"We are," Piper said softly, noting her mother's hands shaking. "I just don't understand."

Her mom shook her head. "He's a dangerous, bad man, and I was attracted to the sense of bad boy. Never go for a bad boy, Piper." She sighed. "Our affair was short, I saw how dangerous he really was, and I got the h.e.l.l out with you."

"I know." Piper took another bite. "He's not that bad, Mom."

"Yes, he is." Her mom took another drink of wine, her gaze averted. "Even though I was just a lowly receptionist, I discovered something bad was going on there at his facility in Tennessee, and the second I found out I was pregnant, I took off. He didn't come looking."

No, but he hadn't known about Piper, now had he? "What was the something bad?"

"I don't know. But there were so many guns and so many secrets. And Franklin, although he believed he was doing good work for the government, he had his own agenda and probably still does." Her mom reached for her fork, still not meeting Piper's eyes. "I told you we shouldn't have come here."

Piper eyed her mother. "Yet you came with me. Why?"

"Oh, I wasn't letting you go into the lion's den on your own. He's a fanatic, and he'll sacrifice anybody for his agenda." Rachel shook her head. "I can't believe you actually tracked him down from an old picture I'd left in storage with commander scrawled across the back."

Piper smiled. "I'm a h.e.l.l of a hacker." And did Rachel just keep the picture to share someday, or was there hope there? Maybe her parents just needed to be in the same room to work things out. Her mother perhaps objected too much? "I haven't gotten to know him yet, but I want to."

Rachel shook her head. "We all make mistakes, but he's not the type to learn from them."

Piper frowned, her mind spinning. "What aren't you telling me?"

Rachel glanced down at her full plate. "This just wasn't supposed to happen-you weren't supposed to go work for him. Ever."

"He got me out of prison," Piper said.

Rachel sighed. "Did he?"

Piper shook her head. "Yes."

Rachel took a deep swallow of wine. "Then that's enough talking about it. But the second you learn how dangerous he is, we're out of here. We can start a new chain of yogurt shops somewhere else."

Piper nodded. "Fine." Leaving Boston hadn't been that difficult for either of them. "The house is owned by the company, and we have no rent. I make tons of money, so why don't you relax? Or go back to school and study?" She peered closer at her mother. "If you could study anything, what would it be?"

Her mom lifted a slim shoulder and finally met her gaze again. At almost fifty years old, Rachel Devlin looked thirty, tops. Smooth mocha skin just a shade darker than Piper's, bright green eyes, and generous laugh lines showed a woman who smiled often. Well, until they'd moved to Utah. "I guess I could take a photography cla.s.s." Her eyes sparkled. "Unless you're planning to get married and give me a grandchild, in which case I'd be a nanny."

Piper grinned. "Don't hold your breath on that one. I've only been dating Brian for three months." She'd taken the job with the commander at that time, and they'd moved to town.

Her mom's eyes clouded. "I was just kidding."

Piper sipped her drink. She'd started dating Brian the first weekend they'd arrived in town, and while he had a serious side, he was quite sweet. Definitely focused, which she liked. "Why don't you like Brian?"

Her mom sipped more wine. "I like Brian just fine. But he's so..."

"Safe?"

"Rigid. Boring. Focused." Rachel picked at her dinner. "Life is supposed to be fun, and romance should be crazy."

Piper shook her head. "Crazy romance didn't work so well for you, considering you ended up as a single mom. Working your b.u.t.t off with one yogurt shop that turned into ten-you worked so hard."

Rachel kicked her under the table and paled slightly. "Enough."

Piper frowned. "Fine. Do you think you could find some happiness with us in Utah?"

"I'll certainly try." Rachel dumped Parmesan cheese on her plate, her gaze averted.

Piper chewed slowly and swallowed. "Are you sure everything is okay? You get sketchy every time I talk about my-the commander." Was there still a sort of tension there? The good kind? How crazy would it be if her parents actually ended up together? The commander was more than able to take good care of Rachel, and the idea seemed rather romantic, really.

"Everything is fine." Her mother still didn't meet her gaze.

"Right."

Rachel pursed her lips together. "He gave me you. For that, I'll always owe him."

Warmth bloomed through Piper. "You're one of a kind, Mom."

"Let's talk about something else." Rachel cleared her throat just as a rap echoed on the back sliding gla.s.s door.

Piper jumped up. "I wondered if Earl would smell dinner." Sharing a grin with her mother, she pushed aside curtains and tugged open the door. "Hi, Earl."

Their neighbor stood on the back porch, his sixty-year-old frame braced against the wild wind, several mason jars filled with canned fruit in his worn hands. "I brought you peaches."

"Thank you." Piper moved aside. Why didn't the guy just ask her mother out and stop p.u.s.s.yfooting around about it? The guy was in excellent shape, retired, and seemed to love golf and canning foods. As a widower, he could probably get a date with any single woman in the small suburb outside Salt Lake City. Yet he continued to court Rachel like a friendly neighbor. "Would you like to join us for lasagna?" Piper asked.

He pushed his gla.s.ses up a straight nose, brown eyes twinkling. "Why, I'd love to." Putting the peaches on the counter, he turned and frowned. "I received an e-mail from my nephew after you fixed my bank account information. He said you might have goofed up his account?"

Piper bit back an unkind remark about his nephew, the one and only relative the poor guy could claim. "Nope. I just changed your pa.s.swords so he couldn't take any more money from you." She smiled as she lied. Once she'd seen how much money the jerk had taken, she'd sent him a nice little computer virus to melt his hard drive.

Earl shrugged wide shoulders. "That's what I figured. He must not understand much about computers, either."

"They are confusing." She was not letting her kind neighbor be taken advantage of again by his drug-sniffing s.h.i.t of a nephew. So she smiled and patted Earl's arm. "Have a seat, and Mom will dish you up." She cast her mother a look to be nice and not get her feathers ruffled. The sweet neighbor obviously made her nervous.

Earl cleared his throat. "I want to double-check your front right tire before the first snowfall, Piper."

She paused. "Huh?"

"It looks low." He winked at Rachel. "Maybe you can a.s.sist me."

Rachel sputtered and turned a lovely shade of pink. Piper hid her smile but nodded, warmth flushing through her. What a nice man. "Thanks, Earl."

The doorbell pealed.

Piper sighed and hustled to yank open the door. "Brian." She smiled up at his smoothly shaven face. "Did we have plans?" It wasn't normal for him to just show up.

"No." He pushed an errant curl off her forehead. "But you didn't call when you returned home from work, and you always call."

Oh. She'd completely forgotten, but she was happy to see him. "I'm sorry."

He shrugged, strong shoulders moving beneath his expertly cut suit. "I was in the neighborhood showing a house, so I thought to drop by." His blond hair waved back from his cut features, giving him the look of a wayward surfer wearing a suit. Although with his sparkling blue eyes, he looked s.e.xy in the slate gray. "Also, I sold the brick rancher up on the hill and thought we could celebrate with a quick dessert down at Possums."

She blinked. A surprise date? Now that sounded like fun. Then she frowned, remembering the code she needed to write. "I have to work tonight." Regret tasted bitter on her tongue.

Brian frowned. "You don't have time for cheesecake?"

She shuffled her feet. So far, she'd disappointed every male in her life in one day. "I really shouldn't."

He reached for her arm, his fingers warm and firm. Rea.s.suring. "You really should." A quick grin counteracted the demanding tone. "We've talked about you wanting to give more in a relationship, and I'm trying to help break down those walls you've built to protect your heart, which I'd very much like to see." He grinned, all good humor and charm.

She kind of liked her walls, but they had discussed her being more open with him, and she was seriously tired of failing at relationships. "I know, but I need to work."

"Just one hour." He leaned in close, and his mellow aftershave scent of salty ocean surrounded her. She breathed deep.

One hour probably wouldn't put her that far behind, and she liked the spontaneity. Plus, Earl would love to be left alone with Rachel for a little while, and maybe her mother would relax and have some fun. She was certainly due. If the woman wasn't going to rehash the past with the commander, maybe she could find some sweet romance with Earl. "Well, one hour. Then I have to get back to work."

Brian's gaze unclouded. "Perfect. Grab a sweater-it's getting cold."

She nodded and ran inside to kiss her mother on the cheek before fetching a dark green cardigan. She'd celebrate with Brian and then work on the program the rest of the night. Really, who needed sleep?

CHAPTER.

4.

JORY FLIPPED ONTO his stomach on the small cot, sweat coating his body, his heart racing. Somewhere, deep in his mind, he knew he was dreaming.

Even so, he couldn't stop the parade of images ricocheting off imaginary walls. Training as a kid-his first kill-the second he'd escaped. Memories upon memories.

Then, suddenly, the dream mellowed. Slid right into a parody of reality with him in the cage, his brain humming, death inching closer to his spine.

He stood from the cot and faced the empty vestibule. The commander and Dr. Madison morphed through the outside walls to hover beyond his cell, their images wavering in and out like ghouls. The commander drew a Glock and pointed it at Jory's chest.

Interesting. Yet he crouched to defend himself, somehow, because he couldn't die yet. Not before he'd accomplished the one thing he'd been created for: not until he'd saved his brothers. If he had a destiny it was one he'd choose, and saving them would be his final act.

A whisper sounded behind him, and he half turned to find Piper standing barefooted in a pale pink teddy. What the h.e.l.l?

Her green eyes sparkled in her pretty face, giving her the look of pure innocence.

He pivoted to defend her, only to find the outside of the cell empty.

"The monsters are gone," Piper said softly, her hand caressing down his arm.

He turned to stare down at her. "Are you one of the monsters?" His voice echoed hollowly in the dream cage. While he could snap her neck within a second, she posed no real threat and had nowhere to hide a weapon in the nearly see-through material.

She shrugged a slim shoulder, and a tiny strap slid down her arm. The material dipped in the front, revealing one breast. "I come from him, so I'm at least half monster."

Heat sparked Jory's b.a.l.l.s, and his gaze focused on her taut, surprisingly pink, nipple. Against her darker skin, the peak all but begged for his mouth. "We're all part monster. Whose side are you on?" He needed her to choose him. Why, he didn't know. Just that it was imperative.

"I don't know." She sounded lost, even sad. "They'll find out about your gifts-about what you can do. They'll find out about your brothers."

"No." The word exploded from Jory, and he picked her up, shoving her against the far wall. Her legs wrapped around his hips, and before he knew it, his mouth was on her nipple. He sucked hard and then bit before leaning back. "You don't know about my gifts."

"Oh, but I do." A s.e.xy flush engulfed her smooth skin, and an otherworldly glimmer lightened her emerald eyes.

"No." He ripped off the filmy lingerie, leaving her nude. Smooth and toned, so perfect his chest hurt. "You're different, Piper. You have to be."

"Show me," she whispered.

He didn't understand her, and he didn't understand himself. But something, deep down, some part of him, recognized her. Kicking off his shorts, he thrust into her with one hard shove. She clenched around him, her nails biting into his chest.

All of a sudden, he could feel. Emotion, the real kind, the stuff that mattered. Somehow, it was inside him, and he couldn't shove it down deep any longer.

Wild as a lost stallion, he pounded into her, nothing but the sensation of her core gripping him mattering. Hot and tight, she clenched around him, her head thrown back in pleasure.

A bullet whizzed by his head.

Without altering his rhythm, he dropped them to the hard floor and plunged harder. More shots fired over his head, and he didn't care. The electricity shooting down his spine to fill his c.o.c.k consumed every thought, every action.

He came with a roar, sitting up in the bed.

His breath panted out, and he sc.r.a.ped both hands down his face. It all had felt so real. Did the dream mean something? Was his subconscious just f.u.c.king with him? Sighing, he fell back and stared up at the ceiling for several moments as he controlled his body until his heart beat normally.

He stood and quickly cleaned up before pacing his cell.

One day in Piper's presence, and he wanted her naked beneath him.

The commander's daughter.

At first, Jory had wanted to laugh at the absurdity. Then he'd looked. Really looked at her bone structure, the indefinable elements shifting beneath her skin that only he could see. His ability to map terrain, to see patterns, to detect nuances guaranteed she told the truth. While she hadn't inherited the commander's size, the very shape of her eyes, the angle of her chin, and even the symmetry of her cheekbones showed her lineage. She truly was the commander's child.

Jory's shoulders rolled, unsettled, even after he'd cleaned up. So the commander had his own kid, not that Jory had ever wanted the b.a.s.t.a.r.d as a father. Matt had raised Jory with Nate's help, giving both him and Shane the closest thing to a childhood as possible in the h.e.l.lhole of a compound they called home. Not once had he forgotten what his brothers had done, had sacrificed, for him to grow. To live long enough to save them.

The impossibility of Piper struck Jory anew. How had he never known? There had never been a hint. Did the commander actually care for her? Jory had begun to forge a connection with Piper the day before, using her patriotism to question her lying to the NSA. If she believed in the government, she had to wonder why the commander remained outside of it.

The first wedge between them had been almost too easy to plant.

But although he'd be successful, a part of Jory wanted to warn her to run. Hard and fast... away from this place.

How odd that the commander actually had a girl. Lucky Piper. If she'd been a boy, the commander surely would've forced her into training. Interesting the misogynist hadn't tried even though she was female, considering his ego.