Mission: Her Protection (Team 52 #1)(29)

Lachlan had to admit that Kinsey was a bombshell and had a hell of a smile. “Rowan, this is Kinsey Beck. She takes care of things for us here in Vegas.”

“You are the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” Rowan breathed.

Kinsey laughed and crossed her legs. “I was a wanna-be showgirl. I moved to Vegas, only to discover I wasn’t tall enough.” Her smile said she’d gotten over her shattered dreams. “Now I attempt to organize these badasses for a living.”

Axel and Seth appeared from a side door.

“Plane’s fueled,” Seth said.

“The pilots are ready to go,” Axel added.

“Where are Smith and Callie?” Rowan asked.

“Already at base,” Lachlan answered. “Callie wanted to check on Lars, and Smith avoids Las Vegas, if he can help it.”

Kinsey shook her head. “That mountain man is allergic to people.”

They made their farewells, and Lachlan led Rowan out the door. A sleek plane sat in the hangar.

As they climbed the stairs into the plane, he noticed Rowan still looked tired and worried. As his team boarded and settled into their seats, Lachlan sat beside her and grabbed her hand.

“I won’t let anything happen to you.”

She gave him a small nod.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

The plane started taxiing.

She sighed. “I will be. I always am.” She gave him a strained smile. “I’m good at dealing with stuff and coming out the other side. I’m used to it.”

She sounded so resigned and so alone.

“You need to talk to your folks again?”

“No, they’re busy,” came the measured reply.

Anger shot through him.

“I’m sure they’ll send me an email when they can.”

Fuckers. He’d always hated her self-absorbed parents, but their only daughter had almost died, and they couldn’t be bothered to give a fuck? Rowan might be used to dealing with things herself, but not this time.





Chapter Nine





Rowan followed Lachlan and the rest of Team 52 back into the Area 52 base. As they headed toward the lab, she once again looked around in wonder.

The place really was a scientist’s dream workspace.

As they entered the lab, Ty Sampson looked up and scowled at them. From nearby, Brooks waved two fingers and smiled. Today his shirt had a picture of the Death Star on it and said “All about that base.”

Scans and high-res pictures of the artifact were displayed on the screens on the wall. Rowan’s mouth dropped open as she looked at them. Despite everything that had happened because of this artifact, she found herself fascinated by it.

Then she felt a flash of guilt. “Lars?”

“No change,” Brooks said, sympathetically.

Lachlan crossed his arms. “What have you found out about the artifact?”

Rowan’s gaze snagged on his muscled forearms. Instantly, she was back in Lachlan’s bed, wrapped up in him, kissing him. Jeez. Get a grip, Rowan. That had been a mistake. She needed to stay well clear of Lachlan Hunter.

“We’re still working on it,” Ty frowned. “The device appears to be part biological. It connects with the body and stimulates it, which in turn, increases strength, muscularity, ability to withstand cold temperatures.”

Brooks leaned forward. “It creates an armor-like casing around the person, made of ice.”

Ty nodded. “We’re theorizing that the Pre-Dorset people somehow engineered it to help their hunters adapt to the cold, and give them the ability to safely hunt larger sea creatures, like walrus and whales.”

Holy hell. Rowan dropped onto a stool. This was all so incredible. “So, the Pre-Dorset experimented with this, and by the time of the Dorset people, they’d stopped using bows and arrows and hunting smaller sea mammals…because they had this technology.”

“That’s the theory,” Ty said.

“But they didn’t even work metal.”

“Actually, Nat found some information on that,” Brooks said. “Seems there is evidence that the Dorset culture used and worked metal that they found from a meteorite, and tipped their spear blades with it.”

“You need to know that the way it appears to integrate with a host would make it hard to remove while a host is active,” Ty said.

Lachlan frowned. “It came off Lars easily. I just pulled it off.”

“But he was tranquilized and unconscious,” Rowan said.

Ty pressed his hands to the bench and nodded. “If the host is agitated, they’d be releasing hormones that would interfere with the artifact’s removal.”

“So the host needs to be unconscious or at least relaxed?” Rowan said.

Ty gave another nod.

Lachlan turned to Brooks. “And the guys who attacked Rowan?”

Rowan’s belly soured at the memory.

“I don’t know yet,” Brooks said. “They avoided the casino’s facial recognition system. I managed to get the police files courtesy of Detective MacKade. I should have something soon.”

Lachlan nodded, then he spun to face Rowan. “I have work to do.”

She shifted. “Is it okay if I see Lars?”