“Her mistake.” Enlil’s tone turned nasty. “She’s about to find out that backup is always a good idea. I’ll be back.” Enlil left the room to confront the danger.
****
“Fucking hell.” Candy looked down at her tracker for what seemed like the thousandth time. It always read the same. It showed the target one hundred and twenty yards due east, and the minute she stalked toward it, the fucking thing told her it stood one hundred and eighteen yards due west. She punched the device with the back of her hand, knowing it would do no good.
Whatever the hell this Huxley guy was up to, he was good enough to jam her equipment and keep her confused. It almost seemed like he’d put up a force field. Was that possible? Her branch of the government didn’t have anything like that, but if the public found out about some of the shit her people got to play with, they’d be out of their freaking minds. Candy was too smart to discount anything, and right now she would go with her gut. Invisible barrier it was.
Leaning down, she made a mark in the dirt, gouging the ground with the heel of her boot. She looked at her handheld, stepped forward again, and instantly got the switch in the reading. She looked behind her. No mark on the ground. Candy took in a deep breath and took a step due west. There at her feet? The disturbance on the ground.
“You’ve got to be shitting me,” she mumbled out loud, finally looking up and letting her eyes roam over the area ahead. It all looked good. Trees, blue sky, clouds. Wait. Hold on. Right there, off to the left, uphill just a bit. A place that looked a little off. Almost like a fabric whose pattern had been stitched just the slightest bit off. She did not imagine things. The anomaly shimmered in the sun.
“What the fuck?” she whispered. Her first inclination was to call that Worthington cunt back in Maine, rip off the veneer, and get the fucking truth from her. But her instincts said the ignorant bitch couldn’t possibly be aware of the things Huxley was up to. She would never have dared wasting time and money going after him if she knew.
Candy jogged back to her car and opened the trunk. She took out a stout piece of rope and a couple of beefy tent stakes. She’d purchased these at a home supply store up in Bangor along with a tarp in case she needed to bivouac. They came in handy now. This situation would not mess with her.
As she made her preparations, Candy just hoped that Huxley and whoever else lay behind this invisible blockade remained confident their boundaries would hold, and weren’t tagging her on surveillance. She hadn’t spotted anything, but that didn’t mean they didn’t have security systems inside where she couldn’t see them.
****
Hux watched the monitor for one last minute before getting his head into Dani’s self-defense session. Enlil stood no more than five feet away from the woman…the unknown woman, Hux let everyone know. The wind god paused, undetected behind the shield walls, taking a good look at the intruder. She stood at least a foot shorter than Enlil, which would make her five four at best. She had short dark hair, kind of spiky in places, but ready to droop at any minute over what looked to Hux like stunning violet eyes.
For such a short thing, she’s got these endless-looking muscled legs packed tight into black jeans. Enlil appreciation was apparent to all listening. And check out that well-defined ass. I can’t see what she’s sporting up top because of her puffy down vest, but the thermal-encased arms coming from the vest? Pumped.
Hux monitored Enlil’s verbal list of the woman’s attributes, and couldn’t help but grin. It was pretty clear to him that Enlil totally appreciated the woman’s guns, and probably imagined them wrapped around his horny torso. Marduk put a stop to that.
Get back to business asshole, and stop checking out her attributes.
Fine. Spoilsport, Enlil groused, but complied.
Her language is off the charts atrocious. I’m used to the mouth on Lady Lenore, he intoned sarcastically, but this chick? Every other word out of her mouth is a curse of some kind. It’s obviously an integral part of her vocabulary. I wonder where Beletseri picked her up. Before anyone could speak, Enlil qualified his supposition. At this point, seeing this woman’s determination to get inside the compound, there’s no doubt in my mind that she’s employed by the scheming goddess.
He continued, She’s coming back with equipment from her car. Now she’s tying the middle of a rope around her waist. She’s securing one end around a stake and the other around a second. Wait. She’s planting both bits of metal deep into the ground, using the heel of her boot. Enlil’s voice rose. Hell no. She’s going to try to go through the barrier while anchored to the ground on the outside. Does she have a freaking death wish? She’s going to get ripped apart.
****
Candy stood poised, and started a countdown. “One…two…”
“Stop.”
“Jesus Christ,” she swore, and was so startled she fell backward and almost tumbled to the ground. The guy who appeared out of nowhere, chuckled nastily.
“No.” He leaned down…way down, and snagged her arm with one hand. He revealed straight white teeth in a snarl. “Not that deity. My name’s Enlil.”
Fucking Enlil. With Candy’s instant recall, she realized it was one of the weird-ass names on the desk blotter in Maine. What the fuck? She tried to back up a few steps and failed. His grip held like iron. Candy stood her ground. She didn’t have a choice. One, his hand wrapped around her, which wouldn’t normally be a problem, but two, she was securely tethered around the frigging waist with a goddamned rope and unable to run.
Trying not to get pissed and lose control, she calmed her breathing and took a good look at her adversary. Tall. Six three, six four, longish hair that just swept ridiculously broad shoulders. Golden-blond hair with small braids on either side of his chiseled face. Motherfucking braids on a lily-white dude. He had some balls, but Candy admitted he carried off the look.
What really put her on alert, even more than his presto-instant appearance from nowhere, were the dick’s eyes. They sparkled some weird-ass gold color. Kind of like that shit people wore on necklaces that had bugs in it. Amber. Yeah. That was it. His eyes resembled amber, and they burned a hole right through her. In a way that didn’t bode well.
Fuck. Why hadn’t she seen it right away? This guy looked an awful lot like the dude she was after. As a matter of fact, such a resemblance could only mean this guy was Huxley’s brother. Double-fuck.
Candy didn’t know what she’d stumbled across here, or who the frig these guys were, but she wouldn’t mess with it. Commandos? Mercenaries? This had escalated to a no-fooling-around situation. She needed to move away, and she needed to do it now. Hell, how had she gotten herself into this without backup? Candy would have to lie through her teeth if she were to get out of this in one piece.
“I’m Candy.” She put a breathless girlie tone in her voice. “I’ve been trying to find…” She dug around with her free hand in her vest pocket where a crumpled up map of the Blue Hills sat. “The great cedar swamp?”
“Bullshit.”
Great. The guy named Enlil didn’t buy her act.
“I’ve been watching you, so you can cut the cutesy shit. You held a tracking device in your hand, which is now back at your car. You’ve been trying for almost a half hour to locate a bug you planted on a bike while up in Maine, and you have a trashy mouth. That’s no lie.”
Candy’s hand—the one that had gone to her pocket for the map—also extracted an ever-present, small blade. With violet eyes that she hoped looked innocent engaging Enlil’s attention, she camouflaged her hand with the crinkled map, and carefully sliced through the rope holding her in place. The two ends went limp, and she held them together, waiting for an opportunity to bolt.
She wouldn’t underestimate her opponent. He was too big, and as evidenced by the technology Candy faced, he was probably well trained by whatever group he worked for. She kept the act going.
“I’m not sure what you’re talking about, Mr. Enlil. I think I’m just lost.”
“S
ure. Lost with a rope around your middle, about to hurl yourself into something you know nothing about.” He snarled, giving her a little shake. “Something, by the way, that is fucking dangerous.”
Candy would make her move fast. She let a fake shiver course through her body that he couldn’t help but detect then sidled up closer to his big body. “Something dangerous?” she asked breathlessly. She wedged her hip deliberately to rest between his legs and quivered again. She felt the massive man’s cock stir. That was good.
She groped for the hand that still held her arm and caressing it, drew it slowly up to her shoulder, leaned into his broad chest, and pressed her ear up against him. The guy’s heart kicked up a notch.
Her free hand flitted across the pulse point on his wrist for a couple of seconds, lulling him. Then she grabbed on, thrust upward and outward with her shoulder somewhere between his sternum and his armpit, bent more swiftly than he could follow, and flipped him straight over and onto his back.
Candy’s foot was poised on his groin and her 9mm pistol pointed right at his heart before he’d taken a breath.
“Okay, asshole. Now we can talk.”
Enlil let a slow smile spread across his face and he looked wolfishly up at her. “I don’t know. I was more apt to play nice when your hip rubbed my cock.” He looked down at her foot. “The boot’s dirty.”
“The boot stays,” she barked, fully appreciating the package encased in tight, revealing jeans under her heel. “And the only thing your prick is good for is as a hostage. So you answer my questions and no one…” She ground her foot down to let him know she meant business. “…gets hurt.”
You want me to come out and help you up? Marduk taunted Enlil.
Hux and Dani-Lee paused to watch the scene unfold on the surveillance screen.
Marduk laughed his ass off.
I got this, Enlil answered.
Yeah, but are you going to have this with or without your dick?
Ha, ha. Enlil, taken off guard, clearly wasn’t amused at being blindsided and downed by such a little bit of a thing. Don’t worry, Marduk. I still have the upper hand here, so butt out. Although, what do you think? Should I wipe her mind clean and send her on her way, or do we take her prisoner?
Marduk answered, Your call, Enlil. After she has her “talk” with you, if you think she’s got more to give, bring her in. I’ll have Ninurta sweep out a cell. Stinking rats have been at it again. I wish I could figure out how they get through our barriers.
Maybe with a rope and a couple of stakes? Enlil joked. Okay. Enough. She’s giving me a little extra pressure to the cock. It’s time to shut up and listen in, you guys.
Hux caught Enlil’s next words to the intruder. “If you’re going to go for it, darling, could you move it up and a little to the left? I have a sweet spot.”
“It’s not going to be sweet for very long unless you start talking,” she snapped at her captive. “Let’s start with where Huxley disappeared to and who you guys are.”
Huxley hid his astonishment, hearing his name from unknown lips. And really? If she worked for Beletseri, wouldn’t she already know the answers?
Enlil spoke again. “I’ll help you out on one of those questions, if you’ll answer one in return.”
“You’re in no position to bargain, asshole, but I’ll bite. Go ahead.”
“Huxley rode his bike into our compound, which consists of a twenty-eight-room villa and two, ten-room cottages adjacent.” Hux watched as the woman digested this information. “Now it’s my turn. Who do you think we are?”
She didn’t hesitate. “My guess is government. Some kind of under-the-radar, spec-ops group maybe. You’ve been given access to something I’ve never seen before, and my clearance for that kind of shit is pretty high.”
Enlil let the question of her clearance pass for the moment, although Huxley wouldn’t have. It intrigued the hell out of him.
“Why government? Why not terrorists?” Enlil asked in a cautious way.
“Because you would have blown my fucking head off without any discussion.” She raised her eyebrows. “And by the way, no weapons? That’s fucked up.”
“I don’t need weapons.” Enlil smirked up at her. “I have things at my disposal that you can’t even imagine.”
The small female snorted. “Like a buddy with some automatic fire at my back? Someone I can’t frigging see because of some state-of-the-art, force-field shit? That kind of thing?”
“Nope. Nobody out here but me.” Enlil let her chew on that for a minute, and since he’d obviously decided that she was not a Beletseri operative, Huxley understood that the wind god would do the mind wipe. But before he did, he would have some fun messing with her head.
“What I’ve got is even better.” Enlil rolled—using his super-god speed—out from under her scoffing gaze, causing her foot to come down on…exactly nothing.
“What the fuck?” She lifted her boot and stared at the ground.
Enlil hadn’t gone far. He stopped behind her and quickly circled her with his arms, pinning her wrists together where she still pointed the gun at a bunch of leaves. “This fast thing is a little something me and the boys got going.”
She shook her head as if to clear it. The lady was flipped out as hell that Enlil had extricated himself.
“You freaks do fast?” she barked over her shoulder at him, “as well as invisible walls and invisible villas,” she said that sarcastically, drawing out the word. She licked her lips, clearly intrigued. “Good stuff. Where can I get me some of that?”
“You can’t.” Enlil took her gun away easily, acquiring it and making it invisible before moving away. Hux shook with mirth as the woman looked with wide eyes at her empty hands. He heard echoing amusement from the crowd in the computer room.
“Hey, asshole. Don’t be pulling that crap on me. Give me back my fucking gun. I’ve got questions,” she cursed loudly.
“Don’t shout.” Enlil gave a blur of speed and positioned himself three feet in front of her now. He unacquired her weapon and handed it back, butt end first. Huxley groaned. Was that the best course of action? “Ask what you want,” the arrogant Enlil allowed.
That got the god a suspicious look, but the woman took her gun cautiously. Enlil crossed his arms over his chest and waited.
****
Candy stepped back and took a good, long look at who she dealt with. He was arrogant, but he didn’t seem like a bad guy, a criminal. She became more and more certain of her government agency assumption.
Further, she liked the way Enlil’s shoulders filled out his button-down T-shirt. Her gaze slid down his body slowly. His chest muscles nearly rippled through the material of his shirt in response to her perusal. The guy’s wrists impressed, each the size of one of her calves, and she’d already felt what he had going for a cock between his legs. Impressive, all the way around. She shifted her mind back to business.
“All right. So who are you?”
“I told you. My name is Enlil.”
“Is that your first name or your last?” His lips worked to suppress a grin, so she added, “As fucked up as that name is.”
Enlil looked to be considering his answer. “Both,” he finally said, and left it at that.
“Fine, dickhead,” Candy muttered. “Let’s try another. Who do you work for?”
“Nergal,” Enlil answered.
“Right. One name.” Candy rolled her eyes. She got this. “Not a first or a last, but both. Am I right?”
“Correct.”
“Let’s go for something a little different.” Funny. She hadn’t lost patience yet, which wasn’t like her. “What group or agency do you work for?” Candy could see he thought about that one. She amended to make it a little easier. “What do you call yourselves?”
He smiled, and it was fucking incredible. She sucked in a breath.
“Gods,” he answered.
“Gods,” Candy repeated.
“Yup. Gods.”
Damn. The ass
hole really enjoyed this. “I don’t suppose you’d like to go into any detail?” She tried to figure if the guy pretended crazy to protect his cover, or if he was just plain fucking nuts.
“Sure. I’ll give you detail. I live here with a bunch of brothers and we’re all Mesopotamian gods. We got displaced here a few hundred years ago from the Underworld.”
“Umm right. Underworld.” Candy shook her head. Maybe this wasn’t worth pursuing. The guy obviously wouldn’t give her a straight answer. Candy sighed. Okay. One more shot. “And Huxley? Is he a Mesopotamian god too?”
“No.” Enlil shook his head, then looked like he thought better of it. “Or maybe, depending on the way you look at it. Up until recently, we all believed him mostly mortal, but we’ve revised our opinions.”
“Well, that makes a fuck-load of sense.” Now Candy got mad. About damn time her natural attitude came back into play. None of this shit was going down according to the book. Candy rolled her shoulders to release the tension that had begun to build.
Her pissed-off attitude must have shown through because it looked like Enlil considered dropping the playful shit. Fine by Candy. He gave her what most likely he supposed was an intimidating scowl.
“I think it might be time for you to tell me who you are, and why you followed Huxley here.”
Candy would be honest. What did she have to lose? “That’s easy. I was hired by some bitch up in Maine to find his ass and haul him back to Bangor because he’s fucking delinquent on a bill.” She blinked up at the guy and waited for his reaction, but a weird-ass look crossed his face as he did a long silence.
Finally, Candy had had enough. “What?” she asked, wary of the facial expressions that Enlil made.
“Huxley says he knows why you’re here, and he’ll explain it to our guys after I get rid of you. Although he didn’t sound at all like himself.”
“You spoke to him?” Candy didn’t see a wire or evidence of anything in Enlil’s ear, although he had to have one. And she also didn’t give a shit if Huxley sounded normal or not. She was more freaked that the big dude said he would “get rid of her.” She backed up a step.
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