Slade Read online

  Trisha just studied him. She knew he could be dangerous and had the ability to kill. She’d seen it firsthand when he’d saved her from being raped. She nodded.

  “All right.”

  Chapter Nine

  The sun hung low in the sky when Slade glanced back at Trisha. He’d found a dugout area of earth inside the side of the hill. A large boulder had once taken up the space but time and gravity had caused the large rock to roll down the hillside into the ravine below. It had been really hard to reach the area. It was so steep that Trisha had nearly fallen three times, and if not for Slade, she would have. He’d climbed behind her, one hand on her, and had caught her each time she’d lost her footing.

  “You are safe here.” Slade crouched down in front of her and his hand brushed her uninjured cheek. “You will hear anyone coming from below and it’s too unstable above for them to use their ropes to try to climb down to this place.”

  “Okay.”

  “I want you to wait here where my people will find you if I don’t come back. It might take a few days but some of the males they send were trained with me from before we were freed. They know how I think and they will realize what kind of hiding place I would look for to stash you. Don’t shoot them when they do, Doc.” He gave her a tight smile. “It is considered rude to injure or kill someone attempting to rescue you.”

  Trisha didn’t smile back, knowing he tried to use humor to defuse the stress, but she was too worried about him. “Come back to me.”

  His smile faded. “I can’t guarantee that, Doc. I won’t make promises I can’t keep.”

  “Then stay with me where we’re safe. Please? We could just wait right here together.”

  Slade hesitated. “I didn’t realize there would be so many of them hunting us, Doc. Those men I killed are not the same men who followed us down from the road when we crashed. They obviously have different teams out there searching for us. You know this from hearing them. That puts you in extreme danger and there’s only one way to handle this situation. I need to hunt the hunters and turn it around on them.” He paused again, staring intently at her.

  “But—”

  “They won’t expect that from me and their numbers need to be thinned out. It could take some time for my people to reach us and I need to help us survive. It will confuse those assholes when they find themselves under attack. Some of them will flee when people start dying. It will weed out the cowards from the truly deadly ones. Those are the ones who need to die. It’s the only way to protect you, Doc.”

  “But this is a really good hiding place. Just wait it out here with me, Slade. Please? I’ll beg you if I have to. I’m terrified they will hurt you or worse. You’re just one man and there are too many of them out there. Those are your words.”

  Slade’s head slightly tilted and his mouth tightened into a grim line. “I’m not just a man, Doc. I’m something far worse with the advantage, whether they know it or not.” He hesitated. “This is what I am. I’m a New Species and I have something important to me to protect. But this isn’t just about you and I don’t want you to feel guilty if something happens to me. My people will be coming and I don’t want them walking into a trap of any kind, which is a possibility. I need to take out as many of these assholes as I’m able to. I’m a predator beneath my humanity. I may try to hide it but it’s still there. I’m also a survivor who has had to kill in the past to remain breathing. Mercile trained me to fight to show off their drugs and it’s one lesson I’m grateful for at this moment.”

  “You don’t have to fight them. You aren’t locked inside a cell anymore and we can hide. From what I understand, you were never really meant to be placed into a real battle zone, which makes that training not count. They just taught you enough to show what you could do but this is real, Slade. I don’t want you to die.”

  He took a deep breath. “It was always real. Not all of my people survived their cruel tests or the shows they forced us to participate in to demonstrate the results of their drugs. I am dangerous, even though it’s never what I wanted to become. Whether you accept it or not, that’s the truth. They trained us too well and made us less than completely human. It wasn’t their intention to ever see us free but we are. I’m New Species. You’re a doctor but just because you aren’t inside a hospital doesn’t mean you stop being what you are. You’d help any injured person if you could regardless of being on the clock or off, wouldn’t you?”

  Trisha hated his logic. “Yes, but I don’t want you to go. Stay with me. Chances are, when your people arrive, it will scare those assholes off. I’m sure they never planned to have to search for us.”

  “Don’t tempt me, Doc. Holing up with you inside this small space for a day or so…” He winked. “I would enjoy the hell out of keeping us from growing bored.”

  “Stay with me.” Hope soared inside Trisha. She just wanted him safe, with her.

  “It’s too big a risk if I were to stay with you and do nothing. There’s too many of them and they can spread out to search a lot of places. If we’re found they could surround us.” He glanced around the cave and then back to her. “You could be struck by a bullet if there’s a shootout. There’s too many rocks buried into the walls that something could ricochet off and strike you. I won’t allow that to happen. We also don’t have enough bullets to hold them off. They could also start a brushfire and smoke us out. It’s better if I go after them than risk them trapping us here. I’ll make certain that anyone who comes close to you is no longer breathing.”

  She bit her lip, forgetting her injury, and winced from the instant pain. Slade brushed his finger over her mouth, staring at it.

  “You will need to stay low, no standing or moving around much. That blonde hair of yours can draw attention and doesn’t blend well with the hillside. Remember to stay out of sight. I’m leaving you all the guns from the camp just in case some of them get past me or they take me out. This handgun is all I need. You only fire when they are close enough not to miss and you have no other choice. The noise will carry far if you shoot and bring more of them this way. That would be bad.”

  Trisha stared into his eyes when he met her gaze. She did what she really wanted to do most. She leaned forward, gripped Slade’s face, and watched surprise cross his features a second before her mouth brushed his. She tested the soft texture of his full lips, heard the sound Slade made deep inside his throat, and then he took control of the kiss.

  He deepened it, his tongue meeting hers. She ignored the pain of her cut lip, even the taste of her blood mingling with Slade’s taste, just wanting, needing to get lost in that kiss. Her arms wound around his neck and he lifted her weight when his arms slid around her waist, gripping her hips to pull her close, pressing them chest to chest. Slade suddenly growled and tore his mouth from hers, breathing harder.

  “Trisha,” he groaned. “You’re making this difficult for me and if you sat on my lap, you’d know how hard you actually are making it. I have to leave now. Please don’t make this worse. This needs done and I have to go while I have enough daylight to move quickly. My night vision is not as good as normal sight during the day.”

  She knew she’d lost the argument and he had his mind set to hunt down those men. He planned to go out there and risk his life trying to save hers. Hot tears threatened her eyes but she blinked rapidly to hold them back.

  “Okay. Just come back to me, Slade.”

  A smile suddenly twisted his lips. “What are you going to give me when I return, Doc?”

  “Anything you want.”

  His eyebrow arched and the smile widened. “Anything?”

  “Anything,” she repeated firmly. “Just don’t get killed.”

  Slade nodded. “Stay low, be quiet, and keep those guns ready. Use them only if you have to and hold them off as long as you can. I’ll hear if you have to fire at anyone and I’ll be coming. No more provoking jerks trying to get them to kill you. Remember to just survive and I’ll have something to save. You promised me tha