A Changed Man (Altered Book 1) Read online

  "Well hello again beautiful." Freddy said standing up to greet her as she made her way to his desk.

  Tess inwardly cringed. "Well hello to you." She said with a bright, fake smile. She made her way to his desk. "You working the night shift? I thought you were supposed to be replaced by now."

  "Yeah, that asshole Dean called in sick; said he thinks he has the flu, but he seemed fine yesterday. He’s probably hung-over. Anyway, I don't have anything else to do, plus I get overtime so cha-ching!"

  Tess feigned interest. Her stomach rolled as his alcohol-ridden breath filled her nostrils "Oh, well that’s too bad; you must be exhausted from working all day and now you have to stay all night too? Poor thing." She propped a hip up and sat on the edge of his desk.

  Freddy's eyes went wide as he licked his lips and let a huge toothy grin spread across his face. "Maybe you could keep me company for a while." He said while reaching in to his desk drawer and grabbing a bottle of whiskey. He held it up, shaking it in front of her like he was holding a lure trying to entice the big one to bite.

  "Maybe." Tess smiled and looked around the top of the desk for the keycard she knew was there. She spotted the corner of it sticking out from under a pile of paperwork. "I have to go back to my office first. I forgot some papers I need to go over at home. Go ahead and get started, I'll be back in a few minutes."

  "Oh honey, I've already started." Freddy pulled another bottle from the same drawer, only this one was empty.

  This may be easier than she thought. If she could get him to drink a little more she could swipe that keycard out from under his nose with no problem. She got off his desk and straightened her skirt. "Okay then; I'll be back as soon as I can." She turned and walked away knowing full well that sleaze was checking out her ass. She rocked her hips from side to side making her sway more seductive. She almost threw up in her mouth when she heard him grunt with pleasure from behind her.

  Remington and Jordan were making their way toward the entrance of the den. Staying in the shadows as much as possible when they started getting closer to the cameras. Jordan stopped suddenly, Remington almost running into the back of him.

  "I'm going to change again so I can block the cameras. There are quite a few of them." He said pointing them all out to Remington. "I will cover them one at a time with my form; as I cover one you cross in front of it and wait till I cover the next. We will keep doing that until we get to the front door. As I cover that one, that’s when it's your turn to take over. Remember, there will be at least one guard on the other side and if he gets a chance to get on his radio every guard in the place will come running; so let’s try to take them out quietly."

  "You got it." Remington nodded.

  Remington watched as Jordan faded into a dark shadow that was so black it was darker than night itself. Jordan drifted over to the first camera, still on the outside of the compound, and hovered in front of it. Remington took his cue and ran past the camera and stopped to the side of it. He watched as Jordan floated from the first to the second camera. This one was near the gate that let the employee’s drive through. Again, Remington ran past it and stopped just outside of its line of sight. Jordan floated toward Remington and when he reached him he turned back into his human form.

  "That's not so bad huh?" Jordan asked.

  "Yeah, for you." Remington answered bent over with his hands resting on his knees while he caught his breath. "You don't have to do all the climbing and running with a shotgun hanging off your back."

  Jordan laughed, keeping his voice low. "Like I said buddy, luck of the draw."

  Remington straightened up. "How many more?"

  "A few." Catch your breath a minute and we'll go again."

  "I'm okay; I need to get to Rick. If anything has happened to him I will rip the throat out of everyone in that place."

  Jordan took a step back. "Jesus. I would think you were exaggerating, but I could totally see you doing that. Alright, let's keep moving."

  Tess made it back to her office. She hoped saying she had forgotten something would give her the time she needed to let Freddy get a little more shitfaced so she could snatch that card. She sat at her desk and looked over some of her files when she came across Rick Davis's file. She opened it and saw where she had written down the results of his check-up earlier. She pulled a pencil from the cup on her desk and erased the numbers she had written down for his heart rate and blood pressure. She knew that Mr. Smith wanted him soon. Tess would do what she had to, to make Rick not seem like the perfect candidate. She replaced the numbers with much higher ones, hoping to bide Rick a little time. Maybe they wouldn’t take him in so soon if his numbers were not at optimal levels. When finished, she grabbed a few folders from her desk and slowly made her way back toward the entrance where Freddy would be waiting at his desk. As she got close enough to see him she straightened her posture and set her hips to rocking once more. Showtime.

  As Tess walked up to Freddy's des,k she was surprised to see his eyes glued to the monitors and not on her. "Hey there, what’s so interesting?" She asked in her best sultry voice.

  Freddy finally looked up and smiled at her. He ran his hand through his greasy hair then pointed at the monitor. "Just a glitch I think. The monitors keep going black one by one but they come right back on." He said holding out the bottle of booze to Tess.

  Tess took the bottle and faked a big swig, letting the booze that went into her mouth fall back into the bottle. She thought it served him right. Let the pig suck down her backwash. She handed the bottle back to Freddy. "Your turn."

  Freddy took a big drink himself, wiping the alcohol from his half open mouth with the sleeve of his shirt and handing the bottle to Tess once again. Tess accepted it and walked around to the side of the desk where Freddy was sitting so she could see the monitors. "What was that?" She faked surprise.

  "What?" Freddy looked at the screens. One of them was completely black; it lasted for less than ten seconds and cleared back up. Then another screen went dark. "Oh, that’s what I was telling ya before." He slurred. "Fucking glitch."

  "Don't you think you better go check it out?" Tess asked. "I know I'd feel a lot safer if you did." She said.

  Freddy took the bottle from Tess and turned it up against his mouth, taking huge gulps until there was less than half of the booze left. "It's prolly just brats or something. I mean bats." He laughed. He could barely form a sentence now. It was time to get him away from his desk.

  "Would you please go out and check?" Tess said in his ear as she placed a hand on his shoulder.

  Freddy spun around in his chair. "Okay, but if you do you have to go to dinner with us tomorrow night. Me. If I do. Dinner, me and you." He knew what he wanted to say but was too drunk to be coherent.

  "Sure thing sweetie." Tess answered backing up so that he could stand.

  "How bout a little kiss?" Freddy asked moving toward her. "Incase I get eat by a bear or a bat or somp’un."

  The booze was starting to bring out his inner redneck. Tess put a finger up to his lips; they were already puckered up for the smooch he was hoping to get. "Not yet. When you get back. I want to kiss a hero." She almost busted out laughing at how stupidly cheesy that sounded, but Freddy didn't seem to notice. As a matter of fact he seemed to thrive on it. He stood up straight and pulled his pants up and his shirt down. Then with a vigor she had never seen before in someone so inebriated, turned on his heel to head for the door, but not before catching his right thigh on the corner of the desk and howling out in pain.

  "Son of a bitch!" He yelled. "Who moved my fucking desk?"

  It took everything Tess had not to howl with him, but hers would be laughter. "You're okay sweetie." She said helping him stand up straight. "You're so big and strong. Now go out there and see what’s blocking those cameras. I'll be waiting right here for you."

  "Cameras. Right." Freddy smiled at her, his eyes unfocused. "I'll see YOU in a minute." He turned and walked to the door.

  Tess watched as Fre
ddy tried punching in the numbers on the keypad to open the door. He kept getting it wrong and cursing louder every time. She figured why he had all his attention on getting the door opened that now was the time to lift the card from his desk. She watched him as she backed up to his desk. Not taking her eyes off him, she reached behind her and felt around until she had found the card. She picked it up and quickly tucked it into the pocket of her lab coat.

  "Ah HA!" Freddy yelled. "Got it!" He said when the light on the keypad finally turned green. He pulled open the door and disappeared into the night, letting the door slam behind him. Hoping he would be out there a while and have as hard of a time getting back in as he did getting out, Tess ran over to the elevator and pushed the down button. When she got inside she slid the keycard into the slot and pushed the button for basement level three.

  Jackie had just returned home from the store. She was putting the groceries and other supplies away. It was so quiet. This is the first time she had really been alone since she had met Remington. She missed him already. It was driving her nuts just hanging out here waiting. She continued to put everything in its place and when finished she went and got the first aid kit out and took it to the living room. Going through it, she made sure she had everything she may need to patch one or all of them up when they returned. When she was finished taking inventory Jackie made her way to the guest room. She wanted to change the sheets and make it comfortable for Remington’s friend Rick when they brought him back. Jackie walked over to the bed and pulled the sheets off of it. She grabbed a pillow and caught Remington’s scent. She held it up to her nose and breathed in deeply, the smell of him filling her head. It smelled clean, like soap mixed in with his personal masculine musk. She set the pillow aside and finished stripping the bed. She remade it with clean sheets from the hall closet then took his pillow to her room. Taking off the case of one of her own pillows, she replaced it with his then took the pillow back to the guest room and dressed it with a new pillowcase.

  Jackie thought herself silly for doing such a thing, but when she went back to her room and once again buried her face in the pillow that held his scent, it calmed her. She was so worried about this mission he was on to save his friend and whether or not he would make it back, it eased her to have some sense of him there. She laid on her bed and hugged the pillow to her chest, letting the memory of him soothe her to sleep.

  Remington and Jordan were about to reach the front door. So far they had made it past all of the cameras without an alarm sounding. They were just getting ready to go again only having a few yards left to cover, when all of a sudden the door they were getting ready to go through came bursting open. Jordan still in his shadow form quickly shot in front of Remington, blocking him from view of the man who just exited the compound.

  The man walked out and looked up at the camera over the door. He swayed; almost falling backward while his head was back. He regained his footing and began waving at the camera like a kid waves goodbye to his dad. He started laughing then turned around and walked to the next camera that was about twenty feet away. He was stumbling and tripping over his own feet, barely catching himself before he face planted onto the pavement. "Hellooooooo!" He said looking up at the camera and waving again.

  "This guy is drunk off his ass." Remington whispered to Jordan. "He must be the guard that was going to be behind that door, let’s get him out of the way now."

  Jordan quickly ate up the distance between he, Remington, and the drunken man, stopping directly in front of him. The man must have heard movement or felt the wind from Jordan, because he took a step back like he knew someone was in front of him. Remington watched as the man put his head down and squinted at the dark mass that was Jordan. The drunken man swiped his hand through the darkness and Jordan quickly moved out of the way. Then the man walked up to the darkness again and for a second time he tried to swipe his hand through the shadow but it was too fast for him.

  "What the fuck?" Remington heard the man say.

  Jordan started circling the man with such speed Remington could see the man’s hair blowing. He took this opportunity to sneak up behind the man. When Jordan suddenly stopped, the man’s face was white as a sheet as he bent over and vomited all over himself.

  The man wiped his nasty mouth with his shirtsleeve and reached for the pistol on his side. He shakily lifted it and pointed it toward Jordan. Before the drunk had a chance to fire off a shot, Remington grabbed him in a chokehold and started squeezing. Jordan took his human form and watched the man’s face go from white to blue. His eyes bulging out of his head as Remington tightened his hold and squeezed the last of the man’s air from his lungs.

  "You killed him." Jordan said in a tone that expressed no feeling either way.

  "Had to. He was going to fire his weapon and that would of brought more of them out." Remington said. "We have no idea how many more there are inside, so I want to eliminate as many as possible. There are no good people working here Jordan. We take out as many as possible.

  Jordan nodded in agreement as they made their way toward the entrance. "Two more cameras." Jordan said before fading to black. He swiftly covered the first camera so Remington could sneak by it and then the second. It only took seconds before they were at the entrance. Jordan turned back to his human form. "You're up metal man."

  Remington took a deep breath and put his hand on the knob. Jordan watched as the knob broke right off the door with a loud creak and dropped to the ground. Remington pushed on the large steel door, but it wouldn't budge.

  "Probably has a series of locks that run the length of the door." Jordan said.

  Remington put both hands against the door and with what seemed like little energy expended, the door started to crumple in on itself. It made a very loud whining noise and an alarm went off as soon as the locks were forcefully disengaged. The door continued to warp until it was a large metal ball at Remington’s feet.

  Jordan and Remington entered the facility. "There!" Remington pointed to the empty desk where a computer was sitting.

  Jordan ran to the computer and quickly found the icon that led him to the file that controlled the alarm system. He was typing like crazy when suddenly the alarm quit. "Think they heard us?" Jordan asked laughing.

  "We need to go." Remington said. "Every guard in the place is on their way here."

  "Hold on, I need to find where they’re holding Rick." Jordan’s fingers once again began racing across the keyboard. "Got it! Corridor D, room twelve."

  Jordan jumped out of the chair and he and Remington raced toward the mouth where each hallway met. Immediately, two guards spotted them, one coming out of one corridor and one coming out of another. When the guards each reached the end of their corridors they looked at each other, then at Remington and Jordon. Both guards went for their guns. Jordan faded to black and stood in front of Remington as the guards fired. Their eyes went wide as their bullets disappeared into the black mass. In the next instant, Jordan still in shadow form flew toward them with a speed Remington had never seen from a man or anything without a motor for that matter. It was like a rocket. Jordan didn't stop; he flew right through the first guard dropping him instantly then did the same to the second.

  Remington stared at the mess on the floor that was once the guards. They literally had holes through their bodies and their insides were on the floor next to them. "Holy Shit, what was that?" Remington looked up at the dark mass.

  Jordan shifted back to his human form, stumbling a bit before straightening himself. "Whoa, that was gross." He said to Remington.

  "You went right fucking through them!" Remington said astonished.

  "Yeah, I've never done that before. It was disgusting, but awesome!" He laughed.

  "Are you okay?" Remington asked. He could see Jordan’s face was pale and his body was shaking.

  "I think so." Jordan answered looking down at himself like he was checking for injuries.

  "Let’s not do that again huh?" Remington said patting Jordan on
the shoulder.

  "No problem. I'll save that as a last resort." Jordan looked around then pointed up. "Look. The corridors are marked, and they have eyes."

  Remington looked up and on the wall close to the ceiling, each one of the four corridors were marked with a letter. There was also a camera pointed at them. Whoever was watching the monitors was going to know which corridor Remington and Jordan went down. They saw the hallway marked D and began down it.

  "What room number?" Remington whispered.

  "Twelve." Jordan said. "I have a feeling we're going to have company very soon."

  Remington turned to Jordan. "Remember, we kill anyone who gets in our way."

  Chapter 19

  The elevator finally came to a stop. Tess wondered how far underground she actually was. The last time she only came down to the second basement level, but it didn't take anywhere near this long. The doors opened and she stepped out. Tess noticed a fire extinguisher on the wall just outside the elevator. She grabbed it and placed it on the floor between the elevator doors. She didn’t want to take the chance her ride wouldn't be there when she was ready to go back up.

  She looked down the long corridor, and just like the level before this one, the walls were carved from rock, the lighting was dim, and she saw no cameras. Tess started walking down the corridor heading for the brighter light that was coming from the left side of the wall. She came upon a huge window, just like before, but this time the room was empty. All of the lab techs left by five p.m. Tess tried the doorknob but it was locked. It had the same keycard slot as the elevator so she pulled the card out of her pocket and inserted into the slot. The red light turned to green as she heard the lock disengage.