Page 33

“Overwatch, do you have eyes on the target?”

Rona leaned forward in the pilot’s seat, her eyes glued to the display in front of her.

In addition to the bird’s-eye-view that she used for most missions, this time she also had access to an array of smaller images running across the bottom.

These images were coming from the security cameras inside the building her teammates were currently infiltrating.

A few minutes earlier, Zeth had hacked the camera system to stream directly to the ship.

He’d also set it up so that the guards in the security station would be seeing a loop of old images.

That way they wouldn’t see the other Mercs stalking.

But such a ruse would only work for so long.

Eventually, someone in the security station would finally notice.

That meant Rona and her guys couldn’t drag ass.

They needed to work fast.

Rona quickly scanned her eyes over the security camera images.

They showed the interior of a large and lavishly appointed penthouse condominium.

Two big foyers with elevator access, one for the north side of the building, one for the south.

A spacious living room area with a sunken lounge in the center.

A kitchen where an entire team of chefs were currently hard at work preparing dinner.

A bedroom where a trio of expensive-looking prostitutes were snorting neurocaine off a mirror.

And there, in the southeast quadrant, was the target.

Robert Dietrick was a lithe, athletic man who appeared to be in his late thirties, though Rona knew from reading his dossier that he was closer to seventy-five.

His youthful appearance and physique had nothing to do with clean living.

Rather, they were the result of numerous plastic surgeries, bionic augmentations, and nanotech treatments—luxuries which he could afford thanks to his numerous and diverse business investments.

At the moment, Dietrick was doing laps.

“Got him,” Rona said.

“Indoor pool, southeast quadrant. Continue straight until the end of the corridor, then left. Be advised, there are two guards waiting around the corner.”

“Acknowledged.”

Rona watched as Aeron advanced on the map, his body a bright-white heat signature moving down the length of the corridor.

Murdok was right behind him, covering his sexy rear.

Without taking her eyes off the map, Rona turned her head slightly so her lips could reach the large straw positioned beside her head.

She took a big slurp of the smoothie she had prepared just before the mission.

Banana, peanut butter, oats, and honey all blended together with milk.

It was ice cold and absolutely delicious.

And of course, her three mates had flavored it with some of their own thick cream.

The touch of saltiness balanced out the sweetness of the honey perfectly.

The fact that Rona was enjoying a little snack while performing her overwatch duties was in no way indicative of laziness on her part.

Quite the opposite, in fact.

These days, she was hungry all the time.

Having some nutrients on hand was an absolute necessity for keeping her mind sharp and focused.

On the map, Aeron and Murdok reached the corner and paused.

“Two guards?” Aeron asked.

“Affirmative,” Rona answered.

“Looks like they’re talking. You should have no trouble taking them both down before they even know you’re there.”

“Let’s see…”

Rona watched as Aeron quickly rolled past the corner and fired two short bursts from his rifle.

The suppressor on the end of the barrel swallowed most of the sound.

The guards painted the wall behind them with their blood, then slumped to the floor.

“Two down,” Aeron said.

“Where to next?”

Rona brushed a stray lock of hair out of her eyes.

She’d been letting it grow for the past eight months, and now it was at that annoying stage where it was still too short to tie it back, but long enough to get in the way.

Still, she liked the way it felt when her guys pulled it, so she decided to keep letting it grow.

“Right, then straight,” she said.

“The pool is just through the double doors. Be advised, there are four guards keeping watch over the target, one in each corner of the room.”

“Acknowledged. I’ll take the left, you take the right, good?”

Murdok’s voice answered: “Sounds good to me, boss.”

Rona took another big drink from her straw, then she focused on the display.

Her heart was pumping hard and fast inside her.

She knew the Mercs were going to be okay.

Over the past eight months, they’d done a couple dozen missions together, and in that time, none of her guys had sustained so much as a scratch.

Still, that didn’t keep her from getting a bit nervous whenever it was time for shit to hit the fan.

She said one of the prayers Zeth had taught her, murmuring it under her breath so as not to distract the Mercs.

Aeron and Murdok crashed through the double doors with guns blazing.

Their suppressed rifles made soft phut-phut-phut sounds as they fired.

All four guards dropped before they had a chance to shoot back, but one of them died with his finger on the trigger, and his rifle sprayed a half-dozen bullets up into the ceiling.

That just left one person.

The target. Dietrick.

It was Dietrick who had been behind the whole Riadne Mine fiasco.

Brundage had given him up after the villagers had questioned him.

Rona didn’t know what method of interrogation the villagers had used, and she didn’t know what they had done to Brundage after.

She only knew that the little man hadn’t been around anymore when she and the Mercs had gone back to collect their paycheck.

At that point, Riadne stocks were riding high, and the villagers had been willing to fork over a little extra money to put out a contract on the man responsible for the deaths of their friends and colleagues.

It had been Rona’s idea to do a deep dive on Dietrick’s business practices.

Turned out the man had an M.O.

He would intentionally tank the stock prices for a business, often through the use of violence.

Then he would buy up the shares at a low price and reap the benefits later, after the price came back up.

Over the past couple weeks, Rona and her guys had been able to pick up a few more contracts on Mr. Dietrick.

And tonight, they would fulfill them all.

Rona watched as Dietrick surged up from the far end of the swimming pool and started to make a run for it.

He was wearing nothing but a tiny little black thong, and his wet hair was slicked back on his head.

He was, Rona supposed, technically sexy, but he definitely wasn’t her type.

Not at all.

She only had three types, and tonight all three of them were down there in Dietrick’s condo, trying to kill the man.

It was Murdok who went for the money shot.

He dropped to one knee and took aim on the fleeing trillionaire.

Just as he pulled the trigger, however, Dietrick’s feet slipped on the wet tiles and he tumbled to the floor.

The bullets missed by inches, shattering the glass in the double doors on the other side of the room.

“Shit!” Murdok cursed.

Aeron was currently in the process of reloading.

By the time he’d slapped a fresh magazine into his rifle, Dietrick had managed to scramble through the doors and around the corner.

“He’s a quick little fucker,” Murdok said.

“I’ll give him that.”

“Bionic implants,” said Aeron.

“Overwatch, are you tracking him?”

“Affirmative,” Rona answered.

“He’s heading for the hangar, just as we expected.”

“You hear that, Zeth? He’s coming to you.”

“Acknowledged.”

Rona darted her eyes to the section of the map depicting the security center on the lower floor of the condominium.

As she’d feared, the guards there had heard the ruckus in the pool room, and now they were rushing upstairs to check it out.

“Guys, be advised, you’ve got ten units heading your way, and they look pissed.”

“We’ll handle the guards, sweetheart. You just get the ship to the extraction point.”

“Yes, sir!”

Rona switched off the display and took hold of the controls.

When the Mercs had first brought her on board the Talionis , she’d fantasized about flying the ship.

Now, after eight months of practice, she was actually able to do it, and she was pretty darn good at it too.

She nudged the control stick forward, and the ship dove toward the city below.

Dietrick’s penthouse was on the upper floors of the tallest building in the city.

Until a few moments ago, the Talionis had been hovering two thousand feet above that tower.

Now, in one smooth swooping motion, Rona brought the ship into position, with the nose pointing right at the eastern face of the building.

She took another drink from her straw.

The tube gurgled as she drained off the last of her smoothie.

She would have to remember to make a bigger batch next time.

Directly in front of her, set into the wall of the tower, she could see what appeared to be a massive metal door.

Now, as she watched, that door started to open like a mouth, revealing the brightly lit hangar within.

There was a sleek, white flier parked inside.

A man in a skimpy thong bathing suit was climbing into the cab.

As expected, Dietrick had fled to the hangar, which was his quickest means of escape.

Rona could have easily blasted him to smithereens with her forward cannons, but she didn’t do that.

Dietrick had a quieter death in store.

The man switched on the flier’s ignition and flipped on the headlights.

Then he looked out through the windshield, and his eyes grew wide as he saw the Talionis hovering outside.

It was the last thing he would ever see.

A voice came through the speakers.

“Good evening, Mr. Dietrick…”

This was followed by a whimper.

Something moved in the backseat of the flier.

A large, dark shape.

Rona could see a quick glint of steel as the blade came around in front of Dietrick’s throat.

Then the windshield of the flier was suddenly painted red from the inside.

“The target has been eliminated,” Zeth said.

“Good work,” said Aeron.

Rona could already see him running into the hangar, and Murdok was right behind him, firing back at the guards who were pursuing them.

“Preparing for extraction!” she said.

Rona set the Talionis ’s thrusters to keep it hovering in place, then she turned the ship ninety degrees and pressed a button to open the hatch on the side of the ship.

She sidled in as close as she could get without scraping the wings against the building.

The distance would have been too far for most ordinary men to jump, but for the Mercs, it was no problem.

The ship rocked slightly as they all jumped aboard.

“Everybody on?” Rona asked.

“Affirmative,” Aeron said.

“Let’s get the hell out of here.”

His voice wasn’t just coming through the speakers anymore.

She could hear him behind her, in the ship’s main corridor.

Rona pulled back on the controls and gunned it, sending the Talionis skyward.

By the time the Mercs had stepped into the cockpit with her, they were already at thirty-thousand feet and climbing.

Rona wanted to greet them, but she had to stay focused on flying for a few seconds longer.

Getting through the stratosphere was always a bit squirrelly.

She waited until the ship was in space before setting the controls to auto and swinging her seat around to face her guys.

They stood before her in all their masculine glory.

Handsome Aeron with his thick beard and blazing eyes.

Ugly Murdok with his scars.

Pretty Zeth was drenched in blood.

It became him.

“Well done,” Aeron said.

“You’re getting better and better with each mission.”

Rona blushed with pride, but she tried to play it off.

“You guys did all the hard work,” she said.

“We could not have done it without you.”

Aeron leaned down and kissed her softly on the lips.

Murdok did the same.

Then Zeth. The latter’s lips tasted of blood.

After he had kissed Rona’s mouth, he knelt and pressed another kiss lower down.

Rona was wearing a sports bra to support her breasts, but it left her midriff exposed.

Zeth’s mouth left a bloody kiss mark on her big pregnant belly.

Rona felt her baby stir in response.

She was due in another month.

She’d never been so excited for anything in her life, and she could tell her three men felt the same way.

It hadn’t seemed possible that their love for her could have grown any stronger, or that they could have become even more protective of her.

And yet, somehow, that was exactly what had happened.

As her belly grew and grew, Rona felt her mates’ love growing too.

She felt it in the way they looked at her.

The way they kissed her.

The way they fucked.

There was a time when Rona had been worried about the fate of her child, but that time was long since past. She understood that her child would not have an easy life.

He would become a Merc someday.

The training would be brutal and intense.

But her child had the blood of warriors in his veins.

He would survive the training and come out on the other side strong and self-sufficient.

He would be equipped to endure any hardship, to defend against any enemy.

He would take anything and everything the unforgiving universe threw at him with a smile.

As for the more immediate task of raising a baby, Rona wasn’t concerned.

Sure, it would be a challenge, but they would figure it out.

She and her mates killed people for a living.

They were good at it.

The best. Rona was pretty sure they could handle raising a kid.

They would do it together, as a team.

As a family.