The Protectors Series Bundle (A superhero romance anthology) (36 page)

“I’m coming for you, little girl.”

Symone sighed. Always with the last word. Why couldn’t the bad guy ever just let anyone else have the last word? She sighed, standing to full height. Her eyes scanned through the dark for the best vantage point. The sand sucked at her shoes as she trudged through the mud. She left a clear path toward the tide pools on the surrounding cliffs. The Tracker would have to be an idiot not to follow her tracks.

She didn’t want to kill him if she didn’t have to. Cassie’s teaching ran too deep. So did what Garrett had said—these men weren’t like the original Trackers from Gentech Labs. They’d been duped and lied to. They might be her enemy, but they were victims like she was. “Try not to kill this one, Symone,” she mumbled to herself.

She picked a position behind the largest boulder. Once she incapacitated the Tracker, she could leave him here, and he’d be fine in the morning. Suffering from no more than a little exposure. She and Garrett had to put as much distance between them and the reinforcements Peter would no doubt send. Otherwise, she’d take him back and leave him near the lobby so he could get help. She tried to remember what Garrett had told her about channeling her power. Not coming from the place of anger or fear, but as if her powers were an intrinsic part of her. No different than breathing.

Sloppy, trudging footsteps sounded on the rocks nearby, and she flexed her fingers. She could do this, she could do—

From above, she heard the click of a gun safety. In a split second, she rolled away just in time for the bullet to ricochet off the mossy rock.

The Tracker sneered at her. “You think I don’t know a trap when I see one?”

She put her hands up as they circled each other in the small clearing. “I’m not your enemy. I swear to you.”

“Oh yeah? Is that why my partners are dead?”

She kept her hands in plain view and tried to keep herself calm and collected. “Your partners are dead because they tried to kill me. I didn’t want to hurt them.”

“You can stop the act now. It’s just you and me. I won’t tell anyone. But be straight with me, you enjoy killing. Just what have you done to get Reaper so interested in you?”

Stubborn cuss. “If I’m a terrorist, why didn’t Reaper tell you about my powers? In fact, why didn’t he tell you that there was a superhuman program before yours? Why let you walk into an ambush?”

He shook his head as if trying to shake off the thought. “He said you were dangerous. Our mission is to bring you in.”

She nodded her head in the direction of the gun. “Is that why you’re carrying around lead bullets? That part of the plan to bring me in alive?”

“You resist arrest. You nearly killed us the other night.”

“If I’d wanted you dead, you all would be dead. Between Cassie and the others, we have enough power to crush all of you. You’ve been lied to. All you have to do is think about it. None of it makes any sense. You’ve been fed a story that will jive with your need to be a good soldier. Love and country and all that. Reaper is a liar. Garrett saw that. You know it’s true.”

The gun wavered in his hand. “Stop. You’re coming with me.”

She took a step back. “I’m sorry. But I’m not. Take a message back to Peter for me. Tell him we’re getting stronger. We will be more powerful than he is eventually, and when we are, we’ll come knocking. Next time he won’t get so lucky.”

He sneered. “You can tell him that yourself from a holding cell.”

The corner of her lips tipped up in a smirk. “So sorry, but I have somewhere to be just now.” Focusing all her strength, she channeled that ball of energy in her chest, feeling it radiate through her body. She stared at her arms as she began to glow. The Tracker also stared in horror.

A small electric current flowed between their bodies, and she could feel his fear and his need to keep believing in their cause. His already shaky belief in Reaper and the loss of his whole family shortly before he joined the Trackers made him hesitant to kill her

“Wh—what are you doing to me?”

“This will only hurt a little. You’ll be safe here, and you also won’t be able to follow me for a while.”

“You think it’s you we’re after?” He chuckled. “We want the kid. You’re just the icing on the cake.”

Michael? What for? “You’re not getting him back. “

“After all the trouble Reaper went to get that kid? Keep trying to run. He’ll catch up to you.”

She quivered ever so slightly when the electric charge settled into his nervous system and he started to tremble. She exerted enough will to have him sit in the dug-out cave. He’d at least be out of the downpour there.

Leaving him, she ran as fast as the sand would allow. She needed to get to Garrett and Michael. Sticking as close to the rocks as possible, she avoided the main road. The rain had started to let up, but at this point, she was soaked through, and her hair was matted to her face.

The back parking lot of the diner let out onto the beach. But considering the rain, no one had a death wish to get pulled out by the rising tide. Yanking her feet from the mud, she sighed in relief when she hit the blacktop. Rounding up on the car, she saw two figures in the back seat and immediately felt her hands spark to life. She’d have to watch her emotions if she didn’t want anyone to get seriously hurt.

Garrett’s head picked up once she got within ten feet of the car. The familiar scent of leather enveloped her, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“I was worried about you.” His voice was thick.

“You didn’t need to be. Besides, Michael needs you more. Reaper’s not after us right now. He’s after your brother.”

Chapter Nineteen

Garrett took first watch while Symone slept and healed. Because of him, or rather because of his family, he’d put her in danger once more. He’d checked her wound more than once, and sure enough, it was healing.

In his twenty-five years, he hadn’t envisioned himself playing nursemaid very often, but here he was, watching over a woman who he’d probably loved long before he met her, and watching over a brother he would love till the end of his days, no matter the betrayals.

As if he knew he was being watched, Michael stirred on the bed. His head moved from side to side, then his nostrils flared. At least Symone’s electroshock treatment hadn’t fried his powers completely.

Michael visibly relaxed after a moment. When he spoke, his voice was gravelly. “Where am I?”

“Somewhere safe for now.” Garrett cleared his throat. How can I ask my only family why they tried to kill me? “Michael, can you tell me why you were trying to kill me, bro? I gotta tell you, it’s a little unsettling.”

Michael bent his arms at the elbows and pushed himself up into a sitting position. “I wasn’t trying to kill you. I—I didn’t mean to shoot you. It was like someone in my head was screaming at me to shoot, shoot, shoot. I was just trying to get you away from her. She’s dangerous.”

Garrett had to agree there, but the danger was to his heart and not to national security or anything. Maybe they just had to come back to the trying to kill him question. “Michael, why is Reaper sending Trackers for you? What the hell are you doing away from Aunt Catherine’s? You were supposed to stay there until I came and got you.”

Michael worked his jaw. “These commando types showed up on my doorstep about two weeks ago, said you were in danger. That you’d gone off grid.”

Garrett frowned, two weeks ago, he’d still been a good little soldier boy. “They came and just took you?”

“No, they had some papers that said you’d signed over custody to them or something. Aunt Catherine had no choice. They said they were taking me to you, that you were off the reservation, and they needed my help to bring you home.”

Garrett sighed. Reaper had gone to great lengths to get his brother. But why? “So you’ve been with the Trackers for two weeks. Did they do anything to you? Hurt you in any way?”

Michel’s brows furrowed. “This guy came in with dark hair and eerie green eyes. He told me he was going to help me sleep. Next thing I know, I get a shot in the arm. I wake up two days later and I’m sorta Superman. Except, not exactly bullet proof.” He shrugged.

Garrett rubbed a hand over his eyes as he sat forward and placing his elbows on his knees. “Jesus, Michael. You never thought that maybe you shouldn’t go with them? Didn’t ask any questions?”

“What the fuck are you so mad at me for? You’re the one who took off and stranded me in suburbia. Sorry if I thought you wanted to be with me. That’s the only reason I went with them. I mean, I’m not an idiot.”

Shit. Well that went well. Garrett let his head sag. “Look. I’m sorry. We’re just dealing with some very dangerous people, and I’ve trying to keep you safe.” Garrett dragged his head up to stare at his brother. His little brother. The brother he was meant to protect. But because he’d gone off the reservation, he put him in danger. He frowned. Except, when Rex and Co. had gone to pick Michael up, Garrett hadn’t gone off reservation yet. Symone was right, Michael was the key to something bigger.

“Michael, you say you lost two days. You don’t remember anything? Don’t remember being in pain? No one hurt you, did they?”

Michael shook his head. “No. I was pretty disorientated when I woke up. That guy they call Reaper, he said I’d had a negative reaction to the sleep meds.” He shrugged. “I must have, because I don’t remember anything about those two days.”

“But when you woke up you were fine?”

Another slight shrug of his formerly thin shoulders. He looked too much like a man for Garrett’s liking. “More or less. I can smell everything now. And I mean everything. And I think I need an adjustment to my contact prescription, but other than that, I feel great. I went for a run with Reaper the other day, and I beat the guy. You’ve seen him—he’s huge. All those commando types are quick, and I held my own.”

Garrett flexed his hands into tight balls, narrowly resisting the urge to hit something. Reaper and his mad scientists had turned his brother into a Tracker. “Where’d you get those muscles from, kid?”

Michael frowned. “Didn’t Aunt Catherine tell you? I hit a growth spurt last month when I went to football camp. Working out every day did the trick. I was so skinny before. Coach says I’m the most improved player. Had me on a regiment of serious vitamins and shakes that tasted like ass. Worked I guess. In no time I started to look like him. Though I had a hell of a fever for about a week. He was pretty cool, came to see me every day I wasn’t at school to make sure I stayed on my vitamin regimen.”

Fever? Supposed vitamins. Garrett didn’t want to believe what his brain was working its way to. “Coach try this with any other footballers? It seemed it worked.”

“Nah. He’s new to the program. Said he was going to try out the plan on me, then move it on to the other players. And don’t worry, I made sure to see exactly what those shakes were made of, and I checked those vitamin bottles. They all still had the seals on them and nothing in the contents is on the banned list. I know to be careful.”

Bile rose in Garrett’s throat and threatened to make an appearance. The coach had to be working for Peter. It was the only thing that made sense. Michael must have gotten the last dose when Reaper nabbed him. A week ago.

In the other room, he heard Symone stirring on the bed, and his body went into full alert with need and tension. He didn’t need to be thinking about her naked in bed, writhing. His cock stirred in his jeans, and he muttered a curse.

Michael cocked his head. “What’s that sound? And what is that smell?

Garrett narrowed his eyes. “What smell?”

“Cinnamon and something else. Something spicy?”

Garrett sighed. “That, is Symone. You have to promise you’re not going to try and kill her again.”

Michaels’s eyes popped wide. “Wait, Symone Jackson? That terrorist Reaper’s been trying to catch? What’s she doing here?”

“You mean you don’t remember anything?”

Michael looked like a lost child at an amusement park, confused and a little shell-shocked.

“Last thing I remember is getting called into that douchbag Rex’s office and his giving me instructions not to leave the house until he told me I could. I asked to go back to Aunt Catherine’s, and he said we’d talk about it when you came home.”

“You seriously don’t remember anything? Shooting me at the compound? Trying to kill Symone back at the beach?”

Michael’s eyes grew wide and panicked as they frantically searched the motel room. “I’m telling you, bro. It’s like a black hole where gray matter should be. I’ve got nothing. Garrett, what the fuck is going on?”

“I’m hoping to God Symone knows.”

Chapter Twenty

Symone watched Michael out of the corner of her eye. It worried her that he had no memory of trying to kill her. Or worse trying to kill his own brother. She didn’t know the extent of his memory loss. Or the extent of the mind control. Talk about way out of their depth.

Firing up the laptop, she tried to reach Cassie and the Protectors again.

The indicator on the screen said it was attempting to connect, and she bit her nails as she waited. Garrett stalked out of the bathroom, and her insides turned to jelly. His lithe movements reminded her of a prowling, caged animal. All that tightly leashed power made her tremble.