Peyton 313 (20 page)

Kyra opened one eye. The light made her squint. A pretty woman in her early thirties met her gaze behind black framed glasses. “Am I in hell?”

The woman sighed at her question and looked around. “Pretty close I think. This is some sort of off-the-grid bunker slash lab out in the middle of East Bejesus, Nowhere. It might as well be hell. Feels like hell as far as I’m concerned.”

Kyra tried to smile at the woman’s sarcasm. She raised her right hand to her head, alarmed when she saw it was in a cast. “What happened to my hand?”

The woman pulled up a chair. “You have a broken wrist, Dr. Winters. There’s a healing band applied under the cast. The break should mend in a few more days. What do you remember?”

Kyra lowered her hurt hand back to the bed. “My head hurts too badly to think right now.”

“I know. Your head is bandaged too. As best as I can determine, you have a moderate to severe concussion. There’s also a pretty nasty gash on the back of your skull. I taped it shut and wrapped wound gauze around it. Stitches weren’t possible at the time. I’m glad you’re finally awake. We were all starting to wonder if you were in a coma.”

Kyra turned her head slowly against the pillow. The movement made her feel dizzy, but at least her vision was starting to clear. “How did I get here?”

“Nero—ultimately. I mean he’s the reason this place exists, but a big cyborg dude carried you in here. I must say that I’m really curious about his story. Borg Man spends his days in the com room doing research but comes around every hour to check on your condition. This is the first time you’ve been completely awake in five days. He doesn’t seem to sleep much because he spends his nights with you sitting in a chair.”

“Do you know what happened to put me in this condition?” As much as taking in information hurt, Kyra found she still wanted answers about how much the woman knew.

“Well, I have no idea how you fell. No one told me and I didn’t ask. With Nero, I’ve learned you’re better off not asking questions and just doing what he says. I’m technically on ‘vacation’ here while I’m taking care of you. His cover stories only work if you follow protocol.”

“Nero? What’s Nero got to do with this?”

This time when her head throbbed, Kyra lifted her left hand instead of her right. She felt her face and then ran a hand up to her forehead. Sure enough there was a gauze bandage wrapped tight. She remembered Peyton squeezing her wrist too hard. She remembered pulling all the chips from the second compartment in his head. She remembered looking down at him. . .his arm sweeping out. . .and suddenly full memories of her fall to her lab floor returned. Reliving them was painful. Her attention was harshly pulled back to the present when the woman started talking again.

“Nero isn’t here just now, but I’m sure he’ll check in shortly. I don’t know who’s been more worried about you—him, Brad, or Borg Man.”

The list of those concerned didn’t surprise her. They were the only ones who knew what was really going on. “Head hurts bad. Can I have some water and maybe some pain medicine?” Kyra asked.

The woman stood and nodded. “Sure. My name is Ella. I’ll just slip out to the commissary and bring you something back. Now that you’re awake we can remove the IV and the take-care-of-your-business tubes. Welcome back to the land of the living, Dr. Winters.”

“Thanks,” Kyra said, closing her eyes. It eased the insistent throb in her head to be in the dark.

After she heard Ella’s footsteps receding, she opened her eyes again and met Peyton’s intense gaze with shock. Her survival reflex kicked in, making her scream, but the sound came out as an unimpressive croak while she thrashed around the bed trying to escape. Extreme pain shooting through her head with every movement made her want to throw up. She felt gentle, but insistent hands pressing her down firmly into the mattress.

“Kyra—stop. It’s okay. I’m not going to hurt you. . .ever again. . .I swear. Nero and Brad checked what you did to me and it seems to have worked. They don’t think I’m going into psycho soldier mode ever again now that the secondary processor is gone.”

“I’ll believe that after I’ve tested you myself. We’ll get to it soon, if my head doesn’t explode off my shoulders first,” Kyra said.

Peyton looked at the busted up woman in the bed who dared to challenge him even after he’d attacked and hurt her. Her audacity when she was afraid was a huge turn-on for him. Too bad the last thing Kyra Winters needed at the moment was some perpetually horny guy lusting for her. She was now officially a UCN fugitive and that had to be dealt with first.

“Okay, Doc. You can check the mostly empty holes in my head if you must, but if I’m going back in the chair, it’s going to cost you big this time,” Peyton teased.

He sat down in the seat Ella had vacated and crossed his arms to stare at her.

Kyra snorted at his bossy tone. “Will it cost more than a broken wrist and a severe concussion? You’re an expensive Cyber Husband to maintain, Captain Elliott. And extorting money from a UCN criminal is a plan doomed to failure.”

Peyton snorted back. “What I want isn’t money, so you might think the cost is worse. I want one whole night with you to do anything I want—with the caveat that it won’t be any of the sick shit your ex did to you. The truth is I think about sex with you nearly every second I breathe, and I’m tired of not acting on those urges. You’re going to enjoy your time with me. I promise.”

“I don’t see how your
constant physical arousal is my problem. And you don’t know anything about what Jackson did to me. I never told you about my life with him,” Kyra said, ignoring his other comments. She wasn’t up to dealing with his attraction to her. Maybe in his mind nothing unusual had happened, but she was still trying to reconcile the fact that he’d been programmed with orders to capture her.

“I don’t have to know the details to know what happened made you afraid of sex. If you can still talk to me after I hurt you the way I did, what’s left to come between us? Not your bastard ex’s behavior, that’s for damn sure. Hell, Kyra. Technically, I’m still your Cyber Husband of record. I want to be with you and I know you want me too. Why do you have to argue about this?”

“I don’t know, Peyton. I got along wonderfully with my other two Cyber Husbands who tried to kill me. It didn’t work out so well for them in the end though, so you may want to think twice about messing with me. Then again, you’re the only Cyber Husband who managed to knock my head against the lab floor,” Kyra complained as she closed her eyes again.

Peyton sighed and nodded. “Okay. I deserve that sarcasm. But for the record, you know that psycho cyborg bastard you fought in your lab wasn’t the real me. I was caught in one of Dante’s seven levels of hell while someone used my brain and body to accost you. Nothing that happened was my choice. And now I totally understand why you had to take such extreme measures with me and the first two cyborgs you tried to reverse engineer.”

Kyra grunted at his concession and his defense of his own situation. Yet all of it was true. “Of course I know you didn’t attack me on purpose. Why do you think I didn’t run away while you were down?”

“I think you didn’t run because you trusted your judgment about me, which turned out to be damn right,” Peyton declared.

Needing to act, he moved from the chair to slide into the bed until he was lying next to her.

“
What in hell are you doing?
” Kyra demanded, wincing as her head exploded over and over.

“Apologizing better,” Peyton said calmly, kissing the top of Kyra’s bandaged head.

“No need. Your first apology was accepted. Now move your big ass out this tiny bed, Captain Elliott. There’s barely room for my ass in here.”

“You’re right about that, Doc. We’ll have to bump asses better later. Just ignore that erection growing between us. I can’t seem to stop it from happening when I get this close to you. It goes away eventually.”

“Will you please move your horny, pervy ass back to the chair?”

Kyra winced as Peyton turned her toward him instead of answering. But she closed her eyes in relief moments after when she felt his light massage on her injured arm. The problem was the front of her rubbed the front of him with every stroke he made. Was he intentionally trying to drive her insane?

“When I breached the second processor compartment’s security, you became one mean SOB, Captain Elliott. I hope I never make you that upset with me again.”

Peyton let out a ragged breath as he pulled his ballsy savior closer. His strong emotional attachment to a woman who could shut his brain down whenever she wanted was baffling, but he was still recovering from his ongoing panic. This moment of holding her in his arms again almost didn’t get to happen. He had been programmed to use as much force as necessary to apprehend the remaining cyborg creator. Nero had analyzed the code on the chips Kyra had pulled from him and they had discussed the ramifications of what her apprehension orders meant. The UCN would rather see Kyra Winters dead than working to free any other cyborgs.

He lifted Kyra’s injured hand to his mouth and kissed her fingers. “You had every reason to run and yet you didn’t. All the words of gratitude in my data banks are inadequate, so all I can say is thanks for being brave enough to come back. Tripping you with that arm swipe was just an accident—I swear. When I looked up and saw you standing over me, my arm just seemed to move on its own. Next thing I knew, you were knocked out cold on the floor with me. Luckily for both of us you had Nero on your handheld’s rapid call.”

“I had no choice but to hurt you. Using the mobile restraints was the only way I could stop you. How did you get us out of the lab?” Kyra asked, the question muffled by his shirt.

Peyton paused his stroking. He knew he had no choice but to tell her the truth. He’d had a lot of those to deal with in the five days and three point seven hours she’d been unconscious.

“Nero discovered I’d been upgraded with an enormous information repository. Without even knowing it, I’ve been recording you every time you entered and left the lab. Once the second processor was gone, I got access to all the hidden info I’d been collecting. It was painful but all I had to do was cycle through the information containing access codes to eventually hit the end of the loop. Good thing too—it allowed me to let Nero in to help us. I wasn’t in much better condition than you were when he finally got there.”

Kyra made a strangled sound in her throat. “So the bug you planted in the lab was just for show? Damn it. How much data did you record?”

“Literally everything that has happened since we’ve been together, with the exception of your original reboot. The recording feature only shut down at night after you were asleep. I have to admit the information has been useful because I’ve been able to revisit everything that happened before I went nuts this last time. That second set of wiring functioned like a shit list of important things I had forgotten to do. The list was insistent even after you pulled the plug on the secondary processor. We have to talk about that pain stuff they do to get a cyborg’s full attention. Last time I checked, we don’t even treat war prisoners that roughly. I’m sure it would have been twice as bad if you hadn’t already removed the controller wiring. They literally electrified my prosthetics and used the current to shock the rest of me.”

Even though it hurt, Kyra pushed out of Peyton’s arms and rolled to her back to stare at the ceiling again. “I never understood what it was like for a person to live as a cyborg until I started trying to reverse the process. It wasn’t that I was apathetic. I just didn’t think about how much the code was using pain as a means of controlling your mind. The pain was meant to keep you from harming yourself, not to be used as a way to harm you.”

Peyton leaned over her. The remorse contorting Kyra’s face demanded soothing. Sure she wasn’t without blame, but she wasn’t like the ones still trying to use him to kill her either. His face was lowering toward hers when he heard someone clearing their throat nearby.

“Hey Borg Man. What’cha think you’re doing with my patient? Dr. Winters is not in good enough condition yet to be fooling around with you.”

“Hello Ella,” Peyton said, feeling a grin start when his face great hot with embarrassment. He hadn’t even kissed Kyra. He rubbed his jaw and reluctantly climbed out of her bed.

“Thank you,” Kyra said with genuine relief, ignoring the fact that she also instantly missed Peyton’s warmth. Her head throbbed like a heartbeat as she pushed and pulled herself up to a semi-sitting position. She reached for the cup of ice water on the tray her caregiver held down to her. She took several sips before sighing in contentment. “I’ve been trying to get Peyton to leave me alone. He hasn’t been listening well. Tell Nero that Captain Elliott’s hearing needs to be checked.”

Ella laughed as she slid the tray onto the stand next to the bed. “Borg Man’s just happy you’re finally awake.”

Kyra let fly a disbelieving grunt against the rim of the cup as she sipped. “You obviously don’t know the hell I’ve put the man through. He hates my guts.”

Beside the bed she heard Peyton softly swearing. She grinned at the idea that he might be offended. His reaction was extremely promising—for a variety of reasons.

“Stop complaining and do something productive, Captain Elliott. Find a giant blank porta-disk—or seven—and copy that massive data bank you profess to have been amassing. Bring me back the disks and a handheld I can review it on.”

“No. No reviewing data yet. You need more rest first,” Peyton commanded in return.

Though it hurt, Kyra turned her bandaged head to look at him. “Don’t make me get out of this bed and chase you down to get what I want from you. I’m still recovering from our last fight. Chasing you down would only piss me off further.”

Knowing Kyra meant her threat made his pants even more damn tight. Peyton smiled at his own frustration as his gaze went from woman to woman. “Did you hear that Ella? You’re my witness. Doc is flirting with me.”

Ella giggled at their exchange. “Gee. . .and you’re not even wearing your
Cyborgs Do It Better
t-shirt. Way to go, Borg Man.”