CONCEPTION (The Others) Read Free Page A

his sunglasses as he zipped Deuce’s bloody body into the bag. She
redirected his gaze to the panel on the wall. She forced her ravaged lungs to
fill with air. With everything she had, she ordered, “Run!”
    She saw realization dawn in the men’s eyes as the last
consonant faded.
    Nick threw Deuce over his shoulder. “Get the hell out of
here. The whole damn place is going to go.”
    As one, the sea of khaki made for the exit. Eden was only
concerned with Nick’s progress.
    Her body was jerked relentlessly as Dak and the other man
tested the metal restraints holding her in place. Bandanna man pulled out his
gun and fired. The agony of the percussion tore through her wrists and down her
arms, so intense she could no longer scream. Dak’s curses came as fast as her
heartbeat, just as frantic and just as useless. The chains held.
    Her gaze followed Nick as he cleared the door, his image blurring
out of clarity. As he passed through with his burden, she turned her attention
to Dak and the other man. She knew the instant he recognized what she’d known
from the moment she’d chosen to save Deuce. She wasn’t getting out of here
alive.
    “Get out of here,” Dak ordered bandanna man.
    “Just as soon as you do.”
    “You’re in charge of getting Deuce to Bohdan.”
    Bandanna man glanced at her, at the chains, and finally at
Dak. With a sharp nod, he sprinted for the door, long hair whipping behind him.
    “You
need to go, too,” Eden told Dak. She couldn’t have any more lives on her
conscience.
    “Just as soon as I have you down, I’ll do that very thing.”
    “There’s no time!”
    Dak’s
expression turned to stone and his eyes glowed with defiant determination. She shook
her head as he picked at the locks with a piece of metal. With the last bit of
strength she had, she pulled up her leg, placed her foot on his chest and
pushed him away. He stared at her, fangs showing, face morphing as she swung in
the chains, past pain. Past everything.
    Explosions began in the outer compound, the impending
violence vibrating down the chains straight to her soul. She was going to die,
but he didn’t need to.
    “You can’t save me.” The gold of his eyes changed to deep
amber with uncertainty, and then regret. His fingers brushed her cheek with the
lightest of touches. She closed her eyes against the reality and found the
strength to do one last thing right. “Get out of here.”

Chapter Two

 
    “This had better be good,” Deuce growled, tossing his
battered backpack on the chair in the main security room. “If I do not leave
soon, Dak will have all the fun rousting those spies by himself.”
    “Oh, it’s good.” Nick leaned back in his chair and folded
his arms across his chest. “And I don’t know what the hell to do about it.”
    “Do what we always do with journalists.” He shrugged. “Scare
them off.”
    “Tried that.”
    “And?”
    Nick fiddled with the camera controls. “She didn’t scare.”
    She? Deuce’s curiosity piqued. Not many women came this far
into the wilderness. Let alone in the bitter cold following a raging storm.
“Who did you send?”
    “Harley.”
    He moved toward the screen. Harley was a big nightmare of a
werewolf and one of his top security experts. “Hell-bent-for-leather Harley
didn’t send her screaming?”
    Nick’s chair creaked beneath his shifting weight. “Nope.”
    “Did he forget his biker regalia?”
    “Nope. He even took along Luke and Shiva.”
    Which meant the three had been hanging around waiting for
him to get back, and boredom had driven them out to scare off the pretty little
journalist.
    He looked at the monitor. In the darkening twilight, there
was only a faint stir of movement. At times, the limits of human technology
frustrated him.
    “She’s between cameras,” Nick apologized.
    Deuce scanned with his senses. The only people on the
mountain, according to his senses, were those who were supposed to be there.
Which was impossible. He was staring