Twenty-Two

Vale

"We don't have to go," I said, offering Day an out while he drove us toward the club. His hand clasped around mine while he navigated with the other. The grim resolute expression on his face told me more about his nerves than he'd admit, but that was only because I knew him so well. To be sure, he probably thought he was hiding his feelings from me.

Wrong, sir. Wrong.

"Are they expecting us?" he countered.

"Yes. It's ‘family' dinner."

"Then we're going. They'll think…well, probably a lot of things, if I don't show up."

"No, they won't."

He grimaced. "I'm not scared of them, and I've…changed my opinion about them, but if I don't show up, they'll assume things that aren't true."

"What made you change your mind?"

"I learned some information about the club—proving I should have listened to you, for one." He motioned to the building up ahead to the left. "Is that it?"

"Yes," I croaked. Maybe, I was more nervous than he was.

Day pulled up to the gate, and after a moment, it rolled open to allow us entrance.

"There's a camera," I told him. "Otherwise, we'd still be cooling our heels out on the curb. We'll have to get Kale to set you up with a sensor that will automatically let you in."

He nodded, his gaze taking in the area as he parked and scoped out the camera locations. I watched him steel himself, and that alone told me he wasn't quite all in yet, but he was doing this for me.

"Let's go in," he said, but when I reached for the door handle, he grasped my thigh. "Wait for me to come around."

"Oh…" I forgot this about him. Yeah, he'd opened my door on dates, but this wasn't a date. But Dayton Windsor was always in protective mode. It was burned into his DNA, and with current circumstances, it was in overdrive.

As soon as he'd opened the door and guided me down to my feet, his arm went around me to usher me inside. The moment we stepped through the door, though, I knew something was off. How could I not? But it took a moment to process exactly what I was seeming.

"What the hell?" I whispered while Dayton's fingers tightened on my waist, silently telling me he saw it, too. He shifted, adjusting me partially behind him.

In front of us, Wrecker seemed to be levitating a trio of metal plates while Turk flung lightning bolts at him. Biter, Ice and Kale were yelling at the pair to cut it out. Ice, for his part, also seemed to be shooting sheets of ice between Wrecker and Turk.

My brother dove toward Turk, his hands glowing, but Turk flung a lightning bolt at Kale's chest, the light from it emerging from Kale's back. My brother flew backward onto his ass, skidding for a few feet. Biter dove at Wrecker, while Ice shot a blanket of ice at Turk, freezing him in place.

It was my scream that cut through it all. Day grabbed me when I tried to run toward Kale, then pushed me behind him again, his arm reaching around to keep me clamped to his back. My fingers clutched in his shirt, while I peered around his shoulder.

I appreciated his protection, but what good could he be against energy bolts. He'd be better off with me in front of him. The guys wouldn't hurt me. At least, I didn't believe they would. But I never would have believed this, either, or that Turk would hurt Kale.

"Assholes!" Kale yelled, rolling back to his feet. His hands glowed, and he slammed his palms in the direction of the fighting men, a blur of energy flooding toward the four men still in the fray. They fell like bowling pins hit with a steamroller.

"Ow," Biter complained from where he'd hit the floor. "What the fuck, man? I'm on your side."

"You also didn't have my six. Turk!" he demanded. "Explain."

"Just sparring. It…got out of hand."

"You think?" Wrecker growled.

"Hey, Vale. Welcome back to the jungle," Planny called from where he lounged across the room with Prick and Glare, who both offered chin lifts.

"You knew about this?" Day asked me.

"No." I turned toward Kale and echoed his words. "What the fuck?"

He shrugged. "You're bringing Dayton into the fold—at least, I assume you are." He narrowed his eyes at Day in some warning I didn't understand. "This wasn't exactly how we planned to break things to him." He looked back at the four still on the ground amidst knocked over furniture. "Clean this up. Vale and Dayton and I are going to talk. And Prick's gonna get a blood sample."

"Break it to Dayton?" I exclaimed, stepping from behind the man in question. "How about telling me?"

Kale shrugged again. "Thought you knew. We're not exactly covert around you."

The hundreds of times I'd thought my eyes were fooling me all piled in one on top of the other.

"You never did that." I weakly gestured toward the main room where they'd fought.

"They were just showing off."

"What? And what do you mean blood sample?" I asked.

"Let's go to my office."

"That's it?" I asked incredulously. "You put X-Man crap on display then act like it's nothing?"

"Vale. My office." Without giving me room to argue, he pivoted on his heel and walked away.

"Baby girl, we can leave if you want," Day told me quietly.

"No, I don't think we can," I replied, feeling as if we'd accidentally walked into Hotel California.

"You're right," Biter said, coming up beside us. "He won't let you just run off. Let's go." He jerked his head in the direction Kale had gone. As we followed that way, I noticed Prick had indeed, fallen in with us, a small caddy in his hand.

Kale was seated behind his desk when we entered, and he motioned toward the chairs across from him.

"We were part of an experimental program in the military. Elite," he started without preamble or niceties.

"Like SEALs?" I asked.

"Not SEALs. Fuck," Prick grunted, setting his caddy on Kale's desk.

"No, not SEALs," Kale answered, ignoring his cohort. "When they came to me about a secret team, I thought that's what it would be—some sort of new special force that other countries didn't know about. I was right, but I was very wrong, too. They wanted super soldiers."

"Okay…" I said, drawing out the word and hoping he'd explain.

"It's ironic, really, that you'd call us X-Men out there." He jerked his head toward the main room. "The program is called X-24. Only people with certain gene signatures are eligible—mostly because it's our genes that are compatible with the X-24 serum." He looked over at Day. "That's why Prick's going to take a blood and tissue sample, if you'll let him. To see if you can be one of us."

"One of you? I don't have any special abilities," Day denied.

"Brennan does," I said before I thought better of it.

"None of us had abilities, either," Kale offered. "I grew out of my Superman fantasies when I was seven, because it was very clear I couldn't fly. You don't remember that Vale, but I jumped off the roof, just to prove I could—you know like pushing someone into the deep end to make them swim? I didn't fly. I broke my arm. Then in the Marines—which SEALs are not part of, by the way—I learned I could be a superhero."

"Oorah," Biter said in an undertone.

"Oorah," Kale and Prick echoed.

"So…I could have this gene?" I asked.

"You do. You're my twin. That's why we only need to check Day—if he wants."

"Is this part of DARPA?" Day asked, asking about the government's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

"No. They wish. I wasn't kidding about how deep state this is. The X-24 program's agency isn't on any of the books, but they've got multiple research facilities running, in multiple countries. All with one objective: super soldiers."

I looked over at my man who'd been listening intently to my brother, his hand clamped around mine.

"And you're telling me why…?" he asked.

"You're with my sister, and you can be an asset. You'd still be taking down bad guys. You'd just be fighting with a new team."

"And if I do, and if I then decide to have this serum—which I'm assuming is the pathway—what should I expect? That?" Day gesture over his shoulder to indicate the fight.

Kale steepled his fingers and regarded us. "The treatment is multiple sessions over the course of months. It's not like getting stuck in some Captain America machine and coming out…different a few minutes later. And I can't tell you what abilities you'd have. Super speed, super strength. You'd have those. The rest… Everyone is different."

"That's if you even have the gene," Biter said, from where he leaned against the wall beside the door.

"True," my brother conceded. He raised a brow at Day. "So we let Prick take the samples? Then we can get down business. Even if we forget X-24 for now, we need to discuss your ex-partner."

Dayton held out his arm, looking at Prick. "Go for it."

"You don't have to," I said.

"I do. I'll do anything to protect you. From anything and from anyone. If I could do that, what we saw out there, no one will hurt you."

My heart melted, and I loved him even more.

"For what it's worth," Kale said while Prick quickly drew several vials of blood and swabbed Day's cheek. "I think you picked a good one, sis."

"I did. He's the best."

Kale slapped a hand over his heart. "I'm wounded."

I rolled my eyes. "I highly doubt that. You're invincible, right?"

"Not quite."

"So, what about Dutch?" Day asked all business as he cut across our teasing. His hand wrapped mine again, fingers twining through mine. "What did you find out?"

"He's a high-level soldier for a drug cartel out of Brazil."

"The Marreta…" Dayton growled. "We were investigating them a few years ago before they went to ground. A joint operation with the DEA and to a lesser degree the Justice Department. My department suspects they're back but that they've turned to meth and fentanyl. DEA thinks it's a local problem, though."

"It's not," Biter supplied. "And they know it. We've been investigating the Marreta, too." His brow raised. "It's so funny how your investigation and ours intersect, huh?"

"Biter…" Kale warned.

"Whatever, boss," Biter replied, uncowed by the reprimand in Kale's tone.

"Dutch made a fatal mistake. He threatened my sister. The Ghosts have other priority missions, but when one of our own is targeted, our sole mission is threat elimination," my brother continued.

Day stared into Kale's eyes. "Funny," he said, echoing Biter. "That's my sole mission, too."