Darkest Day (StrikeForce #3)

by Colleen Vanderlinden

  “Not even my lust-hazed mind would miss something like that,” I told him.

  “Lust, huh?”

  “Mmhmm. So much lust.”

  “Glad to hear it. Lots of lust here on my end, too.”

  I smiled. “Good.”

  “Blue balls,” he grumbled, and I laughed. “I told you I could relate to that duke and the rogue fighter guy.”

  I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to the side of his neck, and his arms went around me again. It felt right. Safe, warm.

  “I’m glad you decided to come in here all pissed off tonight,” I told Ryan, and he grinned.

  “You make me nuts.”

  “But you like it?”

  “Without a doubt,” he assured me, and he squeezed me against his body. “I should go or I’m gonna embarrass myself here,” he said with some reluctance.

  I felt my face heat, my body react. “Okay,” I said. He got up, then pulled me up with him. He bent and claimed my lips, murmuring, “one more time,” before he had me under his spell again.

  “Your lips are so soft,” he said, kissing me again. “You smell so fucking good,” he said, kissing his way down my neck. “Feel so goddamn good.” And then he groaned. “Okay. I really need to go now. Cold shower or something,” he said.

  “Okay.” I smiled up at him, feeling shy and awkward all of a sudden.

  “Sleep well. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  I nodded, and he squeezed my hand then let himself out of my suite, meeting my eyes one more time before closing the door behind him.

  Holy. Shit.

  I was scared as hell. Terrified.

  But he was mine.

  Chapter Seventeen

  The next two days passed in a blur. My team and I hit two more of Killjoy’s properties and helped the DPD bring in a few more Mafia guys from Daemon’s family. Daemon had continued to be an actual asset, and in spite of myself, I could kind of, almost, see what Deena said about him, that there was good there.

  Of course, his ass was still locked up in the detention facility, and that seemed fine with all involved, for now. I’d visited Alpha a few times, trying to get information about Killjoy out of him. I’d broken him enough that he gave us one of the locations we ended up hitting. He was very stubborn until the pain started. And he knew things and I’d be visiting him regularly, even if it made me feel a little bit like an asshole to rough up someone who couldn’t fight back.

  Render was still unconscious, which had Dr. Ali concerned. Me, too, mostly because I had a feeling he probably had answers and I needed them. Raider had continued to be unhelpful, and it was becoming more clear that she’d been much more focused on her own game, on amassing her own power and wealth, than she’d ever been on Killjoy and his mission.

  I finished up another shift with Max, then we headed into the team lounge. Pretty much everyone was there except for Portia, Amy, and Chance. Ryan’s eyes met mine the instant I stepped into the room, and he shoved at David to move down to make room for me on the couch.

  “Why are you guys listening to this asshole again?” I muttered when I heard Detroit UnPowered’s distorted voice.

  “He’s actually kind of funny,” Max said. “You know, in that delusional, clueless kind of way. He spent like a week dissecting your testimony with the Tribunal. I think he’s pretty sure you’re the Antichrist or something.”

  Everyone laughed at that and I shook my head. I wanted to rest my head on Ryan’s shoulder. We were doing okay with the “work partners” thing, and we’d managed to keep our hands and lips off of one another since that night, but every time I saw him, I wanted to kiss him senseless. And from the look in his eyes, he seemed to be thinking the same thing.

  “Here’s the thing,” Detroit UnPowered said, his voice the only sound in the lounge. “Even if you want to say that StrikeForce provides a valuable service, that they protect us, which I think is debatable, even so, you have to admit that there are issues. I was talking to a friend, and I told this person how out of control and ridiculous StrikeForce looks at times, and they leapt to StrikeForce’s defense. That whole, they’re what protects us from the bad guys.” There was a pause. “And this is someone who has lost someone they care about thanks to powered people. And as I’ve mentioned before, I lost my best friend because of one of them.”

  My eyes shot open and I sat up straight.

  “I think they’ll be the death of us all.”

  “What’s wrong?” Ryan whispered. “Your heart rate just went nuts.”

  I glanced at him and gave a small shake of my head.

  No way. Coincidence. It had to be.

  I didn’t get a chance to think about it. A moment later, Portia walked into the room, and the look on her face made the entire room seem to tense up.

  “What’s wrong?” Jenson asked.

  Portia looked at me. “Render just died.”

  My hands started shaking. I’d killed him. I mean, I meant to at the time, but since Ryan had recovered, I was grateful that I hadn’t. And I’d hoped to get answers out of him.

  I’d killed him.

  I felt frozen.

  “There’s more,” Portia said, and her tone made my stomach churn.

  “What?”

  “James reported it to the Tribunal. They want us to take you in.”

  Ryan, David, and Max all stood up at once as if they were going to fight anyone who tried. They were all talking at once.

  “She was fucking defending me,” Ryan was saying.

  “Doing her damn job,” Max said.

  “Stop!” Portia shouted. “I told them to fuck off, okay? Are you kidding me? I’m not arresting Jolene or turning her over to anyone. Jesus. And I’m going to make damn sure they know not to mess with me on that.” She pushed David away from in front of me so she could look at me. “I have your back. I know you didn’t mean to do it. You were defending your partner, who was very nearly dead and we have the goddamn hospital reports to prove it. Okay. They can screw themselves. But you need to be careful. They will have teams out trying to get you until we can prove your innocence. And I don’t think either of us trust that you’ll be okay if that happens, not with Eve in charge of the Tribunal.”

  I gave a terse nod.

  “Of course, she didn’t waste any time going to the media. It happened less than an hour ago, and I’ve already gotten several calls from news outlets. They are going to skewer you, Jolene. You’ve been going after the Mafia, and we know from the stuff Daemon turned over to us that they’re very strongly tied to the media. It’s not going to be good. You scare just as many people as you inspire. You know that.”

  I nodded.

  “We need you to be better now. We need you to be smart. We need you to be careful. We need you to be so freaking heroic they’ll never doubt you. Because I’m telling you right now that if we lose you, this all falls apart.”

  “I’ll handle it.”

  The next few days were just as bad as Portia had said they’d be. Detroit UnPowered had been almost delirious in his glee over the charges against me, and the rest of the media had followed suit. Amid the angry calls for my arrest, the debates about whether I was a hero or villain, the newly sparked national debate about the role of super heroes, and trying to get at least some work done, StrikeForce held Damian, AKA Virus’s, funeral. We’d delayed, Jenson and David trying to find some family at all to contact, but in the end, we’d had to do the memorial service ourselves, a bunch of “super heroes” paying our respects to one who had been an enemy.

  It didn’t feel as weird as I’d thought it would. He’d been a friend once upon a time, and if there was one thing I knew, it was that, other than very few of us, there was no such thing as pure villain and pure hero. Life was made up of shades of gray, and, apparently, we were all just one shot, just one act, from crossing that line from hero to villain. I was walking it now, and I just had to hope that if I was pushed too hard, I wouldn’t cause more damage to StrikeForce than we’d already
taken.

  I would be a hero. But I also knew that I might have to play dirty a few more times to get there.

  Epilogue

  Three days later…

  I was dressed in my official StrikeForce uniform, one that had me been modified so I was tied in to Ryan’s monitoring devices back at Command. They’d all been fighting me on this, insisting that one of them could do it. But I knew better.

  It had to be me.

  In the end, I’d made Ryan understand that. There had been shouting, and then kissing, and then a little more arguing, but I’d made him see reason, and with both of us on board, the rest of my team followed suit.

  I was careful. I kept an eye out for any of the Tribunal’s squads who were in the area hunting me. They would have to get lucky, and I wasn’t going to give them that chance. I had too much to do, and it all needed to be done now.

  I landed behind the house in Indian Village. It hadn’t been hard to get the address once we had a name. The house was dark, and I took a moment to jam the security system. Once it was done, I quickly busted the deadbolt lock on the back door and made my way inside.

  I crept silently. I knew I wasn’t alone. There were two things I had to do.

  For the first thing, I slipped down into the basement, and, true to what Jenson and David had suspected, I found the first thing I needed. Lots of equipment, a soundproof room. On the desk, reports that he only could have gotten from someone who knew the day-to-day life of living among StrikeForce. A white ski mask sat on a shelf nearby, and I picked it up.

  “It’s hot when you’re right,” Ryan said over my comm, and I blushed.

  I didn’t answer, making my way back upstairs and creeping up to the second floor. The door at the end of the hall was closed. I stepped carefully, ensuring that the old floorboards didn’t make a sound beneath my feet. When I got to the paneled oak door, I turned the knob slowly and pushed the door open.

  Justin lay in the king sized bed, dressed in dark pajama pants, his hand resting on his stomach as he snored quietly.

  I cleared my throat, and he jerked awake. Hie eyes widened when he saw me, and he scrambled up.

  “Oh, Christ. Jesus Christ. What are you doing here?” he asked. He opened his mouth.

  “Do not shout,” I said, and he clamped his mouth shut. I tossed the ski mask down onto the bed, the same one he wore during his Detroit UnPowered livestreams. He audibly gulped.

  “You’ve had a lot to say about me lately,” I said, using the lower tone of voice I usually did when I was in uniform. “A lot. You seem to know things nobody else does.”

  “Research.”

  “Research,” I said, nodding. “Maybe. That, and the Detroit Mafia ties, you know, those super helpful donors who buy your equipment and feed you information. Which they get from a mole within StrikeForce.”

  He started trembling. “Oh, shit.”

  “I think you’ve talked to our mole a time or two as well,” I said, crossing my arms. “Is this what you call unbiased journalism? Reciting the bullshit given to you by those giving you your funding?”

  “I don’t say a single thing I don’t believe,” he said, regaining some of his spine now that he seemed to sense that I wasn’t there to kill him. “I mean it. I think you’re a menace.”

  I nodded. “I am. And I am somebody you definitely don’t want to piss off.”

  He seemed to shrink down again. “How did you find me?” he asked meekly.

  “You gave yourself away,” I said. “I recognized something you said during one of your shows.”

  He looked at me blankly.

  I reached for my mask and pulled it off, and I heard him gasp in surprise when he saw who was under the mask.

  “I’m Daystar. My name is Jolene Faraday, as you very well know, Justin. You’ve been helping my enemies destroy my life. And now, you’re going to help make it right.”

  THE END

  Jolene will return in

  Light of Day: StrikeForce Book Four

  coming in May 2016.

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  For backstory material, news, and upcoming events be sure to check out http://www.colleenvanderlinden.com

  Cast of Characters

  StrikeForce

  Code Name Real Name Powers

  Beta David Fendrath Speed (Intellect)

  Caine Ryan Lucas Super senses

  Chance Unknown Change probability of random situations

  Daystar Jolene Faraday Strength, flight

  Jenson Karen O’Donnelly Create multiples of herself

  Monster Max Draper Shape shifter

  Portia Portia Jones Teleportation

  Screamer Dani Whitehall Super scream

  Steel Amy Li Turns entire body to steel

  Swoon (Deceased) Monica Simmons Telekinetic

  Toxxin Adriana Torres Toxic skin; debilitates/kills with a touch

  ? Lindsey Davenport Firestarter

  Mayhem

  Code Name Real Name Powers

  Alpha Michael Fendrath Strength

  Crystal Unknown Invisibility

  Daemon Salvatore Giannotti Mental manipulation

  Dr. Death Joseph Sciotto Speed (Intellect)

  Electro Unknown Electric blasts

  Killjoy Connor ?? Self-healing and strength, plus enhanced powers

  Midnight Unknown Teleportation

  Nightbane Unknown Flight

  Raider Unknown Strength

  Red Scare Unknown Strength

  Render Unknown Telekinetic slice

  Thing One Unknown Mental manipulation

  Thing Two Unknown Mental manipulation

  Virus Damian Rutherford Control/communicate with electricity/computers

  The Tribunal

  Code Name Real Name Powers

  Blademaster Unknown Strength, agility

  Eve Unknown Flight, force fields

  Fireball Unknown Firestarter

  Icer James Green Freeze

  Jayhawk Unknown Flight

  Ms. Thunder Unknown Strength

  Letter from the Author

  Here we are again! Thank you for taking this little trip with me, and I hope you loved reading this part of Jolene’s journey as much as I loved writing it.

  If you’re wondering about those books Jolene was reading to Ryan, they’re real and they’re amazing. Check out Tessa Dare’s “Castles Ever After” series if you want to read about dukes and rogues and their… frustrations. Dare’s books are amazing, and for some reason, those two books were the ones that came to mind when I knew Jolene would be reading to Ryan.

  Many thanks to my amazing family for your love, support, and sense of humor even when I’m doing that weird, glazed-over, book brain thing I do sometimes. I love you more than life itself.

  Thank you to my lovely beta babes. Hugs to Danielle Calleja, Susan Cambra, Jo Dawson, Krys Hopkins, Sarah Leenart, Jayna Longstreet, Sam McMullen-Hamilton, Rachel Scott, and Samantha Wheeler. Your feedback and support is invaluable and I hope you know how much I appreciate you.

  Thank you to Karen Mahoney and Corrinna Lawson for their lovely comments regarding the StrikeForce series, and to everyone who has taken the time to review, email, or tweet at me. You all make this a lot of fun for me. Thank you.

  A bit of a serious note: If you’ve read this far into the series, you’re likely recognizing that in addition to being a villainous jerk, Killjoy is showing classic abusive behaviors toward Jolene, including trying to isolate, blame, and generally control her. If you or someone you love is dealing with something like this, please get help. You are not alone, and you don’t deserve any of it. The National Domestic Abuse Hotline is a very useful resource (http://www.thehotline.org) as is RAINN (http://www.rainn.org). You matter, and you deserve so much better.

  Thank you for reading, from the bottom of my heart.

  Colleen Vanderlinden

>   Detroit, Michigan

  March 3, 2016

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  Sign Up for Colleen’s Newsletter.

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  For backstory material, news, and upcoming events be sure to check out http://www.colleenvanderlinden.com

  About the Author

  Colleen Vanderlinden is the author of the Hidden and Soulhunter urban fantasy series, as well as the Copper Falls paranormal romance series and the StrikeForce Sci-Fi/Romance series. The third Hidden novel, Home, was a finalist for RT Book Reviews’ Editors Choice Awards for best self-published urban fantasy novel of 2014. Her books have consistently received positive reviews, and RT Book Reviews has called her storytelling “electrifying.” She lives in the Detroit area with her husband, kids, demonic Basset hound, and two lazy cats. You can find out more about Colleen’s books at colleenvanderlinden.com, or follow her on Twitter, where she’s @C_Vanderlinden and Facebook.

  Books by

  Colleen Vanderlinden

  The StrikeForce Series

  A New Day

  One More Day

  Darkest Day

  The Copper Falls Series

  Shadow Witch Rising

  Shadow Sworn

  The Hidden: Soulhunter Series

  Guardian

  Betrayer

  The Hidden Series

  Book One: Lost Girl

  Book Two: Broken

  Book Three: Home