by Lyssa Hart
* * * *
Alexis was in the process of packing for a trip she never planned to return from when they arrived—the murder squad she’d been expecting but had hoped to elude.
She screamed and fought—for all the good it did. She was outnumbered and she was pretty sure she couldn’t have held her own against even one.
They hadn’t hired scrawny thugs.
They had her tied to a chair and her mouth covered with a strip of tape before she could bite and scratch her way out of it.
She subsided when she’d tested the bindings and convinced herself she wasn’t getting out of them, trying to regain calm so that she could think.
Not that she could see that thinking was going to help her in her current situation.
Sad to say, though, it was all she had.
She couldn’t even try to talk her way out of it since the bastards had gagged her.
She wasted some time mentally kicking her ass that she’d even returned for a few of her things. But who could’ve known the bastards were just laying in wait?
She’d been in hiding ever since the break-in at the company, certain the shit was going to hit the fan and she was going to get setup to take the brunt of it.
Because she was ‘low man’ on the totem pole and she always caught the shit.
“Now that we’ve got your attention,” lead asshole said smugly, “we’re just going to ask you a few questions, real nice, and when we get the answers we need, then we’ll make nice and let you go.”
She must have moron emblazoned across her forehead, she thought with a mixture of fear and anger.
Like she was too stupid to know they weren’t going to let her go!
Although how the idiot thought she’d answer anything with her mouth taped shut was beyond her.
Maybe she could play dumb, though, and convince them she really did believe their bullshit and they’d let their guard down?
He pulled a needle and bottle out of his pocket.
Uh oh. This didn’t look good at all.
“Whaz ‘at?” she said behind the gag.
“This right here is truth serum. I’m going to give you a little shot of it and then I can trust you’re going to tell me the truth without me having to beat it out of you.”
Ok, so that seemed a preferable option and maybe she could trust that it wasn’t going to kill her if he wanted answers.
Maybe.
She was a long way from being convinced.
But when she tried to kick the bastard to keep him away it just tipped the freaking chair over that she was sitting in and she landed on her hands—tied behind her back.
While she was struggling with the pain, the bastard injected her.
Thankfully, they picked the chair up and she was able to wiggle her fingers and test to see if anything was broken.
She couldn’t tell, actually, because as soon as the throbbing subsided she realized her hands were getting numb from lack of circulation.
And to top that off, her head was beginning a slow spin.
Thankfully, before she got too far gone, she didn’t give a fuck anymore.
For instance, when the guy ripped the tape off her mouth and it nearly peeled her lips with it, all she managed was ‘ouch’—in slow-mo.
“Now. Tell me who’ve you talked to.”
She stared at him, hard, trying to meet his eyes, but she wasn’t sure which pair she should be looking at because she was seeing double. It took her a couple of minutes to digest the question and a couple more to figure out an answer. “About what?”
He caught a fistful of hair and nearly pulled her head off. “Who have you talked to?” he growled furiously.
She stared up at him. “About what?”
He slapped her a couple of times, but that just rattled her eyeballs. It didn’t shake anything new loose. And, really, she hardly felt it. She had a bad feeling she was going to feel it tomorrow … if she was still alive, but not much now. A kind of ringing in her ears. A little bit of numbness on her cheeks. “Nope. Getting nothing here.”
“You gave her too much.”
“Shut up asshole!”
“Maybe she didn’t understand the question, boss?”
He grabbed a handful of hair and shook her head again.
She barfed down his shoes. “That makes me sick,” she muttered.
That time when he slapped her it knocked the chair over.
Thank god it didn’t land on her hands! She fell sideways.
While she laying there, staring at the cracks in the floor, she saw more feet arriving. Then she saw bodies flying through the air and that tripped her out, totally. They kind of looked like rag dolls the way their arms and legs and heads were flopping around. She started laughing. “Weee! Bam!”
Somebody grabbed her chair and set it upright again. A face was shoved right into hers, nose to nose. She crossed her eyes and snickered and he backed up a little. “OH! You’re be-u-ti-ful!” she breathed in appreciation.
He had wings.
“Are you an angel?”
He frowned at her.
“A demon?”
“Cut her loose. They’ve drugged her with something. I don’t think we’ll get anything out of her right now.”
“Truth serum, he said.” And since somebody had obligingly untied her hands she waved her finger around until she spotted him. His head was twisted around kind of funny, but she recognized him. “That one.”
“Did you tell him the truth?”
She blinked up at the new voice, the person with the new voice, studying him with an effort. “Do you know you have horns? My goodness you have broad shoulders! You’re pretty cute, too.”
She looked around. “Another one! Oooh! Ooooh! You are so cool looking with those eyes! What’er you dressed up to be?”
His eyes narrowed. “Puma.”
She giggled. “That’s what my cat does when I piss him off!”
He lifted her straight up from the chair. She looked down at her dangling feet.
“Wow! You’re strong. You make me hot!”
He set her down.
“I don’t think we’re going to get anything useful out of her, Hawk.”
“Who’s Hawk?”
Hawk stared at her, thinking. “I don’t think we should hang around here for more thugs. We’ll just take her.”
“Yay! Where we going?”
Someone picked up the roll of tape, studied it a moment and tore off a piece. “Sorry, princess. We can’t have you babbling and giving away our position.”
It was the cat man. “Doggy? Or missionary?” she asked and snickered when he placed the tape on her mouth. “BDSM?”
He pulled the tape off, shoved her mouth closed, pinched her lips together, and then taped it on again, tighter.
“Man, she’s flying. I hope to hell they didn’t give her too much.”
Hawk left to search the other room of the apartment. “She was packing to leave, looks like. I didn’t see anything useful.”
She gave him a look and tried to tell him everything in there was useful, but he couldn’t hear what she was saying and he wouldn’t take the tape off.
He walked over to her and crouched down. “You going to be a good girl?”
She snickered. “Bewy dood.” She couldn’t say it. Finally, she just nodded.
He leaned closer and pulled her eyelid up, staring at her eyeball.
She moved closer, putting her eyeball next to his cheek. “I see you!”
It didn’t come out like that.
He patted her cheek and straightened, grabbed her and slung her across one shoulder.
She got a bird’s eye view of his ass.
She reached down and patted it. “Nice ass!”
He popped hers—hard. “Be still before you make me drop you,” he growled.
Since he took that moment to dive out of her fourth story window, she had other things on her mind. She squeezed her eyes closed at the dizzying sight. She didn’t open th
em again until she felt the sensation of dropping and then an abrupt stop.
Wherever they were, it was pitch black.
They were still moving, she decided, just not flying. She could hear, very faintly, the impact of his tread with the ground, a dull thud that suggested dirt.
Then she heard a faint creak, as of hinges, and felt walls cutting off the breeze and dulling the outside noises.
The guy carrying her sat her down on something and released her.
A light came on—pointed directly at her. It blinded her.
Somebody pried her eyelids up and stared at her eyes. She was too dazzled by the light, though, to see who it was.
The flying guy.
Her belly cramped at that thought.
There was something … threatening about some of the stuff she’d thought she saw. Her mind was still swimming, though, and she couldn’t entirely grasp it—just felt like she might be in trouble.
More trouble.
He jerked the gag/tape off of her mouth and left.
Well, moved back. She realized he’d taken a seat close to her. In front of her.
She’d heard the scrape of a plastic bucket—It had sounded like that anyway. She decided he must be perched on that.
And she was sitting on … a straight chair that wasn’t so straight anymore.
She struggled to focus. “Where are we?”
He didn’t reply.
“What are you going to do with me?”
He got up and strode across the empty—cluttered with trash—place and peered out of a window that was so filthy she didn’t see how he could see out.
She could see a light filtering through it now that her eyes had adjusted, but she couldn’t make anything out.
She thought they must be in a warehouse, though, and it was rundown so they must be on the north side of the city.
Miles from her place.
Not that she would be going back there.
She was very upset she hadn’t gotten the things she’d risked her life for, but she wasn’t going to try that again!
She heard something outside a little later and then the sounds of an arrival.
Fear began to coil around her guts.
And that was before she got a good look at the ‘people’ that came in.
Monsters!
Oh my god! It was one of the squads!
She huffed air while she watched their approach, praying she’d pass out from over oxygenation.
It didn’t happen.
And worse, whatever that bastard had injected her with was wearing off.
She still felt sluggish, but she was all too aware that she was in deep shit!
Especially if they recognized her.
“Now, Alex, what I want to know is just how much you know about the project,” the hawk man drawled.
“Nothing really! I have to go to the bathroom.”
“Pee in the chair.”
She struggled, but she just couldn’t bring herself to claim she had to poop.
The asshole would probably just tell her to poop in her pants anyway.
“Let’s try that again. How much do you know about the project?”
Alexis licked her lips. “Uh … I’m just a lab tech. They don’t tell me anything,” she said shakily.
“All those tests you’ve run, and you haven’t figured any of it out?” Hawk said in disbelief.
Her chin wobbled. “I … uh … well I know you’re a hybrid. And they are.”
He stared at her, hard.
“And you’re super soldiers, designed for special forces.”
His eyes narrowed.
“And, uh, there are four squads and this is, you are, squad three—no two—or maybe four?” She stopped, trying to shake something else loose. “But, uh, that’s all I can think of.”
“Is there a kill switch?” he bellowed abruptly.
Alexis jumped all over and sucked in a frightened breath. “A kill switch?” she echoed. “I uh I don’t know what you mean!”
Puma settled in from of her. “To kill us.”
She felt her jaw drop. “Kill? You guys?”
“Yes. A system abort,” Brahma said.
Alexis thought she might cry, for real. “I … don’t … know,” she wailed. “I’m just a lab tech. I’m not even in charge of the lab. I don’t know anything about the programming stuff.”
“Why were those men there, then?” Hawk snapped. “Why were they trying to kill you?”
Alexis sniffed. “I don’t know. I think the company was afraid I’d say something and they wanted to make sure I couldn’t testify.”
To her vast relief, they withdrew to discuss the matter far enough away that she couldn’t hear them.
It was along that time that it occurred to her that they hadn’t bothered to tie her to the chair.
She glanced away from them and scanned the room for a quick exit.
When she looked back to gauge the distance between them and her, she saw that Puma was watching her.
She smiled weakly.
She waited until the leader had his attention again and took another quick peak.
That time it was Brahma watching her when she glanced at the men again.
She bit her lip, but she realized that the only likely result in trying to run would be to excite them into chasing her down.
She really didn’t think her heart could take that.
She didn’t know what they could do, but she’d heard the other techs that did talk about their capabilities.
They’d be able to track her from her scent.
Hawk could see for miles and hear for miles, too.
If she even shifted in her seat ….
Which she did then because her ass was starting to get numb.
She would have his undivided attention.
And she did.
She swallowed with an effort and shifted again.
The fucking chair promptly collapsed.
Pain shot through her when she hit the floor, but she leapt up instantly, trying to pretend she wasn’t hurt.
The guys swarmed her. “You hurt?” Brahma asked gruffly.
“No. I’m fine,” she said, rubbing her elbow.
He caught her arm, looking it over. “That chair was a death trap waiting to happen,” he growled.
Hawk shrugged. “How the hell was I to know that? She doesn’t weigh that much.”
He brought his hawk stare on her again. “Who would know what we want to find out?”
She gaped at him, feeling her brain descend into total mayhem. “Mr. Crump!” she exclaimed. “The big boss!”
The asshole that had probably sent the goon squad to murder her.
“What happened to the … uh … those men?”
“They won’t bother you anymore,” Cham-Two responded.
She felt coldness creep down her spine. “Oh. Well, that’s … uh … that’s uh …”
That time she actually did faint.
She never actually lost consciousness, unfortunately. It was just a blackout. Well, maybe a brown out. Everything went dark and she felt really heavy and then the next thing she knew she could feel someone holding her.
“Nice try,” Hawk said dryly.
She struggled to open her eyes twice before she managed to pry her eyelids up. “What?” she asked a little drunkenly.
He studied her for a long moment and seemed to drop it. “We need transport. We can’t be wandering the streets where we can be seen. Puma, Cham-Two. See what you can round up that won’t instantly have the cops all over our asses. Brahma …. Actually, go with Puma. Cham-Two, you track down the bastard’s address and any potential hideouts he might be using.”
Chapter Five
Hawk was seething. He’d wasted way more time than he’d expected to and already had a mess on his hands.
He supposed they shouldn’t have killed the bastards that had been sent to murder Alexis, but he’d been in such a rage when they burst in and he’d seen what they
’d already done to her ….
Her face was bruised. Her lip busted. The skin on her wrists bruised and torn, and her hands banged up … and that was just what he’d seen so far.
He wanted the kill the bastards all over again every time he looked at her.
He was annoyed with her, too, though.
Not that he thought she was lying to them.
He thought he’d already known she wouldn’t actually be able to tell them anything.
But he was annoyed with her because she’d looked him dead in the eye and told him he was beautiful.
After staring at him as if he was a monster every time he’d been sent for more tests ….
He couldn’t get it out of his mind.
Because he had wanted to get his hands on her from the moment he’d first seen her and knew he couldn’t touch her.
He’d known she thought he was a monstrosity and would scream and run if she had the chance if he was stupid enough to try to romance her.
And then the company would terminate him for being ‘defective’.
Because he wasn’t supposed to be thinking with his dick.
He was a fighting machine … period.
Now, she was in his head, for fucking sure.
As if she hadn’t been right from the start!
He wanted to believe she didn’t find him repulsive and she’d dropped that in his lap and now he wasn’t going to be able to convince himself she hadn’t meant it.
Even though he knew she hadn’t.
The best thing he could do would be to dump her ass as soon as possible. She was like a grenade.
But she was going to die if he did that and he couldn’t bring himself to leave her to die.
Pretty damned stupid.
But he’d known as soon as he’d gotten wind of what Raven’s squad was getting from Nika that he wanted exactly that from Alexis, even though he hadn’t had a fucking clue before of exactly what he wanted to do to her so bad he could taste it.
It was probably going to get his ass killed and maybe his entire squad.
“Are you … going to let me go, now?” Alexis asked uneasily when the silence had stretched until it seemed to be heavy with tension.
He flicked a glance at her. “So that you can send the cops and the military down on us?” he growled. “No.”
“But … but I wouldn’t!”
He turned to study her and finally strode back to where she was sitting and crouched in front of her. “How would you convince me otherwise?”