Embracing Silence (11 page)

Tienan relaxed, his hands hanging by his sides. “I’m an Alpha, just like you.”

Chapter Seven

Blood dripped down his shoulder and forearm, but Tienan didn’t take his eyes off the man standing in front of him. His muscles were coiled and ready to react at a split-second’s notice, the gun was steady in his hand and his eyes promised death. This was Adrian, the man he’d wanted to meet. Even if Silence hadn’t called him by name, he would have known. It was in the way he moved, in the way he held himself. This man was a leader, a killer, an Alpha.

Tienan had no doubt he knew how to use the gun in his hand. The way he held it spoke of familiarity. The bloody gash in Tienan’s shoulder was little more than a flesh wound. If Adrian wanted him dead, he could have easily killed him. Which meant that Adrian had questions.

Tienan ignored the pain, burying it in the recesses of his mind as he’d been taught. It was more of a dull ache really, a reminder that he had to do something about the bleeding eventually. He’d take care of it later. If he was still alive, that is. Right now, he figured the odds were about fifty-fifty.

His body was injured but his mind was reeling with the revelation that had come crashing down on him. He’d done something he’d been trained never to do.

He’d made a mistake.

He could justify it by saying it was due to the emotional upheaval Silence had caused in his life, but it didn’t matter. The fact remained that he’d made a mistake. A big one.

From what Adrian said, Silence had been telling the truth. She hadn’t turned him in. She had gone searching for help. However the security force had found him, it hadn’t been because she’d betrayed him.

His blood ran cold as he thought of how close she’d come to being captured by the squadron. If she hadn’t left when she had, they might not have escaped. Alone, he had a chance to evade them. With her to protect, it wouldn’t have been as easy, if possible at all.

Regret, sharp and hard, punched him in the gut. Silence wasn’t looking at him now, her gaze on the ground as she realized Adrian knew they’d had sex. If what Tienan suspected was true, Adrian would have easily smelled the aftermath of sex in the air. And there was no way the other man hadn’t noticed her rumpled state. Hell, he’d probably seen her getting dressed and waited until she was fully clothed before announcing his presence.

Shit. He’d not only hurt Silence, he’d alienated the very man he’d wanted to meet.

Now that he’d seen him, Tienan had no doubt that Adrian was a product of the same program that had birthed him. Adrian’s reflexes were extremely fast and his ability not only to make his way past the booby traps Tienan had set below, but also get the drop on him was nothing short of a miracle. That meant he was enhanced. A man, but more than a man. Just like Tienan.

He was a tough bastard. His stance never relaxed as he continued to train his weapon on Tienan. Not by a twitch or a blink did Adrian betray his thoughts about Tienan’s bold statement. Then again, if he’d survived one of the earlier terminations by the Piedmont Corporation, Adrian had to be resilient. Add that to living in the brutal outer city for years, then he was an extremely dangerous man, and one you wanted on your side.

“What do you mean, Alpha? What is he talking about?” Silence was watching Adrian as she asked her question, but Tienan answered. He wanted her to look at him. She was disheveled and very subdued. Not her feisty self at all.

“Project Alpha was launched about thirty years ago by the Piedmont Corporation. Their goal was to create super-soldiers, a special unit of men with enhanced senses, their brains part computer, allowing them to quickly work through the scenarios of any situation and find the solution.”

Eyes wide, she stared at him. He could see the disbelief on her face. “That’s crazy.”

“Maybe, but it’s true. They wanted to create a breed of soldiers who were smarter and faster and wouldn’t quit until the job was done. The perfect assassins. Cold-blooded killers without conscience.”

“That’s not Adrian.” He noticed she never denied he was a cold-blooded killer. Not that he could blame her. That’s exactly what he was. But he was discovering that he was also much more than that.

Tienan shrugged and stiffened as his shoulder screamed in pain. Deciding that if Adrian was going to kill him, he would have already done so, Tienan carefully pulled off his T-shirt. Silence gasped, but he ignored it as he went to work on a makeshift bandage. Grabbing the hem, he ripped. The material gave way and he tore several long strips. Taking the remainder of the shirt, he folded it into a pad and placed it over the wound. It was awkward trying to tie the strips around the pad but he was determined.

“For the love of god.” Silence started toward him but Adrian grabbed her upper arm, stopping her.

She glared at Adrian. One corner of Tienan’s mouth turned up. He wasn’t the only person she was pissed at. For some reason that made him feel better.

“Let go of me. If Tienan wanted to hurt me, he could have killed me a hundred times over.”

Adrian hesitated but dropped his hand, releasing her. “Keep to the side so I’ll still have a shot.”

Muttering under her breath, she stalked toward him. An ominous crack split the air. Tienan saw her eyes widen and her face pale as the floor suddenly disappeared from beneath her feet. One minute she was there, the next she was gone, plummeting through the opening in the rotted floor.

Tienan lunged forward, all thoughts of his wound forgotten. Fear swamped him as he threw himself to the floor and grabbed for her. He caught the sleeve of her coat and held on. Her hand clamped over his wrist, her fingernails digging into his skin. “Don’t you let go,” he ordered. His shoulder screamed in pain, blood pulsing from the wound.

Her face was completely white as she stared up at him, her body swaying in the void. Below her were piles of rubble, stone and twisted metal. He’d let himself bleed to death before he’d release her.

“Give me your hand, Silence.” Adrian was across from him, his body flat against the floor.

“Silence.” Tienan reached for her with his free hand, willing her to take it.

She stared from one man to the other, the tension growing thicker with each passing second. Her breathing was shallow, her skin dotted with perspiration. He knew the weight on her shoulder and arm had to be excruciating. She made no sound, but her skin was pasty white.

“Silence.” Both men called her name at the same time. Tienan glared at the other man, but Adrian wasn’t paying any attention to him. All his focus was on Silence.

Swallowing hard, Tienan gathered his strength and lifted her, praying the material in her jacket was strong. The ripping sound was ominous. Her grip slipped. Tienan worked faster, yanking her upward.

Blood continued to pump from the wound. He was growing weaker by the second. Grabbing her arm with his free hand, he pulled harder.

Adrian swore and scooted around the edge of the hole on his belly until the two men were side by side. Getting a grip on Silence, Adrian pulled. In seconds, Silence was on the floor beside him. Panting hard, he drew her into his arms and held her tight. He could feel her heart hammering against his chest, smell the fear that clung to her skin like a second layer.

He’d almost lost her.

Cupping her face in his hands, he kissed her. Hard. He tasted salty tears as their lips met. Tienan plunged his tongue into her mouth, needing the intimate connection. Her hands slid up his chest, digging into his shoulders.

He winced and Silence pulled away. “Omigod. You’re bleeding. How could I have forgotten you were shot?”

“It doesn’t matter.” He sat up and began to run his hands over her shoulders and arms. “Are you hurt?”

“Tienan.” She shoved his hands aside and scrambled away. He sat on the floor, no longer caring if he bled to death. His callous acts and accusations had driven her away. Hell, he’d almost killed her by keeping her in this deathtrap.

It was ironic that he’d finally figured out that he loved her. Watching her disappear into thin air, thinking she was falling to her death was the worst thing he’d ever experienced in his life. Much worse than any torture the General could devise. He knew that if she’d gone through the hole, he would have gone after her, hoping to catch her and block her fall with his body.

“Hold this.” Her brisk voice broke up his bleak thoughts. Yet her touch was gentle as she knelt beside him and held the pad he’d made of his shirt over the wound. As he covered it, their fingers touched.

Silence jerked her hand away and began to wrap the strips around the pad to hold the bandage in place. “Thank you.” His voice was soft but she heard him. He could tell by the way she hesitated for a brief second before continuing.

“I should be thanking you.” Her blue eyes were brimming with tears as she tied off the ends of the bandage and looked at him. Her skin was still far too pale for his liking.

“It was my fault you almost died. I should never have brought you here.” Normally he didn’t look back. It made no sense to do so. What was done was done and you had to deal with it. But for the first time in his life, he found himself questioning his actions. He’d lost all his senses when it came to Silence.

“Actually, it wasn’t your fault.” Adrian crouched by the hole, gun in one hand, while he traced the edge of the broken boards with his other. “Not unless you sawed most of the way through the floorboards.”

“What?” Climbing to his feet, Tienan circled the hole, stepping carefully before putting his full weight on any spot. Hunkering down beside Adrian, he saw what the other man was talking about. The boards had been weakened. Any one of them could have fallen though. It was a miracle it hadn’t happened earlier. Silence had had the misfortune of being the one to step on that particular spot.

“This isn’t possible.” He’d gone over this site himself several days ago. He would have noticed something like this. As impossible as it seemed, someone had breached his security. Which meant this place was no longer safe. “We need to leave. Now.”

Standing, he went to his pack in the corner and yanked out a clean T-shirt. He pulled it on, ignoring the throbbing ache in his shoulder. “Someone else has been here.”

“You seem to have enemies.” Adrian got to his feet, weapon in hand as he scanned the room and the shadows beyond.

Tienan snorted. “I’ve got plenty of those. Get in line.”

One corner of Adrian’s mouth kicked up. “I can see we have more than one thing in common.” He tilted his head toward Tienan’s shoulder. “We have a doctor who can take care of that for you.”

Tienan slung his pack over his good shoulder and met the other man’s steady gaze. “Why?” It was tantamount to an invitation to the rebel compound. This from a man who was ready to kill him minutes before.

Adrian shrugged, lowering the hand with the gun back to his side. “I may not like it, but Silence obviously cares about you.” He paused and glanced at the gaping hole. “And, contrary to some of your actions, it seems as though you care for her too.”

Silence was busy gathering the bedding into a roll for transport, but he could tell from the way her body stiffened, she was listening to every word they were saying.

“I would have died rather than let go of her.” He laid all his cards on the table in front of Adrian. It was dangerous to admit a weakness to a foe, went against thirty years of training, but Tienan no longer cared.

Was he a man or a machine? He’d asked himself that question dozens of times, especially the past five years as he’d felt his humanity slowly being drained from him by the Corporation’s tests and the General’s assignments.

The question had continued to haunt him since he and Logan had broken out of the prison they’d been held in their entire lives. He existed day to day by focusing on the next task at hand. The assignment he’d given himself was to find and meet Adrian, the mysterious leader of the Resistance.

Then he’d met Silence and everything changed.

From the first moment he’d seen her, she’d engaged his curiosity. From the first moment he’d touched her, he’d wanted her. The first time they made love, he knew she’d changed him forever.

Adrian nodded and Tienan knew the other man understood what he was saying. “As I said, we have more than one thing in common.”

“We ready to go?” Silence walked over to stand halfway between both of them, her arms wrapped around the bundle of blankets.

“We’re ready.” Adrian pointed the barrel of the gun toward him. “You lead. I’ll bring up the rear. Silence, you’ll stay between us. I’ll take over once we’re back on the street.”