Flashing his gaze in Luca’s direction before glancing back at the path ahead of him, Luca knew what was coming before the words left Asher’s mouth.
“On the run? Scared at the sight of you? You thought about the fact she might be from the facility?”
Luca didn’t hesitate.
“She’s not.”
Asher said nothing. The doubt in his eyes told Luca that he wasn’t in complete agreeance though.
“Meet her and you’ll see.” Luca kept his eyes ahead, subconsciously speeding up his pace again.
“We didn’t even know we were being used as live experiments until it was too late. We trusted people we shouldn’t have. Put our lives in their hands. Hard to trust your gut after that.”
“I know.” And Luca did. The whole team felt the pain of being used and lied to.
“It tears me up, man. We were SEALs. We should have been better than that. It took the fucking government exposing them for us to know what shit was going down.” The rage in Asher’s voice mirrored Luca’s. “Then they think some compensation money is going to fix it? Make us go away? Not gonna happen. I’m going to find every last person who had something to do with the project and make sure they pay.”
“You’re not alone, Striker,” Luca said, using Asher’s team name. “Don’t worry, brother, we’ll find every last doctor, nurse, scientist, and soldier that thought we could be their drug testers.”
Asher nodded with steely eyes. At that moment, he looked as deadly as they’d created him to be. Asher was a weapon. Just like Luca and the rest of the team. Project Arma had seen to that.
“We should start heading back, I’m taking the early class today.” Asher’s voice pulled Luca back to the present.
With a nod, they started heading back to his house before they began work for the day.
The team used their blood money to open their own business, Marble Protection. It was where they were able to teach self-defense classes and provide community security services. Behind the scenes, the team also got called on by the US military to complete missions that ordinary soldiers couldn’t complete. That was in addition to their own team project of finding the missing members of Project Arma.
As they got closer to Luca’s house, his mind again went back to Evie. Maybe he would catch another glimpse of her today.
“Is that your girl?” As if conjuring her up with his thoughts, Luca looked up to see Evie’s face between the curtains of her window. She probably thought they couldn’t see her. A hint of a smile touched Luca’s lips at that. He could see every speck on her face right down to the spots of flour covering her left cheekbone.
“That’s Evie.” The feel of her name between his lips felt right.
“I can see why you keep thinking about her.” Asher’s words pulled Luca’s gaze to his friend. Realizing he wasn’t the only one staring at Evie. Anger rose in Luca’s chest, but he wasn’t sure why. He had no claim over her. Had only spoken to her once. Yet the thought of his friend with her made his blood boil.
“Eyes straight ahead, Striker.” A short chuckle escaped Asher, but he remained silent. Smart. “I’m going to ask Jobs to do a background check on her.”
Luca hadn’t realized he was going to say those words, but now that they were out, he knew it was the right decision. Jobs, also known as Wyatt, was part of the team and had a knack for technology. He was every bit as lethal as them, but he had the added bonus of being a genius. If they ever needed information, he was their guy.
“Good idea. We can never be too safe.”
Damn straight.
Luca knew the exact moment Evie realized he was looking at her. There was a slight widening of her eyes, and her lips formed an “O” as she gasped. The curtains were immediately drawn shut, and Evie disappeared.
Holding back a chuckle, Luca slowed to a walk as they approached his front yard. Even though they had just run the equivalent of a mini-marathon, neither Luca nor Asher had broken a sweat. It had been a year since their enhanced abilities had taken effect, and the whole team was still discovering the full extent of what they could do.
“How’s Jobs doing with the Project Arma file?” Luca asked as his mind flicked back to Project Arma. Their biggest lead right now was an encrypted file that had been sent to the gym by an anonymous source. Wyatt had been working on it for a while to no avail.
“No progress yet.” Luca tried not to feel dejected by the response, but the longer it took, the further those they hunted would run. It had already been a year. A year and all they had to show for themselves was a file that seemed impossible to open. “He’ll get it, Rocket. When has Jobs had a file he couldn’t crack?”
Luca needed to focus on that. Wyatt was a soldier first, closely followed by computer genius. He could hack any system, apart from seemingly this one.
Entering the house, Luca and Asher headed to the kitchen for water.
With three bedrooms upstairs and the living space downstairs, the house was slightly too large for just Luca. The moment he’d seen that the house came with miles of empty woods as a backyard though he’d been sold.
As Luca opened the fridge, he listened out for Evie next door. He could faintly hear her moving around.
Since acquiring the ability to hear almost anything, the team trained their ears to block out the sounds they didn’t want to listen to, but for Luca, that didn’t include Evie.
Both men moved to the kitchen bar.
“Want me to give Jobs a call about Evie?” Asher asked, opening his bottle.
“No, I’ll ask him when I go in today.” Giving a nod, Luca was about to sit when a bang next door made them both stop in their tracks.
Moving his body before his brain could catch up, Luca was stopped by a hand on his arm as he reached for the door.
“Knock, Rocket.” When Luca went to pull his arm free, Asher firmed his grip. “You don’t know what happened and you don’t want to show her anything that she doesn’t already know.”
Asher was right. Nodding, he moved through the door and across the yard at a slower pace. When he reached Evie’s door, Luca took a breath before knocking.
“Evie?” There was a sharp intake of breath on the other side of the door, followed by a shuffling sound. When that was followed by silence, Luca realized Evie probably wasn’t planning to answer.
“It’s Luca from next door.” More silence. “I was just out the back of my place and heard a bang, wanted to check you were okay.”
Clenching his fists, Luca had to forcibly stop himself from breaking down the door. The more time that passed, the more he thought of screwing it all and just going in. Preparing to kick the door in, he stopped at the sound of her throat clearing.
“I’m okay.” There was an awkward pause before she continued, “Thank you for, ah, checking.”
Glancing back at his own house, Luca noticed Asher’s eyes narrow through the window. Ignoring his friend, he turned his head back to the door.
“It would really make me feel better if I could see that you’re okay, sweetheart. I could call someone for you if you’d prefer.”
“No, don’t call anyone,” this time her response was instant and tinged with fear. He heard her movement before the door cracked open, stopped by a chain.