Gabriel was the last person she wanted to see. She could barely control her temper around him these days, and hitting a superior officer would only get her into more trouble than Gabriel was worth. And Stephan damn well knew it. She thrust upright. “You’re a bastard, you know that?”
“No, I’m a man faced with two people who won’t acknowledge that they are meant to be partners.”
The door opened, giving her no time to reply. She clenched the folder tightly but found her gaze drawn to the tall man entering the room. His hazel eyes narrowed when he saw her.
But just for an instant, something passed between them—an emotion she couldn’t define and he would never verbally acknowledge. And that made her even angrier.
“Sam,” Gabriel said, his voice as polite as the nod he gave her.
“Gabriel,” she bit back, and glanced at Stephan. “Will that be all, sir?”
A smile quirked the corner of Stephan’s mouth. He hadn’t missed her reaction. “Yes. For now.”
Gabriel stepped to one side as she approached. It was probably meant to be nothing more than a polite gesture—he was simply making way for her to get past—but it fanned the fires of her fury even higher. One way or another, this man was always avoiding her.
She met his gaze and saw only wariness in the green-flecked hazel depths of his eyes. Ever since the factory shootout with Rose and Orrin nearly two weeks ago, he’d treated her this way. She wasn’t entirely sure why. And in all honesty, it was time she stopped worrying about it. She had more important concerns these days.
Like finding out who she really was. What she really was. Like getting a life beyond the force.
She stopped in front of him and his scent stirred around her, spicy and masculine, making her want things she could never have. Not with this man.
“You win, Gabriel. You have your wish. I’m out of your life.” She held out her hand. “I wish I could say it’s been pleasant, but you sure as hell made certain it wasn’t.”
His fingers closed round hers, his touch sending warmth through her soul. A promise that could never be.
“You’ve been reassigned, then?” Relief edged his deep voice.
“Yeah.”
He released her hand and her fingers tingled with the memory of his touch. Part of her was tempted to clench her hand in an effort to retain that warmth just a bit longer. But what was the point of holding on to something that was little more than an illusion? A desire that probably came from loneliness more than any real connection?
“Who’s the new partner?”
There was something a little more than polite interest in the question. Were he anyone else, she might have thought he cared. With Gabriel, who knew?
Sam shrugged. “It’s really none of your business now, is it?” She glanced back at Stephan. “I’ll talk to you later.”
He nodded and she met Gabriel’s eyes one final time, her gaze searching his—though what she was looking for, she couldn’t honestly say. After a few seconds, she turned and walked out, her fury a clenched knot inside her chest.
—
Gabriel watched her go and the anger so visible in every step seared his mind, reaching into places he’d thought well shielded and far out of reach. Whatever this connection was between them, it was breaking down barriers not even his twin had been able to traverse, and raising emotions he’d long thought dead.
Which was just another reason to get her out of his working life. Whether or not she should then appear in his social life was a point of contention between the two parts of his soul. The hawk half—the half that had already lost its soul mate—wanted no strings, no ties, nothing beyond those that already existed, but the human half wanted to pursue what might lie between them. Wanted to discover if, given the chance, it could develop into something more than friendship.
Not that there ever would be a chance, if her anger was anything to go by. Which was precisely what he’d wanted, what he’d been aiming for over the nine months they’d been partners. So why did his victory feel so hollow?
He shut the door and walked across the room to the chair. “So,” he said as he sat down. “Where has she been reassigned?”
Stephan leaned back in his chair, his blue eyes assessing. “She’s right. It really is none of your business now.”
“Don’t give me that crap. Just tell me.”
Stephan smiled, though no warmth touched his expression. It was that, more than anything, which raised Gabriel’s hackles. Stephan was up to something, something he wouldn’t like.
“She’s on special assignment as of tomorrow.”
Gabriel regarded him steadily. His brother was enjoying this. He could almost feel his twin’s satisfaction. “Give, brother. What the hell have you done?”
Stephan steepled his fingers and studied them with sudden interest. “I’ve assigned her to the Wetherton case.”
The Wetherton case? The one case she should have been kept well away from, if only because of its possible links to both Sethanon and Hopeworth? “Get her off it, Stephan. Get her off it now.”
His twin’s gaze finally met his, filled with nothing more than a steely determination. “She is the best person for the job, whatever the risks.”
“You haven’t even warned her, have you?” Gabriel scrubbed a hand across his jaw. Christ, she could be walking straight into a goddamn trap, and there was nothing he could do to save her.
“She knows we believe Sethanon is involved,” Stephan commented.
“Which is the least of our worries. Wetherton’s and Kazdan’s clones can have only one source, and we both know it. Neither the government labs nor the black marketeers have succeeded with personality and memory transfers. Hopeworth has.”
“Or so our spy tells us. It’s not something we’ve been able to confirm.”
The Federation had attempted to place spies in Hopeworth on several occasions, but it was only in the last few months that one of their operatives had leaked this information—though so far it was only his word backing it up.
“I think Hopeworth basically confirmed their involvement when they maneuvered to get Wetherton’s clone in charge of their budget.”
“If they wanted their clone in charge of their budget, they should have got him assigned to Defense.”
Gabriel crossed his arms. Hopeworth had fingers in both pies, and Stephan knew it. “Did you even mention Hopeworth to Sam?”
“It was mentioned. But we don’t know for sure if Hopeworth is involved.”
“Then did you at least tell her Sethanon is more than likely involved with Hopeworth?”
“No, because we have nothing more than a suspicion to back this up. We have no photographs of him. We don’t even know if he truly exists. He is currently nothing more than a name.”
“A name that has over thirty SIU and Federation deaths attributed to it. And I don’t particularly want Sam’s name added to that list.” His voice was tight with the anger coursing through him. True, he’d wanted to lose her as a partner, but he certainly hadn’t wanted to throw her to the lions, and that’s basically what his brother had done. She would have been safer remaining his partner than taking this mission.
Stephan grimaced. “Nor do I, brother. Believe me. But we need to uncover the source of these clones. We need to draw Sethanon out, and we need to uncover whether or not he is involved as deeply with Hopeworth as we suspect. And the truth is, she’s the best bait we have to achieve those aims.”
“What about our source in Hopeworth? Has he heard any whispers about Sethanon?”
Stephan shook his head. “It’s not a code name the military uses.”
“Kazdan knew who he was, so others must. It’s just a matter of uncovering the various layers of his organization.”
“Which is why Samantha has been assigned to Wetherton. We know he’s a clone. We know his name was on that list she got from Kazdan. We need to know what that list was, and what Wetherton had promised to do in return for life eternal. And why the
original was deemed expendable enough to kill and clone and not directly exploit.”
“But that still puts her too close to Hopeworth. That could be extremely dangerous.”
Stephan leaned back in his chair and regarded his brother steadily. “Only if, as you presume, she is a product of Hopeworth itself.”
“You’ve seen the initial reports from O’Hearn. You’ve seen the coding. Whatever Sam is, she’s definitely not a product of natural selection.”
“Yet it was Sethanon who assigned Kazdan to monitor her every move. Sethanon who appears to know just who and what Samantha is. You noted that yourself. Couldn’t that mean he’s responsible for her creation?”
Possible, but not likely. Gabriel didn’t doubt that Sethanon wanted to use her, but if the man had been responsible for her creation, why would he take the risk of releasing her?
“Sam had a military microchip in her side,” Gabriel pointed out. “The same sort of chip that we found in both the Generation 18 rejects and in Allars.” She was also afraid of Hopeworth. Though she had never said anything, he could feel her fear as clearly as if it were his own.
“And yet our source in Hopeworth can find no record of her, though he can find records on every other reject.”
“Maybe because her project was destroyed by a fire years ago.”
“A fire would never destroy every scrap of information. Nor could it erase every memory.”
“And yet everyone says that Penumbra was destroyed that completely.”
“People still remember the project, Gabriel. They just don’t remember her.”
Mary Elliot, the nurse who’d worked on the project, apparently did, but she was just one of many, and a woman with a faulty memory at that. Partially thanks to Alzheimer’s, and partially thanks to the military’s habit of “readjusting” memories. Gabriel shifted restlessly in the seat. “What if she isn’t a reject? What if she’s something else entirely?”
Stephan raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t really know. It was just a feeling. The extent of Sam’s memory loss, the depth to which the truth appeared to be buried and the fact that someone was willing to bomb the SIU in order to destroy her test results—it all spoke of intent. It suggested that someone, somewhere, was protecting her from her past, whatever that might be.
He actually doubted that it was Hopeworth trying to conceal who she was, even if they were her creators. The military weren’t that subtle. Besides, if Sam was one of their creations, they would never have let her go—especially not with the potential she was now showing.
“Look,” Gabriel said, somewhat impatiently. “All I’m saying is that if Sethanon feared her enough to place a watch on her, we should not risk using her as bait in an attempt to catch the man.”
“We don’t even know if, in fact, it is a man we are after.”
Gabriel leaned forward and glared at his twin’s altered features. It was in moments like this—moments when he almost wanted to punch the cold smile from his brother’s face—that Stephan’s ability to shapeshift into the form of any male he touched became a problem. It was harder to restrain the urge to hit him when he wasn’t wearing his own face. “Damn it, Stephan, don’t play word games with me!”
Something flickered through his twin’s blue eyes. Anger perhaps. Or regret. “Do you, or do you not, agree that we must learn more about Sethanon?”
“Yeah, but—”
“And do you, or do you not,” Stephan continued, his voice soft but relentless, “agree that Sethanon’s interest in Sam might be the lever we need to draw him out of the shadows?”
Gabriel rubbed his forehead. This was one battle he wasn’t going to win—not that he ever won many against Stephan. “At the first hint of danger, I’m going in.”
“Samantha can take care of herself. She’s proven that time and time again.”
But this was different. This was leaving her roped, tied and blindfolded in front of an express train. “I won’t see her harmed.”
Stephan smiled. “And here I thought you didn’t care for her.”
“I’ve never said that. All I’ve ever said is that I don’t want her as a partner. That I don’t want to see her dead.”
“Have you ever considered the fact that this fear of losing partners is irrational, and that maybe you should seek psychiatric help for it?”
“Considered it? Yes. Acknowledge it? Yes. Am I going to seek psychiatric help? No.” He met his brother’s stony gaze with one of his own. “If I wanted to talk to anyone, I’d talk to our father.”
“Because, of course, you couldn’t talk to your brother.” Stephan’s voice was almost bitter.
Almost.
“My brother has a tendency to put the needs of the Federation and the SIU above the needs of everyone else—including his brother.”
Stephan didn’t immediately comment, just leaned forward and picked up a folder from the desk. “Here’s the file on your new partner.”
Gabriel ignored the offered folder and stared at his twin through narrowed eyes. “What do you mean, new partner?”
“I’ve told you before. All field agents, whether SIU or Federation, now work in pairs. There have been too many murder attempts of late to risk solo missions.”
“How many times do I have to say it? I don’t want a partner!” What was his brother trying to prove?
“Then you’ll remain at your desk and leave the fieldwork to the agents in your charge.”
He was tempted, very tempted, to do just that. But both he and Stephan knew that being confined for any length of time would make him stir-crazy.
Besides, he was more valuable to the SIU and the Federation in the field.
“Who have you assigned me?”
Stephan dropped the folder on the desk and leaned back in his chair. Though there was no emotion on his face, Gabriel could feel his twin’s amusement.
“James Illie.”
Who was the State Police officer they’d recruited after he’d made a series of spectacular arrests—arrests that involved one of the biggest vampire crime gangs in the city. He was good, no doubt about it.
The only trouble was, the man was a womanizer who was always on the lookout for his next conquest.
“It won’t work.” And Stephan knew it.
“Then make it work. And don’t try dumping Illie in the dungeons. He’ll bring in the unions the minute you try.”
Wonderful. “Is this all you called me in here for?”
Stephan smiled. “No. There’s been a break-in at the Pegasus Foundation that we’ve been asked to investigate.”
“The Pegasus Foundation?” Gabriel frowned, trying to recall what he knew of the organization. “They won a military contract recently, didn’t they?”
“To develop a stealth device for military vehicles, yes. But whoever broke in wasn’t concerned about stealth devices.”
“Then what were they after?”
“That’s something you’ll have to find out. All I’ve been told is that the person or persons involved managed to get past several security stations, three laser alarms and numerous cameras. It was only due to the fact that the intruder set a lab on fire that they were even aware someone had slipped their net.”
“So we’re saying that the person who started the fire is someone who can become both invisible and insubstantial? Is such a thing even possible?”
“We’ve never seen it before,” Stephan answered. “But then, we’ve never seen a lot of the things we are now encountering, so who knows?”
“Was it just the lab that was destroyed?”
“That I don’t know. They’re not giving much away—not over the phone, anyway.”
No real surprise there, given how easily phone conversations could be hacked these days. “So why were we called in? The Pegasus Foundation has more military ties than we have agents. Why not ask them to investigate?”
“It was the military who asked us to investigate.” Stephan hesitated. “T
hey asked specifically for you and your partner.”
“So they want Sam.” But if the military didn’t know anything about her, why had they specifically asked for her to be included in the investigation?
“Who signed the request?”
“A General Frank Lloyd.”
As Alice would say, curiouser and curiouser. “Sam met Lloyd at Han’s.” She’d been wary of the general and convinced they’d meet again. “You have to warn her about the military’s interest.”
“No, I won’t.” Stephan hesitated. “And neither will you.”
Like hell he wouldn’t. It was one thing to let her go; it was another to leave her blind. He crossed his arms. “What time is the Pegasus Foundation expecting us?”
Stephan glanced at his watch. “You’re to meet with the director—Kathryn Douglass—at four thirty.”
It was nearly four now. Then Gabriel frowned. “Kathryn Douglass? Why does that name sound familiar?”
“Because her name is on that list Kazdan gave to Sam.”
A list that had marked potential clones and vampires, as well as assassination possibilities. “So which one was she? Clone, vampire or potential dead meat?”
“That we can’t say, as there was no note beside her name,” Stephan said. “Illie’s requisitioned a car and is waiting out front.”
Gabriel met his twin’s gaze. “Thought I’d skip without him, huh?”
Stephan’s smile touched his eyes for the first time. “I know you, brother. I know the way your mind works. Don’t ever forget that.”
Then he’d know Illie wasn’t going to be a fixture in Gabriel’s life for very long. If he’d wanted a partner, he’d have kept Sam.
“Then you’ll know precisely what I’m thinking now.”
Stephan’s smile widened. “Yeah, and it’s not polite to abuse a family member like that.”
It was when your brother was being such a bastard.
Stephan’s smile faded. “Keep away from her, Gabriel. She has a job to do, and I don’t want you getting in the way.”
“What I do in my own time is my business, not yours,” Gabriel said, voice flat. “I’m warning you, don’t ever try to control my personal life.”