by Mia Darien
“We don’t have time for this.” Anger and another emotion—fear maybe?—gave Cain’s words a dark edge. She refused to back down though.
The sounds of screaming pierced the air above the roar of the flames. “Max?” Cain demanded.
Max shook his head. “Radios are down, boss.”
“I can hear them,” Quinn said. “They’ve split up. Two of ours are engaged with four demons at the far side of the complex in some sort of lab. The others are across the island dealing with a larger group.”
She implored Cain with her eyes. “Let me come. I may come in handy.”
He nodded at Max, who placed the gun, grip first, into her outstretched hand. Without hesitation, she checked the chamber, then unloaded four shots into the bodies on the ground with absolute accuracy.
Cain’s jaw could’ve been hewn from granite. “Fine.” He pulled off the tactical vest Max had handed him and passed it over to her. The man had a hero complex, but he was letting her come, so she wouldn’t argue. With efficient motions, she strapped it on over her t-shirt and yoga pants, once again glad the demons had taken her during a workout. She also accepted several mags from Max, tucking them into the vest.
Cain tipped her chin up. “You stay close to me.”
As a unit they moved, silent and swift with weapons at the ready, past the row of burning buildings and into the complex beyond. They entered through a side door, careful to check the corners. “Clear,” each murmured in a low voice.
Moving quickly, they navigated a series of hallways—generic, with cream colored tile, white walls, and white doors every ten feet—when suddenly, Quinn pulled up short. “Wait.”
The network of computers here wasn’t as secure as it could’ve been. The demons had become arrogant and lazy on their own island. She talked to the array of servers, sifting through data. “This way.”
Cain grabbed her arm. “I lead.”
“Do you know where you’re going? Can you see with the security cameras?” If those blue eyes had been lasers, she’d be dead about now. “Because I can.”
He didn’t take long to debate the point. “Go.”
Using the information at her fingertips, Quinn led the team through the buildings. Mostly dark, the only light coming from small windows close to the ceiling—someone must’ve cut the power—the buildings were strangely office like. Or maybe the best comparison was a hospital, with its long corridors shooting off from a hub at the center. “Two around the corner,” she said, as they neared one of the hubs.
Shaw and Sawyer stepped forward, as Max guarded their rear. Cain stayed beside her. “Where?” Shaw whispered.
“Either side of the door, crouched low.”
“Got it.” Sawyer’s face contorted with concentration until, suddenly, the two creatures on the other side of the double doors howled in pain. With speed and precision, Sawyer and Shaw burst through and took out their opponents with two quick pops.
Cain waved her ahead, and she moved around the corner and through the swinging double doors. She glanced down at the demons as she passed and couldn’t help but notice the blackened burn marks both bore on their hands. A demon’s primary weapon was an energy ball they could form at will, then throw at their enemy.
“What happened to their energy balls?”
“Sawyer’s telekinetic. His specialty is energy manipulation.”
Ah. He must’ve fried them with their own energy. “Cool.”
Sawyer grinned.
Quinn checked the cameras in the building again. “This way. We’re close. Be ready.”
A few more halls and turns later, and the reek of antiseptic hit her nose. The fight must’ve opened up some of the containers in the lab.
“There are eight demons now, instead of four. One of our guys is down. The other is pinned behind the large table to the right.”
“Where are the demons?” Cain asked.
“Scattered across the other side of the room. Go in blazing.”
Shaw pulled out an odd device, which he attached to the door. “Always do. Sawyer manipulates energy, but I got mechanical manipulation.” He turned to his brother. “Sawyer?”
Cain grabbed her arm and pulled her around the corner. After a second, howls of agony echoed through the room. “Cover your ears,” Cain warned.
She did just before an explosion blasted around them, shaking the wall she leaned against as a wave of heat blew past her down the hallway. Without hesitation, she followed her men through the smoke and damage. Gunshots echoed in the room as the team opened fire. The demons hunkered down across the large room filled with lab tables, the walls of bottles already a mess of broken glass and dripping chemicals.
While the demons were unarmed, so to speak, after Sawyer’s manipulations, they wouldn’t stay that way long. Quinn stooped behind a tall piece of equipment and used her abilities to check the cameras. Difficult to see through the smoke, but she could make out where most everyone was. She stayed in position as Cain and the team spread out. The first blue blast came from the right, like a miniature lightning bolt. The air sizzled as the energy ball passed her to explode against the wall above Cain.
Demons were powerful but often stupid. They were lucky none of the spilled chemicals had gone up in flames yet. Chaos erupted around her as they exchanged fire.
Quinn stayed in position and saved her ammo, until, finally, an opening presented itself. As subtly as possible, she popped out from behind her shield just enough to see her target, aimed, and squeezed the trigger. Clean shot to the head. One down.
She dropped back behind her cabinet, as a barrage of bullets slammed into the machine. She checked the cameras and waited again.
Cain managed to take down another demon, and Max got two. Sawyer put out as many energy balls as he could, but with this many demons, he couldn’t douse them all. As he concentrated, he worked his way around it to where the downed man lay and dragged his body back behind a barricade of tables. A movement caught her attention across the room.
“Throw it to the back right corner,” she yelled to Shaw.
“Fire in the hole,” he yelled. The grenade in his hand went sailing, and Quinn braced for the explosion which ripped through her ears. The floor under her feet shuddered with the impact. A high-pitched ringing in her head brought tears to her eyes. All sound ceased to exist for her. She shook her head, trying to clear the pressure in her ears, but she couldn’t hear a damn thing—not Cain who was yelling at her across the room, not the computers. Nothing.
A flash of fear froze Cain’s features just before an arm snaked around her neck from behind and jerked her upright. Her hair stood on end in reaction to the blue energy coming from the ball of light held near her temple as her captor dragged her out from behind the cabinet.
He was yelling, she could tell by how the sound reverberated off her back, but the ringing hadn’t subsided and she couldn’t hear. The demon let her go, backing away slightly, and pressed the energy ball close to the back of her head, if the stench of singed hair was anything to go by.
Cain, Max, Sawyer, and Shaw all put their weapons on the ground. She might not be able to hear, but the message was clear. Surrender or she’d die. On the other hand, the demons were as likely to kill her men either way.
Quinn took a calming breath and concentrated on her self-defense training, compliments of Delilah. Six years of hard work better payoff, dammit.
In a rapid series of moves, she turned, bringing her arm down, which aimed his hand upward. Holding his wrist for leverage she brought her leg up and kicked him in the neck, crushing his windpipe. The demon dropped to the ground and she followed, bending the arm she held and slamming the energy ball still sizzling in his palm into his chest. Then she dove back behind the cabinet.
The demon screamed, his beautiful face contorting in agony and his body thrashing as the condensed source of energy devoured him from the inside out. In seconds, he went limp. Dead.
Cain and the others picked up their guns and resu
med the fight. Quinn, who no longer had her hearing or her gun—she must’ve dropped it when he grabbed her—waited it out from her shelter. About the time the firefight wound down, the ringing in her ears had lessened.
Finally, Cain stood, and the others followed, telling her the battle was over and they’d won. After a cursory check of the room, he moved to where she still sat on the floor and crouched down.
“You okay?”
She caught the words in blips, pieced together with the movement of his mouth.
“My hearing is shot, but it’s coming back.”
His quick smile told her she’d shouted the words. “That’s all right. Shaw got the radios back up, and the fighting is over.”
“What about the prisoners?”
“Still looking.”
The memory of the map of the facility she’d pulled from the computers flashed through her mind. “I know where they are.”
CHAPTER 10
Quinn sat on the tail of a pickup truck outside the compound and submitted to being examined by Sawyer, who was apparently also a medic. The others were nowhere to be seen.
After checking her eyes, her balance, her reflexes, and checking for other signs of concussion, Sawyer stuck an otoscope down her ears. “Looks like your ear drums are still intact.”
“I told you. My hearing’s almost all the way back,” she grumbled.
He held up both hands with a grin. “Don’t shoot the messenger. Cain said to check you out, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
She rolled her eyes, but let Sawyer get on with it.
“How is she?” Cain’s deep voice skittered down her spine, and she turned to find him leaning against the side of the truck.
“Fit for duty, sir.” She gave him a sassy salute.
He ignored her, gaze on Sawyer.
“She’ll be fine. No permanent damage.”
“She’s right here.” Quinn waved her arms.
Cain ignored her and gave Sawyer a curt nod, then jerked his head. Sawyer gathered up his gear and left them alone, giving Quinn a wink as he left.
Cain moved around the truck to stand in front of her.
“So…” She raised her eyebrows. “What now?”
“Delilah’s other teams will handle things from here. But we got them.”
Relief and a heady sensation from the knowledge she’d helped save a lot of people swept through her, and Quinn smiled.
Her breathing hitched at Cain’s answering grin. “You did good today.”
She sobered. Now the bad guys were history, she had to face facts—knowledge sunk like a lead weight to the pit of her stomach. This might be the last time I ever see Daniel Cain.
“It doesn’t have to be.”
What? Oh, holy crap, she’d done it again. Spoken her thoughts out loud. Then his response finally penetrated her mortification at that particular flub. “What do you mean?”
He moved closer, hands on either side of her hips, taking up all her space. She inhaled the spicy scent of him.
“I wanted to talk to you about something.”
After only a few weeks in Daniel Cain’s constant presence, Quinn sensed his hesitation. Though how, when his expression gave nothing away, she didn’t know. If she had to put money on it, she’d bet Cain was nervous. Why?
“We’d like to offer you a position on the team.”
Quinn sucked in a breath. She hadn’t seen that one coming. Everything in her screamed yes, but she had one tiny problem. “I’m flattered, but I don’t think that will work out.”
“Why not?”
She sighed, but held his gaze with her own, heart thundering away. “I’m falling in love with you.”
There, she’d said it. Now he could shut down and walk away.
His lips flattened. He stepped back, out of her space and away from her body, and her heart cracked at the obvious signs of rejection. “You remembered, didn’t you? That I’m the one who got you out of the hellhole in Alaska?”
Confusion joined her heartache. What did that have to do with it? She nodded slowly. “The night they put you in my cell on the boat.”
He ran a hand over his beard, his blue eyes flinty. “I see.”
Confusion swirled through her. What did he see exactly? “I’m not harboring a hero crush if that’s what you’re thinking. Didn’t I prove I could take care of myself?”
A hint of a smile made his mustache twitch. “You certainly did that.”
“But you don’t believe I’m in love with you.” This had to be the strangest conversation she’d ever had. She’d expected him to be cold or spooked. She certainly hadn’t expected to have to argue about the true state of her feelings with the man.
“I believe you think you are.” The heaviness in his eyes sparked a glimmer of hope inside her. Did he want her to be in love with him?
She hopped off the tailgate and stepped up to him, right in his space, though she had to tip her chin to look up at him. “Kiss me.”
Shock widened his eyes. “What?”
“Put those amazing psychometric powers to use. Kiss me and see exactly what my emotions are.”
He stared at her a long moment, and she could see the debate in his eyes. So she took the decision out of his hands. Quinn went up on her toes and wrapped her arms around his neck, pulling his head down to hers. Tenderly, she lay her lips over his in the sweetest of kisses. Desire flamed within her, but she banked her need. Desire could come later. This was about connection. She allowed her emotions to flow freely and hoped like hell his gift would kick in. He needed to know.
The second his unyielding lips softened, she pulled back. His blue eyes blazed at her, almost sizzling her with the heat of desire within.
“Do you believe me now?”
“Quinn—” He groaned the word.
“No?” She grabbed his hand and dragged him back into the building.
“Where are we going?” She ignored the amusement in his voice.
Finally, she found the rest of the team still in the cells where the demons had held their prisoners before sale. Purpose in every step, she marched up to the brawny man who was Cain’s second-in-command. “Max, I need you to kiss me.”
Cain stopped cold and jerked her around, yanking her into his arms. “Like hell.” He took her lips in a possessive kiss that left no one in the room, least of all Quinn, in doubt. Daniel Cain claimed her for his own.
A wolf whistle sounded somewhere in the background of her pleasure. Probably Shaw. She ignored it, ignored everything and everyone, in favor of the pleasure this man could bring with such a simple touch.
Only the need for oxygen stopped them. He pulled back to lean his forehead against hers, both of their chests heaving as they gasped for air. “I think I’ve loved you since the first time you kissed me.”
“Oh? Maybe I trigger a savior complex in you,” she teased. How she could go from having no clue as to his feelings to trusting in his love in the span of moments, she had no idea. But the glow of contentment, and safety, and pure joy told her, in no uncertain terms, she could trust him, trust them together.
He chuckled. “I couldn’t get you out of my head for six years. No other woman stood a chance.”
Satisfaction swelled inside her. “Good.”
“So about joining the team…”
Quinn grinned. “I could use a job anyway. I’m sure I’ve been fired from my current one.”
Kamry stood and gasped for air as her body came down from the high she always got from working out. God, she was definitely out of shape and had no idea what she was doing, but one way or another, she was going to make sure that no man would ever be able to get the best of her the way Steven had.
She hated him. She had only been married to him for a little over a year, but had been with him for four. She hated that the minute ‘I do’ was said, everything changed.
In his eyes, she never did anything right. They would argue and scream. He would throw insults just as quickly as the last one reg
istered in her brain. He would make her feel completely worthless. Then she had decided that when he wanted to yell and scream, she would ignore him and move on.
Then one day, it happened. He was screaming and telling her what a complete loser she was. She took a deep breath and kept cutting the carrots she was preparing for supper. Wrong move.
Before she knew what happened, she was on the floor. She remembered her head and the floor connecting, and then she was waking up. Of course, Steven was standing over her, asking her if she was okay and telling her how sorry he was. She fell for it.
The next time, he didn’t shove her. He straight up close-fisted her face. It escalated until he was no longer even apologizing for it. She couldn’t take it. She packed up and left while he was at work, never looking back. With help of her family, she filed for divorce.
Two months ago, she was lying in bed when she realized that she would never really be able to defend herself against a man if it happened again. She began watching YouTube videos of self-defense training and now, she was sitting on a bench after kicking and punching the heavy bag in front of her.
Everyone watched her, but she didn’t care. She really didn’t care that she had no clue what she was doing. What she did know was that she was not going to take it again. If the bag did nothing more than help her build strength, she would at least be able to kick and punch.
“You know, I’ve seen you coming in here and I have to say, you got some heart, kid.”
Kamry turned and stared at a young Hispanic man.
“Thanks,” she said, wondering why he was still standing there. She looked him over and knew she hadn’t seen him in the gym before, but he looked familiar. She just wasn’t able to place him. Maybe it was… Hell, she didn’t know. The man was covered in tattoos from his wrists, up his arms, then down his chiseled chest and back. He looked maybe mid-twenties or so, with short cropped hair and big brown eyes that reeked of mystery.
When her eyes returned to his, she realized she was busted. She hadn’t really been checking him out, well, she had, but not for the reasons she was afraid he thought.
“Heart is attractive and heart can get you a trainer. What are your goals?”
