Zoey Avenger (Incubatti Series Book 2) (29 page)

“Zoey can.”

“I nearly got her killed today, Liam,” Declan whispered. “I can’t take that risk.”

“We have the information we need. We just need Olivia or Paul to slip up. Zoey’s in trouble no matter what, Declan. The faster we get what we need, the sooner we can act.”

Declan said nothing, back once more to square one, where every alternative meant something horrible and beyond his control was going to happen. His attention returned to the interrogation room, where Chrissy was calming and growing more cooperative.

“The Halflings will need more energy drinks?” Aiden was asking.

Chrissy nodded. “Olivia has them.”

“Would Zoey risk an attack on Olivia?”

“Without a doubt. She’d do anything to save her team.” There was pride in Chrissy’s answer. “Are you sure she didn’t get hurt when I dropped the grenade?” This was directed at Declan.

He considered his response before flipping on the microphone once more. “She was hurt, but she’s alive and healing.”

Chrissy frowned.

“The only thing I don’t understand is why her blackouts are so frequent. You said all the members of Team Rogue have the same issue. Why is no one else blacking out?” Declan asked.

The woman beside Aiden flushed. “Hard to explain,” she mumbled.

“Enough,” Liam said gruffly. “Vikki isn’t pregnant, Declan. Zoey is. They thought she’d flip out, so they told her Vikki was to get her used to the idea. It was one of Vikki’s really shitty plans.”

“Yeah,” Chrissy agreed. “Zoey’s meltdowns make the blackouts worse. The gland Olivia bred into Team Rogue reacts to Zoey’s changing hormones. Pregnancy puts a woman’s body under a great deal of stress, and it prevents her from fighting the blackouts the way she normally can.”

Declan was frozen, hearing every word without registering it. “Zoey is pregnant,” he repeated.

“We were getting ready to tell her …” Chrissy drifted off. “Before I dropped the grenade.” Her eyes watered again. “I’m so sorry.”

“Zoey,” he said once more, unable to swallow what they were saying. Shock held him suspended in a stage of alarmed disbelief.

“The youngest brother gets to be a daddy first.” Liam nudged him. “Don’t think I’ve ever seen that expression before.”

Declan blinked. His chest was too tight for him to draw a full breath. Of all the news to receive now, when he had no fucking clue how to protect his soul-mate already and no way to get the information he needed without placing her in more danger …

The urgency he’d begun to feel – that the noose was closing around the woman he loved – only grew stronger. No thought of becoming a father had ever crossed his mind, and he wasn’t going to let himself imagine what a life with Zoey and a son might be like when he couldn’t guarantee any of them would survive until tomorrow. Unable to digest the information let alone process what he felt about it, he forced his emotions to stay numb. Neutral.

But that didn’t mean he was able to fully shake the panic that had his chest in a vise.

“I think I need some air,” he said and pushed away from the glass.

“Declan, what do you want us to do with Chrissy?” Liam asked, following him to the door.

“Give her an offer she can’t refuse. Access to our labs, in exchange for working with us to resolve the Halflings issue,” Declan replied without a second thought. “Then turn her over to Grant and put a discreet guard on them,” He left the hallway and returned to the bedroom he’d adopted, denial burrowing a little deeper with each step. Rather than sit and think about what to do like he usually would, he changed into shorts and a t-shirt, ditched his phone and left for a very, very long run, hoping to clear the clutter in his brain.

First things first: he had to find her and make sure she really was okay.

Chapter Twenty One: Unmasked

Zoey lay still throughout the afternoon. Her body was healing fast, but it wasn’t quite fast enough for her to consider moving, especially not in her dangerous perch. Chrissy’s grenade had propelled her into a web of branches between two trees, forty feet off the ground. The scent of leaves and forest was calming, the chatter of squirrels and flutter of birds distracting her from the pain. If she so much as tried to check the time, the precarious perch began to give, so she lay still.

For hours. Watching the sun make progress across the bright blue sky until it was near sunset and the forest grew cool. Struggling not to cry or move or breathe too deeply and disturb her fragile balance.

Drowsy yet afraid to sleep for fear of never waking up again, she made a game of seeing which body parts healed fastest. Her ears stopped ringing and bleeding first, followed by the loss of the pain in her side from the van rolling. Her left calf was next, the bones of her right foot, the skin covering her left ass cheek, thigh and hip, which had all been facing the blast directly. The broken rib beat her broken forearm while the part of her she didn’t expect to regrow – her hair singed by the blast – healed faster than the upper half of her ear.

“Vikki, I beat you good this time,” she whispered to the trees. “Got blown up and survived.”

From scratches to fractures to third degree burns, she was exhausted – and fully healed. There would come a day when she owed Declan for all of this. For the first time in two months, she almost looked forward to it.

Zoey shifted her attention to the web once more. She’d been assessing her chances of not splattering to the ground below and had a tentative plan, assuming her fatigued body was in any shape to move.

Gritting her teeth, she made an effort to shift her hips, started to slip and then froze. Stretching towards the largest of the branches near her, she found her body less cooperative than she hoped. Her hands shook, and her equilibrium felt off, not to mention bone deep stiffness. It didn’t help that what clothing hadn’t been burnt off was stiffened with blood as well.

“You need a hand?” The male voice came from everywhere and nowhere. It made her a little dizzy trying to locate it, a trick she vaguely recalled but wasn’t able to remember where she’d heard it before.

Zoey risked a look over her shoulder and squinted to see between the branches and leaves. The dark form of the masked man was in the tree nearest to her, his strong legs wrapped around it while his arms were free.

“No, I’m good,” she said.

“You’re forty feet off the ground.”

“Could be forty feet up and on fire. Again.”

“Good thing you heal quickly.”

“Who the fuck are you?” she snapped.

He didn’t answer.

“That’s what I thought. Leave me the fuck alone.” She sighed, and the branches gave a little more.

“Declan sent me.”

“Great. So you can tell him I got stuck in a tree? I’m sure he’ll love that.”

“He takes care of his own.”

Zoey rolled her eyes. “You must be one of the notorious nine brothers.”

“The branch on your left is sturdy.” He was reaching out to her.

She glanced at it, not sure why she had the urge to do the opposite of anything her babysitter told her. “I don’t like the idea of him sending someone to watch over me.”

“Looks to me like you could use it.”

“I have this completely under control!” she retorted. Something about the man irked her at a level she didn’t understand. She didn’t recognize his voice from any of the Enforcer brothers she’d met yet. He wasn’t radiating incubus magic, a sign he had one of the nifty armbands that had blocked her from understanding who he was earlier. She doubted Declan would send a human to watch over her.

“Very well. If you decide you’d like assistance, I’m available.” There was dry humor in his tone she didn’t like one bit.

Zoey ignored him, evaluating her situation, testing her position, and ultimately deciding she didn’t have the energy or strength to reach the branch he indicated. She relaxed and stared at the evening sky. It was quiet enough that she had to look to make sure he was still there.

“All right. I may need a hand,” she allowed.

“Declan said you had some sense.”

“I take it you’re here because he doesn’t want to get his hands dirty,” she grumbled, irritated at everyone.

“Interesting response considering he’s the reason you won’t wind up dead.”

Too tired to care if she offended one of his brothers, Zoey inched closer to the branch. Coiled rope landed on her arm. She moved carefully to wrap it around one arm and gripped it. “Going for the branch.”

Her fingertips grazed the branch – and the interwoven web beneath her gave. She gasped and fell all of four feet, dangling from the ground with her left hand wrapped in rope.

“Can you reach the tree?” he asked.

She glanced up. “Yeah. No problem.” Zoey lashed out with one leg and hooked her knee around a branch before pulling herself into the trunk. She released the rope and gripped the tree. Her body shook from effort, so she took a moment to catch her breath. “How did you land the Zoey babysitting job?” she asked reluctantly, not at all pleased Declan first sent Aiden and now someone else to keep an eye on her.

“Luck.” He shifted on his perch several feet above her head. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” With a deep breath, Zoey focused on her task and began to descend the tree trunk, finally dropping the last five feet to the ground. She landed with a grunt and folded her arms and legs, testing every part of her body. Her clothing was held on by threads up her left side, and she smelled of burnt flesh, dried blood and leaves.

The masked man dropped beside her. She instinctively reached out to snatch his mask.

He blocked and shifted away without reaching for the weapons at his hips or back.

Whoever he was, he had clear orders when it came to her. Zoey didn’t doubt that Declan’s men and brothers were as well disciplined as he was. It was part of what frustrated her about him: he never let emotion through, and she desperately wanted to know what he felt sometimes.

“What?”

Realizing she was staring at the stranger, she looked away. “Your good deed is done. Time for you to disappear again.”

“You need a ride?”

“No.”

“You have a ride?”

“No.”

“What’s your plan?” he pressed.

“None of your business.”

The masked man was quiet for a moment, and she sensed he didn’t know exactly how to respond.

“Go.” She waved him away. “Thanks for helping me down. I’m good now.”

“Declan won’t like that.”

“Oh, really?” She crossed her arms. “Since when does Declan or anyone else get to tell me what to do? You tell Declan thanks for the hand but nothing’s changed. I’m the same Zoey I always was, and if he sends you after me, I’ll send you back to him in pieces. Got it?”

There was a quiet chuckle. “Yeah. Got it.”

Zoey turned away and reached into her pocket for her phone. It was gone, but one of the three buzzers made by Chrissy had survived. Zoey gripped the mini-Taser and paused, thoughts on the masked man who had been following her around for a week.

“Hey,” she said, facing him once more. She pulled the button-sized zapper free along with a dagger. “I think I want to know who you are for sure.”

The man hadn’t moved. “No.”

“I don’t take no well.” She tossed the knife in the air and caught it by its hilt.

He shifted into a lower stance, reading her body language with an imperceptible shift that reminded her she wasn’t dealing with a normal Cambion but a full-blooded incubus. “This is a good chance for you to learn.”

“That’s not really how this works.” She moved close enough to throw the lightweight buzzer and stopped. “Hope you understand.”

He bowed his head and waved her to attack.

Zoey threw the knife. The moment he moved, she tossed the buzzer. The knife missed – but the buzzer dropped him hard and fast. Electricity arced around him from the mini-Taser. She waited until he ceased bucking and was still.

Inching forward curiously, she saw with some discomfort that his eyes were open and blinking. His body was rigid and immobilized, the way she had been after Olivia shot her up with toxin.

“It won’t last long,” she promised, crouching beside him. “Now let’s see who you are.”

With little ceremony, she tugged the mask off and sat back on her heels in disbelief.

“Declan?” Zoey started to laugh, stopped and then shifted forward to ensure she was really seeing him in the twilight. “You gotta be shitting me.”

Surprise melted into confusion, mixed with warmth that stirred from the base of her belly. He hadn’t sent someone to take care of her. He’d been quietly watching over her.

In a mask. Like a common thug or vigilante and very unlike the dignified leader of the Incubatti’s security branch.

“I, uh, didn’t think you were really into bucking the system,” she said thoughtfully. “You’d probably be in trouble if someone found out what you’re doing after dark.” And then she smiled, laughter bubbling up inside of her.

He was watching her, immobilized in place.