Roman’s head jerked up and he began swearing repetitiously. With each oath, the energy spewing from him swirled around Dahlia, black and ferocious.
Get rid of it. Nicolas sounded calm. Dead calm. Ice-cold calm. She knew immediately he was in hunter mode, and he was locked on target.
I didn’t want to distract you.
I don’t get distracted. There was complete confidence in his voice.
Dahlia turned her head and once again focused on the street. Fire rained from the sky. White-hot streaks of orange and red fell in a shower and danced over the street, some flames leaping as high as six feet.
Martin looked at the display with a kind of awe. Roman shifted his weight to the balls of his feet, bringing his knife hand low, blade up, as he lunged at his brother. Dahlia saw the impact of the bullet before the sound reached them. Roman’s body jerked. Like a rag doll, he was flung forward and fell into Martin, driving him to the ground with his dead weight.
The rush of energy hit her hard and fast, sending her over the edge. She fell to the ground, a seizure taking her, bile choking her, fighting to stay conscious to protect the data she had recovered. It was impossible to stay focused as the energy ate her alive, her temperature soaring and the pressure building and building until there was nowhere for it to go.
Kaden reached her first. Nicolas had been trapped on the rooftop, protecting her and, although he was certain of his shot, he didn’t dare take his eyes off his downed target, or even Martin, until Kaden signaled him an all clear. Kaden knelt beside her and put both hands on her shoulders, trying to absorb the energy consuming her. He glanced at Martin who knelt weeping beside his brother. “Are you an anchor?”
Martin hesitated, and then nodded.
“Get the hell over here. Put your hands on her,” Kaden ordered.
Martin complied, somewhat in shock as the other GhostWalkers joined them. Gator made the call to Lily to inform the director of the NCIS that the data was recovered and the traitor found. Nicolas rushed to Dahlia’s side and gathered her into his arms.
“This is the last time. I swear, never again, Dahlia,” he whispered as the convulsion eased and left her staring up at him with wide, dark eyes. “You scare me to death. The only way I’m going to breathe properly again is if you come home with me where I can keep my eye on you around the clock.”
“Just get me to some place where the data will be safe until I can give it to the admiral,” she whispered.
He brushed a kiss across her forehead. “I’m on it.”
* * *
CHAPTER TWENTY
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“When I asked you to bring me somewhere safe,” Dahlia said, “this wasn’t what I had in mind.” She swam to the edge of the pool and shaded her eyes to look up at him. “And I can’t believe you made the director fly out here himself to collect the data. Research, which, by the way, is probably not even going to yield a weapon for them.”
“I didn’t force him,” Nicolas pointed out. “And he could have sent someone else. He wanted to see you.”
Dahlia scowled, or pretended to. She was feeling too relaxed and happy to conjure up much of a protest. “He just wanted to meet you and talk about the GhostWalkers. His poor men are struggling through so many problems. Do you really think Lily can help them?”
“She helped us. I told the admiral all they had to do was call her, identify themselves, and she’d bring them into the program. It isn’t like it’s a deep dark secret that they exist. Lily suspected some time ago that her father had performed the experiment on the girls first, on us, and then on another set of men privately in his laboratories. We haven’t uncovered the research on them, but it was only a matter of time. Dr. Whitney was thorough in his research data. He recorded everything. It’s in the lab, and Lily will find it. They may as well come in and let her help them.”