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Chapter 1

1

“G

as explosion, my ass.”

Katherine Carter stood on a ridge with her fellow Rogue Hunters, gawking at a crater where a cottage once stood near the Oregon coastline.

The scorched land stretched out in all directions. Everything around it was blown to bits—trees, vehicles, other houses. It was a twisted, tangled mess.

Hazmat and firefighting teams swarmed the cordoned-off area while Kat’s phone lit up again.

“Is this one of yours?”

Agent Bert Meadows—from the government-agency-with-no-name—texted her.

“Reminds me of Hugh Harrison’s prison break.”

She glanced at Hugh, then typed a reply.

“It’s definitely not a Super.

“Rogues?”

“Possibly.”

“Let me know what you find.”

“Will do.”

His tip had paid off—there was no way this was an accident. She was surprised that someone in the government had actually gotten it right for a change.

Even broken clocks are right twice a day,

Hugh told her privately, hearing her thoughts through the bond they shared as mates.

Kat shot him an amused look, then watched with concern as an ATF vehicle arrived and a team of investigators poured out of it.

She trusted Bert, but the rest of the government?

Not so much.

They were skating on thin ice on a good day, and once the feds found out there was an explosive Rogue running loose, all bets were off.

She turned to her brother Shane, a former firefighter. “What do you think?”

He pointed toward the charred remains of the neighborhood. “I’ve never seen a blast radius that big. The pattern doesn’t look right for a gas explosion.”

“More like an IED or a dirty bomb.” Cade, a Guardian, pursed his lips. “I hope no one was home.”

Kat exchanged a grim look with him, then turned to her mate. “Let’s find out. If anyone asks, we’re with the FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force on special assignment.”

Hugh snapped his fingers, outfitting each of their team members with the appropriate illusion—khaki pants, dress shoes, and dark FBI field jackets with bright yellow lettering.

She smiled, pleased with his attention to detail. With twenty of them in all, it was the best way to escape scrutiny.

“Scouts, spread out and scan for clues,” she instructed. “If there are any left. Alpha and Bravo teams, talk to authorities, see what they’ve got already.”

The Rogue Hunters scattered, scouring the area.

The sound of the surf behind them tugged at her attention.

Kat turned and gazed out over the deep blue waters that stretched to the horizon, and inhaled the salt-tinged air.

A sprinkling of dark, craggy boulders stood sentinel against the crashing tides, looking older than time itself. Rocky foothills extended along the coarse, sandy beach as far as the eye could see, one behind the other, disappearing into the mist.

It was tranquil and beautiful, a strange contrast to the chaos behind her.

“What’s wrong?” Hugh said from beside her, leaning in close.

“I’ve…never seen the ocean before.”

Kat felt the heat rise in her face. She had traveled little outside of the Midwest except to chase him, back when she was a bounty hunter and he was a fugitive.

He pecked her on the cheek. “We shall have to remedy that, Darling, as soon as we’re done playing Catch the Explosive Rogue.”

She turned and gazed over his broad shoulder, sweeping the scene with her senses, but all she could feel was him. His signal was so strong through the Bond that it was blocking everything out.

She pointed down the beach. “Go stand somewhere else. Otherwise, I can’t feel anything but you.”

“Is that so bad?”

“Now? Yes. Later? No.”

Hugh flashed Kat a toothy grin. “As you wish.”

A wave of desire crashed through her. Being newly bonded, the mating heat blazed between them, fiercer yet because of their separation and recent reunion. All she wanted to do was tackle the man to the ground and take him right here, but she was pretty sure the rest of her fellow Supers wouldn’t appreciate that.

I would,

he told her in thought.

I could cover us both up, but I can’t hide those cute little sounds you make.

Damn.

She couldn’t hide anything from him now that they were connected.

She motioned toward the beach again. “Go. Now.”

They headed in opposite directions. Kat made her way down the ridge, scanning the debris where the cottage had stood.

“FBI.” She flashed her fake badge at a group of investigators, then walked the perimeter, picking up a jumble of signals she couldn’t sort out.

She strode toward the remains of the house, then closed her eyes, homing in on a lingering signal.

It pulsated in a strange rhythm like an erratic heartbeat and crackled with energy.

Could this be Neve’s signal, the woman they were looking for, or someone else’s?

Kat probed further, sensing two others—a strongman and an ice shifter.

She didn’t recognize them from the battle in the cypress swamp, nor from the prisoners at the Furies’ Lair. Though they’d dealt with the worst of them, more kept coming out of the woodwork.

Just how many Rogues were there?

She wondered as Wyatt, a fighter and former bounty hunter like herself, approached.

He waved toward a grove of pine trees near the shore and grimaced. “The police are pickin’ up body parts over there. They found some scraps of clothing and a melted high-top sneaker, but not much more.”

Kat marched to the tree line, her scans confirming what she already knew, which wasn’t much. She waved the other Scouts over. “Anything?”

Cade frowned, looking less sunny than usual. “The cops know less than we do. They’re asking

us

questions.”

“There aren’t any neighbors to interview either,” Juan Carlos, a tracker, reported. “This area isn’t open for the summer tourist season yet, and the blast happened outside of maintenance hours.”

Kat sighed relief. “Maybe the only dead people are Rogues. I hope. But what were they doing here if the place was closed?”

“Could’ve been squatting for all we know.” Cade scratched his chin. “But I’ll look into the maintenance crew, just in case. Seneca’s checkin’ the animals, but most of them aren’t talkin’.”

Kat shrugged. She hadn’t expected them to. “Do you recognize the Rogues’ signals?”

Juan Carlos and Cade shook their heads.

Wyatt thought for a moment. “Strongman, nickname of ‘Grease.’ Nasty guy, I hunted him down a few times in the Marshals and hauled his ass to jail.”

She turned to Hugh as he approached with the rest of the Rogue Hunters. “What have you got?”

“The plants are talking,” Shane reported. “What’s left of them. Those pines over there say two people drove up to the cottage in a white sedan and forced their way inside. Then everything exploded.”

Kat stared at her brother in surprise. “You can actually hear plants?”

“I thought you knew that.”

“I didn’t.”

“Well, I can hear everything, including you and Hugh, earlier. So, tone it down for the rest of our sakes. Not all of us have mates. Yet.”

Kat stole a glance at Hugh, who smirked at her, then turned back to the others. “Anything else?”

Everyone was silent.

A question niggled in her mind.

“Just how are we going to catch this woman, let alone detain her, if she explodes?” she asked her mate. “I've caught a lot of criminals in my day, but never one like this.”

“We're working this out as we go,” Hugh replied. “No one knows what the full extent of her powers are.”

Kat waved toward the blast area. “From the looks of it, I’d say this was her. Sure feels like a Rogue.”

“Even so, she may have no memory of who she is, like many of us did. As for the rest, I leave that in my brother’s very capable hands.”

“Where

is

Dale?”

“Taking Aislinn to see Kang and Deirdre,” Fiona piped up. “Were hoping her memories will yield more clues about our sister than mine did.”

Kat shook her head at the mess in front of them. “Let’s hope they find more than we’ve got right now.”

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