Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 26999 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 26999 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 135(@200wpm)___ 108(@250wpm)___ 90(@300wpm)
I digest that statement about as abruptly as a well-placed bullet, right in the gut, and with a hard bite to boot. Not because I don’t want to be inside Sunrise City, but because this is the day I’ve always known would come—the day I’ll become Julian’s worst enemy. And Addie lands right in the middle of the firing range, a prime target for Julian’s vengeance, and I have no way to get her off the radar. Not when she is the best shot we have at getting our hands on Red Dart—a technology that could hand the world over to a madman. My world is bleeding into Addie’s, but that blood always seemed to originate with her father. A man I’d once had a chance to kill. And Addie wasn’t wrong when she’d said that I’d wanted to. He’s alive because of her, but I can’t promise I’ll walk away from killing him again. At this point, she might be better off if he were dead.
But then she’d hate me.
She would hate me forever, and she’s never getting rid of me. I’m her lifebond. And neither of us even know the real implications of that bond.
Chapter Six
Julian
Sirens shrill through the intercom, blasting through my bedroom. “Oh my God,” Ava gasps, her hand cradling her stomach. “Are we being attacked? Our baby. Julian, our baby.”
My phone buzzes beside the bed, and I snatch it up, listen a moment, and then fling the damn thing across the room. “The Renegades are attempting to remove the females,” I say, already standing and shoving my legs in the fatigues I keep near the bed for just such an occasion.
Ava is on her knees, desperation and panic etched in her sleep-laden face. “What? No! That will destroy our testing. You can’t let them take the women! How could they even get to them? How?”
“Creed,” I snap vehemently. “Creed betrayed us.”
She gasps. “No! God, no.” She throws the covers aside. “I’m coming. I have influence over the women. I’ll—”
“You will not leave this room,” I command.
“But Julian—” She’s shaking. Panicked.
“Ava,” I reprimand sharply, still dressing. “Control yourself.”
The phone on the wall jangles, and I yank it off the receiver, listening as I’m informed about a breach too far underway to be stopped. The line goes dead, and fury overtakes me, and I beat the damn thing against the wall, the rage inside me bubbling over, impossible to control. I toss the receiver and grab not one, but two MP5 machine guns and head for the door. My need for blood is now all I see. I’m going to blow holes in Creed and let him damn near bleed to death. Then let the bastard heal and do it all over again.
The instant I exit the underground to surface level, I hear the roar of the Renegade choppers—to the east, west, and south sides of the complex. I fade into the wind and head west, appearing just as a group of my soldiers are about to fire a rocket launcher at a chopper. Awareness rips through me—the kind I felt only for two people, my lifebond and my twin.
“No!” I shout, but not soon enough. The weapon discharges, and time stands still. The dreams of a greater world—of my brother joining me to rule a new kingdom—threatened in the shadowy swampland of my brother’s certain death.
A crackle of energy slides over me, much like the awareness of Caleb an instant before. Creed appears in the doorway of the chopper—the wind shifting around him, seeming to take form. It’s like nothing I’ve ever seen before—nothing any other GTECH could do. Then suddenly, a powerful wall of wind thrusts from where Creed stands and forces the missile back at the Zodius soldiers in his pursuit. I fade into the wind a second before the missile explodes, one of the few weapons sure to be lethal for a GTECH. I return seconds later to find my soldiers sprawled out on the ground, injured or dead, and the helicopter quickly traveling away. Those who’ve survived the explosion scramble for their footing, murmuring about both Creed’s betrayal and his ability to control the wind, an ability no one, not even myself, ever knew he possessed.
Fucking Creed held that power in check, concealing it from me and from all of us. And that power is a weapon. The bastard betrayed me, made me look like a fool, and the rage part of me wants to start blowing shit up until the government gives me Red Dart. And once I have it, Creed will be the first to suffer.
I pace, willing myself to calm, to think. If Creed was working for the Renegades, Caleb knows about Red Dart and the government’s intent to use it on all GTECHs. Caleb’s smart enough to know that Red Dart in the hands of the government means his demise, not just mine. This is officially a race to get Red Dart first.