Power Trip: Double Helix, Book 1

by Miranda Baker

  “You know I hate it when you call me that.”

  “But the leather fits you so well, my friend.”

  Cal took a sip of the Evian in his glass to keep from reaching across the table and setting fire to Truman’s mop of orange hair. With all the styling products he had used to spike it tonight, it would go up like a torch, but rising to the bait would only encourage him. Cal decided to humor him instead. “What on earth are you casting for?” he asked. “You can’t detect synaptic insulation or conductive immunity, can you? Have you been holding out on me?”

  “Nope, but I know you like a challenge, so I’m using my built-in lie detector to see who might provide an interesting distraction for you tonight.”

  “Don’t bother. You can keep your psychic pimp action to yourself. I’m not in the mood.”

  “So you say.” Tru rolled his eyes. “If you were any more in the mood, Jake wouldn’t need to pay his electricity bill. You are glowing, my friend.”

  “Shit.” Cal slowed the swirling electrons inside him. “I guess I’ll have to work tonight after all.”

  “Not necessarily. Don’t you always have a good session with a fresh sub?”

  “I don’t need your help, Tru.”

  “Nonsense. If you had to depend on your sparkling personality, you’d never get laid.”

  “Keep talking and I will zap you. Right here, right now.”

  Truman gave him a long, lazy look. “Anytime you want to walk on my side of the fence, all you have to do is ask.”

  Cal crossed his arms. “You don’t have a fence. You’d have sex with a hermaphrodite.”

  “And have,” Truman said cheerfully. “You shouldn’t be so picky.” He stopped scanning the room and winked at Cal. “But if you ever do decide to come to Truman, promise me you’ll wear Spandex, okay? I would love to see you rock out in some superhero gear. It’ll be like our secret sex signal.”

  Cal shut his eyes and counted aloud to ten. When he opened them, Truman was looking around the room again, as if he hadn’t just propositioned his best friend in the most bizarre way possible. “Like fish in a barrel, huh?” Cal asked, trying to act normal too. “It’s almost too easy for you, isn’t it?”

  “I wouldn’t say it’s easy. After the initial attraction wears off, I can always tell when they’re bored.”

  “As if that ever happens.”

  “You’d be surprised. Even I have the occasional off night.”

  The blonde with the cute ponytail sailed past them again, heading for the door.

  “That one,” Truman said decisively.

  Cal chuckled. “Nice try. I don’t need that much of a challenge. She screams normal. I bet she just asked Jake for directions to the nearest grocery store and gave him a little hug because she was so grateful.”

  Truman shook his head. “That’s what you think. Maybe even what she thinks. But it’s a lie, my friend. That little blonde, with her horrid clothes and even worse taste in shoes, likes what she sees when she looks around the room.”

  “Huh.” Cal watched her walk back up the aisle, willing her to look at him again. Was that all Truman saw when he looked at her? A fashion faux pas that offended his metrosensibilities? Cal had only noticed the way the flickering light of the club made her white hair glow and felt the sucker punch of her ebony eyes. Was Truman telling him what he wanted to hear? Another one of his elaborate jokes?

  Cal strove to appear relaxed, even as he counted her paces to the door. In ten steps, he’d lose his opportunity. Energy rose from his core to his surface. “I hate it when you do this, you know.”

  “I just saved you an hour of small talk and electric blue balls. No need to thank me.”

  “Don’t worry. I won’t.” Cal slid out of the booth and stood up. “Why am I doing this?”

  “Because I’m always right.” Truman’s lips twisted into a grimace. “It’s a curse.”

  For a second, Cal was tempted to sit back down. Truman was rarely anything but relentlessly lighthearted. It was nearly impossible to get past his surface, so if he wanted to talk…

  Truman pointed at the door. “Go.”

  Chapter Three

  Audrey hurried forward, nodding thanks to the bouncer who opened the door for her. She couldn’t resist glancing over her shoulder as her foot hit the sidewalk. The man with the incredible blue eyes was standing. She got an impression of broad, elegant shoulders encased in a black leather coat that fell straight to the floor. Really? She didn’t think that style existed outside The Matrix.

  She was definitely going back to the lab. She’d find a nice geek in a short, white lab coat and forget all about Matrix man… Maybe Jake knew his name.

  No, she didn’t care about his name. Lab, now. Work.

  She walked quickly down the street. She’d only been in the bar for ten minutes, tops. How had the street gotten scary so quickly? It had felt deserted and safe twenty minutes ago, but now she sensed unwelcome company lurking in the alleys. She should have taken Jake up on his offer of an escort. She could take care of herself, but it was better not to have to fight.

  She glanced over her shoulder as she rooted in her purse for her pepper spray. A young man was closing the distance between them on the sidewalk. He was small, but he was definitely giving off a mugger vibe. Her fingers closed on the spray. She stopped walking. She was only halfway to the parking lot, and if she was going to have to fight, she’d rather do it in plain sight on the street.

  He stopped too, eyeing her purse.

  She held up her spray. “I’m not afraid to use this,” she said.

  He grabbed her arm. She sprayed him in the face. He blinked but didn’t let go of her.

  “Hey!” she said, twisting.

  His fingers locked on her arm and he dragged her toward an alley. “No fucking way. Get off!” She threw her weight to the side, abruptly shifted and jabbed an elbow into his solar plexus, immediately following up with a punch to his jaw. She heard his teeth snap together, but he didn’t lose his grip on her arm.

  She needed to create some space between them so she could use her favorite neck-breaking hook kick. “You better hope somebody sees us and calls the cops because I’m going to break every fucking bone in your body, asshole.”

  He said nothing.

  Adrenaline pumped through her veins. She focused her strength and aimed a punch at the nerve plexus in his shoulder, expecting his arm to go numb. Nothing happened. He dragged her in short bursts toward the alley.

  She heard her purse hit the sidewalk with a thud. The jangle of keys. As soon as she got one hand free, she was going to break his fucking nose. She purposely went limp in his arms, making him take her full body weight. He shifted his grip.

  Perfect. She faced him now, chin tucked. She lowered her arm to give her more momentum for the strike. She let him drag her another three feet while she got her feet firmly on the ground, bent her knees, jumped and hit…

  Air.

  Her target fell away from her as Matrix man from the bar grabbed him by the hair and lifted him off the ground. She reeled, off-balance.

  Matrix man held the mugger by the throat.

  “Hey, he’s mine!” Audrey reached to knock his arm aside. “Call the cops if you want to do something useful. He might be alive when they get here.”

  Matrix man flinched and stepped away from her, hauling the mugger with him. The mugger wasn’t moving. He seemed frozen in place. That pissed her off even more. Now he got all cooperative? “Let him go!”

  Matrix man glanced down at her with his electrifying eyes. “No.”

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the creep reach into his pocket. She darted forward.

  Cal held the lowlife scum by the throat, sending just enough current down his arm to stun him. It was cute that the blonde wanted to finish the fight, but she hadn’t exactly been winning when he’d entered the fray. Another ten feet and she’d have been in the alley. He wouldn’t even have seen her on the street.

  He boxed
her out with his shoulders, not wanting to make accidental contact. The distraction cost him. Metal flashed. The blonde threw herself between them. He cut the current. Was she fucking nuts?

  “Stay back,” he yelled. “He’s got a weapon.” He grabbed the creep’s wrist and zapped him again. Nothing happened. The kid twisted in his grip, jabbing him in the arm with the silver rod. Red light cracked to the ground. His hand abruptly jellyfished. He looked down and saw that his coat was smoking and his forearm was broken in half, jagged edges of bone punching through the skin.

  He snarled. What the fuck was that thing? It was not a gun. It had to be some sort of energy device. The woman threw herself at them again. Cal twisted so that she bounced off leather, not his skin. He had a split second to get his body in between her and the weapon. He moved, faster than he ever had in his life, but he lost his grip on the kid.

  “Stop!” She grabbed his good hand. “He’s running, and you’re hurt.”

  Cal jerked his hand out of her grasp and fell to his knees, unable to support his weight and control his negative charge at the same time. She sank to her knees beside him, easing him to the sidewalk.

  “Don’t touch me,” he ground out, afraid to move, afraid to breathe.

  She didn’t smell fried. She didn’t look fried. He rolled onto his back.

  “Do you have a cell phone? Mine was in my purse and you need an ambulance.”

  “Yes. Wait, no. Are you crazy?” That was all she had to say? Not thank you? He didn’t need an ambulance—a doctor, sure, but not the kind she meant. He sat up. His arm dangled, useless.

  She gasped. “That’s worse than I thought. Lie back down.”

  “It doesn’t hurt.”

  “That’s because you’re in shock. Lie down before the bone does any more damage to your skin.”

  He ignored her. Leaning to the side, he wrestled his charge under control and eased his insulated cell phone out of his pocket. He hit number one on speed dial. When the Doc answered he said, “Your services are required on Broadway and Bailey. Bring Sam—we’ve got outside involvement.” He ended the call.

  “Can I borrow your cell? That asshole got my purse. I’ll call 911.”

  “No need. I’ve got help coming. Don’t touch my skin, okay?” When the girls got here, he’d leave with Doc and let Sam do damage control.

  “Hospital,” she insisted. “You can’t go home like that. If the pain doesn’t drive you mad, your arm will get infected. A bacterial infection can kill you.”

  “You’re a doctor?”

  She nodded. “I don’t even want to think about the germs that live in this neighborhood.” She held out her hand.

  He ignored it. “I told you, I called my doctor. If you want to do something, you could say thank you.”

  “Thank you for what?” Her jaw jutted and her brow wrinkled. “I was about to drop that creep and you got in my way. Now my purse is gone and I have to make sure you get medical attention. This is not how I wanted to spend my next few hours. I was going back to work.”

  “You work at the hospital?” he asked, meaning Hudson General, just down the street. That would explain why she had been so comfortable tooling around this crappy neighborhood on her own.

  “No, I work at a private lab.”

  “I saw you talking to Jacob Fallon at the Lair. Is he your Dom?”

  She burst out laughing. “He’s my brother.”

  Since when did The Cobra have a sister?

  She recovered from her laughing fit. “You need to go to the hospital. Give me your phone. Now.”

  He tucked his cell into his waistband. “No.”

  Did he think stuffing his phone into his pants would keep her from reaching for it? She was a doctor, for God’s sake. Audrey leaned down. “Give me your cell phone,” she repeated.

  He sat motionless on the sidewalk, looking perfectly comfortable and at home, not at all in pain. He wasn’t sweating or swearing. His eyes were clear. He didn’t appear to be in shock. He was just being difficult.

  “Look,” she said. “I took an oath. I can’t leave you here. You have to let me help you. Give me the phone.” Screw his whole don’t touch me bullshit. She yanked up his T-shirt and thrust her hand down the front of his pants.

  He was hot. His abdomen felt charged with heat. He couldn’t have a fever yet, could he? He bent at the waist, trying to scoot away from her, but she moved forward. His motion trapped her hand against his stomach. Her hand tingled pleasantly. Without thinking, she flattened her palm on his hard abdominal muscles. She heard a low hum.

  She swallowed. He wasn’t trying to get away from her anymore. Slowly, she raised her eyes. His pupils were dilated, the electric blue of his irises creating an eerie ring around them. Sweat beaded his upper lip and she had an insane urge to lick it.

  His lips moved.

  “What?” she asked, feeling dazed.

  “A little lower, Doc.” He thrust his hips toward her hand.

  The outraged shriek that broke from her lips was entirely unintentional. He grinned as she fished his phone out of his pants. It was the first time she had seen him smile. Christ, he was stunning. That she even thought about that fact made her angrier.

  She pushed a button on the phone and discovered it was locked. She dropped it in his lap. Screw it. She was going to leave his uncooperative ass on the sidewalk and go back to Jake for help. If this idiot got rolled into the street by homeless people who thought his ridiculous leather coat would make a good tent, so be it.

  A black car pulled up next to them. She pushed herself to her feet, relieved she wouldn’t have to abandon him, even if he was one of the most infuriating humans on the planet. She waited at the curb, on edge, hoping whoever emerged had a cell phone.

  The passenger door opened and a pair of crystal-beaded high heels emerged, then long, bare legs. A woman got out of the car. Her dress was a short slip of silver sequins, and it hugged her tiny waist and dipped low over her breasts. By the time Audrey’s eyes landed on the woman’s sleek auburn hair, pale green eyes and perfect skin, she felt like swearing.

  She gritted her teeth. This sort of woman made her feel plain and drab, especially tonight in her lab rat clothes, but this wasn’t about her. She needed a damn cell phone. She took a step toward the car. “Excuse me.”

  A man was coming around the front of the car. Wait, it wasn’t a man, it was a woman with close-cropped hair, wearing a tuxedo. A thick watch gleamed on her wrist. Audrey couldn’t decide if she was handsome or cute. Both?

  Matrix man spoke from the sidewalk. “About time.”

  The two women stood over him, shaking their heads. “No appreciation, as usual.”

  Audrey stepped forward. “He needs to go to the hospital. By ambulance, preferably,” she insisted. “Otherwise, he’ll have to wait in the ER. Do you have a cell phone?”

  “We’ll take it from here.” The sparkling woman kicked off her shoes, dropped to her bare knees on the sidewalk and bent over his broken arm, giving Audrey a good look at the tattoo on her back, a snake coiled around a staff. The other woman held out her hand to Audrey. “I’m Sam.”

  “Audrey Fallon.” Audrey automatically took her hand. She felt a tug, but not in her fingers, in her mind. She pulled her hand away, resisting the urge to stick her tongue out at the woman, which is what she always did to Jake when he tried to whammy her.

  Sam continued to stare at her. Audrey stared back, deciding she didn’t have to be polite either. It was eerie how much the tuxedo and the hair made her look masculine. Or was it the confident way she held her body? Her voice had been pitched low too. Audrey felt her mind shift to look at her as a man. Handsome, she decided.

  Sam looked at Matrix man. “You didn’t mention talent.”

  “I didn’t know.” He shook his head slowly. “She touched me, Sam. I am wired beyond belief, and she touched me, touched my skin.”

  “Interesting.” Sam and the doctor looked at each other.

  “She’s also Jake�
�s sister.”

  The doctor sat back on her heels. “Even more interesting. He’s been holding out on us?”

  “Seems so.” He shifted on the sidewalk. “You gonna fix me up or what?”

  “You don’t want your little champion here to take you to the hospital and set the bone?” the sparkly doctor asked.

  What was wrong with these people? Couldn’t they see his broken arm waving like a crooked white flag? “I’m a geneticist, not an orthopedist. He needs surgery. Are you going to call an ambulance? Otherwise, I’ll just run over to the Lair and use my brother’s phone.” She pointed down the street.

  They ignored her.

  Sam squatted next to him. “The Doc’s about to do her thing. Want me to distract you?”

  He shook his head. “I’m good.”

  In spite of her irritation, Audrey was impressed that the doctor didn’t appear squeamish about getting blood on her hand or her dress as she palpated his arm. Audrey dropped down on the sidewalk next to them. “For God’s sake, be careful! There could be shards in there.”

  The redhead shook her head. “He’ll be fine.”

  “He’s not fine. Any second his body is going to realize something really bad has happened and he’s going to go into deep shock. We need to get him to a hospital. Please.” Why was she begging these people to help their friend? Wasn’t that why they had come?

  Matrix man reached up with his good arm and took her hand, pulling her down beside him. She felt the tingle again, and fought the most bizarre urge to press closer to him. “You can call an ambulance if you want, but by the time it gets here, my arm will be good as new. The busy paramedics of Hudson have better things to do with their time.”

  As he spoke, the redhead moved. Audrey blanched. She had gotten used to blood and bone and muscle in medical school, but the redhead was manipulating his broken arm, teasing the bone back under the skin into a straight line.

  “Stop! You’re going to make it worse. Those muscles are swollen…”