Delicate Beauty

by Nikki Bolvair

  You heard me, I told him silently as I raised one of my own. The general held a file in his hand and slapped it onto the table in front of me. The action made me wince.

  “Hello, Trisha...” he looked down at the file, “Macintosh. I’m General Banes and this is—”

  I glanced up to the person who stood next to him. “Kellan,” I acknowledged with a glare at him. “Where’s Ammon?”

  “He had another pressing matter to attend to,” Banes answered, and Kellen’s gaze shot to him.

  Something wasn’t right.

  “Well, let's get down to business,” Banes prompted as they both sat down. “Miss Macintosh, what is your involvement with the Nero organization?”

  He slid the file over so I could look at it.

  “It was the organization that Melissa and our team were trying to take down,” I answered.

  What was their involvement in our mission?

  The general's face remained impassive. “What agency do you work for?”

  I pressed my lips together and folded my arms as I gave him an impassive stare. “Shouldn’t you already know this?”

  “Come on, Miss Macintosh. Cooperate. You know we're only trying to help the situation. We're all on the same side. Think about it for a minute.” Banes leaned forward with his arms on the table and pointed to the door that led out of the room. “Why would two soldiers be outside that door waiting for you to come out? They both threatened me before I came into this room that if you were harmed, physically or emotionally, that I'd have to deal with them. You are by no means an enemy here.”

  “Then why am I in an interrogation room?” I questioned.

  “Because this is where we do things, and we need for everyone to assume that we are interrogating you. If anything, this is the safest place for you right now.”

  “If you talked to Ammon, you’d know everything there is to know about me.”

  “Miss Macintosh, please.”

  I pushed aside the file folder and tapped my finger on the steel table between me and the general, then glanced past him toward the two-way mirror where the twins stood.

  I glared into it and gritted my teeth. “I'm Special Agent Trisha Macintosh, as you know, and I was on a recon mission. My mission was to send data to an agent on the inside and then extract that agent.”

  “So, you're a handler,” Banes stated as he opened his folder.

  “Yes, I’m a handler. Which you would know if you read my file.”

  “And who is your superior?”

  “Edmond Myter,” I clipped out.

  “And his superior?” he asked, writing down the information.

  I clenched my jaw. “Lindsay Phillips.”

  With that name, the general glanced up to me. “Lindsay is his supervisor?”

  “Yes,” I gritted.

  “Are your inoculations up to date?”

  I frowned and glanced over to Kellen, who also frowned. What did that have to do with anything?

  I focused back on the general. “Why do you need to know that?”

  “Answer the question please.”

  I clenched my jaw. “As of a few weeks ago, yes. They’re updated.”

  He nodded, satisfied with my answer. “Where did your orders come from?”

  “Myter,” I told him.

  “So, what happened that night?”

  “You already know, sir.”

  “Do I? Tell me again.”

  I studied him, unsure. Could I really trust him?

  “You can trust him,” Kellan spoke. He was so quiet, I almost forgot he stood there.

  I sat back, ignoring the mind reader. “Trisha, you know we're on your side, so just give General Banes what he wants.”

  I turned my gaze back over to him, searching for any deception. Finding none, I nodded. I leaned forward toward Kellan. “I swear, if I get back-lashed for this, I'll find you.”

  I'll find you! Kellan nodded his eyes firm. I glanced up to the two-way mirror, staring past it to the twins. And I'll leave them.

  “We're on your side, Trisha,” Kellan repeated.

  “All right.” I turned to General Banes and told him everything I knew... Well, pretty close to everything. Melissa was going to kill me.

  Not Left Behind

  Trisha

  General Banes and Kellan left and with them went my connection to the twins. My palms were sweaty, my heart pounded, and I knew I was screwed. When the interrogation room door opened once again, the last person I expected to see was Melissa. She wore a soldier's uniform.

  “What? How?” I whispered as she beckoned me to hurry. I glanced back to the two-way mirror.

  “No one's in there,” she told me. “I made sure of that. We need to go.”

  “No, we don’t. My brother-in-law is in this. Something else happened that night. That’s why they were there.”

  Melissa gripped my arms. “I know, Trisha. Nero stole the serum, and General Banes was his inside man. We need to leave-now.”

  My heart stopped as a chill ripped into my soul. “You’re joking.”

  Melissa dragged me out the door. “No, I’m not. We need to leave.”

  I nodded and followed, afraid to know if the twins were behind this, too.

  After a short walk down a deserted hallway, she pushed me into a room. “There's cameras, Melissa. They're going to see—”

  “Nope,” she interrupts me, pushing a bag into my hands. “Put these on.”

  I pull out a soldier's uniform.

  “Why do you think no one's around?” Melissa continues. “You're not the only one who can dabble in hacking.”

  After I finished dressing and tucked my hair into the hat, I attached the fake badge she gave me to my breast pocket.

  She nodded with satisfaction. “Now, let's get out of here.”

  “They know who I am,” I told her.

  She turns to me in the hallway, her eyes narrowing. “Did you tell them everything?”

  Offended, I scowled. “No, just everything they expected me to say. But, it wasn't easy. They had Kellan, the mind reader.”

  She rolled her eyes, and we both marched through the compound to the mess hall. I caught a glimpse of Weston and Zane scanning the area.

  “We need to hurry. Crazy guys at six o'clock,” I told her.

  Over the loud speaker, a voice announces, “Attention, all base personnel and civilians, we are currently on lockdown. Please make your way to your lockdown designated areas and check in.”

  “Well, shit.” We moved through the mess hall toward the kitchen when I felt it. Melissa must have to.

  “We need to move,” she spoke as we navigated through the industrial kitchen.

  “They're not bad,” I told her as we continued. “Well, I don’t think they are. The guys and I connected. I can feel them. Can you feel it with yours, too?”

  We make it to another closet, and she pushed me inside and shut the door behind us. “Yes, I feel it. Yes, I knew them. And, I don’t think they know about Banes. I just want to get out of here and let them sort out their breeches while we sort out ours. Plus, I'm not quitting my job to be a wife.”

  I choke out a laugh. “What?”

  She glared at me. “One time. One flippin’ time, and they think I’m theirs. You,” she pointed to me, “are busted. Do not do that. With this crazy connection-blood-thing, who knows what can happen. If you've spent time doing 'the down and dirty,' you'll likely be hitched, too. I am screwed!” she whispered harshly as she climbed up a shelf to a vent high up in the wall. She pulled off the vent cover that had already been previously opened. I guessed this was where she had come in at.

  “Dallon, the idiot, has magical powers to see and detect heat and cold. The morning after, he studied my belly. The idiot was trying to find an extra little heat spot in my stomach! No. Hell, no! A wife? Maybe. A baby? No. Not only that, but Garrett has heightened taste buds and can taste the chemical changes in
someone’s saliva. Yeah, you got that right. Weird.” Her eyes turned to mine as she climbed into the vent. “I'm positive that was what he was doing, because when they looked at each other, they were disappointed! You do not know how relieved I felt knowing that they were disgruntled. They were a thorn in my side when we were kids, and now we’re connected. Someone upstairs hates me.”

  I glanced at the vent, and my heart raced. I didn’t like tight spaces. “Melissa?”

  She swiveled back to me. “Hurry up.”

  My gut clenched, but I climbed in after her anyway. With sweaty hands, I closed the vent from behind. I turned around and followed her, hoping my heart stayed in my chest.

  “Melissa, who did you see get killed?” I asked her quietly, needing to know.

  “Another agent,” she stated with the barest whisper.

  “Was it my father?” I asked her, my voice a hair below a whisper so that it felt like it was a silent question.

  “No. He's still alive, and that's who we're going to save.”

  I paused. “You’re serious? M-my father's alive?”

  “Yes. It was Craig, another agent who was killed.”

  I stopped as tears of relief trickled down my cheeks. My father was alive!

  I started forward with determination. “Where is he? My father?”

  “He’s being held at the Walnut safe house.”

  My mind turned. “And, you need me because I can break the code for it.”

  “Yes.”

  “We need to do something.”

  “I know.”

  I thought about Melissa's earlier conversation with me. Even though I was shocked about how that turned out, I thought she believed that the connection with the guys was based on intimacy.

  “Melissa, I don’t think the connection is based on sex.”

  “Sex or not, I’m not sure what to think. You know those shots we got? Banes issued them. It was the serum with a lower dose. He wanted to see what it would do to us. Experiment without us knowing.”

  “Fuck,” I paused my retreat. “ Why? How did you find that out?”

  “I have… connections.”

  My mind went wild thinking about her “connections” and then to the real issue. “Damn, so we’re really both stuck?”

  “I know you're upset, but we should be quiet while we're going through these vents.” Melissa urged before she started moving again, grumbling.

  I shuddered. I hated this. “Yes. Shut it, will you?”

  She chuckled. “Yes, ma'am.”

  We got to the end of the vent and pulled ourselves out, only to be caught by Weston and Zane.

  I struggled against Zane's hold as Melissa struggled against Weston's.

  “Come on. Let us go. We need—”

  My connection with the twins tingled back to life, and Melissa groaned, dropping her head. I guessed hers did, too.

  “When are you going to stop running away, Melissa?” Garrett asked as he made himself known.

  The twins weren't far behind with disapproving stares.

  “I told you to trust us, Beautiful. You're going to have to learn to trust us,” Tristan growled, his eyes full of fire. Triton nodded in agreement.

  “Why run?” Garrett asked us. “We're on your side.”

  “Because, Myter killed Craig!” Melissa yelled.

  “Craig? Who in the hell is Craig, Firecracker?” Dallon growled. His eyes turned deadly.

  “Explain, now!” Zane spit out. “Both of you.”

  Melissa glared at him. “The agent that was killed.”

  “Why did Myter shoot Craig in the first place?” Weston asked.

  Zane let me go, and my two angry men caged me between their bodies.

  “Because Nero Kovach wouldn’t give him your serum.” She glanced to the men. “Not unless he showed his loyalty,” Melissa explained as she received the same treatment, Dallon and Garrett boxing her in. “Myter shot him, and then Nero gave him the serum. Myter took the serum right there. It was like he was getting high. Laughing and stretching his muscles. But he didn’t expect Nero to backstab him. Nero’s number one grabbed Myter and injected him with something in his neck. A chemical pill that he can control by a fob button, like you’d use for a car. He told him it was a pill of concentrated cyanide. Myter laughed and said the pill was useless against the serum.” Melissa’s features grew taunt. “Nero asked, ‘Are you willing to test that theory?’ By that time, Matt Macintosh and I were made. He ordered Myter to kill us. He’s going to kill Macintosh if we don’t save him. And Bane is in on this too!”

  “What the hell!” Zane exclaimed. “I knew something was off with that guy! Fuck!”

  “Your father’s alive?” Triton questioned.

  “Yes, my father's still alive,” I told them. “And we need to move.”

  Tristen turned to his twin. “Put out an alert on Bane and let’s do some hunting.”

  Stuck

  Trisha

  I was stuck.

  Underground.

  In a flippin’ safe room.

  And, the only man in the space with us held the code to the exit. This sucked big time. Samuel was given strict instructions not to let us out of this room for any reason. They were going to save my father and get Myter into custody while the women sat around and twiddled our thumbs.

  What. A. Joke.

  I glared over at Samuel, another guy on the team. It wouldn't help to knock him out because he had the code memorized.

  I hoped this all worked out. I glanced at Melissa who picked out a donut from the box they left us and decided to join her.

  I was on my second donut and my third glass of milk when an idea finally formed. I’m a hacker. I wanted to literally smack my head. All I needed was a computer and time. I would save my father and beat Myter to a pulp. Melissa could come along if she wanted. I just had to find the hot box.

  As I glanced around the room, I asked Melissa, “What are you going to do when this is all over?”

  She shrugged and didn't look at me. “I'm not sure.”

  “Why not stay?” I watched her pick up yet another sweet treat. “You can't tell me you wouldn't love to have those hunky males around you all the time.”

  Melissa blushed and rolled her eyes. “It's not that.”

  I dipped my voice to a whisper, “PC?”

  She looked confused for a mere second before her eyes twinkled. “Hey! Buff, burly dude!”

  Samuel turned to look at us with a cautious stare. “It's Samuel.”

  “Yeah, well, either one goes, but anyways, is there a computer down here?”

  “No internet down here,” he told us with a smirk, as if he knew what we planned.

  I twisted my lips. Shit.

  “Cellphone?” she asked, grabbing at any thread of technology she could think of that would benefit the two of us for hacking into the system’s computer mainframe.

  Samuel shook his head. “Sorry, can't let you use it.”

  It didn't matter. I looked over to Melissa, and we both nodded. Turning back to Samuel, I threw my hardest punch and watched his eyes open, surprised as his head whipped back when my fist hit the side of his face. He obviously didn't expect violence from me. I heard a crushing sound as my hand radiated pain. I jarred the bones, but I pushed past it as I focused on my other task.

  I reached out with my other hand, pressing the spot in his neck to limit the flow of blood to his brain. I wanted him to pass out.

  A hand shot up and caught mine. My eyes met his furious ones as he growled, “What. The. Hell?”

  It was fight or flight now, and Melissa joined in. I needed to save my father. Something wasn't right.

  With both of us fighting him, we were able to knock him out and steal his phone to search for the computer mainframe to get the hell out of there.

  Dead or Alive

  Tristan

  I had a gut feeling that things weren’t going to go the way
we planned. We needed to change things up. My team surrounded the house and waited for confirmation from Dallon that there was someone inside. There was one person in a room on the top floor, but that was it.

  Triton hacked the security system so entering the safe house was not a problem, but only one heat signature in the house gave me pause. That could mean that Trisha's father wasn't here, or that he was and Myter wasn't. If that was the case, a heat signature would do us no good in telling us if he was dead or alive. Heat stayed with the body after death until the body slowly cooled. We could be walking into a trap.

  The thought made my skin crawl.

  I tapped on my com to signal my team that Zane, Weston, and I were going in.

  I took a window off to the side of the house as Zane took one in the front. Weston made his way up the side of the house to the second-floor window where the heat signature registered.

  When I got into the house, I made sure to keep my steps close to the wall to prevent my weight from causing creaks or groans in the floorboards. The house was silent, my blood pumping through my veins the only thing I heard. Myter wasn't acting alone. I was sure of it, but the question of ‘why’ burned through my mind. I worried as Zane and I, the two men on the first level, moved through the house, securing each room silently before heading toward the stairs.

  We headed upstairs, crept to the door that held the heat signature, and opened it slowly.

  As I did, I saw a man tied to a chair in the middle of the room. His head hung, and I couldn’t tell whether or not he was alive. The shadows shifted as Weston came in through the window, and I signaled him to go over to the man.

  My gut tightened, and before I could signal stop, a popping noise went off. Everyone dropped to the ground. Then, flashes of light and clouds of smoke filled the area. At least, I thought it was smoke as we scrambled to get out of the room. Grunts and groans came through my com piece, and then I blacked out.

  ***

  I woke up with the taste of cotton in my mouth and my arm throbbing. My hands and feet were tied, and a gag bound my mouth.

  What in the hell happened?

  I opened my eyes to find the man still in the chair and all my team members accounted for, but this time, I noticed something different. A bomb was strapped to the leg of the chair.