Lethal Engagement (An Unbounded Novella) (6 page)

I scooped up a piece of cake and put it in his mouth. He did the same for me. Every nerve in my body stood at attention. His eyes drank me in every bit as much as if he were touching me. At that moment I wanted nothing more, secret or no secret.

“Mari,” he said, his voice hoarse.

“What?” My voice was as rough as his.

“You have chocolate on your shirt.”

“Thanks.” Standing, I went to the closet for a new T-shirt, glancing back at Keene, whose eyes followed my every step. I changed in my closet and returned. He was standing now, staring at the TV screen.

“Jace says you guys learned about a new Unbounded religion today.” His fist clenched and unclenched at his side.

“Looks like it.”

He sighed, his eyes finally meeting mine. “Does it bother you working with a mortal?”

“No.” It was only a partial lie. It bothered me that he might die because I wasn’t good enough, and it bothered me that I was worried about trusting him—except trust didn’t really have anything to do with him being a mortal.

He crossed the steps between us, energy spilling from every stride. His hands went to my upper arms, slightly chafing my triceps. “Mari, I . . .”

I waited, but he shook his head once as though flinging away a thought.

Maybe Keene was still hung up on Erin, despite her recent marriage. I knew they’d been close before she and Ritter had become serious. Or it was entirely possible Keene had met someone new. Maybe this new woman was the one he’d been talking about with Cort. Could she be a danger to our Renegades?

His hands dropped, leaving me cold. “I’d better get downstairs,” he said. “I promised to help Ritter with the extra weapons we’re bringing along. We may need them during the op, and it’s almost time to leave.”

“Eleven minutes.” I left off the twenty-four seconds because no one appreciated a show-off. But Ritter would already have the equipment ready by now, and we both knew it was an excuse.

He smiled. “Remind me never to pick you up late.”

I returned his smile and watched him go without asking the question burning on my tongue. Whatever Keene was hiding, I was going to find out. I’d protect Patrick Mann, even if it turned out I was protecting him from Keene.

STELLA DROVE US TO THE
plane in our armored van, still wearing her neural headset. At the airport before I could get out of the van, her hand fell on my shoulder where I sat in the passenger seat. “Hey, can I talk to you for a minute?”

The others were already grabbing their gear and heading for the hangar. Keene glanced back at me and then at the empty tarmac around us, as if double-checking for Emporium spies or other dangers. At the hangar door, Jace said something to Keene and remained there, waiting for me.

“Look,” Stella began, “I know this op may take more than a month or two. There’s no telling when I’ll see you again.”

“I’ll call every day.” Looking at her now reminded me of the woman I’d known as a child, who pretended to be my mother’s friend but was in actuality a relative. It was because of her that my mother had received Unbounded sperm when she’d decided to go to a sperm bank to have a child. I was grateful beyond words, but after my Change, the shock of seeing her again, as young as ever, had been no small thing.

Stella laughed. “You guys still treat me with kid gloves. I’m okay, you know.”

“I know.” But I didn’t really. She’d been devastated at losing her unborn baby to an Emporium raid, and days later her mortal husband to a rare immune disease. Occasionally, I’d felt smothered by her interest, but she was my ancestor, and I wanted to help her through it.

“I’m pregnant,” she said.

I blinked. “What?”

“I decided it was time.”

“So your husband left frozen—”

“The baby is Chris’s.”

“Erin and Jace’s brother? That Chris?” Since Chris was flying us to DC, that might explain why she was so eager to drive me to the airport.

“Yes. With sperm manipulation, we have a forty percent chance of our child carrying the active Unbounded gene. That’s better than I had with Bronson. And my baby will need a good dad, regardless.”

“Oh, Stella, I’m so happy for you!” I reached over and hugged her.

Before my Change, I’d been trying to talk Trevor into having a child, and the desire for a baby hadn’t completely vanished after my Change. Now there would be a baby sooner than expected. Not mine, but almost as good. Like Chris’s children, this new baby would belong, in part, to all of us.

“Does Erin know?” I asked. “What about everyone else?”

“Erin and Ava, of course.” Stella laughed. “Can’t hide a life force from them, and Dimitri helped in the lab. Ritter knows because of that last op in Morocco.” She paused before adding, “I’m almost three months along. I just wanted you to know before I started looking like a whale.”

I gave a snort. “Yeah, right.”

“I’m glad you’re happy for me. I was worried about telling you.”

I frowned. “Because of Trevor.”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t worry about that. I wouldn’t change what I have now for a dozen lifetimes with that jerk. It’s just as well he didn’t want children.”

She laughed again. “That’s the spirit. Come on. I’ll go in with you. I want to say goodbye to Chris.”

Something in the way she said his name called my attention. When she’d talked about the baby, it seemed more of a business agreement with Chris, but if I added in the tone of her voice just now and the time she’d been spending with him and his kids, maybe there was more to it. Before my mind could come up with the question I wanted to ask, she was already out of the car. I hurried after her, and Jace opened the door as we approached.

Inside the hangar, Keene and Cort were loading gear, while Chris had a panel of the plane open and was doing something with a screwdriver. When he saw us, he pocketed the tool, ran a hand through his dark blond hair, and came toward Stella, his eyes riveted on her face. How had I not noticed this?

I was fiercely glad Stella wasn’t curling into a ball and giving up after losing her husband. She was going on, and by the smile on her face, I’d say that Chris was halfway to winning her, lab baby or no.

As the others loaded the plane, I remembered something I’d forgotten, so I made a quick stop in the hangar restroom. Shifting the moment I stepped inside, I chose numbers that would move me instantly to a place miles away. There, I appeared in my usual place near a display and the end of an aisle that hid me on three sides. If anyone was near, I could usually shift again before they could look my way. This time, I was behind a man who was intent on reading the details on a box. The soft pop alerted his attention, but I stepped forward to make it seem I had just rounded the aisle.

His head swivelled toward me, surprise registering on his round face. “Oh, I didn’t see you. Am I in your way? You need one of these blenders? I hear they’re good.”

I shook my head. “No thank you. I’m looking for socks.”

“Better hurry. In case you didn’t hear, they already announced that they’ll be closing soon.”

“Thanks.”

I was back in the hangar before anyone noticed I was gone. I handed the package of black socks to Jace.

“Wow, thanks! I thought I was going to have to borrow Cort’s.”

“They’d never go with your jeans.”

“I know, right?” He grinned. “Is this where you were just now? Man, your ability is a thief’s dream.”

“Hey, I paid for those.”

He laughed. “Does this mean you’ll go out with me? I mean if you’re getting me socks and all.”

“You’re too young.”

“What’s three years in two thousand?”

“Ask me in another century then.” I think Jace had gotten into a kind of fantasy about asking me out. Maybe one of these days I should say yes because he was right about the age difference being moot, and he could always make me laugh. We were a lot alike.

“Ready?” Cort asked everyone as he stored the last bag. Nods all around, even Stella, who wasn’t going with us.

To our surprise, Chris bent down and kissed Stella full on the mouth. We all pretended not to notice as we filed up the stairs and into the plane. Chris was the last one inside, and he waved to Stella as he hit the button that would pull the stairs inside the belly of the plane. She turned away as he began sealing the door.

This was our larger plane, the corporate jet, though it wasn’t as large as many companies employed. It also wasn’t as luxurious, but a far sight more comfortable than our smaller plane, and as the fiancée of the president’s son, I had to arrive in some semblance of style. On the right of the aisle were two sets of four facing seats with a table between each of the four. On the left side there were only two facing seats separated by a smaller table. Ten seats in all. Behind the two chairs on the left we had a small kitchen and beyond that an even smaller bathroom. A storage area took up the rear of the plane, including tightly fitted metal bunks where we often transported Emporium prisoners who had been temporarily killed in battle or heavily sedated. I was glad we had no such prisoners today.

Hanging the outfit I carried in a special compartment near the door, I grabbed a place in the first set of four seats, pushing my bag underneath. I had a novel in the bag, but I didn’t know if I’d be able to concentrate. Keene dropped to my side. For the moment, we were alone because Jace and Cort were in the cockpit with Chris, both determined to learn more about flying. Cort could fly our smaller plane well enough, but the larger plane for some reason made him uncomfortable, so he was practicing when he could. The plane felt empty without Erin, Stella, and the others. I sprang up to get myself a drink, sat down, and then went back again to the small kitchen for another glass for Keene. He nodded his thanks but didn’t drink the water.

After what seemed like hours, but my ability told me had only been thirty minutes, we were up in the air. I felt anxious already, penned in. I wished I could just shift to DC, but I wasn’t familiar with our destination, and I truthfully didn’t know if it was possible to shift that far. I’d crossed cities, but not states, and certainly not the entire US. I hoped the worst that would happen, if I couldn’t shift that far, was that I’d drop out of shift early like I had when trying to take someone with me, but even that meant there was no way I’d attempt it from the plane. I might survive a thousand-foot drop, but it would hurt every bit as much as it did for a mortal when I hit the ground. For now, I had no choice but to spend the next seven hours on this plane. I’d never been claustrophobic, and I wasn’t now, but I hated that I didn’t have options.

Cort and Jace returned to us, slipping into the seats opposite Keene and me. “So,” Cort said, “who do you think is responsible for the attempt on Patrick’s life?”

I was glad for the distraction. “Hunters,” I said. “Or the Emporium, I guess.”

Keene considered a moment, leaning partially over the table with his arms on his knees. “The Emporium certainly has the power, and my gut says they’re behind it, but we must consider that having Patrick make nice with the American people is actually a plus for them.”

“I have to agree,” Jace said. “No matter how much the Emporium hates him, they’ll want that good will, so I’m betting its Hunters. We’ve seen how much they hate us—all of us. They won’t care about Patrick being the president’s son or that he claims to be a good guy. They’ll only see that he’s Unbounded, nothing more.”

I thought of the employees at the Unbounded Café. “Apparently, Hunters aren’t just targeting Unbounded anymore. Not if what happened at that ice cream shop today is any indicator. The guy in charge as much as admitted he knew the employees weren’t Unbounded.”

“Well, they were pretending to be Unbounded,” Jace said. “And they started a religion around us. That’s got to spell danger to all Hunters.”

“A lot of people have joined the Hunters since the announcement.” Keene ran a finger around the top of the water glass I’d given him. “I’m not so sure their leaders are in complete control anymore. New Hunters could have been behind the shooting attempt on Patrick. Experienced Hunters and the Emporium would both know that a bullet couldn’t kill him, and that with so many Secret Service around, they weren’t going to have a chance with just one shooter to kidnap him.”

We let that bounce around in our heads for a moment, and then Cort broke the silence. “So our best bet is newly joined Hunters. We need to look for a connection. But we still can’t overlook the possibility that it might be someone we aren’t familiar with.”

“An unconnected third party out for private vengeance?” Keene’s voice was doubtful. “Maybe a politician or a few together might have enough power, but they’d likely be backed by Hunters or the Emporium. And it’s doubtful a person working alone would be able to get past Secret Service.”

“I was thinking more along the lines of another group,” Cort said. “Or maybe two groups. The girl found in Patrick’s room at the White House might not have been a threat. Maybe she was a gift.”

“You mean from someone who likes us?” I asked.

Jace scowled. “Unbounded worshipers. Ugh.”

“What about the knife she was carrying?” I could feel the comforting weight of those strapped to my wrists beneath my long-sleeved blouse. They were made of tough plastic instead of my usual metal ones, because it turned out the Secret Service would be checking us for weapons in DC. Once at our destination, I’d retrieve our regular weapons from Cort, who I could shift to wherever he was staying. “People don’t usually carry knives unless they’re prepared to use them.”