Gabe: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 3) (2 page)

“Over here.” She pushed back the curtain and waved them in. Norah hovered nearby. Emerson gestured at the nurse with a jerk of her head. “Finish up, Norah. I can take care of this.”

The woman raised her brows. “Okay. Not going to argue with you, Doc. Phillip is on duty tonight and in the office if you need help.”

“Thanks.” Phillip was a paramedic, and he, along with his boyfriend, Rick, were key parts of her medical team. Emerson yanked the curtain across.

“Not sitting on the fucking table,” Gabe growled in a low voice.

“You’ll do as ordered,” Marcus growled back.

Hell Squad’s leader had a voice that sounded like gravel and a scarred face that went with it.

“Chair,” Gabe insisted.

Emerson pursed her lips. He was scratched up, deep gouges in his armor.
Through his armor.
She hissed in a breath. What the hell had gotten through his armor?

“Just put him in the chair,” Emerson bustled forward. She didn’t have time for them to have a pissing match. “Cruz, out.”

The lean, handsome man stepped back far enough to be out of the way, and crossed his arms over his chest. “I’ll stay. You might need help to hold him down. Or beat sense into his rock-hard head.” His accent—American with a large dose of Mexican—had driven most of the base’s single females into fits of delight, until he’d up and paired himself with a woman almost as dangerous as Hell Squad. The single ladies were still in mourning.

Emerson huffed out a breath. “Fine. Just stay back.” She moved to Gabe and stepped between his legs. She pulled her portable m-scanner out of her lab coat. It was getting a little dented and was prone to shorting out at inconvenient times. Noah Kim, head of the tech team, had repaired it multiple times already, but he’d warned her it was on its last legs.

She ran the scanner over Gabe. “What happened, big guy?”

“Raptors.”

She rolled her eyes. Gabe was a man of few words, but still. “I’ve never seen them tear through armor.”

“Idiot went off half-cocked.” Cruz’s voice sizzled with anger. “Tore into them like Rambo.”

“I was—”

“You should have waited for the team.” Marcus did not sound happy.

The scanner beeped, and as she read the results, the tightness in her chest loosened. No major damage. Some minor blood loss, and some very deep gouges that had to hurt like hell. “You’re lucky. You won’t need surgery, just a small dose of nano-meds.”

His impassive face didn’t change, but she got the impression he wasn’t happy about even getting nano-meds. The microscopic machines had revolutionized medicine fifty years back. A dose could heal a person in hours, instead of days or weeks. But they needed professional medical monitoring, or they could get out of control and wind up killing the patient.

She touched the jagged armor. “Let’s get this off.”

He sat still and silent as she leaned over his broad shoulders, stripping the armor off. She felt the heat pouring off his dark skin. Marcus held out a hand and took the armor from her. When she stepped back and finally got a good look at Gabe’s injuries, she hissed. They appeared far worse than the scanner indicated. The left side of his chest was a bloody, ragged mess of scratches. In one, she swore she saw the flash of rib bones. “Gabe.”

“It’s fine.”

She grabbed her pressure injector, dialed up a painkiller, and before he could protest, slammed it against the side of his thick neck.

Gray eyes bored into hers.

Cruz had a handsome face, but Emerson found Gabe’s so much more compelling. She’d seen his medical report, so she knew his father had been African-American. His skin was a deep, dark bronze, and with his shaved head, strong features, and storm-gray eyes, he was worth a second or third look. But he also radiated a menacing, dangerous intensity that had most people searching for a hiding place.

Gabe didn’t appear to notice or care. Apart from with his squad members, he didn’t socialize.

And since he’d lost his twin brother to the raptors almost three months before, he’d withdrawn even more. That dangerous edge turning razor sharp.

She grabbed some sterile cleaning pads and set to work washing the blood away.

“He gonna live, Doc?” Marcus asked.

“Yes. The nano-meds will have this healed up in an hour or so.”

“You got lucky, Gabe.” Marcus shook his head. “You’ve held it together this long, don’t lose it now.”

Gabe remained stubbornly silent.

“The last two weeks, you’ve been taking more and more risks in the field.”

Emerson’s eyes widened.
What
? Since that mission to recover the patients, and her moment of captivity?

Marcus crossed his muscular arms. “You’re going to get hurt worse than this, or get yourself killed.”

Gabe’s jaw worked. “I’ll do what I have to do to take down as many alien bastards as I can.”

Marcus slammed a closed fist into the exam table, the metal rattling. Emerson jumped.

Marcus’ face twisted. “If you don’t care if you die, think of your fucking team, then. You’ll get one of them killed if you keep this up.” Hell Squad’s leader turned and stormed out.

Cruz shot Gabe a sympathetic look. “Get your shit together. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. If you need to talk, I’m here.” He nodded at Emerson and left.

Emerson prepared the nano-med injection, measuring out the correct dose. She hooked a monitor up to Gabe. “Is what they said true?”

“I don’t want to kill myself.”

His voice was toneless and her heart tripped in her chest. He might not want to commit suicide, but he didn’t much care if he died, as long as he took out as many raptors as he could when he did.

“Zeke wouldn’t want this—”

“I don’t want to talk about him.”

The fierce growl made her sigh. “Fine.”

Gabe gripped her wrist. “I’m going to kill every single damn raptor in Sydney. That way the one who shot Zeke and the ones who fucking beat you black-and-blue will be dead.”

She couldn’t look away from him. They stared at each other, the silence stretching between them.

Then he released her. “Do it.”

The thought of him taking reckless risks, getting himself killed, had her anger spiking. She jabbed the injector into his arm harder than she should have. He grunted.

She watched the metallic-silver liquid drain from the injector, the tiny machines powering into his blood stream.

His gaze never left hers. She saw the muscles in his neck strain and he gritted his teeth. His body tensed, his back arching slightly. The nano-meds hurt on the way in, and right now they were replicating fast, traveling through his bloodstream and targeting the areas that needed healing.

“You keep taking risks out in the field, you’ll end up dead.” She wanted to touch him, to smooth a hand down his stubbled cheek. She shoved her hands in her lab coat instead.

“Don’t need a lecture,” he rasped between clenched teeth.

No, he wanted very little from her. She’d learned that the hard way. “Zeke wouldn’t want this.” She raised her voice. “Phillip?”

“Yes, Doc?” The tall man appeared, peering around the curtain.

Emerson shoved the electronic tablet at him. “Please monitor Mr. Jackson’s nano-med infusion. Don’t let him leave until you say he can.”

Phillip cast a dubious look at Gabe, as if weighing up their differences in height and weight. “Okay.”

“I’m off to grab something to eat.” And shower the day’s hardships away. She cast a final glance at Gabe.

He was staring at the floor.

If he wanted to kill himself, there was nothing she could do about it. Her heart hurting a little, Emerson strode out of the infirmary.

Chapter Two

Emerson stepped out of the shower, shivering a little. Goose bumps covered her skin and she quickly grabbed a towel and dried off. They had hot water for most of the day now, which was a huge improvement on the two hours a day they’d had for most of the last year. But when the base’s solar-power system couldn’t handle the load and they had to conserve, hot water was the first thing to go.

She fluffed her chin-length, blonde hair. She knew Noah and his team of electronics wizards were working to get more power for the base. One of the patients who’d survived the raptors’ experimentation, Dr. Natalya Vasin, was helping. She was some kind of genius energy scientist. Emerson was just happy to see Natalya keeping busy and doing something she enjoyed. It helped with her healing—and that woman needed a lot of healing.

Emerson wrapped the towel around her body, deciding to make a cup of tea. She’d already grabbed a meal at the base dining room on her way back from the infirmary, so she wasn’t hungry. Although, she suddenly remembered that she did have a block of homemade chocolate a patient had given her. That would definitely go down well right now.

She wondered if Gabe had finished healing. Nope, she wasn’t going to think about him. She hitched her towel tighter. She had some patient medical notes she wanted to go over, and Noah had managed to find her some medical journals on genetics she wanted to take a look at. It wasn’t her area of expertise, so the journals might help her work out just what the hell the raptors were trying to achieve when they cut those poor humans open.

Emerson stepped into her darkened bedroom. Since she was head of the medical team, she’d been given slightly larger quarters than the standard rooms most people lived in. Her bedroom was separate to her living quarters, with a rare, queen-sized bed. In the adjoining living room, she had a couch, tiny kitchenette and a corner she’d turned into a study. She spent most of the time—when she wasn’t in the infirmary—at her desk, going over medical notes, or working on replicating drugs that were rapidly dwindling in supply. They’d scavenged what they could from nearby hospitals and pharmacies, but unless they could replicate what they had, they’d run short in months.

Her stomach cramped.
No
. She’d find a way. She wouldn’t stop until she did.

Her gaze landed on the empty bed, its neatly-made covers mocking her. Reminding her of just how alone she felt. For a second, she wondered what it would be like to come home to…someone.

Emerson rubbed her temple. It wasn’t like her to wallow in melancholy. She had too much to do to sit around feeling sad and sorry for herself.

She took a step toward her small closet when a shadow moved in the darkened room. Her heart leaped into her throat. A tall, man-shaped shadow.

He moved toward her and she stayed still, her gaze glued to him, her heart hammering. She had no idea how he got in whenever he came to visit her. She knew her electronic door lock was engaged. She never heard him come into her room. He moved silently, like a ghost. And he never said a word.

Gabe stepped in front of her. He’d showered, his dark skin still damp, and he smelled like plain, simple soap. His well-worn jeans hung low on his hips, and his shirt was open, baring a muscled chest and rock-hard abs. No scratch or a scar marked the expanse of bronze skin.

Her heartbeat was like a drum in her ears.

He dropped to his knees in front of her.

Heat raced over her skin. She felt caught in a spell.

One big hand reached up and tugged the towel away, dropping it at her feet.

Then he pressed his face to her belly. His stubble scratched over skin, electrifying her. He breathed in and she reached her hands up, tracing the dark tattoo that snaked up the back of his neck with her fingertips before pressing her palms to his well-shaped skull.

He glanced up and the look in his tumultuous gray eyes made her breath catch. Naked, raw, primal need.

His hands slid down her sides and he backed her up a step until she felt her shoulder blades hit the wall. Then those big hands gripped her thighs and pushed her legs apart.
Oh, God.
Anticipation snaked through her. He dragged his face against her smooth belly and sensation rocketed through her. Everything inside her turned molten hot.

He dropped kisses on her hipbone, lower. Then he put his mouth on her.

God
. His hot tongue delved into her folds. He knew exactly where to lick, where to suck, to drive her out of her mind. She trembled, not sure she could stay upright. Her hands blindly grabbed his shoulders, her nails digging into his skin. She heard sharp little cries and realized they were coming from her own throat. He kept working her, not letting up the hard pressure that was driving her insane.

He spread her legs wider, pushing one thigh up onto his shoulder. Then his tongue swept over her sensitive clit and she cried out. She was getting wetter and wetter, and pleasure was pulsing through her, growing to unbearable proportions.

She dropped her head back against the wall, staring at the smooth concrete ceiling of her bedroom. His mouth closed over her clit and sucked.

“Oh, oh…” She jerked against him. His hands clamped on her hips, holding her in place for his sensual assault. She felt one of his hands leave her hip and a second later, a thick finger delved inside her.

Emerson shattered. Her body flew apart in pleasure and she sobbed out his name.

Gabe caught her, rising and pulling her into his arms.

As usual, he didn’t say a word. In the two months he’d been coming to her, appearing in the dark of her room without a sound, sliding the blankets off her and touching her, making her come over and over, he’d never said a word. And he’d never once acknowledged in public the things they did together in the darkest, loneliest parts of the night.

And nor had she.

He let her go and shrugged out of his shirt. Next, he unsnapped the button on his jeans. Emerson’s gaze zeroed in on his hands. She watched as he unzipped the jeans and shucked them off. He wasn’t wearing anything underneath, so she had the perfect view of deep-bronze skin and a long, thick cock that was more than a little intimidating in size. Her mouth went dry.

Unable to stop herself, she reached for him. But he caught both her wrists with one hand and gently pushed her hands away. Her jaw tightened. He never let her explore him. He’d touched every inch of her but he never, ever allowed her the same privilege.