“He took the serum,” Jed said, an icy edge to his voice again. “Didn’t you?”
Armando didn’t show any emotion. “Guilty.”
“Why?”
“I needed to stop the pain.”
“How?”
“When everyone had gone off to the dog-and-pony show with Hell. Kirkland and Derek left everything easily accessible.”
Helen remembered how everyone had been eager to start the test. Almost the whole Medic department had left so they could be on hand if the serum had a negative effect on her. Of course, the few personnel who were left wouldn’t question a COS commando walking into the clinic.
“We’re going to talk later,” Jed said. He turned to Helen, his eyes raking her up and down, as if he was considering whether she was up to it. Apparently he thought she was, because he added softly, “Get ready for a remote-view session.”
“But her leg—” Dr. Kirkland protested.
“A quick check-up, but we must hurry. If there really was a remote viewer here at COMCEN, I want to know where he is right now.”
“But she’s barely got the serum out of her system, Jed.”
“We aren’t using the serum,” Jed said, his eyes never leaving Helen. “She can handle it.”
Of course she could. She’d been trained to be pushed to the limits, and one limping leg wasn’t going to be a problem. However, the feminine part of her was just a tad miffed that he looked at her as only some kind of extension to his spy games. They had been planning to go have a meal with an admiral before the incident, for crying out loud. And then afterwards...he’d promised her afterwards... This supersoldier-spy thing was really getting in the way of her love life.
Helen squinted, pretending to consider the idea of refusing him. “I’m still starving,” she announced. “If you bring me something from the cafeteria, I’ll work for food.”
“Done,” Jed said. He looked around. “Get started. Armando, you’ll stay in the next room and get thoroughly checked out. Thoroughly. Brainwaves, Kirkland, and a drug test. You’ll stay till it’s all completed, do you hear me, Chang?”
Armando hooked his thumb on his belt. “Time out, I suppose.”
“More like a spanking,” Helen said. What did he mean when he said he injected the serum to stop the pain? Was his “reckoning” this pain that he kept having?
“Chang? I didn’t hear your answer.”
“Yes, I’ll be in the next room.” Armando exchanged a glance with Helen as he pulled open the door by the examination bed. “This is my reward for saving damsels in distress.”
She grinned. She couldn’t help it. He was probably in serious trouble but he didn’t seem at all remorseful. Dr. Kirkland ordered Derek to move the tables with the monitors out of the way, as he headed to the medical cabinets.
It was a familiar procedure. Helen returned her attention to Jed.
“If he’s going to draw blood from me, I’m going to need food. Send up some,” she hinted again. “Then I’ll see your fake ass in virtual reality, Hades.”
Jed walked to the examining table and paused to look down at her. Something indefinable flickered in his light eyes. He said nothing, simply locked his fist in her hair and pulled her head back. His mouth came down on hers hard. He angled her chin just so. His tongue tangled with hers for a brief moment.
It happened so quickly, she didn’t think Dr. Kirkland, intent on measuring meds, even noticed. Derek had his back to them.
“That,” he said softly, “wasn’t Hades kissing you.”
A smile touched his lips before he turned and strode out. Stunned, Helen stared after him. She touched her lips. The freaking man had a sense of humor after all.
KEVIN KIRKLAND SHUTthe cabinet door. There was a mirror on the inside of the door that Derek had recently hung.
In all his years monitoring Jed McNeil in the Virus Program, Kirkland had never seen the man kiss any woman in public, not even Nikki Taylor, an injured GEM operative Jed had rescued and with whom he’d had a relationship a long time ago.
Such a long time ago, Kirkland reminded himself, his head of hair wasn’t salt and pepper then. Before Jed brought her to GEM. Before she got her memory back. She was Nikki Harden now.
He considered Jed a friend. He’d started out as he was doing now with Helen, just charting vitals and making scientific observations on the subjects for the Virus Project, but over the years, the doctor-subject relationship had morphed into something closer. It had to, since Jed McNeil had to trust him when it came to things he had no control over, such as drugs and medical needs.
