Desire Unmatched: 4 (Coded for Love) by Lynne Silver Read Free Book Online Page A

to deliver breakfast and remove his waste
bucket, replacing it with a clean one. In the evening to shove dinner in and
remove the dirty breakfast plate.
    So what was it now? He crouched on his feet, ready to spring
into any warranted action, but the door opened wider, something large wrapped
in a blanket slid in and the door slammed and locked before he reacted.
    He eyed the blanket, judging the size. His stomach muscles
tightened as he acknowledged this latest development wasn’t good. Something
deep inside knew what he’d find if he peeled the woolen brown blanket back.
    Walking on his knees, he crossed the four feet to the
unwelcome intrusion into his prison cell. He reached out a hand to pull back
the blanket and found sturdy old-man shoes. Black leather. Shit, wrong side of
the blanket.
    He knew what he’d find but he moved to the other end
of the blanket to confirm. Pulling back a corner to reveal…yep…Paulson. Shit. The old doctor was dead.
    And had been dead several hours judging by the bluish tint
to his skin and stiffness of the limbs in the blanket. There was no looseness
whatsoever as he unwrapped the rest of the body from the blanket. It was
distasteful, but he had to examine Paulson’s body to determine cause of death.
    He tossed the blanket to the side and studied his new
roommate’s stiffened, frail body. There was no blood as far as he could see,
nor were there any holes in the clothing. He eyed the button-down shirt and
black trousers and rejected them. He was more than a head taller than Paulson.
Despite his rank odor from thirty days of captivity without a real shower, he
couldn’t wear Paulson’s clothes.
    Cocking his head, he noticed Paulson’s face looked odd.
Leaning over him, he saw the old man’s face was contorted, as if a string had
pulled the left side of it down. It was obvious now. The old bastard had
stroked out, leaving Xander to a capricious fate.
    Fuck, shit, damn it to hell. Every curse word he’d
ever learned passed through his brain and some made it to his tongue where they
floated in the empty room that suddenly seemed smaller thanks to its latest
unwanted addition.
    He had to escape. Today. With Paulson dead, they didn’t need
him anymore. Unless they had another genetic specialist upstairs, the
terrorists holding him wouldn’t bother going through the expense of guarding
and feeding him without any benefit to themselves.
    He leapt to grab the thick round bars covering the sole
window and gave them a tug. No use. He’d been tugging at them since day one of
captivity, but they weren’t any looser than they had been. Plus there was a
whole other set of matching bars on the other side of the window.
    To escape, he’d have to go out through the one door,
upstairs to an unknown floor plan and out into a city. He was least worried
about the city part. He could grab a cell phone off someone in an instant and
make the call to Shep. The vagaries of stealing someone’s property didn’t
bother him. Life before morality and all that. Besides, the Program would pull
the owner’s info and get the guy a new even better phone within days.
    Holding his breath, he walked back to Paulson and started
pulling what he needed off the doctor. He started at the bottom. The shoes were
too small, but the socks would protect his feet somewhat when he got outside.
    The thin black dress socks felt unfamiliar on his feet,
which were used to open air or wool boot socks. He went through Paulson’s
pockets, hoping for a cell phone or pen, anything that would be useful. There
was nothing at all other than a plain white handkerchief. He stuffed it in his
back pocket. He couldn’t think of a use for it now, but one took what one was
given in a FUBAR situation.
    A wide smile stretched his lips suddenly as he noticed what
his captors forgot. Paulson was wearing a belt. A nice leather belt, with—best
of all—a metal buckle. “Xander, meet your newest favorite weapon,” he said
quietly as he started