It had been a foolish, amateurish reaction, unworthy of the training she’d received when she’d joined Project Serenity. Part of her welcomed the man to follow her, welcomed a chance to unload her weapon between his eyes where even a GTECH would be vulnerable, where their incredible healing abilities wouldn’t matter, nor would their high-tech, second-skin armor protect them. But she couldn’t risk failing General Powell and making a misstep that would allow the GTECH to get his hands on Lev. Powell had given her her life back, given her a chance to protect innocents. She now had a reason to fight and a reason to live. Her orders were clear, as well as her intel on Lev and his security detail. She was to be the silent, second level of security for Lev Egorov, the protection against the threat the GTECHs represented, Renegade or Zodius. Neither GTECH group could be trusted with nuclear technology—or trusted at all. The GTECHs outside of those on team “Serenity” were to be disposed of, before the public ever knew they existed. Only a handful inside the government knew, and the agents protecting Lev weren’t included in that circle.
Determined to quickly and efficiently complete her task, she’d reached the trail directly behind the pool that led between this hotel and an adjoining property. A young couple walked toward her, delaying her plan to slip into the foliage and trees lining the path. She gave a friendly smile to the man and woman, a gesture that belied her racing heart and the worry that the GTECH would appear at any moment. She took that moment on the path to yank a red-and-white-striped cotton dress from her bag and pull it over her head. Then she kicked off her sandals and dropped a pair of Keds white tennis shoes to the ground before shoving her feet inside them. Not the perfect fighting attire, but better than a bikini.
By the time she was done, the man and woman had disappeared down another path, and from her earlier surveillance, she knew that their path lead to a duck pond.
Another quick glance around confirmed Lara was alone. She slipped off the path, behind the thick line of trees several feet deep that gave her ample cover, a mixture of pine needles and rocks crunching beneath her feet.
Lara stopped behind the thickest patch of foliage beside a chain-link fence, the steel laced with thick ivy. She inched her gun, complete with silencer, over the edge of her bag and peered through the greenery.
Surveying the pool area, Lara’s breath lodged in her throat as she found the GTECH missing. He was coming for her, and if he wind-walked, he could appear near her at any moment. Focus, she silently reminded herself. Do the job, then catch some wind of your own, and be gone.
Quickly, she took aim at Lev, who was standing up and arguing with what looked like hotel security. They seemed to want him to go inside, where he should have stayed. It was too late for that. Too late because he was already on the GTECH’s radar, just like she was.
The sound of female voices on the trail behind her stilled Lara momentarily. The instant they faded, her finger lifted to the trigger only to once again pause as one of Lev’s little girls rushed to his side. Lara hesitated at the unexpected tightness in her chest, urging her not to take the shot. Why couldn’t she take the shot? This was a big-picture job, about saving the world. She’d trained for this. She had prepared mentally and physically to do whatever was necessary to protect the innocent. She was a soldier. It hit her then, and she knew what was bothering her. The little girl. She didn’t want the little girl to see her father drop dead at her feet, which was insane and completely unacceptable. She was part of Team Serenity, part of a greater cause to save the world from a GTECH takeover, from GTECH enslavement. She was defending millions of little girls, not one. With that thought, a steely cold began to reshape inside her. A hardness that was part of her training, part of her destiny, had taken shape the day the GTECHs had slaughtered her family.
Her finger moved a millimeter. She was ready to fire, but again, that tightening in her chest halted her. In that split-second of hesitation, an odd, dizzy feeling set her swaying. With one hand, she steadied herself on the fence, but before she’d even righted herself, a screeching sound ripped through her eardrums.
A rush of images flew through her mind like a reel from a film on fast forward. Unfamiliar images of herself, of a life she didn’t know, of a man she seemed to love like a father. Of being dragged up the stairs by her hair, by someone she couldn’t see, to watch that man die. A shrill sound blasted through her skull, and just like that it ended.
Lara came back to the present in a jerk and a gasp, unsure how long she’d been lost to whatever had just happened to her. Her head. God, her head was still pounding as if someone had beat it like a drum. She brushed at the dampness on her cheeks, shocked to realize she’d been crying. She hadn’t cried since the night Powell had saved her life, since he’d given her a chance to fight back, given her a purpose.
A sudden gust of wind touched her hot skin and jolted her with full recall—the GTECH, her mission. The GTECH was coming. The GTECH was the wind. In a blast of adrenaline, Lara pushed herself off the fence where her fingers had somehow curled, reaching for the gun she’d apparently abandoned in her purse during her blackout, but she was too late. She could feel the heat of the body that materialized in the wind behind her a moment before strong, powerful arms surrounded her, held her.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, sweetheart,” came the rich male voice that whispered against her ear, his warm breath brushing her neck and sending a shiver down her spine. A voice that she knew instinctively, on every level, matched the man who’d been by the pool. The GTECH had found her.
CHAPTER TWO
The instant Lara felt the GTECH’s body molded far too intimately against her, her backside pressed to his hips, she tried to wind-walk, intending to reappear behind him and draw her weapon. But no wind came to her. Instead, pain splintered through her head, gray and white dots speckled with barely perceivable images, clouding her mind and sight.
Something was horribly wrong. She couldn’t wind-walk. She could barely breathe, hardly think. Somehow, though, by sheer will or just plain luck, she blinked away the shadows and forced away the pain. This had to be the GTECH controlling her mind, controlling her wind-walking ability. She’d never once tried to wind-walk and not been capable of making it happen. There was no other explanation for something that had started the minute she’d found her way onto his radar.
Recalculating her options with the loss of her wind-walking skill, she tried to turn, testing her strength against the GTECH’s, careful not to give away her own GTECH strength, to keep surprise as her weapon.
“You aren’t going anywhere until we talk,” came the low command, as he narrowed the V of his legs around her hips.
Male GTECH strength apparently trumped female GTECH strength, because Lara was immobile, and it was frustrating beyond comprehension. For the first time since joining Serenity, she questioned Powell’s claims that in a world of male GTECHs, women were the unexpected weapon that would win this war. In fact, she just plain wanted to scream at the injustice of the physical differences. That left her with outsmarting him and getting to her weapon, and she would.
“What’s the ETA on Lev and family being back in their room?” her captor said in a hushed tone, clearly speaking into a mike. He wasn’t alone, and she was. The odds had just gotten worse. A second passed—not enough time for her to calculate her plan—and he cursed beneath his breath, before he replied, “We’ve gone mission ignite. Situation is hot. Get them inside now or take them into custody.”
Lara cringed at what his command implied, at the idea the GTECHs would have nuclear expertise because she’d failed her mission. “Let me go,” she demanded, “before I scream.” It was a threat used to seem weak, to convince him to underestimate her, to let down his guard.
“And when help comes,” he said, calling her bluff, “I’ll show them your gun.”
Her gun was the last thing she wanted him thinking about right now. He leaned in closer to her, his breath warm near her ear, his tone a primal ra
sp of demand. “Now why don’t you tell me who you were trying to kill, Lev or Phillips?”
He was trying to figure out who she worked for, whether she wanted to capture Lev or kill him. She wasn’t telling him anything or showing him one iota of weakness. No more damsel. Never let them see you sweat. Someone used to say that to her, though she couldn’t remember who.
“Let me go, and I’ll demonstrate,” she said flippantly. It was all she could do not to shove him backward, not to fight her way out of this, but she couldn’t wind-walk, and that changed everything. She had to be patient, wait for her moment, her opportunity to escape.
“What’s the rush, darlin’?” he asked. “If you aren’t careful, you’re going to hurt my feelings. And you won’t get another shot at Lev. My men are too good to let that happen.”
“If I were facing forward, I’d hurt a lot more than your feelings,” she promised with sticky sweetness, still not letting on that she could turn around if she wanted to, still hoping he believed her nothing more than human.
“You’d like that, now wouldn’t you?” he mused, laughing, a sensual sound that ran up and down her nerve endings with female awareness, belying how much she hated this man and all those like him.
“You betcha, darlin’,” she said, repeating his mockery of an endearment. She hated GTECHs, even ones that managed to smell all sexy and male. No—especially ones that managed to smell all sexy and male, because it proved he could somehow work seductive magic on her. She didn’t like being manipulated. But then, two could play that game. She taunted him, went after his male ego. “Unless you’re afraid you can’t handle me.” She softened her voice to a seductive rasp, “Don’t worry, honey. I promise to be gentle.”
His hands slid around her waist, his palms scorching her skin beneath the thin material of her dress. “The gun in your purse doesn’t say gentle to me.”
“You might be surprised,” she challenged, setting aside the unexpected, uncomfortable, drugging effect of this man’s deep baritone voice. “Try me.” The fingers of her one hand curled around the steel of the fence, the other held her purse where her weapon rested. Oh yes, indeed, he had some unique gift of seduction. He possessed numerous special GTECH abilities, it seemed. There was no other way to explain how he’d stolen her wind-walking ability, and she was willing to bet he’d created her blackout. Otherwise, her breasts wouldn’t ache with a stranger’s nearness… her thighs wouldn’t beg to press together.
“First things first,” he said, and just like that, he snatched her purse from her grip and off her shoulder.
She reached for it, but it was too late. He had it and her gun. “You son of a bitch!” she ground out between her teeth, barely containing a yell sure to bring unwanted attention, and silently cursing herself for letting him best her.
“Such a potty mouth on a pretty woman,” he chided. “Now you can turn around and apologize.” He shifted his weight and hers with him, as he rotated her to face him, giving her the opportunity she’d been waiting for. The playing field was far more level in a full-frontal confrontation, her skill and training able to shine against his superior strength. The instant Lara was facing forward, before he managed a solid grip on her again, she shoved the GTECH with her supernatural strength, trying to get him off her so she could wind-walk and attack him from behind. He didn’t so much as rock from the shove, but adrenaline was her friend, and she quickly followed with an attempt at a strategically placed knee. He countered the knee with his hands and trapped her leg with his.
She growled with frustration. She hadn’t felt this pathetically weak since she’d watched her family get slaughtered, and she’d sworn she wouldn’t ever again feel such helplessness. She was a GTECH, trained well, his equal, and she wasn’t letting his size and sex dominate her. Nor was she done fighting. She shoved him and threw a punch. He captured her hand in his bigger one with ease.
He arched a brown eyebrow, amusement in his gaze. “Feisty little GTECH thing, aren’t you?”
She kneed him in the groin, and this time she landed the blow. He grunted loudly, and she reveled in her success. “Feisty doesn’t begin to describe what I am or what I’ll do to you.” She lifted another knee. He caught it.
She took the opportunity this distraction gave her and reached for her bag. He was too quick though, and he pulled it back. Her chin inched upward, narrowing the gap separating them, to meet his gaze with a lethal glare. “I assume you’re aware that no one will ever call you a gentleman, not that I think you care. A girl’s purse is sacred.”
His eyes, which he’d camouflaged from the GTECH black that came with conversion, to his natural honey-colored eyes, twinkled with mischief. “So is a man’s life,” he countered. “And for the record, most people say I’m quite the gentleman, but then, most people don’t include those who have guns in their ‘sacred’ purses they’d like to use to kill me.” His full, dangerous lips, that she shouldn’t even be noticing, twitched, before he added, “And most people don’t try to knee me in the groin. I thought you promised to be gentle?”
“After you shoved me against a fence and stole my purse,” she said, “I assumed you preferred things rough. And for the record—I didn’t try to knee you in the groin. I succeeded. Keep pushing me, and I’ll do it again. This time, you won’t recover so quickly.” Before she knew his intention, his hand slid behind her neck, under her hair, pulling her closer. The air instantly charged with tension. Their eyes met and held, a warning in the depths of his stare. He could break her neck, and then she’d never have a chance of stopping him. They both knew it.
“I would never be anything but gentle with a woman,” he finally said, his face close to hers, so close she could see the light brown stubble of fresh growth on his chin, feel that hot breath on her cheek, on her lips. “But a Zodius soldier, a willing member of the Zodius Movement, is a killer, and that changes everything.” His touch remained surprisingly light, while still sure, but his voice turned rough with demand. “Tell me… since when does Adam turn females into GTECHs?”
Her hand pressed against his chest, the only thing separating them, and she could feel the steady beat of his heart, a contrast to the racing of hers. “Since when do Renegades manhandle women? I thought you liked to ‘play’ like you were the good guys.”
“If I decide to manhandle you,” he said through clenched teeth, “you’ll know it. Now answer the question.”
“Who said I work for Adam?”
“Don’t you play me, little one,” he said, his fingers stroking the back of her neck in a slow, sensual caress that hummed with threat. “I felt your strength. I know you’re GTECH. If you were made that way by a Lifebond mating connection, Adam would never risk you being killed. You’d be one of the few females who could actually mate with a GTECH male. And don’t tell me Adam didn’t make you this way. He’s the only one who has any serum left. For you to have scored some of what little bit he has left, you must be high on his list of importance. Women, apart from his Lifebond, Ava, do not make that list. They get put in sex camps where he tries to find a Lifebond match so he can breed them. Why are you different?”
“I believe this is where I give you my name, rank, and serial number,” she said, ignoring the real risk that he might kill her if she allowed him to believe she was with Adam. But Serenity was top secret, and there was no negotiating that point.
The air crackled with her reply, and he stared at her, unblinking, as seconds ticked by, that honeyed ice in his eyes marbling to black and then returning to their natural shade. “Give me a good reason not to kill you,” he said. “Tell me Adam has your family, that he is bribing you. Something that justifies working for him, something that can be fixed.”
For a moment she was stunned. This GTECH, this cold-blooded killer, wanted a reason not to kill her. “Who says I won’t lie?”
“Because I can damn near taste your fear in the air,” he said. “You’re too nervous and too scared to hide the truth. Which
means you haven’t been at this long. Before you knew I was watching you, I saw you take aim at the Russian and hesitate to pull the trigger. Adam hasn’t had time to make you cold and heartless.”
He was right, she realized, admitting the truth to herself, if not to him. For all her bravado about GTECHs and justice, she was afraid, but not for the reasons he assumed—not of him, and not of fighting. She was afraid she was going to die before she ensured that her family had the vengeance they deserved. With the past twisting inside her, nerves and fear turned to a bitter laugh. “What your kind has done to me can never be fixed.”
Surprise and understanding flinted across his strong features, a muscle ticking in his solid, square jaw. “Who did Adam kill that you loved?”
“Not Adam,” she whispered. It had been the Renegades who’d pretended to be her military father’s friend, trying to find out top secret information. And that same Renegade had butchered her entire family, while she’d helplessly watched.
The wind lifted suddenly, and he cursed in anticipation of an attack. He took a step, putting his back to the fence, but not to Lara. Lara barely registered the unexpected presence of Serenity’s team leader, before Sabrina fired three shots at the GTECH’s head, the only place that a GTECH wasn’t protected by state-of-the-art, second-skin body armor. Amazingly, he anticipated the shots, faded into the wind, and reappeared behind her team leader. God, he was fast, faster than anyone on their team.
Lara’s eyes caught on the glint of steel on the ground, where her gun had fallen out of her purse. She launched herself toward it. The GTECH shoved Sabrina aside and went for the gun at the same time Lara did, and they slammed into each other. The ground disappeared from beneath Lara’s feet as she and the GTECH went tumbling.