She and Noah kept working on the drone, putting it through its paces. Finally, he nodded.
“Finished. Thanks, Arden.”
“You’re welcome.” She watched him power it down.
He eyed her. “You should have dinner with Laura and me sometime.”
“I’d like that.”
With a wave, Noah hefted the drone and headed out. Not letting herself glance at the firing lanes, she headed out of the range.
“Arden.”
Dom’s voice made her quiver. She slowed and turned. She watched him stride toward her and something about him made her think of a stalking panther.
“I just wanted to make sure you’re okay?”
She wrinkled her nose. “I wish everyone would stop asking that.”
“No more sneaking out.”
She held up a hand. “Believe me, I’ve learned that lesson.”
Quiet fell between them and he kept staring at her. She stared back, drinking in his handsome face. Damn, it was hard having her long-dormant body flaring to life. Especially with a man who wasn’t interested.
“Don’t look at me like that,” Dom ground out.
She blinked. Oh, God, he could read her like an open book. “Sorry, I…” She took a step back. “I know you aren’t attracted to me, so you don’t have to worry—”
He strode forward and she backed up until her shoulder blades hit the wall. Her hands went to his shoulders.
“Dom?”
“Don’t want you?” His words were a deep growl.
She looked into his face and gasped. She saw heat in his eyes and her heart stopped. It wasn’t a flicker of desire, but a deep, burning hunger. Pure need.
His hands slid into her hair and her lips parted.
Then he kissed her.
Oh. Her fingers clenched on him. Her world shifted.
She’d been kissed. She’d had good sex.
But right here, right now, Dom’s kiss made her brain short-circuit.
His tongue thrust into her mouth and she kissed him back. The taste of him seared through her. The kiss wasn’t slow or seductive, it was raw, deep, sexy. Her fingers twisted in his shirt.
Arden moaned.
The sound broke the spell.
Dom broke the kiss and stepped back. The space between them suddenly felt like a chasm. Arden pressed a palm to her racing heart, trying to catch her breath.
“I shouldn’t have done that,” he said.
She licked her lips. “Why?”
He shot her a dark, searing look.
She lifted her chin. “I liked it. I wanted it.”
She saw his jaw tighten and one of his hands curled into a fist.
Suddenly, the firing range door opened and Griff strode out. “Dom. Squad’s been called out.”
Dom stiffened. “What’s going on?”
“Tracker on the bomb stopped moving.”
Arden gasped, just as her communicator beeped. She pulled the small device out of her pocket. Then she looked up. “Squad Nine’s been called out as well.”
“Approaching location now.”
Arden heard Indy’s murmured words as they sat side by side in the Command Center. Squad Nine was currently flying their Darkswifts west of the tracker location, waiting to see if the berserkers needed them.
She prayed they didn’t.
Indy wore her headset over her dark hair, her eyes glued to her comp screen. Arden, her throat tight, leaned over to see Indy’s screen. It showed feed from Tane’s helmet camera. He was walking, and she caught a glimpse of Hemi’s broad shoulders.
As Tane moved again, she spotted Dom.
Arden’s belly clenched. So dark and dangerous, carbine clutched with ease in his hands. His face was focused on the mission ahead.
He’d kissed her. She reached up and touched her lips. He’d set her body alight and made her ache.
Dom Santora was attracted to her. So why was he fighting it?
Indy’s voice broke her out of her daydream. Arden cleared her throat. “Where are they exactly?”
Indy glanced up at her. “Just outside the town of Lithgow. About forty kilometers north-west of Katoomba.”
Where they’d last seen the Gizzida bomb. The berserkers and Indy had barely survived with their lives.
The aliens hadn’t moved very far.
“We’re here,” Tane said.
Arden gripped the edge of the table. She spotted the glimmer of water ahead.
“It’s Lake Lyell.” Indy tapped her screen. “Used to be a popular recreation spot for fishing, camping, water-skiing.”
Arden could guess why the Gizzida had picked the location. While the northern edges of the lake were deeply forested, at the southern end, most of the trees had been cleared away. The raptors hated the Eucalyptus trees and the cineole chemical they emitted.
“What the fuck?”
Tane’s curse made Arden glance back at the screen. She saw…something. Frowning, she leaned closer, staring at the large mounds lying at the lake’s edge.
“What the hell?” Indy murmured.
Arden suddenly realized what she was looking at. She gasped. They were piles of decomposing bodies. Her stomach turned over. Heaps of bones, scales, skin.
“Shit, the stench,” Levi muttered.
Tane turned his head, and Arden could see the piles continued into the distance along the water’s edge, in both directions.
“Masks,” Tane ordered.
Arden watched the berserkers pull small masks off their belts and slip them on. Then they moved closer to the piles of bodies. Some had spilled into the water and Arden pressed a hand to her mouth.
So many bodies.
Indy sucked in a breath, shaking her head.
Tane moved closer, aiming the camera downward. “The piles contain animals, humans, and raptors.”
As Tane glanced around, Arden even made out the decomposing body of a rex. The carcass of the huge, tyrannosaurs rex-like alien was bloated and partially decomposed.
“It’s a graveyard,” Dom said. “Lots of human bodies have raptor scales.”
“My guess is that they were test subjects who died in the Gizzida labs,” Ash murmured.
Indy’s face was pale, and Arden gripped the table harder. So many people had died in the Gizzida’s horrible labs. To know they’d ended up here, tossed out like trash, was horrifying.
“Indy, how far away are we from the tracking signal on the bomb?” Tane asked.
“It’s just a hundred meters west of your current location,” Indy answered.
“I don’t see anything,” Tane said.
Arden kept watching, her body tense. The place was creepy. Wrong.
“Fuck,” Hemi uttered.
“What is it?”
