Dangerous Promise (The Protector) Read online

  Without a warning, Nina took the three steps between her and Crosson and cuffed the other woman a ringing blow to the side of the head. “He asked you a question. Do you have it, or not?”

  With a shriek that pierced his eardrums and seemed way out of proportion to the strength of the blow, Crosson clapped her hands over her ears and shook her head. She staggered. Nina, watching with a raised eyebrow, took the chance to put a fingertip to Crosson’s shoulder and push. Crosson stumbled backward, pinwheeling her arms.

  Nina laughed. Heartily. She shook her head. “Wow. You are truly useless.”

  Crosson found her balance and straightened. No more screaming. No flailing. “I have it, but I’ll only give it in trade.”

  “You never did know how to negotiate wisely.” Ewan knew at once what she was angling to get.

  “Maybe I didn’t have the lack of ethics you do,” Crosson spat in return. “Maybe I don’t want to cheat people out of what they’re owed. But why would I need to negotiate when my plans have all come to fruition? I got you out of Woodhaven and all the way out here, didn’t I? After that, all I had to do was wait until you were vulnerable. I had no idea it was going to be because you were too busy slipping it to Bionica Bronson over here.”

  Nina cuffed Crosson again on the side of the head, harder this time. “That’s Ms. Bionica Bronson to you.”

  The wooziness that had affected him upon waking had faded, but Ewan knew it wouldn’t be long before he started feeling the drugs. “It was you, all along? The warning attacks. The photo drone?”

  “While I did love the pictures they posted of you falling on your ass, no, that wasn’t me. What use would I have for pictures? There are plenty of you all over the place. No. The decibel bomb was me. The gas. It was so easy to hire away some of your staff. You might have been generous with the pay deposits, but there will always be someone who’s unsatisfied with what they have.”

  “Kind of like you were never satisfied,” he said.

  Crosson ducked away from another blow aimed at her by Nina, who couldn’t have been trying very hard to hit her, or else she wouldn’t have missed. Nevertheless, Crosson grunted and whimpered as though she’d been punched in the gut. “It was all meant to get you out of Woodhaven so I would have the chance to get to you! I had no idea you’d pretend to be dead or go into hiding, but when you did, I knew it was perfect! Onegod, call off your dog!”

  “I can’t be called off,” Nina said with another menacing gesture at the older woman.

  “What do you want, Wanda?” Ewan broke in before she could say more. He wasn’t yet having trouble forming words, but his tongue felt thick and numb. He jerked a thumb toward the still and silent man on the ground. “And who’s that?”

  Crosson sneered. “Someone your girlfriend used to, as she told me so gracefully, fuck.”

  “He’s one of the enhanced.” Nina rolled her eyes. “His name’s Connor Blakely. We never served together, but we did train together, after the surgeries. And yes, since Dr. Demento here seems to take such pleasure in sharing the information, we did occasionally have sex.”

  “She’s likely killed him, by the way,” Crosson said, “so I’d be careful, if I were you. She’s like a black widow spider, she’ll probably kill you after she’s done with you, too.”

  Nina jabbed a quick punch directly into Crosson’s nose, which dropped the other woman onto her hands and knees. “Oops. Sorry, my hand slipped. Baby, this woman seems to think that somehow or another, a revelation about my previous sexual liaisons makes a bit of difference to you. Does it?”

  “Of course not.” Ewan grimaced, both at the rising swirls of numbness in his legs and Crosson’s shrieking. “Scratch it, Wanda, please, shut up.”

  “She likes to act like she’s some kind of super villain in a viddy, but she sure doesn’t have much stamina.” Nina waved a hand toward the woman on the floor. “Was she always like that?”

  “Yes. Dramatic and easily distracted.”

  Crosson looked up at both of them with her hand clapped over her nose, blood leaking through her fingers. “Your insults mean nothing to me. Do you think it matters what you think? You haven’t even asked me why I’m here!”

  “Why should we? What about your grand speech?” Nina shot back. “Let me guess, you’ve rehearsed a monologue about how you intend to somehow take over the world or something, and Ewan’s the only one standing in your way. If you tell me you’ve got your finger on a button that’s going to blow everything up, I’m going laugh in your face though; just warning you. Well, first I’ll laugh. Then I think I might hit you again.”

  “She wants money,” Ewan said quietly. No joking around now.

  Nina looked at him, her scornful smiling fading. She nodded. “Right. That makes sense. Couldn’t she just ask you for some? Or blackmail you? Trying to end your life seems like a bit of overkill, doesn’t it?”

  Crosson struggled to her feet, both hands clapped over her nose. Her voice was thick and hollow. “He knows what I’m here for. Why I tracked him down to find him. He owes me. More than money, and he knows why. Tell her the truth, Ewan. Tell her everything. You don’t want to, but you can’t help it.”

  Ewan’s stomach clenched, tight, as did his fingers into fists. The drug in his body had become one of the Billy Goats Gruff, his brain the troll beneath the bridge demanding to know who was trip-trapping over it. He closed his eyes for a moment and spoke without opening them.

  “Dr. Crosson and I worked together a number of years ago on a major project.”

  “‘Together.’” Crosson’s voice rasped, and it sound as though she spat. “Please. I was the one in the lab, night and day. I was the one who did the heavy lifting. You came up with the concept and designed the actual components but I’m the one who had the practical skills to make it all work. I’m the one who made it really happen. And then what did you do?”

  “I took your work and applied it to what we were doing in the lab. I made some small changes and I used my wealth and influence to effectively buy out your portion of the work.” He opened his eyes, hating the words coming out of his mouth but helpless to stop them. “I made sure that only my name was on the patents, but told you otherwise. I lied when I said that I’d make sure that if you took over the actual implementation of the product, I would make sure you got credit and financial compensation. And then after Gray Tuesday, I made sure you were never linked to the project again in any financial sharing capacity.”

  Crosson spit again. “You made certain to completely distance me from anything to do with the project. You scrubbed it entirely clean of me.”

  “And of myself,” he said.

  “Except for the part where you still made all the money off it. All of it, and even now, I bet you’re still getting paid,” Crosson said.

  “You were compensated.”

  Crosson shook her head. “I know there are some who say that money is the true Onegod, but believe me, it was never about the money for me.”

  “Because I gave you plenty. You needed to lack for nothing, ever, for the rest of your life,” Ewan said with a quick glance at Nina, who kept her attention on Crosson.

  “It was never about the money! You pulled every string possible in order to erase all records of who actually did the work, and you hid it all under layers and layers of legal language and deceit.” Crosson’s voice cracked and broke, hoarse and foggy from her broken nose. “You. Erased. Me.”

  “I didn’t erase you. Some hacker with an agenda did that. He erased the whole world.”

  “And you took advantage of that to make sure I would never, ever get the credit or money I was due! You ruined me!” Fists clenched at her sides, Crosson took several stumbling steps toward him, only to be stopped again by Nina.

  “None of that gives you the right to break into a man’s home and order him to be killed.” Nina’s voice was far from calm, but stayed steady and firm. “However, keep coming at him, and I will have no trouble taking you down if you continue