Lethal Engagement

by Teyla Branton

  Patrick took her hand. “We have until ten. That’s better than before, right?” He looked at me. “You don’t mind if I hang out here, do you?”

  “Of course not. Enjoy yourselves. We’ll just work around you.”

  KEENE AND I CHECKED PATRICK’S suite, Keene’s quarters, and my own, finding no bugs. That was good news. Then we had a large breakfast served in my suite, despite the fact that no one had requested food. The cook brought it herself on a trolley with elegant dishes that looked more like they belonged in a museum than on our table. The woman herself looked nothing like I thought a cook should look. She was young and pretty with brown eyes, her skin was faintly bronzed by the sun, and her willowy figure looked more like it belonged to a dancer than a cook. She appeared too serious, though, to even listen to dance music.

  “This is Susan,” Patrick said, sitting beside me on the couch. “She’s been with me since Europe.”

  Susan dipped her head. “Nice to meet you. I hope you like bacon.”

  “Love it. Nice to meet you too.” I reached for a piece of bacon before remembering that I wasn’t back at the Fortress, but Susan simply handed me a plate and didn’t comment on my lack of table manners. Keene pointedly took out the case Cort had given us on the plane to check for poisoning. Stifling a sigh, I put the bacon on the plate and reached for a napkin.

  “Thank you, Susan,” Lucinda said. “It looks so lovely, as usual.”

  “It’s good to see you again, Miss Lucinda. Who would have known that you would introduce Patrick to his fiancée?” Susan gave a dry chuckle, her seriousness finally giving way to a smile. “But if that’s what it took to bring you back to the States, then I’m doubly happy for him.”

  Patrick took my hand and stared lovingly at me. “Life is pretty amazing sometimes.” He held my hand until the cook left, then stood and reached for Lucinda. “I’m glad we thought to tell her that you and Mari are friends.”

  Lucinda leaned toward him, offering her face for a quick kiss. “I already ate, so I’m going to my room to wash my hair and change for the school visit. I overslept this morning.”

  He squeezed her hand. “Hurry back.”

  Keene was already at work on the food, and Patrick watched with amusement as we used both food-testing methods Cort had given us—one an electrode of sorts that tested the entire surface, and one that mixed small samples with a chemical. The food was clean.

  “Like I said, Susan’s been with me for a long time,” Patrick said. “She’s had plenty of time to poison me, if she’d wanted.”

  “She’s probably not the only one with access to the food.” Keene busied himself putting away the equipment.

  “She does have an assistant now, an agent provided by the Secret Service, and she’s responsible for every bit of food brought into this house.” Patrick forked up a bit of egg. “Almost seems easier for me not to eat.” He was right, since we didn’t need to eat to survive, but not eating would raise more red flags.

  “Then I wouldn’t get bacon,” I said, taking a healthy bite. Keene grinned at my enjoyment, and for a moment things were okay between us.

  After breakfast, our luggage arrived from the plane, brought by two white-liveried men, one of whom shook shaggy black hair out of his eyes as the Secret Service frisked him. Jace was obviously enjoying his own disguise, and he joked with the agents, who surprised me by cracking smiles. Soon, Jace and Cort were joined by a beautiful, very dark black woman with long, tightly curled black hair pulled into a ponytail. Her ugly uniform couldn’t hide a figure that would be noticed anywhere, being so close to the world’s ideal of the perfect female form: tall, long legs, overly slender torso except for the ample bustline, and a splendid, perfectly-shaped rear that made all of the Secret Servicemen look more than twice.

  I recognized her at once, but waited until she carried one of the thoroughly searched suitcases upstairs to my suite before I hugged her. “Noah! I didn’t know you’d be here!”

  She laughed. “I’m the one who set up the house for Cort and Jace. I came with them to see you.”

  “I’m glad you did.” I hadn’t seen Noahthea Westmoreland since our last op in New York, three months ago. Unlike most Unbounded, her gift wasn’t viewed as useful in the battle with the Emporium, but I secretly envied it. Noah had the most beautiful voice and for over a hundred and fifty years had regaled music lovers all over the world under several different identities. When she sang words, her audience felt them. When she mourned aloud, they cried. Her joy brought people to new heights. Listening to her sing was an experience I never forgot. I wished we weren’t fighting the Emporium so that we could cultivate more talents like Noah’s that lifted people, instead of trying to breed combat Unbounded destined to kill and maim.

  “I was so glad when you and Keene accepted this op,” Noah said. “I’d considered asking for the job”—she shook her head—“but you know how useless I am at protection.”

  “Yeah, but you would have had those reporters eating from your hand once they heard you sing.”

  She laughed and even that was musical. “Thank you for saying so.”

  Patrick had risen from the sofa to greet Noah as well, and now he hugged her. “You have to say hello to Luce before you leave. She should be out soon. She just went to get ready for an appointment we have later this morning.”

  “Okay, I’ll wait.” Noah thumbed at Cort and Jace, who were bringing up a second load of boxes. “We’ll leave the heavy lifting to them.”

  Patrick laughed. “Good idea. Thanks for the backup, guys.”

  “No problem.” Jace placed a box in his arms. “Here, make yourself useful.”

  “Oh, that reminds me.” Noah pulled a flash drive from her pocket and handed it to Patrick. “I made you a copy of the music I was working on while we were all in Europe. It also has all the variations that won’t make it to the CD.”

  Patrick’s face lit up even more. He set the box down on a table and grabbed the flash drive. “Oh, wow, thank you! I can’t wait to hear the whole thing.”

  I began moving my boxes and cases into the bedroom part of my suite. Patrick and Noah helped as they talked, and it became apparent that they knew each other well. I was glad someone from the New York cell had remained in contact with him while he’d been in hiding.

  Lucinda emerged from the second room in my suite as Cort and Jace deposited the last load inside my sitting room. Her short hair was fluffy now and slightly curled, her makeup impeccable. She wore an elegant gray pantsuit over a yellow top with a high neckline.

  “Oh, good!” Noah said, rushing to her. “I was afraid I wouldn’t get to see you.”

  “What a wonderful surprise!” Lucinda’s gaze caught on Noah’s white service jumpsuit. “I don’t know how you arranged to deliver their luggage, but I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”

  “I pulled a few strings.” With typical Renegade caution, Noah didn’t introduce Cort and Jace or expose their identities, and Lucinda overlooked them completely. The two women clung to each other’s hands. This close to Lucinda, Noah didn’t look tall at all, but rather petite next to Lucinda’s taller, more sturdy figure. But Noah held herself with the confidence of the Unbounded, and it was she who overshadowed Lucinda instead of the other way around.

  “DC suits you,” Noah said. “You look fabulous. Or is that because you’re with Patrick?”

  “That’s it, probably.” Lucinda let go of Noah and intertwined her arms in Patrick’s. He winked at her, and she lowered her gaze bashfully.

  “Looks like you’ll finally get to spend more time together. I’m happy for you.” Noah glanced at Jace and Cort, hovering by the door. “Well, I’d better get going. Maybe when things calm down, we can get together for real.”

  “I’d like that. We’ll walk you down.”

  “Better not,” Noah said. “We don’t want the Secret Service taking notice that we’re acquainted, or they might put two and two together and suspect something’s up with Patrick’s new fiancée
. Today, I’m only a stranger delivering her luggage.”

  “Oh, right.”

  Cort made a motion at me, something about a gun and two fingers. He wanted me to shift to his location in twenty minutes to get our weapons from him. I waved goodbye, and they left my suite, trailed by two Secret Service agents waiting in the hallway.

  As Patrick had only a minimal staff at the moment, I was thankfully allowed to do my own unpacking. Lucinda tore herself away from Patrick long enough to help me, exclaiming over the clothes and eyeing the name brands. “I’m afraid I’m going to look like the poor cousin next to you,” she said with a laugh that was genuine but reserved like the rest of her. “Patrick gave me a card to use, but I just can’t seem to waste so much money when something for half the price looks just as good.”

  “If it looks just as good,” I pointed out, “no one will notice.”

  “I hope you’re right.”

  I unwrapped a pale blue suit with a back pleat from its multi-layers of tissue and hung it in the closet. “My normal fare is much more casual. I used to have another job where I wore suits like this one all day, but they weren’t fitted, and I looked like I was wearing a bag.”

  “Well, the one you’re wearing now is fabulous,” she said, eyeing the off-white material.

  “Thank you.” I would have preferred red or purple. Anything but blah. Unfortunately, the woman who’d helped us at the boutique had seemed to paint everything with the same brush. If it hadn’t been for the red hair, I might have revolted.

  “So, Marianne, how long have you known your partner? Or worked with him, rather.”

  “Call me Mari.” I knew they picked the name Marianne because it was similar to my own, but the entire thing sounded like far too much effort. Like walking instead of shifting.

  “Okay, Mari. So how long?”

  “Four months.”

  She nodded, a shy smile curving her lips. “He’s cute.”

  I blinked at her. She was checking Keene out? Then it dawned on me that she meant he was cute for me. I laughed. I was definitely warming up to this woman who seemed more like a reclusive princess than anything else. “Yeah, I guess.”

  She laughed. “You know you have it bad for him, don’t you?”

  “Let’s hope the media doesn’t think so.”

  “They won’t. It’s just a look I saw between you two, earlier. So am I right?”

  I’d thought so, but his secret might have destroyed that forever. “I really don’t know.”

  She shrugged. “Give it time.”

  Thinking of Keene made my anger come rushing back. He’d hidden so much of himself these past months. I’d thought the feelings between us in Venezuela had been real, but maybe it had all been in my head. Regardless, we were in the same Renegade cell. We were friends. That he hadn’t told me hurt more than I cared to admit.

  I glanced through my bedroom to the sitting room where Patrick sat on an uncomfortable-looking wooden chair, bent over papers he’d spread out on a round table. A phone pressed to his ear, and he was saying something I couldn’t quite hear. “We have half an hour before we leave for the school,” I said to Lucinda. “I need to talk to my partner about security.”

  Lucinda’s pale eyes widened. “Okay, I’ll finish here for you.” Her voice lowered as her gaze also strayed to Patrick. “But you should really think about letting him know how you feel.”

  Oh, yeah. I was going to let him know exactly how I felt.

  Excusing myself, I marched through the suite, nodding at Patrick as I passed him, wishing I could simply shift. It would have made for a much better scene, appearing before Keene had his defenses up, but for now I would respect his privacy. A Secret Service agent was seated in a chair near the window in the hallway. He studiously averted his gaze as I crossed the hall and rapped on Keene’s door.

  AT HIS INVITATION TO ENTER, I walked into Keene’s sitting room where the double doors to his bedroom stood wide open. Like me, he had boxes with tissue paper and several suitcases. I did shift now, appearing an arm’s length away from him. “So,” I said, hands pressed on my hips.

  He removed a shirt and shook it out, laying it on the bed before grabbing another. “What?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  His eyes shut and opened slowly, sending unwanted heat coiling through my belly. “Tell you what?”

  I yanked the shirt from his hand. “You Changed.”

  “You say that like an accusation.”

  “Does everyone know? Am I the last to find out?”

  His jaw worked. “Yes.”

  “Why? This is good news, isn’t it? Or do you really hate us?”

  “No. I wanted to be Unbounded. All my life.” There was a curl to his lip that hinted of self-loathing. “I wanted it too much. When I hit thirty-six, I realized it wasn’t going to happen. I’ve never personally known anyone who Changed that late. The worst of it was the disappointment in my father’s eyes.” His voice sounded empty, as if all his hope had been consumed by that man I’d never met but detested. A little of my own anger died in that moment.

  “But you did Change! How?”

  He shrugged. “I’d been doing gene therapy with Cort and Dimitri, but if it was that, it only worked because of my direct heritage and all the sperm manipulation surrounding my birth. More likely, I’m just a late bloomer.” His mouth turned slightly upward at the corners but his tone was mocking.

  “Your ability. That was you in the car.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his beard. How could I have ever thought they’d done something to make it longer? If I looked closely, I could already see that the part closest to his skin was brown, not auburn.

  “It’s called synergy,” he said. “I can see patterns in everything like my brother, but I don’t understand how they work. Rather I see how to change them, mostly increase them.” He grimaced. “Sort of like an atomic reaction.”

  The skin on my arms pebbled. “The explosion in Morocco. I thought that was Erin.”

  “It was both of us together. Her channeling Cort so we could see how to do it without taking down the whole building.”

  Why didn’t you tell me? That was what I really wanted to ask, what hurt the most. Keene prided himself on being honest, and I knew he’d never voice an outright lie, but this felt like the biggest lie of all.

  “In the car I saw your color,” I said, pushing back the hurt to a place where it didn’t make me useless and unwanted. “And I can still find you when I reach for a shift. That means it stayed with me, taught me something.”

  His expression hardened. “If you remember, you also couldn’t breathe. Now quit mutilating my shirt.” He pulled it from me.

  “I didn’t understand what was going on, that’s all.” I took a step toward him. “I forgot that I don’t need my lungs to breathe, that absorbing works for oxygen too. I was never in any real danger of suffocating. If you help me using your ability, I might be able to find anyone. Maybe I could travel longer distances. Maybe I could take someone with me!”

  “Maybe I could blow you up.” He turned away, but not before I saw the firm set of his jaw. “You might end up in the middle of the ocean. Or on Mars.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  He whirled on me. “I can’t control it! It’s unpredictable. I might just as well help the other side. It was my synergy that made that fire in Venezuela burn out of control, trapping us in that closet. And if Erin hadn’t shielded us in Morocco, I would have killed us all!” Grief blazed from his eyes. “People died, Mari.”

  “You’ve killed before.”

  He nodded once, sharply. “The difference is that this time some of those who died were people I was trying to protect. People who were just walking by the hotel.”

  I understood what he was saying. In fact, I understood a lot of what I hadn’t before. “But I’m guessing your ability is why they sent you with me. Ava wants us to experiment together. That’s what you and Cort were arguing about.” I
was the woman they’d been discussing.

  “You heard that?”

  “Some of it.” I clenched and unclenched my fists, trying to release my frustration. I hoped they had a gym in this mausoleum or I was going to go crazy if I couldn’t shift whenever I wanted. “Look, whatever your reservations about your ability, this is good news. You’re Unbounded!” I wanted to make him see—feel—what I did. From the moment I’d recovered from the trauma of Trevor’s violent death and began testing my ability, the new me had just wanted to live. Everything seemed brighter, had more potential. I still couldn’t wait to discover the entire world! Even two thousand years might not be enough time for all I wanted to do. Keene’s fear only wasted time.

  “Unbounded,” he said with a little sneer. “It makes a difference to you after all.”

  My mind tried to catch up with what he was saying, tried to untangle his words from my hurt. “What do you mean?”

  “This.” In one step he closed the space between us, his hands clamping down on my forearms and pulling me against the length of his body. His mouth angled over mine, pressing downward. One hand slid around to the back of my head, pushing my face closer. The other cupped my back.

  Energy crackled around us. Desire sparked all the female parts of me, urging my arms around his chest. I saw numbers, larger than even I could count. I experienced more colors than I had believed existed. I pushed closer, kissing him back, long and hard. Exactly the way I’d wanted to ever since Venezuela.

  Venezuela.

  I saw the combinations of numbers that would take me to that burned building where we would be alone, to finish this kiss where it should have begun. Or maybe we’d somehow stay in the in between for as long as it took to get our fill. I almost believed I could take him with me. The anger and hurt had vanished. I felt like laughing and singing and melting into him.