The Prince of Spies (Hope and Glory #3) - Elizabeth Camden Page 0,21

a minute, but they insisted on continuing to see who could outlast the other. Given their health and vigor, it was obvious these two would be selected for the study. If Luke could keep pace with them, surely he’d be among the men chosen too.

The brothers continued their frantic juggling, laughing as they tossed the beanbags in ever-faster motions to impress the nurse. Big Rollins won by twenty seconds and surrendered his two beanbags.

“That’s nothing,” Luke said. “I can do it with my feet.”

That got everyone’s attention, earning catcalls and howls of disbelief, but these people didn’t know him. When a man spent fifteen months trapped in a prison cell with little to do . . . yes, he had learned to juggle with his feet.

He was out of practice, so he only took one beanbag. He still had his shoes off, and he lay on the floor, propping himself up on his elbows and holding his knees in the air. After balancing the beanbag on top of a foot, he tossed it in the air, then caught it on top of his other foot. The nurse started the timer, and Luke continued batting the beanbag from foot to foot. The other men began applauding as he crossed the sixty-second mark. He could have gone the full two minutes if he hadn’t been laughing so hard, but eventually the beanbag went glancing off his foot too far for him to capture, and he sprang back to his feet, accepting congratulations from some of the men and even the doctor.

But not the brothers. “We’re going to have to kill him,” Little Rollins said.

Luke grinned and offered his hand. “You can’t kill me. After today we’re all teammates on the Poison Squad.”

Ten minutes later his assertion was proven correct as he, the two brothers, St. Louis, and eight other men were given the paperwork to become the inaugural members of the Poison Squad.

When Luke joined the experiment, he hadn’t realized the strain it would put on both Gray and his wife. After all, it was his body and his mission, but if he put himself in danger’s way, it affected others. Annabelle was tormenting herself for telling him about the study, and it was obvious Gray wanted him to have nothing to do with it. Today they were both helping him move into the boardinghouse where he’d live for the next four months. It was a slim three-story building only blocks from the Department of Agriculture.

Gray did his best to talk Luke out of going inside. “You haven’t signed any contract committing you to this study. You are free to walk away at any time. I say you walk away now. Before it even begins.”

Luke headed up the steps to the front porch. “I have to do it.”

“No, you don’t. You’ve already given enough of yourself.”

It hurt to see the expression on Gray’s face as he stood on the sidewalk with Luke’s trunk slung over his shoulder. Gray had been his lifeline over the past year, visiting him repeatedly in that Cuban jail and then tending him while he recovered his health. He didn’t want to repay that generosity by thumbing his nose at Gray’s concerns, but he felt called to this assignment.

“Here, I’ll take the trunk. You don’t need to stay.”

When he reached for the strap, Gray twisted past him and headed into the boardinghouse. A clerk in the foyer directed Luke to a third-floor bedroom he would be sharing with three other men.

It was going to be a tight fit. There were two bunk beds, a single desk, a single chest of drawers, and a slim window overlooking an alley. Luke was the first of the test subjects to arrive and chose the lower bunk closest to the window. Gray hoisted his trunk onto the mattress.

“Oh, Luke.” Annabelle sighed as she scanned the room with worried eyes. “Are you sure? No one will think badly of you if you back out.”

“I would,” he said instinctively.

Annabelle and Gray didn’t understand. He was elated by this chance to prove himself. Adventure and danger had always been carved onto his heart. In his younger years it ran wild, leading him into foolhardy exploits and trouble with the law, but he was learning to funnel it toward the good. He needed to test his physical strength against a challenge. He needed to match wits with a worthy opponent and win. Five days out of the week he sat at a desk and did paperwork,