“Who are you?” I had to know. I’d never reacted to any woman like this. It was visceral. Feral. I felt like a god damn animal, cornered and out of options.
I wanted to attack, not to harm. To mark. Breed. Claim.
Holy shit. I never thought about having kids. Not in my line of work. My first and only marriage lasted less than two years because my wife couldn’t handle the stress of being married to a cop. I’d made peace with it, with my purpose in life. My choices. At least, until right fucking now when the thought of shooting my load into this complete stranger wouldn’t leave me the fuck alone. Was it pheromones? Perfume? Some new god damn secret weapon of the CIA’s that turned rational, intelligent men into lunatics led around by their dicks?
“I apologize. I tried to wait, but the FBI agents are less than ten minutes from arrival, and they will impede my investigation.” She activated the small, silver object, whichlooked like a sparkling crystal no larger than my palm. I watched as a series of lights moved up and down the victim’s spine, under his skin, as if she were activating something implanted at precise intervals.
“How do you know when they’ll be here?” I demanded even as relief flooded me that she wasn’t FBI. Nor did I need to be tangled up with a CIA officer. However, if the rock-like obsession my dick had was any indication, I very much was going to get fucking involved. If she was dodging the FBI, she must be CIA.
The lights on her gadget flickered. Stopped. Started again. She ignored it, so I did as well.
“Surveillance and tracking are very basic technologies, Detective.” She practically purred at me in challenge and every muscle in my body tensed with the need to not only accept the challenge, but wrestle her to the ground, force her submission, and then kiss her until she stopped fighting and begged me to fuck her. Someone better call HR, because I was about to sexually harass the hell out of her.
“Get out of my way.” Doctor Pearson’s words saved me from acting out my rash, irrational thoughts. This wasn’t like me. This had to be a set up. A trap. A honeypot of experimental pheromones or some other drug designed to make me act out and lose my job. Nothing else made sense. I had never wanted to fuck a woman so badly in my life.
“I don’t think so, Arthur. I’m trying to help. You, however, seem to be determined to get yourself killed. Stop acting like territorial cavemen. You both need to leave. Go out the back.”
Territorial cavemen? Was she trying to be insulting? Or telling the absolute truth?
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 therewas 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 bethe othersshe 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 oldWild Westmovie, 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.”
