Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“Come in, Lieutenant Colonel,” she welcomes, “before you wash away.” Her voice is smooth as expensive whiskey, a throaty sensuality rasping from its depths.
But as my gaze shifts to the medical bed and monitors behind her, unease ticks to life. “Who are you?”
“The person who is going to hand you the world, Brock. If you want it. But you can call me Jocelyn.”
She’s for me, I think. She was sent to me to change my life. Slowly, this realization has me lowering my weapon, and she backs away from the entrance to offer me room to join her.
I don’t need a second invitation.
I climb inside the van and pull the door shut behind me.
I rotate to find her perched on a stool beside the bed, the scent of her, sweet and female, insinuating into my nostrils. “Lie on the bed and roll up your sleeve,” she orders, apparently unconcerned about the water I’m dripping all over the place.
It's less than a stride for me to sit on the mattress, and she rolls backward to allow me space to lie down. I pull my shirt over my head and toss the soggy mess. Her lips hint at a smile, as if she approves of my action.
I lay down.
Jocelyn scoots back to my side and wraps a rubber tube around my upper arm. Holy crap, I think. This is happening; it’s really happening. I’m about to become GTECH. As if confirming this conclusion, Jocelyn withdraws medication from a vial into a syringe, and my damn cock is standing at attention. I’m aroused. By her. By that needle about to create a new me.
Watching her now, she’s older than I first thought—maybe in her fifties, but could pass for forties. But it doesn’t turn me off. No, nothing about this woman turns me off. She is fucking amazing.
“General Lawrence told me you are aware of the risks, but I’d like to hear that from you,” she says. “Because there is no turning back. Everything about this program is experimental.”
“No risk, no reward,” I say, lost in my obsession with this woman and the power she represents.
She offers me a tiny smile that I feel in the twitch of my cock. “My philosophy, exactly.” She holds the syringe up and taps it. “Ready?”
“I was born ready.”
“I’ll bet you were.” She taps the syringe once more. “But we’ll talk about the side effects a little later.”
Something about her words hit me wrong. Wasn’t that normally discussed beforehand? But it was too late for questions. She leans forward and injects me, ice stabbing at my veins. Darkness follows.
Chapter Twenty
Creed
Addie’s sickness comes back with fury.
After forty minutes of darting from one hotel bathroom to the next, we finally load up in a Range Rover that the Renegades left at a designated spot.
Three hundred miles of stormy weather and dark highways later, Addie’s resting on the seat next to me, her blonde hair draped over the cushion as she slumbers—hair I know feels like silk and smells like honeysuckle. I want her more than I want a next breath, and that desire, that want for her, can lead her nowhere good.
At our first stopping point, I pull us off the highway to a remote storage facility, where we’ll exchange the SUV for a motorcycle—no doubt a rough ride for Addie in her present condition. What I wouldn’t do to windwalk her the rest of the way or even airlift her, but neither is an option.
Windwalking would kill her.
Airlifting meant helicopter, and helicopters could be shot down.
I park behind the unit, and Addie doesn’t so much as murmur a sound, knocked out from far too many hours of misery. I exit the vehicle, open the door to the unit, and drive us inside, and still she sleeps.
It’s the lifebonding illness. The black eyes, the sickness—it all adds up, and the first thing we’re doing in Sunrise City is figuring out how to fix it. How to stop it from happening.
I will not let our bond be the end of her, and the danger of transporting her through the canyon that leads to Sunrise City drives that point home. Her life will not be about war. I want her back in Germany, safe and happy. No, I think. No, that is not what I really want. What I really want is her in bed with me, beneath me. On top of me. All around me. Smiling at me. Convincing me there’s something human left in me. Something worth caring about.
I hit the remote and shut the door behind us. Addie stirs, groggily sitting up and stretching. “How long was I out? And where are we?”
“Two hours,” I say, popping open my door. “We’re in a storage facility for a vehicle change. How do you feel?”
“Better.” She swallows, and seems to be weighing her words. “Yes. For sure. I’m better.”