Acceptable Risks by Natalie J. Damschroder Read Free Book Online Page A

fine.”
“Where is he?” She tried to look at his face for assurance, but he firmly guided her into the car and she only caught a glimpse of determination.
“I don’t know. I last saw him at the company.” He closed the door behind her and jogged around the front of the car, sliding in and starting the ignition with a surprising economy of motion, given what his condition should be.
“That had to be hours ago, at least,” she argued. “Can I call him?”
Jason handed her a slim cell phone. “Press and hold one.”
She did, watching “Matt” appear on the display, then lifting the phone to her ear with a sudden surge of fear. Jason died six months ago. This guy couldn’t be Jason. She’d been stupid to get into the car with him. She had no proof her father sent him, or that she was even calling her father. She put her hand on the armrest, near the handle, ready to dive out when the car slowed, holding her breath while the line rang.
The third ring cut off abruptly. “Did you get her?”
“Dad?”
“Lark.” His relief made her ear tingle. “You’re okay?”
“When I was six, I built a sand castle. I was very proud of it and angry when the waves came up and destroyed it. What did I say?”
Her father chuckled. “Good girl. You said ‘pissflaps.’”
Tension released, her muscles weakening. Jason glanced at her from the corner of his eye before turning the car onto the main road to the entrance gate. She thought she saw approval before he looked back at the road, and warmth suffused her. Her brow wrinkled, but she concentrated on the phone.
“Dad, what’s going on? I’m with Jason, but he’s—”
“Dead, I know. I tried to call you to tell you he was on his way but you didn’t answer.”
“I turned my phone to vibrate while I was working. I didn’t feel it.” Her father didn’t have to say what she knew he was thinking: Typical. “Dad, how—” But understanding hit her in a wave of shocked euphoria. “Oh, my God, it worked. You did it.” Without thinking, she grabbed Jason’s forearm. He hissed in a breath and she let go, quickly. “You used the regeneration therapy.” It had worked . Suddenly, Isaac and his goon trying to get her and her work made more sense.
Now Jason looked at her full on, his slightly parted lips the only expression of his surprise.
“We did,” her father admitted. “Among other things. Look, Lark, I’m in the middle of something—”
“Important, I’m sure. And Jason will tell me everything. Yada yada. I know the drill.”
“Yeah,” he said softly. “I love you, Larkling.”
She winced and was glad he couldn’t see it. “I love you, too, Dad.”
“I’ll see you soon. Let me talk to Jason for a second.”
She handed the phone over and listened to Jason give her father a shorthand version of what had happened. They were done in less than a minute, and Jason laid the closed phone in the console between them.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
“To a safe house on the other side of the city. Tomorrow we’ll go to your apartment and get whatever you need for a short trip. We’ll meet your father back at Hummingbird.”
“And when we get to the safe house you’ll tell me what’s going on.”
“Yep.”
“All of it.”
“Yep.”
“No ‘protect the little lady, the delicate daughter of the big boss, from the things that go bump in the night’?”
Jason snorted. “No. I think Matt knows better than to try that now. And I definitely do.”
Lark smiled, remembering the incident he was referring to. “Perry was the team captain.”
“I understand.”
He smiled back at her, and something zinged Lark, deep under her breastbone. Her breath caught. Oh, boy.
She faced front again. “Dad should never have told me not to worry my pretty little head.”
“He was joking.”
“But he meant it. And all I wanted was to go to a high school dance.”
“And he knew a threat had been made against the school.”
“It was kids!” She subsided immediately,