They kept moving and Lachlan scanned ahead. They still had no clue of what they were dealing with.
He glanced at Callie again, noting the medic’s second weapon attached to her belt. A tranquilizer gun.
Smith paused. “Something ahead.”
Lachlan’s gaze fell on something breaking the ice. It looked like a small mound.
“Stop.” It was a near-soundless murmur. He gave hand signals to his team. “Rowan, stay back.”
She swallowed and nodded.
Team 52 lifted their CXMs, closing in on the mound of churned ice that had been pushed into a pile.
His team fanned out.
All of a sudden, a huge body sprung out of the ice. It crashed into Seth.
“Fuck,” Seth yelled.
“Hold your fire,” Lachlan yelled. If they fired, they’d risk hitting Seth.
Seth was lean, but he was strong as hell. He wrestled wildly with the attacker. Lachlan quickly took the man in.
Bulging muscles were coated in smooth opaque white, like he was wearing icy body armor. And he was big. At least six and a half feet. He also had a head of shaggy, blond hair.
Lachlan inched closer, and when Seth managed to roll the man, Lachlan reached out. He grabbed a handful of blond hair and yanked backward, trying to heave him away from Seth.
The attacker crashed back on the ice, then turned and snarled.
Fuck. Lachlan stepped back and whipped his rifle up. The man rose, towering over Lachlan’s own six foot two inches.
“Seth?”
“I’m okay. The fucker’s strong, Lachlan.”
Lachlan stared at their attacker. The man’s face was wrong. His veins stood out against his white skin, and his eyes were clouded. Right in the center of his chest rested the circular artifact. It was embedded in his skin.
“My God, Lars,” Rowan cried.
Lachlan glanced her way. She was white-faced and staring at the attacker.
“Rowan?” Lachlan said. “You know him?”
The man had swiveled his head, his cloudy, blue eyes settling on Rowan. He tilted his head.
“That’s…Lars.” She pressed her gloved hand to her chest, her eyes wide. “But it’s also not Lars. I don’t understand. He’s bigger, different.”
Lars shuffled closer to Rowan, sniffing. Then he charged at her.
No, you fucking don’t. Lachlan dived, slamming into the man.
The bastard spun, grabbing at Lachlan. Seth hadn’t lied, the man was strong. Lachlan felt icy claws rake across his chest, tearing up his coat.
The man snarled and then charged at Lachlan. They fell, Lachlan slamming into the ice, Lars landing on top of him.
Fuck. The air rushed out of Lachlan’s lungs. He sensed his team closing in. He tensed, ready to make his move against Lars.
The next thing Lachlan knew, Rowan had leaped onto Lars’ back.
“Lars, no, don’t hurt him.”
“Rowan, no,” Lachlan growled. “Blair.”
“On it,” his friend said.
Lachlan watched Blair tear Rowan off the man’s back and shove her at Seth.
Lars sprang back, eyeing them all warily. His hands curled, and Lachlan saw the claw-like blades on his hands. Then Lars moved into a crouch, looking confused.
Lachlan saw Axel and Callie standing nearby, both aiming weapons at Lars. Lachlan rose and nodded. “Do it.”
“No!” Rowan cried.
Axel fired. A black net tangled around Lars’ form. With a roar, the man started struggling.
Callie moved closer, holding the tranquilizer gun. She fired. A red-tipped dart hit Lars in the neck.
The man thrashed wildly for a few long seconds, and then finally, fell on his back on the ice. With one more burst of energy, he thrashed again, but his struggles were slowing down.
He went still.
Lachlan moved forward cautiously. It was obvious that the man was unconscious.
Seth was still holding Rowan, who stared at Lars, her eyes wide.
Lachlan reached through the net and yanked the artifact off the man’s chest. He held it up, frowning. It was surprisingly heavy.
Callie crouched and pressed a small medical monitoring patch to Lars’ neck.
“What’s happening?” Axel said.
They all watched Lars as his body began to shrink, the white on his skin dissolving, leaving pink behind. Soon, he was back to a regular size.
Lachlan glanced at his medic. “Get him back to base and warmed up. And Callie—”
“Yeah?”
“Keep him restrained.”
Smith moved forward to help Callie. Together they hefted the unconscious man up.
“What the fuck?” Rowan whispered. Her face was pale, her eyes huge. She stared at the artifact in Lachlan’s hand. “What is going on?”
“I’ll explain, I promise.” Lachlan looked at Blair and handed the artifact over to her. “Get this into a containment box.”
“On it.”
Then Lachlan turned to Rowan. “Everything is going to be okay.” He cupped her shoulders.
She shook her head. “I’m pretty sure that’s a big fat lie.” She frowned, staring at his chest. “Lachlan, you’re bleeding.”
Lachlan looked down at the tears in his suit. Blood was soaking into the white fabric. Dammit.
Then he frowned. Suddenly, he was aware of an icy cold creeping over his skin.
He staggered. Rowan caught him, swaying under his weight, as she fought to keep him upright.
“Amigo?” Axel said.
“Lachlan?” Panic skimmed Rowan’s face. “Someone help!”
Chapter Five
Rowan jogged beside Seth and Axel as they carried Lachlan between them. His face was ashen and his jaw tensed.
Ahead, she watched Callie and Smith disappear into the base with Lars.
“We have a small infirmary.” Rowan raced ahead to hold the door open. “It’s off the second lab dome.”
“Got it,” Axel murmured.
They hurried through the base, and the men helped Lachlan onto the bunk in the infirmary.
“It’s nothing,” Lachlan growled. “It’ll be fine.”
Rowan hurried to flick on the bunk’s heating pad. Lachlan’s color still wasn’t great. Then she turned to a cabinet, yanking it open and pulling out the first aid gear.
“Right. Like when you told me your arm was fine when you fell out of my treehouse as a kid.” She glanced at the men. “It was broken.”
Axel snorted, shooting her a sexy grin. “Sounds like she has you worked out, amigo.”
“She pushed me out of the treehouse,” Lachlan grumbled.
Seth let out a quiet laugh. Axel’s smile made Rowan’s brain go blank. With his sexy, brown eyes, smooth, brown skin, and that smile…he was designed to short-circuit a woman’s brain.
Lachlan growled again. “Rowan.”
She spun to look at Lachlan. He didn’t look happy. “Um, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to knock you out.”
Lachlan eyed her, slipping his cold-weather coat off.
Right. Injuries. “Help him get his shirt off as well.”
Lachlan continued to complain as Axel and Seth helped him out of his gear. Rowan set the first aid gear out on a small tray.
When she turned back, this time her brain didn’t go blank, it simply stopped functioning.
Lachlan’s upper body was bare and she couldn’t look away.
Holy cow. She didn’t know where to look first—the sleek muscles, the incredible silver prosthetic arm, or the tattoos. She swallowed. She didn’t know anyone could look that ripped. He had to have, like zero body fat.
Rowan’s gaze moved over his bronze skin to take in the large tattoo on his left shoulder, and the ink down his side. Then her attention snagged on his right arm. The prosthetic was unlike anything she’d ever seen. It was grafted onto his skin at his shoulder, and was made of some sort of high-tech metal.
She’d had no idea he had a prosthetic
arm. It moved perfectly in sync with him, just like his organic arm. Her gaze slid lower, to where his six pack abs and defined muscles disappeared into his cold-weather trousers.
She jerked her head up. How about you focus on the wicked scratches on his chest, Rowan?
Clearing her throat, she lifted a syringe. “I have some painkillers—”
“No,” Lachlan said.
“It might hurt—”
“It’s fine. No drugs.”
She glanced at Axel and Seth, and saw both men were grinning.
“Lachlan’s afraid of needles,” Axel said.
She blinked. That this rugged, tough warrior was afraid of anything blew her mind. “O-kay.”
“I’m not afraid…I just don’t like them.”
“Uh-huh,” Rowan agreed. She opened some antiseptic wipes and leaned over Lachlan. She swiped at the gashes and heard his controlled hiss.
“It’s not too deep,” she murmured.
“The boss hates getting patched up,” Axel said. “Fights Callie tooth and nail.”
Lachlan scowled at his teammate.
“I think I have this, guys,” Rowan said.
With a laugh, Axel left. Seth followed with a shake of his head, shooting her a look. His ice-blue eyes made her shiver.
“I don’t think Seth likes me,” she murmured.
“Seth trusts exactly five people. His teammates. He takes a little time to warm up.”
As she cleaned the nasty scratches, she was happy to see the white tinge on his skin disappear. “How did he get so distrusting?”
“He spent over a decade working for the CIA.”
“He was a spy?” she breathed.
Lachlan’s lips twitched. “Something like that. When Seth wants to blend into a crowd, even his mother couldn’t find him.”
“Were you CIA, too?”
He shook his head. “I joined the Marines right out of school. Force Reconnaissance.”
Rowan didn’t know what Force Reconnaissance was, but it sounded badass. She made a note to look it up.
She cleaned up the last of the blood. His skin was back to a gorgeous bronze. “I don’t think you need stitches, but I’ll put some medical glue on the scratches.” It was the most commonly used thing in the infirmary. Someone was always nicking themselves on something. Like when Isabel—
Pain made Rowan’s throat close. No one around here would be needing the infirmary again.
“Rowan?”
She pushed it away. “What happened to your arm?”
“Injury.”
When he didn’t say anything else, she smiled. “I see you’re still a man of many words.”
The faintest smile hit his lips, then faded away. “A mission went bad and we were overrun by insurgents. I went in to save a fellow Marine, but got caught in a blast. Lost my arm, and Blair dragged my ass out of there and got injured as well. Afterward, I left the Marines and joined Team 52.”
His voice was toneless and she knew it had been bad. “I’ve never seen a prosthetic this high-tech before.”
He stayed silent.
“And Blair’s eye…?”
“She lost it rescuing me.” His tone said he was done talking.
Okay, moving on. She pressed a hand to his chest, realizing just how hot and hard he felt. Electricity zinged through her and she forced herself to lift the glue tube. She ran it through the deepest scratches.
She could feel his attention on her. Her gaze flicked up to find tawny eyes watching her. Her chest locked.
Pulse jumping, she smoothed her hand over his hard pec. She saw something flicker in his eyes. Helpless to stop herself, she stroked his sleek skin again, and this time, she saw his big body shiver.
Wow. Talk about bad timing. She looked up and their gazes met.
“Rowan…”
His voice moved through her, setting her nerves alight. Rowan stepped back and tried to recap the tube of glue with trembling fingers. “All done. So…can you explain what I just saw out on the ice?”
“Yes. But you’ll never be able to tell anyone. It’s classified.”
Her heart thumped. “What will happen to Lars?”
“He’ll be cared for. There will be a cover story to explain the death of the other scientists.”
Rowan squeezed her eyes closed and thought of her friends—Isabel, Emily, Samuel, Amara, the others. Their families would never know the truth.
“Probably something like a gas leak,” Lachlan continued. “Something that killed them all at once.”
She nodded tiredly. “And the artifact?”
“That’s a longer story.” He swung into a sitting position.
Suddenly, she found herself very close to him and staring at a wall of hard chest. She sucked in a deep breath and pulled in his scent. Heat moved through her body, settling in her belly.
“Rowan, you’d better stop looking at me like that,” he said.
She met his gaze and saw the same attraction she felt shimmering there. She’d loved his golden tiger eyes when she’d been young. They looked harder and scarier now, but she wasn’t afraid of him. She’d never been afraid of him.
After a few breathless seconds, he reached out and touched her hair, stroking a strand of it between his fingers. Rowan inhaled audibly.
“How’s the patient?”
Callie’s cheerful voice made Rowan step back. She looked up at the medic and forced a smile. “Fine.”
“Usually he gives me trouble.” Callie moved closer, her gray gaze on Lachlan’s injury.
Lachlan gave the woman a scowling look, before reaching for his shirt. He shrugged it on.
“The artifact has been secured on the X8,” Callie said. “The others are loading the bodies now.”
“Close the base down, and let’s go.” Lachlan looked at Rowan. “Pack your things. Only what you can easily carry.”
She nodded. It didn’t take her long to grab her things from her office, and some clothes from under her bunk.
As she left the base, she paused at the door, looking back into the rec room. Emotions churned through her, then she turned away and followed Team 52.
She’d barely taken in the strange helicopter that was parked outside when they’d chased after Lars. Now, she gave it her full attention.
It looked like something straight from the set of a movie. It was made of a white metal, and looked like a cross between a helicopter and a plane. It had twin rotors on top, and jet engines on the modified wings.
Lachlan stood at the open side door, and waved her in. She climbed aboard, and immediately spotted the body bags resting at the back of the helicopter.
The pain was piercing and she couldn’t move. It was only when Lachlan pressed a hand to her lower back that she came unstuck.
He led her to one of the big seats and she dropped down into it.
Her team was dead and she’d failed them. But dammit, she was going to find out what had happened.
* * *
As the X8 flew south, Lachlan watched Rowan and worried.
She’d been quiet for hours, her arms curled around herself, and her legs tucked up under her. She stared out the window, but he didn’t think she was looking at the view.
“You going to take your eyes off her at some stage, amigo?” Axel drawled from behind him.
Lachlan shot the man a killer look, but as usual, Axel shrugged it off with a laugh.
Lars was resting on a stretcher toward the back of the chopper. He was sedated, and Callie said he wasn’t doing well. The medic sat beside him, monitoring his vitals.
“I want to know about the artifact,” Rowan said suddenly.
Lachlan whipped his head back around. He caught Axel’s gaze. Smith was sprawled in the chair beside him, dozing. The big man cracked one hazel eye open, and crossed his arms over his chest.
Lachlan moved chairs, sitting down across from Rowan.
“As I told you, my team was sent here to rescue survivors and contain the artifact.”
“And that’s what Team 52 does?” she asked. “Contains and safeguards artifacts?”
He nodded. “Certain items that are dangerous.”
“What items, exactly? What is that artifact? A foreign weapon? Something experimental?”
“No.”
Her brow creased. “If you say aliens…”
He smiled. She was tired and stressed, but she was holding it together. “Not aliens. But the object is likely an ancient artifact.”
“If you say the word magic, I’ll scream.”
“Not magic, either. But you’ve heard that saying about how any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?”
She stilled. “Arthur C. Clarke. Advanced technology? Lachlan, that artifact was trapped in ice that was over five thousand years old. It can’t be advanced anything.”
He leaned back in his chair. “What if I told you that what you know about conventional history isn’t entirely correct?”
She pondered that for a second. “Okay.” He could see her intelligent brain working. Her gaze locked on his. “Go on.”
“There is evidence that civilization is older than we believe,” he said. “Unexplained artifacts, submerged ruins that predate the earliest advanced cultures like the Sumerians and Egyptians.”
Her mouth dropped open. “You’re saying that there were other advanced cultures before Sumer and Egypt?”
“Exactly. How advanced, we aren’t sure. Have you heard of Hueyátlaco?”
She shook her head.
“It’s an archeological site in Mexico. Archeologists worked there during the sixties and discovered stone tools and animal remains in situ, seemingly undisturbed. Two different dating methods dated the site up to two hundred and fifty thousand years old.”
“What?” she breathed.
“And then there’s Göbekli Tepe in southern Turkey,” he added.
“I’ve heard of that. An archeological site that was made a world heritage site, right?”
“Right. Discovered in the sixties, it was mostly ignored, but archeologists have been working on it over the last few years and Göbekli Tepe doesn’t make sense. It’s Neolithic, with the world’s oldest megaliths, skilled construction, and amazing carvings.” He paused. “It is also twelve thousand years old. It predates Stonehenge, Sumer, and writing by six thousand years.”
Mission: Her Protection: Team 52 #1 Page 5
