Kyra snorted at his bossy tone. “Will it cost more than a broken wrist and a severe concussion? You’re an expensive Cyber Husband to maintain, Captain Elliott. And extorting money from a UCN criminal is a plan doomed to failure.”
Peyton snorted back. “What I want isn’t money, so you might think the cost is worse. I want one whole night with you to do anything I want—with the caveat that it won’t be any of the sick shit your ex did to you. The truth is I think about sex with you nearly every second I breathe, and I’m tired of not acting on those urges. You’re going to enjoy your time with me. I promise.”
“I don’t see how your constant physical arousal is my problem. And you don’t know anything about what Jackson did to me. I never told you about my life with him,” Kyra said, ignoring his other comments. She wasn’t up to dealing with his attraction to her. Maybe in his mind nothing unusual had happened, but she was still trying to reconcile the fact that he’d been programmed with orders to capture her.
“I don’t have to know the details to know what happened made you afraid of sex. If you can still talk to me after I hurt you the way I did, what’s left to come between us? Not your bastard ex’s behavior, that’s for damn sure. Hell, Kyra. Technically, I’m still your Cyber Husband of record. I want to be with you and I know you want me too. Why do you have to argue about this?”
“I don’t know, Peyton. I got along wonderfully with my other two Cyber Husbands who tried to kill me. It didn’t work out so well for them in the end though, so you may want to think twice about messing with me. Then again, you’re the only Cyber Husband who managed to knock my head against the lab floor,” Kyra complained as she closed her eyes again.
Peyton sighed and nodded. “Okay. I deserve that sarcasm. But for the record, you know that psycho cyborg bastard you fought in your lab wasn’t the real me. I was caught in one of Dante’s seven levels of hell while someone used my brain and body to accost you. Nothing that happened was my choice. And now I totally understand why you had to take such extreme measures with me and the first two cyborgs you tried to reverse engineer.”
Kyra grunted at his concession and his defense of his own situation. Yet all of it was true. “Of course I know you didn’t attack me on purpose. Why do you think I didn’t run away while you were down?”
“I think you didn’t run because you trusted your judgment about me, which turned out to be damn right,” Peyton declared.
Needing to act, he moved from the chair to slide into the bed until he was lying next to her.
“What in hell are you doing?” Kyra demanded, wincing as her head exploded over and over.
“Apologizing better,” Peyton said calmly, kissing the top of Kyra’s bandaged head.
“No need. Your first apology was accepted. Now move your big ass out this tiny bed, Captain Elliott. There’s barely room for my ass in here.”
“You’re right about that, Doc. We’ll have to bump asses better later. Just ignore that erection growing between us. I can’t seem to stop it from happening when I get this close to you. It goes away eventually.”
“Will you please move your horny, pervy ass back to the chair?”
Kyra winced as Peyton turned her toward him instead of answering. But she closed her eyes in relief moments after when she felt his light massage on her injured arm. The problem was the front of her rubbed the front of him with every stroke he made. Was he intentionally trying to drive her insane?
“When I breached the second processor compartment’s security, you became one mean SOB, Captain Elliott. I hope I never make you that upset with me again.”
Peyton let out a ragged breath as he pulled his ballsy savior closer. His strong emotional attachment to a woman who could shut his brain down whenever she wanted was baffling, but he was still recovering from his ongoing panic. This moment of holding her in his arms again almost didn’t get to happen. He had been programmed to use as much force as necessary to apprehend the remaining cyborg creator. Nero had analyzed the code on the chips Kyra had pulled from him and they had discussed the ramifications of what her apprehension orders meant. The UCN would rather see Kyra Winters dead than working to free any other cyborgs.
He lifted Kyra’s injured hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “You had every reason to run and yet you didn’t. All the words of gratitude in my data banks are inadequate, so all I can say is thanks for being brave enough to come back. Tripping you with that arm swipe was just an accident—I swear. When I looked up and saw you standing over me, my arm just seemed to move on its own. Next thing I knew, you were knocked out cold on the floor with me. Luckily for both of us you had Nero on your handheld’s rapid call.”
“I had no choice but to hurt you. Using the mobile restraints was the only way I could stop you. How did you get us out of the lab?” Kyra asked, the question muffled by his shirt.
Peyton paused his stroking. He knew he had no choice but to tell her the truth. He’d had a lot of those to deal with in the five days and three point seven hours she’d been unconscious.
“Nero discovered I’d been upgraded with an enormous information repository. Without even knowing it, I’ve been recording you every time you entered and left the lab. Once the second processor was gone, I got access to all the hidden info I’d been collecting. It was painful but all I had to do was cycle through the information containing access codes to eventually hit the end of the loop. Good thing too—it allowed me to let Nero in to help us. I wasn’t in much better condition than you were when he finally got there.”
Kyra made a strangled sound in her throat. “So the bug you planted in the lab was just for show? Damn it. How much data did you record?”
“Literally everything that has happened since we’ve been together, with the exception of your original reboot. The recording feature only shut down at night after you were asleep. I have to admit the information has been useful because I’ve been able to revisit everything that happened before I went nuts this last time. That second set of wiring functioned like a shit list of important things I had forgotten to do. The list was insistent even after you pulled the plug on the secondary processor. We have to talk about that pain stuff they do to get a cyborg’s full attention. Last time I checked, we don’t even treat war prisoners that roughly. I’m sure it would have been twice as bad if you hadn’t already removed the controller wiring. They literally electrified my prosthetics and used the current to shock the rest of me.”
Even though it hurt, Kyra pushed out of Peyton’s arms and rolled to her back to stare at the ceiling again. “I never understood what it was like for a person to live as a cyborg until I started trying to reverse the process. It wasn’t that I was apathetic. I just didn’t think about how much the code was using pain as a means of controlling your mind. The pain was meant to keep you from harming yourself, not to be used as a way to harm you.”
Peyton leaned over her. The remorse contorting Kyra’s face demanded soothing. Sure she wasn’t without blame, but she wasn’t like the ones still trying to use him to kill her either. His face was lowering toward hers when he heard someone clearing their throat nearby.
“Hey Borg Man. What’cha think you’re doing with my patient? Dr. Winters is not in good enough condition yet to be fooling around with you.”
“Hello Ella,” Peyton said, feeling a grin start when his face great hot with embarrassment. He hadn’t even kissed Kyra. He rubbed his jaw and reluctantly climbed out of her bed.
“Thank you,” Kyra said with genuine relief, ignoring the fact that she also instantly missed Peyton’s warmth. Her head throbbed like a heartbeat as she pushed and pulled herself up to a semi-sitting position. She reached for the cup of ice water on the tray her caregiver held down to her. She took several sips before sighing in contentment. “I’ve been trying to get Peyton to leave me alone. He hasn’t been listening well. Tell Nero that Captain Elliott’s hearing needs to be checked.”
Ella laughed as she slid the tray onto the stand next to th
e bed. “Borg Man’s just happy you’re finally awake.”
Kyra let fly a disbelieving grunt against the rim of the cup as she sipped. “You obviously don’t know the hell I’ve put the man through. He hates my guts.”
Beside the bed she heard Peyton softly swearing. She grinned at the idea that he might be offended. His reaction was extremely promising—for a variety of reasons.
“Stop complaining and do something productive, Captain Elliott. Find a giant blank porta-disk—or seven—and copy that massive data bank you profess to have been amassing. Bring me back the disks and a handheld I can review it on.”
“No. No reviewing data yet. You need more rest first,” Peyton commanded in return.
Though it hurt, Kyra turned her bandaged head to look at him. “Don’t make me get out of this bed and chase you down to get what I want from you. I’m still recovering from our last fight. Chasing you down would only piss me off further.”
Knowing Kyra meant her threat made his pants even more damn tight. Peyton smiled at his own frustration as his gaze went from woman to woman. “Did you hear that Ella? You’re my witness. Doc is flirting with me.”
Ella giggled at their exchange. “Gee. . .and you’re not even wearing your Cyborgs Do It Better t-shirt. Way to go, Borg Man.”
Peyton laughed loudly and put a hand over his stomach to feel his muscles contract. He had little recollection of having spontaneously laughed much in his life—like ever. The most he had was a vague memory of doing it with his fiancée in some kind of beach setting. Those memories were at least a decade old. He sighed when he realized Kyra was looking at him with a kind of hopeful fear. “What’s up, Doc? Did my laughter scare you?”
Kyra painfully shook her head. “No. A sense of humor is the most mysterious of all cognitive behaviors, but it’s also a very basic one that can’t really be controlled. Congratulations, Captain Elliott. I do believe you’re mostly human again at last.”
Peyton didn’t let himself care about his audience as he rose and bent over the bed to kiss Kyra’s startled mouth. He gripped her chin after to make sure she listened to him.
“I’ll never be able to say this enough, but thank you for coming back to save me. Most people would have run like hell. Only a good guy stays in the fight. Remember that.”
His voice turned gruff as he straightened. He didn’t want to leave her, but they couldn’t really talk about much that mattered in front of Ella.
“Guess I’ll go see what I can do about getting you a data dump.”
***
“I’m just curious about how involved you are with him physically because Ella said she saw him kiss you in a no-nonsense man-woman way,” Nero said bluntly.
Kyra shook her head, but didn’t bother looking away from her screen. She queued up the next file and made sure it began where the last one ended.
“What Peyton is feeling for me is just a whole lot of gratitude. From his perspective, he’s my patient and I saved his life. It’s a clear case of the Florence Nightingale effect. I’m quite sure his infatuation with me will pass in time.”
Since Kyra wasn’t meeting his eyes, Nero stared at her back. “Where did the cyborg sleep last night? It wasn’t in his assigned room, Kyra. I know because I looked for him there when I arrived.”
“Stop baiting me with information you already have. You know damn well he was with me. Peyton feels responsible for my injuries, and frankly his remorse is a good sign, Nero. Besides, the medical room is cold. He takes up a lot of room in the bed, but sharing his body heat is better than an extra blanket,” Kyra said. She stopped her task and swung a glance at Nero, taking in his frown. “Relax—will you? Nothing sexual is going on between us. And what is your problem anyway? You’re the one who rescued both of us.”
Nero sighed and nodded. “At the time it happened, I had no choice. Captain Elliott seemed truly fixed and we needed to confirm it, didn’t we? I have to look at him as our first completely restored cyborg, but that doesn’t mean I have to like him trying to have an intimate relationship with you. His presence here is merely a matter of science.”
“Will you simmer down? I was convinced of that fact long before you went all paternal protector on me. Look—I’m twenty years older than you and not nearly as susceptible to a hot ass. Yes—I like the man in general. No—I’m not indulging in carnal relations with him. Give me some credit for being able to deflect his obsession with me until it passes on its own.”
Kyra turned her face back to the monitor. Behind her, she heard Nero sighing.
“Forgive me, Kyra. There’s no scientific reason for you not to indulge with Captain Elliott if that’s what you feel the need to do. The man is still very much a cyborg, but we all believe the restoration was completely successful. Brad said Peyton’s EEG scans are clear of all rogue processor interference now. His mind seems to be his own as far as we can tell.”
Kyra stopped reading to nod. “Good. I’ve been very careful with Peyton so far. He’s trusts the bond between us and I have to honor that, regardless of what else does or does not happen. That’s great news about the EEG scans. I’m about two-thirds through reviewing the data Peyton recorded. Outside of the discussion he and I had about my personal life with Jackson, there’s not much else in the recording that bothers me.”
“How can you say that? He recorded all your access codes to the lab,” Nero exclaimed, listing the issue that bothered him the most.
Kyra shrugged. “True. But the UCN has devices to bypass almost any security anyway. I still don’t know what happened to the device Peyton used to escape his cage. He said he doesn’t remember either. Did you see it when you and Brad found the planted device under my desk?”
Nero shook his head. “No. Brad found the UCN bug almost as soon as we entered. Our time involved dealing with that.”
Kyra nodded. “So when are you going to tell me how you managed to create this secret scientist lair?” She swiveled in her chair to again face the man who kept surprising her lately.
Nero rose to pace. “I know you better than that, Kyra. You joke to cover your anger that I kept this from you. But if I hadn’t created it, you’d have no place to hide right now. Think about it—your apprehension would make anyone rich enough to never have to work again. You’re going to have to hide from the UCN and their hired goons for the rest of your natural life unless something drastically changes. They could easily send more military cyborgs after you. This site will not be very helpful against them if that happens.”
Kyra got up and walked to stand close enough to look up into Nero’s worried gaze. “My goals haven’t changed just because I was successful in restoring Peyton. Yes, I can free other cyborgs as well if we can figure out how to get to them. But if Plan A doesn’t work out, my Plan B is still to take down Norton Industries. I’m not going to lie to you no matter how hard it is for you to keep hearing me say it. I cannot afford to lose your respect, but I’m more determined now than ever.”
Nero reached out and jerked Kyra into his arms for a hug. “Peyton is right about how hard-headed you are. Can you not see any other way?”
Kyra sighed as she returned his hug. “Easy, Nero. You’re bringing back the headaches squeezing me so tight. And don’t make me cry. You know I hate that.”
“A woman’s mind should not be so totally analytical. Crying is an effective way to release emotional pain. Instead of weeping alone, you need to learn to do it in someone’s arms, Kyra.”
Kyra laughed as she pulled away. “It’s way too late for me to change the kind of woman I turned out to be. I’m mostly stoic—if you don’t count my sarcasm as emotion. The crying I do over the cyborgs is prompted by extreme guilt and shame. It’s just the physical expression of my repentance—nothing more.”
Nero huffed, but didn’t argue. He knew it would do no good. Instead he told her the only news that would distract her from contemplating her own death. “Peyton has an idea about how to collect the other cyborgs. If successful, it will require
us to have several holding cages to constrain them. We’ve already moved the one from your personal lab to here. Several others are under construction.”
“What’s his idea?” Kyra asked.
Nero shook his head as he walked back to his station. “Ask Captain Elliott to explain it. It should make great pillow talk between the two of you tonight.”
Kyra grinned at Nero’s sarcasm as she went back to sit in front of the desk com. “You’re confusing me. Do you want me to play bedroom nice with Peyton or not?”
Nero flapped his arms and let them hit his sides. “I don’t know what to think or want. I’ve never been around a cyborg who acts like he does. It’s like he’s only human when the subject of discussion is you. The rest of the time, he’s in full cyborg mode. He’s making more military strategies than I’m comfortable with him doing. And yes—it makes me nervous that someone like him likes you so much. He’s not your type.”
“Hmm. . .” Kyra said, pondering Peyton’s military strategizing. “Maybe the resumption of his military thinking means Peyton has established more control over his cybernetics. That’s good progress I think. One of his last normal memories is of his conversion. After that, he has only total recall of the war. It was like he just came home from fighting the day I replaced his primary processor.”
“Hmm. . .” Nero mocked, “maybe we don’t know whether it’s the man or the machine who is in charge of his actions right now though. Despite his restoration, Captain Elliott is still dangerous. You seem to keep forgetting that the whole world fearing the capabilities of cyborgs is a large part of why there are no more wars. Peyton’s prosthetics are not just replacement arms and legs. They’re robotic weapons, Kyra.”
“I have not forgotten that, Nero. But robots with AI processors are nothing but machines. They have no conscience and no morals outside their programming. Peyton is not a machine. He’s a redefined human with technologically advanced prosthetics, which he got for the benefit of the world. I have full confidence that he will use them for good now just like he did originally. We can’t be the only two humans alive capable of thinking that way.”
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