Warrior's Wife (18 page)

“Coming right up.”

When he returned she sipped until the tall glass was empty. “You put protein powder in it.”

His brow wrinkled. “Did it upset your stomach?”

“No, just a reminder you’re not getting away with those sneaky caretaking tricks.”

“Duly warned.” His eyes sparkled with mischief.

She gave him a small smile. “Don’t get your hopes up, Bertie. I’ve already given my heart to a different triad.”

“We get that, sweetheart. But what if they never come back?”

Tori averted her eyes and took another cookie. She’d asked herself the same question too many times to count. She loved her warriors and her heart wasn’t ready to change. Whatever happened, she was going to survive and she was going to be the best possible mom to the small warrior or warrior princess growing in her womb. And if, by some miracle, she had a second chance with her mechs, she was going to be the best possible wife.

Right now, there were traumatized women who needed help. She set aside her unsolvable problems to be the best possible nurse therapist.

Chapter Ten

Marcus paced the dim living room of the house they’d commandeered. “Damn, I wanted at least a glimpse of her.”

“Me too.” Horace’s disappointed face mirrored Marcus’ mood.

“Hey, you didn’t stutter.”

His favorite geek shrugged. “Just knowing she’s all right helps.”

“I don’t like her staying inside so much when the weather is so mild.” Marcus aimed his frown at Gideon. “Was there anything in her appearance that hinted she wasn’t well?”

Gideon stared at the driveway from a gap in the blinds. ”A little paler, maybe.”

They all relapsed into an uneasy silence. Too restless to keep quiet, Marcus said, “I know we agreed to leave if she was okay, but we can’t go when we don’t know fuck about how she really is.”

“It’s almost dark. We need to set up watches.” Gideon shifted his attention away from the window. “You got any bright ideas how we can assess Tori’s health without any contact?”

“The compound is hurting for fuel, especially diesel.”

“True,” Horace agreed. “We can help them with the shortage. But how does that get us any closer to finding out about Tori?”

Gideon got it first. “Sebastian didn’t forbid contact with the others, pal. Let’s roll.”

Minutes later Gideon hailed the mech patrolling the barricade. “Triad unit 642837, requesting permission to approach the gate.”

“Wait one, soldier.”

Natch, they were good boys and did as told, standing easy long enough for the barricade guard to check in with his unit.

“I’ll meet you.” The barricade sentry handed off his watch to a replacement almost as hulking as he was. The entrance parted in seconds. For a big guy, he hauled ass. He exited the fortress, shutting the gate behind him.

“No sudden moves, I’ve got a disrupter covering your backs.” A second man’s voice came from behind them.

“Of course not,” Gideon said.

So the outside guard had been paying attention. Marcus approved of his caution. No such thing as too careful when they’re protecting his woman. Good thing his team had strictly honorable intentions.

“One of three, triad unit 341926, also known as Batzorg.” The barricade guy intro’d himself and asked, “What brings you?”

The mech was even bigger close up. A unit number beginning with three meant they were generations behind the latest technology. Marcus’ gratitude for their security wavered.
How safe is Tori?

On the heels of his new worry, the mech’s chosen name triggered an old footnote in the founders’ records. “You’re mated to Minka.”

Dark eyes warmed at the mention of his wife. “We are.”

Holy shit, they were having a conversation with the leader of the triad who’d married the original founder. He’d always known she’d mated three men. The mech part was big news. Connections tumbled together in Marcus’ head, recasting history. At the same time, the depth of their loss smashed on his chest so hard he wanted to gasp from the crushing blow.

Marcus didn’t need to peek to know Gideon’s hard features tightened with the same impossible longing.

“You shelter our mate.” Gideon kept his tone matter-of-fact. Only someone who knew him well would’ve caught the note of misery.

Batzorg’s brow lifted. “Her name?”

“Tori—Victoria Dawson.”

The heavy brow lowered as the other triad leader considered their claim.

Impatient for news, Marcus blurted, “We have fuel to share.”

“Diesel?”

“Yes and gas, whether or not you tell us about our woman,” Gideon added, determined to be honorable no matter what they decided.

“You only want news of her?”

“Please,” Horace urged.

Both of Batzorg’s eyebrows rose. “You aren’t going to challenge her triad for her?”

We are her triad.
Possessiveness surged through Marcus’ veins.

“Contact is forbidden. We will not endanger her by violating the order.” A muscle twitched to life in Gideon‘s cheek, a sign he’d clamped his jaw—hard.

Once again the gate opened. Two more mechs joined the party. The new arrivals sent chin dips to the guard behind his group. All righty then, here’s the rest of her new triad.
So who the hell is protecting Tori?

As if she’d heard the silent question, she slipped through a crack in the entrance. She shouldn’t be anywhere near them. But his heart stuttered with joy. His starving eyes devoured every detail. She was paler—her face a stark white against her dark-red curls. Her hazel eyes were huge and shadowed by exhaustion and pain. At least she wore a coat to warm her slender body.

“Did that creep Sebastian forbid you to see me?” Fresh temper spots warmed her too-pale face.

“Yeah, you need to leave. It’s too dangerous for you to be this close to us.” Gideon’s voice cracked.

Gideon was right. But Marcus couldn’t help straining toward her. It took everything he had not to run to her and wrap around her, warming her with his kisses. Gideon and Horace quivered next to him, suffering from the same primal need to protect—to claim.

Tori stepped closer, leading with her chin, but staying out of reach. “Sebastian told me the triad had been reassigned. I thought I’d never see you again.”

“There is much I do not understand.” Batzorg scowled. “Begin with who issued this no-contact order.”

Sebastian shimmered to solidity. “I did.”

Batzorg took in his insignia then dismissed his rank markings with a snort. “Who the hell are you?”

“Acting director of the Guardians of History and your commander.”

The big mech didn’t seem impressed. “Where’s Nigel?”

Sebastian’s face twisted into a mask of rage. He grabbed Tori, holding her as a shield, and pressed his disrupter into her delicate neck. “I am very tired of being asked that question.”

He waved the weapon toward Batzorg and the other mechs, returning it to Tori before Marcus had a chance to blink. “Leave us or she dies.”

When the triads didn’t follow his order fast enough, he pushed the small rod harder into Tori’s vulnerable flesh and screamed, “Now.”

Their reluctance plain, both mech teams retreated. Marcus’ team eased away too, each step an agony.

“Not triad 642837.”

Marcus whistled to a stop with a jolt of surprise.

“Yes, I know who you are—Nigel’s special pets. The shiny heroes sent to rescue the lovely Victoria. While I—the most brilliant mech ever designed—was left to toil as a lab rat for that condescending prick Nigel. How things have changed.” Sebastian’s lips twisted in a parody of a grin.

An insane mech always remembered his torture victims, but something told Marcus this was more personal.

“You’re the only ones who could place me at the lab the night of Nigel’s disappearance. I couldn’t possibly allow you live. Pity I couldn’t kill you outright at the farmhouse. The bleeding-heart founders still insist on a truth reader vetting every mech death, no matter how thoroughly documented and well justified. That will change once I’ve ensured the restorers return to power. Fortunately you’re stupid, hopelessly honorable and pathetically predictable. All I had to do was wait, provide the right stimulus and you violated the no-contact order, allowing me to execute you with no unfortunate consequences.”

Oookay, this just kept getting scarier. The nutcase had lost whatever hold he’d had on reality. The scariest part was the delusional maniac had his ugly mitts on Tori.

Marcus kept his weapon concealed under his right arm while he searched for an opening. But even if the triad got the jump on the armored baddie, a disrupter blast that took down the crazy mech would kill Tori.

A head shot might work. But they’d have to rely on the enemy’s armor to contain the cellular chain reaction. Not a risk he was willing to take.

He didn’t need a mind link to tell Gideon and Horace were on the same page, singing the same coiled-spring-of-alertness verse. Their clenched muscles and quivering tension broadcast the sitch loud and clear.

A chance, a second of inattention, that’s all they needed to show Sebastian what real trouble felt like. They’d make sure he got the deluxe 3-D version, complete color, sound and plenty of pain.

Once the other soldiers were out of sight, Sebastian’s lips twisted in an evil grin. “Maybe I’ll kill you one at a time. A little payback for the trouble you’ve caused me. Plus it gives me the added bonus of traumatizing your human plaything and—”

“How are you planning to silence Tori?” Gideon demanded.

“I’m not. The restorers are launching another team of cyborgs to these coordinates as we speak. They’ve been my allies from the start. Gratifyingly eager to finance my agency coup in exchange for the natural immunity cells in her blood.”

“C-can’t kill a survivor.” Horace glared at Sebastian.

“Nice stutter. What a shame I don’t have time for more torture.” Sebastian dismissed Horace with a cruel smile, switching his attention to Gideon. “Pity to lose a survivor, especially one as exquisite as Victoria. Great victories demand great sacrifices. Victoria will be immortalized for her part in the restorers’ rise to power. I will be the first mech to rise to head of an agency, but enough chatting. Which of you shall I kill first?”

Tori’s pale face blanched whiter. Marcus locked his muscles to hold his position.

“You?” Sebastian moved the disrupter from Tori’s neck, aiming at Horace.

Dull metal blurred as Tori’s hand whipped from her coat pocket straight for the weak seam in his armor and Sebastian’s gut.

He dropped the weapon to clutch his wound and hissed in a breath. “Bitch—”

The rest of whatever the mech wanted to share was lost beneath Gideon’s fist.

As Horace and he moved in to kick some sick mech ass, Sebastian shimmered and vanished into the future.

Marcus picked up his jaw and lowered his frustrated ass-kicker to watch Nigel solidify, pat his insignia then mutter, “About damn time.” He angled toward Tori. “Are you uninjured, my dear?”

Her full lips trembled. “I am now.”

Marcus joined the group hug around Tori. He wanted nothing more than to bury his face in her softness and hold her forever, except for keeping her safe, but they weren’t out of danger. “Another team of cyborgs is due any second.”

“Not anymore. Those who live by the sword, die by the sword, so to speak,” Nigel said with no small satisfaction.

“We thought you were dead. Where the hell have you been?” Gideon huffed.

“I’m not that easy to kill. Sebastian falsified records to make it appear I’d conspired with the restorers, resulting in an unpleasant period of incarceration. A few too many council members were convinced to cooperate. Astonishing what can be accomplished when one has no principles. Nasty piece of work—my late lab tech.

“The governing council finally agreed to monitor the past, specifically this location and era. Sebastian made short work of condemning himself. He will submit to an investigation and be bound by their findings. As horrified as most of the council members were at being taken in, I’m not sure they’ll even reclaim his bots or titanium parts. Abuse of trust makes vile enemies out of allies and all that.”

Nigel cocked his head and extracted something from his replicator. He handed a simple gold band to each warrior. “Sorry to rush, but there’s only time for a basic ceremony.”

Too stunned to reply, Marcus sucked in a breath of surprise. His pals were no better prepared. Horace blinked blankly at the ring. Gideon almost dropped the band, rubbing his bald head.

“Come now, triad. You want to be bound to Tori.” Nigel herded them into the fortress’s main room.

“Only if she wants us.” Gideon got busy studying the floor, so he missed her blush and the adorable way she dropped her lashes.

“Of course I do. I’ve missed the three of you so much.”

Marcus stepped to her left side and laced his fingers with hers. Horace moved to her right, smiling hard enough to hurt himself. Gideon braced her back, his strong arms circling her waist.

From the corner of his eye, Marcus saw the other mechs and the blonde woman join the celebration as Nigel began to speak.

“We gather together to join the lives of three mech warriors and one brave woman in celebration of the love their hearts chose.” He nodded at Horace. “Speak your vow.”

“I will serve and protect Tori with love always.” He slipped the gold band on her ring finger.

Marcus recaptured her left hand and added his ring. “I will serve and protect Tori with love forever.”

“I will serve and protect Tori with love always.” Gideon placed the third ring, forming an interlocking band of gold.

Tori’s gaze caressed each of their faces. “I will serve, obey and love Gideon, Marcus and Horace for as long as my heart beats.”

Nigel beamed back at them. “I pronounce you officially married. Congratulations.”

Each of them captured her mouth for a breath-stealing kiss. When the kisses finally ended the small crowd cheered.

Nigel felt his pockets. “Now where did I put… Ah, here they are.” The director produced a pack of vials and offered them to Tori. “The bots boost your immune system, enhance your healing and extend your normal lifespan to match a mech’s. They’re for you and the other survivors, my dear.”