Promises (Blood Brothers #1) (15 page)

Rafe hadn’t been able sleep much over the last few months after the explosive mental images his twin had sent him of Chayle’s possible impregnation. The threat to both her and the other women was still out there. To watch his twin start a family, something they both had felt was out of reach due to the government gene tampering that had been done on all of the group was a miracle. Now, hopefully, it would be a reality.

He felt that deep emptiness near his soul where he accepted the fact that it would never happen for him, and Rafe almost groaned. For just a heartbeat, his mind’s eye remembered the tiny beauty from the cabin but pushed it away. His soul could not harbor those kinds of hopes, no matter what the cost nor could he allow it to touch the one who could possibly be his mate. His job was to ensure Kayne and Chayle were happy, his men safe and returned from each mission in one piece as much as possible, and to make strides to bring down the world’s filth. There was no place in it for him to find peace, much less love.

Rising naked from his bed, Rafe turned the shower on and let the hard spray try to chase away the constant stress that pulled at the muscles in his strong neck and upper back. He needed to get down to the training room in the next day or so and work out or risk taking his temper out on some unwilling soul. The warm water ran over strong pectoral muscles, the soap defining his six-pack abs and teasing his morning wood. It had been a while since he had been able to do more than a quick hand job to relieve the tension and for a man of insatiable sexual appetites such as he and his team that could be dangerous. Yet lately, it had been difficult to think of anything else other than the monsters that were terrorizing the innocent.

Rafe reached for the soap and used it to slick his heavy balls, running his fingers down and then back up, around them to firmly grip his immense girth. At nine inches and thickly veined, he had been told by many females he was hung well. Yet as he stroked, it was dark soulful eyes and long dark hair that called to him, a soft plea for him to not go.

Behind his lids, Rafe’s breath came fast and hard and he watched her tiny body beg for his touch, aching for him to slide into her folds and fill her depths as he claimed what was his and no others. It didn’t matter where she had been before or with whom, the dark haired beauty was his and would belong to him. As his imagination took on that precious package and begged her to accept him, taking his first taste of her, Rafe exploded against the tiles of the shower. He had to lock his knees to keep from falling his release was so powerful, his head dizzy from the sudden rush of blood flow and it took several deep breaths before he could control it enough to stand up and clean himself off once again.

Once he was finally dressed and out of his rooms, Rafe headed to his office to start his day. That evidence lay in the information they had gathered about their enemy and Rafe was determined to focus on what it was going to take to find ways to keep the other young men and women safe and out of the hands of the crazies who wanted to use them as experiments. If what he and his men had uncovered were found true, not only Chayle, but all of the others were still in grave danger because this enemy wouldn’t stop until they put him down.

He looked down at the text messages he had received from the safe house not far from them and made the only decision he could at this point - he had to bring Jollie Sanchez to the Lake Property for safety. Rafe’s heartbeat increased at the thought of having her so close he could smell her rather than just remotely keep tabs on her. He cursed under his breath as he cock reminded him just how much just her unique scent caused his blood to stir, how many times he had used those memories to relieve his sexual tension instead of taking it out on any one of a number of willing females who had offered. Just the thought of her close caused his cock to harden to steel.

Images of the dark-haired young female from the enforcer’s memories filled his mind but he pushed them away. She had been in no shape to accept any type of male attention then and she was certainly not going to want any now, not after what she had been through. She worked out daily, working her muscles and mind back to the fighting strength she was known for in the profiles he had during her military career, but Jollie Sanchez was an enigma. His people at the facility said she rarely slept, barely ate, and would only speak if forced to do so. Evidently, the trauma was deeper than even he had assessed. Rafe had completed a background check on the young woman and it was a miracle the girl was even sane after what the military had done to her, not to mention what they had found when his men had pulled her from the same location they had found Chayle.

It was interesting that Chayle still hadn’t mentioned anything about the girl who had been in the cabin with her, but both he and Kayne had decided not to bring it up unless Chayle mentioned it. However, now it was unavoidable. Jollie had to come to the compound and the two women would be here together. A knock brought his attention back to present and he flipped his phone closed.

“Enter.” Rafe watched as Gabriel slipped into his office, closing the door quietly behind him. “What’s up, Gabe?”

“I’ve been monitoring the chatter after our meeting and your decision to bring in Derek. It’s worse than we thought.” Gabe watched his commander carefully, making sure to keep his thoughts sealed so as not to give anything away. He couldn’t afford for Rafe to find even a hint of the stress he was under right now.

“What did you find, Gabe? Something has you spooked, I can tell.” Rafe watched the young man carefully but tried not to push. “We know that there are more of them missing, and that someone high up is helping. That’s why I brought Derek into this.”

“It’s more than that, Rafe. It’s malicious intent, and very hard to cover up Missing Persons on such a large scale. It’s like I told you before, a few had families, but those were hidden and sifted to the bottom. And, from what I can find out, no one in any of the departments were ever contacted by interagency contacts to see if there were trafficking ties or major crimes involved. It’s as if these young people fell off the face of the earth.” Gabriel was clearly upset as he lowered his large body into the overstuffed chair in front of Rafe’s desk.

“What do you think?” Rafe watched him closely, knowing Gab’s instincts were screaming something, but wanting him to voice them. Needing them to be out in the open, just so they were made real.

“I think we have some higher-ups who may be covering up experiments. Maybe even government official involvement, or at least complicit. If not, then we have rogue agents and scientists from some of the facilities that were brought down who have reformed and doing some hideous research again.” Gabriel took a moment to swallow before he looked back up at Rafe. “We have to stop them, Boss.”

“I know, Gab,” he whispered, rubbing his temples as he tried to stop the pounding in his head as he felt the temper swell. Rafe knew his eyes had changed from the look on Gab’s face, but there wasn’t any way he could rein in his temper at the moment.

The thought of a splinter organization on the loose that was just as evil as the one who had damaged Kayne and his men, not to mention the nightmares he still battled, was just too much to comprehend. He turned toward the back wall of his office and before he could stop himself punched his fist through the wall, his fist going all the way to his elbow.

“Shit, are you alright?” he heard Gabriel’s cry before he felt the man’s hands on his shoulders. It took a moment for Rafe to realize what he had done.

“Ah crap,” Rafe whispered, slowly withdrawing his arm from the drywall. His knuckles stung and there was traces of blood along his wrist where the boards had cut him, but for the most part he was unharmed. “Yeah, I’m good. Better the wall than one of you.”

“I’d spar with you any day, Boss. You know that,” Gabriel countered, pulling a towel from a sidebar and handing it to Rafe.

“I know, man. But with things the way they have been lately, I can’t take a chance on hurting any of you, and it would kill me if that happened.” Rafe didn’t look at his friend and teammate but he could feel the emotions running hot in Gabriel.

Every team member had a form of telepathy at some level, and Gabriel’s was almost as strong as Rafe’s and his twin’s. At the moment, Rafe could sense Gab’s struggle to mask his emotions, trying to hide whatever was troubling him the most.

“What’s bothering you, buddy?” he whispered, reaching over to get Gab’s attention.

When Gabriel looked up from the floor, there were tears in his normally clear green eyes, and the emotions usually under strict control were rolling in waves like a Texas thunderstorm ready to blast the countryside in a fantastic spring show of heat and turmoil. It struck Rafe so hard his heart ached at his friend’s pain before it was suddenly gone. All but the bright moisture still in those beautiful eyes.

“You need to bring her here, man,” Gab finally whispered, looking away. “She needs you more than you know, and you need her like the air that we all breathe.” The huge warrior turned toward the door to leave, not turning when Rafe called out to him.

“What are you talking about,” Rafe tried to pull him back around to see his face again but Gab just shook his head.

“Just go get her, Boss. Hurry, or they’ll find her again,” was all Gabriel whispered, shaking his long hair before walking out of Rafe’s office, leaving behind an urgency that hadn’t been there before.

Gabriel stood outside his commander’s office door and took a deep breath, trying to rein in his emotions and all of the others bombarding him that churned around him. Classified as a “sensitive” by his superiors after being “genetically reengineered” for government use, Gabriel Sorrel was one of the few living human beings who could actually sense and telepathically link with every member of his team, not to mention almost every living creature on the planet. If they had a functioning brain, Gabe could connect with them on some level. Yet his one major failure was tracking down and eliminating the threat against the mates. His nightmares were filled with it, his nightmares reeked of it.

His hormones, intuition, and tactile sensations were all on overload, not to mention he wasn’t sleeping well, which didn’t make it easy for his brain to function. Every time he closed his eyes he saw darkness and heard screams of young men and women, begging for release from the pain. In the light of day, Gabe knew it wasn’t from any missions they had been on so it had to be something else, but so far he hadn’t worked out what or where. His enhanced gifts somehow hindered him from seeing anything too close to his team or those he considered family, adding to his frustrations. It was one of the many reasons the grand government experiment around his genetic enhancements was determined a failure and the decision was made to remedy the situation by termination. If Kayne and Rafael McIntyre hadn’t managed to free all of the men it was likely most of them would have met similar ends. Right now, Gabe needed to keep his suspicions to himself and try to get back into the game. If not, Rafe would ground him from future missions until he was fit for duty.

Cocking his head, Gabe couldn’t hear anything else from his commander’s office, which was a good thing, all things considering. Rafe was good at blocking his thoughts most of the time, as all of the men were, which helped each of them cope with their various “gifts.” But for Gabe, it was a curse and blessing in this case. He needed to make sure Rafe went to get Jollie Sanchez and brought her to the main compound because his dreams were telling him that things were going to get very, very bad. And she wouldn’t be safe anywhere but here, with Rafe.

Rafe just didn’t know it yet.

Shaking his head, Gabe took off down the hallway at a jog, heading for the shooting range. He needed to check something out with the guys and hoped Merc and Davy would be down in the Armory so he could run suggestions by them. He chuckled at the thought of what Merc would say when he told him about the weapons array he wanted to try on the compound perimeter. The big guy would probably cream himself just drooling over it.

Chapter 21

Stay alive -

Protect your heart-

Serve your country-

But Always Stay Alive

Safe Compound Two

The moon was rising over the trees and, and as usual she couldn’t sleep. Jollie Sanchez wrapped the light throw from her bed around her slender shoulders and moved to the chaise lounge tucked under the overhang. The balcony was a pretty extension of her bedroom off the second story building where she was imprisoned, but still not so bad. For a safe house, it was appointed with more luxury than she was used to, but it still felt like a prison. At least here there were no cameras always watching her every move within her rooms, or constant bed checks to ensure she was taking her meds; no groping hands or smelly bodies to fight off in the deep of night. Growing up in foster homes, she had never had a real home. Then, moving around from one duty station to another the entire time she had been enlisted just continued the same feeling, leaving her unsettled when not on a mission. She couldn’t remember a time when she could call a place home other than her duffle bag.

At barely twenty-five years old Jollie felt old beyond her years. Six years in the marines, fighting every day to be treated as an equal, a female who was more intelligent than most of the males in her unit, Jollie had stupidly thought the last special undercover assignment her commander had offered her was finally something where she could prove her worth. Instead, it had been the beginning of a nightmare gone horribly wrong.

Now she had to find out who sold her out, putting her life in the hands of a madman. It didn’t matter that she wasn’t there of her own free will, the drugs they used made it impossible to stay lucid most of the time, not to mention the pain and the procedures she was forced to endure without being put under in most cases. She was never sure what they were doing or who else was in the breeding program, but Jollie knew she would hunt them down and put a stop to it if it was the last thing she ever did.