Mace.
Her arrogant, strong, sexy, lying Viking of a man.
“You don’t need to do anything,” he said. “I’ll hold you. Just like this. And thread you through the window. You don’t even have to turn, just lift your legs over the window ledge when I tell you. We can’t stay out on this ledge forever. Especially with a camera pointed straight at us.”
With his words, she heard the helicopter rotors. “Not Enforcement?”
“No. I think they would have tried to help by now if it’d been Enforcement.”
“My fall was on the news.” It wasn’t a question; there was no way footage that dramatic didn’t make it to the news. Her stomach knotted at the thought. The world was used to seeing her as the confident, put-together face of CommTECH. Now they’d always think of her as the screaming woman who almost fell to her death.
“I hate to shatter your delusions, but your fall wasn’t on the news. My heroic save was on the news.”
“Idiot.” She sniffed, and then another awful thought occurred to her. “Is the bat gone?” She couldn’t look around to see if it was still there. She couldn’t open her eyes at all.
“Flew away,” Mace said in a strange, tight voice. “Probably hunting some dinner.” He shuffled around until her back hit the window ledge. “Lift your knees up high, and we should be able to get your feet through the window.”
Keiko took a deep, shuddering breath, curled her fingers tighter into his shirt, and released her legs from his waist.
“I’m ready.” Her knees were up at her chest.
His strong arm lifted her higher, angling her back through the window.
“That’s it. You’ve done it. Put your feet down. You’re inside now.”
Slowly, she lowered her legs and felt the solid floor beneath her bare toes. A rush of unadulterated relief almost overwhelmed her, and she clung to Mace.
“You might want to open your eyes, too,” he whispered against her ear.
Until he said it, she hadn’t realized her eyes were scrunched shut. Slowly, cautiously, she opened them and looked straight into his. For a minute, there was nothing else on the planet except for the man in front of her.
Those deep blue eyes of his warmed. “See? You’re inside the building. You’re safe.”
She blinked and tore her gaze from his. The white walls of the stairwell surrounded her. She was inside. Safe.
Because of him.
“Time for me to get out of here,” he said. “You need to let go now.”
A spear of panic shot through her. “I’m not sure I can. My fingers might be welded in place.”
“Princess.” That was all he said. In that understanding, gentle tone. How could a man his size manage to sound like that? As though he could see inside her. As though he was being careful with what he found there.
Slowly, reluctantly, she pried her fingers from his shirt and placed them on his arms. Using him to steady herself, she lowered the rest of her weight to the floor. She was safe inside. The knowledge made her feel light-headed, at the same time as being very aware that Mace was still outside on the ledge.
She released him and pressed her palms to the wall beside the window. “Go. Get back inside, and be careful of the cameras when you’re sneaking to the door. I’ll open it for you.”
It was behind her. Only a few steps away. Her legs were weak, but if she had to crawl over to open it, she would. He released his hold on her and leaned back out into the night. A dark patch on his shoulder caught her attention. Blood. Her gaze flew to the jagged edges of the window frame. He’d torn himself squeezing through the broken window to put her inside, and he hadn’t once made a sound of complaint.
She swallowed hard. “You’re hurt. Bleeding.” She pointed a shaky finger to the blood on the glass.
“I’m fine, but there’s going to be some serious bruising around your ankle. I’m sorry about that. As soon as we can get into the apartment, I’ll find you some cream to ease it.”
He was injured, bleeding, standing out on the ledge while the lights from the chopper lit him up for Freedom to find, and he was worried about her bruises? She blinked furiously to clear her gaze. She wasn’t crying. Tears of fear were allowed. No other kind were permitted.
“Don’t open that door unless you’re sure it’s me,” he ordered before turning to leave.
Keiko’s hand shot out to grip his wrist. Blue eyes filled with something she didn’t dare try to identify stared back at her.
“Be safe. I mean it. Don’t fall. Don’t get shot. Don’t die. Or I will hurt you.”
His smile stole her breath. “We’ve got to talk about your violent tendencies.”
“Come back to me,” she whispered as he stepped away from the window, leaving her to stare out into the night.
The sight made her stomach heave. Never, ever in her life did she want to be more than a floor or two off the ground again. Unable to look out any longer, she turned into the stairwell and slid down to sit on the stairs. And that was when it hit her—how exactly had Mace managed to save her?
Chapter Fifteen
Red Zone Warriors surveillance vehicle
Four blocks from CommTECH Research Facility
Houston, Northern Territory
“I can’t believe he did that,” Hunter said, sounding as stunned as Striker felt. “And on camera, too. With the whole world watching. He may as well have painted a target on his back. On all our backs.”
He wasn’t wrong. Mace had moved faster than humanly possible, falling to his stomach on the ledge, grabbing Keiko by the ankle and swinging her up to catch her. There were going to be a whole lot of questions about how he’d managed to save her.
“Was he supposed to just let her fall?” Friday asked, frowning at the screens, where Mace saving Keiko was being replayed.
“No.” Hunter blushed at the reprimand. “But a normal person couldn’t do that.”
No. They couldn’t. To react with that sort of speed, you needed the genetic advantage of an animal that shared your DNA. One that excelled at moving fast and keeping its balance while doing it.
“The news has slowed the footage down.” Hunter pointed to the screen. “They’re saying it was adrenaline.” He looked up at Striker. “That could work, right? I mean, normal people can move cars and stuff when they’re wired out on adrenaline. Can we push that as an explanation?”
“Spread the rumor that he’s had training, maybe gymnastics or something like that, and, fueled by adrenaline, his training kicked in and made the rescue possible.”
“I’m on it.” His fingers flew over the keyboard.
Friday’s wide, mismatched eyes looked up at him. “Will anyone believe it?”
“I don’ know, bébé. People look for ways to explain this kind of thing. This is as good an explanation as any.”
Striker hoped to hell the media and everyone watching would buy the adrenaline theory. If CommTECH found out Mace was part of the Red Zone Warriors and remembered the footage of him on the ledge, all they had to do was put two and two together to come to some worrying conclusions—like there being something worth knowing about the entirety of his team. It was bad enough that CommTECH was out to hunt him down. This could send them after all of his team.
“He should have fallen off the ledge,” Friday mused as she stared at the slow-motion footage. “He’s so wide, I don’t understand how he didn’t fall off the ledge when he caught her. It was like one of those acrobat acts where they throw each other around. Maybe it was possible because of the difference in their sizes. When he gets back to base, I need to run some tests on his skills. I think they’re changing again.” She looked up at him. “You need to tell me what his animal is so I can figure out what’s going on.”
“That’s between you and Mace. I don’ have the right to tell you what his animal is.”
She huffed. “He’s so stubborn, and he loves to annoy me. He’ll never tell me.”
“You could probably guess,” Hunter p
ointed out.
Striker wrapped an arm around his wife’s waist and kissed her head. “I’ll talk to him. Tell him he needs to stop messing around and come clean.”
“You brought me on board to study your DNA. To give you answers. I can’t do that if he won’t cooperate.”
“That wasn’t the only reason I brought you on board, bébé.” He gave her a wicked smile that made her cheeks turn pink. “But once this is over, I’ll talk to him. Okay?”
She nodded as Sandi snapped her old-fashioned phone shut and turned to them.
“Things just got a whole lot worse,” she said. “I got word from Zane that the Mercer twins are on their way to Houston. They’re coming to deal with the situation personally.”
The air in the van thickened, and it became harder to breathe.
“How long ’til they get here?” Striker asked.
“Couple of hours at most.”
“If they realize Mace is part of your team, they’ll try to capture him so they can flush you out.” The color drained from Friday’s face. “They’ll take DNA samples. It’s standard procedure. If CommTECH gets hold of him, all of your secrets will be revealed. We need to do something to help him get out of there, right now.”
“We could start with getting that camera off our guy,” Gray said from the front of the van, where he’d tried to put distance between himself and the rest of them. Gray had become far too good at isolating himself, which was why Striker had brought him along on this op—he wanted to keep an eye on him.
“Sandi, Gray,” Striker said. “Deal with the helicopter. Let’s get the light off Mace.”
With a nod, they were out the door and running for their hoverbikes. The door slammed behind them, echoing through the interior of the van.
“Hunter, where’s the rest of the team?”
“Still at least an hour away.”
Striker contacted one of the team members who’d already arrived, speaking to him through his comm. “Ignacio. The Mercers are on the way. Cover the front of the building and keep an eye out for them. Let me know as soon as they arrive.”
“On it,” came the reply.
Chapter Sixteen
Downtown
Houston, Northern Territory
Sandi zoomed through the streets of downtown Houston on a bike that silently skimmed the road. It was fast and efficient, but she still missed the old Harley she’d helped Mace fix up when they were teens. She’d barely known him then, and he’d scared the life out of her. He’d been the massive, strange kid who was placed alongside her in foster care. Back then, she’d been a skinny teen who’d jumped at her own shadow and was afraid she’d get kicked out into the street if she so much as made a sound.
She would never have spoken to Mace if he hadn’t approached her first. But one day, he’d asked her to fix his bike with him, the bike he kept hidden from their useless foster parents in case they sold it. Some of the best times in her life were spent working on that bike with Mace. It had turned them into family. Her only family. Mace was her brother, and she would die to save him.
“Cordon up ahead,” she told Gray through the comm unit installed in her helmet. “What’s happening at your end?”
They’d split up. Coming at the research facility from different directions.
Gray let out a huff. “Got a wall of cops blocking my path. I’m looking for an in.”
She spotted an alley sitting between two of the heritage buildings and nipped into it. It narrowed toward the end, but she skirted through, turning her bike into the street behind it. To her right, Buffalo Bayou snaked through the darkness, city lights glittering off the surface of the water. The old aquarium sat abandoned on the other side of the water, destroyed in one of the many floods that had hit Houston over the years. The same floods that had turned the bayou from a lazy stream into a deep river. A lot had changed in the years she’d been gone from Houston.
“I’m getting blocked at every turn.” Gray didn’t sound happy.
She sped between two more buildings, glimpsing the top of the research facility in the distance. If she was to have any chance of taking out that chopper’s light, she had to get a whole lot closer than this. Trusting the sensors on the bike to keep her from hitting a wall, she did a visual scan on the area, looking for a building high enough to take her shot from.
Got it!
She veered to the left, jumped the sidewalk, and headed for her target. The building she’d earmarked was an older skyscraper that rented its offices to businesses at the lower end of the market, which meant security wasn’t as tight as it was in some other buildings. Not that she cared. She’d blast her way in if she had to.
“I’m getting nowhere here.” Gray sounded disgusted.
“I’ve got something. Give me a minute.” She came to a halt, jumped off the bike, grabbed her rifle bag, and ran for the main entrance.
The area around the building was dead, and, at the sight of the gun pointed at him, the lone guard on duty swung the door open wide.
“Do I have to shoot you to stop you from calling Enforcement?” she asked him.
“Lady, I’m happy to look the other way for a payday instead of a bullet.”
That was all she wanted to hear. Sandi unzipped the pocket on the side of her pants and took out the credit chip she’d placed there earlier. She flicked it at him, and he snatched it from the air.
“There’s enough on there to make sure you forget me ten times over. If you don’t, I will find you and deal with you. That’s a promise.” She made sure he heard the conviction in her voice.
Sweat beaded on his brow, and he nervously swallowed as he motioned to the elevator. “Where do you want to go?”
“The top.” She stepped inside and watched him press his palm to the access panel.
“It’s all yours.” He scurried away before she’d even pressed the right button.
As the elevator shot upward, Sandi took her old cell phone out of her pocket and sent a text to Gray. No one paid any attention to the old cell network. The towers that were still around had been left to rot and were ignored. But there were still enough of them to make it a good communications network for their team. One that was under the radar in a country where pretty much all public communication was accessible to the government.
The elevator doors opened, and she ran for the stairs leading up to the roof. She raced through the emergency door, out into a night where the sky was black and a gentle breeze cooled her cheeks.
Perfect conditions for taking a long-range shot.
She set up in the corner of the rooftop as the helicopter hovered at the edge of the police cordon around CommTECH’s research building. The powerful beam of light from the chopper was easy to make out, but she was too far away to see the object of its focus. Which meant there was no way to tell if Mace was still on that ledge. All she could do was take out the spotlight and hope it gave him enough cover to get out of the building alive.
As she lined up her shot, she took a slow, even breath. Everything within her settled. This was her comfort zone. Her calling. She was born to do this job.
“You owe me, big brother,” she whispered as she pressed the trigger.
Chapter Seventeen
The spotlight suddenly blinked out, leaving Mace to adjust to the darkness again. He would have given his right arm for five minutes alone with the assholes who’d thought it was a good idea to blind them. Not that they gave a crap about putting his or Keiko’s life in danger. To the media, they were nothing more than fodder for ever-hungry audiences.
At a speed that would have made Keiko scream, he ran along the ledge and back to the office. His heartbeat was loud and erratic, his palms were tingling, and his breathing was labored—a leftover from watching Keiko slip from the building. Her fall replayed in his mind, making him break out in a fresh wave of cold sweat. He could have killed his other half for breaking free and heading straight for her. He hoped the little sucker got eaten by a hawk while it was out sco
uring for food.
A voice sounded in his mind. I die, you die.
It’s a risk I’m willing to take, he told it. You put us all in danger.
There was no reply. His other half only cared about his stomach.
Although the bat was to blame for Keiko’s fall, the agility and speed he’d gained from sharing his genes with the animal were the reasons he’d managed to catch her. His reaction had been pure instinct as he fell to his stomach and reached for her ankle. In his mind, he’d seen the whole thing a split second before it happened—he’d read the air currents, knew how much time he had and exactly where he’d grab her. He’d moved like a bat, using the same skills it used to snatch insects from the air.
And it had all been caught on camera.
Striker was going to kill him.
With a low grunt of disgust, Mace reached the broken window and slowed his pace, his ears straining for the slightest sound. Over the pounding of his heartbeat, he heard them. Two men moving about inside the office.
“The newsfeed’s been cut,” one of them said. “Looks like Enforcement took out the light.”
“You think he’s still out there on the ledge?” The second guy’s voice trembled.
“Only one way to find out.” He sounded cocky.
“I don’t hear anything outside. I think he’s gone through the stairwell window with the press secretary. If I were him, that’s what I would have done. I hope to hell he isn’t still out there and coming our way. Did you see the size of him? I didn’t sign up to confront a guy like that. I signed up to free our people. We should just go back to the terrace and tell them he got away.”
“And have Susan execute us as an example for the hostages? I don’t think so,” the cocky guy mocked.
“Come on, Gérard, this isn’t why we’re here. We were supposed to deal with security so we could get the message out. Not chase reporters all over the building.”
Gérard barked out a nasty laugh. “Are you afraid the big bad reporter is going to hurt you? He’s a desk jockey. Like you used to be before you joined the movement. You’ll be fine. Just point your weapon at him, and he’ll pee his pants.”
Red Awakening (Red Zone) Page 12