Beneath This Mask

by Victoria Sue

  Table of Contents

  Blurb

  Dedication

  Characters

  GLOSSARY

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Epilogue

  More from Victoria Sue

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  Copyright

  Beneath This Mask

  By Victoria Sue

  Enhanced World: Book Three

  Gael Peterson has spent years hiding behind the enhanced abilities he wears like a mask, even though he is an important, confident member of the FBI’s exclusive H.E.R.O. team. The hurt and betrayal of his mom’s abandonment and his father’s fists are secrets buried deep beneath the ugly scars on his face, and he doesn’t trust Jake, his new regular human partner, with any of them. In a world where those with special abilities like Gael’s are regarded as freaks and monsters, it won’t be easy for him to rely on Jake to have his back, especially when the abilities of a vulnerable nonspeaking enhanced child make that child a murder suspect.

  Tempers rise and loyalties are challenged, and when the serial killer targeting the enhanced finally sets his sights on Gael, not only will Gael have to trust Jake with his secrets, he might have to trust him to save his life.

  To my Skype coven: C for her generosity, A for making me laugh, and P for adopting me. Love you guys.

  Characters

  H.E.R.O. TEAM

  ENHANCED

  Talon Valdez. Team leader. Comes from a large politically prominent family including mom, 4 brothers, 1 sister. Ability – can slow and stop anything in the human body which can either simply put someone to sleep or can kill. DNA changes have enabled him to gain the abilities of the other team members.

  Gael Peterson. Talon’s second in command. Abilities includes writing and speaking any foreign language without being taught. Can change the composition of his skin to make it a barrier resistant to impact damage e.g. from bullets. Younger brother Wyatt. Father dead. Mom left them when he was a young child. Bad facial scarring on the same side as his enhanced mark due to his drunk father trying to burn off his mark.

  Vance Connelly. Comes from a large family all in law enforcement. Mom – Connie. Dad and four of five brothers are cops. Brother Daniel is a senior intelligence officer. Ability – strength. Voice recognition.

  Sawyer Rollins. No family known. Grown up in foster care. Ability – deconstructs anything metallic to shavings. Can change his body composition to become invisible but can also walk through walls etc.

  Eli Stuart. No known family. Grew up in foster care and secure enhanced youth facility. Ability – fire. Can burn anything including people.

  Finn (Finlay) Mayer. Only regular team member at the moment and partner of Talon. Dyslexic but never got his condition officially diagnosed or any help with it convinced it would ruin his chances of joining the FBI. Family – mom, dad (committed suicide four years previously) and brother Deke.

  Jake Riley. Regular team member. Transferred from the LAPD SWAT team and became a member of the ENu before joining the team. Partner of Gael Peterson.

  OTHER ENHANCED CHARACTERS.

  Adam Mackenzie. Finn’s childhood best friend and got thrown out of his family when he transformed. Lived in foster care and young offender’s units. Currently awaiting prosecution for his part in a bank robbery. Ability – can manipulate electricity and open locks.

  Nolan Dakota. Comes from a wealthy connected family and believes Enhanced should be running the country. Currently awaiting prosecution for his part in a scheme to kidnap and control enhanced children.

  Oliver Martinez. Eight year old child kidnapped by Dakota. Ability – controlling electricity.

  Liam Kendrick. Fourteen-year-old. Can see inside most things, including the human body and the earth’s crust.

  OTHER REGULAR CHARACTERS

  Assistant Special Agent In Charge Anthony Gregory. The FBI agent who formed the Enhanced unit and is responsible for recruiting all members.

  Drew Fielding. FBI agent working at the Tampa field office and sometimes brought in to help with Finn’s physical combat training.

  Doctor Natalie Edwards. the doctor for the unit.

  Deputy FBI Director Cohen. Gregory’s boss and against the idea of the unit forming.

  Alan Swann. CEO of Swann Enterprises. Loudmouth and a fellow hostage along with Finn in the bank robbery from the first book. Likes to appear on television criticizing the FBI and specifically the unit.

  Judge Benedict Cryer. retired and standing for political office. Active in his criticism of all Enhanced and wants them locking up.

  GLOSSARY

  H.E.R.O. Human Enhanced Rescue Organization. Name of the SWAT type team set up by the FBI to include initially five enhanced humans and five regular human agents.

  ENHANCED. The name given to a group of humans born in the last forty or so years with incredible abilities that regular humans don’t have. They are all male, sterile and the incidence is restricted to the US. The Enhanced gain their abilities around adolescence, often experiencing one or two days of flu like symptoms. The only external sign that forms at the same time is a jagged scar under their left eye shaped like a lightning bolt, and often referred to as a MARK. They are usually superior in physical strength and have faster than normal healing abilities. There is no current biological test available to identify if children, usually siblings of enhanced, will undergo the TRANSFORMATION to become enhanced.

  ENu. Police Enhanced Unit. A SWAT type team of regular police officers with the power to forcibly sedate and detain any enhanced individuals.

  Chapter One

  “WELL, WELL. Look what we have here.”

  Gael didn’t so much as raise an eyebrow to acknowledge the mocking tone. He didn’t need to look. He knew who it was.

  Shit. So much for him trying to face his fears.

  “Are they even allowed in here?” a second voice said.

  “Better let Bernie know. I mean, he’s gonna want to know he’s got an infestation problem in his bar,” the third voice crowed.

  “Oh, I think we can take care of his rodent problem.”

  Gael did look up then, straight into the murky green eyes of Sergeant Mac Carmichael, ENu team leader and general all-around douchebag. Gael yawned deliberately, as much to calm his racing heart as for effect. He took the last swallow of his beer, almost giddy with relief that he didn’t have to choke down a full glass. An empty glass was an excuse to leave, right? No one was chasing him out.

  “Just let me know when you take care of your personality problem as well,” Gael drawled and stood to leave.

  Carmichael’s hands fisted, but Gael had at least a very satisfying three inches on every one of the guys standing in front of him. He took a step toward Carter, and the man stepped backward. Gael dwarfed a lot of regular guys, and the five feet eleven inches of Mac’s teammate didn’t even merit a thought. In fact, if Gael had found the situation at all amusing, he would have laughed. But as it was, he was struggling to keep his beer still in his stomach and to make sure none of them knew that.

  “Hey, Mac,” one of the two
guys entering the bar called. Carmichael glanced at them and then back to Gael.

  “We still need to have a little talk about your new partner. No one interferes with my team,” he added threateningly, then turned sharply to greet his friends.

  Gael threw a twenty on the table and walked out. Slow. Unhurried. Like he had all the time in the world. Not like he wanted to run. His new partner? Carmichael could have Jake Riley back anytime he said the word.

  Gael cleared the door at the same time as a mob of drunken twentysomethings fell out of the bar entrance opposite him, and Gael—heart about to pound out of his chest—ducked his head and slipped into an alley.

  Breathe.

  It was dark. No way they could see his face, his scar. Making all six feet four inches of him invisible was downright near impossible, but he would try.

  They all stumbled past, and Gael had a second to wonder what the hell he had been thinking, coming out in the first place, when every hair on the back of his neck rose, and one hand went for his gun as he turned sharply.

  “Whoa.”

  Gael stared at the man—boy?—standing stupidly with his hands raised in a surrender gesture.

  “Settle down there, hotshot,” the man said, grinning. He lowered his hands slowly without being asked, seeming completely unfazed by Gael’s hand on his Glock, by his scar, or by his mark. Gael relaxed his arms and gazed at the pint-sized guy. He wasn’t a child, Gael realized now that he could see him properly, but he had to be a good five years younger than Gael’s own twenty-eight. Gael’s eyes roamed over the spiky blue hair and laughing blue-gray eyes. He had more freckles on his nose than Vance’s niece had on her entire face. The fact that the guy barely had any clothes on made Gael wonder if he was going clubbing, though it wasn’t even eight o’clock.

  The guy took a step closer, and Gael resisted backing up. He had to be, what, five feet four, if that? And there was definitely nowhere to hide a weapon in those tiny black shorts—so tight he would be lucky to be able to bend down—or the ripped neon green T-shirt that strategically displayed both nipple piercings.

  “You okay?”

  Everything in Gael wanted to suddenly scream no until he saw the man was looking at him with concern, worry, and something else Gael wasn’t sure about. He took another breath, forcing air into his lungs. He hadn’t had a reaction like that in a long time, but then, it was the first time he had gone drinking in a public place on his own in what seemed ages. Make that never.

  “Maybe we can get a drink?” the guy interrupted Gael’s thoughts with a purr, and a bright purple painted nail lightly scored Gael’s chest.

  Gael finally processed the other look on the guy’s face, and his mouth fell open slightly. “Wait, what? You’re propositioning me?” The question came out on a squeak, and the guy smiled wide and then arched an eyebrow that definitely had been plucked and tweezed at some point. Gael was dumbstruck. The mark of the enhanced was usually enough to send regular humans running for the hills, but couple that with the ugly way the left side of his face puckered and twisted from the burn injury, and most people didn’t hang around for a second glance. And this guy… was smiling?

  Gael narrowed his eyes. He must be high, drunk, and blind. Talon had been propositioned before, but not Gael. One evening when they’d both had way too much of the Dutch vodka Talon liked, he had told Gael how he used to regularly hook up. That some guys got off on the danger. Enhanced could and sometimes did lose control, and Gael supposed if that was what one was going for, a mind-blowing orgasm would help hurry things along. The funny thing was that Talon was the most tightly controlled individual Gael had ever met, and of all of them, the least likely to lose it.

  “We could go somewhere quiet?”

  Gael did take a step back then—not because he was frightened, but because he honestly had absolutely no idea how to respond. “You wanna be careful,” Gael cautioned, and the young man smiled.

  “Why, you gonna go all Superman on me?”

  Gael nearly groaned. The Superman teasing because of Finn was out of control. Gael had hoped in the five months since the unit had been “outed” in the papers, things would have died down, but the press were worse than ever.

  “No,” Gael said dryly and lifted his T-shirt, clearly showing his gun this time. “Because solicitation is going to get you locked up.”

  The guy tilted his head in consideration but still didn’t look intimidated. “You got a badge to go with that Glock, big guy?”

  Gael’s eyes narrowed suspiciously, but just as he was about to ask the wannabe rent boy how he knew what Gael’s weapon was, his phone rang with the team’s alert notification. Sighing, he pulled his cell out of his pocket at the same time as the man took a step back, blew Gael a cheeky kiss, and pivoted to walk quickly around the corner. Gael’s phone rang again, vibrating angrily in his hand, and he glanced at the screen. It was Talon.

  “WE’RE TRYING to keep it out of the press, but as of today, not only do we have a serial murderer on our hands, but so far the only common thread, apart from the photographs found with the bodies, is that every victim was enhanced.”

  Great, Gael thought. Another psycho out to get them. He looked around the field office conference room. All of the team had been called in to listen to Agent Carl Simpson, from the Behavioral Analysis Unit, who had flown in to talk to them but was leaving in a couple of hours. Agent Gregory—their boss—was here, and a detective who was running the murder investigation. Alik Cortes.

  “I can narrow your suspect pool,” Sawyer piped up. “Every fucker with an ENu badge, for starters.”

  The room went quiet. Gael didn’t dare look at the guy sitting beside him—Jake Riley, his new partner and a recent recruit actually from the ENu—who had stiffened at Sawyer’s outburst. Not that Gael blamed Sawyer. Sawyer was the one sporting the black eye that day, courtesy of Gerry Atkinson, Carmichael’s right-hand man and the particular ENu fucker Sawyer meant.

  The enhanced had joined the ranks of minority groups that some cops automatically stopped and frisked. Atkinson had known who Sawyer was but had taken great delight in insisting he was searched. Sawyer had objected, and there had been a “scuffle,” as Atkinson had reported it. Sawyer had actually been pinned down by two of them while Atkinson threw a punch. It was wrong, but Sawyer had been late and was subsequently speeding. Talon was furious with Sawyer for letting them wind him up, and then he had put in a complaint against the cops.

  “Let me know when you have any actual evidence to back that up, and I’ll get right on it,” Agent Simpson drawled, and Sawyer shut up.

  “So, we have a new victim?” Talon asked.

  Gael’s eyes rose at the obvious attempt to smooth things over, and the businesslike manner in which Talon brought everyone’s focus back to the murders. He was right. Now was not the time for complaining at injustices. People were dead, and whether they had a scar on their face or not, they still deserved all the teams’ attention. He glanced at Finn’s wide-eyed stare and saw Talon’s hand surreptitiously slide under the table. Comfort. He was ashamed to realize he was jealous. Not that he was interested in Finn. Gael swiped a hand over his tired eyes and focused on the detective.

  “Yes,” Detective Alik Cortes said, the regret clear in his tone. “Adero Huras, twenty-five. Only family is a younger brother. He worked for a huge lawn-care company his brother owns that has major community contracts all over the Bayshore area. Shared an apartment with his brother and his brother’s girlfriend, north of Florida Avenue. Cops have already been there, and the techs have processed the scene.”

  “What was his ability?” Talon asked.

  Detective Cortes grimaced. “I’ll repeat what I was told, but to be honest, I’m not completely sure I understand it. Apparently his one love in life was swimming. Like, every day.” Cortes looked uncomfortable, and Agent Simpson took up the story.

  “When Adero was younger, he won a few swimming competitions. He was approached by a trainer, and there was even ta
lk of possible Olympics. Then he transformed.”

  And his dreams died, thought Gael. No one said it, but the room was heavy with the unspoken words.

  “Anyway, the swimming continued after, but with quite a significant twist. His brother, Mateo Huras, told us that Adero had to go and swim every day or it made him sick—shortness of breath, weakness—and this had gone on since the day he got the mark. But it was what Mateo told us when pressed that was remarkable. Adero seems to have been able to hold his breath for a ridiculous amount of time in the water. He told us he timed him at nearly forty minutes.”

  “Did he drown, then?” Sawyer asked, confused.

  “He was found in bed. No obvious cause of death, no signs of struggle.”

  “Secondary drowning, then,” Finn piped up.

  “What’s that?” Gael asked before anyone else could.

  “It’s a small amount of water getting into the lungs that causes swelling sometimes hours after the victim—usually a child—gets out of the water,” Finn replied immediately, and Gael saw the indulgent smile Talon sent him. “It causes swelling, which prevents oxygen from getting to the brain. It’s rare but often missed because you don’t expect someone to drown hours after they get out of the water.”

  “Which the postmortem will tell us later today,” Detective Cortes added.

  “And the link is?” Gregory asked. He had been silent up to now.

  Agent Simpson opened a file and passed everyone a photo of a young man. Pale blue eyes, elfin, delicate features, and shockingly white hair. “We found another photograph. This—”

  “Must be the Tampa Bay victim.”

  Gael started as the deep voice seemed to rumble from Jake. He took a short breath in and risked a look at his partner. Jake’s jet-black hair was cut short, cropped almost military-style, and his steely-gray eyes were fixed on Simpson, waiting for a confirmation of his guess. At least the black eye he’d been sporting a couple of weeks ago had gone. He’d probably pissed someone else off. All the ENu were cocky bastards, and Gael had no reason to believe Jake wasn’t exactly the same.