Warrior Rogue (The Drift Lords Series) Read Free Page A

making him think he had been cast back in time to the Viking era. Jen had been an anomaly. He’d focused on her at once, ignoring the others around them. Then came the attack on the villagers. He’d reacted automatically as per his training.
    Once he realized it was a film set, he deduced that he must have spatial shifted from his point of origin in Orlando, Florida. That meant he’d traversed a spontaneous rift in the space-time continuum. Things would only get worse unless he accomplished his mission, and until then, he had to survive.
    Jen sat alongside him. She wore her raven hair secured in a twist, highlighting the delicate angles of her face. Her long dress stuck to the cushion, pulling on her bodice and giving him a tantalizing view of her cleavage.
    By Odin’s grace, he didn’t need this distraction now. He had to find out what happened to his team.
    At his last recollection, they’d stormed an enemy facility housing a jamming device that blocked their sensor readings. Their objective had been to destroy the antenna and its power source. Paz had no idea if his friends had succeeded. A beefy Trollek soldier had shoved him into a pit filled with a chopping, whirling mechanism.
    He’d hit his head and bounced off a wall, tumbling to the bottom where the sea rushed in a torrential current. Yanked underwater and tossed about like a particle of sand, he’d lost his clothing and his consciousness.
    Paz didn’t remember much else until he awoke backstage at the film studio. Hearing voices, he’d stumbled in their direction and rounded a corner onto the village set. His face heated when he remembered his natural state and people’s stares.
    “Where should I take you?” Jen asked in a soft tone.
    “That depends. Where are we?” He glanced out the window. Neon signs advertised a sword museum, an arts center, and a department store. He could read the English well enough with his implanted universal translator.
    “I thought the doctor did a neurological exam on you. He said you were clear to go.” Jen’s eyes widened in alarm.
    A healer at their medical center had cleaned and treated his wounds. He’d been fortunate none of his injuries were more serious than a crack on the head and minor lacerations, meaning he could resume his mission.
    “I know we’re in Tokyo. I meant to ask where we are headed?”
    Relief flitted across her face. “Let me see if Keith made it to the set first before we make any decisions.”
    Jen pulled out a rectangular object from her handbag. Paz recognized it as the crude communication device called a cellular phone. He smiled inwardly. As communications officer for the Drift Lords, he could upgrade that to a Class IV Portable Intel Platform, or PIP, with the proper added components.
    Jen punched numbers on her touchpad. “Hello, Sandi?” She held the phone to her ear. “Yes, it’s me. What’s going on?”
    Her forehead scrunched as she listened. “You’re kidding. The producer loved the take? I don’t believe it.” A pause. “Hmm, good question. I’ll get back to you on that one.”
    While she spoke, Paz stared at the jumble of tall buildings that went by in a blur as their driver shot through an intersection, barely missing a bicyclist.
    Jen hung up and stuffed the phone back in her handbag. Her narrowed gaze swung toward him. “Okay, who are you?”
    “I told you. My name is Paz Hadar.”
    “That’s not what I meant. Keith still isn’t there, and Sandi says the actor sent by the casting office arrived shortly after we left the studio. So if you’re not the man they sent, who the hell are you?”
    He liked the way her dark brown eyes blazed when she was angry. How would they change when she got aroused?
    Get that idea out of your head. She’s not your type.
    Just look at her expensive diamond earrings and manicured nails, at her fashionable clothing and confident posture. She oozed wealth and sophistication. He steered clear of women like Jennifer Dyhr for the