Red Awakening (Red Zone 2)

He let out a huff. “The other window we need to get through is on the small side. But you’ll fit. You can go into the stairwell and open the door from the inside to let me in. It’s a fire escape. It won’t have a biometric scanner on the inside.”

“And what about the cameras, smart-ass? How will you sneak past them in order for me to let you in?”

“I’ll deal with it. You just need to get that door open for me.”

She suddenly felt light-headed. “You’re serious? You want me to go out there? Alone? Let me list all the things I’d rather do first—have my fingernails removed with pliers, have needles stuck in my eyeballs, have—”

“Stop.” He held up a hand. “You are seriously gory. No, I don’t want you to go out there alone. Who the hell knows what you’d do while you’re out there. If ever a woman needed a keeper, it’s you. I’ll walk you along the ledge. I’ll break the window and make sure you get inside. Then I’ll come back in here and make my way to the door, where you can let me in.”

Well, that answered at least one question—he was definitely insane.

“That is the dumbest plan I’ve ever heard. We need to go with my plan. We hide in a closet and wait for Enforcement to rescue us.” Yeah, her plan looked all kinds of awesome.

His eyes darkened, drawing her attention to the thick black lashes that framed them. Feminine lashes. Completely out of place on a man who was the brutal definition of male. “Princess, I can’t let Enforcement rescue me.”

Her heart missed a beat. The way he said it, that tone. He was telling her that Enforcement would arrest him, not save him. Of course they would. He was a criminal.

Mace pointed behind them. “Go crouch behind the sofa while I break this window. I don’t want you getting hit by flying glass.”

“I’m not going out on that ledge. I’m afraid of heights.”

“Then don’t look down, because you don’t have a choice. Freedom’s soldiers are getting closer, and they’re looking for you. If they find you, you’ll die.”

“If I go out there, I’ll die.” She shuddered at the thought of plunging to her death.

His face softened, and his big hand came up to cup her cheek. She didn’t know why she let him touch her, why she didn’t step back out of his reach. Instead, her breath hitched in her throat, and she stood, mesmerized, in front of him.

“I know you don’t have a lot of reason to believe anything I say, but trust me on this: I will not let you die. I won’t let Freedom get you. And I sure as hell won’t let you fall off that ledge.” His eyes went liquid with an emotion she couldn’t read, but seeing it made her heart ache. “Please, Keiko, in this one thing at least, trust me. Let me protect you. It’s all I can give you to pay you back for the damage I’ve caused.”

The ache in her chest grew, and she fought the urge to rub the spot. “If you let me fall, I will come back and haunt you.”

His lips quirked into a tiny smile. “I can live with that.” He straightened, his hand falling from her face. “Now go hide behind the sofa.”

“Won’t the sound of the glass breaking attract attention?”

“They won’t hear it. They’re too far away. Now stop delaying the inevitable and go hide.”

“You know how crazy this all is, right?”

“Yeah.” He snorted. “Trust me. It gets a whole lot crazier than this. You’re only experiencing the tip of the iceberg.”

A gunshot rang out from somewhere on their floor, and her eye

s flew to the door, as though she might be able to see through it.

“They’re getting close,” Mace said.

“How do we know it isn’t Enforcement coming to save us?”

“We only heard one shot. If Enforcement stormed the place, all hell would break loose. Go. Get behind the sofa.” He tugged her away from the wall and pushed her toward the sofa. “Cover your ears.”

Against her better judgment, Keiko did as she was told. All the while praying that her fragile trust in Mace wasn’t simply stupidity on her part.

…

Mace ran a hand through his hair as he watched Keiko hide. There was a good chance that what he planned would go seriously wrong. He’d only tried to dampen noise a couple of times since his genetics had changed and he’d been given new abilities by the experimental weapon that ended the Tech War and inadvertently created the Red Zone. His abilities weren’t ones that normal humans should have. But he did have them, and he’d been working to master them.

Working being the operative word.