by Lexi Ryan
Lucky for them, the Keeper’s hundred years of life had taught him to value what Winston had lacked. Fifty years ago, he’d set the wheels in motion for a better plan—the final plan. They’d erred on their first attempt, but this time they had all the pieces. This time they would succeed.
In a blink, Alyson appeared before him. “Her mother’s journal, Your Majesty. We believe she’s found something in her mother’s journal.”
The Keeper nodded, having learned long ago that expressing his emotions only made him appear weak to his followers. “Send someone in for it. Someone who can make her forget.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
This was just a bump. Everything was going so smoothly, and soon he would have the power they needed to make non-Special humans what they were intended for: food, energy, and power for the superior race.
***
Tanner knew enough pop psychology to understand when his actions were rooted in latent “daddy” issues. He knew he was more interested in impressing the SIA chief than in stopping some fertility doctor from interfering with whether or not a child would have special abilities.
So when he stood outside the dark, locked lab and asked Josie, for the hundredth time to let him do this by himself, he couldn’t put his heart into it. Whatever she was keeping from him had to be important. If she let him go in on his own, he might look in the wrong places altogether.
“I’m going in,” Josie repeated.
He shrugged, then made himself invisible. “It’s your face on the security tapes, then.”
She rolled her eyes, and pulled a stocking over her head. Again, not exactly his original fantasy of Josie and hosiery, but a guy had to be willing to take a kick in the balls from time to time if he was going to get anywhere in this world. With Josie, it just so happened the kicks were repetitive and turned his balls blue.
He’d had worse.
He picked the lock and opened the door. A millisecond later, the warning bell was chirping.
Tanner nudged her toward the security pad near the back door, signaling for her to work her number-wizard magic and disarm it.
She took her damn time sauntering over and pressing numbers, seemingly at random.
“Show off,” he grumbled.
She lifted a shoulder. “I suppose you could have done the same?”
“I’ve been trained.” But he was no numbers whiz like Josie.
“Yeah, but could you have done it before the police got here?”
Tanner ignored the question and headed toward the back hallway.
Josie cleared her throat behind him.
He turned and she was standing there, tapping her foot. “I can’t see you,” she hissed.
“Back hall,” he whispered, reaching to touch her hand.
A smile curved her lips as she looked down at her hand resting in his invisible one. It looked as if she held it in midair. “You can still touch me when you’re like this?”
He chuckled. “I can do more than that.” He thought she might have blushed, but he couldn’t tell in the low light with her cheeks hidden beneath the sheer material.
He led her down the hall and stopped at the lab, punching the numbers in the combination lock.
Tanner held his breath as he heard the mechanism clicking. When it beeped and the lock released, he exhaled.
“Let me go in first,” he whispered.
Josie nodded, and Tanner slid into the room and scoped it for security cameras. He didn’t see any in the obvious places—corners, edges of ceilings. But maybe whoever ran this lab didn’t want his employees to know they were being watched.
A lab with this much equipment wouldn’t be left unmonitored.
He studied the walls more closely.
“Wiley?” Josie called from the hall.
“Gotcha,” he muttered when he noticed the clock hanging at the top of the far wall. He pulled the clock down from its hook and smiled to himself when he saw the tiny spy camera inside. “Don’t mind if I do,” he whispered, disabling the device in the fastest and most effective way he knew—by crushing it under his shoe.
“Wiley?” Josie called again, her voice still hushed.
She jumped when he grabbed her hand. “Holy crap, don’t do that!”
He chuckled. “The camera’s been disabled.”
“Thanks.” She stepped into the room and peeled the stocking off her face.
He booted up a computer then looked to the filing cabinet. “Do you want to start with the—”
Before he could finish, she’d pulled a drawer open and was digging through files. What was she looking for?
He shook his head and took the computer while she worked the paper files.
He paused for a minute, noticing how damn cute she looked with her hair mussed and her cheeks flushed. Again, not exactly his ideal method of getting her that way.
He cursed himself for stopping their kiss. What kind of dumbass puts on the brakes when his dream girl is reaching for his dick?
The kind of dumbass who is so out of his league that he was taking his buddies’ romance advice.
Kiss her, Darian had said. Plant the seed and back off.
It wasn’t as though it was rocket science. Tanner was a natural with most women and probably would have done the same without guidance if it had been anyone but Josie. But Josie wasn’t most women. She was the woman.
The computer beeped, prompting him for the password. He typed the letter-number combination he’d watched the scientist give and released his breath when it worked.
Now for the hard part: Looking for evidence that these specialists weren’t just making babies but making Specials.
The first twenty files he opened held nothing out of the ordinary. They appeared to be patient profiles, employee memoranda, treatment plans for various infertile couples.
Then he hit a password-protected folder labeled MARTIN.
He stuck his memory stick in the drive and copied all the files—even Martin’s protected files.
“Oh my God,” Josie said.
Tanner turned and she was blinking down at a file. “What is it?”
She looked up at him and back to the file. “I—”
The alarm chirped and a door slammed at the end of the hall.
Josie dropped the folder. The steps in the hallway grew closer.
“We have to get out of here,” he whispered, but then he looked down and saw his picture. No, not his picture.
“What are you doing here?”
Tanner looked up. There was a man inside the lab. How did he get down the hall so fast?
Tanner looked for alternate exits, but the man narrowed his eyes at him. “Who are you and what are you doing here?”
Tanner gaped, realizing his invisible shield had dropped. How had that happened?
The man grabbed Josie’s arm and whipped her around to face him. “Who—” He froze.
Josie blinked at him.
Tanner, taking advantage of the man’s temporary paralysis, decked him. The man went down. Tanner grabbed his memory stick and the folder, and he and Josie headed for the door.
***
When Tanner pulled his truck up to Josie’s apartment complex, he let the engine idle, but she refused to take the hint.
“Did you ever know him?” she asked because she didn’t need it spelled out for her. The man in the file was Tanner’s father.
“No.” Tanner didn’t look at her and his tone left no question about his mood.
He didn’t want company, and he didn’t want to talk about it.
“You had a rough childhood, didn’t you?” Josie’d be damned if he was going to push her away when he needed a friend.
Tanner closed his eyes. “You could say that.”
“Did you know your mom?”
“I was five when she decided her next drug fix was more important than her son.”
Josie clasped her hands together, resisting the urge to touch him, comfort him. He didn’t want comforting.
“She didn’t fight it when CPS put me into the foster care system.”
“Where is she now?”
Tanner shook his head and set his jaw.
Josie studied him for a minute, trying to think of the perfect thing to say. Something that expressed her gratitude for all he’d done for her this week. Something that let him know she had a clue what he was going through.
His eyes stayed glued to the dash.
“Tanner,” she whispered. And then, because she didn’t know how to say what she was thinking, she unbuckled her seatbelt and turned to him. She brushed his chin with the tips of her fingers, nudging him to look at her.
When he did, the pain in his eyes shot down to the pit of her stomach and erupted until she felt it in her throat.
The folder rested behind Tanner’s seat and held a picture of a man who had to be Tanner’s father. The man’s name was printed neatly on the back of the picture and his signature was scribbled at the bottom of the form.
She opened her mouth to say something. But what? How did you apologize to a man whose parents had wanted him enough to seek fertility treatments but not enough to keep him?
Since there was nothing to say, she leaned into him and pressed her lips against his. He simply breathed against her for a moment, then slipped his hands into her hair. He kissed her back with a hunger that might have scared her if she didn’t understand it so well.
This was a kiss of someone who felt completely alone in the world. The kiss of someone who had lost every connection to his identity. She knew because she was the same person, kissing him the same way. She parted her lips, took his face in her hands, and returned all the fear and desperation with her own.
She withdrew and ran her fingers down the side of his face. “Do you want to come in with me?”
His smile was forced. “For a pity fuck?”
She flinched at the glacial coolness in his voice. “Would that be so bad?”
His gaze trailed over her body, and his eyes grew hot before they returned to hers. He grabbed her wrist and yanked her to him. With a hand fisted in her hair and another pressed against her back, he kissed her again.
This time, none of the vulnerability from before flavored the kiss. This kiss was a kiss of a man who knew what he wanted and went after it. This was the kiss of a man who would make your toes curl and your inhibitions shatter as you explored every physical sensation the body offered.
When he broke the kiss, they were both breathing hard.
“When I’m inside you for the first time,” he said, tilting her chin up with one finger, “it’s not going to be because you feel sorry for me.”
No, she didn’t imagine it would. She ran her tongue over her swollen lips. Her thighs already wanted to spread for him. Moisture gathered between her legs, and she could hardly get her mind off the needy pulsing of her clit ready for his touch. That had nothing to do with pity.
“Good night, Wiley,” she said.
She was still thinking about the kiss when she unlocked her apartment.
When I’m inside you for the first time...
It was a promise she suddenly prayed he’d keep, and she was so lost in the fantasy of it that she didn’t register that her apartment had been torn apart. She didn’t even notice the intruder until he’d slammed her face-first into the wall.
Chapter Six
“Where’s the journal?” A man’s voice. Deep and agitated.
She choked back a whimper, but pain shot down her jaw and arm, red-metal hot. “Take my money,” she said. “There’s a safe in the bedroom with five hundred cash.”
He slammed her against the wall again and she cried out. “I don’t want your fucking money. Where’s the journal?”
She tried to turn to see her attacker—who knew about her mother’s journal?
He punished her for trying to get a glimpse of him, ramming his knee into the small of her back.
She wanted to double over, but he held her still. Her purse hung from her arm. She’d slid the journal in there before she’d left tonight.
Could she find enough strength to pull it against her chest and run?
As soon as she thought it, he’d ripped her purse from her arm. “See? How hard was that?”
He pressed his palm against her forehead. “This never happened,” and she could feel his energy change, knew, as well as she knew her arm was broken, that he was a Special and he was going to erase her memory. She fought against him. She would not forget the man who stole her mother’s journal—the only meaningful piece of her family she had left.
The next thing she knew, some invisible force was pulling her attacker off her and throwing him out the front door.
Tanner materialized in front of her. “You okay?” he asked, breathless.
She managed a nod, and Tanner turned back to the door, but just as quickly as Tanner had appeared, her attacker had disappeared.
***
When the nurses wouldn’t let him accompany Josie back in the ER, Tanner had done what any reasonably concerned friend would do.
He’d discreetly made himself invisible and followed anyway.
Her skin was already beginning to bruise on the right side of her face and a series of X-rays had revealed a nasty break in her right arm. After the doctor had set it and put it in a cast, a police officer was sent in to take her statement.
The man was looking at his paperwork when he walked into the examination room, but blinked and took a step back when he saw Josie.
Josie had that effect on guys when she was in her Stiletto Girl get-up, but not when she was dressed like a cat burglar and looked like she’d been hit by a Mack truck.
This wasn’t the reaction of a man who was just attracted to Josie. Tanner narrowed his eyes. Sadness mixed with lust and regret. This was the reaction of a man who recognized an old flame.
The officer looked back down at his paperwork and when he looked back up, he’d wiped away any sign of his reaction to her. “Josie Bovard?” he said, as if he expected her to correct him.
Josie nodded. “That’s my name.”
The officer held out a hand, a half smile on his face as he looked at her through narrowed eyes. “Sergeant Greyly,” he said.
He was one of those smooth guys who looked at women like he’d already seen them naked—and completely approved. He had one of those smooth-guy smiles that said he’d like to do it again.
Tanner hated him immediately.
“I wish I could say it’s nice to meet you,” Josie said, “but you’ll understand if those aren’t my sentiments.”
“Of course,” Greyly said softly. “Listen, we’ll get through this as fast as we can so you can get home and get some rest.”
Josie smiled and melted into her chair a little. Jealousy burned through Tanner’s veins. For six months, he’d tried to get her attention and not once had she looked at him like she was looking at Greyly now.
That was, until he’d kissed her. He smiled. She’d looked at him differently after he’d kissed her. He’d have to do that again.
“Can you describe what happened?” Greyly said.
Josie licked her lips. “I walked into my apartment and someone was there.” She shook her head. “I should have seen him, but I didn’t realize I wasn’t alone until he’d thrown me against the wall.”
“Did you see him at all?”
“I tried but he was strong. Really, really strong.”
Tanner knew what Josie wasn’t saying. She was professionally trained in the martial arts and strength trained several times a week to keep in prime condition for Stilettos, Inc. Even though her strength might not match that of a well-conditioned man, it would take a man much stronger and more agile than average to overpower Josie’s maneuvering.
“You’re sure it was a man?”
Josie smiled. “I like that you don’t just assume strength equals male. Kudos to you, Sergeant.” Her smile dropped and her face turned like she smelled something vile. “His voice was re
ally deep, and…” She closed her eyes. “He was turned on. I could feel his…erection…I could feel it against my back.”
So the prick got off on beating on girls and throwing them against walls? If Tanner hadn’t already been set on finding the guy and pounding the shit out of him, that would have done it.
Greyly took a note and moved his hand down his form. “Did he say anything? Give you any indication of what he wanted?”
Josie met Greyly’s eyes. “No.”
If Greyly could tell she was lying, he didn’t give any indication. But Tanner knew.
What the hell was she hiding now? What had the guy wanted? Tanner would bet money the intruder had been a Special. There was a general consensus among Specials that they should keep their existence a secret until the time was right. Of course, the Ascendants didn’t see it that way, but even they wanted certain controls in place before they revealed themselves to the rest of the world. Namely, they wanted to be controlling it.
“I told him where my money was, but he said he wasn’t there for my money.” She closed her eyes. “I hate to imagine what would have happened if my friend hadn’t come up to the apartment and thrown him off me.”
Tanner clenched his fists.
She wasn’t lying about that. He could see in her face that her relief was real, and Tanner’s stomach had been churning with the same thought all night. He’d been too tied up in his own grief to see her up to her apartment, and none of this would have happened if he’d gone in with her.
“Do you know of anyone who would have a reason to want to hurt you? Anyone who wants something you have?”
Josie shook her head.
“And what happened when your friend appeared?”
“Tanner threw the man off me. He asked me if I was okay, and when he turned around to get the man, he’d run away.”
Greyly looked at Josie’s arm and frowned. “I’m sure you haven’t had a chance to look through your apartment, see if anything’s missing?”
She shook her head again. “Came straight here,” she said, attempting a smile.
“What were you and your friend—what’s his name again?”
