Bonds of Justice

CHAPTER 34

Max sucked in a breath, but it was Faith who next spoke. “That should be impossible. I know some F-designation men and women who see only the past, and they work for Justice—their shields are impenetrable. I assume Js are the same.”

“Yes, we are,” Sophia said, giving him the coffee so he could place it on the nightstand. “But the attempt was intense enough to cause near-unbearable pressure on my brain.” Her body trembled just a little, but Max felt it.

Placing her on the bed with all the tenderness he had in him, he swung his legs over the side and said, “We can discuss this more later. Right now, Sophia needs to get some rest.”

“Yes, of course.” Faith stood up at once. Vaughn followed a little more slowly.

Walking them to the door, Max was ready for the DarkRiver sentinel’s final words. “She’s still hooked into the Net, Max. Means she can’t be trusted.”

He felt his hand clench on the door. “So was Faith when you met her if I’m right.”

“Not the same situation, and you know it.” The changeling didn’t sound angry—if anything, there was a gut-deep understanding in his tone. “Faith was watched, but in an isolated setting. Sophia is in the middle of the Justice Corps. There are all kinds of eyes on her.”

And though the sentinel didn’t say it, Max knew the implications—Sophia might already have something in her head, something that had penetrated her shields without her knowledge.

Having changed into a loose T-shirt to sleep in, Sophia returned from the bathroom to find Max waiting by the bed. He looked strong and beautiful . . . and remote, the stunner he held loosely by his side a stark reminder of who he was, what he did.

“Stay with me.” It came out without thought, the heat of his body still imprinted on her skin. “I think I can handle the sensations now.” The invitation took all the courage she had. She bit her lip to quiet the plea that wanted to escape. She didn’t want him to pity her—but oh, how she needed him.

No words but he placed the stunner on the bedside table and ripped off his T-shirt. She clenched her hands on the bottom of her own. Angling his head, he tugged down the comforter and waited for her to get in. As he went to follow, his jeans still on, she had a thought. “Max, what if I’m compromised in some way? You shouldn’t leave a weapon that accessible to me.”

“Safety’s on, release programmed to my active thumbprint,” he said, pulling the comforter over them. “And no offense, Sophie, sweetheart, but you’d make a very bad assassin.”

“I could blow out your mind,” she reminded him.

“Not easily,” he answered. “According to what I’ve picked up over the years, a natural shield means I’d have enough of a warning to go for my weapon, or considering the fact that you’re a little bit of nothing—knock you out cold.” The words made him scowl.

“Good.” Relieved—in spite of the fact that she could see he hated the idea of hurting her—she let him slide an arm under her head, the other going around her waist. That much sensation, that much contact, still burned a hot, wild flame across her skin, but she was, she thought, becoming used to it. With Max it wasn’t an intrusion but a choice on her part. Turning, she placed her hands flat on his chest.

Heat. A sudden fever. Almost pain.

“But no voices in my head,” she whispered. “No memories, no thoughts, no yesterdays but my own.”

Max squeezed her gently, and she knew he understood. “Don’t push it,” he said. “Small bites, remember?”

She didn’t listen, lost in the storm of sensation, the world a kaleidoscope around her. “We never finished.”

Max’s hand stopped its soothing strokes over her back. “You’re not exactly in any shape—”

Tilting her head, she kissed the line of his neck, taking the taste of him into her lungs. “Sophie.” Then his hand was on her cheek and she was being turned onto her back and he was kissing the breath out of her. The kaleidoscope spun and spun until it exploded.

As the pieces rained around her, she found herself gripping Max’s shoulders in an attempt to hold on. His muscles shifted beneath her palms, liquid and powerful. Instead of trying to control the amount of sensory input, she gave in, drowning in the wild heat of him, the delicious pressure of his lips, the way his thumb pressed down on her jaw to open her mouth to him.

Max felt the instant Sophia let go. Her entire body melted for him, every inch of her open in invitation.

It was the most luscious of temptations.

But he wasn’t about to take advantage of her when she’d been disoriented and lost only minutes ago. Breaking the kiss, he looked into eyes that had gone pure black again—but he could distinguish a difference, though he’d have been hard-pressed to describe it. He just knew this time, it wasn’t a marker of danger. “Do all Psy eyes do that?” An intimate murmur against her lips, his legs tangled with hers, his hand in her hair.

Her fingers stroked over his shoulders with quick, hungry movements, and he was male enough to adore her for being so very delighted with him. “It’s more apparent at the higher end of the spectrum . . . but I think I may be even more susceptible to it, given the nature of my mind.” Calm words, but her eyes, her body, told a different story.

He could almost feel the vibrating tension in her, every tendon held taut. “I know who you are,” he said, holding her gaze. “I’m not going to be scared away because of your ‘imperfections.’ ”

A sheen of wet in her eyes, turning the midnight iridescent.

“We fit, you and I,” he whispered looking into that haunting gaze. “Two broken pieces making a whole.” It wasn’t the most romantic of statements, but it was torn from his soul. “I am not losing you.”

She tugged him down, kissing him until his body hummed for her, until her breath came in choppy gasps. He broke the kiss. “Is this much contact causing you pain?”

A pause. “No.”

Swearing, he rolled off to sit on the edge of the bed, looking back at her over his shoulder. “Why the hell did you—”

“I wasn’t lying, Max.” Curling onto her side, she watched him with an intense interest that told him he was the absolute and utter focus of her world. Some men would’ve been scared away. Max knew he watched her the same way.

Her chest rose as she took a long, shuddering breath. “I don’t know how to describe these sensations. The closest word is pain, but I know that’s not right. I don’t crave pain. And yet I crave what happens when you touch me.”

Max twisted so he could face her, one hand braced palm down beside her leg. “It sounds like your nerves are raw—overloaded.”

“Maybe.” Clear words, a steel will. “But I don’t want to slow down.”

He had a will as strong. “No more touching. I will not hurt you.”

Her shoulders slumped.

Sensing his advantage, he pushed. “Why did someone try to hack your mind tonight?”

“Probably because they wanted to contaminate the evidence I’m due to give in a high-profile murder case,” she said, her eyes not meeting his.

Shame, he thought, that’s what he read in her expression. “Sophie?”

“I’ll tell you . . . just give me a little more time?” So vulnerable, her emotions stripped bare. “Please, Max?”

He blew out a breath. “I’m starting to think you’re using the world ‘please’ to get around me.”

A startled flicker of light in her eyes. “No, I’m not . . . but could I?”

He felt his chest shake with unbidden, unexpected laughter. “Do you think I’m going to answer that?”

“That means I can.” She sounded astonished and delighted in equal measures. “I promise to use my powers for good.”

Reaching over he slapped her lightly on the bottom through the comforter. “You have the makings of a brat in you.”

A slow, so-slow smile, his Sophie beginning to wake from a decades-long sleep. “I need to tell you something about the Nikita investigation that I forgot to mention earlier.”

He kept his hand on her hip, enjoying the warm curves of her even if he couldn’t touch skin. “I meant to ask you something, too. About Ryan—”

“That’s who I wanted to discuss,” she interrupted, “specifically, the reason for his reconditioning six months ago.”

Max frowned. “The file’s sealed.” He’d already tried to access it tonight.

“I called in a favor from another J.” Pushing up into a sitting position, she shivered when he slid his hand over to her thigh. “Ryan killed someone, but it was an accident. His telekinetic powers went out of control.”

Stroking her through the comforter once more, Max got up to walk to the window and back. “How much would the reconditioning have messed with his head?”

“No way to know—the process is intense, but it leaves the mind intact. That’s the whole purpose—to eliminate fractures so the individual can function.” Her words held the knowledge of experience. “It would make sense that he’d be sympathetic to Pure Psy if his own abilities are spiraling out of control.”

“But”—Max folded his arms, leaning back on the wall beside the window—“we come back to the fact that he wasn’t working for Nikita at the time of the elevator sabotage. One mole I can accept. Two? No. Not in Nikita’s organization.”

“He’s still the best lead we’ve got.”

Max straightened. “And he won’t be going anywhere tonight. I’ll call, make sure security has him in their sights. We can talk to him tomorrow.”

She knew he was going to leave. Sliding down under the comforter, she turned her back to him. She’d accepted his will, but that didn’t mean she had to like it.

“Sophie.”

She thumped her pillow into shape.

A low blue word, then the bed dipped. “I can’t stay tonight, baby.” His hand on her hip, a blaze of heat even through the comforter.

He’d promised to fight for her. Well, she was going to fight for him, too. “We don’t have to be skin to skin.” She turned to face him, keeping her hands to herself. “You can sleep on top of the comforter.” Then she gave a small smile. “Please?”

“You’ve definitely got the makings of a brat.” But Max stayed, sleeping beside his J for the hours till dawn. The dream came just before he woke, a dream in which River ran laughing behind him as they chased a stray dog they’d made into a pet.

He opened his eyes to find his throat thick with tears, his heart a swelling ache in his chest. And he knew he’d dreamed the joy because of the woman who woke a moment later. “Thank you,” he said.

Sleepy eyes, dark curls falling across one cheek. “For what?”

“For making me remember.” He’d buried his past because it hurt too fucking much. But in doing so, he’d buried River. “I think,” he said, “you would’ve adored River. He could’ve taught you every trick in the book on how to be a true brat.” Then, as they rose, dressed, and ate, he told her about the brother who’d left a mile-wide scar on his heart.

Sophia halted Max when he would’ve gotten out of the car at the Duncan building. “I want to tell you about the reason for the hack.” She couldn’t hide anymore, not after the raw honesty of the memories he’d shared, of the family he’d shared. Her heart was so full it was hard to breathe, hard to speak.

“Whatever it is,” Max said, his hand along the back of her seat, “you know it doesn’t matter. Not between us.”

“I can alter memories.” She made no effort to dress it up.

“I know.”

She jerked up her head. “What?”

“I’m a cop, Sophie.” A wry reminder. “I hadn’t been in the job two years before I realized what Js could do.”

“Then why don’t you hate us?”

“I always figured you had no choice in the matter. And, I did my job. I got the evidence. Not every major case is won or lost on the evidence of a J.”

She should’ve ended it then, but now that she’d begun, she couldn’t stop. She would not steal his affection, his loyalty, through fraud. It would violate the trust between them, taint everything they had. So though the terror of rejection was a chill hand around her throat, she smoothed her flawlessly straight skirt down her legs and said, “Do you remember Dr. Henley?” The famous geneticist had killed his pregnant wife in cold blood, then sliced her up into neat little pieces and dumped those pieces in the sea when he’d gone out for a Sunday fishing trip. There was even speculation that he’d used some pieces as bait.

“Not a case I could ever forget.”

“The Council planned to transfer him to a Psy facility where he could continue his groundbreaking work.” The callous murder of an innocent woman and her unborn child had been considered a mere inconvenience. “All the Js knew.”

“Pity then,” Max said in a hard voice, “that he had a sudden, violent embolism that stopped his heart on his first day in prison, died before the medics could get to him.”

Sophia sucked in a breath. She’d guessed he understood what Js were capable of, had wanted to drive home the point so that there would be absolute honesty between them, but from the way he spoke . . . “Have you always known?”

“Cops call it the J-penalty.” A grim look. “You weren’t in the vicinity. I’ve seen your record. You weren’t anywhere near Henley’s prison when he died.”

“No.” Then, “Not me. Not that time.”

He slid back his door. “Come on.”

She got out to walk beside him, her heart a tight, hopeful knot. “I know you’ve accepted me”—and that remained a deep source of wonder—“but I still thought you’d be more . . .”

“Hard-assed?” A snort. “I’ve seen rich men skate off rape charges, politicians bury abuse claims, young girls commit suicide after being hurt. I don’t agree with vigilante justice, but Js aren’t exactly vigilantes are they? They know the exact nature of a particular crime, and they tend to give out punishments perfectly calibrated to that crime—and only in cases where justice would otherwise be defiled.”

“We aren’t judge and jury.” She’d never talked openly about this. Even among Js, it wasn’t ever actually discussed. But they all knew the parameters, understood what the Corps would overlook as the cost of having Js in the system. “We’re the last resort when the tools of justice fail the victims.”

“What,” Max said, coming to a stop in front of the elevators, his body angled to hide her from the surveillance cameras, “is the impact on a J who acts as that last resort . . . as an executioner if necessary.”

“ ‘Every action has an opposite and equal reaction,’ ” she said, quoting the well-known law of physics. “That maxim holds true on the psychic plane.”

White lines bracketed Max’s mouth. “So a J would be damaged by the event?”

“Not exactly damaged. I would say . . . changed.”

A long, still pause. “You can’t do it anymore,” he finally said very, very quietly. “Do you understand me, Sophia?”

Her lips quivered for the barest fraction of a moment. “Max, are you trying to fix me?” It was impossible, and she couldn’t bear for him to realize that too late, walk away.

“No. I’m trying to save you.” An implacable, absolute answer. “It’s about choices. I need you to make one to fight those instincts—every time you give in, it eats away a little bit of your psyche.”

The otherness in her—twined with those dark threads that tasted of the Net—stirred, considered, bowed its head. “I can do that.” For Max, only for Max. He was a cop. He’d accepted her past with open eyes and an open heart, but what she did from now on, even if only a few individuals realized the depth of the connection between them, would reflect on him, stain his career—and she was too proud of him to chance that. “It’s a small price to pay to be with you.”

“No price, Sophie, no ultimatums.” An unqualified reassurance that made her want to pull him forward by the lapels of his suit jacket and kiss him again and again. “You belong to me—and I’m keeping you no matter what.”

“That means you belong to me, too.” It came from the dark heart of her, the place where no light had ever shone . . . until this man looked at her with eyes that said she wasn’t a piece of trash to be discarded because she’d proved imperfect. For the first time in her life, she had started to feel whole, the scars, the fractures, simply a part of her.

Max shrugged, that lean dimple flashing in his cheek. “I’m not arguing.”

“So,” she said, everything in her—even the once scared, lonely girl who’d only ever spoken through the hand of cold justice before—determined to stake its claim loud and clear, “if I find a business card from a female in your jacket, she had better be a colleague.”

Max felt a laugh build in his chest, had to fight the urge to tug Sophia into his arms and bite down on that full lower lip in a gesture of open possession. “No one will dare hit on me after I mention my wife is a J with a jealous streak.”

Wife. Her composure splintered. “Max, no matter what, we could never—”

“I told you, Sophie. You’re mine. End of story.”