Forbidden Stranger Read online

It didn’t matter. She would find out later. Right now, Nina rounded the corner of the house and headed for the airtranspo as fast as she could run.

  Ready to fight.

  * * *

  Land and air transpos all operated by automatic pilot, but the one Ewan could hear landing in the front of the house had been flying too erratically for that. Nina had taken off running toward it, ignoring his shouts, and so Ewan pushed himself after her. He wasn’t as fast, but with the adrenaline rushing through him from almost falling to his death, he made good time.

  He rounded the corner to find the airtranspo askew in the landing area. The passenger door hung open. A black-clad figure was on the ground in front of it, with Nina on top, at least for a minute before the battle shifted and the intruder rolled them both to gain the upper hand.

  Ewan had seen Nina fight before, but never like this. Neither had weapons except their hands, feet, teeth. Ferocious and savage, both used everything they had. Blood flew. All he could do was watch in horror and admiration.

  A glimpse of white-blond hair cropped short made him realize who Nina was fighting. Shouting Nina’s name, he moved toward them both. Neither paid attention to him. The solid crunch of Al’s fist against Nina’s jaw sent her tumbling backward, and Ewan took the chance to again distract them from destroying one another.

  Al did not take the chance to dive to the ground and continue her assault. She stepped back, fists raised in defense, but shouted Nina’s name and added, “It’s me! It’s Al! Stop hitting me so I can stop trying to kill you!”

  Nina had already made it back onto her feet, but Al’s shout stopped her. She spat a mouthful of crimson to the side but didn’t advance. “Al?”

  “Yeah, it’s me.” Al didn’t lower her fists, but her voice softened. “Don’t come at me again.”

  Nina drew in a coughing breath and spit again. She put her hands on her hips. Breathing hard, she hung her head for a moment before looking up at Al, then Ewan. Her expression twisted, furious, but she gave them both a bloodstained grimace. When Ewan moved toward her, she gave him a warning glare that stopped him immediately.

  “Are we good?” Al asked Nina.

  Nina nodded. “I know who you are.”

  Al shot Ewan a triumphant look. “Good. Are you going to invite me in for tea and crumpets, or should we stand around bleeding on the lawn?”

  * * *

  Nina had insisted Al take a shower and change her clothes before there could be any grand revelations. Nina did the same before they met up in the kitchen where Al raided the fridge without self-consciousness and helped herself to a truly impressive amount of food. For once, Nina had little appetite. She took a plate but only picked at the array of leftovers Al had defrosted.

  Ewan had shown up in the kitchen with fresh clothes and damp hair, too, but like Nina, he hadn’t helped himself to anything to eat. She hadn’t said a word to him the entire time. He, wisely, hadn’t tried to start a conversation with her.

  “Your security is pretty good,” Al said around a mouthful of pasta and potatoes.

  Ewan poured himself a mug of coffee, along with one for Nina that he set in front of her without asking if she wanted any. “You still got through.”

  “Barely. Had a hairy scary couple of minutes at the end,” Al said, adding, “sorry about the fly-by. I was trying not to crash into the house.”

  Nina had not realized how much she wanted coffee until Ewan gave her some, but instead of drinking she merely warmed her hands on the mug. The person across the table from her was Al. Nina remembered the haircut, the voice. The androgyne star tattoo between Al’s thumb and forefinger. She remembered the hospital.

  She remembered being a soldier.

  There was no single moment she could pinpoint when recognition had started to return completely, but it had begun when Ewan fell off the cliff and she’d been strong enough to pull him to safety. The long months of navigating all the holes in her memory didn’t simply fade away. She had no trouble recalling the times when she’d pulled up blankness in the places now filled with images, scents, sounds . . . emotions. She wasn’t sure what she knew and what she didn’t, though. Only that where there had been nothing, now there were many other things.

  Nina did not look at Ewan, afraid she would not be able to control herself the way she wanted to. Rage. Grief. An onslaught of emotions she wasn’t sure how to handle and truthfully was furious that she had to.

  She didn’t know all the details about the island’s security, but she could put the pieces together and make a good guess about the extent of it and why it was in place. Ewan’s home, Woodhaven, had been outfitted with top security. The mountain cabin, not so much—but she didn’t want to think about that cabin here and now. It was the place she’d painted. Where they’d fallen in love the first time. It had also been the place where he’d betrayed her the first time.

  When was she going to stop letting him do that to her?

  “You could have killed us,” Ewan said sharply.

  Al rolled her eyes. “Yeah, well, trust me, Donahue. If I had wanted to do that, I’d have tried something a little less likely to also end up with me squashed all over the place.”

  “You stole an airtranspo,” Nina said.

  “Borrowed,” Al corrected with a grin. “They’re going to get it back, and in generally the same condition it was in when I took it.”

  “I’m not going to ask how you managed it, but I do want to know why.” Ewan sipped coffee slowly.

  Al’s grin faded into seriousness. She shoveled a few more bites of food into her mouth, chewed and swallowed, then said, “Katrinka Dev outfitted her son with experimental tech and programming that she’s claiming fixes the self-termination problem. In the meantime, we’re down to six of us left—”

  “Six of us what?” Nina interrupted.

  “Enhanced,” Al said quietly.

  Nina frowned as a new light of understanding gleamed inside her. She had once been one of fifteen. They’d lost Hendricks to his own darkness. Nina had killed Blakely in self-defense. So much had come back to her. Some of it, she wished had stayed unknown.

  She posed the question to Al. “What do you mean, only six left?”

  “More than Gonzalez and Smith?” Ewan put in before Al could answer. He sounded sick.

  Nina turned to finally address him. “What happened to Gonzalez and Smith?”

  “Offed themselves,” Al said. “And yes. Three more in the past as many days.”

  Ewan flinched and rested his face in his hands, fingers threading through his dark hair. “All confirmed? Not like Chang?”

  “What happened to Chang?” Nina demanded. “What happened to all of them?”

  Al got up to pour herself a mug of coffee. “Riley tried to kill the governor of New Mexico and slit her own throat when security stopped her. Chang had a suspicious car accident. Gonzalez and Smith both jumped. But yeah. The others . . . it’s pretty clear they did it on purpose.”

  “No.” Stunned, reeling, Nina pushed back from the table. She wanted to run but settled for pacing, hands on her hips. She’d dressed in comfortable, familiar black leggings and a matching shirt, and for the first time since she could remember, she actively missed the weight of her harness and gear and understood exactly what she was missing. “Who?”

  Al and Ewan shared a look that pissed Nina off enough to clench her jaw. They knew things she didn’t, and not because of her fucked-up memory. She slammed her palm against the table hard enough to rattle the dishes.

  “Who was it?” she demanded.

  Al gave a shuddering sigh, all bravado and sarcasm gone from her voice when she answered. “Xia Saller. Lan Michelakis. Dietrich Naumov.”

  Ewan made a horrified noise. “All dead?”

  “Yes.” Al cleared her throat.

  Nina did not ask what each of them had done. It didn’t matter. They were gone forever. She turned her gaze on Ewan. Unyielding. “You knew this?”

  “Not about the last thre