Free Deadly Sight by Cindy Dees Page A

beside her. “You don’t look fine.”
    “I’m good,” she insisted.
    He wasn’t buying that for a minute. “Tell me about it. How did your logic go? If we’re going to be partners and it’s going to put my life in danger, I have a right to know.”
    “Nothing in my past is going to endanger you.”
    Thinking about her past, huh? “They’re just memories. They don’t have the power to hurt you unless you let them.” Her gaze snapped to him as he continued, “All that exists is right now. The past is gone and the future has yet to happen. People get too wrapped up in regretting the one and fearing the other.”
    “My, that’s philosophical of you, Mr. Pierce.”
    “Just keeping it real. Whatever’s bugging you isn’t here right now. It’s a calm night, you have your cable TV back, and you look warm and cozy. Enjoy the moment.”
    She ventured a small smile at him. In the light of the television, her eyes glowed a surreal shade of yellow that was a little unnerving. “The company’s not half-bad, either,” she murmured.
    Their gazes met. She leaned toward him and he met her halfway. But he merely gave her a gentle kiss on the cheek. He made a policy of never taking advantage of a woman’s emotional weakness to hit on her. “Want some hot chocolate?” he asked. “I hear it’s a surefire cure for all that ails a girl.”
    “Who taught you so much about women?”
    “My mother.”
    “You’re a mama’s boy?” she asked in surprise.
    “It was just the two of us when I was a kid. We were close.”
    “Do you talk to her often?”
    The wistful undertone in Sam’s voice took on new significance for him. “We talk as often as I can come up for air. She’d like you. She approves of spunky women.”
    His mother had approved of another young woman a long time ago. The pain started to come, but he shoved it back ruthlessly, focusing instead on the woman seated next to him.
    Hunger flashed across Sam’s face. It must be terrible not having any parents. He was a grown man and didn’t exactly need his mother to tell him how to live, but it was still powerful to know someone out there loved him with a mother’s fierceness. It had saved his life more than once in the past five years.
    He made two cups of hot chocolate and carried them back to the living room. They sipped in companionable silence.
    “Why didn’t you lay a big, wet kiss on me just now?” Sam asked without warning.
    “Because it wouldn’t be sporting to take advantage of you in that way.”
    “ Sporting? Are you English or something? That’s not the first time you’ve said something that sounded like the British Broadcasting Corporation.”
    “Or something,” he answered evasively.
    “If you don’t start telling me about yourself, I’m calling Jeff tomorrow and getting all the dirt on you.”
    He groaned. “I quake in my boots at the stories he could tell you. We were fraternity brothers in college.”
    She grinned knowingly. “Several of the Code X guys are old frat brothers of his. You all must have been really close.”
    “We were. Who else is in Code X from the old gang?”
    “Aiden McKay and Trenton Hollings.”
    “Which are they? Jeep tossers or eagle eyes?”
    “Neither. The researchers are working on different gene sets for each one of us. Aiden swims like a fish and can hold his breath forever, and Trent is fast . His quick twitch reflexes are off the charts. I hear Jeff’s recruiting someone else as we speak. I think Doc Jones has some mental modifications in mind for the next test subject.”
    “Who’s Doc Jones, exactly?”
    “Gemma Jones. She’s one of the leading geneticists in the world. Brilliant woman, if a bit of a geek.”
    “Mental modifications like how?”
    “Are you volunteering for the treatment?” she asked.
    He reared back, shocked. He would never change himself into a—
    A sniff interrupted his train of thought. “Don’t want to be a freak like me, huh? Why am I not surprised?” She