by Cynthia Eden
There was something about his voice… “Maddox?” Luna prompted.
“We’re watched, twenty-four seven. And we’re kept separated in rooms that we aren’t supposed to be able to escape, not even with our enhanced strength.”
Her stomach twisted into thick knots. The pizza suddenly wasn’t sitting so well. “I thought we’d volunteered.”
“And once we did, it seems we sold our souls away. We don’t make a move without the lab coats knowing about it.” He seemed to make some sort of decision. “There’s something you need to hear, baby.”
He was making her feel even more nervous.
“I’m not taking you back to the facility. I’m not ever taking you back there. Because if you go back, they’ll kill you.”
A dull ringing filled her ears. “What?”
He stared straight in her eyes. “You’re under termination orders, Luna. If you step foot inside the Lazarus facility again, you’ll die, and you won’t come back from the dead.”
***
Jett rushed away from the safe house. He’d jumped in his ride and hauled ass as fast as he could. And when he thought he was safe, when he thought he was far enough away…
He yanked out his phone and called his handler. The guy picked up on the second ring.
“Are they in position?” the guy asked in his cold, nasally voice. Henry fucking Danwith. The guy looked like a prick and sounded like one, too.
“No,” Jett said quickly. “They aren’t.” He’d screwed up, and he had to fix this thing, now. “Maddox wasn’t at the safe house. I have no idea where he and Luna are. They must have changed plans on me.” His words were coming too fast. He needed to slow them the hell down.
Silence.
“Did you hear me?” Jett demanded. “They’re not in the cabin near Aspen. I’ll keep looking for them, and I’ll update you as soon as—”
He heard a whistle, something shooting through the air. He jerked to the side even as the windshield in front of him shattered. Sonofabitch! The tranq missed him, lodging in the driver’s seat. “What in the hell?” Jett snarled into his phone.
“We know they are here,” Henry said, voice smug. “And you’ll all be coming back to the facility immediately.”
The hell he would. Jett sprang out of the vehicle.
And a barrage of tranqs fired at him.
Chapter Nine
Her eyes were so deep and dark. He could fucking get lost staring at her.
“They were going to terminate me?” Her voice was a husky whisper.
Shit. He crowded closer to her as they sat on the bed. “That’s what you told me, the night you vanished. You and I—we were communicating telepathically.”
Her eyes widened. “Do we do that a lot?”
She’d often reached for his mind, in the middle of the night. And he’d felt her, as if she’d been right in front of him. “Yes.” Tread carefully.
“And I told you I was going to be killed?”
“You said they were coming to terminate you. I tried to get to you, I swear I did, but they tranqed me.” His rage had overwhelmed him. Rage and a cold fear. He’d been desperate to get to Luna. He should have thought things through. Planned his attack better. If he’d kept his cool, he could have used his psychic power to take out those bastards who’d stormed at him. But his control had been shattered. He’d been like some kind of wild beast. The guards had swarmed after he’d burst out of his cell. He’d taken two men down, sending them crashing to the floor, but the other guards had kept coming. The tranqs had taken him out, and he’d lost her. No, he’d failed her.
He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.
“I think they knew what you could do.” It was the only thing that made sense to Maddox. “They found out that you can give us our memories back.”
“Why would it be so bad to have them back? Bad enough that they want to kill me?”
“They won’t. I swear it.” He wouldn’t let that happen.
She bit her lower lip. His body immediately tensed because his gaze dropped to her mouth. Such a sexy mouth. She was sexy. Luna had starred in more fantasies than he could count. And, now, the fact that he’d known her before Lazarus…
What happened back then?
Why the hell did I have the knife on me?
He’d stabbed the blond. The man who planned to marry Luna. Maddox knew that shit. The weight was cold in his gut. After Maddox had stabbed him, the blond guy had fired those fatal shots.
He killed me.
And Luna.
Darkness stretched inside of Maddox. A fury that consumed. For an instant, the scene changed. He could feel Luna in his arms, smell her blood, see her falling…
“Why do you look that way?”
He blinked.
“You looked…like you could kill.”
He could. He had. But not her. Not—
I’ve been obsessed with her since I woke up in the Lazarus facility.
Maddox let out a slow breath. “You should rest. We both should.” He’d driven for hours to get them to this safe house. “We’ll make a plan when we wake up, okay? I’m thinking we’ll head to Canada.” He slid from the bed. “Start fresh there.”
Her hand caught his. “Will you stay with me?”
“I’m not just going to send you off to Canada on your own—”
Luna shook her head. “No. Right now. Will you stay with me, right now?”
His chest ached. So did his cock. “Probably not a good idea.” A very, very bad idea.
“Why?” Her hair slid over her shoulder as Luna stared up at him.
“Because you need rest. You don’t need me to fuck you.” There. Couldn’t get more honest and brutal of a truth than that.
But she smiled. Smiled. “How do you know what I need?”
Oh, sweet hell. She liked to play with fire. “Luna…”
“Everything in my world is insane. Nothing makes sense to me. The only time I stop being scared and stop feeling like I am absolutely lost…it’s when we’re making love.”
He tried again, “Luna…”
“So, yes, I do need you to fuck me. I’d like it very much.”
Was he supposed to be able to walk away after those words? His dick shoved against the front of his jeans, and he wanted to pounce on her. To take and take until the past and any memories there—they didn’t matter. Maybe the past was better dead and buried. Maybe he and Luna could just go the hell forward.
She didn’t need to know about his sins.
“How about we just start with a kiss?” Luna asked.
Her voice was sexy, husky, sweet. Maddox found himself leaning over the bed. He put his hands on either side of her, and he lowered his head until their mouths were just inches apart. “Kiss me, Maddox.”
It was her voice, but she hadn’t spoken, not out loud. She’d used the mental communication link they’d shared so often in the past. A link that he’d missed with her. Her mental touch seemed to slide through his whole body. His mouth took hers in a hot, open-mouthed kiss. His tongue stroked against hers. Her taste drove him crazy, made him desperate for so much more. And she still had the mental link open between them. It was as if she’d lowered a barrier in her mind, and Luna was wide open to him.
As he kissed her, he could feel her need. Her hunger. He pulled away from Luna just long enough to yank her sweater over her head, and he dropped it to the floor. He unhooked her bra. Sent it flying someplace, and then his hands were on her breasts. Teasing her tight little nipples, caressing her. Kissing her because he loved her taste. He liked the way she moaned into his mouth. Loved the way she arched against him.
And this…this was different. Having her mind open to him. She wasn’t holding any part of herself back from him. She loved what he was doing to her. The desire she felt was real and hot, rising and surging more with every touch.
His hand slid down her stomach. He touched her through the jeans. She’d jerked up to her knees on the bed so that she could put her
hands on him, so that they could reach each other easier. He pushed his fingers against the crotch of her jeans. She rocked her hips back against him.
This is wrong. I should stop—
“Nothing is wrong,” Luna whispered, obviously picking up on his thoughts because the link between them was so strong. “Nothing that feels this good can be wrong.”
He closed his mind to her. Shut down fast because she didn’t know what he’d been holding back from her, and Maddox couldn’t risk her finding out the truth. Not then.
But she gave a little gasp and pulled back. Her nails bit into his shoulders. “You left me.”
And he missed the link, too. Missed the way that she’d burned right through him.
“I want it back,” Luna said. “I wasn’t alone.”
“Baby, you’ll never be alone.” He tumbled her onto the bed. Managed to yank off her jeans. Lost her panties with them. He kissed his way down her stomach. Fucking perfect Luna. Moaning and arching beneath his touch.
His Luna.
I don’t care what the sonofabitch in my past said.
He parted her thighs. Stroked her clit. Got ready to taste what he’d wanted for so long—
The growl of an engine reached him. Maddox’s shoulders stiffened.
Luna moaned.
He wanted to put his mouth on her. Fucking heaven was waiting right there but—
A rustle of sound. Sound that didn’t belong. Footsteps? “Someone is outside,” he snarled.
Luna’s breath heaved out.
His instincts were screaming at him. “Baby, baby, stay right here.” Leaving her was hell, but protecting her was his priority. He pulled away from the bed.
“Maddox?”
He hurried for the door. “I hear something…”
“Probably Jett coming back.” Her words tumbled out.
No, he didn’t think so, because Maddox could have sworn that he’d heard more than one person’s footsteps. But now there was only silence.
“I don’t hear anything,” Luna whispered.
He glanced back at her. She’d pulled on her green sweater. She stared at him with her wide eyes, her flushed cheeks, and her red lips—lips red and swollen from his mouth.
He wanted to return to that bed. To put his mouth all over her. But they had enemies, and he knew someone was outside.
“I cut out the tracker.” Luna’s hand went to her side. The wound had healed. “They couldn’t have found me.”
Maybe. But he had to be sure.
His phone vibrated. The phone he’d forgotten was even in his pocket. Maddox yanked it out, staring at the screen. A text from Jett had just appeared.
Come outside. Big fucking problem.
Maddox narrowed his eyes. He didn’t text back. Instead, he sent out a fast, psychic message—one that he targeted right to Jett. “Why the hell are you texting? Too lazy to talk this way?”
Maddox waited, but…nothing.
The phone vibrated in his hand again. I’m right outside. Shit. I don’t want Luna hearing this. We can’t trust her.
“What’s happening?” Luna asked.
He could still taste her on his mouth. Maddox crept toward the window. Glanced out. Sure enough, the vehicle Jett had used earlier was outside. He could even see Jett in the driver’s seat, his body slumped down low. “Something bad.”
She jumped from the bed. Grabbed her panties and her jeans and hauled them on. “Maddox?” Luna shoved on her shoes.
Jett should have been communicating with him psychically. The fact that the guy wasn’t—bad. Very bad. “We’ve got company,” Maddox told her grimly.
Luna nodded. She squared her delicate shoulders.
He caught the rustle of more movement. Knew the place was being surrounded. But how, how had he and Luna been located so quickly? “We’ve got to go.” Out the back. They’d run as fast as they could. And he’d take out anyone in their way.
The unit outside was assembling quickly. He could hear them coming. Closing in. More vehicles were rushing to the scene. And a chopper’s blades beat in the distance.
Sonofabitch.
He caught Luna’s hand. “Come on.” He had weapons downstairs. They’d get armed, and then they’d get out.
They raced down the stairs. He went into the den and hurriedly opened the trunk that he’d used as a weapons storage area. Armed, ready, they rushed for the back door. He yanked it open, heading out first—
“Good job, Agent Kane.”
A tall, brown-haired man with pale features stood in front of armed men. Maddox instantly recognized the speaker. Dr. Henry Danwith. The doc who led the group of lab coats at the Lazarus facility.
“You found her.” Henry smiled broadly, revealing his perfectly white, perfectly capped teeth. His hair had been slicked back away from his forehead. “I knew you would. When Jett called to tell me that the mission had been a success, I couldn’t have been more pleased.”
Maddox lifted his gun. Aimed it at Henry. He counted easily two dozen men out there. And he should have heard those bastards. The very fact that he hadn’t heard them assembling until it was too late told him that Andreas was there.
There was a reason Andreas was the super soldier so good at infiltration and surveillance. The guy could cover the whisper of movements. Mute the approach of an enemy team. A talent very helpful in the field.
A talent that was a pain in Maddox’s ass right then.
Because there were too many men for him to take out. Henry had come well prepared. Too prepared. And Maddox was betting that all of the guns currently aimed at him were loaded with tranqs.
If I attack, I’ll take out some of them, but they’ll tranq me. Their fingers would squeeze the triggers before he could knock them all out. There were just too many guards there. If he fought, Maddox had no doubt he’d wake up in a cell. And Luna…where the hell would she be then?
He’d freaked out before when she’d been threatened. Attacked first, then lost her. He had to think. And fast.
“Trust me, Luna.” He sent the message on their psychic link. Escape wasn’t an option, not right then.
He felt her fingers on his back. “Maddox, what’s happening?”
But Henry had just given a slight motion with his hand. A motion that Maddox understood because he’d seen the bastard give that same signal plenty of times. Prepare for attack. One wrong move, and all of those armed men would be firing.
“Finding her wasn’t hard,” Maddox called out as he stepped away from Luna. His gaze swept the men, looking for strengths. Weaknesses. “Andreas, where the hell are you?” He fired off the question on the telepathic link that should have linked him to Andreas.
But the guy didn’t answer.
“You are the best hunter we have,” Henry said, his hand frozen in the air. He hadn’t given the signal to fire, not yet.
Maddox shrugged. “That I am.” He turned his head toward Luna. “Sorry, but you need to go back to the facility. We have to find out what was done to you.”
Her lips parted. Shock flashed on her face. “Maddox?”
He focused on Henry once more. “She doesn’t remember anything, of course. Typical Luna. But someone’s been dogging our steps. Someone who wants her very badly. There were signs they’d been experimenting on her, doing surgeries.” He bit back the rage and kept his voice cool. “We need to figure out what’s happening. Project Lazarus is being threatened.”
Fear flashed on Henry’s face. “What?”
“Let’s go inside for a briefing,” Maddox motioned back toward the cabin. He needed Henry to take a few steps away from all of the bastards with guns. “I’ll tell you what I discovered.”
But Henry’s smile stretched. “Nice try, but you think I don’t know?”
I think you don’t know plenty.
“You weren’t going to bring her back to me,” Henry added with a sad shake of his head.
“Of course, I was.” He could lie without hesitation. “I had to ditch the bastards afte
r us, and then we were coming home.” Like those cells were really home.
“Maddox?” Luna whispered. “They’re still aiming all of their guns at us.”
Yes, they were.
“You were going to keep Luna. You thought she was going to be all yours.” Henry glanced away from Maddox, and his stare softened as it landed on Luna. “Luna, it’s all right. You’re safe now.”
What the actual fuck?
“My men will tranq Maddox, and he won’t be a threat to you any longer.”
Oh, hell, no, that slimy bastard wasn’t going to spin—
A sad sigh escaped Henry. “I’m very disappointed in you, Maddox. I thought you would put the team first. It’s a good thing Jett understands the value of loyalty more than you do.” His lips tightened. “You should have just brought her back, Maddox. It would have been so much easier.”
“Screw easy,” Maddox snapped.
“Maddox…” Luna’s voice was high.
“Run, baby,” he growled.
Henry’s hand came down in a hard slash. The signal to fire. Fuck.
Maddox sent out a hard, psychic blast, an absolute wave that blew from his mind as he roared his rage. Ten men immediately fell. The closest ten.
The others—they fucking fired.
The tranqs slammed into him. And he heard Luna scream.
Chapter Ten
“Hold your fire!” The guy with the slicked back hair and chilling smile bellowed.
The men stopped firing.
Maddox had fallen to the ground, and Luna dropped to her knees beside him. She kept her right hand curled around her weapon, even as her left went to his chest. “Maddox?” He’d been hit at least five times, maybe six. But not with regular bullets.
Her hand pressed to his chest. She felt the tingles begin in her wrist. She could help him, heal him…
“Luna, step away from Agent Kane.”
Her weapon immediately lifted and locked on the bastard.
His smile did not reassure her. “You don’t remember me.”
“I sure as shit don’t.” There were so many men there. Humans? Or Lazarus subjects like her?
“I’m Dr. Henry Danwith, and I’m here to help you.”
“Your men just shot Maddox!” That wasn’t helping her. Her fingers burned as she pressed them to Maddox’s chest.