Matt and Jory sat with him, their gazes hard on Nathan as he beat the hell out of another soldier. Fist to flesh, blood spraying to stain the dust red.
“We’re sure Audrey was working with the commander?” Jory had asked, wiping blood off his chin from his training session.
Matt nodded. “Yes. Nate found proof—and she confirmed it just before several of the blue team were terminated.”
Some of those men had become good friends—especially to Nate.
Jory plucked a lone blade of grass from the beaten earth. “We need to go. Now.” His face tightened as Nathan threw the other soldier a good six feet across the field. Raw rage and pain cut deep into the hard lines of Nate’s face. “Something bad is coming, and we all can feel it.”
“This is the first time we’ve all been here at the same time in years.” The first time the damn commander and his scientists couldn’t extort them into killing in order to keep the other brothers alive. Usually at least two of them were out on missions at any given time.
Shane studied his brothers. Of them all, Jory and Matt looked the most alike. While they all had the odd gray eyes, only Jory and Matt had pitch-black hair. He wondered once again if the two shared the same mother. Or if any of them did. He focused on Jory. “Can you do it?”
“Yes.” Jory hopped to his size fourteen feet. His shoulders blocked out the sun. So much bigger than the scrawny brainiac Shane had protected many years ago. “I can take care of the entire computer system, if you can blow this place to hell.”
“The commander will come after us.” Matt stretched to his feet, his focus on the tight form of the man standing to attention at the edge of the field watching Nathan. “I’ve got the commander, but what about Emery?”
Dread slid through Shane. “You going to kill the commander?” Could Matt kill the man who’d trained them? Even now, even as an adult with so many kills behind him, Shane still sometimes thought the commander invincible. Pure evil.
“Yes.”
Jory shook his head. “Emery deserves a chance. He was raised in this hellhole, too.”
Shane rubbed the scar on his forearm that Emery had gouged with a bent paperclip when Shane was six. Two years older and just plain mean, the brown-eyed Emery was a favorite of the commander. “Emery is crazy and evil. I say we take him out, too.”
“No.” As always, Jory looked to the side of fairness. “None of us were given a choice. We fight or our brothers die.” He glanced toward the computer center near the barracks. “Emery deserves a chance at freedom. To get his brothers to freedom.”
Matt rolled his shoulders. “It’s probably a mistake, but I agree. We let Emery live.”
“For now,” Shane agreed. “You know they’ll come after us, right?”
Matt turned toward him, pure hardness on an already hard face. “Then it was stupid of them to train us so well now, wasn’t it?” Anticipation lit his eyes on fire.
“Jesus.” Shane stood. “Do you really think one of us can kill the commander?”
Mattie lifted his chin. “I started planning his death the day I turned twelve.” Without another word, he turned toward the field to stop Nate from killing the other soldier. This time.
Shane jolted awake in the hospital bed. His head pounded. Jory. So damn smart, how the hell had he died?
The scent of wild berries filled Shane’s nostrils. Josie. He glanced around the room. Thick sun poured through the blinds, showing the hour to be about noon. The rattle of carts sounded outside in the hall. Where had Josie gone?
*
Josie cleared her throat, stretching her neck. “How did you get my fingerprints, Detective?” Her mind spun. What now? Should she ask for a lawyer? Nathan had already flown out of town to wherever. Not that he was a real lawyer.
Detective Malloy sat back in his chair. “I took them off the coffee cup from the last time you sat in that seat.”
“Humph. That’s not legal.”
“Sure it is.” He leaned forward, tapping a gold pen on his notepad. “Mrs. Dean, I know you didn’t kill Billy. I’ve been a cop long enough to know you’re one of the good ones. Just level with me, would you? Let me help you out of this mess.”
Josie studied his earnest eyes. She took a deep breath. Where the hell had she left her fingerprints? On the phone, but Shane had grabbed that. On Billy’s belt when she turned him over? Maybe. “Where were the prints?”
Malloy sighed. “It doesn’t matter. Just tell me what happened so I can get you out of here and somehow keep my job.”
“Fine. A man named George pushed me off the elevator to the ninth floor of my office building. He was working for Max Penton and wanted my files. I ran from him to hide in the room with Billy’s body.” Josie sucked in air. “Then he came after me, so I hit him and ran.” No way would she bring Shane and his brothers into this.
Intelligence lit the detective’s dark eyes. “Are you all right?”
His concern warmed her. “Yes.”