Skin Dive

by Ava Gray

  Juneau shook her head. “Weird.”

  “Has that ever happened before?” he asked.

  Hawk shook his head. “MB has what we call an unstable gift. Maybe because it’s tech-related, it’s constantly updating itself, whether you want it to or not.”

  Taye grinned despite himself. “Superpowers by Microsoft.”

  “Pretty much,” the big guy answered. “Think we should call Tanager? She’s known him longest. She might be able to tell us what the fuck’s up.”

  Juneau bit her lip. “You know she cares about him more than she’d admit. I don’t think it’s a good idea until we know more. No point in worrying her before we’re sure.”

  The big guy sighed. “I’m sure something’s wrong, Junie.”

  “Don’t call me that.” She folded her arms and glared.

  Taye shook his head, casting the tie-breaker vote. “I’m with her—not yet. Not now. Let’s rescue Kestrel first.”

  Worry hollowed her out. Gillie tried pinging Mockingbird, but he didn’t answer. That couldn’t be good. She had no other numbers to call. They didn’t send anyone else to her for healing, which made her think something big must be going down.

  And so Gillie slid back into her life. Her ID hadn’t been compromised. There was no surveillance footage of her at the car rental place, and any film the cops might have gotten on their patrol car had been blown all to hell. Therefore, she was safe as Grace Evans. The same protection inherent in playing a college student still existed.

  So she went to class and took her finals. At night, she went to the firing range. By day, she graded papers for Will, and fielded desperate questions from students who had just realized their grades sucked. On the last day of school, Brandon found her in the library, as he’d done so often in the past. The e-mail he’d sent made her think this wouldn’t be a fun conversation.

  “So where’s your boyfriend?” he asked.

  “He travels a lot for work.”

  So much better than the truth . . . that he’s sick and he didn’t see fit to tell me. In retrospect, she should have paid more attention to the signs, but she’d wanted everything to be all right so badly that she’d glossed over them, accepted his lame explanations. I don’t know if I’ll ever see him again.

  “Ah. So he’s older. Probably got a great job and a cool car.”

  She stifled a laugh. Brandon thought she liked Taye for that? Sure, let’s go with that.

  “I’m sorry,” she said. “But I made it clear I wasn’t looking for a relationship.”

  “You didn’t tell me you were seeing anyone either.”

  “Look, he and I have a complicated relationship. We’re not always . . . seeing each other, but nobody else’s ever going to measure up in my head either.”

  Brandon shook his head. “So even when you’re not with him, you’re still his. Christ. Does he have a gold-plated dick?”

  “I’m sorry if I didn’t make my situation clear to you.”

  He sighed. “No, you did. I guess I just hoped if I hung around enough, I’d change your mind. I don’t take rejection well, and I’m sorry about that e-mail. I was a total douche.”

  Well, yeah, but it was the least of her worries right now. “Thanks.”

  “So we’re cool.”

  “Absolutely.”

  “’Kay. I probably won’t be around much this summer. I got into a band and we’re the opening act, so I’ll be touring.”

  “Wow, sweet. Congrats!”

  “It’s because of you,” he said quietly. “I wrote all these tormented emo songs and the guys loved them when I auditioned.”

  “I’m glad I could help.”

  But Gillie didn’t feel much like studying after Brandon left. She packed all her stuff and left the library, heading over to her small office in the psych building instead. Though she expected it to be quiet, instead, there was an argument going on. Roger, the other TA, was yelling at Professor Reynolds. Though she didn’t intend to eavesdrop, it was impossible not to.

  “I can’t believe you’re recommending her, instead of me. She’s only been in this department for one semester . . . I’ve been busting my ass for you since I was a sophomore.”

  “It wouldn’t be a good fit. There will be other internships.”

  “Everyone thinks you’re fucking her,” the TA said. “Did you know that? Just like the other girl. You just don’t learn, do you?”

  Well, shit.

  She pushed the door to Reynolds’s office open and planted her hands on her hips. “Do you want to ask me something, Roger?”

  “Grace.” Will looked sick with shame, but whatever he’d done in the past, he hadn’t done a damn thing wrong with her, and she wasn’t letting the other TA get away with this.

  “Yeah. How often do you let him put it to you?”

  “Never,” she answered coldly. “Which is as often as you get laid, considering you’re a spoiled, entitled little prick. It’s time for you to leave, before you really piss me off.”

  Something in her face must’ve genuinely frightened him, because Roger’s bravado failed him. Instead of continuing his diatribe, he grabbed his things and hurried out, leaving an awkward silence. Will sat down at his desk, shakily running his hands through his hair.

  “You must be wondering what that was about.”

  “I gather you’re recommending me for a position he wanted.”

  He sighed. “Not that part of it.”

  Gillie shrugged. “To be honest, it’s not my business.”

  “Well, I feel I owe you the story.”

  At that, she took the chair opposite his desk and crossed her legs, waiting.

  “Five years ago, I was married, and I had a promising young assistant . . . she was very driven and pretty. She was also quite unstable. She became . . . obsessed with me.”

  She nodded to show she was listening. It wasn’t a surprising tale. Take a young girl with daddy issues and put her in proximity with a nice, decent older guy and shit like this happened. It was too bad for Will; she believed he hadn’t encouraged the behavior. God knew, he had never been anything but polite, friendly, and professionally encouraging with her. But some people couldn’t differentiate social nuances.

  “I never slept with her, but Margaret told everyone I had. Her stalking escalated. Eventually, she went to my wife and exposed our ‘affair.’ Consequently, my wife, Judith, left me . . . our marriage had been troubled, so she was looking for an excuse.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  He shrugged. “If she’d loved me, she would’ve stayed. I don’t think I loved her anymore either. We were going through the motions. I hated failing, more than anything else.”

  “I get that.”

  He went on, “Eventually, Margaret killed herself. I almost lost my job in the resultant scandal, but the university believed my side of the story, as it came out that Margaret had prior incidents. Restraining orders, tendencies toward obsession. Her biology teacher in high school received some of the same treatment.”

  “But you lost everything anyway, including your reputation.” Which explained Brandon’s joke, early on.

  Will lifted his shoulders in a shrug. “Some prefer the lurid version, wherein I’m such a lover that I drove a young woman to her death at the loss of me. But since then, I’ve taken only male TAs or none at all.”

  “Until me. I’m sorry I caused trouble for you.” This also explained why he’d been so frightened at the clinic. If she’d died on his watch, his career would’ve been done.

  “People are assholes,” he said, unexpectedly. “Roger more than most.”

  “Amen to that.”

  “I suppose you’d like to know if you got the internship?”

  “No, thanks. I have something else to do this summer.” She hadn’t known she meant to turn him down until this second; this wasn’t her life. She could pretend for fifty more years, but she wasn’t Grace Evans from Ohio, and she’d fight to be Gillie Flynn.

  “Are you sur
e? It’s a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”

  “I believe you. Otherwise Roger would’ve been a little less irrational about losing out.”

  Gillie stood, glancing around his office. The textbooks had all become familiar to her, as had Will with his faint scent of tobacco smoke. Impulsively, she crossed his desk to hug him, though she made sure it was an appropriate embrace—not one that would make him worry she was crazy like Margaret. He responded with surprise and then a gentle pat on her back.

  He stood back to gaze into her face with a speculative look. “I hope it’s important. You’re giving up a lot.”

  She shook her head. “Nope. I’m taking everything back.”

  CHAPTER 25

  “We can assume it’s another trap,” Taye said.

  Hawk nodded his agreement. “If we’re lucky, that bountyhunting bastard will be there . . . and so will Kestrel.”

  It was after midnight; everything was quiet. Mockingbird’s new “intel”—the shit the Foundation was trying to feed him—suggested a farm as their next target, and it was a little too much like the Exeter facility for Taye’s liking. The difference was, this time they knew they were walking into a minefield. There would be no test subjects here, just Foundation hunters looking to tag and bag them.

  God, he felt like shit. He was up to four pills per dose now, and his time was limited. More than anything, he wanted to wrap this up. Let me see the ending. That’s all I ask. He had no sense of whether that would happen, though, or if he’d drop dead on this mission. Since he’d eschewed all medical care, it was impossible to know how many weeks he had left, or whether, in fact, the span numbered in days instead.

  “You fit to fight?” Hawk asked.

  “Yeah, I’m solid.” A lie, but one his partner didn’t dispute.

  Taye could always pull, no matter how much he hurt . . . and the pain pills they’d found for him didn’t damp his ability, unlike the sedatives Rowan had pumped through his veins.

  “Gull’s going in on the other side. He’s leading his own team.”

  Others they’d saved—it was amazing to know they’d made a difference. People’s lives had been changed, thanks to them. In the end, maybe he couldn’t ask for more.

  “Let’s do this.”

  Geared up and ready to rock, they moved as one. The weight of the flak vest was comforting; the night-vision goggles helped even more. This way, the world had a peculiar green cast. Taye scanned the perimeter and spotted the first Foundation goons. He gestured, alerting Hawk, who gave the orders with two hand signals. No weapons on their end—they didn’t need them. We are the fucking weapons.

  Hawk took the first two in a silent kill; their necks popped and they went limp. It didn’t matter what kind of armor you wore if somebody could break your bones from the inside out. His partner crept over to make sure of the body count, and then beckoned.

  “You still good?”

  Hawk nodded. “I took my meds before the run, no worries. Don’t be jealous. You’ll get your shot before too long.”

  He grinned and crept along in the big man’s wake. When Taye went to town, there would be no hiding their position, so they needed to crawl farther inside the line and locate Caleb Dunn, along with Kestrel. The bounty hunter wouldn’t let her out of his sight; she was his ticket to finding his quarry in the dark. Now that Hawk had powered up, she might even be leading Dunn in their direction. In fact, they were counting on it. The pain pills left him feeling faintly euphoric, though not stoned as he’d be if he had a normal metabolism.

  Bullets bit into the ground as they moved forward. They tore holes in the barn and Taye flattened himself against the side of it.

  Hawk swore, diving for cover. “Shit, they’ve got men on the ridge. Too far away for us to touch them.”

  If not for the armor plating he’d jury-rigged last time, they would have killed Hawk and him the first time they tried this. But this location was better for the enemy, with very little he could use in that regard. Their chances didn’t look good this time; the Foundation had factored all the angles, except possibly that so many of their subjects were willing to die to shut them down.

  “Snipers.” It was a smart move, but maybe Oliver—Gull—could counter. He was running support on this op, and it would help immeasurably if he could take out the sharpshooters.

  “Let’s get inside. We want Kestrel, that’s all. If we hunker down, she’ll come to us.”

  As they pushed for the barn interior, where they could hide behind machinery and in the stalls, Taye stayed low, avoiding the headshot, but a round still caught him in the back as he rounded the corner toward the open front doors. The impact forced a curse from him and it took him a minute to catch his breath. Hawk put a hand on his shoulder, steadying him as he drew him out of the line of fire.

  “Did it go through your vest?”

  He shook his head. “Might’ve fractured a rib. But I’m fine. I can finish this.”

  “We’ve got movement.”

  Taye wheeled on his haunches, and through the goggles, he could clearly see the bounty hunter edging his way across the yard toward them. He was tall, carrying solid muscle, balding but saying fuck you to the problem by shaving his head, so what little hair he had was short and prickly. A scar bisected the right side of his jaw. Yep, that’s Dunn. A tall, slender woman clung to his hand quite unexpectedly; it didn’t look as though Kestrel was frightened . . . at least not of the man beside her.

  Her whisper carried in the night air. “Cale, be careful. We’re right on top of them.”

  Taye exchanged a what the hell look with Hawk. The big guy shrugged.

  “Then they ought to be able to hear me.” Yeah, definitely Dunn—the accent was unmistakable. “I got no beef with you, mate. I’m trying to hand her off, here. Though the Foundation doesn’t know it yet, I’m no longer on their payroll. They’ve done things to this girl that you wouldn’t believe.”

  Yeah, I would. He cut a look at Hawk, who made the call.

  “Come inside. If you’re sincere about helping her, we’ll let you go. If this is a trick, I’ll snap your spine.”

  “Don’t hurt him,” Kestrel said as she stepped into the barn. “He’s been helping me cope with the shit you guys throw at me.”

  Fuck. Yeah. Mockingbird’s bombardment.

  “I’m sorry about that,” Hawk said. “It wasn’t my call. But were we supposed to let you hunt us for our enemies?”

  She gave a bitter laugh. “No. I thought, for the longest time, that someone would come to save me. Mockingbird can find anything in the Internet, right? Why didn’t he find me?”

  An excellent question.

  Hawk explained, “They never put you in the system. We tried, believe me . . . and that was after I signed on. Mockingbird lost a lot of people trying to rescue you.”

  Outside, the sound of combat reached them. Foundation goons must be going up against Gull’s team. Gunfire cut the night air, screams of pain and muted explosions.

  “You don’t have long,” she said then. “Get this out of my head. They can see what I see, you know. They know I’ve found you. They’re fighting this way.”

  Shit, that was his cue. “This won’t hurt you.”

  At least he didn’t think so. He hadn’t fried Hawk’s brain anyway. Taye turned her head gently, found the hardware, and pulled a fraction of his power. The resultant jolt sent her reeling, and the bounty hunter caught her, his eyes fearful. Yeah, the poor bastard cared.

  “Y’all right, Kes?” Dunn peered down into her face.

  She clung to him a moment, her breath coming in deep gulps. “Yeah. He shorted it out. I don’t have Big Brother in my head anymore.”

  Dunn let go of her then. “That was the deal then. I get you to safety and walk away. This smells like a goatfuck, and I never liked goats.”

  “Thank you.” She didn’t have to stretch far to kiss his cheek. “I’ll never forget this.”

  Hawk eased to the front of the barn. “It’s getti
ng hot out there. We need to clear out while Gull’s wreaking havoc.”

  “No argument,” Taye said, removing his goggles.

  He pulled, lightning wreathing his hands. There was no reason to hide his light under a bushel anymore. Time to make some shit go boom.

  They came out of the barn together into a nightmare of automatic weapons and live shadows devouring their prey. Taye threw out his hands, twin arcs of raw power striking Foundation goons, who were taking aim at Hawk. They screamed at the voltage, alarming their teammates, but nobody broke and ran. Not yet.

  “Get her out of here,” he told Hawk. “I’ve got this.”

  But before the big guy could move on the suggestion, a shot came down from the ridge. A red jewel blossomed on Kestrel’s forehead, and then she fell forward into Dunn’s arms. The bounty hunter dropped to his knees, holding her, while weapons sparked around him; it was like he saw or heard nothing else. He didn’t head for cover. He didn’t draw his own rifle, slung across his back.

  Taye did his best to keep the man alive, slamming goons with electricity right and left. Fucking ironic, when you thought about it. Hawk fell in at his other side, and with his power, they turned the tide. In the distance, Gull’s team mopped up those who fled, until, at last, the yard was quiet, and not a single one of the Foundation hunters still stood.

  “They killed her rather than let her get away from them,” Dunn said, straightening at last.

  Hawk nodded. “They assigned someone for that eventuality.”

  “Why?” The question sounded torn from the bounty hunter.

  “Because she strengthens us. She would have found more like us and bolstered our numbers. If she’s not in their hands, they couldn’t let her live.”

  Dunn swung Kestrel’s body in his arms, his eyes grim in the moonlight. “She deserved better. I know I said I’m out, but not now. Not like this. They’ll pay for what they did to her.”

  Gillie received two injured soldiers from Heron that night. Healing wounds always took a lot out of her, and left a fresh scar, but it was better than disease. Nothing hurt as much as that; the boiling blackness in her veins reminded her of Rowan.