Athena Force: Books 1-6

by Justine Davis, Amy J. Fetzer, Katherine Garbera, Meredith Fletcher, Catherine Mann

“I’ll be at the Wing and a Prayer tomorrow night if you want to bring your sister along.”

  “Such a romantic date, my sister and a bar.”

  At least he didn’t have to wonder about her picking up men in bars like his ex-wife used to do the minute his plane took off. “I’m meeting with a subcontractor who’s pioneering new technology in pro peller propulsion. None of which has been made public yet.”

  A purr vibrated up her throat. “Better than roses for this girl any day of the week.”

  “That’s what I figured.” His arms convulsed around her. His lingering physical regret over having to leave was at least somewhat appeased by relief that her intruder had only been her sister. “Be careful. Keep your eyes open and don’t doubt your instincts for a second.”

  He issued the warning. There was nothing more he could do tonight. Yet his instincts were cranking again with impending doom, the sense that a death spiral was imminent and all the skill in the world wouldn’t pull him out alive.

  Wouldn’t save her.

  Damn, but he needed some perspective back. He grazed a final kiss over her lips, the last taste of Josie and orange he dared allow himself if he wanted to make it out her door without flattening her against the wall.

  Closing the door after Diego, Josie sagged back flat against the hall wall. Silver picture frames rattled.

  By the time Josie cancelled the 9-1-1 call, Diana emerged from the kitchen with two bowls of pasta and a smug smile. “Looks like maybe you don’t need this after all.”

  “Think again.” Josie arched away from the wall, her voice not much steadier than her knees, and snagged the second bowl from her sister.

  How strange to have Diana here, since they rarely talked, much less visited. With her super-spy intel officer skills, Diana certainly hadn’t needed to use the key Josie had given her—a token gesture at reaching out.

  Navigating Diana’s prickly nature was tricky enough long-distance. She would have to tread warily if she wanted to get through this visit without a hufffest. And more than she would have thought, Josie wanted to reclaim some neutral ground between them. They’d lost so much time together because of dodging land mines in discussing their mother’s breakdown.

  Diana plopped cross-legged onto the leather couch. Her oversize sweatsuit draped around her like a bunched black blanket. “Guess my timing really sucked then.”

  “It’s okay,” Josie rushed to add before Diana hopped out the front door. Josie dropped onto the white sofa beside her sister and flung off her flip-flops. “I’m probably not ready for him anyway.”

  “That intense, is he?”

  “More so.” She swung her legs to the side and tucked a pillow to her stomach. Josie thumped the stack of computer printouts on her coffee table absently. Thank God, she’d made copies in case someone genuinely had broken into her apartment.

  The pieces of information were starting to shuffle in her head more and more each day. Back in her mother’s testing days, computer data had still had a mystique. Far more had to be accepted on faith when it came to software.

  The best she could do was cross-check the software versions notated with updated, current knowledge perceptions. All was accurate, each version the same. Yet for some reason the hard drive on her mother’s program had been replaced frequently. Sure, parts were swapped out, but why so often? Probably nothing. Or could be everything.

  “Are you seeing him again?”

  Diana’s question pulled her back to the present—to thoughts of Diego. Damn it, she should have been thinking about work tonight, not sex. How was a person supposed to balance both sides of life?

  Hell if she knew. “Tomorrow night, at the Wing and a Prayer.”

  “A bar? You?” Diana’s brows shot toward the headband holding back her mop of wavy blond hair. “But I thought you never drank. The whole Josie-never-loses-control-like-Mom mentality.”

  Josie bit her tongue. Hard. How like her sister to toss the big pink elephant out there in the middle of the floor and then get pissed if someone pointed it out.

  “It’s a business meeting.” Subject-change time. She swatted her sister with a throw pillow. “It’s great to see you, but what brings you out this way?”

  “I had the day off with nothing better to do and frequent-flyer miles to burn.” Diana flicked at the cheese sauce crusted on the front of her faded sweatsuit, then shrugged like the attitude-queen teen she’d once been not so long ago. “I guess Rainy’s death has made us all think a little more about what’s important. So, after I heard your voice on the phone, I decided maybe we could visit in person.”

  Josie winced over how close she’d come to e-mailing instead. “I’m glad you’re here.”

  “No big thing,” Diana garbled through a spoonful of mac and cheese.

  Rainy’s death had been officially labeled an accident—falling asleep at the wheel. But too many facts didn’t add up, and the Cassandras had all been digging for answers, Kayla in particular. As if Kayla didn’t already have a full plate as a single mother with a full-time job on the police force.

  Josie’s eyes tracked to the bookshelf full of Beanie Babies, the collection started by her mother. With Rainy’s death still weighing heavily, Josie couldn’t help but think about time being precious. Precarious. And sometimes tragically limited.

  Her hand fell to rest on the stack of printouts. “Speaking of Rainy, did you ever find out anything more about that assassin—Cipher—who died last month?”

  “There’s nothing much in the official channels to add to Kayla’s investigation. Doesn’t help either that dead men don’t talk, and Samantha sure put the Cipher six feet under.”

  A damned shame, information-wise, but their Athena comrade hadn’t been left with a choice when it came to saving her own sister. Josie could see herself making exactly the same choice.

  “So there’s not even a lead to pass on?”

  “No leads? I didn’t say that.” Diana’s hazel eyes glinted with mischief. “Just that info from official channels is sparse. But I have my sources and I can hack almost anything out of a computer.”

  “And what do your sources say?”

  “This guy was somehow affiliated with an obscure government lab numbered thirty-three. Something to do with an experiment, not a person. That’s all I could find before I hit a massive firewall. This must be hot info for someone like me to have trouble cracking it. I’ll forward you what I have once I get home.”

  Josie eased back, unwilling to damage the tenuous connection they were reestablishing. “I’ll call Kayla this weekend so she can add the puzzle piece. However the hell it fits.”

  Josie sagged into the giving softness of the sofa and spooned macaroni into her mouth. Her endorphins shouted a huge thank-you for the much-needed boost. Thinking about Rainy’s senseless death made her weary to her toes.

  Diana stabbed her pasta into mush. “While I’m relaying the fruits of my cyber labor here, would you like a verbal summary of my other report before I leave in the morning? Or would you rather have an official printout once I get back?”

  “Your other report?”

  “On your guy Diego.”

  Her sister had gone above and beyond for her. She wanted to cry—which would probably send Diana into heart failure.

  Now, how would she tell her sister she didn’t want the report after all, since wouldn’t he just be pissed at the invasion? Two weeks ago she wouldn’t have cared. Two weeks ago he hadn’t put his tongue in her mouth. “Uh, I’m not sure I need it anymore.”

  Diana’s spoon paused mid-lift. “You made me work my computer geekdom magic into overtime for nothing?”

  “I’m sorry.” And God, she really was, for so many things when it came to her sister. “But I wasn’t involved with him when I asked you to look. Now it seems…”

  “Dishonest? Like something that might piss him off too much to go horizontal with you?”

  Totally. And more. “I want to hear about it from him.”

  �
��Ooh!” Diana waved the spoon at Josie. “You’ve got it bad, sister.”

  “No. It’s not like that.” And if it was, she didn’t want it to be. “We’re attracted to each other. No doubt. But long-term? We’d combust.” Too true.

  “Then why not let me pass over the scoop on him?”

  “Because he likes that I’m honest with him.”

  “Do you think he’s playing you?” This prickly, blunt—smart—sister of hers never pulled punches.

  “Why would he?”

  “You tell me?”

  She didn’t even want to go there in her mind, where whispers of the abandoned kid still echoed, no matter how hard she tried to pretend she didn’t care what the hell her father did. “Quit with the intelligence-officer interrogation crap, little sister.”

  “Excuuuse me for helping.” Diana slouched back on the sofa in a mass of wrinkled fabric and surly sulk.

  Contrition chomped hard. “I’m sorry. I’m being a bitch. It’s not your fault this guy messes with my focus. Is there anything you found out that I need to know? Is he involved in anything illegal?”

  “No.” Diana’s slouch eased to mere flounce level. “He’s pushed it a few times with speeding tickets—excessive speed. There was also one near miss at a ‘drunk and disorderly’ in a bar right after his accident, but that’s about it.”

  “Is there any reason for me to worry about him being sent in by the oversight committee? Any reason to suspect he’s on the take? Or has some hidden agenda?”

  “Not that I could I find.”

  If her computer-whiz sister couldn’t find it, it didn’t exist. Her ability to squeeze information from the cyber waves even made the military uncomfortable at times. Right now, it brought Josie nothing but relief. Diego might have shaken her focus, but he wasn’t a threat to her project. She hadn’t screwed up.

  So far.

  Josie stirred her pasta. “Does he have bizarre habits like communing with outer-space creatures or collecting toenail clippings?”

  Her mouth twitched. “Absolutely not.”

  “Well then, as long as he doesn’t have a wife tucked away at home, there’s nothing else I need to know.”

  Silence echoed. Diana shoved an overlarge bite in her mouth and made a major production of chewing.

  Josie’s spoon never made it to her mouth. “Ohmigod. Please say he isn’t married.”

  “He isn’t married,” she answered with too much precision.

  “Really?” Her spoon clanked against gray stoneware. “Or are you just saying that because I told you to?”

  Diana’s gaze met and held without faltering. “I promise the guy is completely single and currently unattached to anyone else.”

  Josie stared back, searched, found honesty. Her arms turned limp with relief, her bowl dropping to rest on the pillow in her lap. “And I know for sure he’s straight.” She could still all but feel the imprint of his rock-solid arousal. “Very straight. So I guess I’m set then. I’m sorry to have put you to work for nothing.”

  “I’m glad you asked.”

  “Thank you…for looking and for coming here.”

  “I appreciated the call.” Eyes so like her own skated to the carpet. “It’s strange how our parents worked through everything and we still get pissed over it.”

  “I was thinking the same thing recently.”

  Diana studied the carpet as if it held some kind of mystery in its silvery expanse. “So we’ll agree not to talk about who’s right and who’s wrong?”

  “Probably a smart idea.” Josie spooned macaroni up to her mouth, suddenly in need of the oblivion of starchy comfort more than ever. Cheese saturated her taste buds. “Hey, this isn’t too bad, Diehard.”

  “I’ve had plenty of practice lately, thanks to my sporadic love life. Thus my free weekend to visit my sister.” She rested her empty bowl on the coffee table. “So why did the two of you freak out so much over my being here?”

  Josie opened her mouth to catch her sister up-to-date on the bizarre sense of being watched. She could use her sister’s military intelligence insights.

  Except she was about to leap out of her skin with nervous energy and frustrated cravings that had nothing to do with starch. “First, let me throw on some sweats. We can hit the gym and talk it over there. It’s open twenty-four hours a day and I really need to work off energy.”

  Diana’s smile turned dry. “Why do I get the feeling I’m about to be pounded by my big sister?”

  “Don’t try those mind-game tricks you intel officers study.” Josie swung her feet to the carpet and stood. “You hold your own just fine.”

  “Hey, I’m using whatever weapons I’ve got in my arsenal to lower your defenses.”

  “Fine.” She tossed over her shoulder on her way to the staircase. “But it won’t work any more than that boo-boo lip garbage you used to toss my way when you didn’t want to clean our room.”

  “But that did work.

  “Argh. You’re right.” Starting up the steps, she held up her hand. “Forget the boo-boo lip, though, because I’m not looking.”

  Eyes watched her.

  Josie’s instincts didn’t scream tonight as they had the evening before in the desert with Diego. Rather they whispered, stroking her reason with a sinister insistence.

  Outside the Wing and a Prayer, she tugged on the hem of her brown leather flight jacket. Even worn with jeans, the coat still gave her an extra sense of armor and invincibility.

  Parking-lot lights hummed. Damn it, why couldn’t Diana have stayed on another day rather than leaving on the first flight out in the morning? Then she wouldn’t be out here alone.

  And their sister time had been some of the most fun they’d shared since…God, she couldn’t even remember when.

  She wouldn’t have minded the reassurance of a second person walking alongside, affirming the spidery sensation. Or even to laugh at her silliness.

  Only a few more steps and she would be inside the bar. Diego knew to expect her. And she could handle a mugger.

  She hoped for just a mugger.

  Her tennis shoes smacked gravel. If the recurring creeped-out feeling could be trusted, stalker was more probable. She’d heard and heeded Diego’s warning by tucking a 9mm in the jean bag slung over her shoulder, had even parked under a light. She wasn’t stupid or reckless. But she felt more like a paranoid nut than ever, packing a weapon against an imagined threat.

  She reached for the knob just as the door swung open. Music, laughter and the clank of glasses blasted outside, red light flowing over her.

  “Josie!” Mike Bridges blocked the entrance with his body and smile. Red light and noise faded as the door shooshed shut on its receding arm. “I didn’t expect to see you here tonight.”

  “Diego’s meeting with a subcontractor who’s apparently right on the edge of a breakthrough with propeller technology.”

  “Come to think of it, I did see him inside.”

  “I should go on in. Diego’s waiting for me to join them.”

  “Mixing work with play? Excellent.” He gripped her elbow to guide her away from a large group streaming outside. “You’re almost relaxing—and still keeping your project ahead of schedule.”

  “Thank you, sir.” She inched her elbow free, although at least with Bridges around she wouldn’t have to worry about creepy eyes. “I heard what you said at Red Flag and am taking it to heart.”

  “I’m glad. Your work’s top-notch. But since you’re already talking business, there are a couple of things I’d like you to bring up in conversation.” He sidestepped another couple leaving. “Let’s move out of the way over here for a minute so I can catch you up to speed.”

  She hesitated.

  “We can talk in the bar, but then the guy Morel’s meeting with will know I tipped you off.”

  Valid point. And the parking lot was well lit. If he’d wanted to hit on her, there had been ample opportunity in Vegas. Nodding, she followed him away from the entrance, past a row
of cars until he stopped by his looming SUV.

  “Okay, sir, what did you need to tell me?”

  “Mike.”

  Her gaze jerked back to him. “Pardon me?”

  “I’m not that much older than you, younger than Morel, in fact.” He leaned one hip against the quarter panel, far more casual than any business chat. “When we’re out of the office, it’s fine to call me Mike.”

  Damn. Damn. Damn! She’d really wanted to be wrong about Bridges. Panic bubbled, even a little fear, but she refused to let it overtake her.

  A calm head and plenty of distance would take care of this. “No, I can’t. And it’s time for me to join the others.”

  She started past him.

  “I really wish you would reconsider.” He circled in front of her, bracing one hand on the SUV, trapping her, blocking out the light and lot as he stepped closer.

  Too close to be mistaken for anything but sexual intent.

  Her throat closed. He had her back to the wall, professionally and personally.

  But damned if she was going down without a fight.

  Chapter 10

  Where the hell was Josie?

  From his chair at the small round table, Diego searched the bar for about the thousandth time. Easily he could envision her backing away from him. The woman was more than a little bristly about relationships.

  Relationship? Sex. It was about sex, hard-driving lust.

  Ah, shit.

  Who was he kidding? Josie Lockworth had crawled right up under his skin like a burr he didn’t particularly need in his life but couldn’t avoid. He more than suspected she felt the same way about getting involved. So yeah, he could envision her standing him up in a heartbeat.

  But he could not imagine her being a no-show for meeting a subcontractor with scoop on her project. Without question, Josie Lockworth lived for her work. Something he understood, since he’d been there himself, once upon another lifetime ago.

  Then why wasn’t she here? Scooting aside his untasted beer, Diego scanned the bar again for her silky brown hair in the crowd of bobbing heads. All those unwanted warning instincts twitched to life again. He shot from his chair, cutting off the subcontractor mid-ramble.