Steele (2 page)

Chapter One

Many years later

Marla Rivers looked about her, recognizing all the familiar comforts of her home. The coma had lasted a little over a year. But her mother had kept up the payments on her house, never giving up the hope that Marla would come back to herself. That Marla would, eventually, wake up.

It had taken almost six grueling months of physical therapy to regain her ability to walk. And even now, Marla often walked with a cane. But at last she was home again, released from the hospital, safe and sound after her long absence.

She ignored the flickering of light as she passed by a lamp. She’d learned it was best to ignore such things.

Everything was as she’d left it. Nothing had been disturbed. She knew she had her mother to thank for that. The sense of familiarity was comforting to her after months spent in a strange, sterile hospital room.

She put her luggage away, weak with exertion when she was done but determined not to let it hold her back in any way. She felt like taking a bath but knew it was too soon to test herself in the large garden tub alone. She might slip beneath the surface of the water and never come back up. For awhile, at least, she would be taking showers.

She plopped down on her sitting room couch before the television. The set flickered and came to life. Marla frowned. She hadn’t touched the remote.

She imagined the television turning to her favorite station, a cartoon station, and right on cue the TV changed channels for her.

Marla gritted her teeth. This was yet another new skill she’d developed in her year of coma-sleep. She blinked and the television turned off abruptly. So many things had changed.
She
had changed. The coma had opened a Pandora’s box in her mind. This trick with the television was only one of many odd quirks she’d discovered over the last six months.

There came a knock at her door. She wasn’t expecting visitors, but she imagined her mother had come by to check up on her. She got up and went to open the door, startled to find two men, not her mother, standing on her porch. They were dressed professionally, in matching black suits and gray ties.

“Can I help you?” She frowned.

“Are you Marla Rivers?” one of them asked.

“I am.”

“We’re here to talk to you about your new…uh, abilities.”

Marla sighed, leaning heavily on her cane. “Not more reporters.”

“We’re not reporters. We represent a party interested in your gifts. May we come in?”

Marla thought hard on it. Her first instinct was to tell them to go to hell, she was too tired to entertain them, but curiosity got the better of her and she nodded, stepping back to allow them into her house. She led them to her sitting room and plopped down on the couch, offering them two chairs opposite her. “What party do you represent then?” she asked.

“We work for an organization called Siren Corp. After learning about you in the papers and on the news, my employers have taken great interest in your abilities,” the man told her, self importance lacing his words so that they grated over her ears.

“What sort of interest?” she asked.

“We are prepared to offer you a large sum of money for the privilege of studying your unique gifts.”

Marla blinked. The lamplight flickered but she ignored it, conscious that the two men were carefully watching for just that sort of thing. “How much money?” she asked.

The man placed a briefcase on his lap and opened it, showing her the contents. “One hundred thousand dollars,” he said.

Marla choked back a gasp as she saw all the money in the case. It was almost comical, the stereotypical case of money. She almost laughed but managed to control herself at the last second.

She could hardly believe her good fortune. She could really use that money. Her hospital bills were astronomical and she didn’t want to rely on her mother so heavily now that she was home again, gracious though her mom had been in helping her. Marla no longer had a job, and this money would take a little of the pressure off while she looked for one.

She desperately needed the money. Marla feared that eventually the creditors would come harassing her and she might have to sell her beloved house just to get by.

But there was something about the two men’s offer that bugged her. Something about
them
that made her uneasy. “What do you mean by ‘studying’ my gifts?” she asked at last.

The second man, quiet until now, spoke up. “We just mean to observe you, to see what triggers these gifts, what makes them work.”

“Like a lab rat,” she couldn’t help pointing out.

“Don’t make it sound so bad,” he frowned. “It’s a privilege, what we offer you. One many others would jump at the chance to accept.”

Marla raised one eyebrow. “So go to these other people,” she said, testing them.

It seemed that the two men wished to play good cop, bad cop with her and she didn’t like it one bit. The first man spoke up again, playing the role of good cop. “Please don’t dismiss this out of hand,” he said evenly. “We will study you, it’s true, but you’ll be perfectly safe.”

Marla instinctively disbelieved him. “I don’t think so,” she said at last, mourning the loss of the chance to earn some fast cash. “I’m sorry but I’ll have to decline your offer.”

The second man, the bad cop, spoke again. “You would do well to reconsider that decision.”

Marla frowned, anger boiling just below the surface. “Why don’t you both just leave now?”

The men rose, towering over her as she sat on the couch, but she was determined not to feel intimidated. This was her home, damn it, her own private domain, one she felt she deserved after all the long months spent in the hospital. She didn’t want her first day at home marred by these two men with their strange offer and high-handed behavior.

“You will accept our offer and be grateful for it,” the bad cop said with a sneer.

Marla rose as quickly as she could from her position on the couch. The lightbulb in a lamp on the table next to the couch exploded. The two men started as the glass shattered, but Marla refused to budge. “Get out,” she said again, nearly growling the words.

The bad cop pushed his suit jacket back to reveal a gun nestled in a shoulder holster beneath his arm.

Marla felt her eyes grow wide with surprise and fear. “Are you threatening me?” she fumed.

“You will accept our offer, one way or the other. If we have to use a little force to convince you, so be it.”

Marla, furious now, bared her teeth at them. “If you don’t get out, I’ll call the police.”

The man pulled his gun on her, and the other moved to close the drapes on the window of the sitting room. Marla felt a thrill of fear mix with her anger and stood shocked as she watched them. She came to herself with a snap and dove for the phone sitting next to the sofa. She barely touched it when she felt the man press the muzzle of his gun to the side of her head.

“I don’t think so,” he said. “Put the phone down. Now, we’re going to try this again. Will you come with us willingly or not? Either way you
are
coming with us.”

There came a deafening crash as the door to her home slammed open.

A huge man stepped into the room. He was massive, at least six foot ten with three hundred pounds of pure muscle on him. His head was shaved bare and his cool gray eyes were piercing and bright. He looked like a giant in the confines of the room, an uncivilized brute in a slate gray suit.

He zeroed in on the man holding the gun to her head. “Let her go,” came his gruff command.

“Steele,” he sneered. “We were here first. She’s ours.”

“I think the lady has a different opinion. Let her go.”

“Sterling scum! You and Ryan Murdock can go fuck yourselves.”

“I won’t tell you again. Let her go,” said the giant.

The man hesitated, keeping the gun pressed to her temple. Marla took matters into her own hands. She knocked the hand holding the gun away with a hard swipe of her fist. She pushed the gunman back and rushed to stand by Steele.

“I think the lady has made her decision,” Steele said, eyes never leaving the two men.

“This isn’t over yet,” the gunman growled. He and his colleague left with surly looks on their faces, passing close to Steele but not daring to touch him.

When they were gone, Marla discovered she’d been holding her breath and let out a huge sigh. She grabbed her forgotten cane from where it rested against the couch. She leaned on it for support as she felt her heart rate return to normal. “Now who are you and what made you think to break down my door?”

“I’m Brian Steele, but you can call me Steele. I work for a government project called Sterling. I came to meet you and noticed the Siren vehicle out front. I figured it was in both of our best interests to get in here and make sure you were all right.”

His voice held such strength that Marla felt herself beginning to relax somewhat. Marla put a hand to her head, feeling a headache coming on as her ever-present fatigue pulled at her. She’d been prone to headaches recently as well as weakness. “Siren? What do you mean?”

“Those two men work for an outfit called Siren.”

“How do you know that?”

“Because I’ve seen them before. And because I make it a point to know most of Siren’s employees. Siren is an opposing project funded by an entirely different consortium of investors. While we at Sterling study the untapped resources of the human brain, Siren seeks to augment them with technologies that have no business being employed on any human.”

“What do they want with me?” she asked.

“They wish to exploit your gifts. Exploit and manipulate them to their own ends.”

She had suspected as much. “And what are
you
doing here exactly?”

“I’m here to ask much the same, but my intentions are honest, I assure you. Sterling is very interested in your gifts. We wish to study them, catalogue them, and perhaps help you to understand and therefore control them in time.”

Marla shook her head in disbelief. “What makes you think I’ll accept your offer when I wouldn’t accept theirs? They offered me quite a handsome sum, you know. You haven’t offered me anything yet.”

Steele smiled, revealing a row of very white teeth. “You haven’t given me a chance.”

Marla couldn’t help but respond to his smile. He was quite handsome when he smiled. And despite his massive size, she felt no instinctive fear of him as she had with the two men from Siren. “So make an offer,” she grinned, feeling the last of her lingering panic disappear.

“We’re prepared to take care of all your medical bills incurred during your coma and recuperation. We’ll also have our own doctors on staff to ensure your continued safety and well-being.”

She grew dizzy and faint, and when her head stopped spinning she realized she was practically in Steele’s arms. He was keeping her from falling with gentle and patient hands. Her heart fluttered with an excitement she hadn’t felt in almost two years, as she felt the burn of his skin seep into hers. She was overly aware of his male magnetism, of his sheer strength and size. She wondered if he was this large all over. She shook her head as if to clear it of her wanton thoughts and eased her body away from him.

“’Aren’t you going to offer me money straight up, as they did?” she asked weakly.

“How much do you want?” he returned.

“Are you serious?” She laughed tiredly.

“Absolutely.”

She eyed him for several seconds. “What, so I can ask for a hundred thousand dollars and you’d give it to me?”

“How does a solid five hundred thousand sound?” he asked, deadpan.

Marla reeled. “I don’t believe this.” She clutched her aching head and stepped completely out of Steele’s supportive arms, determined to stand on her own. She immediately, keenly felt the loss of his touch. “This is just too much for me.”

“I could come back later, to give you some time to think it over.”

“Are you crazy? I don’t have to think! Of course I’ll take your offer. I’d be insane not to. My medical bills alone will set you back something like a million dollars. Maybe more. I’ll take your offer gladly.”

Steele smiled again and her stomach did a strange little somersault. “Good. I’ll leave you today to get your rest, but I’ll be by in the morning to pick you up. How does nine o’clock sound?”