Page 12 of Kiss of Fury

“Fair ’nuff.” Spurs jangling, Dusty ambled out of the barn.

Steel joined him on the hay bale. For a long moment, they stared at their boots in silence. Then: “Dusty kind of has a point.”

“About what?”

“The family situation.”

“Remember how much you didn’t want a wife? That’s how much I don’t want a baby goat,” he said, injecting some levity into the dismal situation.

“But I love Honoria now. I can’t imagine my life without her. How old is the kid?”

He shrugged. “Five? Six? Hard to tell. He’s kind of scrawny, but she was taking him to school this morning.” They’d breakfasted together, and then he’d reported to the barn while Verity walked the boy to class.

“You had no idea she had a child?”

“None. She didn’t disclose it.”

“Misrepresentation is grounds for breaking the contract.”

“And I claimed to be human. I might be a killer, but I’m not a hypocrite. Besides, I promised her I wouldn’t. After hearing her story, I couldn’t do that.”

“What’s her story?”

“The kid’s bio-dad is Kyle Dorn.”

“I thought he never married.”

“He didn’t.”

Steel whistled. “Ah…Hakeem and Nancy need an heir.”

“Verity was going to lose custody.”

Steel clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re a compassionate man.”

“I’m a fucking sucker.”

“You did save my ass.” Deactivated and crated, the two of them had been on a ship bound for a fiery death on Hell’s Gate. Fury had gotten them both sanctuary.

“Don’t make me regret it,” he said facetiously. He didn’t regret saving Steel, even though it was not his nature to be kind. Solutions had engineered and created him to kill without remorse. He could appear to be caring, charming, personable—but it was all an act.

He almosthadabandoned Steel. After an electronic glitch reactivated him, he’d broken out of his containment pod. Spotting a twin of his capsule, he figured it contained another cyborg, but he walked away.

He found his way to the ship’s emergency shuttle launch bay, where he discovered the Solutions reps about to abandon ship. He interrogated and killed them. Intending to leave, he’d gone so far as to boardthe shuttle pod, when he went back for the other cyborg. Totally out of character. And now, he’d put aside his own desires to keep Verity and her son safe.

“Am I getting soft?” Fury asked.

Steel snorted. “As soft as a horniger’s tit.”

“Do hornigers have tits?”

“We best round up them varmints and find out,” Steel drawled.

Chapter Seven

Verity stifled a shriek as a huge green walking-stick bug emerged from an inner office. Its pointy jaw made grinding noises as it clicked at her.

Seconds later, her translator kicked in. “You must be Verity Vale. I’ve been expecting you. I’m Dr. Twygg,” the bug said.

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