Hide and Seek - Lara Adrian Page 0,13

to shield her from the truth and from any knowledge that could potentially put a target on her back, he’d found it impossible to lie to her. Not even about the inexplicable ability he possessed.

She’d see through him even if he tried. Those inky-lashed, light hazel eyes did things to his resolve that multiple combat deployments and years of training as a Phoenix covert operative couldn’t begin to match.

No, Lisa Becker had knocked him off-kilter from the second Kyle first introduced them. With her warm eyes and easy smile, she had blasted right through his protective walls. Her honesty in all things shook him up hard, forced him to be real with her when he’d survived most of his young life by wearing one mask or another.

With her wide open heart and knockout natural beauty, Lisa had made him long for things he never realized he’d wanted. Things he had no right to want from the amazing woman who also happened to be the little sister of one of his closest friends.

And five years ago, when the revelation of all that had smacked him broadside after their mind-blowing night together, he’d run like a damn coward, back to the desert front lines. Back to the hidden life he led as one of the Phoenix, where masks and walls were not only encouraged, but required.

Duarte had never told Kyle what happened between Lisa and him. Fortunately, by some miraculous quirk of the precognitive ability they shared, Kyle hadn’t psychically picked up on Duarte’s failure as a friend either.

Neither had Alec. The three had bonded as friends from day one in boot camp, but it wasn’t until they’d been several weeks into their first combat deployment together that they’d realized their uncommon extrasensory skills were, in fact, common to all three of them.

Seeing glimpses of the future had served their platoon well. Definitely saved a lot of lives—their own and their fellow Marines. But the trio kept their shared secret close, careful to avoid detection. Or so they’d thought.

It wasn’t long before the three of them were called into a private meeting with an official from the CIA. That man had been Henry Sheppard—a good man, and the founder of the highly classified Phoenix program.

Duarte, Alec, and Kyle became covert intelligence operatives, where they were known only to Sheppard and a very select few under the codenames Ranger, Stingray, and Talon.

Like the other precognitive agents of Phoenix, Duarte was required to report in regularly to Sheppard for various training and conditioning exercises and to divulge every occurrence of his visions, no matter how insignificant or disconnected they seemed at the time.

Insignificant sure as fuck wasn’t how he would describe the vision that had been plaguing him since the program’s demise.

Talking about his ability with Lisa had sent his thoughts back to the recurring nightmare he couldn’t seem to escape. The vision of fire and heat and destruction was startling. Confusing. Disturbing.

Hellish.

He didn’t know what the vision meant, but for three years it had been his most constant companion.

Thinking on it now made him relive the horrific sensation of melting skin, the agony of ash-filled eyes and smoking, burning hair. His own and that of the countless other people he’d been unable to save...

Duarte jerked in response, realizing only then that he’d started to doze.

Something else had woken him. A noise sounded from the other side of his bedroom door. The soft thump snapped his head up off his folded arm.

The subsequent crash of shattering glass had him on his feet and hauling ass across the room in the same instant.

He opened the door. “Lisa?”

The room was dark, but there she was. Crouched on the floor on the other side of the bed, picking up pieces of the water glass he’d left on the nightstand the evening before.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t sleep. I was going to get up, so I reached for the lamp... I didn’t see the glass until it was too late.”

Duarte swore in relief that’s all it was. He stepped inside and flicked on the light switch. “Don’t worry about the glass. You’re all right?”

“Yeah.” She blew out a quiet laugh. “Just clumsy as usual.”

He rounded the bed to where she was hunkered down on the floor, and his mouth went dry. All she wore was her T-shirt. Her full breasts bobbed freely beneath the dark blue cotton, nipples peaked like hard buds.

Fuck.

God help him if he found out she wasn’t wearing panties under there either.

He wrenched his gaze away