Chapter 3 #2
She glanced at the door. Cursed under her breath. “The others are coming. We’re out of time. You both need to leave. Now.” She glanced at me from the corner of her eye and there was softness in her gaze. Worry? “Please, Ethan. It’s not safe for you here.”
“””””
Satisfied, she returned to the exam table and leaned down, glaring at the item she’d attached to the victim’s spine as if irritated. “Come on. Come on.”
Stubborn woman didn’t answer my question, but the look she gave me was damn near an eye roll. “You need to leave. You both need to leave. Please. Just go. We don’t have time for this.”
“What’s your name, Doctor? I’m going to report you to…” Doctor Pearson’s threat melted into silence as we all watched needlelike protrusions emerge from the crystal and wiggle into the dead cyborg’s cold flesh like small worms. The crystal flashed, then lit up with multiple streaks of moving light.
“Where did you get that?” She definitely wasn’t FBI. They didn’t have that kind of tech.
Glass shattered. We spun to see three massive cyborgs step through what remained of the broken doors. Doctor Pearson was the closest. The woman stood next to me on the opposite side of the exam table.
This must be the others she was talking about. They were not CIA. Or FBI. They weren’t even human.
Aliens. Had to be.
The woman glanced at them. Instead of panicking, she stared straight at the largest of the three and scolded him. “That was unnecessary.”
“More fun.” The first guy’s voice was deeper than any human’s and had a robotic overlay that made him sound more machine than man.
He shrugged, grinning at the woman like he was trying to charm her.
“You shouldn’t have locked the door, my lady.
” He took his time, looked her over from head to toe. “Who are you? Who sent you?”
She didn’t respond as I reached for my sidearm. How dare he fucking look at her like that? Like he wanted her. Like she was going to be his.
“Don’t.” The woman and the robot man spoke at the exact same time, though neither of them was looking at me. I froze as their gazes locked like they were in an old Wild West movie, waiting to see who would draw their revolver first. The buzzing overhead lights were suddenly far too loud.
“Doctor Pearson. Detective. I need you both to come with me.” With a sleight of hand I found impressive, she removed the crystal device from the victim’s spine—leaving a gaping hole in his back—and slipped the object into her lab coat’s pocket without breaking eye contact with our visitors. “They just want the body.”
At her words, the giant and his two accomplices visibly relaxed, shifting their weapons to rest across their arms, rather than pointed at us.
“Who are they?” I whispered to her, hoped they wouldn’t hear me.
“Bad guys, Ethan.” With minimal movements, she slipped a small, disc-shaped item into the hole she’d created in the cyborg’s spine. It looked like a silver button. “Step back. You don’t want to go on this ride.”
“What?” This woman was beautiful, but she made no fucking sense. And how did she know my name? Why did she keep using it like she knew me?
“What the hell is going on here?” Doctor Pearson turned away from us and took several steps toward the intruders, despite the fact they were all well over six feet tall, half their faces were coated with metal, and they were all armed with weapons I’d never seen before, sleek silver pistols that had to be alien.
“Who are you? What is this? Some new CIA program? I need to see some identification. Now.”
Warm, feminine fingers wrapped around my wrist as the woman stepped farther away from the examination tab—and the intruders—pulling me along with her.
On the opposite side of the room, closer to the door, Doctor Pearson took another step toward the giant assholes who’d broken in.
“I mean it. This is my lab. You need to show me ID or get out.”
The second cyborg lifted his weapon and fired.
Doctor Pearson was there one moment. The next, he was smoke and vapor. Just gone. Incinerated.
I pulled my sidearm. Fired until my clip was empty. I was a fucking excellent shot. I didn’t miss.
They didn’t even flinch as the bullets ricocheted off some kind of armor to imbed in the walls.
The first cyborg shook his head, grinned at me but spoke to his men. “Take her alive. The boss will make her talk.”
The asshole next to him pointed another one of those fucking silver pistols at me.
This was it. The end. I was about to be mist and vapor, just like Pearson.
She hurled herself onto me just as a shrill whistle sliced the air and detonated across the exam table.
Instinct took over—I grabbed her waist and twisted.
Rolled, pinning her beneath me before the debris finished falling.
The moment my chest met hers, everything inside me ignited.
Every curve—her hips fitting to mine, the soft give of her breasts beneath my rib cage, the smooth heat of her thigh brushing the inside of mine—shot through me like a pulse I couldn’t shut off.
“Idiot! We take her alive.” The behemoth leader smashed his fist into his cohort’s face to prevent him from firing his weapon, then turned his attention back to us as the woman pressed a silver button into my chest.
The twist of the leader’s lips was cruel. I knew that look. I’d seen it on enough humans to know he was thinking about killing me and taking her. To torture. Hurt. His next words confirmed his plans for me. “Kill the human policeman. Take the body. We need a memory scan.”
When the alien obediently lifted his silver pistol, the big one slapped him on the side of his face. “Make it look like the humans did it. Fucking idiot. How many times do I have to tell you?”
A burst of heat and light shot over our heads like a cannon blast.
I didn’t know her. Didn’t know why she’d tried to shield me.
But now her breath trembled against my throat, her fingers fisted in my shirt, and all I could think about was her body locked under mine.
I was supposed to be focused on the threat—on keeping her alive—yet every heartbeat was a distraction.
The cyborgs bellowed in rage, one of them leaping toward the inferno. He got too close. His strange looking clothing glowed orange at the heat but didn’t catch fire. Bulletproof and fireproof?
“She destroyed the body.” The alien with the glowing armor slammed his fist onto the edge of the exam table and the metal crumpled under the force of the blow. “Boss is gonna punish us for that.”
Holy fucking shit. He’d bent a metal table with one punch. And punish them? Who? Who was terrifying enough to frighten these three alien thugs?
“It’s done. Get the female.” The big one ordered. “Take her alive.”
The third male finally moved. Raised his weapon. This time I recognized the gun, a 9mm pistol. A Glock, if I had to wager. It was pointed straight at us.
Fuck!
I rolled us to the side and spun us to place my body between her and the bullet I knew was coming. I barely registered the crack of the pistol firing. Pain exploded in my right shoulder. I’d been shot before. I knew what it fucking felt like.
I’d live. If we could get out of here. Away from these alien assholes who, for some reason, wanted to capture and torture the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
Soft curves cushioned me from head to toe. Her lips were inches from mine. Eyes staring up at me with a marked lack of panic. Hair like spun silk created a cloud on the hard floor under her head. This would be what her hair looked like spread all over my pillow.
“I’m sorry, Ethan. This is going to hurt.”
“Shhh—” I held onto my sidearm with my good hand and twisted around, lifting my head, trying to see over—or around—the exam table. Keep my eyes on the enemy I knew was coming for us.
She slammed her hand onto the silver button on my chest. I heard a slight beep as it activated.
Every hair on my body stood up like I’d walked into an electric field.
Agony, literal ice needles in my veins, stabbed my eyes.
Gut. Heart. I tried to gasp in pain, but pulling air into my lungs felt like breathing shards of glass.
No air. No light. No feeling. Everything was cold. Black. Empty.
Even she was gone. Her scent. Her warmth. Those fucking eyes. There was nothing. Was this what being vaporized felt like? Zapped into pink mist?
Dead. I had to be dead.