Adrenaline Heat

by Carolyn Reilly

  “Don’t worry. I picked one of Derek’s trusted lawyers. He’ll handle everything. All I need is your signature. He’ll hold on to the papers for now, but I want this farce of a marriage over the moment Lexi’s safe.”

  Luna’s stomach knotted to the point of physical pain, but she forced herself to reply. “Okay, I'll sign them now.”

  He swiveled back to look at her, brow furrowed.

  Wasn't that what he wanted? If the situation were different, she would have tried harder. She would have fought for him teeth bared and claws extended. But as it was, this was not about her now. Not even about them. He could have exposed this whole charade now, but he was playing along to keep Lexi safe, which was so much more than she could ask of him, given the circumstances. So, she would give him what he wanted. Let him move on if that was what he needed. Even if it would rip her heart to shreds. She deserved it. “Have a pen?”

  He turned wordlessly, fished a blue one out of the SUV’s glove department, and handed it to her.

  Dying a little with every page she turned, she found the dotted lines for their signatures. His was already there. Steady and straight. She sighed and tried to sign, but without a solid surface, the pen didn't work.

  Blowing out a breath, Oliver turned around and offered his back for her to sign the papers. “Here, use me one more time.”

  The remark stung her heart. And her eyes. She blinked and stepped behind him, holding the papers against his warm back. With a heavy sigh, she signed silently while all she wanted to do was wrap her arms around him and hold on until he finally felt how much he really meant to her.

  As soon as she was finished, he abruptly turned, and she gave the pen back to him. Their fingertips touched for a second, and electricity zinged through her.

  He pulled back his hand as if her fingers were hot stones and looked her straight in the eye. “We might have actually worked.” He pressed his lips together for a second, then said, “Minus all the lies and deception.” Pointing at the divorce papers in her hand, he added, “Mail them ASAP. For both our sakes.”

  She could have sworn there was a sad note in his tone.

  Looking straight ahead, he climbed back into the vehicle, reversed out of the driveway, and left without another glance at her.

  And that was what she'd have to do now too. She didn't have the luxury of wallowing in her self-inflicted pain. She had to focus all her attention on getting her hands on Lexi’s files. As much as she wanted to break down, she couldn't afford to halt on broken glass. She had to keep setting one foot in front of the other no matter how bad it hurt. Oliver had been her rock, her shield, and never in her life had she felt as safe as during those seven months with him. But she was on her own now.

  Oliver checked the rearview as the gates to the Committee compound slowly opened for him to drive through. He should’ve taken the divorce papers back with him after Luna had signed, but her reaction had tripped him up. He hadn’t expected to get her signature right there and then. He groaned. Maybe because the fool that he really was would have liked her to fight for him, just a little.

  His grip on the wheel was so tight that his knuckles turned white. Hell, no. He should be glad this would soon be over. Nothing but a bad memory.

  Looking up at the façade of the Committee’s red apartment building that was sandwiched between the main offices and a little private park, he couldn’t bring himself to go to his new studio. Both he and Luna were assigned studio apartments there to avoid GovCorp finding out they were not together anymore. This way Luna was able to appease Lewis by telling him she’d managed to convince Oliver to move to the compound where she would have easier access to information about the Committee’s work.

  Although Derek had seen to it that a few floors were between his and Luna’s new home, Oliver dreaded having to stay at the apartment complex. He’d only been back from Mexico for one day, but the silence in the studio drove him nuts. Back at their house, Luna had always seemed to have a tune on her lips. And it had always gotten even louder and happier when she made him do his share of the chores. He’d never minded; he would have been happy taking out the trash and programming the household appliances for the rest of their lives. He bit out a bitter laugh. In his ignorant wedded bliss, he would have happily cleaned the toilets by hand if they weren’t self-cleaning. How could he’ve been so blind?

  He parked the SUV between the apartment complex and the office building. Crossing the black pavement, he sneaked around a tree to avoid a colleague backing out of her parking space. Two more hours to kill before the fight club opened. Though he could have just used the Committee’s gym, he preferred the club to blow off steam. Maybe enter a fight or two later.

  Wet snow squished under his boots and dripped onto the hallway’s stone floor as he entered the Committee’s lounge.

  After he bought a tall regular at the small coffee shop, he noticed Max sitting at a corner table, his thumbs frantically moving across his phone’s screen. Oliver headed over and pointed to the empty chair at his table.

  Max nodded enthusiastically without taking his eyes off the screen. Faint battle sounds came from the phone’s speaker, then a big boom followed by silence. “Yes. Gotcha.” Grinning, Max balled a hand into a victory fist and leaned back. “Sorry, had to make a point to one of my ex-SpecOps teammates.”

  “Gamer nerds,” Oliver grunted and took a sip of his hot brew, but the warmth cascading down his throat did nothing to relax him.

  Max cocked his head and shrugged the comment off. “You’ve been gone for a while. Was Mexico good for you?”

  “Pretty good. We found some more leads pointing toward GovCorp’s involvement with the leading drug lords.”

  Max grabbed his jacket from the empty chair to his right and dropped his phone in one of the pockets. “That’s good. Heard about it. But that’s not what I was referring to.” He set his coffee mug to his lips and swallowed a couple of times, never taking his eyes off Oliver.

  Oliver liked Max well enough, but he sure wouldn’t discuss Luna with him. “I know. Not going to talk about that.”

  Luckily, Derek strode right toward their table as he came from the lobby. He shrugged out of his wet coat and nodded to Oliver and Max in greeting. “Oliver. Excellent job down there in Mexico. How are Cruz and Sela doing?”

  Oliver waved a hand. “They’re totally rocking the show.”

  “Did you meet Tyler Garrett?”

  “Hell, yeah. I know he’s new and all, but that guy isn’t a team player.” He was scarily effective though.

  Derek nodded. “I know. Don’t worry about him. You won’t be working with him or see him around here too often. He’ll primarily do solo jobs and stick to South America and the Caribbean.” After a glance at his phone’s display, he threw a look at the rapidly forming line at the coffee shop counter. “Let me go grab some caffeine.”

  It was almost three o’clock, so a lot of people would soon come to grab their afternoon latte and a snack.

  As soon as Derek had left, Max leaned closer. “Did something happen with that new guy?”

  Oliver huffed, and his mood got a little darker thinking about Tyler Garrett. The man gave off a vibe that didn’t sit well with him. “No. Just a hard-assed bastard. Operates like a robot.”

  “He a GV?”

  “No, definitely natural. Built like a GV though. Ex-con. Lots of prison tats and bald as a bullet.”

  “Seriously?”

  Nodding, Oliver settled back in his chair and took another sip of coffee. Seeing a man with his head in the nude nowadays usually meant he was either an escaped convict or a newly released prisoner. Due to hygiene problems in the overcrowded private correction facilities, inmates got shots to stop hair growth for as long as they were locked away. And no man on the outside ran around bald anymore now that you could buy a full head of hair for the price of a sandwich. Except for the occasional rebellious youth who’d shave their heads and eyebrows, and even cut their lashes to taunt the authorities an
d show off their badassery.

  Derek set his latte on the table with a clang. “Guys, we all have pasts we’re not proud of, don’t we?” His phone beeped, and he checked the message with a groan. “Extracurricular board meeting.” Grabbing his coat and adjusting the lid of his thermos mug, he tossed an apologetic look at Oliver. “I’ll see you tomorrow to discuss some future assignments. All right?”

  Max also rose to his feet. “Got to go spy on Lewis some more.” Unfortunately, Lewis always carried a strong drone scrambler, which made it impossible to just send one of the tiny fly-sized spy drones after him. “See you later, man.”

  Oliver gave both men a short nod before Derek and Max snaked their way through the crowding lobby.

  An hour and a half later, Oliver set foot inside the fight club’s gym. The vast holographic screen that spanned one wall of the room showed the latest news, covering a story about GovCorp’s alleged involvement in drugs and weapons deals in South America. Anger raged through Oliver. How the hell did that info make it into the news? This was exactly what they’d been trying to avoid. He rubbed his neck in irritation as GovCorp’s speaker denied all allegations. Oliver could already tell that nothing would stick now that GovCorp knew the Committee was on to their collaboration with the Mexican cartels. Trying to put an end to the corporation's illegal activities proved more difficult than he’d ever anticipated. Even now after the Committee received additional funding from the government and the team had been expanded.

  On his way to the locker room, he rolled his shoulders, drawing in deep breaths. Jake had called him earlier and tried to cheer him up, but Oliver wished his batch sibling would be here right now. They’d always come to the club together to spar and slug it out when their adrenaline levels had left them itching. Though he’d only known Jake for a couple of months, Oliver had really come to think of him as a brother. A brother he sorely missed. He changed into his gray gym shirt and black trunks. Two other guys did push-ups and crunches in the far corner of the room. Although the air smelled like bleach, the mildew-blackened grout between the dirty tile floor convinced him to take his warm-up to the training mats in the adjoining gym area.

  After a couple hundred crunches and pull-ups, he started working on the bags. Just when he finally managed to ban GovCorp from his head, one of Luna’s favorite songs blasted from the gym’s sound system and sent a new adrenaline rush through his system. His heart had never belonged to anybody before Luna. It had always only been hers. Hers to break. Hers to crush. He literally saw red and punched the bag in front of him so hard it split, and sand ran out in long rivulets.

  “Save the aggression for the ring later,” the guy jumping ropes next to him complained. But after one warning look from Oliver, he shut up and minded his own business.

  Some fight club groupies approached. “So much aggression. Why don’t you come to the bar with us and have some fun? And who knows, we could go somewhere else later maybe?”

  “Thanks, girls. But I have a fight later tonight.” Ignoring their faint protests, he walked away toward the connecting door to the fight club. Unlike his brother, he’d never minded the girls; they wanted to get off, he wanted to get off, where was the problem? But that was before Luna, she had been a monumental game changer. She’d become his world.

  And then she took it from him.

  Drinking some cold water from the fountain behind the door, he wished he could just get drunk like a natural, grab one of the girls, and screw the emptiness inside away. But he couldn’t. Couldn’t get drunk on alcohol, unless he spent the whole night tossing shots. Couldn’t even stand the thought of touching any other woman than Luna, and sure as hell didn’t want any other woman’s hands on him. He almost hoped one of his opponents tonight would knock him out until the following morning. Take him out of his misery for a few hours. Or at least tire him out enough so he could sleep at night. At this point, he would have even welcomed the nightmares and the fractured memories that used to haunt him. Memories like ghosts of all the people he’d killed. But none of them had visited him anymore for quite a while. Initially, he had hoped that his happiness with Luna had chased them away. But if that would’ve been the case, he should already be plagued by nightmares again. Now that she was gone.

  He walked over to the fight cage and tried to watch the sparring fight that went down inside. But his thoughts revolved around his past. It had been difficult enough coming to grips with all the feelings Luna’d brought out of him when they started getting serious. He’d never felt strongly about anyone before. He wasn’t supposed to. It was part of his batch’s genetic makeup to be unempathetic. And the drugs and brainwashing he’d received during his kill squad days had only reinforced his dispassionate behavior.

  But when he met Luna, he'd thought he could outrun his fate, outsmart his DNA, and be something other than the cold-blooded killer GovCorp had created. He clutched the fight cage’s fencing. It was time to accept the truth. Time to stop trying to be something else than the uncaring merc he was birthed to be.

  Staring at the soft-sided dividing wall of her office cubicle, Luna fiddled with the charm bracelet she’d received from Derek the day after New Year’s. The little butterfly charm held a tracker, and Derek had made it very clear that he expected her not to take the bracelet off. Her breakfast croissants mocked her from the edge of her desk, but she couldn’t get anything down. She shouldn’t have signed the divorce papers yesterday. Her gaze flicked to her purse underneath the desk. She’d brought them along, but she couldn’t bring herself to drop them at the lawyer’s office on her way to work this morning.

  Wilson. The name in her chiming phone’s display sent a shiver down Luna’s neck. Not that Amanda Wilson wasn’t a friendly woman, but she was Lewis’s assistant. Luna took a deep breath and answered the call. As she’d expected, Lewis wanted her to come to his office. Her skin crawled. Could he have found out about her and Oliver’s separation? She left her cubicle and made her way to the stairway, trying to buy herself some time. Climbing the stairs, the three floors to Lewis’s office would take a few minutes longer than taking the elevator, but it wouldn’t save her from the dreaded meeting. She tugged at her blouse’s collar. No matter what, time wasn’t on her side.

  As she entered his assistant’s office, the young brunette was in a phone conversation but knocked the air with her fist and nodded toward Lewis’s opaque privacy glass door.

  Luna smoothed her hands down the front of her gray business suit. Not because she wanted to make a good impression on Lewis, but to calm herself down. She straightened her shoulders and knocked on the smooth glass surface in front of her.

  Lewis’s response was swift. He pulled the door open, grabbed one of her shoulders, and spun her around. “Accompany me to the lobby, I’m late for lunch.” His voice sounded hoarse, as always.

  The metal doors of Lewis’s small private elevator clanged shut behind them, and Luna felt like gagging as his heavy cologne reached her nostrils.

  Humming, he adjusted his red tie and smoothed it down his protruding belly. “So, how are things going with your husband? He’s been away for quite a while. Is there something we should worry about?”

  Luna forced the edges of her mouth into a smile and shook her head. “No. Everything’s fine.”

  Buttoning his suit jacket, Lewis stopped humming and narrowed his already tiny eyes. “Oliver Shaw was seen visiting a divorce lawyer’s office.”

  Icy fingers clutched her windpipe. This was precisely what Luna had been afraid would happen. But she’d prepared for it and forced herself to remain calm. “Oh, I understand. But I’m sure you are aware that this lawyer’s office handles all kinds of legal matters. As I told you before, we’re selling the house. That’s the only reason why Oliver saw the lawyer. His office had been recommended to us by Derek.”

  Lewis huffed as he heard his cousin’s name. “All right. Can you prove that?”

  “What do you mean? I’m already doing everything I can. I’m upholding my en
d of our deal. But you won’t let me see Lexi.” The frustration in her voice wasn’t faked. “What do you want me to do? Bring him to the company retreat?” She knew Lewis would not be interested in inviting somebody who’d successfully infiltrated GovCorp before.

  But the wicked smile that crept across Lewis’s face had the hair on her arms stand up. “Quite the mind reader, aren’t you? As a matter of fact, that was exactly what I wanted to suggest. Do bring your husband, please.”

  Oh, no. She’d made a critical mistake. Oliver would never come. It would probably be hard enough to get him to show himself shopping with her occasionally to keep up appearances. But acting like he was still head over heels in love with her over the course of a three-day getaway? “How am I to explain this? He spied on you. He’ll be suspicious if you invite him.”

  The car shuddered as it came to a halt, and the elevator doors opened on the ground floor. “A generous gesture of goodwill. And an apology for the offensive things Professor Anderson did to him.” Lewis strode out into the marble lobby, and her heels clicked as she followed him to the main exit where his limousine waited.

  Unable to bite her tongue, Luna hissed. “You mean the abhorrent things GovCorp did to him.”

  His jovial expression darkened. “No, that was Anderson’s doing. The corporation was kept in the dark about the full extent of his rogue project. We wouldn’t have condoned it.”

  “Of course not.” Luna couldn’t quite keep the sarcasm from her voice.

  Lewis’s eyes narrowed again, but he didn’t comment. His driver opened the door of the black limo, and the deputy director hefted his body inside.

  Luna grabbed the door and leaned down to make eye contact with Lewis. “He won’t come.”

  “If he loves you, as you claim, he’ll let you convince him. We cured him, paid for your honeymoon. Didn’t you say he loved those Barbados memories?” Lewis motioned for the driver to close the door, and Luna had to jump out of the big guy’s way to keep her fingers from being squashed between the doorframe and the chassis.