Circe's Recruits: Gideon: A Multiple Partner Shifter Book (20 page)

“You know what to do.”

Carter had siphoned the money. Cameras were down. Time to infiltrate and beat Amelia, Lang, and Smith at their own game.

But inside her locked office, Amelia sat waiting for them. She lounged behind her desk, wearing a pink designer suit, and looked like a million bucks. Around her a dozen armed guards stood waiting. Gideon sniffed but didn’t scent Circ. He didn’t buy it.

“She’s blocking them somehow,” Bailey whispered.

Alex nodded. “The doorknob was clean. Too clean. Only Norton’s thoughts of her desk and nothing else. She’s got to have someone shielding for her.”

Great. They’d known it would get messy though. Gideon stood straighter, going against his instincts and letting Bailey stand next to him and Alex. But that was part of the plan. To show Bailey meant less to him, to his group, than the others might think. Their ace in the hole, a pretty woman who contained a veritable beast inside.

Amelia knew Bailey to be Circ. In fact, she watched Bailey with keen attention. But the woman had no idea what Bailey was capable of. Hell, Gideon didn’t think she knew either. But his beast did.

He gave a wide smile. “You know who we are. We want Lang and Smith. You can do whatever the fuck you want.” Truth. He’d let Bailey deal with her.

One of the men next to her whispered something, and she nodded. “I’m sorry to say Dr. Lang and Mr. Smith are occupied at the moment.”

“Move,” he murmured into his mic.

“Heard it.” Eli said into Gideon’s ear piece. “We’re there.” In the lower levels, courtesy of Katie’s blueprints. Gideon heard snarls and gunfire, and tuned it out.

He focused on Amelia’s snakelike charm. She didn’t blink, and her skin looked too smooth to be natural. Further study showed tiny, interlocking scales. Something a Circ, with his enhanced vision, would be able to see.

“You took the formula?” he asked her.

Alex stilled, gave a subtle nod.

“I did. And it’s fabulous. I have you and your friends to thank.” She nodded at them, her gaze still drawn to Bailey. “But then, you have your own magic formula. A beautiful woman available at your
fuck
and call.”

“Clever.” Bailey snorted. “But that kind of crudeness is what I’d expect from an immoral trust fund baby. Worth millions, but no more than that. You needed science to keep you pretty because you’re so ugly inside.” Bailey cocked her head. “Oh, wow. You need that pain, don’t you? Something to fill the emptiness that keeps you up at night.”

Gideon didn’t know what Bailey had sensed, but she’d hit a nerve.

“You little bitch.” Amelia sneered. Then she looked at Alex and gave him a cold, calculating smile. Scary that the woman actually had sex appeal, in an icy, will-bite-your-head-off-after-sex kind of way.

“Katie Sheridan.” She dragged one perfectly manicured nail over her ruby red lips. “Such a waste. She didn’t go quickly, you know.”

Alex tensed. “How do you know Katie?”

“Dear, I know everyone. I know Katie was your sister. That she fucked like a bitch in heat when our Circs had their way with her. That she died in pain, befitting the traitor she was.”

Alex’s eyes glowed. He fisted his hands, his nails lengthening into claws.

The men around Amelia raised their guns. The same man who’d whispered in her ear previously whispered something else.

Gideon wanted to drop him with a psychic blast, but he waited, conscious he had to make the right choice or they’d be royally screwed. Trust Amelia to line her defenses with secret psychics soldiers.

“Did you know she cried for her brother to come rescue her?” Amelia sighed. “Where were you, Alex? Too busy fucking Gideon to help your baby sister, I suppose. So much blood. It took forever to clean. But I think I have a few of her teeth leftover, as a souvenir. Would you like one as a keepsake?” She reached into her drawer, and Alex flew at her.

“Alex, no.” Bailey tried to reach for him, but he evaded her.

Gideon took a step in Amelia’s direction, but he needn’t have bothered. Her soldiers rallied around her even as they shot at Alex. Full of holes, bullets tailored to go through Circ skin, apparently, Alex went down. Three of her men dragged him closer while the rest kept their weapons on Gideon and Bailey.

“So pretty. It’s so sad he’s such a prick,” Amelia said sadly. She rose and crossed to Alex, clanging as her platinum bangles clinked against one another. “I could have used a man like you in my stable. You’re strong, handsome.” She reached Alex and dug her fingers into his wounds, her nails making them wider.

Alex coughed up blood even as he expelled a few rounds from his body and started to heal.

Bailey stepped closer and received a bullet in the leg. She screamed and went down.

Amelia shook her head, watching the scene. “So weak. How is it you’re Circ, girl?” Then she turned back to Alex and stroked his head. “I think I might keep you around. Maybe you can breed me better cells to work with. I do love your eyes.”

Alex groaned and closed his eyes, then in a burst of speed, grabbed Amelia by her bracelets.

“Get off me!” She tried to pry herself free, but Alex clung like a burr.

He stared at one of the men near her desk, with a gun drawn. “That one.” Not the one who’d been whispering.

Gideon didn’t need further urging. He shot a blast between the man’s eyes, working hard to penetrate the psychic shield protecting the enemy from his mind while dealing with the pain of bullets tearing into his flesh. And as he probed mentally, he ran at his opponent, intending to decimate him physically as well. Only after he’d shoved a fist through the man’s body was he able to ram through his mind.

Once done, he dropped the rest of the human guards with ease, all of them lying unconscious on the ground.

Bailey trembled, still in pain because she’d taken a few more hits, and Amelia took advantage. She ripped out of Alex’s hold and yanked Bailey into her arms.

“You stupid, stupid people. You’re no match for me. Never could be. You’re nothing, You’re—”

Bailey rose and bit the woman’s arm. Amelia shrieked, and Bailey turned on the pain. She kicked and scratched, doing her best to mark up Amelia’s perfect face. A face built by Circ genes, apparently, because she healed immediately from each wound.

“Don’t kill her yet,” Gideon cautioned Bailey as he and Alex hurried to Amelia’s computers. They plugged in the device Carter had given them. “Carter, we’re in,” Gideon said into his earpiece. “Are the feds there?”

“Yeah,” Eli answered for Carter. “Carter’s working right now.”

“Got it!” Carter said. “I’m in her system.”

Gideon wanted to smile. “Eli, what’s the situation?”

“As we suspected. Lang and Smith are gone.”

“Shit.” That smile he’d been feeling faded. Gideon had known they had no chance at stopping the entire program, but a part of him had hoped to nail either Lang or Smith.

Eli continued, “Most of the files and almost all of their test subjects gone too. Only a few left behind, those almost dead. You have another two minutes before the Feds break through the security locks Carter reinforced. Hurry up. We’re out.”

Explosions rocked the structure. Nothing that would kill anyone inside, but enough damage to the building that it would come down if not fixed within a few days.

Gideon had known getting into Katie’s locker wouldn’t help as much as he’d hoped. They had a federal tail, one they hadn’t been able to shake after picking it up after the campground. For all he knew, they’d witnessed the mating heat at its peak. He hadn’t exactly been in control of himself, more concerned with bonding with the group, and Bailey, in particular.

He couldn’t let himself care about that. It was done. The Circs belonged to him now.

But the missed chance to nail Lang and Smith…that hurt.
Fuck.
Rod and Ollie deserved better.

“You’re going to pay for that,” Bailey roared. Amelia had pulled out a hunk of Bailey’s hair.

“We need to know what she knows,” Gideon reminded her.

“We know enough,” Alex said, still pale.

“You okay?” Poor Alex had taken a lot of rounds to the chest.

“Yeah. Still healing. Hurts like a bitch. But I felt her. She doesn’t know where Smith and Lang are.” Alex gave an evil grin. “Because Smith double-crossed her. He’s been working with Lang all along.”

“What?” Amelia shrieked and earned a scratch from eye to eye that blinded her momentarily.

Bailey in a mad was something to see. What a sexy beast. Gideon gave her a thumbs up. She gave him the finger. He laughed.

“Yeah. Smith must have given her one of those bracelets, because I saw him and Lang talking about taking over once she’s dead. And we weren’t part of the plan to take her out.” Alex glanced at her security, still lying unmoving on the floor. “They were.”

“Liars!” Amelia had bloody tears streaming from her face. Bailey wouldn’t leave her alone. They fought even harder when Amelia tried to crawl free.

Bailey hammered her with fists and claws, tore the woman’s shoulder free from its socket, then cracked her spine.

At that, Amelia stopped moving and moaned.

“Nice work.” Gideon didn’t feel an ounce of regret.

“She killed babies, Gideon.” Bailey’s eyes glowed with righteous fury. “I read that bit in her files.”

He frowned. “Seriously?”

“Yeah. All those helpless lives to stay young.”

“She was wrong,” Alex agreed. “But Bailey, she took from embryonic stem cells. Those were four or five day old cells, at best.”

“And she had Circs and mutants rape the psychic ‘breeders’ from level four. Women like Katie.”

Alex blinked. “What?”

“I took that file out, so you wouldn’t see it and do something foolish.” Bailey left Amelia on the floor, gasping for breath, and reached out to Alex. She cupped his cheek with a bloody hand. “I’m so sorry. But if Katie hadn’t died when she did, she would have had a very bleak future to look forward to.”

“Shit.” Alex breathed hard, then moved to Amelia. He stared down at her, passing a judgment Gideon clearly agreed with. But being Alex, he couldn’t finish the job. “Drown in your own blood, bitch.”

Gideon shook his head. He’d seen too many Circs and people less than human come back from death. Hell, he wasn’t sure he’d killed Myers, and he’d disemboweled the guy. Gideon joined his packmate took a good look at Amelia, gasping for breath.

Then he took care of the problem.

Both Alex and Bailey gaped at him.

“What? She’s not gonna come back from that.”

They all stared at her head sitting some distance from her body.

Bailey swallowed audibly. “Guess not.”

The loud shriek of an alarm warned them to move.

“I
said
you have another two minutes,” Eli snarled into Gideon’s ear piece.

Gideon cringed and adjusted the volume. Then he grabbed Carter’s gizmo from Amelia’s computer and followed Alex and Bailey out the side exit, toward the roof.

Once through the stairway, they saw a helicopter on the helipad—and he froze at sight of all five Circe’s Recruits.

“Get what you came for?” Roane asked.

Gideon nodded, not sure he could overtake them even with Alex and Bailey’s help. Roane’s guys were a true unit, badass, and they’d had years to come together as a team.

“Then get in.” Roane motioned to the helicopter. “You need to move. We’ll contain the Feds.”

Alex and Bailey beelined for the chopper. Gideon paused by Roane and stuck out a hand. “Thanks.”

Roane shook it, then dragged him closer and stared into his eyes. “You all okay? Everyone with you because they want to be?”

They both looked to Bailey, who sat frowning at them. “Hurry up, Gideon! We don’t have all damn day.”

Gideon smiled. “Yeah. I don’t think I could own that woman if I wanted to.”

Roane sighed. “Thank God. Now I can get Sabrina and the others off my ass.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind. Tell him where to drop you, and take the number the pilot gives you. I understand that you’ll want to be far from here and this mess, but we need to keep in touch. There’s a lot Doc keeps learning you’ll need to know.”

“Okay.” Gideon could do that. “It’s not over, though. Amelia Norton’s dead. The money’s dried up, but there’s no telling how much Lang got from her before they escaped.”

“Shit.” Roane gave Gideon a push. “Go on. We’ll look into it. Trust me.”

Gideon raced to escape, staring with his friends at the Circs left on the rooftop. Kindred spirits, men with abilities like his and his team’s. But not family. Not pack.

He took Bailey’s hand in his, gripped Alex’s too before letting go.

“Time for tomorrow,” he said.

Alex nodded. Bailey kissed them both on their cheeks. But Gideon was having none of that. He pulled her in for an embrace that left them both breathing fast.

“I take it we’ll be pausing for some downtime before going after the bastards again?” Alex raised a brow and brought Bailey’s hand over his erection. Apparently Gideon hadn’t been the only one affected by that kiss.

Fine by Gideon. “
A lot
of downtime,” he said, which caused Bailey to smile. “We’ve only just scratched the surface.”

***

A week later, as the five of them lounged, naked in a luxury beach villa in the Virgin Islands, away from the stress of life and death, Gideon finished pumping into Bailey’s sexy body while she sucked Eli to heaven.

The knowledge Circs couldn’t get sexual disease was a huge relief. That Bailey could control her conception another gift that kept on giving.

“Fuck. Yeah,” Eli purred after he lay back on the sultan-like bed strewn with pillows, the bed large enough to handle five sex-hungry Circs. “You got some serious staying power, Gid.”

Gideon moaned as he came, just as Bailey tensed around him, squeezing him into another shot at heaven. He finally withdrew, only to watch Carter and Alex going at it. Alex had become more aggressive after their showdown with Amelia Norton. But Gideon thought it suited the guy. No more sulking and grieving. Yeah, he’d lost his sister. But Alex needed to turn that lingering sadness to rage, to get closure.

Closure—something Gideon planned to find as soon as he filleted Lang from neck to crotch.