Read Online Alpha One by Cynthia Eden - Free Book Online Page B

power there.
    Sydney was a woman who’d seen dark things, done dark things. It was all there, the memories, the pain, in her eyes.
    “I thought he did come in with guns blazing,” Juliana said, forcing herself to speak. She remembered him rushing into that room, nearly ripping the door away. Clad in the black ski mask with the big gun in his hands, he’d looked so deadly.
    She hadn’t known who she should fear more. The man with the knife at her throat or the masked man who promised hell.
    “Does he scare you?”
    Juliana’s lashes flickered. She’d have to remember just how observant Sydney could be. Nothing seemed to slip past the woman. “No.” And it was the truth, mostly. No matter how deadly Logan was, she never thought he would physically hurt her.
    But she did fear the way he could make her feel. He stirred too much lust in her. Made her want things she couldn’t have.
    Sometimes he scares me.
    But the full truth was... sometimes I scare myself.
    “Good.” Sydney’s gaze darted back to the men. “And Gunner?”
    Yes. He made her nervous. So did Jasper.
    Her silence must have been answer enough because Sydney gave a little shrug that seemed to say she understood. “Gunner has a special grudge against Guerrero. We were...we were in South America about two years ago. Came on a village that was supposed to be a safe haven for us and for the hostage we’d rescued.”
    “You do that a lot?” Juliana asked. “Rescue people?”
    “We do what needs to be done.” Sydney rubbed her palm over her heart in an almost unconscious motion. “The village... I was the one doing intel. I thought it was safe. I didn’t realize Guerrero had made a deal with a rebel leader in the area. The gunfire started. It was a bloodbath.”
    Juliana glanced at Sydney’s hand. “You were shot.”
    Sydney’s hand dropped. “Gunner was the one who took four bullets, but he still kept fighting. He and I—we were the extraction team. He got me out, too.”
    “And the hostage?”
    Sydney gave a small shake of her head. “Gunner’s brother didn’t make it out.”
    Oh, hell.
    “So you can see why he might seem...determined...to get Guerrero.”
    The men were finished talking. They were heading back toward them. Juliana glanced at Gunner’s eyes. Still dark. Still cold. But...she could have sworn she now saw the echo of pain in his gaze.
    “It wasn’t a sanctioned mission.” Now Sydney was whispering. “We went in, just the two of us, because we had to get him out.”
    There was something there in Sydney’s voice. Something... “Who was the hostage to you?” Juliana asked. Gunner’s brother, but maybe more.
    Sydney just gave her a sad smile. “We all want Guerrero stopped.”
    Juliana nodded.
    “Don’t give up,” Sydney told her. “Whatever happens, keep fighting, keep working with us. Help us take him out.”
    Staring into Sydney’s gaze and seeing the struggle on her face, Juliana realized that walking away from the EOD wasn’t an option. “I will.” She’d do her part. Guerrero was a monster, one who was destroying lives left and right.
    He had to be stopped.
    Logan’s arm brushed hers.
    We’ll stop him.
    * * *
    J ULIANA WASN’T GOING to like this walk down memory lane. Logan knew it even before the woman’s body tensed up, boardlike, in the seat beside his.
    “Why the hell are we here?”
    The here in question would be in the middle of nowhere—or rather, in the middle of the woods in Mississippi. Pulling in front of an old cabin that had seen so many better days, long ago.
    A familiar cabin.
    He pulled the SUV around back. Made sure that it was hidden. There was only one dirt road that led to this cabin. So when the men hunting Juliana came calling, his team would know.
    Logan climbed from the vehicle, swept his gaze past the trees. Jasper and Gunner would be setting up watch points out there, securing the perimeter.
    The location was the perfect trap. And Juliana...
    “Logan, why here? ”
    She