The Protectors Series Bundle (A superhero romance anthology) (2 page)

“So are you coming to the party? Mallory said she’d get you there.”

Cassie shifted uncomfortably from foot to foot. “I’m going to try --” She watched as his expression dimmed then amended her statement. “I—uhm, might be a little late.” His eyes lit up again and Cassie sighed. She wanted to go tonight. Maybe a miracle was possible. Stranger things had happened.

Bryan smiled crookedly, his eyes crinkling at the corners as he shoved his hands into his jeans. “Cool. Maybe we could even take a ride on my bike or something after?”

Bike
? As in motorcycle? She would not pass out from joy and elation. She would keep her cool. Aiming for nonchalance, she said, “Yeah maybe.” Every instinct inside her said
yes
. Absolutely. But of course she immediately thought of Peter. There was no way he’d let her out of the house.

Please please please come. God, I hope she says yes.
Cassie looked up at his wide eyes and his raised, expectant brows and the slight smile on his lips. Like he was eagerly awaiting her answer.  He hadn’t spoken, but she ‘d
heard
his voice in her head. She shook her head, trying to clear it.

God she’s so pretty. Please say yes
. Either he was projecting his thoughts or it was getting easier for her to read people. His lips definitely hadn’t moved.  Cassie bit her lip and forced herself to nod. “Uhm. I’ll try. My brother’s really strict. But maybe I can convince him.”

He beamed a grin at her and rocked back on his heels. “Totally cool. If you want, I can have my dad call him and let him know it’ll be safe and stuff.” He eyed the exit where Reynolds was dutifully posted.

“That’s great. But let me take care of it.”

His smile faltered a little bit. “Okay. But I hope you make it. If not, I’ll just see you next Wednesday, I guess.”

“Sure. “ She beamed a smile at him. At least she’d left him an opening.

Chapter Two

“You’re not going anywhere, Cassie.”

Cassie glared at her brother from her vantage point on her large canopy bed. “Peter, you can’t just keep me here like a prisoner. I haven’t done anything wrong. I just want to go out and be around people like a normal person. It’s the school’s Winter Celebration. I’ll be safe and careful. And of course, I’ll have my
nurse
with me.” She ground the word nurse to make sure Peter understood she knew Reynolds’ true purpose.

As his tall frame loomed over her, Peter’s voice was cool and his pale green eyes , a mirror to her own, were icy. “You want to go see a boy I don’t approve of and see that friend of yours,” he spat. “But I’m saying you can’t go.” When she widened her eyes, he added. “Do you really think there is anything that slips by me? I know everything. The freedom you have now is because I allow it. When I say you’re not going anywhere, you’re not going anywhere.”

Feeling mutinous, Cassie crossed her arms over her chest. She wondered where the hell her brother had gone. Peter had always been in her corner. But since their father’s death, he’d changed. This was not the Peter she knew. As a child they’d been so close. He’d vowed to take care of her and find a cure for her heart disease. And he’d found a cure all right. She was stronger. Better. Healed. But at what cost?  The brother she’d loved unconditionally was gone. He’d been replaced by her jailer. Her room was every teenager’s dream with a fifty inch television, the latest Bose speakers and her fancy laptop sitting on the coolest of contemporary furnishings. Her walls were covered in posters and pictures of various movie stars. Didn’t matter how nice her room was. It was still a prison.

Cassie shook her head. “This isn’t fair Peter. I just want a little bit of freedom. How is this bad? It’s a school-sponsored event.”

Peter scowled. “After everything you’ve been through and what I’ve saved you from. How can you be so selfish? You know the kind of people who would take you away from me?”

Cassie’s head snapped back as if he’d slapped her. “Peter, I’m only asking to go out. I’m grateful for what you’ve done for me, but you can’t keep me locked up forever.”

He strode into her space forcing her to back up several feet. Snarling, he leaned in. “You will do as you’re told, Cassie. That’s the end of it.”
You will not endanger my investment.

Her heart hammered as she stared up at her brother. Just like at the school, she’d heard him clear as crystal in her head. Something was happening. Her mind reading ability was getting stronger. She knew she shouldn’t, but she forced her mind to focus once more just to make sure she wasn’t losing her mind. “Peter, I just want to know why.” The resulting thick silence was as if a heavy fog had settled in around her. Again his lips didn’t move but his thoughts floated into her mind as if they had.
Because you’re much too valuable to have running around at parties. Symcore will do anything to have you and you’re not ready yet. I will not have you endangering what I’ve worked towards.

When Peter did speak, his voice was weighted with icicles. “We’re done talking about this.” As he strode to her door, he paused. “And don’t bother trying to sneak out, Cassie. I’ve been a teenager. You run, and I’ll come after you. Reynolds will stay outside your door and the alarms will be on.

“Peter—“

“Yes, Cassie.” He turned to face her.

“I’ll stay here tonight. But this is wrong.
You know it
and so do I. Dad wouldn’t have wanted me to hide in here. He wouldn’t recognize you if he saw you now.”  She dragged in a breath. “You might have cured me, but I know it’s somehow for your own benefit and not for mine.”

“You and your conspiracy theories.” He turned to Reynolds. “Make sure she stays in tonight. This weekend we’ll move her to the labs.”

The labs? What the hell? Her treatments had stopped months ago. She was better. Peter stalked into the en suite bathroom and came back thirty seconds later with a glass of water and something in this hand.

Cassie glared at her brother as he dropped two pills into her hand and handed her the glass of water. He could force her to take them, but he couldn’t force her to enjoy it. The pills hit her tongue with a soft click as they knocked together. Next came the cool water sluicing down her throat.

Peter gave her a satisfied nod as he watched her throat constrict in a swallowing motion. “Cassie, you’ll learn that this is all in your best interest. This is important for your future and mine. I’m protecting you. Eventually you’ll see that.”

Deliberately, she turned away from him and faced her window. All she could see was the pitch of night, but she knew right outside her window, was a fifteen foot hedge, a guard and two Dobermans who were trained to kill. Lucky for her, she spent enough time feeding them meat that they were unlikely to hurt her, but that wasn’t a chance she was willing to take.
No
. She wouldn’t be going out that way. It was too risky and there was no telling what Peter would do if she got caught. No one would be safe.

She heard the soft click of her bedroom door and quickly spat out the nasty pills into her hand. Reaching under her bed, she’ pulled out a Red Bull that Mallory had left behind on her last visit and chugged the whole thing. The super sweet, tart flavor made her wrinkle her nose, but the caffeine would counteract the sleeping agent in the pills. For months, Peter had been forcing them down her throat. Sometimes she had to swallow them. Sometimes, like today, she was able to quickly tuck them into the side of her mouth. Other times thrown them up. It had been three months since she’d willingly taken them. At the very least Peter was up to no good, at the worst, he was up to something sinister. No matter what, he wasn’t the Peter she knew. Cassie wasn’t going to play nice anymore.

Cassie watched the front grounds as Peter’s Mercedes meandered down the
driveway
. Immediately she burst into action. She brushed out her hair and tossed on a T-shirt and sweats complete with a hoodie. On her feet, standard issue bunny slippers. She at least had to be able to sell the whole going to bed scenario. Yanking open her door, she poked her head out.

Reynolds looked up startled. “Yes, Miss Reeser? What can I do for you?”

“Reynolds, do you mind if we go downstairs and make some hot chocolate? Sometimes it takes the sleeping pills a few minutes to work and I’m pretty worked up after fighting with Peter.”

His eyes narrowed, but he said nothing. Hot chocolate runs weren’t out of the ordinary with them since, in essence, he served as bodyguard, teacher, nanny and confidant. “Sure, Miss Reeser. After you.”

As she strolled down the hallway, Cassie felt his keen eyes on her back as if trying to discern what was off about her.
That funny smell in the air buddy boy—that’s the smell of me fighting back.

As always, Cassie got out two mugs, the milk,  cocoa, marshmallows and cinnamon. Reynolds watched her like a hawk, but he watched her larger movements, he must not have paid much attention to her fine motor skills because he didn’t notice her dusting crushed sleeping pills into his mug. She did what she could to distract him. “Do you think my brother is right, Reynolds? Do you think this is fair?”

It wasn’t like she expected an actual answer. He worked for Peter after all. But at least his mind would be occupied finding a PC answer instead of noticing the fine white powder she slipped in his cup.

“I think your bother worries about your safety and this is an attempt to keep you safe. I’m certain he wishes it didn’t distress you so.”

Oh Reynolds. Ever the loyalist
. That loyalty would get him hurt one day. Peter thought she didn’t notice, but his personal staff had gotten smaller and had had high turnover. She could only guess at the imagined infractions, and her brother was quick to fire. She’d seen it happen on more than one occasion.  Her brain stuttered over the thought of what else her brother might have been doing to his staff. After all, look what he’d done to her.

Once the milk was poured and cocoa added, she led the way back upstairs. She prayed Reynolds would drink enough to at least not be alerted to her slipping down the hallway. He was six-foot- six and weighed nearly three hundred pounds. The pills were made for someone of her size so they might not be effective on him. But then again, they were also made for someone of her strength, so they would need to be able to stop her in her souped-up state.

When she reached her door, a pang of regret sliced through her. What would happen to Reynolds when her brother discovered her missing? Her constant companion would no doubt get fired, but would he be okay? Would he be able to find other work? It was these kinds of things that occupied her mind as she whispered a goodnight and slipped into her bedroom to wait. What fate was she condemning this gentle giant to? Another pang of guilt and pain bit through her as he uttered “Goodnight, Miss Reeser.”

Thirty minutes later, she’d switched out her bunny slippers for running shoes, tied her hair into a pony tail and pulled up her hoodie. The cash she’d been saving for six months was tucked safely into her shoes. The moment she’d heard Peter’s thoughts about Symcore, she knew this was about more than a party. She had to leave. But she wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye to Mallory.

With a hand on her door, she paused. What if she stayed? Could she fight Peter for her freedom? Did she have a choice other than to run? Her brain ran through every scenario she could think of.
No
. This was the only choice. She had to be a survivor. Fight or flight. Fight or flight. She chose flight.

She creaked open her door, not daring to breathe. She used her nose first. Old Spice. Chocolate. And the smell of alcohol and sunflower oil that Reynolds used for his hair gel. No one else was in the hallway. She eased her door open and stepped through it. She’d given the sleeping pills thirty minutes to start working, but maybe it hadn’t been enough. Stepping through the doorway, she found Reynolds in his usual chair, body canted to the right—snoring. She exhaled.
Thank God
.

Sprinting down the hall, she paused at the top of the stairs. There was no way she was making it out the front door. She’d already seen Peter leave. He only ever gave her two sleeping pills when he was going out. Didn’t matter though, the security team he’d hired a month ago when she’d gotten her powers were ever vigilant. Or at least what she imagined was vigilant per the action movies she’d watched. None of them ever seemed to go on break. They actually paid attention at night. But lucky for her, they were all looking out. None of them was focused on keeping her in—just on keeping everyone else out.

At the bottom of the stairs, she landed softly and instead of the front door, she headed right for the kitchen. As a kid, she and Peter had played hide- and- seek in the house for hours during rainy afternoons. Being older, he’d always gotten bored with the game. But not her. She’d found the old bomb shelter on one of her marathon hiding sessions. She’d been hiding in the pantry and had flattened against the far wall in an effort to slink further into the darkness—and that wall had given way.

She’d been terrified. She’d eventually gone back with her father and shown him what she’d found. Now, as she tiptoed into the deserted kitchen, she smiled at the memory. Her father going first with the large flashlight in hand, resolute that he wouldn’t actually find anything behind that pantry wall. What they’d found was a bomb shelter from the thirties. In all likelihood it was probably used more for making moonshine during prohibition.