Forgotten Sins (Sin Brothers, #1)(65)

His hand trembled when he reached out and smoothed back the wispy hair on her forehead. Her skin felt like the finest of silks. Though the bruise spreading across her jaw made him wish he had killed George.

How could he see so well in the dark?

Time for some answers.

He rolled from the bed and pulled on his jeans, stalking on bare feet down the hallway to the living room.

Nathan glared at him from the table, where he had put together a scanner. His wet hair lay curled against his neck. “You used all the hot water, *.”

“Sorry.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Why can I see in the dark? How can I guess the speed of a vehicle thirty miles away? Shit, how can I hear a vehicle that far away?” Anger fought reason for dominance in his brain. “How did I know how to interrogate that bastard earlier?”

Nathan sat back, his eyes thoughtful. “What do you remember?”

Shane growled and strode to the kitchen, grabbing two beers from the refrigerator. Guinness. He handed one to Nathan and dropped into a thick leather chair. “I remember a military academy and breaking my arm. Then I remember Matt telling me Jory was dead.” Even now, pain caught the air in his throat. “Small scenes, small memories scattered throughout. I’m starting to remember everything about Josie.” Shane squinted his eyes, looking into the past. “I know we don’t have parents. I don’t know how I know that, but I remember wanting parents.”

“At two years older than me, Matt’s the closest thing we ever had,” Nathan said softly. He rubbed his chin. “It might be easier not knowing. But you’re right. We don’t have parents.”

“Why not?”

Nathan exhaled. “We’re experiments, Shane. Genetics, psychology, and test tubes.”





Chapter 20

Shane extended his legs, stretching out. The more his mind spun, the more relaxed his body became. Interesting reaction. “Test tubes?”

“Yes.” Nathan took a deep drink of the dark brew. “We’re part of a military experiment. Trained to fight, trained to kill since birth.”

A soft pattering sounded down the hallway. Shane tilted his head to listen. Josie had crept forward. The little eavesdropper. He could whisk her back to bed or allow her to hear everything. It was past time to have his cards on the table. He pinned his brother with a look. “So we’re not brothers?”

Nathan cut his eyes to the hallway and then back at Shane. With a shrug, he shook his head. “We’re brothers. Part of the experiment was to see how we related, how we trained, what motivated us.” A warning light entered his eyes. “We weren’t the only team. There were several.” He shook his head at the hallway.

Too bad. Let her learn the truth. “That explains the eye color.”

Nathan’s jaw tightened, but he continued. “Yes. Same father. Some ultra-soldier, from what Jory was able to hack. Take a genius female and her womb, some serious genetic engineering, and they created us.”

“Different females?”

Nathan shrugged. “Yes. Hopefully all human DNA—but who knows. If documents exist about that, we haven’t been able to find them.”

“Josie thinks I have a hang-up about kind women.”

“Yeah.” Nathan took another deep swallow. “The women we knew were either stone-cold scientists or really rough soldiers. Mainly.” His gaze slid to his boots.

The hair on the back of Shane’s neck prickled. “Mainly?”

“Yeah, ah”—Nathan cleared his throat—“let’s just say they sent other women to us while we were in our teens.” A muscle ticked in his jaw. “There isn’t much we don’t understand about sexual manipulation.”

Jesus. Shane dug a palm into his eye. “The barracks I remember. We lived in that place?”

“Yes. Different groups were assigned divisions, all created with similar DNA. Brothers.”

“No girls?”

“Hell, no.” Nathan exhaled. “Until Audrey.”

The name filtered unease through Shane’s brain. “Audrey. Your Audrey.” Pain there, too.

“Yes. She was the head doctor’s daughter. They wanted me to train her in self-defense.”

“Why?” A picture of deceptively innocent blue eyes and long black hair slammed behind Shane’s eyes.

Nathan growled. “I don’t know. If you ask me, it was another experiment. But I fell for it. I wanted a normal life so badly.”

“You were betrayed.” Certainty settled a heavy weight around Shane’s heart. “I remember. She, ah, didn’t turn out to be on our side?” Nathan damaged—nearly destroyed.

“Yeah. They worked me over and good—killing several of our friends in the process People around us end up dead.” Nathan spoke to the dark hallway. “That’s when we decided to leave.”

An explosion filled Shane’s memories. He set detonations, killing on purpose. The fires had burned high and hot… the screams echoed and then died out. “We blew the place up.”

“Yes. We had to get free of those people so we could seek revenge. We blew everything and scattered. Almost five years ago.” Nathan glanced at his disposable cell phone. “We knew they’d need about five years to regroup and come after us.”