by Marie Harte
It took him a moment to realize she was speaking to him. A trap of some kind? He remained silent.
She swore under her breath, then continued down the alley behind the buildings. He heard Eli driving the car, following him as he jogged down the alley, keeping her in sight.
She tripped over a bottle, fell, and didn’t get up. She just lay there, breathing hard.
He heard low sobbing and felt something in his heart give. Trap or not, he couldn’t let her lay there in the filthy alley. If he took her at face value, she was scared, hurt, and had nowhere to go.
“Don’t, you idiot,” Eli said in a low voice from the car that Alex ignored.
“Hey, you.” He raised his voice so she would hear him.
She looked up in a panic, spied him, and rose to unsteady feet. She wavered, saw Eli in the car behind him, then took off like a gazelle.
“Shit. Follow us,” Alex called back before giving chase.
It took him four damn blocks, but he nabbed her. Right before she could vault a high fence at the end of the alley, he grabbed her foot and tugged her down into his arms.
“Shh. I’m not going to hurt you, honey. Hush. We don’t want Lang’s people to find us.” The feel of the woman in his arms did something funny to his insides. She radiated…something…that had Alex’s system going haywire. He wanted to tug her closer, to sniff her, lick her, and then caress her all over, memorizing her by taste, touch, and feel.
So very, very odd.
She quieted and remained still, like a statue in his arms.
“Alex, did you get her?” Eli asked, his voice not too loud to carry but enough that Alex’s Circ senses could pick him up.
Her gaze sought his. “Alex?”
“Alexander Palmer. And who might you be?”
“Oh, thank God.” She cupped his cheek with a trembling hand, then passed out.
Alex stared down at her, not sure what to do.
Eli jogged up to him. “What the hell did you do?”
“Told her my name. Guess my good looks and stellar personality made her faint.”
“Yeah, I’m sure that’s it.” Eli snorted. “Come on. Let’s get out of here before we’re made.”
Alex walked with her to the car and sat with her in his lap in the back seat. “We can’t go back to the others. Not yet. What if she’s a trap? A plant?”
Eli sighed. “Yeah, I thought of that. We’ll find another place to lie low. Meanwhile the guys are putting a watch on the lab, and we’ll try to find out who this chick is. She’s pretty hot. Did you notice?”
“Jesus, Eli. Really? The poor woman passed out from exhaustion. And who knows what they did to her in there.”
“More like she passed out from fear seeing your ugly face,” Eli muttered. “And saying she’s hot is a compliment, moron.”
Alex contained a smile. “Of course it is. Now find us a decent place to rest. I’m tired.”
“Yes, master,” Eli said with a healthy dose of sarcasm. “You know I live to serve.”
“I wish.”
The motel Eli took them to was out of the way in a suburb outside the city. As they drove, Alex called and let Gideon know the situation. Gideon wasn’t happy about the team being apart, but he understood. Bailey agreed and told them Carter would send details on the lab as soon as he found any.
In the meantime, they were to keep an eye on the woman. From what Carter had gathered, two redheads had been in the level 4 group. This woman was either Kennedy Knight or Alissa Baumbach. Bailey had met a few of the women, but she didn’t remember either of them too well.
The motel seemed mostly empty. A good thing. They looked around, and seeing nothing but a few parked cars down from their room, they quickly took the woman inside.
“Not bad. Not great, but it could be worse.” Eli claimed one of the queen beds.
Alex set the woman down on the other and looked her over. He touched her shirt and learned more than he’d expected. “Her name’s Kennedy Knight. Her cousin helped her escape and is still trapped inside. The cousin’s a clairvoyant who sent Kennedy to us. Kennedy’s a telepath, so we’re going to have to be careful about guarding our thoughts.”
“I’m all over that.” Eli shrugged. “No biggie.”
Alex heard more than Eli probably intended. Interesting Eli didn’t express much distress about someone reading his mind. And come to think of it, Carter wasn’t able to mesmerize Eli either. Gideon could only slam into Eli’s mind if Eli wasn’t guarding himself. Alex wondered if Eli maybe had an ability to shield himself from mental attack.
“Anyway, she’s the real deal. I think. Unless she intentionally let me see what she wanted me to.” Just because the woman was out cold didn’t mean she hadn’t laid a trap for them.
He studied her, aware his beast looked her over as well. Then he did what he’d been wanting to. He ignored Eli’s stare and leaned down to sniff her, breathing in her scent at the crook of her neck.
She smelled…good. Better than good. She smelled ripe. Fertile. Like a fitting mate.
“Hmm. What’s going on, Alex?” Eli said in a purr. “I sense a lot of lust, big guy.” A glance at Alex’s pants could attest to his excitement as well.
“I don’t know. But I think…” Alex couldn’t be sure, but his beast was shouting at him to get closer and take another whiff of the most delicious scent. “I think she might be Circ.”
Eli sat up and stared at Kennedy in surprise. “Wait. Hold on. Bailey’s the only female Circ we know of. I mean, not counting the ones the guys up north mated.” The Circs in New Jersey all had female mates. A few even had kids.
“Bailey was experimented on unknowingly, like me. They had to know she was psychic. What do you want to bet that Lang kept his Level 4 psychic project going to create female Circs? He’s into breeding a better mercenary, right? Even though Amelia Norton is dead, she wasn’t the only one who’d pay a fortune for Circ embryonic tissue. Especially if Lang wants to continue experimenting. He needs women for that.”
“Not necessarily.” Eli shrugged. “I mean, he could just artificially create them, right? They’re making clones and organs from pig tissue. I read that on Facebook yesterday.” He scowled. “Don’t look so stunned, Alex. I do read.”
“More than comic books, apparently.”
“Funny guy. My point is he made Bailey for his crazy Circ pack.”
“The B series.” Alex wished he could forget them: Myers, Yates, Sheer, and Caldane.
“But we took her instead. So maybe he needs more females for his leftover Circs. That or to get them pregnant and harvest more embryonic cells. Who the hell knows?” Eli yawned. “I’m tired. Look, you take first watch, okay? I’ll get the next one. But we keep an eye on this maybe-Circ. Right?”
“Yeah. Go to sleep. I’ll wake you in a few hours to give me a break.”
“Sounds good.” Eli dropped back, closed his eyes, and damn if he didn’t fall straight to sleep on the bed.
Alex shook his head, wishing he could do the same. Yet the female captivated him. He sat in a chair and pulled it up next to the bed. Then he studied her, fascinated by the powerful energy, beautiful features, and shapely form of the woman lying so peacefully in bed.
He sighed and shifted in his seat, praying she wasn’t a trap, half wishing she was. Because she distracted him, and he couldn’t afford to be preoccupied this close to the enemy.
So he studied, reassessed, and studied her some more. And because he couldn’t help himself, he took a strand of her silky hair between his fingers and lifted it to his nose. He inhaled the sultry perfume of woman and beast and sensed her settling into his bones.
He waited.
And he watched.
Chapter Six
KENNEDY WOKE UP all at once, not sure if she’d actually escaped or was trapped in another of Dr. Lang’s twisted experiments.
“You’re awake,” came a low, husky voice. The steady gaze of the stranger who’d held her so protectively snared her.
She stared, surprised to feel so connected to someone she’d just met. Her beast sized him up as she realized she lay in bed in a hotel room. She heard measured breathing nearby, scented another male, and knew getting away would not be easy—if she even wanted to escape.
Charlie had said to find Alex, and Kennedy had found him.
He’d introduced himself as Alexander Palmer. Why did that name sound familiar?
He blinked, and she noted a beast looking out at her through dark gray eyes. Good Lord. Was he one of them? A Circ? But his pupil looked round, not narrow, and he didn’t radiate the same menace many in Lang’s laboratory had.
Alex had brown hair, the color like the bark of a strong oak. His face was that of a warrior, full of character, stern with responsibility. His square jaw and straight, patrician nose complemented the brooding stare focused on her.
Being so close, she couldn’t help inhaling his scent. To her relief, he didn’t smell wrong, the way Myers and Yates had. He smelled clean, fresh. Earthy, almost. Intelligence and caution lingered in his gaze, and she knew to go slowly with this man. He was no one’s fool and her best hope of rescuing Charlie.
“Do I know you?” she asked as she sat up, propping her back against the headboard. She still felt at a disadvantage, but not as vulnerable as she had been lying down.
“I don’t think so.” He continued to watch her. “I worked at U-Ground for a while, undercover.”
“You work for U-Ground?” Her voice rose, and she took a worried glance at the sleeping man next to them.
“No, worked. Past tense. I was only there because I was worried about my sister.”
She saw—no, heard—his grief. A flash of his thoughts penetrated. Katie, damn it, I miss you so much. Then nothing.
“Your sister is gone?” she asked softly.
He nodded. “Katie Sheridan. You might have known her.”
“Katie was your sister?” Knowing what Katie had gone through, she paled. “I’m so sorry. She helped us, or at least, she tried to. She was a good person.”
“The best.” He cleared his throat. After a moment, he said, “She died trying to save others. I want to continue her legacy. Tell me what happened to you. How did you get involved with U-Ground?”
“Back to the beginning, eh?” Kennedy sighed. “I was suckered in by the generous pay.” And the ability to use my telepathic ability, she thought but didn’t say. No need to let him know all her secrets. She paused. “It was an opportunity to make twice as much money as I’d made working for a supply company, while also doing something good. They needed people as a test group for some experiment the government was doing. Helping to advance science and better pay? It seemed a no-brainer. My cousin was asked to join too, so we did it together.
“Turned out to be a nightmare. Dr. Lang is crazy, Duane Smith is a sadist, and half the guys working there are monsters. At first it was great. Everyone was so nice.” She shook her head, wondering how everything had turned so bad. “Then things got weird. I saw my first Circ, and that was crazy.” Nope. Not a question or flinch at mention of the word “Circ.” He knew what she was talking about. “Then I saw a mutant. Dr. Lang didn’t seem to see anything wrong with experimenting on people. All in the name of science.” She huffed. “I hate that guy.”
“We all do,” Alex agreed.
“I knew I had to get out. And I wasn’t the only one. That’s when Lang imprisoned us in U-Ground. His Level 4 project. We were given injections, pills, tons of tests, and they made some of us do things. Bad things.” The distaste, that Lang had recommended such abuse, still shocked her.
Alex scowled. “Bad things, huh? Stuff that involved male Circs, you mean.”
She flushed. “Yes.” Nivia had been one of the first to be “given” to a Circ team. But Lang had saved Charlie and Kennedy from being passed around, and she still had no idea why. “I’m not sure why I didn’t get the same treatment. But I think maybe cause Lang was grooming me for what he called his B series. He wanted, probably still wants, to pair me with Myers, Yates, and—”
“Myers?” Alex leaned in closer. “Yates? They’re still alive?”
“Yes.”
Staring into his flat gray eyes, she could almost feel his rage, especially when they brightened with an abnormal shine. She shivered, and he glanced away.
“Right.” He blew out a breath. “So what happened to push your escape? How did you get out?”
“My cousin had a feeling we needed to move. She must have overheard something Lang or Smith said.” Or, you know, she predicted the future. “She had a feeling I’d be the best one to get away, to bring back help. I left last night. Or today. I’m still not sure how long I was asleep.”
“It’s only been a few hours.”
“Oh.” It seemed like she’d escaped only minutes ago. “Charlie, that’s my cousin, told me to get to Alex. That you would help me.”
“I will.” No hesitation. “But I’m still not sure how she knew about me.”
She never said anything about you being so attractive though. And why the hell am I thinking about how sexy you are at a time like this? She cleared her throat, doing her best not to notice how incredibly muscular he was, or how handsome.
“She heard your name from Dr. Lang. I don’t think he liked you much.” Kennedy paused. “She also said you were dangerous.”
“I am.”
He said it with a grim smile that for some reason rallied her beast to sit up and take notice. The creature stared at Alex with an affection Kennedy more than sensed. Her body tingled all over, and she could almost feel herself readying to mate with the poor man. God. Tone it down, you hussy of a she-beast.
She’d swear the creature within laughed at her, even as it strove to get closer to Alex.
She glanced to her left to see Alex’s partner, another well-built man, sleeping on the bed. He had tattoos all over both arms showcased by a tight T-shirt, and he looked lethal.
“So the escape. How exactly did you manage that?” Alex asked.
Dragging her gaze back to him, she explained from beginning to end, leaving out the psychic parts he’d no doubt disbelieve anyway, and ran out of breath.
Alex sat, studying her. “And now you’re here, with us.”
“And now I’m here with you,” she said, her voice husky, her body hot and bothered. Literally. Kennedy felt on fire, wide awake, and way too focused on her handsome rescuer. “So, uh, can I get a shower?”
“Sure,” he said to her back as she darted into the bathroom and slammed the door shut behind her. She locked herself inside, leaned back against the door, and tried to get a lock on her libido. Her hormones were going crazy. She wanted sex, right now. And she didn’t want just anyone. She wanted the man who’d stared down at her with confusion, then lust, darkening his gaze.
“Kennedy, are you okay?” he asked through the door.
She jumped away from it, then hugged herself, as if to keep her crazy feelings inside. “Yes. I just need to scrub the horrible memories of the lab away.”
A pause. “Yell if you need us.”
Yes, us. Because while you’re thinking about mounting Alex Palmer, his sleeping roommate is lying not three feet away! No matter how much she chastised her beast, the thing didn’t seem to care.
Kennedy took her time getting clean, and the water felt so good rinsing away her worries. At least, for the moment. Guilt continued to rise up and plague her, that she was relaxing and safe while Charlie and the others no doubt suffered. But she would rally the troops as soon as she could. They’d need time to plan and regroup anyway, because storming inside without an idea of how to deal with the monsters roaming Lang’s lab would do nothing but get them killed. And then who would be left to save Charlie?
She stood under the hot water until she pruned. Then she turned it off and dried herself. She stared at her dirty clothes in dismay, not wanting to put them back on. But she had nothing else to wear.
Kennedy cracked the door open and
peered out. Alex’s partner remained asleep, but Alex paced around the room like an angry lion.
“Alex?”
He stopped, his eyes still shining with a preternatural brightness, and speared her with his gaze. “You okay?”
She tugged the towel tighter against her, fighting a blush despite hiding everything but her face behind the door. “I just… The water felt good. Sorry for taking so long.” She hadn’t felt safe enough to take a long shower in months. Not when being naked meant being even more vulnerable in a place where she couldn’t afford to show weakness. “Um, do you have a shirt or anything I could borrow? I hate to put my dirty clothes back on.”
His eyes narrowed, and his nostrils flared…scenting her? He stepped closer, and though she knew she left little but a sliver of her face to be seen, she felt almost naked under his regard.
“We didn’t come prepared either. You can have my shirt if you want.”
Before she could tell him no, that she’d put her own clothes back on, he whipped off his T-shirt.
Treated to a firm, tanned chest, one devoid of body hair and covered in a tribal tattoo she wanted to trace with her tongue, she prayed she didn’t look as if she was ogling him as hard as she was. Good Lord, Alex Palmer was fine. The definition in his muscles could be attributed to being Circ, but she had a feeling he’d been in shape before being changed.
The fiery need that she’d washed away returned, stronger than ever. He held out his shirt, and she had to pull the door back to take it. Wearing nothing but a towel wrapped around her, she knew she shouldn’t get too close. For all that Alex seemed like a good guy, was Katie’s brother, and a man Dr. Lang had only ever mentioned with anger, she didn’t know him. And she didn’t know what might happen if she tried to listen in on his thoughts. What if he too had some kind of psychic ability? Oh God. What if he could read her thoughts as well?
Good mate. Strong. Fierce protector.
She took a step outside the bathroom. Her beast disagreed that she didn’t know him. It must have communicated itself to Alex, because she saw the creature inside him staring at her through his eyes. Oh yeah. Definitely a Circ.