“Are you Harper Kane?” the man repeated curtly, and raised his rifle to settle it against her chest, as if she had a bull’s-eye over her heart.

Rome held back a twitch and looked sideways at her face, trying to gauge her reaction. Would she cave in? Maybe, maybe not. He was guessing not, but he wasn’t so sure this guy was bluffing.

He was about to tell her to answer when she tilted her head to meet his gaze.

“Get behind me,” she said in a chilled and calm tone. What? What the hell was she doing?

More men bounded through the open doorway, probably the shadowy guys from outside.

“Last chance, bitch,” the man with the pointed gun said impatiently, tapping the barrel against her. He wasn’t bluffing at all. “Are you Harper Kane?”

“Rome, trust me.” Her cool gaze never wavered from his face. He had no idea what to do. This guy was going to shoot her. These were Jeff’s guys. He knew it. They may or may not know who he was; they’d given no indication either way. Regardless, they suspected who she was and would no doubt finish the job that he hadn’t.

He’d asked her to trust him. Maybe he should do the same for her. Decision made, he gave her a tight smile and ducked behind her.

The man cocked his rifle and repositioned his aim on her chest. Rome watched from his position slightly behind her as she tipped back her head and spread her arms. What on earth was she doing?

Harper bowed her head forward and her body began to tremble. Lightly at first, and then she started to shudder, rippling into a controlled convulsion. Worried, Rome put a hand on her shoulder. Her body was whitehot. He instantly removed his hand, his palm stinging as though he’d grabbed a burning log. Everyone in the room was still focused on her.

All at once, Harper’s head snapped back, she cried out, and her arms spread wide, palms facing out. A barely perceptible pulsing wave shot out from her body, displacing the air and pounding against everything in its wake. It was as though a surge emanated from her being.

Rome witnessed the utter devastation originating from Harper with horror. The charged air flared from her hands toward their enemies. The clear shimmery wave coiled around them and rushed into their bodies. The men standing before her crumpled, their faces frozen in fright, and fell to the ground motionless. Lifeless.

The front windows shattered from the residual energy throbbing through the room, the glass shattering outward with a roar. The upturned furniture slammed against the far wall, and the debris that had littered the floor whirled around the room like a mini tornado. Destruction ravaged everything in the area in front of him.

Finally, it stopped.

Whatever she had done had seized the life out of the men and torn apart what was left of Bobby’s living room.

Rome remained completely still, shock rushing through every fiber, stirring his blood. Tearing his gaze away from the sickening annihilation, Rome glared at Harper. She was standing, shaking, with her hands clutching her head. Then she fell to her knees, heaving in every breath. Like the first time he’d seen her in the lab.

He just stood there. Staring.

She looked up at him, her eyes wild, stark pain and dread written all over her flushed features.

“I’m so sorry.” The broken whisper came from her trembling lips just before she slumped to the hard floor in an unconscious heap.

Stunned, Rome squatted down next to her and mechanically felt her neck for a pulse. He found it racing faster than he ever thought possible.

He then got up and began to maneuver around the debris to reach the fallen men. There wasn’t much that made him queasy, but looking at the shape these guys were in made him sick to his stomach.

The pulsating shock wave that had radiated from Harper looked like it had ripped through their bodies, inside and out, like a harsh wind viciously gusting through a dense forest, whipping and tearing away matter.

He bent to check on the closest to see whether any life remained. The skin at the man’s neck felt like old parchment, roughly withered by time and the elements. There was no pulse.

Rome walked silently to the front of the room, leaning against the wide-open entryway. The door lay scattered in thick shards over the porch and threshold, though he didn’t know whether it was from the forced entry of the men or Harper’s attack.

Sucking in several breaths of the fresh woodsy air, he surveyed the ugly scene with a troubled gaze. Uncontrolled weapon explosions; cruel, torturous behavior; monstrous strikes of natural weather. He had seen all of that and more.

But this? This was something different. Harper was something different. Never before had he seen such an act of power. A terrifying, inhuman act of power. How had she done this?

Walking back over to her slumped form, Rome was forced to admit that she scared him. She absolutely frightened him. Just minutes before, he was cursing himself for wanting her. Now he was cursing himself for trusting her.

Damn it all. He’d known she’d been hiding something. Information, maybe, but not the fact that she was some sort of supernatural freak.

Jeff had been right. Harper Kane was most certainly dangerous. She was a walking lethal weapon, for crying out loud. So much for his razor-sharp instincts. This was a doozy. Mentally slapping himself for forsaking his duty for a gorgeous woman, he retreated out the back to his rig for some rope.

Promise or no, he had to take her in.

CHAPTER SIX

Pain. Darkness. The two had been her constant companions since she’d been here. Wherever here was.

Every breath she sucked in made her ache. Harper had no idea how long she’d been in this awful place, but judging from the sporadic food trays she’d been brought, it seemed like two, maybe three days had passed. The most recent meal had been shoved through the door just a few minutes before. She hadn’t even gone searching for it in the darkness, preferring to stay seated in the farthest corner from the entrance.

The last thing she remembered was seeing the stark fear on Rome’s shocked face after she’d tried to use her new power to help them escape the ambush at Bobby’s house. Then she’d passed out.

And awakened to an experience beyond her worst nightmare. Alone.

She’d opened her eyes to inky blackness and immobilization, her body secured and bound upright to the wall. She couldn’t see a thing. Panicked and confused, she’d attempted to focus on the special force in her mind, knowing full well she had no real control over it. But it wouldn’t work. Somehow she’d been able to summon the power at Bobby’s house, but she couldn’t do it here in the totally dark room.

After a while, they’d come for her-burly men dressed all in black and carrying guns and thick clubs. They’d already yanked her out of her dark prison and dragged her to a small, badly lit room with twisted contraptions and threatening devices.

Cruel medical tools and wicked-looking equipment had gleamed ominously on chrome tables, complete with rough, padded restraints straight out of the nastiest horror movies ever made. Again she’d tried to beckon her mind to do its thing, but nothing happened.

Though she’d struggled with all her might, her larger captors had forced her onto one of the platforms and latched the restraints onto her. A shot like a dart had pricked her arm and after that, her vision blurred and she’d felt nothing but pain. Sheer unadulterated pain. Then someone in a harsh white lab coat began to go to work on her.

They’d asked her countless questions for which she had no answers. That hadn’t made the person in the lab coat happy. She couldn’t remember even saying anything, which had made them even more furious.

Harper had alternately been drugged with who knows what, and they’d drawn what seemed like gallons of blood. Again, she’d been questioned beyond reason. And still she hadn’t been able to give them what they wanted.