Run To Me (Lazarus Rising #4)(40)
Then Cecelia was gone. Jay lingered a moment more, his gaze on Willow. “Are you going to be okay?”
No. “Of course. I just need to sleep.”
His jaw hardened.
“Go talk to Cecelia. I’ll be here.” Not like she could go anywhere else.
He still hesitated.
“I’m tired,” Willow told him and that was the truth. “I want to get some sleep, okay? Just doing what the doctor ordered.”
“If you need me…”
“I don’t.” I do.
She slid into the bed. Closed her eyes. A moment later, the door shut. She heard the pad of his steps as he left her.
He thought the room was sound-proofed. That he’d managed to create a secure holding place so that Lazarus subjects couldn’t use their enhanced senses to see or hear what happened beyond that room.
He was wrong.
“We have a problem,” Cecelia told him quietly. Willow heard the shrink’s words perfectly. “If he’s set some kind of trigger in her head, then Wyman could have done the same thing to other subjects. He could have ways to control them all.”
“That’s just the beginning of our damn problems,” Jay threw back, his voice hard and grating. “Wyman said—the SOB said he’s her father.”
“What?”
But Willow had lunged upright in bed, her heart racing and her mind seeming to…splinter.
***
“You’re not dying on me, baby. You’re not.”
Wyman Wright’s voice. But his face was different. His nose was bigger, his jaw harder, and his thin hair was gray at the sides. Fear etched deep lines onto his face as his shaking hand touched her cheek. “I’m going to help you.”
She wanted to talk, but couldn’t. Her whole body felt funny. Cold.
Numb?
“I’ll make you stronger, baby. I’ll make it so that he can’t ever hurt you again. I’ll fix what I did. I’ll bring you back, I swear it.”
He could do so much, she knew that. But even he couldn’t cheat death. And death was there. She could see it in the darkness around her. She wanted to tell him good-bye, but couldn’t. All she could do was stare at his face as the darkness around them both grew stronger.
“No, Willow, you hold on! I need you to hold on just a little longer. There are steps to follow. Fucking preservation process—it’s going to work! It worked on the others, and it will work on you.”
She couldn’t see him. Had her eyes closed? Or had the darkness gotten too strong?
“Baby!” His voice seemed to break. “I won’t lose you. You’ll come back…” His words roughened. “Even if I have to fight heaven and hell…they won’t take you.”
Then she could have sworn that she felt the fire of hell. Because she seemed to be burning—burning from the inside out. Her whole body hurt, and the pain wouldn’t stop. It wouldn’t stop. She was being torn apart. The woman she’d been, the life she’d had, it was ripped away from her. She could see her life tearing into pieces. She tried to grab the pieces, but they were burning. She was burning.
She opened her eyes—
Strapped to a table. In a white, sterile lab. Men and women in lab coats.
Willow screamed.
***
“Her father?” Cecelia’s hazel eyes widened. “Bullshit.”
“Yeah, well,” Jay raked a hand over his jaw, feeling the rough edge of stubble, “I hope to hell that’s the case, but I’ve got Elizabeth comparing their blood and DNA. If he is her father, that would explain a few things, like why I can’t find a trace of Willow anywhere.”
“Because he would have protected her. Probably her whole life.” She rocked back on her heels. “As many enemies as he has…no way would Wyman want the world knowing he had a daughter. He would have kept her away from everyone. He would have—”
“He would have trained her,” Jay said flatly. “Made sure that she knew how to protect herself from any threat. That’s where she got her skills. Wyman. If what he’s saying is true. We thought Willow had a military background like the other subjects, but Wyman treated her differently from the beginning. He kept her separated because she was different.”
“He protected her.”
Jay nodded. “And he only came out of hiding when he thought she was in danger.” When she’d been shot. Hold the fuck up. His mind started spinning. If Wyman had been protecting her, then had all of that BS about Jay being a threat to Willow—had it been true?
No, no way, it—
Willow screamed.
He instantly whipped around, staring through the one-way glass. Willow wasn’t supposed to be able to hear anything outside of her room, but he’d set up the space so that he could hear her. And her scream was absolutely gut-wrenching.
She was sitting upright in bed, her body twisting and turning, and her scream kept echoing.
He didn’t hesitate. Jay ran back to her, throwing open the door and rushing toward the bed. “Willow!”
Chapter Eleven
He grabbed Willow, fear thick in his stomach, and Jay’s fingers tightened around her shoulders. “Willow!”
She wasn’t screaming anymore. Her eyes were wide open, she seemed to see through him, but then she blinked once, shuddered, and color came flooding back into her too pale cheeks.