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  “Nothing?”

  “Look”—I blew out a breath—“he said not to trust you.”

  “You know you have nothing to fear from me.”

  “Do I?” I looked up into his eyes.

  “Yeah.” He lowered his voice, leaning in. “Can we talk in private?” He looked over at Max and his group.

  No way could this man be planning to betray me. He had the chance a hundred times over in the last few days and never took it. My gut told me Max misread him. “Okay.”

  Eli slipped his hand into mine and pulled me out into the hall and toward the nurse’s office. He held a chip implant in his hand.

  “Where did you get that?”

  “It doesn’t matter.” Eli held the chip over the reader by the door, and it slid open. “After you.”

  As soon as the door closed and locked, I spun around to face Eli. “What’s all the secrecy for?”

  He stepped up, slid his palms along my cheeks and threaded his fingers in my hair. Tilting his head, he leaned in. “Because I want to kiss you.”

  “Oh.” My heart pounded and muscles clenched. Kiss. The moment in the cave came back, slamming into me like a tsunami. Eli didn’t kiss, he possessed. God knew I wanted to feel it again, no matter what a bad idea it might be. Being kissed by Eli was a force of nature unlike anything I’d experienced before, and would likely ever experience again. His mouth crashed into mine as he seized control, as though it would be the last time he did this. I opened to him, unable to stop. He backed me up to a bed, and then we were sinking onto it, his body pressing me to the mattress.

  I knew I should tell him to stop. Pull away. Question why the kiss, why now, but I wanted him as much as he wanted me and had since he’d locked lips with me in the cave. Stopping where this went would be like putting the brakes on a hurricane. Impossible.

  One of his hands left my hair and slid underneath my shirt, up the bare skin of my stomach, and cupped my breast. I gasped, but didn’t stop him or even try to object. No man had ever touched me there unless they were a doctor administering a physical, and nothing about Eli’s touch felt clinical.

  “You are so damn beautiful.”

  Watch your back. Max’s words came back to me.

  I closed my eyes and surrendered to his touch. All my life, I’d held people at arm’s length, never letting anyone get close enough to touch, let alone know me, other than Tyler and he’d never touched me in this manner. This was different. Eli, in a matter of days, shattered both barriers I’d erected around myself.

  He skimmed his hand down, stopping to tug at the buttons on the front of my cargos. Pop, the first one released. “I want you,” he whispered, kissing along my jaw. Pop. Another. My heart began a drum roll. “I tried to resist.”

  Speaking of which. Alarms went off in my head when I remembered what he’d said to me our first night in the cave. Using all my willpower, I reached down and grasped his hand as he went for the third button. “Why are we doing this, Eli? You told me you didn’t have anything left in your heart for another woman.” A large knot lodged in my throat. There, I’d said it, instantly regretting ever single word which had left my lips. I didn’t want to stop, but in a manner of a few words I’d slammed the brakes on.

  “I thought that too, but when we almost died on the elevator, I realized I’ve been punishing myself for the last four years, denying happiness where I could find it. I’ve wanted you from the moment I met you, and I might never get another chance to explore whatever this is between us. So I decided to stop resisting.”

  And there it was. End of the world sex, or Eli’s version of it—which told me he didn’t have complete confidence we’d make it. “There’s always tomorrow, or the day after. I’m not going anywhere, Eli. Nobody is until we get the portable EM generators built and running.”

  “Yeah.” He traced a finger along the curve of my face while staring deep into my eyes. “There’s that.” The motion, much more innocent than ripping my clothes open, proved to be twice as seductive. Need flooded through me, immersing every cell of my being with desire.

  I captured his hand again, this time holding his palm cupped against my cheek, not ready for the warmth to leave as I did my best to focus against the distraction he did such a fantastic job creating. “What are you not saying?”

  “The soldiers I spoke with a few minutes ago told me a group of students are trapped on a pede at the station here on campus. Tomorrow morning, whether you have your generator done or not, I’m taking a team to rescue them. We figure we have two hundred yards between the train and a building where we can take shelter. We can’t leave students. They don’t have water or food, and the bees have managed to fry the circuitry on the train. The pede is dead where it stands. They’ll bake inside the train without a cooling system. I can’t leave them out there if there’s any chance they can be saved.”

  A sharp pain knifed through my chest. And back to Eli’s end of the world—and what I’d come to realize in short order would be mine. “You could get killed.”

  “Yes.”

  “How will I finish this mission?” Alone? Now I’d been with him for a few days, I didn’t like the thought of being by myself again. As crazy as it sounded, I’d grown fond of the idea of having him in my life.

  “You will. You know the stakes, what will happen if you don’t.” He used his thumb to stroke my bottom lip. My stomach went through a series of tumbles and little jolts raced from the tips of my fingers and toes to my center. There might not be a tomorrow, but we did have now, and now I knew the urgency.

  I searched his eyes for anything which might tell me he believed he’d come back and I wouldn’t have to shut the towers down alone. He knew he might die, and I sure as hell didn’t plan to let it happen. “I’m going with you.”

  “You can’t. You’re too important.”

  “I think I know where to find the codes, and there is some specialized equipment in the nano-cosmetology department over by the station which will help me with it, a cosmetic nanite recalibrator.”

  “Cosmetology?” Eli rolled over and sat up. “What’s it got to do with the codes?”

  “My hair has been out of whack since I had the processor and nanites installed. Something is causing a conflicting signal, and I think it might be another set of nanites. Someone put them there, probably right after my birth. Since their purpose doesn’t seem to be linked to anything I did in programming hives or for daily life functions, they can only be there for one reason.”

  “The codes to the towers.”

  “Yes.”

  Eli grinned. He flipped back over to cover me and nipped my chin, earlobe, and down my shoulder. “I still want you.”

  I reached up and grasped both sides of his face. “Then what are you waiting for?”

  16

  Dawn came too quick. I stretched and patted the empty space next to me. “Eli?” When I opened my eyes, I found myself alone. Alarm exploded through me when I realized what it meant. I jolted up, clutched the sheet to my chest and glanced around the empty medical room. My clothes were gone, along with the scheming rebel I’d made love with all night.

  “Shit!” I leapt out of the bed and grabbed one of the thin cotton blankets, wrapping it around my torso. He’d gone without me and had taken my clothes, perhaps believing it would stop me from going after him.

  But he didn’t know me well enough to have learned I have a stubborn streak a mile wide, one which grew bigger when someone tried to force me to do their bidding, as Eli had. When I caught up with him, if I caught up with him before he got his dumb ass killed, I’d—

  Knock. Knock.

  I growled, stomped to the door and threw it open. Max stood outside with a cup of coffee in hand. “Eli said you might like this.”

  “Where is the bastard?”

  “Good morning to you too.” He handed me the cup. “He told me to tell you he’d be back by noon.”

  “Right.” I took a sip and groaned, some of my anger leaching away
at the taste of the exceptional cup of java, but not enough to not want to kill the rebel if I got my hands on him before the bees got to him. “What time did he leave?”

  “Fifteen minutes ago.” Max’s gaze drifted down. “Nice outfit. I approve.”

  I yanked the blanket up over my cleavage, certain he’d seen way too much to keep his imagination in check. “Eyes up here, Max. You’re too young to be looking at those.”

  “Says who?”

  “Me.” I tucked the blanket securely under one arm and used my finger on my other hand to push his chin up. “I’m old enough to be your mother.”

  “A really, really young and hot mother.”

  “Look, don’t you have something you should be doing?”

  “Yes, but naked girls always trump it.”

  “Go find me some clothes and bring your device when you come back. I’m going to need it.”

  “You need my device?” Max wiggled his brows, trying his best to look sexy, but falling way short of even cute. And the fact he was still a kid didn’t help him either.

  “Not that device. The bee distracter thing.”

  “How do you know it’s done?”

  “Because you’re standing here, delivering the best cup of coffee I’ve had in forever and a message from Eli. If you’re anything like me, you can’t leave an unfinished project alone to eat, sleep, or even stare at half-naked girls.”

  “You like to stare at half-naked girls? Toxic.”

  “No. Get me some clothes and the device. We don’t have much time before a lot more people die.”

  His humor fell. “Right.” Max gave a nod and ran off to do as asked. He might be a jokester, but even he knew when things weren’t funny.

  * * *

  I took a breath and stepped outside, lifting my chin to look at the streaks of pink, purple, yellow, and white painting the dawn horizon. Not even the birds made a sound. I rubbed my arms. The birds were always in concert as the sun rose, and something about the silence almost had me stepping back into cover.

  Yet, I didn’t hear the bees either. Where had they gone?

  I searched around the tops of the buildings. A gust of wind picked up and ash swirled down the sidewalk reminding me of what had taken place here a few days ago.

  “Well, are you going to stand there all day or go?”

  “What are you doing out here?” I turned around to see Max, the device strapped to his back and a headset over his ears.

  “Keeping your ass alive.”

  “I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself. Go back inside. I won’t be the reason you get killed.”

  “In your own words, I’m perfectly capable of not getting killed. Besides, you will be glad you brought me. Trust me.”

  I turned around to stare the stubborn young programmer down, only to face a look I’d often used on my opponents when challenged and knew without a doubt he’d do whatever he wanted, regardless what I did to try to stop him. “Fine, but you have to listen and do everything I say, because I don’t want to die any more than you do and a distraction is all it would take to get us both killed. Got it?”

  He saluted me and grinned. “Let’s kick some Apis ass.”

  “We’re hoping to avoid the bees, remember?”

  “According to my processor, it shouldn’t be a problem. They’re moving toward the train station at approximately forty miles per hour.”

  “Eli.” I took off running.

  “Wait. I meant the new station. The one which hasn’t opened yet! I redirected them an hour ago. They’re headed to the main station on Kauai.”

  I turned around and walked backward. “And if they figure out what you did?”

  “Everyone over there is fucked. I see your point. Maybe we should run.”

  “Good idea,” I said and took off again, certain the bees wouldn’t be fooled for long.

  We ran the two miles across campus to the train station where Eli and his crew came into view. They were using a plasma torch to try to open the doors, one had a bar, prying at the door, and from the looks of it, they were getting nowhere.

  “They’re going about it wrong.”

  “I know.” I glanced at the building behind us, a large station which served as a hub for travel throughout the islands for the students. It also housed parts and a repair lab for the pede. Everything we needed to bring power back to the fired circuit boards on the train sat in the building, and the access panel to the train’s control board had been housed on the roof. “You think you could go grab a new circuit board?”

  “On it.” Max ran for the pavilion style building and the parts room. It would provide little protection if the bees returned, but so would the roof of the train. I moved for the pede and a steel ladder leading to the access panel of the engines roof.

  “What are you doing here?” Someone snagged my arm as I started to climb. I didn’t have to look to know who had a hold of me.

  “What you should’ve been doing. The alloy the pede is made from is heat resistant, and you won’t put a dent in the door. Besides, it’s insulated and designed to absorb energy, any kind of energy.”

  “I meant, why are you here?”

  “Do you think you are the only one who cares about the people stuck on the train? The way you are going about it, you were about to find yourself without shelter when the bees figure out they’ve been tricked. If we repair the circuitry and get the power on again, we can open all the doors, or better yet, move the train to a safer location to unload these people. The parts are in the station behind us, and I figure it will take me about five minutes to pull the panel and get the pede powered up.”

  Max came up behind us. “You better hurry. The bees have turned around and will be here in about four minutes.”

  “Do you mind?” I yanked out of Eli’s grip and grabbed the circuit board Max held out. “I have a job to do and little time to get it fixed. Get your men away from here and under cover. The station is too open to protect them, just in case I can’t get the circuit board installed before the bees arrive.”

  Eli spun around and ran for his team. “Stop the torches and make for the closest enclosed building. The bees are coming.” With that said, Eli came back to the engine where Max had joined me on top. “You too, Iia.”

  “Not going to happen. We might have fooled the bees once, but they won’t abandon this train again, not now they know we want to free the passengers. They’ll wait us out, and they will win the stalemate if it comes to that.” I pulled a panel open and worked as fast as I could. “We have to get these people out, and it means taking this train away from here.”

  “You’re going to get yourself killed.”

  I sighed and glanced at Eli. “If I don’t get the power back on this train, every man, woman and child will bake inside it before the sun drops. I can’t live with their deaths, so either shut up and help me, or take cover.”

  “You’re just pissed I didn’t take you with me.”

  “This train would’ve been up and running already if you had.” I yanked the fried circuit board and shoved the new one into place. I eyed the light indicating the charge. It flickered but didn’t turn green as it should. “Shit. Why isn’t it drawing power?”

  Max pointed up.

  I followed his line of sight as the sky grew dark. “Shit! Give me another panel.”

  “I…” His lips moved, but I couldn’t read them.

  Hmmmmmm, a sound filled the air. I held my hand out waiting. “I need a different circuit board!”

  Again his lips moved, but no words made it to me.

  “What?”

  Max kicked the circuit board.

  “Hey!” The green light snapped on.

  He stooped down next to me. “I didn’t grab another. I figured since I didn’t have time to get a second, I’d kick it, you know because sometimes that works too.”

  I nodded and glanced up at the sky and down at Eli motioning for us to come down.

  “Let’s go.” I nudged Max, and
he started down the ladder. I followed as quickly as possible, skipping the last two rungs and jumping to the deck. Eli didn’t give me a chance to say a word, he grabbed the back of my shirt and shoved me inside the main compartment of the engine room. The doors slammed shut behind us.

  “Hold on.” Max was already at the controls, firing the train up. I barely had time to grab a rail before the pede lurched forward. And we were off like a greased bullet.

  My lungs, heart, and stomach sat somewhere behind me, along with Eli, who wrapped his arms around me. He leaned in. “Keep your eyes forward.”

  “Head for the harbor kid. There’s a pede tunnel on Maui. If we can get to it, the bees can’t follow us.”

  I attempted to twist, and Eli moved to block me. “You don’t want to look.”

  “Why?”

  “They are almost on us. Lose them quick, or we might not make it across the ocean. Focus and think about how we can get some more power or speed.”

  “How close?”

  A bee bounced off the side window, and I jumped. Just one. One couldn’t shut us down. And then another hit. And another.

  “Get this train moving, kid! Iia, we could use your amazing brain.”

  “Brakes. Use the power from the secondary systems. We’ll cut the power when we hit the tunnel, and it should bring us to a stop—an abrupt stop like when we were in the lift, but I don’t think we have another option.”

  “I have a couple ideas,” Max said and hit three switches. The train picked up speed.

  “I’m diverting power from the braking system as you suggested and fresh air intake in the last two cars, but it’s going to take a minute. While I do this, someone should go to the last two cars and move the passengers forward. Once you do that, let’s dump the last two cars.”

  “Good idea.”

  “We don’t have a minute, Eli,” I said as light began to vanish. The bees were closing in and fast. But so was the harbor.

  If the swarm caught us, they’d fry the new circuit board, and not only would we be trapped inside the train, but in a situation much worse than before. Ahead, said harbor loomed. Not a problem to navigate when the train hovered over the water, but cut the power and we’d sink like lead.