“Kelan?” she called out, turning to see who it was.
Wait, it couldn’t have been K. The guy she’d seen had a mustache and beard. His black hair had been in a man-bun. Kelan’s wasn’t long enough for that—and he had no facial hair.
Selena pulled the earbuds down. Of course, she didn’t have her comm unit in. Figured. She was wearing her security necklace, though she’d be damned if she’d summon the whole fucking team because one of the guys was playing tricks on her.
Stepping off the treadmill, she sent a look around the room. She hadn’t put all of the lights on when she’d come in, and after the power surge, only one had come back on. Shadows were thick in the far edges of the room.
“Come out, you coward. Show yourself.”
Sonofabitch if he didn’t do just that, his body materializing as he moved into the dim light, prowling toward her. He was huge, like the rest of the guys here. He wore a wool V-neck sweater with a lambskin vest, beige on beige. The dark hair on his chest was exposed. His ragged black beard didn’t cover his jaw entirely, leaving the hollows of his cheeks exposed. His eyes were black, his irises small against the white of his eyes, making them look soulful.
Having met his gaze, Selena couldn’t look away. He walked toward her until only a hand’s width separated them. She reached out to touch him, half expecting her hand would pass right through him as it should have if he were a ghost or a hologram. It didn’t. He was flesh and bone, muscle on muscle, his body hot beneath her palm. And he smelled delicious. She leaned closer to catch his scent. Leather and sweet clover and a musk that was unique to him.
She became aware that he was leaning down to her, breathing in her scent as she had his, but unlike him, she had to stink of sweat from her hard run. He lifted his head. She felt the heat of him on her skin, moving up from her neck to her face.
Bastion. Je m’appelle Bastion. His lips never moved, but the words floated into her mind.
French. That was the accent she’d thought of when he spoke to her before…which he’d never done because he was only thoughts in her head. He wasn’t even fucking real. She was losing her ever-loving-mind.
“I am real.” He caught her other hand and brought it to his chest. “You feel me.” He tugged at the earbuds in her fist. “These won’t keep me from you. Nothing will. And for the record, you smell sweeter than a clover field yourself.” He smiled, his eyes filled with humor.
He was laughing at her for thinking he smelled like clover.
“Never. I would never laugh at you.”
She poked her fingers at his chest. “Listen, motherfucker, I did not invite you in. You have to stay out of my head. How do you do that, anyway?”
“You wound me. But I will do as you wish.” His head shot up, his attention going to something down the hall.
Selena turned to look too, but she didn’t hear anything. When she looked back at the intruder, he was gone. She had only a second to look around for him before Kelan and Greer came into the gym.
“There you are,” Kelan said. “We’ve been looking for you.”
“Why?” Selena asked. She reached for her hand towel, but it was gone. She knew instantly that Bastion had taken it.
Greer was checking out the workout room. “You didn’t have your comm unit in.”
“I thought we had a few days off,” Selena said.
“Your security necklace was malfunctioning, and we had a power surge down here,” Greer continued. “You alone?”
“No. Captain Hook was here with me.”
Merde. Je suis Bastion.
Selena smiled, hearing the pique in the intruder’s voice. She should have been mad that he didn’t stay out of her head. “He’s French. And he’s just as Troy described him.”
Kelan exchanged loaded glances with Greer, then asked, “Uh, Sel, how much of Russ’s spiced wine did you have?”
“I’m telling you, he was here. He’s probably still here.”
“Uh-huh.” Kelan looked around. “And he’s, what, invisible?”
“Sometimes.”
Kelan shook his head. “You probably shouldn’t be alone right now.”
“I don’t think he means us harm,” Selena said. “If he did, we’d all be dead already.”
I don’t mean you harm.
Even speaking telepathically, the intruder didn’t aspirate his Hs.
Say my name. Bastion.
Greer took her arm. “Okay. Say goodnight to your invisible friend now and come back to the game room with us.”
Selena glared at him. “You’re one to talk, you with your ghosts. I never mocked you about them.”
“Because they’re real. Why would you?” Greer shook his head.
“I’m telling you, he’s real too. Two of us have seen him now.” Selena thought about taking a shower in the locker room, but didn’t want to give Sir Peeps-a-Lot a free show. Of course, there was no guarantee he wouldn’t just follow her upstairs and watch her in her room.
I am not a monster, came his answer. And see? I let you walk with them because you have no feelings for them. I have learned who I must keep away from you.
Selena gasped. Both Kelan and Greer frowned at her. She shut her mouth, reminding herself to keep cool and buy time to figure things out. Who was Bastion and why was he here?
The others feel pain when they are near you. I punish them.
“You okay, Sel?” Greer asked.
“I’m telling you, he’s here. We have an intruder. I’m not making this up.”
Kelan nodded. “We’re learning that anything is possible. Before we saw Nick and the Ratcliffs, with their reversed age, or Addy with her strange eyes, I wouldn’t have believed you. Now, who knows. There’s that odd static that keeps showing up. We’ll look into it when we drop you off with the others.”
“I’m going with you,” she said.
Greer nixed that. “You’re not, because you’re not being rational right now.”
Selena felt anger swirl inside her, alive and tangled. Her friends—her only allies—didn’t believe her, as she knew they wouldn’t. And the phantom man, whom no one else could see, thought he owned her world.
What I am, what I think, what I do, are none of your business, she said, hoping she was somehow able to communicate with him.
Ah. You are a natural mind talker, Selena. I knew you would be. And you are mistaken. You exist for me, and me alone.
Other Books by Elaine Levine
Red Team Series
(This series must be read in order)
1 The Edge of Courage
2 Shattered Valor
3 Honor Unraveled
4 Kit & Ivy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
5 Twisted Mercy
6 Ty & Eden: A Red Team Wedding Novella
7 Assassin’s Promise
8 War Bringer
9 Rocco & Mandy: A Red Team Wedding Novella
10 Razed Glory
11 Deadly Creed
12 Forsaken Duty
13 Max & Hope: A Red Team Wedding Novella
Sleeper SEALs
11 Freedom Code
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Men of Defiance Series
(This series may be read in any order)
1 Rachel and the Hired Gun
2 Audrey and the Maverick
3 Leah and the Bounty Hunter
4 Logan’s Outlaw
5 Agnes and the Renegade
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. To obtain permission to excerpt portions of the text, please contact the au
thor at [email protected]
Published by Elaine Levine
Copyright © 2018 Elaine Levine
Last Updated: April 21, 2018
Cover art by The Killion Group, Inc.
Editing by Arran McNicol @ editing720
Proofing by Carol Agnew @ Attention to Detail Proofreading
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All rights reserved.
Print ISBNs:
ISBN-13: 978-1717135124
ISBN-10: 1717135129
About the Author
Elaine Levine lives in the mountains of Colorado with her husband and a rescued pit bull/bull mastiff mix. In addition to writing the Red Team romantic suspense series, she’s the author of several books in the historical western romance series Men of Defiance. She also has a novel in the multi-author series, Sleeper SEALs.
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