by Victoria Sue
Table of Contents
Blurb
Dedication
Characters
Glossary
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Epilogue
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Copyright
The Strength of His Heart
By Victoria Sue
Enhanced World: Book Four
To protect and serve…. All Vance Connelly ever wanted to do was continue his family’s tradition and join the Tampa Police Department, but his dreams were crushed the day he woke with the enhanced mark on his face. After years of struggling to adjust to life as an enhanced human, by a stroke of luck, he met Talon Valdez and became a proud member of the FBI’s Human Enhanced Rescue Organization.
Samuel “Angel” Piper is eager to leave his DEA undercover work behind as he joins the HERO team as Vance’s regular human partner. But Sam’s painful past is ever present, just below the surface of the life he has built for himself as an ambitious young agent. When the team investigates rumors of a new drug using enhanced blood, the case’s mysterious connection to Sam threatens not just his life but Vance’s.
Trust doesn’t come easy for Sam, but Vance is willing to fight to convince his partner that the strength of his heart might be the salvation they both need.
A big thank you to Damon for giving me the tools and to Geoff for showing me where to hide the body.
Characters
HERO TEAM
Talon Valdez—Talon is the HERO Team leader. He comes from a large politically prominent family that includes his mother, four brothers, and one sister.
Enhanced Abilities: Talon can slow and stop anything in the human body, which can either simply put someone to sleep or can kill them. DNA changes have enabled him to gain the abilities of the other team members.
Gael Peterson—Gael is Talon’s second-in-command. He has a younger brother, Wyatt. His father is dead, and his mother abandoned them when Gael was a young child. Gael has severe facial scars due to his drunk father trying to burn off his enhanced mark.
Enhanced Abilities: Gael can write and speak any foreign language without being taught. He can also change the composition of his skin to make it resistant to impact damage (e.g. from bullets). He can “talk” to computers and understand complex coding.
Vance Connelly—Vance comes from a large family of law enforcement officers. His mom, Connie, and dad have fostered children for years and now work with foster parents to encourage fostering enhanced children. His dad and three of his four brothers are cops. Vance’s brother Daniel is a senior intelligence officer.
Enhanced Abilities: Vance’s abilities are strength and voice recognition.
Sawyer Rollins—Sawyer has no known family. He grew up in foster care.
Enhanced Abilities: Sawyer can deconstruct anything metallic into shavings. He can also change his body composition to become invisible and walk through walls.
Eli Stuart—Eli has no known family. He grew up in foster care and in a secure enhanced youth facility.
Enhanced Ability: Eli’s ability is fire; he can burn anything, including people.
Finn (Finlay) Mayer—Finn is a regular human team member and Talon’s partner. He is dyslexic but was never officially diagnosed nor did he receive any help because he was convinced his dyslexia would ruin his chances of joining the FBI. Finn’s family includes his mother and older brother, Deke. His dad committed suicide four years prior to Finn joining the FBI.
Jake Riley—Jake is a regular human team member and Gael’s partner. He transferred from the LAPD SWAT team and became a member of the ENu before joining the HERO team.
Sam “Angel” Piper—Sam has worked on an undercover task force with the DEA. He joins the team as Vance’s partner.
Adam Mackenzie—Adam is Finn’s childhood best friend. He was thrown out of his family when he transformed. Adam lived in foster care and young offender’s units. He has joined the team as a probationary member because he is out of jail on license due to his part in an armed robbery.
Enhanced Abilities: Adam can manipulate electricity and open locks.
OTHER ENHANCED CHARACTERS
Oliver Martinez—Oliver is an enhanced child kidnapped by Dakota.
Enhanced Ability: Oliver can control electricity.
Liam Kendrick—Liam is an enhanced teenager currently being fostered by Vance’s mom and dad.
Enhanced Ability: Liam can see inside most things, including the human body and the Earth’s crust.
Derrick—Derrick is an enhanced child with fetal alcohol syndrome and on the autism spectrum. He is mute, deaf, and partially blind. He is being adopted by Gael and Jake.
Enhanced Ability: Derrick communicates through a child’s computer.
Christopher—Christopher is an enhanced medical technician, who is mute.
Enhanced Abilities: Christopher can communicate telepathically. He is also able to calm anyone who is upset.
OTHER REGULAR CHARACTERS
Assistant Special Agent In Charge Anthony Gregory—Gregory is the FBI agent who formed the enhanced unit and is responsible for recruiting all members.
Drew Fielding—Drew was an FBI agent working at the Tampa Field Office.
Doctor Natalie Edwards—Dr. Edwards is the doctor for the unit.
Deputy FBI Director Cohen—Cohen was Gregory’s boss and originally against the idea of the unit forming. Now replaced by Assistant Director Devan Manning, who is also not in favor of the unit but because she wants the team’s skills to be used elsewhere.
Alan Swann—Swann is CEO of Swann Enterprises. He was a fellow hostage along with Finn in a bank robbery just after Finn joined the team. Swann likes to appear on television criticizing the FBI and specifically the team. Responsible for the enhanced boarding school.
Judge Benedict Cryer—Cryer is retired and standing for political office. He is active in his criticism of all enhanced and wants them locked up.
Sergeant Mac Carmichael—leader of the ENu team and hates all enhanced.
Glossary
HERO—The Human Enhanced Rescue Organization is a SWAT-type team set up by the FBI to include initially five enhanced humans and five regular human agents.
ENHANCED—The name given to a group of humans born in the last forty or so years with incredible abilities that regular humans don’t have. They are all male, sterile, and the incidence is restricted to the US. The Enhanced gain their abilities around adolescence, often experiencing one or two days of flu-like symptoms. The only external sign is a jagged scar under their left eye that is shaped like a lightning bolt; it is often referred to as the mark. Enhanced are usually superior in physical strength and have faster-than-normal healing abilities. There is no current biological test available to identify if children, usually siblings of enhanced, will undergo the transformation to become enhanced.
ENu—Police Enhanced Unit. A SWAT-type team of regular human police officers with the power to forcibly sedate and detain any enhanced individu
als.
“A true hero isn’t measured by the size of his strength, but by the strength of his heart.”
—Zeus, from the Disney movie Hercules
Chapter One
NINETY-THREE DAYS.
Two thousand hours.
And not so much as a kiss.
Not that it would be appropriate right at that second in time, but Vance seemed to spend more time dreaming about his new partner than actually helping him. Sam’s radio crackled, and Vance jumped.
“Jesus, big boy,” Samuel “Angel” Piper whispered and patted Vance’s hand. “Settle down. We might be ages yet.” Sam held up the strap for his shoulder holster that he’d been trying to adjust. Vance grinned. Sam would be better off trying Toys“R”Us rather than the FBI for one small enough.
Vance tried to get his heart to regulate and to concentrate on what might be finally happening. He wasn’t suited to stakeouts. Not that they’d been on this for longer than two hours, but he was a “ram the door down and ask questions later” kind of person. He had volunteered to do the ramming on more than one occasion, but Sam had immediately put the kibosh on that, and it had stung. The fact that Sam didn’t think Vance was capable of doing anything other than stand around for what seemed a ridiculous amount of time and follow other people through doors stung also.
For ten of their twelve-week partnership, they’d been loaned out to the DEA. Sam’s old boss had needed him to talk to an informant who refused to speak to anyone other than Angel, and Vance seemed to have spent more hours standing in empty corridors and abandoned buildings waiting for other guys to ram doors down than he ever had with his team.
“What are you thinking about?” Sam narrowed his eyes.
Vance huffed. Like I’m gonna tell you.
The car door opened. Special Agent Eddie Ramirez from the Baton Rouge DEA and ATF joint task force slid into the back seat. “Are you sure about this?”
“No, but Jaylen is,” Sam replied.
Vance glanced at Sam. He’d noticed that Sam got a little defensive when questioned. His mom would have said prickly. He had no idea why Sam got so bent out of shape, though, because at twenty-seven and looking ten years younger, Sam had to be used to half the force having more experience than him.
“And I ask again, how reliable is this kid?” Ramirez challenged.
Vance didn’t even bother trying to add anything to the conversation. The only other thing Vance had spent the last nearly three months doing was being stuck in a hotel room while Sam arranged meets with the informant, who would only speak to him. Vance was Sam’s partner, which was the only reason their boss, Gregory, had agreed to loan Sam to the task force in the first place—Gregory had refused to let Sam go without Vance having his back.
Except he didn’t, hadn’t, because Ramirez immediately said Vance stuck out like a sore thumb and banned him to the motel every time Sam met with Jaylen.
Vance hated Ramirez.
“He’s been reliable enough for the other seven arrests we’ve made,” Sam said mildly. “I was brought in to speak to Jaylen. This is his ticket to getting out.”
Sam looked over at the brightly lit church that was currently spilling out its worshippers after the service ended. According to Jaylen, the Holy Place of Our Lord was a front for the Red Stones, who had started out as a small-time distribution network and was now into import, prostitution, and protection. They brought in as many guns as heroin—hence the task force with the ATF. Jaylen had also insisted the church’s foster and private adoption program for at-risk kids was basically another way of cultivating either prostitution or their own army. And even worse—if there was a worse add-on than that—the younger, prettier ones, whose biggest problem should be learning how to throw a ball or ducking homework, were being sold on to fuck knew where and to fuck knew what.
Pastor Dominic Innes, who regularly held food drives and church picnics, was especially fond of little boys. Vance knew Jaylen had saved this last bust until he had gotten the deal he wanted. It had taken weeks, starting with reliable leads that led to bigger things until Jaylen had gotten a witness protection agreement for his family. Once he was safe, he’d promised to give them the info they needed to put Innes away, but they had to place Innes at the church as well. No risk of plausible deniability.
“You want me to go take a look?”
Vance immediately sat up. No way Sam was going in there to wander around on his own.
Ramirez shook his head. “I’m just waiting for as many people as possible to clear out. We have agents already in position around the back next to the storage area.” They were parked in a trash-strewn vacant lot hidden in plain sight next to a tricked-out Mazda and a Chevy held together by rust and optimism. The lot was steadily emptying, though, and it would soon get to the point where their cars would draw attention.
Vance looked up as their radio crackled again, and Sam’s eyes gleamed immediately. Movement had been spotted, and they thought they might have been seen. Four DEA agents ran past them, and in moments all four cars emptied and agents converged on the huge warehouse that doubled as a church.
Vance followed Sam, determined not to let him out of his sight this time, and they ran in through the heavy oak doors that still stood open. A few frightened shouts echoed as Baton Rouge PD quietly herded the stragglers. Vance carried on to the door at the back of the stage that led to a large locked storage room where they were told all the action happened, and in particular after the service. They were hoping to catch Innes in there so he couldn’t deny shit. The kids were kept at the pastor’s house, where Vice and CFS were with the cops doing a simultaneous raid.
They came to the door to the storage area, exactly where Jaylen said it was. A brief second and the door was rammed, bursting open, and with guns held high the cops swarmed in. Vance followed, but the hammering of his heart was the only sound he heard. There was quiet when he’d been expecting shouting, maybe even a few gunshots like the last raid. A few calls of “clear,” and then Sam holstered his Glock 43 and spun around the empty room in confusion. Vance followed quickly but did not put away his Sig P320, despite what many others did. If there was one thing he would do, it was to protect his partner.
Like a quest, Vance thought. An obsession, even. No, he preferred quest. Like they had in history. Didn’t it involve a big guy sitting on a huge-ass horse? Vance could easily be the guy. He wasn’t sure about the horse. And armor? Wasn’t there always armor?
“Fuck,” his not so in distress, and especially not a damsel, partner uttered eloquently.
“Wow,” Vance agreed, being dragged from visions of sword fighting and reminded why he was here as he looked around. They’d expected a drug dump, not something reminiscent of the medical room Dr. Natalie ran back at the field office. Sam whistled and pivoted slowly.
“What the hell, Sarge?” Sam murmured to Sergeant Victor Reed from the BRPD, who was in charge of getting everyone into the church and not letting anyone they were there to arrest leave.
Ramirez blew out a breath. “This is not what we expected.”
“What were you expecting?” Vance asked, taking in the large space. He wasn’t surprised when there was no reply. Some days in the last three months, he’d barely even gotten an acknowledgment, which to be fair, had pissed Sam off no end. Vance was used to having people look at him like he was some weirdo who didn’t deserve the uniform he wore proudly.
Not that he was even allowed to wear that at the moment. Ramirez said it drew too much attention.
“Not this,” Sam said adamantly.
There were seven metal carts, each in its own bay separated by huge curtains of transparent plastic. Each section seemed to have been cleared out really quickly. There was a cavernous metal fridge standing empty and wide-open, and a few discarded and broken test tubes. Sam fished in his pocket, pulled out a latex glove, and snapped it on. Then he bent and picked up a piece of plastic, which Vance saw immediately was a blue glove similar to the kind dentists wore o
r that were used in hospitals. Sam pushed it into an evidence bag that he had pulled out of his other pocket. Vance was impressed. Sam’s pants were usually so tight, nothing else could squeeze in there.
“We need to get forensics in here,” Reed said.
He saw Sam give Reed a look and then wandered over to the corner. There was an electrical cable coiled loosely on the floor, as if it had been dropped. He didn’t attempt to touch it. The area was clean, very clean. They might be in a church, but the place they had raided five days ago had been a pit. Ramirez started barking out orders and walked back into the main church, trying to locate the pastor.
“Sarge?”
Everyone turned toward the voice, because quiet as it was, Gabriel Dsouza’s voice had a strangled quality to it. The DEA agent’s expression was decidedly grim. He stood at the open door to the left of the room. Vance followed Sam automatically as they walked over with Reed.
Sam came to a sudden stop at the doorway. Vance peered over Sam’s head, not a hundred percent certain what he was looking at. “Shit,” Reed said; he had walked in first and immediately got on his radio. Sam didn’t move, and neither did Vance.
“Where’s Innes?” Sam asked.
Reed glanced up. “According to the assistant who is being detained outside, Innes backed out of taking the service, as he was sick. There isn’t any sign of him at his house. Just his wife and around six foster kids. The wife is saying he is absolutely at the service and the only reason she couldn’t go was all the kids have the flu.”
“Sam?” Vance said, still not a hundred percent sure what it—they were. Well, he knew he was seeing two dead bodies—large guys. The clear plastic wrapping around them was open enough to see through, but he had never seen anything like this. They didn’t even look human. They reminded him of store dummies. Then he saw their faces, or in particular the jagged scar that ran from their left eye nearly to their top lip.
