by Abby Blake
Altered Destinies 5
Soldier
Jenna is a soldier. From an early age, she's been told to try harder, work longer, and be stronger, so she can't explain the emotion that draws her to the operating theater where her twin girls died during an emergency Caesarean. But an overheard conversation leads her to believe that her girls are actually alive. She knows she has to find them.
Zane and Rick are special agents for the government. They've been assigned to watch Jason's old apartment just in case Jenna returns. When Jenna actually turns up, she's suffering several bullet wounds. Desperately, they work to save her, unable to explain the instant emotional connection.
When she finally recovers and Zane and Rick are tasked to protect her and her girls, can they convince a woman who has never known love that they want more than just a little fun?
Note: Each book in the Altered Destinies series is a stand-alone and can be read out of sequence.
Genre: Ménage a Trois/Quatre, Paranormal, Romantic Suspense
Length: 24,698 words
SOLDIER
Altered Destinies 5
Abby Blake
MENAGE EVERLASTING
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A SIREN PUBLISHING BOOK
IMPRINT: Ménage Everlasting
SOLDIER
Copyright © 2011 by Abby Blake
E-book ISBN: 1-61034-387-5
First E-book Publication: May 2011
Cover design by Les Byerley
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DEDICATION
For Rusty
SOLDIER
Altered Destinies 5
ABBY BLAKE
Copyright © 2011
Prologue
Jenna eased around the corner and into the stairwell, her movements silent and her focus intent. Careful to shield her presence from other telepaths and empaths in the building, she slowly made her way to the medical wing of the facility.
She hadn’t been here for a very long time, not since she’d been rushed in for an emergency caesarean and woken hours later to learn her babies hadn’t survived. Jenna wasn’t sure why she needed to be here tonight. She just knew that something drew her here. Something called to her in a way nothing else had in seven long years.
Maybe she was finally coming to terms with losing her twin girls.
She listened intently, concentrating on searching the area with her mind as well as her eyes. Many people in this facility, including her, were able to shield their emotions. Long considered impossible, Jenna had developed the talent soon after being injected with a routine vitamin shot the Professor had designed. He’d seemed inordinately pleased that she’d developed the talent, and Jenna had often wondered just what the vitamin shot had really contained. The Professor had seemed far too smug for the addition to her skills to have been an accident.
After making sure that she was alone, Jenna stood beside the operating table, staring down at the place where she had last felt happy. She’d spent the last seven years training and honing her skills, but despite her achievements, she’d felt hollow inside. The only time she’d even felt alive had been when she’d tracked down her brother Jason. Stupid moron thought he could switch sides in this war. And that’s what it was—a war—the next generation of human evolution fighting to bring peace to a world gone mad.
At least with an advanced human in charge, things would be better for everyone. Heaven knew the disasters inferior species had wrought on this planet. The only hope for peace were the advanced humans being trained right here in this facility and others like it all over the world.
But tonight Jenna grieved for a future lost, for the children she’d never met and, even with her advanced telepathic skills, had barely known. Tears misted her eyes, and for a moment, the soldier within growled disgust at her weakness, but a noise down the hallway froze all thoughts.
“I don’t care what you have to do.” The Professor’s voice was angry, very angry. “Find the twins and bring them back.”
Twins?
“Kara and Hailey are the most advanced children we’ve managed to breed. We already know their potential. They are more valuable than you could ever understand.”
“What about Dana’s child? Should we continue the search for her?”
“No,” the old man growled. “They have proven too resourceful. We jeopardize everything we’ve worked for if we continue to clash with the government unnecessarily.”
Jenna held her breath as the men passed by the operating theatre without coming through the door. Her mind raced with questions. The twins? They couldn’t be her girls. They’d died at birth. Surely, the Professor wouldn’t have lied about something so important. She shook her head sharply as doubts crowded her mind. She hadn’t trusted the old man in a very long time.
She spun on her heel, her gaze bouncing around the room until she found the computer she sought. Sparing but a moment to consider the consequences if she was caught, Jenna booted up the computer and set to work hacking into her own
medical files.
Chapter One
Zane shifted in his seat, the cool leather and soft cushion seeming neither cool nor soft after four hours of surveillance. He sensed the same discomfort and impatience in his partner.
“How long do they expect us to sit here waiting for something to happen?” Rick growled as he also shifted in the cramped space of the car.
“Until the boss decides otherwise,” Zane answered tiredly. Normally he enjoyed rattling Rick’s long-fused temper, but today his own seemed so close to breaking that they might end up in more than their usual good-natured argument. Zane flexed his fists at the thought of swinging just a few punches at his partner and best friend. He was sure Rick would enjoy the release of steam as much as he would, but they had a job to do, and explaining to the boss that they missed their target because they were busy pounding each other into the ground was not high on his list of things to do in this lifetime.
“She wouldn’t come back here. Jenna’s a soldier. She’d know The Agency would move Jason immediately. She was already suspicious about his healing skills. No way would she risk coming back here. She’d have to know it’s a trap.”
“If I have learned one thing about Davies since he took over,” Zane said as he adjusted in his seat again, “it’s to never question why he does something. The man is right too often for it not to be some freaky extrasensory skill at work.”
Rick nodded his head in agreement. Precognitive skills weren’t uncommon amongst the agents working for The Agency, but most saw only thirty seconds or less into the future. Considering Davies’ success in predicting the whereabouts of the rogues, Zane was beginning to wonder if Davies’ skills were far more advanced. Considering that Theresa and her siblings Dana, Alana, and Jason seemed to be rewriting the record books every other day, it was definitely something to consider.
“Do you believe the rumor about Jason being able to heal injuries with his telekinetic skills?”
Rick shook his head as he answered. “I don’t know, but considering Dana’s recovery, I’m guessing it’s true. If you take into account the way Davies moved him into The Agency medical division soon after and how we’re still watching Jason’s former address five months later, I’d say it’s a pretty fair assumption.”
Zane nodded in agreement as he swept the area with his empathic senses. He felt the harried emotions of the young mother struggling to hold on to a toddler in the middle of a tantrum, the calm determination of a young man probably on his way to an important business meeting, and the excitement of a group of children on a school excursion. Their teacher seemed subdued, tired, or maybe bored.
He glanced at the figure draped in a heavy coat limping slowly toward the front door of the apartments, and it took a moment to realize he couldn’t sense the person at all. He shook his head, doubting his own eyes, and was ridiculously relieved when Rick glanced at him and said, “I don’t sense him either.”
One hand on the door handle, Zane checked the safety on his handgun with the other.
They moved together, their teamwork smooth from years of practice. Zane circled to the left, Rick on the right, both of them heading toward the figure who’d just reached the doorway. It seemed to take the person great effort to force the heavy glass door open, but he managed to slip through, and it closed with a loud thunk.
Still moving stealthily, Zane approached the door and leaned on the handle to gain entry, momentarily confused when it failed to open.
“He locked it,” he growled as he rummaged through his pockets to find the key, losing precious time. Not being able to sense the guy meant they relied on their eyes and ears, and Zane’s eyes were telling him the guy had just stumbled into the elevator.
“Damn,” Rick swore. “If he’s not going up to Jason’s apartment, we’re definitely going to lose him.”
Zane found the key, crammed it into the lock, and heaved the door open. They pushed through quickly, bypassed the elevator, and hit the stairs. Seven flights wasn’t really a workout to either of them, so they made it in pretty good time. Quietly slipping through the doorway to the seventh floor, Rick took the lead, their mission now to apprehend the human they could not sense. The only people they’d ever encountered who couldn’t be sensed by extrasensory skills were rogues working for the same people who’d held Theresa’s mother, Lydia, against her will for thirty years. Rick and Zane couldn’t take any chances. If this person was here, it was a very good chance lives were in danger.
As they approached the corner that would take them to Jason’s former apartment, Rick stopped when they both heard a low moan. Zane couldn’t sense anyone, but there was definitely someone there.
Rick stole a glance around the corner and then moved quickly. Zane followed close behind as Rick aimed his gun at the person slouched against the doorway. Another low moan of pain filled the hallway.
The woman struggled to lift her head, her matted hair covering her face as she cried in agony. “Jase, I need your help.”
She seemed to lose consciousness before she managed to see either of them.
“Shit, that’s Jenna,” Rick said as he held his gun pointed at the still form and grabbed his cell phone from his pocket. Zane resisted the urge to step forward and assess her injuries. Jenna had pulled this stunt before, and the outcome could’ve been a lot worse if Jason had trusted the injuries he’d seen.
“Caleb,” Rick said into the phone. “Jenna finally turned up, but by the looks of her, she needs an ambulance.”
Zane only half-listened to the conversation, his own empathic skills straining to determine any information from the woman in front of them. To the naked eye, she certainly seemed severely injured, but if Zane had learned one thing from his years working for The Agency, things were rarely what they seemed.
As Rick ended the phone call, he nodded his agreement to Zane and then stood back so that he could get a good aim at Jenna without needing to shoot through his partner. Zane moved cautiously toward her prone form, but lost all sense of reality when he saw the bullet wounds. Jenna was literally soaked in her own blood. A quick look suggested that she had been shot several times in the back and shoulder, the type of injuries one would get when running away from someone with a gun. Or maybe several someones.
Rick had dialed the phone again even before Zane had thought the words.
“Caleb, send Jason.” He nodded in agitation. “I realize the risk, but without him Jenna is not going to make it. Send him now.”
Chapter Two
Several hours later Rick was still covered in Jenna’s blood. He and Zane had spent too many heart-wrenching minutes trying to stem the flow of blood from Jenna’s multiple wounds. She’d stopped breathing more than once, and only their medic training had been the difference between life and death. How the woman had even managed to make it all the way to Jason’s apartment with such serious injuries was a complete mystery.
Rick understood the value of mental toughness, but even he couldn’t imagine traveling so far with so many bullet wounds. Jenna was truly an extraordinary human being, and if Cody’s report had any truth to it, she was also a very dangerous human being.
But at the moment, she was just a woman hovering between life and death. Jason had finally arrived and sealed the bullet wounds, but her blood loss had damaged her heart. At this very moment, Jason continued to repair her heart so that the blood transfusions could work successfully. Even with all his skills—skills that proved the rumors true—there was still a chance Jenna could die.
Rick shook his head, wondering why the possible death of one woman he’d never known, a woman who was essentially the enemy, would affect him so greatly.
Zane slid down the wall to sit beside him. “You feel it, too,” he said. It wasn’t a question. They knew each other well enough to know what the other was thinking, feeling. Zane closed his eyes tiredly and leaned his head back against the wall.
They sat silently for a long time. Finally, Jason came through the doorway and stood in fr
ont of them. Rick struggled to his feet, confused by the lethargy he felt. Zane looked up tiredly but stayed where he was.
“She’s okay. I’ve sedated her, but she should be back to her normal, dangerous self when she wakes up. How about you two? Any injuries?”
“No,” Zane said, answering for both of them. “It’s all her blood, not ours.”
“I’ve sent a sample to the lab. I’ll let you know if there’s anything to be concerned about, but considering she’s lived her entire life under the rogues’ control, I’m fairly confident she’s disease-free. Next time use your first aid kits, please. The gloves and resuscitation kits are to protect you from serious diseases. You took an unnecessary risk today.”
Rick nodded his head in agreement even though he didn’t feel the same way. If they’d delayed, even just a few minutes, Jenna would’ve died, of that he was certain. Normally, he would’ve followed protocols, but saving Jenna had just seemed too important.
Jason turned to leave, but then turned back to say something. Rick didn’t know Jason very well, but the guy seemed to hesitate, like he chose his words carefully. “Thank you for saving her. Even after everything that has happened, she is still my sister.”
“Can we see her?” The words popped out of his mouth before he could bite them back. Jason studied him closely, a puzzled expression on his face, but he nodded. “I’ll show you where she is.”
