Prologue

“Termination.”

The word drifted to Luna, a low whisper that she knew the doctor hadn’t expected her to hear. But then, he’d never understood just how strong her senses truly were.

“The test subject isn’t like the others. Her experiment was a failure. If we hope for the others to continue as planned, then the only option is her termination.”

Luna wrapped her arms around her stomach. Slid down the wall. Curled her body near the floor. They were talking about her. She knew it. They were going to terminate her. They’re going to kill me.

And this time, she wouldn’t be coming back from death. There would be no waking up, as she’d done before. There would just be the end.

Would heaven be waiting for her? Or would it be hell? Funny, she’d actually thought that she was already in hell.

Her breath slid in and out of her lungs. And the fear just grew worse.

“What’s wrong?” The voice wasn’t out loud. The warm, rough, masculine voice was only in her head. Not because she was crazy. She wasn’t. Well, at least Luna wasn’t completely crazy. She was part of a government experiment. An experiment that should have created stronger, better soldiers. Super soldiers. An experiment that had brought the dead back to life—and given the test subjects enhanced senses, greater strength…and psychic bonuses.

Project Lazarus. The test subjects rose from the dead.

But she wouldn’t rise again. Not after her termination.

“Talk to me.” Again, his voice rolled through her mind.

He was another test subject, and they’d discovered—early on—that they could communicate with each other telepathically. Their link had just snapped into place. She’d woken on an exam table, her body completely nude, terror clawing at her, and he’d been there from the first instant. Telling her to breathe. Telling her that everything was going to be okay.

But nothing was going to be okay ever again.

“You’re afraid.”

He’d always been so good at reading her emotions. Emotions were supposed to be dangerous for their kind. Rage and fear were felt too powerfully by the test subjects. Most of the other subjects were good at controlling their emotions.

She…wasn’t.

Was that why she was being terminated?

“Luna…”

She swallowed as she sat huddled on the floor. She sent out a fast, sad psychic message to him. “Good-bye.”

“Good-bye? Where the hell are you going? Are they sending you out on a mission?” Now anger hummed in his words. Odd. He never let emotion slip through. She often thought he was just like ice. She was fire, always raging, always getting out of line, but he’d pull her back. He’d keep her in check.

“I’m the team leader. No one who belongs to me goes out alone.”

She didn’t belong to him, though. She didn’t fit in with the others. Something had gone wrong with her experiment. Maybe the preservation process hadn’t been handled properly. Maybe she hadn’t received enough of the Lazarus serum. Whatever had happened… “They’re going to terminate me.”

Silence. Cold. Ice.

Luna swallowed. Luna—that was her name. She knew because they’d told her. They—the doctors in the white lab coats. She’d actually awoken with no memories at all. They’d said she volunteered to be part of Project Lazarus. That she’d once been an Air Force pilot. That—

“No.” His voice seemed to slam through her whole body. “You aren’t being terminated. I won’t fucking let them do that to you.”

For once, he wasn’t controlled. She could feel his fury. And it wasn’t cold.

“It won’t happen.” Again, his rage blasted at her.

But she could hear footsteps coming toward her. The doctors. She knew what they’d do. They’d tranq her so that she couldn’t fight them. The tranq would put her to sleep, and she’d just never wake up again. A painless way to go, she supposed.

They’d killed her before. As part of the experiment. To make sure that she could come back from death like the other test subjects did. And she did rise. But…

Each time she died, she lost all of her memories again. The other test subjects didn’t remember their lives before they’d come to Lazarus, but they could recall everything since they’d been given the Lazarus serum. They remembered their government missions, their life at the Lazarus facility. They could die, and come back, and they’d still remember everything that had happened to them after they’d woken as Lazarus subjects.

Each time she died, she lost it all.

And her emotions raged out of control.

Was it any wonder she’d been put up for termination? But… “I don’t want to die.” Luna knew her pain would transmit in her psychic message.

“I won’t let them do this to you!” It was like he was roaring in her head. And for just a moment, she actually had a fast impression of him in his room. She could do that, sometimes, see through his eyes. Usually when she was stressed and scared as all hell. He was slamming his powerful fists into his door. Knocking in the metal that should have been even stronger than he was. Only…She didn’t think anything was stronger than Maddox.

My Maddox.

If only. Another life.

Blood spilled from his fists and that door flew inward. She had the fast impression of guards, running toward him. Shock was on their faces. And their hands—they had tranq guns in their hands. As far as she knew, they’d never used those tranqs on Maddox before. He was the leader. He was ice. He was—

The guards fired. He roared and took two of them down. They just seemed to fall before him.

More shots were fired, and suddenly, the world that she saw through Maddox’s eyes went dark.

And she could only see her own room. Her own cell. So small. She was still on the floor. Still had her arms locked around her knees. Maddox had been fighting to reach her. He’d been fighting for her.

“I don’t want to die,” Luna whispered.

Her door opened. She expected to see guards. Instead, it was two doctors. Doctors in their lab coats with their fake smiles. A woman with red hair. A man with brown hair.

The woman inclined her head toward Luna. “We need you to come with us.”

Maddox had fought.

So would she.

Luna rose to her feet. Her hands fisted at her sides. “I don’t want to hurt you.”

The fake smiles froze.

Luna squared her shoulders. “But you aren’t going to terminate me.”

The redheaded doctor shouted for the guards. Too late. Luna was fast. So fast. Faster than she’d ever shown them. She rushed forward and shoved the woman and the male out of her way. They flew back, collided with the walls, and then Luna was in the corridor. She could hear the footsteps of guards rushing toward her, but she didn’t slow down. She just pushed herself faster, harder. Her bare feet hit against the tiled floor. She hurried forward, wanting to get to the stairs. If she could get to the upper level of the facility, she could break through a window or door and get outside. Once outside, she could run. She’d never stop running.

Something hit her in the shoulder. A fast burn. A tranq. She stumbled a little, but managed to grab the stair railing and haul herself up. Up, up, up…

A blond guard was at the top of the stairs. He had his gun aimed right at her. He shouted, “Stand down!”

Luna could have sworn there was sympathy in his eyes. Maybe he wouldn’t fire at her.

But then she heard the thud of footsteps coming close—more guards, piling up behind him. And they didn’t have sympathy in their eyes.

Only grim determination.

She stilled on the stairs, half-way up. “I don’t want to die,” Luna said again.

“It’s just a tranq,” the sympathetic guard said. “Just a tranq.”

He didn’t understand.

Luna gathered her strength. Then, with a guttural cry, she launched herself forward. She took out one guard, two, a third—

The third guard fired at her.

Another hard burn pierced her body. But this time, her legs went numb. She fell, tumbling back, unable to control her movements. She hit the stairs, slamming into them again and again as she tumbled down. Her arm broke. The snap filled her ears. Her ribs fractured, she could feel the pain cutting through her, and then her head—her neck—

Darkness.

***

Maddox Kane stood in the middle of the cell, his shoulders tense, his hands fisted, and his gaze locked straight ahead. He was chained up, they’d never chained him before, and he wondered how much effort it would take to snap through the chains.

Footsteps were coming toward him. Soft, hesitant. Scared.

He waited.

The door swung open. A doctor was there, a guy in a white lab coat. Sweating. His Adam’s apple bobbing. The fellow opened his mouth to talk—

“Luna,” Maddox growled her name. He’d tried to reach her as soon as he woke up. Tried to connect with her, but he’d only gotten darkness. Darkness, when normally, Luna shone with light.

The doctor backed up a step. His brown eyes darted down to the chains that held Maddox in place. “I apologize for the restraints. Until we can determine what caused you to attack—”

“Luna.”

More sweat. And the guy’s heartbeat was racing so fast that Maddox was surprised it didn’t burst out of his chest.

The doctor’s hand rose. He pulled at his collar, as if it were choking him. “We…we have a problem.”

They sure as hell did. If Luna had been hurt…if she’d been terminated…

Maddox lunged forward. The chains snapped. He locked his hand around the doctor’s throat. “What problem?”

The guy’s eyes were about to bulge out of his head. “Sh-she…”

“Stand down, Kane.” A hard voice blasted from the intercom. He knew that voice. The voice of the man who liked to pull the strings at the facility. Dr. Henry Danwith. “Stand down, and wait for orders.”

He wasn’t in the mood to stand down.

“You have a mission waiting,” Henry announced.

How long had he been unconscious? He’d assumed it had only been a matter of minutes, but now, he began to wonder.

“A retrieval mission,” Henry continued. “We’ve lost a valuable asset, and your job is to hunt her down.”

Her?

“She has a head start on you. But I have faith in your hunting abilities. No one can escape from you.”

Maddox let go of the useless doctor. Whirled to stare at the video camera that was positioned in the top right corner of the room. “Who is my prey?”

But in his gut, Maddox knew, he knew…

“Luna Ashton escaped the facility. You have to bring her back.”

Chapter One

She…hurt.

The pain came to her first, dragging her from the darkness of sleep. Every single inch of her body ached. A sharp cry slid from her mouth, and the sound jarred her into full wakefulness.

Her eyes opened. She stared up, catching the bright path of sunlight that came through—a window?

Her head turned. A broken window waited a few feet away. A broken window…and…

Where am I?

Her hands flew around the floor—the dirty, dust-covered floor. It felt grimy beneath her as she shoved herself upright. She gazed down at her body and realized she was wearing a green hospital gown. And—

Her hand lifted. She even had one of those white bracelets around her wrist. The kind the staff always gave to patients when they entered a hospital.

Her hand dropped. She stared around once more. This wasn’t a hospital. Or, at least, it wasn’t one that had been in operation any time recently. There was no furniture in the room. No bed. Nothing. A door waited a few feet away, but it was closed.

There were no sounds that reached her. Nothing at all.

Her heart beat faster.

How did I get here?

She rose. Her knees felt a little weak, but they held her up. The paper gown brushed over her legs. She felt a draft near her ass, and, automatically, her hand slid behind her as she tried to pull the gown closed.

Her bare feet shuffled forward. She reached for the door. Opened it and found herself staring at a hospital corridor. Or, at least, that was what it looked like. A long hallway, one that had dozens of doors branching off from it. There was what appeared to be a nurse’s station up ahead, only that station was empty.

No computers. No office supplies.

No nurses.

The whole place was eerily silent, and it smelled old. Stale. As if it had been shut down for a very long time.

What in the hell was happening?

“Hello?” Her voice seemed to echo back to her. “Is anyone else here? I-I need help.”

Nothing. She hurried forward, shoving open the doors and finding room after room to be empty.

Deserted.

Her breath heaved out of her as she moved faster and faster. This whole set-up was wrong. How had she gotten to this place? Why was she in a hospital gown? And—

She stilled.

Who in the hell am I?

The last question had her heart constricting in her chest. Her gaze flew frantically around. She knew she was in some kind of abandoned hospital. She could recognize what a hospital was. Just as she knew what doors were and that she was wearing a hospital gown. She could see things and recognize them, but…

She had no idea who she was.

Her gaze jerked down, going to her right wrist. Going to the plastic, white band that circled her wrist. She held it up to her eyes, staring at the small letters that had been neatly typed there.

Luna Ashton.

If anything, the constriction in her chest got worse. There was nothing else written on the bracelet, just that name. No date of birth, no blood type, nothing else.

What was happening? It felt as if she were trapped in some kind of nightmare. She pinched herself, hard, wanting to wake up, right the hell now.

A faint sound had her tensing. The soft pad of a shoe?

The sound had come from behind her, back down that long corridor that she’d desperately searched. She whipped around, her hand flying to her chest, and a scream getting stuck in her throat because—suddenly—she wasn’t alone any longer.

He was there.

A man with black hair, cut short and close. A guy with broad shoulders and a built, powerful physique that stretched the battered coat and black t-shirt he wore. Jeans covered his long legs and black boots were on his feet. He stared at her, watching her with an intense, almost burning green gaze. A faint line of stubble covered his hard jaw, and his hands were clenched at his sides.

Uh, oh. Every instinct she had screamed a wild warning. This guy wasn’t the cavalry. He was trouble. Danger with a big, giant D.

“Luna…” His voice was deep, growling.

She backed up a step. He knew her. Well, he knew the name on her bracelet. Goosebumps rose on her arms.

He advanced.

“Stop!” The yell emerged from her throat, sounding raw and desperate. She felt raw and desperate, so the sound made sense.

And he…stopped. Froze at her command.

“Stay away from me.” Again, desperation sharpened her words, making them high and shrill.

He shook his dark head. “Not possible.”

What? He’d better make it possible.

“I came here for you,” he continued in the deep voice that made her goosebumps worse. “Followed your trail.” His gaze swept over her. “Even when you cut out the tracker.”

She didn’t know what he was talking about.

“Enough games, Luna. You know you can count on me.” He lifted his hand toward her.

But she—Luna, I’m Luna—shook her head. “I don’t know you at all. Why would I ever count on you?”

He blinked. His bright green gaze immediately became shuttered.

And a new, terrible thought occurred to her. “Did you…do this to me?”

He just stared at her.

He must have done this. No one else was there. Just the two of them. The guy was in the creepy hospital with her. So he had to be responsible for her insane situation. “Did you roofie me or something?”

I know what a roofie is, but I don’t know who I am! Maybe that was a side effect of whatever drug she’d been given? Maybe everything would come back to her the longer she stayed conscious?

“I didn’t roofie you.” His voice…there was something about his voice that she…liked. And how weird was that? The guy was scary, dangerous, and she should not find anything about him sexy. She was in the middle of a breakdown, and she shouldn’t be noticing that his voice was way too deep and rumbling.

“Why don’t I know my name?” She took another step back.

His shoulders tensed. His heart was beating so fast and hard and—

Luna gasped. “How can I hear your heart beating?” That wasn’t normal. She was sure it wasn’t normal.

“You have enhanced senses. You can hear far better than an average human. Just like you see better.” He exhaled on a long sigh and then—

Then he charged at her. Only he moved way, way too fast. Luna let out a quick scream, and she turned to run. But it was too late. She’d reacted too slowly. He grabbed her, his hard, too-big hands locking around her body, and they both crashed to the floor.

Except he turned his body, moving so that he cushioned her, and he took the brunt of the impact when they hit the tile.

“You’re faster, too,” he grunted, “normally. You’re not moving at top speed right now.” His eyes narrowed. “Why the hell not?”

Wait, he was asking her? And had he really just flown down that long corridor in barely a second’s time? Maybe two seconds, or three, max, but—

“How did you get here, Luna?” His hands were around her waist, trapping her there. Her legs were between his, and the hospital gown had definitely ridden up. She was pretty sure her ass was totally exposed.

She felt heat blast her cheeks. “Let me go.”

If anything, his hold tightened. “Why would I do that? I spent the last week tracking you.”

He had?

Her hands were pressed to his chest. The guy was huge and crazy fast, and he knew her. He’d been tracking her.

A shiver slid over her body.

“You’re cold. Fuck.”

In a blink, he had her on her feet once more. She started to run—seemed like a good plan—but he snagged her wrist. His fingers curled all the way around it, and Luna felt manacled to him as he bit off a single word, “Don’t.”

She stared up at him. She had to tip back her head to meet his gaze. He was way too big, and he scared the ever-loving hell out of her.

Then he shrugged out of his battered coat. He let her wrist go long enough for him to shove her arms into the coat’s sleeves. The coat absolutely swallowed her, but it was warm. She’d just realized that she was ice cold. Now the warmth from his coat—his warmth—was pressing against her. The coat smelled of him. A rich, masculine scent that she found oddly appealing.

She inhaled, savoring that scent a little, and then Luna looked up. His face had gone rock hard, and he stared at her with a fixed intensity.

“How did you get here, Luna? Who helped you get out of the Lazarus facility?”

Her lips parted, but she didn’t know what to say.

His gaze swept down her body. A furrow appeared between his brows. “No shoes. And is that just a paper gown? I mean, shit, we don’t react to the cold the way most people do, but it’s fifteen degrees outside. And this place has been shut down for years. The windows have more holes than glass in them. You’ve got to be shivering that sweet ass off.”

She was shivering, but it was mostly from fear. “You…know me.”

“Hell, yes, I know you.”

“I’m…Luna.” The more she said her name, the more—oddly—right it felt.

His stare hardened even more. “You don’t remember.”

No, she didn’t, so Luna shook her head.

He swore. Long and viciously.

She started to back up—

He snagged her wrist once more. “Oh, hell, no. You won’t be running from me again.”

Yes, oh, hell, yes, she would. Luna knew she just had to wait for the right moment. This wasn’t that moment. She could tell.

“You died.” If anything, his face became even harder. Even more intense. “Sonofabitch, you died.”

Okay, now, she was worrying that he might be straight up crazy. She’d been willing to buy the super senses thing he’d talked about before—um, she could hear his heart beating when she focused and that was weird—but she was obviously not dead.

He yanked her closer to him. Glared down at her. “You’re not like the others. Everything goes away when you die, dammit. You forget me.”

Her hand lifted. Her fingers were shaking. Those shaking fingers slid over the dark stubble on his jaw, moving up his cheek, trailing over his skin.

His body hardened against her. “Luna, what are you doing?’

He felt real. Not like some figment of her imagination. Not part of a nightmare, but—

She pinched him.

He just blinked at her. Didn’t cry out in pain. Didn’t change his expression. “Luna?”

“You’re real.”

He nodded.

“Who…are you?”

“Maddox.”

The name didn’t mean anything to her. He stared at her, waiting, as if she was supposed to have some sort of reaction to his name. She didn’t.

He growled. The sound rumbled from deep in his chest. “Maddox Kane. I’m the leader of our team.”

She was still touching his cheek. Still wearing his coat. Still trying to figure out how to get away from him.

His nostrils flared. He had a nice nose. Long, straight.

“Blood,” he bit out. “Your blood.”

She wasn’t bleeding. She’d notice if she were, right?

He whirled and bounded down the hall, moving scarily fast again and dragging her with him. Her feet stumbled at first, but then, amazingly, she was actually able to keep up with him. They moved so fast that the rooms passed in a blur. He rushed through an open doorway that led into a stairwell, and then they were barreling down those stairs. It was dark all around them, but she found she could see perfectly. His hold on her wrist was unbreakable as they burst out of the stairwell and onto another floor of the abandoned hospital.

And as they entered that new floor, a coppery scent hit her. Blood.

She stopped.

So did he.

Luna swiped her tongue over her lower lip. “You smelled the blood…upstairs?”

His gaze raked her. “My sense of smell has always been stronger than yours.”

How about stronger than even Superman’s must be? Her eyes squeezed shut. “I know Superman. I mean, I know who he is.” The words tumbled from her. “But I don’t know who I am. How I got to be in this place, wearing a paper gown and a hospital bracelet.”

His fingers slid under her chin. Tipped her head back.

She didn’t open her eyes. If anything, she squeezed them shut tighter.

“It’s only the personal memories that you lose.” His voice was soft. Almost tender. “You keep all of your procedural memories—the skills, the memories of how to do things like riding a bike, tying shoes, or firing a gun.”

Now her eyes popped open. “Do I fire a lot of guns?”

He nodded. “You keep your instincts. Our primal instincts are the strongest motivators for Lazarus subjects.”

It sounded like he was talking in some kind of code to her.

“Our lives before Lazarus are gone. That’s a side effect of the serum we’re given. We keep facts—general fucking trivia—but we lose who we were.” His jaw hardened. “Small price to pay for cheating death, right?”

She didn’t understand him. Or anything that the guy was saying to her. What in the world was Lazarus?

But he’d already turned away. He was pulling her with him, toward the scent of blood. There were two swinging doors up ahead, and an old sign above them read OPERATING ROOM. He shoved open the doors to the OR.

When she went inside, fear slid through her, coiling like a snake in her gut. There was an exam table in the middle of the room, and it…

He let her go.

She stared at the exam table, transfixed. Broken straps hung from the table. She counted six straps. They appeared to have been torn in half. Blood soaked the table. Blood dripped on the floor. It smeared across the old tile, heading toward the door.

But there had been no blood in the hallway. Or on the stairs. All of the blood was in this one room.

“It’s your fucking blood.” Anger hardened Maddox’s words.

Luna flinched. “H-how can you tell?” She didn’t have any cuts on her body. She didn’t feel hurt anywhere.

“The smell.” He advanced toward the table.

Um, okay.

Maddox stopped near an instrument tray, one that had been upended and tossed onto the floor. A bloody scalpel was on the tile, along with tweezers, a long syringe, and a few items that Luna really didn’t want to know what they were.

Her legs were rooted to the spot. Had she really been strapped to that table? “I’m not bleeding.”

“No.” He’d crouched near the discarded tray. Maddox picked up the syringe, sniffed it. “Tranq.” A low snarl. “At least they had you knocked out so you didn’t feel the pain.” He dropped the syringe. “Doesn’t make me want to fucking destroy them any less.” Maddox surged back to his feet.

She hurried toward him. “I’m not bleeding,” Luna said again. “There is no blood on me. I couldn’t have been in this room.” I don’t want to be in this room any longer. I need to get out. I’m having a hard time breathing. “You’re wrong.”

He stared at her. “You heal faster than any Lazarus subject I’ve ever seen. One of your gifts. Whoever had you in this room—they hurt you. But you healed. You got away from them. You ran—” He pointed to the trail of blood on the floor. “You got upstairs. You were trying to get out, but—”

“There’s no blood on me,” Luna repeated.

“Because someone must have cleaned you up. Put you in that gown.”

And what? Just left her, unconscious? “I woke up in one of the rooms upstairs.” His coat was the only thing keeping her warm. She felt absolutely ice cold. “And you are the only person in this building with me.”

So if she’d been hurt, it didn’t take a genius to put together the puzzle pieces in order to figure out who’d been the one making her life a living hell.

His shoulders straightened. “Luna, no.”

She backed up a step. “You scare me.”

A furrow appeared between his dark brows.

“I don’t know who I am. How I got here. But I took one look at you, and I was afraid. You know what that tells me? Some part of me recognizes you. Some part of me knows you’re a threat to me.”

His lips thinned. “You don’t understand.”

No, she didn’t. And that was part of the problem.

“I’m taking you back, Luna,” Maddox told her. “You need to be examined. We have to find out what happened here.”

Her heart was racing again. She needed some kind of weapon to fight him, but there was nothing in the room to help her because she was not picking up a bloody scalpel. And being in that place was making her chest feel too tight. “Where,” she managed, “is ‘back’ exactly?”

He stalked toward her. “I’m not picking up any other scents here. Maybe your blood is just too strong, and it’s messing up my head.”

That made no sense to her.

He kept advancing. “But we’re getting out of here. I’ll come back with the rest of the team, and we’ll tear this place apart.”

He still hadn’t told her where ‘back’ was. But since she was only too happy to get out of that particular room, Luna didn’t argue as they hurried up the stairs. He led the way, keeping a hand curled around her wrist. She wished like hell that she could find a weapon, but there was nothing in the stairwell or the hallway. And the guy was big.

He took her out via a broken window, making sure that she didn’t cut her skin on the jagged glass. When she eased away from the shadows of the building, the sunlight was almost blinding. Too bright. Bright, but it was still cold out there. A small puff of fog formed near her mouth.

Luna glanced back at the building. Dead vines slid up the sides of the hospital. It looked like an old, forgotten grave. Sagging into the ground, falling back into the woods. And the woods were everywhere—thick trees surrounded the place. She didn’t see any other nearby buildings. Maddox led her down an overgrown path, and she found herself in the remains of a broken parking lot. A gleaming motorcycle—a big, beast of a bike—waited there.

She shivered.

He pulled her closer. “Should have brought the SUV,” he muttered. “But I thought this place was another dead end so I scouted out with the bike.”

His body felt like a furnace to her.

“Luna.”

She looked up at him. His eyes were bright again. So focused on her. And once more, she thought…You scare me.

But there was something else happening, too. An awareness was sliding beneath her skin. When he looked at her that way, when he held her so close…

Desire.

A desire as dangerous as the fear she felt for him.

“First order of business is getting the hell out of here.” He lifted her up, moving as if she weighed nothing, and he put her on the motorcycle’s seat. Her bare legs sprawled on either side of the beast, and another shiver slid over her because the paper gown had seriously hiked up again.

His gaze locked on her legs. Lingered.

Uh, oh.

His face hardened. Sharpened. He licked his lips.

Then his gaze slid to her face.

He wants me.

Could she use that? Maybe. It was the only weapon she had. So…Luna lifted her hand. Put her palm on his chest, right over his heart. It was racing so fast and hard beneath her touch. And as her hand lingered against him, the beat became even faster. “Are we lovers?” Luna asked.

His pupils widened, the darkness swallowing the green of his gaze.

Before he could answer, she pushed, voice husky, “Do you want to be my lover?”

He moved even closer to her. She was still straddling the bike, and he was pretty much dominating her with his massive size.

She caught his hand, brought it to her thigh. His hold immediately tightened.

“Luna.”

“Will you kiss me?”

His stare was on her mouth. “What in the hell is happening? This isn’t you.”

It wasn’t? She had no clue. But a desperate woman had to use whatever weapons she had. “Maybe I can remember, if you kiss me.” She eased out a quick breath. “I know you. I feel it inside.”

His hand was burning her thigh.

“Kiss me,” she said again because she needed him closer. Just a little closer.

He moved closer. Her hand slid over his chest. Down to his side.

“I couldn’t find you.” His words were a rough rasp. “You were gone.” Then his mouth crashed down on hers. He kissed her with a wild need. A frantic desire that caught her off guard—and one that stirred a matching need inside of her.

Desire erupted, stunning her with its force. Her nipples ached, tightening into peaks, and she leaned toward him, opening her mouth more, wanting his kiss, loving his taste, wanting so much—

Keys. You want the keys.

Her fingers closed around them. She’d slid her hand into the front right pocket of his jeans, and Luna snatched the keys out in a blink. But she was still kissing him when she should have been pulling away. When she should have been figuring out a way to distract him so she could haul ass away on that bike.

How do I want him so much? From one kiss?

She wasn’t cold any longer. She was absolutely burning hot.

“No!” He jerked back from her. Stared at her with a possessive lust. Then he spun on his heel. Stalked away. He seemed to want distance between them. “I just found you. I don’t know what in the hell is happening, but I won’t screw this up!”

She cranked the motorcycle. Revved the engine.

Maddox whirled back to her. “Luna?”

He was only a few feet away. The guy moved fast. But she moved fast, too. So did the bike. She shot that baby forward.

“Luna!”

She didn’t stop. The wind bit into her face. Her hands clamped around the handle bars like talons, and she drove the motorcycle with a single-minded intensity.

Escape. She had to get away from Maddox Kane.

He terrified her. He was dangerous. He was scary strong.

And he was way too sexy.

She didn’t trust him, not for a moment, and there was no way she’d let that man get close to her again.

No way in hell.

***

“Sonofabitch,” Maddox Kane muttered as he watched the motorcycle race away.

She’d tricked him. Kissed him, turned him the fuck on, and then fled the instant he’d turned his back. Of course, turning his back had been an amateur move. Especially with a woman like Luna. But he’d had to step away—

Or he would have been lost.

The motorcycle turned, hitting the main road and leaving the abandoned hospital behind. He could have stopped her. He was that fast. He could have launched his body at the motorcycle and tackled her.

If he’d done that, though, Luna would have been hurt. He didn’t want her hurt. That had never been his goal.

Maddox pulled out his phone. Swiped his finger over the screen and placed his call. “Found her,” he announced. “But she’s running. Heading for town. If you see her before I get there, don’t move in, do you understand? Keep a visual on her. Make sure that no one hurts her.”

Laughter was his answer. “Shouldn’t I be worried she’ll hurt the humans?”

He didn’t answer. Maddox shoved his phone back into his pocket. He started walking fast, and then…running. He wouldn’t get winded, wouldn’t get tired. But he would get to the small town that waited up ahead. Bitter, Colorado. A place that the ski lovers never bothered to visit. Too quiet. Too far off the beaten path. So far off that the town’s only hospital had closed long ago.

Who the hell brought Luna to this place? He’d find out. It was just a matter of time.

Soon, he’d have Luna. And when he did, he’d make sure she never escaped again. Even if he had to damn well handcuff her to his side.