The Protectors Series Bundle (A superhero romance anthology) Read online

  Jansen’s voice was tense. “If you two love birds are done with the googly eyes, Cassie’s on the phone.” He put her on speaker, and her steady voice immediately calmed Symone.

  “Hey, Symone, you doing okay?”

  “Yeah, fine. Alex and Morgan?” She hesitated before adding, “I’m really sorry about the reverb. I didn’t even know I could do that. I—”

  “Symone, it wasn’t your fault. You were trying to protect us. You’re getting stronger every day, so we just need to figure out how to channel it. Alex and Morgan are both conscious and nearly back at full power, so no harm done. We’ll have full power back up at the compound by tonight, I’m hoping.” She paused. “Jansen, can you guys get to the egress route? From where you are, it should only take an hour. Alex should be at full steam then to bring you all home.”

  “Roger that. Wheels rolling in twenty.” Forever the soldier.

  “Good. Garrett, are you there?”

  Garrett looked confused as to why he’d been addressed.

  “Jansen mentioned you’d be leaving with your brother. I hope you choose to stay for a little longer until we determine how Peter’s finding our team. We could really use your help here.”

  Garrett frowned. “Well, actually, I’ll be staying a while if I’m welcome.”

  Jansen frowned but kept his head down, supposedly staring at the laptop monitor.

  “I’m willing to share all I’ve got,” Garrett continued.

  “Good. If it’s okay with you, we’d like to talk to Michael too.”

  Garrett raised his eyebrows in his brother’s direction, and the teenager bobbed his head up and down and shrugged. “Yeah, we can make that happen.”

  The conversation was matter of fact, but there was an underlying tension that worried Symone. “Cassie, what am I missing here? Did something else happen?”

  There was a beat of silence before she spoke. “Peter’s men went after Alex’s twin brother, Adam.”

  Dread curled itself around Symone’s spine like a smoky mist. “Did they—” She couldn’t force herself to finish.

  “No. Lucky for the kid, he’s in juvie, so they had a little trouble getting in.”

  Symone stared at Garrett. “What the fuck is going on? What are we missing?”

  As Garrett and Michael loaded the car, Symone went with Jansen to check out. The knot forming in her stomach twisted around her internal organs and made her feel ill. “Jansen, I wanted to talk to you before we got on the road. You know I appreciate and will never forget what you’ve done for me. And I do—”

  Jansen tugged her elbow and stopped their progression as he interrupted her. “Stop right there, sweetheart.” He shoved his hands in his pockets. “Look. I know what I see in front of me. You don’t love me.”

  “Jansen. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  He puffed out a breath. “I guess I’ve always known it wouldn’t work between us. Anytime I thought any different, it only took seeing your gloved hands to remind me. I don’t know why you can touch that asshole.”

  “He’s not an asshole.”

  Jansen held up his hands. “Okay. Whatever you say. My point is, I wish things were different, but they aren’t. But just so you know, if that asshole screws up, even Cassie won’t be able to save him. You hear me?”

  He’d given her an out of sorts. “Thank you.”

  He stiffened in response. “Now that we’re done with the touchy feely stuff, can we get home? Lisa’s cooking tonight, and I don’t want to miss it.”

  ***

  Garrett watched Symone as they drove to the egress point in the woods in silence. Michael had slipped back in to his stupor. He was afraid the drugs were taking a toll on Michael’s immune system and he wouldn’t recover.

  As they drove into the clearing, Jansen kept his eyes on the road and his gun in his lap. Symone sat bolt upright with her gloves off. Garrett double-fisted semi-automatic weapons. None of them spoke.

  He slid another glance at his brother. Clearly the kid had something to do with Reaper, they just had to figure out what. Before it killed his brother.

  As they drove, Jansen shut off the lights. Pulling into the clearing slowly, he looked around and let the engine idle for a moment, then shut it down.

  Before their eyes, the clearing began to shimmer as if someone were bouncing light off of a pond. The ripple widened enough to fit a car. Garrett had seen it before. Hell he’d even walked through it before. But the idea of driving a car through the unstable wormhole gave him a case of the heebie-jeebies. “Maybe we should get out and walk?”

  Jansen smirked and raised an eyebrow in the rear view mirror as he looked at Garret. “What’s the matter, you afraid of being crushed into a million particles if something goes wrong with this car and the wormhole?” He shrugged. “Or maybe of it exploding on us like last time?”

  Symone sat shock still, and Garrett wished Jansen would have kept his mouth shut. She already felt bad enough about what had happened to her friends. That reverb hadn’t been meant to hurt anyone but the Trackers.

  Jansen started the engine again, and the hairs on the back of Garrett’s neck stood up. He felt like he was being watched. From all angles. Like their ET phone home attempt was anticipated and being waited for. “Maybe it’s time to get a move on, Jansen. I think enquiring minds are doing more than just reading about us.”

  Symone’s voice was soft but steely. “He’s right. There’s someone out there. It’s sending shivers down my spine.”

  “Roger that, I’m just waiting for the signal, then—”

  As if on cue, a flashlight seemed to flash from inside the black hole three times. Symone turned back to look at Garrett. “We always wait for the signal to move forward from Alex. We walked into a fire fight more than once. And this other time, he wasn’t even thinking and sent me and Morgan to a topless beach in San Diego.”

  Jansen mustered something about it being by design, then kicked the engine to life to bridge the hundred yard distance. The moment they picked up momentum to more than five miles an hour, gunshots pierced the air.

  Garrett covered Michael’s body with his own as bullets shattered glass. Symone stood through the moon roof and blazed lightning bolts so fierce they struck small fires where they landed. Even as he drove, Jansen fired out his window. He clipped two Trackers and downed another. Gunning the engine, he didn’t hesitate as one Tracker put himself between their SUV and the portal. He just kept it moving and didn’t seem to mind the thumping as they rolled over the Tracker’s body.

  “Symone, get down,” Garrett shouted.

  She didn’t listen. Instead, she kept hurling electro bombs and screaming at Jansen to haul his ass. If Garrett didn’t already love her, he certainly would have started now. She looked like a warrior.

  Behind them, another vehicle joined their flank, and he cursed. Rising up from his protective covering of his brother, he fired out the shattered back window, sending the car that attempted to follow into an unrecoverable spin.

  The front for the SUV disappeared into the portal, and worried for her, Garrett yanked Symone’s leg down so she slithered through the narrow opening.

  She wasn’t pleased. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?” I could have fired one more.”

  He leveled a gaze at her. He knew who she was, understood that she was in essence a soldier like him. But she’d made him some promises, and he intended to hold her to them. First and foremost, she wouldn’t take years off his life by taking unnecessary risks. “At what cost? We don’t need another reverb.”

  The SUV landed safely on the other side of the divide, and immediately they all turned to face their hidden enemy. Garrett glanced over at Alex. “Shut it down, man. They’re coming.”

  Alex frowned, sweat dripping on his brow. “I’m working on it.”

  Hopping out of the car with Symone and Jansen, Garrett joined Cassie and her band of misfits on the front lawn of the compound. Like something out of a cheap horror show, an arm
appeared through the portal, just as Alex had reduced it to the size of a beach ball.

  Symone reached for the hand, and he expected her to fry the sucker. But then she hesitated. She sought out Cassie with her eyes and asked, “What do I do?”

  Cassie’s set her jaw. Even though Seth held her back, she managed to look like she was commanding an army of rag-tag superheroes. “Leave him be, he’ll never get through something that size.”

  And she was right. Alex finally worked the wormhole so it fit snugly around the unseen assailants disembodied arm. The young boy squeezed his eyes tight, and the portal closed, leaving the hand on this side. Garrett could only imagine the howling that must have taken place back at the clearing.

  As soon as the portal was closed, Seth came forward with Cassie. “How the fuck did they find you guys again? We’re not safe leaving the compound at this point.”

  Cassie crossed her arms over her chest. “We all know that’s not an option. Otherwise this might as well be a prison.” She eyed Garrett and Michael. “Are you sure neither of you have implant chips?”

  Garrett shook his head as he crossed his arms. “Symone fried us both. More Michael than me. But if my tracking chip was working, they’d have caught us at the compound.”

  She nodded. “If you don’t mind. I’d like the doctor to do a full scan. We can’t keep escaping by the seat of our pants.”

  He watched as Symone went around to Michael’s side of the car. “I think I might know who’s giving away our location.”

  A shiver stole up Garrett’s neck. He didn’t like where the conversation was going. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, I think Reaper has been using him somehow to get to all of us.”

  Garrett started to shake his head, not liking the direction of conversation. “How?”

  “For the same reason he went after Alex’s brother. There has to be something to about your genetic bond that makes you easy to find for Michael. And as long as Peter has a way of tracking Michael or controlling him, then he has a way of finding his way to you. If I look at the enhancer we swiped from the compound, I might be able to figure out a way to reverse engineer it so we can find Peter.”

  Jansen blinked at Symone. “You think you can do this?”

  She nodded. “I’ll need to play with the device and look into Michael’s memories too. But if I can make it work, we’ll be on the offensive at last.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  Symone was so used to working with Jansen that she didn’t even notice his presence anymore.

  “So, I guess you guys will go off on your own or something?”

  She paused her soldering for a moment and let her head hang low. Discussing Garrett with Jansen felt awkward. He might have been gracious at the motel, but it still didn’t feel right.

  “Jansen, I—”

  “I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.” His voice went suddenly gruff. “You’ll want some alone time.” He paused, contemplative. “It must be lonely not being able to touch anyone. No one here knows what it’s like to be that isolated.”

  She dropped the motherboard of the device and whirled around on her chair to face him. If they were going to do this, she could face him like an adult. “That’s not why I’m with him. “

  He frowned, turning his painfully beautiful face into a harsh mask of Adonis.

  “It’s part of it, but it’s more than that. He understands me.”

  He cleared his throat and leaned back in his chair. “And I don’t?”

  She lowered her voice. “It’s not about comparisons. But you do treat me like I need to be protected. Like I’m fragile. You’re over-protective like a mentor. And I care about you deeply. But we both know it wasn’t ever going to happen. You said it yourself.”

  His normally full lips thinned. “It just irks me that he’s putting you in danger.”

  She ignored the annoyance in his body language. “Jansen, you deserve someone who’s going to love you and be able to touch you, who you view as an equal. I will forever be grateful that you pulled me out of that hellhole. But gratitude isn’t love.”

  He winced, and she wished she could take it back because she did love him. Just not enough to torture them both because they couldn’t be together.

  “And you think sex is?”

  Icicles formed on each word. He was angry and jealous, and she couldn’t do anything about that.

  “I’ve love you like a mentor and a friend. And I hope one day you can yank your head out of your ass long enough to see that you don’t love me the way you think you do and can be my friend again. My Jansen.”

  He was silent as she spun back around to get back to work, and for a long moment she thought he’d left, he was so still. But she heard the soldering on the table behind her, and she knew he hadn’t left her. As angry as he was with her. He wouldn’t leave. She hoped what she said was true, that someday soon he found someone who could love him back the way he deserved. Because this little family set up was going to make for some awkward dinner arrangements.

  ***

  Two hours after they’d arrived, Garrett hovered over Symone. Could he really let her risk his life? “Are you sure this is safe?” Garrett laid a hand on hers as he picked up the device. “What if there’s some kind of reverse reaction, and you kill yourself, or worse, he gets control of you?”

  “You can relax. Jansen is the best in the business, and he rigged it for me. I built the software pieces to utilize my other power. I can get a read from Michael while Reeser is trying to get a read on us. I’ll be able to pick something up on their location.” She shrugged. “That’s the theory, anyway.”

  Garrett knew it was futile to lower his voice, since nearly everyone in the room could literally hear a pin drop from a half a mile away, but he did it anyway. “Symone, don’t do this. I’ll offer myself up to Reaper. He can study me till the cows come home. Whatever it takes to keep you safe.”

  “Offer yourself up, and we have a temporary solution. Find out where asshole is, and we have a full term solution.”

  He gnashed his teeth together. She had a point. But what she was doing was risky not only for herself, but for Michael. After a CT Scan, Lisa had determined that there was some kind of foreign object on his medulla that caused the long gaps in memory as well as the erratic behavior and the passing out. She could perform the surgery to remove it, but she would rather a brain surgeon do so.

  Cassie and Seth wanted Symone to try her hand at reaching Peter. While Symone and some of the team went on the attack, Cassie and Seth would take the boy to a neuro specialist who’d worked with Cassie’s father. Cassie could wipe or manipulate the doctor into hiding their visit.

  Garrett was supposed to follow Seth and Cassie. But his body and brain couldn’t let Symone go on her own without a fight. Granted she wouldn’t be alone. She’d have Alex and Jansen, but it made him uncomfortable none the less. His worst fear was that something would go wrong, that he’d lose Symone, and Peter would still be free to roam the world and free to find Michael. Garrett needed to be sure the bastard was dead himself.

  Kneeling by his brother, he whispered, “Cassie and Seth will see you’re safe. I’m going to go with Cassie to get Peter. I promise when we’re done, he’ll never come near you again. You have my word.”

  Michael searched his gaze, then nodded. Placing his hand into his brother’s, they clutched each other. Michael’s voice was soft. “Kill that bastard. I want to go home.”

  “Done deal.”

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Symone ignored the pain at the base of her skull and focused all her energy on Michael. Just like Garrett had taught her, she calmed her mind and imagined she was touching him. No anger, no fear, just peace. In her mind’s eye, she could see the dial of the power turn way down, until it was nothing more than a low buzz.

  Reaching for Michel, she said, “Take my hand. It’s okay, I won’t hurt you.”

  Michael frowned. Turmoil swam in his eyes as he
looked at his brother, but as he tentatively placed his hand in Symone’s, he jerked at first and everyone in the room rushed in to crowd them. But Garrett backed them off once Michael didn’t go in to convulsions and instead looked at their joined hands in awe.

  “It feels—” He shook his head. “This is the best I’ve felt since I left Aunt Caroline’s.”

  Garrett smirked. “Don’t get used to the euphoria kid. Let her work her magic.”

  Symone knew she needed to work quickly. No telling when Peter would reassert himself in Michael’s brain. And if the two of them cohabitated, it could kill the kid. She sifted through his memories and the dark spots. From the moment he’d left his aunt’s place, his only thought had been Garrett. She saw his arrival at Tracker base and how he’d trusted Reaper. But she also saw the distrust there. The uncertainty.

  It wasn’t until she sifted through two days of innocuous content that she found what she was looking for. After his final treatment with the serum, Michael had gone into another fire of hell, just like all of them. He just didn’t remember. But the interesting thing was, once he’d started the full transformation, Reeser had gone into his room and attached a miniature version of his tracking device to the base of the kid’s skull.

  She shuddered as the memories tingled her consciousness. For an instant, she could see what Peter saw. How he saw through the eyes of his victim. He’d tested it out on poor Michael while he’d been burning. Through Michael’s and through Peter’s eyes she could see the room he was kept in. She shuddered, eager to get out of the cohabitation.

  The link with Peter was temporarily broken, but over the course of the week when Peter had him, Peter had experimented on the range and long term effect. Presumably Peter had implanted the additional device for remote access. Peter had taken the same device she wore now and used it for a direct line into Michael.

  Understanding now, she searched Michael’s fugue states more intently. They weren’t the black holes of information that she’d thought when she first looked. In each of the fugue states, Michael had been controlled by something else. Peter taking the reins. The good news was he could only do it for a limited time.