by Sandy James
Gina’s world had been reduced to Zach’s embrace.
“What do you think?” he whispered.
Was it her wishful thinking or had his lips actually brushed her earlobe? She started trembling.
“It’s great.” You’re great. You’re so masculine and so sexy and so...
“Think the government will approve?” His question was followed by the gentle brush of his lips against the sensitive skin of her neck.
Gina closed her eyes and leaned back against Zach as his strong arms slipped around her waist, pulling her against his body. A shuddering, needful sigh fell from her lips.
“Gina?” he whispered in her ear, a hoarse and ragged sound.
All she could do was give a hungry hum in response.
“You smell good.” He kissed her neck again then nuzzled his nose in her hair. “Like fresh strawberries. And I love purple. It’s my favorite color now.”
The twenty bucks she’d spent for that name-brand shampoo had been worth every penny, and she would do whatever she could to keep her hair’s hue from ever changing again.
He turned her in his arms, and she found herself eye-to-eye with him. They were the same height. She tried to memorize each line, each freckle on his face, wanting to hold the information close to her heart to savor when she could no longer see him anymore.
She was an Amazon. He couldn’t be a part of her world, at least not for very long. She would protect him. Then she would have to leave, to move on. There would be yet another danger and yet another person who needed her help.
For the first time since she’d become an Amazon, that notion made her sad.
“Why the frown?” Zach traced her bottom lip with his fingertip. She wanted to draw that long finger into her mouth and suck on it. “Why so sad?”
Because I can’t have you. I can’t even get to know you too well.
If she got close, her goddess would wipe his memory when this mission was over. Her frown deepened.
“Gina...” He pressed his forehead to hers, and she closed her eyes again, enjoying such an intimate gesture. “You feel it too. I know you do.”
“I do,” she whispered a moment before his lips touched hers.
A loud buzzer interrupted their kiss before it had properly begun. She wanted to rip the offending phone off his desk and hurl it against the wall.
“Mr. Hanson?” Jenny’s voice blared through the office, every bit as drenching as a bucket of cold water.
Zach gave a low growl as he pulled back, dropping his hands to his sides. “What?”
“You don’t have to get surly with me, young man. Geesh. Need some coffee?”
“I’m not surly.”
Gina found a smile at the tone he used—one that was most definitely surly.
“Yes, you are. Joel Woods is—”
“Put him through.” Zach hurried back to his desk chair and reached for the phone.
“He’s not on the line.”
“Why the hell not?”
“He asked to meet you at the Starbucks down the block.”
Zach brushed right past Gina. One mention of Joel Woods, and he’d dropped her without a moment of thought.
So much for them sharing something special.
“Where do you think you’re going?” she asked.
“Where do you think I’m going? Gotta meet Joel Woods.”
She had to hurry to keep up with him. “Not without me, you’re not.”
Chapter Four
“What did you say he looked like again?” Gina asked Zach before she glanced over at Richard and frowned. Protecting Zach in a place like this wasn’t going to be easy.
Any one of the men in the Starbucks could have been Joel Woods. Stepford business people. Stereotypical tourists. They were crowding into the too small shop, making her claustrophobia flare. She hated crowds and San Francisco was full of them. Everyone seemed to need a midmorning caffeine jolt at the same damn time, and they all hit this shop instead of the other four on the block.
“I already told you,” Zach replied, waiting calmly at the table for Joel Woods to arrive. He took another sip from his paper cup.
Crowds didn’t seem to affect him at all. In the time she’d followed him, his patience never wavered, a virtue she wished she could adopt. Amazons weren’t patient—it was a fact of nature.
“Short,” he answered. “Brown hair. Really nice phone.”
“They all have brown hair and really nice phones.” She tossed Zach an annoyed frown. “And everyone looks short to me.” At least he’d left his invention behind, locking it up tight in the file cabinet before they headed out.
She downed the last of her drink, wishing she’d gone for some espresso instead of her usual foo-foo drink that was more caramel than coffee. Although she’d snuck some rest before Richard had awakened her that morning, between his feeding and her lack of sleep, her energy was sadly lagging. What she needed was some serious sleep, a good meal and some time back in Avalon to recharge her batteries.
She hadn’t actually trained at the Amazons’ camp, but it had quickly become her home, just as it was for her warrior sisters. It wasn’t like she had ever stayed in one place for too long, having moved during her childhood more times than she could remember. Such was life when your guardian claimed her gypsy blood forced her to roam.
Avalon represented stability, a permanent home. A bit ironic considering the camp could magically move to new locations. The constant shifting and some magicks from the patron goddesses kept the Amazon base hidden and protected, providing a safe haven from the dangers of the world.
Right now, she needed to be there, to see her sisters and to let go of the nearly crippling stress. This mission was taking a lot out of her, more than she’d anticipated. But the stakes were higher than any mission she’d ever undertaken—maybe higher than any Amazon had ever faced. If Sekhmet got ahold of Zach, she could use his skills to help her—force him to use all his technological expertise against the world.
The Amazons could only guess at what drove Sekhmet. Even Richard wasn’t sure why she was so bent on destroying the world. Sure, she was called the Destructor. But hell! There had been many others like her in almost every culture—beings created to do nothing but destroy. What made Sekhmet dangerous was having magical beings as powerful as the Sons of Gaia aiding her quest.
Until Gina and Richard figured out how to protect Zach, a trip to Avalon was out of the question.
As if reading her mind, Richard leaned over, wrapped an arm around her shoulder and gave her an affectionate squeeze. “We won’t be here forever. We’ll take care of this—” he shot a scowl at Zach, “—problem. Then I’ll take you home.”
Zach glared at Richard but spoke to Gina. “You and Dick live together?”
She breathed a good, long sigh. From the moment she and Zach had rescued Richard from Jenny’s overzealous attentions, the two men had been poking at each other, spoiling for some kind of fight. She was drowning in machismo and heartily sick of it.
Shrugging Richard’s arm away, she turned to Zach. “No, Richard and I don’t live together. He’s talking about my home. He knows I miss my sisters.”
* * *
Relief washed over Zach. His attraction to Gina was growing stronger by the minute. The interrupted kiss they’d shared in his office—one he still couldn’t believe he’d found the courage to initiate—had him wound as tight as a coiled spring. While their lips had touched for a mere moment, the contact had been overwhelming.
When Richard touched her, it took all of Zach’s self-control not to knock that arm away and punch the smug smirk right off Richard’s face. Swallowing the ridiculous jealousy he couldn’t seem to shake, he tried to make conversation and find out more about Gina. “You have sisters? How many?”
When she smiled, she took his breath away. “Three.”
A few moments passed before he realized she wasn’t going to tell him anything else. No names. No ages. No funny sibling stories about four g
irls sharing a bathroom or fighting over an adolescent boyfriend. He hated prodding her, normally preferring the same silence she seemed to enjoy, but his curiosity was killing him. “Where are you in the pecking order?”
“No pecking order.” Everything about her was enigmatic. Including her answers.
“I thought all siblings had pecking orders. You know, the oldest, the baby. Are you telling me you’re a quadruplet?”
“They’re not really her sisters,” Richard said, jumping into the conversation as if he was welcome. He wasn’t.
“They are,” Gina insisted.
“Sounds like an interesting story. Tell me about them.” Zach wrapped a hand around where hers rested on the counter. He savored the softness of her skin and Richard’s hateful glare. “What are their names?”
Her whole face lit up, making his heart beat faster. She loved her sisters very much, whether they were blood relations or not. Maybe they were sorority sisters.
No. That didn’t fit Gina’s personality at all.
“Rebecca’s the oldest. She’s the one who watches over all of us.” She turned her hand so she could give his a squeeze. Then she pulled away and fiddled with her empty cup. “She’s got two kids of her own, but she’s always checking on the three of us to see if we’re all right.” She glanced over at Richard who had a frown fixed on his face. “Rebecca’s his sister. His blood sister.”
“Half sister,” Richard corrected.
That explained Gina’s connection to Richard. Zach nodded, hoping to encourage her to continue. He wanted to learn everything there was to know about Gina Himmel, everything that Richard already knew. “And the others?”
“Megan’s sort of our black sheep. She’s like me. A little bit—um...”
“Out of control?” Richard suggested.
“Impetuous,” Gina replied. “Sarita is the one I’m closest to. We trained together.”
“Trained?” Zach asked.
She frowned so hard and so fast, he wasn’t sure what had caused the change. He watched in fascination as her hair highlights tinted from a blue to a deep pink. The sudden change brought a few curious stares from the other Starbucks customers.
“Gina?”
“I’ve got a big mouth,” she grumbled.
Richard patted her back as if he understood her slip.
Zach wished to hell he knew what they both did.
“We learned how to fight together,” she added. “You know—how to protect people.”
“Are the four of you the Amazons?” Zach asked.
She actually gaped at his question open-mouthed.
“Didn’t you say you worked for Amazon Security?”
Her tensed shoulders eased, but before he could explore that odd reaction, he saw Joel Woods peering in the window of the coffee shop.
Zach inclined his head. “There he is.”
Her highlights tinting vivid crimson, Gina shoved her chair back and stood up. Richard stood by her side.
“Where?” she asked.
“He’s coming in now. Blue pants, white shirt.” Zach got to his feet, tossed the empty cup in the trash can and started toward the door.
She stepped in his path. “I need to meet this guy first.” Her eyes had gone from sweet and soft to threatening and dangerous in no time flat.
“Oh, please... Joel Woods isn’t a terrorist. He’s an inventor. A geek. Like me.” He waited for her to move.
She didn’t.
“Will you please let me by?”
Richard blocked the left side when Zach tried to step around Gina. “Let Gina do her job.”
Joel reached out to shake Zach’s hand.
Gina gently but insistently pushed Zach’s arm away.
Joel gave her a head-to-toe visual sweep before his eyes hardened. “Who’s this?”
“My new bodyguard,” Zach said, as Gina returned Joel’s appraisal in an obvious review of her own. “Well? Is he a terrorist?” It was hard to keep a mocking tone out of his question.
“Not from what I can tell, but I haven’t frisked him yet.”
“Nor will you.” Zach moved around both Gina and Richard and extended his hand to Joel. “Hi, Joel. Sorry about the fuss. Glad you could meet me here.”
Joel reached out and touched his hand. A shock shot up Zach’s right arm like a lightning bolt. Heat enveloped him, sending waves of pain racing through his limbs. He could smell burning flesh—his own burning flesh. The rhythm of his heart increased until he thought the organ would leap right out of his chest. He couldn’t catch his breath.
No air. There’s no air.
Unable to bear the agony, he fell into the darkness.
* * *
“Damn it.” Gina slammed her fist down hard on Joel’s arm so he would release a collapsing Zach. A kick to the midsection sent Joel flying backward into a bookshelf full of small bags of coffee. They rained down on him as he struggled to keep his balance.
With a quick nod to Richard who moved to defend her back, she knelt down next to Zach to see if he was still breathing. Her heart hammered in her chest as she pressed her fingers against his carotid, praying that he was still alive. Shockers had been known to kill humans, but she’d rapidly broken their connection. Zach couldn’t die. He couldn’t.
“Please, Ix Chel, please,” she whispered before his steady pulse beat against her fingertips. “Thank you, thank you.”
Gina rose, ready to finish off whoever the hell was wearing Joel Woods’s face, but Richard beat her to the punch. Literally.
Unfortunately, he hadn’t realized he was facing another Son of Gaia as she’d quickly guessed. Before she could warn Richard, he leveled a wicked punch to the guy’s face, hard enough that when Richard got the “rebound,” he fell to his knees, holding his hands to his now bleeding nose.
“He’s a SOG!” she shouted a few seconds too late.
Gaia had been one cunning Ancient, knowing how divine siblings often turned into enemies. She’d cursed her sons with protection from each other. Whatever a SOG inflicted on his brother came back ten-fold on the aggressor. Richard called it “rebound.” His punch to the SOG’s face had assuredly broken his own nose. He couldn’t help her now.
Gina moved past Richard to follow his punch to his brother with one of her own.
The SOG was already teetering, ready to fall. She helped him the rest of the way, and with only two hits, he was crumpled into a limp form sprawled on the floor. Since everyone in the Starbucks had either fled or backed up to a safe distance, there was no one to break his fall.
Pity.
She couldn’t take any satisfaction from dropping the guy or inflicting more damage for what he’d done to Zach. They had to get out of there. Fast. Those damned SOGs never came alone, and although Zach needed to be safe, so did the other idiots in the coffee shop.
“Richard, can you get up?”
He was already dragging himself to his feet. “A brother?”
“’Fraid so. Can you get Zach?” Before he could answer, three men ran in the door, and they obviously weren’t coming for caffeine. “Shit. Reinforcements.”
She had to face them alone. And, thanks to all the civilians who were witnessing the fight, without weapons. The dagger strapped against her lower leg would have to remain hidden.
The Starbucks became a battlefield. Gina punched the first SOG in the throat before he could block her attack. Her front sweep knocked him flat on his back. Before she was able to rise to her full height, one of them jumped over his fallen brother and plowed into her. She shoved him off, then landed a solid kick to his groin before he could recover his balance. Another SOG down—hopefully out of the fight for good—as he rolled around screaming, his hands covering his damaged testicles. She hoped they were lodged in his gut. Her kick had been more than enough to put them there.
Served him right.
Taking a fighting stance to face the third attacker, she saw the first getting back to his feet. She desperately wanted to look over her shoulder t
o check if Richard was getting Zach out of the line of fire, but the two SOGs closing in on her kept her total attention. At least Richard wasn’t trying to rejoin the fight. Then she’d have to protect him, too.
She glanced over at “Joel Woods.” He, too, was getting back to his feet.
The odds were four to one.
Gina allowed herself a smug smile.
Bring it on.
Two of the goons jumped her at the same time. The first grabbed her in a bear hug while the second reached out to touch skin.
She surrendered her weight, making the first SOG bend forward, then ducked and drove her head into the shocker’s midsection. The head of the guy holding her hit the attacker’s skull with an audible thud that brought a grin to her lips.
A hand brushing her skin threw a jolt, but she was able to pull away fast enough to stop debilitating pain. Gritting her teeth against the burns that made her whole body flush hot, she shoved one of the SOGs aside, buried her fingers in the shirt of the shocker and tossed him over the counter. He and the espresso machine ended up on the floor. His screams told her the burns he’d put on her arm had been repaid by the steam pouring out of the machine.
Hopefully ten-fold.
When testicle boy struggled to his feet, she gave him another groin kick. The groan he made as he fell to the ground sounded like a constipated moose. That image made her grin.
“Joel Woods” stumbled at her, arms spread wide. She ducked under one arm before kicking the back of his knees. As he fell to the floor, she gave him a hard kick to the back of the head that would put him to sleep for a good long while.