Perfection
An Ashwater Novel
Melissa Koberlein
Perfection comes with a Spotify playlist!
Adam’s added some new songs for Perfection. If you’d like to listen to the Ashwater series soundtrack, simply scan the QR code with your device and enjoy the music Adam plays for you.
For my mom, who introduced me to romance novels and fashion.
Contents
Prologue
Part I
1. Ballin’
2. Powder Pink
3. Dance Paradise
4. Dress Shop
5. Irresistible
6. Co-op
7. Game Day
8. Friday Night Hoops
9. Dress Detail
10. Catch Up
11. A Dress
12. Dinner Date
13. Slumber Party
14. Glitch
15. Strickland Manor
16. Barracuda
17. Order
18. Runway
Part II
19. Reverb
20. Answers
21. Dr. G
22. Training Camp
23. Gaining Control
24. Separation
25. Reunion
26. Erasing the Past
27. Infiltration
28. Deception
29. Brother to Brother
30. Tension
31. Connections
32. Fresh Start
Epilogue
Read on for a sneak peek…
Special Acknowledgment
About the Author
Also by Melissa Koberlein
Prologue
Sweat beaded on Sam Strickland’s forehead. Alarms blared in his ears, and flashing red strobes blinded him. People in white Bio-Core lab coats ran past him toward the staircase and elevator. He jolted against the wall as the floor rumbled beneath him, forcing him to use the cool, metal passage to steady his gait as he made his way to the lab. Whatever was happening was creating a seismic event.
He reached the lab and opened the doors using his keycard. Before he could acclimate to the scene before him, pain seared through his head like a hot poker. He squeezed his eyes shut and reached out for support. Someone grabbed his arm, pulled him back outside, and shut the doors. The pain eased, and he opened his eyes. The lab was filled with bodies scattered across the floor, some convulsing and some still.
Sam turned to the person who pulled him out. He sighed. It was one of his most trusted scientists. “Thank you.”
The dark-haired woman nodded and turned back to the lab, peering through the tall glass windows. Her chest heaved. “I’m sorry, sir.”
He reached for the glass for support, his heart jumping into his throat. “What happened?”
“Dr. Strickland asked us to monitor their brain activity. I’ve never seen brainwaves light up the way theirs did. Then something went wrong. One of the babies started crying, and the other” —she wet her lips, trying to catch her breath— “started glowing. That’s when the screaming started. I was up there.” She pointed to a small instrument room perched atop the lab. “I opened the doors so they could get out, but it was too late.”
Sam pounded on the glass. This was not how he envisioned this day going. “Where are the babies now?”
She swallowed hard. “They’re still inside the incubator.”
He groaned. The board would be breathing down his neck about this. “I trust I can count on your discretion until we figure out what’s happening?”
“Of course, sir.”
“Good. How long until we can go in?”
The scientist reached into her lab coat pocket and retrieved a handheld device. She tapped a few buttons and held it up in front of the glass. “The psychic energy level is still too high, but it’s dissipating. Soon.”
Sam stared into the lab at the victims, his heart heavy. His thoughts drifted to a memory of a young girl playing in the snow, her cherubic face smiling up at him. “Where is my daughter?”
The scientist shook her head, sending a chill down Sam’s spine. “She’s still inside.”
Part I
1
Ballin’
Gage
Gage Strickland sat in his car at the Ashwater High parking lot. He stared at the basketball in the passenger seat, deep in thought. Basketball season was in full swing, but his heart wasn’t in it.
How could he be? He’d just learned that his mom, who’d supposedly disappeared after he was born, was not only alive but living in Ashwater. Well, kind of alive—she was in a coma. Making matters worse, he learned that he had a deranged twin brother who hated him. He’d only met Steel once, but that was enough for the feeling to be mutual.
He exhaled slowly. God, he’d love to go back to thinking his mom was abducted by aliens.
A knock on the passenger-side door made Gage jump as he came jarring back to the present. He clicked the unlock button on the console next to him. Adam Williams grabbed the basketball off the seat and sat in the passenger seat.
“Living on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi started playing on the sound system. Gage shook his head and smiled. Adam was an android created at his family’s biomedical company, Bio-Core. He had Bluetooth capabilities and played songs on the fly. He also had an affinity for the eighties.
“How’s it going?” Adam asked, spinning the ball on his index finger in perfect rotation.
“Okay, I guess. What are you doing here?” Gage said. Kids stayed away from the school on weekends unless they played sports.
“I’m babysitting.” Adam smiled impishly.
Gage frowned. Babysitting?
“Iris wants to check out the school before her first day. Don’t worry. I promise she won’t do anything crazy.”
Ah. Iris. She was like Adam, created in the labs at Bio-Core, but that’s where their similarities ended. A tag-along when they rescued Adam from Bio-Core a few weeks earlier, she was still new to humans, and he had more than enough reasons to worry that she would do something crazy.
“Where—” Another knock on the driver-side door made Gage’s heart skip a beat. “Christ!”
Iris stared down at him, her violet eyes intent on his. She was wearing a Violent Femmes T-shirt. Evie, Adam’s girlfriend, was standing next to her. Iris began speaking, but he couldn’t hear her.
He raised a finger and lowered the window. “I can’t hear you when the window is up.”
Iris tilted her head to the side. “Noted. Will you be entering the school with us?”
“Yes. I mean, no.” Gage stared up at her unreadable eyes. “I have practice.”
“What is practice?” she asked.
“He plays basketball for the school,” Evie said. “They practice on Saturday mornings.”
Iris nodded, her tightly wound blond bun dipping toward him. “We will meet again another time,” she said dismissively, walking away toward the front of the school.
Evie giggled and waved down at Gage. “See ya.”
“She’s still so…” He turned to Adam, who was drumming to the music on his dash.
“New? I know. She’ll come around. Just give her time.”
“If you say so.” Gage wasn’t so sure that Iris would ever pass for human. Even when he first met Adam, he, at least, wanted to fit in. He took the basketball from Adam and got out.
Adam followed. They headed toward the side entrance to the school where the gym was located.
“See ya later at Jack’s?” Gage asked over his shoulder.
Adam nodded. “Sounds good.”
Gage stood at the free-throw line, taking aim, when Luke Dixon strolled in.
“Missed it!” Luke said.
The ball left Gage’s fingertips and bounced off the rim
back toward him. “Damn it.” He threw the ball at Luke with extra effort. “Where have you been? We were supposed to start half an hour ago. The rest of the team will be here in like fifteen minutes.”
“Unlike rich, pretty boys, some of us have to work.” Luke caught the ball and grinned. “I was up until three helping Celia clean under the counters. You have no idea how much gum was under there.”
Luke worked at his parent’s diner, Dixon’s, along with his twin brother, Derrick. Gage wasn’t sure why working late scraping gum was an occasion to smile, but he was clearly pleased with himself.
“I’m not pretty,” Gage retorted.
“Um, yes you are.” Luke jettisoned the basketball back at Gage.
Gage shrugged and dribbled the ball a few times before taking a shot. The ball swooshed through the net. Luke grabbed the rebound and went for a layup. The ball sailed through the basket, and he rebounded and tossed the ball back to Gage.
“So what’s the scoop with your mom and brother?” Luke asked. “You haven’t said a word since you found out about them.”
Gage frowned. He didn’t know how he felt about what was happening with his family, let alone how to explain it. His granddad had kept the truth about his mom from him because there was little to no hope she’d ever recover. She was hurt during an experiment at Bio-Core shortly after he was born. Gage had a difficult time understanding how his granddad could lie to him about his own mother, but the pain in his eyes told him that the decision had weighed on him a great deal. The reality was that his granddad should have let her go a long time ago but he was unable to do it. His granddad thought it best that Gage not see her for the time being. Said she wouldn’t want him to see her in the state she’s in.
To be honest, Gage was kind of grateful for the reprieve. He didn’t know how he felt about seeing a mother he never knew.
“I haven’t seen my mom. My grandfather said we shouldn’t rush it, given the state she’s in.” He took a jump shot.
Luke rebounded and shot, missing the basket. “Sorry to hear that. Sucks, dude.”
“And don’t get me started on my…brother.” It was still hard to say out loud.
“Steel, right?”
Gage cringed at the sound of his name. The guy was a complete douchebag. The fact that they looked exactly alike made things even more difficult to sort through. “Yeah.”
“So, do you think you two will ever, like, be cool?” Luke was speaking from a completely different perspective. He had a twin brother that he grew up with. His situation was different from his with Steel.
Gage had never met his brother until a few weeks ago, and there was the fact that he could speak to him through thoughts. Not to mention the matter of Steel trying to kill Evie’s dad. “I don’t think that’s possible.”
“I get that. Still, it’s a shame.” Luke moved outside the three-point perimeter and took a shot. It sailed through the basket.
“Believe me, Steel wants nothing to do with me.” Gage grabbed the ball. “I’d rather not see him again either.”
Luke looked past Gage. “Hey, is that the robot girl from Bio-Core?”
Gage turned. Iris stood in the doorway to the gym, watching them, Evie and Adam behind her. Gage waved at them, and they walked over. Up close she was pretty. He had thought so the first time he saw her, even though she was sizing him up for a kill shot.
She stared down at the basketball in his hands. “This is your practice?”
“Yep. You throw this ball into that basket.” Gage smiled and extended the ball to her.
Iris hesitated, glancing between the basket and Gage. She turned and looked at Adam.
“It’s okay, Iris. Give it a try.” Adam looked at Gage and nodded to reassure him. “She’s fine.”
Iris took the ball and moved in front of him to get closer to the basket. In a flash, she raised the ball over her head and sent it soaring like a bullet against the backboard. It shattered, sending glass flying.
“Jesus Christ!” Gage covered his head from the shards raining down.
Luke followed suit. “Holy shit.”
When the sound of glass hitting the gym floor ceased, Gage peered up at Iris. She was standing in the same place, eyes cast up at the basket. He grasped her forearm and turned her toward him to make sure she hadn’t been cut. His gaze darted up and down her form. Not a scratch.
“I missed,” she said stoically.
“Ya think?” Gage looked at Adam, saying get her the hell out of here with his eyes.
Adam walked over and took Iris’s hand. “It’s okay. We’d better go before anyone else comes in.” He glanced at Gage. “Sorry about this. Can you handle the clean up?”
“I guess.” Gage looked at the hole that used to be a backboard and sighed. So much for basketball practice. “We’ll figure something out.”
Iris glanced at him, her expression unreadable as usual, before allowing Adam to lead her back out into the hallway.
Evie waved nervously. “See you guys.”
“That girl is a menace.” Luke kicked at a piece of glass.
Gage stared at the empty doorway. Yeah, she was something.
2
Powder Pink
Iris
Iris’s heart clenched, and her eyes burned. It reminded her of how she felt when she couldn’t get a bead on a target in SIM. Gage’s expression when she missed the basket was in her permanent files. She was still learning about emotions, but that was the best example of dislike she’d seen so far. She planted her feet on the steps leading out of the school. Adam and Evie looked back at her, expectantly.
She glanced between them and placed her hands on her hips. “I exposed myself in there.”
Evie’s eyes grew large. She turned to Adam, pursing her lips. “We’re not doing a very good job of helping her acclimate. Now she’s talking about exposing herself.”
Adam smiled at Evie to reassure her and walked back to Iris. “It’s okay. It happened with Gage and Luke. They won’t say a word.”
Iris inhaled, her gaze darting back and forth, her processor working in overdrive. “I am sorry. Evie’s heartrate, breathing cycle, and facial expression indicates that she is upset. I do not want to put you in danger.”
Evie shivered and looked away. “I hate when you do that.”
“Look at me, Iris.” Adam grasped her shoulders.
Ever since Dr. Naomi Rice had messed with her insides, she’d had trouble focusing on her surroundings in times of stress. Before, she would kill anything that had potential to expose her. She calculated that based on their body strength and height, neither Gage or Luke had the capability to break the glass behind the basket. They would not be able to cover up her mishap. Her breathing increased as she fought to focus on Adam’s eyes.
“Iris, I’m right here. You are safe. We are safe.”
Iris heard the word safe in her head and looped it. She found Adam’s eyes, and her heartrate slowed. She took a deep breath and nodded. “I am calm now.”
Evie approached them. “Hey, not to be a downer, but I don’t think we should be here when Coach Smith arrives.”
On the ride back to town, Adam played “Pictures of You” by The Cure. He said it would help calm Iris down. He bobbed his head and tapped his fingertips on his thigh in beat with the music, every so often smiling at Evie, who was driving.
Iris envied his ability to feel so easily. She turned toward the window. Ashwater was surrounded by majestic mountains covered in fluffy, white snow with trails of winding roads. With her telescopic vision, she spied beautiful houses, perched like giant bird’s nests in the branches of a rising mountain. She had not yet travelled up the peak but was curious about what those places looked like on the inside. The largest one, her favorite, sat at the top, in the center, like a star that humans placed on evergreen trees at Christmas. One of her first lessons was to learn human holidays. She sighed and rested her head against the seat as the soothing synth sounds from the stereo washed over her.
“I am fine,” Iris said. “Thank you.”
Evie was a good friend and a talented artist. Young adult human protocol dictated that Iris couldn’t stay with Adam, so Evie offered to let Iris stay with her. Adam doctored some paperwork, and Evie introduced her as an exchange student from Canada. Iris researched the country and offered to speak in French, since Quebec seemed like a wonderful place to live. But Adam and Evie thought it might be a bit much. She would be starting school tomorrow as Iris Taylor.
Evie’s house had an extra bedroom, and her parents were nice. Mac Grayson was a solid man with a protective nature Iris envied, and Serena, Evie’s mother, had a warm smile and liked to hug. Although, Iris thought, looking down at her worn T-shirt and black cotton leggings, she didn’t care much for the clothing Evie gave her to wear.
Adam turned in his seat toward Iris and grinned. “Wanna play some Dance Paradise when we get to Jack’s? You still haven’t played.”
While she could appreciate the technically sophisticated game Adam created at the back of the arcade he worked at, she did not share his passion for gaming. But she was trying to fit in as best she could. “Sure, that will be nice.”
Perfection Page 1