by Anne Kane
Chapter One
A subtle movement on the far ridge caught Shotgun’s attention. It could be a deer on the far ridge, but he doubted it. Moving the scope of his rifle in a slow sweep, he searched for the cause. There. On the west slope. A faint flash as the late afternoon sun reflected off a metal surface.
He kept the rifle trained on the spot, his trigger finger itching, and sure enough, there she was. A sharpshooter. Her rifle looked suspiciously similar to his own, and she handled it like a pro. Her mistake had been not making sure all the shiny metal was covered up.
Her outfit blended well with the surrounding rocks and he had to give her credit for finding a good vantage point. She’d managed to position herself in a wide crack in between two large outcrops of rock. Her back was protected by a sheer wall of granite. An irregular jumble of boulders in front of her gave her numerous places to rest the barrel of her rifle.
He recognized her from the portfolio Brice had shown them of the Lost Children. Kalie. Her riotous mop of long dark curls was held back behind a wide hairband, and the camo outfit she wore covered her deliciously ripe curves. He was too far away to see if her eyes really were as dark and sensual as they looked in her picture, but he was sure it was Kalie.
Her undivided attention was on the gathering in the clearing below. That would be her second mistake. Just because you’re hunting, doesn’t mean you aren’t also being hunted. As he glanced around, gauging the distance between them and the amount of cover available, he felt the corner of his mouth lift in a slow grin.
Nothing like a bit of a challenge to liven up the evening.
* * *
The man came out of nowhere. Jerking her rifle out of her hands, he flipped her over and slammed her body into the ground. The breath whooshed out of her in one long exhale as he pinned her to the ground with his superior weight. Instinctively, she tried to bring her knee up to fend him off.
“I don’t think that’s such a good idea, little girl.” His voice was low, a thread of humor running through it as he blocked the move with a casual flick of his leg. He could afford to be amused. He was planted firmly on top of her, and her rifle was no longer snugged comfortingly against her chin. She eyed up the distance to the weapon. Too far.
A fierce anger enveloped her, fueled by an unfamiliar feeling of helplessness. No one snuck up on her like that. No one. Taking a deep breath, she forced her body to relax. She could get out of this. If he thought she’d given up, he’d let his guard down.
“Who are you?” She spat the words out between clenched teeth, betraying her fury. So much for letting him think she’d given up.
“Name’s Shotgun, Kalie. I’m with Saralyn down there, and her new beau. Just kind of keeping an eye on the situation when I noticed you over here. I don’t like people watching my friends through the scope of a rifle.”
“Really?” He knew her name. Shit. He probably knew about the other girls as well. Her sisters. That couldn’t be good. She needed to neutralize him quickly and let them know they’d been found out. She shifted her weight, as if trying to get more comfortable. “Well, I don’t like people skulking around watching my friends either, so I guess we’re even. Would you mind getting off me? You’re heavy.”
“Not quite yet.” He somehow managed to transfer both of her wrists to one hand. Raising his other arm, he spoke into the comm unit strapped around his wrist. “I got some action up here, Sarge. Little girl, with a big gun. Name of Kalie. Says she’s watching point for the others. You want to verify that?”
“Should have expected something like this.” Sarge’s voice crackled over the unit. “I’ll have Jackson check with the girls. Bring her on down, and we’ll see if her story checks out.”
“Roger that. Be down in a few.”
Shotgun looked down at her. He was a big man. Big and hard. His face was all hard angles and planes, with a faint scar running down one side of his temple. She could feel hard muscles pressing into every inch of her. There wasn’t a single soft spot on his entire body. Was he enhanced? One of the soldiers they’d fed those experimental drugs to during the provincial wars? That would explain how he’d managed to sneak up on her without her hearing him.
As she watched, a mischievous light danced in the depths of his eyes. He certainly didn’t seem to think she was much of a threat. Maybe she could use that to her advantage
“Looks like we’re going to join the party. Up you get.” He surged to his feet with an innate grace that told her he’d kept up his training after the wars. Holding out a hand to help her up, he still managed to keep that rifle pointed directly at her.
“Fine. Let’s get moving.” She ignored the outstretched hand and stood. “Can I have my rifle back now, please?”
“Has sentimental value, does it?”
“Yeah.” She smiled sweetly. “I’ve killed three assholes with it so far, and it’s itching to loose a bullet on the fourth.”
Shotgun snorted. “I think I’ll hang on to it for now.” Scooping the weapon up, he slung it across his back and gestured for her to move out.
She would have been shocked and just a little bit disappointed if he’d actually given her the rifle. No decent soldier would be that naïve. She eyed up the path she’d used to climb up here, but an imp of mischief made her reject it. Let’s see how good that training was. Ignoring him and his rifle, she proceeded to follow the most difficult route to the valley floor.
It took them twenty minutes of fancy footwork and a couple of controlled skids before they reached the bottom. She had to grudgingly admire the way he managed to keep up while carrying both of the rifles, one of them trained on her. The next time she managed to land herself in a fight she wouldn’t mind having him at her back.
Shotgun was right behind her as she marched into the middle of the clearing. Heads swiveled and she saw more than one jaw drop in shock. She hadn’t been in close contact with any of her sisters since that last day in the labs, and they’d probably consigned her to the list of unfortunates who hadn’t made it out. She’d told herself it was better that way.
Much as she wanted to forget, the memory of those labs was engraved on her mind. The scientist running them was truly mad. He convinced the government he could create super soldiers out of ordinary people. So, they gathered up a bunch of disposable kids for him to experiment on. She was one of the unfortunate children, as were most of the people in this clearing. In her case, the weird and extremely painful experiments had given her an affinity for anything mechanical. There wasn’t a car, a bike, or any other mode of transportation that didn’t respond positively to her touch.
He’d expected her to be grateful. He’d expected them all to be grateful to him for the pain and suffering he inflicted on them. He’d watch them sometimes, while his assistants tortured them, his face as expressionless as if he were looking at a bug under a microscope. She still got cold shivers when she thought about his face.
Some of the kids turned on their tormentors and others just refused to do what they were told. Add that to the fact that the costs were astronomical, it was no wonder the government decided to pull the plug on the program. The boys were put in the military where the government could keep an eye on them.
The girls though, were a different matter. They had an unfortunate tendency to think for themselves, and when their hormones kicked in at puberty, their reaction to situations became wildly unpredictable. There was some concern that they might never be controllable so the government decided it would be best to terminate them all.
Luckily for her and the other girls, that plan had gone extremely poorly for the powers that be. No one knew how many of the girls had escaped.
“Kalie?” It was more of a question than a statement. The woman staring at her in shock had changed a lot since those days in the lab, but Kalie still recognized her.
She took a deep breath. “Yeah, Winter. It’s me.”
“Kalie!” This time her name was a squeal of delight as her former bunkmate enveloped
her in a bear hug. “We thought you were dead!”
“Easy! You’re going to kill me yourself if you keep squeezing that hard.” She couldn’t keep the joy out of her voice. She’d missed them so much.
“So who’s your friend with the guns?” Winter took a step back, eyeing up Shotgun.
“Not my friend.” She turned to glare at Shotgun. The fact that he just smiled cheerfully did not improve her mood. “Ask Saralyn and her new beau. Apparently he’s with them.”
“He needs to learn not to point weapons at things he doesn’t intend to shoot at.” Winter frowned disapprovingly.
“She’s one of us, Shotgun. You can put the gun down.” Saralyn came rushing over to hug the new arrival. “It’s been forever, Kalie. Where were you hiding all this time?”
Kalie hugged her back, savouring the unexpected joy of being one of the group again. She’d been on her own for so long, she’d forgotten how good it felt. “In the racing pits, where else? With my ability to coax the best out of my ride, I make enough to keep me in beer, but not enough to attract attention.”
No one asked her why she hadn’t contacted them before now. They just accepted her. They weren’t blood siblings but she considered them all to be her sisters. Sisters of the heart.
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Shotgun click the safety back on and lower his rifle before he moved off to talk to the tall dark-haired guy who’d been with Saralyn. After marching her into the clearing at gunpoint, he thought he could just walk away without even apologizing? Now why did that annoy her? She turned her attention back to Winter and Saralyn. “So what have you girls been up to?”
By the time Kalie had greeted each of the girls, Shotgun had disappeared.
Damn.
* * *
“Sounds like a great idea.” Shotgun answered Jackson automatically, his attention on the girl he’d tackled up on the cliff. Kalie sauntered across the clearing, arm in arm with one of the other girls. Her tight-fitting outfit outlined her luscious curves with groin-tightening detail. She’d twisted her hair up in a ponytail, a streak of brilliant blue weaving through the long dark tresses.
His gaze fell to her shapely ass, and his cock twitched as he remembered how she’d felt beneath him. An image flashed through his mind, of her lying across the rocks up on the cliff, holding the rifle, caressing it almost. Now that he’d confirmed she wasn’t the enemy, he had to admit she stirred something deep inside him that he hadn’t known existed anymore. Something fierce and protective. Something lustful.
“So you’ll back me up when I talk to Sarge?” Jackson slapped him on the back. “Thanks!”
“Sure. No problem.” He sure hoped he hadn’t agreed to anything outrageous. With Jackson, you never knew what you were getting into. He remembered the time the wily mercenary had convinced them all to go to a party in the next province. Hopefully whatever he’d just agreed to wasn’t that dangerous. “Excuse me.”
He quickened his pace, angling to intercept Kalie and Winter. Was it his imagination, or did she slow her pace to allow him to catch up?
“Hey there. How’s it going?”
Kalie slanted an inscrutable look from under her lashes. “Going just fine. Where did you disappear to in such a hurry back there?”
So she’d been looking for him. “Just had to check in with Jackson, make sure I was clear for the rest of the day.”
“And?”
“And what?”
“Are you free for the rest of the day?”
“Oh, yeah. The group’s on stand-down for now.”
“What group is that?”
He realized she had no idea who he was, or what he did. Did he want her to know? He couldn’t recall the last time he’d even cared about someone’s opinion of him or his life choices. “I work with a group of ex-soldiers. We fought together during the Provincial wars, and kind of stuck with each other when they were over.” He shrugged. “We’re good at soldiering and it pays the bills.”
“Winter says you only take jobs you believe in.”
So she’d been asking questions about him. “Yeah.” He fell into step beside her. “I’m the company sharpshooter, and Jackson over there is the tech expert. There are six of us in all.”
“Must be nice to do something you believe in.”
He detected a trace of wistfulness in her voice. “Yes, it is. So you race cars?”
“Yeah. Usually I do pretty well, although there’s been a few bizarre accidents lately.” Her brow furrowed for a moment, then she seemed to shake off whatever was bothering her.
“Maybe I could come watch you sometime?” He tried to keep his voice casual, but the thought of this woman controlling a couple thousand pounds of pulsating engine and metal was enough to make his mouth water and his cock stiffen. What else could she control?
She shook her head. “Street races aren’t advertised. Even I don’t know the locations until race day.”
“Too bad. I’d love to see you in action.” He made a mental note to have Trace check and see what he could find out about the street-racing scene. Nothing was buried deep enough to keep Trace out.
She turned and stared straight into his eyes. One shapely brow lifted and the beginnings of a smile crooked the corner of her mouth. “I bet you would. Love to see me in action, that is.”
The challenge in her voice was unmistakable, as was the gleam in her eyes. She had the biggest, softest, darkest eyes he’d ever seen and right now they were glowing with desire. Shotgun didn’t wait for her to rescind the invitation. Wrapping an arm around her waist, he pulled her to him and lowered his head to claim her mouth.
Chapter Two
Heat flooded through Kalie’s body as Shotgun thrust his tongue into her mouth. She had the feeling that everything about this man was aggressive, but that was okay. She didn’t do gentle. Nothing in her life led her to expect anything except what she fought for and took for herself. Right now she wanted Shotgun. Wanted him so bad she was tempted to take him right here, in front of all her sisters. Insanity.
His mouth moved over hers, tasting, exploring. Claiming. His tongue delved into every crevasse, every space. His arms tightened around her, as if he thought she might actually try to escape.
She kissed him back with a deep hunger that raged out of control. She wasn’t like this. Never did this. Her life was all about control, about making sure that no one was in a position to hurt her ever again. What was it about this man that broke through all those self-imposed barriers?
“My truck is parked down the road.” The skin of her neck muffled his words as he nibbled his way up toward her ear. “We need some privacy.”
She could have ended it there. Should have ended it there. This was too much, too intense. Her legs felt like they’d buckle if he let her go. “Let’s go.”
She wasn’t sure how they managed to get away from the group, how she managed to propel herself all the way down the narrow gravel road and around the corner. As soon as they were out of sight, Shotgun scooped her up in his arms and reclaimed her mouth.
Damn. Where had her sense of propriety gone? It would be obvious to everyone why they’d disappeared. Then again, who cared? What she wanted right now was to feel that long stiff shaft of his buried deep inside her. It had been too long since she’d let herself relax enough to enjoy a rousing good time with a man.
Shotgun managed to put her down on her feet without giving up possession of her mouth. He yanked down the tailgate of the truck and reached in to drag a blanket across the bare metal. Hopping up onto the blanket, he pulled her down onto his lap.
Damn. This was insane. She hadn’t had sex on the tailgate of a truck since, well, never. Just the thought was a turn-on, as if they were a couple of teenagers too horny to find a better place.
As if he could read her mind, Shotgun relinquished her lips, his voice harsh with repressed desire. “We could go find a motel or something?”
Kalie shook her head. Hell, she grew up in a laboratory. Why bother to
get prissy now, especially since her hormones seemed to be in overdrive around this guy? She needed to get him out of her system. Reaching down, she grabbed the bottom of her shirt and pulled it over her head.
Shotgun let out a low whistle. “Don’t play around, do you, little girl?” Raising his hands, he cupped her naked breasts, kneading them softly before sucking one tightly pebbled tip into his mouth.
“I’m not a little girl.” Kalie stated the obvious, closing her eyes as she savored the feeling of Shotgun’s mouth on her skin. Her gut did a long slow glide down into the depths of desire. She leaned into him, instinctively seeking the shelter of his strong arms. He was so large, so solid. Just for once it was nice to let her guard down and not worry about getting caught.
He took his time, worshipping her breasts with his lips and tongue, swirling a path around the sensitive tips. He grazed his teeth across the nipple, then licked the pain away. Running one hand possessively down her back, he held her prisoner to his demanding mouth.
She could feel the thick length of his cock through the material of her jeans, and an imp of mischief made her wriggle her bottom. Shotgun rewarded her by sliding his hand down to give her a sharp slap on the ass. She let out a yelp of protest, more on principal than because it actually hurt. Truth be told, it felt kind of good.
“Damn, you taste good, little girl.” He caressed her ass through the denim for a moment before bringing his hand around the front to fumble with the fastenings at her waist. Impatient to feel his naked skin against her, Kalie brushed his hand away and undid it herself. Sliding off his lap, she quickly shimmied her legs free and tossed the jeans into the back of the truck.
Shotgun stood and managed to divest himself of his remaining clothes in record time before pulling her back to him. “You’re right. You’re not a little girl, now are you?” Scooping her into his arms with restrained eagerness, he laid her down on the blanket and followed her into the bed of the truck. Propping himself up on one elbow, he used his mouth and hands to explore her body with a fierce thoroughness that took her breath away. He looked so rough and yet his hands were infinitely tender as he parted her thighs and lowered his head to nibble at the soft skin of her inner thighs.