Lost and Found (Masters & Mercenaries: The Forgotten #2)(97)

“I hope they stay that way,” Erin muttered.

He was in on this, too? He hadn’t been faking. She’d worked with too many patients to not know when a patient was faking. Her head was spinning, and not from the drugs she’d been given. “I saw your records. You had a traumatic brain injury.”

“He didn’t even hit his head when he got shot,” Erin said. “I should know. I was there. I watched him die. No brain injuries. Just a big old hole in his heart.” Erin’s stare pinned her. “She fixed it and he’s alive today. It’s the only reason I don’t regret shooting her quickly.”

She looked to the redhead. “Dr. McDonald died in an accident.”

“I shot her. I killed her in a lab in France where she was holding Jax, Dante, Sasha, and Tucker. And Owen, though he’ll have to tell you that story,” Erin said.

“Did you ever run the brain scans on me yourself?” the man she’d known as Tomas asked. “Or did you simply accept what McDonald gave you?”

“She was your doctor.” This couldn’t be real. “Of course she ran your scans. Or had someone do them. Most doctors don’t run scans. We have techs who do that. We read them.”

“Would you like to run mine? I’m sure we can figure out a way to do it,” Theo offered. “You’ll find I’ve never had a traumatic brain injury, but I still have issues because the drugs she gave me caused disconnections in my limbic system. Or so I’ve been told by a friend of mine. Did you ever meet McDonald’s sister?”

“Faith? Yes, she’s a lovely woman.” She’d met the doctor while she’d worked with her sister that summer, and once since. It had been at a fundraiser. Faith was a general practitioner who ran a clinic in Africa and helped raise funds for health care in Third World countries. She was practically a saint. “Are you trying to tell me she’s evil, too?”

“Faith?” Theo moved out of the way as Jax walked in carrying a laptop. Theo shook his head. “Faith is one of the sweetest human beings I’ve ever met, and she’s one of the reasons I’m alive today. She believed us when we told her what her sister was doing. She helped us.”

Jax set the laptop down and fiddled with the keys. “You there, sis? I’m afraid I’m bouncing this off a couple of satellites. The connection isn’t the best.”

River was standing in the doorway, Buster at her side. She gave Becca a hesitant smile. “Jax is Faith’s half-brother. That makes him Hope’s half-brother, too, but we don’t talk about that much. It’s why Hope erased his memory. Turns out his dad didn’t want to claim him.”

“Love children don’t play well in elections,” Jax admitted and then a big smile came over his face. “There you are. Hey.”

A voice came over the computer. “Hi! It’s so good to see you and to know you’re not in police custody somewhere.”

“Not yet, sister, and if we can get some help, maybe never. You know what to do?” Jax asked.

“Tell the truth and shame the devil. Or rather shame my sister,” she replied as Jax turned the monitor to face Becca. “Hello, Dr. Walsh. It’s good to see you again.”

That was really Faith. What was her part in this? “I can’t say I’m happy to see you’re involved in this.”

“I wasn’t happy to find out what my sister was doing. And I certainly hadn’t thought about the fact that she likely used your research to aid her own. It’s always good to know how something works if you want to break it down.” Faith leaned in. “I’m going to tell you the truth about my sister and what she did to these men and how she used you to do it. If you want to walk away at the end, if you don’t believe me, then I’m going to ask Ezra to drive you back to your place.”

“No,” Owen said, finally looking at her.

She ignored him. Faith looked so serious. “Tell me.”

Faith began her tale.




Thirty minutes later, she couldn’t breathe. She stared down at the reports in front of her. Sometime in the middle of Faith’s recitation of her sister’s crimes, Becca had reached out and grabbed the binder Tomas…Theo had brought in. It played like a handout accompanying the most horrifying lecture she’d ever attended.

Hope McDonald had used her. The other doctor had used her work to rip apart people’s memories. And then she’d had work all of her own, terrifying work.

“You’ve studied the time dilation drug?” It had been a part of McDonald’s therapy, tricking her “boys” into thinking they’d been with her far longer than they had. When she thought about it objectively, it was an interesting theory. Erase memories. Replace those memories with pain. Let the subject know that as long as they obeyed, there would be no pain. Let them think this is how it is and always was. Surround them by others so it feels normal. Isolate them. Become their only source of anything.

It was a psycho’s guide to building an army.

“No,” Faith admitted. “One of the things the team is looking for is the formulary of the drug. We know it’s out there, and if it falls into the wrong hands it could go poorly. My husband…she gave him the drug to torture him. My sister and my father tortured Tennessee. He’d worked for the CIA, but my father had him burned when he threatened his business interests. Ten doesn’t like to talk about it, but I know he still dreams about it at night. I have to wake him up and convince him that he’s here and not in that place.”