That much I’ve figured out. So if we’re different, and you and I both know we are, I have to think you know why.” He went with a false question so as not to give anything away. “Are the three of us really related? Do we share a parent?”
She relaxed. “No. The three of you don’t share anything but your creation. That was me and science and brilliance.”
Zara made a sound behind him, and he shook his head. “How so?”
Madison’s eyes glowed. “Test tubes, experiments, and really good genes. If there are extra abilities in men, and I believe there are, then I created you to have them. Right?”
He didn’t answer her.
She settled her stance. “Tit for tat, young man. Right?”
He slowly nodded. “I’m smart, and my reflexes are very quick. Genetics?”
“Yes.”
“Test tubes?” he asked slowly.
She smiled. “Yes. So many embryos, and most didn’t survive. But you did, as did others. You might have biological brothers out there, but you, Heath, and Denver created your own bond, didn’t you?”
If he could keep her talking, then one of his brothers would come up behind her as soon as they discovered this building. How many buildings were getting searched? If she was here, then she wasn’t hiding Greg. So Ryker continue to play along, acknowledging that he needed answers. “Who were my biological parents?” He held his breath.
She sniffed. “Doesn’t matter. I created you. I’m your parent.”
“Biologically,” he snapped.
“A soldier was your sperm donor—a truly gifted, brilliant, hard man. He died on a mission.” Her lips turned down. “I believe your mother was a lost teenage whore with a shockingly high IQ. After giving birth to you, and taking our money, she was killed by a drug overdose.” Madison held up a hand when he opened his mouth. “We did not kill her.”