LustAfterDeath Read Online Free Page B

tensing
muscles at his shoulders, and that he released the black steering wheel to clench
and unclench his fist.
    “I liked you before.” Josie hoped he didn’t hear the longing
in her voice. She peered out the window at the island retreating. The tall,
darkened trees thinned at the tip of the island, showing only rocks. Black
waves lapped at beachy shores. She spotted Adam’s house jutting around the
other side. From this distance it looked blank, like the eye of a machine
staring out.
    “And now?” Bane’s voice was steady, measured.
    She watched her home disappear out the window. “Now I don't
like you very much.”
    Bane lowered his hand to a small machine sitting atop his
console. He clicked it a few times. “I didn’t think you would.”
    Sound exploded in the cabin, a driving beat that assaulted
her ears. The pummeling rhythm overwhelmed her senses and Josie’s vision
darkened. Arms swept under her shoulders and legs and jostled her from the
bench. She felt a soft surface under her back, though her eyes refused to open.
The music faded to a drum. “G’Night, babe.”
    * * * * *
    Light. A slow beam of it speared his optic nerve and 402’s
brain reactivated. His GPS reported his location to headquarters even before
his proprioceptors registered that he was lying down. The concrete floor bit
into his twisted leg.
    With a hand on his hip, 402 wrenched his leg back into
place. He surveyed the hallway. Three other Synaviv operatives lay fallen. He
relayed the information, making sure their numbers got deleted or reassigned.
They didn’t have the upgrades he did and wouldn’t survive their wounds.
    He mentally scanned his team throughout the island. One
soldier had found and shot at Connor’s boat before dying. Calculations showed
the bullets likely connected with the boat’s motor. Perhaps they’d gotten
lucky.
    402 forced himself to stand and limped to the lab to find
some A-positive and an IV kit. In the meantime, headquarters spoke in his mind.
“Is the doctor still available?”
    He tugged open the door to a small refrigerator and pulled
out a bag of blood, then winced as he tied a tourniquet around his arm and
pierced his vein. Taping the tube in place, 402 lifted the bag over his head
and walked upstairs. The doctor’s lifeless body lay on the table. His eyes
stretched wide and glassy.
    “We can acquire him. You have the information from the lab,
correct?”
    “Affirmative.”
    If 402 didn’t know better, he’d say the voice from
headquarters sounded relieved. “Do what you can to preserve the body until we
arrive.”
    402 walked over to the doctor and ran his hand over his
back. He patted the corpse for reassurance. “I’ll make sure our brother pulls
through just fine.”

Chapter Four
     
    The first rays of morning sun shone under the cloud cover as
Bane motored into the bay at Sucia Island. The boat bucked and rolled, the tiny
backup engine fighting a losing battle against the late-fall chop. Synaviv’s
guy must have hit the main one, because it had stuttered and konked out about
ten minutes from Patos.
    Bane pulled his sleeping bag more tightly around his
shoulders, cursing his bad luck. Sucia was beautiful, sure, but isolated and
too exposed should Synaviv arrive with reinforcements. He surveyed potential
hiding spots among the pines and cedars rising from one end of the island. To
the other side, a long spit of a beach curved—a great spot to keep watch. A
seagull streamed alongside the boat, visible through his window, seeming to
mock his predicament.
    Three boats clung to buoys in the center of the bay, but the
dock itself was empty. Bane breathed a sigh of relief at the first break he’d
gotten this trip. Frank hadn’t sprung for a dinghy to get to shore, and he
didn’t think her highness sleeping soundly in the V-berth would take kindly to
being told she had to swim to reach the can.
    He shifted to neutral as he reached the dock, the vibration
slowing under his feet. “Wake