Reviving Graham
Reviving Graham
Project DEEP, Book Five
Becca Jameson
Copyright © 2018 by Becca Jameson
eBook ISBN: 978-1-946911-48-3
Print ISBN: 978-1-946911-49-0
Cover Artist: Scott Carpenter
Editor: Christa Soule
All characters and events in this book are fictitious. And resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Created with Vellum
Contents
Acknowledgments
About the Book
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Author’s Note
Also by Becca Jameson
About the Author
Acknowledgments
I really have to thank everyone who listened to me ramble on and on about this series for months while I worked out the plot and figured out where we were going. It’s a totally new genre for me. (Well, I mean except for the fact that it’s still erotic romance! Let’s not get carried away.) So, it took a lot of planning.
The concept came to me in the early hours of the morning in a dream when I wasn’t quite awake yet. (Okay, gotta pause again here to say that “early” is a relative term. I don’t do “early.” Nothing in my world is actually “early.” I just mean whatever time the last hour of my sleep occurred. Probably more like ten in the morning.)
In my dream, there were these scientists in a government bunker. They were studying diseases. They got sick. They had to be cryonically preserved… And from there, a series was launched. I spent a great deal of time studying cryonics and learning the difference between cryonics, cryobiology, and cryogenics--which are very different things.
I worked very hard to ensure that my terminology was correct with respect to the field of cryonics, though I obviously took a great deal of artistic liberty when reviving the preserved since alas, as far as we know, no one has been reanimated to this date.
Many thanks to Christa Soule for plotting with me when we were in the early stages, and then when we were in the middle stages, and still to this day.
Thanks to my husband and countless friends who listened to me and added their two cents.
Thanks as usual to my cover artist, Scott Carpenter, for designing these series covers. He rocks, and he nailed it once again!
Praise for Becca Jameson
“Time and time again, Ms. Jameson infuses her talent for creating pleasurable and entertaining love stories with wonderful characters, a depth of passion, and the joy at discovering your soul mate that is beautiful and thoroughly sexy.”
Shannon, The Romance Studio
“Becca Jameson can write sex, hot, steamy, make-you-cold-shower-twice sex. She also can write emotion.”
Felicity Nichols, Mad in Wonderland Reviews
“I always love reading Becca Jameson's bedroom scenes and how she makes her heroes fall so completely in love with the female leads in her stories.”
Roni, Romance Book Scene
“Becca has the ability to create the different worlds, draw you into them, and keep you wanting more with her writing ability. The way she writes the different characters, you can’t help but to feel for their emotions. When they are scared and upset, you are as well.”
Crystal’s Many Reviewers
About the Book
Graham Wentz is an introvert. Painfully timid.
Or he was.
Until he woke up from a ten-year preservation.
Now, he finds himself face-to-face with Kate Bauer, a woman he’d once secretly admired from a distance.
Empowered with the knowledge that Kate also has eyes for him, Graham finds the confidence to take action.
But Kate is hesitant.
He’s certain she’s attracted to him, but something is holding her back.
Graham is nothing if not patient.
After all, his experience with women is extremely limited anyway.
They’re living in a new world—one filled with obstacles at every turn.
Their entire Project DEEP team is in trouble, as well as three decades’ worth of data.
Graham and Kate need to step up to the plate and help the team.
Curing diseases is Graham’s life.
It’s all he knows.
What if Kate decides that path is no longer her priority?
Where does that leave the two of them?
The books in this series can be read on their own, but readers will enjoy the Project DEEP series more if they are read order.
Prologue
Dade Menke ran his hand absentmindedly through his hair as he stared at the computer screen. He did that often, and as was customary, it was Blair’s gentle hand landing on top of his over his thick hair that made him aware of his actions.
Blair threaded her fingers with his and pulled their combined hands down to his shoulder, leaning into him from behind until her chin rested on his opposite shoulder. Her lips landed on his ear. “You need to take a break,” she murmured. “You’ve been working for hours.”
He leaned his cheek against hers, closed his eyes, and sighed. “It’s so frustrating, and the clock is ticking. Every time I stop to eat or sleep or laugh or shower or exercise, I feel guilty. People are counting on us. People are living in limbo. I hate that six members of my team aren’t even reanimated yet. Especially Graham Wentz. The thought of him halfway through the process, in a coma, in hiding, makes me incredibly nervous.”
“I know, babe. And you’re doing the best you can. But you’re working too hard.” Her gentle hands slid down his chest, and she held him tighter. “You left out sex,” she whispered directly into his ear.
He reached behind to wrap his hand around her neck, twisted his face toward her, and kissed her. He did leave sex off the list, but he never left it out of their day. Even if all they had time for was a quickie before they got up, while showering, or right before they fell asleep, he never left out sex. And he’d never feel guilty about that.
He was clear on the fact that he’d been given a second chance at life, and he wasn’t about to squander it.
No. To be honest, he’d been given a third chance at life. The first life had been cut short ten years ago when he and the rest of the team working in the government bunker in Falling Rock, Colorado, contracted a rare form of viral-onset anemia—AP12. All twenty-two people in the medical wing of the bunker were cryonically preserved—the entire team of twenty-one plus General Winston Custodio, who had been the one to arrive with the disease in the first place.
For Dade, it seemed as if he woke up the next morning, when the reality was ten years had passed. But he quickly found he’d been reanimated into a tumultuous world where all hell was breaking loose in the bunker.
His second chance at life had also been cut short when he found out he had the genetic marker for yet another form of anemia, AA2, that would kill him if he received the cure that had been developed for AP12.
; And yet, he had lived. An experimental stem cell transplant had saved his life, giving him opportunity number three to make the most of it.
He smiled at Blair, the woman who’d left the bunker with him as his security guard. The woman who’d shaken some sense into him and forced him to adopt a positive attitude when he’d wanted to crawl into a hole and die. The woman he’d fallen in love with. The woman who was now on the run with him while they secretly tried to figure out what the hell was going on inside that bunker.
Except for a few people—Ryan Anand, Emily Zorich, Zeke Holleran, and Michelle Houston—no one knew Dade was going to live. They all thought he was somewhere dying a slow death with Blair by his side.
Blair pointed at a plate on the table. “I made you a sandwich.” She slid around to his front and lowered herself onto his lap, cupping his face. “At least take a break to eat lunch. You can’t solve the world’s problems if you don’t eat.”
He set his hands on her waist and slid them up and around to her back. “Thanks for reminding me how damn lucky I am.” He kissed her again, lingering longer this time, loving the feel of her lips on his. She made him feel alive. She gave him hope.
“You are pretty lucky,” she teased as she leaned back, separating their lips.
A knock sounded at the door, making them both freeze as they turned to stare at it.
“You expecting anyone?” Dade asked.
She shook her head.
It wasn’t as if no one ever came to the door. It happened. Deliveries. Management. Neighbors. But it always made the hairs stand up on the back of Dade’s neck.
He grabbed Blair’s hips and moved her next to him before standing and heading toward the door.
They had been renting this furnished apartment in a small town in Montana for a few weeks. They relocated often. It was almost time to move again.
A peek through the peephole gave Dade no information. A young man stood there, ball cap shadowing his face. His brown hair was a bit too long and curling around the edges of the cap. He wore scruffy tennis shoes, worn jeans, and a Dark Side of the Moon T-shirt that couldn’t have belonged to him originally. The kid wasn’t born when it was made.
Blair set her hand on Dade’s back. He hadn’t even heard her approach. She was getting good at stealth. “Who is it?” she whispered.
“No idea,” he whispered back.
The kid stuck his hands in his pockets and rocked forward and back on his feet. He tugged one hand out to knock again while Dade watched.
Blair nudged Dade out of the way and lifted onto her tiptoes to look through the peephole. Her brow was furrowed when she turned around. “He’s just a kid,” she pointed out.
He lifted his brows. The two of them had been on the run for weeks, living under the radar. They didn’t take chances.
She rolled her eyes. “He probably lives below us or something. Or he’s looking for a job. Or he’s at the wrong address. We’ll look like idiots if we ignore him and then he sees us leaving later.” She murmured all of this while shoving Dade out of the way.
Dade swept out a hand. “Fine. Open the door.”
Blair unlocked the door in two places and opened it about six inches. Dade stood behind her, his foot at the base of the door, ready to kick it shut.
The young man lifted his gaze. He was frowning. He cocked his head to one side and rolled his eyes in the same way Blair had just done. “You two are the worst secret agents on the planet.”
Dade jerked in his spot at that opening line. “Pardon?”
“Can we help you?” Blair asked, her spine straightening so that she stood taller. She also held the door with a death grip under Dade’s hand, just as ready as he was to slam it shut.
“My name’s Spencer. You’re Dade Menke and Blair Rollans,” he stated as he glanced from one to the other.
Not a soul had their real names. They hadn’t gone by Dade and Blair since they’d left Colorado.
Dade was fucking nervous as he licked his lips and responded, “No idea who that is. I’m John Jones, and this is my wife Stacey. You must have the wrong apartment.”
Now the kid chuckled. “That’s the best you could come up with? John Jones? How cheesy.”
Dade’s heart rate picked up by the second. He leaned into Blair’s back, feeling her tension.
“How about you let me come inside so that everyone on your floor doesn’t hear us, and I’ll tell you who I am and why I know who you are.”
Seconds ticked by.
So much anxiety. Deflation. Frustration. Dade’s worst nightmare.
Spencer lifted both hands in the air. “I don’t have a weapon. You can frisk me if you want.” He winked. The kid fucking winked. And then his cocky eyes went wider as if to taunt them. “I don’t have much time. Take a chance on me. I promise I’ll make it worth your while.”
Blair glanced at Dade, and he nodded before stepping back and opening the door wider.
Spencer slid into the apartment as Blair shut the door.
“You might be unarmed, but I’m not,” Blair stated. “So, you better talk fast before I lose my patience.” Yep. That was Dade’s woman. Badass and feisty when circumstances called for it.
Spencer pointed at the couch and armchair in the small living room that also served as a kitchen and dining room. The super had referred to it as a great room, but that was comical considering how small it was. “Let’s sit. I’ll talk.”
Dade took Blair’s hand and led her to the sofa while Spencer took the armchair. He had an air of confidence that far exceeded his years. “First of all,” he began, “let me start by saying that your hacking skills suck royally, and you need to stop it before you get caught.”
Dade narrowed his gaze but said nothing. It was obvious denial wasn’t going to be effective. This kid knew stuff.
Blair set her hand on Dade’s thigh and gripped it.
Spencer sighed and slouched back in the chair as if he had permission to get comfortable. “Quick synopsis. Four years ago, a covert government organization approached me to work for them.”
That was the end of Dade’s silence. “Four years ago? Were you twelve?”
The kid laughed. He took off his ball cap, ran a hand through his hair that was too long on top, and put it back on, seemingly adjusted. “I’m twenty-two. I was eighteen at the time. Just out of high school.”
Dade suddenly felt much older than his thirty-five years if this was what twenty-two looked like.
Spencer continued. “I’m a computer hacker. A genius by most people’s standards. I was still in high school when I started digging around in places I shouldn’t have.” He laughed as if it were cool to fuck with other people’s computers. “Mind you, I never did anything to get people in trouble. I just hacked into mainframes because I could. I get a thrill out of the challenge.”
“Speed this up,” Dade stated between gritted teeth.
Spencer rolled his eyes yet again. “I was hired by a group called Blue Cell.”
“Never heard of it,” Blair said.
“You wouldn’t have. It’s top secret. Operates below the radar. Way below the radar.”
“Go on,” Dade encouraged. His entire body was stiff. He had a feeling his world was about to be upended. His and Blair’s.
“I’ve been assigned to hack into every detail of Project DEEP. I need you to understand that I’m fucking smart. I know where every damn member of your team is, both the first team that was preserved ten years ago and the second team headed up by Ryan Anand. I’ve known every move you people have made from the moment you were reanimated.”
Dade flinched, unable to hide it. What the fuck did this kid want?
Spencer held up a hand, palm out. “Don’t freak out. I’m not going to turn you in. I want to help you.”
Dade leaned forward at those words. He set his elbows on his knees. Blair did the same at his side.
For the first time since he’d arrived, Spencer fidgeted and looked slightly less confident. Chagrined. �
�At first, I thought I’d hit the lottery when I got this job. A foster kid who’d lived in seven homes in eighteen years. A high school diploma with grades that would make most parents cringe. An ability to decode things that were a bit morally ambiguous. No college education. No prospects at all.
“I was hotheaded and full of myself when Blue Cell approached me and offered me the world. I knew they were a government organization. I didn’t know much else. I had no idea they were not on the up and up. How the fuck could a branch of the government be dirty?”
A chuckle slipped from Dade’s lips. He knew better than most people alive how dirty the government could be. He’d been digging around trying to figure out what the hell their aim was for weeks, knowing someone or a pile of someones were working hard to undermine everything that Project DEEP did.
“Yeah,” Spencer continued. “I get it. Preaching to the choir. But here’s the thing: Your people are in danger. You need to move them. All of them. ASAP.”
Dade hesitated. How the fuck was he going to find and move the twenty-one members of the first team—the reanimated group—as well as the twelve members of the second team—those who worked their asses off to return the first team to the living?