Blaze

by Joan Swan

  She pulled away. “That’s because pieces are all that’s left.”

  The airplane tires hit the asphalt, and a squeal sliced into their argument. Luke stuffed his hands into his pockets and clamped down on his anger. He couldn’t change her, couldn’t make her see herself as he did. And he sure as hell didn’t need her rejection again.

  The plane came to a stop and the doors opened. Luke started forward as Alyssa climbed from the passenger’s seat. Her legs came first, followed by that big pregnant belly as she maneuvered her way to the ground.

  The sight pushed his hurt and frustration to the background. He didn’t know how, but she managed to look more beautiful every time he saw her. Pregnancy had lent her long black hair a deeper shine, her Asian-Irish skin a brighter glow, and those pretty hazel eyes a sharper spark.

  With her feet on the ground, body finally balanced, she hit him with a warning glare. “Don’t you dare laugh.”

  “Never.” He put an arm around her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “You look great. How’s the boy?”

  She laid a hand on the baby. “Kicking up a storm. Wanna feel?”

  “Ah . . .” The reality that he might never feel his own child move inside the only woman he wanted seemed a little too stark at the moment. “Not right now.”

  Alyssa’s curiosity melted into understanding. She kissed his cheek. “Where’s Keira? Teague was worried you might have chopped her up and left her body in an oil drum by now.”

  “There’s a thought,” he muttered. “She’s right here. Where is that lousy husband of yo—?”

  Two men came around the nose of the plane, one dressed in a black jumpsuit similar to Keira’s SWAT uniform and carrying a submachine gun. The other swaggered over wearing worn jeans, white shirt, and a camel-colored leather jacket, his arm draped around Keira’s shoulders.

  Mitch Foster. Alyssa’s twin brother.

  A long, slow sigh pushed from between Luke’s teeth. “Foster.”

  “Ransom.” He put out his hand and shook Luke’s. “You look like hell.”

  “You, too. Where’s Teague?”

  “Home,” Alyssa said. “He didn’t want to leave Kat alone with Mitch. Said he’d have her mastering bongs and roach clips by the time we got back.”

  “That’s so sixties,” Mitch said. “I would have taken her straight to heroin.”

  Alyssa cast Mitch one of her signature stares. “And he’s not happy about me coming here with anyone less skilled than a Special Forces soldier.”

  “Ow.” Mitch slapped a hand to his chest and winced, then gestured to the other man. “I complied with his asinine demands. Sergeant Nelson is our pilot and protector.”

  Luke greeted Nelson, an average-size, plain-faced, all-American guy Luke wouldn’t have taken special notice of on the street.

  Keira, still holding Mateo, unwound herself from Mitch’s arm and hugged Alyssa. “I’m sorry you had to come all this way.”

  “Never a problem.” She smiled at Mateo. “That’s quite a costume. I bet Uncle Luke made that for you. He’s good at dress-up.”

  “I’ll just bet he is.” Mitch laughed. “Bet he prefers the feel of lace on his delicate skin.”

  “Don’t start firing off that mouth of yours, Foster.”

  Mitch shot Luke a shit-eating grin. “I’m going to help Nelson tie down the plane.”

  “I’d offer to help,” Luke said as Mitch planted his hands on the back of one wing and Nelson took the other, pushing it into a parking space. “But it looks like you could use a little manual labor. Sitting behind that desk is making you soft.”

  “Prick,” Mitch muttered.

  “Mitch,” Alyssa scolded, reminding Luke he’d have to watch his language. Lys was a stickler on swearing. At some point, she’d attached a charge to each curse, and if he didn’t watch his mouth, Luke would be handing over his retirement.

  She smiled at Mateo. “What a little heartbreaker.”

  Keira grinned down at the boy, whose eyes kept skipping between faces. “Cute, huh?”

  “Beyond cute. Look at those curls.”

  “To die for, aren’t they?”

  “Yet you bitch about me needing a haircut,” Luke muttered, then held up a hand. “Sorry, Lys. I’ll work on it.”

  “Sounds like somebody’s jealous,” Alyssa said. “Will he freak when I try to examine him?”

  Keira shrugged. “He let Luke put that thing on his head without a squeak.”

  “And no English at all?”

  “Not that we can tell.”

  Alyssa smiled at Mateo. “I won’t hurt you, sweetheart. I just want to see what you’ve got back here.”

  Mateo let Alyssa probe and inspect the scar.

  “Interesting placement,” she murmured. “There are easier locations to put a simple tracker. But the implant is superficial. Should only take fifteen minutes to get it out. The hospital is only a mile from here. A friend I interned with is letting me use an exam room in a wing of offices. We’ll have everything we need.”

  “That our ride?” Mitch came up beside them, brushing his hands together. He squinted at the Jeep. “Damn, Ransom, looks like you’ve been through hell and back in that thing.”

  Luke rubbed his face. “Feels that way, too.”

  Keira climbed into the backseat with Alyssa. Mateo cozied up between them while Luke drove and Mitch took shotgun. Nelson rolled into the rear cargo space as if he were on a training maneuver.

  Keira hadn’t even closed the door before Alyssa started in. “Why does it take a crisis for us to get to see you?”

  Mitch shot a look over his shoulder from the front seat. “Yeah.”

  “You have no room to talk.” Alyssa cut her attention back to Keira. “So? Why are you avoiding us?”

  There was a myriad of reasons Keira kept her distance from Teague and Alyssa. She loved them. Dearly. Would fight to the death for them or either of their children. But their seemingly perfect life increasingly reminded Keira of all her own life lacked. And the less she saw Teague and Alyssa, the less she had to be reminded of what she’d lost, what she still didn’t have, and what she’d seriously begun to doubt she’d ever find.

  “Don’t even think about using Sacramento as an excuse,” Alyssa said. “It’s only two hours away.”

  “I’m working a lot.”

  “She’s too busy doing that surgeon in Davis,” Mitch said.

  A disgusted sound gurgled from Keira’s throat. “Mitchell Foster—”

  “What the fuck?” Luke cut in.

  “Luke,” Alyssa chastised, then turned to Keira. “Is that what’s keeping you so busy?”

  “No.” Keira sent Mitch an I’ll-kill-you-later glare. “I told you he is the husband of another agent.”

  “Being married never stopped anyone from screwing around.” The darkness in Mitch’s tone stemmed from something deep and painful. Keira recognized the signs. But it didn’t erase her anger over his bringing this up in front of Luke, which she knew he’d done on purpose. “I saw how he was looking at you that night at dinner. He’d have been feeling you up under the table if I hadn’t sat between you.”

  “Dinner?” Luke said. “When did you two have dinner together? And who the hell is this surgeon?”

  “We get together every month, Ransom,” Mitch said. “Just ’cause you’re too stupid to realize how hot she is doesn’t mean all men are.”

  “There is no surgeon.” Keira rubbed at the pain in her forehead. There was nobody. There hadn’t been anybody since her pathetic attempts at dating shortly after breaking up with Luke. Even the thought of trying again made her queasy. Until she’d set eyes on Luke, of course. Why was the universe so damn cruel?

  “Stop stirring the shit, Mitch,” Alyssa said.

  “Holy crap.” Mitch’s gorgeous hazel eyes whipped around to land on his sister. “Did you just swear?” He turned to Luke. “Did you hear that?”

  “I heard it.”

  “I think that might wipe out our
debt. What do you think?”

  “I agree.”

  “I hate to be a wet blanket,” Keira said, “but can you two stop screwing around before I choke you both?”

  “Oh, baby.” Mitch slanted her a grin. “Promises, promises.”

  Luke’s fist hit Mitch dead center in the chest. Mitch sputtered a pained laugh.

  “Mi malónete.” Mateo’s voice brought everyone’s gaze around to the boy’s worried face. “Lucas, mi malónete.”

  “That’s what you need, Ransom.” Still grinning, Mitch rubbed his chest. “A five-year-old to keep you in line.”

  They pulled into a parking lot alongside the rural community hospital and stopped at a wing of office buildings.

  “Pull up to that second building on the right.” Alyssa pointed over Luke’s shoulder. “There’s a side door . . . yeah, right there. My friend owns the building and he turned the alarm off remotely from his home. Said there’s a spare key attached to the corner of the building between the foundation and the framing.”

  Nelson exited the vehicle first, his gaze sweeping the area, weapon held ready. The parking lot was deserted, dimly illuminated by sparse overhead lighting. He retrieved the key, unlocked the door, and disappeared inside.

  “Are you sure no one will see us?” Keira asked.

  “It’s a nine-to-five-type place,” Alyssa said. “No one will be here until tomorrow morning.”

  Nelson emerged and waved them in. Outside the car, Keira handed Mateo over to Luke and drew one of the Glocks from the Jeep. Mitch held a weapon he’d dragged from somewhere beneath his leather jacket and followed Alyssa and Nelson inside. Luke waited for Keira, then scanned the area before closing and locking the door behind him.

  Inside an exam room, Alyssa unpackaged medical supplies and set up a procedure tray.

  Keira crossed her arms, scanning all the white and blue–wrapped bundles. “How bad is this going to hurt?”

  Mitch wandered to the counter across the room and opened cabinets. “She’s not cutting on you, Pixie.”

  Luke’s brow went up. “Pixie?”

  “Yeah, she looks like a pixie.” He picked up an object from a shelf and fiddled with it. “You know, like one of those things with wings in Kat’s books.”

  “You mean a fairy,” Luke said. “Hence the term fairy tale.”

  “Should have known you’d be a fairy expert.” Mitch lifted his chin at Keira. “Look at her. That little nose, the angle of her eyes, those freckles. She looks like a pixie.”

  Luke shot her a scowl. “Too bad she doesn’t have their sugarplum personality.”

  “You two are so not funny.” Keira was ready to pop out of her skin. Something about being cooped up in that room with all those supplies and instruments, knowing there were people outside who wanted them all dead, just didn’t bring out the jokester in her.

  Unlike Mitch. Who approached the exam table with a mischievous grin and an anatomical model in his hands. A detailed, three-dimensional, life-size model of a penis and testicles.

  “What in the hell?” Keira sputtered.

  “You don’t recognize Big Jim and the Twins?” Mitch pulled pieces out, put them back, pulled others out, looked inside. “I can fix that, sweetheart.”

  “Mitch, put that down,” Alyssa scolded. “I swear, if you break something—”

  “Why does this guy have a puzzle like this in his office? Is he gay? Not that I care. I mean I’m a San Franciscan transplant. Besides, gay guys have the hottest girlfriends.”

  “I swear he was switched at birth.” Alyssa glared at her twin brother. “Doctor Henle is a urologist. I’m sure if you ask nicely he’ll give you a free prostate exam, Mitch. Now put that very expensive anatomical model down.”

  Mitch set the model back on the counter. “Killjoy.”

  Luke laid Mateo on the table as Alyssa directed. Keira combed her fingers through the hair at his temple, whispering reassurances the boy didn’t understand and Keira didn’t feel.

  “You’re going to numb him or something, right?”

  “Yes, with a tiny needle. He may feel a little stick and burn, but that’s it.”

  The boy made it through the numbing better than Keira. Just the sight of the needle tightened her throat. She had to look away when Alyssa injected. Mateo, on the other hand, barely made a murmur of complaint.

  His eyes grew heavy and closed before Alyssa had even picked up a scalpel. But as soon as she pressed the tip of that knife into the skin of Mateo’s neck, the second that drop of bright red blood bloomed on the boy’s olive skin, Keira’s head went light. A distant buzzing grew louder until it encompassed her brain.

  “We’re gonna lose her,” Alyssa murmured somewhere close.

  Luke’s arms circled Keira before she even realized she was melting toward the floor.

  “She’s pale.” Mitch’s worried voice came at her from the left. “Is she okay?”

  “She’ll be fine.” Alyssa’s gaze remained locked on Mateo’s neck. “It happens to parents a lot. Should have seen Teague when Kat hit her head on the coffee table and needed a couple stitches.”

  He’s not my kid. But Keira didn’t say it. Couldn’t say it. Nausea boiled too close to the surface. Alyssa could have been digging to Mateo’s spine the way she prodded and tugged.

  “What’s going on, Lys?” Mitch asked. “You said it was superficial.”

  “The chip is,” she murmured, still working, “but it’s attached to something.”

  Keira’s mind engaged. “What do you mean?”

  “Could be scar tissue. Could be a tendon or a muscle. I’m not sure.” Alyssa drew back with a frown and wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. Keira’s gaze caught on the forceps in her hand, the tips covered in blood.

  “Oh, God.” She pressed a hand to her stomach.

  “A little blood makes you woozy,” Luke muttered, “after you’ve killed at least four—”

  “Luke,” she snapped.

  “What?” Mitch straightened away from the counter.

  Alyssa’s gaze came around.

  The hollow in Keira’s stomach squeezed tight. She wrestled herself out of Luke’s grip, pressed her back to the wall, and slid away from him, arms crossed over her chest again. “Thanks. I needed the reminder.”

  “Damn, you are so extreme it’s freakin’ hot,” Mitch said with too much excitement. “What the hell happened?”

  “Foster,” Luke bit out. “Don’t be a—”

  “Don’t you two start again.” Now cold and clammy, Keira wiped at the sweat breaking across her face. “Let’s just say it’s been a rough day.”

  Keira didn’t look at Mitch, who she knew wanted to press for details. She couldn’t watch Alyssa dig into Mateo’s perfect, precious flesh. Wouldn’t even glance at Luke for fear she might knock out a few teeth. Instead, she paced the opposite side of the room and let her gaze roam the detailed cutaway poster of a kidney.

  “Got it,” Alyssa announced.

  Keira spun around. “Is he okay? Is it all out?”

  “He’s fine.” Alyssa lowered the chip to a silver tray. “But unfortunately, no, it’s not all out.” She pointed to one end of the thumbnail-size chip. “See those holes? About a dozen of them? Each was attached to a wire.”

  “A wire? I don’t understand. Can’t you get the wire out, too?”

  “Wires. And no.” She set the forceps down and picked up a needle already threaded with black filament. “Those wires seem to be attached to something else . . . higher up.”

  Keira waited for Alyssa to expand. When she didn’t, Keira prodded, “Higher up? Like in his scalp?”

  “No. They’re too deep to be in his scalp. I think they’d have to be . . . in his brain.”

  Denial hit Keira first. Then panic. Then searing anger, burning away the chill.

  “Those—” Motherfucking bloodsuckers. “I’m going to—” Kill them.

  The realization that she’d already killed some of them gave her grim satisfaction.
But not near enough for what they’d done to this baby.

  “How do we know they can’t track him with whatever’s still in there?” Keira asked.

  “I guess we don’t.” Alyssa stitched the tiny incision. “I know a little about how these types of implants are used in medicine, and they’re still experimental. But we already know these probably weren’t implanted for medical reasons.”

  Keira closed a hand over her eyes. “This is too much,” she murmured, more to herself than the others. “Just too much.”

  “Help us out here, hotshot.” Luke’s strained voice brought Keira’s head up. He was glaring at Mitch. “You’ve got contacts everywhere else, what about in the IT field?”

  “Be careful whose throat you’re jumping down, Ransom. Next time you need a fucking plane, you may not get one.”

  “Mitch—” Alyssa didn’t take her eyes off her work. “Quit swearing or I’ll reinstate the payment rule, and you have quite a tab running already. Answer him.”

  “I’m thinking.” Mitch’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Techies aren’t the types who usually need my help. More like the Ransoms of the world, who screw up at every turn and ask for shit like planes and pilots, and, oh, yeah, one more thing . . .”

  “Fuck you, Foster.”

  “That’s it. You both start off owing me a hundred bucks.” Alyssa fixed them each with a solid glare before she set down her needle and stretched her back. “Twenty more per curse from here on out.”

  A new dark swirl of emotion distracted Keira from the group’s banter. She checked Mateo, but found him asleep. She looked at Luke, but this sensation didn’t have the same quality as the other feelings he’d emitted.

  “It doesn’t count when the kids aren’t around,” Mitch grumbled.

  Alyssa gestured toward Mateo. “And who is this?”

  “He doesn’t even speak English.”

  What office?

  Keira held up her hand to the others. “Shhhh.”

  The room went silent.

  An Adam Henle. Opposite side of the building. We can go through this corridor.

  Fear exploded in her belly. “They found us.”

  She swept Mateo off the table.

  “I didn’t hear anyth—” Mitch started.