Dangerous Promise Read online

  “You,” she spat down into his face, “hit like a boy.”

  Then she got him with a right hook that knocked him out. Tasting blood, Nina spit again, this time onto the floor. She got off the unconscious man, well aware that he was only going to be out for a minute or so while his enhancements worked to wake him up.

  “You should just kill him,” said a female voice from the bedroom doorway. “But oh, what a waste of money that would be, and I’m afraid I can’t really condone that, Ms. Bronson. So might I suggest you get away from him, before he wakes? Because he’s going to come up swinging, and I really don’t have the time to keep watching, as entertaining as it’s been.”

  Nina did take several steps away from Blakely, whose eyelids were already fluttering as he struggled to get back to consciousness. She kept her eyes on him, since he was the more immediate threat. She let her glance flick toward Ewan, who looked like he was still out. Then at the woman in the doorway.

  “You should probably tie him up,” the woman said with a gesture at Blakely.

  “He can get out of anything I tie him with,” Nina replied. “The same way I can. Maybe you should just call him off.”

  The woman laughed. “Oh, like a dog?”

  Blakely was a dog. They all were, in their own ways. Trained to attack and to kill and to follow commands. Nina wiped away a runner of blood from her nose and widened her stance, waiting to see if Blakely was going to get to his feet.

  The woman moved closer, still keeping her distance from Nina but clearly checking out Ewan. “He’s not dead.”

  “Is he supposed to be?” Nina asked coldly.

  “Nina Bronson. Thirty-two years old. Joined the North American United States Army at nineteen. Wounded and declared legally dead for seven point two minutes, at which time, you were given emergency surgery that saved your life and implanted you with a series of nanochips and a software program that allows your memories and bodily functions to be manipulated.” The woman smiled. “You don’t remember me.”

  Nina shook her head warily watching Blakely, who had not yet risen, and Ewan, who was stirring. “I don’t.”

  “None of you do. That’s perfectly all right, you don’t have to. I remember all of you. I’m Dr. Wanda Crosson. I was there when they brought you in. I’m the one who cut you open. In a way, you could say I’m like your mother, since I’m the one who brought you back into the world.”

  “In a way,” Nina said, “I could say that you talk like you had someone write your villain speech for you and practiced it in front of a mirror for a few hours while you tried, but failed, to figure out how to sound like a badass.”

  Crosson recoiled with a sneer. “God, you were always such a bitch.”

  “Thanks, Mom.” Nina brought up her hands, curled into fists. Without her weapons, she’d have to count on her hands, feet, and teeth, but that didn’t worry her. If anything, fighting without a gun or a knife was easier, because she could kill someone as easily without them. “Now, do you want to tell me what you’re doing here and what’s going on? Or do you want me to drop you the way I dropped Blakely?”

  “I’m here for Ewan, of course.”

  Nina rolled her eyes. “Duh. Yeah. I figured that part out already. But what do you want from him?”

  “Justice. Retribution.”

  Ewan groaned. Nina went to him at once, pausing to drop a kick into Blakely’s temple to keep him down. He twitched and went quiet. At Ewan’s side, Nina put her hand on his shoulder and bent to look into his face, while she kept the corner of her gaze on Crosson.

  “Hey, baby. Are you all right?” The endearment slipped out of her and she didn’t care if anyone heard it. She put a finger beneath his chin to tip his face gently toward her. “Don’t fight this. I’m going to take care of you. Of everything.”

  She got rid of the ties binding his hands behind him and stood, a hand on his shoulder, making sure he didn’t try to get to his feet. He looked at her with dropping eyelids, still hovering on the edge of unconsciousness. They must have drugged him, too, but he was going to take longer to recover.

  “What did you give him?”

  “‘Baby,’” Crosson said thoughtfully. “You called Ewan Donahue ‘baby’? Am I to presume that means you’ve entered into an intimate relationship with him?”

  “The fact you found us naked in bed would seem to indicate that, yeah,” Nina said wryly with a shake of her head. “Don’t act like you’re so surprised. Now, why don’t you tell me what you gave him, so I can figure out when he’s going to wake up.”

  “Perhaps you should put on some clothes.” Crosson snagged one of Ewan’s shirts from the pile of laundry in the basket by the window and threw it toward Nina, who caught it nimbly without even looking.

  It smelled of him, but there wasn’t time for her to delight in that. She gave Crosson a smug grin. “You’re afraid of the sight of tits and ass?”

  “Crude.” Crosson shook her head. “You think your body is something to intimidate me? Without me, you would no longer exist. You’d be no more than ash and a memorial hologram, if it weren’t for me. You owe me everything, Nina.”

  Nina didn’t need to put on Ewan’s shirt. She did, however, tuck it around his waist to keep his body from Crosson’s prying gaze. “Sure. Keep telling yourself that. You think because you’re the one who cut me open that somehow I owe you? I can be absolutely grateful for my life, Dr. Crosson, and still not give a single shit about your part in it. Do you understand?”

  “I do. Do you? I wonder.” Crosson took the chance on moving a step or so closer to Nina, her gaze flicking to Blakely, moaning on the floor. “If you don’t kick him in the head again, he’ll surely wake. If you do, you might very well put a final end to him.”

  Without hesitating, Nina pivoted and kicked Blakely directly in the temple again. Hard. Hard enough to, as Crosson had said, put a final end to him. Nina’s toes crunched, aching at the impact, but she didn’t even flinch. She kicked him again, harder this time, until he was silent.

  Crosson’s lips pursed. “And here I thought you might have more compassion for him.”

  “Why? Because we used to fuck once in a while?” Nina glanced at Ewan, whose gaze was clearing, but who still looked a bit out of focus.

  “Did you?” Crosson gave a mock-innocent blink. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. I meant more because you and he had the same backgrounds—”

  “We don’t, actually,” Nina interrupted. “Blakely and I might have both had the same surgeries, and yeah, we both served in the army, but we are not alike.”

  Crosson snorted under her breath. “Perhaps you didn’t start out that way, but you certainly grew to be very much like each other.”

  Ewan tried to speak, but his words slurred. Nina tipped his chin up again so she could look into his eyes. She tried to reassure him that he was safe, but it remained unclear if he could really see her.

  “What did you give him?” she asked again, her calm voice giving nothing away about how close she was to going atomic all over the other woman.

  Crosson rattled off a long name with a lot of syllables, then gave Nina a twisted smile. “Don’t tell me you have any idea what that is.”

  “Does it matter? When does it wear off?”

  “It won’t.”

  Nina paused, a comforting hand on Ewan’s shoulder. “Explain.”

  “First, he’ll be groggy. When he regains awareness, he’ll find himself compelled to answer truthfully any question posed to him. And shortly after that, his bodily functions will begin to shut down, one by one, and he will slip into a coma. After that,” Crosson said, “he will probably die.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Ewan heard the voices, one of them belonging to Nina and the other, feminine and familiar but yet unknown. He blinked hard, trying to clear his vision, but everything swam and blurred, and no matter how hard he tried to pull in a breath to clear his head, all he could manage was to let out a soft moan.