Reese struggled to swallow. “I think the doctors’ offices are closed right now.”
“Then Colonel Harrington had better arrange to have one opened. This is serious, and you need to quit trying to convince yourself otherwise.” She took the mask off his face.
The cool damp air replaced the warm humidity collecting on Reese’s skin.
Barnaby climbed down off the footstool. “And you.” She pointed at Harrington. “You had better get your head out of your ass and take him to the emergency room before he collapses and doesn’t get up.” Barnaby picked up her footstool. “Now if you excuse me, I have evidence to catalog.”
Despite her small size, people cleared the way.
And to think she worried about Phillips.
Reese blew out a breath, causing his cheeks to pop. “Well, at least I’m not dead. Yet.”
Harrington still watched Barnaby. “I’ll get you checked into a hotel and make some phone calls. I know of a few good doctors in this area.”
“Let me guess, they’re in the Army.”
Harrington laughed. “Of course they are, you think I’d trust the Air Force for something like this?”
Reese stood and inhaled. No pain, no strain to breathe. It was hard to imagine he might have a time-bomb in his chest.
The colonel motioned for Reese to follow. He did. Normally he almost had to run to keep up with the man, this time it took no effort.
“Now that you can breathe, I need you to tell me what got you so worked up.”
“The pictures on the living room wall.”
“What about them?”
“They’re of Koda and apparently his brother.”
The colonel stopped. “And you didn’t know that before you walked in there?”
“I didn’t know a lot of details of subjects’ lives before they were…” Dead. “Before they came to the facility. I never pried, because it was easier to do the work if I stayed ignorant. He mentioned a brother, but I never asked about him.” And Reese had an odd feeling Koda wouldn’t have told him.
They got in the SUV. It wasn’t until they were inside and Harrington gave the driver directions that the colonel spoke again. “You cared about the subjects. Not just Koda, all of them.”
There was no accusatory tone to the statement. Reese’s pulse tapped a gentle rhythm through his body. Had it ever been so loud before? Or maybe he’d just taken for granted it was there. “I did. But I think more so because Koda cared about them.”
“Explain.”
Reese chuckled. “A man of few words.” He propped his elbow on the door. The flashers on the police cruisers filled the night then faded away in the rear window. “He was special. I told you that back at the facility. He just glowed.” And every day Reese was a moth fluttering closer to the flame.
“What about the others you tried to use as Alphas?”
Reese closed his eyes. Cold radiated through the glass soothing his skin. “No. But we tried anyhow.”
“What happened?”
The screams, the feral expression, the repetitive banging against the smoked glass until their bones cracked had gone on for days until they tore themselves apart. “Let’s just say it didn’t work out very well.”
Headlights flickered through the trees, growing brighter as they neared the highway. The gentle hum of tires on blacktop filled the confines of the SUV.
“It was strange,” Reese said.
“What?”
“How when he woke up, we knew. All of us. One look and we knew he was the right one. It’s almost like he was born to be an Alpha.”