Mercury Striking

  A tear fell from her eye and rolled down her cheek. He kissed it away, murmuring her name.

  Her breath caught and she held it in, fighting to reach the pinnacle, so much emotion bombarding her that she closed her eyes.

  He altered his thrust, pounding her clit, and she detonated.

  Whispering his name, she held on to his hands, her thighs gripping his hips hard enough to hurt. Passion took her over in powerful waves, crashing into her, destroying any protective walls she’d tried to keep up. He ground against her as he came. His body vibrated against hers, and his lips settled over her shoulder, his teeth digging in.

  The bite shot pain through her, and she climbed again, orgasming so hard her eyelids flew back open. She gasped, taken over, and finally slumped to the floor.

  He stayed inside her and leaned back, his gaze on her pounding wound. “I bit you.” Not an ounce of doubt or surprise filled his face. Only pure, definite, male satisfaction. He met her gaze. “Mine.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  Human nature will triumph—we must believe it to be so.

  —Dr. Franklin Xavier Harmony

  They’d waited until dawn to take back roads to headquarters, and the tension in Jax’s shoulders still formed knots as he finished giving orders for his crew to unpack the two trucks. After dawn had arrived, he and Lynne had searched the entire neighborhood, finding some canned goods, bathroom necessities, and even medicine folks had left behind before fleeing or dying.

  Now Lynne tried to keep a stoic face, but the woman nearly hopped around with joy at all the lab equipment they’d taken from Myriad. Even though most of it wouldn’t work unless they used a generator, she was almost giddy.

  He’d gone and fallen for a complete geek. A sexy one, but nerdy nonetheless.

  “Why are you smiling?” Raze asked, rubbing an impressive black eye.

  “I’m not.” Jax heaved out a breath, turning toward the war room. “Let’s go update, and you can fill me in on that face of yours.”

  “It’s from my mama’s side. They were the good-looking ones.”

  Jax almost stumbled. “Did you just tell a joke?” he asked over his shoulder.

  “I’m funny,” Raze said. Even walking through the rec room, in the midst of allies, the guy didn’t make a sound.

  “Most special ops guys are hilarious,” Jax returned, striding into the war room.

  Tace frowned. “What happened to your face?”

  “Bat wielded by a member of Twenty. Well, a former member. Had to kill three of them,” Raze said easily. “Did we miss anything here?”

  Tace shook his head, his eyes unfocused. “Vice President Greg Lake called on the ham, and when Jax wasn’t here, he got pissed. Said for Jax to call him if he was serious about meeting the president.”

  Jax lifted an eyebrow. “I’d rather wait and call once we know what we have with the Myriad research. Lake and the president can wait a few hours. Anything else?”

  “Yeah. Sami’s a shitty shot. Did you know that?” Tace took the chair next to Jax. “We tried out a couple of the guns stolen from Twenty to make sure they worked, and she couldn’t hit shit.”

  Jax frowned. “No. I’ve seen her shoot, but not in practice, so I haven’t watched. She was LAPD, right?”

  “A rookie,” Raze said. “Maybe she just sucked at shooting.”

  Sami stormed into the room. “I heard that.”

  Jax kicked a chair her way. “Were you or were you not with the LAPD?”

  “I was.” Pink rose over her high cheekbones as she sat. “You’ve seen me grapple.”

  He had. The woman was tough as Justice in hand-to-hand. Better than some soldiers he’d served with. Apparently she hadn’t had the time to get good at shooting, although it was surprising she’d become a rookie. “You start practicing target shooting every day until Tace says you’re perfect.”

  “We can’t spare the bullets,” Sami returned.

  Shit. Good point. “Figure something else out, then.” Jax rubbed his chin. “You’re one of my top soldiers, and you need to be able to shoot.” Just how well did he know the woman, anyway? Lynne was right that he needed to get to know his people better. “Tace? You crazy yet?”

  Tace blew out air. “Well, maybe? I’m not feeling much, including concern over whether or not I’m becoming a Ripper. That’s probably not a good sign.” His white-knuckle hold on his weapon belied the casual nature of his statement.

  “I saw a Ripper bark like a dog yesterday, so I’m thinking you’re all right so far.” Jax waited until Tace relaxed his hold. “Seriously. Talk.”

  Tace set his gun on the table and sat back. “I just feel different. Not better and not worse but different.” He chewed on the inside of his cheek. “I miss Wyatt, and I’m cut up that he’s gone, but it’s more fury than sadness, you know?”

  “That’s normal,” Raze said. “I’m always pissed.”

  Tace lifted an eyebrow, and Sami swung toward him. “You never look mad,” Sami said slowly.

  “If they see your emotions, they win,” Raze said. He jerked his chin at Tace. “Maybe you just got stronger. It’s possible.”

  “I’m not sure lack of emotion is a mental strength,” Tace said slowly. “But I like that idea better than my becoming a cannibal.”

  Sami leaned away from him. “Do you, I mean, wanna eat people?”

  Tace snorted. “No. Not at all.”

  Jax shook his head. He didn’t have time to worry about Tace’s mental state. “If you get urges, tell us. Other than that, let’s keep going the way we are.” He really couldn’t afford to lose his head medic. Lynne knew anatomy, but she was no medical doctor.

  “Just put me down before I hurt anybody,” Tace said.

  “No problem,” Jax returned. The fact that Tace worried about harming other people said more than any brain scan ever would. “We have information about a manufacturing plant of cereal and granola bars that might be far enough off the grid to still hold food.” He grabbed an old map from his back pocket and stuck it to the whiteboard. “We’ll have to send a team out, but I want to wait until we call the president and his Elite Force. Raze and I will meet them.” He hated using that much fuel, but there wasn’t a choice.

  “I want to go,” Tace said.

  “Sorry, no.” Jax shook his head. “I need you here, Doc. You’re the best doctor I have—the only one with combat experience.”

  Sami sat up. “What about me? I missed the last mission.”

  Jax lifted an eyebrow. “You’re not going anywhere until you shoot decently.” He softened his voice. “Plus, I need you to continue with the hand-to-hand lessons and grappling practice. At some point, we’re gonna run out of bullets and will need both knives and combat skills to survive.”

  She sat back, mollified. “Fair enough.”

  Tace turned toward her. “You never talk about your life before Scorpius, which is fine, because neither does Raze. But no way did you learn to fight like that just training with the police.”

  She swallowed, her dark eyes turning hollow. “No. My dad owned a kenpo studio, and my uncle owned an inner-city boxing club.” She shrugged and smiled. “I trained both places. When I went to college, I studied wrestling to round out my knowledge.” Silver glinted when she pulled a serrated blade from her back pocket. “Dad wanted boys and he got two girls. So he trained us, and it was actually a lot of fun. I’m still learning blade fighting.”

  “What happened to your sister?” Raze asked.

  Surprise rocked through Jax. Had Raze just expressed interest?

  Sami’s mouth dropped open and then quickly closed. “She was stabbed in the riots when Scorpius got bad and didn’t make it. Our parents died before that from the disease.” She rubbed her nose. “I couldn’t save her. I should’ve.”

  It struck Jax once again how little he knew of the folks around him. “When the riots got bad, I gathered the people I knew and took over this place and the food distribution center next door. Then we star
ted letting people in, so long as they followed my rules.” He glanced at the old map and back. “We were in fighting mode from day one and have never stopped.”

  “We can’t stop,” Raze returned.

  “I know, but shouldn’t we know more about each other than how well we each can fight?” Sami asked. “We lost Wyatt, and he was the one who shared the most.”

  Tace leaned forward. “I share. You know all about me.”

  “That’s true,” Sami said. “You all know my past except about my sister. Now you know that.” She elbowed Raze in the ribs. “You and Raze are the ones who don’t share anything.”

  “Maybe we don’t have anything to share,” Raze countered.

  Jax scrubbed a hand through his thick hair. He needed to find somebody who could give a decent haircut. “You all know I grew up in Twenty, went into the army, and came home to discover my brother had died, so I set out to avenge his death. Then Scorpius got bad, and here we are.”

  “What’s going on between you and Lynne Harmony?” Sami asked.

  Raze shook his head. “We are not turning into a knitting group here. So long as whatever is going on doesn’t fuck with my life, I don’t want details.”

  “Man, you’re a prince,” Sami breathed, rolling her eyes. “Why are you here, anyway?”

  Raze turned his head, slowly, to meet her gaze. “For now, I’m here to go on missions and fetch granola goodness.” He focused back on Jax.

  Jax lifted his head. Fuck, he was tired of the secrets. “What exactly is your plan, Raze? You’re a great soldier, and we’ve needed you, but you definitely have an agenda.” Something told him it had nothing to do with Twenty. “Do you really want Twenty wiped out?”

  Raze lifted a shoulder. “Twenty is a blight on L.A., and Cruz is a bastard who terrorizes innocent people, especially women. Sure, I want them wiped out.”

  That didn’t sound personal, though, did it? Saying he wanted Twenty demolished had instantly put Raze and Jax on the same side. Had he been so blind he was that easy to manipulate? Even so, Raze had held his own and covered Jax’s back more than once. He didn’t owe Jax anything.

  Jax studied his group of closest confidants, his mind settling. He had an excellent doctor who might be turning into a Ripper, a former LAPD officer who couldn’t shoot worth shit and wanted to gossip more than fight, and a former special-ops killing machine with an agenda he wouldn’t share. Not to mention a woman in the other room who’d stolen his heart and wore a bull’s-eye on hers. “Do you ever just stop and wonder how the hell you ended up here?” he asked.

  “All the time,” Tace and Raze said in unison, while Sami just nodded.

  Jax shook his head. “Whoever’s working with Manny on the kids, make sure there’s a box of the condoms we just found available to them. Somewhere they don’t have to ask or be embarrassed.” All he needed was another teen pregnancy. He lifted an eyebrow at Raze. “Speaking of soon-to-be fathers, how did the kid do on the mission?”

  Raze grinned. “Kid did great. When we had to speed away from Rippers, he shot out the window and actually nailed a tire. Explained the shot in mathematical terms, but he’s got good instincts. We should train him in more than the ham radio.”

  Jax thought of plans for the kid. “Good. You need an apprentice.”

  “No,” Raze said.

  “I’ll take him,” Tace said.

  “Yeah?” Jax asked.

  Tace kicked back in his chair. “If Byron is that smart, I could train him in medical procedures as well. We need as many medics as we can get.”

  Good idea. “Sami, any report on Twenty?”

  Sami straightened. “Yes. We scouted their territory, and they’re regrouping. They’re focused on you and on Lynne. They know she’s here.”

  “Even if she wasn’t, we killed several of their members, and Twenty needs to avenge those deaths. It’s the code, and Scorpius or not, they’ll follow it.” Jax’s neck muscles ached from tension.

  Raze reached for Sami’s gun. “You need something lighter.” He glanced up at Jax. “We took out at least fifteen of their members. How many more do you think they have?”

  “A lot,” Jax said. “They were the first to regroup when the riots started, and several other surviving members of other gangs joined Twenty.” When he’d burned bodies after the last fight, he’d seen a multitude of different gang tats. “Cruz has the gift of recruitment.”

  “Great,” Sami said. “We could use their forces. Any chance we can split them and then convert a few soldiers?”

  Jax eyed her. The woman was smart and had an eye for strategy. “I like the way you’re thinking, even if you don’t sound like a cop.”

  “I was a cop,” Sami snapped.

  Touchy, wasn’t she? Jax looked back at the map. “After Lake and his Elite Force contact me, maybe I should go alone. I can’t afford to lose any of you, just in case it’s a trap.”

  “I’m backing you up with the Elite Force,” Raze said, no expression on his face.

  Jax shook his head. He needed Raze to help secure the compound. “No.”

  “Then I follow you.” Raze shrugged. “Your choice.”

  Jax glanced at Tace, who was frowning. Yeah. The guy had good instincts, and right now, Jax’s were flaring to life, too. “The EF interests you, Raze?”

  “Yes.”

  “Why?”

  Raze shrugged. “If there’s a government out there, I need to know.”

  Jax swallowed. Could he trust Raze? The guy hadn’t told the truth since he’d arrived. Of course, he hadn’t lied, either. He just didn’t talk much. “Do you know anything about the president? If he’s a Ripper?”

  “No.” Raze slid Sami’s gun back to her. “The president doesn’t interest me, but I said I’d have your back, and I will.”

  Jax studied the soldier facing him. In a fight between the two of them, it’d be close. “We come up with a plan, and you stick to it.”

  Raze stood, his height putting them eye to eye. “You have my word.”

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Humans relate to each other. Spend time with evil, true evil, and those forces rise within us all.

  —Dr. Franklin Xavier Harmony

  Midmorning, in the small combat infirmary, his home base, Tace Justice finished organizing the meager antibiotics Jax had found on the Myriad raid. Since Scorpius, he couldn’t stop organizing everything by height and weight. He only had two pairs of shoes, and if they were out of order, he couldn’t sleep.

  Fucking Scorpius had given him OCD.

  Lynne had been busy all morning trying to set up the microscopes and new equipment. Most of it was useless without a generator, but the woman set up the pseudo lab as if she still worked at the CDC. After muttering to herself, she’d gone in search of tape.

  Time was short, and they both knew it. The threat of Lake and the president hung over them all.

  He continued to put things in order, his movements smooth and fluid. Smoother than before the fever, actually.

  Footsteps alerted him of Sami approaching the room. Even his hearing had sharpened to the point he could discern individual footsteps from the next room. He turned and tried to smile.

  “You smile differently,” Sami said, a Lady Smith & Wesson in her hand.

  He quit trying. “I feel a smile differently.” Hell, he didn’t feel a smile at all. “You listened to Raze and found a lighter gun.”

  Sami shrugged. “Yeah. I figured he knew what he was talking about. For once. I mean, since he said actual words.” Her grin was genuine. She’d secured her black hair into two sassy braids, making her look about eighteen. With her sparkling dark eyes and creamy skin, she could’ve easily been a model. Well, a short one.

  Tace leaned back against the counter. “A cop would’ve known the best gun for herself.”

  Her chin lowered. “Six months ago, we didn’t have much to choose from.”

  True. They’d emptied more than a couple of abandoned pawnshops in addition to hom
es during that time. “I don’t really give a shit if you’re lying, and I’ve lost any sense of curiosity.” Tace rubbed his whiskered chin. He needed to find a razor without rust on it.

  “I was a cop,” Sami shot back.

  “How?” Tace asked, not really caring.

  She lifted her chin. “I slept my way in.”

  He studied her. Her pretty face, posture, tone of voice—definite sarcasm.

  She frowned and stepped back. “You’re not envisioning me on a plate for dinner, are you?”

  He scoffed, surprised at the hint of humor bubbling inside him. “No. I was just noticing your facial tic when you lie. I wouldn’t have caught that before the infection.” Maybe his intelligence had increased. It was too bad they didn’t have access to either an MRI or any sort of intelligence test. Of course, he’d never taken one before Scorpius, so there’d be nothing to compare it to. “Stop lying. Don’t tell me the truth, but stop talking. Be Raze.” Perhaps that’s why Raze didn’t talk—the guy didn’t want to lie. Interesting.

  Lynne Harmony hustled into the room with tape in her hand. “I found tape from the office raid.” Smiling broadly, she grabbed a printout of the Scorpius bacterium to tape to the wall. “There’s the little bastard,” she murmured, stepping back.

  Scorpius was a big blue blob with spikes spreading out in every direction. The news, while there had been news, had played picture after picture of the contagion, so anybody who was old enough to see and comprehend knew exactly what Scorpius looked like.

  “Did you get Jax to agree to the use of a generator for some tests?” Tace asked.

  “Not yet,” Lynne said. “We need more of a plan before I even try, and I think we need more gasoline. Aren’t you guys planning another raid into Bel Air soon?”

  “Yeah,” Sami said, shoving her new gun in her waistband. “When do you want to train today?” she asked.

  Lynne shrugged and looked up at her new artwork. “Maybe later. For now, I need to go through all of these documents and figure out if Myriad found what they thought they’d found.”