CHAPTER ELEVEN
Three months later…
Crystal tightened the straps of her leather gloves and adjusted the fit of her fingers in the snug material as she waited for the search and rescue mission to begin. This was the fourth search their team had been on in the last month, and already they were gaining the reputation of being the best at safely and efficiently bringing the lost home.
October temperatures in the mountains averaged a cool forty-five degrees. Luck was on their side with the thermometer holding steady, and the sun shining bright and clear. If it were any warmer, the search for the missing hiker would be called off due to threats of avalanches in the higher elevations.
Not that a crush of falling snow could stop her team, she thought with pride.
“All right, people.” A deep, booming voice broke over the din. Sheriff Lancaster clapped his hands to capture the attention of the volunteers gathered before him. “Our missing camper is Jeremy Monroe. Age twenty-two, dark hair and eyes. Deputy Davis is distributing a recent photo to you all now. Monroe was last seen leaving his campsite at about 22:30 yesterday evening. He was wearing khaki cargo pants, a red and blue striped long-sleeved T-shirt, and a black, down-filled REI jacket. This information will also be posted under the red tent in the parking lot at the park’s entrance. I want all team leaders to meet me there in five minutes to receive area assignments.”
He paused to take a breath. The lines around his mouth deepened as the professional, all-business expression on his handsome face melted. “On behalf of the department, the forest rangers, and the Monroe family, I thank you for coming out today and giving your time.” His steel-gray gaze came to rest on Crystal and the rest of the team with her. “I have every confidence that with your efforts, this young man will be found and returned to his family. Thank you again.”
Whispered conversations echoed off the snow-frosted trees as Lancaster and his men cut through the crowd.
“All right, pals and gals, I’ll be back.” Max set off for the tent, drawing the admiring attention of several women, and a few men, as he passed.
Who could blame them, Crystal lamented with both satisfaction and discontent. Max shouldered the mantle of leader with the same elegant grace as he did that black leather duster of his.
He moved with fluidity and purpose in a lethal combination of sex and power. His slicked-back ebony hair exposed the sharp angles of his cheeks and a jawline that begged to be coaxed into softening with gentle kisses. The dark wraparound sunglasses he wore only added to his mystique. Authority seeped from his every pore, demanding attention and respect. Assuming command was a position Max was born for, only he never believed it.
To her delighted surprise, and immense relief, Max had committed 100 percent into building them into a team of superheroes who could soon be able to take down his father’s operatives.
Of course, it hadn’t been all roses and sunshine. They had their growing pains, like every new partnership did, but Max led without being pushy or insulting, recognizing each person’s talent and strengths, and deferring to their expertise if he didn’t have the answer.
Crystal sighed and dug the toe of her boot into the dirt. The man was on her mind twenty-four/seven. If she wasn’t in the same room as him, she was thinking of him. If she wasn’t thinking of him, she was dreaming of him. Every night she woke with a moan in her throat and her hand between her thighs, trying to alleviate the ache he ignited.
Damn that vision that still haunted her. Naked, sweaty, entwined limbs as they rolled around on teal satin sheets. Who the hell owned teal satin sheets?
Once, she had snuck into his room just to check the bedding. The discovery of cream, four-hundred-thread count cotton under the thick black comforter had almost brought her to happy tears. If it had been anyone else, she would have found her illogical paranoia hysterical. It wasn’t so funny when she was the one afflicted.
Her purpose of living on his mountain was to help mankind, not to fall into bed with a man whose past showed he used women as a relief valve to blow off steam. Oh yeah, she had seen more than enough memories of his previous relationships, if one could call a series of one-night stands relationships. Equally telling was witnessing how he had preferred it that way.
No way was she jeopardizing their work for a few nights of steamy kisses and mind-blowing sex. She had more self-respect than to get caught up in the promise of those magical hands.
At least she liked to think she did. The man was more tempting than the last square of a pan of double chocolate brownies.
“Oh my God,” Chase groused, breaking into her maudlin thoughts. With his Native American heritage, his tan skin and sunglasses made him appear more ready for a day at the beach than one spent in the mountains. He huffed and thumped the back of his head against the back of their SUV. “What is taking so long? Why doesn’t Max just tell them we can find this dude in ten minutes and get on with it?”
Chase had the ability to run, throw, jump, and lift more than any man on the planet. Unfortunately, he was also a product of the now, now, now generation and had the patience of a three-year-old.
“Watch it with the real names,” Doc hissed. “These people don’t know that we can. Remember?”
“Well, they should,” he muttered. “They already look at us like we’re freaks. Why can’t we show ’em what we can really do?”
Doc sighed. “We’re not ready. We don’t want to expose ourselves too soon.” She tugged her black knit cap over the tops over her ears. Crystal wore a matching one that fully covered her hair.
“These search and rescues are boring. I’m getting tired of going after people who are too stupid to take a cell phone with them before they head out into the woods. Look at Therian, he’s asleep.” He nodded at Ripley, who was dozing at their feet in the form of a German shepherd. “When can we go after the real bad guys? Like drug runners or Madden, even?”
Doc shared an indulgent smirk with Crystal. “We gotta crawl before we can walk, sport.”
“I can do way more than walk,” he grumbled and flexed the muscles in his arms, straining the leather of his coat.
Crystal chuckled and scanned the crowd around them.
Chase was right about how they attracted curious stares whenever they went out as a unit. Although they were careful not to show their powers, she’d be shocked if people didn’t suspect something was…different…about them.
Their colorful winter scarves didn’t do much to soften the military cut of their liquid-armor-lined leather jackets and the lightweight, flame-resistant pants and black boots that protected their legs. Even though this was a simple search and rescue, this was also their chance to experiment with how best to protect themselves on future missions.
Completing the ensemble for them all were dark sunglasses that Max had tricked out way better than anything available on the market. They were both camera and monitor yet appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary pair of overpriced designer sunglasses.
There was a soft pop from the earpiece Crystal wore before a woman’s voice came across the line. “Is this the missing person?”
A photo of Jeremy Monroe appeared on the right lens of her glasses.
“Affirmative,” she replied to Addison, the newest member of their team.
“Cool,” she said over the click-click sound of fingers working away at a keyboard. “I’ll see what information I can dig up. Check his social media feeds.”
“Copy that.”
Addison’s talents were in technology. Max had discovered her just after they had moved in with him on his mountain and she had hacked into his gaming network. He reasoned her skills would be better used working for them than against them and had created a techno-geeks’ paradise in his computer room.
Crystal resettled her sunglasses on her nose, anxious to get on with the search herself. “I’m going to question the girlfriend. See what really happened before Monroe took off at night by himself.”
The others nodded, and she made her way through the crowd to where Monroe’s family stood, huddled under a cluster of pine trees.
The information the mission commander had issued was that Monroe was on a camping trip with his girlfriend and a few friends from school. Supposedly he had gone to gather firewood and was reported missing when he didn’t return.
Monroe’s mother and father were talking with a deputy. Worry lined both of their faces, aging them in a way only fear for their child could do.
Off to the side stood a young woman. White blonde pigtails stuck out from under her pink knit cap. The red around her eyes matched the red of her nose as she struggled to hold back her tears. Her shoulders trembled under the comforting arm of the young man holding her. He was murmuring words of encouragement to her as Crystal approached them.
She gave them what she hoped was her most pleasant and unobtrusive smile. “Hi, I’m…Tabitha. You’re Jeremy’s girlfriend, correct?”
The blonde sniffed once and burrowed closer to the man as she nodded. “I’m Ashley. This is our friend Dan. He’s dead, isn’t he?” she burst out. “That’s why the military is here, isn’t it?”
“Military?” Crystal squeaked in surprise. “Where?”
“You.” Dan gestured at her and toward the rest of the squad across the lot. “What are you guys, army or National Guard? Why would they call you out unless it was bad?”
Crystal laughed and rocked back on her heels. “Oh, no. We’re not military. We’re a private firm. We like to help out where we can.”
“Really?” Ashley sagged with obvious relief. “You all look so professional. I thought—I mean—” She broke down into tears.
“I understand.” Crystal placed her hand on the girl’s arm in comfort. “I just wanted to let you know that we’re going to do everything we can to find him and bring him back.”
The girl nodded again, her breath shuddering with heaving sighs.
“Ashley, I’m sure you’ve been asked this already, but is Jeremy the type to wonder off on his own? Was he happy, agitated, inebriated?”
She paled under her cold-flushed cheeks and shot a nervous glance at Dan. “No, he was fine. We don’t know where he could have gone, or why he disappeared.”
Crystal smiled even as a weight of doubt pulled at her stomach. “Well, any information is helpful in a missing-persons case.” She tugged her glove off and extended her hand. “Thank you for your time.”
Ashley’s mitten-covered hand grasped hers, meek and trembling.
She turned to Dan, who slid his bare palm against hers in a strong grip. “Thank you,” he said.
Before he let go, Crystal scanned his memories of the last twenty-four hours. Thank goodness the sunglasses hid the narrowing of her eyes, otherwise he might have suspected that she would have dropped him to the ground if she had the chance. Her smile faltered as she clenched her teeth.
The lying, cheating little SOBs. No wonder they were afraid for Monroe. A betrayed man alone on a mountain was usually not a rational one. They should be hanging their heads in shame and be sick with fear for what they had done.
A compassionate person would probably walk away and leave them to wallow in their guilt. But she abhorred cheating and couldn’t resist twisting the screws a little. “You know, my team and I are going to do everything we can to find him, no matter what condition he’s in.”
“Condition?” Ashley’s voice wobbled.
“Yes, condition. We don’t know why he wandered off, so we have to consider the possibility that maybe Jeremy wanted to get lost. By finding him, we could end up angering him, or cause him to make poor choices. There is also his physical well-being to consider. He’s been out in the freezing elements for hours with little protection, food, or water. He could have fallen down a ravine, been trapped under an avalanche, or worse. If we find him, the man who comes back will not be the same man you knew. You better prepare yourself for that.” She paused to let her words sink in. “But like I said, our team always finds our man. Dead or alive. Have a good day.”
With her cheeriest wave, she left them alone to simmer in their shame.
Ashley’s renewed wailing turned several heads in their direction.
Okay. That might have been a little too evil. Karma might bite her in the ass later, but she couldn’t help feeling a bit of satisfaction about pushing a distressed young woman to tears, but Crystal held little patience for those who believed their actions went without consequence. If Monroe had come to harm, it was all on the heads of those two.
Max met up with her on the way back to the others. “Did you know that you look like a cute little ladybug in those glasses?” he teased with his signature boyish grin. The one that made her want to smile back and curl under his arm and snuggle against his side for as long as…well, forever.
Oh, how she hated that smile. Fun, teasing Max was as just as difficult for her to resist as powerful, in-charge Max. Hell, the man was just plain irresistible, period. It was easier to hang on to her resolve to remain just colleagues when he spent hours in his workshop creating his inventions. When he emerged from his cave and tried to draw her into his world with his killer smile and requests to play video games, she felt like a shrew bitch when she turned him down.
Didn’t he understand that anything other than a working relationship between the two of them was impossible? Friendship would lead to her wanting more from him, and that led to only one destination: heartbreak. Emotional distance was her only hope to maintain her professionalism where he was concerned.
“Did you get our coordinates?” she asked, all cool and no-nonsense.
The edges of his smile dimmed. “Yeah, I’ve got them.”
“Good.” She nodded once and kept marching.
“Hey, wait a second.” He snatched her hand as she passed and pulled her close.
Physically she stiffened, while inside she melted like chocolate under a hot marshmallow. The heat between them grew as his hand came to rest on her waist, his fingers spread wide to caress her hip. She clenched her teeth to stop the shudder that threatened to give her attraction away.
“Later tonight, what say you and me grab my telescope and head to the clearing? There’s supposed to be a spectacular meteor shower tonight.” His voice dipped low to slip over her like warm honey.
Maybe she should have had a bigger breakfast, then maybe Max wouldn’t sound so damn edible. “Is everyone else going?”
His lip curled in a snarl for half a second. “Nope, just you and me. We haven’t had much of a chance to have any alone time.”
She pushed against his chest, desperate for a millimeter of space. “That sounds like a date. Not a good idea.”
His fingers tightened with possession, pulling her flush against his body. “Why not? I thought you wanted us to be friends. I know I do. There’s a spark between us that I’ve been dying to investigate. Come on, come with me. Please,” he whispered as his head lowered.
Their noses bumped gently before he brushed a line of soft kisses along her cheek. Crystal closed her eyes, fighting the need to agree even as her fingers gripped the leather of his coat as if she would never let go.
Her breath hitched as his memories of his morning traveled through the connection of his lips on her skin. She saw him in the car on the way to the site and getting dressed for the mission. And before that, standing in the shower. Steam billowed around him as he braced one hand against the tile wall and leaned his head back while stroking his cock. His features tightened before he groaned her name and released his cum into the hot spray. The mixture of relief, loneliness, and dissatisfaction on his face were emotions that she was all too familiar with.
Oh, God. Crystal jumped out of his arms with a strangled moan. Did he project his thought to her on purpose, or was it her own longing playing her, desperate for any intimacy between them?
In the end, though, she knew the truth. Lust and sex, that’s all it was between them outside of a professional courtesy. A meaningful relationship was something neither of them wanted or needed at this stage of their training. In the hierarchy of global importance, hot sex was at the bottom of her list. Right?
“Stop. Please.” The desire she couldn’t hide, even to herself, roughened her voice. “Dating and work do not mix. This time is about finding Jeremy Monroe. We need to focus on that.”
She stalked away before she said Fuck you to her convictions and ran back into his arms. The disappointment drawing his lips down matched the squeeze around her heart.
Being an adult about this was the right thing to do. Of course it was. Still, she was going to need a lot of therapy time with a gallon of mud pie ice cream the moment she returned home.
“It’s about time,” Chase exclaimed when he saw them. He tilted his head from side to side, popping the joints in his neck before swinging his arms back and forth to stretch his muscles. “Where to, boss man?”
Ripley jumped to his paws, eager to go as well. He shook his big body, knocking the dust from his fur. The glittering silver chain around his neck glinted in the sun. The snake-like design adjusted to whatever form Ripley took and contained a camera that connected back to headquarters so Addison could direct them when necessary.
“There are six teams heading out. We’re heading north, north by northwest, not far from Madden’s last-known location.”
Her stomach jumped when Max mentioned the primary reason why they had agreed to assist on this case. It was the same reason for everything they did. Madden Senior.
Max’s father was an elusive bastard. Whenever Max found an outlet to expose Madden for the traitor he was, it disappeared faster than the last pair of designer sandals at an end-of-summer sale.
Ripley had tried searching Madden’s estate several times in a variety of different animal forms and always come up empty. His undercover work stopped when his rodent form was discovered and an exterminator was called in. The mark on his tight backside, from where a trap snapped on his tail, lasted for days, but it was falling ill to rat poison that was the last straw and he called an end to the dangerous searches.
Their focus changed to Madden’s other installations when Addison discovered the businessman had secretly purchased portions of the Cascade Mountains. Satellite photos were inconclusive as to what was transpiring on the land, so this particular search and rescue mission was the perfect cover to go poke around. If Madden was nearby, he would have been notified that rescuers were combing the area, and wouldn’t be surprised to see people wandering around his neck of the woods.
“This is reconnaissance only, right?” she asked. They were getting better as a team, but in no way were they ready to go head to head with the big man—yet. “Everyone is clear that this is not the time for any Rambo-Terminator type actions.”
Max’s reply was said in just a slow-enough tone to set off her internal alarms. “Right. We’ll get a lay of the land and come back later with a more defined plan of attack.” His smile was warm and reassuring. Not. “Does everyone have their earpiece in? Network, display a topographical map of the area on our screen.”
“Uploading now,” Addison replied.
Their custom earpiece was another of his inventions, designed specifically to pick up the sound of their voices from the vibration of their vocal chords through the inner ear. It eliminated the need for a microphone and funneled out background noise. The soft latex casing was flexible enough that Ripley could shift and it would remain in place, no matter what he morphed to and from.
“Did you find out anything else from the girlfriend?” Doc asked Crystal as she secured the straps on her backpack.
“Oh yeah. Either the sheriff was holding out on us, or the girlfriend was holding out on him. Monroe found her and his best friend having sex in the woods. A fight broke out, and he took off. That was the last they saw of him.”
“Great,” Doc huffed. “So instead of a missing camper, we now have an angry, distraught lover who may not be thinking rationally, wandering aimlessly in the woods.”
“Exactly. I haven’t gotten a vision of where he is, but I know where the fight occurred.”
“Good thing I swiped this when no one was looking.” Chase produced a gray T-shirt from his pack.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Monroe’s shirt.”
“Where did you get it?”
His smug grin revealed beautiful white teeth. “Being faster than lightning has its advantages. Swiped this from his bag when everyone was listening to the sheriff. Here, boy, get a whiff of this.” He held the shirt down low for Ripley.
The German shepherd shot him a look that should have dropped him dead. Ripley hated being treated like a common pet in animal form, which Chase loved to exploit at every opportunity.
The kid had better watch it. Ripley was very good at retaliation. When they had first arrived on the mountain, Max originally designed Ripley’s camera collar with a set of heart-shaped dog tags engraved with the name “Fifi.” To add insult to injury was the electric shock device embedded in the chain that zapped him whenever he left his room.
In response, Ripley demonstrated how all of the monkey species flung their own poo. It was an Animal Planet lesson they could have all done without.
“Right.” Max choked back his laughter and clapped his hands once. “Let’s move out. Prism, take the lead.”
Crystal nodded and settled her own backpack that carried water, some food, and thermal blankets on her shoulders.
Instead of leading them to the quadrant of forest they had been assigned to, she directed them straight to the campsite Monroe and his friends had been partying at earlier in the weekend.
The tents had long since been removed, and a few bits of trash littered the space. A black ring of soot was all that remained of the roaring, cheerful fire.
“This way.” Crystal led them deeper into the woods, retracing the route Dan had made to the rendezvous site he had arranged with Ashley earlier that day. A little secret nookie while the others were supposedly asleep. What an idiot he was to think they wouldn’t get caught.
“The fight occurred right there.” She gestured to a heavy cluster of trees. “There was a lot of yelling and shouting, then Monroe took off in that direction.”
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” A group of men emerged from the foliage, matching frowns were carved on their foreheads.
Marcus Boudreaux. Since Max and his group’s first search and rescue mission, Boudreaux and his hunting buddies had been nothing but a pain in the ass. Something about the man gave Crystal the creeps, and that was without having to use her powers. Maybe it was his beady black eyes or the way he licked his lips whenever he glanced in her direction.
He was dressed as if he had stepped out of a LL Bean catalog and carried that air of thinking he was better than everyone else. Whenever he spotted them at the mission base, his lip curled as if he were smelling shit. The feeling was mutual.
Boudreaux set the tip of his teak walking stick with the ebony handle into the dirt near his shiny black boots. “This area was given to us to search. Quit poaching.”
Max’s dark brows arched over the top of his glasses. “I thought the goal was for the kid to be found, didn’t matter by whom. We have a lead that brought us here.”
“Tell me what the lead is. Lancaster gave us this area to search, not you.”
“Like I care.”
“Just who do you weirdos think you are, anyway?” Boudreaux sneered like a child who realized he wasn’t the coolest kid in school anymore. “Wearing those ninja outfits like a bunch of freaks. We’re going to find this kid first and prove that you’re nothing but a group of whack-jobs who got lucky a few times.”
Crystal and her team froze. The forest stilled as if it sensed that a beast was being provoked. Even Ripley pulled his nose from the dirt to stare the pitiful man down.
“I don’t consider a search where a man’s life is at stake a game, Boudreaux,” Max replied in a tone encased with ice. A slow smile curled one corner of his lips in a way that shot shivers down Crystal’s spine. He was planning something. “But since you do, I’d like to propose a wager. First team that finds Monroe wins a thousand bucks.”
“A grand?” Boudreaux sank back on his heels and shot assessing glances at his cohorts. “Make it two, and a date with the busty one.” He nodded at Crystal.
Eww. “Right,” she barked in laughter. “The busty one has taste, and a brain. I’m not a prize, asshole.”
“Done.”
“Hey!” She whirled on Max. “What the hell?”
He winked at her. “Don’t worry, sweetheart. We can’t lose.” Ripley barked twice and took off into the forest. “See. We’re already in the lead.”
She saw Max’s fingers twirl as he turned to follow.
A crack from above brought their attention up as a barrage of tree branches snapped from their trunks. With shouts of surprise, Boudreaux’s men dove to the ground, scattering to escape the heavy, prickly pile that crashed to the ground in a cloud of pines needles. The impromptu blockade effectively blocked their path.
“I will so kill you,” she muttered to Max’s retreating back.
His sly chuckle went straight into her earpiece and pooled into her center, warming her from within.
“Intrepid, keep pace with Therian,” Max instructed, using Chase’s code name.
“On it. You know, I kinda liked that ninja comment. How about I change my name to ‘Ninja of Death’?”
“No,” came the quick, definitive response from Crystal, Max, and Doc Kelly.
“Fine,” the young decathlete sulked, then took off at a brisk jog, easily keeping pace with Ripley’s long graceful strides.
The other three followed at a slower but still-rapid pace. Thick leafy ferns and twisting vine maple reached out to pull on their legs as they moved deeper into the forest and farther away from the trail.
The crisp mountain air burned Crystal’s lungs and cleared her sinuses while the pungent aroma of vegetation and wet earth made the waffles she had for breakfast roll in her stomach. She was a city girl at heart, and all the nature she’d been exposed to recently was new and not altogether pleasant. At least she no longer flinched at every spider and bug that crossed her path.
“Network, bring up Therian’s camera to our monitors,” Max directed as they fell further behind the much faster pair.
“Image up now.”
“Ooof.” Crystal tripped over a root protruding from the ground and regained her footing. “Hey, can you move the image to the top left corner?”
“Oops, sorry, Prism.”
The image of blurry forest floor zipped from the bottom of the lens up and away from her view of the ground. “Thanks.”
The shot from Ripley’s camera showed a rapid stream of green and brown as he raced through the hemlocks. His paws were silent on the forest floor as Chase ran beside him just as soundlessly.
Half an hour passed as they climbed to higher ground, crossing the snow line. The temperature dropped, which worried Crystal. If it was this cold in the middle of the afternoon, how had Monroe fared during the black of night?
Chase’s voice came across the line. “We’re coming up on something.”
In her glasses, Crystal saw Ripley slowing to a stop in a field of asters dotted with patches of snow. The sea of green and purple waved in the breeze and rolled to the edge of a steep drop. As Ripley leaned over the side, they saw down to the rocky bottom where a creek cut through the mountain. Brush, bramble, and piles of snow broke up the forbidding brown and white landscape that painted a stark contrast to the peaceful meadow of flowers. According to the map on the glasses, Chase and Ripley were a quarter mile ahead of them.
“To your left,” Crystal said and picked up her pace. “I see a patch of red and blue off to the left.”
“I see it, too,” Chase said. “I’m heading down.”
Max used his powers to flatten the foliage in front of them like a rolled-out carpet to speed their progress.
Crystal’s legs ached as she ran toward the drop-off point, her pack bouncing wildly against her back.
“Hey. Hey, man. Monroe. Can you hear me?” Chase was picking his way down the rocks to the lump of clothing that didn’t stir, careful not to scatter rocks onto the pile. He reached out and joggled the down-filled coat. After a few tries, he looked up at them with a grim shake of his head. “It’s him. Oh man. This isn’t good.”
The image in their lens switched from Ripley’s camera to the one from Chase’s glasses. Monroe lay still, his leg twisted at a horrible angle at the knee. Blood crusted in his hair where his head rested against the rocks.
“Network, patch me to the sheriff,” Max directed.
“Patching now,” Addison replied.
“Lancaster,” came the gruff reply over their earpieces a few seconds later.
“Sheriff, it’s Garan. We’ve found your hiker. We are about a mile and a half northwest of the campsite, near the ravine. He’s down and out near the bottom.”
“How is he? Do you need an extraction?”
“I’m sending a team down to him. Stand by for more information.”
“Will do. Out.”
“Don’t move him,” Doc instructed. “Is he breathing?”
“No.” Chase knelt and pulled off his gloves to lay his fingers alongside Monroe’s neck. “No pulse either, and he’s as cold as ice.”
“Fuck,” Max grunted and raced ahead to where Ripley barked and turned in circles, waiting their arrival.
Crystal skidded to a stop at the edge of the cliff, sending a shower of rocks skipping down the hillside. The steep drop appeared even more daunting in person. Doc immediately set off down the side, heedless of the danger. Her boots slid in the gravel, forcing her to reach out to grab at a group of vines to slow her fall.
“Doc, brace yourself,” Max warned.
“For what? Ahh!” she squeaked as Max telekinetically lifted her into the air and deposited her to where Chase and Ripley waited with the boy.
She looked up at him with her mouth wide open. “Thanks?”
Max nodded and crouched low to better observe the scene below.
Doc shook off the surprise of her brief flying excursion and knelt by the body. “Shit. Both the tibia and fibula of his right leg are broken.” She pushed her glasses to perch on top of her head as she narrowed her eyes, sweeping her hand from the top of his head to his toes. “This isn’t right. I thought he might have fallen down the cliff, but his injuries aren’t consistent with a fall. His wrists and arms are fine, not even swollen, which means he didn’t try to stop his fall. And look at his cheek. The bone is shattered, but this bruise is wide and has a definite shape. If he was injured in the fall, it wouldn’t have such a crisp pattern.”
“How did he die?” Max asked.
“Broken neck, but I don’t think it was from a fall.”
Max hummed low in his throat as he stroked his chin before turning to Crystal. “Prism, do you think you could still see his memories?”
“I don’t know. Haven’t been around a lot of people who’ve died. But I can try.”
He shot her an encouraging smile. “I’m going to float you down. Ready?”
She braced herself and nodded, gasping as her feet left the ground. How was one supposed to hold their body while floating in the air? She bent her knees and tightened her core as if she were snowboarding. But since she had never boarded before, she felt as if she were a cartoon character, wildly waving her arms as she pitched forward and back.
“Relax, Prism,” Max’s soothing baritone cooed in her earpiece. “I won’t let you fall.” True to his word, he set her gently down on the sharp slope.
“Thanks,” she said with a sigh and turned her attention to the task.
Tears blurred her vision as she dropped to her knees next to the lifeless body of Jeremy Monroe. No matter how the young man died, it was a crime that his life ended so abruptly.
The memory of the hope in his parents’ eyes as she promised to find their son struck her like an iron fist, knocking the air from her lungs. If only they had been faster. If only her powers had warned her of the tragedy that was to be, the boy would still be alive.
Doc settled a hand on her shoulder and murmured, “We can still do right by him, sweetie. I believe in you.”
Crystal jerked and met Doc’s dark, knowing gaze. She was right. They hadn’t been able to save him, but they could still right the wrong and bring closure to his family.
She swallowed her guilt and removed the glove off her left hand and lay her palm against Jeremy’s dirty, blood-streaked forehead. Diving into his memories was as if she were swimming through dark molasses. Images faded the moment she touched upon them, swirling, shifting, never quite forming a solid shape until she came upon the last moments of his life.
“Anything?” Max called down to her.
She drew away with a curse and slid her glove back on. “Most of it was too murky to make out. Except his last memory. Two men, armed and dressed in black military gear. One of them swung and hit him across the face with the stock of his rifle. He blacked out after that.”
Doc nodded. “Explains the damage to his cheek.”
“What are two military guys doing out here?” Chase asked. “And why did they knock him out and dump him over a cliff?”
“Excellent questions, Intrepid,” Max replied. “And we’re going to find out.”
“Maestro,” Addison broke in. “The sheriff wants an update.”
Max bit back an impatient curse. “Put him on.”
“Garan, tell me something good.”
His lips tightened before he answered, “I’m sorry, Sheriff. Monroe’s dead. It appears he passed a while ago.”
From her earpiece, the heavy rise and fall of Lancaster’s breathing kept time with the beating of Crystal’s heart. It grew deeper and slower, as if he were processing the information and dealing with it in a way so as not to draw attention from others who might have been nearby.
“All right,” he finally responded in a low, hushed tone. “We’ll get a chopper ready to go. They should be there in about twenty minutes. Can you hang tight till they arrive?”
“Twenty minutes? Yeah, we’ll be here,” Max answered.
“Good. Good.” He signed off.
“Prism, where was Monroe when he was hit?”
Crystal blinked up at Max in confusion over the quick change in topics. “What?”
“Did you see where on the mountain Monroe was standing when he was hit?”
She pointed over their heads. “High up, in deeper snow.” When Max disappeared from their sight she shouted, “Hey, what are you doing?”
“Going after the attackers,” came the reply over her earpiece.
“What? Are you insane?” She grabbed hold of vines and branches and scrambled up the hill. “You can’t just go charging around the mountain. You have no idea what you’re looking for.”
Max chuckled. “I might not, but Therian does. He’s caught a scent.”
“You motherfucker,” she grunted as her boot slipped off a foothold and she dangled from the foliage.
“Hang on, girlie,” was all the warning she received before Chase scooped her in his arms and charged up the hill.
Crystal let loose with a startled squeak and threw her arms around his neck in a chokehold.
“Gotta breathe, baby girl,” he wheezed.
“Sorry.” She barely loosened her grip. “We have to stop Maestro. He can’t just go rushing into danger. You are not Rambo!” she shouted at where he disappeared into the tree line.
“You and I both know that ain’t going to happen,” Chase chuckled, not even breathing hard with the effort of carrying her and keeping up with the dimwits ahead.
“Hey, what about me?” Doc called out.
“Stay with Monroe and tell us when you see the chopper,” Max instructed. “You heard the sheriff, we have twenty minutes.”
A frustrated cry worked up Crystal’s throat and burst from between clenched teeth. “Maestro, stop right now. You don’t know who or what you’re looking for. You don’t even have a plan.”
“Actually, sweetheart, I do.” The smugness in his reply made her want to slap him silly. “We’re on Madden property now. Monroe stumbled onto something he shouldn’t have. The plan is to find out what or who that was.”
“Great. That’s a shitty plan,” she muttered.
Ripley led them higher into deeper snow. It grated on her pride that Chase carried her as if she were a child, but she knew the boys wouldn’t hesitate to leave her in a snow drift if she was on her own power. Did she want to nail the men who brutally ended Jeremy Monroe’s life? Hell yeah, but not at the expense of her teammates’ safety.
Without warning, Ripley pulled up short. He barked and ran back and forth in front of a fine wire fence, preventing them from going forward.
Crystal jumped out of Chase’s arms before they came to a full stop. “Where are we?”
Trees and bushes, heavy with snow, surrounded them in typical forest fashion. Nothing signified that anything was out of the ordinary until she peered closer at the base of the fence and noticed the snow was darker in places where it had been tamped down in a line edging the fence. Footprints.
Max studied the fence as if it were a puzzle. “There’s more than meets the eye here.”
“Are we being watched?” Crystal scanned the trees overhead in search of cameras.
“Possibly.” He held his palm out. “Let’s get some molecules moving.”
Before them, the air seemed to vibrate and grow thick. A wall appeared, shimmering as if it were made from a million fireflies. It stretched twenty feet high and ran in both directions as far as she could see.
Max chuckled and shook his head. “This is not your common electric fence, my friends. A normal fence pulses the energy, to give whatever latched onto it a chance to get away once they’ve realized their mistake. This is five thousand volts of constant electric current. Whoever is on the other side is not messing with the deterrents.”
Chase rolled his head to the left and right. “I think I can make that.”
He jogged back several yards and warmed up with a few deep squats.
Crystal stared at him, her eyes wide in disbelief. “Please tell me you are not planning on jumping over a wall of electricity.”
With a wide grin, he set his feet then exploded into action. He leapt over the towering height as if he were Tigger, landing on the other side in a fine cloud of snow.
“Therian, watch over Prism.” Max spread his hands out, palms down. He levitated off the ground, his boots barely clearing the top of the fence as he soared over to land next to Chase. He swayed for a moment on his feet then caught his bearing. “Stay hidden and let us know if anyone comes this way.”
Without a look back, he turned and led Chase behind a series of boulders before disappearing through a fissure in the hillside.
Her throat closed in outrage, leaving her only able to emit a few grunts and peeps as if she were a choking bird as she stared with disbelief to where Max and Chase disappeared.
Was he fucking kidding? At the first good whiff of Madden, Max was off like a snot-nosed kid, thinking he could run with big boys. What about waiting until they were ready? What about working as a team? This was exactly the type of behavior she warned him about that was going to get him killed. They weren’t ready for this kind of mission.
A wet nose nudged her hand and she turned on Ripley with a snarl. “Are you ditching me too?”
He barked once, then nudged her into a tight cluster of trees.
“What, are you my babysitter now?” He sat on her feet in response. “Thanks for nothing. Network, tell me—”
“Already on it, girlfriend. Jackass one is on your left, jackass two on the right.”
Dual images of rock tunnels streamed in across the lenses of her glasses, leaving her dizzy.
“If either of you get hurt or maimed, I’m kicking your asses,” she threatened.
Max’s answering chuckle did nothing to ease her worry.