Quinn jumped when she heard a knock at her door.
She frowned. Was it Merritt, coming to visit? Or someone else with less friendly intentions? She tiptoed to the door and looked through the peephole.
It was Noah.
Surprise flooded her. After everything that happened, and after her unreturned gesture, she hadn’t expected to hear from him for a while, if ever. She opened the door.
Noah stood there in slacks and a jacket, like he was coming from work. It pained her to see how handsome he was, to see those intelligent eyes. He must have something important to tell her, and he had no way to contact her now that her old phone was gone.
She wanted to make a quip about him stalking her, but something in Noah’s eyes told her not to.
“Hey,” she said, stepping aside to let him in.
Noah entered and she shut the door behind him.
“I just saw the news alert,” she said. “I assume that’s why you’re here…”
He shook his head. Quinn watched him, his gaze glimmering with something unsaid, something that sent a tingle through her.
Noah grabbed her and kissed her.
Chapter 40
Quinn lay on her bare bed, the air conditioning cooling her perspiration as she fought off sleepiness. Noah lay next to her, fast asleep. She got up and quietly put a t-shirt on, and headed over to pour herself some chilled water.
“You don’t have to leave this time,” came a sleepy voice. “This is your place.”
Quinn glanced back at Noah, whose eyes gleamed with humor. How she’d missed that.
“Not for long,” she said.
He looked around at her packed belongings. “Where to now?”
“Where the cops can’t find me.” She grinned and poured a second glass of water.
“Sure about that?” he said in that confident tone of his.
She stuck her tongue out at him. “With all due respect, Sergeant Martinez, you’re the least of my worries.”
Noah shook his head. “We’ve got the department on this now, and it’s top priority. It’s only a matter of time until we catch those motherfuckers.”
Quinn couldn’t argue with that. She only hoped “we” included her, that the Protectorate would focus on the larger problem instead of its anger at her for defying the rules. When she handed Noah his glass, his smile faded.
“You aren’t going to make me hunt you down again, are you?” he said.
She sat down next to him on the bed. “No.”
“Where will you go?”
“Don’t know yet. Depends on what I can afford. I kind of pissed some people off by working with you.”
“They’ll come around, if they’re smart. So, are you ever going to tell me about this band of do-gooder mindjackers you work for?”
She smiled. “One thing at a time, sergeant.”
Noah drank from his glass before setting it down. “That partner of yours looks out for you. He’s loyal.”
“I know. I don’t deserve him.”
He frowned. “Don’t say that.”
“Why not?”
Noah sat up and faced her. “You asked me once why I let you two go that night. Well, I know something about how people like you work. I know that once you get that proximity alert, you drop and go, and the only thing you protect is that data. If you’d left Jones there like the rest of them would have, you’d have been gone by the time I entered that alley. And he’d be in the clink, or dead.”
Quinn nodded. It was true. But she would never have left Jones there. It wasn’t who she was.
“Instead, you risked yourself to save him,” Noah said. “That’s why I did what I did.”
She smiled. “Not because you didn’t want me to go to prison?”
Noah grabbed her and pulled her down next to him. “Maybe that too.”
Quinn kissed him, basking in the warmth of his skin, how good he felt.
When she heard a faint noise, she pulled away. A strange feeling nagged her.
She couldn’t put her finger on it, but the noise seemed almost too quiet, too unnatural. She sat up and looked around, wondering if some creature had found its way into her apartment. Then she realized Noah was looking around too, his expression completely changed. He was in cop mode now.
He stood up quietly and put on his briefs, retrieving his gun from its holster. Quinn got up to find her own weapons, but before she could do anything, a loud explosion erupted near her door, tearing a gaping hole in it.
“Get down!” Noah shouted at her.
It all happened so fast.
A man in all black at the door. Then others. Black Jays.
Gunfire rang out like a deafening staccato. Quinn ducked behind the bed as she heard bullets pierce her mattress. She immediately went for her weapons cache and pulled out her latest and greatest. Her Udi 99, already loaded.
Devin’s words echoed in her head: This isn’t over.
We’ll see about that, asshole.
Crouched down, Quinn peeked around the edge of the mattress just as a Jay found her. She was ready for him and began unloading the automatic weapon, spraying rounds into him and then the rest of them, immune to the noise and power of her weapon and how badly it rattled her hands and arms.
By the time they knew what hit them, it was too late.
She’d riddled them all with holes until her magazine was spent, and the three men fell like aluminum cans knocked over by a BB gun in the desert. Then it was silent.
She waited there, crouched down… ears ringing, arms shaking, heart pounding.
She waited for one of them to get a second wind and try his luck again, or for another to appear in her doorway. But no one moved.
Quinn stood up slowly, eyes darting all around her. Three Jays down, blood seeping from their skulls. The hallway was empty.
Then she realized. Noah. He was nowhere to be found.
Maybe he’d hidden in her bathroom. She looked around, and found him on the floor on the other side of her bed.
He lay there on his back, eyes closed, his gun still in his limp hand.
Blood ran from his chest.
Afterword
Thank you for reading Mind Thief and for supporting my work. If you want to find out when the next book will be released, sign up for my email list. I only email once per month, where I keep you updated on what I’m up to, offer special deals on good sci-fi books, and include occasional sci-fi-related articles or news.
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Happy reading!
Christie
About the Author
C.A. Hartman specializes in writing science fiction with badass female leads. An academic scientist gone rogue, Hartman’s books have been praised for their great characters, intricate worlds, and their intriguing but understandable science. A graduate of the University of Colorado, Hartman earned her PhD in Behavioral Genetics and worked as a scientist for 11 years. She lives in Denver with her husband, artist Chris Voeller, and has a special fondness for good TV, the desert, aviator sunglasses, and dark roast coffee (decaf, of course, because you DON'T want to be around her when she's caffeinated).
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