Circe's Recruits 2: Zack and Ace Read Online Free Page B

Ace pulled him back to the bed. Zack landed with an oomph.
    “Sorry.” Ace tried to be gentle as he pushed Zack to lie straight, the way he’d suggested.
    “What the fuck?” Zack’s voice was muffled by the pillow Ace shoved under his face.
    “Just relax and enjoy. I’m not coming on to you, for Christ’s sake. I’m just trying to be nice. Accept it,” he barked, his glare fading when he felt Zack chuckle.
    “Ass.” Zack sighed and settled into the bed.
    Ace studied the muscles of Zack’s back and shoulders. Shit, the guy was cut, like looking at a mirror image of himself. He saw the knot bothering Zack, the bunched muscle opposite his injury. “You overcompensated.”
    “No shit. What was I supposed to do? Leave you there?” Zack had hurt himself by hoisting Ace over his shoulder, which made Ace even more determined to ease his pain.
    He lightly probed the area, trying to release the knot of muscles. Zack groaned.
    “Pussy. I haven’t even touched you yet.”
    “Feels like it. And stop calling me a pussy. I wasn’t the one who was bitten in the hand and had to be carried out of the forest,” Zack teased.
    “Funny.” Ace remembered he had a bottle of lotion in their adjoining bathroom. “Be right back. Don’t move.” He and Zack shared the second floor and the bathroom between them. Hale and Derrick shared the floor above, while Roane commanded the downstairs, which connected to the rest of the house. Doc had spared no expense when outfitting his house to accommodate the team.
    Situated on thirty-plus acres of land, the compound belonged to Doc. They had a big-ass house and a barn where they did most of their physical training, or PT, as they called it in the Marines. The latest exercise equipment, free weights, and a full-size pool provided them an outlet for their workouts. Another oversize building housed several cars and trucks, as well as the munitions they often needed to work missions.
    All in all, Doc had thought of nearly everything to provide for the team. Ace supposed he felt his own guilt about what had happened to Circe’s Recruits, since he’d been a part of the initial research team that had created them.
    Ace picked up the bottle and returned to Zack, thinking about how far the squad had come. Eight years ago, he’d volunteered to be a part of Project Dawn -- a secret program designed to create the world’s first supersoldiers. Along with seventy-seven other Marines, sailors, soldiers, and airmen, he’d received a shot -- a virus, Doc had explained -- with a serum piggybacked on top of it. After several doses of the stuff, he and the others had changed. Enhanced senses, strength, intuition, and the ability to turn into a Hulk-like creature, complete with super strength and agility.
    “Not too hard,” Zack mumbled.
    “You get what you get.” Ace poured the lotion onto his hands and started out by lightly rubbing Zack’s back.
    The first time he’d changed, Ace remembered, he’d fallen in love with his new abilities. He’d formed a tighter friendship with Zack, another volunteer. A dozen of them had become close friends -- Hale, Derrick, and Roane included. For five years they’d performed for the government. Top secret missions that made the world a better place and put the criminals where they belonged: ten feet underground.
    And then something changed. Men who’d once been his friends turned into monsters.
    Murderers and psychopaths who had the strength and cunning to destroy with ease. Two-thirds of the original Circe’s Recruits turned bad. It took the remaining third to find them and put them down. Apparently, nothing and nobody else could stop them. There was no way to reverse the Circe serum. Ace and the rest of the sane volunteers had worked tirelessly to clean up Elliot Pearl’s mess -- the scientist in charge of Project Dawn -- until only five of them remained. Zack, Roane, Derrick, Hale, and himself.
    The Pentagon demanded answers and someone’s head on a