Mission: Her Protection (Team 52 #1)(16)

Her heart thumped. “What will happen to Lars?”

“He’ll be cared for. There will be a cover story to explain the death of the other scientists.”

Rowan squeezed her eyes closed and thought of her friends—Isabel, Emily, Samuel, Amara, the others. Their families would never know the truth.

“Probably something like a gas leak,” Lachlan continued. “Something that killed them all at once.”

She nodded tiredly. “And the artifact?”

“That’s a longer story.” He swung into a sitting position.

Suddenly, she found herself very close to him and staring at a wall of hard chest. She sucked in a deep breath and pulled in his scent. Heat moved through her body, settling in her belly.

“Rowan, you’d better stop looking at me like that,” he said.

She met his gaze and saw the same attraction she felt shimmering there. She’d loved his golden tiger eyes when she’d been young. They looked harder and scarier now, but she wasn’t afraid of him. She’d never been afraid of him.

After a few breathless seconds, he reached out and touched her hair, stroking a strand of it between his fingers. Rowan inhaled audibly.

“How’s the patient?”

Callie’s cheerful voice made Rowan step back. She looked up at the medic and forced a smile. “Fine.”

“Usually he gives me trouble.” Callie moved closer, her gray gaze on Lachlan’s injury.

Lachlan gave the woman a scowling look, before reaching for his shirt. He shrugged it on.

“The artifact has been secured on the X8,” Callie said. “The others are loading the bodies now.”

“Close the base down, and let’s go.” Lachlan looked at Rowan. “Pack your things. Only what you can easily carry.”

She nodded. It didn’t take her long to grab her things from her office, and some clothes from under her bunk.

As she left the base, she paused at the door, looking back into the rec room. Emotions churned through her, then she turned away and followed Team 52.

She’d barely taken in the strange helicopter that was parked outside when they’d chased after Lars. Now, she gave it her full attention.

It looked like something straight from the set of a movie. It was made of a white metal, and looked like a cross between a helicopter and a plane. It had twin rotors on top, and jet engines on the modified wings.

Lachlan stood at the open side door, and waved her in. She climbed aboard, and immediately spotted the body bags resting at the back of the helicopter.

The pain was piercing and she couldn’t move. It was only when Lachlan pressed a hand to her lower back that she came unstuck.

He led her to one of the big seats and she dropped down into it.

Her team was dead and she’d failed them. But dammit, she was going to find out what had happened.



*

As the X8 flew south, Lachlan watched Rowan and worried.

She’d been quiet for hours, her arms curled around herself, and her legs tucked up under her. She stared out the window, but he didn’t think she was looking at the view.

“You going to take your eyes off her at some stage, amigo?” Axel drawled from behind him.

Lachlan shot the man a killer look, but as usual, Axel shrugged it off with a laugh.

Lars was resting on a stretcher toward the back of the chopper. He was sedated, and Callie said he wasn’t doing well. The medic sat beside him, monitoring his vitals.

“I want to know about the artifact,” Rowan said suddenly.

Lachlan whipped his head back around. He caught Axel’s gaze. Smith was sprawled in the chair beside him, dozing. The big man cracked one hazel eye open, and crossed his arms over his chest.

Lachlan moved chairs, sitting down across from Rowan.

“As I told you, my team was sent here to rescue survivors and contain the artifact.”

“And that’s what Team 52 does?” she asked. “Contains and safeguards artifacts?”

He nodded. “Certain items that are dangerous.”

“What items, exactly? What is that artifact? A foreign weapon? Something experimental?”

“No.”

Her brow creased. “If you say aliens…”

He smiled. She was tired and stressed, but she was holding it together. “Not aliens. But the object is likely an ancient artifact.”

“If you say the word magic, I’ll scream.”

“Not magic, either. But you’ve heard that saying about how any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic?”

She stilled. “Arthur C. Clarke. Advanced technology? Lachlan, that artifact was trapped in ice that was over five thousand years old. It can’t be advanced anything.”

He leaned back in his chair. “What if I told you that what you know about conventional history isn’t entirely correct?”

She pondered that for a second. “Okay.” He could see her intelligent brain working. Her gaze locked on his. “Go on.”

“There is evidence that civilization is older than we believe,” he said. “Unexplained artifacts, submerged ruins that predate the earliest advanced cultures like the Sumerians and Egyptians.”

Her mouth dropped open. “You’re saying that there were other advanced cultures before Sumer and Egypt?”