Cruz: Scifi Alien Invasion Romance (Hell Squad Book 2) (16 page)

Santha’s pulse jumped.

His hot gaze speared into her. “I feel the music again.” He started strumming.

Santha felt the music wash over her. She watched, entranced, as he leaned over the instrument and made music that caused goose bumps to flicker over her skin. His Latin heritage was obvious in the sound, conjuring up images of twirling women in colorful skirts, or sexy lovers moving against each other.

As he played, all the thoughts and worries and concerns drained from her head. Santha knew it was nothing more than a temporary reprieve, but she’d take it.

He moved onto a different song. She thought about closing her eyes, but she really liked watching him. The way his big hands moved so competently over the strings. The way he moved his head to the music, lost in the magic.

The next song was so sexy, it sent a languid warmth through her body. And made her want to dance.

With him, she felt comfortable enough to shake off some inhibitions. She stood. She hadn’t danced in what felt like forever. Since the last time Kareena had dragged her out to a club for a girls’ night out. The thought of Kareena laughing and dancing to a frantic beat made Santha smile.

Santha tugged the tie out of her hair. The dark locks fell over her shoulders. Then she swayed to the rhythm, finding the beat. She raised her hands and closed her eyes. Feeling what he poured into the music deep down to her bones.

Santha did a slow turn and opened her eyes.

He was watching her with an intensity that stole her breath. There was sex and desire and other unnamable emotions in the deep brown of his eyes. Heat flashed through her.

“Take off your clothes,” he murmured.

Another wave of heat, this one strong enough to make her legs feel weak. She lifted a hand to the buttons on her shirt and flicked the first one open.

As she worked her way down the row of buttons, his gaze remained glued to her hand. He didn’t falter on the music and she smiled. Oh, but she wanted his full attention.

She shrugged her shoulders and the shirt fell to the floor. She unsnapped her trousers and kicked them off. As she stood there in simple, black cotton underwear, she wished she owned something lacy, something sexier.

“
Mi reina
.” But his voice and those eyes made her realize he didn’t really care what she wore.

Still swaying to the music, she unclipped her bra and dropped it to the floor. She cupped her breasts and watched his eyes flare.

God, she felt…powerful. Powerful and desired.

She slipped her thumbs in the sides of her panties, then leaned over and tugged them down her legs. Then, completely naked, she resumed her dancing. Dancing for him.

Cruz’s face looked stark, the desire in his eyes like a firestorm. “You are so fucking sexy.”

He kept playing and she kept dancing, the tension stretching tight between them.

“Touch yourself.” His voice was a low growl.

Biting her lip, Santha let a hand drift down her belly. She slipped her fingers between her legs and found her clit. “Oh.”

This time, his fingers messed up, striking a bad note on the guitar.

He muttered a curse and set the instrument aside. “I’m going to eat you now. And I’m not going to stop until you come on my tongue.”

Her lower body spasmed. She watched him stride towards her, every part of her filled with electricity.

He pushed her back into the armchair, then he kneeled between her legs. His big hands pushed her thighs apart, baring her to him. He made a humming noise and pressed his mouth to her.

“Cruz!” Her hips jerked upward. The sensation was…indescribable.

He worked her hard. He lapped at her, sucked on her clit, his tongue stabbing into her, not letting up until she was sobbing his name. Her orgasm crashed over her, her back arching.

Then he stood, tore his clothes off and scooped her up.

He set her on her feet and bent her away from him until she pressed her palms flat on the seat of the chair. When his hand curved over her buttock, she pushed back against him. “Yes.”

Cruz pumped into her with one hard thrust.

A groan escaped her throat.

“Tilt your hips,” he growled. “Take more of me.”

She thrust back against him, their bodies slapping together. It felt so good to be filled up by him. It was so raw, so real.

“Damn,
mi reina
, I could fuck your forever.” His guttural voice rasped over her ear.

Her skin tightened, her nipples hard as pebbles. She felt her release coming, growing to frightening proportions. “Harder.”

His fingers bit into her ass and his other hand slipped over her belly. He used his fingers to spread her open and found her clit. She thrashed against him.

“That’s it,
bella
.” His mouth grazed the side of her neck. “Come for me now.”

And she did. She screamed so loud she was sure his neighbors would be complaining in the morning.

A second later, he groaned and his cock pulsed inside her. He buried his face against her neck and growled out her name.

***

Damn, he felt good.

As Cruz moved around the tiny kitchenette, making breakfast, and deliberately rubbing up against Santha at every opportunity, he felt on top of the fucking world.

He’d made love to Santha until they’d both been exhausted and he’d slept well with her wrapped up in his arms. Perfect.

And now she was here, in his space, and while she was dressed in cargo trousers and a T-shirt, her hair was mussed and her face relaxed. She was even humming under her breath.

She set some slightly singed eggs down on the table. “Breakfast is served.”

He brought over two glasses of protein drink and raised a brow at the eggs.

She sat and shrugged. “Told you I wasn’t much of a cook.” She nibbled on the edge of some toast. “I want to go and check in with Noah and Elle as soon as we’re done.”

Cruz nodded. “They should have eliminated some of the bridges around the city—”

“Maybe they have a location?”

He shook his head. “They would have called us.”

Santha’s shoulders sagged. “You’re right.” She took a bite of eggs. “I thought I might go and visit Bryony. I want to see if there’s someone who can cut her hair.”

“Liberty,” he said. “She takes care of stuff like that. Always has a cloud of blonde hair like she stepped out of a salon.”

Santha paused and studied him with a considering eye. “She’s a good…friend of yours?”

Shit
. The eggs in his mouth turned to concrete. Liberty liked men, especially soldiers. She was sexy and unafraid of it. Cruz had shared the sheets with her once. He swallowed. “Ah…all I can say is that I only have eyes for you now,
mi reina
.”

Santha’s eyes narrowed and she shook her toast at him. “And don’t forget that, soldier. I’m rather handy with knives—” a narrow smile “—and if you get forgetful, I may have to pay Ms. Cloud-of-Blonde-Hair a visit…after I’m through with you.”

Right. He took a sip of his protein drink, then he grinned. “Damn, you’re sexy when you’re mean.”

She laughed and forked up more food. “I’ll track down this Liberty and see if she’ll do Bryony’s hair. And I want to check and make sure Bryony slept okay. She was talking about broken bridges and scary faces…” Santha stopped, her brow creasing.

When she trailed off, Cruz set his fork down. “What is it?”

“Scary
face
. When Bryony mentioned a scary face, I thought she was just talking about the raptors. But she said face.” Santha snapped her fingers. “Luna Park!”

“Luna what?”

“You aren’t a local, so you probably don’t know about it. There used to be a small, historic amusement park on the northern side of the Harbor Bridge. It’s really old. And it has this giant face at the entrance.”

Cruz straightened. “We need to check it out.”

“Can we get a drone over there? Confirm any raptor activity.”

He nodded. “I’ll get Elle on it.”

An hour later, Cruz stood beside Santha as they watched Elle furiously tapping at her computer and swiping the screen, taking the necessary steps to view the drone feed. Slowly but surely, the rest of Hell Squad had also filed in.

“I don’t know why all you grunts have to be in here,” Noah grumbled, glancing at the assembled crowd.

“Can it, Kim,” Shaw said. “I know you prefer talking to your computer chips and hard drives, but an occasional conversation with an actual human could help your lack of personality.”

Noah gave Shaw a bland stare. “You’re only proving my point. You standing here all glowering and scowling won’t make this go any faster. Don’t you have something to shoot or wrestle?”

“Look you—”

They both cut off when the door opened and General Holmes strode in. “You found something.”

“One of the rescued prisoners remembered something that narrowed down the location of the raptor lab,” Marcus said. “Luna Park.”

Holmes looked at Elle. “You have confirmation?”

“I’ve been running a program to analyze the drone feed of that area.” Elle tapped the screen. “Here are the results.”

Images filled the screen.

There were raptors all over Luna Park. In every image but one.

Santha gasped. She focused on a slightly blurry picture of a line of humans chained together, being led into a building.

“We’re going in,” Marcus said in his grit-edged voice.

Holmes’ jaw tightened. He opened his mouth—

Santha slashed a hand through the air. “No resting or waiting or planning. While we rested last time, they were killing those people. They know we’re onto them now, so there’s a good chance they’ll start euthanizing other humans as well.”

The general raked a hand through his dark hair.

Marcus crossed his arms. “We’re going in.”

Holmes nodded. “Go. Get them out. And take whatever resources you need.”

Chapter Fifteen

The Hawk ride was silent and tense. All of Hell Squad sat silently, mulling over the possibilities of what they would find at Luna Park. Doc Emerson sat in her chair, her hands fiddling with her m-scanner.

Santha stroked her crossbow. Time to end this. She’d help free any prisoners, and then she was going after the commander.

Elle’s voice came through their earpieces. “No raptor signatures at the Luna Park location.”

Several people cursed and Santha’s hand clenched on her weapon.

“There are several human signatures, though,” Elle continued.

Santha exchanged a look with Cruz. “Trap?”

“Could be.”

Marcus stared at the floor for a second. “Doesn’t matter. We have to help those people.” He arched his neck to look into the cockpit. “Finn, don’t bother dropping us too far away. If this is a trap, they know we’re coming.”

“Roger that, Marcus.”

The Hawk dropped them near the remains of the northern side of the Harbor Bridge. The bright afternoon light glinted off the waters of the harbor. As they jogged toward the park, the ruins of the bridge loomed overhead. Once, it had been an icon of the city, stretching over the harbor like a solid metal coat hanger. The center of the bridge had been blown away, leaving jagged, twisted metal behind.

They rounded the point and the face of Luna Park came into view. The gigantic visage was at least ten meters across, multi-colored, with towers flanking it. It’s wide, smiling mouth was the entrance to the park. Somehow, the entire thing had escaped damage during the raptor invasion.

“Bryony was right, it is creepy,” Cruz said as they walked through the mouth.

Everything was quiet. No sign of any raptors. Inside, was a wide avenue flanked by colorful buildings made to look like circus tents and castles. It should have been cheery and welcoming, but the park had an eerie, haunted feel. The rides sat silent, and the stalls and restaurants that would have once sold food and drinks were derelict. A large Ferris wheel was visible in the distance ahead, drunkenly tilted to one side.

“The human signatures are in the large building with the yellow-and-white striped roof. It’s called the Big Top. It was a function center and concert hall,” Elle said.

Santha spotted the large building, with its name emblazoned above the main doors in a circus-style script. Sometime during the last year, the letter B had fallen off.

“Got it,” Marcus murmured. “Let’s move, Hell Squad.”

They entered through the glass doors, Claudia and Gabe going in first.

The foyer contained a large bar, where guests would have grabbed a drink and a bite to eat before a concert. Now, all the bar stools were scattered across the floor like fallen Skittles.

Claudia waved them toward the doors leading into the main auditorium.

“Hell,” Marcus muttered.

There were no raptors inside, but what Santha saw made nausea roll through her stomach.

In the huge, open area, there were far more beds than there’d been at the other lab.

Every bed was filled with bodies attached to various machines. At the back of the room, where Santha guessed the stage would be set up, were rows of small cages, stacked two high against the wall. Quiet moaning filled the room.

“Doc?” Marcus said.

Doc Emerson pushed forward. “I’ll assess everyone’s condition, work out who we can move.” She set to work, determination in the set of her jaw. “See if you can find Dr. Lonsdale.”

The team spread out. Santha moved down the row of beds, searching the pale faces. At the same time, she went to work, undoing the straps holding some of them to the beds.

“Found him,” Gabe called out from the second row of beds.

Santha yanked at a strap that refused to budge. The woman in the bed had her eyes open, and her mouth gaped. She stared, unseeing, at the ceiling.

“Dammit, come loose,” Santha muttered, yanking harder.

“Here.” Cruz leaned in from behind and pulled the strap off.

“Thanks.” She closed her eyes for a second. “This is…”

“I know.” He pressed a warm hand to the nape of her neck. “We’ll do what we can to help them.”

Santha let her gaze drift over the beds. She already knew a good number of them wouldn’t survive, or if they did, they’d never be the same. She didn’t need a medical degree to know that some of these people had been broken—physically and mentally.