by Brenna Lyons
Alec straightened, buttoned his dress shirt, and smoothed his hair. Gabriel’s unannounced visit didn’t bode well; until he knew why Gabriel was here, he wouldn’t complicate it further. On that note, Alec padded barefoot out of his lab, down the corridor, and to the elevator in his lounge.
The doors opened, and Gabriel raised his head. The dark circles under his midnight blue eyes and his disheveled clothing were all the confirmation Alec needed that something was seriously wrong.
In the next instant, Gabriel staggered to one of the leather chairs and literally fell into it, one leg hanging down limp. The chair jerked this way and that, seeking the perfect position to make Gabriel comfortable, but no position accomplished that.
Gabriel groaned, pressing a hand to his chest. “Disengage,” he gasped.
The chair halted, the footrest extended, the back elevated to a thirty-six degree angle. Gabriel slumped in it, shivering.
Alec forced his pure horror at the scene back and called on thought. “I’ll call in Caleb,” he offered.
Gabriel shook his head, grimacing. “Not Caleb. You. I need... Alec!”
But, that means this is bio-mechanical. This was very bad news. If Alec took the time to patch Gabriel, would he sacrifice his own chance? In a nanosecond, he knew he’d chance it.
His brother’s muscles eased, and he sank into the chair. The smooth lowering of the chair back announced that Gabriel’s system had settled, and he’d activated the chair directly.
Alec sank into the chair next to him. “Tell me.”
“I don’t know what it’s doing to me.”
“It?” Did he mean a software fault? Why weren’t his diagnostics working? What were they telling him?
Gabriel shot him a pained expression. “I met a woman. She—”
Fury like he’d never felt before settled in Alec’s gut. A curious tightening around his heart followed. “What was her name?”
“What?”
“Her name!” Alec forced his grip to loosen, abruptly aware that he was standing over Gabriel, his brother’s arms trapped in his grasp, prepared to shake the answer out of him. “Her name,” he requested.
“Sarah. I don’t know what came over me, Alec. I couldn’t stop myself. I swear, it was like I was on autopilot or something.”
Conflicting emotions submarined his logic, and Alec fought his way back up, suspicion rising strong. Hannah could be an assumed name. Sarah could be. It could be the same woman. “Show me.”
“Alec?”
“Use the wireless link-up to me. Show me your memories of her,” he ordered. Gods, but he had to know if Gabriel had been with her. He couldn’t quantify what difference it made, but it did make one. It made a lot of difference...on some level.
Gabriel’s eyes widened, and he shook his head in quick, jerking movements. “I don’t dare. If I pass this to—”
Alec yanked at Gabriel’s shirt, popping buttons and baring his ribcage. The same flesh-colored disc marred the smooth stretch of his brother’s skin.
“I don’t know what it’s doing to me, Alec,” he pleaded.
His stomach churned. “I know.”
* * * *
Gabriel couldn’t meet Alec’s eyes. For some reason he couldn’t comprehend, his oldest brother was still demanding Gabriel’s memories of Sarah.
Alec removed the leads from the disc, his hands shaking. “You’re not going to make me download against your will, are you?”
“Tell me why, Alec.”
He paused, setting the leads aside. Alec straightened, staring at the holo-monitor...or rather through the holo-monitor, his jaw tight.
“Tell me why, and I’ll risk opening the link.”
“This is an attack on our family,” he reasoned.
“It’s an attack on me,” Gabriel corrected him.
Alec’s right hand went to his shirt, unbuttoning it slowly. He pulled the fabric aside, baring a matching disc. “On us all. Now, I need to know if this is an organized group or one—”
Gabriel launched to his feet, his hands fisted, adrenaline feeding fight or flight and his mind directing fight loudly. He stopped himself from punching Alec in the mouth when his hand was drawn back fully for the act.
For a moment, they stared at each other.
Gabriel reeled back, catching himself on the work table, supporting himself with that grip when his knees threatened to buckle. His heart was pounding, and he couldn’t stop it. Was this what a heart attack felt like? Well, there was probably more pain involved in that event.
“What am I doing, Alec?” he asked weakly. Alec’s responses in the lounge replayed in his mind. “Is that what it does? Makes us want to kill each other?”
“Replay your thoughts before—”
“I didn’t think,” he shouted.
“Then what did you feel?”
Alec’s calm soothed Gabriel. “Anger, fury...” He’d never felt something as soul-wrenching as fury before. “And...” Something more. But, what was it?
“Hurt?” Alec suggested. “Jealousy?”
Gabriel considered that. “Hurt. Yes, it hurt, but I’ve never felt jealousy. I didn’t think—”
“We couldn’t. I know. Love and its connected emotions... Do you understand why I need to see your memories now?”
He nodded. It was personal for Alec, like the thought that Sarah might have slept with Alec was personal for him. It shouldn’t be personal, but it was. But, there was still one problem that needed dealt with first.
“What will we do, if they are the same woman? Kill each other over her?”
Alec’s voice was laced with amusement. “I promise to try not to.”
* * * *
The woman appeared out of nowhere. Gabriel had knocked her off her feet before he realized she was there. He ordered diagnostic checks of his processor, confused by how he could bump into anything, how he could be unaware of his surroundings.
Realization that she was staring at him with wide blue eyes shocked him to motion. Gabriel shifted the industry resource magazines onto his left arm and reached down for her.
“I’m sorry, Miss—”
The words caught in his throat. The feeling of her hand enfolded in his eclipsed all else.
Then she was on her feet, willowy body pressed lightly against him. Golden curls teased his cheek, carrying the scents of coconut, vanilla, and musk to him. Gabriel leaned into them, lost in the delightful sensations he couldn’t find a name for.
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m okay.”
Gabriel stared at her, unable to form words, nearly unable to think.
“And it’s Sarah, not Miss.”
“Gabriel.” His voice sounded strange in his own ears, as if it was coming from far away. If he didn’t know that drugs were largely ineffective on him, he’d wonder what someone had slipped him.
“Since you won’t release my hand, I thought we should introduce ourselves.”
He unclenched his fingers, stepping back, trying desperately to right his senses.
Sarah’s gaze panned down his body, and a smile lifted her lips. “Well, that’s okay, then.”
“Oh...okay? What?” Gabriel looked down at himself, his face heating at the fact that he was hard. The insistent ache of arousal cut through his confusion. No. This was not okay. Not by a long shot! What was wrong with him?
“Care to drive me home?” she inquired a little too innocently.
That slapped some sense into him. “How do you know I’m driving?” he asked.
“The keys.” She tipped her head toward his left hand.
Gabriel fisted it, feeling the bite of his T-bird keys. He nodded, embarrassed at his near-accusation of her. What is wrong with me?
“It’s the least you can do, since you knocked me down,” she suggested sweetly.
He smiled in spite of himself. “I guess it is. This way.”
Sarah didn’t wear a seatbelt. She sat close to Gabriel, her body...or more precisely, his reactions to it k
eeping him painfully erect.
“Which way from here?” he asked, his voice hoarse.
“That’s your choice.”
“My...” My Gods, I can’t concentrate on a simple conversation.
“We could go to my place now, or we could go to the overlook and...take care of what we both want to.”
“We can’t accomplish that at your place?” The fact that he didn’t doubt he was going to have sex with her should have bothered him. The fact that it didn’t bother him should have bothered him more; it didn’t either.
“Only if you feel like dealing with my roommates.”
Gabriel stopped for a red light and then turned to her. He didn’t ask her permission; she seemed to know what he intended before he did, her eyes sliding shut in unison with his.
Her mouth opened to his in a hot, hard kiss. His right hand left the wheel, tangling in her hair, positioning her head to allow him to explore deeper within her. Her breath teased at his cheek and stirred his eyelashes, her body shifting nearly into his lap. Gabriel growled a couple of mangled curses over their stroking tongues.
It took her breaking away, her gaze locked with his, her body retreating to the passenger seat to bring him to enough sense to turn to the wheel and start driving again. He turned into the park.
Sarah purred her approval, her hand settling in his lap. She started unbuttoning his jeans.
That had to end. Gabriel was barely keeping the car on the road as it was. His processor wasn’t overriding his human inclinations and limitations as it should have.
Her hand wrapped around his cock, stroking him, and Gabriel decided his processor’s vacation was a pretty enjoyable experience. Sarah started to lower herself to suck him, and self-preservation kicked in.
“No,” he ordered. With his processor functioning, he’d attempt this, but it wasn’t and he wasn’t suicidal.
She sighed, sitting up, pouting prettily. “I’m hungry, Gabriel.”
“So am I,” he informed her. “Get those panties off. When we stop...” His mouth watered, and he licked his lips meaningfully.
Sarah’s smile returned; she reclined her seat fully. Her skirt slid up her thighs to her waist. Gabriel shifted his gaze from the road to her body, over and over, unwilling to relinquish his view of either for long.
She knew he was watching. Sarah made a show of rolling her hips, pushing her panties down her body, revealing that she was shaved clean and smooth for him.
Not for me. But the concept was a hard one to shake. His mind insisted that it was for him.
Her legs came up, one at a time, sliding out of the bit of silk, then returning to the floor, spread as wide as the car allowed. Her gaze flicked to his straining hard-on, then slid shut. Sarah stroked her hands up her inner thighs, spreading her labia for him.
Gabriel noted that they’d breached the ring of trees at the overlook and slammed the car into park. He turned to her, marveling at her control.
Sarah hadn’t started without him; her fingers still held her body spread wide. Her hips tipped up, and she gasped his name.
He laid out over the seat, on his side, facing the back of the car, his knees bent, capturing first one side, then the other of her slit in his mouth, sucking them clean, then delving inside.
The recline switch was at his foot, and Gabriel toed it with his tennis shoe, creating a bed of the flattened front seats and the stationary back. He was going to need a lot of room for what he intended, not the least of which was a better angle to dine on her.
And, I’m damned well going to Alec for a diagnostic in the morning.
* * * *
Alec opened his eyes as the feed clipped off, nodding at Gabriel’s unspoken rebuke that he’d seen more than enough. “It’s not the same woman,” he assured him.
Though a conspiracy wasn’t exactly good news, they had no reason to kill each other, and that was a relief. They needed to work together not fight each other.
Gabriel managed a strained smile. “I figured that out when your hands didn’t end up around my throat, thanks.”
His sarcasm wasn’t helping Alec’s nerves, but he supposed Gabriel was due the irritation. “I only watched as long as I did to get an objective view of how they’re bypassing our processors and the protective software, in the first place. What is going on before they get their nasty little bug on us?”
To be honest, the sight of Sarah throwing herself at Gabriel did absolutely nothing for Alec. Now, if Hannah did that... He tried to force that thought out of his mind, but the damage was done. He was hard again.
Gabriel spoke up, seemingly oblivious to his state...thank goodness.
“Some sort of disruption or jamming? Damn it, Alec. This is your specialty! Don’t you have some clue? I design the hardware. Of course, I’m in the dark.”
“No. If that were the case, our security features would let us know. In addition, your shielding would dampen it.” He settled in the executive chair that normally sat behind his office desk. It had been molded for him, so it was about a thousand times more comfortable than the lab chairs.
Silence fell between them.
Alec rubbed his hands over his eyes, ordering his processor to stimulate endorphins and vaso-relaxants to nullify the headache gathering steam. The relief was nearly instantaneous, and he thanked the gods that some portions of his usual bodily control still functioned.
“Software,” he mused. The whole thing came down to whatever software was responding and what wasn’t.
“What?” Gabriel asked.
“It almost seems like there’s a program running that supersedes all others, a...hidden program that won’t even show when I use admin privileges. If it was written specifically to keep the processor from accessing certain programs we usually depend on—”
“Someone would have to know a hell of a lot about our code,” Gabriel interrupted him.
Alec flicked the disc on his chest in disgust. “I think we have proof that they know too much for our own good.”
He winced. “Agreed. Far too much. So...what do we do now?”
“I’ve already sent a secure message feed to Frank and Caleb, telling them to stay in protected areas.”
“And not to fuck strange women.”
“If they come face-to-face with the women in question, it’s too late for them. You know that. But I did warn them what we’re up against.”
“Yeah, thirty-eight, twenty-eight, thirty-eight and with the key to turning off our brains in favor of the lowest model of the three we possess...the one we’re not accustomed to using.”
Alec chose not to respond to that. When all was said and done, it was probably a nicer version of what Frank was going to say about this situation.
“In the meantime,” he changed the subject, “I’ve e-mailed your project teams and pulled our failsafe out of the bag of tricks.”
Gabriel winced. “I hate that. They always treat me like an invalid when I go back. We have them convinced I’m not even going to match Houston’s seventy-five years, you know.”
“The family history of Roget’s Disease comes in handy, Gabriel. Since Houston suffered from it, it gives us the cover we need when problems arise. How else would we explain dropping off the face of the Earth for a week?”
“I know it. I just hate being treated as fragile when I know the processor keeps me functioning better than the healthiest person on Earth...usually.”
“Right now, we are fragile. But, more importantly, you’re our hardware designer. While I work on the software issues, I need you on these holo-scans of the discs. Get inside them. Find out how they function. Find out how we can bypass or destroy them without destroying us in the process.”
* * * *
Alec snapped his head up, forcing himself to focus. Had he slipped into a rest cycle? A quick check of his processor logs confirmed it. “Yet another glitch in a long line of them this damned thing causes.”
The memories he’d been reliving in unconsciousness flashed through
his conscious mind. He groaned in agony. The worst had come four days later.
Of all of them, Caleb had been used most sorely. If Alec was right, Trina had been their traitor all along.
He still remembered the first time Houston had introduced them to the dark-haired, dark-eyed waif. She’d been twenty-five, fresh from her Ph.D., brilliant, shy, blushed at a look. She’d shied from Frank’s teasing, seemingly disconcerted by his exuberance. It had taken a warning look from Alec to tone his brother’s antics down.
Of course, she’d been most at ease with Caleb. No one questioned why that was. They were both quiet, immersed in work, uncomfortable with the games society played. They shared long discussions on the minutia of the subjects they both enjoyed. When the time came for them to choose women to wed, Trina would have been the obvious choice for Caleb...which only made her betrayal that much more unpalatable.
Houston had taken her under his wing as an assistant; he’d requested, on his deathbed, that Caleb do the same, and his brother had.
Caleb had tried to keep himself safe, as ordered; he’d stayed hidden inside his labs, the lock-outs secured. His only weakness had been Trina. Since he’d known her for five years and never shown more than a passing attraction to her, she’d been deemed a safe companion in his isolation.
That was before her innocent shoulder rub had Caleb lusting for her, before she’d stripped off her clothes and ridden him hard...
She’d left Caleb in a heap in his lab, his clothing half-off his body and the damned disc on his chest. Caleb had even told her he loved her, in the heat of the moment. For that sin, he was experiencing another new emotion...regret. Gods knew, he’d been used the worst.
If Alec’s suspicions were founded, Houston had been used, as well. Had Trina capitalized on her position of trust with Houston Lawton to set his engineered sons up for the kill?
Alec winced at that thought. Just before Houston’s death, he’d called the four of them in for a software/hardware update, invoking the Roget’s card for a full direct chip implant into the protected CPU.