Last Strike Read Online Free PDF

original smile. “I’ve heard those words from you before.”
    She rolled her lips between her teeth and bit back the tidal wave of apologies and regrets. She had to get through to that honorable Marine she and the UI program had destroyed. His service record psych evaluations proved that he didn’t believe in following orders blindly, despite his stand-out success through his UI training. “Are you content as Messenger’s hired gun?”
    He swore, coming at her in a blur as though he’d turned into a wild predator ready to rip out her throat. He could do it too, with hands or teeth. He’d been altered to strategize the right kill for any situation. “I ask the questions.”
    She lowered her gaze to the plastic sheeting, too easily imagining her blood pooled around her defeated body. Wholly submissive, her nape was exposed for his lethal strike. “Thank you for saving me from Gerardi. I’d rather you killed me than him. At least with you I understand why,” she continued speaking to the floor. “It will never be sufficient, but I apologize for what the program did to you, Noah.”
    Having meant every word, she was ready for him to take her life.

----
    L ast Strike had hardly registered her gratitude when the name she’d spoken rattled through him. Not familiar, not exactly. Yet something about the way it sounded in her angel’s voice landed with the force of a sucker punch, stealing his breath. Had that name once been his or was she playing more games with him? “What did you call me?”
    “ Noah . Your real name is Noah D’Cruz.”
    She kept her head bowed and it was all he could do to keep his hands at his sides when he wanted to snap her fragile neck.
    It had to be a lie. A trick. In her place, he’d be bartering for time too. Anyone would be. He understood the tactic. He rested his palm against that narrow curve of flesh and bone, felt her suck in a sharp breath. Her fear made him sick. After so many kills he should be resistant to this persistent weakness.
    He took his orders and accomplished them swiftly. Swift meant less time to think about factors beyond the efficient resolution of the target, less time to endure that pathetic fear. Striking accurately and rapidly assured his sanity, especially at the beginning when he wasn’t sure of his long-term role within the program.
    She’d given him what he needed personally, though the honest explanation hardly satisfied him. She’d taken a nearly-dead Marine and brought him back to life. More, she’d brought him back to life with significant differences in the name of science.
    “How many times did I die for your amusement?”
    Her head came up, the fine muscles around her spine shifting and flexing under his sensitive hand. Messenger wanted the doctor dead and the leak plugged. He only needed to know who had received her intel. He had most of what he wanted, enough to be satisfied. Her usefulness at an end, his job was clear: kill her and get out. Still, he waited for her answer.
    “You never died!” She twisted against her restraints, trying to look him in the eye.
    He didn’t want to admire that. “You just said -”
    “ Nearly .” She stretched out the word. “You had so many injuries they gave me carte blanche, certain I couldn’t make things worse and skeptical of my confidence in the formulas.”
    He had no memory of what had put him into her hands, only that when his eyes had opened, she’d been there. She’d appeared as pure comfort with warm, earnest eyes, golden hair, and the voice of an angel.
    Who dealt out pain as well as Lucifer himself.
    “Your formulas and tests weren’t the greatest experience of my life.”
    “You remember the testing?” Her golden eyebrows arched high, and her lips parted on a gasp. “That - that shouldn’t have happened. Oh, my God.” Her eyes filled with tears. “You have to believe me, you were meant to forget all of that.”
    Well, lucky him. She wasn’t doing anything the way he expected. She