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 wouldn’t be human if you gave me the damn serum.”
“Earn it,” Lucian orders. “Get us Red Dart.”
“Powell wants me to romance his daughter,” he counters. “He’s grooming me to be his son-in-law. His right-hand man. This is bigger than Red Dart. We’ll know every move the government is making.”
“We don’t need to know what they are doing,” Brock assures him. “We’ll have Red Dart to control humans. We simply need the Renegades out of the way. Besides, it’s been six months, and you have yet to get into that bitch’s pants. I’m not placing any bets on you now. We already know she’s susceptible to Creed’s influences. She’s a liability. You want the serum. To be one of us, you will kill her.”
That’s it. I’ve heard enough. My heart is racing, and I can barely breathe. I start to back away, aware that being caught was a death sentence. A twig breaks, and I freeze, but I can feel their attention and the shift in energy. My mind races. They haven’t seen me yet, but I only have two options: back up slowly or take off running. Instinct tells me time matters. I jerk myself out of the bushes and take off running, straining with every stretch of my muscles to get around the corner of the building to the more public forum.
A motorcycle screams towards me, the headlights blasting my face and blinding me. A second later, I yelp as I’m swept off my feet as a powerful arm wraps around my waist. Warmth washes over me, and a sense of security defies the precarious way my feet dangle above the street. Creed. Suddenly, the questions and accusations about his motives don’t matter. He’s here. And on every possible level, I know that means I’m safe.
Chapter Fourteen
Brock
The two Zodius soldiers traveling with Lucian fade into the wind, leaving me only one asshole to face, and that asshole is Lucian.
As if Lucian has plucked the “asshole” nickname from my mind, anger flashes in his eyes a moment before I’m slammed against my rental car, pain splintering through my body with the impact, the air walloping from my chest. One day, I think, heaving in air, I’ll become a GTECH and kill this bastard, ripping him limb by limb when I do. And enjoy every damn minute of the bloodbath. And I will become a GTECH. I’ve played my cards in all the right ways. Either Julian or Powell will make it happen.
“You stupid sonofabitch!” Lucian snarls at me. “You were followed.” His eyes narrow sharply. “Or did you tell Powell you were meeting me? I swear to you, Brock, if I find out you’re working both sides, I’ll cut your heart out and eat the damn thing.”
“I wouldn’t even be here if you’d left me the fuck alone. I gave you Green Hornet bullets, the only bullets that can penetrate the Renegades’ body armor. If that doesn’t show loyalty, I don’t know what the fuck does.”
“We don’t even know if they work.”
“Test them,” I order, wishing like fuck the freaky bastard would get off me.
"I’ll use them all right,” he replies, a snide quality to his tone.
“Test them,” I say, shoving against his unmoving body. “Don’t use them until we have Red Dart, or Powell will know I betrayed him. Do you hear me?”
“Maybe that’s what I want,” he drawls.
“You want to fuck everything up? How appropriately you. Let me do my job, Lucian. And that job includes fucking Addie, not killing her.”
Lucian snarls. “The only person getting fucked is you if you’ve exposed our plans to Powell. Julian doesn’t just want Red Dart out of Powell’s hands; he plans to use it to gain control of the Renegades and force his brother to join him. You have no idea how pissed he’ll be if you screw that up. So, I suggest you get me that Red Dart crystal with the GTECH method of application. That’s the only way you can prove your loyalty. And turn the lights out on Powell’s daughter before I snap your delicate little human neck.” The wind whistles around us a moment before Lucian disappears.
I curl my fingers into my palms, jerk my sore body off the hood, and punch at the air. Fuck Lucian and Julian. Powell has promised me that I’m the future. I will replace them, but, in the end, I’m loyal to me over all others. I will do whatever I have to do to get to the top of the food chain, and whoever gets me there first has me with them, at least while I need them. Or maybe it will be them who end up needing me.
I climb inside my vehicle, already removing my cell from my belt to call Powell. If the information I just garnered doesn’t convince Powell to step up the pace and reward me by injecting me with his new, improved GTECH serum that PMI has been working on, then nothing will. If he wants me to prove my loyalty, he needs to do the same—now, not later.