“Hey.” He caught her up in his arms and hugged her, and it was awkward since he wasn’t used to being so close to a woman he actually liked. But she smelled good, and let out a breath to soften against his body. Royce whispered in her ear, “Lemme return the favor first.”
Shani shoved at his hands, shaking her head. “No way!” She batted his arm, none too softly. “No way in hell.”
Royce let her twist out of his hold, but pinched her side in a tickle. His mind raced for ways to get closer. “Just a massage then.” He caught her hand when she tried to step away, and then smoothed his touch up to her shoulders. With firm fingers, he rubbed at her knotted muscles. Royce whispered, “I’m very, very good.”
She chuckled. “I’m sure you are.” Shani gave him a teasing smile, but when he rubbed deeper into the knots behind her shoulder blade, Shani’s eyes fell to half-mast and she bowed her head.
“Turn around.” Royce pressed her onto the bed and then climbed onto his knees behind her. He pressed his thumbs into the flesh where her neck met her shoulder.
Shani groaned, the sound almost a growl. She sat with her legs over the edge and her head bent forward. The smooth line of her neck ran from the tight curls at her nape down to the arc of her collar—her skin brown, warm and totally kissable.
“Harder?” Royce plucked at the ropey muscles along her spine. An ache throbbed in his groin at the suggestiveness of his question, but Shani’s body went rigid and he forgot his desire. “What?” He didn’t move, and his hands stilled—not leaving the rough fabric of her sweatshirt.
“I don’t normally like men touching me.” She said it to her knees, her head still bent.
Royce paused, but then shifted so that he sat straddling her back. He didn’t let their bodies touch, but worked his thumbs in deeper. He grinned at her happy sigh. “Well, then it’s a good thing I’m neutered.”
Shani might have twitched, but only in a tiny movement. Royce was glad when she didn’t argue or try to comfort him. This was about her—making her feel better, atoning for someone else’s sins. And for once in his life, Royce was happy someone wanted him for something other than his dick.
She bent forward, giving him a better angle. “That feels great.” Shani sighed the confession, making his chest expand with pride.
He worked his touch lower, along either side of her rib cage, past the strong muscles of her upper back, to where he spanned her waist with his hands. Then Royce walked his thumbs down to her hips. The upper curve of her ass filled his hands—thick and meaty. His groin ached as he imagined holding her still while he thrusted.
A blip of data popped into his field of vision. Then another. Royce gripped Shani’s hips.
“Don’t stop now, Romeo,” Shani teased. Then she swiveled around on the bed. “Whassup?”
He focused, trying to read the information trailing through his mind. More words and numbers, lines of data, filled his consciousness. A message flashed, clear as a road sign—STAY WHERE YOU ARE.
“Fuck, Shani. You’ve got to go.” Royce grabbed her arm and lifted her from the bed. “Shit, shit—they’re coming.” He scanned the room for the van keys she dropped and forced them into her hand. “Now! Go!”
“Wait!” Shani braced her feet against the dirty carpet and pressed a hand to the door. “What… Why do you think they’re—?”
“I can see them!” Royce tapped the side of his head with his free hand. “They’re…” He let his eyes lose focus so he could see better what was in his mind. “Crap, they must be close.”
“But we can’t be that far from the…” Shani’s mouth opened on a gasp before she covered it with her hand. “Shit. Where did we park the van?”
He snatched her wrists together and hauled her another three steps toward the door. “In the far end of the parking lot.”
“Oh
hell
no!” Shani pulled out of his grip. She rushed to the curtains and peeked outside. “I didn’t even pay attention to where we parked. It’s all the way at the other side of the building!” She dashed to grab the bag off the floor and hauled it over her shoulder. Royce thought she’d open the door, but instead Shani pressed her hand over her eves in frustration. “I must have been pretty upset when we got here, huh?”
Royce squeezed her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “It’s understandable.” He wanted to comfort her longer, but he sensed both Brenda’s and Jackson’s thoughts, clear as his own, in his mind. “Maybe we should ditch the van. Run straight into the woods.”
Shani shook her head slowly, her hand still covering her eyes. “We can’t do that.” She bowed her head in frustration. “Because the device that blocks your signal is in the van.”
His hands, still on her shoulders, clenched. The stupid floppy hair his makers forced him to wear fell in his eyes. He growled more than spoke. “And you’re just telling me this now?”
Shani’s head snapped up. She batted his hands off her shoulders and raised her lip in a snarl. But whatever she meant to argue was silenced.
The door flew open and three steins rushed in with pistols drawn.
“Royce!” His supervisor Brenda ran past the men and into the room, and threw her arms around Royce, pulling him tight.
Chapter Seven
Shani struggled against the two male steins—kicking at their shins, biting any hand that got close to her face.
“Brenda…” Royce disentangled himself from Brenda’s hold. He wasn’t sure how to remedy the situation. But if he had to go back, at least he would talk Shani out of trouble. “I don’t think this female was in charge of her actions. It seemed as if she was being controlled remotely.”
“Of course she was being controlled.” Jackson Grey stepped through the door, impeccably dressed in an Armani suit. “You know steins can’t function for any real length of time without a network, someone to patch their malfunctions and rewrite their programs.” Jackson walked a quick circle around Royce, studying every part of his body. “Well, at least she didn’t damage our merchandise.”
Sweat coated Royce’s skin under his clothes. Synadate deleted steins’ memories of their training, so Royce never knew what had transpired between him and Jackson. But whatever happened felt etched into his skin, in his nervous system. Royce opened his mouth to speak, but no sound came out. He watched as the trainer’s attention shifted to Shani.
“Hmm.” Jackson peered into Shani’s eyes before roving his gaze over her body. He stepped around to her back and grabbed her upper arms so fast she barely had time to yelp. “She’d be perfect for our
Street
line. Right, Brenda?” Jackson wove his fingers into Shani’s curls. He yanked her hair, dragged her head back so she looked at the ceiling. The sadist surveyed Shani’s facial expressions with the cold detachment of a scientist. “We’ll have to change her hair though. Invest in a weave.”
He yanked again, and this time Shani fell onto her knees with her head still arched backward. Royce thought she’d tell him to go fuck himself, spit in Jackson’s face. Instead she whimpered, the breath rushing out of her as sure as her fight.
“Oh you’re going to be a fun one.” Jackson spoke to Shani’s face, though it was clear he was talking to himself. “I can’t wait to get started with you.”
She may have sobbed, Royce would never know, because in that instant he launched across the room, landing on top of the man. He swung his fist in a backhanded blow across the trainer’s temple. And when he felt the satisfying crunch of bone breaking, Royce did it again and again.
Blood coated his hand, sprayed on his face. In the background he heard screams and from the corner of his eye, he saw Shani spinning and fighting like a wild animal. But even though Jackson’s face broke and bled under his hands, he couldn’t stop beating the man.
“Royce!”
At Shani’s call he lifted his head, blinking, trying to see her through the tears fogging his eyes.
“Some help here?” She held a gun to Brenda’s temple. The gun in her other hand was trained on the two other steins, who kneeled on the ground with their fingers woven together behind their heads. “I appreciate a good beat down as much as the next girl, but could you please find me something to tie these guys up?”
* * * * *
Shani yanked the strips of bedding, finishing the last knot that connected the stein to the metal bed frame. From behind his gag, the male made garbled sounds. She pitied his plaintive groan and patted him on the head. “When I get back, my people will look into saving you too.”
His eyes rolled in their sockets and he shook his head, but Shani knew better. “Sure, sure. We’ll see how you feel about it then, okay?”
“You think that’s good enough?” Royce peered through the gap between the curtains and the window frame, checking the parking lot. He fisted the nylon fabric. “There are two cars. And another Synadate stein is standing against one of them.” Royce stepped around the female tied up on the bed. When she murmured something behind her gag, Royce shook his head and said, “I told you, Brenda. I’m sorry.”
She groaned louder, trying to talk to him through the gag.
Ignoring her muffled admonitions, Royce marched across the room and into the bathroom. He called out to Shani, “This window opens partway.”
Shani exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she’d been holding. “Good.” She stepped into the close room. Royce stood in the bathtub, jostling open the greasy-looking window. A sliver of worry wormed into her mind. “Um, Royce. Can they see into your brain? Is there a chance Synadate is watching you right now?”
He struggled against the buildup of rust. Then with a sharp upward wrench of his shoulders, Royce shoved the window open another half-foot. “No.” He poked his head out, and then his shoulder, twisting within the space to pry it open farther. “Most of their controls work unidirectionally.”
Royce worked the space open a few more inches and then pulled back into the bathtub. “You should go first.” He held out a hand, his eyes wide and earnest. “Here…”
Shani took his hand and stepped into the tub, jostling against his body. Squishy, gooey feelings rose up in her, so she leaned in closer and breathed his scent. “Thanks.”
He brushed a kiss across her cheek. “Lemme give you a hand.” Royce cupped his fingers together and positioned them at hip height.
She placed a foot in his grip and hopped up so that her head, shoulders, all the way to her waist fit through the window. The hard edge of metal cut into her belly. Shani fit her hands between her body and the ledge. Then she arched her back to survey the scrabbly ground.
A pair of feet in beige flats stepped into her line of sight and Shani lifted her head, her heart pounding in her ears.
The woman from the office stood outside. Her face was impassive, but she gestured at Shani with frantic movements. “This way. I’ll show you.” Her glassy eye stared straight ahead.
“Ah…” Shani might have asked questions, but the pain in her stomach hurt too much. “Fine. Give me a hand?” She didn’t expect the girl to do as she asked, but the scarred stein reached out, grasped Shani’s arms and heaved.
“Mother fu—” She shifted her weight, and Royce gave a push from behind. Shani fell headfirst toward the woman.
With a quick step backward and a pose like a ninja, the blind woman caught her. “Quiet,” she hissed in Shani’s ear.
“Who…? I mean what’s—”
“Rose.” She looked past Shani to the window where Royce squeezed out.
Looked
was the wrong word, since she couldn’t see and her eye didn’t change its position, but she did cock her head around as if she’d turned her attention his way. “I’m called Rose. Shh,” Rose hissed at Royce, who clambered out, landing on his hands and then tumbling onto the weed-covered dirt.
He rolled onto his back and then up to his feet like a gymnast performing a somersault. “What?” Royce’s gaze darted from the woman to Shani and back again as he brushed dirt off his knees.
“This is Rose.” Shani gestured between them in a makeshift introduction. “Um…” She searched Rose’s face for more information but found none. “Maybe she’s trying to help us?”
With a curt nod, Rose grasped Shani’s hand and hurried along the back of the portable. Shani followed, watching Rose for direction and marveling at how well the stein knew the motel’s layout. Without touching a wall, Rose stopped at the building’s edge.
“You need to look,” Rose said into space.
“Okay.” Shani stepped past her and chanced a glimpse at the parking lot. Synadate’s man, wearing a black suit and sunglasses, stood between the car and the main road. He held a cell phone aloft, squinting up into the screen. “Now. We should go now.”
The group of them scurried the short distance from one building to the next, then skimmed the back of that one until only a dozen yards separated them from the main office.
“He’ll be checking the room soon.” Rose spoke with an eerie sense of certainty, as if she could peer into the agent’s mind. Or perhaps just that she’d experienced it all before. “But he can’t see us between these buildings.” She walked forward without pause and Shani followed.
Royce stepped close to Shani, as if he could protect her if someone were to jump out of the bushes.
“Here.” Rose crossed a few steps, in a path shielded from sight by the buildings’ shadows. Shani traveled the same way and twenty paces later their group met a door carved into the corrugated metal of the office.
She grabbed the handle, but looked to the blind woman for direction. Rose seemed to sense Shani’s question and she nodded. “Yes.”
“But Jake didn’t seem to…” She wasn’t sure how much to say. Shani didn’t want to offend Rose by criticizing the motel owner. However, Shani’s freedom depended on knowing he could be trusted.
“He sent me to get you.”
Shani’s thoughts stumbled into words before she could stop them. “Are you all right here? Do you need us to take you with us? I know people…”
Rose lifted her hand in a move like a ballerina—graceful and soft and silencing Shani in a heartbeat. “I’m happy.” She reached forward, feeling her way along Shani’s arm until she squeezed the darker stein’s hand. “I love Jake. And he needs me. And people like you come through.” Rose pushed the door open, into the dark rooms behind the office. “Every once in a while.”
A brown corduroy couch and ancient television with a rabbit-ear antenna filled the room. A lamp with a single bulb threw light on the wood-panel walls. Shani blinked, her eyes adjusting to the darkness as she navigated the room.
When she tripped on an ill-placed footstool, Royce took her hand from Rose and cleared her path. Shani batted at his back, whispering that she could do it herself, but her hand clenched on the material of his t-shirt, smoothed over the lines of his back, until she fisted the waistband of his sweatpants. Before she knew it, her face pressed into Royce’s neck. He smelled safe—like grass and country. When he stopped at the curtain to the main office, Shani rested her chin on his shoulder.
“Jake?” Rose stepped around the curtain first.
Shani watched through a space in the cloth. No one appeared to be outside, but her position didn’t allow her to see the whole room.
Royce leaned into her, turned his head slightly. “Shan?”
“Yeah?”
He pulled her hand around to rest on his waist. “Would you rub behind my balls a bit?”
She fought her snort, tears of laughter filling her eyes. “You are incorrigible, you know that?” Shani pinched the taut muscle of his side, biting down on his shoulder. Then she considered he might have been serious. “Shoot, Royce. You must be hurting, huh?”
“Not so bad.” He chuckled under his breath, more a bouncing of his body than an actual laugh. Still, Shani felt his strained breathing. “I’m okay for now.” He lifted her hand to his mouth and kissed her palm with a quick, tentative flick of his tongue. “Really, though, Shan. I’m so sorry.”
“For what? You didn’t call them.” She tensed. “Right?”
“No! No, no, no.” He shifted so he could speak in her ear. “I just—”
Rose tore the curtain to the side. “Now. Come on. Hurry!” She waved them out of their hiding space. “He’s making a phone call.”
In the main office, Jake perched on a stool behind his desk. “I bet he goes up to check in a minute.” He took a sip from a cup of coffee. The mug was cracked and dirty, as if it had been sitting there forever. “That’ll be your best chance to run for it.” He handed Shani her credit card receipt, signaling that now would be a good time for them to pay their bill. “Hope you remembered to get your keys. I don’t recommend going back to the room to get ’em.”
* * * * *
“Go!” Royce urged Shani out the door ahead of him, and then sprinted behind her. The black asphalt stretched like a sea between them and the white van. Her legs flew and her ass jiggled, strong arms pumping as if she could leap over mountains. And for once, Royce felt like perhaps he could too. Freedom seemed only a parking lot away—and Royce wanted it. He allowed himself to hope for the first time since the week he was born.
His foot twisted in a pothole and he fell behind a step. Royce leapt on one leg until the other could bear weight. Ahead, Shani ripped open the door of the van and started the engine. She drove toward him and Royce lurched around the side of the van.
A gunshot shattered the docile air. Door handle in his grip, Royce clamored into the cab and Shani peeled out of the lot. The force of the movement threatened to throw him from the van. Royce grabbed the headrest with one hand, the open car door waving merrily in the wind.
“Shit! Close that!” Shani fought the wheel, struggling against the fishtailing van.
Royce reached for the door, a flash of red filling his line of sight. He struggled to close his grip on the handle, and when he dragged it closed, pain shot up his side. He fell back into the seat, panting. His head spun with the rush of the chase.
“You all right?” Shani shouted across the seat at him. Royce wondered why she seemed so far away. She sounded hollow, echo-ey. He tried to ask why, but his words garbled on his lips.
“Shit, Royce. Lie down! Go in the back.” She bunched up a sweatshirt lying in the front seat and reached across him to press it into his deltoid. Pain speared down to his fingers and along the side of his body. “Keep pressure on it. I only have one bag of blood!”
Royce ordered his body to move—forced himself to crawl over the divider to the bed in the rear compartment. He fell onto the mattress a tangled mess. Slick redness coated his hand and the fabric he clutched. The van rumbled beneath him and as the adrenaline drained from his system, the gunshot wound on his arm ached and stabbed.