Unleashing the Storm

by Sydney Croft

  “It wasn’t as hard for me to be one back then,” Ender said, more to himself than to Remy.

  Ender had joined the Army, spent two years as a mechanic before being selected for Ranger school. Thirty days into the training, he’d been pulled aside and told about a very special group they thought he’d be an excellent addition to.

  He didn’t know much about special abilities at that point, hadn’t really considered that there were others out there like him. He just knew he was faster than anyone he’d ever known, that his eyesight was way better than the twenty-twenty needed to be an effective sniper and that the training for Delta Force had been a fucking breeze.

  He’d loved it—every single minute of backbreaking, mind-bending training that stretched every normal limit he ever had.

  He was always careful not to let on that he was superhuman fast, hard as that was to tamp down. His eyesight was a benefit to the entire team, even though scientists wanted to study it and his body and everything else about him.

  He’d blown it off and done his best to make a career for himself. A life.

  His unit had been tight-knit. He traveled mainly with the same four men, worked under a general who commanded a large number of Deltas housed on the Fort Bragg base, and no one but his men and their wives knew what he was. To the rest of the world, he was a mechanic working in the motor pool.

  John “Digger” Kramer, Ferdinand “Aces” Ramirez, Chase Holden, Damien “Devil” Canter and him, Tom “Ender” Knight, made a hell of a good team. For five good years, they ruled the world, wiping out terrorism and all its evils.

  At the end of those five years, he killed his best friends in the world. In those brief moments, one of their own had become their worst enemy, and Ender would later learn that this was a consequence of not understanding—or being able to control the gift.

  Damien had been a pyrokinetic. And even if Ender had known at the time, it wouldn’t have made his decision any easier. He took credit for Dev’s plane crash too, since he knew he’d be spending the rest of his life in jail, and the man he’d found in the cockpit claimed he’d been blinded. Claimed he was haunted.

  Ender knew now that what Dev told him was no joke. All special-ability types were haunted, no matter how well adjusted they were.

  You’re a monster.

  Yes, he was. And he’d lost Kira and his chance at a life with her forever with that admission. Better for her and their child, but it still hurt like hell.

  “My team stopped trusting me toward the end,” Remy said, and Christ. Ender realized he’d spilled that whole fucking story out loud. Dammit. “It hurt like hell not to be with them anymore, but I’ve got a new team now. One that you’re a part of.”

  “I don’t want you watching my back,” Ender said, which was ironic since he was still flat on his. “I’m fine on my own.”

  “Yes, fine,” Remy said dryly. “You might not want me watching your back, but I’ve got yours anyway.”

  “Great—want me to tell you that makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside?”

  “You’re an asshole.”

  “Everyone says that like they’re surprised.”

  “You love her, you know.”

  “It doesn’t matter,” Ender managed quietly.

  “That’s the only thing that matters,” Remy said. “I’m going to help you up now.” But Ender was too unsteady even for that. Remy slammed Ender over his shoulder, and fuck, that knocked the wind out of him. “You’re fucking heavy as hell. I’d better get some kind of hazard pay for this one.”

  KIRA SLEPT FOR FOUR HOURS. When she woke, she showered and dressed in a sweatshirt and a pair of sweat shorts Haley had loaned her. The clothes were too big, but they were soft and comfy and the floral fabric softener smell temporarily masked the earthy scent of Tom that wouldn’t scrub off her skin.

  The nap and shower had breathed life back into her, and for the first time since Tom dumped her, she was ready to make some decisions.

  What Remy had told her about Itor’s plans terrified her to the marrow. Even if she was willing to take a risk with her life, she wouldn’t risk her child’s. She might not like it, but ACRO could protect them. She had to stay.

  But what about Tom? The phone call had put some things in perspective. Namely, that her feelings regarding what he’d been sent to do to her were moot, because he didn’t want her anyway. The call had also brought up questions. Did he plan to be involved in their baby’s life at all? Did he expect her to lie about paternity so he could weasel out of involvement? How would she react when they ran into each other on base?

  Stop it. She had to stop thinking about it. She had bigger things to worry about, like the fact that hunger pangs were gnawing at her stomach and if she didn’t eat, she’d probably pass out.

  Stomach growling, she padded toward the kitchen, slowing at the sound of Haley and Remy speaking in hushed voices.

  “…I don’t know, Remy.”

  “We have to tell her.”

  “I just think we should wait until we know for sure.”

  Kira stepped into the hall as Remy said, “The doctor is sure.”

  “The doctor is sure of what?” she asked, a knot of unease forming in her gut, replacing the hunger there.

  Haley chewed her bottom lip and stared at the hardwood floor, but Remy turned to her, those beautiful eyes brimming with concern. “How do you feel about Ender?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Do you love him?”

  “Of course I do. But that’s not—”

  “Are you willing to fight for him?”

  “What’s this about?”

  Remy scrubbed a hand over his face. “He loves you.” She snorted, but before she could say anything, he held up his hand. “He does. He’s got this crazy idea that he’s too screwed up and dangerous for family life, but with you out of his life…”

  “With me out of his life, what? What’s happened?”

  “He’s sick, and he just doesn’t care.”

  CHAPTER

  Twenty-eight

  Ender had suspected what was happening, but Dr. Brown confirmed it quickly enough after that damned SEAL had carried him in and set him down on the hard metal table.

  “He’s all kinds of fucked up, Doc. You’d better help him quickly,” Remy had said, then insisted on staying until the tests came back.

  When the doc told them the prognosis, that Ender’s health was being severely compromised, Remy had cursed softly in Cajun French under his breath and left the room, and dammit, Ender knew where he was going and couldn’t do anything to stop him.

  He felt slightly stronger than before, wondered what the doctor was feeding into his vein via the IV.

  He tugged at it, and the doc said, “It’s just glucose. The energy you’re going to get from it will be temporary. I also dosed you with taurine and arginine, as well as some other amino acids your body is missing because of your diet. Again, a temporary fix.”

  He didn’t want it, temporary or otherwise. He reached down and yanked the needle out of his arm.

  “Dammit, Ender!” the doctor yelled. “You need to eat your normal diet.”

  “Protein bars,” Ender managed as the doctor bandaged his arm to stop the bleeding.

  “Protein bars are meant to get you through in a pinch, Ender. But your unique body chemistry won’t allow you to survive on those alone. You need to go back to being a carnivore.”

  “No.”

  “You’re killing yourself, Tom. And not slowly either.”

  In a sudden burst of strength, Ender reached out and grabbed the doc by the throat. “You don’t get to call me Tom. Only Kira gets to call me—”

  “Tommy!”

  Of course Kira had to show up right now, when he had a death grip on the doctor’s windpipe. At least his growl had come back.

  Until he realized that the low, menacing growl wasn’t coming from his throat, but rather, was emanating from Kira’s as she held Dr. Brown’s forearm in her
teeth.

  “Shit. Kira, honey, you shouldn’t bite the doctor,” he said, and opened his own hand as Kira moved away from Dr. Brown. Ender laid his head back on the pillow as the doc wheezed a breath and rubbed the bite mark on his arm.

  “Then the doctor shouldn’t be touching you,” Kira said to him, and told the doctor, “He’s mine.”

  “He attacked me,” Dr. Brown protested, but finally backed off—and out of the room, as Kira moved next to the bed.

  “Tommy,” she said.

  “Go away.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  “You should. I’m not safe for you to be around. A killer.”

  “For the good of this agency. For the good of the world,” she said quietly, and he stared at her.

  “How could killing you have been good?”

  “You didn’t kill me. You saved me—from Itor and from myself,” she said. “And you gave me a child. Something I never thought—”

  “You’ll be a great mom,” he said.

  “Oh, no, Tom Knight, don’t you even act like you won’t be here.”

  “I’m not meant to be a father,” he said. “How would I explain what I do to a kid?”

  “We’d do it together. We’d explain that you save the world from the bad guys. And you’re not one of the bad guys. You never were.”

  “No, he never was,” Dev’s voice rang out in the tiny room from behind Kira. “Are you going to tell her, Tom, or should I?”

  “Dev, don’t do this.”

  “He saved my life, you know,” Dev told Kira. “Saved my life and then took a punishment that was meant for me.”

  “Is that true, Tommy?” she asked quietly.

  “It didn’t matter. I was going to spend the rest of my life in jail anyway. For killing my Delta team,” he said—didn’t feel as satisfied as he thought he would when he saw the look of shock on her face.

  “Jesus Christ, Tom, do you want to explain that one a little more, before you start taking the damned weight of the world on your shoulders again?”

  “Look who’s talking,” he muttered, but Dev was already explaining to Kira about the hurt pyrokinetic.

  “His men were dying—horrible, terrible deaths. It was just a matter of time, excruciating time, before they died. There was no way to help them,” Dev said, and Ender saw Kira swallow hard.

  “He killed them to help them,” she said.

  “They were begging him,” Dev said softly.

  “Who are you again?” Kira finally asked the man who was doling out Tom’s violent history a piece at a time.

  “Dev. Devlin O’Malley.”

  The man responsible for the order to kill her. She’d wondered what he would look like, had prepared herself for an ugly, Jimmy Hoffa–ish brute, but the attractive man with unseeing brown eyes and spiky, dark hair caught her completely off guard.

  She cleared her throat. “Mr. O’Malley, would you mind waiting outside for a moment?”

  He inclined his head and then moved silently and unerringly out of the room.

  “Tom,” she said, taking his hand, which was too cool in hers. “The teammate thing…is that what your nightmares have been about?”

  His jaw tightened, and he turned his head away. Smoothing her other hand over his jaw, rough with stubble, she tipped his face toward her. He looked at her, his normally bright, blue-eyed gaze washed out, and it hit her just how miserable he was.

  “No more secrets. Not now. Not after everything.” She pushed his hair off his forehead. “The nightmares are about what happened to your team, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Have you always had them as frequently as you’ve been having them lately?”

  Again, he looked like he didn’t want to answer, but she kept stroking his face, his cheek, his forehead, and finally he said, “No. I’d have them sometimes when Dev dreams of it, but I think…I think these started up because of you. I let you in. And then there was the guilt…”

  “Because you were supposed to kill me?”

  What little color he had in his face flushed out. “God, Kira, I’m so sorry.”

  She had no idea what to say, because she hadn’t completely worked out her feelings on the subject yet, but his anguish was genuine, especially if the situation had stirred up nightmares.

  Finally, she settled on a simple “I know.”

  “I don’t think you do.” He nuzzled her hand, pressed a kiss into her palm. “I love you. Did you know that?”

  “Yes,” she said, smiling. “And that’s why you’re going to do what it takes to get better. Tommy Junior and I need you to keep us safe.”

  “I’m the danger, Kira. That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. The nightmares—”

  “May very well be over. You don’t need to feel guilty anymore. I forgive you,” she said fiercely, because she did. The idea that he would let himself be so miserable that he’d waste away rather than hurt her or their child was enough to break through any barrier that remained. “You were doing your job, and you have nothing to feel guilty about. You had the opportunity to follow orders a hundred times over, and instead, you protected me and kept me alive.”

  “I’m a killer,” he said.

  Dammit, why was he fighting her on this? “Yes, you are. But you know what? I can’t judge you for that. I’ve lived with animals for so many years, and not all of them are gentle sheep and ducks. Tigers are killers, but they have to be in order to eat and to protect their young. And Tommy, if someone was threatening you or this baby, I’d turn into a tiger real fast.”

  A weak smile turned up his mouth. “Yeah, I know you would.”

  “Good. Don’t make me turn into one now. You need to get better.”

  “That’s not the only issue.”

  “I know. Remy filled me in on the way over here.”

  “I can’t eat meat, Kira. Not knowing what it does to you.”

  God, she loved him. “What were we just talking about? Big cats. You’re a big cat, Tommy, a cheetah. And cheetahs, like all cats, are true carnivores. Which means that unlike dogs or bears or people, they will die without meat. Die. Apparently, your excedosapien gift comes from the same type of genetic makeup. So for you, it’s not a matter of choice. It’s a matter of necessity. I get that. I don’t want you to die.” She ran her palm over his chest, trying to ignore that it felt caved in. “I need you, Tommy. We need you.”

  He drew the back of his hand over her abdomen, and she felt a wonderful fluttering inside. “I need you too.”

  Grinning, she moved to the door. Outside, Haley, Remy, the doctor, and Mr. O’Malley were talking. “Would someone please get Tom a burger?”

  “It’s about freakin’ time,” Remy said, and headed down the hall.

  Kira went back inside to wait. Tom promised to do his carnivore thing while at lunch and away from the house so she wouldn’t have it near her, and he even swore he didn’t mind her vegan meals for dinner. He was lying, of course, but she loved him that much more for it.

  When Remy returned with a foul-smelling bag of food, she left Tom to eat and slipped out of the room to talk with the head of ACRO, who paced in the hall. The doctor had gone, and Haley was pouring coffee at the machine near the end of the corridor.

  “Mr. O’Malley,” she said, being careful not to get too close. She was still on edge with men, men who hadn’t ordered her execution, so she wasn’t ready to trust herself with him yet.

  “It’s Devlin. And thank you for getting Tom to eat.”

  “It wasn’t much, considering he saved my life, Mr. O’Malley. More than once.”

  His eyebrows shot up half an inch before his expression settled into one of acceptance, and yeah, he might be physically blind, but that was as far as it went—he got why she wasn’t ready to call him by his first name. “You understand the reason behind the orders that brought you here.”

  It wasn’t a question. “I do. And I wouldn’t want your job and the decisions you have to make. You’ve obv
iously done a great thing here…everyone I’ve talked to seems happy, including the animals. This is an amazing agency. But given my hormonal state and everything that’s happened, don’t expect me to be your number one fan right away.”

  One corner of his mouth turned up in amusement. “What if I told you that if you sign on, we’ll make generous contributions to the animal charity of your choice? And I’ll let you head up an animal rescue program that will allow you to travel to disaster zones and gather animals that need help?”

  Her breath lodged in her lungs. She’d already decided to sign on with ACRO, but what he was offering…she could help animals on a global scale, something she’d dreamed about. “Why? Why would you do this for me?”

  “A happy agent is a good agent.” He shrugged. “Besides, everyone asks for something special when they sign on.”

  Haley walked up behind Devlin. “I got the house of my dreams.” She sipped her coffee. “And a bike.”

  “We’ll have to alter our training program because of your pregnancy. Light day-training only, and we’ll give you an apartment on base instead of making you stay in the dorm—”

  “Fuck that,” came Tom’s voice from behind her. “She comes home with me.”

  Devlin rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah, I figured that’s the way it would go.”

  “Tom! Get back in bed.” Kira hurried to where he was propped against the door frame.

  Remy stood behind Tom, muttering something about “stubborn fucking Deltas,” but he backed out of the way as she wrapped her arm around Tom’s waist and guided him back to bed.

  “What were you thinking?” she said, as she pulled the sheet up over him.

  “I was thinking I didn’t want you to be that far away.”

  “I was standing in the hallway.”

  “Too far.”

  Her heart flipped, and not caring if anyone else was in the room, she kissed him. He’d brushed his teeth—Remy must have brought toiletries with the hamburgers—and he tasted like mint and man, and before she knew it, she was stretched out beside him on the bed, his face framed in her hands, his tongue sucking gently on hers.

  “Ah…uh…excuse me?” Dr. Lavery’s voice pierced the haze Kira had gone into as she lay half on, half off of Tom.