Chapter 16
Chapter Sixteen
“So much better than the fast-food tacos you ate this morning, huh?” Audra swiped her napkin at the dribble of juice running down Gage’s chin. The birria tacos David had made for dinner were robust and mouth-watering. Almost as robust and mouth-watering as the man seated next to her.
Too bad they weren’t alone so she could lick the dribble off with her tongue.
He flashed her a grateful smile, completely unaware the direction her thoughts took.
Honestly, she was shocked at her wanton desires.
Dining with the others she’d just met in a bunker beneath the earth while someone out there wanted her—likely wanted her dead—was not the proper time to be horny.
But she had no control over her libido. Not with Gage this close to her.
“There’s no comparison.” Gage answered, his gaze burning into hers as if to convey more meaning to his words. A girl could hope, anyway.
“David spoils us with his cooking.” Doc patted David’s hand, then squeezed it. “Among other things.”
Audra smiled at the look of utter adoration Doc sported whenever he glanced at the other man. Did the others see it as well? It was the same expression they each wore whenever they looked at their beloved. Very likely the same expression she had when she looked at Gage.
Did that mean she loved him?
“All those years cooking at the firehouse come in handy.” David shrugged off the compliment, but he winked at Doc.
“I only have years of patting people down and handcuffing them.” Adam offered as he dipped his taco into the adobo stew. “Not sure what I offer the group is on par with you, David.”
“Those skills are for me, alone.” Eve glared at Adam, then jerked. He grunted, then shot her a smirk. Had she just kicked him under the table? “Don’t you dare share.”
He appeased her with a quick kiss on the lips while the others merely chuckled at the innuendo.
Audra chewed slowly, savoring the delicious meal and the comradery, made all the more intimate and serene by the greenery and flowers surrounding the dining area of the bunker.
The ceiling screens had switched to early dusk mode, so a light pink digital sun dipped down the horizon of one end of the bunker while a digital half-moon and a galaxy of twinkling lights hovered in the expanding darkness at the other end.
Strands of merry lights draped around the dining perimeter like warm hug, lending a halcyon summer picnic vibe that oozed contentment.
How could anyone stress about the wrongs of the world above when immersed in the languid peace of this setting?
She’d only met these individuals today, and yet they settled under her skin like comfortable old friends.
Friends she’d never had because her life had always been upended and embattled and dangerous.
And this past decade of having to isolate herself from humanity…
Knowing what little bit of each person’s history they’d shared with her, the others here had suffered much the same.
They knew what it was like to live a lonely life on the sharp edge of danger, fearful the secrets in their hearts and bodies would be discovered.
Before they’d found each other, everyone at this table had lived with a mutual trauma that no doubt strengthened the bond they had. And they’d accepted her without question.
Did they also accept Gage with similar ease?
Apollo, who lay calmly at Eve’s feet, jumped up and wuffled, staring in the direction of the bunker door. Then he trotted toward it, wuffling low.
“That must be Ch-Dennis.” Doc wiped his mouth and followed Apollo. A few moments later, his friendly greeting reached them.
Audra spiked to a stand, her heart racing.
Her reunion with her younger brother this morning had been emotional to say the least. But unsatisfying.
Maybe because it had been clipped short because Gage’s presence had triggered the proximity alarms. They had scrambled to deal with Gage as he wandered around the industrial park.
Or maybe because Dennis seemed to be holding back.
There was an invisible wall between them.
She’d felt it more than noticed it. Then again, there was a whole lifetime that separated them.
Two brief reunions did not wipe away the lives they’d experienced without the other.
She knew her life had been unpleasant. How bad had his life been?
Did she really want to know?
Whatever Dennis had been through, Doc seemed to trust him implicitly. She’d trusted Dennis enough to complete the mission he’d given her, therefore she trusted Doc by association. Maybe she had to go on a little faith all would be revealed in time.
Regardless, she was nervous. But when her brother entered the dining area, Doc’s arm around him like a father with a son, her legs shuddered.
She gripped Gage’s shoulder for added stability.
Like before, she rushed into Dennis’s arms, nearly knocking them both over from the force of her headlong momentum.
“Hey, Squeak.” Dennis smiled into her hair. Audra squeezed his slender, but solid body before he pulled her away to look in her eyes. “At least this time we didn’t wait another decade.”
Her voice was soft, meant just for her brother’s ears even though the others likely heard. “We have a lot of catching up to do. I want to know about your life after the adoption. I want to hear how you came to Indiana. I want us to get reacquainted.”
“There’s plenty of time for all that.” He assured her.
But his words didn’t reassure her. They merely ramped up her desperation. She gripped the fabric of his sleeves. “We’ve already lost so much time. Please don’t ever make me wait that long again.”
Dennis squeezed her shoulder, then turned his attention to the table and Gage. “You must be the guy who tripped our perimeter sensors.”
Doc made the introductions. “Ch-Dennis, this is Gage Austin. Formerly of the Pentagon and a Gamma phase cybernetic individual.”
“Formerly?” Gage blinked and shook his head. “I’m still there.”
“Oh, hon. You’re not going back, trust me.” Luann waved away his protest. “You’re part of the rebel alliance, now.”
“Join us for tacos, Ch-Dennis.” David grabbed another chair and set it beside Audra’s.
“I’ll take you up on the offer. And, honestly, I’m more comfortable if everyone continues to call me Charlie.”
“What… you don’t like Ch-Dennis?” Adam teased.
Charlie huffed a small laugh as he slid onto the offered chair and accepted a plate from Doc, his movements so understated, it seemed like he didn’t move at all. Then he turned to Audra. “Is that okay with you?”
“Of course it’s okay with me, Denn-er, Charlie.” Who was she to ever refuse her brother, even if he avoided sharing information with her? She couldn’t blame him; she had her own secrets she wasn’t quite ready to share. Maybe guilt—or habit—drove her desire to glean information from him.
Audra sat back in her seat and Gage gently squeezed her leg under the table. She glanced at his handsome face, her eyes lingering on his lips a heartbeat before her thoughts nose-dived into the gutter. Or, more accurately, the bedroom. She forced her gaze back to his and smiled.
Youokay? He mouthed the words, his brows furrowed in concern.
Bless this man. He’d essentially been told he wouldn’t get to return to his life in D.C.
, although whether by choice or by force, it wasn’t clear.
Yet he was still concerned for her. Her heart stopped a moment and her stomach dropped to her feet.
Gage wasn’t the only one who wouldn’t be returning to his normal life back at the Pentagon.
Audra hadn’t given it much thought when she’d grabbed her bugout bag and booked train passage to somewhere, anywhere out West, but she wouldn’t get to go back to her life, either.
Leaving her old life behind was a natural consequence of the mission she’d accepted all those years ago.
In contrast, Gage had accepted a mission just a week ago, and its consequence should not have included saying goodbye to the life he’d known.
But what choice did he really have? Hide himself while surrounded by thousands of government workers every day? Or hide himself in this bunker with others like him who could sympathize with what he’d suffered as a cyborg?
He squeezed her knee again, more insistently this time. She’d gotten lost in her thoughts and hadn’t responded to his question. She raised her hand and cupped his cheek. I’m fine. She mouthed the answer. He didn’t seem convinced, but didn’t press her for more.
“You arrived just in time, my dear boy.” Doc waved to indicate the whole group. “Audra is going to tell us what she knows. Hopefully it will corroborate what you deciphered from her micro-drive.”
All eyes turned to Audra. This was it. The moment she learned if her secret mission—her isolation, her covert pilfering of government secrets, her years spent pandering to a shitty boss—had been worthwhile.
She cleared her throat. “Well, there’s a lot to tell. But the biggest is probably the fact that Richard Hawks himself is a cyborg.” The others gasped in shock. Okay, her mission had been worth it. “And all of his systems are from China.”