Authors: Joan Swan

Blaze (33 page)

BOOK: Blaze

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“Seems like the only thing that gets your head back on straight.”

Luke intervened before the two strongest women he'd ever known got into a blowout he knew neither of them wanted and both would regret. “We're pretty sure he's her nephew.”

All eyes turned toward Luke. “Mateo,” he clarified, waving a hand toward the room where the kids played. “Just like he told us. Her brother's son.”

“We thought he might be.” Alyssa uncurled from the sofa and sat up, her attention returning to Keira. “Mitch followed Cash's path until three years ago, when he seemed to disappear. And he
was
stationed in Greece for several years. We assumed he . . .”

“He's not dead.” Keira slid Cash's photo from the back pocket of her jeans and walked it over to Alyssa, who cast a disapproving glance at Mitch as she took it.

“Heyâ” Mitch held up both hands in a surrendering gesture. “I've had, what, fifteen minutes to look into his background? Give me a break.”

Alyssa took the photo and pulled Keira onto the sofa next to her. “What's going on?”

Keira propped her elbows on her knees. “The brother I thought was dead is alive and either working for or imprisoned by the same spies who make us live looking over our shoulders. I've probably got a nephew I didn't know existed who has been used as a science experiment. And I can barely talk to him because he only speaks Greek.” She pushed from the sofa to pace again. “I don't know what the hell is going on.”

Alyssa looked at the photo in her hand with a frown. Her brows shot up. “Wow. You two look a lot alike.”

Seth pushed off the kitchen island and held his hand out. “Let me see. Why aren't you reading it?”

“I've tried. I'm getting . . .” Keira cut an angry glance at Luke. “Interference.”

Teague snorted a laugh.

Kai sent an assessing look between them. “You two . . . back together?”

“Yes,” Luke said.

“No,” Keira said at the same time.

What the . . . ?

“
Excuse
me?” He hooked his thumb toward the front door, which also happened to be the direction of his house. “Afterâ”

“Maybe. God”âshe pressed both hands to her temples and closed her eyesâ“I don't know.”

Damn. That hurt. “Sorry that topic is so miserable for you to contemplate.”

“Luke.” She sighed. “It's not. I'm sorry.”

She had a headache coming on. He could see it in her eyes. And, yeah, he felt guilty for being petty and sensitive when she had such big things on her mind. But that didn't ease the pain of what felt like the beginnings of another change of her heart.

SEVENTEEN

K
eira couldn't look at Luke. Her guts were already shredded. She'd gone from the most perfect morning to the most horrendous afternoon, and she knew she wasn't processing well.

She'd kept Luke's thoughts out for the most part, but hadn't lied about getting interference on the photo. Not exactly. She'd been tormented by ugly memories from her childhoodâthe emotional abuse, the drunken beatings, the fire, and hadn't been able to get anything directly from Cash.

The news about her brother and Mateo hit her like the explosion at the ranch. That, along with her memories from the past and Luke's angry reaction to them, had her seriously second-guessing this whole reunion.

Had she really thought she could give him that family he wanted?

She'd jumped the gun. Been so caught up in her love for him, his overwhelming confidence, she'd thought . . .
maybe
. That had been so unfair of her. To offer him hope of the one thing he wanted most only to yank it away. Worse than unfair, it had been cruel. Selfish. A perfect example of why she shouldn't be a mother. And the thought of someone hurting
their baby
the way Mateo had been hurt, the way her brother had been hurt . . .

Her throat closed with terror.

“Keira?” Alyssa was beside her, saying something, but she sounded like she was deep underground. “Keira, look at me. What's wrong?”

She opened her mouth, but couldn't speak. Because she couldn't breathe.

Luke clasped her face in both hands. She automatically dug her fingers into his forearms. He met her eyes and held them. His so deep blue, so confident, so focused.

“Breathe,” he ordered, but in a voice filled with supreme calm. His hands tightened on her face. “You're okay. You're safe. Just
breathe
.”

He gave her head a little shake, cracking the wall of panic. Her throat opened, scraped in air.

“There you go.” His hands loosened, but he didn't let go. “Everything's going to be okay. I'm here. You're safe.”

As air fed her brain, the panic released its grip and her vision cleared. Adrenaline receded, leaving her shaky and sweating and cold.

“Okay.” Luke slid both arms around her shoulders and pulled her close. “It's over. You're good now.”

Keira curled into Luke's warmth. She pressed her face against the soft cotton of his shirt, the supple muscle beneath, and took a long deep breath of him. Instant relief.

“Since when does she have panic attacks?” Alyssa asked from nearby.

“The fire,” Luke said, now stroking her hair. “Since that goddamned warehouse fire.”

She squeezed her eyes tight. Gratitude washed over her. He was protecting her from the embarrassment of her childhood. Though this was new, there was no earthy scent nearby. God, she hoped this was a fluke. She didn't need another problematic issue.

Something touched her leg. Heat shot up her thigh, wound around her lower back, setting it on fire. Warmth pervaded her belly, her chest, suffused her limbs. Her chill abated.

“Thia?”

“Not now, baby.” Alyssa pulled Mateo into her arms. “Where's Kitty-Cat? Kat?” she called down the hall.

“No.” Keira turned out of Luke's arms and reached for Mateo. “No, I want him.”

The grin that lit Mateo's face burned a bittersweet path through Keira's heart. He reached for her with both arms, and Keira dragged him close. As if he sensed her need, he held tight.

She exhaled, long and slow, and squeezed her eyes against the burn of tears. Her nephew. She had no doubt. This boy was her flesh and blood. Her
family
.

“He'd be in one of these locations.” Mitch's voice cut into Keira's relief. She shifted Mateo to a seat in her arms and looked across the room where the men had gathered around the dining room table with a map spread across the surface.

Keira joined the group. A map of the United States had been marked with different-colored dot stickers.

“These are all the testing facilities in the U.S.” Kai said. “Red are labs, greenâheadquarters, yellowâbunkers . . .”

“Freaking A.” Seth fisted his hands against the tabletop and leaned into his knuckles. “There are dozens. How are we going to knowâ?”

“Baba!”
Mateo leaned toward the table, almost falling out of Keira's arms as he pointed.

Keira set him on his knees, and he crawled across the bottom of the map to plant his finger on a red dot in the middle of the Nevada desert. He looked over his shoulder with excitement bouncing in his eyes and Greek pouring out of his mouth, but the only thing Keira could understand was,
“baba”
as he repeated it.

She darted a look at Mitch. “Get Panos on the phone.”

Mitch dialed, spoke to Panos for a moment, then put his cell on speaker. After speaking with Mateo, Panos said, “This is where his father lives.
Baba
is what children call their fathers in Greece.”

Keira crossed her arms, trying to repress all the crazy emotions coiling in her chest. “How does he know?”

“He says he can see him. He says”âPanos paused as Mateo spoke againâ“He is almost done with his work and he will be leaving soon. He is coming home.”

“Home? Where's home?” Keira tried to wrap her mind around Mateo's ability. “Greece? Here?”

“This kid is a remote viewer?” Seth asked, shocked.

Keira shrugged. “We don't know much about his skill or accuracy. Panos,” she said, “can you ask him what his father is doing right now?”

Mateo pressed the palm of his hand over the red dot, closing his eyes. Then he spoke and Panos translated.

“He's looking at a map, too.”

“A map of what?” Keira asked.

Panos asked the question, then said, “The Castle and the compound. Now, he's putting the map away and he's going to the door of his room and calling through the window with bars.”

“This is like twenty freaking questions,” Keira said. “Who is he talking to?”

“A guard,” Panos said, “who takes him from his room to the lab where he works.”

“He
is
a prisoner,” Keira said, one part of her shocked, the other relieved. “Can't remote viewers hear, too? What are they saying?

“He doesn't know the language. He can't understand what they're saying.” Panos said something to Mateo, then translated his response. “He doesn't understand the concept of prison. Only knows his father was taken there after his mother was killed and the boy sent to the ranch to live.”

“But he couldn't have been more than two at that time,” Keira said. “How could he know? How could he remember?”

“How can any of us do what we do?” Seth pointed out.

“Motherfuckingâ” Kai started, then cut himself off. “I can't believe this. We have to get him out of there.”

Always the warrior, Kai spoke as if there were no doubt, no alternative.

“I'm going to use another phone.” Mitch handed his cell to Keira.

“For what?” she asked.

“To get intel on this location.”

“Keira,” Luke said. “If he can see by touching that spot, maybe you can hear by touching it.”

She handed the phone to Luke and stepped up to the table. Keira reached over the suspected location, closed her eyes, and lowered her hand to touch that spot on the map.

Silence.

She dragged in another breath through her nose, let it out slowly past her lips, moved her fingers over the red sticker, and listened.

With a shake of her head, she opened her eyes. “I'm getting nothing.”

Before she pulled away, Mateo's palm covered the back of her hand. An eruption of sound burst in her head. So much at once, Keira jerked her hand back.

“Oh, my God.” She curled her fingers into her palm. “That's . . .”
creepy
. “Oh, my God.”

“What?” Luke asked, eyes darting between Keira and Mateo. “What happened?”

“When he touched me.” She paused, swallowed. “I could hear.”

“Then why'd you stop?” Seth asked.

“It just . . . scared me.”

“Well, get over it,” Kai barked, “and get your hand back on that map.”

“Shut up,” she snarled back. “You live with voices in your head, then try telling me to get over it.”

But she returned her hand to the map, took Mateo's, and placed it on top of hers.

She didn't even need to concentrate. Sounds spilled through her head like water through an open faucet. And they kept coming.

“There's so much. I can't make anything out.”

“Focus,” Luke said. “Channel them into groups, then threads.”

“Since when did you become an expert on clairaudience?” she said. “I couldn't even get you to talk about it for more than two minutes before I left.”

“I studied up.” His blue eyes pierced hers. “
Some
of us learn from our mistakes.”

Ouch.

Channel. Fine, she'd channel him right out of her mind.

Keira closed her eyes and started separating like sounds into groups, then homing in on one group at a time. “Sounds echo, as if inside a large, industrial building. Concrete. Brick, maybe. The clop of boots on a hard, solid surface. A sliding or scraping sound, a loud click. Metal maybe.”

“Cell door,” Teague said, his voice somber. “He's in a cell. Concrete. Echoes. Boots. I would know.”

“Panos,” Keira said. “Can you ask Mateo about his father's location, his surroundings, without giving him the idea that it's a prison?”

Panos spoke to Mateo, who nodded and replied.

“The boy called it a jail on his own. I just asked what kind of building it was. A jail that looks like a castle.”

Keira's body temperature heated and kept rising. “This is unbelievable. Whatever usefulness Cash had for them is over, so they just dump him and grab another. Nothing matters to them but the end result. They don't care how they get there, who they use, who they hurt, who they kill.”

“We know why they want Mateo,” Luke said, “but you and Mateo gained your abilities through chemical exposure. It's not like you were born with them. What would they want with Cash?”

“Chemistry.” Mitch wandered out of the office, eyes on a handful of papers. “Just got another faxed report from my buddy at Langley.”

Keira lifted her hand from the map. “You have a friend at Langley? Who is it?”

“Yeah, baby. Hate to tell you, but you're not the only Fed in my back pocket.” His hazel eyes darted up, his mouth twisted in a sexy grin. “But I'd rather have you in my front pocket, so if you want to move, just say the word.”

“Stop.” She wasn't in the mood. “What about Cash?”

“He's a chem-head. When he went into the army, they saw a diamond in the rough, trained him in chemistry, then in covert ops, then put him in a lab where he did research. Biological weapons, nuclear fission. Way under-the-radar-classified shit.” He turned a page and let out a low whistle from between his teeth. “Boy was a genius. IQ off the charts.” One eyebrow dipped as he looked at Keira again. “What happened to you?”

“You're such an ass.”

“But I'm a lovable ass.”

“That's debatable.” Keira refocused on the map. She darted a look at Mateo. “Ready to try again?”

She wasn't sure if he understood or if he was merely trying to please, but when Keira placed her hand on the map, he pressed his over the top.

Got the explosive putty out of the lab. Just told Mario I felt sick, was going to puke, and they didn't search me.

A man's voice. According to Mateo, her brother's voice. But it didn't sound familiar.

Study that map I gave you. I've marked off three different routes and numbered them.
This was another voice. Deeper. Darker. Far more languid than the first man's.
It's simple, Sci-Fi, number one is your first choice. You hit a snag, move on to number two. Think you can handle it?

“Someone's with him.” Keira's eyes popped open and searched for the phone as if she were looking at a person. “Panos, ask Mateo who's with him.”

“The boy says it's his father's neighbor,” Panos said. “His name is Q.”

“What kind of name is Q?” Seth mumbled.

BOOK: Blaze

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