"I meant"—Jake stabbed at his chest—"that I'm not an officer in your outfit. That's Dillon, not me. So don't bother calling me sir."
The man's lie lingered between them, giving off a moldy, rotting smell. Marco's empathy always reacted to dishonesty most of all. In this case, Tierny was fooling himself, trying to believe that he wasn't actually a future version of Scott Dillon. It wasn't a battle Marco planned to tackle, at least not right now.
"I understand, Tierny," he agreed, "and won't argue about your identity. I think it's enough that you know who you are; I can figure things out along the way. But your king has sent me for you." Marco glanced past Tierny's shoulder, studying Shelby's profile, the way she bent her head protectively. "And for Medic Tyler."
Tierny folded his bulky arms across his chest. "One soldier wasn't enough to come claim my sorry ass, huh?"
Marco forced a barrier against the Antousian's bitterness. "Our lord has an assignment for you."
"So I heard." Tierny didn't exactly sound compliant; far from it.
"You're clearly on your way back to camp …" Marco let the implied question dangle, hoping Tierny would take the cue.
"I had to bribe him," Shelby piped in. Her bare feet slid onto the dirt, and she made no effort to straighten her lopsided miniskirt. "Otherwise, he wasn't going nowhere."
"Don't ask what the bribe was." Tierny's rumbling laugh said it all.
Marco kept his gaze on the ground, cursing himself for the heat that rushed into his face.
Shelby planted a feisty hand on her hip, flat-ironing Tierny with her gaze. "Oh, puhlease! As if you needed bribing for that. Don't try and convince me you were just serving our planet." Shelby swung her spirited gaze toward Marco. "I didn't bribe him, not precisely. Just reminded the stupid fool that Jared Bennett is still his king, here in this time. Not much he could argue about after that."
Tierny's breathing grew heavy and intense, his chest expanding as he stared Shelby down. "You promised to time walk me."
Shelby laughed, an overly exaggerated release that nearly turned into a cough. "Now he's talking out of his ass, totally."
Marco smiled at her faintly but filed this new information away for further reflection. He had never—not once—heard that any of the time walkers still existed. Maybe a joke, or maybe a genuine slip, the idea captivated Marco nonetheless. After all, his own gift was equally rare.
Any further conversation was interrupted by the dull hum of the transport swooping low over them. Marco glanced upward, brushing at his hair as it blew in the sudden wind. "Our ride's here."
"What about my truck?" Jake sounded genuinely sorry to lose his wheels.
"Registered to you?" Marco started around the side of the car, prepared to remove any traceable documentation.
"Hell, no." Jake caught him by the arm. "Thing's clean as a whistle."
Once a soldier, always a soldier.
"Then, let's get out of here."
Shelby filed into the meeting room of the main lodge, following Jake and Marco. Several soldiers had met them in the hangar, hustling them through the connecting corridors and tunnels that led to the officers' sector of the Refarian compound. She rarely visited the lodge, a large four-story cabin that served as housing for the king and queen and a small group of high-ranking officers. Their upper echelon took meals in the lodge, slept there, and obviously held top-secret strategy meetings there, as well.
Upon entering the room, she saw Chris Harper already seated by Jared's side, and Colonel Peters from the USAF there on his other. None of this surprised Shelby, who had pretty much figured that their return would flush out all the big guns. Chris Harper gave her a slight nod, which she returned before glancing toward Tierny.
She couldn't help being intrigued by the relationship between Chris and Jake. Jake had years' worth of memories as the human's brother-in-law, memories that she couldn't begin to guess at. Had they mourned Hope together? Had they been tight-knit brothers or competitive adversaries? Chris and Hope were extremely close—maybe Jake had been threatened by that. She could have spent the next four hours speculating as to the memories hammering around inside Jake's head, but looking at him she couldn't guess a dang thing.
No, whatever he might have felt, Jake betrayed nothing. He blinked back at the human for several long moments, and then it happened. Something cracked inside the guy, his entire body growing tense and edgy as if he might suddenly attack. Or as if being around Chris Harper tore open an old, festering wound, and he had to protect himself against further pain.
Harper shifted uneasily in his chair. "Tierny. Long time. Glad you're back on our team. That was some seriously good work over in Montana a few months ago."
"I'd do anything to protect Hope." Jake said the words like he more than meant them, dropping his gaze. "You would, too."
Shelby felt an unexpected pang of jealousy, that sense that she had no business getting involved with a man who still mourned his murdered wife.
Did Chris know the full truth about Jake? Shelby hadn't been debriefed on that point. From the thoughtful look in Chris's eyes, she guessed that he knew everything—and with the way Hope confided in her twin, it was impossible to imagine he didn't know exactly who Jake was to her. Besides, Chris was the one who'd conducted the deep background search on the "original" Jake Tierny and was the only reason she'd been able to give Jake that thick folder of intel back in Texas.
With a quick glance at Jared's expectant features, Shelby decided the formal route would make the best impression at the moment. Placing both hands on the shiny conference table, she lowered into a half bow. "My lord," she whispered reverently, hoping her king wouldn't upbraid her for having done such a piss-poor job of getting Tierny back to base.
"Please, Medic Tyler … rise."
She obeyed, placing both hands behind her back until Jared gestured toward one of the chairs. Next, his black gaze swung to Tierny, his eyes a pair of fathomless pools, glittering slightly with emotion. "My dear friend." Jared's voice was hushed, the feeling in the words undeniable.
Jake blew out a sigh, hunching slightly as he stared at the floor. "Hey, J."
"I realized you'd never come home if I didn't send a search party."
Jake shifted uncomfortably, still avoiding their king's gaze. "You know why."
Their commander nodded, then—as if suddenly aware that others were present—gestured for everyone to take a seat.
"The humans have formed a Joint Alien Task Force," Jared said, "spearheaded by the FBI. Hope and Scott are working with them over in Denver."
"So I've heard." Jake cocked back in his seat, folding both hands across his belly as if he were playing poker. "And what about Harper, here?" He nodded toward the human. "What's his role?"
Chris sat up straight. "I'm heading the task force."
Jake didn't seem the least bit surprised. "But this group of yours, it has both humans and Refarians in it?"
"We're working in cooperation," Jared replied, studying Jake curiously. Shelby could guess what their commander was wondering: Had it been different in the future, that alternate world that Jake had traveled from?
"That's good," was all Jake said, averting his eyes. "Much better that way."
Silence fell between them, a few awkward glances exchanged before Jared continued, "Jakob, one reason your return became such an urgent matter is that we have a line on the man you're seeking."
"Tierny? You know where he is?" Jake's eyes assumed a hungry, voracious gleam, and a chill ran through Shelby.
"Our source within the Antousian camp has spotted him," Jared answered. "He's working with them now. Over in Idaho."
Jake ran his tongue across his upper lip, nodding wordlessly. Shelby couldn't help getting a strange, queasy feeling deep inside: Of course he'd been anticipating vengeance for years, but his downright breathless reaction unsettled her. This same man had made love to her only hours earlier, had made himself deeply vulnerable to her. Now all that intimacy had vanished, repla
ced by thoughts that were frighteningly transparent. There was murder in his bright green eyes.
Jared leaned back in his chair, folding his hands into a temple beneath his chin. "But there's more. The Antousians have been holding warehouse parties—raves?" Jared's voice turned up at the end, as if he wasn't entirely sure he was using the right word. "Raves where they let the alcohol and drugs flow pretty damned loose, and then seize the human hosts they want from the assembled partygoers. We know the location of their next event a week from now. We want you to infiltrate, impersonating Tierny."
Jake laughed low in the back of his throat, a dark, cold sound. "That shouldn't be hard."
"It will be dangerous," Jared cautioned, meeting Jake's thousand-yard stare. "You scent like an Antousian hybrid—"
"Which I am."
Jared barreled ahead. "And you're older than the real Jake Tierny is.… They could kill you without so much as blinking an eye. It's a significant risk."
Jake kicked back from the table, nearly toppling his chair. "I'm all over it."
"Well, I'm not certain I'm so eager," was all Jared had to say.
The two friends stared at each other for a long moment, and slowly Jake slid back into his chair. "Tell me everything you know."
Chris Harper cleared his throat. "These raves move all across the Southwest. Sometimes in Phoenix, other times in Albuquerque or Dallas. This one they're bringing much closer to their center of operations. We want to know why. It tells us something big is in the works or they wouldn't be changing the geography."
"I've been over that folder of yours," Jake told Harper. "Haven't really learned shit about what he's up to. Except electronics, he's big-time into technology."
"That makes sense, with what you took off of him," Shelby interjected. And just like that, the attention of every soldier in the room swiveled toward her.
And Jake was giving her the serious evil eye. Uh-oh. So he hadn't wanted that little bit of information about the Antousian chip to leak just yet.
"What's she talking about?" Harper asked. Jake rolled his eyes, digging into his jacket pocket, flinging his wallet onto the table. It skidded across the smooth surface, bouncing like a penny over open water, sliding to a halt right in front of Chris.
"Look inside," Jake instructed. "You should find this … enlightening. All of you will."
"I'll be damned," was all Chris could think to say. The alien squad had been thoroughly briefed by Jared and his lieutenants; they knew all about the neural implant chips that had started the war between the Antousians and Refarians. And for the past few months his crew had gotten a pretty good idea that the chips were being leaked here on Earth. An intercepted shipment down around Denver had revealed that much. But this? If Tierny had taken it off his nemesis—in the future? Well, this just might be the mother lode of all leads.
"The question I haven't been able to answer," Jake said, "not since taking this off of Tierny the night of the … uh, when he …" Jake coughed, struggling. "I've never figured out why a human was partnered up with the Antousians. Or why he was on the battlefield that day."
Chris flinched. The last thing he wanted was to picture Hope's murder. She'd told him everything over the past months, about what happened to her in the future, all the dark, sordid facts. He was as hell-bent as the man before him to stop that murder from taking place a second time.
Chris leaned closer across the table, spreading both hands flat. "We don't know why, not yet. But I promise you one thing, Tierny," he said. "We're going to capture that bastard and figure out what his role is in all of this."
"I'm your man. I'm ready to roll whenever you give me the green light."
"But as your commander says, it's a risk." Chris felt obligated—if for no other reason than because of Hope—to underscore that fact. But Tierny was a tough bastard, he'd hand him that.
"Hope told you the whole story?" he asked, kicking back in his chair like he might at a backyard barbeque. "You know what happened to her … and our baby?"
It was as if all the other advisers and lieutenants faded into the background. There was only the two of them, Tierny practically burrowing a hole in Chris with his brilliant, glowing eyes. "I know what happened," Chris answered flatly. "But it won't happen again. You can be damned sure of that much."
"Good. We're in agreement, then." Jake released his visual hold on him. "You just tell me where I need to go, and I'll do whatever it takes to stop my enemy."
Chris nodded, but an eerie shiver shot down his spine, as if he'd had this same conversation before, only he couldn't quite remember when. The sensation was so vivid, so totally intense, that he lost his train of thought for a few seconds.
Commander Bennett stepped in. "The warehouse party is in a week," he explained. "We've got a lot of prep work to do before then."
"I need to debrief you, Tierny," Chris said, sliding a folder marked classified across the table toward the other man. New information, more than he'd sent with Shelby Tyler in an effort to lure the alien back to base.
Jake nodded. "I'm all ears."
"And you need to debrief me, while we're at it," Chris added. "I want to know everything you've got on this man."
Jake retrieved the folder, flipping it open. For several moments he rifled through the papers, his eyes scanning the pages at hyperspeed.
Strange to think this was a future version of his sister's husband, Scott Dillon. He and Dillon had spent the past four months partnered up, gotten to know each other pretty damn well. It was hard to take the jaded, sad guy in front of him and reconcile him with Dillon … to square them as two versions of the same man.
Hell, it was even spookier to realize that Tierny had scores of memories of being married to his sister—and of her murder. No wonder the soldier's eyes had that haunted, distant look in them, an expression Chris had seen before over at Warren on the faces of returning vets. Guys who'd experienced far too much of the War on Terror, that up-close kind of experience that left something hollow and dead in their souls.
"One week," Tierny murmured, his eyes riveted on the open folder. "We've got a lot of work to do, Harper. A whole lotta prep, but I'm ready."
"Good," Jared interjected. "Because we're all counting on you, Jakob. And I know you won't let us down."
Chapter Ten
"That must've been pretty strange."
Jake looked up from the open folder, surprised to find Shelby standing right beside his chair. As soon as the meeting had adjourned, he'd immediately gotten lost in the documents on Tierny and the Antousians, shocked to learn just how many humans had vanished in the past few months, all taken from the big warehouse parties Jared had described.
"What must have been strange?" He stared up into her beautiful blue eyes, startled by how clear they seemed beneath the meeting room lights. She brushed at a loose strand of blonde hair, tucking it behind her ear with a sexy little gesture that hit him like a blast from a rocket launcher. Gods, the woman was as hot as hell, and after making love to her the night before, it took only the slightest movement of her tight, compact body to turn him on. And what I wouldn't do to have that body right beneath mine, he thought, with a glance at the long conference table. Right here, right now.
Instantly, thoughts of his enemies fled his mind, replaced by a quick rush of lust so jolting, it was all he could do not to draw her right down onto his lap.
"Jake?"
"Yeah?"
"Were you listening to me?"
He flushed. "Got a little distracted, sorry." He shifted uneasily in his chair, hoping she wouldn't glance down and see the serious tent that had just pitched inside his jeans.
She sidled up onto the table, facing him. "I was just saying it must be weird to be around Chris after … everything."
Bringing up his painful past hadn't exactly been on his mind. "Yeah," he agreed after a moment, "it hurts to be around him after so long."
"Was he still in your life? Right before you came back through time?"
; He shook his head, swallowing hard.
"Was he dead, then?" she persisted, swinging her legs back and forth.
He planted one palm on the table beside her. "It's better not to talk about this stuff, Shelby. When Kelsey sent me back in time, she specifically instructed me to keep details of that other timeline under wraps."
"But you're here to stay now, and you have told all of us a whole lot of facts."
She kept swinging those shapely legs of hers back and forth, back and forth, and his fingers burned to reach out and stroke them. "It's bad territory for me, that's all."
Slipping one hand onto her knee, she bent closer toward him. "I'm good at listening. It's the ole bedside manner, always ready to kick in."
Another little swing of her leg, that miniskirt riding high about her thighs. Damn it all! His hand shot out, catching hold of the calf closest to him. He held his breath, slowly inching his fingers along the warm, smooth skin. With a glance toward the door, he was thrilled to confirm that it was shut. No one would barge in: They knew that he was studying the confidential file and would give him privacy to work. Shelby bent toward him, watching as he skimmed his fingertips higher up her leg, then higher still, until he was brushing his calloused hands up beneath the hem of that skirt.
"Talking isn't what I have in mind right now." He growled low in his throat, tugging her closer to him. Scooting his chair back, he made room for her, sliding her right in front of him on the table. She sat facing him, her parted thighs an open mystery to him. He could see dark blonde tufts of curling hair where her absent panties should have been. Unable to help himself, he released another throaty growl, rising up slightly in his seat.
"You like it dangerous," she murmured, reaching to touch his hair. Her fingertips lingered there; then, she slowly stroked his cheek. "I've definitely got your number, boy, and you're an exhibitionist."
He pressed a soft kiss against her inner thigh. "I think that would be you, baby."
"Okay, maybe both of us," she admitted on a delicate little sigh, the muscles in her legs contracting.
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