Veronica came to a stop. An uncomfortablewariness knotted in her belly. If Victor wasn’t here, where thehell was he? More importantly, was her brother still alive?
*****
Lachlan waited impatiently for Victor to bebrought to him. He realized ‘twould take some time as the dungeonwas cavernous and located on the other side of the keep. In themeantime, he stared at the woman on what his captive had called ascreen. Even covered in dirt and sweat, the lass was abeauty. Her long, golden curls and cat-like emerald eyes werebeguiling.
On another part of the screen, the AIscanner showed him the exterior of Victor’s bizarre, undergrounddwelling. The dead walked aboot in formation, taking to the groundto sniff the verra door Veronica had entered through. One of thelaird’s black eyebrows shot up as the creatures began testing theportal for weaknesses. A knot of apprehension curled in his gut.‘Twas an ominous sign, this, and one Victor needed to see in haste.Why had he locked him up? Even had this “scientist” proven himselfa liar, the mon was harmless. As a result ‘twas taking Ramsay andFinn nigh unto forever to fetch him and—
Lachlan stilled as his dark gaze flickedback to the woman. She was taking her clothes off. All of them. Hesaid a quick prayer for forgiveness as his cock hardened frombeneath his black and blue plaid. He knew he should grant herprivacy, yet he couldn’t summon the strength from within to lookaway.
She stepped beneath a man-made waterfall,liquid raining down to cleanse her voluptuous body, tanned skin,and amber hair. His muscles strained as she used some manner ofsoap which lathered into bubbles, her hands working up and down herbody. O’er her hair, down to her face, then lower still to herlarge breasts with extended nipples. He swallowed. She moved herhands even lower…
He blew out a steadying breath. He watched,his cock aching, as she repeated the cleansing ritual twice more.He should look away. He could never look away. “You bewitch me,woman,” he murmured.
Veronica knew naught of his existence, yethers consumed him. Such had been the way of it for o’er a fortnightnow. Mayhap his men had the right of it. Mayhap he wasobsessed.
*****
Veronica found a pair of her shiny,stretchy, black pants and a matching top in the bedroom Victor hadalways kept up for her. Looking in the mirror, she briefly waxednostalgic, thinking her ensemble reminded her of Trinity’s wardrobein the old-timer filmThe Matrix. Nobody had time forfrivolities like movies these days. The scant remnant that remainedof the living spent their every moment focused purely on survival.That knowledge made her feel a pang of guilt at her current goodfortune. She was hydrated, clean, clothed, and—at least fornow—safe. It was more than ninety-nine percent of the world couldlay claim to.
Veronica realized she needed to find herbrother, but such an undertaking would require a cleared mind andan energized body. Walking back to the kitchen, she rifled throughthe freezer and cupboards looking for anything edible. If worsecame to worse, she knew where Victor kept his countlessMREs—Meals-Ready-to-Eat—and would avail herself of the godawfulstuff did the need arise. Luckily, and blessedly, it didn’t.
“Good job, Victor,” she muttered, removingseveral packages of frozen faux meat from the freezer. Likeeverybody else of their generation, she and her brother had beenraised on the lab-grown foodstuffs. She popped the frozen bags intoone of theFoodMasters, a countertop gadget that removed thesealant, cooked the meat, and seasoned it perfectly. Locatingvacuum-packed potatoes and green beans in the cupboards, she threwthem into a secondFoodMasterand waited the requisite fiveminutes for everything to be done.
Food. It had been days since her last meal,if one could call a protein bar a meal. The tasteless, dry thingswere easy to carry and contained all the nutrients necessary forthe body to endure. During her journey she’d been forced to eat alot worse than the bland protein bars though so she wasn’tcomplaining.
The twoFoodmastersdinged almostsimultaneously. Her belly rumbled as she made quick work of openingthe appliances up and grabbing her food. Dinner was served. And itwas delicious. She didn’t bother with retrieving a fork. She jammedhandfuls of green beans, potatoes, and faux meats made to tastelike chicken and beef into her mouth and gobbled it all down. She’dworry about washing her hands when she was finished.
Twenty minutes later, sated and feelingbetter, Veronica cleaned her hands up, brewed herself a cup ofcoffee, grabbed a bottle of water for safekeeping, and made her wayinto her brother’s office. She sighed, her green gaze flickingaround the one and only messy room in Victor’s compound. Papers andgadgets were scattered everywhere. Not knowing what, if anything,said gadgets did, she avoided them like the plague and trouncedover to Victor’s desk. It was the least cluttered area in thevicinity and where she would begin her search. Surely if herbrother had left his own compound he would have also leftinstructions behind on how to locate him. Now to findthem.
*****
“Come on, sis,” Victor blurted out. He couldsee her, but she couldn’t see him. He could hear her, but shecouldn’t hear him. At least for now. “Open my laptop,” heinstructed her as if she could hear what he was saying. He pushedhis glasses back up the bridge of his nose, keenly aware of thehulking laird standing over his shoulder watching everything.
Victor had proven himself to Laird Gunn andbecause he had he’d been rewarded with freedom, a bedroom next toLachlan’s quarters, and the return of his AI scanner. Truthfullythe dungeon hadn’t been so bad. He suspected most captives put downthere fared far worse than he had. Ramsay and Finn had seen tokeeping his sparse, underground room lit until Victor had beenready to sleep every evening, the food and ale had been plentiful,and the maidservants had cleaned it daily. Honestly, he’d beentreated more like a guest than a prisoner, but it was nice tobreathe fresh air again and see the sun rise and fall. It wascurrently falling. He glanced over to Finn, who was currentlylighting more candles and one blazing torch, before looking back tohis screen. Only Finn and Ramsay knew where Victor heralded fromaside from the laird.
Victor came from the same dying future hedesperately wanted to seize his sister from. But that wasn’t goingto happen if she didn’t open his damned laptop. “Veronica,” hepleaded again, “open the fucking thing.”
*****
Sighing, Veronica quit rifling through herbrother’s desk. Picking up her cup of coffee, she sipped with onehand while the fingers of her free hand drummed on the mahoganywood. She was running out of ideas. Nothing she’d found wasbringing her any closer to discovering her brother’s whereabouts,which wasn’t like him. At the very least he would have left a damnclue. And if he’d been killed in his compound she would have foundhis remains, reanimated or not.Think like Victor, think likeVictor…
An idea forming, she set down the cup ofcoffee and looked under the pile of papers in front of her. Aha!His laptop! He wouldn’t have left it behind unless he wanted her tofind it. Opening it up, she picked her cup of coffee back up andwaited for something to happen. When nothing did, she rolled hereyes and clicked the power button. Damn it, but technology was nother thing.
The screen zoomed to life. Jackpot! Shesipped her coffee and watched the virtual note her brother had leftbehind.
“If you’re watching this then you’restill alive, praise God. With most of the world’s electrical gridsdown, I don’t know how you managed to get here from Los Angeles,but I knew if anyone could do it, it would be you.”
“Where are you?” Veronica asked at the sametime the virtual note resumed speaking.
“You’re no doubt wondering where I am.That’s a bit difficult to explain, and you probably won’t believeme if I tried, so I need you to trust me and do as I say.”
She nodded almost imperceptibly.
“I can see you, but you can’t see me. Ican hear you, but you can’t hear me. That’s the first situation weneed to remedy.”
Veronica frowned. “That’s creepy,Victor.”
“I’m sure you think that’s creepy andmaybe it is, but science works the way it works, sis. That issueaside, I’m not going to bore you with concepts that will go overyour head anyway—”
