Authors: Rebecca Zanetti
“So? Freaks can’t have family.”
Nate laughed harder and rattled a broken rib. “You tried so hard. So damn hard to make us cold killers.
I’d never realized how badly you’d failed.”
The commander shot a punch into Nate’s gut.
Nate folded over with a harsh
oof
. He spit blood. And laughed harder. “No wonder you’re pissed.”
“I’m not pissed.” The commander straightened his bloody uniform. “I won. You are a killer.”
“Maybe, but I ain’t cold.” The current environment notwithstanding. “Neither are my brothers. You
tried so fucking hard, but you couldn’t break us. Not one of us.” The muscles in Nate’s back vibrated from
the pressure of keeping him from dropping and injuring his wrists. “Matt survived the pressure you put on
him. Even more so, he survived the pressure he put on himself to save us. He fucking survived and found
love.”
The commander punched Nate in the face, sending spittle flying from his mouth.
Nate’s head rocked and his vision fuzzed. Pain radiated through his ear. So he smiled. “Shane is happily
married. Fucking married, Commander.”
“And Jory?” the commander said softly. “You didn’t save him.”
“Maybe not.” Nate lowered his chin to look evil in the eye. “But I gave him the best childhood possible
here, and he thrived. When we escaped, he became truly happy. Almost twenty, a trained killer, he went to
Disneyland and rode the rides like a kid on holiday.” The memory would always warm Nate.
The commander reared back. “Disneyland.”
“Yep.” Nate finally let the past go. “If he’s dead, he’s in a better place.”
“You think you creations go to a better place?” the commander spat.
“Yes.” Nate exhaled in release. “I actually do.”
“You’re still in this place.” The commander manacled Nate’s hair and jerked back his head. “What if I
forced you to choose?”
“Chocolate chip. Forget the vanilla.” Nate forced his eyes to remain open. “You meant ice cream,
right?”
“No.” The commander smiled, malice carving grooves next to his mouth. “How about a choice between
Audrey and your brothers?”
Nate tried to chuckle, but more blood slipped out of his mouth. “My brothers are free, and Audrey will
be soon.”
“I’ll kill her. Cut her into little pieces while you watch, unless you get your brothers here.” The
commander reached into his boot and drew out a fresh blade he hadn’t used yet on Nate.
This time Nate did chuckle. “Right. Killing Audrey while she’s pregnant with my baby. Not a chance
would you do that.”
“I can wait six more months.” Sharper than the blade he played with, the commander’s smile promised
pain. “Let’s be honest. While she’s done a good job with the senator, Audrey lacks commitment to my
organization. Once the baby is born, Audrey will be a hindrance.” The commander lifted a muscled
shoulder. “I will have to kill her.”
“You fucking touch her, and I’ll rip you apart tendon by tendon.” Rage sped up the drugs in Nate’s
blood, making him even more light-headed. Even so, he held the son of a bitch’s gaze. “Trust me. I. Will.
End. You.”
Dark amusement echoed on the commander’s chuckle. He peered closer at Nate. “Listen to you tell the
truth. Your pupils are three times normal size.”
Not a big surprise considering the drugs infecting his blood. “What’all did you give me?” Nate’s long-
hidden Southern accent broke free.
“Truth serum, drugs to increase pain, and some others we’re not quite sure about.” The commander
tightened his hold. “Now that you’re in a talkative mood, let’s talk.”
“Fuck you.”
“Good start.” The commander smiled. “Where is your new headquarters?”
“San Diego.” Nate let the truth slip out, not sure if he could stop it. Sins Security was based in San
Diego and counted as headquarters. Of course, it wasn’t where the family had dug in, but the commander
hadn’t asked that question. “Why did you let somebody shoot Jory?”
The commander sighed. “I didn’t approve that. I needed Jory to bring you all back in.”
Needed?
For the first time, real pain sliced into Nate’s chest. “So he’s dead?”
“I didn’t say that.” The commander leaned closer, his minty breath brushing Nate’s skin. “How’s the
heart? I had to restart it twice.”
So he’d died twice during the night. Interesting. “Still pumping. Where’s Jory?”
“I can stop your heart again if I wish. When are Matt and Shane coming to get you?”
Nate smiled and fresh blood washed down his chin, cooling aching bruises. “They’re not coming here.
Period.”
The commander blinked.
Triumph, almost sadistic in its intensity, flew through Nate. He’d made the bastard blink. “You know
I’m not lying.” He couldn’t at this point.
“Hmmm.” The commander rubbed his chin. “Yet they know you’re here.”
“Yes.”
The clinch on Nate’s head loosened, and the commander stepped back to study him. “Why aren’t they
coming?”
“I told them not to. It’s more important that they figure out the codes to the chips… and find Jory.” Nate
spit out more blood. “We have the computer program but not the codes. Yet.” He should probably worry
about the internal bleeding going on right now.
“No.” The commander shook his head. “They wouldn’t have listened.”
“They did.” Nathan’s voice sounded oddly strangled and hoarse. How long had he screamed during the
night? The whole thing was a blur. “I thanked them for being my brothers and hugged them.”
“And they?”
“Shane told to me to shut up, and Matt told us both to shut up. That was the end.” Nathan rose up on
his toes as his leg cramped.
“Interesting.” The commander drew out a cell phone to type in a text. “So they figure I won’t kill you…
might even reprogram your chip. You’re here to get information.”
“I would like information.” Nate’s vision blurred. “Why do you want Matt and Shane here, anyway? We
won’t work for you.”
The commander’s jaw hardened. “You will work for me. There’s important missions to be
accomplished, and after I filet Matt in front of all of you, you’ll do what I want.”
“Filet?” Nate’s brain fired.
“Yes. He took my training and betrayed me. He tried to take my place with you and your brothers.” The
commander nabbed the back of Nate’s head and jerked. “You follow
me
,” he spat.
It had always been personal between the commander and Matt. “So you want him dead?”
“Yes, and I want his brothers to follow my command.” Spittle flew from the man’s mouth. “Forever.”
The commander truly hated Matt.
Nate spit out blood and spoke directly from his heart. “You will never beat Matt. Ever. He’s twice the
soldier and man that you’ll ever be. And. You. Know. It.”
The commander yanked hard, and Nate’s vision blurred.
Then the leader released him. “I’ll kill Matt slowly.”
Nate grimaced. “Where’s Jory?”
The door opened, and a solider wheeled in a laptop. “I received your text.”
“Thank you. Leave.” The commander pressed a couple of keys on the keyboard, and the soldier
scrambled out of the room.
Nate tried to raise an eyebrow. “We’re going to watch a movie? I haven’t seen the new Disney one. I
love monsters that talk.”
The commander glanced over his shoulder. “You’re under the influence of potent truth-inducing drugs.
You really do love Disney movies.”
Nate tried to shrug. Disney movies rocked.
The commander chuckled and rolled the screen closer to Nate. “This is a different movie.”
Nate tried to focus and keep his gaze stoic as Jory came into focus. His baby brother, the one who’d
grown huge, the one who never exploded in temper, sat bound on a chair, bloody and furious. A woman’s
high heels came into view as she shot three rounds into Jory’s chest. Jory fell to the floor, and the screen
went blank.
Nate’s heart thundered fast enough to hurt his broken ribs. “I’ve already seen that movie.” Hundreds of
times, actually. He’d studied it frame by frame, trying to find any clue.
“Yes, I figured.” The commander leaned over and punched in a new code. “But you haven’t seen this
one.”
Everything in Nate stilled. The drugs disappeared, the cold room faded into the background. The screen
showed Jory’s massive body on a surgical table, surgeons scrambling to save his life. They lost him once,
but he came back.
Nate lifted his chin. “He survived being shot?”
“Not exactly.” The commander pushed a button, and the video fast-forwarded through the surgery to
Jory lying unconscious in a hospital bed, tubes hooked up to him everywhere. “Coma. Brain dead.”
Please, no.
Nathan turned a cold look on the commander. “This won’t break me, either.” But he’d
watch. If these were his younger brother’s last moments, he’d watch and experience them with Jory. He’d
be there for his brother, even if it was too late.
“I think it might.” The commander smiled without humor. “I’ve always known that physically, you
can’t be broken. Emotionally, you’re the easiest target in the Gray family.”
“Isss that a fact?” Nate slurred.
“Yes. You need them so much more than they need you. Without them, you’d free that beast I know
lives in you. You’d be the cold-blooded killing machine I fucking created. It’s in your DNA.” The
commander’s smile turned triumphant.
The truth of the words slithered deep into Nate’s gut, taking root. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe not.” He
levered up to get better balance, even as his wrists bellowed in pain. “But I do have brothers, and Matt
made sure I stayed human. Jory and Shane kept me good instead of bad.”
The commander shook his head. “But that need in you? The need to be other than who you are? That’s
what makes you weak.”
Did it? Or did it give him strength? Nate blinked blood out of his eyes. “You’ll never understand me.”
“Oh, I get you. Let’s see, shall we?” The commander turned back toward the video and fast-forwarded
through scenes, each day documented with a date. Day by day, Jory didn’t move. He became paler and his
muscles lost definition… but he didn’t move. For nearly two years, he didn’t even twitch.
Nate allowed no emotion to show on his face, but inside, knives sliced through everything he was.
Everything he’d hoped for, and everything he’d wanted to be. He’d failed his little brother, the one he’d
promised to protect. Jory, so good and powerful, had wasted away in a hospital bed.
Alone.
The commander pushed PAUSE at a date six months ago. “I actually hadn’t planned on showing you
this, but you’ve left me no choice.”
“Finish it,” Nate ground out.
“Fair enough.” The commander pressed PLAY and stepped away.
The date blinked on the bottom of the screen, and the beeping of medical machinery filtered through the
speakers. A monitor to the side of Jory’s bed blipped with his heartbeat.
Nate watched three months pass, waiting for the final moment when the beeping ended. Something
inside of him started to crack.
Jory opened his eyes.
This was definitely a bad idea. A horribly bad idea. Audrey crept through the hangar storing three
helicopters. Only three? Yeah. The commander had another base somewhere, without question. The smell
of gasoline and motor oil assaulted her.
She’d seen the commander have Nate brought to the building late last night, and it had taken this long
for her to gain access. She’d only had to knock out one doctor to reach the secured part of the main
building. Exiting that building had taken several more hours, after she’d acquired a gun off a soldier she’d
injected with morphine. Then she’d threatened two scientists, stolen several ID cards, and tied people up.
For nearly another hour, as dawn broke, she’d hidden behind a fuel tank until the guards around the
hangar rotated. Finally, she’d managed to slip inside using one of the secured cards.
The people she’d tied up would be discovered soon.
She didn’t have much time.
Unnatural quiet surrounded the silent beasts. She maneuvered around them, her damaged leg hurting
deep inside. Her activities of the night had strained her beyond her capabilities, and everything ached. Even
her stomach.
But she had to save Nate.
Finally reaching a doorway in the far metal wall, she swiped a card, and the door opened. Thank
goodness. A quick glance inside showed a rough cement stairway leading down. She swallowed. Nothing
good happened down there.
Steeling her shoulders, she took the first step and closed the door quietly. She listened.
Silence.
She’d worn yoga pants, a sweatshirt, and tennis shoes for her night of creating havoc. The soft-soled
shoes made no sound as she carefully took each step, her back to the wall, and the gun pointed down. The
landing faced a wall, and she had to turn right. Taking a deep breath, she turned, her gun pointed directly at
the soldier manning the door.
He opened his mouth to shout a warning.
She fired.
The bullet hit him in the chest, sending him down.
Oh God, oh God, oh God.
She scrambled for the door and swiped the card through the reader. Nothing