Renegade Passion
She’s a gifted physic with a passion for retribution. He’s the Renegade with a passion for her.
By Lisa Renee Jones
Copyright Lisa Renee Jones
2012
Cover by Steena Holmes
www.theauthorsredroom.com
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[email protected] All characters in this book are fiction and figments of the author’s imagination. www.lisareneejones.com.
He is a GTECH, a super soldier created from a government experiment, a warrior for mankind. He is the past, the present, the future, the keeper of memories, the destroyer of myths.
He is Kel.
Prologue
It was near midnight on a hot Vegas summer night as Kelvin ‘Kel’ Smith rode his Ninja 650 motorcycle down the street where Sonia lived. He could almost smell her rose-scented honey-colored hair, could almost taste the richness of her kisses. Seeing her again was what had kept him going on a three-month-long mission from absolute hell. She didn’t know he was home any more than she knew he’d spent these months in a jungle as infested with snakes as it had been with terrorists. He wasn’t supposed to be home, but when a helicopter had shown up and handed him new orders twenty-four hours before, he wasn’t about to argue. He was home, or he would be when he had Sonia in his arms again.
He’d barely stopped the bike in her driveway before he was off and heading for the door, a ring burning a hole in his jeans pocket. Her birthday was in two days and it was going to kill him to wait to give it to her until then.
He’d taken one step onto the porch when the door flew open.
“Kel!”
The next thing he knew he had the sexiest, sweetest woman in all of Vegas in his arms and she was wearing nothing but one of his army green t-shirts. “How can you be here? You weren’t suppose to be home for months.”
“Change of orders,” he said, slanting his mouth over hers with a hunger he didn’t even begin to sate. “I’ve missed the hell out of you.” He lifted her and carried her into the house, kicking the door shut and not stopping until he was in the bedroom.
He went down on the bed, framing her body with his, kissing her, needing her.
“Your hair is longer,” she said, stroking her fingers through his chin-length dark brown hair.” She gave him a playful smile. “It’s sexy.”
“In that case, I’ll do my best to keep it this way.” He leaned in to kiss her again.
She stopped him with a plea. “Tell me you aren’t leaving again anytime soon.”
“I’m being moved to a special unit at Area 51,” he said. “I won’t know what that means until next week.” He stroked her hair from her face. “How are your nightmares, baby? I’ve been worried sick about you.”
She laughed without humor. “You’ve been worried about me. You don’t know worry until the person you love is off on a mission trying to save lives and willing to give up their own to do it. I’m proud of you, Kel, but it’s hard when you’re gone.”
“I know, baby. Maybe this new base assignment will mean more time at home. You didn’t answer me about the nightmares. Are you still having them?”
“Not for over a month,” she said, her fingers caressing under his shirt, heating his skin. “I think...maybe they’ve ended. I don’t know but I don’t want to talk right now. I just want you.” She wrapped her arms around him and pressed those soft, womanly curves against him, and he quickly forgot all about her nightmares, and his for that matter.
In fact, he was pretty sure he’d died and gone to heaven, and she was the angel standing between him and hell.
Three years later
Chapter One
Kel materialized through an open window from inside a strand of wind, and stood in the center of a small Vegas warehouse not far from the strip. While the location wasn’t his final destination, and traveling inside the wind was a common skill that the GTECH Super Soldiers created in an Area 51 experiment possessed, it wasn’t exactly something the public needed to know about. The last thing Kel and his team, the Renegades, needed was a bunch of Van Helsing wanna-be hunters calling them monsters, and trying to kill them all off. Especially when the Renegades were all that stood between man and the Zodius, the GTECH rebels, who really were worthy of the title ‘monsters’.
Damion Browne, one of his fellow Renegades, appeared by his side.
“Took you long enough, Mr. America,” Kel jibed, using the nickname they’d all given Damion, because he was all about morality and restoring the honor of the army and his country. Kel, well, he didn’t have a lot of faith in that happening, not after their special forces unit had been told they were getting immunizations, when they were really given experimental DNA. But hell, as long as he didn’t have to don any red, white, and blue leotard, he was willing to play superhero, and see where it landed them. Kel glanced at his watch. “You’re a full ten seconds behind on the landing. Getting slow in your old age. Oh, right. We don’t age anymore, so you’re just slow.”
“I wasn’t aware it was a race,” Damion commented dryly.
“Confucius say ‘Life’s always a race,” Kel said, ”then you die’.” They started walking toward an elevator.
Damion flipped him an incredulous look. “Confucius did not say that.”
“No,” Kel agreed, “but my fortune cookie last night did.”
They stepped into the elevator that would lead them to a tunnel beneath the building next door, a huge entertainment complex that drew many a Vegas tourist. They were dressed to blend with the crowd, both in jeans, t-shirt and boots, his with an Aerosmith logo, Damion’s a basic black. Kel pulled off the civilian routine pretty darn well with his long brown hair, and his arms and a good portion of his body well inked with tats. Damion, not so much. He was army through and through, from his short military cut to the stern expression that might as well be tattooed on his face. But they weren’t there for fun and cotton candy. Roasted peanuts might be on the menu later, after they finished up one of those superhero missions they called their life these days.
“Any idea what this is about?” Kel asked as they stepped off the car and entered the underground tunnel.
“Only that Sterling needed you involved,” Damion said. “So I assume they need someone’s memory wiped.”
A handful of the GTECHs involved in the Area 51 experiments had developed unique abilities. Kel’s was one that he carried with some weight on his shoulders. The decision to wipe away someone’s memory wasn’t something to be taken lightly, but there were times when it saved lives.
It didn’t take long before they were inside the facility, standing in a small room with rows of monitors across the front wall. Sterling Jeter, the head of the Renegade’s inner-city operation, was facing a master panel when they walked in. His spiky blonde hair was in disarray, as if he’d been running his hands through it in frustration.
Sterling rolled his chair around to face them, his eyes, black as coal like all the GTECHs, fixed on Kel and Kel alone. Tension rolled off the other GTECH and Kel didn’t miss the fact that Sterling’s normal wise-cracking sense of humor was no more present than his lifebond and wife, Becca – who had some pretty amazing powers of her own -– and who was usually by his side. “I have something you need to see,” Sterling said.
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A ridiculous sense of foreboding had every muscle in Kel’s body tensing with a feeling that someone close to him was in danger. There was no one close to him. His father had been killed during a terrorist attack overseas while on active duty, when Kel was still a small child. His mother had died five years before that from cancer. His friends were these men, his fellow GTECHs. But there was someone else, someone he tried not to think about because it hurt too much.
Kel leaned against the wall, trying to calm himself when he’d never had that problem in the past. Never. “I’m all eyes and ears,” he said with a remarkably steady voice.
“It seems that the Zodius are bound and determined to find a way around the GTECHs inability to reproduce without an exact perfect female match, now rather than later,” Sterling continued. “They seem to be stepping up their fertility testing on human women. Five women disappeared this month from this city alone. Turns out that someone called the police station and told them about one of the abductions before it happened. I got tipped off by my inside guy. The call was made from a public line and hung up about ten seconds before it could be traced. It originated from a pay phone downtown and I managed to hack into the camera feed to get a picture of her.”
He rolled his chair around and punched a button, bringing an image up on one monitor. Kel forgot to breathe as he focused on the gorgeous female he knew all too well, and yet, never well enough. Sonia. The woman who should have been his wife. Both Sterling and Damion knew that. They also knew why it hadn’t happened.
“Holy crap, Kel,” Damion said. “How did Sonia know about the abduction?”
Kel wasn’t wasting time explaining Sonia seeing premonitions in her dreams when she was mixed up in something far too dangerous. He’d thought the damn things had stopped but apparently they hadn’t. He pushed off the wall. “Who else knows about this?”
“Too many people,” Sterling said. “She’s in danger. There’s buzz on the streets. Adam is after her.”
Adam referred to Adam Rain, the leader of the Zodius movement, and the twin brother of the Renegade’s leader, Caleb. Adam wouldn’t just kill her. He’d use her for his damnable fertility testing, and try to mate her with every GTECH in Zodius Nation.
“Where is she?” he asked, knowing that Sterling wouldn’t have brought him here unless he knew exactly where she was.
“Waitressing at the Coyote Ugly bar,” he said. “All five of the women who’ve disappeared were waitresses at various bars. None from this one. I’m guessing she thinks that’s about to change.”
From a safe job as a research assistant at a law office to working at the Coyote Ugly bar. Kel was not happy with this turn of events. He was already opening the door, heading for the exit.
“I’m going with you,” Damion said.
“I need to do this on my own.”
“Like I said,” Damion repeated. “I’m going with you. You worry about your woman. I’ll worry about the Zodius.”
Only Sonia wasn’t his woman. Not any more. She thought he was dead.
Chapter Two
Loud music thrummed through the bar as Sonia Carmichael delivered drinks to a table and endured the hot male stares of her customers, wondering if one, or all of them, could be responsible for the disappearance of so many women. She wished her dreams had given her faces to go with the men in fatigues kidnapping women. The thought made her all the more thankful that the cowboy boots she wore allowed her a place to hide her gun. It wasn’t like the tiny blue-jean shorts and half shirt would hold much. She was even more thankful that she’d come inches from a career in law enforcement, before becoming a research assistant, and knew how to use it. When you had nightmares like hers, a gun felt necessary, and since she’d stopped suppressing the dreams, now that she owned them, she regretted not following in her father’s FBI footsteps. He wouldn’t have let fear stop him any more than Kel had, and neither of them would have let her be afraid. But they weren’t alive, and she had to do this. They both died protecting innocent lives and she wouldn’t dishonor them by not doing so herself.
Sonia followed a pretty blonde named Carrie toward the bar. She was a college student working for her living, and the star of one of the nightmares she could never escape. For a week now SOnia had kept Carrie close, befriended her, trying to protect her. She didn’t know how quickly the dream would come true, only that it would and she couldn’t sit back and do nothing. Her dreams, her nightmares, always came true.
“I’m off in ten,” Carrie said. “You in for the night?”
“You’re off early tonight? I thought you always worked late on Fridays?”
”I do but tomorrow’s my birthday and my boyfriend is taking me out for the day.” Her eyes lit up. “I think he’s going to propose.”
“Oh my gosh!” Sonia exclaimed and hugged Carrie. “That’s fabulous.” But her stomach knotted at the prospect of Carrie never seeing that happen. She wasn’t going to let that happen. Even if she had to guard her every step of the way. “I’m off early tonight, too. Why don’t we go for cake somewhere?”
“I’d love that,” Carrie said. “I’m parked at the side of the building in the employee lot. You?”
“Same,” Sonia said, “See you there.”
Carrie grabbed two drinks the bartender had set on the counter and took off. Sonia went in search of the manager to claim an emergency and to try to keep this job, in case she needed it. She inhaled. Actually, maybe she needed to somehow make Carrie lose her job. It was a horrible thing to do but Sonia’s dream had directly linked Carrie’s kidnapping to this place. It was something to consider after tonight. Tonight she just needed to get Carrie home safely.
***
Just past midnight, Sonia and Carrie exited the side door of the building, both having donned sweatshirts. Overhead lights cast a soft glow on the desolate parking lot. Everyone else was inside, working or having fun. Sonia’s oversized purse hung on her shoulder, her hand stuffed inside, wrapped around the gun she’d relocated for easier access.
“How about Joe’s bakery?” Carrie asked. “It’s a five minute drive and they’re open until two.”
“Sounds like a plan to me,” Sonia said. Anything to get Carrie in her car and away from here.
They both headed to their vehicles when the wind suddenly picked up. Sonia had no idea what made her react except instinct. She grabbed Carrie and pulled her close, at the same time pulling out her gun. Suddenly, out of nowhere, three men in black fatigues appeared in front of them. It was as if they had come from the air or wind. Carrie screeched and clung to Sonia.
One of the men grabbed Carrie’s arm. Sonia fired the gun, hoping it would not only wound their attackers, but get them attention and help. The man let go of Carrie, looking more shocked than injured, which meant he had to be wearing a vest. The other two men laughed which Sonia was pretty sure meant they were in trouble. With no other options, Sonia continued to pull the trigger, knowing enough about vests to know the bullets still hurt.
The wind lifted again. Two more men appeared, on Sonia’s left and right, and she had a dim awareness of them wearing jeans, not fatigues like the others, like the men in her nightmares.
The three men in fatigues turned to the newcomers in obvious confrontation, and Sonia leaned into Carrie, and whispered, “Run!” Together they and rushed for the door. Sonia could hear a battle starting behind them – grunts and growls.
Sonia and Carrie were all but at the door to the club when a man appeared out of nowhere. They turned to the run the other way and another man appeared from nowhere. Just materialized as if by magic. Only, Sonia gasped at the familiar face.
“Damion?” She stared in shock at an old army buddy of Kel’s.
“Yes,” he said. “And do what I say and everything is going to be okay.” He reached for Carrie.
“Sonia?” Carrie asked, but Sonia never got to answer. Damion shoved a needle in Carrie’s arm and she passed out.
Sonia didn’t have time to react to Damio
n’s unexpected action. She had a sudden awareness of someone at her back and whirled around to land against a hard body. She was instantly certain she was dreaming. The scent of him, and the feel of him, sent a rush of memories through her. It couldn’t be who she thought it was. The world started to spin as her chin lifted and she brought the man into view.
“Kel?” she gasped, a moment before he stuck a needle into her arm and everything went black.
Chapter Three
Sonia came awake with a gasp and sat up in a strange bed. Her gaze flew around the room, what looked like a studio apartment with a leather couch and chair directly in front of her and a dining room to the right.
“You’re safe,” came the familiar male voice that she knew couldn’t be real.
She turned slowly and went to her knees to bring the black leather chair sitting in the corner by the bed into her view. And there he sat, the man she’d loved, the man she’d lost. His hair was longer now, loose around his shoulders, his eyes the same iridescent crystal blue.