Chapter One
Myitkyina, Kachin State, Myanmar
Late November
ALEX PALMER KEPT his face expressionless as he watched his client conduct business. He stood to the right of the slighter man, who was seated in a ratty, upholstered chair. Joo Kim wore a cheap black suit over a white collared shirt. Sweat beaded his forehead, the air conditioning nonexistent in the cheap hotel room.
Paper-thin walls allowed the chaos from the bustling Burmese district to bleed through. Shouts, horns, and street noise competed with the loud haggling from the prostitute and her companion next door, the racket a mash of Burmese and English Alex partially understood but ignored, focused on keeping his client alive.
Joo Kim finished his deal, a fair trade of guns for drugs. The opium peddler, an older American man, had connections to a little known rebel faction in a small ward outside the city. The seedy hotel was the perfect place for drug deals to go down with little fanfare. Small time dealers and buyers met often at the White Orchid.
But from their spot-on intel—nice job, Carter—Alex knew the hotel had recently begun attracting some important people with topnotch security. The American government also had an investment in the situation, since they kept an eye on the volatile region. Hence Alex’s client, Joo Kim, posing as a rogue CIA drug buyer.
Normally, the muscle of their private security firm would handle a case like this. Alex was a front man, the softer, more personable aspect of the business. The one who did the meet and greet with potential clients, putting them at ease while also showing them how impressive Gideon Enterprises was using an impressive show of fang and claw.
But he’d needed to be in on this one all the way because the buyer’s contact had insider information he wanted.
Information heneeded.
The emptiness inside him, the loss that continued to plague him, echoed. Loneliness, his constant companion despite being surrounded by others, festered, and it drew on the rage he kept bottled up all the time. He couldn’t think about Katie without miring himself in a guilty fury.
Pain pricked at his fingertips as claws threatened to slide free. But he took hold of his anger and kept the rampant monster inside him from showing itself, used to pretending to be normal.
Hell, he’d been born with skills ordinary people considered unreal. But after being experimented on by some really bad people, Alex had become something else. Something not quite human.
“So we’re good, Mr. Lowell?” Joo Kim asked the seller and stood.
Lowell nodded but kept looking at Alex. “We’re good.”
Money had changed hands electronically, and Lowell snapped his laptop shut. On either side of him, the no-necks he’d brought as security glanced at each other. Nothing obvious. Yet Alex caught their subtle signal with an intuition he’d come to trust.
He took a step forward and positioned himself firmly in front of Joo Kim. In a low voice, he warned, “Get out, now.” Aware Lowell had yet to look away from him, Alex knew something felt very wrong here.
Or very right, if he interpreted the seller’s interest correctly.
Alex didn’t wait. He made short work of Lowell’s guards, trying to be nice, then slicing claws through one of them to prevent an injection of some kind. He disarmed the other by breaking his wrist, then knocking him out cold. While the one he’d gutted lay bleeding on the floor, Joo Kim fled the room. Alex kept his gaze on Lowell, who had yet to look away.
The older man smiled. “I thought so.” Lowell had dark hair fringed with white, his eyes a murky shade of green. When he withdrew a familiar pistol Alex instinctively knew not to trust, Alex realized Lowell must have known who—what—he was the whole time.
He dodged the small dart that would have penetrated tough skin normal bullets couldn’t harm. Then he yanked the gun away and grabbed Lowell by the neck. He pulled the bastard up off his feet and jammed him against the wall so hard the guy’s head cracked against the stained plaster.
“Where are they?” Alex rasped, constantly seeing his younger sister in his mind’s eye. Except she was dead, and other women, innocent victims, needed his help. He hadn’t been there to save Katie. But he wouldn’t make that mistake again. “The subjects from the Level 4 program. Where are they?”
Lowell’s face turned red. Alex didn’t care. This man had information, according to their intelligence. A member of Dr. Edwin Lang’s inner circle. If anyone would know about the many victims Lang had fucked with, it would be Lowell. The weak shit.
Alex glanced at the incapacitated thugs and almost wished one of them would have done more to challenge him. Since becoming a monstrous Circ—a creature more beast than man—he sought more from his opponents. To date, only his team could give him what he needed. And lately that wasn’t enough either.
He squeezed harder, staring into watering green eyes and seeing death coming all too quickly.
“Ease up, Alex,”sounded in his earpiece, his leader’s command clear, his voice deep. When Alex didn’t respond, Gideon growled,“You kill him, we don’t find out where the Level 4 group is.”
He hadn’t planned on killing the guy… At least, Alex, the man, hadn’t. Alex’s beast grudgingly acknowledged their alpha and dropped the enemy, who collapsed like a rag doll, wheezing for breath. “Fine. He’s dropped.” Then to Lowell, he said, “Seriously? This is the best you guys could do? You and those two assholes?” Alex nodded to the men on the floor, one unconscious, the other cradling his intestines, as if trying to shove them back into his stomach. “If you knew you were meeting a Circ, and by your tranqs, I’d say that was a sure thing, why come so unprepared?”
Lowell didn’t look at him.
No. This was too easy.Alex suspected a trap. He should have known right away that something was off. When he’d brushed against the doorknob, the furniture, and even the thugs’ clothing, he hadn’t felt anything. No psychic impressions he normally sensed when open to receive.
But even the most prepared forgot to wipeeverythingclean of psychic prints. He brushed Lowell’s belt buckle and received a slew of images and a rush of voices as Lowell prepared for the meeting and ordered his men not to fight back. To keep Alex occupied while reinforcements arrived.
