“Then prove it,” Lennox said. “Now.”
CHAPTER 5
“Now?”
Fairchild stared hard at Lennox, who was still standing at the end of the table, her body outlined by the glow of the holoscreen behind her. Surely the woman couldn’t be suggesting what she seemed to be suggesting. Yet when Fairchild looked into her dimly lit face, she saw no hint of irony. None at all.
Fairchild glanced at Barnes. The colonel nodded his scarred head.
“You’re a killer,” he said. “A damn good one. Nobody here doubts that. But this mission requires a different skill set.”
“A skill set I’m not convinced you possess,” Lennox interrupted. “This isn’t just about spreading your legs and taking it, Fairchild. You have to make it look believable, like you’reactuallyenjoying it. I’m giving you one chance, right here, right now, to convince me you can do that.”
The briefing room suddenly felt like a sauna. Sweat was breaking out along Fairchild’s hairline and deep within all the warm crevices of her body. She was acutely aware of the three Mercs standing behind her, their presences hulking and supremely masculine. Normally, she wouldn’t feel the least bit intimidated by that. She’d gone toe-to-toe with male fighters on battlefields all across the galaxy. She had no fear of suffering death or pain at the hands of such men.
But pleasure?Thatwas a different matter. If she wanted this mission, it wouldn’t be enough to simply let these men share her and use her. She would have to let them dominate her as well.
And she would have to let Lennox watch.
Fairchild was about to tell the bitch to go fuck herself, but then, all of a sudden, she thought about Dane. She thought about the look in his eyes just before the geothermal facility had gone up in flames. She thought about Bryce too, fighting on in spite of his wounds, fighting until the bitter end. She thought about Rook, face-down in a pool of half-frozen blood, her back riddled with bullets.
And then she thought about the man responsible for that carnage. She saw Slayn’s face, tanned and sneering. She saw her fingers around his throat.
“Fuck it,” she said. “I’ll do it.”
Lennox nodded, and Col. Barnes dropped his eyes to the floor, clearly unhappy about the situation. He swiped at the holoscreen again, and the image disappeared, revealing a two-way mirror on the wall behind it.
“We’ll be, uh,monitoringyou from the other side,” he said. “That will give you at least some semblance of privacy.”
“Which is more than you’ll get at Calyxia,” Lennox added. “Oh, and gentlemen? Please try not to finish inside her. We don’t want our primary asset getting knocked up before the mission even begins.”
Fairchild bit back a flurry of choice words. She waited for Barnes and Lennox to exit the room before turning to face the three Mercs who were about to share her.
Her eyes fell first on her old friend, Corbyn Reece. God, how many cycles had it been since they’d seen each other last? He’d been like a big brother to her during their training, and after he’dgraduated she’d watched his name steadily rise through the kill lists. Rumor had it he’d racked up an equally impressive body count in bed.
He looked older now, touches of silver about his temples, a dusting of gray in the stubble lining his chin. And scars. Lots of scars. Yet underneath it all was that same boyish charm she remembered from the old days.
And now they were going to—
Fairchild banished that thought and turned her attention to the second man. Nash. The talker. He was obviously the youngest of the group, and Fairchild guessed he was probably even younger than herself. His arms were sleeved with street tats, suggesting a gang affiliation before joining the Mercs. The smirk suggested he was a prick. Fairchild would make it a point to put him in his place once the mission was over.
As for the third man, Dutton, he was harder to read. Beneath the brim of his weathered cap, his face was covered by a dense beard, and it had a quiet stillness usually reserved for statues. Yet there was a fire behind those blue eyes that suggested a bomb ready to go off at a moment’s notice. It sent a chilly shiver racing up Fairchild’s spine.
You had to be careful with the quiet ones. They were always the most dangerous.
Fairchild folded her arms and stared the men down, affecting an air of confidence she didn’t truly feel. When she spoke, it took every ounce of will to keep her voice from shaking.
“Well,” she said. “What are you waiting for?”
The words were tough and taunting, yet the emotion behind them was anything but. She felt helpless, vulnerable, desperately outnumbered.
Reece stepped forward until his body was mere inches from her own, and she could feel the heat emanating from his massive form. God, had he always been this tall? He stared down at her for a long moment, looking deep into her eyes. When he finally spoke, his voice was pitched low, so only she could hear.
“You understand what we have to do,” he said. “We can’t hold anything back.”
Fairchild answered with a short nod.
“Are you sure you really want this?” he asked.
