“Hey,” she muttered, looking up as he forced her to her knees. His blue eyes were amused, but that was it. Beyond the amusement was a chilling coldness that said he would put a bullet between someone’s eyes without questioning the order. “Can’t blame a gal for trying. Can you?”
“No talking!” Mills ordered harshly, hauling Eric to his feet. “Now me and your brother will be taking our leave. The powers that be want him alive.”
He grinned as he pulled the smaller man closer, tapping the muzzle of his handgun against Eric’s temple. “Or, rather, they want the knowledge he has in this egghead of his. Kline and Patterson here will be escorting you to your final destination.”
“No! She comes with me!” Eric struggled against Mills’ hold, managing to break free enough to take a step toward Eris. “I won’t give you anything without her.”
Mills’ face hardened and he surged forward to knock Eric to his knees in front of Eris, pressing the gun against the back of his head.
“Now the thing my boss realizes about situations like this,” he said calmly. “Is that accidents happen. Do you want to be an accident, Doctor Archer?”
“It’s fine, Eric.” Eris smiled as she lied. “Do as they say, and no one will get hurt. Isn’t that right, Mills?”
“Your sister is a wise woman, Doctor. Pity things had to go this way...” Mills looked directly at her as he hauled Eric to his feet. Her heart went out to her brother; he was terrified and so out of his depth it was laughable.
“... perhaps in another time and place we could have gone out for that drink… dinner and back to my place. It would have saved me going through hoops to tag that fucking awful takeout coffee.”
She sucked a breath in. “It was me. You had a tracker on me all this time?”
Her stomach dropped, a sour taste in her mouth. All this time, she’d put Zero and the rest of the Warborne in danger. All because of her damn coffee addiction.
Mills chuckled. “Of course. We knew the good doctor here was at risk of turning, and with something as important as Prometheus, we couldn’t afford that. We had contingencies in place in case he went rogue. Good job we did. No way do we want that information to get out. Now it’s all contained, there’s no more threat to the program. Now, if you’ll excuse us, the good doctor and I have a shuttle to catch.”
He turned away, shoving Eric in front of him. The rest of the troop turned to follow, apart from the two behind Eris and Sparky. Kline and Patterson. The fact that Mills had named them was not a good sign. It meant their next “destination” would be their final one. A bullet to the back of the head before being thrown out the nearest airlock… No one would ever find their bodies this far out.
“Oh boy…” Sparky began to chuckle, his face creased with amusement followed by an outright belly laugh. “You really think we were stupid enough to come here alone? That we didn’t have a backup plan.”
Mills froze on the way to the door at the back of the lab, looking over his shoulder. “The shuttle you parked over the rise? Already gone, my friend, along with whoever was in it. Targeted missile strike took care of him as soon as you stepped inside the airlock. We knew you were coming.”
Eris closed her eyes. Of course they did. The tracker. Even though the shuttle itself had some kind of stealth tech, they’d have been able to pick up the tracker on her as soon as she stepped out of it.
“Yeah… right. You keep telling yourself that.” Sparky winked. “But if I were you, I’d watch over your shoulder for the next… oh, rest of your very short fucking life.”
“Yeah, yeah…” Mills scoffed, pushing Eric ahead of him. Her twin turned and twisted, trying to keep her in sight as long as possible. But then they were gone, and it was just her, Sparky and their soon-to-be executioners.
“Well,” Sparky drawled. “Since we’re alone now… any chance you guys’ll take any last requests? Good looking lads like you, I’m sure we can find something… fun to do.”
Of all the things Eris had expected from the ex-con, it wasn’t for him to hit on the guys about to execute them.
“For fuck’s sake, Sparky, have some fucking respect. Would you?” she hissed as the two troopers just laughed and stepped behind them.
“You think I’m interested in these tossers?” he shot back, on his knees next to her. “Sheesh, you never heard of a distraction technique?”
Hands behind her head, she closed her eyes. Shutting him out.
This was it.
Rather than the panic she thought she’d feel, she had a sense of calm and peace. Of finality. She’d done everything she could, and it still hadn’t been enough. They were out of weapons and out of options, so she let it go and let peace wash over her. In a couple of seconds nothing would matter anymore anyway; there was no point for her last moments to be filled with anger and frustration.
So instead she let everything good about her life fill her mind—her military service, where she’d made a difference, the tiny connection with her brother, even forged as it was in the midst of fear and threat… Zero…
Her breath caught on a gasp, a savage ache in the center of her chest.
She would never see Zero again. Never hold him, never feel him hold her. Never see that cheeky smile of his.
Never tell him she loved him…
Fuck, when had that happened? She loved Zero. Loved the big, gruff cyborg with the name full of numbers and letters and the pain in the ass alpha hero bossiness.
Kline cocked his weapon, the sound right by her ear. She steeled herself for the shot. Would she even hear
