Jax avoided going beyond his command unless absolutely necessary and stuck to the perimeter of the seven square blocks, making sure their defenses stayed shored up. Barbed wire fencing protected the entire territory, which was a trick he’d learned from serving at several military bases, and he didn’t want to discuss going inner territory. “We’ve been getting shot up with B for months. Is there any chance our own bodies will take over production of the vitamin so we don’t need the shots?”
“Hell if I know, and so far, the new data hasn’t helped. Nobody knows about Scorpius.” Tace winced. “I can just affirm from my own review of the public documents initially sent out by the CDC that vitamin B, in this concentrated form, provides a protection so that if somebody contracts Scorpius, they might live through it. The B seems to keep the bacteria from spreading in the body. By testing those who have confessed to being survivors, the CDC discovered the Scorpius bacteria localizes just in saliva and blood.” Tension rode his words. “Of course, most survivors don’t tell me the truth about it in our community, so I don’t know who has been infected.”
In his past life, Tace had been an army medic after having grown up on a Texas ranch with several siblings, all of whom had succumbed to Scorpius. Now he gave off a vibe of being one with the universe and at peace. But he was a damn good medic who at least somewhat understood Scorpius and vitamin B.
Jax grimaced as thunder rolled again. Shit, they needed rain but not bad wind. “It’s a vitamin,” he muttered. “Vitamin fuckin’ B.”
Tace blew out air. “The B vitamins deal with dopamine and serotonin in the brain, which has something to do with hormones and empathy. That’s all I know.”
Jax scratched his stinging neck. “Have you had much of a chance to go through the data we took from the CDC outpost and contracted labs in the area?”
“We went through it for medical data, but some of it was pretty confusing.” Tace stretched his shoulders. “Why?”
Jax rubbed his chin. “Lynne Harmony thinks she might be able to find a concoction that creates B in the blood so we won’t need constant injections. She’s not telling me everything, but I think she was truthful about that.”
Tace stilled. “Interesting. The research I read did talk about B quite a bit, but some of it might as well have been in Sanskrit.”
“You don’t know much.”
“Probably not nearly as much as Lynne Harmony does.” Tace turned and leaned back against the counter, scattering papers. “Is it true? Do you have her?”
“Yeah.” Jax looked at the collections of drugs, chemicals, and test tubes, which had already been in place in the building. They’d made good use of the facilities, mainly because the compound was situated perfectly to protect and defend. A row of warehouses lined the rear of his territory, backed by an old street and several worn railroad tracks. Then many apartment buildings congregated around an old elementary school that now served as the main hospital for his people. Several businesses took up space with a church in the center.
The seven square blocks also had held a food distribution center by the warehouses, which was now well guarded. He’d immediately run barbed wire around the entire territory inside the public roads while barricading it with semitrucks, vans, cars, and piles of tires on the roads outside.
Yet an attack was coming. He could feel it. “Do you have the facilities necessary to study her blood, if she gives it?”
“If?” Tace asked slowly, crossing his arms.
“Answer the question,” Jax ordered his chief medic. Now there were three doctors inner territory, but he trusted Tace the most. They’d known each other for almost six months and had fought, killed, and nearly died next to each other during rounds of attacks. The six-foot blond had been on leave from the army when the shit had hit the fan. “Please answer.”
“No.” Tace rubbed his square jaw. “We don’t even remotely have the resources to study her blood, so there’s no reason to take any of it. Did you see her heart? Is it really neon blue like in the pictures?”
“Yes.” The CDC and newspapers had shown pictures of Lynne’s heart before the epidemic had spread. “If I can somehow find you the right equipment to take her blood, maybe you can create a cure?” Jax asked.
Tace snorted. “Sure. I mean, the CDC and some of the smartest doctors on the planet were unable to do so, but why the hell not?” He gestured around the makeshift lab. “Without electricity and millions of dollars of high-tech equipment, the most I can do here is look under an old microscope. There’s no way for us to find any sort of cure in her blood, even if there is somehow a cure that the real CDC missed.”
Jax exhaled slowly. “No need to be an asshole. Just think about it.” The second they lost hope of survival, they lost everything. “Hope is the dream of a waking man.”
Tace snorted. “I like that quote better than the ‘we’re all gonna die’ quotes you spouted yesterday.”
Jax rubbed his aching temple. “I was moody, and now you seem concerned.” Tace was as good-natured as they came, and Jax relied on him to cheer up the troops when necessary, which was more often than not.
“Concerned?” Tace slowly nodded. “Based on the rumors we’ve heard, you’ve brought a woman rumored to be carrying something more dangerous than the Ebola, AIDS, and smallpox viruses combined with the plague, meningitis, and flesh-eating bacteria into our barely secured home base, and you’re keeping her at command headquarters.”
“Her knowledge is our hope. Our only hope.” Jax rolled his shoulders. “You know as well as I do that there are a million unfounded rumors out there. Yeah, they say she’s carrying a new, even more deadly mutation of the contagion, but you know that’s probably not true. We know for sure she’s the one person still alive with the best chance of finding a cure.” Though he’d expected resistance from his men, he hadn’t thought Tace would be reluctant. “This could turn the tide.”
“If you say so.” Tace shook his head. “A betting man would argue that the tide is over, brother.”
Jax tried to keep his patience, but his teeth still ground together. “Knock it off.”
Tace, as usual, switched moods quicker than a fox on a hunt. “Is she pretty? In the pictures, she looked hot.”
Jax slowly shook his head. “You go from calling her a dangerous carrier to asking if she’s good to look at?”
“Yeah,” Tace drawled. “There’s something sexy about a woman so dangerous she can kill you by biting your finger. Is our great hope pleasing to the eye?”
Yes. Lynne Harmony was stunning as well as desperately wounded. Delicate and fierce. One hour with her, and she’d brought out something in Jax he neither wanted nor needed—the urge to save her. He couldn’t appreciate what made her pretty, and he couldn’t compromise on the mission. Neither could his men. “She’s a woman who’s been through hell, and she’s a prisoner here to share any information she has learned. Don’t confuse things.”
“Yes, sir,” Tace drawled. “I think you found her appealing.”
Way beyond that, actually. The woman had a brain, and he’d always been fascinated by smart girls. Always. “Please concentrate.”
Tace reached for a drawer and drew out several foil packets to throw at Jax. “Just in case.”
Jax caught the condoms and leveled him with a hard look. “Are you kidding me? I don’t have time for sex.”
“There is always time for sex.” Tace flung out his massive arms. “Don’t you get that? If you have a good moment, take it. For now, our best hope is to forget a cure and somehow put off death and craziness with vitamin B.”
The door pushed open, and Wyatt Quaid stomped inside. “There’s craziness? We have a Ripper?”
“No.” Jax shook his head, sliding the condoms in his pocket, not because he needed them but to get them out of sight. The room was suddenly too small with all three of them in there. “Don’t eavesdrop. You get things wrong.”
Wyatt shrugged. “My bad. We have a newly trained squad of scavengers who go out on their first mission tonight. I need you to come give them a talk.”
Jax stilled. “Where?”