"Jenna."

She scrunched up her face. "Roger? What's wrong?"

"I need you to come to the site to see something. Right away."

There was something in his voice that didn't sound right. Jenna walked farther away from the bedroom. "Are you okay? You don't sound right."

"I'm fine. Listen, you need to see this tonight. I've called you a cab and it should be there any minute."

"What is it?"

Roger sighed into the PCD. "Look, it will take me an hour to explain what's going on. I don't trust Gareth with this, okay."

Jenna couldn't be sure, but this didn't feel right. "No problem. Let me get Ben and we can be down there in thirty."

"No!"

Jenna had to pull the PCD away from her ear. "Why the hell not?"

"This involves him. I want to you see this alone first. Trust me."

She sighed and knew she didn't have a hope of talking Roger out of this. The sooner she got dressed and got down there, the faster she'd get back to Ben and they could finally have their talk.

"Fine. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thank you. The cab should be there soon."

Flipping her PCD shut with a snap, Jenna tossed it back into her purse before sneaking back into the room. She couldn't resist stopping to look at Ben as he slept. His now-soft cock lay against his well muscled thigh. The light dusting of dark hair covered his body, tempting her to reach out and touch him. Instead, Jenna crept closer and 111 pulled a blanket over him before turning and getting dressed.

She toyed with the idea of waking him to let him know where she was going, but thought better of it. If he knew, he'd insist on following her. The last thing she needed was for Roger to lose it again and Ben be the reason why.

Somehow she found all her clothing in the dark and managed to get dressed without making too much noise. She was about to leave, but stopped and kissed Ben on the cheek that wore the scar. He'd gone through so much of his life alone, she couldn't imagine what it was like. When she got back, she would tell him that he didn't need to do that anymore.

Jenna left a note on the table, telling him she'd be back soon and slipped out of the condo. As Roger had promised, a black Mars Express cab was waiting for her at the curb. Jenna opened the back door and plopped into the seat, anxious to get this little trip over with.

"Hi, I need to go to the university dig site near the north sector gate."

The cab began to move slowly and Jenna sat back and watched the building pass as they drove. When they turned down Powers Street instead of continuing straight, Jenna knocked on the glass that separated her from the driver.

"Hey, why are you turning here? I'm not paying you extra for the long way."

He didn't respond, not even to make up some excuse. Jenna's heart began to pound.

This wasn't good. The door lock snapped down and she tried to raise it to no avail.

"What the hell is going on?" she yelled and banged on the glass barrier again.

The driver continued to take them down several back roads until they finally reached a building with underground parking. They pulled into the dark structure, the door closing behind them.

Jenna swallowed hard and had to force her body to relax. Whatever was going to happen, the last thing she needed to do was panic. The lock finally clicked up and released as she heard someone approach from outside. The door opened as the lights to the garage came on. She had to blink several times before she could see the man who stood before her.

"Hello, Miss Robins. I'm Rick," he said with a cocky grin. "How nice to finally meet you."

112.

Chapter Thirteen.

Ben's mind wasn't fully awake, but he knew something was wrong. He rolled over to find the bed cold beside him and a blanket covering his body. He sat up and listened for the sounds of a shower or movement in the kitchen, but was greeted instead with silence.

"Jenna?"

He threw the blanket aside and walked naked out to the living room. There was no sigh of her anywhere. Her clothing, coat, shoes all gone. Gods dammit! He had to fight down the urge to punch the wall. Where the hell did she go? They'd seemed to connect last night, he'd felt it, felt things change between them.

So why the hell did she leave?

Ben started to make his way back to the bedroom when his vidphone rang. He quickly pulled his shirt and boxers on before answering.

"What?"

"Mr. Hawthorn." Gareth's smiling face beamed back at him from the screen. "I think I may have discovered something about the machine. Is Miss Robins there?"

If he'd been in the same room at Gareth he would have punched him. "What makes you think Miss Robins would be here?"

There must have been enough venom in his voice that even Gareth picked up on it.

The man had the decency to blush as he obviously clued in to what he'd implied.

"Sorry, Roger mentioned that she was there last night. I just assumed because he was so pissed, and considering what he said-"

"For a man who's supposed to be brilliant, you're sounding very much like an idiot right now. Spit it out."

Gareth took a deep breath. "I think I may have discovered how the device works.

I'm not sure, but if we don't get the two halves together soon and deactivate it, we may have an explosion on our hands. I need Jenna to check my results."

"She's not here."

The words actually hurt to say. He'd thought they'd connected last night. He'd certainly felt different, closer to her than any other person he'd known. Why did she leave?

"Well, she's not at home and Roger can't be found either."

The bad feeling Ben had when he first woke up quickly returned. "What do you mean you can't find Roger either?"

"It pains me to say this, but I've been looking for the little bugger for three hours. I 113 wanted him to double-check some readings, but he's nowhere to be seen. No one has seen him since last night when he left."

Ben quickly replayed the scene in his mind of Roger's leaving.

"We had a meeting and he left here around eleven. He said he was going back to the site."

"He never showed," Gareth shrugged, but he couldn't quite hide his nervousness.

Ben looked over his shoulder and something out of the corner of his eye caught his attention. A datapad propped up on his table.

"Hang on," he said and put the vidphone onto hold.

His hand shook slightly as he picked up the datapad. What if she'd changed her mind about him, left before things got too serious? It didn't matter to him. He'd been alone most of his life, this wouldn't be any different. Not thinking about it any further, it only took a few quick clicks to see Jenna's note.

Hi. Roger called and needs me to check something at the dig site. I didn't want to wake you, you looked so comfy. I'll call you later today and maybe we can get together for supper. I think we have a lot to talk about.

Love, Jen.

Ben read the last line over and over. The breath he'd been holding rushed painfully out of his lungs. Did she mean it or was it a reflex? For a second, he didn't know what to do. She was missing, or he assumed she was, and he couldn't do a thing to help her.

Grabbing his PCD, he tapped in her number and let it ring. Nothing.

"Shit."

Clutching the datapad, he walked over to the vidphone and flicked it on. Gareth was waiting, and for the first time, Ben noticed the stress lines around the other man's eyes.

"I'll grab Matt and we'll be there soon. Will you be okay 'til then?"

Gareth nodded. "And Jenna?"

"I'll find her."

Gareth nodded and they broke off communications. Ben didn't think after that, running on instinct. He quickly got dressed and managed to ignore the bed and the evidence of their lovemaking last night. Love, Jen. The words played over and over in his mind, driving his crazy.

Rick had to have grabbed her. And from the sound of it, Roger was involved somehow. Either deliberately setting her up, or he'd been coerced into it. Either way, Ben would rip him apart if anything happened to Jenna.

Ben called Matt and filled him in on what happened. Matt was only five minutes away and managed to make it to his place in record time. Thank the gods he didn't have the limo, instead driving his own car. They were going to need the speed and maneuverability.

114.

"Where's Jenna?" Matt asked, a frown fixed on his face.

"She left this morning. Left me this."

Ben tossed Matt the datapad and hopped into the passenger side of the car. Matt slid behind the wheel, read the note and shot a confused look at Ben.

"What does Roger have to say about this?"

"He's gone too."

"Shit," Matt sighed and handed the datapad back to Ben. "Rick?"

"That's my guess. You and Kyle have any luck?"

Matt threw the car into drive and took off towards the dig site. "I haven't heard from Kyle yet, but none of my sources have seen Rick. He hasn't even come up to collect any debts this past week. And while there are many happy people out there that he's disappeared, it's still strange."

"Probably busy playing out whatever crazy scheme he has on the go right now."

"Any reason why he'd want Jenna?" Matt said, and somehow didn't sound like he already knew the answer.

The most likely reason Rick would take Jenna was to get at him. Ben tried to relax his hand, stretching out his balled-up fingers. This is what his father had warned him about growing up. Letting someone get close, even a little bit, made you weak. Made you question everything about your life. Made you vulnerable to outside attack.

"It's possible he needed her to fix his half of the device," Ben said, his words bouncing back at him from the widow.

"I'm sure that's it."

They lapsed into silence, both knowing the chances they would find Rick in time to help Jenna were quickly diminishing. She'd been with him at least a few hours now.

More than enough time for him to put into play whatever twisted plan he had in mind.

Ben let the hum of the powerful engine block out the thoughts of what Rick would do to her.

Love, Jen. How could she love him after what he'd put her through over the years?

He'd shut down her project, bossed her around and hadn't given her much in return.

Did he love her? It had been so long since he'd really thought about someone else that way, did he even know how to express those emotions anymore. Even his friendship with Matt had its distance. They weren't as close as they'd been years ago. He'd just assumed it was the nature of their positions. But now he couldn't help but wonder if he'd pulled back as he had with everyone else.

Life gets complicated when you care.

Matt pulled off the main roads and tore onto the now well traveled path towards the dig site. They passed several trucks from the university full of equipment heading back towards town. There were several men sitting in the back of the truck who Ben didn't recognize.

"I wonder where they are going with all that," he wondered out loud.

115.

"I'm sure Gareth will fill us in once we get there," Matt said as he stepped on the accelerator. "I have a bad feeling about all this."

"Me too."

And most of that bad feeling had to do with Jenna missing.

They finally reached the site and Ben was out of the car before Matt had fully pulled it to a stop. There didn't seem to be many people around, which wasn't too odd for this time of day, but Ben still didn't like it. Maybe he was getting paranoid.

"Gareth?" he called out as he entered the main research building.

Only silence greeted Ben.