The Men of Elite Metal: Platinum, Zinc, & Francium

by Rebecca Royce

  “And what happened to Elijah?” Her voice wavered.

  “He had to be gone.”

  “Just like that?”

  He cracked his neck, and the muscles in his jaw clenched. “Just like that.”

  There weren’t words for her pain. She’d thought when he’d first vanished, she knew what it was to hurt. Only nothing compared.

  “I guess…” How should she say what she needed to say? How did she make her lips form syllables? “Did you think about saying no? Was doing so an option? Did they force you?” Please let him say yes, they’d force him. Please let him…

  “It was a choice. I decided to stay. We all were given the option.”

  Everything inside of her went numb. “How could you do it? I mean, I thought we really had something. I loved you. And I believed you felt the same for me.”

  “Rose.” His voice cracked. “What you’ve been through over the last few days, it’s a touch of how fucked things are out there. I’ve seen things you should never have to imagine. You live in the world.” He nodded toward Kent. “So does he. My job in life, it’s not to be a doctor. I knew it every day when I studied. Today as you see me, it’s who I am. Platinum. I put myself in the way. I say no, you can’t blow up that city today, no the sun will come up tomorrow. It’s not pretty. It’s not nice. It’s what it is. There was a man still out there who blew three teams halfway to hell, and only a handful of us crawled away. That bastard got away with nuclear material. I’m one of the men and women who says no more.”

  Her tongue felt thick in her mouth. She could barely get the words out. “And so it was bye, Rose. No word. No earthly idea of what happened to you.”

  He visibly swallowed. “I’m not going to make excuses. How it went was how it had to go.”

  “I see.”

  For the first time she really did.

  Kent stirred, his eyes fluttering open. Aware of their connection, she compared their mirroring attributes. No doubt about it, the resemblance was there. She’d always loved Kent. She cared for all of her kids, but the lonely lost child with the attention issues touched her heart. Like father, like son.

  “Dad?”

  Platinum kneeled down. “Hey buddy. Did you rest?”

  “I knew you were real. I saw you from the playground. You looked like me.”

  The then five-year-old proved more intuitive than she did.

  “Kent.” She turned to him. “Would you do me a favor? It’s very important.”

  Her serious student nodded quickly. “Sure.”

  “Put your hands over your ears and sing very loudly. Don’t stop till I point at you.” She waited a beat to make sure he heard her. “Do it now.”

  The child started to sing the national anthem. Fine. That would work.

  “Platinum,” she spit out his name. He needed to hear her.

  “Rose?”

  “If you hurt this child, I don’t care how tough and lethal you are, I’ll kill you. With my bare hands.” She kept his eye contact. He should see how serious she was. Eli had always been able to read her. Let Platinum do it now.

  “Things have always changed. I mean…I’m not good at the sharing part. Rose, I need to tell you how the last year has been...”

  She held up her hand. “No. Nothing has changed. Other than Kent. The rest of it, consider it—us over.”

  She waited for the pain to erupt. Nothing. No emotions assaulted her.

  The numbness was a good thing…right?

  1 year earlier

  His apartment had been emptied out. She stood in the doorway and stared at the hollowness within the four walls. The sounds of Manhattan muted. She could hear none of it.

  When the landlord told her Eli had left, she didn’t believe him. Moving trucks? How was it possible?

  Rose leaned against the doorway and tried to catch her breath. Why did it feel as if she’d run a marathon, when all she’d done was take an elevator to the fourth floor of Eli’s building?

  She grabbed her phone with shaking hands and somehow managed to click on his name in her contact list to dial him. It went straight to voicemail, and instead of hearing his sweet voice, a computer message told her she dialed the wrong number?

  What? She tried again and could barely breathe when the same message happened. Where could he have gone? He wouldn’t have moved without telling her? Had he changed apartments? Surprising her by moving in with her?

  She bit her shaking fingernail.

  The school—they would know where he’d gone. She rushed out and headed toward Eli’s medical school. Somehow, she must have hailed a taxi, although she held no memory of doing so. The next time she cued in, she was standing outside of the admission building, crying with her head in her hands.

  “Okay, Rose, pull it together.”

  She wiped at her face with her hands, making her palms wet. Another ten minutes, and she would be late for work. Whatever this mess turned out to be, she couldn’t get fired over it. Elijah would be furious with her. He probably had a very good reason for where he was and why his apartment was empty and the school had no records of him. Yet the wicked coil of doubt wouldn’t leave her alone. Who was Elijah?

  Don’t you trust me, sweetheart?

  Yes, she did. She’d given herself to him totally the weekend before. Total abandon bounded within his ropes. Whatever he wanted, it had given her bliss to obey.

  The woman at the front desk hadn’t wanted to help her. Privacy laws meant they couldn’t tell her if Elijah existed in their records.

  “Ma’am.” Rose actually took the woman’s hand in hers and squeezed. She knew it was weird, her behavior broke a ton of social codes. “I love this man. I think he loves me. We connected. And now he seems to be missing. His apartment is empty. His cell phone is disconnected. I am not crazy. I need to find out. I promise not to stalk him or show up here every day, only please, please help me.”

  The woman’s eyes were huge. She opened and closed her mouth twice before she spoke. “My husband left.”

  “Oh yes?” Rose tried to smile. “So then you understand. I mean, I don’t have a clue what’s happened here.”

  “I’ll help you.” She dropped Rose’s hand. “They could fire me. . .”

  “I’ll never tell a soul.” She felt as if she swore an oath on a sacred document. For as long as she lived, she’d never get—she looked at the woman’s nametag, which read Lori—fired.

  The woman typed furiously on the computer’s keyboard as if she meant to punish it with her strong keystrokes. A piece of her dyed blonde hair fell over her face, and Lori blew it away with a gust of breath.

  “What did you tell me his name was?”

  “Elijah Jones.” She bit down on another nail. So much for her not chewing all of her nails off anymore.

  Lori’s eyebrows furrowed. “Spelled the normal way?”

  “Yes.” She nodded. “Why, what’s wrong?”

  “Are you sure he went to school here?” Lori’s kind blue eyes met her own. A lone tear slipped from Rose’s eye before she could stop it.

  “Yes.” Or maybe she wasn’t sure. He’d told her he’d gone here, she’d met him outside of class. Did she know for sure he went to school? No, of course not.

  She wanted to sink to the floor, only she couldn’t do so. This was neither the time nor the place to break down. Not to mention, she hadn’t called in sick. She actually needed to go to work if she didn’t want to be fired.

  “Thanks so much for helping, Lori. I’ll never tell.”

  Rose shoved her hands in her pockets and made her way outside. One day earlier, she’d been in absolute bliss convinced they would be together forever. How could today have happen? Could things really go to hell so quickly?

  Now

  Rose looked around at the room Platinum labeled hers. Neither of them managed to speak directly to each other since she’d pronounced nothing changed. They’d both spoken to Kent, who looked as if someone had taken all the color from his cheeks.

&n
bsp; He must be so confused. She wanted to help him. Did they have psychologists somewhere around? Ones who could help children?

  A knock on the door startled her, and she walked over. “Who is it?”

  “Me,” Platinum’s voice called through the door. “I can show you some identification through the key hole if you want.”

  She snickered. “Like I’d believe any of it anyway.” Rose unlocked the door and let the man who destroyed her and continued to confound her step through.

  “It was a joke.” He shrugged.

  “I got it. So was my response. Sort of.”

  Wow, things were off between them. The ease they’d once had long gone, drowned by lies and the conspiracies she might never understand.

  “Right.”

  He nodded, not taking his eyes off her. What did he see when he looked? Had she gained or lost weight? Changed her hair? Was he glad he’d managed to escape a destiny with her before things went too far askew?

  Was there such a thing as too far? If they’d come for him two years later when they’d potentially been married, would he still have disappeared?

  “Did you need something?” Because if he didn’t, if he’d come simply to stare at her and make her hate her betraying-her body for still wanting him despite how shitty he behaved, then he could go to hell. And fast.

  “I wanted to tell you what I did on the phone earlier. Warbucks, the man who set this thing up, he’s obviously really connected. You’re golden. The authorities aren’t going to charge you with kidnapping or anything. They’re setting up custody so he’s with me. However it will end up working.”

  Her mouth went dry. “Thank you. I really was worried about it. He doesn’t belong to me. I shouldn’t have taken him and run.”

  “Yes. You should have.” The seriousness of his tone made her stare at his solid gaze. “I’ll always be in awe of your bravery.”

  “Don’t say things like that, Platinum.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “Why not?”

  “They make me hate you less.”

  “Oh, Rose.” He groaned. “You hate me, and all I can think about is getting you tied up and under me until I can figure out how I can make you forgive me for being a total ass.”

  Well then…what was she supposed to do with that?

  7

  Now

  Platinum stood watching his opponent bumbling with her equipment, and if he weren’t determined to blow her miserable head off, he’d actually feel sorry for the fool. Her husband had been the brains of the operation.

  He shook his head. Dora took the bait left for her and arrived where Platinum wanted her. A few scattered addresses partially burned in the fireplace, and she thought Plat moved them all to another more remote cabin in Texas.

  Foolish woman. Her husband would not have made the same mistake. He’d been a worthy adversary. One of Red Wolf’s top men, Platinum hadn’t been certain which of them would survive the night. He’d been glad to dispense the world from the evil of Bernardo Rodgers.

  Even if delivering the final shot hadn’t actually calmed the demon inside of him which threatened always to erupt from his very soul. No, there had only been a single person, one time, when quiet finally happened, and he’d chosen to leave her in New York City. She waited an hour away. Hating him.

  His last foolish remark had been among the stupidest of his life. He’d told her he’d been imagining her tied up? Brilliant, Plat.

  The woman he’d come to think of before he’d left New York as his little love shoved him from her room without the slightest response. He hadn’t known she could push like that.

  He sighed, and the beeper in his ear sounded. It was Copper. She was going to want to be informed what he intended to do, since he’d gotten the woman to their location.

  Plat leaned against the tree. The fact Dora held no idea she was being watched…

  No, she’d killed The Boy’s grandmother and terrified both Kent and Rose. She needed to be eliminated. A quick bullet through the head wasn’t enough. She had to know what was about to happen to her. Kindness be damned.

  Three months earlier…

  Bernardo Rodgers. At last in Plat’s scope. Silence moved through the night. Other people didn’t understand what he meant when he spoke of silence, as if it could be personified. All that meant to him was Silence hadn’t spoken to them yet.

  She’d been speaking to him his whole life. And now she moved. The hazy feeling he got when he knew the shot was at hand—the time when his senses moved in perfect coordination with his mind. The moment when the world fell to Silence.

  His team might not understand it. He’d bet money Bernardo did.

  The other man was six feet tall. Platinum towered over him. Not that they’d be close to each other on the field today to really judge.

  A drop of rain hit Plat’s head. This area, remote as it was in the middle of Nevada—ballsy for the other man to have picked a location in the middle of the United States—had been set out for training some of Red Wolf’s operatives. Here, with little around to distract him, Bernardo could practice without chance of getting caught.

  Only the other sniper had been, and he didn’t know it yet.

  Considering the role Rodgers played in the nightmare which been Operation Phoenix, and more specifically the picking off Bernardo did of part of Chrome’s team—one by one—while Plat had been stuck behind enemy fire with a dying spotter and black smoke obscuring his vision—it was about time Rodgers got what was coming to him.

  Beyond time…

  The wind tickled his ear, and his vision sharpened. He needed to act. If Bernardo saw him, he’d be dead, and since the other man managed to singlehandedly take out a caravan of school children trying to go to a refugee camp in Uganda the year before, Plat didn’t think he’d hesitate to blow his head off.

  Revenge could taste so sweet.

  Silence moved…and he fired.

  Rodgers fell to the ground, pieces of his brain scattering on the desert sand beneath him.

  Plat stood up, packing up his weapon in the way he’d been trained. Every movement controlled, every action from muscle memory. Plat expected to have to kill two people that afternoon. Usually, Rodgers brought his spotter with him, though he apparently travelled alone to practice. If the intel was correct, the other man used his wife as a spotter.

  They must have some kind of interesting relationship.

  He shrugged. She was a widow. He’d follow up with Steele and see if he wanted him to track the spotter down or leave it. Without Rodgers to assist, she wouldn’t be much of a danger to anyone anymore.

  Silence retreated, and he could hear the birds chirping in the distance. A plane sped by somewhere in the clouds. The sounds of life, the sounds of normal.

  He’d known a touch of that life. Nine months earlier with his Rose. For once, he let the thought travel through his mind. It had become a second full time job to not let himself remember her.

  Usually, he would leave. The bullet he used to take out Bernardo would be untraceable by any authority looking into it. He’d taken great pains to not be seen by anyone when he’d come to the location. Certainly, Bernardo hadn’t seen him.

  He walked the mile to where Bernardo lay dead. Squatting down, he looked at the man who caused so much pain in the lives of his crew.

  Dead bodies always looked the same. With the soul gone, the shells resembled something out of a movie set. Not real anymore, at least to Platinum. It didn’t seem to matter where he found them. The battlefield, the dead homeless man on the subway in New York, his father at the funeral home.

  The second they died, everything about the physicality of their bodies changed.

  He’d wanted to help people for a change. Not continue to put them into the ground.

  Except some folks needed to die for everyone else to live.

  He shook his head, staring down at Bernardo’s unseeing eyes. “You didn’t even see it coming. You should have. Fuck, you should have.”


  Or maybe that was the way it was for people like them—even if he didn’t want to put himself in the same category as the dead man—there were too many things in common to deny the comparison entirely. Perhaps they all took a bullet in the back of the head some day when they least expected it.

  Would Rose be sad if she heard of his death?

  He shook his head. “God damn it, Platinum, stop thinking about her. She’s moved on. She has someone else. And it’s better for her you left. She hates you the way you deserve to be despised.”

  By all that was holy, he needed to get out of there. His bones ached, and he felt a million years old. Maybe he needed a physical. Something could have gone terribly wrong with his endocrine system.

  He kicked a rock as he stormed toward the exit path he mapped out to return to his car. Shit. Double shit. There was nothing physically wrong with him. He had a full work up every six months. No, this was some fucked up psychological breakdown because he missed his girlfriend.

  Ached for her soft skin, the sound of her voice while she talked so he didn’t have to, and the way her eyes met his in the bedroom when for a single second, they were completely as one.

  He made his choice, and he lived with it. If he hadn’t taken Warbucks up on his offer, something was going to have to change anyway. He loved medical school, except the constant nightmares and the inability to sleep when he wasn’t with Rose made studying extremely difficult. There were only so many runs through Central Park and cups of coffee he could use to stay awake.

  Maybe it should have surprised him—although it didn’t—that as soon as he’d joined back up with the others to take down Red Wolf, he’d slept like a baby. Twelve hours straight sometimes.

  Yet, he felt nothing except tired. Could loneliness actually be pressing down on his bones?