Disruptor (15 page)

“I want you to be free.” Kevin considered
reaching out to her, just a light touch of comfort, but he was
afraid she would snap if he so much as breathed the wrong way. “I
want you to help those girls. But I don’t want you to do it in a
way that costs you your soul.”

She replied with a bark of acidic laughter.
“What are you, a priest?”

“I’m someone who cares about you.” The words
slipped out before he could stop himself. But hell, it was the
truth. No sense in denying it. “You feel like you can’t walk away
from this, okay. I just want you to still be whole when it’s
over.”

Dani stared at him in disbelief. “You don’t
know me.”

“I know you want to help people.”

“That doesn’t mean you know me.” Anger burned
in her voice, and something he couldn’t identify. “It doesn’t mean
anything.”

“It means everything, Dani.” He raised his
hands, wishing he could capture the swirl of thoughts running riot
in his head and force them into something that made sense. “I don’t
believe you’re a murderer.” Not in her heart. That might not matter
to the law, but it mattered to him.

She turned away from him. “I don’t know what
you want from me.”

“I just want us to try to find another way to
stop him from killing anyone else. I don’t have an answer right now
but I know we can come up with one.”

For nearly a full minute she was silent. When
she finally spoke again, her voice was barely above a whisper, and
cold. So cold.

“Intelligence gathering,” she said.
“Infiltration. Exfiltration. Hand to hand combat. Guns, knives,
anything I can get my hands on. I know how to kill a person with a
ballpoint pen.” With her back still to him, she turned her head so
he could see her profile. “I’m a weapon, Kevin. It’s what they made
me, in that lab.”

His heart hammered, but the fear he felt
wasn’t for himself. It was for her. “A person’s never just one
thing. Believe me, I know.”

“I don’t know how to be anything else.” She
turned to look out the window. “It wasn’t the only thing people
were enhanced for at the lab. There were tests to see what we’d be
best at. Guess I made an A plus on Killing Machine.”

“Is that why you escaped?”

“I was going to be sent on a mission.” She
shook her head. “I never volunteered for any of it.”

He moved close enough to feel the heat from
her body. “Use what they taught you, the enhancements they gave
you, to help those girls.” He placed a hand on her shoulder. “On
your own terms.”

Dani leaned her head against the glass, her
hair tumbling around her face. She gave him a halfhearted grin.
“What the hell are my terms?”

He returned the smile, relief pouring through
him. “You’ll figure it out.”

“I hope you’re right.”

“I’m always right. I’m too good looking to
ever be wrong.” That turned her halfhearted grin into a smile that
almost reached her eyes. A flush of accomplishment further buoyed
him. She would be okay. She had to be.

“I need some sleep,” she said. “My head is
pounding after that download.”

“Yeah, I’m gonna catch a few hours then I’ll
see what I can turn up about the local Russian mob.”

But he was still awake when the sun rose,
alone in his art studio watching the dawn light filter through the
wide slats of the blinds. Charcoal stained his fingers and
discarded papers littered the floor. On the easel hung a portrait
of Dani that he was finally satisfied with after hours of trying to
get her eyes right. Every other feature had fallen into place
easily enough, but the difficulty with her eyes had left his hand
aching and black streaks all over his clothes and his face. Now, he
stood back and regarded his work, and the reason for his difficulty
came to him.

He’d wanted to draw her as he wished to see
her – free, open, her own person. But that wasn’t the truth, and
the truth that stared back at him from lines and whorls of charcoal
made his heart ache for her. Her eyes carried the weight of it. She
looked like she’d already given up.

Kevin kept his bloodshot eyes hidden behind
aviator sunglasses and an insouciant smile pasted on his face as he
made his way through the top executive floor of Moynihan
Consolidated. People he barely recognized either got out of his way
or offered an obsequious greeting. He ignored both. He had an
informal agreement with Sean to attend board meetings and make an
appearance on the executive floor once a month. It was that time of
the month and if it wouldn’t get him a punch to the arm, he would
have texted Olivia and joked about desperately needing chocolate.
She was the lucky sibling. She only had to attend board meetings if
her schedule permitted it, and she didn’t have to make the monthly
visit at all.

But then, she had an actual career, as both
siblings would remind Kevin if he dared complain.

He reached the office suite with his name and
no title on the door. Priyanka Murphy sat at her desk in the outer
office, furiously typing away. Her heavy black hair was tamed into
a tidy updo. She wore a conservative skirt suit in dark blue that
contrasted perfectly with her tawny skin. The picture of
professionalism, and she was probably writing porn.

“Good morning, Ms. Murphy.” Kevin swooped in
and sat on the corner of her desk. “Whatcha writing?”

“Good afternoon, Mr. Moynihan.” She kept her
gaze trained on the screen, fingers flying over the keyboard. “I’m
branching out into a new genre.”

He picked through the odds and ends on her
desk. She always kept gum around and he wanted the taste of that
food truck chili dog he’d had for lunch out of his mouth. “Got any
gum?”

Priyanka moved the mouse, clicked once, and
sat back, eyeing the document with satisfaction. “Space opera.” She
opened a drawer and withdrew a pack of gum then tossed it to him.
“Earth is still struggling to get along with the first alien
species they’ve met. The main character is a diplomat sent to learn
their ways.”

“Do their ways include a lot of sex?” He
unwrapped a stick of gum and chewed it.

“Duh. The aliens only have sex in threesomes.
The alien diplomat is a dude. And his head of security that he
sometimes bones with is a woman.”

“What’s the human?”

“A guy. Previously very straight, but once he
gets some of that alien anal, he’s gonna be as bi as you.”

Kevin laughed so hard he almost spit out his
gum. “Damn, girl, don’t say that too loud. That’s not a talk I ever
want to have with my brother.” It felt good to laugh so hard and so
freely, even if it did cause his sore ribs to twinge.

“He’s busy yelling at a VP. So did you have
any plans for this month or would you like to beta read some smut
for me?”

A year ago Sean had ordered his assistant,
Mrs. Li, to find someone in the secretarial pool to work for Kevin.
Even if the youngest Moynihan never took on a real position in the
company, he needed information pertaining to board meetings. And if
his new assistant being young and beautiful got Kevin into the
office more often, Sean would be happy about that, too. Kevin and
Priyanka enjoyed a casual friendship and had never once considered
dating.

“You know I want to beta read any smut you
want to write,” Kevin said. “But first, I did have something in
mind for today.”

She closed the alien smut on her computer and
stood. “Want some coffee?”

“God, yes.”

Ten minutes later they sat at his empty desk,
both with cups of steaming coffee and a notepad open in Priyanka’s
lap. She said, “You hired a what?”

“A trainer. So I can learn self-defense.”
Kevin grinned. “Apparently an Irish temper isn’t enough to win a
fight when you’re up against half a dozen or more guys.”

Priyanka rolled her eyes. “Please. Everyone
knows your brother got the Irish temper.”

“And I got the Irish charm.”

“Why not just hire a bodyguard?”

“I don’t want someone all up in my business
every time I leave the house.”

“You could hire a hot, sexy bodyguard and
have a torrid affair with him.”

“Nah.”

“You could hire a hot, sexy bodyguard and I
could have a torrid affair with him.”

“I promise if I ever feel the need to hire a
bodyguard that he’ll be both hot and sexy, and you’ll get first
dibs.”

“You’re the best boss.”

“What I need right now is equipment.”

“This is the part where I stop with the jokes
and start taking notes, right?”

Kevin sipped his coffee. “I’m going to need
some new stuff in my home gym.”

Priyanka picked up her pen and notepad. “Has
the trainer given you a list?”

An image came to mind, of Dani in a tank top.
The luscious curves of a woman’s breasts and hips deserved to be
celebrated, and she had plenty to celebrate in that department. But
it was the rise and fall of muscle, the leashed power that made her
skin seem to glow and her body move with a graceful lightness, that
constantly drew his attention. She radiated dynamic energy, and a
fluid strength that had nothing to do with her enhanced physical
abilities and everything to do with her heart. He knew if pressed
she would deny those things. The eyes he’d had so much trouble
capturing in charcoal last night were the only part of her that
held darkness. Dani didn’t believe in herself, and she didn’t know
what to do with herself, either. She’d had so much taken away from
her, it was like she couldn’t conceive of being the author of her
own story.

His assistant’s voice brought him back to the
moment. “Sorry, I spaced for a sec. Uh, no. No list. But I know you
did some research about this kind of stuff for that trilogy you
wrote about the three cops.”

“
Handcuffed Love
.” Priyanka grinned.
“Those were some fun books to write.”

“Hand to hand training equipment. Non-lethal
weapons. I don’t know much about this kind of stuff. There’s got to
be more than just stun guns, right?”

“Oh, sure.” She scribbled notes on the pad.
“Brass knuckles. Mace and pepper spray. Batons.”

Batons. How hard would Dani hit him if he
asked her to twirl a baton? “Yeah, just whatever. Order a bunch of
stuff and have it delivered to my place.”

“Has your doctor cleared you for self-defense
training?”

“I’m not planning on starting right away. I
just don’t want to get my ass handed to me again.” And he wanted
those non-lethal weapons for Dani, but he couldn’t say that. “I do
want everything delivered as soon as possible so my trainer can put
together a program for me and I can begin to familiarize myself
with all the…stuff.”

Priyanka tapped the notepad with her pen.
“Just don’t shoot yourself in the face with pepper spray,
okay?”

“I think I can handle that.” He took out his
phone and settled deeper into the leather chair. “Now go, I’m got
some smut to beta read.”

She hopped up. “Ooh, I’ll go email it to
you.”

“Anybody asks, tell them I’m reading up on
the Hong Kong markets or something. Make it sound impressive.”

“I’ll get you the quarterly report from
Applied Sciences.”

That was the one corporate thing he enjoyed
reading and she knew it. “Thanks, Pri.” She returned to the outer
office, closing the door behind her.

The thought of the Applied Sciences report
led him back to Dani. Lately, everything led him back to Dani.
Kevin placed his phone on the desk then leaned his head back to
stare at the ceiling. What kind of lab had done these things to
her? It sounded like a government facility, or at least a place
with government contracts. A place designed to create
super-soldiers.

It wasn’t the only thing people were
enhanced for at the lab. There were tests to see what we’d be best
at.

Her words of last night came back to him.
What else was this lab enhancing people for? Dani was convinced
they were searching for her, and she was probably right. The sooner
she left Point Sable, with a new identity intact, the safer she’d
be. Knowing that, he couldn’t get attached. It was too dangerous,
for so many reasons.

One of the desk drawers held a sketch pad and
several pencils. Kevin took out the pad and two pencils, blue and
black. Something abstract to focus on would stop the churning in
his head. Geometric shapes, lines of Celtic knot work – things like
that were his usual go-to when he was out of sorts. This time
something else took shape on the page.

Dani.

He lost himself in the work, so much that it
barely registered when someone knocked on the door. Sean came
barreling in, a whirlwind of impatience and anger. “Are you here to
actually do something or are you just taking up space?”

Kevin gripped the pencil so hard, he could
feel it giving under the pressure. “What’s the matter with you?” He
turned the paper over, not wanting any questions about Dani.

“I could ask you the same thing. Are you
really going into business with Tyler Kincaid?”

“What?” Kevin had to think for a moment to
remember his last conversation with Tyler. “He asked me to help him
buy out his investors. I turned him down.”

His brother glared. “You’ll get involved in
that idiot’s bullshit waste of time and money, but I have to
practically beg you to haul your ass into your family’s company
once a month.”

So that was what had Sean frothing at the
mouth. Kevin released the pencil and sat back in his chair. “I said
I turned him down. Go find some underling to yell at if you can’t
be bothered to listen to me.”

“If you wanted to start your own business,
I’d be thrilled. Partnering with Tyler Kincaid is a crap idea.”

“For the love of God, I turned him down. Did
you not hear that part?” Kevin forced himself to take a beat and
calm down. He didn’t want to fight with his brother. “I’m not
interested in starting a business, with or without Tyler.”