by Harte, Marie
Sabrina patted her rounded belly. “God willing, D, we have girls.”
“I don’t know.” Derrick glanced at little Alison cooing at Ace. “She has him wrapped around her tiny fingers. Can I handle another female tying me in knots?” His pointed glance at her made her blush.
Roane had it all. Friends, family, love. But seeing the new guys and their troubles brought it home to him that safety was an illusion. His team had been through tough times, and they no doubt would be again.
“So tell us, Roane. What happened?” Doc asked.
The room quieted, even the toddlers hushing. Jacob laid his dark head on his mother’s shoulder and sucked his thumb. Man, Roane loved that boy.
He coughed to clear the emotion from his thick throat. “They came back. Our guys spotted them in a stolen van—no surprised there—picking up something from a row of lockers at the beach.”
Hale frowned. “But they didn’t come back to us with it.”
“Not yet,” McKinley said. “Remember, they’re not part of us. Not really. They have to do this their way first.”
“You’re defending them?” Paige, his mate, asked. “I’m surprised. I thought you’d be all for pulling them in and letting you and General Shield’s men handle this.”
Roane silently agreed. This kind of operation was right up McKinley’s alley.
“Normally I would. And you know we’ll be there to take charge once Mike”— General Shields—“determines we need to. But there’s something to be said about wiping the slate clean, personally.”
The guys all nodded. They’d been there, wanting to punish Dr. Elliot Pearl and his underlings themselves, to know things had been handled. “They probably don’t trust the government either,” Roane said. “Remember, the guys we’re talking about are all ex-cons and thieves.”
“Except for Bailey,” Doc added. “How do we know she’s okay?”
The one fly in the ointment. Hell, one? Make that another one.
“Well, Hayashi pointed her out to Gideon and Alex. That has to mean something good, right?” Kelly asked.
They all trusted the psychic Circ, a member of the ex-SEAL team down South.
“It could.” Roane paused. “I can’t say for certain, but Alex and Gideon seemed a lot more settled than the last time we’d seen them. And you know how taking mates helped us.”
Ace nodded. “Got a point.”
“Yeah, but one female for all the guys? They’re not all mated to her, are they?” Derrick asked. “I mean, finding Caitlyn helped us a lot, but I was still a little iffy until Sabrina.”
“A little?” Hale snorted.
“Up yours, Rogers,” Derrick snarled, having tempered his fuck you comments because of the little ones at the table.
Hale chuckled.
“You know,” Doc said slowly, “you Circs are evolving. I’ve been in touch with other experts over the past year especially, and we’re finding that some groups are clicking in a different way. Taking that mating heat and condensing it, making the need for just one female a necessity rather than one for each member. Who knows? She might complete their circle, or she could just stabilize it.”
“Or she could be held against her will by big, strong monsters,” Sabrina said, no give in her tone. “You need to find out. She should be there of her own free will, not because we were too lazy to help her.”
“There’s my girl.” Derrick hugged her. “Still a little boss under all the baby.”
“Shut up, Derrick.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
The others laughed and grinned.
Roane sighed. “I know, I know. Let’s eat, see what the tail on them reports back, then we’ll head in. Okay?” He stroked his son’s head, taken with the tiny purr of contentment. He kissed his mate. “Now pass the burgers.”
***
Unbeknownst to Circe’s Recruits, the federal agent tailing Gideon made another call after contacting Roane.
“I swear. I have no idea what was in that suitcase. I couldn’t get closer without being made. You know they can smell people. I told you I wasn’t the guy to follow. They know me from the gym.” Where he’d had his ass handed to him by Elijah Ortiz.
A pause, then the agent paled. “Fine. I’ll let the others know. But you have to pay the money tomorrow. I’m on the hook for a lot, and they said they’ll hurt my wife if I don’t give them fifty grand by tomorrow night.”
After being promised his payment, he prayed they’d follow through. Then he called a few more people and set the plan in motion. God bless those poor bastards tomorrow.
Amelia Norton, he’d come to learn a little too late, didn’t know the meaning of the word mercy.
Chapter Twelve
Gideon sat by the side entrance to Amelia Norton’s private office in her mega warehouse. The thing had shut down for the night, but as they well knew, action in Dr. Lang’s laboratory never stopped. Lang’s people tortured, abused, and killed twenty-four/seven in the name of science.
Dickhead.
Gideon turned to Bailey, sandwiched between him and Alex. The woman had balls, he’d give her that. She wore the same black utilities they’d all appropriated from the government idiots tailing them. Like they didn’t know they’d been followed.
Christ. Eli was right. Uncle Sam needed a better system of hiring men with guns.
No telling what Norton had in store for them, but Gideon and the team were more than ready to find out. They’d set the explosives near the sewer lines connecting the underground of her warehouse to a network of tunnels.
In his earpiece, he heard Carter give the go-ahead. “Money’s been transferred. She’ll know within minutes, but the funds just…ah. Disappeared. Let’s go.”
“Cameras?”
“Hold on. Okay, they’re now offline.”
“You know what to do.”
Carter had siphoned the money. Cameras were down. Time to infiltrate and beat Amelia, Lang, and Smith at their own game.
But inside her locked office, Amelia sat waiting for them. She lounged behind her desk, wearing a pink designer suit, and looked like a million bucks. Around her a dozen armed guards stood waiting. Gideon sniffed but didn’t scent Circ. He didn’t buy it.
“She’s blocking them somehow,” Bailey whispered.
Alex nodded. “The doorknob was clean. Too clean. Only Norton’s thoughts of her desk and nothing else. She’s got to have someone shielding for her.”
Great. They’d known it would get messy though. Gideon stood straighter, going against his instincts and letting Bailey stand next to him and Alex. But that was part of the plan. To show Bailey meant less to him, to his group, than the others might think. Their ace in the hole, a pretty woman who contained a veritable beast inside.
Amelia knew Bailey to be Circ. In fact, she watched Bailey with keen attention. But the woman had no idea what Bailey was capable of. Hell, Gideon didn’t think she knew either. But his beast did.
He gave a wide smile. “You know who we are. We want Lang and Smith. You can do whatever the fuck you want.” Truth. He’d let Bailey deal with her.
One of the men next to her whispered something, and she nodded. “I’m sorry to say Dr. Lang and Mr. Smith are occupied at the moment.”
“Move,” he murmured into his mic.
“Heard it.” Eli said into Gideon’s ear piece. “We’re there.” In the lower levels, courtesy of Katie’s blueprints. Gideon heard snarls and gunfire, and tuned it out.
He focused on Amelia’s snakelike charm. She didn’t blink, and her skin looked too smooth to be natural. Further study showed tiny, interlocking scales. Something a Circ, with his enhanced vision, would be able to see.
“You took the formula?” he asked her.
Alex stilled, gave a subtle nod.
“I did. And it’s fabulous. I have you and your friends to thank.” She nodded at them, her gaze still drawn to Bailey. “But then, you have your own magic formula. A beautiful woman available at your fuck and call.”
“Clever.” Bailey snorted. “But that kind of crudeness is what I’d expect from an immoral trust fund baby. Worth millions, but no more than that. You needed science to keep you pretty because you’re so ugly inside.” Bailey cocked her head. “Oh, wow. You need that pain, don’t you? Something to fill the emptiness that keeps you up at night.”
Gideon didn’t know what Bailey had sensed, but she’d hit a nerve.
“You little bitch.” Amelia sneered. Then she looked at Alex and gave him a cold, calculating smile. Scary that the woman actually had sex appeal, in an icy, will-bite-your-head-off-after-sex kind of way.
“Katie Sheridan.” She dragged one perfectly manicured nail over her ruby red lips. “Such a waste. She didn’t go quickly, you know.”
Alex tensed. “How do you know Katie?”
“Dear, I know everyone. I know Katie was your sister. That she fucked like a bitch in heat when our Circs had their way with her. That she died in pain, befitting the traitor she was.”
Alex’s eyes glowed. He fisted his hands, his nails lengthening into claws.
The men around Amelia raised their guns. The same man who’d whispered in her ear previously whispered something else.
Gideon wanted to drop him with a psychic blast, but he waited, conscious he had to make the right choice or they’d be royally screwed. Trust Amelia to line her defenses with secret psychics soldiers.
“Did you know she cried for her brother to come rescue her?” Amelia sighed. “Where were you, Alex? Too busy fucking Gideon to help your baby sister, I suppose. So much blood. It took forever to clean. But I think I have a few of her teeth leftover, as a souvenir. Would you like one as a keepsake?” She reached into her drawer, and Alex flew at her.
“Alex, no.” Bailey tried to reach for him, but he evaded her.
Gideon took a step in Amelia’s direction, but he needn’t have bothered. Her soldiers rallied around her even as they shot at Alex. Full of holes, bullets tailored to go through Circ skin, apparently, Alex went down. Three of her men dragged him closer while the rest kept their weapons on Gideon and Bailey.
“So pretty. It’s so sad he’s such a prick,” Amelia said sadly. She rose and crossed to Alex, clanging as her platinum bangles clinked against one another. “I could have used a man like you in my stable. You’re strong, handsome.” She reached Alex and dug her fingers into his wounds, her nails making them wider.
Alex coughed up blood even as he expelled a few rounds from his body and started to heal.
Bailey stepped closer and received a bullet in the leg. She screamed and went down.
Amelia shook her head, watching the scene. “So weak. How is it you’re Circ, girl?” Then she turned back to Alex and stroked his head. “I think I might keep you around. Maybe you can breed me better cells to work with. I do love your eyes.”
Alex groaned and closed his eyes, then in a burst of speed, grabbed Amelia by her bracelets.
“Get off me!” She tried to pry herself free, but Alex clung like a burr.
He stared at one of the men near her desk, with a gun drawn. “That one.” Not the one who’d been whispering.
Gideon didn’t need further urging. He shot a blast between the man’s eyes, working hard to penetrate the psychic shield protecting the enemy from his mind while dealing with the pain of bullets tearing into his flesh. And as he probed mentally, he ran at his opponent, intending to decimate him physically as well. Only after he’d shoved a fist through the man’s body was he able to ram through his mind.
Once done, he dropped the rest of the human guards with ease, all of them lying unconscious on the ground.
Bailey trembled, still in pain because she’d taken a few more hits, and Amelia took advantage. She ripped out of Alex’s hold and yanked Bailey into her arms.
“You stupid, stupid people. You’re no match for me. Never could be. You’re nothing, You’re—”
Bailey rose and bit the woman’s arm. Amelia shrieked, and Bailey turned on the pain. She kicked and scratched, doing her best to mark up Amelia’s perfect face. A face built by Circ genes, apparently, because she healed immediately from each wound.
“Don’t kill her yet,” Gideon cautioned Bailey as he and Alex hurried to Amelia’s computers. They plugged in the device Carter had given them. “Carter, we’re in,” Gideon said into his earpiece. “Are the feds there?”
“Yeah,” Eli answered for Carter. “Carter’s working right now.”
“Got it!” Carter said. “I’m in her system.”
Gideon wanted to smile. “Eli, what’s the situation?”
“As we suspected. Lang and Smith are gone.”
“Shit.” That smile he’d been feeling faded. Gideon had known they had no chance at stopping the entire program, but a part of him had hoped to nail either Lang or Smith.
Eli continued, “Most of the files and almost all of their test subjects gone too. Only a few left behind, those almost dead. You have another two minutes before the Feds break through the security locks Carter reinforced. Hurry up. We’re out.”
Explosions rocked the structure. Nothing that would kill anyone inside, but enough damage to the building that it would come down if not fixed within a few days.
Gideon had known getting into Katie’s locker wouldn’t help as much as he’d hoped. They had a federal tail, one they hadn’t been able to shake after picking it up after the campground. For all he knew, they’d witnessed the mating heat at its peak. He hadn’t exactly been in control of himself, more concerned with bonding with the group, and Bailey, in particular.
He couldn’t let himself care about that. It was done. The Circs belonged to him now.
But the missed chance to nail Lang and Smith…that hurt. Fuck. Rod and Ollie deserved better.
“You’re going to pay for that,” Bailey roared. Amelia had pulled out a hunk of Bailey’s hair.
“We need to know what she knows,” Gideon reminded her.
“We know enough,” Alex said, still pale.
“You okay?” Poor Alex had taken a lot of rounds to the chest.
“Yeah. Still healing. Hurts like a bitch. But I felt her. She doesn’t know where Smith and Lang are.” Alex gave an evil grin. “Because Smith double-crossed her. He’s been working with Lang all along.”
“What?” Amelia shrieked and earned a scratch from eye to eye that blinded her momentarily.
Bailey in a mad was something to see. What a sexy beast. Gideon gave her a thumbs up. She gave him the finger. He laughed.
“Yeah. Smith must have given her one of those bracelets, because I saw him and Lang talking about taking over once she’s dead. And we weren’t part of the plan to take her out.” Alex glanced at her security, still lying unmoving on the floor. “They were.”
“Liars!” Amelia had bloody tears streaming from her face. Bailey wouldn’t leave her alone. They fought even harder when Amelia tried to crawl free.
Bailey hammered her with fists and claws, tore the woman’s shoulder free from its socket, then cracked her spine.
At that, Amelia stopped moving and moaned.
“Nice work.” Gideon didn’t feel an ounce of regret.
“She killed babies, Gideon.” Bailey’s eyes glowed with righteous fury. “I read that bit in her files.”
He frowned. “Seriously?”
“Yeah. All those helpless lives to stay young.”
“She was wrong,” Alex agreed. “But Bailey, she took from embryonic stem cells. Those were four or five day old cells, at best.”
“And she had Circs and mutants rape the psychic ‘breeders’ from level four. Women like Katie.”
Alex blinked. “What?”
“I took that file out, so you wouldn’t see it and do something foolish.” Bailey left Amelia on the floor, gasping for breath, and reached out to Alex. She cupped his cheek with a bloody hand. “I’m so sorry. But if Katie hadn’t died when she did, she would have had a very bleak future to look forward to.”
“
Shit.” Alex breathed hard, then moved to Amelia. He stared down at her, passing a judgment Gideon clearly agreed with. But being Alex, he couldn’t finish the job. “Drown in your own blood, bitch.”
Gideon shook his head. He’d seen too many Circs and people less than human come back from death. Hell, he wasn’t sure he’d killed Myers, and he’d disemboweled the guy. Gideon joined his packmate took a good look at Amelia, gasping for breath.
Then he took care of the problem.
Both Alex and Bailey gaped at him.
“What? She’s not gonna come back from that.”
They all stared at her head sitting some distance from her body.
Bailey swallowed audibly. “Guess not.”
The loud shriek of an alarm warned them to move.
“I said you have another two minutes,” Eli snarled into Gideon’s ear piece.
Gideon cringed and adjusted the volume. Then he grabbed Carter’s gizmo from Amelia’s computer and followed Alex and Bailey out the side exit, toward the roof.
Once through the stairway, they saw a helicopter on the helipad—and he froze at sight of all five Circe’s Recruits.
“Get what you came for?” Roane asked.
Gideon nodded, not sure he could overtake them even with Alex and Bailey’s help. Roane’s guys were a true unit, badass, and they’d had years to come together as a team.
“Then get in.” Roane motioned to the helicopter. “You need to move. We’ll contain the Feds.”
Alex and Bailey beelined for the chopper. Gideon paused by Roane and stuck out a hand. “Thanks.”
Roane shook it, then dragged him closer and stared into his eyes. “You all okay? Everyone with you because they want to be?”
They both looked to Bailey, who sat frowning at them. “Hurry up, Gideon! We don’t have all damn day.”
Gideon smiled. “Yeah. I don’t think I could own that woman if I wanted to.”
Roane sighed. “Thank God. Now I can get Sabrina and the others off my ass.”
