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He knew what he was going to find.
But he hoped, this time finally… he would be wrong, and some of the subjects would still be alive.
NINE
SO YOU’VE CHANGEDyour mind.”
As Gus repeated the words Daniel had just thrown out at the guy, the good doctor mostly kept the disappointment from his voice. And clearly, this wasn’t the first piece of bad news C.P.’s head scientist had gotten tonight. Even before he’d sat down at the table just off the big kitchen, he’d looked like he’d been hit by a truck.
“I’m sorry,” Daniel said. Then he glanced at Lydia. They reached for each other’s hands at the same time, and as she squeezed his palm, he let out a long breath. “I just…”
Gus held up both his palms. “I’m not going to argue with you. Don’t worry about that.”
“We’ve come to a mutual decision,” Daniel finished.
Lydia nodded and brushed a wisp of hair out of her eyelashes. “We think it’s… time to live instead of trying desperately not to die.”
The doctor nodded and sat back. Then he clapped his thighs and rubbed the top of his legs, his torso rocking in his chair like he was frustrated but trying to stay cool. “I get it. Trust me—”
The clipping sounds were dim at first, but as they got louder, Gus dropped a cuss word. Or seven. “And here she is, Miss America,” he muttered under his breath.
At that moment, C.P. Phalen entered the alcove, and as usual, her perfume was like the beat of her stilettos—a banner announcing her presence. Not that she needed the extra highlight. With those heels, herTruth or DareMadonna hair, and that tended-to face, she was polished as her marble floors and just as cozy. Daniel had never seen her out of her wardrobe of business suits, and had long ago decided she’d come into the world looking like the evil villain in a Marvel movie.
“So I gather we’re not moving forward,” she said.
“No.” He glanced again at Lydia. When she nodded firmly, he murmured, “I’m sorry.”
Actually, the more honest statement was that he was confused as fuck. He’d had one plan. Then another. And now he was back where he started with refusing that Vita-12b the lab had cooked up. For a military man with a strict sense of discipline, the flip-flopping was making him mental—and he wasno happier with this resolution than he’d been with the other, go-for-it one.
He was still leaving Lydia alone. And sooner rather than later.
The difference was that at least now she didn’t want him to keep with the medical pollution. She just wanted… to be with him.
Same page at the same time, finally.
Not that C.P. was happy about it.
The woman looked at Gus, who was focused on the Coke can he’d brought in from the kitchen. The guy seemed to run on the stuff, yet he was never twitchy, never the kind who bounced a foot under the table or tapped fingers. Then again, he’d probably last slept a full night through back in the nineties and was running on fumes.
C.P. pulled a chair out and sat down at Gus’s left. As the man shifted his seat a little away from her, you didn’t need to be a body language expert to see the rift between the two.
“Of course, you have to do what’s right for you,” the woman said in a neutral tone.
“Listen, we can leave,” Daniel offered. “Lydia still has her rental house and I can get the care I need there—”
A pair of noes came right back at him.
“You will stay here,” C.P. said.
“I’m not your problem—”
“I didn’t say you were,” she snapped. “You’ll stay here because—”
“You’re hoping I’ll change my mind,” he countered.
C.P. took a deep breath and held up her hand. “Daniel, don’t take this the wrong way—but fuck you and fuck off.”
Daniel had to laugh. “You know, I’ve always liked the fact that you’re a straight shooter.”
