Freefall (New Reality Series, Book Three) by Bella St. James Read online

  Table of Contents

  Title Page

  Freefall Copyright © 2013 Bella St. James

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  About the Author

  Also Available from Resplendence Publishing

  www.resplendencepublishing.com

  Freefall

  A New Reality Story

  By Bella St. James

  Resplendence Publishing, LLC

  http://www.resplendencepublishing.com

  Freefall

  Copyright © 2013 Bella St. James

  Edited by Marti Ocilka and Jason Huffman

  Cover Art by Les Byerley

  Published by Resplendence Publishing, LLC

  2665 N Atlantic Avenue, #349

  Daytona Beach, FL 32118

  Electronic format ISBN: 978-1-60735-648-6

  Warning: All rights reserved. The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

  Electronic Release: April 2013

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and occurrences are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, places or occurrences, is purely coincidental.

  This is for all those women I know who have had the courage to change their lives and for the ones still looking for a way to realize their dreams.

  You rock, sisters!

  Chapter One

  Nadine struggled past her panic into the dim twilight. Where was she? Nothing smelled right. Nothing sounded right. Strong yet gentle hands held her against the soft mattress as she struggled to rise.

  A soothing male voice whispered, “You’re fine. It’s safe here.”

  With those simple words, everything clicked into place. The system sucked. Its narrow-minded laws had forced her into a backroom insertion. Her head throbbed, and she sensed a dampness along her back that was certainly blood. Yet, all she felt was relief.

  She blinked and met the worried gaze of a stranger. Her gut clenched as she stared into the largest, darkest eyes she’d ever seen, so different from her own sea-blue ones. And his hair. Black as the night, so thick and long she could hardly resist the temptation of running her hands through it.

  The world as she knew it, filled with government men who controlled every moment of her life, was far away now.

  “Are you … did you?” Nadine’s voice faltered.

  “I’m a bio-technician.” The man helped her sit up and lean forward. “Medically trained. I operate, not hack people up.”

  She tensed as the dark man pulled down the bandage with a gentle touch to examine the wound in her back. Just as carefully, he patted it back into place and helped her lie down again.

  “I have to go.” Nadine forced the words through a parched throat.

  “Not yet. Too much sedation.”

  The man picked up a cup of ice chips from a low table beside her. Panic flared through her anew until she realized he’d seen the physical signs of her dehydration.

  She opened her mouth as he brought a spoonful to her lips, and welcomed the icy wetness.

  Without thinking, she flashed a mental “thank you” at him. She was exhilarated when he ignored her. The implant was working. From now on, her thoughts were her own and only hers.

  Another spoonful or two of chips, another failed attempt at telepathy. She wiggled farther down in the bed and groaned.

  “I know. It hurts.” The man slid a hypodermic needle into the crook of her arm, and Nadine slid back into the dark.

  Clancy Reed waited until the woman was completely under again to head to the small office. She’d required a larger implant than normal; it was imperative she stay in bed for at least a few more hours. Placing a blocker against the spinal cord without paralyzing a patient was tricky in a hospital setting, a near-miracle in a street clinic like this.

  He smiled. Twelve hours from now, the Jezebel would be walking free, experiencing the world as it was meant to be. He didn’t know anything about her and planned to keep it that way. It was better for them both if they stayed strangers.

  A series of clicks, a muted beep and the door at the end of the hall opened. Clancy grabbed his gun at the first click then laid it down when he recognized the newcomer.

  “The surgery’s over,” he said. “You missed it.”

  “For which I’m grateful.” Nate Tompkins tossed a wad of bills on the desktop. “Here’s clean money to get her started. A conductor will arrive at dawn to transport her.”

  “She’ll be ready.”

  “Good.” Nate sighed and stretched. “I’m heading north. Should be back in a couple of days. I suggest you take a little vacation, too, as soon as she leaves. It’s going to get hot when they realize she’s turned.”

  A few minutes of conversation later, Nate was gone, and Clancy walked down the hall to check his patient. The sedation he’d given her this time was lighter, meant to keep her quiet. Too much sedation and she wouldn’t be able to leave tomorrow. Too little and she might dislodge the implant.

  He spent the next two hours back and forth between his office and her bed, checking on her every fifteen minutes. When her eyes fluttered open at the start of the third hour, he stationed himself beside her.

  “Move your hand,” he instructed in a soft voice. He nodded in satisfaction when her wrist turned in a circle. After a few more simple movements, he was certain no nerves had been compromised. Satisfied, he slid a needle in her arm and gave her a tiny jolt of wake-up juice. Five minutes later, she was sitting up, supported by the circle of his arms as he placed a pain patch beneath her shoulder blade.

  She smells good. The thought popped unbidden in his head, followed by a few more wildly inappropriate thoughts. She felt wonderful in his arms. He suspected that if he kissed her, she’d taste fantastic. That was the purpose of the stuff they’d loaded her with, to make her totally irresistible to the opposite sex.

  “It’s over?” she asked, fully conscious.

  “Yeah, you’ve got an off switch.” Clancy gently loosened his hold and stepped away. The too-large cotton hospital gown had slipped down her shoulders, exposing the round top of two lovely breasts. When he reached over to pull it into place, his thumb inadvertently grazed her nipple and sent a thin trickle of forbidden desire through him. He hadn’t seen a woman in months. He hadn’t been with one for…

  He didn’t want to remember how long. He’d joined the Underground willingly. He’d taken on the solitary task of manning the constantly moving clinic with equal willingness. He’d been warned about the lack of female companionship and had been able to deal with it. So far.

  “I need the restroom.”

  He caught the Jezebel as she slid from the bed. She was still too wobbly to stand, let alone walk across the room unaided. Clancy scooped her up in his arms and carried her to the tiny bathroom. Silently cursing the lack of a female nurse, he helped Nadine onto the porcelain toilet, moving a few steps outside to wait for her okay.

  She’d managed to stand and was clinging to the small washbasin. When he tried to pick her up, she shook her head.

  “I have to do this myself.” Tentative steps took her to the door, where she clung to the knob for a few sec
onds. A few more steps and she clutched the side of a low cabinet for support. Clancy wrapped an arm around the woman’s waist to help her.

  It was a huge mistake. The feel of her unquestionably female body against his, warm through the thin cotton gown, made him remember what he’d begun to forget. He was grateful she couldn’t read his thoughts when she leaned against him, soft curves against his hard muscle.

  His mind knew he was supposed to feel this way. The steady diet of hormones they’d pumped into her were designed to make men want to fuck her. It would take time for them to clear her system; meanwhile, the damned things still did their job.

  Muttering a gruff “I forgot something”, Clancy left her on the side of the bed and practically ran to his office. Slamming the door, he dropped to the floor and started doing pushups, focusing on every lust-killer he could recall. His sixth-grade music teacher with the hairy wart on her chin. The insults of his army drill sergeant, back a million years or so ago. The chance of getting some oozing disease from a woman who’d been one of the government’s sin agents.

  Gradually, the driving need left him. Rising in one lithe move, he took several deep breaths and cleared his mind. In a day or two, maybe three, the clinic would move again to another city, another secret location. Somewhere between here and there, he’d find a woman for sex. Like hunger or thirst, the demands of his body needed to be satisfied occasionally, or moments like this would happen. Anonymous sex. Quick, quiet, and paid for. He couldn’t chance conversation or random attraction. Not with his abilities, not after what they’d done to him.

  She was still sitting where he’d left her, frowning as he walked up.

  “Are you all right?”

  Her voice was soft and melodious. Clancy knew he was in trouble again before he looked at her. Before he saw her slumping forward, the gown slipped down over a shoulder again.

  “I’m fine,” he said.

  “Good. Because I’m not.”

  She slid to the ground in a crumbled heap. Clancy ran over, gathered her in his arms and touched the raw incision with trembling fingers. Gently probing, he felt nothing wrong. The stitches still held. The implant was exactly where it should be.

  Knowing he shouldn’t, aware of what a violation it was, he opened a portal and let her thoughts mingle with his. Mentally, he soothed her even as exhaustion and fear rolled from her mind into his. The intimacy of the connection both increased his attraction to her and horrified him. There was no place in the Underground for emotion. There was no time to be sidetracked by reminders of everything he’d given up.

  Caught in that connection, his guard down, Clancy didn’t catch the snick of the entry door. He didn’t hear footsteps stopping mere inches behind him. A rough hand yanking him to his feet and solid cursing pulled him out of the woman’s mind and back into the world.

  “Shit, Clancy, are you insane or what?”

  “This isn’t the time or place for this conversation, Madison.” The dark-haired man’s voice was quiet and controlled.

  “A woman. You operated on a woman. You know the rules…”

  Nadine drew into herself as the angry words swirled around her. That part of her life was supposed to be over. Twenty-four hours ago, she’d been sent to the penthouse of a man who was keeping secrets. She had familiarized herself with his dossier before she slipped into a scarlet dress. She’d run through all the details as she clasped a diamond necklace around her neck, sprayed herself with expensive perfume, and left her suite to seduce another stranger.

  The tiny dress had allowed no room for the usual micro camera to record everything. She’d left her purse with its high-tech tracers behind because he expected his whore to come empty-handed and naked under her dress. She’d carried only a handkerchief with a tiny syringe inside.

  Her handlers had trusted her enough not to worry. She’d done this hundreds of times. An intimate encounter, whatever level of sex it took for the target to trust her then the injection. Under the influence of a government-developed drug, the target’s mind would be wide open. Nadine could step inside and pick out whatever the government wanted to know.

  In return for the secrets she stole, she left false memories. She was long gone before the target awoke, absolutely convinced he had enjoyed the greatest night in his life.

  However, last night’s target had been left with imperfect recollections. Nadine had used most of the injection on the guard who had accompanied her then she’d escaped to what she’d been told was a safe house. When the guard woke several hours later, he told his superiors what Nadine had planted in his memory – that he’d been jumped and knocked out, and Nadine had been kidnapped by the man she’d been sent to seduce. With any luck, the recovery team was on its wild goose chase. If luck failed her, she was already marked for death.

  “…couldn’t send her away,” the man was saying. “It would be like putting a loaded gun in the hands of a two-year-old. If I let her leave, once she’s been here, none of us will be safe.”

  “We still could be compromised.”

  “We’re not. I sedated her immediately and operated as soon as she was under.”

  “And you think that’s going to take care of the problem.”

  Eyes closed, Nadine listened to the explanation of what he’d done. He had removed the tiny subcutaneous vials of enhancement drugs and placed a neural blocker on her spinal cord to neutralize her natural telepathic abilities.

  “I want her gone!”

  She forced herself to her feet and faced the newcomer. “Give me my clothes, and I’m out of here.”

  Both men turned, and she realized they’d forgotten she could hear them.

  “Lay down and rest. I’ll be right back,” her caregiver said.

  The men walked down the hall, silent. A door slammed then Nadine heard nothing. Without thinking, she closed her eyes to eavesdrop and realized the implant really did work. She walked to the doorway and studied her surroundings. A concrete half-wall divided the corridor outside her room from a wide empty space below. Windows and doors punctuated a painted concrete wall on the other side. She shivered. The drugs had worn off, and the hospital gown did little to keep her warm. Rapid, angry footsteps startled her, and she ducked back into her room. She found the bed again and sat, waiting for someone.

  Clancy waited until Vince Madison was gone to check on her. She looked so small and fragile, swallowed up by her gown. Vince had been right. This was the reason the Underground operated separate men’s and women’s facilities.

  She looked up at him with sad eyes.

  “I should be going.”

  “No.” Clancy shook his head. “Twelve hours of bed rest. That’s protocol. You’ve got six hours yet.”

  “And then what?”

  Clancy knew the question was rhetorical. He knew she was questioning the rest of her life, not the next few days. Her uncertainty and confusion was something he could understand. He’d been like that not so long ago.

  “It’s over.” He sat down on the bed beside her and picked up her hand. “I know how you feel, like one of those dogs sent out to find truffles. Except it’s secrets from other nations you’re supposed to uncover.”

  He tipped her face toward him. “In a few more hours, a guide will come to get you. You won’t know where you’re going. You’ll finish your recovery in a secure house, where you’ll be asked to voluntarily give information that may help us. If you prefer not to, no one will make you. You’re free now.”

  “Thank you.” Nadine whispered the words. “I don’t know what else to say.”

  “Thank you is fine.”

  She leaned against him as if seeking both his body heat and the reassurance of not being alone. Clancy’s own body instantly responded. Now, he knew it was more than a lack of sex that had him reacting every time they touched. The bastards must have given her an extra dose of pheromones before sending her to fuck for the government, drugs that could take days to wear off. Irresistibly drawn, he jumped into her mind to share her
longing. Deep and hungry, her need fueled his. In her mind, they kissed, his mouth possessing hers, his hand splayed across her back as she slid onto his lap. She was naked in the vision, her small, firm breasts pressed against his naked chest. His lips moved down the slim column of her neck, teasing her with tiny kisses as she bent back.

  His mouth fastened on one of those lovely breasts, sucking and teasing, as she settled herself on his rock-hard…

  The harsh blare of an alarm abruptly brought him out of the shared fantasy and back to the real and dangerous world. The noise came from beneath them, creating vibrations in the floor and shaking the bed.

  “Damn!” Clancy grabbed the woman’s hand and began to run. He knew she had to be in pain as they tore down the long corridor, past the end of the half-way and into a small room. Clancy slammed the solid metal door shut, jammed the thick deadbolt into place and shoved a security bar across the door for good measure.

  “Can you keep going?” he asked.

  “I think so.”

  “Then your departure’s been moved up. Let’s go.”

  Nadine took a deep breath as the dark man grabbed her hand again and led her to the far side of the room and yet another door. Nothing but blackness waited when he threw it open. Still, she moved forward, clutching his hand like a lifeline. He moved slowly and carefully as if counting their steps. Finally, they were stopped by a mesh grate about half her height, a dim light visible through it. When her escort pulled off the grate and dropped to his knees, Nadine followed. They crawled toward the dim light for an interminable time. Her knees ached, and the pain in her back began to scream. Then another grate. One quick kick, and it was gone.

  “Come on.”

  Nadine peeked out of the hole to the ground below. The drop was at least eight feet, and she hated heights. She sensed the man’s impatience as he stood on the ground, arms outstretched, and shouted, “Jump! I’ll catch you.”