“If she was sober, you might have a point, but she’s not sober tonight,” Aja explained. “At least try, Captain Talon. That’s all we ask. The alternative will get us all reported to Peyton. May Shiva spare us all another lesson on public displays of power.”
“Fine.” Sighing in defeat, Will walked a bit closer. “Hey, Meara.”
Meara stopped dancing and so did the AIs.
Will smiled and waved. “I had trouble sleeping so I thought I’d come by and see how you were doing.” He looked at the AIs—they were obviously waiting for further instructions. He stared hard at them, thought about what he wanted them to do, and hoped to fuck he was accomplishing something.
“Hiya, Captain Serious. As ya can see, I’m dancing with my friends here.”
Will cleared his throat. “How long have you been dancing? Your friends look a bit drained to me.”
Meara drew in a gasp and laughed. She turned to the AIs. “Are you all getting tired?” All four shook their robotic heads. Giggling, she looked innocently back at Will. “See? They’re not tired at all.”
William’s head hurt the moment the reboot commands took place. All four droids fell into metal heaps. “Uh… are you sure they’re not tired?”
Meara turned and stared at them all on the ground. “Well, feck me. I thought robotic men might be able to keep up better than human ones. I swear I have no luck at all.”
Will snorted. He still needed to pass it off… no, what he needed was a distraction. “Luck? Are you still upset about not getting the enhancements you wanted? Maybe you can talk to Kyra about getting bigger breasts. Being a woman, Kyra might be more sympathetic than Nero. That should fix your man problem once and for all.”
Meara huffed and fisted her hands on her hips. “I knew it. Ya lied to me. Ya do think I need bigger boobs.”
“No, that’s not what I said. If you recall our earlier conversation, I said yours were adequate.”
Meara marched toward him. “No. They’re too small. Feel them,” she ordered.
Will shook his head. “That’s not a good idea out here in full view of everyone, Meara.”
“Feel them or I’m going to call ya a liar until yer dying days, William Talon. If ya don’t do this, I will never trust a word ya utter again.”
Will sighed and lifted his hands to her chest. His touch was purposely light, but she was determined as usual to push his dignity out of reach.
“Fecking wimpy-arse boob squeezer…” Meara muttered, grabbing his hands and shoving her breasts hard into them. “Get a good handful and then tell me ya think they’re adequate. I fecking know better. They’re small as hell.”
Will heard a chorus of choked laughter coming from behind him. They would all pay for this humiliation—every last damn one of them. When he got over being mad at the others for laughing at Meara’s drunken actions, he realized she was leaning her forehead against his collarbone. He also had the realization that she was a tiny thing compared to the other cyborg women he’d been this close to.
“Meara? What are you doing?” Will asked softly.
Her face tilted up briefly before she returned her forehead to his collarbone.
“I’m being patient and waiting on ya to tell me the fecking truth. Guess I’ve gotten used to Marines. Army men take too much damn time to find their fecking balls. A horny woman could get bored waiting so long, ya know.”
The combination of embarrassment and anger sent his processors spinning wildly. Will used one hand to lift her chin while the other hand tightened possessively on the far more than adequate breast it held.
“Your breasts are fucking fantastic but dealing with the rest of you is a pain in the ass,” he said.
“Well, look who’s throwing stones. You’re a handsome man who’d rather play dead than take a chance on…”
William’s mouth covered hers out of self-defense. All the laughter behind them stopped. In fact, all talking stopped. In fact, everything inside him stopped too—including his rational thought processes.
He’d been captured by the enemy once during the war and given no water for nearly two weeks. Even cyborgs had a limit beyond which they would die of thirst. The moment he’d escaped he’d drunk the first water he’d come across. It had been in a rusty bucket used for god-knew-what but he hadn’t cared. Water was life and it had tasted like ambrosia.
Meara’s hungry kiss tasted like that to him now. Blood rushed to places he’d forgotten he owned. Lust traveled like lightning through him. Her kiss literally turned his libido back on and he started to get hard for the first time he could remember since his tormentor had gotten hold of him over a decade ago.
Startled by his epiphany, Will tried to pull away from the moaning woman he held, but Meara’s strong arms slipped around him and kept him against her. God, Meara was stronger than most men he knew.
“See?” Meara said in a husky whisper. “I knew ya were going to be like this. No one with a smile like yours was meant to be a fecking eunuch.”
Instead of hugging him tighter as he expected, Meara backed away from him, reached up to pat his face, and walked around him to where a now speechless Aja and Lucy waited for her.
Will glanced down at the AIs guards. They were finally starting to come around. Soon they would return to their normal programming. He turned and watched as Aja led a stumbling, still- humming Meara away.
Sighing, he walked back to where Lucy and Eric stood with wide eyes and twitching lips. “Not a damn word,” he ordered.
When they lifted their hands in surrender, Will walked away from them without glancing back.
This day had given him a hell of a lot to think about. Meara had just given him even more.
5
“I wonder if Kingston would teach me how to make his Happy Cyborg Juice. That stuff would sell like crazy to the proper market. Cyborgs would pay top dollar, though I think I would sell it in smaller bottles with a warning to limit intake. Goddess, I can’t believe I’m having these thoughts. This might be the first legitimate business I’ve ever thought of starting.”
Aja lifted one brow and stared. “You want to learn to make it so you can drink a whole bottle alone again and spew it all back all over the bathroom floor. We have one bathroom, Meara. You will not defile it again with your overindulgence. I will lock you in a closet to sober up before I let that happen.”
“Look, Ms. Perfect, I cleaned my mess up afterward, didn’t I? My system cleared right out when I got rid of the excess. I was only a little over my limit with a whole bottle.” Meara rose and carried her empty breakfast plate to the kitchen. “Thank ya for the food, Aja. I’m much steadier after it.”
“You’re welcome,” Aja answered flatly. “And don’t forget you owe Captain Talon an apology.”
“For what?” Meara asked, befuddled by her friend’s statement. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard ya apologize to anyone but me and Lucy.”
“I’m being serious, Irish. You forced the man to feel your tatas.”
Meara thought of Will’s hard, possessive grip on her breast and laughed. “Guilty, I guess. I made the eejit kiss me too. What do I owe him for that?”
“An even bigger apology,” Aja said firmly.
“Save yer breath, Aja. I can’t apologize to him,” Meara said. “But I appreciate yer advice on the matter. It shows ya honestly care about Will’s feelings and that’s real progress for yer cold, unfeeling heart.”
Aja snorted and glared. “Can your wicked tongue not form the simple words to say you’re sorry for acting like a drunken idiot last night? You’ve said the words to me often enough. It has never killed you to admit being wrong.”
“Yeah, but I’ve truly meant I was sorry when I’ve said it to ya, Aja. I wouldn’t be meaning it with Will. That’s a form of dishonesty I’m not willing to indulge in with him.”
“You’re being unfair about this,” Aja declared, knowing Meara hated unfairness.
“Am I, Ms. Expert On Men? Have ya kissed Nero yet?” Mear
a waited until her friend dropped her gaze. “Ya see, that’s the difference between us. I’d rather have a little something from a man I lusted for than nothing at all. Denial does not feel righteous to me, Aja. It just feels lonely. Will is lonely too. Now he knows he doesn’t have to be.”
“Didn’t it ever occur to you that maybe he likes his life like it is? Not everyone is looking for a hearts-and-roses relationship. Maybe he’s not lonely at all.”
“Not bloody likely since the man…” Meara stopped abruptly, unable to mention Will’s reluctant and surprising rise to the occasion while they were kissing, not even with the woman who generally heard her every thought. She read in his file that his programmer had rendered him impotent which was probably why he’d been shocked by it happening as natural as it had. If she’d had explained it to Aja, her friend would have been all sympathetic, but she also would have known far more about Will than Meara wanted anyone but her to know.
For the first time since she was a young woman, loyalty to a man was going to trump her loyalty to the women in her life. It was a startling revelation… and bit unsettling.
She met Aja’s glare with one of her one. “William Talon is living in a past he’ll never get back. The worst he can say is no to any offer I might make him. And I’ve made none, in case ya were wondering how depraved I got in the two minutes Lucy, Eric, and ya watched us making out. Perverts. None of ya turned yer backs, now did ya?”
Aja threw up both hands. “Fine. I will let karma teach you this lesson.”
Meara rolled her eyes at the threat and stomped out the door. Aja and her indignance were taking up the entire apartment these days.
Maybe it was time for her to get her own place.
Nero tucked the portable com close to his chest. “We have to be careful not to damage the AIs we’re using for our test. They are the most sophisticated guard bots Norton makes. They’re on special loan to us…”
Meara chuckled at the phrase. “Ya mean ya borrowed them from their charging docks and are intending to return them later when no is around to see ya.”
Nero rounded on Marcus. “Is that where we got them? You stole these AIs?”
Marcus shrugged. “Peyton asked me to procure a couple of the most advanced bots for the tests. It wasn’t like the awake ones were going to come with me because I asked. No direction was given about who to contact for your special loan, Nero. So yes, I pulled the most charged-up set I could find.”
Meara smiled at Nero’s near-outrage. “It’s okay, Dr. Bastion. We won’t hurt them… or at least I won’t.”
“Perhaps I am not as sure about that as you are,” Nero said tightly.
“Oh, relax, Nero. Ya can trust me,” Meara said. “I’ve been practicing already.”
“When?” Nero demanded, hating that his voice went so high when he was agitated. “You were only upgraded yesterday, Meara.”
Meara winced. She saw Marcus grinning at her tongue slip. “Well, ya see… I sort of procured the guards in my apartment building to test my new powers. When Will visited last evening, I think he tested his powers on them too, but ya should check with Will for exact details. I was slightly inebriated when he stopped by so everything’s a bit fuzzy to me today.”
Nero glared fiercely “You experimented on Norton’s most sophisticated guard bots when you were drunk? Have you lost your mind, Meara?”
“No,” Meara said firmly. “Ya had my head open just yesterday. If anyone knows the state of my mind, I would think ya would be the one who did.”
“Which is precisely my argument,” Nero declared.
Meara looked at the AIs. “Keep calm and watch this. Maybe it will make ya feel better. I’m turning them on.” The AIs went from lifeless heaps on the ground to rigid robots with their complete attention directed at her.
“Fine. What else can you make them do?” Nero asked.
Meara grinned and shrugged. “How about this?” She sent them the code she’d kept from the previous evening. They began Step Dancing to it immediately.
“What is that?” Nero exclaimed. “What in the world are they doing?”
“It’s called dancing,” Meara said. “Surely you’ve heard of it, Nero.”
Nero waved at the bots. “How is this helpful?”
Meara thought about it and shrugged. “Helpful, I’m not sure, but it’s highly entertaining.”
“Turn them off,” Nero ordered flatly. “Turn them off now. We’ll wait for Will before doing anything more. Perhaps his more logical mind will inspire you to take this training seriously, Meara.”
Sighing, Meara sent the command to stop. The AIs fell to the ground in metal heaps. “Now yar mad at me, aren’t ya? I can tell because yar sounding like Shiva’s handmaiden.”
“I will not discuss Aja with you,” Nero declared.
Meara crossed her arms. “Then let’s get the feck back to yer important testing then. What’s the holdup with Will this morning? Where is he?”
Nero slapped his tablet across his jacket to glare. “How is that any of your concern?”
“I don’t know if I need to be concerned—that’s why I asked. Is he ill? So far as I know, he wasn’t imbibing last evening as I was,” Meara demanded.
“No. He received an unexpected visitor. I think it must be a family member because they share a last name. Meara, where are you going? We’re not finished yet. I’m sure Captain Talon will be here shortly. Come back here.”
Meara didn’t answer… or obey. She activated her advanced tracking mechanism—the one she’d read had been upgraded—and quickly located Will in a nearby building.
Something was flashing warnings against the back of her mind but those she ignored.
Her instincts were singing. She’d obey those over her cybernetics any day.
Will walked into the room, his insides instantly clenching in a kind of emotional pain he hadn’t felt since Kyra had first attempted to restore him. He’d been insulated then by the extreme pain he’d suffered daily. After that had been resolved—or mostly resolved—the rest of discovering his human reality was like reading a sad story about some stranger.
The moment he’d stepped through the door and saw the woman he’d once loved and married, all their human life together returned in a rush to torment him with the magnitude of his loss. His human mind had obviously been suffering from denial on some level.
His military career always had been tough on their relationship, but he’d loved Cassandra and the kids as much as he’d been able to. If he hadn’t volunteered for the cyborg conversion, he and Cassandra would probably still be together. Yet not volunteering had never crossed his mind as an option.
Winning the war had been his primary focus when he’d made the decision, and his side had won that war, so he’d been right. Any soldier paid a price for his or her service. Will had accepted—was trying to accept—that losing Cassandra and the kids had ended up being his. He’d brought this emotional pain on himself with his past choices. However, choosing not to feel it today seemed beyond any ability he had.
“Hi, Will. I’m sorry it’s been so long. Considering all you’ve been through, I have to say you’re looking pretty good. I’m thankful for that. Truly.”
“It’s the cybernetics,” Will explained, not bothering to greet her.
It was odd, he thought. They could have been talking about anything. He wasn’t even following the conversation yet. He was trying to get a handle on her being physically present. Cassandra, on the other hand, was looking nervous and like she’d rather be anywhere but where she was.
“Cyber scientists can fix pretty much anything in your body,” Will added to break the uncomfortable silence.
What he didn’t say, but could have, was Kyra could also rid him of some of his memories of her if he wanted. He would never do that because he’d traveled that flushed memory road once too often already. Kyra was willing to try for a complete dump but Will was not willing, even if he did frequently wake with alarming heart palpitations
and sweat pouring out of him.
He watched Cassandra nod and look away. It was like she couldn’t bear to look at him for more than ten seconds. Her apprehension filled up the room and seeped into him with a body language he’d long ago learned to read.
Hoping to be wrong for once, or to learn something additional that would give him closure, Will listened to every nuance as the woman he’d once promised to love and cherish cleared her dry, raspy throat to speak.
“Look… I know me being here is probably a shock to you after all this time. I’m sorry I haven’t been to see you before now. I intended to come months ago, right after Dr. Winters informed me you’d been found, but I didn’t know how to explain myself or the decisions I’d made over the years. And I’ll be honest, Will… I didn’t know how I’d feel seeing you again after what the UCN showed me. It’s just… it’s hard to deal with what they turned you into.”
Will nodded, thought about it, and then shrugged. “Recordings like the one you were shown were designed to get the average human to think cyber soldiers were extremely dangerous. Most of them were hoaxes and have been proven false since the restorations. I conceded that any soldier—human or cyborg—is only as sound as their mind, though. That’s always been true. It’s not only the case with cyborgs.”
“Was your recording a hoax?” Cassandra asked bluntly.
Will could have lied to her about it. His cybernetics would have punished him for lying, but he had handled that pain before and survived. He deliberately and willfully chose not to lie to Cassandra today because part of him knew it would hurt worse when she discovered the truth down the line. The outcome would always be the same. He’d be the same monster to her no matter at what point she learned the truth.
“No,” Will said flatly… and as unapologetically as he could. “I wish I could say differently, but my recording was not a hoax. When I was captured after the war, whoever had me programmed me to be an assassin. Killing is what I did for a living. Dr. Winter’s efforts at restoration broke that coding and freed me as much as she could.”
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