The van’s driver swung his head around, leering at her from behind the wheel, his red-gold eyes glowing with a hunger Regan recognized all too well.
God, no.No no no no.
“I’m so glad to see you again, lass,” McCoy drawled, lips stretching into a cold grin, long, sharp teeth glistening in the dim dashboard light.“We’ve got some unfinished business to attend to, don’t we?”
CHAPTERTHIRTEEN
The table pressed against her back, butt and shoulder like a block of ice, its chilly surface biting at her hot flesh.Ignoring the dull ache in her shoulder from Peter’s gunshot, sweat trickling into her eyes, Regan tugged at the thick metal shackles locking her wrists beside her.They didn’t budge an inch.She wasn’t going anywhere.
She pulled in a deep breath, staring at the high ceiling.
McCoy had dragged her from the van after what felt like hours driving through the streets of Sydney, his hands mauling her breasts as he did so.He’d thrown her over his shoulder, chuckling at her struggles.His long fingers had found her ass, squeezing at each cheek with punishing pressure until tears stung her eyes.
She ground her teeth, trapped immobile on the table.She’d be damned is she’d cry out though..She wouldn’t give the bastard a single sound.No matter what he’d done to her.
Studying the ceiling, she gnawed on her bottom lip, unease churning in her stomach.Apart from carrying her from the van and fastening her to this table inside a mansion that made the one she and Declan hid in at McMahon’s Point look like a shack, McCoy had done nothing to her.Not even given her a leering grin.The moment he stepped foot inside the quiet, mausoleum-like building, he’d become different.If he’d been a dog, Regan would’ve said he was almost cowering.As if a more dominant animal lurked nearby.
A chill rippled over her flesh and her nipples pinched into tight points of fear under the light sheet covering her.A more dominant animal…Epoc.
Neck straining, shoulder throbbing, she lifted her head from the metal surface and looked around the room as best she could.Harsh overhead fluorescent light bleached all color from the space, making it hard to see anything.Apart from the table she lay strapped to and two smaller, stainless steel ones on either side, it seemed empty.And very inhospitable.
Sudden movement in the corner of her eye caught her attention and she rolled her head to the side.Anger crashed through her.Cold and absolute.The blonde.
The woman walked toward her, a small metal tray in her manicured hands, the same apprehensive expression in her cool blue eyes.She stopped by Regan’s table, giving her a troubled look.“Your shoulder hurts, yes?”
“My shoulder?”Regan creased her forehead in mock confusion.“No.Not at all.Why?”
The blonde cocked one perfectly arched eyebrow, pursing her lips.“Just as stubborn as your brother, it seems.”She deposited the tray on a bench beside the table before turning back to Regan, a cloudy-filled syringe in her hand.She lifted it, examining its contents in the glaring fluorescent light.“This will not hurt,” she murmured, flicking at the glass tube with one blood-red nail.“In fact it will give you a small…” She paused, as if searching for the word she wanted, “…buzz.”
Before Regan could react—and really, strapped to the table like she was, what could she do?—the woman plunged the needle into the crook of her arm.A sharp sting, like the prick of a pissed-off wasp, punctured her flesh and she bit back a hiss.“What was that?’she demanded through gritted teeth.The inside of her elbow tingled.
“An experimental concoction designed to heighten your physical awareness of stimuli.”The blonde returned the now-empty syringe to the tray.“Epoc wants to see how a human responds to it.”
Regan narrowed her eyes.“So, Declan was right.Epoc does own the police.”
The woman tilted her head to the side a bit.“Not all the police.”
“But obviously my brother’s Command Area.What happened to hisrealpartner?Is he dead?”
White-blonde eyebrows rose.“I don’t kill indiscriminately, Regan.I’m not a monster.”
Regan snorted.“Sure about that?”
“I see you share your brother’s trust issues, yes?”
Hot anger tore through Regan’s veins, and her skin tingled.Pulling at her restraints, she glared up at the woman.“He didn’t trust you?What a surprise.”
Cool fingers pressed to her shoulder, sending tiny licks of rippling ice down Regan’s arm.“You need to stay calm,” the woman murmured.“Remember, you’ve just been injected with an experimental sensory accelerant.”
A warm throb pulsed in Regan’s elbow and she fidgeted, growing increasingly aware of the soft caress of the sheet covering her naked body, of the cool touch of metal on her wrists and ankles.She pulled in a short breath and the gentle feathering of air on her tongue felt like a soft kiss.
The woman watched her, eyebrows dipping into a small frown.She picked up a folded cloth from the tray and touched it to Regan’s shoulder, patting at the bullet wound in almost hesitant strokes.
A slight sensation whispered down Regan’s arm, like a single sliver of ice and her breath caught.She stared up at the blonde and for a moment her vision blurred, before coming back, sharp and clear.“What did you do to me?”she demanded, lips dry.
No reply.
“What did you do?”
