“I got a job for you. Are you up for it?”
Marcus cursed himself silently. He didn’t have the physical prowess he once did. And no matter how much he loved and missed what he used to do, he wasn’t about ready to enter a mission with the possibility of his injury putting others in harm’s way.
He swallowed his pride and answered. “Sorry, man. I want to, but my back… I don’t want to be the reason that –.”
“Shut the fuck up.” Romero cut him off. “I don’t want to hear no pathetic crap about your injury. This isn’t just an ordinary mission. This is one that requires a special skill set. One that only you can perform.”
Marcus sat up in bed. Not everyone that he had served with knew that he held the ability of remote viewing. It was something he’d struggled with since his youth. The Marines didn’t even know. It was a closely guarded secret that he let no one know. No one except his teammate Dan Romero, that is.
Marcus didn’t need to know anymore. If there was a way he could help the Phoenix team and in turn help someone else as well, he was there, on board and fully committed.
“Tell me what you need.”
Chapter Three
Lena paced the hotel room, anxiously awaiting Dan to return with the man he said would help to find her sister. Each time she glanced back at the clock only a minute had passed, but to her, it might as well have been hours.
It was two days ago that she’d returned to find her sister missing.
Two days ago, that she’d made her call to Dan.
Two days ago, since her entire world turned upside down.
The sound of the door handle caught her attention and she hurried to the small closet opposite the bathroom door.
She’d placed the Do Not Disturb sign on the door, but she knew that she had to take precautions just in case.
“It’s us,” Dan called out to her.
She stepped out of the closet and for the first time got a look at the man who Dan referred to as, “the perfect man for the job”.
He stood tall, at well over six feet. His dark hair and even darker eyes held a look of mystery to them. She didn’t know anything about him other than his name, but she could already tell that he was a man who struggled with things.
It was that intuition that made her worry he wouldn’t be the best man to help her find Lily.
“Lena, this is Marcus,” Dan said in introduction.
He held out his hand to her, and she shook it. The second their fingers touched, she felt a jolt of static electricity and his grip tightened.
“Ouch!”
He closed his eyes, still not removing his grasp.
She looked over to Dan for an explanation. “What’s going on?”
“It’s okay. Just let him do this.”
“Do what exactly?”
Marcus opened his eyes and loosened his hold. “Your sister, she has dark hair like you. It’s long, straight and she has a scar just below the hairline on her forehead, right?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
She searched his eyes for an understanding. Normally she was so good at reading people, but in that moment, she was coming up blank.
“Maybe you should explain it to her,” Dan said.
“Of course.” Marcus motioned toward the bed. “Please, sit down.”
She sat on the edge of the lumpy mattress, unsure if she should be relieved he was here or concerned.
Dan leaned against the wall opposite the bathroom and crossed his ankles as Marcus pulled up a chair in front of her.
“Hi. Lena, right?”
“Yes.”
“You can call me Marc.”
“Okay. Mind telling me what all that was about, Marc?”
He glanced over at Dan who nodded at him. “Alright, here’s the deal… the same way you and your sister have certain abilities, so do I.”
“Like what kind of abilities?”
“They call it telesthesia, but it’s basically remote viewing.”
“You mean like… you can see things, people, that aren’t really there?”
“Sort of. Not like ghosts or anything like that. But, I can get a vision of something, or someone by touching something that is important to them.”
“So, you’re like a psychic then?”
“Not exactly. Psychic’s get images at any given time. I have to be able to hold something tangible in order to really zero in on a target. Or in your case, an asset.”
“Don’t call me that.”
“Right. Sorry. That’s my fault.” Dan apologized. “I didn’t tell him about the G.E.A. Well, I did, but not what they were called or that it was a trigger for you.”
“G.E.A.?”
She shook her head. “It’s the name of the organization that Dan and The Phoenix Agency rescued me and my sister from. G.E.A. stands for genetically engineered assets. They treated us like guinea pigs our whole lives. So, the term asset doesn’t have that great of a meaning for me.”
Marc nodded. “Understood. I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine. So, you were saying you were able to zero in on people? What happened with me? Did you… see my sister?”
She could barely get the question out. Her worry for what might have happened to her had been chipping away at her for days.
“I did.”
“And?”
She stopped breathing, frozen while she waited for him to answer.
“She’s tired. A little beat up, but she’s alive.”
The air rushed out of her lungs and relief washed over her.
“How badly is she hurt?”
Marc shook his head and set his hand over hers. “Not bad. Mostly surface bruises, nothing major. From what I’m getting she put up one hell of a fight.”
Lena nodded with pride. “That she would have. She’s strong. Courageous. And has one hell of a mean right hook.”
“That’s good.” He smiled.
“Alright.” Dan pushed himself off the wall and crossed the room toward her. “I’m going to leave you with Marcus.”
“You’re leaving?”
“I’ve got to. have work to do. The team and I need to start tracking down leads if we’re going to find Lily. Marcus here will keep you safe.”
“I’m not worried about me. I’m worried about Lily.”
“Exactly. So, let me do my job and let Marcus do his. Okay?”
She looked at Marc and then back to Dan. “Okay. But please, find her soon.”
“You know I’ll try.”
As Dan made his way to the door, the two men exchanged some hushed words and looks her way. If she wasn’t so worried about her sister she might have insisted they share whatever they were discussing with her, but her thoughts were with Lily and not much more.
Marc closed the door, locking it and sliding the chain into position.
“Have you ever done a job like this before?” she asked.
“I served fifteen years in Force Recon. Worked with Dan for about five of them. So, yeah. I’ve completed my fair share of missions.”
“Do you think we’re safe here?”
“This old motel has been off the beaten path for two decades now. The team only keeps it for safe house purposes. We’re over thirty miles from any type of civilization. No one’s going to find us here.”
“Do you think they’ll be able to find her?”
“It doesn’t matter what I think, Lena. It’s what you have to believe.”
“I’m trying to.”
“Good. Keep trying. Because if there is anyone who can track down who took your sister, The Phoenix Agency can.”
Chapter Four
Marcus stepped inside the room after finishing his call with Dan when he found Lena lying on the bed, sleeping soundly. He’d already decided to not worry her with what they’d uncovered. The last thing she needed to hear was that it may not have even been the G.E.A. who had taken her this time.
According to Dan, Summer Cahill, the wife of one of the agency’s team memb
ers had uncovered some encrypted information on a cell phone that had been dropped at the scene of Lily’s abduction.
The phone was a burner, but it had enough information on it, between deleted texts and call history files, that it told them this may be an operation out of Mexico. Specifically, the Tecomán area. Once thought of as one of the safest parts of Mexico, in the past couple of years it had turned into one of the deadliest. The drug cartels had seen to that.
He’d only been with her about ten hours and he could already tell that she had a tough exterior, showing little about her feelings or what she may be going through.
It had been awhile since he’d been around a woman as determined as Lena appeared to be. His years in the special forces had meant those serving by his side were only men. It was only an occasional rescue of a woman that would allow for his unit coming across a female in the line of duty.
He pulled up a chair and sat down before propping his feet up on the edge of the mattress. Her hair was still wet from the shower she’d taken just before he’d stepped outside. And the sandwich, bag of potato chips and soda were still sitting next to the bed untouched.
He decided not to push the food issue with her today. Being worried about her sister he was sure that food was the last thing she cared about. But, if she didn’t eat the next day he had every intention of arguing with her until she caved.
The minutes ticked by on the small alarm clock that sat beside her food. He knew sleep probably wouldn’t be in the cards for him.
It wasn’t a safety issue. It was a Marcus Knight issue. He’d been out of the game, professionally speaking, since his back injury left him a Veteran. The excitement of having a job to do had him on high alert, giving him a purpose again.
After some time had passed his stomach growled. Rather than let it go to waste, he dug into the food that she hadn’t touched and wolfed it down in a matter of minutes.
Several times that evening he caught himself getting lost while staring at her. Her hair was long, chocolate brown, full of curls and she had the most mesmerizing eyes he’d seen in a long time.
As it neared ten o’clock he got up to do a perimeter check. Grabbing his Glock, he stepped outside and shone his flashlight out at the plains that surrounded them.
He then walked around the five-room motel, looking for signs of life other than animals and themselves.
After several minutes he felt satisfied and went back inside. He returned to his seat and leaned back in the chair.
Marcus tried not to stare. He looked away several times, telling himself that Lena hired the Phoenix Agency to do a job, not gawk at her.
How could he not, though? Her long dark hair lay in a mess on the pillow while she slept. Still, somehow, she made it look so damn sexy he found himself shifting in his chair every few minutes to keep the ache that had been working its way to the surface all day long from coming to fruition.
Lena Frazier was a job. She was a client.
He repeated that to himself a dozen times before he began to drift off, falling asleep watching for a woman that was easily one of the most beautiful he’d ever seen.
Chapter Five
Lena stretched her arms and legs, allowing her tense muscles to wake up and relax. She turned her head to find Marcus sitting in the chair next to the bed. He was sound asleep, but she could barely see his chest rise and fall.
She stared at him for a moment. Wondering who he was. Not his name, or career accomplishments that led him to the Phoenix Team, but she wondered who he was as a person.
“How long are you going to stare at me?”
His sudden question nearly scared her to death. She jumped out of the bed, an instinctive reaction from years of being held captive before the Phoenix Agency had rescued her.
“You’re awake?”
He opened his eyes and grinned. “No, I’m not.”
“So, you’re a smart ass, huh?”
“What’s that they always say? Better than being a dumbass?”
She laughed. “I guess.”
“How’d you sleep?”
She shrugged. “Good I guess. I just woke up.”
“Good.”
“I don’t even remember falling asleep last night.”
“I was only on the phone with Dan for about ten minutes. When I came back inside the room you were already out.”
“Did he have any news? Did they find anything out about Lily?”
He shook his head. “No. Sorry.”
“Would you tell me if they did?”
“Honestly? I don’t know. I suppose it depends on what it is I find out.”
“I need you to promise me that you’ll tell me whatever it is, no matter what.”
“I can’t do that.”
“You have to!” she insisted.
“No, I don’t. My job isn’t to be your friend. It’s to keep you safe.”
She sighed. “Please. She’s my sister. She’s all that I have.”
“All I can promise is that I’ll do what’s best for you.”
“Fine.”
She sat down on the bed and pulled her knees into her chest, annoyed with him for not understanding.
“If you want, I can try to see her again.” He offered.
She perked up at his offer. “Would you?”
“Come here.” He held out his hands to her.
As she moved across the bed she got a much better look at him than she had yesterday when Dan had brought him to her.
Anxiety, fear, fatigue, they all played a part in her being physically and emotionally exhausted.
Now, she was able to see the man who was placed in charge with the duty of protecting her. He had broad shoulders, a tattoo of a dagger peeking from underneath his sleeve of the right arm.
He took her hands as she sat in front of him and closed his eyes. She was fascinated by watching him. His eyes tensed underneath the lids, his brows furrowed together, and lines creased his forehead.
She and her sister are the only two people that she’d known to have any type of psychic abilities. She’d heard rumors at G.E.A. that there were others like them. But, when they were rescued and debriefed by The Phoenix Agency, she found out that she and her sister were the only two being held.
It was one of a few things that struck her as odd at the time. Dan and the other agents from Phoenix would never tell Lily or herself how they’d come to rescue them. All they would say was that someone had hired them. No additional information was ever given, and the agents made it clear that they would never know any more than that.
Then there were flashes of times in her life that she couldn’t reconcile with. Back to her early years of childhood, she recalled memories, or what she thought were memories, of other children playing with them.
She couldn’t remember their names, but she could see their faces. They weren’t imaginary. She was certain they’d existed in the underground dungeon that was G.E.A. headquarters.
“Okay, I see her,” Marc said.
“Is she okay?”
“I mean… she isn’t badly hurt, but I can feel that she’s in pain. Her eyes are open, but she looks tired. Almost drained of all of her energy.”
“Bastards! That’s what they do. They wear us down. Take us to our absolute limits until we are barely able to breathe because we’re so overwrought with exhaustion.”
Marc squeezed her hands. “Shh… don’t distract me.”
“Okay. Sorry.”
“I think I see something.”
He shook his head, his mouth hung open with a word almost on the tip of his tongue. She waited as patiently as she possibly could while he concentrated on her sister.
“I can’t…”
“What is it? What’s wrong?”
“On the wall. There’s something scratched into the wood panels. It looks like… the… no, there.”
“There? What does it mean?”
He sighed in frustration. And with his eyes closed said, “Please, Lena. It’s hard to
concentrate when you are talking.”
“Ok. I’ll shut up.”
She sat there with her hands clutched in his. Waiting and hoping that he would say something to give her optimism.
“Okay, I think I see it clearer now.”
“Before there, I see something above it. It says…” He opened his eyes. “Damn it!”
“What? What is it? What’s wrong?” Lena asked, trying to hide her panic, but failing miserably.
“I lost the vision.”
“What? How? Has that ever happened before?”
“Lena, please. Calm down!”
“I can’t! Don’t you understand? She’s my sister! She’s all that I have. Not figuratively. Literally. I have no one, Marcus! No one!”
She pushed away from him and got up from the bed.
Lena closed her eyes, trying desperately to push the tears back down deep where they couldn’t be seen by Marc.
She felt his presence surround her and much to her surprise she didn’t run away. Instead, she opened her eyes and allowed her humanity to show.
“Come here.” He didn’t wait for her to oblige. Wrapping her up in his arms, he pulled her into his body.
With loud sobs and ugly cries, she dropped her head down into his chest and allowed him to comfort her.
“I’m sorry I scared you.”
In that moment she felt her resistance begin to fade. She was too tired to fight, too tired to run. She was just too damn tired.
Chapter Six
Marcus paced the small room, checking the window every few seconds to see if Lena had returned.
His blood was still boiling from the note she’d left lying on the bed when he’d ducked in the bathroom for a quick shower.
It had been short and sweet:
Marc –
Gone for a run. Be back soon.
Lena
A run! A mother fucking run! If he wasn’t charged with her protection, he would bend her over his knee and give her a firm slap on the ass.
It was a thought that had surprised him, and one he quickly forced from his thoughts. Thinking of his attraction to her was the very last thing he needed to deal with. He needed to keep focused and his eye on the mission at hand.
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